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oa De sobere stijl van Augustus
De sobere stijl van Augustus
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Lampas, Volume 52, Issue 3, Sep 2019, p. 320 - 334
Abstract
This article examines the rhetorical style of Augustus' Res Gestae. Ancient sources, including Suetonius (Life of Augustus 86), describe Augustus' style in terms of elegantia and temperantia. These qualities are indeed characteristic of the style of the emperor's private letters (of which some fragments survive) and the Res Gestae. Augustus' style was influenced by his great uncle Julius Caesar and his Greek teacher of rhetoric Apollodorus of Pergamon. There are striking parallels between the ancient descriptions of Augustus' style and the theories of style in Greek rhetorical treatises of Augustan Rome. In adopting a sober style, Augustus aimed at presenting himself with the authority of a moderate man, who was to be admired throughout the empire.