A Companion to Late Antique Literature

by Scott McGill

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  Talbot, Alice‐Mary Maffry and Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald. (2012). Miracle Tales from Byzantium. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 12. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  Tarrant, Harold. ed. (2007–2013). Proclus: Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus. 5 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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  Troupeau, Gérard. (1991). Le rôle des syriaques dans la transmission et l’exploitation du patrimoine philosophique et scientifique grec. Arabica 38: 1–10.

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  Watts, Edward J. (2006). City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  Webb, Ruth. (2009). Ekphrasis, Imagination and Persuasion in Ancient Rhetorical Theory and Practice. Farnham: Ashgate.

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  CHAPTER TWO

  Latin

  Ian Wood

  Over the course of the fourth to sixth centuries Latin literature changed fundamentally, if not absolutely. The shift can be related to the broader shifts in religion, politics, and society, including Christianization; the failure of the Western Roman Empire; the development of the so‐called successor states, with their different patronage systems; and a change in schooling. In the fifth century the core curriculum was based on what is now referred to as the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music) (Marrou 1969). This division of education into the so‐called seven liberal arts can be found in the De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii of the fifth‐century African jurist Martianus Capella (Shanzer 1986), although the actual term quadrivium seems to have been coined in the sixth century by either Boethius (d. 524) or Cassiodorus (d. ca. 585), while trivium first appears in the Carolingian period. Both Augustine (d. 430) and Paulinus of Pella (d. post 461) refer to this traditional education. Already by the early sixth century, however, such an educational system was in decline, even though one can find some evidence for rhetorical schools in a number of cities, including Milan (for which we have the evidence of Ennodius of Pavia [d. 521]; Kennell 2000), in the post‐Roman period. What evidence we have for schooling in the seventh century suggests that it was largely in the hands of the clergy: There was certainly some religious education at a parish level (we hear of children learning the psalms), and there are indications that episcopal households could act as educational centers. (Riché 1976.) So, too, could the courts of kings, although exactly what was taught, and how it was taught, is unclear. Essentially, the urban education system of antiquity ended in the fifth and sixth centuries.

  Equally important for the changes in Latin literature was the removal of the imperial court, which had served as a focus for certain types of public oratory, notably panegyric, while the collapse of the senatorial aristocracy removed an additional source of patronage and, indeed, of audiences and circles of literary production. Certainly the courts of the kings of the early medieval West could still function as foci for literary production, and literature could still be produced in aristocratic households (Hen 2007). But while some of this literature looked back to the traditions of oratory and letter writing that had been central to the imperial aristocracy of the fifth and sixth centuries, of much greater significance was the production of religious texts, and not least of works of hagiography. An ideal guide to the learning of educated Christians at the end of the sixth century may be found in Cassiodorus’s Institutions of Divine and Secular Learning (Halporn and Vessey 2004).

  A further complication was linguistic change. Although late antiquity saw the production of a number of grammar books, notably those of the fourth‐century Donatus and the sixth‐century Priscian, the Latin language – like any language – changed. There were sound changes and shifts in orthography, as well as changes in prosody and meter, with accentual meter replacing the stress patterns of classical poetry, and with rhyme coming to be increasingly prominent. As a result, the language of a seventh‐century text seems radically different from that of a cultivated author of the fourth century, but what we might regard as proto‐Romance was, in fact, the Latin of the day (Grandgent 1907; Wright 1982; Banniard 1992).

  When considering the changes in literary production over the late antique period, it is useful to examine individual genres, although as we will see, there is considerable overlap between some forms of literary production. We will begin with the most official forms (panegyric and oratory in general). After a brief glance at philosophical writing, we will turn to poetry (which overlaps with panegyric) and epistolography (which overlaps with poetry, and occasionally with panegyric). Thereafter, we will look at history writing and at its relationship with what is sometimes called pseudo‐history and with hagiography.

  2.1 Panegyric and Secular Oratory

  In many ways the fourth century was the golden age of panegyric (Whitby 1998; Rees 2012). Although the genre was not new, developments in imperial and senatorial public display from the reign of Diocletian (284–305) onwards provided a context for the delivery of extremely elaborate praise speeches, initially in prose, although, by the beginning of the fifth century, also in verse. Thus, assumption of major office, including the imperial title, as well as the consulship, together with important anniversaries, provided an excuse for the public delivery of a panegyric. These were more than simple laudatory exercises, in that they also functioned as works of justification, explaining public policy or the political position of the individual being lauded. The most significant collection of prose panegyrics is that known under the title Panegyrici Latini, made in the reign of Theodosius I (379–395) by Pacatus, which gathers together a sequence of 12 panegyrics, covering the century from 289 to 389, from the days of the Tetrarchy down to the compiler’s own offering (Nixon and Rodgers 1994). The collection was prefaced by Pliny’s panegyric to Trajan, which served as a model.

