A naumachia imaginada: a comunidade galo-romana e a propaganda imperial na obra Mosella, de Ausônio (Séc. IV)

Abstract

This dissertation explores power relations between Emperor Valentinian I (364-375) and the western elites of the Roman Empire in the 4th century A.D., from the public image built about the ruler to the collective idealized representation about Gallo-roman elites. The investigation focuses on the Mosella, a poetic work dated between the 360s and the 370s attributed to Decimus Magnus Ausonius. The poem was composed during Valentinian's rule, at a time when the government was located in Augusta Treverorum, in Gallia Belgica. In its verses, we have the perspective of a member of the Gallo-Roman elite, subordinated to the emperor. On the one hand, we measured the construction of propaganda for Valentinian, built through the transmission of the image of a successful ruler in the military sphere. On the other hand, we identified the construction of the image of a cohesive Gallo-Roman elite under the sharing of symbols and values that refer to a Greco-Roman universe. The naumachia event, the naval battle staged in the river, channels these symbols and connects an imagined Gallo-Roman community to the imperial policy undertaken in Gallia Belgica. Also, we used other documentation by Ausônio, including the poem Bissula and epigrams XXVIII and XXXI, in addition to an letter intended to the poet, written by Símaco. As a theoretical apparatus, we use the concepts of propaganda from Peter Burke (2009), imagined community from Benedict Anderson (2008), and space from José D'Assunção Barros (2017). As a methodological tool, we used the categorical analysis under Laurence Bardin (2006).