The “Challenges of Humanism” in
Roman Historical Poetry
Markus Kersten
Universität Rostock, Heinrich Schliemann-Institut für Altertumswissenschaften, Schwaansche
Straße 3, 18051 Rostock, Deutschland
markus.kersten@uni-rostock.de
Augustan poetry is perhaps the most classic of all European classics. Its literary
vision of gradual advance (back) to Golden-Age peace and prosperity has taken
center stage in the process of defining European humanism. Post-Augustan epic
poets like Lucan, however, also seem to doubt whether humanity can be taught
by letters. This has often been interpreted as anti-classicist and, hence, antihumanistic. However, can the ideals of civilizing literature, in fact, be proven
wrong? Is there no other way to deal with the challenges of humanism than to give
in? A promising interpretive approach to this question is studying the specific
metapoetic potential of historical poetry. Literary characters of such poems can
‘realistically’ appear as readers; often, their success or failure may be directly
related to the literary education they show. This opens up a space for a particular
kind of intertextuality. In acutely reflecting the impact of their reference texts,
historical epic poems have made a distinctive contribution to the classification of
the classics, i.e., the defense of humanity.
Keywords: Latin poetry / historical epic / intertextuality / metapoetic realism / Cicero /
Lucan / Silius Italicus
Introduction
How did Roman poets relect the challenges of humanism? Phrased
like this, the question must appear frighteningly complex and – given
the length of this article – even greatly immodest. By itself, though,
it is amply justiied. he great era of Roman literature was characterized by such inhumane features as a civil war, treachery, injustice,
violence, and oppression.1 In the irst place, the topic here proposed
(and limited to epic narratives) is a historical one. For the interpretation of Latin poetry, however, it can unlock a promising hermeneutic potential to describe poetic self-referentiality and intertextuality as
1
A naïve deinition of ‘humanity’ can be derived ex negativo from e.g. Rhet ad Her.
4.12; Cic. Q. Rosc. 154; Cic. Ver. 2.5.121; Cic. Or. 51.172; Liv. 1.48.
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well as the relation between literature and an (allegedly) obligatory set
of cultural standards.
Ancient literary theory widely accepted the notion that literature has
an ethical and educational purpose, and the Roman ideal of humanitas
was conceptualized mainly as a form of intellectual culture.2 What does
it mean, then, that precisely those texts that promulgate – at least as we
tend to perceive them – the core issues of a ‘humanist’ worldview were
written at a time when humanity was under severe attack or hardly
suiciently developed? To what extent did Roman epic poets relect
not only on the general futility of human afairs, as determined by the
condition humaine, but also on the very futility of literary education?
Given the exemplary status of many ancient poems, this question has
not only an immediate dimension but also a ‘synecdochic’ one; such
question concerns the impact of literature in general. his may be an
explanation as to why the Julio-Claudian epoch has often served as
the scenery for historical novels such as Hermann Broch’s Der Tod des
Vergil (1945) or John Williams’s Augustus (1971).
In fact, a kind of historical iction that evaluates the present through
the more or less recent past had already been popular in Rome, especially in the imperial age.3 In historical epic, diferent manifestations
of cultural standards, philosophical discourses, and literary afairs can
be directly present. hey can somehow form a part of the world represented in the epic narrative – which is indeed a striking feature of a
genre that is most typically concerned with the distant past of ‘myth.’
Starting from this observation, this article aims to make some interpretive remarks on the status of humanism in that speciic branch of
Roman poetry.
Classicist humanism
Admittedly, ancient poets were neither humanists nor did they write for
an audience that was wont to distinguish sharply between sciences and
humanities.4 Speaking of ‘humanism’ in Roman poetry can however be
justiied by a well-known commonplace: he genesis of Roman poetry
as we usually describe it is characteristically expressed by the beginning
of Horace’s Epist. 1.2: Troiani belli scriptorem … Praeneste relegi. he
verb relegere demonstrates the way in which Roman intertextuality carSee e.g. Klingner.
On this matter, see e.g. Häußler and Volk.
