Tacitus’ History of Politically Effective Speech

Truth to Power

Dr Ellen O'Gorman (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

232 Seiten

2022
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-19501-1 (ISBN)

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This study examines how Tacitus’ representation of speech determines the roles of speakers within the political sphere, and explores the possibility of politically effective speech in the principate. It argues against the traditional scholarly view that Tacitus refuses to offer a positive view of senatorial power in the principate: while senators did experience limitations and changes to what they could achieve in public life, they could aim to create a dimension of political power and efficacy through speeches intended to create and sustain relations which would in turn determine the roles played by both senators or an emperor.

Ellen O’Gorman traces Tacitus’ own charting of these modes of speech, from flattery and aggression to advice, praise, and censure, and explores how different modes of speech in his histories should be evaluated: not according to how they conform to pre-existing political stances, but as they engender different political worlds in the present and future. The volume goes beyond literary analysis of the texts to create a new framework for studying this essential period in ancient Roman history, much in the same way that Tacitus himself recasts the political authority and presence of senatorial speakers as narrative and historical analysis.

Ellen O'Gorman is Senior Lecturer in Classics and Director of the Institute for Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition at the University of Bristol, UK.

Preface

Introduction
Imperial Regimes of Truth
Senatorial Business
Entering the Archive

Modes of Speech

1. Turpe servitium: The Political World of Flattery
The Agency of adulatio
The Art of adulatio
Adulatio and honor

2. Pro incolumitate principis / ex calamitate civium: The Political World of Predatory Accusation
Delatio, maiestas, and Distributed Agency
Majesty and Harm: The World of maiestas
The Speech of delatio

3. Servitium rupit: Counter-Speech
in adulationem lapsos cohibebat
de praemiis accusatorum abolendis

The Critical Archive

4. Existimatio vitae: The Judgement of Character
Emotion, Speech, and Moral Principle
The Critical Archive of Character

5. Narratus et traditus: The Transmission of mores
Genealogies of Practice
Future Communities
Conclusion: sententia

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	06.04.2022
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Klassiker / Moderne Klassiker
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte
ISBN-10	1-350-19501-4 / 1350195014
ISBN-13	978-1-350-19501-1 / 9781350195011
Zustand	Neuware