The Manipulative Mode: Political Propaganda in Antiquity: A Collection of Case Studies

328 Pages·2004·25.234 MB·English

by  Ilia Leonard Pfeijffer, Karl A. E. Enenkel

THE MANIPULATIVE MODE
MNEMOSYNE
BIBLIOTHECA CLASSICA BATAVA
COLLEGERUNT
H. PINKSTER •H.S. VERSNEL
I.J.F. DE JONG •P.H. SCHRIJVERS
BIBLIOTHECAE FASCICULOS EDENDOS CURAVIT
H. PINKSTER, KLASSIEK SEMINARIUM, SPUISTRAAT 134, AMSTERDAM
SUPPLEMENTUM DUCENTESIMUM SEXAGESIMUM PRIMUM
KARL A.E. ENENKEL
ILJA LEONARD PFEIJFFER
THE MANIPULATIVE MODE
THE MANIPULATIVE MODE
POLITICAL PROPAGANDA IN ANTIQUITY
A COLLECTION OF CASE STUDIES
EDITED BY
KARL A.E. ENENKEL
ILJA LEONARD PFEIJFFER
BRILL
LEIDEN •BOSTON
2005
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISSN 0169-8958
ISBN 90 04 14291 6
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CONTENTS
Introduction.................................................................................... 1
Propaganda in Pindar's First Pythian Ode .. .. .. .. ................... 13
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
Choral Agons in Democratic Athens, 510-400 BC ................... 43
Simon R Slings
Propaganda and Competition in Athenian Oratory ............... 65
C. Carey
Kings against Celts. Deliverance from Barbarians
as a Theme in Hellenistic Royal Propaganda .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . 101
Rolf Strootman
Who Are 'We'? Towards Propagandistic Mechanism
and Purpose of Caesar's Bellum Gallicum ............................ 143
Stephan Busch
Epic Prophecy as Imperial Propaganda?
Jupiter's First Speech in Virgil's Aeneid ................................. 167
Karl A.E. Enenkel
The Creation of an Imperial Tradition
Ideological Aspects of the House of Augustus 219
Paul G.P. Me y boom
The Propagation of Jortitudo
Gladiatorial Combats from ca. 85 BC to the Times
of Trajan and Their Reflection in Roman Literature .... .... .. 275
Karl A.E. Enenkel
vi CONTENTS
The Panegyrical lnventio
A Rhetorical Analysis of Panegyricus Latinus V .................. 295
Susanna de Beer
INTRODUCTION
We live in an age of propaganda. The ever increasing perfec
tion of the means of communication as for technology, mar
keting and logistics has produced ever growing opportunities
for governments and companies to manipulate, control and
even shape our minds. The mass media are literally om
nipresent and all-pervasive. In fact, it is hard to pass a single
day without being exposed to their manipulative stream of in
formation.1 While other parameters that constitute personal
identity are rapidly losing relevance, identity and identification
created by the mass media become more and more decisive.
Wars are lost and won on the battle-field of the television
screen, where mondial sympathy for one's cause is at stake.
Elections, too, are decided on television, and media awareness
is a pivotal part of a politician's skill. Recent developments in
several democratic countries have shown that spectacular
changes in the political spectrum can be achieved by skilful
manipulative campaigns. The techniques of manipulation have
become more and more subtle and elaborate. Campaign lead
ers know that the success of a campaign is determined more
by the way in which a certain message is presented than by its
content. Mutatis mutandis, the same is true for marketing. The
success of a certain product depends less on its quality than on
a convincing commercial campaign. And these are but a few
examples among many.
Against this background, it makes sense that in recent years
the topic of propaganda received much attention in the hu-
1 This is especially true, of course, for the Western world, but has in fact
become a universal phenomenon. A.P. Foulkes (Literature and Propaganda,
London and New York 1983, l) remarks: "Remote communities in Mrica
and Latin America, although they may lack schools, medical facilities,
drinking water and agricultural implements, need possess only a transistor
radio in order to tune themselves in to the advertising jingles and political
slogans which [ ... ] desire to shape their social and economic reality [ ... ] ".