4
See e.g. Klingner.
2
3
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ries out its function.5 If authors base their work on their rereading of
certain ‘classical’ poems, they invite readers to reread (at least in part)
these poems in the light of the literary references they ind in the text.
In the case of Horace’s letter, the rereading of Homer seems to enable the poet to coin several imperishable ethical judgments and pedagogical proclamations which, in fact, have made the letter a piece of
‘classical’ poetry itself, i.e., poetry which is worth being remembered
and reread.6 In particular, Horace’s phrase sapere aude (Epist. 1.2.40)
has gained a superior position in the history of European thought since
Immanuel Kant made this sentence the motto of the Enlightenment.
he cultural standards embodied within these two words have shaped a
substantial part of what we today refer to as the tradition of humanism.
Given the original context of Horace’s phrase, it could of course also
be understood as legere aude, ‘dare to read.’7 A poet may refer the reader
to another poem with a certain tendency, but one can never be forced
to read that poem in one predetermined way. On the other hand, one
might be rightly criticized if their reading of a certain poem is incorrect. he hope to become – due to reading – a better and perhaps
an exemplary person has been the justiication of literary study from
ancient times onwards. To reread the classics is, so to say, the essence
of humanism, and this makes it an inevitably classicist (or if you like:
sentimental) project.8 Horace’s letter indicates that many aspects of this
‘classicist humanism’ may have been present, though not exactly under
this name, since the time of Augustus.9
As a central point of reference, the Homeric poems are particularly
relevant to epic poetry. However, given the conventions of mythical
plots, it is impossible to have heroes say they have read their classics
and that the audience should do the same. his is simply because these
plots are set at a ‘preliterary’ time in which classical poems did not yet
exist. he writer of mythological epic must use subtler means to engage
with literary authority.
he verb (re)legere has a metapoetic ring in e.g. Verg. Aen. 3.690 and Luc. 9.953–
954, but Horace seems to have been the irst to use it referring directly to reading
poetry; Ov. Pont. 3.5.11 is a similar example.
6
On the matter of terminology, see e.g. J. Ziolkowski’s articles on ‘canon and
canonization’ and ‘classic and classicism’ (Ziolkowski and homas). On the various
processes of classiication in the Augustan age, see Nagy 73–186.
7
Cf. vv. 34–37 on which see e.g. Skalitzky. On the poetic dimension of Epistles 1,
see Mayer and Korenjak.
8
On the impact of Schiller’s terms for describing Roman poetry, see Kersten.
9
See Klingner; on ‘humanism’ in Vergil, see e.g. Haecker and Johnson.
5
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Vergil’s Aeneas cannot realistically cite Homer,10 but of course,
he does refer to him when he cites the words uttered by Panthus at
the moment of doom: “It is come – the last day and inevitable hour”
(Aen. 2.324).11 It is diicult to miss the reference to Iliad 6.448: “he
day shall come when sacred Ilios shall be laid low.” here is a peculiar charm in this anachronism, and it is precisely this kind of literary
repetition that conveys the compelling sentimental content of Vergil’s
epic.12 It is impossible to build up a new society unless we remember
the past and avoid previous mistakes.
Based on convictions like this, classicist humanism can aspire to
the return of a Golden Age. his suggestive announcement is a mainly
Roman narrative.13 It has been immensely inluential, and it has often
taken center stage in the process of deining European identity. he
adoption of Beethoven’s Ode an die Freude as the anthem of the European Union in 1985 is undoubtedly one of the most signiicant instances
of this. he orchestration of Schiller’s words “Deine Zauber binden wieder, was die Mode streng geteilt” represents the whole range of idealist
notions on revision, reconciliation, and regainment – Europe shall be
(re)uniied in universal peace and prosperity.
