Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
closed access
Het eerste boek van Gesprekken in Tusculum herbergt een complexiteit. Deze complexiteit wordt veroorzaakt door het feit dat Cicero binnen dit filosofisch werk meerdere petten op heeft. Hij is...Show moreHet eerste boek van Gesprekken in Tusculum herbergt een complexiteit. Deze complexiteit wordt veroorzaakt door het feit dat Cicero binnen dit filosofisch werk meerdere petten op heeft. Hij is immers niet alleen de auteur, maar eveneens een van de gesprekspartners binnen het filosofisch gesprek. Wat is de implicatie van deze gelaagdheid voor de lezer? Op welke wijze en op welk niveau wil Cicero zijn lezer aan het denken zetten over de dood en de onsterfelijkheid van de ziel? Dit onderzoek verschaft een waardering van de veellagigheid van het eerste boek van Gesprekken in Tusculum aan de hand van een tekstanalyse op intern niveau (de verhouding tussen gesprekspartner en opponent) en op extern niveau (de verhouding tussen auteur en lezer).Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
open access
This Master thesis examines the implicit characterization of the literary character Trimalchio in Petronius' Satyrica. The character is widely considered as one of the great comic characters in...Show moreThis Master thesis examines the implicit characterization of the literary character Trimalchio in Petronius' Satyrica. The character is widely considered as one of the great comic characters in Western literature.The thesis attempts to explain why this is so and gives some insight into Petronius'art of characterization.Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
closed access
This paper re-examines the interpretative potential of Cicero's De consulatu suo, with a focus on the so-called speech of Urania (Blänsdorf 6). Starting from the increasing awareness that our...Show moreThis paper re-examines the interpretative potential of Cicero's De consulatu suo, with a focus on the so-called speech of Urania (Blänsdorf 6). Starting from the increasing awareness that our understanding of how Cicero's poetry was received is exceedingly one-sided and based on ahistoric assumptions, I seek to shift the common dismissal of his epic by investigating the little evidence we have to suggest that there was also a readership that did appreciate Cicero's poetry. Shifting focus to the poem itself, I first question what we know - and especially do not know - about the context in which the speech of Urania was originally found. Both in terms of general layout and vocabulary the text is recognisable as philosophical, but many more threads run through the poem, including Roman history and religion, the didactic language of Aratos' poetry, the nature of the cosmos and the gods, and the Roman community of city, senate, and people. These strands of meaning interact with each other in various nexus, as I demonstrate through an analysis of the overwhelming amount of verbal repetition that is found in the poem, and which does not necessarily give prominence to Cicero the consul alone. Thus, while the poem, as an autobiographical text, is certainly concerned with creating a favourable and usable public persona, its self-representational strategies also involve drawing the other players, whom in his other works Cicero is constantly involving in his concordia ordinum. This has important implications not just for our understanding of Cicero's way of speaking/writing about himself, but also for the interpretative strategies with which to approach Roman self-representational texts.Show less
