This book evolved from papers given at a conference at the University of Athens (‘“Fama scripta”: Wanderings of fama in Latin Literature’, 17 December 2012) in response to the publication of P. Hardie's book on fama (Rumour and Renown: Representations of fama in Western Literature [2012]). As Hardie acknowledges in the ‘Afterthought’ to the present book (pp. 206–7), the contributors both build on his analysis (especially in the chapters on Virgil, Ovid, Juvenal and iconography) and extend its scope (to include Cicero's epic poems, Manilius and Prudentius). The volume therefore constitutes a valuable and thought-provoking addition to the proliferating scholarship and debate surrounding fama and related issues.
In Chapter 1, M. Garani corrects the assumption, based on the much-quoted maxim λάθε βιώσας, that Epicurus and his followers always recommended avoiding renown. She cites sources (Epicurus, ΚΔ 7; Philodemus, De adul. [PHerc. 222] col. iv, 1–12 Gargiulo; Plut. De tranquillitate animi, Mor. 465F–466A) that outline a more complex position: ‘there are conditions under which an Epicurean could accept – but not hunt after – fame, provided that this process grants pleasure and can contribute to one's ἀσϕάλεια’ (p. 36). Her subsequent analysis of fame in Lucretius raises interesting questions, for example whether it is possible to harmonise the concept of eternal fama with the ‘everlasting atomic flux’ of the Epicurean universe (pp. 42–3).
In Chapter 2, E. Karamalengou explores Cicero's manipulation of fama in the two epic poems he wrote to celebrate the achievements of his consulship (De consulatu suo [60 bc] and De temporibus suis [post-exile]). She follows Hardie in distinguishing between fama-gloria (positive) and fama-rumor (negative), and sees Cicero's autobiographical epics as attempts to counter the latter (which dogged Cicero's career after his execution of the Catilinarian conspirators) by advancing and emphasising the former. Cicero's striking decision to fuse the epic narrator and epic hero in his celebratory ‘autofiction’ has interesting consequences for fama-gloria: is the epic poet equally able to bestow κλέος/gloria on his epic hero when that hero is in fact himself? Karamalengou argues that Cicero successfully navigates this problem using a variety of subtle techniques. For example, the Muse Urania praises Cicero both for his academic/literary pursuits and for his political achievements (Cic. De consulatu suo 75–8): ‘we realise then that the poetic fama-gloria and the political fama-gloria have a special joint function: the more the fama-gloria of the poet is extolled, the more the fama-gloria of the epic protagonist increases, to such a degree that both famae converge until they become interfused and identical’ (p. 53).
S. Clément-Tarantino is well known for her work on fama in the Aeneid (Fama ou la renommée du genre: recherches sur la représentation de la tradition dans l'Enéide, Diss. Lille 3, 2006), and in Chapter 3 she presents a selection of her insights. She first considers fama in terms of references ‘to traditions as hearsay’ (p. 58) or ‘Alexandrian footnotes’ (fama est, ut perhibent, fertur, dicitur etc., following S. Hinds, Allusion and Intertext: Dynamics of Appropriation in Roman Poetry [1998]). She usefully distinguishes between cases in which these introduce secondary narratives or digressions (e.g. Virg. Aen. 4.179) and cases in which they work within the main narrative (e.g. Virg. Aen. 4.204, 9.591, 12.735). In both instances, Clément-Tarantino offers explanations as to why, surprisingly, it often appears that there are ‘no real allusions or no definite auctor for what is introduced in this manner’ (p. 56). In addition, the distinction between primary and secondary narratives highlights that fama is not just involved in digressions, but is also ‘a principle of narrative cohesion’ (p. 61). This use of fama ‘is not, as far as we can tell, characteristic of the epic before him’ (p. 64 n. 29). Instead, Clément-Tarantino suggests that Virgil was influenced by the role of rumour in Attic tragedy (especially Euripides' Helen), which may explain why fama is overwhelmingly negative and/or tragic in the Aeneid: ‘in this epic, fama is never seen to bring words of victory. She does not personify (positive, glorious) Renown’ (p. 69).
In Chapter 4, E. Peraki-Kyriakidou focuses on the character Leuconoe, according to Ovid one of the three daughters of Minyas, and the story she tells of the love affairs of Sol (Ov. Met. 4.169–270). Peraki-Kyriakidou argues for a meta-poetic reading of the episode, according to which it highlights contrasts between Bacchic drama (= unrestrained, public and performed as spectacle), which has dominated Book 3 of the Met., and learned poetry of the Hellenistic style (= disciplined, private and introspected), associated with the sisters' favoured goddess, Minerva. Peraki-Kyriakidou links the former with ‘reported speech and its dissemination in an un-composed or even chaotic way’ (p. 71) and contrasts this with Leuconoe's decision to suppress the speeches of the Sun and Clytie within her own intricately woven narrative (p. 84). Throughout, she uses etymological analyses of names to support her arguments (e.g. Leuconoe = λεύσσω + νοῦς ‘she is the maiden who sees with the mind's eye’, p. 80).
