Abstract Philopoemen is chronologically the last Greek whose biography is written by Plutarch. This paper examines the tools with which this distinction is rendered the main thematic of the Life, intertwined with a fatalistic tone conveying a reminiscence of past glories relived for one last time through the agency of Philopoemen, whose Life acts as a vehicle in an overarching simile referencing Greece herself. The narration exerts a tone of fatalism, among other themes, through the evocation of Greece's old age and destiny, so that this Life earns a closer study.
Abstract This article suggests a new syntactical interpretation of lines 25 and 26 of Hesiod's Theogony. Three infelicities are addressed: the awkward string of plurals in line 26, the unmotivated abuse of Hesiod, and a concern for logical sequence. I argue that, at lines 25 and 26, Hesiod creates a tableau vivant wherein the Muses juxtapose lowly shepherds with their own grandeur in preparation for Hesiod to move from shepherd to singer. Hesiod's proem develops a tighter logical thread when it is interpreted in this manner.
Abstract This paper argues that in the Troades, Seneca engages with Sophocles's Ajax on two levels. First, the third act recapitulates the Ajax structurally, blending its prologue (the blatant deception of an enemy, Andromache, and Ajax, respectively) with its finale (centering on a discussion over either granting burial or denying it). Secondly, Seneca refers to Sophocles's play in order to deepen the metatheatrical dimension of the Troades. Ulysses not only contributes to the play's complex investigation of various audience responses, but also borrows from his Sophoclean counterpart a theatrical self-consciousness to reflect on the several emotions a character feels on stage.
Abstract The threat to violently abduct Iphigenia and by the hair, no less, if she does not approach her sacrifice willingly is unique to Euripides's Iphigenia at Aulis. I argue that this specific type of violence contributes to Iphigenia's decision to capitulate and reflects a wider Euripidean interest in Iphigenia as a character whose body becomes the tool by which she redefines her own tragic narrative, preparing the audience to think of her, rather than Helen, as a body worth fighting for.
This article examines the reception of Seneca's Troades in the Nemean episode of Statius's Thebaid. After exploring the political implications of Opheltes's death in his role as imperial heir through Astyanax's execution by the Greeks, it focuses on Hypsipyle's grief as surrogate mother in light of Andromache and Hecuba as a means to increase her tragic appeal. By investigating infant death and female bereavement, this paper argues that the Trojan aftermath in Seneca's Troades plays a crucial role in Statius's rewriting of the tragedy of Opheltes and Hypsipyle into his epic poem as a prelude to the Theban War.
Abstract This paper begins with a brief survey of modern scholarly approaches to the early Christian, patristic reception of Epicureanism. Having established this context of reception, I argue that early Christian poets mirror the didacticism and psychagogy seen in the Epicurean poetic tradition as established by Epicurus, Philodemus, Lucretius, and Horace. Unlike previous studies of early Christian reception of Epicureanism (Rapisarda [1951], Jungkuntz [1962], and Erler [2024]), my argument highlights early Christian poetry as the literature of reception that affirmatively adapts specific aspects of Epicurean tradition, which harmonizes the traditional opposition between poetry and philosophy/doctrine.
Abstract This paper analyzes the invectives contained in a series of quasi-documents that are usually called the Acts of the Pagan Martyrs or, more neutrally, the Acts of the Alexandrians. These Acts consist of—usually quite fragmentarily preserved—papyri that report confrontations between Roman emperors and members of the Alexandrian elite. Invariably something goes badly awry in the encounter, and while the Alexandrians and the emperor exchange increasingly outrageous insults, the ambassadors are led away to be executed. As the Acts share many resemblances with modern fake news, I show how modern theories about fake news help to understand how these documentary fictions may have functioned in the society of Roman Egypt.
Abstract This article argues that fake news (interpreted as written and/or oral disinformation with a spiteful intent to deceive, which is disseminated with the aim of harming its victim and benefitting its creator) is a prominent motif in Lucian's Dialogues of the Courtesans. Fake news of various sorts is used in these dialogues to emphasize the precarity and vulnerability of many of the female protagonists, but also to explore the often-complex gendered power dynamic of sexual relationships between client and courtesan, and finally to generate humor in the dialogues.
This paper explores the interconnection of fakeness, invective, and politics in the collection of the Panegyrici Latini and the imperial biographies known as the Historia Augusta. It shows that late rhetoricians and historians intermingled blame devices and fake narratives to demolish the moral and political authority of “bad” emperors and usurpers. It also demonstrates that fakeness played a key role in the subjective, ideologically oriented, reconstruction of the historical events that occurred in the later Roman Empire. “Fictional invective” emerges, then, as a not negligible aspect of the structural pattern of imperial praise and biography beyond the boundaries of historical reliability.
