Virgil the Partisan: A Study in the re-integration of Classics

316 Pages·2012·4.19 MB·English

by  Anton Powell

V i r g i l
t h e
Pa r t i s a n
A study in the
re-integration of Classics
Anton Powell
V i r g i l
t h e
Pa r t i s a n
A study in the
re-integration of Classics
anton powell
The Classical Press of Wales
First published in 2008 by
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IsBn 978-1-910589-39-7
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British library
typeset by ernest Buckley, Clunton, shropshire
printed and bound in the UK by gomer press, llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales
The Classical Press of Wales, an independent venture, was founded in 1993, initially to support the
work of classicists and ancient historians in Wales and their collaborators from further afield. More
recently it has published work initiated by scholars internationally . While retaining a special loyalty to
Wales and the Celtic countries, the Press welcomes scholarly contributions from all parts of the world.
The symbol of the press is the red Kite. This bird, once widespread in Britain, was reduced by 1905 to some
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after much careful protection, the red Kite now thrives – in Wales and beyond.
To
Hans-Peter Stahl
COntents
page
acknowledgements and prefatory note ix
Chronology xi
part I
studying Virgil and The established partisan: The Aeneid
1. studying Virgil: several types of circularity – and an escape 3
2. the theft of Pietas 31
3. recovering sicily 87
4. the peopling of the underworld: Aeneid 6.608–27 133
5. aeneas, sex and misery 149
part II
partisan in the making: The Eclogues and Georgics
6. the Eclogues 181
7. the Georgics: the fate of the Muses 227
8. Conclusion 283
9. Bibliography 291
10. Index 301
vii
aCKnOWleDgeMents
My numerous debts are gladly acknowledged. Many of them, taken together,
serve for me as a reminder in microcosm of the historic sophistication of
Manchester and its region. accordingly, and from afar, I thank first ernest
Buckley from Milnrow. scholar, technician and diplomat – and formerly
rural Dean of the Clun Forest Deanery – he has designed and typeset every
book from the Classical press of Wales, and made the press’s priorities his own.
I am fortunate to know him. lucy holden, formerly prize-winning classicist
of edinburgh University and more recently head of Classics at Withington
girls’ school, over years gave practical and moral support to the writing of
this book. Ian lambert, from Failsworth, initially my student at the Working
Men’s College and subsequently a wise friend, helped me on points of
psychology. Ian McCannah, from Old trafford, by his enterprise and integrity
created in london a professional organization which underpinned the
finances of the press, and of my own writing. The polymathic classicist Daniel
Ogden, once of Manchester grammar school, has read the book in draft and
much improved it in structure as well as detail. rachel Williams, an animatrice
of Classics at Manchester grammar school, has contributed to the book in
detail; her exceptional students informed and encouraged its author.
Much research for the book was done in France, in the superb library of
the ecole normale supérieure, paris. Colleagues of the ecole to whom I am
indebted are Francis prost, Monique trédé and François Menant. From
other French institutions, three colleagues are to be warmly thanked for their
intellectual generosity, and practical kindness: pierre Brulé (of rennes II),
Jacqueline Christien (nanterre) and nicolas richer (ens, lyon). The
ideas and the friendship which I have encountered in France have been an
inspiration.
I have benefited from the unfailing friendship of the philologist Michael
Benskin (of Oslo) and the mathematician susan Friedlander (of the University
of southern California). Michael lipton, development economist, inspired
by his virtuoso combination of intellectual methods. Merle lipton taught
me much about the politics of south africa. stephen Mitchell in swansea
created enduring structure for a University of Wales institute. annette
Davies, also of swansea, provided remarkable intelligence concerning
academic psychology.
ix
Acknowledgements and Prefatory Note
Three senior latinists kindly improved this work. philip hardie showed
characteristic generosity and patience in the face of my unconventional
approach to a revered ancient author. his judgements have been taken to
heart. John trappes-lomax, textual critic and friend of many years, improved
content and style throughout. and leofranc holford-strevens fortified the
author both by his interest and by his valued criticisms.
Ioanna Kralli, hellenistic historian, gave valued encouragement as well as
practical support in athens.
I thank my daughters for countless forms of encouragement, all the more
inspiring because they would not have seen it as such. annie powell said, over
years, that she was looking forward to the appearance of ‘V the p’. eva powell,
after a childhood resolutely committed to the rug rats, the spice girls and
Britney spears, when sixteen told me unexpectedly – with maximum coolness
– that she was ‘getting quite interested in athenian democracy’.
I record my gratitude to each of my parents: to my father, the germanist
hugh powell, who used both determination and finesse to ensure that his son
