Pliny and Symmachus

in J. Soldo and C.R. Jackson and (eds.), res vera, res ficta: Fictionality in Ancient Epistolography, (De Gruyter), pp. 19-42, 2023

Pliny stands at the intersection between epistolary (biographical) fiction and fact. He is routinely studied by two academic constituencies whose critical assumptions do not necessarily align: ancient historians and literary critics. Statements about biographical fiction in Pliny often proceed from unargued assumptions about 'how literature works'-assumptions generally derived from study of the Augustan poets. I argue that assumptions about autobiographical fiction in Ovid cannot simply be transferred to Pliny. We need to construct individual theories for individual authors, working from the text up to personalized theory, rather than from generalized theory down to text. The Augustan poetry book is central to the development of Latin letter collections (in sharp contrast to the lack of influence from poetry books on the Greek epistolographical tradition). But the poetics of the two Roman forms are fundamentally different. In Ovid's Amores, the signifier is centripetal and returns to reflect on its own programmatic status within a collection; but Pliny's letters are centrifugal and generally move outwards from internal signifier to external signified. Prospects for reading events in Pliny's life as primarily instantiations of a literary programme are diminished.

Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2007

Classica Cracoviensia, 2022

Relationes 10−12 stand out from Q.A. Symmachus' reports written to give an account of his activities at the position of the prefect of Rome (praefectus urbis Romae). These three relationes were written and sent by Symmachus to Roman emperors to inform them of the death of V.A. Praetextatus, who was a famous and influential Roman dignitary as well as Symmachus' close friend. Rel. 10−12 are not only thematically related, but also-unlike the rest of the reports − clearly marked with personal and laudatory accents and thus their nature significantly differs from the formal documents sent to emperors from the chancellery of an imperial administrative dignitary. In this paper, we aim at presenting Rel. 10−12 as an elogium, in which in three separate reports Symmachus included a coherent eulogy of Praetextatus and presented his idealized portrait tinged with his own personal feelings, underpinned by the aspects of conservative ideology cultivated then within the circles of the Roman senatorial aristocracy. KEYWORDS: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, Roman political prose of the 4 th century AD, relationes 2 Cf. Symm. Rel. 25, 3: sub ipso aestatis exordio (at the beginning of summer of 384 AD). Symmachus seems to have taken up the position of the prefect of Rome probably on 29 July 384 AD as we may conclude from the date given by Symmachus at the very end of Rel. 23: ss IIII Kl. Aug.

Review of A. N. Sherwin-White, Commentary on the Letters of Pliny (Oxford 1966), with particular reference to prosopography.

2015

This paper explores in truncated form the life, literature, and legacy of Pliny the Elder. It will highlight and discuss potential branches of further interest and inquiry that stem from the exploration, and draw some conclusions and applications from the study.