In Chapter 5 A. Michalopoulos turns to ‘the use and role of fama in Ovid's exilic poetry’ (p. 94). He distinguishes between (1) fama as reputation and fame, and (2) fama as news, rumour and hearsay. It is apparent from the selection of interesting passages from the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto that, though Ovid remains preoccupied by fama in Tomis, he displays inconsistent attitudes towards it. For example, Ovid demonstrates a combination of confidence in the eternal reputation he has achieved through his pre-exile literature (e.g. Ov. Tr. 3.7.50) and anxiety that his fama has fled Rome along with its master (e.g. Tr. 1.5.83–6). In addition, he emphasises the contingency and fragility of the information he receives from Rome (e.g. Tr. 3.12.37–44), yet also describes the appearance of a vividly personified, winged (yet invisible) Fama, which passes good news to him directly (Pont. 4.4.11–8).
In Chapter 6 K., the editor, explains what is unique about fama and gloria in Manilius' Astronomica. For the Stoic Manilius, laudes and fama are ‘given by fate’ (p. 125; Manil. Astr. 3.56–60, 4.14–19), rather than/as well as being the product of human effort and skill. Because of this, and perhaps because of the real risks accompanying personal fame under the Principate (p. 127), Manilius does not explicitly aim for poetic renown in the same way that Ovid, Virgil, Horace and Lucretius do (pp. 120–1, 125–6). For example, K. demonstrates that Manilius' densely allusive personification of Gloria (Astr. 2.808–19) is born of nuanced poetic and philosophical motives (pp. 128–34) and shows that he deploys the imagery of reaching the stars in a different way from his predecessors: for Manilius, whose subject is astronomy, a journey to the heavens is not ‘the reward … for his poetic excellence’, but ‘is directly related to the pursuit of knowledge itself’ (p. 137).
S. Papaioannou offers a close analysis of Juvenal's portrayal of the gossipy woman at Sat. 6.398–412. She agrees with previous scholars that this figure is a ‘poetic self-projection’ (O. Umurhan, Arethusa 44 [2011]), and that Juvenal draws on Virgil's and Ovid's descriptions of Fama (P. Hardie, Rumour and Renown [2012], pp. 176–7; L. Watson & P. Watson, Juvenal: Satire 6 [2014], p. 208). In addition, she persuasively argues that this passage contains reflections on the fraught relationship between Augustan epic and imperial satire: the humorous transformation of epic Fama into an old, ugly woman who traverses Rome spreading global gossip firstly reflects the first-century ad satirist's anxiety about how his work relates to and continues the Latin epic tradition, and secondly indicates concerns about the difficulties involved in ‘trying to manage … the cultural multivocality of the empire’ (p. 165).
P. Hardie's intriguing exploration of ‘Glory, Memory and Envy in Prudentius' Peristephanon’ furthers his discussion of ‘Christian Conversions of Fama’ in Rumour and Renown (Chapter 11, pp. 411–38) and is rich with valuable insights. For example, he notes the generic complexity of the Peristephanon, which combines ‘lyric form with epic matter … the martyr is both epic hero, and victorious contestant in a game or spectacle’ (p. 166). Though pagan fama is influential (Hardie discusses Virgil and Horace in particular), it must be redefined within a Christian context: ‘in the Christian version of the calculus of kleos the prize is not just imperishable fame and glory, but imperishable life in heaven’ (p. 169). For Prudentius, fama exists both on earth (where it is corporeal and material) and in heaven (where it is spiritual and immaterial). In each case it is closely associated with speech and writing: Prudentius' earthly Peristephanon is gloriously mirrored by the everlasting ‘heavenly book’ in which angels record the sufferings of the martyrs (Per. 10.1111–35). Hardie's dense analysis of this complex text opens up exciting avenues for further research and debate.
G. Guastella, author of Word of Mouth: Fama and its Personifications in Art and Literature from Ancient Rome to the Middle Ages (2017), closes the collection by considering the reception of Virgilian fama in iconography in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. His discussion points to the heterogeneity of images of Virgil's Fama-rumour (p. 198), then tracks the incorporation of features of Fama-rumour into representations of Fama-renown and Gloria Mundi. Guastella's interesting arguments would have been aided by the inclusion of the images discussed within the chapter.
The many voices of this volume constitute a fitting and high-quality contribution to the study of the multiform concept of fama in Latin literature and beyond. It is perhaps the case that more could have been made of uniting these contributions within a single book. Though it was no doubt the aim of the editor to publish an open-ended work in reflection of the ‘endless journey’ of scholarship on fama, I think that a general conclusion considering the relative merits of different approaches and drawing together discrete arguments (for example on the complex relationship between fama and genre) would have been a useful, if challenging, addition.
