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Transformations of Ovid in Late Antiquity

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Transformations of Ovid in Late Antiquity TRANSFORMATIONS OF OVID IN LATE ANTIQUITY Ovid could be considered the original poet of late antiquity. In his exile poetry, he depicts a world in which Rome has become a distant memory, a community accessible only through his imagination. This, Ovid claimed, was a transformation as remarkable as any he had recounted in his Metamorphoses. Ian Fielding’s book shows how late antique Latin poets referred to Ovid’s experiences of isolation and estrangement as they reflected on the profound social and cultural transformations taking place in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries . There are detailed new readings of texts by major figures such as Ausonius, Paulinus of Nola, Boethius and Venantius Fortunatus. For these authors, Fielding emphasizes, Ovid was not simply a stylistic model, but an important intellectual presence. Ovid’s fortunes in late antiquity reveal that poetry, far from declining into irrelevance, remained a powerful mode of expression in this fascinating period. is Assistant Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan. He has published a number of articles on Latin poetry in late antiquity and on classical receptions in Naples and Campania. TRANSFORMATIONS OF OVID IN LATE ANTIQUITY IAN FIELDING University of Michigan, Ann Arbor University Printing House, Cambridge , United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, th Floor, New York, , USA Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, , Australia /, nd Floor, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, Delhi – , India Anson Road, #–/, Singapore Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/ : ./ © Ian Fielding This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published Printed in the United Kingdom by Clays, St lves plc A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data : Fielding, Ian (Ian David), - author. : Transformations of Ovid in Late Antiquity / Ian Fielding, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. : Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, . | Includes bibliographical references and indexes. : | (Hardback) : : Ovid, ..- ..or ..–Criticism and interpretation. | Latin literature–History and criticism. | Ovid, ..- ..or ..–Influence. | BISAC: HISTORY / Ancient / General. : . | /.– record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/ ---- Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. For A.R.D. saepe uersum Corinna cum suo Nasone compleuit (Sidonius Apollinaris, Epistles ..) Contents Acknowledgements page viii Abbreviations x Introduction: A Poet Between Two Worlds Ovid Recalled in the Poetic Correspondence of Ausonius and Paulinus of Nola Ovid and the Transformation of the Late Roman World of Rutilius Namatianus The Poet and the Vandal Prince: Ovidian Rhetoric in Dracontius’ Satisfactio The Remedies of Elegy in Ovid, Boethius and Maximianus The Ovidian Heroine of Venantius Fortunatus, Appendix Conclusion: Ovid’s Late Antiquity Bibliography Index Locorum General Index vii Acknowledgements This project has been through several transformations of its own. It began with a doctorate funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council at the University of Warwick. Years later, I am still coming to appreciate the value of the advice I received from my supervisor, Andrew Laird; if I had been as good a student as he was a teacher, I am sure this book would not have taken me so long to finish. I am grateful too to Simon Swain, who was generous with his assistance whenever I asked for it. As a Graduate Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I had the opportunity to spend a year working with Carole Newlands, whose mentorship has been enormously beneficial ever since. Others were also kind enough to look at my work at that time: in Madison, Mike Clover, Jim McKeown and Patricia Rosenmeyer; elsewhere, Michael Reeve and Michael Roberts. They may not recognize much of what they read in this book, but I hope it is clear that our exchanges had a lasting influence on my research. My thesis examiners helped me to form a clearer picture of the shape this study should take. The chapter on Ausonius and Paulinus was added at the prompting of Roger Green, and improved thanks to his perceptive comments on a first draft. Philip Hardie has made many useful sugges- tions, but his idea of revisiting Hermann Fränkel’s view of Ovid as ‘a poet between two worlds’ opened up a whole new perspective on the topic. Michael Sharp at Cambridge University Press responded encouragingly to an initial proposal, and has continued to guide the project towards com- pletion. The criticisms of the anonymous readers for the Press have been salutary for clarifying both the overall purpose of the book and specific points of argument. The award of a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship allowed me to take these new ideas to the University of Oxford, the ideal environment in which to develop them. Neil McLynn was instrumental in helping me to secure the grant, while Gregory Hutchinson recommended me to the Rector and Fellows of Exeter College, where he often listened patiently viii Acknowledgements ix to my unformed thoughts over lunch in the Old Bursary. A. M. Juster, Joseph Pucci and Robin Whelan all gave notes on individual chapters; James Uden took the time to read the entire manuscript. The final stages of writing and revision have been made easier and happier by the warm welcome I enjoyed from my new colleagues at the University of Michigan. Sara Forsdyke deserves special thanks for being so accommodating when I first came to Ann Arbor. My parents and the other members of my family have shown a support for and interest in this research that has been even more significant than I think they realize. The most important things I know, I learned from them. The last person I have to thank is my wife and colleague Aileen – for her encouragement, her input and for setting the best possible example with her own work. In truth, her contribution to what follows is much greater than this or any other acknowledgement can convey. Abbreviations Abbreviations of ancient authors and texts follow S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth (eds.), The Oxford Classical Dictionary, th edn (Oxford University Press, ). Journal abbreviations follow the usage of L’Année philologique. The following abbreviations are used for standard reference works and text series and collections: ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Berlin: De Gruyter, – CCL Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina. Turnhout: Brepols, – CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Berlin: Reimer, – CLE F. Buecheler and E. Lommatzsch (eds.), Carmina Latina Epigraphica. Leipzig: Teubner, –. Courtney E. Courtney (ed.), Musa lapidaria: a selection of Latin verse inscriptions. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, . CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, – ILS H. Dessau (ed.), Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, vols. th Dessau edn. Berlin: Weimann, . LSJ H. G. Liddell, R. Scott and H. S. Jones (eds.), A Greek– English lexicon, th edn. Oxford: Clarendon Press, . MGH: AA Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores Auctores Antiquissimi. Berlin: Weimann, –. OLD P. G. W. Glare (ed.), Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, . PG Patrologia Graeca. Paris: J. P. Migne, –. PL Patrologia Latina. Paris: J. P. Migne, –. x Abbreviations xi PLRE J. R. Martindale (ed.), The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. : –. Cambridge University Press, . SC Sources Chrétiennes. Paris: Éditions du Cerf, – TLL Thesaurus Linguae Latinae. Leipzig: Teubner, – Introduction A Poet Between Two Worlds Ovid and the Transformation of the Ancient World Hermann Fränkel’s description of Ovid as ‘a poet between two worlds’ may seem more fitting today than it did when his Sather Lectures were first published in . Opposing himself to the view, then predominant, of Ovid as a brilliant but ultimately superficial poet, Fränkel sought to reveal beneath Ovid’s rhetorical artifice a deeper concern with different ways of perceiving reality. In this respect, Fränkel argued, Ovid created the possi- bility for a new kind of relationship between self and others, and helped to ‘prepare the passage from Antiquity to Christianity’. Such claims failed to convince Fränkel’s reviewers, who expressed scepticism as to whether it was really an emphasis on the phenomenon of divided identities that ensured Ovid’s lasting appeal to Christian readers. According to Ronald Syme, Ovid’s ‘gay tales and easy Latin’ were far more plausible explan- ations for his popularity in the middle ages. In the last few decades, however, as Ovid’s works have taken on new levels of significance, Frän- kel’s account of the poet’s modernity has also gained belated recognition. But, while Ovidian scholars have reapplied Fränkel’s ‘between two worlds’ label in various contexts, there has been no real attempt to update his
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