However, the whole idea will be severely questioned if the Golden
Age or Joy or Freedom do not show up after a while. From here
emerges one of the primary motivations for our present question. A
Golden Age did not come, as is known, during the reign of the JulioClaudian dynasty. Consequently, some of Vergil’s epic successors
emphasize the diiculties of classical ideals and even seem to disenchant humanist visions of progress and improvement. Lucan, who is
often labeled the ultimate ‘anti-Vergil,’14 is the best example in this
regard.15 In his poem on the Roman civil war, he displays the total
collapse of cultural standards and presents a pessimistic outlook on a
future crowded by greedy and slavish people. In short, his narrative
appears to be directly opposed to Vergil’s epic of aspiration. However,
if the Neronian epic poet contradicts Vergil, what does this mean? Can
10
By realism (as opposed to narrative metalepsis) I mean the coherent literary representation at a certain diegetic level. On the issues of theory, see Genette 20–25 and
Nauta.
11
If not indicated otherwise, translations are taken from the Loeb Classical Library.
12
On Vergil’s sentiment, see Conte.
13
See Marinčič 495f.
14
On this matter, see Kersten.
15
Another one may be Ovid; see Hardie.
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humanism go sour?16 Are poets like Lucan anti-humanists? Should
there be any worth in being one?
It may be useful, when dealing with these issues, to scrutinize the
very scenario that does appear highly realistic in Horace’s letter 1.2 but
does not in the Aeneid, namely a character’s engagement with ‘classical’
literary culture.
Metapoetic realism
Whereas, as noted, characters of mythological epic cannot realistically
read and interpret literary classics (for they are to be imagined as living
in a world before written poetry), personages of historical epic can do
so – at least if the relevant works were already published at the time of
which the narrator is speaking. A literary Caesar, for example, should
be thought to know the Homeric poems and perhaps Lucretius, but he
cannot know that he will appear in the underworld of the Aeneid. In
historical epic, it would hardly cause any confusion if somebody said
that Homer provides essential moral values. In fact, it might even seem
unrealistic when a Cicero appears who has not enjoyed the literary and
rhetorical education associated with him in the ‘real’ world.
Since such anachronistic intertextual phenomena as Aeneas evoking Homer or Seneca’s Medea evoking Euripides concern the soul of
Roman poetry, we should pay particular attention to those cases where
intertextuality might be a convenient matter even in the story world
of a poem. I would like to call this concept ‘metapoetic realism’, and I
propose to regard it as a means that enables an author to motivate an
explicit deliberation upon the meaning of a certain canon.17 Metapoetic
realism, to be sure, is a familiar phenomenon in philosophical dialogues
as well as in some other genres (think e.g. of Cicero’s De natura deo
rum or Tacitus’s Dialogus de oratoribus). However, particularly in a historical epic narrative, it may have a signiicant inluence on the action.
here, we can read, as it were, the drama of those who read in a speciic
manner the very texts we studied at school. his arrangement, however
ictional, brings us closer together with the historical characters since
it stresses an existential condition of literature. We are all readers. he
following section will discuss three examples of metapoetic realism and
then try to draw some conclusions.
16
Cf. Due 214, “un stoïcien qui a perdu la foi,” and Masters 157: “Lucan is an
idealist whose idealism has gone sour.”
17
On metapoetic realism (and metalepsis), see Kersten (fc).
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Declaiming the worth of education: Cicero’s epic biography
A kind of metapoetic realism already seems to appear in Ennius.18
Nonetheless, the present survey will begin with some other fragmentary poetry: Cicero’s De consulatu suo. Here, the phenomenon (though
perhaps still in an early stage) is especially relevant to the epic plot.
Cicero seldom igures as an author of epic. However, he certainly
was one. Moreover, it is evident from some ninety lines transmitted
that – even if his excessive self-panegyric has not won many admirers19 – he has in several regards permanently shaped the epic genre.20
What matters to the context of metapoetics is his direct relection of his
classicist humanism. In the poem, he stages a personiication of what
he would most inluentially subsume under humanitas in some of his
later theoretical works, namely (philosophical) education.21 he work’s
largest surviving fragment, in which Urania addresses the consul of 63,
emphasizes that his philosophical studies have just preigured Cicero’s
political success:
haec adeo penitus cura uidere sagaci
otia qui studiis laeti tenuere decoris,
inque Academia umbrifera nitidoque Lyceo
fuderunt claras fecundi pectoris artis.
e quibus ereptum primo iam a lore iuuentae
te patria in media uirtutum mole locauit.
tu tamen anxiferas curas requiete relaxans,
quod patriae uacat, id studiis nobisque sacrasti.
