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WHY IS VALERIUS FLACCUS A QUINDECIMVIR?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2016

W. Jeffrey Tatum
W. Jeffrey Tatum*
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington
*
[email protected]
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Extract

‘Valerius Flaccus knows how to write with elegant precision.’ – R. Syme, Tacitus (Oxford, 1958), 89.

      Phoebe, mone, si Cumaeae mihi conscia uatis 5
      stat casta cortina domo, si laurea digna
      fronte uiret …

In these lines, as critics have long recognized, resides evidence for identifying Valerius Flaccus as a quindecimuir sacris faciundis. Emphasis is placed on the tripod emblematic of this sacred office which is here intimately associated with expertise in the oracular communications of the Cumaean Sibyl. The libri Sibyllini, the supervision and interpretation of which were amongst the earliest and most conspicuous of the XVuiri's responsibilities, could be traced to the Sibyl at Cumae (Lactant. Div. inst. 1.6.10-11, citing Varro, even if this connection was less than the entire story from a strictly historical perspective). Wreathes, too, formed part of the XVuir's equipment, and of course during the Imperial period the Sibylline books were deposited in the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine. In little more than two lines, then, one finds an abundance of references that cannot fail to fashion this addressee of Apollo as a quindecimvir.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , May 2016 , pp. 239 - 244
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Copyright © The Classical Association 2016 

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References

1 N. Heinsius, C. Valeri Flacci Argonauticon Libri VIII (Amsterdam, 1680), ad loc.; G.B. Pius, Gai Valeri Flacci Argonauticon Libri Octo (Bologna, 1519), ad loc.; Boyancé, P., ‘La science d'un quindécimvir au Ier siècle après J.-C.’, REL 42 (1964), 334–46Google Scholar = Études sur la religion romaine (Rome, 1972), 347–58. Accepted, with a degree of caution, by A.J. Kleywegt, Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica Book 1: A Commentary (Leiden, 2005), 11. F. Spaltenstein, Commentaire des Argonautica de Valerius Flaccus (livres 1 et 2) (Brussels, 2002), 26–8 rejects any connection between these lines and the quindecimvirate.

2 On the history and activities of the quindecimvirate, see G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer (Munich, 1912), 534–49; K. Latte, Römische Religionsgeschichte (Munich, 1960), 397–8; G. Radke, RE 24.1114-48; G.J. Szemler, The Priests of the Roman Republic: A Study of Interactions between Priesthoods and Magistracies (Brussels, 1972), 21–46, 157–66; Linderski, J., ‘Quindecimuiri sacris faciundis’, Brill's New Pauly 12 (Leiden, 2008), 346–7Google Scholar (with further literature): originally composed of two members, this college was later expanded (in 367 b.c.) to ten members and, by the time of Sulla, to fifteen. Apollo and the XVuiri: Liv. 10.8.2; Obseq. 47; Tib. 2.5.1. On the libri Sibyllini, see H.W. Parke, Sibyls and Sibylline Prophecy in Classical Antiquity (London, 1988), 136–51. On the poetic implications of locating the Sibylline books on the Palatine, see J.F. Miller, Apollo, Augustus, and the Poets (Cambridge, 2009), 234–47.

3 This conclusion is accepted by J. Rüpke, Römische Priester in der Antike: ein biographisches Lexikon (Stuttgart, 2007), 222–3.

4 A. Barchiesi, ‘Genealogie letterarie nell'epica imperiale: fondamentalismo e ironia’, in E.A. Schmidt, F. Paschoud, & C. Wick (edd.), L'histoire littéraire immanente dans la poésie latine (Geneva, 2001), 315–54, at 327.

5 A. Zissos, Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica, Book 1: A Commentary (Oxford, 2008), 81.

6 Barchiesi (n. 4), 326–8, at 327.

7 Zissos (n. 5), xiv.

8 Zissos (n. 5), 80.

9 T. Stover, Epic and Empire in Vespasianic Rome: A New Reading of Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica (Oxford, 2012), 151–79.

10 Stover (n. 9), 157–8, at 157. On Lucan's ‘fractured voice’, see J. Masters, Poetry and Civil War in Lucan's ‘Bellum Civile’ (Cambridge, 1992), 87–90; J.J. O'Hara, Inconsistency in Roman Epic: Studies in Catullus, Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid and Lucan (Cambridge, 2007), 131–9.

11 G. Manuwald, ‘Divine messages and human actions in the Argonautica’, in A. Augoustakis (ed.), Ritual and Religion in Flavian Epic (Oxford, 2013), 35–7. Manuwald also agrees with Zissos that Valerius’ quindecimviral pose underlines the poet's relationship to Apollo.

12 It is a long-standing inference, though not a demonstrable fact (owing to the absence of positive evidence), that, after managing the introduction of Greek cults to civic religion, the XVuiri thereafter supervised them: see M. Beard, J. North and S. Price, Religions of Rome (Cambridge, 1988), 1.27.

13 Scheid, J., ‘ Graeco ritu: a typically Roman way of honouring the gods’, HSPh 97 (1995), 15–31 Google Scholar.

14 D. Feeney, Literature and Religion at Rome: Cultures, Contexts, and Beliefs (Cambridge 1998), esp. 47–70.

15 For example, the actions of C. Cato (tr. pl. 56) in opposing the restoration of Ptolemy Auletes to the Egyptian throne: see W.J. Tatum, The Patrician Tribune: Publius Clodius Pulcher (Chapel Hill, 1999), 200–1. It should be noted that on at least one occasion the Senate rejected a formal decree of the college: Front. Aq. 7.4-5, discussed by Morgan, M.G., ‘The introduction of the Aqua Marcia, 144–140 b.c. ’, Philologus 122 (1978), 25–58 Google Scholar, esp. 41.

