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Just Some Notes for My Own Use: Arrian’s (‘Arrian’s’?) Letter to Lucius Gellius

  • Michael Trapp
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›res vera, res ficta‹: Fictionality in Ancient Epistolography
This chapter is in the book ›res vera, res ficta‹: Fictionality in Ancient Epistolography

Abstract

This chapter re-examines the epistle to Lucius Gellius prefaced to Arrian’s Discourses of Epictetus and problematises its status as a fictionalizing, fiction-generating and possibly also fictitious text. Naively understood as an honest account of the origins of the text it is attached to, it has generated diverse modern scholarly fictions of authorship that betray the interpretive agendas of their creators. If it is seen instead as a more calculating attempt to steer the reception of Arrian’s text, the question arises whether the attempt is Arrian’s own, or - like comparable accounts of philosophical authorship in the Letters of the Socratics - that of a later editorial/critical hand.

Abstract

This chapter re-examines the epistle to Lucius Gellius prefaced to Arrian’s Discourses of Epictetus and problematises its status as a fictionalizing, fiction-generating and possibly also fictitious text. Naively understood as an honest account of the origins of the text it is attached to, it has generated diverse modern scholarly fictions of authorship that betray the interpretive agendas of their creators. If it is seen instead as a more calculating attempt to steer the reception of Arrian’s text, the question arises whether the attempt is Arrian’s own, or - like comparable accounts of philosophical authorship in the Letters of the Socratics - that of a later editorial/critical hand.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgments V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Introduction: Fictions of Genre 1
  5. Part I: (Auto)Biographical Fictions
  6. Fact and Fiction in Pliny’s Epistles: The Augustan Poetry Book and its Legacies 21
  7. Fiction and Authenticity in the Letters of Euripides 45
  8. Greetings from the Margin: Ovid’s Epistulae ex Ponto 69
  9. Part II: Editorial Fictions
  10. Just Some Notes for My Own Use: Arrian’s (‘Arrian’s’?) Letter to Lucius Gellius 89
  11. Cicero’s Epistulae ad Familiares: From Authentic Letters to Literary Artefact 107
  12. Part III: Pseudepigraphic Fictions
  13. The Latin Letters of Pseudo-Brutus (Cic. Brut. 1.16 and 1.17) 131
  14. Fictionality and Pseudepigraphy in the Apocryphal Letter Exchange between Seneca and Paul 161
  15. Part IV: Ekphrastic Fictions
  16. Fictions in the Real World: Language and Reality in Cicero’s Letters 181
  17. Let’s Get Real: Ekphrasis, Reality and Fiction in Pliny’s Epistles 207
  18. List of Contributors 239
  19. Bibliography 241
  20. General Index 259
  21. Index Locorum 263
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111308128-005

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgments V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Introduction: Fictions of Genre 1
  5. Part I: (Auto)Biographical Fictions
  6. Fact and Fiction in Pliny’s Epistles: The Augustan Poetry Book and its Legacies 21
  7. Fiction and Authenticity in the Letters of Euripides 45
  8. Greetings from the Margin: Ovid’s Epistulae ex Ponto 69
  9. Part II: Editorial Fictions
  10. Just Some Notes for My Own Use: Arrian’s (‘Arrian’s’?) Letter to Lucius Gellius 89
  11. Cicero’s Epistulae ad Familiares: From Authentic Letters to Literary Artefact 107
  12. Part III: Pseudepigraphic Fictions
  13. The Latin Letters of Pseudo-Brutus (Cic. Brut. 1.16 and 1.17) 131
  14. Fictionality and Pseudepigraphy in the Apocryphal Letter Exchange between Seneca and Paul 161
  15. Part IV: Ekphrastic Fictions
  16. Fictions in the Real World: Language and Reality in Cicero’s Letters 181
  17. Let’s Get Real: Ekphrasis, Reality and Fiction in Pliny’s Epistles 207
  18. List of Contributors 239
  19. Bibliography 241
  20. General Index 259
  21. Index Locorum 263
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