Hill - Ambitiosa mors: suicide and the self in Roman thought and literature

Studies in Classics

Volume 10

Edited by

A ROUTLEDGE SERIES

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SINGULAR DEDICATIONS

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FOR SALVATIONS SAKE

Provincial Loyalty, Personal Religion, and Epigraphic Production in the Roman and Late Antique Near East
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RHETORIC IN CICEROS PRO BALBO

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HYPERBOREANS

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STUDIES IN THE PROSODY OF PLAUTINE LATIN

Benjamin W. Fortson IV

ARISTOXENUS OF TARENTUM AND THE BIRTH OF MUSICOLOGY

Sophie Gibson

AMBITIOSA MORS

Suicide and Self in Roman Thought and Literature

Timothy Hill

Routledge
New York and London

Published in 2004 by
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Copyright 2004 by Routledge
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group.

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hill, Timothy, 1973

Ambitiosa mors : suicide and the self in Roman thought and literature / Timothy Hill.

p. cm. (Studies in classics ; v. 10)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-415-97097-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. SuicideRome. I. Title. II. Series: Studies in classics
(Routledge (Firm)) ; v. 10.

HV6543.H55 2004
362.280937dc22

2003027566

Contents

A Note on the Translations

In order to make this book accessible to those who are not specialists in the field of Classical literature, all ancient language passages quoted in this book are provided with a following translation. The purpose of these translations is simply to give the Latin- and/or Greekless reader an accurate understanding of what it is the ancient authors are communicating, and the only stylistic aspiration of these translations is clarity. This has two implications for the translations that should be borne in mind when using them. First, the majority of stylistic and rhetorical effects present in the original Latin or Greek texts do not appear in the corresponding English translations; to take the most obvious example of this unfortunate stylistic leveling, poetry is throughout this work translated with prose. Second, this emphasis on intelligibility has meant that the grammar of the translation does not always closely reflect that of the original tongue; plurals, for instance, are often translated with singulars, and passive verbs as active. Readers who desire translations which reflect something of the varied grace, power, and subtlety of linguistic effect found in our Greek and Latin source texts are referred to the numerous literary translations available; those, on the other hand, who require a more literal rendering are pointed in the direction of the well-known Loeb series.

Outside these extended quotations from ancient authors, Greek and Latin are also used throughout this book in relation to certain key terms and concepts which are central to ancient thinking but which have no precise equivalents in modern English. Words such as eudaimonia, virtus, and ratio, for instance, are essentially untranslatable, because each has a semantic range extending far beyond any single English word; as a result, they are used throughout this book in untranslated form. Rather than provide the reader with varying (and thus potentially confusing) translations of these terms to suit the varying contexts in which they are found in the following chapters, a glossary of these terms has been provided. While a basic translation of each of these key terms is given the first time it appears in the text, readers who either forget this definition in the course of reading, or who desire a more nuanced understanding of the meaning of the term, can always refer to the back of the book to refresh their memories or extend their knowledge.

Series Editors Foreword

Studies in Classics aims to bring high-quality work by emerging scholars to the attention of a wider audience. Emphasizing the study of classical literature and history, these volumes contribute to the theoretical understanding of human culture and society over time. This series will offer an array of approaches to the study of Greek and Latin (including medieval and Neolatin), authors and their reception, canons, transmission of texts, ideas, religion, history of scholarship, narrative, and the nature of evidence.

While the focus is on Mediterranean cultures of the Greco-Roman era, perspectives from other areas, cultural backgrounds, and eras are to be included as important means to the reconstruction of fragmentary evidence and the exploration of models. The series will reflect upon the role classical studies has played in humanistic endeavors from antiquity to the present, and explore select ways in which the discipline can bring both traditional scholarly tools and the experience of modernity to bear on questions and texts of enduring importance.

Dirk Obbink, Oxford University

Andrew Dyck, The University of California, Los Angeles

Acknowledgments

When I first elected to write a thesis on the topic of suicide in Roman thought and literature, I had no idea how large a question I was attempting to answer. Over the next four years, its scope was to encompass not only vast swathes of Latin literature and philosophy, but to stretch into Greek thought, Roman history, twentieth-century sociology, and beyond. As a result, this work could never have been completed without the contributions of numerous readers who donated their time and expertise to directing and defining its central lines of enquiry, to pointing out flaws and errors, and to reading the chapters which make up this thesis and suggesting improvements.

The first debt of gratitude is of course owed to my thesis advisors at Royal Holloway, University of London. Professors Anne Sheppard, Susanna Braund, and Jonathan Powell were universally generous in the time they devoted to supervising this thesis, and their observations and criticisms were invariably helpful and incisive. I am also grateful to my fellow graduate student Giles Gilbert for looking over and commenting upon several chapters of this work, and a significant debt is in addition owed to my two thesis examiners, professors Christopher Gill and Catharine Edwards.

In addition to all the academic guidance and help I received, numerous friends and family also played a part in allowing this study to see the light of day. Of these the most important are Emma Kell, whose kindness extended even to proofreading the thing; Ravi Vadgama, whose patience and ink-cartridges were never exhausted; and of course, my wife, Taryn Neale, whose unfailing support, willingness to read incoherent rough drafts, and general sense of perspective were all crucial to the work getting done at all. To all of the above, and many more, I am profoundly grateful.