The empire of the self : self-command and political speech in Seneca and Petronius

313 Pages·2012·3.232 MB·English

by  Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, Star, Christopher, Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, Petronius Arbiter

The Empire of the Self
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The Empire of the Self
Self- Command and Po liti cal Speech
in Seneca and Petronius
Christopher Star
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
© 2012 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2012
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Star, Christopher.
The empire of the self : self- command and pol iti cal speech in
Seneca and Petronius / Christopher Star.
pages cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1 - 4214- 0674-9 (hardback : alkaline paper) — ISBN
978-1 - 4214- 0726- 5 (electronic) — ISBN 1-4 214-0 674- 8 (hardback :
alkaline paper) — ISBN 1-4 214- 0726-4 (electronic)
1. Politics in literature. 2. Latin literature—H istory and
criticism. 3. Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, ca. 4 B.C.– 65 A.D.—
Criticism and interpretation. 4. Petronius Arbiter.
Satyricon. I. Title.
PA6029.P64S73 2012
870.9'001—dc23 2012006338
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Contents
Ack now ledg ments vii
Introduction 1
part i: Soul-S haping Speech
1 Senecan Philosophy and the Psychology of Command 23
2 Self-A ddress in Senecan Tragedy 62
3 Self-A ddress in the Satyricon 84
part ii. Soul-R evealing Speech
4 Pol iti cal Speech in De clementia 117
5 Soul, Speech, and Politics in the Apocolocyntosis
and the Satyricon 140
6 Writing, Body, and Money 171
Epilogue 209
Notes 215
Bibliography 277
Index 295
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Ac know ledgm ents
Redde quod debes, “pay back what you owe,” write both Seneca and Petronius. I
cannot hope to repay the friends, colleagues, and institutions that have aided
me in completing this book. This expression of gratitude will have to stand as
small recompense for the debts I have incurred. My forays into self-a ddress in
Seneca and Petronius began with my dissertation at the University of Chicago
under the guidance of Shadi Bartsch, Martha Nussbaum, and David Wray.
Since then those three have continued to support my work in a variety of
ways. Susanna Braund and Niall Slater have also provided a great deal of en-
couragement and assistance for several years now.
Work on this book was supported by a generous grant from the Loeb Clas-
sical Library Foundation. My thanks go to Richard Thomas and the other
members of the foundation. My sabbatical was spent as a visiting scholar at
Harvard University. Thanks to John Duffy, chair of the Department of the
Classics, and the other members of the department for allowing me to visit for
the year.
Portions of this book w ere presented to audiences at Boston University,
Dartmouth, Emory, Harvard, Temple, and Yale. I am grateful to all who have
provided suggestions and encouragement, including Victor Bers, Pramit
Chaudhuri, Margaret Graver, Wolfgang Haase, Jeffery Henderson, Albert
Henrichs, Robin Mitchell-B oyask, Victor Nuovo, Michael Reeve, Steve Scully,
Nancy Sherman, Steve Strange, Peter White, and Jack Zupko.
Further support was provided by a grant from Middlebury College to em-
ploy a research assistant at a crucial stage in the book’s development. I am
grateful to James Ralph, dean of faculty development and research, for award-
ing the grant and to Margaret Clark for fi lling that role so admirably. My col-
leagues in the Department of Classics at Middlebury College, Jane Chaplin,
Randall Ganiban, Pavlos Sfyroeras, and Marc Witkin, welcomed me into the
fold and encouraged me to develop new courses that helped to foster and ex-
plore several of the ideas contained in this book.
viii Ac knowl edg ments
My editor, Matthew McAdam, is to be thanked for taking immediate inter-
est in this book and for his guidance and support throughout the publication
pro cess. He and the staff at the Johns Hopkins University Press w ere remark-
ably effi cient and helpful in seeing it through production. The anonymous
reader for the Press provided numerous suggestions and critiques that greatly
aided my fi nal revisions. Joanne Allen was a skilled and careful copyeditor.
An earlier version of chapter 2 was published as “Commanding Constantia
in Senecan Tragedy” in Transactions of the American Philological Association 136,
no. 1 (2006): 207–4 4, copyright © 2006 The American Philological Association,
used with permission from The Johns Hopkins University Press.
On a more personal note, my greatest debt of gratitude is to my family,
both the Stars and the Robertses. I owe an incalculable debt to my wife, Sarah,
who always was willing to leave her own important work to come to my aid and
listen to my ideas. This book is dedicated to her.
The Empire of the Self