This volume of collected essays brings together a selection of the papers presented at the first conference of the International Society for Late Antique Literary Studies (ISLALS), organised by the editors and held at Rice and Brown Universities in 2011. Of the 31 papers originally presented at the conference, 15 have been selected that in the opinion of the editors ‘specifically focused on the reception and reuse in Late Latin poetry of sources from the classical past’ (p. 13). The idea has therefore been to give the book a common theme and a thematic coherence to make it stand out from standard conference proceedings. The papers are ordered chronologically, based on the period of the authors and works studied. Most of the material dealt with dates from the fourth to the sixth centuries. After this period of splendour, the editors are right in recognising a ‘distinct break in the tradition’ (p. 14) of Latin poetry in Classical forms and metres, which, with the exception of that of Eugenius of Toledo, practically disappears from the European literary scene. Nevertheless, the last two chapters go beyond the chronological barrier of the sixth century to reflect the echoes which Late Antiquity's outstanding poetics found centuries later in Carolingian times. Personally I consider that a more articulate and interesting discourse would have been generated by grouping the chapters together in accordance with their themes or concepts, as mere diachronic exposure does not allow the drawing of relevant conclusions as to the possible evolution of the relationships between late-antique authors and their Classical models. It would appear that the noticeable differences among late Latin writers correspond more to programmatic attitudes, literary conventions or personal convictions than to any kind of chronological progression.
In the introduction the editors give a concise account of the origin, purpose and methodological orientation of the work as a whole (pp. 13–17) and provide a comprehensive presentation of each of its chapters (pp. 17–23). The essential aim of the essays will be to determine the different ways (which are often novel and specific to Late Antiquity) in which Latin poetry from the fourth to the sixth centuries, which is rightly considered ‘a distinct period in the history of poetry’ (p. 13), is related to the literature it has inherited. The traditional innovation vs continuity concept, so often explored by late-antique studies, is thus revisited.
The first chapter by M. Mastrangelo falls outside the strictly chronological model of the volume as it constitutes a transverse theoretical reflection on the development of a late-antique ‘poetics of reuse’ and its uniqueness in ancient literature. To return to specific themes, in the second chapter McG. explores the mechanisms by which the early biblical epicist Juvencus transforms both his Classical model, Virgil, and several time-honoured conventions of the epic genre. D. Trout analyses from an interesting socio-literary and pragmatic perspective a series of fourth-century epigraphic poems engraved on certain monuments of the city of Rome. Although these pieces are often neglected by scholars, they show a high degree of literary self-awareness as is clear from their elaborate intertextuality.
In the fourth chapter S. Schottenius Cullhed studies how an extremely free relationship can be established between the Virgilian Cento of Proba and its two texts of reference (the Bible and the poems of Virgil) in a search for a kind of secret coherence between two worlds that are apparently irreconcilable. Proba therefore does not hesitate to alter the biblical account of creation in order to structure it according to the four elements of pagan cosmology or to activate the alleged Christian latencies of the verses of Virgil (who is considered to be an anima naturaliter Christiana) by means of an exercise of creative re-reading.
The chapter by P. proposes a thought-provoking reading of Ausonius’ De Bissula as a unified work of art in opposition to the traditional view, which considered it to be a fragmentary and incomplete collection of love poems dedicated to a young slave girl. P. begins by exploring the programmatic role of the Horatian and Catullian lexicon in the epistolary introduction and in the verse preface to the work, which help to indicate the specificity of Ausonius’ poetry against the background of literary tradition. A particularly interesting analysis is given of Carm. 3–6, which reflect on the limitations of language and the inability of any mimetic form to capture the immediacy of experience. This constitutes an appropriate and coherent culmination to this remarkable collection of poems.
The following three chapters are devoted to the figure of Claudian: firstly B. Mulligan approaches Claudian's Latin translation/imitation of a Greek amatory epigram by Rufinus and then concentrates his attention on a cluster of nine ekphrastic epigrams describing a single object: a crystal containing a drop of water. Mulligan rightly observes how both poetic types were interpreted at the time as forms of paraphrase conceived to test the poet's artistic skill and demonstrate his excellence and subtlety. C. Ware analyses the intertextual framework of the preface to the De sexto consulatu, which is interwoven with references to Lucretius, Petronius, Ovid, Virgil and in particular Horace. Finally, S.M. Wheeler explores how in the same work Claudian manages to reflect Emperor Honorius’ love of Rome, on the one hand by means of the topoi of epideictic rhetoric as set out by Menander Rhetor and on the other by imitating Virgil.
