Kinship, Republican statesmen, and virtus in Roman Imperial literature
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Abstract
This dissertation examines how literature written between the Flavian and Nervan-Trajanic-Hadrianic eras (ca. 69-138 CE), specifically Silius Italicus’ Punica, Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria, Pliny the Younger’s Panegyricus, and Juvenal’s Satires, depicts the ways in which exemplarity, a sociocultural practice wherein idealized and glorified examples (exempla) are used to instruct, guide and shape individual and cultural expectations of Roman-ness (Romanitas), both goes awry and consequently needs to be reshaped and refashioned. Studying the fallibility of exemplarity requires an understanding of the systems which enable the transmission of exempla. Pedagogy is often the only method of transmission discussed by scholars who examine the ways in which exempla are passed down from generation to generation. Furthermore, while there has been much interest in the broader role of exemplarity in Roman culture, there has been less focus on the ways in which it affects specific individuals who are compelled to maintain the exemplary traditions of their families. In this dissertation, I offer a methodology which introduces a new language identifying two distinct but interlocking modes of transmission: genetic and educational. I argue that both modes of transmission ensure the preservation and propagation of elite Roman culture, but are also always in tension with each other. In the following chapters, I explore the often-detrimental impact of these exempla upon individuals, particularly aristocratic men and women, for whom these exemplary heroes were more than just generic guides; rather, these exempla informed their sense of identity, the decisions they made throughout their lives, and the manner in which they presented themselves to the Roman public.
I begin with Silius Italicus’ Punica which features the ancestors and descendants of famous regnal and early Republican heroes. Using two case-studies, Serranus, the son M. Atilius Regulus, and Crixus, a descendant of Brennus the Gaul, I observe that both stories complicate a problematic aspect of genetic transmission: the expectation that all traits inherited are positive, and worth emulating. Chapter Two argues that Quintilian, in teaching his readers on how to educate an aristocratic statesman in Imperial Rome, blurs the boundaries of the modes of genetic and educational transmission. His Institutio Oratoria focuses on the innate talent (ingenium) of his students, rather than inherited familial virtues, and encourages them to both embrace adaptation and innovation, as well as show critical judgment when imitating exempla from the past. The third chapter examines Pliny the Younger’s adoption of the above principles from his teacher Quintilian. I observe that Pliny’s use of Quintilianic elements throughout the Panegyricus is in and of itself a form of educational transmission, and that his discussion of Trajan’s adoption, the subsequent prayer for Trajan to have his own biological children, and the incorporation of elements of the traditionally Republican laudatio funebris, all encourage the reader to reevaluate expectations associated with both genetic and educational transmission. My final chapter examines Juvenal’s Satires 1, 2, 7, 8, and 14, as texts which reject the expectations linked with the genetic and educational transmissions of character traits, both of which are predicated upon the repetitive and cyclic process of exemplarity. I argue that this obsession with continuity and exemplarity has several consequences, namely complacency, hypocrisy, and unachievable standards, all of which contribute to Juvenal’s poetic indignatio.
To conclude, this dissertation offers new insights into the overwhelming effects of exemplarity upon its aristocratic practitioners, whose families, as both guardians and propagators of virtue and morality, were the primary societal norm-setters in Rome.
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2024