Fides in Flavian Literature

Description

Fides in Flavian Literature explores the ideology of "good faith" (fides) during the time of the emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian (69-96 CE), the new imperial dynasty that gained power in the wake of the civil wars of the period. The contributors to this volume consider the significance and semantic range of this Roman value in works that deal in myth, contemporary poetry, and history in both prose and verse. Though it does not claim to offer the comprehensive "last word" on fides in Flavian Rome, the book aims to show that fides in this period was subjected to a particularly striking and special brand of contestation and reconceptualization, used to interrogate the broad cultural changes and anxieties of the Flavian period as well as connect to a republican and imperial past. The editors argue that fides was both a vehicle for reconciliation and a means to test the nature of "good faith" in the wake of a devastating and divisive period in Roman history. CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABBREVIATIONS Introduction Broken Bonds: Perfidy and the Discourse of Civil War The Fides of Flavius Josephus “A Greater Love”: Fides in Statius’ Silvae Faith in Fate: Plot, Gods, and Metapoetic Morality in Valerius Flaccus Women’s Fides in Statius’ Thebaid Haec Pietas, Haec Fides: Permutations of Trust in Statius’ Thebaid Trust and Mistrust in the Achilleid Fides, Pietas, and the Outbreak of Hostilities in Punica 1 Hannibal as (Anti-)Hero of Fides in Silius’ Punica The Failure of Female Fides in the Octavia Fides under Fire: Virtue and Vice in the Octavia Flavian Fides in Tacitus’ Histories BIBLIOGRAPHY CONTRIBUTORS INDEX LOCORUM GENERAL INDEX