G. O'Daly examines the mechanisms of the Christianisation of the Classical symbols of poetry, most of which are taken from Horatian lyrical poetry, which the most programmatic and self-referential verses of Prudentius set in motion. In a similar manner, P. Schierl reassesses the traditional opinion of the Christianisation of the pastoral genre brought about by works such as Endelechius’ Carmen de mortibus boum (Anth. Lat. 893 R.). Schierl emphasises how this poem, far from advocating a radical departure from classical conventions of the genre, in fact heightens certain aspects already firmly established in Virgil's Eclogue 1, its main model: the advent of a divine saviour adored in urban contexts, the misfortunes of some shepherds compared to the good fortune of others, the motif of ritual sacrifice etc. All this is combined with the motif of the livestock plagues, taken from Virgil's Georgics, which evokes metaphorically the inevitability of death and the need for salvation. In consequence with this Christian–pagan dilemma, E.J. Hutchinson analyses a series of passages from Sedulius’ Paschale carmen that enact an exercise of Kontrastimitation or oppositio in imitando with regard to the world of Virgil's Aeneid, which is as admired as it is in need of a radical transformation in Christian terms.
M.W. Herren reflects on the reasons and the cultural assumptions that could have led an author such as Dracontius, who categorically denied the existence of the pagan gods, to compose poems that are clearly mythological in theme in the Christian–Arian context of Vandal Africa. Moreover, Herren finds convincing parallels between the philosophy of Stoicism and certain motifs in Dracontius’ works, such as the issue of personal immortality, the cosmic bond that holds the universe together, the eternally recurring conflagration and re-creation of the cosmos (ecpyrosis), the causes of human vices and the relationship between cosmic determinism and human free will.
I. Fielding studies one of the most outstanding poetic productions of Late Antiquity: the erotic elegies of the sixth-century poet Maximianus. Fielding concentrates above all on the fifth elegy, which narrates the love affair of the mature poet with a Greek girl during a diplomatic mission in Constantinople. The intertextual study of the piece reveals that Maximianus took as a model not only Ovid's Amores but also the erotic epigrams in Greek that inspired Ovid, in particular those of Philodemus. This exercise of ‘double allusion’ or ‘window reference’ should be situated on the one hand within the revival of interest in Greek culture that occurred in Italy in the sixth century and on the other within the resurgence of the Hellenistic erotic epigram in the Byzantine milieu, which gave rise to a whole series of imitations and anthologies.
The two final chapters go beyond the chronological limits of late-antique Latin poetry to examine its repercussions in the Carolingian Renaissance (ninth century). M. Roberts, after a meticulous examination of the use of the elegiac metre in Venantius Fortunatus, devotes the second part of his chapter to tracing its possible echoes in some Carolingian poets. D.F. Bright concentrates on the visual poetry of Hrabanus Maurus (ninth century), the direct heir of the fourth-century Optatian Porfyry, and his remarkable capacity to monumentalise and solemnise what his illustrious late-antique predecessor still held to be ludic. This final chapter is supplemented by a series of colour images of the works examined.
The book closes with a bibliography which is somewhat redundant (given the European quoting system used by the articles) and not always complete, a general index of subjects, works and authors, and a brief note on the contributors. We have here a carefully crafted work with an exquisite presentation, despite a clear lack of cross-references, which would no doubt have helped to unite content that is in itself heterogeneous and dispersed. For example, it is curious that on mentioning the peculiarity of the erotic poetry of Maximianus on p. 341 there is no footnote referring the reader to the previous chapter, which is devoted exclusively to the subject. I noted very few errata and, occasionally, the odd striking bibliographical omission of certain works relevant to the subject under discussion, especially of those not written in English. The volume provides a good overall vision of late-antique poetry although some key poets such as Sidonius Apollinaris and Paulinus of Nola have been omitted. It is a serious and interesting proposal that is essential reading for anyone interested in the culture of the period.
