Figures in the Shadows: Identities in Artistic Prose from the Anthology of the Elder Seneca by Bart Huelsenbeck Department of Classical Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Mary T. Boatwright, Supervisor ___________________________ Christina S. Kraus ___________________________ Grant Parker ___________________________ Jennifer C. Woods Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Classical Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2009 ABSTRACT Figures in the Shadows: Identities in Artistic Prose from the Anthology of the Elder Seneca by Bart Huelsenbeck Department of Classical Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Mary T. Boatwright, Supervisor ___________________________ Christina S. Kraus ___________________________ Grant Parker ___________________________ Jennifer C. Woods An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Classical Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2009 Copyright by Bart Huelsenbeck 2009 Abstract The anthology of the elder Seneca (c. 55 BC – c. 39 AD) contains quotations from approximately 120 speakers who flourished during the early Empire. The predominant tendency in modern scholarship has been to marginalize these speakers and the practice they represent (declamation): they are regarded as a linguistic and literary monolith, and their literary productions while recognized as influential are treated as discrete from those of other, “serious” authors. The present dissertation challenges this viewpoint by focusing on the following questions: To what extent can a speaker quoted in Seneca’s anthology be said to have a distinct and unique literary identity? What is the relationship of a speaker, as represented by his quotations, relative to canonical texts? Since most of the quoted speakers are found exclusively in the anthology, the study first examines the nature of Seneca’s work and, more specifically, how the quotations of the anthology are organized. It is discovered that the sequence in which excerpts appear in a quotation do not follow a consistent, meaningful pattern, such as the order in which they might have occurred in a speech. Instead, excerpts exhibit a strong lateral organization: excerpts from one speaker show a close engagement with excerpts in spatially distant quotations from other speakers. A fundamental organizing principle consists in the convergence of excerpts around a limited number of specific points for each declamatory theme. The remainder, and bulk, of the dissertation is a close analysis of the quotations of two speakers: Arellius Fuscus and Papirius Fabianus. The distinct identities of these iv speakers emerge from comparisons of excerpts in their quotations with the often studiedly similar excerpts from other speakers and from passages in other texts. Fabianus’ literary identity takes shape in a language designed to construct the persona of a philosopher-preacher. The identity of Fuscus resides in idiosyncratic sentence architecture, in a preference for Presentational sentences, and in methodically innovative diction. Further substantiating Fuscus’ identity is evidence that he assimilated the language of authors, such as Cicero and Vergil, and established compositional patterns that became authoritative for later authors, such as Ovid, the younger Seneca, and Lucan. v Contents Abstract .........................................................................................................................................iv Abbreviations and Commonly Used Terms ............................................................................ix Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................xii Introduction ...................................................................................................................................1 1. The Organization of Seneca’s Quotations ...........................................................................11 1.1 Seneca’s anthology: thema, sententiae, divisiones, colores ............................................11 1.2 Quotations: sequence, sources, reliability...................................................................15 1.3 Sententiae are non-sequential ........................................................................................25 1.4 Seneca’s collection limited by supporting documents..............................................34 1.5 Quotations converge around a limited number of loci ..............................................44 1.6 A culture of shared loci ..................................................................................................56 1.7 Shared loci are signaled through keywords, formulae, and labels..........................59 1.7.1 Controversia 1.1...........................................................................................................60 1.7.2 Controversia 1.2...........................................................................................................62 1.7.3 Controversia 1.3...........................................................................................................66 1.8 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................69 2. Papirius Fabianus: voice of a philosopher...........................................................................73 2.1 Objectives.........................................................................................................................73 2.2 Fabianus’ reputation in ancient sources: a re-evaluation .........................................81 2.3 Quest for strength of utterance.....................................................................................95 2.4 Archaic eloquence: phonetic architecture, parataxis, guttatim style........................98 vi 2.5 Fabianus’ traditional sentence architecture ..............................................................104 2.5.1 Fabianus philosophus attacks wealth itself ( C. 2.1.25)..........................................107 2.5.2 Phonetic structuring and Civil War ( C. 2.1.10-13) ..............................................114 2.5.3 Phonetic Structuring and the imitation of nature by the rich ( C. 2.1.10-13)....126 2.5.4 Precise architecture in the description of the tortured wife ( C. 2.5).................132 2.6 Fabianus’ complete, tabular eloquence ( C. 2.6, 2.2, 2.3)..........................................145 2.6.1 Controversia 2.6.........................................................................................................146 2.6.2 Controversia 2.2.........................................................................................................153 2.6.3 Controversia 2.3.........................................................................................................156 2.7 Conclusion.....................................................................................................................158 3. Arellius Fuscus: presentational architecture and verbal presence.................................161 3.1 Introduction...................................................................................................................161 3.2 Fuscus’ biography and his alleged Asianism...........................................................166 3.3 Sentence architecture and prose rhythm...................................................................175 3.4 Fuscus creates word-groups possessing highly defined boundaries....................180 3.5 Word-groups serve as informational frames............................................................190 3.6 Subject-final word order, Presentational sentences, thetic perspective................199 3.6.1 Fuscine Entries that contain subject-final order..................................................203 3.6.2 V-S order and descriptive sentences.....................................................................207 3.6.3 Presentational sentences and theticity..................................................................211 3.6.4 Thetic sentences in S. 5.1 and C. 2.5.4...................................................................216 3.6.5 Theticity and the Entry-type ‘Proposition and Elaboration’.............................221 3.6.6 Exempla of virtuous women ...................................................................................227 vii 3.7 Conclusion.....................................................................................................................234 4. Arellius Fuscus: a presence in literary traditions .............................................................237 4.1 Introduction...................................................................................................................237 4.2 Suasoria 3........................................................................................................................239 4.2.1 An orderly and traditional description of the moon’s phases ..........................241 4.2.2 Impressive language in a technical exposition....................................................248 4.2.3 A Fuscine presence among poets: the image of the Despairing Farmer .........252 4.2.4 Fuscine presence in moral philosophy: