Abstrakt
The Trojan War or, more precisely, the sacking of Troy, plays an important role in the Roman cultural imagination and the crucial text dealing with these events, Vergil’s Aeneid II, has been used by various authors in various literary genres in order to build associations between their own subject matter and the fates of Priam, Hecuba, Aeneas etc. Thus, for example, the death of Agamemnon in Seneca’s tragedy of the same title bears a similarity to the death of Priam in the Aeneid; the two narratives are examined in the first part of the paper. In the main part of the paper, we move from Seneca to Tacitus; here, after a brief consideration of a passage from the account of the death of Galba (Hist. I 41, 3), there is a detailed discussion of one chapter from the end of Book III of the Histories (84). The chapter describes the Vitellian soldiers’ last stand against the Flavian army in Rome on December 20, AD 69 and Emperor Vitellius’ pathetic demise. The paper’s particular focus is on intertextual references which, so it seems, are introduced by Tacitus into his narrative to make his account of the last stage of the Roman Civil War of AD 68/69 more graphic and memorable; importantly, most of these references evoke the Trojan War and its aftermath. In particular, the following passages are analysed: (1) Tac. Hist. III 84, 2 ~ Verg. Aen. II 501–502; (2) Tac. Hist. III 84, 3 ~ Sall. Cat. 52, 3 + Eur. Hec. 568–570 (cf. Ov. Met. XIII 879–880; Fast. II 833–834); (3) Tac. Hist. III 84, 4 ~ Verg. Aen. II 755; (4) Tac. Hist. III 84, 5 ~ Verg. Aen. II 57–59.
Finansowanie
Część materiałów potrzebnych do napisania tego artykułu zebrałem podczas pobytu stypendialnego w Oksfordzie latem 2022 r. Dziękuję Fundacji z Brzezia Lanckorońskich za przyznane stypendium.
Bibliografia
P. Vergilii Maronis Aeneidos liber secundus, with a Commentary by R.G. Austin, Oxford 1964 [=Austin 1964].
H. Heubner, P. Cornelius Tacitus, Die Historien. Kommentar, vol. III: Drittes Buch, Heidelberg 1972 [= Heubner 1972].
Cornelius Tacitus, The Histories, Book III, Edited by K. Wellesley, Sydney 1972 [= Wellesley 1972].
Ash 1999: R. Ash, Ordering Anarchy: Armies and Leaders in Tacitus’ Histories, London 1999. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.16755
Bartol 1999: K. Bartol, Liryka grecka. Wybór tekstów i komentarz, t. I: Jamb i elegia, oprac. K. Bartol, red. J. Danielewicz, Warszawa–Poznań 1999.
Baxter 1971: R.T.S. Baxter, Virgil’s Influence on Tacitus in Book 3 of the Histories, „Classical Philology” LXVI (1971), 93–107. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/365721
Benario 1972: H.W. Benario, Priam and Galba, „Classical World” LXV (1972), 146–147. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/4347632
Berno 2004: F.R. Berno, Un truncus, molti re. Priamo, Agamennone, Pompeo (Virgilio, Seneca, Lucano), „Maia” LVI (2004), 79–84.
Bielawski 2017: K. Bielawski, Ofiara krwawa w Grecji starożytnej w świetle danych filologicznych. Tragedia attycka, Warszawa 2017.
Borzsák 1973: I. Borzsák, Spectaculum. Ein Motiv der „tragischen Geschichtschreibung” bei Livius und Tacitus, „Acta Classica Universitatis Scientiarum Debreceniensis” IX (1973), 57–67.
Bowie 1990: A.M. Bowie, The Death of Priam: Allegory and History in the Aeneid, „Classical Quarterly” XL (1990), 470–481. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838800043044
Bremmer 2007: J.N. Bremmer, Myth and Ritual in Greek Human Sacrifice: Lykaon, Polyxena and the Case of the Rhodian Criminal, w: The Strange World of Human Sacrifice, ed. J.N. Bremmer, Leuven 2007, 55–79.
Bremmer 2017: J.N. Bremmer, Maidens, Magic and Martyrs in Early Christianity. Collected Essays I, Tübingen 2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1628/978-3-16-155438-4
Brena 1993: F. Brena, Das Blut und die Flamme. Anmerkung zu Lucan 2, 126–129, „Rheinisches Museum” CXXXVI (1993), 307–321.
Briessmann 1955: A. Briessmann, Tacitus und das flavische Geschichtsbild, Wiesbaden 1955.
Cizek 1975: E. Cizek, La mort de Vitellius dans les „Vies des douze Césars” de Suétone, „Revue des Études Anciennes” LXXVII (1975), 125–130. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/rea.1975.3989
Foucher 2000: A. Foucher, Historia proxima poetis. L’influence de la poésie épique sur le style des historiens latins de Salluste à Ammien Marcellin, Bruxelles 2000.
