Teoria e prática do elogio nas obras de Plínio, o jovem

Abstract

This dissertation presents and discusses Pliny the Younger's conceptions about the constitution, style, and function of encomia as part of the epideictic genre of Rhetoric, based on a selection of epistles from the Letters of Pliny the Younger and on the text of the Panegyric to Trajan. Although there is evidence of a ascension of laudatory eloquence during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, a process to which Pliny greatly contributed by adopting this type of speech as a legitimate form of expression and by using it frequently in his writings, there are no sources at the time discussing the subject as a treatise or at a rhetorical level. Therefore, this work aims to provide a potential theory of laudatory epideictic in Pliny, not written by him but inscribed in his oeuvre, by reading the author’s texts in light of ancient theories and practices of encomium, and by using the concepts of Discourse Analysis as stated by Dominique Maingueneau. As a result, this study proposes that, in terms of structures and themes, the encomiastic practice suggested by Pliny maintains a somewhat traditional pattern seen in the third genre of oratory, but undergoing specific adaptations to the circumstances of production and publication of each text. Nevertheless, the Letters and the Panegyric constantly employ an encomiastic vocabulary, albeit not necessarily technical, which points to an ongoing debate on the applicability of these praises, their functions, their purposes, and the conditions of the audience’s reception, by opening meta- and interdiscursive fissures. This study concludes that the collection of Pliny’s letters redefines a variety of encomia — belonging to oratory, epistolary and poetic practices — based on the circumstances of production and circulation of the letters, but it also presents a debate about legitimation via political, social, and literary relationships. That is, via praise of various characters, these epideictic exchanges allow Pliny to build a discursive authority that is paramount to the same laudatory practices and to the collective bonds in which it participates. The gratiarum actio, on other hand, is creative work that gives new meaning and function to this type of speech. In addition to being a public speech determined by institutional demand and fulfilled by the consul in the senate house, the speech is itself a kind of treatise on the ideal values of a good Roman imperial ruler; it is likewise a practical example of the type of oratory that can be used to address that same autocratic model. Hence, with abundant praise, full of amplification, claimed as sincere, and built on a series of comparisons, Pliny responds not only to the obligation imposed by the consulate but to the transition of dynasties and the need of legitimating the new ruler.