After Domitian’s death in 96 ce denunciation was the order of the day. Yet during his reign, there had been support for letters. Martial, Quintilian, Statius, Silius Italicus, and Valerius Flaccus had all lavished fulsome praise on Domitian and the Flavians. Statius’ reputation has suffered the most due to the fact that he did not outlive Domitian and so survive to denounce him, as did Tacitus, Pliny, Juvenal, and Martial. Juvenal and Martial both complain about the conditions of patronage of poets at this time and later, but the works of Martial and Statius and the letters of Pliny the Younger reveal a vast array of imperial and private patronage. Significantly, however, non-imperial patronage is restricted to the lesser genres of poetry; epic and encomium remain an imperial prerogative. The constraints imposed by the despotic rule of Domitian which are freely complained of after his death may also be detected in the literature written during his reign.
Juvenal’s Satires (written between 112-30 ce ) paint the darkest picture of life under Domitian and under later emperors as well, during the early years of what were heralded by many other writers as much improved times. Anger and indignation at the perceived vices of contemporary society, values, and even literature are the hallmark of Juvenal’s voice. The moral corruption and degradation of Roman society impel him to write satire (Sat. 1). Although Juvenal writes during the reigns of the ‘‘good emperors’’ Trajan (98-117) and Hadrian (117-38), he writes mainly about the time of Domitian (see esp. Sat. 4). He explains that it is safer to write only about the dead, just as Horace in his Satires had declined to attack the living (2.1.39-41) and Martial claims ‘‘to spare individuals and talk about vices’’ (10.33.9-10). Too often taken as an accurate view of corrupt imperial society, the Satires should be understood to present a profoundly distorted and exaggerated picture of Juvenal’s times. Taking an extreme position of traditional conservatism, based on idealized national views of a virtuous Roman past, Juvenal expresses disgust with what he sees as the perversion of traditional class and social hierarchies, indicting, among other things, effeminate men, city life, the nobility, foreigners, luxury, women, patronage, and the imperial court of Domitian. The exaggeration is deliberate, as is Juvenal’s choice of an angry voice for his poetic persona, and should be recognized as a feature of the genre (see S. Braund 1988, 1996; Freudenburg 2001).
The Flavians promoted and advertised a moral restoration after the years of Nero and the ensuing struggles for power (Tac. Ann. 3.55) and there is in this period a revival of the highest poetic genre, epic. Domitian’s own early epic composition is praised by Quintilian (Inst. 10.1.91) and seems to have been on historical themes (Coleman 1986: 3089-91). Certainly epic on imperial themes was highly desirable and the creation of new public contests in poetry created more venues for this type of encomiastic composition. At the Alban Games of 90 held on Domitian’s estate at Alba Longa, Statius won with a poem on Domitian’s wars with the Germans and Dacians (Silv. 4.2.65-7). All three of the major surviving Flavian epics include passages of encomium of the Flavian dynasty; their themes, however, are far removed from contemporary or recent history, and are taken mainly from Greek myth, with one exception. Imperial epics suffer from a sense of post-Vergilian belatedness, but engage in deeply intertextual and interpretive ways with their predecessors (P. Hardie 1993). Silius Italicus (25/6-101 ce, consul in 68, proconsul of Asia in c.77/8) has the dubious distinction of surviving both Nero and Domitian and of writing the longest extant Roman epic, the Punica, 17 books and still unfinished. The epic took as its theme the second Punic war with Hannibal, an historical event safely in the distant past. Martial curries favor with Silius by flattering him as a poet and wealthy patron of the arts (Ep. 4.14, 6.64), while Pliny the Younger appraises his poetry as uninspired (Ep. 3.7). Silius was known for his personal reverence of Vergil in his life (he worshipped at his tomb and celebrated his birthday), and his epic follows Vergilian poetic practices closely in language and imagery, with full divine participation, and constitutes in some ways a sequel to the Aeneid, in which the Punic war was prophesized (Feeney 1991: 303-4; P. Hardie 1993: 14-16). His conservatism is also expressed in the air of nostalgia about his work, emblematic of the overwhelming sense of decline that is typical of this period. Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica (eight books remain) took for its theme the familiar one of Jason’s quest for the golden fleece and, though technically sound and revealing a great deal of self-awareness of the literary tradition of his theme, the poem is generally considered the least successful of the Flavian epics (new evaluations include Feeney 1991; Hershkowitz 1998; P. Schenk 1999).
Statius’ Thebaid, published in 91 or 92 (after 12 years of composition), also expresses his reverence towards Vergil: in an epilogue he warns his epic, ‘‘do not rival the divine Aeneid, but follow from afar and always venerate its footsteps’’ (Theb. 12.816-17, see Pollman 2001). Yet the poem in many ways is the most original and compelling of the later epics and has received much recent attention. It relates the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, when the sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polynices, fought over the throne of Thebes. Statius avows his deference to Vergil, but his exposition of his theme of internecine warfare owes much to Lucan, whom we know Statius also admired (see his praise of Lucan in Silv. 2.7, and Ahl 1982; Malamud 1995). Statius’ proem echoes Lucan in its declaration of the theme of ‘‘wars between brothers’’ (1.1). Like Lucan, Statius evinces an interest in setting forth the horrors of tyranny, violent passion, and family strife. His tendency to allegorize the gods heralds a significant new literary trend (Feeney 1991: 364-91). The profound pessimism of the epic in its emphasis on the inexorability of fate and the horrors of despotism have led many to see in this story of Greek myth contemporary political relevance (see Dominik 1994; McGuire 1997). The portrayal of Jupiter’s autocratic rule and the struggle for power on the divine level are interesting in the light of Flavian domestic struggles and Domitian’s own cultivation of his association with Jupiter (Feeney 1991: 359). This identification Statius and Martial are eager to reinforce in their short poems (see Silv. 4.2, Martial Ep. 8.36, 9.11-13, 16-17). Juvenal was later to claim that Statius recited the Thebaid to great popularity but that lack of financial support led him to compose mime librettos (Sat. 7.82-7). Juvenal suggests that Statius prostituted his art, displaying his great epic to the public, but it remains unclear whether Statius or the contemporary conditions of patronage are to blame for this behavior. Statius praises Domitian at the opening of the epic and states at its end that Domitian has deemed it worthy of recognition (12.814) - conventional praise by now, but also a request for the imperial support or favor he so desperately needs.
