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1 Kevin Lubrano LAT 530 October 31, 2012 Aristocratic Values in Terence The Latin word for manliness

is virtus, from vir, meaning man, and virtus designates the activity and quality associated with the noun from which it is derived; virtus characterizes the ideal behavior of a man. In all accounts of ancient Roman values virtus holds a high place as a traditional quality that played a central part in war, politics, and religion. So close was the identification of virtus with Rome that when virtus was honored with a state cult, the image chosen for the cult statue was the same as that of the goddess Roma herself: an armed amazon. (McDonnell, 2) Thus, the ideal of the Roman aristocracy in its earliest expression known to us. It consisted in the gaining of the pre-eminent gloria by the winning of public office and the participation in public life and by using these methods to achieve great deeds in service of the state. (Earl: 1967, 35) 1) Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus and the Scipionic Circle a) 185-129 BCE b) The son of L. Aemilius Paullus, the victor at Pydna in 168 BCE c) There seems to have developed a tendency to think of the circle as a kind of club to which all Roman literati or philhellenes would naturally belong. A further development is then to identify this supposedly highly distinctive cultural group as a distinctive political group whose outlook and policies were conditioned by these cultural interests. There have even been attempts to portray the circle as owing its existence as a political group primarily to its common cultural and intellectual interestthough these extreme interpretations have commanded little support. (Astin, 294) d) Terence, the Scipionic Circle and humanitas: Chremes: homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto. (Haut. 77) Chremes: I am human; I think nothing of human affairs as foreign from me. 2) The vocabulary of aristocratic values a) The reluctance, almost refusal, of the Latin language to coin new words extended to the political vocabulary. Instead of inventing new words to express its peculiar ideas, the Roman aristocracy took already existing terms, usually with a moral content, redefined them to suit their own purposes and gave them back thus re-valued to the general run of the Latin vocabulary. (Earl: 1962, 470) b) Three sources for information on the make-up of the Greek aristocracy

2 i) Greek New Comedy ii) Lysias iii) Demosthenes c) The highest level of the Athenian aristocracy included the men the state felt free to call upon to subsidize its military and festival expenses the performing of liturgies provides an eminently workable criterion for distinguishing Athens upper class. (Casson, 30) d) Terence and the luxury of the elite: Davus: quam inique comparatumst, ii qui minus habent ut semper aliquid addant ditioribus! (Ph. 41-2) Davus: How unequally it is compared, that those who have less always add something to the very rich! 3) Terence and virtus a) When we examine how Terence uses virtus, it is at once apparent that he is dealing with a concept fundamentally the same as that of Plautus, but in a much more general way. We find a connection with the respublica, but in a purely conventional reference. (Earl: 1962, 471) b) Demea: homo amicus nobis iam inde a puero. O di boni! ne illius modi iam magna nobis civium paenuriast. homo antiqua virtute ac fide. haud cito mali quid ortum ex hoc sit publice. (Ad. 440-3) Demea: A man who was a friend to us all the way from boyhood. O good gods! Let there not be a significant want of such citizens for us now. A man with ancient virtus and trustworthiness. By no means soon would some public evil come from this man. c) Gnatho: quid? isti te ignorabant. postquam eis mores ostendi tuos et collaudavi secundum facta et virtutes tuas, impetravi. (Eun. 1089-91) Gnatho: What? They did not know you. After I showed them your character and I praised highly in favor of your virtus and deeds, I secured them. 4) Terence and fatherhood a) Two crucial elements in the Adelphoe have been identified as closely paralleling contemporary Roman debate (on child rearing). First, just as the drama features conflicting interpretations of the appropriate way to raise young sons, so the Hellenic elements of the education supplied by Paullus were far from accepted by all. (Leigh, 160).

3 b) Micio: nimium ipsest durus praeter aequomque et bonum, et errat longe mea quidem sententia qui imperium credat gravius esse aut stabulius vi quod fit quam illud quod amicitia adiungitur. (Ad. 64-7) Micio: He himself is excessively harsh beyond what is fair and good, and he errs greatly indeed in my opinion, since he considers authority which happens by force to be stronger and more stable than that which is joined by sympathy. c) Micio: hoc pater et dominus interest. hoc qui nequit, fateatur nescire imperare liberis. (Ad. 76-7) Micio: This is the difference between a father and master. He who cant do this, let him admit that he does not know how to control children. d) Demea: dicam tibi ut id ostenderem, quod te isti facilem et festivom putant id non fieri ex vera vita neque adeo ex aequo et bono sed ex assentando, indulgendo, et largiendo, Micio. (Ad. 985-8)

Demea: I will tell you, so that I might demonstrate this, that (while) your sons think you are good natured and jolly, this does not in fact happen from a true life or from anything fair or good, but from flattering, indulging, and being lavish, Micio. Bibliography Astin, A. E. Scipio Aemilianus. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967. Casson, Lionel. The Athenian Upper Class and New Comedy. Transactions of the American Philological Association. 106 (1976): 2959. Damen, Mark. Structure and Symmetry in Terences Adelphoe. Illinois Classical Studies. 15.1 (1990): 85106. Earl, D. C. Terence and Roman Politics. Historia: Zeitschrift fr Alte Geschichte. 11.4 (1962): 46985. Earl, D.C. The Moral and Political Tradition of Rome. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1967. Leigh, Matthew. Comedy and the rise of Rome. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. McDonnell, Myles. Roman Manliness. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

4 Rosenstein, Nathan. War, Failure, and Aristocratic Competition. Classical Philology. 85.4 (1990): 25565. Williams, Craig A. Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

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