By Peter Van Nuffelen
The Histories opposed to the Pagans of Orosius, written in 416/7, has been probably the most influential works within the historical past of Western historiography. frequently learn as a theology of historical past, it's been not often been set opposed to the historical past of old historiography and rhetorical perform for the period of Orosius. Arguing for the closeness of rhetoric and historiography in Antiquity, this e-book exhibits how Orosius situates himself consciously within the classical culture and attracts on a number of rhetorical instruments to form his narrative: a sophisticated net of interextual allusions, a severe engagement with conventional exempla, an inventive rewriting of the resources, and a talented deployment of the rhetoric of pathos. during this method, Orosius goals at commencing the eyes of his adversaries; rather than last blinded via the normal, excellent view of the previous, he needs his readers to work out the earlier and the current of their precise shades. The ebook paints a extra complicated photo of theHistories, and argues opposed to the tendency to determine Orosius as a naïve apologist of the Roman empire. in reality, he might be proven to place the Church on the middle of view of Roman heritage. environment Orosius within the context of latest historiography and literature, it sheds new gentle at the highbrow existence within the early 5th century advert.
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9. 57 our contémporaries discuss with a careless anxiety, if the foundations of that once so great Román Republic are now tottering more because of the weakness of its oíd age than because of external forces. 46 See Courcelle 1984:179-82 on the popularity of these verses. 2. 13: primum imperium ac potentissimum. 14; cf. 19. 58 Orosius and the Rhetoric ofHistory A Tale of Two Cities: Book 2 and the Fall ofRome The comment concludes Orosius’ explicit reflection on the parallelism between Babylon and Rome, and confirms the implicit reminders of Rome’s fall woven into the narrative of the foundation of Rome in chapters 4-6.
In doing so, however, he picks up a I traditional trope of the polemic among historians, who would accuse each other of writing rhetorically and not truthfully. These three sections show how strongly the Historiae are indebted to the rhet orical culture of his time, whilst underlining that Orosius does not substitute a theology of history for pagan histories but a better history—one that truly lives up to the standards set by classical historians themselves. This double strategy shows that Orosius remains deeply indebted to classical rhetorical education and histori-4 ography, notwithstanding his loud criticism of both.
To that end, he employs the twin technique of omission and highlighting. Just as he had omitted any reference to the heroic actions of Camillus during the sack of Rome by the Gauls (387 b c ), he deliberately suppresses key exempla related to the Carthaginian wars: there is nothing, for example, on Appius Claudius and Cineas in the context of Pyrrhus’ invasión of Italy. 39 The exemplary nature of events is not only questioned by methodical silence. Orosius several times stigmatizes Román behaviour as dishonourable and ignomiriious: fleeing in battle,40 parricide,41 and fighting to the last man,42 it is all condemned.