Political Autobiographies and Memoirs in Antiquity (Brill's Companions in Classical Studies)

474 Pages·2011·3.07 MB·English

by  Gabriele Marasco

Political Autobiographies
and Memoirs in Antiquity

Political Autobiographies
and Memoirs in Antiquity
A Brill Companion
Editedby
Gabriele Marasco
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2011
Coverillustration:WalloftheTempleofAugustusandRomainAnkaradepictingtheRes
GestaeDiviAugusti.
Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaper.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Politicalautobiographiesandmemoirsinantiquity:aBrillcompanion/editedbyGabriele
Marasco.
p.cm.–(Brill'scompanionsinclassicalstudies,ISSN1872-3357)Includes
bibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-90-04-18299-8(hardcover:alk.paper)
1.Classicalbiography–Historyandcriticism.2.Biographyasaliteraryform.3.Memoirs.I.
Marasco,Gabriele.II.Title.III.Series.
PA3043.P652011
880.9'35–dc23
2011028606
ISSN1872-3357
ISBN9789004182998
Copyright2011byKoninklijkeBrillNV,Leiden,TheNetherlands.
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CONTENTS
Preface ................................................................. vii
GabrieleMarasco
Abbreviations .......................................................... xi
. ClassicalGreece.................................................... 1
VivienJ.Gray
. RoyalAutobiographyintheHellenisticAge ...................... 37
CinziaBearzot
. TheHellenisticAge:AutobiographyandPoliticalStruggles...... 87
GabrieleMarasco
. RepublicanRome:AutobiographyandPoliticalStruggles ....... 121
JoséM.Candau
. TheLateRepublic:AutobiographiesandMemoirsintheAgeof
theCivilWars ...................................................... 161
JeffreyTatum
. CaesarandtheCorpusCaesarianum.............................. 189
MarcMayer
. TheAugustanAge.................................................. 233
JosephGeiger
. Augustus:TheEmperorWritesHisOwnAccount................ 267
RonaldThomasRidley
. TheEarlyEmpire................................................... 315
PereVillalbaVarneda
.TheSecondandThirdCentury.................................... 363
RichardWestallandFrederickBrenk
.TheLateEmpire.................................................... 417
HartmutLeppin
IndexofAncientNames............................................... 455