(Cic. Carm. fr. 11.71–78 = Div. 1.13.6–13)
his was what was entirely beheld with acute care by those who gladly devoted
their leisure to the study of noble things, who, in the shadows of the Academy
and the efulgence of the Lyceum, spread brilliant ideas of minds that were
abounding in culture. In the lower of youth, you were torn from these studies, when your country recalled you and led you right into the battle for virtue.
Yet, in seeking surcease from the worries and cares that oppress you, you have
devoted to your studies and us the time that the state leaves free.22
See Kersten (fc).
Cf. Quint. Inst or. 11.1.23f.
20
See Kurczyk 76–81 and Volk.
21
Cf. De or. 1.35; Rep. 1.28f.; Tusc. 5.66. On Cicero’s humanitas, see e.g. Hunt
188–205 and Høgel 17–67.
22
I adapted the 1923 Loeb translation of W. A. Falconer.
18
19
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For ambitious Romans, who look with traditional suspicion at any
advanced philosophy, there cannot be any virtue in living as a hermitic scholar – even more so when the state is in danger. Cicero’s
Urania, though being probably a somewhat Greekish muse of philosophy, seems indeed to approve of such Roman ‘down-to-earth’ topoi.
However, she also knows that the call of duty is not heard at all times –
there will always be some otium left for philosophy and poetry. While
Cicero stresses the need to abandon the pursuit of wisdom to do politics, he acknowledges that only philosophical preparation will provide
the necessary preconditions for the right political decisions.
Cicero’s epic hero is a philosopher, a reader who studies Academic
and Peripatetic philosophy. Educated in these clarae fecundi pectoris
artes, this man has nothing in common with Achilles and Agamemnon,
who embody military strength and social failure. Cedant arma togae,
concedat laurea laudi23 – one may feel tempted to read Cicero’s most
famous verse as decidedly metapoetic: “Yield, ye arms, to the toga;
yield, the epic fame of warriors to the praise of civilized culture.”24
his can, of course, be seen from two diferent perspectives (which are
to some extent present in all later Roman epic poems). Philosophy is
ennobled with epic splendor, and the epic plot is made susceptive of a
philosophical explanation.
Studies on Cicero’s epic intertextuality will undoubtedly remain
diicult. We cannot infer from the surviving fragments whether Cicero
bestowed on his epic alter ego an attitude towards poetry similar to the
one he shows in his great theoretical works and his correspondence.25
However, even his allusion to philosophical studies as a way of life
propagate a highly sophisticated self-concept of historical epic – one
of direct reference to and implicit evaluation of certain codiied classics
and their ethical impact. By boastingly praising his political success,
Cicero also airms his syllabus. He has no doubt that his studies will
help consolidate society.
Epic illiteracy and moral failure: Lucan’s Caesar
In the Bellum ciuile, almost everybody becomes guilty. A century after
Cicero, Lucan relentlessly problematizes the moral impact of literary
Cic. Carm. fr. 16 = Pis. 72; Phil. 2.20; Of. 1.77.
See Volk.
25
See Spahlinger and Behrendt.
23
24
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education (which does, to be sure, not automatically imply a denial).
he characters of this highly intertextual poem are in permanent contact with philosophy, natural sciences, and, most importantly, poetry.
