This dissertation presents a critical analysis of literary texts that recount fully or briefly the life and legend of King Numa Pompilius. Focusing on the 'Golden Age', it comprises the Numan accounts of Cicero, Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Ovid. These authors lived at a time when Rome was trying to reconcile for herself and for her subjects the price of her military world domination with the belief in her foreordained supremacy. This reconciliation was to be achieved by a reacquaintance with the Roman ancestral values whose observance had merited Rome her dominion and whose neglect had driven the state to civil war. The question of Roman national identity is at the heart of the Numan accounts of the chosen prose-writers. In his portrayal of Numa, who combines the civilizing virtues of classical Athens with native Roman virtue, Cicero offers a rebuttal for Greek critics who questioned Rome's supremacy because of her lack of civilizing virtues. Livy investigates the leading causes of Rome's world domination and identifies the national values and institutions that many generations of leaders forged. Numa is one such leader, having established laws, religious rite and a peaceful way of life. Dionysius represents Numa as the Greek ideal of kingship in order to establish for the Greek world the excellence of the Roman national identity founded on Greek virtue. The Numan accounts of Livy and Dionysius, composed in Augustus' principate, do not draw direct parallels between Numa and Augustus, although the narration sometimes suggests a special relevance to Augustan rule. Finally, Ovid, the only poet, recounting traditional Numan tales, offers analogies and allegories of certain Augustan ideas and measures that may be seen to flatter the ruler.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.37909 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Otis, Lise. |
| Contributors | Richardson, T. W. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of History.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001845241, proquestno: NQ75668, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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