2 INTRODUCTION
mamtles, not only in modern history, but also in classical stud
ies. As for the latter, the ghost of anachronism is always near,
for especially with a concept like propaganda it is all too
tempting to apply our modern experiences to a period of the
remote past. This has been done several times, mostly without
making the peculiarities of either modern or antique propa
ganda explicit. On the other hand, scholars like Tonio Holscher
and Armin Eich insist that the transmission of political ideas in
antiquity cannot be described in terms of propaganda.2 Karl
Galinsky, in his monumental Augustan Culture, takes a scepti
cal stand with respect to propaganda, but does not entirely
deny the applicability of the concept.3 Gregor Weber and
Martin Zimmermann, who recently organised a conference on
propaganda, self-fashioning and representation in the Early
Roman Empire, 4 provide a revision of the definition of propa
ganda and a discussion of its applicability to Roman politics. 5
The editors of this book subscribe to many considerations and
doubts expressed in Weber's and Zimmermann's paper.
Surely it will not do to simply without question project the
modern concept of propaganda on political communication in
antiquity. Three alleged characteristics of modern propaganda
are especially problematic if one applies them to the situation
in the ancient world. First and foremost, there is the widely
held idea that modern propaganda is in principal centrally or
ganised by the leaders of the state or other central institutions
2 T. Holscher, 'Die Alten vor Augen. Politische Denkmaler und
offentliches Gedachtnis im republikanischen Rom', in: G. Melville (ed.},
Instutionalisierung und Symbolisierung. Verstetigung kultureller Ordnungsmuster in
Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, Cologne 2001; idem, 'Augustus und die Macht
der Archaologie', in: Giovannini, La revolutione Romain apres Ronald Syme, 237-
281; A. Eich, Politische Literatur in der Romischen Gesellschaft. Studien zum
Verhiiltnis von politischer und literarischer Offentlichkeit in der spiiten Republik und
in der Jrilhen Kaiserzeit, Cologne 2000.
3 K. Galinsky, Augustan Culture. An Interpretive Introduction, Princeton U.P.,
1996 (paperback edition Princeton 1998); see especially his discussion on 39-
41.
4 'Propaganda, Selbstdarstellung und Reprasentation', held at Tiibingen,
2000.
5 'Propaganda, Selbstdarstellung und Reprasentation. Die Leitbegriffe
des Kolloquiums in der Forschung zur Friihen Kaiserzeit', in: iidem (eds.),
Propaganda - Selbstdarstellung - Repriisentation im Romischen Kaiserreich des 1.
jhs. n. Chr., Wiesbaden and Stuttgart 2003.
INTRODUCTION 3
(German scholars speak of "zentrale Lenkung"), often so sys
tematically that one can speak of 'propaganda machines', and
that the machinery functions on the basis of clear orders given
to the actual producers of propaganda, such as text writers,
speakers and artists. The second alleged characteristic of mod
ern propaganda is closely related to the idea of the centrally
organized propaganda machine, and consists in the implanta
tion of information by force, for which Nazism and Soviet
Communism figure as archetypical examples. A third aspect
with far reaching consequences is that modern propaganda is,
by definition, considered to address very large audiences, the
mass. Implicitly or explicitly the modern mass media are re
garded as crucial instruments for effective political manipula
tion. Their quantitative potential has deeply affected our ideas
on propaganda. It has become difficult for us to imagine a
kind of propaganda that is imparted through different chan
nels and works in a different way.
