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The divergent epistolary cultures of greece and rome 400 BCE–400 CE

  • Roy K. Gibson

    Roy Gibson is Professor of Classics at Durham University and has published widely on Latin prose and poetry from Cicero to Sidonius Apollinaris. He is the co-editor with Chris Whitton of The Cambridge Critical Guide to Latin Literature (2024).
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Commenting on the Past
This chapter is in the book Commenting on the Past

Abstract

Latin literature is famously dependent on and imitative of Greek literature and, in terms of content and style, Latin epistles are not greatly different from Greek counterparts. But in other respects, the two epistolographical traditions are remarkably divergent. Greeks never developed a taste for collections of letters in verse, and Romans never developed a sustained taste for collections of pseudepigraphic letters. The emergence of epistolary verse in the guise of the Augustan poetry book proved decisive for Roman divergence. The poetry book’s ethic of symmetry, variety and nonlinear narration proved influential on Latin epistolographers from Horace to Ambrose. The Hellenistic poetry book had no corresponding influence on the Greek tradition — in which the book unit is in fact largely absent, and the manuscript traditions of individual epistolographers correspondingly more highly variable.

Abstract

Latin literature is famously dependent on and imitative of Greek literature and, in terms of content and style, Latin epistles are not greatly different from Greek counterparts. But in other respects, the two epistolographical traditions are remarkably divergent. Greeks never developed a taste for collections of letters in verse, and Romans never developed a sustained taste for collections of pseudepigraphic letters. The emergence of epistolary verse in the guise of the Augustan poetry book proved decisive for Roman divergence. The poetry book’s ethic of symmetry, variety and nonlinear narration proved influential on Latin epistolographers from Horace to Ambrose. The Hellenistic poetry book had no corresponding influence on the Greek tradition — in which the book unit is in fact largely absent, and the manuscript traditions of individual epistolographers correspondingly more highly variable.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Dedication V
  3. Preface V
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. Contents XV
  6. Christina S. Kraus: Publications to Date XVII
  7. Polybius and Livy’s Sentence Structure 1
  8. Narrative Inconsistencies and Ethical Constructions in Livy Book 31 29
  9. “I Want to Be Great Too – but How?” Alexander, Augustus, and Livy 43
  10. There and Back Again: Structure and Crossing in Livy’s Third Decade 61
  11. Livy on the Tiber Island: Writing Rome a Solo 77
  12. Recapturing the Capitol: Yet More Livian Refoundations 93
  13. Caesar’s Shrinking Lexicon 109
  14. On Endings and Beginnings in Caesar’s Bellum civile 125
  15. Cicero’s Caesarian Histories 143
  16. Tacfarinine Disorder: Sallustian and Livian Color at Tacitus, Annals 3.20–1 157
  17. Shadows of History: Sallustian Perspectives on Book 2 of Augustine’s Confessions 177
  18. Camilla and the Guys 197
  19. How Is Maecenas Like a Syllogism? Seneca on Style in the Moral Epistles 215
  20. The divergent epistolary cultures of greece and rome 400 BCE–400 CE 231
  21. The clades variana: literary commemoration of a roman military disaster 253
  22. Tacitus for courtiers 265
  23. Sex and empire: caesar and henry higgins 277
  24. The silence of the frogs: an experiment with paratragedy 293
  25. List of Contributors 293
  26. General Index
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110777925-014

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Dedication V
  3. Preface V
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. Contents XV
  6. Christina S. Kraus: Publications to Date XVII
  7. Polybius and Livy’s Sentence Structure 1
  8. Narrative Inconsistencies and Ethical Constructions in Livy Book 31 29
  9. “I Want to Be Great Too – but How?” Alexander, Augustus, and Livy 43
  10. There and Back Again: Structure and Crossing in Livy’s Third Decade 61
  11. Livy on the Tiber Island: Writing Rome a Solo 77
  12. Recapturing the Capitol: Yet More Livian Refoundations 93
  13. Caesar’s Shrinking Lexicon 109
  14. On Endings and Beginnings in Caesar’s Bellum civile 125
  15. Cicero’s Caesarian Histories 143
  16. Tacfarinine Disorder: Sallustian and Livian Color at Tacitus, Annals 3.20–1 157
  17. Shadows of History: Sallustian Perspectives on Book 2 of Augustine’s Confessions 177
  18. Camilla and the Guys 197
  19. How Is Maecenas Like a Syllogism? Seneca on Style in the Moral Epistles 215
  20. The divergent epistolary cultures of greece and rome 400 BCE–400 CE 231
  21. The clades variana: literary commemoration of a roman military disaster 253
  22. Tacitus for courtiers 265
  23. Sex and empire: caesar and henry higgins 277
  24. The silence of the frogs: an experiment with paratragedy 293
  25. List of Contributors 293
  26. General Index
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