1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910454940803321

Autore

Newlands Carole Elizabeth

Titolo

Statius' Silvae and the poetics of Empire / / Carole E. Newlands [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2002

ISBN

1-107-12484-0

0-511-02000-7

1-280-43377-9

0-511-17626-0

0-511-15702-9

0-511-48232-9

0-511-04477-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (356 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

871/.01

Soggetti

Occasional verse, Latin - History and criticism

Laudatory poetry, Latin - History and criticism

Imperialism in literature

Emperors in literature

Rome History Domitian, 81-96 Historiography

Rome In literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 326-340) and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- Embodying the statue: Silvae 1.1 and 4.6 -- Engendering the house: Silvae 1.2 and 3.4 -- Imperial pastoral: Vopiscus' villa in Silvae 1.3 -- Dominating nature: Pollio's villa in Silvae 2.2 -- Reading the Thebaid: Silvae 1.5 -- The Emperor's Saturnalia: Silvae 1.6 -- Dining with the emperor: Silvae 4.2 -- Building the imperial highway: Silvae 4.3.

Sommario/riassunto

Statius' Silvae, written late in the reign of Domitian (AD 81-96), are a new kind of poetry that confronts the challenge of imperial majesty or private wealth by new poetic strategies and forms. As poems of praise, they delight in poetic excess whether they honour the emperor or the poet's friends. Yet extravagant speech is also capacious speech. It



functions as a strategy for conveying the wealth and grandeur of villas, statues and precious works of art as well as the complex emotions aroused by the material and political culture of empire. The Silvae are the product of a divided, self-fashioning voice. Statius was born in Naples of non-aristocratic parents. His position as outsider to the culture he celebrates gives him a unique perspective on it. The Silvae are poems of anxiety as well as praise, expressive of the tensions within the later period of Domitian's reign.