Unfortunately, many scholars imported the modern con
cept of propaganda into classical studies without questioning
these three problematic features. Sir Ronald Syme, in his very
influential The Roman Revolution, written with the experi
ence of Nazi Fascism, applied the idea of centrally organised
propaganda ("zentrale Lenkung") to the reign of Augustus. 6
Mter Syme, many scholars departed from the implicit assump
tion that there were governmental propaganda machines in
antiquity that shaped political opinion in a way similar to
twentiest century propaganda. In the same implicit manner it
was taken for granted that equivalents of the modern mass
media existed in antiquity, and that they functioned in a similar
way. Coins were identified as antiquity's mass medium par ex
cellence. Many scholars believed that one of the most impor
tant functions of coins was to make political ideas acceptable
to the people. 7 H. Voit, for instance, calls the reverse of a coin
6 See especially Syme's chapter on 'The organisation of opinion'.
7 Among many others, e.g., M. Kemkes, 'Politische Propaganda zur Zeit
Traians im Spiegel der Miinzen und historischen Reliefs', in: E. Schallmeyer
(ed.), Traian in Germanien-Trajan im Reich, Bad Homburg 1999, 127-136; R.
Gobi, Die Miinzpriigung des Kaisers Aurelian, Wien 1993; H. Voit, 'Geld und
Politik, Propaganda auf romischen Miinzen', in: Geschichte lernen 21,1991,44-
49; G. Lahusen, Die Bildnismiinzen der romischen Republik, Munich 1989; W.
4 INTRODUCTION
'the side of propaganda', and says that since Augustus emper
ors prefer to use this instrument to impart political information
to the people, because in an age without radio and television
this was the only means available to communicate political
programs to the remote provinces.8 Others, including A.H.M.
Jones, M.H. Crawford and R. Wolters, objected to this idea.9
They considered it as decisive that in many cases it was not the
emperor himself who invented the message or ordered the
coinage, and that coins allow for clarification of political pro
grammes only to a fairly limited degree. Wolters, moreover,
has pointed out practical problems, such as the fact that coins
reached the people with considerable delay, and he concluded
that they were therefore not intended as means of propa
ganda.10 Karl Galinsky, too, doubts that coins functioned as
propagranda: "Coinage at best can reaffirm 'propaganda'
though not create it. At most, coin types can serve as a refle c
tion on, and as a record and affirmation of, something that is
already known through other sources".11 A similar discussion
arose in archaeology. Paul Zanker made an important effort to
understand Augustus' building and pictorial programmes as
propaganda, as a means to legitimate and promulgate his polit-
Trillmilch, Familienpropaganda der Kaiser Caligula und Claudius. Agrippina Maior
und Antonia Augusta auf Miinzen, Berlin 1978; A. Alfoldi, 'The main aspects of
Political Propaganda on the Coinage of the Roman Republic', in: R.A.G.
Carson and C.H.V. Sutherland (edd.), Essays in Roman Coinage Presented to H
Mattingly, Oxford 1956, 63-95.
8 "Die Riickseite einer Miinze ist die 'Propagandaseite'. Seit Augustus
benutzten die Kaiser mit Vorliebe dieses Mittel, urn Informationen unters
Volk zu bringen. In einer Zeit ohne Femsehen, Rundfunk und Zeitungen [ ... ]
war das das einzige Mittel, Regierungsprogramme [ ...] bis in die
abgelegensten Provinzen zu verkiinden," 'Geld und Politik, Propaganda auf
romischen Miinzen', 45 (emphasis added).
9 A.H.M. Jones, Numismatics and History, in: Carson and C.H.V.
Sutherland (edd.), Essays in Roman Coinage, 13-33; M.H. Crawford, 'Roman
Imperial Coin Types and the Formation of Public Opinion', in: C.N.L.
Brooke et al. (edd.), Studies in Numismatic Methods, Cambridge 1983, 47-64; R.
Wolters, Nummi signati. Untersuchungen zur Romischen Miinzpriigung und
Geldwirtschaft, Munich 1999. Cf. Karl Galinski's sceptical stand with respect to
profoaganda on coins in his Augustan Culture, 39-41.
°
Cf. Weber and Zimmermann, Propaganda, Selbstdarstellung und
Refr!iisentation, 24-28.
11 Augustan Culture, 39.