Masters of Roman Prose. From Cato to Apuleius: Interpretative Studies

204 Pages·1989·7.88 MB·English

by  Michael von Albrecht

ARCA
Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs
23
General Editors: Francis Cairns, Robin Seager, Frederick Williams
Assistant Editors: Neil Adkin, Sandra Cairns
ISSN 0309-5541
FROM CATO TO APULEIUS
Interpretative Studies
MICHAEL VON ALBRECHT
Translated by NEIL ADKIN
X
FRANCIS CAIRNS
Published by Francis Cairns (Publications) Ltd
c/o The University, Leeds, LS2 9JT, Great Britain
-)
Die Meister Romische Prosa first published by
Lothar Stiehm Verlag, 1979
Copyright ©Verlag Lambert Schneider
English translation first published by
Francis Cairns (Publications), 1989
Copyright© Neil Adkin, 1989
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro
duced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Albrecht, Michael von
Masters of Roman prose from Cato to Apuleius:
interpretative studies.-(ARCA classical and medieval
texts, papers and monographs; ISSN 0309-5541; v. 23)
1. Latin literature to ca 500 - Critical studies
I. Title II. Series III. Meister riimischer prosa
von Cato bis Apuleius. English
870.9 '001
ISBN 0-905205-72-3
Printed in Great Britain by
Redwood Burn Ltd, Trowbridge, Wiltshire
.-~~ '
CONTENTS
Preface lX
1 The beginnings of literary prose: M. Porcius Cato
(234-149 B.C.)
I On farming. Preface
1 Introduction, 2. 2 Sentence structure, 4. 3 Verbal repetition, 5.
4 Accumulation of synonyms, 7. 5 Overall structure, 8. 6. Summary, 8.
II Speech in the Senate for the Rhodians (167 B.C.) 9
1 The problem, 11. 2 Cato's special qualities and his method of
argumentation in the speech, 11. 3 Accumulation of synonyms and
alliteration, 14. 4 Verbal repetition, 15. 5 Word order, 17. 6 Conclusion 18.
III A Roman Leonidas 21
1 Introduction, 23. 2 Form and content, 26.
2 Two great orators: C. Gracchus (154-121 B.C.)
and Cicero (106-43 B.C.)
C. Gracchus: From the speech De legibus promulgatis
(122 B.C.) 33
Cicero against Verres 33
1 The problem, 35. 2 Attitude to language: Latinitas - mundities, 38.
3 Narrative technique: Brevi! as, 40. 4 Rationality: Acutum, 44. 5 Style and
emotion, 47. 6 Conclusion 51.
3 Caesar (100-44 B.C.)
I Funeral oration for Julia (69 B.C.) 54
II Reflection and rapid action (Gall. 7 ,27) 59
1 Objective style, 59. 2 Functional approach, 61. 3 Overall structure:
economy of means, 62. 4 Facultas dicendi imperatoria, 63. 5 Can dour or
pose? 64.
4 Sallust (b. 86 B.C.)
I Ambition 68
1 Phonetics, vocabulary, syntax, 68. 2 General survey: sentence structure
and sequence of thought, 72. 3 Symmetry and asymmetry, 74. 4 Catonian
and Sallustian elements, 76.
II Triumph through treachery 78
1 Form and content, 78. 2 Centripetal style, 81. 3 Dramatic qualities, 83.
4 Structural intent, 84. 5 Psychology and authorial interpretation, 85.
5 Sullan and Augustan historiography: Claudius
Quadrigarius and Livy
Q. Claudius Quadrigarius (Sullan period) 86
Livy (59 B.C.-17 A.D.) 87
A. Comparison of content 90
B. Comparison of language and style 93
1 Claudius Quadrigarius, 93. 2 Livy, 96.
C. Narrative structure 99
1 Claudius Quadrigarius, 99. 2 Livy, 100.
6 Two philosophical texts
I Cicero (106-43 B.C.): Earthly glory and true
immortality 102
1 Sequence of thought, 103. 2 Sentence connection, 104. 3 Multiplicity in
sentence structure, 104. 4 Emphatic positions in the sentence, 105.
5 Vocabulary, 105. 6 Form and content, 106. 7 Conclusion, 110.
II Seneca (d. 65 A.D.): On the value of time 112
1 Form and the sequence of ideas, 113.2 Vocabulary, 119.3 Metaphorical
language, 119. 4 Sentence connection, 120. 5 Brilliance; wit; 'aggressive'
style, 120. 6 Rhetorical modes of thought, 121. 7 Seneca - an anti-
Cicero? 123.
7 Petronius (d. 66 A.D.)
Table talk from the 'Satyricon' 125
A. Language and style 126
1 Specific points: vulgarism and hypercorrection, 126.2 Vocabulary, 127.
127. 3 Metaphorical language; 'elevated' and 'humble' elements of
style, 128. 4 Elliptical expression and implicit meaning, 130. 5 Formulaic
elements 131. '
B. Structure and sentence connection 131
8 Tacitus (cos. 97 A.D.): A speech of the Emperor
Claudius. Original and literary recasting
Senatus consultum Claudianum (oratio Claudii) de iure
honorum Callis dando, 48 A.D. 136
Tac. ann. 11,24 140
A. Overall structure and sequence of ideas 141
1 Claudius, 141. 2 Tacitus, 142. 3 Comparison, 143.
B. Language and style 147
1 Claudius, 147. 2 Tacitus, 152. 3 Stylistic comparison, 156.
9 The Younger Pliny (cos. 100 A.D.)
A writer's success in the hunt 160
10 Apuleius (b. c. 125 A.D.)
An abortive bid for salvation 167
1 Narrative structure, 168. 2 A donkey's standpoint, 169. 3 Clarity of
expression, 171. 4 Highlights, 173. 5 Detachment and a higher level
of communication, 175.
List of abbreviations 177
Index of selected passages 183
Word and subject index, by Wilfried Stroh 185

