Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition

314 Pages·2015·1.77 MB·English

by  Jennifer L. Ferriss-Hill

Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition
Quintilian famously claimed that satire was tota nostra, or totally
ours, but this innovative volume demonstrates that many of Roman
Satire’s most distinctive characteristics derived from ancient Greek
OldComedy.JenniferL.Ferriss-HillanalyzesthewritingsofLucilius,
Horace,andPersius,highlightingthefeaturesthattheycraftedonthe
model of Aristophanes and his fellow-poets: the authoritative yet
compromised author; the self-referential discussions of poetics that
vacillate between defensive and aggressive; the deployment of per-
sonal invective in the service of literary polemics; and the abiding
interestin criticizingindividuals, types, andlanguageitself. Thefirst
book-length study in English on the relationship between Roman
Satire and Old Comedy, Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition
will appeal to students and researchers in Classics, Comparative
Literature, and English.
jennifer l. ferriss-hill
isAssistantProfessorofClassicsat
the University of Miami. Her articles have appeared in American
JournalofPhilology,ClassicalPhilology,IllinoisClassicalStudies,and
Transactionsof theAmerican Philological Association.

Roman Satire and the Old Comic
Tradition
jennifer l. ferriss-hill
UniversityofMiami
32AvenueoftheAmericas,NewYork,NY10013-2473,USA
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©JenniferL.Ferriss-Hill2015
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Firstpublished2015
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Ferriss-Hill,JenniferL.,1979–author.
Romansatireandtheoldcomictradition/JenniferL.Ferriss-Hill,UniversityofMiami.
pages cm
“ThismonographisathoroughlyrevisedandexpandedversionofmyPh.D.dissertation,Poetics
andPolemics:Horace’sSatiricIdiomandtheComicTradition(HarvardUniversity,2008).”–
Acknowledgments.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-107-08154-3(Hardback)
1. Satire,Latin–Historyandcriticism. 2. Lucilius,Gaius,approximately180B.C.–approximately
102B.C. 3. Horace. 4. Persius. 5. Satire,Greek–Historyandcriticism. I. Title.
PA6095.F472014
8770.0109–dc23 2014032224
ISBN978-1-107-08154-3Hardback
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accurateorappropriate.
For Robert, Beatrice, and Julian

Contents
Acknowledgments [page ix]
Introduction [1]
RereadingQuintilian [1]
RomanSatireonOldComedy [3]
Truth-TellingLaughter [23]
HowDidtheRomanSatiristsKnowOldComedy? [38]
1. The Poet in Tension [45]
TheUrbanPoet [45]
TheDidacticPoet [62]
TheMisunderstoodPoet [72]
TheAbjectPoet [86]
TheLawbreakingPoet [95]
ThePoetasChef [101]
Conclusions [118]
2. Defensive Poetics [121]
TheDefensivePoeticsofOldComedy [121]
CallimachusandTerence [128]
LucilianBeginnings [138]
HoratianManipulations [143]
PersianTwistsandJuvenalianWithdrawal [156]
Conclusions [169]
3. Literary Criticism [171]
OfthePoet’sOwnGenre [171]
OfOtherGenres [187]
LuciliusandRomanSatire’sOldComicModels [188]
Horace [195]
Persius [203]
Juvenal [212]
Conclusions [215]
4. Criticizing the Komodoumenoi [217]
TheKomodoumenoiofOldComedyandRomanSatire [217]
LanguageCriticism [228]
Conclusions [241]
A Conclusion and Some New Directions [242] vii
viii Contents
Bibliography [251]
Index Locorum [277]
General Index [295]