PREFACE
This book aims at clarifying what it meant in antiquity to write about
oneself,analyzingboththeautobiographiesandthememoirs,inwhich,
however,theauthorgrantedapredominantspacetohisownactions.It
will be mostlysomethingnew,given thattheonly generalstudy onthe
autobiography—notstillreplaced—ofGeorgMisch,bothintheGerman
edition1andintheEnglishrevisedandimprovedversion2isaworkfrom
anon-classicistandisclearlyaddressedinadifferentway.Ithighlightsthe
philosophical autobiography, which was the center of the interests and
competencesofitsauthor;3itlimits,therefore,thestudyofthepolitical
autobiographyanditalsoneglectssomeessentialworks(e.g.,theautobi-
ographyofLibanius isnotevenmentioned).Somerecentconferences,4
although showing a renewed interest in the autobiography, have been
veryfragmentaryandfarfromprovidingasystematictreatment,which
wouldhighlightthedevelopmentofthisliterature,theexistingrelation-
shipsamong thevarious works,and theinfluence ofthetraditions and
ofnarrativeorientations.
Ontheotherhand,thepoliticalautobiographiesandmemoirsbelong
toacompletelydifferentcategory:theyaremorelinkedtotheimmediate
events,tothepassionsandthestrugglesthattheautobiographicwritings
of the philosophers, of the literates, and of the men of the Church
as Augustine. The personalinterests, the partisanships, sometimesalso
the immediate practical aims justify therefore a greater prudence in
verifying their reliability. The approach of the autobiographies to the
memoirsdevotedtoparticularevents(excludedintheworkofMisch)is
1 GeschichtederAutobiographie,,DasAltertum(FrankfurtamMain,,2).
2 AHistoryofAutobiographyinAntiquity,vols.(London,).
3 Onthepersonality,theworkandthephilosophyofMisch,discipleandson-in-law
ofWilhelmDilthey,cf.O.F.Bollnow,StudienzurHermeneutik.BandII:Zurhermeneuti-
schenLogikvonGeorgMischundHansLipps(Freiburg/Munich,);M.Mezzancanica,
GeorgMisch.Dallafilosofiadellavitaallalogicaermeneutica(Milan,).
4 M.-F.Baslez,P.Hoffmann,andL.Pernot,éds.,L’inventiondel’autobiographied’Hé-
siodeàSaintAugustin:actesdudeuxièmecolloquedel’Equipederecherchesurl’hellénisme
post-classique(Paris,EcoleNormaleSupérieure,–juin)(Paris,);M.Reichel,
ed., Antike Autobiographien. Werke—Epochen—Gattungen (Europäische Geschichts-
darstellungen)(Cologne,).Seealso,onamorelimitedcontextoftime,M.Erler,
S.Schorn,eds.,DiegriechischeBiographieinhellenistischerZeit(Berlin).
viii preface
suggested, moreover, from an apparently self-evident affirmation of
ArnaldoMomigliano,5whoobservedthatnoautobiographycanbecon-
sidered really complete—first ofall because it cannot narrate thedeath
ofhismaincharacter.Excluding,therefore,someworksthatareinacer-
tainmeasureautobiographic,butthathoweverbelongtootheraffirmed
and approved literary genres, such as oratory and poetry (for instance,
thepoliticalsongsofAlcaeus),theautobiographiesandthememoirsare
substantiallysimilarandworthybeingtreatedtogether.
On the other hand, the available material is needed for a complex
job of selection and coordination. The lives of Xenophon,Cicero, Cae-
sar, Augustus, and some Roman emperors are well known and there
is no need to repeat them; other characters, such as Demetrius of the
Phalerum,AratusandtosomeextentevenJosephusarelessfamous,but
howeverknownbytheclassicists.Forothers,lessknowntothegeneral
public,itwasnecessarytoaddabriefinformation,withtheessentialbib-
liography.
Thefundamentalthemeswehavedealtwithinthisbookarethree:
. First of all, the birth and the development of the autobiography, an
extremelycomplexproblembecause oftheshortageofthetestimonies,
but alsobecause ofthedifficulty todistinguishtheoriginsofanotwell
encoded literary genre in an age in which the historical narration, the
geographical,andtheethnographicwerelikelytoconfuse,aswecansee
particularlyintheworkofHerodotus.Iremind,particularly,ofthecases
ofSkylaxandofIonofChius,butstillinXenophon’sAnabasisand,aswe
shallsee,inNearchus’workthesethreeaspectsoftenhavethetendency
tooverlap.
.Theproblemofthefinalitiesand,consequently,ofthereliabilityofthe
examinedworks.Someautobiographiesandmemoirshavebeenwritten
withobviousapologeticfinalities,withtheaimtodefendthereputation
of a politician at the end of his career or close to retirement, in the
eyes of the contemporaries and of posterity. Some cases are classical,
as Xenophon, who writes his work in his retreat; Aratus of Sikyon,
who hopelesslytries to justify his rounds waltz with Macedon and the
substantial failure of its political action; Quintus Dellius, desultor belli
civilis, the official of Marc Anthony passed to Octavian, engaged to
5 Momigliano,Biography,.
preface ix
defendtheindefensible;stillFlaviusJosephus,withalltheconsequences
thathispositionasarebelJewpassedtotheallegiancetoRomeinvolved
onthepolitical and, let’snotforgetit, onthereligiousfield. Inall these
cases,theanalysisofthemethodsbywhichtheauthorpursues,moreor
lessslightly,itspropagandistaimrevealsagreatdealofcomplexpolitical
situations and of the way according to which a literary genre could be
foldeduptopartisanfinalities.
Other works had propagandist aims instead, relating to the politi-
calstruggleoftheirtimes.Theywerethereforemoretied to immediate
motives and, for us,moresubject to doubts and suspicionswith regard
totheirreliability;but,perhapsjustforthis,theyaimedtopresentthem-
selveswithgreaterinsistenceastruthfulandobjective.Caesar’sCommen-
tariesareobviouslytheclassicalcase;butstillmoreinteresting,becauseof
theiroutspokenlypubliccharacter,aretheeulogisticregistrations,from
thoseoftheHellenistickingstotheResGestaeofAugustus.
Finally,otherworkswerewrittentosupplymaterialforthehistorians,
withdifferentoutcomes.ThememoirwrittenbyCiceroonhisconsulate
andsenttothehistorianPoseidoniustobeusedbyhimafterappropriate
amendmentswasrejected—wedonotknowwithhowmuchpoliteness—
and this clearly shows its degree of reliability (which, after all, had to
correspondto the innate modesty of Cicero). What Eunapius required
by thephysician Oribasiuson thecampaign in Persia andonthedeath
of Julian was added to his historical work and it would be interesting
to beable to judge hismethodandresults.Thissystemislikely tohave
beenusedinanumberofsituations(e.g.,theletterinwhichPliniusthe
Younger,onTacitus’request,narratedthedeathofhisuncleduring the
eruptionofVesuvius).6Also,inthesecases,toclarifytheaimsofawork
alsomeanstoclarifyitscharacteristics.
. The development and the evolution of this genre in the times. In
this perspective, it is important to clarify its characteristics and the lit-
erary influences on it. For example, it seems very interesting to me to
outline theevolution ofthe autobiographic inscriptions, fromtheearly
Hellenistic ones to Antiochus of Commagene, until the Res Gestae of
Augustus. In this case, the autobiographical tradition got together, and
perhaps surrendered to other models, those of the great royal inscrip-
tions,widespreadintheOrientalworld,fromtheEgyptianpharaohsto
6 Plin.,Epist...