Abordando a formação da consciência moderna, este artigo considera a Querela dos Antigos e dos Modernos a partir de duas noções estéticas fundamentais: a imitatio e a aemulatio.O modo como progressivamente se faz o elogio da emulação face à simples imitação corresponde à ultrapassagem do pólo antigo pelo pólo moderno. Enquanto o imitador deseja reproduzir a exactidão do modelo, o emulador esforça-se por dizer melhor. A emulação, proposta pelos Modernos, mostra-se sempre relativizadora e perturbada em relação aos antigos, inquieta (...) por se lhes sobrepor. (shrink)

This paper comments on the tension between constant imitatio and refused aemulatio gloriae in Tiberius’ attitude towards Augustus in Velleius Paterculus’ History. I argue that Tiberius is equalling and eventually even surpassing Augustus precisely because he refuses to compete with him, let alone surpass him. In order to do so, I focus on two hitherto neglected Augustan intertexts, which are referenced at very distinct moments of Velleius’ portrayal of Tiberius. The first is the moment when Tiberius appears on the (...) political stage at the age of 19 ; the second is the last mentioned event of his life before he succeeds Augustus, namely his third triumph in ad 12. (shrink)

Thema dieses Buches ist weder die Philosophie der Zeit noch eine römische Chronologie, sondern eine Untersuchung der literarischen Reflexion der Zeitordnung in Rom. Es sagt wenig darüber, "wie es wirklich gewesen", und mehr darüber, wie diese Ordnung sprachlich konstituiert wurde, welche Metaphern sie hervorbrachte und welche Argumente im römischen Zeitdiskurs präsent waren. Wichtigstes Ziel ist die interpretatorische Erschließung der relevanten Texte und, daran anknüpfend, die Rekonstruktion des kulturellen Wissens in Bezug auf das tempus Romanum. Dieses Wissen konkretisiert sich in der (...) Darstellung der beiden Organisationsinstrumente der Zeit, Kalender und Uhr; es wird in die Kulturentstehungslehren integriert, der Kulturkritik unterworfen, für das Selbstbild Roms in Anschlag gebracht und in einem aemulatio-Verhältnis zu Griechenland und Ägypten gesehen. Interpretiert werden Texte von Plautus, Lukrez, Varro, Cicero, Caesar, Vitruv, Vergil, Livius, Ovid, Pomponius Mela, Plinius d.Ä., Sueton, Censorinus und Macrobius; ergänzend herangezogen werden motivisch relevante Passagen bei Hesiod, (Ps.-)Aischylos, Xenophon, Hekataios, Geminos, Plutarch, Iambulos, Lukian und Alkiphron. (shrink)

“Sometimes there is no other word but ‘beautiful’ to describe the evocation of the death of an otherwise insignificant warrior”. Buxton (2004, 151-152) refers to a group of similes and comparisons in Homeric death scenes that thus far has not been studied thoroughly. There is an abundance of dying scenes in the Homeric epics, especially in the “Iliad”, and in particular those illustrated by similes and comparisons add significant meaning to the plot. Similes and comparisons have various literary functions and (...) are often used as structuring elements in the narrative. Death similes are used to characterize the victim and aggressor during their fatal confrontation. By extension, they equally provide a characterization of death itself, which can be depicted from different points of view. Death can be seen as a natural part of the cycle of human life or, in the heroic war ideology, as an instrument to win glory. Many of the typically “Homeric” similes and comparisons used in death scenes have been imitated in later epics. Not only the bare images, but also the deeper message they can imply is often transferred to its new context. This paper describes the occurrence of death similes in the “Iliad” and “Odyssey” as a foundation for its reception in the “Posthomerica” of Quintus of Smyrna. This 3rd century AD epic provides a clear example of Homeric imitatio and aemulatio. Quintus’ typically Homeric style includes an abundant use of Homeric similes, also in dying scenes. In fact, similes prove to be even more frequently used for this purpose in the Posthomerica than in the Homeric epics. This study analyses Quintus’ rich reception of the Homeric death simile and its effects on the narrative structures of the Posthomerica. Although obviously inspired by Homer, Quintus’ use of death similes is further elaborated to support the plot by means of a linearly evolving characterization of both death and its aggressors and victims. This study therefore proposes an interpretation of the Posthomerica as an original literary composition. (shrink)

Este artigo busca voltar-se ao corpus do saber do século XVI, época compreendida como a Era das similitudes, segundo leitura de Michel Foucault. Interessa-nos a aproximação da ordem prática do período - rica em sinais e grafias - a fim de determo-nos em sua devida concepção de mundo - rica em simbologia. Nesta análise, o mundo renascentista estará envolto a uma intensificação do exercício de ordenamento, regido por formas segundo as quais as semelhanças se dão a conhecer: as chamadas figuras (...) das similitudes - signatura, convenientia, aemulatio, analogia e simpatia. Além disso, aderente a um fundo de configuração geral, será enfatizado a noção de círculo como referencial figurativo cabível ao entendimento do espaço geral do saber renascentista. Da noção de círculo remeteremos à prática de circulação das similitudes, e através disso, indicaremos um mundo renascentista decifrado ou interpretado segundo uma rede esgotável, no limite das próprias órbitas circulares emanadas do ajustamento de semelhanças. Na prática, o uso de uma marcação simbólica - inclusive, extensa à dimensão cósmica – possibilita-nos a visualizar um arranjo do como, mediante ordenamento do saber, são promovidas certas disposições “entre” e “para” as coisas e pessoas no mundo. (shrink)

