O exercício do horror: modelos de teatralidade trágica nos Excerpta Declamationum de Calpúrnio Flaco e nas Declamationes Minores de Pseudo-Quintiliano

Abstract

Rhetoric maintains an axiomatic relationship with the tragic dramatic genre. In the imperial context of Rome, the declamations and dramas of Seneca the Younger are fruitful examples of this intergeneric linking. While Senecan dramaturgy seems to have used intrinsic elements of school practice in the ornamentation of discourses and in the construction of the characters’ ethos, the school rhetoric gives us evidence that it used not only tragic myths to elaborate some themes, but also certain characters and their typical characteristics. This thesis aims to map the proximity between declamation and tragic drama to investigate a possible circulation of stories, typical characters, and mythemes in the composition of the declamatory quarrels, since certain models of the tragic theatricality of Senecan works can be seen in Pseudo-Quintilian’s Declamationes Minores and in Calpurnius Flaccus’ Excerpta Declamationum. For this study, the myths and philosophical principles used in the composition of the declamations were sought from an outline that helped us to identify not only textual construction mechanisms, but also a certain circularity of themes that can give face and voice to the philosophical and Roman myth-poetics heritage. This work, guided by a literary analysis, was conducted through the Calpurnian controversies and 13 “Minor Declamations”, which bear some thematic similarity to those of Calpurnius Flaccus. In addition to these corpora, we also made use of some “Letters to Lucilius” (Ad Lucilium epistulae morales) and the Senecan tragedies “Phoenician Women” (Phoenissae), “Agamemnon” (Agamemnon), “Trojan Women” (Troades), “Oedipus” (Oedipus), “Phaedra” (Phaedra), “Hercules” (Hercules Furens) and “Thyestes” (Thyestes). The study of declamations in contrast of Senecan theatre allows us to demonstrate that, given the literary qualities of the declamations, it is no coincidence that they have influenced and been influenced by Latin drama.