  Among other panegyrics of the late fourth century there are the orations of Symmachus, the first of which is addressed to Valentinian I (364–375), and Ausoni
us’s Gratiarum Actio offered to Gratian (375–383) in 379 for granting him the consulship (Lolli 2006). Symmachus’s flowery style, the so‐called stylum pingue atque floridum, was thought particularly apposite for such formal addresses. The tradition of prose panegyrics continued into the fifth century, as can be seen in the fragments of that of Merobaudes for the magister militum Aetius (d. 454) (Clover 1971), and it even lasted into the sixth. Another fragmentary panegyric is that addressed by Cassiodorus to the Ostrogothic king Theodoric (493–526), who is also the subject of an extensive work by Ennodius of Pavia (Rohr 1995), although there is some doubt as to whether this was delivered as a spoken oration.

  Equally characteristic of the public literary scene was the verse panegyric, which in the opening years of the fifth century became the dominant form of public address as a result of the works of Claudian, acting as the mouthpiece for the magister militum Stilicho (d. 408) (Cameron 1970; Schindler 2009, pp. 227–309). Claudian’s verse panegyrics were highly elaborate allegorical exercises, which could even include discussion between the Olympian gods. Indeed, there is no hint of Christianity in his work, despite the fact that the audience by this time was almost entirely Christian; he himself, however, is described as a pagan by both Orosius (d. post 418) and Augustine. Claudian’s verse panegyrics provided the model for Sidonius Apollinaris (d. ca.489), in the sequence of public poems addressed to the emperors Avitus (455–456), Majorian (457–461), and Anthemius (467–472), which he composed in the middle of the fifth century (Harries 1994; Watson 1998). Sidonius seems to have had no immediate successor in the West – a lacuna which can no doubt be explained by the collapse of the imperial court, although Sidonius himself did write a poem in praise of the Visigothic king Euric (466–484). In Constantinople, however, the Latin verse panegyric was clearly still in vogue in the second half of the sixth century, as can be seen from the In Laudem Iustini, written in praise of Justin II (565–574) by the African poet Corippus (Cameron 1976, Schindler 2009). But even in the West, verse that was inspired by the tradition of panegyric did continue in the immediately post‐Roman kingdoms. At the very end of the fifth century Dracontius (d. 505) wrote his Satisfactio ad Gunthamundum, as a plea for pardon for some unspecified political crime (Conant 2012, pp. 141–148). In the second half of the sixth century the Italian Venantius Fortunatus (d. ca. 600) wrote a considerable amount of verse for formal occasions at the Frankish courts of Merovingian kings, including praise poems and an epithalamium (George 1992, 1995; Roberts 2009). Fortunatus wrote in a style that has been described as “jeweled” (Roberts 1989, esp. pp. 138–142, 151), a variant of the earlier stylum atque floridum. He would seem to have learned his skills in Justinianic Ravenna.

  Panegyric was, of course, only one genre of public oratory: In addition to his oration for Valentinian, Symmachus wrote a number of speeches, most famously the third Relatio (384), which argued for the restoration of the Altar of Victory to the Senate House (Barrow 1976). Also close in kind to panegyric and to epithalamia, marking imperial or aristocratic marriages, were funerary orations. Among the most significant of these were those delivered by Ambrose, bishop of Milan (374–397), for Valentinian II (375–392) and for Theodosius I (Liebeschuetz 2005). These, of course, were both laudatory and, at the same time, religious. As such, they point to the strong connection between secular and religious oratory.

  2.2 Sermons

  The fourth and fifth centuries were as much a golden age for the composition of sermons as they were for the composition of panegyric. Some of the finest preachers had been trained as rhetors, among them both Ambrose and Augustine (395–430), as well as the late fifth‐century religious teacher Julianus Pomerius. Although we tend to understand sermons as essentially spiritual, there is no doubt that congregations in the fifth and sixth centuries appreciated them as rhetorical exercises (Maxwell 2006, pp. 1–64) and were stirred to strong emotion by them (Brown 2000, p. 248, on Augustine). The sermons of Caesarius of Arles (502–542) in the early sixth century were highly regarded and survive in large numbers, although many of those that are now attributed to him were either attributed to Augustine or are anonymous in the manuscripts (Klingshirn 1994, pp. 9–10). Other Gallic sermons of the late fifth century are preserved in a collection known now as that of Eusebius Gallicanus, which seems to include works by a number of ecclesiastics, including Faustus of Riez (Bailey 2010). We know that Avitus of Vienne (d. 518) compiled a volume of sermons for the ecclesiastical year, some of which have come down to us, while others of his sermons, intended for specific occasions, notably the dedication of churches, were preserved among his letters (Wood 1986, 2014). That his sermons were assessed as oratorical displays is clear from the fact that in one of his letters he has to defend himself from the charge leveled by a fellow bishop of having wrongly stressed a syllable in the course of his preaching.