Some of them appear to be acute readers. Many, however, treat their
classics with apparent ignorance. he emblematic person in this regard
is Caesar, the man who did not bury the dead at Pharsalos – obviously
surpassing the ‘classical’ tragic examples as if he was not aware of the
cultural standards expressed by Sophoclean drama.26
Near the end of his narrative, Lucan presents to his readers a passage that Ralph Johnson has called “perhaps the funniest moment of
Roman literature.”27 Caesar interrupts his military endeavor for a while
to visit Troy. Metapoetic realism immediately suggests that he – like
many others before and after him – is interested in the place because of
its literary signiicance. he passage reads as follows:28
circumit exustae nomen memorabile Troiae
magnaque Phoebei quaerit uestigia muri.
iam siluae steriles et putres robore trunci
Assaraci pressere domos et templa deorum
iam lassa radice tenent ac tota teguntur
Pergama dumetis etiam periere ruinae.
aspicit Hesiones scopulos siluaque latentis
Anchisae thalamus; quo iudex sederit antro,
unde puer raptus caelo, quo uertice Nais
luxerit Oenone: nullum est sine nomine saxum.
inscius in sicco serpentem puluere riuum
transierat, qui Xanthus erat. securus in alto
gramine ponebat gressus: Phryx incola manes
Hectoreos calcare uetat. discussa iacebant
saxa nec ullius faciem seruantia sacri:
‘Herceas’ monstrator ait ‘non respicis aras?’
(Luc. 9.964–79)
He walks around the memorable name – burnt-out Troy – and seeks the
mighty traces of the wall of Phoebus. Now barren woods and trunks with
rotting timber have submerged Assaracus’s houses and, with roots now weary,
occupy the temples of the gods, and all of Pergamum is veiled by thickets:
even the ruins were destroyed. He sees Hesione’s rock and Anchises’s marriagechamber hiding in the woods; the cave where the adjudicator sat; the place
On the ‘dramatic’ impact of this behavior, see Ambühl 259–88.
Johnson 119.
28
On this passage, see Johnson 118–123; Ormand; Rossi; Tesoriero; Eigler; Bureau;
Ambühl 337–68.
26
27
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from which the boy was snatched to heaven; the peak where Naiad Oenone
grieved; no stone is without a story. – Unwittingly, he had crossed a stream
creeping in the dry dust – this was the Xanthus. Oblivious, he placed his footsteps in the thick grass: the Phrygian local tells him not to tread up the shade
of Hector. Scattered stones were lying there, preserving no appearance of anything sacred: the guide says: ‘Have you no respect for the Hercean altars?’29
here may be several reasons as to why this passage seems funny. Some
would say that the pathos of traditional epic is drowned in nothingness.30 Indeed, the phrase etiam periere ruinae can make a strong case
for nihilism. In particular, the story about the Roman Empire originating from Trojan ancestors and destined to rule the world by exemplary
virtue seems to be reduced to absurdity by this voyeur who wants to see
the bridechamber of Anchises. his interpretation can surely lead to a
sort of cynical amusement.
Yet there is more; in particular, there is, as Johnson says, Caesar’s
foolery. He stands in the dust, in ruined ruins, where nothing is recognizable anymore. Only legend (memorabile nomen) seems to distinguish this place from others. What matters here is the speciic literary
memory that people connect with the place. Now, one could expect
Lucan’s general to utter a relection on the fragility of things or the
values deined and transmitted by the Trojan narrative. However, he
is only eager to identify places that have a connection to his ictitious ancestors, who – if at all – play but a minor role in Homer.
Caesar does not look out for Hector’s grave when he walks through
the grass – inscius, as the narrator explains. Caesar seems to ignore the
grand inale of the Iliad completely: “On this wise held they funeral
for horse-taming Hector” (Hom. Il. 24.804).
Moreover, he does not expect the remnants of the sanctuary of
Zeus to be there at some place. How did this man read his Homer?
Does he not know that old Priam prayed at the altar of Zeus Herceus
before he visited Achilles in his tent to ask for the corpse of his son (Il.
24.302f.)? In his eagerness to follow only his interests, Caesar might
resemble ‘swift Achilles,’ and perhaps he thinks that epic is only about
glory and extraordinary stories such as that of Ganymede. As a warrior, he may wish to surpass the greatest of all heroes, which would
be perfectly in line with the somewhat old-fashioned epic claim: αἰὲν
ἀριστεύειν (Il. 6.208). However, Homer does not only tell a tale of
military virtue; Achilles, lately though, also takes pity on his enemy
29
30
All translations of Lucan are from Susan Braund (sometimes slightly adapted).
