Das Epos im Blick: Intertextualität und Rollenkonstruktionen in Martials Epigrammen und Statius' âSilvaeâ by Helge Baumann

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 215 section, the author is at pains to make the “niggling point” (91) that the image is not originally Platonic as commonly assumed: citing Theaetetus 191c–e, Frampton asserts that Plato envisions memory as sealing wax. And yet this very same chapter ends with a quotation from the Phaedrus (Pl. Phdr. 276a) where Socrates clearly likens the mind to a writing surface upon which a memorized speech is inscribed (107). The contradiction is confusing. Overall, Frampton’s discussion of writing as a “central metaphor and set of governing images for the act of memory and for theories of mind” (107) in Roman rhetorical texts does little more than identify this trope’s occurrence. What are we actually learning about this material that we did not already know? Chapter Five on “Roman Poetry Books” is based on the most innovative idea of Empire of Letters, viz. that we can recover the lost materiality of ancient texts through literary evidence. It begins promisingly with Catullus’ libellus. Frampton’s comments on the dissonance between the “polished” presentation copy given to Nepos that is described in c. 1 and the actual copies perused by most other readers are illuminating, and much of interest might have been said on this topic beyond c. 1 and beyond the Catullan corpus itself. But Frampton rather suddenly changes direction to discuss Virgil’s studied avoidance of references to writing and the metapoetic analogy between poetic corpora and the poet’s physical body (this part focuses especially on Horace). I am afraid that the fundamental point of this chapter eludes me, in particular the connection Frampton forges between the Virgilian aversion to scriptural self-reference and the poet’s relationship with the princeps. More successful is Chapter Six, on “Ovid and the Inscriptions,” where Frampton demonstrates that the poet employs textual materiality to express his separation from Rome in exile. In sum, Empire of Letters contains some clever observations in its individual chapters and should for this reason be read by anyone interested in Roman writing practices or ancient book history. This reader, however, found Frampton’s arguments at times confounding and failed to discern a thread unifying the book as a whole. These weaknesses diminish Empire of Letters’ overall import significantly. New York University Emilia Barbiero Das Epos im Blick: IntertextualitÈ at und Rollenkonstruktionen in Martials Epigrammen und Statius' “Silvae.” By Helge Baumann. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter (Millennium-Studien 73). 2019. Pp. xi, 258. The poetry of the Flavian era has seen an increase of scholarly interest over the past few decades: classicists no longer scornfully look upon Flavian poets as a bunch of epigones, but have come to acknowledge the pluralistic and experimental character of an almost post-modern literature, whose authors prove to be most ingenious when searching for new ways of dealing with their classical ancestors. Helge Baumann’s book fits into this general frame not only insofar as it deals with the two most important Flavian poets, Statius and Martial, but also with regard to the angle from which it discusses them, asking how they make use of intertextual references to Latin (and Greek) epics in order to determine their own position within ancient literature and to construct their authorial personas. One can find the issue more precisely put in the introduction (Chapter One), preceded by a succinct and reliable overview of recent secondary literature on Statius, Martial, and the generic questions concerned. The following four chapters are equally 216 PHOENIX distributed among the two ancient authors and focus on specific poems: the Arbor Atedi Melioris (Statius Silvae 2.3; Chapter Two); the Epistula ad Vitorium Marcellum (Statius Silvae 4.4; Chapter Three); the Gaurus-epigrams, especially Martial 9.50 (Chapter Four); and the Dexter-epigrams (Martial 7.27 and 11.69; Chapter Five). The whole is concluded by a short summary (Chapter Six), the usual bibliography, an index locorum, and a short index rerum. From this brief summary one can already see what the reader should not expect from the book: a general examination of either Statius’ or Martial’s oeuvre with respect to intertextuality. Indeed it would be difficult to determine why exactly these particular poems have...

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