Stefano Rebeggiani (University of Southern California) "Romanam tangit historiam: Roman history in Aeneid 2, a new look"

Talk Description: Virgil’s narrative of the sack of Troy is shot through with references and allusions to the history of republican Rome. This much was already clear to ancient scholars such as Servius, who highlight multiple cases in which Virgil’s mythological plot “touches Roman history” (to use Servius’ own words). These moments of contact are numerous, diverse, seemingly unconnected and often puzzling; they rely on intertexts as well as on a peculiar construction of the fictional topography of Troy; they short-circuit the archaic period with the civil wars of the late Republic, bringing together such figures as Gaius Marius and Tullus Hostilius. This paper aims to cast a new, comprehensive look at Virgil’s engagement with Roman history in Aen. 2. I intend to present some new findings. My main goal is however to reflect on the cumulative effect of these interactions: is there a grand design, a major comprehensive framework, that governs Virgil’s allusions? Can we understand these moments of contact as part of an overall strategy? I shall suggest that an overall design is indeed present, and that there are three major macro-narratives which guide Virgil’s selective approach to Roman historical sources. I will then show that we can trace connections between Virgil’s use of Roman history and the uses of the past in rhetorical traditions at the end of the Republic. Finally, I will suggest that Virgil’s view of the history of Rome interacts with Roman intellectual traditions which reflected on the causes and timing of Roman decline. Virgil’s narrative of the sack of Troy is shot through with references and allusions to the history of republican Rome. This much was already clear to ancient scholars such as Servius, who highlight multiple cases in which Virgil’s mythological plot “touches Roman history” (to use Servius’ own words). These moments of contact are numerous, diverse, seemingly unconnected and often puzzling; they rely on intertexts as well as on a peculiar construction of the fictional topography of Troy; they short-circuit the archaic period with the civil wars of the late Republic, bringing together such figures as Gaius Marius and Tullus Hostilius. This paper aims to cast a new, comprehensive look at Virgil’s engagement with Roman history in Aen. 2. I intend to present some new findings. My main goal is however to reflect on the cumulative effect of these interactions: is there a grand design, a major comprehensive framework, that governs Virgil’s allusions? Can we understand these moments of contact as part of an overall strategy? I shall suggest that an overall design is indeed present, and that there are three major macro-narratives which guide Virgil’s selective approach to Roman historical sources. I will then show that we can trace connections between Virgil’s use of Roman history and the uses of the past in rhetorical traditions at the end of the Republic. Finally, I will suggest that Virgil’s view of the history of Rome interacts with Roman intellectual traditions which reflected on the causes and timing of Roman decline.

Biography: Stefano Rebeggiani studied Classics first at the Sapienza University of Rome and then at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. He went back to the Sapienza for his PhD, and was Visiting Student at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 2010-11. Before joining the department of Classics at USC he taught at NYU as Visiting Assistant Professor. His main interests lie in the field of Roman literature and culture, with particular attention to epic poetry and its interactions with the political and social contexts of imperial Rome. He is also interested in Roman art and archaeology, especially as a source for the rich and complex cultural life of the Roman Republic, and in Roman philosophy. He has published articles on Statius, Virgil, Lucretius, and on the role of Greek works of art in monumental contexts in Rome. Another area of his research pertains to the reception of Greco-Roman literature in early modern China, with particular attention to the Chinese and Latin works by the Italian polymath Martino Martini. His first book (The fragility of power: Statius, Domitian and the politics of the Thebaid, OUP 2018) examines historical allusions in Statius’ major poem and provides a new interpretation of Statius’ engagement with the language of Domitian’s ideology. His second book project, entitled Tragic History: Virgil’s Aeneid and the Roman Republic offers a detailed study of Virgil’s allusions to texts, monuments and narratives of republican Rome and seeks to shed new light on the ideological agenda behind Virgil’s reconstruction of Rome’s republican past. He is also preparing a commentary on Aeneid 3 for the Fondazione Lorenzo Valla.  

This talk will not be available on zoom and will not be recorded.