As evidence for antiquity, declamation is more neglected than it should be, given its significant role in fostering social reproduction, its usefulness in illuminating social concepts such as authority, educational practices, culture and jurisprudence, as well as broader matters such as myth-making, self-fashioning, cultural identity and so on. The present volume, however, which stems from a conference held at the Maison de la recherché, Université Paris-Sorbonne, in February 2014, seeks to explore declamation for its own sake, the rhetorical and literary framework of the genre itself, as a realm of ‘genuine literary creation’, and asks: ‘what are the poetics of declamatio?’ In so doing, it focuses on the very neglected corpus of Calpurnius Flaccus and comprises the second offering in a series of edited volumes showcasing current research on Roman declamation. A volume on ps.-Quintilian appeared in 2016, and one on Seneca the Elder is forthcoming in 2018.
Declamation is a genre about which one feels it is simultaneously and paradoxically self-evident that extant compilations both should and should not be treated as works of literature, and the feeling is perhaps strongest in the case of Calpurnius Flaccus. There is no extant preface or any explicit indication that the author intended it as an opus, and it often reads as a disjointed assemblage of sententiae collected under the barest of case rubrics provided for orientation. On the other hand, it is astonishing that no one has tried to approach the text this way, especially given the pervasive and indisputable influence of declamation on the artistry of Latin literature. As we know from Seneca the Elder, practitioners of declamation were eager to stand out through their unique yet sterling sententiae, and what we possess here at the very minimum is a sophisticated collection of these deemed worth saving, so there is no reason to think it is entirely bereft of artistry, nor is literary intent necessary for something to count as a product of and evidence for literary culture.
The introduction, by Dinter and Guérin, broadly frames the importance of declamation in the study of Roman antiquity and suggests that we read Calpurnius as a postmodern author who writes material that complicates an understanding of common values and laws instilled through these exercises. This sets the stage for J. Mannering's opening piece, the most theoretical (and longest) of the collection, and the one that most insistently sees purposeful artistry in the arrangement. The (deliberate?) absence of ‘commentative signage’ and authorial guidance in the work means that Calpurnius offers something for advanced aficionados of declamation. In attempting to read the work as a whole, Mannering postulates that the units, ordered according to no overt thematic or situational resemblance, are nevertheless implicitly clustered and tend to respond to each other discursively, allowing elements and strategies in one declamation or set of declamations to furnish connections and creative points of departure in others. This is intended to facilitate innovation in a literary activity with situations and characters that have been worked over for a long time. Occasionally, Mannering seems to force the evidence a bit to fit the argument, in particular with regard to Calp. 19, 21 and 22, and especially in claiming that Calpurnius deliberately ceases to provide counterarguments at Calp. 10ff. in order to prompt readers to provide their own and that this is somehow cleverly related to the theme of blindness in Calp. 9 and 10. Nevertheless, Mannering does provide an illuminating (and rather enjoyable) discussion of the rhetorical strategies at play in the pieces. The basic point is convincing (especially with regard to the discussion of Calp. 23–6), yet three burning questions arise: to what extent do Calpurnius’ strategies, colores and sententiae differ in nature and sophistication from what one would expect from the pool of experts showcased by Seneca the Elder? Moreover, how much can we attribute thematic clusterings to the workings and concatenations of the mind and to what extent to deliberate artistry? Finally, how do difficulties establishing authorship play into this? Happily, subsequent articles tend to respond to these issues.
L. Spielberg's offering directly investigates the first question and touches on the third, reaching outside of the text to delve into the possible intertextual relationships between Calpurnius and the other extant compilations of declamation. This provides useful insight into how later declaimers engage and adapt earlier treatments. It is nice to see that Spielberg does not approach intertextuality with blind abandon, but gives a clear example of what she means in the text of Seneca the Elder and shows cogently how Calpurnius responds to specific treatments and criticisms located in Seneca's text.
The next three contributions also deal with Calpurnius as evidence for retooling the elements of an overworked genre. C. Schneider investigates the most well-known theme of the collection, the Miles Marianus, and shows how each of the rather meagre and disjointed sententiae illustrates strategies present in the extant declamatory corpus ranging all the way to the work of the early eighteenth-century polymath Lorenzo Patarol. Attention to the wider record contextualises the sentences and assists the translator. A. Casamento discusses the role of the vir fortis in the declamations, in particular with regard to family relations during wartime, to show the author's originality here, while A. Balbo investigates how proverbial and similar material, limited though it may be, presents itself in the text.
The two concluding studies shift to cover more technical and textual matters. B. Santorelli makes use of studies by L. Håkanson on the Major Declamations ascribed to Quintilian and on Calpurnius (writings recently published posthumously through the efforts of several scholars) to discuss the date and origin of Calpurnius. Looking at the metrical and accentual aspects of the clausulae in the text, he upholds Håkanson's proposal that Calpurnius belonged to the late second century ce and offers the promising suggestion that he was north African, since tendencies towards the use of accentual over quantitative components of prose rhythm show similarities to other writers from this region.
Last, but certainly not least, M. Winterbottom offers his considerable auctoritas in textual matters and looks at the successive editors of the text from 1580 down to Håkanson to discuss the contributions each made to the understanding of the author, then provides, by way of an appendix, an emended text and translation of the 13th declamation.
This reader found very few errors and typos. A minor point, the general policy of translating the Latin is not always followed evenly. This inconsistency aside, the volume is well produced and edited. On the whole, much is gained by this fine collection. Our fuzzy image of the author improves its focus a little, but our understanding of his technique and how his collection fits into the history of declamation advances significantly. We see that, even a few centuries after Seneca the Elder's compilation of Augustan declamations, mastery of this essential cultural activity demonstrates elements of originality though the themes had been worked over time and again. Though one might be wary of an edited volume framed in terms of postmodern theory (given its occasional tendencies to elicit the convoluted, imaginary and unsubstantiated), the theoretical elements here are nicely applied, uncloying and balanced with less theoretical approaches. This results in a pleasant collection, time well spent, and essential reading for anyone interested in declamation or the rhetorical culture of the high empire.
