The “Challenges of Humanism” in Roman Historical Poetry
Keywords:
Latin poetry, historical epic, intertextuality, metapoetic realism, Cicero, Lucan, Silius ItalicusAbstract
Augustan poetry is perhaps the most classic of all European classics. Its literary vision of gradual advance (back) to Golden-Age peace and prosperity has taken center stage in the process of defining European humanism. Post-Augustan epic poets like Lucan, however, also seem to doubt whether humanity can be taught by letters. This has often been interpreted as anti-classicist and, hence, antihumanistic. However, can the ideals of civilizing literature, in fact, be proven wrong? Is there no other way to deal with the challenges of humanism than to give in? A promising interpretive approach to this question is studying the specific metapoetic potential of historical poetry. Literary characters of such poems can “realistically” appear as readers; often, their success or failure may be directly related to the literary education they show. This opens up a space for a particular kind of intertextuality. In acutely reflecting the impact of their reference texts, historical epic poems have made a distinctive contribution to the classification of the classics, i.e., the defense of humanity.References
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