Preface
The texts in this book are drawn from four centuries, extending from
Rome's rise to world dominion in the struggle with Carthage up to
her late flowering under the Antonines. For all their artistic
detachment they still reflect many changes: vigour and freshness at
the beginning; sharp conflict in the age of the Gracchi; the annalistic
method of Sulla's day; Caesar's career as a military commander;
intellectual brilliance in the death throes of the Republic; Augustan
reform and the idealized vision of a great past; the voice of the
preacher and the scepticism of the novelist set against the reality of
Nero's regime; under Trajan, a sigh of relief, belated candour and the
cosy world of the man of letters; and then finally Second Sophistic
and cosmopolitan humour against a background of mysticism.
The range is also wide in terms of space. Rome's writers hardly
ever came from the capital but from Italy, Gaul, Spain and Africa.
The genres too are marked by great diversity: from the rhetorical
treatise, formal historiography, the less formal commentarius, and
the philosophical dialogue, to the stylized letter and novel.
In making a selection from such abundant and varied material, it
has been necessary to leave out technical writers, specimens of legal
and official language, unliterary letters, and, above all, christian
literature: each of these areas deserves separate treatment. Within the
book's self-imposed limits, variety has been the aim. Besides
generally known authors, it is also intended that some who nowadays
are not so much read should be given their due. These include Cato,
who as Rome's first prose writer has been surprisingly neglected in
literary and linguistic studies, as well as Gaius Gracchus, one of
Rome's greatest orators. Readers who feel Cicero is not adequately
represented with just one philosophical text and two passages from
the speeches, should consult the writer's detailed treatment of
Cicero's language and style in Pauly-Wissowa's Rea/encyclopaedie
(Suppl. XIII). Of course, however much one tries to achieve a
representative cross-section, every selection is bound to be subjective
to a certain degree; and so one has to say with Quintilian:1 sunt et alii
script ores boni, sed nos genera degustamus, non bib/iothecas excutimus.
The intention has not been to produce an alternative to a literary
1 Inst. 10, 1, 104.
ix
X PREFACE
history, or to present the development of Latin prose style in its
entirety. Neither is it intended to rival Norden's monumental 'Antike
Kunstprosa' or A. D. Leeman's 'Orationis Ratio', both of which are
sometimes based more on ancient literary theory than on actual
interpretation.
The aim of this book is more modest and more practical: its
purpose is to illustrate the wide possibilities of Roman prose artistry
by means of texts that are important or characteristic as regards form
and content. Only on the basis of specific examples can one hope to
gain new insights.
Particular attention is given to language and style,Z and especially
to the border areas between linguistics and literary criticism: here
belong questions of rhetorical and stylistic technique, syntax, and
narrative structure. It is frequently possible to reveal the inner
workings of rhetorical technique and let it have its rightful place in
ancient culture - not as a lifeless assemblage of precepts, but on the
contrary as a creative way to structure language and thought. Where
on the other hand narrative texts are concerned, the modern question
of narrative structure as a 'large-scale syntax'3 is pursued further. For
all their convenience, labels are of course less important than the
individual character of each text. There are dangers in the sort of
determinism that thinks only in terms of generic and period styles, no
less than in jumping to hasty conclusions on the basis of a
psychologizing approach. Between these two extremes it is constantly
necessary to look out for the free play of personality and the creative
uniqueness of the work of art. Naturally one must also keep in mind
the subject-matter and the social background.
Prose as a form of literary representation appealed to one side of
Roman nature simply because it is inherently factual. Other ten
dencies made greater refinement possible. From Rome comes the
element of social psychology, which extends from interpersonal
communication to politics. Roman too is the way individuality is
stylized behind the mask of the work. And most Roman of all is the
strict sense of formal, orchestrated construction.
Here it is not proposed to examine the history of the language in
terms of the history of ideas. Bearing in mind the importance
attaching to artistic form and the distance that exists between an
2 On the concept of 'style' see now W. Ax Sprachstil in der lat. Philo Iogie Beitr. zur
Altertumswiss. I (Hildesheim/New York 1976).
3 See the present writer's discussion in Ovid (Darmstadt 1968) pp.451-467. On 'text
syntax' cf. A. Scherer Handbuch der lateinischen Syntax (Heidelberg 1975) pp.104-112.
PREFACE xi
experience and its formulation, one has to treat each case indi
vidually. All the same the interpretations given can be a stimulus to
tracing the way in which many key words are at first used
unreflectingly, and later elevated to a higher plane of meaning;
before long the content is lost and the words are treated ironically;
and then finally they are upgraded once again as the result of some
new philosophical attitude or religious mood.
Various methods of interpretation have been chosen, so as to
accommodate each individual text. It is hoped that this deliberate
multiplicity will be seen as an encouragement to study the artistry of
the Latin language.4
The book is dedicated to my students.
Michael von Albrecht
4 For a thorough discussion of some chapters of this book and a rich bibliography,
see G. Calboli Nota di aggiornamento a Eduard Norden, La pros ad'a rte antica dal VI
secolo all' eta della rinascenza (Rome 1986) pp. 971-1185.