The Empire of the Self: Self-Command and Political Speech in Seneca and Petronius

by Christopher Star

Overview

Christopher Star uncovers significant points of contact between Seneca and Petronius, two important Roman writers long thought to be antagonists.

In The Empire of the Self, Christopher Star studies the question of how political reality affects the concepts of body, soul, and self. Star argues that during the early Roman Empire the establishment of autocracy and the development of a universal ideal of individual autonomy were mutually enhancing phenomena. The Stoic ideal of individual empire or complete self-command is a major theme of Seneca’s philosophical works. The problematic consequences of this ideal are explored in Seneca’s dramatic and satirical works, as well as in the novel of his contemporary Petronius.

Star examines the rhetorical links between these diverse texts. He also demonstrates a significant point of contact between two writers generally thought to be antagonists—the idea that imperial speech structures reveal the self.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421406749
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2012
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Christopher Star is a professor of classics at Middlebury College. He is the author of The Empire of the Self: Self-Command and Political Speech in Seneca and Petronius and Seneca.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

Part I Soul-Shaping Speech

1 Senecan Philosophy and the Psychology of Command 23

2 Self-Address in Senecan Tragedy 62

3 Self-Address in the Satyricon 84

Part II Soul-Revealing Speech

4 Political Speech in De dementia 117

5 Soul, Speech, and Politics in the Apocolocyntosis and the Satyricon 140

6 Writing, Body, and Money 171

Epilogue 209

Notes 215

Bibliography 277

Index 295

What People are Saying About This

James Ker

Star's highly original comparison of Seneca and Petronius offers us new vistas on the dynamic relationship between these two authors, not to mention the culture in which they lived and died, promoting and perverting the technologies of self-fashioning available to imperial Romans.

From the Publisher

Star's highly original comparison of Seneca and Petronius offers us new vistas on the dynamic relationship between these two authors, not to mention the culture in which they lived and died, promoting and perverting the technologies of self-fashioning available to imperial Romans.
—James Ker, University of Pennsylvania

Editorial Reviews

This [review] can hardly do justice to the scope and richness of Star's argument in each chapter, to the thoroughness with which he discusses his chosen texts, and to the creativity with which he exploits his simultaneous treatments of Seneca and Petronius. This book makes a major contribution to the modern bibliography of selfhood and self-formation in the early empire, and it will doubtless generate further debate in so vibrant an area of study.
—Gareth Williams, Classical Journal

With this book, Star contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the construction of the self in classical antiquity.
—Choice

If this book only managed to demonstrate — as it unquestionably does — the complementary intertexuality of the Satyricon with Senecan philosophy, that alone would be a noteworthy achievement. But in fact The Empire of the Self is rife with compelling readings of its target texts that have ramifications beyond a narrow understanding of either author of their relationship to one another. Star's study offers its readers valuable insights into the governing metaphors and preoccupations of the Roman intelligentsia in the mid-first century CE.
—Amanda Wilcox, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Star has performed a valuable service in presenting a fresh approach to familiar authors which helps the discussion to move beyond some of the established academic truisms of the last few decades, and identifying the common conceptual ground that they share. He offers us a fresh perspective on both Seneca’s and Petronius’ views of self-fashioning, making a major contribution to several recent areas of interest within classics. Both graduate students and scholars working on Neronian literature or Roman concepts of identity will benefit from reading Star’s argument.
—Hermathena

From the Publisher

This [review] can hardly do justice to the scope and richness of Star's argument in each chapter, to the thoroughness with which he discusses his chosen texts, and to the creativity with which he exploits his simultaneous treatments of Seneca and Petronius. This book makes a major contribution to the modern bibliography of selfhood and self-formation in the early empire, and it will doubtless generate further debate in so vibrant an area of study.

Classical Journal - Gareth Williams

With this book, Star contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the construction of the self in classical antiquity.

Choice

Star has performed a valuable service in presenting a fresh approach to familiar authors which helps the discussion to move beyond some of the established academic truisms of the last few decades, and identifying the common conceptual ground that they share. He offers us a fresh perspective on both Seneca’s and Petronius’ views of self-fashioning, making a major contribution to several recent areas of interest within classics. Both graduate students and scholars working on Neronian literature or Roman concepts of identity will benefit from reading Star’s argument.

Hermathena

If this book only managed to demonstrate — as it unquestionably does — the complementary intertexuality of the Satyricon with Senecan philosophy, that alone would be a noteworthy achievement. But in fact The Empire of the Self is rife with compelling readings of its target texts that have ramifications beyond a narrow understanding of either author of their relationship to one another. Star's study offers its readers valuable insights into the governing metaphors and preoccupations of the Roman intelligentsia in the mid-first century CE.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review - Amanda Wilcox