Constructing Literature in the Roman Republic

Abstract

This 2006 book examines how the Romans came to have a literature, how that literature reflected native and foreign impulses, and how it formed a legacy for subsequent generations have become central questions in the cultural history of the Republic. It examines the problem of Rome's literary development by shifting attention from Rome's writers to its readers. The literature we traditionally call 'early' is seen to be a product less of the mid-Republic, when poetic texts began to circulate, than of the late Republic, when they were systematically collected, canonized, and put to new social and artistic uses. Imposing on texts the name and function of literature was often a retrospective activity. This book explores the development of this literary sensibility from the Romans' early interest in epic and drama, through the invention of satire and the eventual enshrining of books in the public collections important to Horace and Ovid.

CICERO'S USE OF AESCHYLUS'ORESTEIAIN THEPRO MILONE

“…24. Dupont (1985), 326, Beacham (1991), 126, Goldberg (1996), 270f., Goldberg (1997), 168f., and Boyle (2006), 145. On Quintus' tragedies, see Q. fr.…”

“…Which Erasmo (2004), 4f., calls 'competing realities'. See also Dupont (1985), 24, Goldberg (1997), Fantham (2002), 363, and Connolly (2007), 198-236, on the general crossover between onstage and offstage realities. at least to the much smaller circle of politically savvy and well-educated friends to whom he entrusted the revised text of the Pro Milone.…”

“…18.On comic tropes more broadly see Hughes (1997) and Dumont (1975). Regarding Cicero's employment of comic types in the Pro Caelio , Geffcken (1973) provides the seminal argument, but see also Dumont (1975), 425f., Axer (1980), May (1988), 105-15, Gotoff (1993), 292f., Leigh (2004) and Goldberg (2005), 92-96. On the Pro Roscio Amerino see Vasaly (1985).…”

“…16.5.1 display a similar attitude. On the phenomenon see Abbott (1907), Wright (1931), 7f., Dumont (1975), 424, Dupont (1985), 119-22, Nicolet (1988), 361-72, Bartsch (1994), 72-75, and Goldberg (2005), 123f.…”

Hyperreality, Intertextuality, and the Study of Latin Poetry

“…6 Perhaps it would be a good idea to start by admitting that (1) whenever we use language we express in very material terms our positioning in the unfathomable networks that 4 For the language used here, see Mitchell 2005.147. 5 To have a sense of the dynamics of the discussion, see Habinek 1998and 2005a, Goldberg 2005, Feeney and Katz 2006, and Sciarrino 2011.1-37. 6 Austin [1962] 1975and Butler 1993 make up communities or sub-communities, and that (2) we are always interested even when all we want is to appreciate beauty in its pure form.…”