Tacitus' History of Politically Effective Speech: Truth to Power

Description

This study examines how Tacitus' representation of speech determines the roles of speakers within the political sphere, and explores the possibility of politically effective speech in the principate. It argues against the traditional scholarly view that Tacitus refuses to offer a positive view of senatorial power in the principate: while senators did experience limitations and changes to what they could achieve in public life, they could aim to create a dimension of political power and efficacy through speeches intended to create and sustain relations which would in turn determine the roles played by both senators or an emperor. Ellen O'Gorman traces Tacitus' own charting of these modes of speech, from flattery and aggression to advice, praise, and censure, and explores how different modes of speech in his histories should be evaluated: not according to how they conform to pre-existing political stances, but as they engender different political worlds in the present and future. The volume goes beyond literary analysis of the texts to create a new framework for studying this essential period in ancient Roman history, much in the same way that Tacitus himself recasts the political authority and presence of senatorial speakers as narrative and historical analysis.

Ellen O'Gorman is Senior Lecturer in Classics and Director of the Institute for Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition at the University of Bristol, UK.

Through a careful and subtle analysis of Tacitus' impressions of the Roman Senate, Ellen O'Gorman's new book provides an intriguingly heterodox case for Tacitus as a political thinker. This bold book is a must-read for scholars and students of Roman historiography. -- Eric Adler, Associate Professor of Classics, University of Maryland, USA The provocative book succeeds in many ways ... Any reader interested in Tacitean historiography and political thought, the imperial Roman senate and rhetorical and ethical power in any era will learn and benefit from this effective and powerful book. * The Classical Review *