Consolatio ad Liviam

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The Consolatio ad Liviam ("consolation poem for Livia", also called Epicedion or Epicedium Drusi ) is a poem on the death of 9 BC. Nero Claudius Drusus , the brother of the later emperor Tiberius, died in the 4th century BC . It is addressed to his mother and wife of the emperor Augustus , Livia Drusilla , and belongs as a consolation to the so-called consolation literature .

Lore history

The poem, which consists of 237 elegiac distiches , appears for the first time in manuscripts and incunabula as Publii Ovidii Nasonis Consolatio ad Liviam Augustam de morte Drusi Neronis filii eius qui in Germania morbo periit or under slightly varied titles from the middle of the 15th century . In 1471 it was included in the Editio princeps of Ovid made in Rome and was long considered his work. But Ovid does not mention the Consolatio in his catalog raisonné. At the same time, references are made to his works, particularly to the Trists 4, 2 written in exile , which imagined the triumph of the younger Drusus and Germanicus in the year 16.

Dating

Even if Ovid is now mostly excluded as an author, the date of the poem is unclear. The extreme position represented by Moriz Haupt in 1849, according to which it is the work of a Renaissance humanist , is no longer represented. Too many details of the poem, some of which combine a very remote knowledge, some of which were only made known to humanists through manuscript finds by ancient authors in the 16th century, can be assumed to be known from the poem. It is characterized as a direct ancient source. The spectrum of the represented dates lies between 9 BC. And 54 AD

For example, Franz Skutsch and Augusto Fraschetti recognize neither linguistic nor content-related reasons for the origin of the poem about the funeral celebrations, the funus Drusi , of the year 9 BC. To be separated in time. On the other hand, the fact that the names of the designated successors of Augustus , Lucius and Gaius Caesar , who died 2 and 4 AD, were omitted in the poem, although it extensively lists members of the imperial family, both for a dating before 2 AD. as well as after 4 AD. The poem John A. Richmond generally dates back to Augustan times.

Otto Schantz saw clear dependencies on Seneca as early as 1889 and moved the Consolatio close to rhetorical exercises for so-called Suasorien, advisory speeches that followed Seneca's consolation to Marcia . Ulrich Schlegelmilch also interprets the poem as a Suasorie dating to the years 33–38 AD.

Henk Schoonhoven interprets individual passages as anti-Neron polemics. They lead him to an approach in the year 54, when Nero was proclaimed emperor against the pretender to the throne Britannicus , the biological son of the late Claudius . This late dating and its justification have not yet met with approval.

The problem of dating is closely linked to another work of equally indefinite time: two elegies, which are dedicated to the confidante and advisor of Augustus and to the patron's name giver , Gaius Maecenas , and known under the title Elegiae in Maecenatem . These poems from the appendix Vergiliana , laid out as elegiac distiches, are also dated to the time from Augustus to the succession of Seneca, although mostly regarded as Augustan. Often both works are edited or treated together.

Structure and content

The poem is made up of different parts, the exact division of which varies depending on the editor. After a Proömium , which includes the lines 1–12, the Consolatio is divided into two large sections, which on the one hand include praise of the deceased and lament over his death, on the other hand the actual subjects of consolation to the content. The first part also provides a detailed description of the funeral festivities.

The poem is framed by Livia's direct address in the first and last verses. The consolatio, however, suggests the presence of a large number of listeners, to whom the speaker turns again and again. In addition to Livia, he speaks to Tiberius, his brother, Drusus himself, who is repeatedly introduced as a listener, to the Roman people, and finally in verses 299–342 also the widow, the younger Antonia . Inserted in verses 167-298 is the description of the burial and its prehistory, the transport of the corpse from Germania to Rome, the cremation, the memory of the fame that was secured by inscriptions, buildings and monuments. The river god Tiberis , who wants to put out the pyre, and Mars, the god of war , intervene in the events of the festivities (verses 221-247).

The second main part of verses 299–347, introduced by the praise of Antonia, lists the actual comforting arguments that are supposed to help the grieving mother over her loss. They are generally stoic in nature and follow conventional topoi of comforting rhetoric. In the context of a so-called Eidolopoiie in which the deceased himself has a say, Drusus turns to his mother comfortingly in verses 445-468: One should not count years but deeds, and after deeds he would be an old man, she should weep suppress. Finally, the speaker turns to Livia one last time, reminding her of her firstborn son Tiberius, who, like her husband Augustus, the protector of humanity, is still alive, which is why her house should not be a house of mourning.

Editions and translations

  • Moriz Haupt : Epicedion Drusi. Rectorate program of Leipzig 1849 (= Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (Ed.): Mauricii Hauptii Opuscula. Volume 1. Leipzig 1875, pp. 315–357 ( digitized version )).
  • Friedrich Vollmer : Ovidii Nux, Consolatio ad Liviam, Priapea (= Poetae Latini Minores. Volume 2.2). Teubner, Leipzig 1923, pp. 15–35 ( digitized version ).
  • Arnold Witlox: Consolatio ad Liviam prolegomenis, commentario exegetico, indice instructa. Van Aelst, Utrecht 1934.
  • Friedrich Walter Lenz : P. Ovidii Nasonis Halieutica, Fragmenta, Nux. Incerti Consolatio ad Liviam. Paravia, Turin 1937. Second edition: Paravia, Turin 1956
  • Consolatio ad Liviam - consolation poem for Livia (= Pseudoovidiana. Book 2). Latin text with introduction, translation, short explanations and afterword by Hermann Rupprecht. Stolz, Mitterfeld 1982 ( PDF ).
  • The Pseudo-Ovidian ad Liviam de morte Drusi (Consolatio ad Liviam, epicedium Drusi). A critical text with introduction and commentary. Edited by Henk Schoonhoven. Forsten, Groningen 1992
  • Jacqueline Amat: Consolation à Livie. Elégies à Mécène. Bucoliques d'Einsiedeln. Les Belles lettres, Paris 1997, pp. 40-78.

