Pliny's Praise
The Panegyricus in the Roman World

A groundbreaking and comprehensive study of this unique surviving speech delivered to the Emperor Trajan in AD 100.

Paul Roche (Edited by)

9781107009059, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 May 2011

218 pages
23.5 x 16 x 1.5 cm, 0.49 kg

Pliny's Panegyricus (AD 100) survives as a unique example of senatorial rhetoric from the early Roman Empire. It offers an eyewitness account of the last years of Domitian's principate, the reign of Nerva and Trajan's early years, and it communicates a detailed senatorial view on the behaviour expected of an emperor. It is an important document in the development of the ideals of imperial leadership, but it also contributes greatly to our understanding of imperial political culture more generally. This volume, the first ever devoted to the Panegyricus, contains expert studies of its key historical and rhetorical contexts, as well as important critical approaches to the published version of the speech and its influence in antiquity. It offers scholars of Roman history, literature and rhetoric an up-to-date overview of key approaches to the speech, and students and interested readers an authoritative introduction to this vital and under-appreciated speech.

1. Pliny's thanksgiving: an introduction to the Panegyricus Paul Roche
2. Self-fashioning in the Panegyricus Carlos F. Noreña
3. The Panegyricus and the monuments of Rome Paul Roche
4. The Panegyricus and rhetorical theory D. C. Innes
5. Ciceronian praise as a step towards Pliny's Panegyricus Gesine Manuwald
6. Contemporary contexts Bruce Gibson
7. Politics and the sublime in the Panegyricus G. O. Hutchinson
8. Down the pan: historical exemplarity in the Panegyricus John Henderson
9. Afterwords of praise Roger Rees.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]