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Statius' Altar of Mercy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

John F. Burgess
John F. Burgess
Affiliation:
University of Reading
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Extract

A. W. Verrall (The Altar of Mercy, Literary Essays Classical and Modern, Cambridge, 1913) considers rightly that the scene at Thebaid I 2. 481 ff. is ‘the cardinal point of the whole poem’. I hope to show that Statius has portrayed the goddess Clementia as a force which functions in a way very different from that which his readers would expect from their experience of the usage of the word clementia and that his new portrayal is closely related to a theme of the poem. I shall suggest that his redefinition of the concept was inspired by the political situation in which he found himself. The Altar of Mercy focuses Statius' thoughts on the position of man in the universe and of the individual in society, and coming as it does after eleven books of disaster offers some comfort to man in his suffering. Statius is concerned in the Thebaid with man as a tragic victim, and the Altar of Mercy affords him comfort precisely in that area in which he most seeks it.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , December 1972 , pp. 339 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1972

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References

page 339 note 1 This study involved the consideration of all the examples of clementia, inclementia, clemens, inclemens, clementer, and inclementer in Virgil, Lucan, Valerius Flaccus, Silius, Ovid, Horace, Propertius, Lucretius, Catullus, Cicero, Caesar, Tacitus, and Seneca's Tragedies, and of a selection of examples in Plautus, Manilius, Martial, Juvenal, Sallust, Nepos, Livy, Suetonius, Curtius, Pliny, Velleius, Valerius Maximus, Florus, and Seneca's prose writings.

page 339 note 2 That this was the range of usage of clementia has been assumed by S. Weinstock in his recent study Divus Julius (pp. 233-43).

page 340 note 1 For judicial usages cf. Cicero, Verr. 5. 74; Cluent. 202; Tul. 5o; Part. Or. II; for Caesar's clementia in the context of the Civil War cf.Cicero, Ph. 2.116; Lig.6; to ;15 ; 19; 29; 30; Mar. I; 12; 18; Deiot. 38; V ; 43; Caesar, B.Af. 86 ; 88 ; 92; Velleius Paterculus 2. 55; 2. 57; for other military situations cf. Caesar, B.G. 2. 14; 2. 3, ; 8. 3; 8. 21; Livy 3. 2. 5 ; 26. 14. 2; 28. 25. 13 ; 33. 12. 7; 36. 12. 6; 36. 27. 6; 37. 6. 6; 43. 5. 2; 45. 4. 7; 45. 8. 5 ; clementia is a rare word in the poets but cf. Ovid, Met. 8.57 ; Tr. 2. 125; 3. 5. 39; 4. 4. 53; 4. 8. 39; 4. 9. 3; 5. 4. 19; E.P. I. 2. 61; 2. 2. 121 ; 3. 6. 7; Propertius 2. 18. 47 ; Seneca, Oct. 442 ; 835.

page 340 note 2 Cf. Charlesworth, M. P., ‘The Virtues of the Roman Emperor’, P.B.A. xxiii (1937), 112 f.Google Scholar; and, for the assumption by Caesar of what was traditionally a virtue of the Roman state, Weinstock, , op. cit., pp. 236–40.Google Scholar—At Epistulae ad Caesarem senem de re publica, 6. 5, ascribed to Sallust, the writer seems to be responding to a need which he felt existed in the contemporary political situation. He attempts to redefine Caesar's dementia in order to make his own moral point: vera clementia, according to Sallust, is consuluisse ne merito Gives patria expellerentur, retinuisse ab stultitia et falsis voluptatibus, pacem et concordiam stabilivisse. Clementia is still a quality shown by a superior to an inferior, but there is no initial offence committed. It is possible that Sallust, if indeed he is the author, a writer concerned with political behaviour and writing at a time when the political and moral foundations of Rome were being shaken and citizen was fighting citizen, realized that this powerfully emotive word was inadequate because of its confinement to fixed relationships of pardon and offence. The attempt to expand the range of usage of clementia would be appropriate to the turmoil and insecurity of the twenty-year period of civil disturbance prior to the settlement of 27 B.C. Sallust reflects a feeling of frustration at the inadequacy of traditional value words when applied to the changed political conditions; he expresses the need not for pardon for men convicted of criminal or political offences but for a benevolent and morally based leadership, a need which it may reasonably be assumed was felt again after the chaotic conditions of the year A.D. 69. In this usage Statius' adaptation of the concept is foreshadowed.

page 341 note 1 Note also Tiberius' opportunity of showing clementia at trials : Ann. 3. 22 ; 3. 68; 4. 31, where he pardoned someone for writing defamatory verses. Tiberius' inclementia is the exact opposite of his judicial clementia (Ann. 4. 42).

