The Roman Self in Late Antiquity: Prudentius and the Poetics of the Soul (review)

Marc Mastrangelo sets out to achieve two goals, one focused on the interpretation of the works of Prudentius, the other of broader literary-historical import. The first is to demonstrate the centrality of biblical typological interpretation to the understanding of Prudentius's theological, political, and ethical program. Having revealed the intellectual depth of that program, he argues for a re-evaluation of Prudentius's achievement. According to M., this consists, on the one hand, of establishing poetry as a vehicle of public and religious discourse that is as comprehensive and authoritative as prose. Though usually disregarded in discussions of western theology, Prudentius should be read alongside Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine. On the other hand, so he argues, a just appreciation of the poet's breadth of vision, embracing ancient Roman, biblical (both Old and New Testaments), and Roman Christian historical traditions, should lead to a re-evaluation of his position as epicist. Though usually dismissed as a primitive representative of the tradition of allegorical verse that it initiates, the Psychomachia should be recognized as a major work in the development of epic between Vergil and Dante. This project unfolds in four chapters and an epilogue.

The first chapter is intended to demonstrate "a programmatic relationship between Prudentius and his epic predecessor Vergil that establishes the soul as the focal point of moral and political development" (10). In fact, much space is devoted to arguing for detailed correspondences between Psych. and Aen. 6. M. suggests (30) that the narrative of Psych. is modeled on the katabasis of Aeneas and the Sibyl and should be understood as a journey accomplished by the poet/implied reader "within his own soul to eternal life." The attempt to discern the outline of a journey in the static narrative of Psych. is, in itself, quixotic. Yet every possible verbal parallel is marshaled to prove the point; even allusions to passages from other books, we are told, reinforce the themes of Aen. 6 apparent in this or that passage of Psych. A quick statistical analysis of the parallels catalogued by A. Mahoney (Vergil in the Works of Prudentius [Ph.D. diss. The Catholic University of America, 1934], 47–63) will show the arbitrariness of M.'s thesis and his method of supporting it.

In the next two chapters M. discusses biblical typology and its relevance for understanding Prudentius's narrative. As he well insists, Prudentius draws the fourth-century Roman reader into the grand scheme of Christian salvation history by pointing out that at the moment of temptation, a personal choice between virtue and vice re-enacts heroic struggles of biblical times such as those between the humble David and the proud Goliath, and the chaste Judith and the lecherous Holofernes. He rightly insists that Prudentius, unlike other Christian poets before or contemporary to him, sees Roman history as part of God's salvific plan. Yet, rather than basing his argument on the most obvious texts, the speech of St. Laurence in Peri. 2.413–84 and that of Roma in Symm. 655–768, he concentrates on Peri. 10.626–30, a passage rich in typological terminology, but concerned with Israel. (As Prudentius has just spoken of "Kings, prophets, and judges," the principes of 10.626 must refer to Israelite, not Roman, princes.) His study of the poet's typological terminology throws no new light on Prudentius's narrative technique or his use of earlier biblical commentary.

I believe M. is the first to suggest (Chapter Three) a connection between apophatic theology and the typologies of Psych. Prudentius, he argues, tries to discern in history traces of the intervention of the transcendent and ultimately unknowable God of Judaeo-Christianity. His argument rests upon passages such as pf. 40–44 and 57–60. In an ingenious and convincing reading (113–15) of Discordia's blasphemy, he notes how the Vice is presented in the reprehensible act of spouting predicates regarding the...