The Roman Self in Late Antiquity Mastrangelo, Marc

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The Roman Self in Late Antiquity Mastrangelo, Marc The Roman Self in Late Antiquity Mastrangelo, Marc Published by Johns Hopkins University Press Mastrangelo, Marc. The Roman Self in Late Antiquity: Prudentius and the Poetics of the Soul. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. Project MUSE. doi:10.1353/book.3489. https://muse.jhu.edu/. For additional information about this book https://muse.jhu.edu/book/3489 [ Access provided at 2 Oct 2021 19:36 GMT with no institutional affiliation ] This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The Roman Self in Late Antiquity This page intentionally left blank The Roman Self in Late Antiquity Prudentius and the Poetics of the Soul Marc Mastrangelo The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore ∫ 2008 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2008 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mastrangelo, Marc. The Roman self in late antiquity : Prudentius and the poetics of the soul / Marc Mastrangelo. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-8018-8722-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-8018-8722-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Prudentius, b. 348. 2. Virgil—Influence. 3. Literature, Comparative— Latin, Classical and post-classical. I. Title. pa6648.p7m37 2007 871%.01—dc22 2007023329 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or [email protected]. The Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post-consumer waste, whenever possible. All of our book papers are acid-free, and our jackets and covers are printed on paper with recycled content. Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 1 An Epic Successor? Prudentius, Aeneid 6, and Roman Epic Tradition 14 2 Christian History and the Narrative of Rome 41 3 Christian Theology and the Making of Allegory 82 4 Pagan Philosophy and the Making of Allegory 121 Epilogue. Self, Poetry, and Literary History in Prudentius 160 Notes 177 Works Cited 239 Index 251 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments The love of literature and its history is behind the research and writing of this book. Such a sentiment is necessary these days—though by no means su≈cient —in order to publish a book of literary criticism that focuses on a noncanonical, ancient author. I view the work of Prudentius as a dynamic, living presence within the long tradition of Roman literature reaching back to Lucretius and Vergil and looking ahead to Dante. Often given only a minor role in literary history, Prudentius’ literary value and contribution remain underappreciated. For all the risks that such a project entails, the intellectual adventure has been most rewarding. My interactions with friends and colleagues, who have guided, encouraged, and challenged me, are a great part of this reward. I am delighted to o√er my thanks for their generosity and excellence. Peter K. Marshall and Michael Comber cultivated their pupil’s confidence and sense of the literary. Freewheeling conversations with Jim McGowan on poetry and life have also made their mark. Christopher Pelling, Melinda Schlitt, Ted Pul- cini, Andrew Rudalevige, Leon Fitts, Meghan Reedy, John Harris, and Lucile Duperron read sections of the manuscript and improved it substantially. Christopher Francese read, discussed, and commented on the manuscript, clarifying key arguments. He has been a constant source of knowledge and encouragement. From the beginning of this project, Angeliki Tzanetou self- lessly gave her time and considerable talents to comment on successive drafts and clarify the argument and its presentation. Our discussions on literature and ideas remain central to my intellectual life. Joseph Pucci, who first intro- duced me to Prudentius, read multiple drafts, generously sharing his expertise in all things late antique with unflagging enthusiasm. Emily Hulme helped with the Latin translations and references. Michael Lonegro deserves special thanks for his willingness to entertain the publication of the manuscript, and for his editorial skill and patience. viii Acknowledgments The Dickinson College Research and Development Fund and the Roberts Fund of the Department of Classical Studies allowed me to work in far-flung libraries and reap the benefits of presenting work to audiences in Urbana– Champaign, State College, Cambridge, Oxford, London, Bryn Mawr, Provi- dence, and Amherst. The support and friendship of a thriving department has been invaluable: Leon Fitts, Christopher Francese, Christofilis Maggidis, Bar- bara McDonald, and Joanne Miller personify