Vergil

Augustus’ success in implementing monarchical rule at Rome is often attributed to innovations in the symbolic language of power, from the star marking Julius Caesar’s deification to buildings like the Palatine complex and Forum Augustum to rituals like triumphs and funerals. This book illumines Roman subjects’ vital role in creating and critiquing these images, in keeping with the Augustan poets’ sustained exploration of audiences’ role in constructing verbal and visual meaning. From Vergil to Ovid, these poets publicly interpret, debate, and disrupt Rome’s evolving political iconography, reclaiming it as the common property of an imagined republic of readers. In showing how these poets used reading as a metaphor for the mutual constitution of Augustan authority and a means of exercising interpretive libertas under the principate, this book offers a holistic new vision of Roman imperial power and its representation that will stimulate scholars and students alike. (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press, spring 2018)

Efforts to uncover biographical data in the text of Jacob Obrecht's motet Mille quingentis have led scholars to minimize the significance of the poem’s figurative language. Written in response to the death of the composer’s father, the text is a hybrid of different poetic styles, a reflection of the rich web of literary and cultural practices that lies behind it. Allusions to the poetry of Vergil figure more prominently in the motet than has been previously recognized. Other examples of the kinds of allusions found in Mille quingentis, drawn from a wide range of works, demonstrate that Obrecht was here participating in a more general commemorative practice, wherein the assimilation of well-known classical texts served to express private sentiments using a “public” language newly charged with meaning. A consideration of texts that possibly mediated his use of Vergilian language and themes (among them a treatise of Johannes Tinctoris) suggests that the motet’s biographical significance lies principally in what it can tell us about Obrecht’s intellectual background and tendencies, as well as his engagement with the humanistic literary environment he would have encountered during his first stay at the Ferrarese court.

Although bees are a frequent motif in ancient literature, the people who work with bees are often left in the background. An exception is the motif of the older man on his – usually small – farm who lives from and with his bees. The article shows that this motif is a topos that appears in various texts of Greek and Latin literature of the imperial period. Depending on the intention behind these representations, different elements of the motif may be emphasised or omitted. These variations, and how the motif develops, are here shown through the example of different passages.

Published version available here:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/classical-quarterly/article/looking-edgeways-pursuing-acrostics-in-ovid-and-virgil/269DC39A17ADB2BBC6E7916EE8235D89/share/1912470be86a9432b51addd60c477fe5f3c254c0

The article available for download on Academia.edu is the prepublication version.

In the article I propose a reading practice whereby we actively seek out acrostics in the same way that we actively seek out allusions. I then apply this approach to the key moments in the Aeneid and Metamorphoses, and find it to be a productive one, revealing several new acrostics and telestics, and shedding light on some previously discovered ones. These include an Ovidian authorial signature NASO in telestic form at the moment that Amor is introduced in the Metamorphoses; the acrostic NITIDO in the middle of the Metamorphoses, picking up on the opening of Book 8 and continuing Ovid's competitive engagement in the Met with Horace's Ars Poetica; the acrostic AUSUM in a middle (there are several) of the Aeneid, looking back to the use of audeo and its cognates to describe Vergil's scholarly activity in the Georgics; Vergil's reproduction of Aratus' LEPTE acrostic (and an ARATEA anagram) in his own mini-cosmos, the Shield of Aeneas, at a moment of intense metapoetic self-reference; and two acrostic links between Dido, Lavinia and Ajax and their shared sense of shame.

This paper will examine the claims of the excudent alii ('others will hammer out') priamel of Aeneid 6.847–53 within the immediate context of the parade's end, where Marcellus, parading the spolia opima, is used to exemplify the claims made about ne and speculative arts belonging to the Greeks, and war and the arts of empire to the Romans. It will be shown that certain, highly specic memories of the elder Marcellus are cued by the priamel that run directly counter to Anchises' claims. The paper will look at how these claims are spoken in character, and driven by specic narrative motives, and it will relate the mismatch of exemplied to exemplier to certain larger patterns within the Aeneid of things being left unsaid only to stand out all the more by being left unsaid. The paper concludes with a speculative essay on the necessary reductions and revisions that go into the making, and reading, of culturally instrumentalized monuments.

Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.18, in which Scylla throws a tiny pebble against Megara’s famous sounding tower, contains an exact, unique but unnoticed verbal echo of Helenus’ description of the sea-monster Scylla’s lair at Aeneid 3.432: resonantia saxa. The allusion tropes its own intertextual status as an ‘echo’ and contributes to the ludic confusion of the two Scyllas in this episode and elsewhere. The collision of the ‘tiny pebble’ with the Virgilian rocks further tropes the episode’s elegiac and Callimachean recasting of epic material. The childishness of the game is also part of the self-conscious puerility of the Metamorphoses’ poetics.

The opening phrase of the Aeneid anticipates a pattern of relationship in the poem between outside and inside. Epic arms look outward to the gods, fate and society, inward to the man himself, his unique history, his inner life. At the same time alien and complementary to the warrior, arms elude his full control, with an uncanny power that frustrates intention. Analysis of five interrelated passages suggests that arms in the Aeneid are the leading edge of external forces that continually impinge upon the man’s inner will and purposes.

"This indispensable anthology gathers texts and translations that cover major aspects of the Virgilian tradition from the Roman poet's own lifetime to the year 1500. Unprecedented in scope, the book presents a vast compendium of materials that illuminate how poets, teachers, students, and common folk responded to Virgil and his poetry. The volume offers a brief commentary on each text, many of which are translated into English for the first time."

(also: Heldenschau). In Vergil's Aeneid, Anchises, like Aeneas, may be seen as a pattern of Augustus, as his survey of his progeny reflects Augustus' censorial activity (Augustus conducted his first census, without holding the office of censor, in 28 B.C.E.). This theory is supported by: verbal cues alluding to Rome’s topography and the location for the upper-class recognitio equitum; technical terms used to describe Anchises’ activity as he assesses his descendants; Anchises’ hortatory and monitory speech, similar to that of censors known from other literary works; and Vergil's choice of heroes to represent the Republic, most of whom were also censors or from families of censorial status.

By introducing a multifaceted approach to epic geography, the editors of the volume wish to provide a critical assessment of spatial perception, of its repercussions on shaping narrative as well as of its discursive traits and cultural contexts. Taking the genre-specific boundaries of Greco-Roman epic poetry as a case in point, a team of international scholars examines issues that lie at the heart of modern criticism on human geography. Modern and ancient discourse on space representations revolves around the nation-shaping force of geography, the gendered dynamics of landscapes, the topography of isolation and integration, the politics of imperialism, globalization, environmentalism as well as the power of language and narrative to turn space into place. One of the major aims of the volume is to show that the world of the Classics is not just the origin, but the essence of current debates on spatial constructions and reconstructions.

Bucolic, a tradition of ancient Greek and Latin poetry deriving from certain works of Theocritus, emerges in a period of literary experimentation and reconsolidation of the Greek cultural past. The period after Theocritus sees a codification of dialogues about idealized herdsmen, modelled on a subset of his poems; a still later Greek tradition expands the thematic repertory under the same linguistic and metrical features. Virgil brings the type into Latin with an emphasis on the political position of poetry in an increasingly autocratic Rome, and later Roman bucolic poets respond in different ways to those concerns.

In K. Seigneurie and I. Ramelli, eds., A Companion to World Literature, vol. 1 (Chichester and Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2020), pp. 549-59.

This discussion outlines the poetical features of style and narrative technique which contribute to Virgil's psychological characterisation and considers the role of audience response - in terms of reception, intertextuality and ideology - in determining Virgil's characterisation.

When making an allusion, a poet can choose to make the line numbering (stichometry) correspond with that of the source. A handful of examples in Roman poetry have been proposed, mostly in Virgil. This short paper collects these examples together and proposes a new one, in which Dido's appeal to the Furies in the Aeneid matches up with Medea's appeal to the Erinyes in Apollonius' Argonautica.

Vergi, devletin kamu hizmetlerini karşılamak amacıyla vatandaşlarından aldığı ekonomik bir değerdir. Vatandaşların bu değere karşı oluşmuş bilinçlerine ise vergi bilinci denilmektedir. Her ülkede vergi bilinci kişilerin vergiyi algılama düzeylerine göre farklılık göstermektedir. Bu farklılık vergi bilincinin birçok sosyal, ekonomik ve kültürel faktörler tarafından etkilenmesinden kaynaklanmaktadır. Bu çalışma, en etkili faktörlerin tespiti yapıldıktan sonra bu faktörlerin kişilerin vergi bilinçlerini şekillendirme noktasındaki önemini gözler önüne sermeyi amaçlamaktadır. Vergi bilincini etkileyen faktörlerin en etkilileri teorik çalışma yöntemi ile tespit edilmiştir. Bu faktörler daha kolay incelenebilmesi açısından iç ve dış faktörler olmak üzere ikiye ayrılmıştır. Çalışmada iç faktörlerden devlete bağlılık ve vatandaşlık bilinci, vergi ahlakı, kişinin eğitim ve gelir düzeyi, dini inanış ve gelenekler, siyasi iktidarın kabul düzeyi konuları incelenmiştir. Dış faktörlerden ise vergi afları, vergi adaleti, siyasi ve ekonomik koşullar, kayıt dışı ekonomi, vergi yasalarının ve tekniğinin karmaşıklığı başlıklı konular incelenmiştir. Yapılan araştırmalar sonucunda çalışmada adı geçen faktörlerin kişilerin vergi bilinçlerinin oluşması noktasında büyük önem taşıdıkları tespit edilmiştir.