  Of course, the theological content of a sermon was ultimately more important than its oratorical qualities. Sermons, indeed, overlap with full‐blown works of theology. A number of the most important theological works of Gregory the Great (590–604), including the commentaries on Ezekiel and those on Job, were delivered as homilies. Drawing a line between literature and theology is thus extremely difficult – and not just with regard to homiletic writing. Augustine’s works are particularly challenging in this respect. It is useful, here, to remember Sidonius’s description of the library of his friend Ferreolus. The section closest to the seats intended for men included works that were distinguished by their eloquence, despite the difference of their subject matter and opinions: The authors shelved together are named by Sidonius as Augustine, Varro, Horace, and Prudentius, as well as Origen, in Rufinus’s translation – although he does note their varying doctrinal positions. The section closest to the seats intended for the women, by contrast, is described as holding the religious works. Apparently Origen and Augustine were valued by Ferreolus for their style more than their content.

  2.3 Philosophy

  Even nowadays it is possible to make a connection between Augustine and Varro, given the attention paid to the philosopher by the bishop of Hippo in the City of God. Just as one needs to note the overlap between panegyrics and sermons, so, too, one needs to remember that theology and philosophy were overlapping categories. Augustine’s Cassiciacum Dialogues belong firmly to the work of late antique philosophical thought.

  Philosophy was to be found not only in the theological works of the fifth century. In addition to Martianus Capella, whose De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii constitutes an allegorical guide to the liberal arts, there is Macrobius’s commentary on the Dream of Scipio, which offers a philosophical and especially Neoplatonist reading of the cosmos (Cameron 2011, pp. 269–270). A century later Boethius wrote the last of the great philosophical works of antiquity, the Consolation of Philosophy, while imprisoned in Ravenna in 524, awaiting execution on the orders of the Ostrogothic ruler Theodoric the Great. Although this is the most famous of Boethius’s works, his output reflected the full range of learning noted by Martianus Capella, with volumes on music, arithmetic, and commentaries on Aristotle. In addition, he was the author of a number of short theological treatises dealing with Trinitarian questions (Chadwick 1981; Marenbon 2003, 2009).

  2.4 Secular Verse

  Although the late antique period can be seen as a golden age of panegyric and, indeed, of homiletic writing, its poetry tends to be less highly regarded, being unfavorably compared with both the Augustan Age of Virgil and Ovid and the Silver Age of Statius. Yet the verse of the period is not insignificant. We have already noted the verse panegyrics of Claudian and Sidonius. Claudian also left an incomplete poem on the Rape of Proserpine. Another substantial mythological work, the Orestes, was composed in the Vandal kingdom around the year 500 by Dracontius (Díaz de Bustamente 1978; Bureau 2003). Post‐Roman North Africa, indeed, seems to have been a center of poetic production, much of it – including some of Dracontius’s work – slight in scale (Kay 2006). A significant number of the po
ems collected in the Latin Anthology appear to have been written in late fifth‐century Africa, among them the often risqué poems of Luxorius. Africa after the fall of the Vandals provided the setting for the last substantial secular, albeit not mythological, epic, Corippus’s account of the campaigns of John Troglita against the Moors (Gärtner 2008).

  The best‐known secular poems of the period, however, are not substantial epics but rather works, often smaller in scale, that treat rather more mundane themes. Toward the end of the fourth century Ausonius, for instance, wrote works on his family, in the Parentalia, and on the professors of Bordeaux, where his own rhetorical career had begun, as well as his most famous poem, the Mosella, describing and musing on the landscape of the river valley (Green 1991, Sivan 1993). The contemporary landscape is also central to one of the most significant large‐scale secular poems of the early fifth century, Rutilius Namatianus’s now‐fragmentary account of his journey from Rome, where he had been city prefect, to his homeland in Gaul, in 416 – the De Reditu Suo (Wolff 2007; Malamud 2016). Although the world that Rutilius describes is one that had recently suffered from the passage of the Visigoths, the gloss that he puts on the situation is one of imminent renewal, ordo renascendi (Matthews 1975, pp. 329–376). It is unfortunate that the concluding books of the poem are lost, since they would have shed more light on the literary circles of Gaul, which at this time provided an audience for the one surviving late antique theatrical work, the Querolus, which deals comically with the problems facing a minor aristocrat of the period (Lassandro and Romano 1991).

  2.5 Religious Verse

  A contemporary of Rutilius, also belonging to the senatorial aristocracy – indeed even more socially distinguished – was Paulinus of Pella, the grandson of Ausonius. His great poem, however, while concerned with recent events, is religious in orientation. The Eucharisticos is Paulinus’s thanksgiving to God for his survival, despite the disasters of the early fifth century that had led to his losing almost all his inheritance – which he narrates in some detail (McLynn 1995). Other poets of the period, writing perhaps slightly before Paulinus, also took as their subject matter the state of Gaul following the invasions of the Vandals, Alans, and Sueves, followed by the arrival of the Visigoths. Among the poems is the Commonitorium, ascribed to bishop Orientius of Auch, which, like the Carmen de providentia Dei, is sometimes attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine, turns the crisis into a springboard for spiritual exhortation (Marcovich 1989; Gillett 2003, pp. 138–143; Fielding 2014).