Deconstructing imperial representation : Tacitus, Cassius Dio, and Suetonius on Nero and Domitian / / by Verena Schulz.

• Superior document: Mnemosyne, Supplements; volume427
• VerfasserIn: Schulz, Verena,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden Boston : : BRILL,, 2019.
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Mnemosyne, Supplements; volume427.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (422 pages).

What literary strategies do Tacitus, Cassius Dio, and Suetonius apply in portraying Nero and Domitian? This book argues that the three authors respond to and deconstruct the positive accounts of imperial representation that were prevalent during the lifetimes of the two controversial emperors. They take up motifs from these earlier accounts, which they re-interpret to construct their own negative portraits. Although Tacitus, Cassius Dio, and Suetonius discuss the same historical figures and events of early imperial Rome, they are rarely examined together in one volume. Verena Schulz offers the first combined reading of their works from a philological viewpoint, analysing the various rhetorical techniques and narratological devices that they display, and the different literary and historical discourses in which they are embedded.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Preface -- Content and Purpose of This Study -- Constructing the Emperor in Historiography and Panegyric -- Texts and Stories: On ‘Dinners with the Emperor’ -- Theory and History -- Tacitus: Deconstruction and Uncertainty -- Introduction to Part 2 -- Imperial Representation and Topics of Deconstruction -- Strategies of Deconstruction in Tacitus -- Creating Uncertainty -- Conclusion to Part 2 -- Cassius Dio: Deconstruction and Typologies -- Introduction to Part 3 -- Writing Historiography under the Severans -- Strategies of Deconstruction in Cassius Dio -- Deconstruction and the Construction of Memory -- Conclusion to Part 3 -- Suetonius: Deconstruction and Entertainment -- Introduction to Part 4 -- Biography and Eccentric Representation -- Strategies of Deconstruction in Suetonius -- Deconstructed Elements and Miscellanism -- Conclusion to Part 4 -- Conclusion -- Three Modes of Deconstruction -- Back Matter -- Deconstruction and Rhetorical Strategies -- Bibliography -- Indexes.