collegiality. I am fortunate to teach at an institution that values Classical Studies and to have students who push me to think creatively about my subject. Finally, this brief expression of gratitude would be incomplete without acknowledging Lucile, Joseph, and Julien, who time and time again save me from the world’s vicissitudes. Meis Fratribus This page intentionally left blank The Roman Self in Late Antiquity This page intentionally left blank Introduction haec dum scribo vel eloquor vinclis o utinam corporis emicem liber quo tulerit lingua sono mobilis ultimo! (Prudentius, Praefatio, 43–45) While I write or speak of these things, how I wish to break free from the chains of my body to the place where my nimble tongue’s last sound carries me! With these programmatic words the late antique poet Prudentius an- nounces that his poetry will allow him to transcend his oppressed, earthly condition and achieve salvation. The passage perhaps would have reminded Prudentius’ readers of the poet Horace, who, nearly four centuries earlier, had made a similar boast that his poetry would be an enduring monument to his talent and thus would free him from the limits of mortality (Carm. 3.30). Prudentius refashions the Roman convention of the immortality of the poet. For Prudentius, immortality is achieved in the poetic expression of his Chris- tian faith. And although in these programmatic lines he communicates his overwhelming desire for personal salvation, there is also a clear sense of his connection to the canon of Roman poets.∞ Like them, Prudentius indicates his self-awareness of his craft by calling attention to the practice of poetry through the word lingua, a metonymic designation for poetry itself. In the work of Prudentius, lingua stands for poetry (Cath. 3.94) and the correct faith (catholicam linguam, Apoth. 2), which must be disseminated through writing, speaking, and singing. In reworking the Roman convention of poetic immor- tality—and by propagating his poetic self-awareness—Prudentius fuses the 2 The Roman Self in Late Antiquity aspirations and accomplishments of the Roman poetic tradition with an ex- plicit wish for salvation defined by Christian faith. Prudentius’ inventive and skillful fusion of Roman poetry and Christianity breaks new ground in two distinct but related ways. Poetry cannot only treat and promote a personal conversion along with its spiritual groundings, but can also articulate a vision of Roman Christian empire. This political function of poetry hearkens back to the achievement of Roman epic, especially Vergil’s Aeneid and its meditation on Rome’s imperial identity. In his collected works, Prudentius’ treatment of imperial Romanitas, as well as his Christian concern for his own and others’ salvation, inaugurates a new Christian literature. Pru- dentius’ poetry gives voice to a vision of Rome as a divine empire, whose national identity is determined by both past imperial successes and the asser- tion of a Christian political ideology. Simultaneously, Christian spiritual ideas of free will and individual salvation shape Prudentius’ representation of a Christian Rome. Prudentius’ broad notion of poetry engages with and re- defines Romanitas and Christianitas both individually and collectively. In the Roman empire of the fourth century, Constantine had sealed pagan- ism’s doom and cemented Christianity as the dominant paradigm in political, social, and intellectual matters. Prudentius and other members of the Roman elite such as Augustine, Paulinus of Nola, and Ambrose experienced powerful conversions that led them to embrace Christianity completely. For Prudentius and other intellectuals, Christianity’s divine ‘‘truths’’ and Rome’s earthly, im- perial success furnished subject matter for a new Christian literature. To write meant to express personal convictions about a spiritual life and create new genres in order to persuade other like-minded Romans to live up to orthodox Christian ideals and rules. Prudentius’ personal wish for his own life in the preface develops into a highly wrought strategy in his work as a whole, through which he seeks to persuade complacent readers to commit to Christ and Rome. Prudentius promotes this Christian mission while reasserting Roman po- etry’s past artistic and cultural authority. Strikingly, the poetry from his tongue will o√er an ambitious literary manifesto in which, as I will argue, Roman poetry renews itself by integrating the new intellectual, theological and politi- cal realities of the post-Constantinian world. Not since the Epicurean Lu- cretius wrote in the middle of the first century BCE, had a Roman
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