In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Arethusa 39.3 (2006) 449-469



[Access article in PDF]

The Introduction of Epic in Rome:Cultural Thefts and Social Contests

University of Canterbury, Christchurch
Luego, los ricos y los poderosos se apoderaron de las palabras importantes porque representaban las cosas que querían, las cosas importantes.

Afterwards, the rich and powerful took possession of the important words because they represented the things they wanted, the important things.

Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, El señor de los bonsáis

Ennius opened his Annales by invoking the Muses: "Musae quae pedibus magnum pulsatis Olympum," "Muses, who with your feet beat great Olympus" (Ann. 1). In his magisterial edition of the poem, Otto Skutsch comments on this line as follows (1985.144):

The poet invokes the Muses instead of the Camenae, to whom Livius Andronicus in his translation of the Odyssey and apparently Naevius in the Carmen Belli Punici had addressed themselves. He [Ennius] thus expressed his intention to subject Roman poetry to the discipline of Greek poetic form. As the Camenae, who may owe their connection with poetry to an etymology linking their name to carmen, are replaced by the Muses, so carmen is replaced by poema (12), uates by poeta (3), and the Saturnian line by the hexameter (206–7). The beginning of the reign of the Muses in Roman poetry coincides, hardly by accident, with their introduction into the cult of Rome [End Page 449] by Ennius' patron M. Fulvius Nobilior, probably not, as often assumed, in 187 B.C., the year of his triumph over the Aetolians, but in 179, the year of his censorship.

Skutsch's remarks are built upon two discourses. The first involves the failure of Ennius's predecessors to submit Roman poetry to the aesthetic standards set by the Greek epic tradition; the second implies that Ennius's success in doing so went hand in hand with M. Fulvius Nobilior's decision to build a new temple dedicated to the Muses.1 Implicated in the first discourse is the understanding that carmen, uates, and the Saturnian are signifiers of a more primitive (Roman) civilization, whereas poema, poeta, and the hexameter stand for a more refined (Greek) sensibility. The second discourse obscures the fact that Fulvius's temple hosted statues of the Muses plundered from Ambracia and reinforces the first by suggesting that Fulvius's collaboration with Ennius constituted a turning point in the process of Rome's surrender to the cultural power of Greece.

In recent years, the teleological trajectory embedded in Skutsch's comments has been at the center of an intense scholarly debate. Some have traced how this trajectory is reconstructed and corroborated by later authors (Hinds 1998.52–74). Others emphasize that, with the Annales, Rome witnessed the final establishment of an epic genre focused on the celebration of national exploits and a new type of socio-cultural partnership between poets and rulers.2 Still others turn their attention to broader cultural events such as a shift in acculturation practices, the professionalization of culture, and the emergence of a literature in Latin more generally. According to this view, literary epic is to be linked to the textually undocumented carmina convivalia that Cato the Censor evoked in his Origines, but whether this link was one of continuity in change or one of crisis and resolution remains a contested issue.3 Taken together, these recent discussions make it necessary to sharpen our methodological tools and to plumb more deeply the intricate process that led to the formation of an epic tradition in Rome. [End Page 450]

Starting from the assumption that we cannot simply accept the notion that the Romans suddenly fell under the spell of a superior Greek culture, it might be worthwhile to review the evidence that we have at our disposal.4 First of all, the archeological record demonstrates that, just like the Etruscans and other Italic populations, the Romans were greatly affected by Greek culture starting in the late eighth century B.C.E.5 In the course of the third century B.C.E., however, Rome's relations with...

pdf

Share