See e.g. Eigler; Tesoriero; Groß.
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when he receives Priam, saying: “And if you, old sir, we hear that once
you were happy” (Il. 24.543). Particularly for a Roman reader, Caesar’s
reductive indiference towards Trojan memories may appear disturbing. One wonders whether the general wanted to subject Homer and
the Iliad to caesarianism.
At least for Lucan’s readers, then, the guide’s question ‘Herceas
non respicis aras?’ will not sound like a plea to show respect for this
very material site as much as it sounds like a reminder to reread the
Ω of the Iliad. When Caesar inally promises to rebuild Pergamum
at Rome (Luc. 9.990–9), this must provoke a fundamental question
about Roman memory: is a person like Caesar, who cares so little about
Homer and the identity of Troy, a worthy candidate to deine what
Romans should remember and for what they should hope?
Another issue will occupy the audience. How would this Caesar
read the Aeneid, which deals with precisely this question and which
is, of course, intertextually present in Lucan’s Troy-passage? Probably,
Caesar would endorse the propagandistic gloriication on the surface
of Vergil’s epic. Moreover, he would surely overlook all of the muchdiscussed dark sides of the poem: Will there be a Golden Age under the
reign of his adopted son? What, for instance, about the problematic
phrase aurea saecula condere (Aen. 6.792)? Will Roman law and order
always prevail? Will not Aeneas’s murder of Turnus appear as the ultimate ignorance of the ‘humane’ memento he learned from Anchises –
parcere subiectis (Aen. 6.853)?
At this point, metapoetic realism allows for an important distinction. On the one hand, it is emphasized that Caesar may have read his
Homer only very selectively, but that he could perhaps enforce this
reading upon his subjects. All this is symbolized by his transgression
of the little Xanthus, which certainly presents no diiculty to somebody who has transgressed the Rubicon. On the other hand, it is clear
that Caesar cannot know the signiicance of the Trojan ruins in the
poetry of Vergil. He has no authority to establish his own ‘Caesarian’
reading of the Aeneid. he narrator seems to respond precisely to this
when he addresses the general with a promise, which sounds somewhat like a rebuke:
o sacer et magnus uatum labor! omnia fato
eripis et populis donas mortalibus aeuum.
inuidia sacrae, Caesar, ne tangere famae;
nam siquid Latiis fas est promittere Musis,
quantum Zmyrnaei durabunt uatis honores,
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uenturi me teque legent; Pharsalia nostra
uiuet, et a nullo tenebris damnabimur aeuo.
(Luc. 9.980–6)
O how sacred and immense the task of bards! You snatch everything from
death and to mortals you give immortality. Caesar, do not be touched by envy
of their sacred fame. If for Latian Muses it is right to promise anything, as long
as honors of the Smyrnaean bard endure, the future ages will read you and me.
Our Pharsalia shall live, and we shall be condemned to darkness by no era.
Internally, the apostrophe reminds Caesar of precisely the text that he
so excessively neglects.31 Regarding Lucan’s audience, however, this passage points to both the power of individual reading and the responsibility connected to it. he words uenturi me teque legent (985) subject
Caesar to the sentence of future readers while at the same time these
readers are given the example of Caesar’s envious reading, which appears
to be morally failed in that it advocates rather than prevents civil war.
Regarding metapoetic realism, Caesar’s visit to Troy denotes the
moment when classical poetry ceased to exert any impact on the morals
of humanity. he Aeneid, the Roman counterpart of the Homeric narratives that sentimentalizes the ‘Trojan’ memories of loss, is not written
yet. In other words, Lucan’s historical narrative denotes the momentous necessity for Vergil’s Aeneid to promulgate a classicist humanism
based on a rereading of Homer.