Friesen 2016: C.J.P. Friesen, Dying Like a Woman: Euripides’ Polyxena as Exemplum between Philo and Clement of Alexandria, „Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies” LVI (2016), 623–645.
Galtier 2010: F. Galtier, La chute de Vitellius dans les Histoires de Tacite, „Dialogues d’Histoire Ancienne” Supplément IV (2010), nr 2, 479–491. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/dha.2010.3378
Henrichs 2000: A. Henrichs, Drama and Dromena: Bloodshed, Violence, and Sacrificial Metaphor in Euripides, „Harvard Studies in Classical Philology” C (2000), 173–188. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3185214
Huskey 2002: S. Huskey, Ovid and the Fall of Troy in Tristia 1.3, „Vergilius” XLVIII (2002), 88–104.
Joseph 2012: T. Joseph, Tacitus the Epic Successor. Virgil, Lucan, and the Narrative of Civil Wars in the Histories, Leiden–Boston 2012. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004231283
Keitel 1992: E. Keitel, Foedum Spectaculum and Related Motifs in Tacitus’ Histories I–III, „Rheinisches Museum” CXXXV (1992), 342–351.
Keitel 2008: E. Keitel, The Virgilian Reminiscences at Tacitus Histories 3.84.4, „Classical Quarterly” LVIII (2008), 705–708. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838808000839
Keitel 2010: E. Keitel, The Art of Losing: Tacitus and the Disaster Narrative, w: Ancient Historiography and Its Contexts. Studies in Honour of A.J. Woodman, eds. C.S. Kraus, J. Marincola, C. Pelling, Oxford 2010, 331–352. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199558681.003.0020
Levene 1997: D.S. Levene, Pity, Fear, and the Historical Audience: Tacitus on the Fall of Vitellius, w: The Passions in Roman Thought and Literature, eds. S.M. Braund, C. Gill, Cambridge 1997, 128–149. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511586163.010
Lohikoski 1966: K.K. Lohikoski, Der Parallelismus Mykene–Troja in Senecas „Agamemnon”, „Arctos” IV (1966), 63–70.
Moles 1983: J.L. Moles, Virgil, Pompey, and the Histories of Asinius Pollio, „Classical World” LXXVI (1983), 287–288. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/4349471
Mossman 1995: J. Mossman, Wild Justice: A Study of Euripides’ Hecuba, Oxford 1995.
Oakley 2009: S.P. Oakley, Style and Language, w: The Cambridge Companion to Tacitus, ed. A.J. Woodman, Cambridge 2009, 195–211. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521874601.015
Papastamati 2017: S. Papastamati, The Poetics of kalos thanatos in Euripides’ Hecuba. Masculine and Feminine Motifs in Polyxena’s Death, „Mnemosyne” LXX (2017), 361–385. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525X-12341972
Pausch 2004: D. Pausch, Biographie und Bildungskultur. Personendarstellungen bei Plinius dem Jüngeren, Gellius und Sueton, Berlin 2004. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110919844
Piętka 2019: R. Piętka, Dekapitacja w symbolicznych biografiach antycznych bohaterów, w: Heroica. Bohaterstwo w literaturze i kulturze europejskiej, red. A. Gawarecka, W. Szturc, E. Wesołowska, Poznań 2019, 105–119.
Pigoń 2004: J. Pigoń, Ze studiów nad technikami narracyjnymi Tacyta. Wypowiedzi proleptyczne, Wrocław 2004.
Pigoń 2017: J. Pigoń, Der Kaiser und sein Heer. Zum Bild des Vitellius in den Historien des Tacitus, „Hermes” CXLV (2017), 210–223. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25162/hermes-2017-0016
Power 2014: T. Power, Galba and Priam in Tacitus’ Histories, „Rheinisches Museum” CLVII (2014), 216–220.
Rossi 2000: A. Rossi, The Aeneid Revisited: The Journey of Pompey in Lucan’s Pharsalia, „American Journal of Philology” CXXI (2000), 571–591. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2000.0057
Scafoglio 2012: G. Scafoglio, The Murder of Priam in a Tragedy by Pacuvius, „Classical Quarterly” LXII (2012), 664–670. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838812000237
Schwerdtner 2015: K. Schwerdtner, Plinius und seine Klassiker. Studien zur literarischen Zitation in den Pliniusbriefen, Berlin–Boston 2015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110417401
Suerbaum 2015: W. Suerbaum, Skepsis und Suggestion. Tacitus als Historiker und als Literat, Heidelberg 2015.
Wesołowska 1998: E. Wesołowska, Prologi tragedii Seneki w świetle komunikacji literackiej, Poznań 1998.
Zeitlin 1965: F.I. Zeitlin, The Motif of the Corrupted Sacrifice in Aeschylus’ Oresteia, „Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association” XCVI (1965), 463–508. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/283744