ORBIT - Online Repository of Birkbeck Institutional Theses Enabling Open Access to Birkbecks Research Degree output Prudentius, Poetry and Hispania http://bbktheses.da.ulcc.ac.uk/38/ Version: Full Version Citation: Hershkowitz, Paula (2013) Prudentius, Poetry and Hispania. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London. c 2013 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copyright law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit guide Contact: email PRUDENTIUS, POETRY AND HISPANIA Paula Hershkowitz Department of History, Classics and Archaeology Birkbeck, University of London Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The work presented in this thesis is my own ................................................................ Paula Hershkowitz 1 ABSTRACT The thesis focuses on the martyr poetry of Prudentius. It argues that we cannot fully understand his verses without contextualising the poet within his physical environment, in particular that of Hispania, his homeland. Although literary sources can provide information about Prudentius and his work, it is only by accessing evidence from the archaeological and visual record when studying his poetry that its purpose can be fully understood. Chapter I serves as an introduction to Prudentius. It examines the information he gives us about himself in his poetry and discusses the historical context and background of his work. Chapter II identifies the audience of Prudentius and proposes a role for him as villa-poet to the elite of Hispania. It questions the extent to which this audience were, during his lifetime, committed to the Christian religion. Chapter III analyses the martyr poems in detail, especially those located in Hispania. By examining the material evidence for martyr worship in the locations mentioned by Prudentius it assesses whether the cult of the martyrs played a significant role in the lives of the Spanish. Chapter IV examines two poems set in Italian martyr tombs which show the emotional involvement of the poet in martyr worship and highlights the influence which Christian iconography could have on a susceptible viewer such as Prudentius. Chapter V argues from extant material evidence that the fourth and early fifth-century visual backdrop of Hispania remained substantially non-Christian. It proposes that in order to envisage the Christian art presented by Prudentius’ Italian poems his audience would need to mentally access these local ‘pagan’ images. In conclusion, the physical and literary evidence from Hispania indicates that Prudentius’ audience at home was largely lacking in commitment to Christianity and confirms the significance and necessity of his poetry as a vehicle for proselytism. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Caroline Humfress, my doctoral supervisor, for the unfailing and always responsive support that she has given me during the preparation of this thesis. Her insightful words and constructive encouragement have patiently guided me during sometimes difficult times. I would also like to express my thanks for the assistance given by staff at Birkbeck College (University of London), the Institute of Classical Studies Library (London), the University of Navarra (Pamplona) and Yale University Art Gallery. I also must acknowledge with gratitude the help I have received from my family members: Jesse Hershkowitz, Kate Hershkowitz, Molly Macdonald and Matthew Buckwell. Their patience in instructing me in the technological niceties of producing the finished work has been much appreciated. Finally I must thank my husband, Bobby, for always listening while I expounded my thoughts and theories to him, and for suffering though many trips to archaeological sites and museums in Spain. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 3 Abbreviations 6 Chapter One: Introducing Prudentius I. Primary Source Material and Secondary scholarship 9 II. Prudentius on himself 14 III. The Hispania of Prudentius: Historical Context and 23 Background IV. Thesis Structure and Working Methodology 36 Chapter Two: Prudentius’ Audience and their Religious Beliefs I. Introduction 39 II. Identifying the Audience of the Villa-Poet 42 III. Paideia in Hispania: A Socio-cultural Network 50 IV. Christianity and Villa-based Communities 59 Chapter Three: The Peristephanon and Martyr Cults in Hispania I. Introduction 80 II. The Establishment of the Martyr Cults 84 III. The Peristephanon Poems: The Saints of Hispania 90 IV. The Peristephanon Poems: Italy and Beyond 98 V. Martyrs in Hispania: Evidential Texts and Material 102 Culture VI. Conclusion 126 Chapter Four: Prudentius, Painter of Pictures in Words I. Introduction 128 II. Prudentius at the Tomb of Cassian 132 III. Prudentius at the Tomb of Hippolytus 140 IV. Pictures painted in Words 149 V. The Actuality of the Paintings 154 4 Chapter Five: Prudentius’ Poetry in the Context of the Visual Culture of Hispania I. Introduction: A Clash of Visual Cultures? 