Statius, like Martial, relied on the support of socially prominent and wealthy patrons in a way that suggests he was more dependent than many earlier Roman poets. His social status seems to be rather anomalous among the Latin poets of his period. At a time when most poets were increasingly of higher status, we have no clear evidence that Statius or his father ever reached the equestrian rank. The fact that father and son competed in the literary festivals seems to suggest otherwise, as no other well-known poets are known to have done so. Martial advertises the social and political, as well as material, benefits he received from his patrons, such as the honorific post of military tribune by which he achieved equestrian status (Ep. 2.91, 3.95), although he continues to complain of the hardships of the life of poetry in an age of diminished patronage (e. g., Ep. 8.56, 1.107). Statius’ Silvae and Martial’s Epigrams, although quite different in nature, are both representative of important trends in literary taste and social patterns, revealing areas of poetic patronage open to private patrons and the lively interest in literary pursuits. Both collections contain poems written largely for specific occasions, probably first recited, then circulated in published form (Martial liked to issue his books of Epigrams at the time of the Saturnalia). As opportunities for public political activity in the imperial period become more circumscribed, the private social life of the elite emerges increasingly as an arena for encomiastic poetry, and the publicity potential of the ‘‘minor’’ genres of epigram and occasional poetry is acknowledged. The letters of Pliny the Younger especially reveal the enthusiastic dilettante poetic composition and recitation undertaken by the upper classes.
Statius’ Silvae, a collection of occasional poetry in various meters, but mainly hexameter, reveals many of the opportunities and constraints of writing poetry under Domitian. The collection contains a number of panegyrical poems on Dom-itian. In 4.2 the poet describes a dinner party he has been invited to at Domitian’s palace, a structure whose massive archaeological remains on the Palatine confirm its intended monumentality. In this poem Statius equates Domitian with Jupiter. Elsewhere as constructor of the via Domitiana, Domitian is figured as a miracle worker (4.3). But the collection also contains many poems written for private patrons and these deal primarily with private themes, from marriages, birthdays, and consolations to descriptions of luxurious possessions (P. White 1974; A. Hardie 1983). Such themes betoken the changed political climate in imperial Rome, which saw as suspect the traditional political virtus of the Roman elite. This new emphasis on domestic activities, both architectural and intellectual, is reflected in the work of Statius’ contemporaries Martial and the younger Pliny. Pliny complains of the restricted scope for acquisition of glory by senators, now that great deeds have become the prerogative of the emperor (Ep. 3.21.3). Within this atmosphere we can understand the pressure on poets to provide and publicize pleasing images of upper-class domestic life. Statius’ published poems display and advertise the symbolic value of villa life as a manifestation of his patrons’ aristocratic investment in cultural leisure activities (Myers 2000; Newlands 2002). They also hint at the restrictions and dangers facing the elite under Domitian. Both Statius and Pliny the Younger (e. g., Ep. 1.3, 9.36) associate the leisure of the prominent Roman with literary activity, thus distancing their lives from suggestions of political disapproval or resistance. For Statius, this self-avowed ‘‘lesser work’’ was both a proud display of his artistry and literary skill, as well as a confession of his dependency on private patronage and the constrictions on his choice of themes under Domitian. Statius’ prose prefaces to Silvae 1-4 reveal his cautious maneuverings between his dependency on patronage and his poetic independence.
The Epigrams of Martial (written mainly under Domitian, except for books 10-12 under Nerva and Trajan) reveal the same community of patronage as Statius, i. e. both private and imperial, although their tone is different. The emperor Domitian receives a number of poems of praise (e. g. 5.1-3, 5-6, 6.1-4, 8.1-2, 4, 11), and at the beginning of Book 4 Martial says that he has presented the poems to him before publication. Many of the same private patrons reappear and the same events are commemorated, although Martial never names Statius. Epigram traditionally takes a comic-satiric tone and Martial makes wit and the closing quip his trademark style. Martial’s books contain a miscellany of themes literary, panegyrical, pornographic, and sympotic. Like the satirist, life is his stated theme (‘‘read this, of which life itself can say ‘it’s mine’,’’ Ep. 10.4.10), but epigram eschews a moralizing position, espousing wit rather than vitriol. After his retirement to Spain Martial issued only one further book of epigrams (Book 12). Apart from the last books of Martial and the early poems of Juvenal, no substantial Latin poetry survives from the reigns of Nerva and Trajan (see Bardon 1952 on the evidence).
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