NEWSLETTER #14: ‘LOOK UPON MY WORKS, YE MIGHTY, AND DESPAIR’
What should we do with bad historical statues? Which are the best books to read this Christmas? When is The Rock going to play me in a movie? And WIN a signed copy of Powers & Thrones...
In 100AD, the Roman lawyer and magistrate Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus – better known now as Pliny the Younger – gave a speech to the Senate. His purpose was to butter up the emperor, Trajan (98-117AD).
Thanks to Trajan, Pliny had recently been appointed consul, and Roman tradition demanded that ‘the consul, by way of an address of thanks, shall remind good princes of what they have done, and bad princes of what they ought to do.’
So Pliny laid it on thick. In a speech known today as the Panegyricus he lavished fine words on the ‘steady, tall and stately’ Trajan. He lauded the emperor’s rapid accrual of ‘unprecedented praise and glory’ and noted that ‘his seriousness is not lessened by his cheerfulness, his gravity by his simplicity, or his dignity by his humanity.’
Thousands more admiring words followed, in fine rhetorical Latin. The Panegyricus survives – the only one of Pliny’s orations to do so. It showcases Pliny’s way with words, and his enthusiastic appetite for kissing imperial ass.
Today, however, the Panegyricus is seldom quoted in the popular press for its generous remarks about Trajan. Rather, it finds its way into newspaper articles, blogs and debates because in the course of it, Pliny mentions tearing down statues.
That has been a big topic in 2021. But it is not necessarily a new one. Let’s talk about why.
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