(Also: Heldenschau). From the Intro:
“Arms and the Man I sing…”  So Vergil begins his epic tale of Aeneas, who overcomes tremendous obstacles to find and establish a new home for his wandering band of Trojan refugees. Were it metrically possible, Vergil could have begun with “Cities and the Man I sing,” for Aeneas’ quest for a new home involves encounters with cities of all types: ancient and new, great and small, real and unreal. These include Dido’s Carthaginian boomtown (1.419–494), Helenus’ humble neo-Troy (3.349–353) and Latinus’ lofty citadel (7.149–192).  Of course, central to his quest is the destiny of Rome, whose future greatness—empire without limit (1.277–278)—Jupiter prophesies to Venus as recompense for the destruction of her beloved Troy, but whose foundation ultimately depends on Aeneas’ success at establishing a foothold in Italy (1.257–296).

Although Rome’s notional/traditional foundation will occur several centuries after Aeneas’s final victory, Vergil has his hero interact with the future city in several ways, including two well-known passages. In the first (8.95–369) he tours Evander’s Pallanteum, the physical site of future Rome, taking delight in his surroundings and learning local lore (8.310–312, 359), yet fails to perceive that this place will become the imperial metropolis. In the other (8.625–731), he examines a creation of Vulcan, a shield engraved with vignettes of Rome’s future history from Romulus to Augustus triumphant, the action-packed imagery of which Aeneas also fails to comprehend (8.730).  Of course, references to Rome (and its culture) are not restricted to Jupiter’s prophecy and the iconic events in Aeneid 8: James Morwood cogently argues that, elsewhere in the Aeneid, Vergil’s descriptions of, or allusions to, structures built or rebuilt by Augustus give Rome a strong presence throughout the poem.  The present essay expands upon his concept in significant ways to argue that Augustan Rome—its history, its aristocratic culture, and the city itself—is completely present, albeit in palimpsestic form, in Aeneid 6–8.

Overview:
“Rome in the Underworld” demonstrates that Vergil’s description of Elysian topography, combined with Anchises’ censorial activities in Aeneid 6, characterize this section of the Underworld as a ‘premortal’ version of Rome’s underlying landscape in which important religious and political activities take place simultaneously. “A Didactic City-Walk” examines the visual inspiration for the Parade of Heroes (also Aeneid 6), and how Vergil’s descriptions and groupings of Rome’s future leaders allow his audience to visualize Anchises leading Aeneas through key commemorative zones in Rome’s (future) historic center, areas heavily populated by statues of great men in Vergil’s day.  It concludes with an examination of the simultaneously chiastic and linear structure of themes, activities, people and topography through which Anchises, Aeneas and the Sibyl ‘travel’ on their journey of discovery. “Palimpsestic Rome” explores the features of Latinus’ city (Aeneid 7), the terrain of Evander’s Pallanteum (Aeneid 8) and the cityscapes engraved on Aeneas’ shield (Aeneid 8) which, when (re)integrated with the ‘premortal’ Rome of Aeneid 6, comprise a comprehensive vision of Augustan Rome, its aristocratic culture, and its future-perfect history.

An essay centred on a gesture that had hitherto not been recognized by scholars, i.e. Didone's 'cogitantis gestus' in Aen.1.561. Not only the identification of the functions of such gesture in Virgil, but also the intertextual relationship of such a passage with other gestural description in Greek and Latin literature is examined.

