Description
Book SynopsisWhat literary strategies do Tacitus, Cassius Dio, and Suetonius apply in portraying Nero and Domitian? This book argues that the three authors respond to and deconstruct the positive accounts of imperial representation that were prevalent during the lifetimes of the two controversial emperors. They take up motifs from these earlier accounts, which they re-interpret to construct their own negative portraits. Although Tacitus, Cassius Dio, and Suetonius discuss the same historical figures and events of early imperial Rome, they are rarely examined together in one volume. Verena Schulz offers the first combined reading of their works from a philological viewpoint, analysing the various rhetorical techniques and narratological devices that they display, and the different literary and historical discourses in which they are embedded.
Trade Review''S[chultz] sets out to show that a full understanding of Imperial obloquy entails a due appreciation of its relationship to Imperial praise. In this enterprise, she is successful. Students of all three authors, and both emperors, will find her analyses illuminating.'' - Luke Pitcher, in: Gnomon 94.2 (2022), pp. 119-122 “Zusammenfassend lässt sich konstatieren, dass Schulz vor allem durch die klare Darlegung ihrer Methodik ein inspirierendes Buch vorgelegt hat, das für Philologen und Historiker wertvoll sein dürfte. Doch ihr Beitrag beschränkt sich nicht allein auf methodische Ausdifferenzierungen, sondern auch inhaltlich hat sie einen Beitrag zum besseren Verständnis der Zeit von Nero bis Cassius Dio, seinem größten Kritiker, geleistet.” - Frank Ursin, in: Frankfurter elektronische Rundschau zur Altertumskunde 39 (2019) ''so hat Schulz mit ihrer Monographie etwas erreicht, was noch lange nicht jeder wissenschaftlichen Studie beschieden ist. Besonders überzeugen dabei die Passagen ihrer Untersuchung, in denen sie die unterschiedlichen Dekonstruktionsverfahren des Tacitus, Cassius Dio und Sueton anhand einzelner Episoden, die bei allen dreien überliefert sind, zueinander in Bezug setzt und dabei die Spezifika der jeweiligen Autoren herausarbeiten kann. Gerade dieser unmittelbare Vergleich zeigt eindrücklich den Wert einer narratologischen Betrachtung historiographischer Texte.'' - Isabelle Künzer, in: Plekos vol. 24 (2022), pp. 79-118
Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: Content and Purpose of This Study Part 1 Constructing the Emperor in Historiography and Panegyric 1 Texts and Stories: on ‘Dinners with the Emperor’ 1 An Example: Constructing Imperial Dinners 2 Ingredients for a Good Imperial Dinner 3 Critical Texts: Digesting Bad Dinners 4 Conclusions Drawn from This Case Study 2 Theory and History 1 Imperial Representation: Nero and Domitian 2 Discourse and Deconstruction 3 Literature and Persuasiveness Part 2 Tacitus: Deconstruction and Uncertainty Introduction 3 Imperial Representation and Topics of Deconstruction 1 Military Actions: from Peace to Inactivity, from Victory to Hypocrisy 2 Building Endeavours: from Construction to Destruction 3 Public Entertainment: from Popular to Eccentric Performances 4 Nero’s Speeches: Gaining Rhetorical Power 5 Divinity: from God-Like to Unhuman 6 Atmosphere: From Golden Age to the Dynamics of Bad Times 4 Strategies of Deconstruction in Tacitus 1 Overview: How to Deconstruct Imperial Representation 2 Negative Connotations: ‘Facts’, Additions, and Foils 3 Causation and Character 4 New Forms of Logic 5 Creating Uncertainty 1 Tacitus and Theories of Uncertainty 2 Playing with Variants 3 Playing with Oppositions 4 Uncertainty and Interpretation Conclusion Part 3 Cassius Dio: Deconstruction and Typologies Introduction 6 Writing Historiography under the Severans 1 The Roman History and the Early Third Century 2 Imperial Representation in the Roman History 7 Strategies of Deconstruction in Cassius Dio 1 Negative Connotations 2 Persuasive Characters 3 The Rhetoric of Combination 4 Selection and Focus 5 Spoiling the Atmosphere 8 Deconstruction and the Construction of Memory 1 Typologies of Bad Emperors 2 Hot Memory: Why Nero and Domitian? 3 Genealogies versus Typologies Conclusion Part 4 Suetonius: Deconstruction and Entertainment Introduction 9 Biography and Eccentric Representation 1 Structure and Criticism: Current Debates on Suetonius 2 Rubrics and Representation: Fragmentation and Re-Contextualization 10 Strategies of Deconstruction in Suetonius 1 Historiographical Techniques in Imperial Biographies 2 Suetonian Techniques: the Effect of Rubrics 3 Ambivalent Techniques and a Weaker Form of Deconstruction 11 Deconstructed Elements and Miscellanism 1 Beyond Tacitus and Cassius Dio: Suetonian Deconstruction and the Historiographical Discourse 2 Between Pliny the Elder and Aulus Gellius: Suetonian Deconstruction and the Non-Historiographical Discourse Conclusion Part 5 Conclusion Conclusion: Three Modes of Deconstruction Appendix: Deconstruction and Rhetorical Strategies Bibliography Index