165 II. The Visual Culture of the Hispano-Roman Elite 174 III. Christian Iconography in Prudentius’ Hispania 192 IV. How Prudentius ‘saw’ the Martyr Images – Visual 202 Experience to Written Text V. ‘Seeing’ the Martyrs in Hispania – Written Text to 206 Visual Experience Conclusion 211 Appendix A: Myths in Prudentius’ Poems and Spanish Mosaics 218 Appendix B: Illustrations 222 Map of Late Fourth-Century Hispania 253 Bibliography 254 5 ABBREVIATIONS AEspA Archivo Español de Arqueología Apoth. Apotheosis, Aurelii Prudentii Clementis Carmina, CCSL 126 (ed.), M. Cunningham (Turnhout: Brepols, 1966). BAR British Archaeological Reports Cath. Cathemerinon, Aurelii Prudentii Clementis Carmina, CCSL 126 (ed.), M. Cunningham (Turnhout: Brepols, 1966). CC D. Fernández Galiano, Mosaicos romanos del Convento Cesaraugustano (Mallorca: Caja de Ahorra de Zaragoza, Aragón y Rioja, 1987). CCSL Corpus Christianorum: Series Latina CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum CME Corpus de Mosaicos de España CS. Contra Symmachum, Aurelii Prudentii Clementis Carmina, CCSL 126 (ed.), M.Cunningham (Turnhout: Brepols, 1966). CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum CSIC Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas CSIR Corpus Signonum Imperii Romani C.Th. T. Mommsen and P.M. Meyer, Theodosiani libri XVI cum Constitutionibus Sirmondianis: et leges novella ad Theodosianum pertinentes, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1905). EME Early Medieval Europe F-Galiano D. Fernández Galiano, Carranque: centro de Hispania romana (Madrid: Museo Arqueológico Regional, 2001). 6 Ham. (H)amartigenia, Aurelii Prudentii Clementis Carmina, CCSL 126 (ed.), M. Cunningham (Turnhout: Brepols, 1966. ICERV Inscripciones cristianas de la España romana y visigoda (ed.), J.Vives (Barcelona: A.G. Ponsa, 1969). ICUR Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae septimo saeculo antiquores. Nova series (Vatican City: Pont. Institutum Archaeologiae Christianae, 1922-1992). La J. Lancha, Mosaïque et culture dans l’occident romain (Ier-IVe.s) (Rome: “l’Erma” di Bretschneider, 1997). LRE A.H.M.Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 284-602:A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey (Oxford:B. Blackwell, 1964). JRA Journal of Roman Studies JRS Journal of Roman Archaeology Mezquíriz M. Mezquíriz Irujo, La villa romana de Arellano (Pamplona: Gobierno de Navarra: Institución Príncipe de Viana, 2008). MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historiae MRE J-M. Blázquez, Mosaicos romanos de España (Madrid: Ediciones Catedra, 1993). Pe. Peristephanon, Aurelii Prudentii Clementis Carmina, CCSL 126 (ed.), M. Cunningham (Turnhout: Brepols, 1966). PL Patrologia Latina (ed.), J.P. Migne. PLRE I Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire,I, AD 260-395 (eds.), A.H.M. Jones, J.Morris and J.Martindale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971). PLRE II Prosography of the Later Roman Empire, II, AD 395-527 (ed.), J.Martindale (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980). 7 Praef. Praefatio, Aurelii Prudentii Clementis Carmina, CCSL 126 (ed.), M. Cunningham (Turnhout: Brepols, 1966). Ps. Psychomachia, Aurelii Prudentii Clementis Carmina, CCSL 126 (ed.), M. Cunningham (Turnhout: Brepols, 1966). SC Sources Chrétiennes Tituli Hist. Tituli Historiarum or Dittochaeon, Aurelii Prudentii Clementis Carmina, CCSL 126 (ed.), M. Cunningham (Turnhout: Brepols, 1966). 8 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCING PRUDENTIUS I. Primary Source Material and Secondary Scholarship During the last years of the fourth century AD or in the early years of the fifth, a Christian poet Aurelius Prudentius Clemens made journeys to two martyr shrines in Italy. At both of these shrines, dedicated to the martyrs Cassian and Hippolytus, were paintings which portrayed the deaths of the saints. The proximity of their remains and the scenes of suffering and death so overwhelmed and inspired Prudentius, emotionally and physically, that he set down his experiences in poems honouring the martyrs.1 An integral part of the poems were vivid ekphraseis of the images depicted at their shrines, by which means Prudentius intended to convey to his audience the powerful reaction he had felt in the presence of the saints.2 These two pieces would eventually form part of the Peristephanon, a group of fourteen poems written by Prudentius in order to glorify and remember Christian martyrs. Prudentius’ identity as a Christian Hispano-Roman is demonstrated in the choice of saints he commemorated in the Peristephanon: five were from Rome and Italy, emphasising the centre of the Roman Christian Empire in the West, and, more importantly for the argument of this thesis, six