Women endowed with culture and religious sensibility, the Augustae of the Severan age appear linked to intellectual figures, inspiring imperial decisions, through their consilia addressed to sons or grandsons who are emperors, sometimes responsible for the same appointment as advisers and officials, in charge of offices of the imperial bureaucracy. The ancient texts rarely transmit the words of these women, or reconstruct their speeches at least in recta form. however the analysis of the documentation and passages that imply indirect speeches or report the presence, sometimes silent, of women in assemblies where it was men who had the right to speak, such as the consilium principis or the senate, or report their incitement to the soldiers are eloquent of the forms through which their political will was expressed and exercised. It is precisely the reading of these multiple testimonies that can be broadly circumscribed within the realm of rhetoric – words written, spoken, reported, inspired, moaned, silenced – that contributes to exploring the plots of power of these women, the silent or loquacious protagonists of the Severan age.

Donne dotate di cultura e di sensibilità religiosa, le Augustae di età severiana appaiono legate a figure di intellettuali, ispiratrici delle decisioni imperiali, attraverso i loro consilia rivolti ai figli o ai nipoti che ricoprono il ruolo di imperatori, in alcuni casi della stessa nomina di consiglieri e funzionari, talvolta esse stesse responsabili di uffici della burocrazia imperiale. Raramente i testi antichi trasmettono le parole di queste donne, o ne ricostruiscono i discorsi quanto meno in forma recta. Tuttavia l’analisi della documentazione e congiuntamente dei passi che sottendono discorsi indiretti o riferiscono della presenza, talvolta silenziosa, delle donne in consessi in cui era agli uomini che spettava la parola, quali il consilium principis o il senato, o riferiscono il loro incitamento ai soldati sono eloquenti delle forme attraverso cui si esprimeva ed esercitava la loro volontà politica. Proprio la lettura di queste molteplici testimonianze circoscrivibili in maniera ampia all’ambito della retorica – parole scritte, pronunciate, riferite, ispirate, gemiti, silenzi – contribuisce a esplorare le trame del potere di queste donne, protagoniste di volta in volta tacite o loquaci dell’età dei Severi.

Motta, D. (2024). La retorica al tempo dei Severi: le parole delle Augustae. PAN, 13, 243-270 [10.17417/1317].

La retorica al tempo dei Severi: le parole delle Augustae

Motta, Daniela
2024-01-01

Abstract

Women endowed with culture and religious sensibility, the Augustae of the Severan age appear linked to intellectual figures, inspiring imperial decisions, through their consilia addressed to sons or grandsons who are emperors, sometimes responsible for the same appointment as advisers and officials, in charge of offices of the imperial bureaucracy. The ancient texts rarely transmit the words of these women, or reconstruct their speeches at least in recta form. however the analysis of the documentation and passages that imply indirect speeches or report the presence, sometimes silent, of women in assemblies where it was men who had the right to speak, such as the consilium principis or the senate, or report their incitement to the soldiers are eloquent of the forms through which their political will was expressed and exercised. It is precisely the reading of these multiple testimonies that can be broadly circumscribed within the realm of rhetoric – words written, spoken, reported, inspired, moaned, silenced – that contributes to exploring the plots of power of these women, the silent or loquacious protagonists of the Severan age.
2024
Settore STAN-01/B - Storia romana
PAN
Motta, D. (2024). La retorica al tempo dei Severi: le parole delle Augustae. PAN, 13, 243-270 [10.17417/1317].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10447/666664
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