Le conflit patricio-plébéien entre mythe et histoire : comparaison des sécessions de la plèbe chez Tite-Live et Denys d’Halicarnasse

Meunier, Nicolas
(2016) 9th Celtic Conferene in Classics, Panel : Myth and History in the Historiography of Early Rome — Location: Dublin (22.June.2016)

Files

No attached file found for this publication.

Details

Authors
Abstract
(en) The period of the early Republic is probably the one where the distinction myth / history arouses the most passionate debates among modern scholars. If the traditional narrative concerning this period is generally considered more reliable from a historical point of view than the regal period, it will however cross no one’s mind to deny that it is also the result of a mythico-narrative rewriting, which took place over several centuries and of which we have the culmination in the works of Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. The particular theme of the struggle of the orders perfectly illustrates the inextricable nature of myth and history in the historiography of early Rome: if the reconstruction of its memory has become an ideological weapon at the time of the opposition between optimates and populares – these ones have not hesitated to project some of their contemporary realities onto the history of the origins for political purposes – can we therefore deny its historicity for the early periods? This paper intends more specifically to open the issue of the secessions of the plebs and their context in a comparative perspective, with particular attention to the differences in treatment between Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. We will focus on three aspects. The first concerns the exempla that are obvious "mythical" outgrowths of the traditional account (the speech of Menenius Agrippa and the story of Verginia): on which points have Livy and Dionysius respectively more insisted, and why? The second aspect we will address (much less studied by modern scholars than the previous one) is that of the typology of the characters in the narrative parts considered more reliable from a historical point of view. Here are intertwined myth and history. Although relying on a presumably genuine memory, the traditional account does not hesitate to stage the characters and actors of history (whether patrician or plebeian) by paying them very typical behaviours based on positive or negative predefined moral values (gravitas, superbia, moderatio, etc.). But there are strong differences on this subject between Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. The third aspect we plan to develop in this paper regards the alleged causes of the secessions of the plebs. Livy and Dionysius does not stress the same points in the same way and this is perhaps indicative of a difference of intent and objective in the mythico-narrative rewriting of the struggle of the orders in these two ancient historians.
Affiliations

Citations

  • APA
  • Chicago
  • FWB

Meunier, N. (2016). Le conflit patricio-plébéien entre mythe et histoire : comparaison des sécessions de la plèbe chez Tite-Live et Denys d’Halicarnasse. 9th Celtic Conferene in Classics, Panel : Myth and History in the Historiography of Early Rome, Dublin. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/180361