Military Virtue in Roman Rhetorical Education

225 Pages·2016·0.92 MB·English

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Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School
8-2015
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Anthony Edward Zupancic
University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected]
Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss
Part of the Other English Language and Literature Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons
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Zupancic, Anthony Edward, "Military Virtue in Roman Rhetorical Education. " PhD diss., University of
Tennessee, 2015.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/3491
This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee
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[email protected].
To the Graduate Council:
I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Anthony Edward Zupancic entitled "Military
Virtue in Roman Rhetorical Education." I have examined the final electronic copy of this
dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English.
Janet M. Atwill, Major Professor
We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance:
Lisa King, Russel Hirst, Edward Caudill
Accepted for the Council:
Carolyn R. Hodges
Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School
(Original signatures are on file with official student records.)
Military Virtue in Roman Rhetorical Education
A Dissertation Presented for the
Doctor of Philosophy
Degree
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Anthony Edward Zupancic
August 2015
Dedication
quae illi litteris, ea ego militando didici
This dissertation is dedicated to those future leaders who will inspire, develop, and prepare those
who will serve our country in times of war and peace.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Colonel Michael Stoneham, who provided
an unparalleled model of leadership and professionalism for me and so many other officers and
Colonel Scott Krawczyk, whose confidence and trust in me are the reasons that I have been able
to accomplish so much. I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. Janet Atwill. For three
years she spent an enormous amount of time encouraging my pursuits and deepening my
appreciation for antiquity. She constantly urged me out of complacency and inspired me to go
well beyond that which was required. I read Latin because of her.
Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my loving wife Michelle, who,
without question, did everything she could to make this possible. I am realizing my dreams only
because she has been with me in every adventure. She is a wonderful mother and an even better
partner in life.
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Abstract
This dissertation examines the connection between rhetoric and military culture in the early
Roman Empire. Despite obvious references to the military and martial virtues, little scholarly
attention has been directed to exploring the possibilities located within this connection. This
dissertation is an alternative cultural history of rhetorical theory and pedagogy that draws on
close reading and philology, as well as performance and metaphor theory. In building on the
cultural history of Rome, I introduce a concept of “military virtue” that expands on
understandings of the Roman notion of virtus (virtue) found in recent scholarship. Since virtue
in the ancient world is both embodied and enacted, military virtue, as this dissertation presents it,
is informed by theories of performance and gender. Since tradition is propagated through
education, I will also explore the rhetorical education system at Rome during the late Republic
and early Empire giving special attention to how teachers modeled a certain culturally accepted
character for their students. In addition to the physical models of teachers, students interacted
with historical, mythical, and cultural models of character through rhetorical exercises. Through
close readings and philological analyses of culturally important texts such as the epics of Homer,
the Aeneid, and Roman historians, this dissertation will show instances of military virtue and
explore the ways it was habituated through rhetorical education. Along with the physical work
of rhetorical education, military virtue can also be found in rhetorical treatises. By using
metaphor theory and close reading to examine the conceptualization of rhetoric as martial in
Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria and the anonymous Rhetorica ad Herennium, I will show how,
even at the level of theory, military virtue and character informed a cultural understanding of
what an orator should be. This dissertation speaks to several conversations about ancient Roman
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culture and the history of rhetoric, including discussions of virtue, education, ethics, and the
importance of rhetoric as a sustaining or disruptive cultural force
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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................1
Summary of Chapters ...................................................................................................4
Chapter 1: Character, Virtue, and the Heroic Tradition ...........................................................11
Background and Introduction .......................................................................................11
Methodology ................................................................................................................12
The Heroic Tradition ....................................................................................................16
Earned Character through Performed Virtue ...............................................................19
Culture, Gender, and Virtue .........................................................................................29
Towards Military Virtue ...............................................................................................36
Chapter 2: All I Learned, I Learned from Soldiering: Military Virtue at Rome ......................38
Action and Habit: How Virtue Exists ..........................................................................42
Aretē and Virtus: Distinguishing Greek and Roman Action ......................................46
The Four Cardinal Virtues and the Military Commander ............................................56
Conclusion: The Crisis of Military Virtue in the late Republic ...................................63
Chapter 3: Models of Character, Teachers of Language ..........................................................66
The Traditions of Early Roman Education ..................................................................66
The Pedagogue: Leading the Student in Learning .......................................................81
Literature and Customs: The Grammaticus and the Grammar School .......................83
The Rhetorician: The Living Voice of Virtue ..............................................................89
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Chapter 4: Progymnasmata: What Would Achilles Do? ..........................................................94
Introduction to the Progymnasmata .............................................................................94
Chreia and a Conversation with the Past ...................................................................101
Refutation and Confirmation: Interacting with Epic Figures ....................................104
Prosopopoeia: Bringing Life to Tradition ..................................................................109
The Work of the Progymnasmata ...............................................................................116
Chapter 5: Defending Character: The vir fortis in Declamation ............................................118
Roman Declamation as Exercise and Performance ...................................................118
The Figure of the Vir Fortis in Declamation ..............................................................124
The Hero Without Hands: Virtue, Action, and Responsibility ...................................126
Claiming Military Virtue: Arms and Hero .................................................................131
The Responsibilities of a Soldier: Becoming a Hero by Defending Tradition ..........133
The Naturalness of Military Virtue and the Compulsion to Serve .............................139
Chapter 6: The Orator is a Warrior: Metaphor in Rhetorical Theory .....................................147
Adversarial Metaphors ...............................................................................................154
Arming Metaphors .....................................................................................................159
Orator as Commander Metaphors ..............................................................................164
A New Understanding of “Argument is War” ............................................................172
Chapter 7: Rhetoric as Leadership at Rome ..........................................................................174
Commanding the Body and Leading Corps ...............................................................182
Building a Self-Confident Leader ..............................................................................187
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Rhetorical Prudence and Leadership .........................................................................192
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................199
Works Cited ...........................................................................................................................202
Vita .........................................................................................................................................215
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