Yelena Baraz | Princeton University (original) (raw)
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Papers by Yelena Baraz
Trends in Classics, 2024
This chapter considers the intense negotiations around the meaning of friendship, or rather the L... more This chapter considers the intense negotiations around the meaning of friendship, or rather the Latin concept of amicitia,1 in the aftermath of the assassination of Julius Caesar in March 44 BCE. Among the many consequences of this event, the fact that among the assassins were several close and long-standing associates of the dictator occasioned discussions of amicitia and, in particular, when it was appropriate to discontinue an existing relationship and when to reconcile after a rupture. We have partial, and no doubt skewed, access to these discussions through a number of treatments in the contemporary texts in different genres composed by Marcus Tullius Cicero, who himself participated in such relationships with a number of the main players. The challenges to the rather superficial amicitia between Cicero and Marc Antony are apparent in the First Philippic, a speech in which Cicero addresses Antony's accusation that his behavior constituted a breach of amicitia between the two men, as the well as in the letters they exchanged. The correspondence between Cicero and the Caesarian Gaius Matius, who was apparently widely criticized for his continuing adherence to Caesar's memory, tackles the limits of the obligations of amicitia where they come into conflict with the interests of the state. Finally, the short ethical treatise Laelius, On Friendship explores many of the same issues on a number of different levels, from the pragmatic to the philosophical. The treatise might appear at first glance to be of universal, rather than topical interest, and that is certainly the way in which many later readers generally received it. The undeniable appeal of Cicero's treatment is well attested by the work's influence and lasting popularity. The dedication of the work to Cicero's closest friend Atticus seems to mark it as a work
Vergil and Elegy, edd. Alison Keith and Micah Myers, 2023
Classical Quarterly, 2021
This paper proposes a new synthetic account of the presence of Cicero as both character and sourc... more This paper proposes a new synthetic account of the presence of Cicero as both character and source in Lucan's Bellum Ciuile. Lucan's treatment is derived primarily from Virgil's technique for creating intertextually complex characters, but further builds on Sallust's displacement of Cicero in his narrative of the Catilinarian conspiracy and on the declamatory practice of reducing the orator to a few prominent and recognizable traits. Cicero the character, as he briefly appears at the opening of the seventh book, is not simply an ahistorical caricature: he is constructed through a careful series of allusions designed to indict his use of violence in the suppression of Catiline. Other prominent aspects of Cicero in the tradition are displaced and transferred to other characters more important to Lucan's design, Cato and Pompey. Lucan's depiction of Pompey, especially his death and decapitation, draws on the language and affect of the tradition associated with Cicero, using Cicero's own words and the obituary of Cicero in the lost historical epic of Cornelius Severus. Finally, the language of Cicero's peace-making efforts in his correspondence, suppressed in Lucan's depiction of him as a warmonger, forms an important part of the narrator's own emotional evocations of the impending catastrophe of civil war. The combination of models Lucan uses is more broadly reflective of his technique in composing a historical epic.
Reading Roman Declamation: Seneca the Elder, edd. Martin T. Dinter, Charles Guérin, and Marcos Martinho dos Santos, 2020
Transactions of The American Philological Association, 2012
Classical Philology, 2009
Classical World, 2009
Orestes was condemned, which was surely a given within the mythological tradition even prior to t... more Orestes was condemned, which was surely a given within the mythological tradition even prior to the fifth century. What this parallel would imply about Thrasydaeus' mother is even more troubling. Finglass also includes a section ably refuting theories about the poem's ...
Bollettino di studi latini, 2019
A collection of essays which explore the text from different point of views: philological, litera... more A collection of essays which explore the text from different point of views: philological, literary, philosophical, historical, political.
Conference Presentations by Yelena Baraz
Trends in Classics, 2024
This chapter considers the intense negotiations around the meaning of friendship, or rather the L... more This chapter considers the intense negotiations around the meaning of friendship, or rather the Latin concept of amicitia,1 in the aftermath of the assassination of Julius Caesar in March 44 BCE. Among the many consequences of this event, the fact that among the assassins were several close and long-standing associates of the dictator occasioned discussions of amicitia and, in particular, when it was appropriate to discontinue an existing relationship and when to reconcile after a rupture. We have partial, and no doubt skewed, access to these discussions through a number of treatments in the contemporary texts in different genres composed by Marcus Tullius Cicero, who himself participated in such relationships with a number of the main players. The challenges to the rather superficial amicitia between Cicero and Marc Antony are apparent in the First Philippic, a speech in which Cicero addresses Antony's accusation that his behavior constituted a breach of amicitia between the two men, as the well as in the letters they exchanged. The correspondence between Cicero and the Caesarian Gaius Matius, who was apparently widely criticized for his continuing adherence to Caesar's memory, tackles the limits of the obligations of amicitia where they come into conflict with the interests of the state. Finally, the short ethical treatise Laelius, On Friendship explores many of the same issues on a number of different levels, from the pragmatic to the philosophical. The treatise might appear at first glance to be of universal, rather than topical interest, and that is certainly the way in which many later readers generally received it. The undeniable appeal of Cicero's treatment is well attested by the work's influence and lasting popularity. The dedication of the work to Cicero's closest friend Atticus seems to mark it as a work
Vergil and Elegy, edd. Alison Keith and Micah Myers, 2023
Classical Quarterly, 2021
This paper proposes a new synthetic account of the presence of Cicero as both character and sourc... more This paper proposes a new synthetic account of the presence of Cicero as both character and source in Lucan's Bellum Ciuile. Lucan's treatment is derived primarily from Virgil's technique for creating intertextually complex characters, but further builds on Sallust's displacement of Cicero in his narrative of the Catilinarian conspiracy and on the declamatory practice of reducing the orator to a few prominent and recognizable traits. Cicero the character, as he briefly appears at the opening of the seventh book, is not simply an ahistorical caricature: he is constructed through a careful series of allusions designed to indict his use of violence in the suppression of Catiline. Other prominent aspects of Cicero in the tradition are displaced and transferred to other characters more important to Lucan's design, Cato and Pompey. Lucan's depiction of Pompey, especially his death and decapitation, draws on the language and affect of the tradition associated with Cicero, using Cicero's own words and the obituary of Cicero in the lost historical epic of Cornelius Severus. Finally, the language of Cicero's peace-making efforts in his correspondence, suppressed in Lucan's depiction of him as a warmonger, forms an important part of the narrator's own emotional evocations of the impending catastrophe of civil war. The combination of models Lucan uses is more broadly reflective of his technique in composing a historical epic.
Reading Roman Declamation: Seneca the Elder, edd. Martin T. Dinter, Charles Guérin, and Marcos Martinho dos Santos, 2020
Transactions of The American Philological Association, 2012
Classical Philology, 2009
Classical World, 2009
Orestes was condemned, which was surely a given within the mythological tradition even prior to t... more Orestes was condemned, which was surely a given within the mythological tradition even prior to the fifth century. What this parallel would imply about Thrasydaeus' mother is even more troubling. Finglass also includes a section ably refuting theories about the poem's ...
Bollettino di studi latini, 2019
A collection of essays which explore the text from different point of views: philological, litera... more A collection of essays which explore the text from different point of views: philological, literary, philosophical, historical, political.