Latin 520 ('Schooling the Emperor'):
Assignment for Week 8 (16-22 May)
Tacitus, Dialogus 24-42
For Monday, after a brief nod to Brink (I'm especially interested here in what he believes the relationship between Q. and T. to have been: positive and respectful or negative and even confrontational?) and summarizing discussion of Aper's speech at 16.4-23, we'll concentrate on 24-32 (with special attention to translating 24 and 28-32, the important speech of Messalla). I'd like to return us to an issue we didn't cover this past week, namely -- to repeat myself -- how what you've read in the Dial. connects with something you've read in Quintilian. So (if you havenot done this already) identify an issue or topic raised (anywhere) in the Dial. that is also treated in Quintilian. For example: utilitas or voluptas vel sim. (good opportunity to do a word search); an orator or author who makes an appearance in both texts; value of poetry, etc. Mayer in his commentary often directs you to parallel passages in the Inst., so that's another way to zero in on something specific.
For Wednesday, we'll concentrate especially on the concluding speech of Maternus (36-41) and the final chapter (42). Is there any discernible moral dimension to Maternus' speech? Would Quintilian have been in broad agreement with what he says?
Rather than assign you a specific piece of reading, here is a sampling of some new, some old(ish), and some relatively important pieces on the Dialogus. Pick one that looks interesting to you and read it:
L. Hermann, 'Encore le <<Dialogus de oratoribus>> et Quintilien', Latomus 24.4 (1965) 845-57.
D.S. Levene, 'Tacitus' Dialogus as Literary History', TAPA 134.1 (2004) 157-200
A. Gallia, 'Potentes and Potentia in Tacitus' Dialogus', TAPA 139.1 (2009) 169-206