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Commentary on Valerius Maximus' Book IX.1-10. a Discourse on Vitia

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Commentary on Valerius Maximus' Book IX.1-10. a Discourse on Vitia COMMENTARY ON VALERIUS MAXIMUS’ BOOK IX.1-10. A DISCOURSE ON VITIA: AN APOTREPTIC APPROACH. by SIMON ROBERT MATRAVERS A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology University of Birmingham April 2016 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract Valerius Maximus situates his ninth and final book (henceforth referred as V9) in clear contrast to the rest of his output by adopting an apotreptic approach and focusing entirely on vitia. This makes a break from the dispersive manner in which vitia had hitherto been treated by different authors across a myriad of works, nor was V9’s structure replicated in the same manner by any other Roman author since V. Worthy of note is also how V treats his subject exclusively in a single book, creating intensity as a technique per se to shock the reader into making them fully aware – beyond all reasonable doubt – how pernicious and dangerous vitia are. At the heart of V9 is the ubiquity of vice that transcends ethnicity. In fact V brings domestic and external exempla closer, vice is inherent in life itself; the characters inhabiting both the domestic and external sections are not opposites, but are presented as culpable of the same vices (although sometimes certain exempla are graded worse than others). Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Prolegomena .......................................................................................................................... 2 The Historiographical Commentary ................................................................................... 2 Literature Review ............................................................................................................... 6 Quellenforschung.............................................................................................................. 11 A. Contextualization ........................................................................................................ 16 1. Vitia ........................................................................................................................... 16 2. Exempla. .................................................................................................................... 18 3. Chronology ................................................................................................................ 22 4. Declamation .............................................................................................................. 33 5. Memoria .................................................................................................................... 35 6. The study of the emotions ......................................................................................... 37 B. Structure of V9: Comparability ................................................................................ 39 1. Comparanda between chapters ................................................................................. 40 2. Comparanda between exempla in each chapter ........................................................ 41 3. Connectives ............................................................................................................... 43 4. Us and Them ............................................................................................................. 44 5. Externals in V and Plutarch ....................................................................................... 46 6. Contrasting Values .................................................................................................... 47 C. Differentiations ............................................................................................................ 50 D. Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 53 Chapter 1: de luxuria et libidine. ........................................................................................... 56 Commentary ......................................................................................................................... 62 9.1.externa ...................................................................................................................... 105 Chapter 2: de crudelitate. ..................................................................................................... 121 Commentary ....................................................................................................................... 131 9.2.externa ...................................................................................................................... 148 Chapter 3: de ira aut odio. ................................................................................................... 167 Commentary ....................................................................................................................... 175 9.3.externa ...................................................................................................................... 201 Chapter 4: de avaritia........................................................................................................... 209 Commentary ....................................................................................................................... 212 9.4.externa ...................................................................................................................... 222 Chapter 5: de superbia et impotentia................................................................................... 227 Commentary ....................................................................................................................... 231 9.5.externa ...................................................................................................................... 246 Chapter 6: de perfidia. ......................................................................................................... 255 Commentary ....................................................................................................................... 257 9.6.externa ...................................................................................................................... 271 Chapter 7: de vi et seditione. ................................................................................................ 275 Commentary ....................................................................................................................... 277 9.7.Mil.Rom.1-3 ............................................................................................................. 289 Chapter 8: de temeritate. ...................................................................................................... 298 Commentary ....................................................................................................................... 302 9.8.externa ...................................................................................................................... 312 Chapter 9: de errore. ............................................................................................................ 317 Commentary ....................................................................................................................... 318 Chapter 10: de ultione. ......................................................................................................... 332 Commentary ....................................................................................................................... 334 9.10.externa .................................................................................................................... 339 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 347 Introduction This PhD is in the format of a historiographical commentary dealing with chapters 1–10 of V9. It is important to first examine why I have chosen this format rather than a discursive thesis before moving on to examine V9 more closely. In the prolegomena, I discuss the format of the historiographical commentary adopted in this PhD, I outline a general literature review for Valerian studies and I approach the question of Quellenforschung in V. The introduction consists of four further parts. In part A, I contextualise V9 in terms of moral discussions of vitia, the exempla tradition, declamation, memoria and the study of the emotions. In part B, I discuss the structure of the book from the standpoint of ‘comparability’; I argue that V uses this technique to organise his material. In part C I discuss two distinctions: first, how ‘the last five chapters of V9’, which are not examined in this thesis because of their content, differ from the rest of V9;
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