Friendship with the powerful? Perspectives pro and con in the Roman empire
By Zsuzsa Varhelyi
This paper investigates views on the possibility of friendship with the powerful in Roman imperial society, in particular in the works of the Stoic philosophers Seneca the Younger and Epictetus, and contrasts their perspective with those of Pliny the Younger in his Panegyricusand Plutarch in his political essays. Both Seneca and Epictetus caution their philosophically minded students to avoid the company of the politically powerful, lest they be corrupted by their ambitions and desires.
Poetics of Political Fear: Lucan and the Neronian Age of Anxiety
By Irene Morrison-Moncure
Fear is represented many ways in Lucan’s Bellum Civilethat together portray a collective Roman fear that is political in nature. As defined by political scientist Corey Robin (2004), political fear is “a people’s felt apprehension of some harm to their collective well-being.” This harm often comes from political leaders, and through this lens Lucan’s epic becomes acommentary on Rome’s relationship with autocracy in the early empire. TheBellum Civilenarrates several famous campaigns in the civil war between Caesar and Pompey (49 – 48 BCE).
Roman Governors, "Greek Failings," and the Political World of Plutarch and Dio Chrysostom
By Christopher Fuhrmann
Local leaders of the Roman Empire’s Greek cities had the difficult task of balancing their own political ambitions, and celebrating their national pride in Greek history, all while maintaining the favor of Roman potentates. While the general outlines of this fraught relationship between Greeks and Romans is well known, I aim to break new ground by focusing especially on the central role of Roman provincial governors as the key intermediaries between Rome and the Greek local elites, and by highlighting specific and detailed evidence of this relationship in the province of Bithynia.
Political Παρρησία in Plutarch: When Does It Work?
By Brad Buszard
Christopher Pelling has shown in his contribution Sage and Emperorthat Plutarch, unlike Pliny and Dio of Prusa, never addressed himself to Trajan in any direct way (“Plutarch’s Caesar,”S&E213-226). Plutarch nonetheless had other, less direct ways to influence Roman power. Despite the autocratic innovations of Antonine Rome, some power still resided in the senatorial class, whose members performed important functions within the imperial administration and had access to the emperor himself (J. Bennett, Trajan: Optimus Princeps, 75-76).
Creating polytopic and de-centered identities: A Greek answer to exile imposed by the Roman Policy?
By Maria Vamvouri Ruffy
In Favorinus’, Plutarch’s and Dio’s treatises On Exile, a philosophical position is given to fervent contemporary issues such as the exile imposed by Roman authorities to the speaker himself or to a close friend of him. These texts belong to the Consolatiotradition in that they offer a solace to exile and invite one to think about the deeper meaning of homeland and exile. My paper explores the specific philosophical proposals and discursive devices through which these treatises expose the artificiality of exile and borders.