The arma virumque theme that this article identifies in the Punica is an important avenue through which to understand the meaning of Silius Italicus' poem and its author's relationship with Virgil. The text frequently uses combinations of the Aeneid's first two words, arma and vir, to suggest a common literary inheritance from Aeneas among its characters, large and small, Roman and Carthaginian. By pervasively characterizing most participants in the Second Punic War as versions, or poetic refractions, of Aeneas, the poet recasts Rome's glorious foreign war as a kind of civil war producing criminal corpses. More specifically, characters vie not for national dominance of the Mediterranean but for personal prestige as the most worthy heir to Aeneas. This process reconsiders the Republic's history, aligns the text with the developments of 69 CE, and comments critically on the Roman principate and its foundational literary text, the Aeneid.

Argues that the language Vergil uses to describe the Harpies in Aeneid 3 is ambiguous, and that he may be not only stressing the theme of hunger but also alluding to the imagery used in ancient accounts of menstruation, playing off the ancient conception of the female body as abnormal and polluted, and thus as inherently monstrous. Looks specifically at the phrase "foedissima ventris / proluvies" (3.216-27), among others.

Some scholars have read Virgil’s grafted tree (G. 2.78–82) as a sinister image, symptomatic of man’s perversion of nature. However, when it is placed within the long tradition of Roman accounts of grafting (in both prose and verse), it seems to reinforce a consistently positive view of the technique, its results, and its possibilities. Virgil’s treatment does represent a significant change from Republican to Imperial literature, whereby grafting went from mundane reality to utopian fantasy. This is reflected in responses to Virgil from Ovid, Columella, Calpurnius, Pliny the Elder, and Palladius (with Republican context from Cato, Varro, and Lucretius), and even in the postclassical transformation of Virgil’s biography into a magical folktale.

Combining a wide range of visual and literary sources, The Epic City traces the evolution of Greek and Roman attitudes towards the natural environment. The creation of gardens, nature appropriated for human use, is the means by which Greeks and Romans negotiated the relation of their towns to the surrounding countryside. In general, the Greeks from the time of Homer to the death of Alexander the Great approached nature as a violent, unpredictable force. Their ideal social order, constituted by the utopian polis ‘city-state’, depended on the exclusion or taming of nature. Urbanized Romans, meanwhile, came to experience an overwhelmingly nostalgic feeling towards nature in the face of protracted socio-political upheaval. As a result, they attempted to reintegrate nature into their lives in villas and gardens. Vividly expressed in the epic poems of Lucretius and Virgil, this sense of nostalgia also led to increasing concern about the negative impact of urbanism on the natural environment.

Now published in Dictynna 14 (2017)
https://dictynna.revues.org/230

Perhaps no poetic genre is as central to the ‘Classical Tradition’ as is pastoral; at times, indeed, despite its ostensibly narrow and stylized terms of reference, pastoral seems to operate as the privileged space of European classicism, a genre into which everything Greek and Roman can be subsumed, and more besides.  This paper takes as its case study the Adulescentia of Baptista Mantuanus (1447-1516):  its readings of Mantuan’s early modern pastoral collection offer synecdochic glimpses of the reception-history of Virgil's Eclogues, and map the generic self-awareness of the Adulescentia itself.

This article explains how Virgil’s traditional association with Naples inspired the fourteenth-century humanist poets Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio to set their own Virgilian eclogues in the same city. Petrarch began his Bucolicum Carmen by composing an allegorical eclogue about the death of his patron Robert of Anjou, the King of Naples; and in imitation of this poem, his admiring friend Boccaccio later wrote a series of Neapolitan eclogues depicting the events that followed Robert’s death. As Petrarch and Boccaccio each had different relationships with Naples, it will be shown that the city represents their respective ideals of poetic otium.

Lee Frantantuono, reviewing Blackwell version in CJ Online 5.10.2012 (posted on Rogueclassicism): “Indeed, Lowrie’s paper is, I would venture to say, a new classic of Aeneid criticism, one which blends the best of old and new tools of literary study, a provocative study whose implications go beyond the geographic and temporal boundaries of this section of the collection.”

"In the late tenth century Letaldus, a French monk who was associated with the abbeys of Le Mans and Micy and who is otherwise known only for prose hagiographical works, wrote a poem entitled De quodam piscatore quem ballena absorbuit. The poem has received many compliments for its gracefulness and has been edited three times from the two manuscripts (one late eleventh- or early twelfth-century, the other late twelfth-century) in which it survived; but it has yet to earn the full recognition that it deserves. In two hundred eight dactylic hexameters the piece relates one extraordinary crisis in the otherwise uneventful life of a humble English fisherman named within.