Roman Octavia
The Roman Octavia is a novel by Anton Ulrich Herzog von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, initially published in three volumes from 1677 . This unfinished version was supplemented and completed by three further volumes between 1703 and 1707. In the years 1712 and 1713 six volumes of an extended version were published. A seventh followed posthumously in 1762. In addition, manuscripts for parts of an eighth volume have survived. It is a very extensive baroque novel , the first version of which is already around 7000 pages long.
The world of the Roman Octavia
The novel is set in the ancient Roman Empire from the end of Nero in 68 AD to the first years of Vespasian's reign in 70 AD. The world view of the novel is shaped by absolutism . The people involved are all high nobility, such as members of the imperial family, Roman senators, kings from Asia Minor and Germanic ("German") and British princes. Non-nobles only appear as servants or as a crowd on the street. The main characters are Nero's first wife Octavia and the Armenian king Tyridates .
The historical events that are taken up in the novel, such as the death of Nero, the year of the Four Emperors or the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple , are reproduced largely in accordance with the historical sources. In addition, however, a fictional parallel world is described in which people who have already died (often murdered) have survived and continue to work in the background. Often historical events have other causes than the traditional ones.
The rising Christianity also plays an important role , among other things Octavia professes to it. Several people believed dead are hiding with the Christians in the catacombs in Rome .
Main storyline
The Armenian King Tyridates is in Rome and mourns for his beloved "Neronia", behind whom Octavia is actually hiding. In a secret ceremony in front of selected Roman senators , Nero appoints him as his successor, which arouses general astonishment. Gradually this ceremony turns out to be a deception by a group of high-ranking Romans who want to eliminate Nero and put Tyridates in his place. A member of this group appeared disguised as Nero. Extensive flashbacks tell how Tyridates saves “Neronia” from an assassination attempt and how the two fall in love. As a Christian, the Empress continues to see herself married to Nero, although it was he who wanted to have her murdered. That's why she keeps Tyridates at a distance.
Several plans to get rid of the criminal Nero are discussed in constantly changing personal constellations. Likewise, the reasons for whether Octavia Tyridates should marry or not are spread out in variations again and again. The first volume ends with Nero's suicide after the Senate declared him an enemy of the state and Galba marches against Rome to depose him. Already at Nero's funeral, however, a doppelganger is spotted, which causes confusion and fear in those present.
The following volumes deal with the historical quarrels about the succession of Nero and, against this background, further confusions of love among the characters in the novel. Up to the fourth volume the scene is Rome. Then he moves to the Balkans and finally to Mount Carmel in Palestine.
structure
As with many baroque novels, Heliodorus and his Ethiopica are the model for the structure and the tricky love stories . The action is regularly interrupted by intervening narratives. One or more fictional characters act as narrators, who tell others either their own story or that of another person. Typically, sections alternate with the ongoing novel plot over 40 to 100 pages with inserted stories of 40 to 60 pages.
The plot is determined by the complicated and often very constructed love relationships between the main characters, above all of course that between Octavia and Tyridates . In addition, the stories of several dozen characters, such as the princesses Claudia, Antonia and Berenice or the “German” princes Jubilius, Italus and Thumelicus are presented in detail and taken up again and again. Approx. 1500 people are mentioned by name. There is always confusion and confusion. Almost every important figure appears at least temporarily under a different identity, be it before the persecution z. B. to protect by Nero in order to be able to be close to a lover or simply because she was mixed up as a child.
The novel contains a number of tension arcs as well as rhetorically highly successful passages, such as the opening scene, the meeting of Antonia and Nero or the pronunciation between Vespasian and Titus in the seventh volume. A more differentiated psychological drawing can be found above all in the parts that were created later. Large parts are difficult to access for the modern reader. The novel received the highest praise when it was written.
language
The language of the novel is typically baroque with extensive sentence structures and phrases that today's readers can often find sought-after. For example, the opening sentence is:
Rome now hovered between fear and hope / of the unbearable yoke to be disposed of once / which the cruelty of Nero sustained on him: because / not only the apostasy of Caius Julius Vindex in Gaul / whether he immediately lost his life over it / and Servius Sulpitius Galba’s relationship in Hispania / this Wütherich threatened doom / but also the heavens themselves / gave to understand through terrible miraculous signs / that he would be tired / to continue to watch so extreme malice / and / that the end of the lineage of the great Augustus / with this naughty last Branches / should be done.
Emergence
Anton Ulrich did not write the novel alone, but with the help of several employees. His secretary Christian Flemmer did a large part of the preparatory work through historical research. His former tutor, the poet Sigmund von Birken , read Anton Ulrich's manuscripts, added poems he wanted and had to create the final version without further consultation. After Birken's death, Gottfried Alberti took over the final editing. The majority of the drafting and writing of the novel is indisputably attributable to Anton Ulrich.
literature
expenditure
- Octavia Roman history. vol 1 - 3, J. Hoffmann, Nuremberg 1677ff.
- Octavia Roman history. vol 4 - 6, J. Hoffmann, Nuremberg 1703ff.
- The Roman Octavia, first to sixth parts. JG Zilliger, Braunschweig 1712ff.
- The Roman Octavia, seventh part. Trattner, Vienna 1762.
- Historical-critical edition (HKA), ed. by Rolf Tarot u. a., Volume 3 / Part 1 (1993), Volume 5 / Part 3 (1997), Volume 8 / Part 6 (2001), Volume 9 / Part 7 (2003), Hiersemann, Stuttgart.
Secondary literature
- Hanna Wippermann: Duke Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig: Ocatvia. Roman history. (Extent of time and rhythm). Dissertation Bonn 1948.
- Wolfgang Bender: Confusion and unraveling in "Octavia / Roman History" . Dissertation. University of Cologne, 1964.
- Elisabeth Erbeling: Female figures in the "Octavia" of Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig. (Germanic Studies; Vol. 218). Kraus Reprint, Nendeln 1967. (Reprint of the Berlin 1939 edition)
- Stephan Kraft: The unity and openness of the “Roman Octavia” by Duke Anton Ulrich. (Epistemata; Vol. 483). Verlag Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2004, ISBN 3-8260-2655-1 . (also dissertation, University of Bonn 2002)
- Maria Munding: On the creation of the "Roman Octavia" . Dissertation. University of Munich, 1974.
- Rolf Tarot: On the problem of the “authenticity” of baroque texts. Grimmelshausen and Anton Ulrich. In: Jean-Marie Valentin (Ed.): Monarchus Poeta. Studies on the life and work of Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig-Lüneburg; Files from the Anton Ulrich Symposium in Nancy, 2./3. December 1983 . Rodopi, Amsterdam 1985, ISBN 90-6203-657-0 , pp. 31-46. (in German and French)