Ennius and the Invention of Roman Epic

A panel to be held at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association, January 2-5, 2004 in San Francisco, California

Organized by Andreola Rossi (Harvard University) and Brian W. Breed (University of Massachusetts at Amherst).

This panel aims to reassess Ennius in his roles as pater of Roman poetry and writer of annals in light of renewed interest in problems relating to the rather sudden appearance of literature at Rome in the third and second centuries BC. Habinek in The Politics of Latin Literature connects the development of literature as a political medium to the emergence of new social structures, especially the competition between sectors of the Roman aristocracy each seeking to advance its interests over and against other sources of social and political authority. In light of this approach and considering Ennius’ position at the crossroads of a number of separate cultural and literary traditions–Greek, Italian, and Roman, epic and historiographical–we invite papers that focus on one of the following three areas:

1) Ennius and his work in the contemporary social context. Moving away from the rather mechanical view of the creation of Roman literature as a simple matter of adoption of Greek models, we aim to analyze the Annales as a key text for understanding transformations in cultural practices in Roman society at a time when Roman aristocrats battled over ownership and interpretation of their history. What is the function of epic in the formation of the collective memory about Rome’s past? How, by contrast, might the intended audience define Ennius’ narrative of Roman history? How do these two aspects complement each other?

2) The relationship of the Annales to the diversity of previous traditions. Ennius has often been labeled a "new Homer" dressed in Callimachean clothes. Viewing the Annales as a product of the social context in which Ennius’ poetry functioned, we invite presenters to widen the field of inquiry to consider models other than those previously explored. How, for instance, does the Annales both incorporate and distance itself from not only Greek epic but potentially also the panegyric which Cameron has elevated in place of the previously posited tradition of Hellenistic historical epic? How does Ennius’ Greek framework accommodate previous Roman oral and textual traditions?

3) The reception of the Annales. Accorded the privileged status of pater of Latin literature, Ennius is the source of authority, but simultaneously also the paradigm of primitivity. How can these two aspects be reconciled? How does the social context of later works shape the reception of the Annales? Is change in the social function of literature generally, and epic specifically, reflected in this ambivalent tradition of Ennius as father of Roman literature? How might later epic poems’ shaping of the Roman past be read as a reflection of their conceptualization of their own generic origins?

Abstracts should be submitted by February 3, 2003. Please send two copies of Form C, as well as four copies of an abstract, 500-800 words in length, including time and a/v equipment needed for presentation, to: American Philological Association, University of Pennsylvania, 292 Logan Hall, 249 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304. Forms and further guidelines for the preparation of abstracts are available from the APA website and in the October 2002 newsletter. Only current members of the APA are eligible to submit abstracts. All submissions will be refereed anonymously by the panel organizers.

For further information, e-mail the organizers.