The Panegyric of Constantine in 310 CE: Review of Catherine Ware, A Literary Commentary on Panegyrici Latini VI(7). An Oration Delivered before the Emperor Constantine in Trier, ca. AD 310 (Cambridge: Cambridge, 2021). ISBN: 9781107123694. (original) (raw)

2022, The Classical Review

In late 310 CE the emperor Constantine was looking to reinforce his imperial legitimacy within an unstable political climate of 'Tetrarchs' and 'usurpers'. His father-in-law Maximian, the very emperor who had made Constantine Augustus, had usurped against him earlier that year. The revolt was soon crushed, and Maximian was made to commit suicide, but the episode had forced Constantine to reconsider the representation of his rule. Perhaps only weeks later, an anonymous orator from Autun delivered a panegyric before the emperor at his court in Trier, Panegyrici Latini VI(7). This speech provides a window into political and literary culture at a turning point in Constantine's reign. It is thus very welcome that, nearly 30 years after the publication of C.E.V. Nixon's historical commentary on the panegyric (C.E.V. Nixon and B.S. Rodgers, In Praise of Later Roman Emperors: the Panegyrici Latini [1994], pp. 211-53), W. has provided scholars with a literary commentary as part of the collaborative Panegyrici Latini Project. The volume also includes the Latin text of R.A.B. Mynors with a shortened and emended apparatus criticus and a translation by W. on the facing pages. The book is indispensable, not least because it offers a rich framework of analysis. W. examines the speech in the context of its time and place of delivery, but she also investigates its relationship to the other Panegyrici Latini and its role within the Panegirici Diuersorum VII and Panegyrici Latini XII corpora. The introduction is divided into two parts. Part 1, on the Panegyrici Latini, provides excellent overviews and discussions on the manuscript and commentary traditions, the history and purposes of the corpora, the genre of panegyric, language and style, and intertextuality (pp. 1-35). Throughout, W. repeatedly connects her broader points to passages in VI(7). Part 2 focuses on VI(7) and outlines its historical context, time and place, speaker and audience, and structure (pp. 35-63). Concerning audience, W. notes that, while the primary function of VI(7) was to express loyalty and seek benefits in a ceremonial setting, 'the orator's secondary audience, those who would later read and study the panegyric at their leisure, was more likely to appreciate its literary qualities' (p. 59). Part 2 also includes a series of discussions on the panegyric's representation of key themes: Constantine's relationships with Maximian and Constantius (and how these representations compare with earlier speeches), the emperor as seuerus and mitis, the emperor's association with Augustus and Apollo, and the speech's thematic links with later panegyrics. In this way, W. brings to the reader's attention topics and issues that are revisited in the commentary. W. considers VI(7) to be a 'people's panegyric', since 'the information directed towards the emperor is of greater significance than that which emanates from him' (p. 26). That said, the orator's announcement that Claudius Gothicus is an ancestor of Constantine, apparently a new claim at the time of delivery (2.1-2) as well as his handling of Maximian's usurpation may suggest imperial briefing (pp. 24-6, 38-9, 234). The text and translation follow the introduction. W.'s translation is engaging and captures the tone and mood of the rhetoric while not being overly literal. Then comes the brilliantly detailed commentary, which provides analyses of speech structure, chapter THE CLASSICAL REVIEW