In the rhetorical tradition of Late Antiquity, Socrates’ legend has a good fortune in the works of different rhetoricians and philosophers. In the following pages I am going to deal with some examples of this phaenomenon, through the works of Themistius and Julian the emperor : two intellectuals of the IV century who are, under many aspects, the exact opposites.They both try to ‘actualize’ Socrates’ figure, highlighting different aspects of the Athenian philosopher, on the grounds of their personal purposes of (...) self-advertisement. So Themistius, a skilled politician working as princeps’ advisor, sees in Socrates a symbol of the ‘politikos philosophos’, who speaks plainly in public with people of all ranks, in a simple and direct way ; for Julian, emperor and philosopher of the new Hellenism, Socrates, instead, is mainly the saviour of the souls, addressing all men towards the true knowledge of themselves and the true faith in pagan gods. These portraits are complementary and both attest the ability of Late Antique intellectuals in their imitatio/aemulatio of figures and myths of Classical Antiquity. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:L’esthétique de StaceA. M. KeithAnne-Marie Taisne. L’esthétique de Stace. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1994. 433 pp. Paper, 280 FF. (Collection d’Etudes Anciennes 122)Anne-Marie Taisne is the author of numerous articles concerning the literary history and artistic context that inform single poems in Statius’ Silvae and self-contained passages in his Thebaid and unfinished Achilleid, papers which lay the groundwork for her comprehensive new study of the literary aesthetic on (...) display in the extant poetic oeuvre of P. Papinius Statius. In this ambitious monograph, she undertakes to explore two facets of Statius’ technical artistry, his spatial and temporal imagery, within the theoretical framework provided by ancient literary criticism. She is particularly concerned to articulate the poet’s dynamic reuse of the weighty literary tradition to which he is heir, and accordingly proposes, in her introduction, to structure her discussion around such central ancient critical issues as imitatio (mimesis) along with its close relatives aemulatio and contaminatio, and doctrina with its associated critical vocabulary of ingenium, ratio, and ars (6–10). Throughout the volume, she explicates these techniques in detailed analysis of Statian imagines, which she defines generally in the sense of “imagery” following S. Viarre (“L’image et le symbole dans la poésie d’Ovide: Recherches sur l’imaginaire,” REL 62 [1974] 263–80), and particularly by reference to individual usages of the term as they are discussed in the article on imago in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (11).Part 1, “Correspondances dans l’espace,” examines the spatial imagery of Thebaid, Achilleid, and Silvae in three chapters which treat (1) echo and reflection (17–52), (2) metamorphosis, multiplication, and contagion (53–119), and (3) simile (120–76). Part 2, “Correspondances dans le temps,” investigates the poems’ use of time as a structural principle, again in three chapters which discuss (1) prophecies and portents (177–236), (2) digressive elements such as ecphrases and embedded narratives (237–303), and (3) leitmotifs, or repeated patterns of imagery, such as divine and human interventions and the role of nature in the poems. The material Taisne analyzes in part 1 coheres more convincingly with her overarching theme of spatial imagery than that which she discusses in part 2 under the rubric of temporal imagery. I did not understand, for example, why nature, well discussed in connection with Statius’ use of the simile in part 1 (137–62), reappears in part 2 (331–58) with no explanation of its relevance to temporal imagery.Taisne persuasively documents the wide range of literary models on which Statius draws in all his poetry, and shows that the Thebaid makes particular use of epic and tragic models (166–68, 170, 373–75), the Achilleid of tragic and lyric models (168–71, 374–78). Her discussion of the literary echoes and wider symbolic relevance of individual passages is often very interesting, and the sheer accumulation of literary parallels is extremely impressive. I was reminded of and newly alerted to significant literary resonances on almost every page, and noticed only one incomplete assemblage of literary parallels (in her discussion of Hylas [End Page 159] in Silvae 1.2.199 [27–28], there is no mention of Theocr. Id. 13, Ap. Rhod. Arg. 1.1207–72, or Nicander apud Ant. Lib. Met. 26). The service to which this material is put, however, is not as exciting as the length of the study might lead one to hope. Throughout, Taisne argues that Statius’ deployment of imagery is consistent with the overarching thematic framework of each poem, defined as furor and horror in the Thebaid (23 and passim), an ambiguous and deceptive calm in the Achilleid (353–54 and passim), and serenity and harmony in the Silvae (28 and passim), but she does not press her analysis beyond the accumulation of imagery in the service of these themes as evidence of Statian amplificatio. This is particularly disappointing in an author so well placed to discuss the material culture of the Flavian epoch and the interrelations between Statius’ poetry (especially the Silvae) and the culture of display in Domitian’s Rome. Nevertheless, scholars will be grateful to Taisne for the material she has collected... (shrink)

A philosopher named Hierocles is mentioned five times in the Synagoge. Prächter identified him with Hierocles the Stoic (1st–2nd century AD), on the basis of various arguments, none of which are really decisive. In this paper, I will first try to account for the presence of Hierocles’ fragments in the Synagoge: these are likely to have been added to the so-called Cyril’s lexicon (i. e., the Synagoge’s main source) by an anonymous compiler between approximately the 5th and the 8th century (...) – that is, roughly the termini post quos for the compilation of Cyril’s lexicon and the Synagoge respectively. I will then suggest that Hierocles of Alexandria (5th century AD), a Neoplatonic philosopher whose style and eloquence were particularly appreciated in antiquity, is a better candidate than the one indicated by Prächter. Indeed, Hierocles of Alexandria was skilled in aemulatio Platonica – something which is particularly important to our purpose here, given that the lemmas of the Synagoge which are the object of this study partly deal with expressions that are peculiar to Plato. (shrink)

Journal Name: Philologus Issue: Ahead of print.