16 Front. Aq. 7.5, on the text of which passage see R.H. Rodgers, Frontinus: De Aquaeductu Urbis Romae (Cambridge, 2004), 165.

17 The social distinction and significance of the college persisted into the empire: M.W.F. Hoffman Lewis, The Official Priests of Rome Under the Julio-Claudians (Rome, 1955), 86–91; R. Syme, Tacitus (Oxford, 1958), 66; Schumacher, L., ‘Die vier hohen römische Priesterkollegia, 69–235 n.Chr.’, ANRW 2.16.1 (1973), 655–819 Google Scholar, esp. 682–90 and 808–12.

18 Ov. Am. 1.15.21; Quint. Inst. 10.1.87. Discussion: A.S. Hollis (ed.), Fragments of Roman Poetry c.60 BC–AD 20 (Oxford, 2007), 196–98.

19 See, recently, Stover, T., ‘Rebuilding Argo: Valerius Flaccus’ poetic creed’, Mnemosyne 63 (2010), 640–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar, assembling instances and further bibliography.

20 Bibliography on this point is abundant, but concise discussions of the matter, with further references, include C.O. Brink, Horace on Poetry: The ‘Ars Poetica’ (Cambridge, 1971), 208–24; D.A. Russell, ‘De Imitatione’, in D. West and T. Woodman (edd.), Creative Imitation and Latin Literature (Cambridge, 1979), 1–16; S. Hinds, Allusion and Intertext: Dynamics of Appropriation in Roman Poetry (Cambridge, 1998), 123–44; M. Citroni, ‘Affermazione di priorità e coscienza di progresso artistico nei poeti latini’, in E.A. Schmidt, F. Paschoud & C. Wick (edd.), L'histoire littéraire immanente dans la poésie latine (Geneva, 2001), 267–304.

21 E.g. Lucr. 1.117-19; Prop. 3.1.3-4; Hor. Carm. 3.30.10-14 (and see the following note); discussion in Citroni (n. 20). See also the texts assembled by Linderski, J., ‘The Menander inscription from Pompeii and the expression primus scripsit ’, ZPE 159 (2007), 45–55 Google Scholar.

22 Trail-blazing: e.g. Lucr. 1.925-7; Verg. G. 3.8-11; Hor. Epist. 1.19.21-34. Callimachean origin: Aet. fr. 1.26 Pf., but see also Choerilus, SH 317 (on which, see recently MacFarlane, K.A., ‘Choerilus of Samos’ lament [SH 317] and the revitalization of epic’, AJPh 130 [2009], 219–34Google Scholar). Triumphal references: e.g. P. Hardie, Virgil's Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium (Oxford, 1986), 48–51; R.F. Thomas, Virgil Georgics Volume 2: Books III-IV (Cambridge, 1988), 36–40; K. Freudenberg, ‘Solus sapiens liber est: recommissioning lyric in Epistles 1’, in T. Woodman and D. Feeney (edd.), Traditions and Contexts in the Poetry of Horace (Cambridge, 2002), 124–40, esp. 135–6, where Freudenberg observes how, in representing his literary accomplishments in the Odes and the Epistles, Horace ‘brings foreign customs in his wake’.

23 Legal terminology: Epist. 1.19.22; cf. E. Fraenkel, Horace (Oxford, 1957), 341 n. 2. Canvassing: Epist. 1.19.37-40. Horace also portrays himself (again in Roman terms) as princeps and dux: Freudenberg (n. 22), 135.

24 Even in his deployment of prima as the epic's first word, Valerius draws attention to the divide, literary as well as chronological, separating his poem from the legend it narrates: see Zissos (n. 5), 71–3.

25 Relevant passages and critical discussion at R.G.M. Nisbet and M. Hubbard, A Commentary on Horace Odes, Book I (Oxford, 1970), 15 and 349; Hardie (n. 22), 11–22; R.G.M. Nisbet and N. Rudd, A Commentary on Horace Odes, Book III (Oxford, 2004), 8; R. Hunter, The Shadow of Callimachus: Studies in the Reception of Hellenistic Poetry at Rome (Cambridge, 2006), 7–8. See also Zissos (n. 5), 79–80.

26 Poetic inspiration by Apollo is too familiar to require extensive documentation. Apollo's significance in Callimachean poetics (Aet. fr. 1.21-8 Pf.; Hymn 2.107-12): A. Harder (ed.), Callimachus Aetia: Text, Translation, and Commentary (Oxford, 2012), 2.55-64. Its presence in Roman poetry: e.g. G.O. Hutchinson, Hellenistic Poetry (Oxford, 1988), 286–9; Miller (n. 2) with further references (and see the preceding note). Valerius’ appeal to Apollo is discussed by Barchiesi (n. 4), 326–9 and Zissos (n. 5), 79–80.

27 Nor is this approach to the passage an impediment to Manuwald's perceptive reading of it, though it operates along a somewhat different line.

28 I am grateful to Jerzy Linderski, Tim Stover, Bruce Gibson and the journal's anonymous referee for improving this note, which was written in the congenial circumstances of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities of the University of Edinburgh.