Acknowledging the power of poets: Silius’s Scipio
Whereas Lucan’s Caesar, the exponent of civil war, appears to be a
reader without respect for his own culture, Silius’s Scipio holds poetry
in profound reverence. In the Punica, metapoetic realism serves to portray a character who has learned his lesson and whose reading, albeit
‘modern,’ leads to both military success and ethical exemplarity.
In the nekyia, which Scipio performs to contact the souls of his
ancestors, he encounters the shade of Homer. his is what Silius has
Scipio say at this point:
‘Si nunc fata darent, ut Romula facta per orbem
hic caneret uates, quanto maiora futuros
facta eadem intrarent hoc’ inquit ‘teste nepotes!
31
The last verse of the Iliad (ὣς οἵ γ᾽ ἀμφίεπον τάφον Ἕκτορος ἱπποδάμοιο, 24.804)
suggests itself as an example for the vatis honores.
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felix Aeacide, cui tali contigit ore
gentibus ostendi, creuit tua carmine uirtus.’
(Sil. 13.793–7)
‘If Fate would sufer this poet now to sing of Roman achievements, for all the
world to hear, how much deeper an impression the same deeds would make
upon posterity if Homer testiied to them! How fortunate was Achilles, when
such a poet displayed him to the world! he hero was made greater by the
poet’s verse.’
Scipio acknowledges the power of poets when he states that virtue
grows if sung by a bard. He comes close to asking Homer to sing the
epos of the Punic War (which, of course, functions as a conspicuous
self-advertisement for Silius at another diegetic level). Unlike Lucan’s
Caesar, Scipio need not diminish the glory of others; he does not intend
to overwrite their story with his own. As a faithful servant of Rome, he
does not even care for his fame; he wishes Roman deeds to be solemnly
transmitted to future generations.
Interestingly enough, he expresses this hope in a manner reminiscent of Alexander the Great, who is said to have congratulated Achilles
for having found Homer as a herald of his virtue.32 For Scipio as a
successor of the Macedonian imperator, this may be merely a topos
of reverence serving to underline both his regard for Homer’s greatest
hero and his ambition to be compared to Alexander.
However, in the context of a nekyia, the way Scipio addresses
Achilles has a further dimension. In speaking about fame, Scipio seems
to repeat what the Homeric Odysseus said when he invocated the souls
of the dead: ‘No man before this was more blessed than you, Achilles,
nor shall ever be hereafter’ (Hom. Od. 11.482f.). To him, Achilles
responded in a quite provoking manner:
βουλοίμην κ᾿ ἐπάρουρος ἐὼν θητευέμεν ἄλλῳ,
ἀνδρὶ παρ᾿ ἀκλήρῳ, ᾧ μὴ βίοτος πολὺς εἴη,
ἢ πᾶσιν νεκύεσσι καταφθιμένοισιν ἀνάσσειν.
(Hom. Od. 11.489–91)
I should choose, so I might live on earth, to serve as the hireling of another,
some landless man with hardly enough to live on, rather than to be lord over
all the dead that have perished.
In Silius, Achilles does not answer Scipio’s praise. We do not learn
whether he would (still) prefer a long life to eternal glory in literature.
32
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See, e.g., Cic. Arch. 24; Plut. Alex. 15.8f.
Markus Kersten: The “Challenges of Humanism” in Roman Historical Poetry
However, as a reader of the Odyssey, Scipio may expect Achilles’s lament.
Furthermore, metapoetic realism suggests that, in addressing the shade,
the Roman general is not only thinking of Alexander’s regard for poetry
but, generally, of the cultural importance of poetry that praises exemplary deeds.33 Fully aware of his Roman exemplarity, Scipio not only
repeats Odysseus’s claim, but he also proves it right regarding ‘literary reception’ – and thereby decently criticizes the old-fashioned (and
somewhat un-educated) super-hero who can hardly accept his fate.
Here, things become diicult. As in Lucan, the audience is asked to
reread both the Homeric pretext, which can be thought to be known to
the characters, and the Vergilian one, namely the katabasis of Aeneas,
to which Silius alludes at the discourse level of his narrative.34
Conclusions
In historical poetry, intertextuality can be useful in a more explicit way.