literature

  • Giulia Danesi Marioni: In margine ad alcune recenti pubblicazioni sulla Consolatio ad Liviam. In: Bollettino di Studi Latini. Volume 31, 2001, pp. 161-178.
  • Augusto Fraschetti: Indice analitico della Consolatio ad Liviam Augustam de morte Drusi Neronis filii eius qui in Germania de morbo periit. In: Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Antiquité. Volume 108, Number 1, 1996, pp. 191-239 ( online ).
  • Irene Peirano: The Rhetoric of the Roman Fake: Latin Pseudepigrapha in Context. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / New York 2012, pp. 205–241.
  • Michael D. Reeve : The Tradition of "Consolatio ad Liviam". In: Revue d'Histoire des Textes. Volume 6, 1976, pp. 79-98.
  • Ulrich Schlegelmilch: What is and what is the Consolatio ad Liviam about ? In: Würzburg Yearbooks for Classical Studies. New episode. Volume 29, 2005, pp. 151-184 ( PDF ).

Remarks

  1. ↑ For the history of transmission, the various manuscripts and incunabula see Michael D. Reeve: The Tradition of “Consolatio ad Liviam”. In: Revue d'Histoire des Textes. Volume 6, 1976, pp. 79-98.
  2. ↑ Ovid, Tristien 2.61 ff. 547 ff.
  3. ^ Considered possible by Jacqueline Amat: Consolation à Livie. Elégies à Mécène. Bucoliques d'Einsiedeln. Les Belles lettres, Paris 1997, p. 42.
  4. ^ Moritz Haupt: Epicedion Drusi. Rectorate program of Leipzig 1849 (= Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (Ed.): Mauricii Hauptii Opuscula. Volume 1. Leipzig 1875, pp. 315–357 ( digitized version )).
  5. ↑ See the detailed analysis by Augusto Fraschetti: Indice analitico della Consolatio ad Liviam Augustam de morte Drusi Neronis filii eius qui in Germania de morbo periit. In: Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Antiquité. Volume 108, Number 1, 1996, pp. 191-239.
  6. ^ Franz Skutsch: Consolatio ad Liviam. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 1, Stuttgart 1900, Col. 933-947 (here: Col. 944).
  7. ^ Augusto Fraschetti: Indice analitico della Consolatio ad Liviam Augustam de morte Drusi Neronis filii eius qui in Germania de morbo periit. In: Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Antiquité. Volume 108, Number 1, 1996, p. 138.
  8. ^ Jacqueline Amat: Consolation à Livie. Elégies à Mécène. Bucoliques d'Einsiedeln. Les Belles lettres, Paris 1997, p. 31.
  9. ^ Henk Schoonhoven: The Pseudo-Ovidian ad Liviam de morte Drusi (Consolatio ad Liviam, epicedium Drusi). A critical text with introduction and commentary. Forsten, Groningen 1992, p. 26.
  10. ^ John A. Richmond: Consolatio ad Liviam (Epicedion Drusi). In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 3, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01473-8 , column 133 f.
  11. ↑ Otto Schantz: De incerti poetae Consolatione ad Liviam deque carminum consolatoriorum apud Graecos et Romanos. Marburg 1889, p. 10 ( digitized version ).
  12. ↑ Ulrich Schlegelmilch: What is and what is the Consolatio ad Liviam about ? In: Würzburg Yearbooks for Classical Studies. New episode. Volume 29, 2005, pp. 165-178.
  13. ^ Henk Schoonhoven: The Pseudo-Ovidian ad Liviam de morte Drusi (Consolatio ad Liviam, epicedium Drusi). A critical text with introduction and commentary. Forsten, Groningen 1992, pp. 32-37.
  14. ↑ See Paola Pinotti: Review of Henk Schoonhoven: The Pseudo-Ovidian ad Liviam de morte Drusi. In: Gnomon . Volume 68, 1996, pp. 500-504, here: p. 501; Ulrich Schlegelmilch: What is and what is the Consolatio ad Liviam about ? In: Würzburg Yearbooks for Classical Studies. New episode. Volume 29, 2005, p. 164 f.
  15. ^ Henk Schoonhoven: Elegiae in Maecenatem. Forsten, Groningen 1980; Michael von Albrecht : History of Roman Literature. From Andronicus to Boethius. Taking into account their importance for modern times. Volume 1. Francke et al., Bern et al. 1992, p. 564.
  16. ^ John A. Richmond: Elegiae in Maecenatem. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 3, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01473-8 , Sp. 969.
  17. ↑ Irene Peirano: The Rhetoric of the Roman Fake: Latin Pseudepigrapha in Context. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / New York 2012, pp. 205–241.
  18. ↑ Compilation by Henk Schoonhoven: The Pseudo-Ovidian ad Liviam de morte Drusi (Consolatio ad Liviam, epicedium Drusi). A critical text with introduction and commentary. Forsten, Groningen 1992, p. 1; see also John A. Richmond: Elegiae in Maecenatem. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 3, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01473-8 , Sp. 969., Álvaro Sánchez-Ostiz: Periit dux pro patria. Consuelo, encomio y epitafio en el Epicedion de morte Drusi. In: Concepción Alonso del Real (ed.): Consolatio. Nueve estudios. Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona 2001, pp. 117–134, here: p. 120 and Ulrich Schlegelmilch: What is and what is the Consolatio ad Liviam about ? In: Würzburg Yearbooks for Classical Studies. New episode. Volume 29, 2005, p. 152.