should have a Classical education; and to my mother, who in my childhood
always answered my questions.
Finally, I have had the honour to know two classical scholars who each
have been an example in their field, each a master of architecture and of
detail: geoffrey de ste Croix and hans-peter stahl. The former showed that,
if only in rare cases such as his, partisanship was compatible with the highest
standard of argument. to the latter my debt is even more obviously personal.
Without his intervention as (then) a stranger, an article of my own on Virgil
from 1992, which now appears a sketch for part of this book, would probably
have been – as far as latin poetry was concerned – a permanent sheath for
my quill. I hope he will not regret his responsibility. Until the mid-1990s
I had known of two separate stahls: the author (in german) of perhaps the
best argument on Thucydides of the twentieth century, and the author (in
english) of a definitive study of propertius. But these stahls were one and
the same. This may inspire others, if only as would-be epigones, to attempt to
combine greek with roman studies. It is for many reasons that the book is
dedicated to him.
preFatOry nOte
The text of Virgil followed is that of r.a.B.Mynors. references to appian are
throughout to his Civil Wars. ‘servius’ is used almost indiscriminately to refer
to items in the servian corpus. Dates are bc unless otherwise indicated.
x
ChrOnOlOgy
The tables below show main political developments referred to in this book, alongside
conventional dates for Virgil’s own activity.
44 assassination of Julius Caesar.
43– antony, Octavian and lepidus, the triumvirs,
conduct massacre of opponents and of the rich, the
‘proscriptions’. Death of Cicero. popular resistance to
‘proscriptions’.
43/2 sextus pompeius, outlawed, takes control of sicily and
the western Mediterranean.
42 Battle of philippi: antony (with Octavian) defeats
republicans under Brutus and Cassius. Widespread
seizure of Italian land by Octavian and antony, to be
given to veteran soldiers of the philippi campaign.
42–36 (with interruption from 39)
sextus pompeius blocks rome’s import of food by
sea, and promotes rescue of the ‘proscribed’. Octavian
fails several times in attempts to defeat sextus by sea.
popular demonstrations at rome in favour of sextus
and of peace.
40 Octavian marries scribonia, of sextus pompeius’ c. 40, Eclogues
faction. written.
39 short-lived treaty of Misenum between triumvirs and
sextus pompeius; remaining ‘proscribed’ are granted
their lives. Octavian betrothes his infant nephew,
Marcellus, to daughter of sextus pompeius.
36 Octavian defeated by sextus pompeius at
tauromenium (sicily); narrowly escapes with his life.
36 Battle of naulochus (sicily): agrippa, from his base at 36–29(?), Georgics
portus Iulius, defeats sextus pompeius in Octavian’s written.
interest; sextus loses sicily. end of naval blockade of
Italy and of prospect of restoring seized Italian lands.
Fall of lepidus.
35 Death of sextus pompeius in asia Minor.
31 Battle of actium: defeat of antony.
31– sole rule of Octavian over roman world.
27 Octavian changes his name; becomes ‘augustus’.
early 20s onwards,
Aeneid written;
unfinished at time
of Virgil’s death.
19, Death of Virgil.
xi
part I
studying Virgil
and
The established partisan:
The Aeneid
1
stUDyIng VIrgIl:
seVeral types OF CIrCUlarIty –
anD an esCape
every age has its own approach to the Bible – and perhaps its own Virgil.
r.p.h. green 2007, 163
… although aeneas exhibits the appropriate emotions it is hard entirely to
evade a feeling that … J. griffin 1986, 831
Virgil has been so much defended; collectively the effect has been to damage
his reputation. ‘Why,’ the interested non-specialist may wonder, ‘does this
writer need so much defence? Is he not generally recognized as the greatest of
latin poets?’ But it is perhaps the very position of Virgil’s poetry as the chief
asset of latinism that helps to cause such defensive anxiety among specialists.
If Virgil fails to attract, and to attract the young in particular, will the survival
of latin literary studies not be compromised?
recent studies of Virgil have made impressive advances. The relation of
his poems to their generic ancestors is being understood as perhaps never
before – at least since antiquity. Close comparisons of the latin poet and
his models increasingly make clear Virgil’s elaborate mastery of greek poetic
forms. so intimate has Virgil’s dependence seemed that philip hardie has
been able to write: ‘the Aeneid is faithful to its homeric models at all levels’.2
Modern scholarship has also converged productively on the idea of Virgil
as consummate architect.3 The architectural metaphor is now used widely
of Virgil’s work, quite properly; the poet himself, at a strategic moment
in the Georgics, figures his poetry as a temple. he writes of his temple, his
poetry, as having a centre, to be occupied by ‘Caesar’: In medio mihi Caesar
erit templumque tenebit (G 3.16). Centre implies symmetry, and the search
for symmetry in the poet’s oeuvre has been one of the successful aspects of
recent work. It is now commonly accepted that the Aeneid divides clearly
(though not cleanly) into halves, an Odyssean (Books 1–6) and an Iliadic
(Books 7–12). The four books of the Georgics are themselves seen by some4
as hinging purposefully at the transition between Books 2 and 3 – the point,
3