Metapoetic realism can serve to display the historical impact of literature and can contribute to the characterization of the epic personages.
Regarding intertextuality, the characters’s engagement with (or their
ruinous ignorance of) a classic testiies and airms the very process of
literary classiication of speciic cultural standards.
Silius’s Scipio ‘Romanizes’ Achilles and appears as a character who
seeks modern heroism that is, however, neither ignorant of the past nor
of the prospect of being read by later generations. On the other hand,
as in the case of Lucan’s Caesar, brutal and insuicient reading can be a
part of the epic failure. here is no doubt that this Caesar must inally
succumb and that a Caesarian Rome, ignorant of its cultural tradition, is not desirable at all. he behavior of Lucan’s Caesar becomes an
exemplary warning, as is described in Horace’s letter. “If you do not
call for a book and a light before daybreak and if you do not devote
your mind to honorable studies and pursuits, envy will keep you awake
in torment” (Epist. 1.2.34–7).
However, Caesar’s epic illiteracy symbolizes yet something else. If
the poet did indeed intend Caesar and the Caesars to represent the
political vision of the Augustan poets, he would simplify and truncate
the Aeneid, just as Lucan’s Caesar simpliied and truncated the Iliad.
Here one has to go back to the introductory question. Are poets like
Lucan anti-humanists and is there any worth in being one?
33
34
On Silius’s Scipio, see e.g. Marks and Tipping.
See Reitz.
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PKn, letnik 41, št 2, Ljubljana, julij 2018
When Lucan’s metapoetical realism draws attention to the importance of reading and careful interpretation, it upholds the invitation to
study the classics, the invitation so fundamentally expressed by Roman
classicist humanism. So: No. Since Lucan’s audience may contend with
the epic characters for the right interpretation of the shared cultural
heritage, every single reader is endowed with the means to resist propaganda and to defend humanity.
However, this does not deal with the other, problematic dimension
of ‘humanism.’ If writing and reading are just reduced to a “supreme
faith in human reason,” as David Ehrenfeld has put it in a diferent
context,35 in the “ability to rearrange both the world of Nature and the
afairs of men and women so that human life will prosper” … hen
we are in Troy again, where nothing is present but what can be seen
and touched and what is subjected to the force of individual courses of
action. At this point, when classical myths do not surprise us with the
question quid pulchrum, quid turpe anymore, but only serve to legitimize empire, at this point the answer is: Yes.
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»Izzivi humanizma« v rimski historični poeziji
Ključne besede: latinska poezija / historična epika / medbesedilnost / metapoetični
realizem / Ciceron / Lukan / Silij Italik
Avgustejska poezija je morda najbolj klasična od vse evropske klasike. Njeno
literarno videnje postopnega napredovanja (nazaj) do miru in blagostanja zlate
dobe je zavzelo središčni položaj v procesu oblikovanja evropskega humanizma. Zdi se sicer, da postavgustejski epiki, npr. Lukan, izražajo dvom o
tem, ali je človeštvo mogoče poučevati s književnostjo. Takšno stališče je bilo
pogosto interpretirano kot antiklasično in zato antihumanistično. Toda – ali
je mogoče dejansko dokazati, da so ideali civilizirajoče književnosti zgrešeni?
Ni druge poti za soočenje z izzivi humanizma kot predaja? Obetaven pristop
k temu vprašanju je študij speciičnih metapoetičnih potencialov historične
poezije. Literarni liki takšne poezije so lahko “realistično” prikazani kot bralci;
njihov uspeh ali neuspeh je lahko neposredno povezan z njihovo literarno
izobrazbo. To odpira prostor posebni vrsti intertekstualnosti: v izostreni releksiji o vplivu svojih referenčnih besedil so historične pesmi dale svoj značilen
prispevek h klasiikaciji klasike, tj. k obrambi humanosti.
1.01 Izvirni znanstveni članek / Original scientific article
UDK 821.124'02.09
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