Working Papers on Nervan, Trajanic and Hadrianic Literature 1.14

‘Quintilian and Juvenal’s Fourteenth Satire’                                                                                            James Uden, 16th October 2013

This paper is new work, inspired by the interest of the research group in interactions between late first/early second-century literary figures. Its aim is to suggest a reading of Satire 14 in light of the second-century reception of Quintilian – a figure whose influence on Trajanic and Hadrianic literature, as Chris Whitton’s working paper also shows, has been generally underestimated. This really is work in progress, so any criticisms or suggestions are very welcome!

Working Papers on Nervan, Trajanic and Hadrianic Literature 1.13

‘War and Peace in the Panegyricus: initial observations on metus hostilis‘                                         Katie Low, 2nd September 2013

This brief study of Pliny’s Panegyricus is intended to be preliminary to a project investigating how authors used the concept of metus hostilis (the notion that collective fear of external enemies promotes internal concord and prevents civil war, which was popularised by Sallust’s work on the late republic) to represent the relationship between the promotion of internal concord and responses to external threats in the early imperial era.

It focuses on Pliny’s praise of Trajan’s success in forestalling civil war at the time of his accession, and of his military achievements; these positive attributes are compared with Domitian’s laxness as a general and the terror that he evoked in many Romans. Pliny implies that, by dispelling domestic fear and by making foreign enemies afraid of the Romans, Trajan has restored the metus hostilis that once kept Rome united – he has even improved on it, as now foreigners fear Rome rather than vice versa. It brings Pliny into dialogue with Tacitus on this point; and this reading of Pliny’s Panegyricus may also have implications for – and be profitably read in dialogue with – texts like Frontinus’ Strategemata and some Flavian epic, which at times conflate distinctions between civil/foreign or internal/external war (on a related topic, see Buckley’s ‘Tacitus: epic successor of Valerius?’).

War and Peace in the Panegyricus

Working Papers on Nervan, Trajanic and Hadrianic Literature 1.12

‘A Darker Pliny’                                                                                                                             Roy Gibson, 12th August 2013

Working Papers on Nervan, Trajanic and Hadrianic Literature 1.10

‘The new subterranean: mining the past in Tacitus Annals 16 and other Nervan/Trajanic texts’                                                                                                                                               Victoria Rimell, 18th June 2013

This is an embryonic sketch for a paper which builds on Emma Buckley’s ‘Tacitus: epic successor of Valerius?‘. It is intended as a contribution to the Literary Interactions under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian conference, and should only be quoted in that context.

It considers Tacitus’ engagement with foundation stories from the early books of Virgil’s Aeneid in Annals 16, and is interested particularly in the ways in which he exploits the metaphor of mining (digging up the past, scratching below the surface, laying/digging up foundations, and so on) to characterise Nero’s engagement with the Augustan past, and to interrogate the processes of history writing itself. In the process, it raises questions about how (and how successfully) other authors of the Nervan and Trajanic era handled the temptation to dig up the past – or bury it – as a way of understanding or defining the present.

The new subterranean: mining the past in Tacitus Annals 16 and other Nervan/Trajanic texts.

Working Papers on Nervan, Trajanic and Hadrianic Literature 1.9

‘Authenticating the Marvellous: Mirabilia in Pliny the Younger, Tacitus and Suetonius’                                                                                                         Kelly Shannon, 6th June 2013

This working paper explores the place of mirabilia in the literary culture of the early 2nd century AD. Inter alia, it considers what counted as ‘outlandish’ (and how that may have varied from genre to genre); authorial strategies for ‘authenticating’ ‘marvels’ (and the ways in which they enlist readers’ co-operation/complicity); what their shared strategies might tell us about literary dialogue/interaction in the period in question (and how Tacitus, Suetonius and Pliny the Younger engaged with earlier ‘paradoxographers’, particularly Pliny the Elder; also similarities between their works and the Hadrianic ‘paradoxographer’ Phlegon of Tralles); and how trends in paradoxography (and the questions that mirabilia raise about veracity and believability) might relate to contemporary political developments (in particular, the transition from Flavian to Trajanic-Hadrianic).

Authenticating the Marvellous: Mirabilia in Pliny the Younger, Tacitus and Suetonius

Working Papers on Nervan, Trajanic and Hadrianic Literature 1.8

‘Reading Plutarch with Pliny the Younger’                                                                                                         Jason König, 17th May 2013

This is a 1000-word abstract of a work-in-progress paper delivered in January 2013 in St Andrews and April 2013 in Cornell. Suggestions for revision/expansion are very much welcomed.

Reading Plutarch with Pliny the Younger

Working Papers on Nervan, Trajanic and Hadrianic Literature 1.7

‘The Sophist and his Beard’                                                                                                         Anna Ginestí Rosell, 14th April 2013

This working paper is a piece of early-stage research on one particular passage of Plutarch’s Quaestiones Convivales (VII 7-8). It looks at Plutarch’s representation of a sophist at a symposium, and compares it with portraits of sophists in a number of other contemporary texts.

The Sophist and his Beard

A digest of discussions from the workshop ‘Writing in Rome (and beyond) under Nerva, Trajan and Hadian’, held in St Andrews on 25^th January, 2013.

From Valerius Flaccus to Apollodorus of Damascus

Working Papers on Nervan, Trajanic and Hadrianic Literature 1.4

‘ “Democrazia a tavola”: Giovenale (Sat. 5), Marziale, Luciano’                                                    Biagio Santorelli, 7th January 2013

This working paper explores correspondences and differences between the ways in which Martial, Juvenal and Lucian experiment with the dinner party trope.

Democrazia a tavola