Abstract There is strong evidence for the presence of false news that is spread to achieve specific objectives in times of crisis in ancient Greek literature. This news—reminiscent to a certain extent of current fake news—was deliberately created and spread to deceive the enemy, mislead, manipulate decisions, and even obtain personal, social, or military benefits. A lexical approach leads us to the noun ψɛυδαγγɛλία, the specific term coined to refer to the transmission of false (fake) news. However, the term appears only once in an interesting passage of Xenophon's On the Cavalry Commander. Its presence in this single text is striking given the importance that Xenophon gives to lies as a perfect war strategy and as a means of intimidating enemies. This paper explores other ways of referring to fake news and focuses on its relevance as a powerful tool of invective in periods of crisis. Special attention will be paid to two closely related contexts: the military and the political spheres.
Abstract Lucian the sophist wrote an epistolary essay that condemns the spiritualist Alexander of Abonuteichos for criminal fraud, social and sexual self-aggrandizement, and sexual mischief, first among his native Paphlagonians and then far beyond in second-century Roman Anatolia. Both men prospered by their verbal agility and daring performances. Both succeeded remarkably in the imperial oikoumene. They competed for attention with contrasting worldviews. Alexander's strategies of persuasion began with divine miracles and prophecies but extended to a campaign of disinformation about and invective against his foes (Epicureans, Christians, and Lucian, among others). Lucian, in the name of philosophical truth, employs similar tropes, exposing a snake with a puppet's humanoid head, the prophet's lavish lifestyle and dubious murder plot against the fearless Lucian, and feckless belief among his followers. Both men present themselves as devoted expounders of differing realities. We must find Alexander, however, almost entirely through this bemused Lucian, whose invective only sees positives in Alexander when they serve to convict him of superior hoodwinking.
Abstract This article explores how Galen of Pergamon used invective conventions in some of his writings, especially in his autobiographical works, in order to craft his public persona and reply to slanders and fake news that undermined his status.
Abstract In this paper I argue that the term caput in Seneca's Agamemnon is deployed with nonliteral meanings. First, I claim that caput is a metaphor for body and identity. As such, it serves as a pejorative form of (self-)address, a marker denoting downgraded status, and as Seneca's commentary on theatrical roles. Second, I suggest that caput turns into a symbol of the political ruler, and that decapitation represents defeat and loss of political identity and power. In deploying this word with symbolic dynamics, Seneca makes caput a more complex signifier than a mere term for the head.
Abstract This paper addresses the use of the term “pathetic fallacy” by critics to describe the representation of nature in bucolic poetry, identifying and discussing two main interpretative trends in scholarship: (i) a view that gives the word “fallacy” its full meaning and regards the figure as a sign of disconnection from reality; (ii) a positive view that understands the “pathetic fallacy” as the expression of different ontologies recognizing the intimate relationship between humans and the environment. Especial attention is given to the problematic usage of the term to describe how poets see the behavior of animals. The essay proposes an alternative approach to the relevant passages employing Greg Garrard's typology of representations of animals, as well as references to scientific research on animal cognition and emotions.
Abstract This note suggests that the well-known crux οὔτ᾽ ἄτης ἄτɛρ in Sophocles's Antigone 4 is best resolved by reading οὔτ᾽ ἀτɛρπὲς ἦν, demonstrates that such a locution is perfectly Sophoclean, and offers a discussion of how such an error might have occurred.
Abstract Editors have been unjustified in questioning antelogium, Muret's emendation of Plautus Menaechmi 13. Antelogium must be understood as a diminutive both here and at Ausonius Epistula 9a.17–20 Green.
Abstract This article picks up the long-debated question of Ciceronian influence on Virgil's Aeneid. First, it argues for lines of ideological contact between the revelation of Scipio Africanus to his younger heir in book six of the De Re Publica (or Somnium Scipionis, as the section is often called) to the similar revelation of Anchises to Aeneas in the sixth book of the Aeneid. Then, interrogating Cicero's treatment of the categories of hostis (“enemy”), peregrinus (“stranger”) and externus (“foreigner”), it suggests how Virgil received these categories and moved beyond them in his portrayals of Aeneas and his companions upon their arrival in Italy in book seven and beyond.
Abstract This article examines the nonviolent ending of feuds within the Tacitean corpus by studying two different scene types, which I term “full reconciliation” and “the prevented feud.” The historian suggests that both methods of conflict resolution are highly beneficial to society in theory and shows that the latter in particular may represent an opportunity for the principes to fix one of the failures of Roman republican governance. In practice, however, Tacitus's emperors frequently abuse both concepts to serve corrupt ends, casting doubt on whether the principate truly had an effective means of settling disputes among the Roman populace.
