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Masters of Eloquence and Masters of Empire: Quintilian in Context

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2016, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Classics.
This dissertation focuses on the curious situation of the Latin rhetor Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (b. ca. 35 CE). In the early 70s CE, Quintilian received an annual salarium of 100,000 HS from the emperor Vespasian. As a result, Quintilian is commonly cited in classical scholarship as Rome’s “first public professor of rhetoric” or “first state professor.” But while this feature of Quintilian’s biography is often repeated, it is seldom explained. Essentially, previous scholarship has offered two interpretations of Quintilian’s situation, either creating a genealogy for public higher education in the first century CE, or emphasizing imperial euergetism and liberalitas. While the latter approach is on the right track, it does not explain why a Latin rhetor in particular should have been the object of such benevolence, and nearly all scholarship on the topic emphasizes the novelty of Quintilian’s situation, but without sustained inquiry into historical precedents. This study reconsiders this problem by examining the relationship between Latin rhetorical education and Roman political power diachronically, beginning with the advent of Latin rhetors in the 90s BCE and concluding with Quintilian himself. I advance the status quaestionis with two central arguments. First, I argue that Quintilian’s situation was conditioned by over 150 years of close connections between Latin rhetors and Rome’s governing aristocracy. Second, I argue that the advocates of Latin rhetoric successfully positioned their discipline to appeal to Rome’s ruling elite by constructing a justificatory narrative that claimed that technical rhetoric was crucial for political success and civic flourishing. These arguments combine to provide a more complete and contextualized account of Quintilian’s relationship with Vespasian and the accompanying salarium, and they correct previous interpretations by emphasizing the reciprocity involved in this connection. Methodologically eclectic, I integrate close readings of Cicero’s rhetorica and Quintilian’s Institutio with prosopographical analyses that uncover dense networks of connections between rhetorical educators and Rome’s rulers. This project thus contributes to a new phase in the history of rhetoric, focused less on cataloging rules and tropes, and more on seeing rhetoric as a social and cultural phenomenon embedded in a particular historical context. Taking a broader perspective, this study reveals how rhetoric in this period positioned itself as the master discipline for Rome’s masters.
Daniel Markovic, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Duncan MacRae, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Peter Van Minnen, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
354 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Helms, K. (2016). Masters of Eloquence and Masters of Empire: Quintilian in Context [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1468335709

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Helms, Kyle. Masters of Eloquence and Masters of Empire: Quintilian in Context. 2016. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1468335709.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Helms, Kyle. "Masters of Eloquence and Masters of Empire: Quintilian in Context." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1468335709

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)