Scriptae imagines: Fronto's correspondence as dialogue and portrayal

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Wytse Hette Keulen
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 387056572

Marcus Cornelius Fronto (c. 100 to 170 A.D.) remains until today one of the most neglected Roman authors of the Imperial period. Fronto was tutor to the future Emperor Marcus Aurelius and the most renowned Roman orator of his era. His surviving correspondence consists of a body of more than two hundred letters to and from the Emperor Antoninus Pius and his two designated successors, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. Frontos correspondence contains unique and first-hand evidence for the way Roman Emperors worked and what it meant to educate a prince. However, a detailed literary, stylistic and philological investigation of Frontos letters is still a desideratum.With this project I aim to present a new perspective on Frontos correspondence as a form of epistolary literature. In my analysis of the letters, I will focus on two different aspects related to epistolarity. First, I will read the letters as a form of dialogue and second, as a form of literary portrayal. The difference between these two aspects of epistolarity lies in the respective communicative situation. On the level of dialogicity, the communicating partners are the internal "I" and the internal "you" (i.e. the correspondents, sharing expressions of friendship, anecdotes etc. with each other), whereas on the level of epistolary portrayal, the communication takes place between the "I" (the writer of a particular letter) and an external "you", the reading audience of the published letters. Focusing on the letters as a form of dialogue, the study will elucidate the correspondence as a learned and witty conversation between a warm-hearted aristocrat and an accessible princeps / Emperor, who structure their exclusive friendship by means of the epistolary medium. Investigating their epistolary dialogue as a negotiation and redistribution of power and authority, I will analyse the rich language of the letters as a means to (re-)structure and (re-)shape the relation between the two correspondents. It will be an important contribution to the question, as to how Latin epistolary discourse participates in re-shaping and re-inventing the role of the aristocrat in relation to the ruler.Focusing on the letters as a form of portrayal, the study will demonstrate in detail how Fronto connects his self-image as the best teacher of Emperors, the best Roman orator of all times, and the leading authority on Latin, with a compelling assertion of his central position within an elite community. I will explore the ideal image of elite life, language and behaviour drawn in the letters as paradigmatic for the Roman intellectual elite of this age. The study will place Frontos epistolary portrayals of intellectuals and Emperors in the context of contemporary mechanisms of (self)-representation, comparing them with a broad spectrum of media, both literary and non-literary (e.g. portraits, statues).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants