Legendary Rivals: Collegiality and Ambition in the Tales of Early Rome

285 Pages·2014·1.68 MB·English

by  Jaclyn Neel

Legendary Rivals: Collegiality and Ambition in the Tales of Early Rome
Mnemosyne
Supplements
Monographs on Greek and
Latin Language and Literature
Executive Editor
G.J. Boter
(VU University Amsterdam)
Editorial Board
A. Chaniotis (Oxford)
K.M. Coleman (Harvard)
I.J.F. de Jong (University of Amsterdam)
T. Reinhardt (Oxford)
VOLUME 372
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/mns
Legendary Rivals:
Collegiality and Ambition in the
Tales of Early Rome
By
Jaclyn Neel
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Neel, Jaclyn.
 Legendary rivals : collegiality and ambition in the tales of early Rome / by Jaclyn Neel.
  pages cm. — (Mnemosyne supplements : monographs on Greek and Latin language and literature,
ISSN 0169-8958 ; volume 372)
 Summary: “In Legendary Rivals, Jaclyn Neel argues for a new interpretation of the foundation myths of
Rome. Instead of a negative portrayal of the city’s early history, these tales offer a didactic paradigm of the
correct way to engage in competition. Accounts from the triumviral period stress the dysfunctional nature
of the city’s foundation to capture the memory of Rome’s civil wars. Republican evidence suggests a dif-
ferent emphasis. Through diachronic analyses of the tales of Romulus and Remus, Amulius and Numitor,
Brutus and Collatinus, and Camillus and Manlius Capitolinus, Neel shows that Romans of the Republic
and early Principate would have seen these stories as examples of competition that pushed the bounds of
propriety”—Provided by publisher.
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-27269-9 (hardback : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-28185-1 (e-book)
1. Rome (Italy)—History—To 476—Sources. 2. Rome (Italy)—Civilization—Sources. 3. Competition
(Psychology)—History—To 1500—Sources. 4. Tales—Italy—Rome. 5. Legends—Italy—Rome.
6. Mythology, Roman. 7. Rome (Italy)—Folklore. I. Title.
 DG69.N33 2015
 398’.3293763—dc23
2014029734
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual ‘Brill’ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering
Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities.
For more information, please see brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 0169-8958
isbn 978-90-04-27269-9 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-28185-1 (e-book)
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental and Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
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Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
For Saba and Sabta, Liza and Max, and Grandma, who taught me the
power of ambition.
∵

Contents
Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction  1
1 Setting the Stage  3
Doubling in Rome  5
Methodologies  11
Dyadic Rivals  14
Situating the Problem  18
Sources and Historicity  19
Plan of the Argument  23
2 Birds   25
Ennius  27
The Fragment  33
The End of the Contest  45
Cassius Hemina  49
Conclusion  53
3 Invective  54
Romulus and Republican Politics  60
Catullus  62
Sallust, [Sallust], and Cicero  65
Plutarch  70
Dionysius, Livy, and Late Republican Fragments  73
Cicero  77
Horace  82
Conclusion  87
4 Rites  89
The Lupercalia  91
The Lupercalia of 44  98
The Parilia  103
Quirinus  113
Conclusion  117
viii contents
5 Art  119
Republican Depictions  120
Augustan-Era Depictions  124
Castor and Pollux  134
Conclusion  137
6 Walls  140
Dionysius and Livy  142
Vergil  149
Propertius  152
Ovid  158
The Fasti  159
The Metamorphoses  169
Trogus  170
Conclusion: Romulus and Remus  173
7 Parallels  175
Romulus and Titus Tatius  176
Amulius and Numitor  181
Brutus the Liberator and Other Founders of the Republic  190
Conclusion  205
8 Tyrants  207
Manlius Capitolinus and Camillus  207
Regnum  220
The Rival-less Rector  225
Conclusion  233
Conclusion  236
Works Cited  242
Index  272
Acknowledgments
One often reads that acknowledgments are the most pleasant part of writing a
book; less often, that they are among the most difficult. It is inevitable that over
the course of a lengthy project one collects debts. I hope that here I have listed
all of them, and sincerely apologize to anyone who feels misremembered.
This book grew largely out of my doctoral dissertation, which was super-
vised by Andreas Bendlin, Christer Bruun, Bjorn Ewald, and Jarrett Welsh. I
thank Andreas and Jarrett in particular for patiently answering streams of
emails, both before and after the defense. Hugh Mason, who was originally
appointed to the committee ex officio and whose duties ended partway through
its work, retained an interest in my project far beyond what was required of
him. Similarly, I am grateful for Matt Roller for his thought-provoking com-
ments as an external examiner.
A number of colleagues and friends have read the manuscript in whole or
in part as it progressed from dissertation to book: Jeremy Armstrong, Cillian
O’Hogan, Amy Russell, Donald Sells, and Jessica Westerhold read chapters or
portions thereof; Becca Sears spent far too much of her vacation offering me
a primer on literary theory; and Mary Beard, who read the entire manuscript
with lightning speed and her usual acuity (although I suspect that she will still
advise me to enjoy a problem). Any faults that remain in this work are due to
my own stubborn persistence.
I would also like to thank my departmental colleagues in History and in the
Classical Studies Programme at York University, who have been consistently
welcoming and supportive over the past two years, and the Interlibrary Loan
staff at Scott Library, whose promptness in fulfilling every request has never
failed to amaze me.
I have presented parts of this work in various stages of completeness: at the
annual meetings of the Classical Association of Canada in Vancouver, Halifax,
and London, Ontario; at the annual meetings of the American Philological
Association (now Society for Classical Studies) in San Antonio, Seattle, and
Chicago; at works-in-progress meetings of the Collaborative Programme
in Ancient History at the University of Toronto and at York University; at a
Department of Classics Seminar at the University of Toronto; to members of
the Department of Classics at Florida State University and UCLA; and as a
research presentation in the Department of History, York University. I thank all
audience members for their attention and their comments, and have indicated
individual contributions in the notes where appropriate. I am also grateful to
the anonymous reviewer for Brill, whose comments encouraged me to rethink