page 341 note 2 Cf. Syme, R., Tacitus, 413 ff.Google Scholar and Appendix 66.

page 342 note 1 Appian, B.C. 2. to6 ; Plutarch, Caesar 57. 3 ; Cassius Dio 44. 6. 4.

page 342 note 2 Res Gestae Divi Augusti, 34. Cf. Charles-worth, op. cit. p. 340 n. 2.

page 342 note 3 For the clementia of Tiberius cf. Rogers, R. S., Studies in the reign of Tiberius, pp. 39–55Google Scholar and works there cited. Like Rogers, I cannot accept Charlesworth's view, based partly on his unawareness of the Clementia coin issue under Tiberius, that emperors themselves were self-conscious about using dementia, though surely there were people who, like Tacitus, were fully aware of the unfavourable light in which imperial clementia could be seen.

page 342 note 4 For judicial usages cf. Cicero, Cat. I. 4; 4. 12; Verr. 4. 86; 5. 19; Caesar, B.C. 3. 20; Livy 1. 26. 8 ; for Caesar's clementia in the context of the Civil War cf. Cicero, Mar. 9; Deiot. 34 ; Velleius Paterculus 2. 56; for other military situations cf. Livy 27. 15. 2; 26. 32. 8 ; 37. 6. 5 ; for usages in the poets dependent on a situation involving offence (or supposed offence) and pardon cf. Valerius Flaccus 7. 416 ; Horace, Carm. 3. 11. 46.

page 343 note 1 Cf. Rieks, R., Homo, Humanus, Humanitas, Munich, 1967, pp. 202–25.Google Scholar

page 343 note 2 I hope at a future date to show how Statius views human responsibility for scelera in connection with the poet's general view of man and the hostile environment in which he places him. It can be said now that Statius is not interested in man as a criminal agent but as an instrument which, when in the power of a superhuman force, is prone to commit harmful actions, i.e. scelera.

page 345 note 1 The offence of the brothers is played down throughout the poem and seems to have been left deliberately vague (cf. Vessey, , ‘Exitiale genus; Some Notes on Statius, Thebaid I’ Latomus xxx [1971], 377).Google Scholar This usage of clementia approximates to the Statian plan, inasmuch as Oedipus is not regarded as the victimizing force which causes the brothers' suffering (619-21): furor illa et movit Erinys I et pater et genetrix et regna oculique cadentes, / nil ego ; though he can by no means be regarded as an entirely disinterested party.

page 345 note 2 Statius does have a precedent for the bestowal of clementia by an unoffended third party : at E.P. 4. 25 Ovid refers to the clementia, that is to say the kindness and generosity, of Sextus Pompeius. This is, however, an isolated example amidst a large number of traditional usages. Moreover Ovid in his abject state may well be using the word to imply that kindness involves forgiveness for his error and he may be paying a compliment to Sextus Pompeius by using this emotive word.

page 345 note 3 Schetter, (Untersuchungen zur epischen Kunst des Statius, Wiesbaden, 1960)Google Scholar recognized the change in Oedipus at this point.

page 346 note 1 Note that it is slaves in particular who benefit. The Thebaid contains some interesting views on violence, oppression, and human rights.

page 346 note 2 A comparison with Silius' usage of inclemens (8. 438) is illuminating. He uses it of one man's attitude to the enemy in a war situation as the tradition of offence and pardon demanded. Tacitus too (Ann. 4. 42) assimilates Virgilian inclementia to the Roman tradition.

page 346 note 3 The sea is a perpetual image of the forces of furor in the Thebaid and is always hostile to man (cf. also the characteristic usage of inclementia at Ach. I. 73).

page 347 note 1 As it was by Catullus (64. 272).

page 347 note 2 At Th. 7. 80 the comparative is used to the same effect with aura to relate symbolically the two gods Mercury and Mars. Mars is thereby shown to be habitually inclemens whereas Mercury is less so. In fact Mercury does not play a hostile role in the Thebaid.

page 347 note 3 Cf. Seneca, Clem. 1. 5. 2, I. 25. 1-2.

page 347 note 4 For a definition of misericordia cf. Seneca (Clem. 2. 5. 4) : misericordia est aegritudo animi ob alienarum miseriarum speciem aut tristitia ex alienis malls contracts, quae accidere immerentibus credit. Statius has added to this the idea of practical assistance (Seneca says that the sapiens will assist the victim rather than feeling misericordia, of which he disapproves). The point of misericordia is that it is bestowed on those who have suffered undeservedly (cf. Seneca, Clem. 2. 5. 1: misericordia non causam sed fortunam spectat) and this is the most significant feature of Statius' clementia.

page 347 note 5 Pane gyrici 9. 7. I (Mynors) : inde est quod Atheniensis humanilas aram Misericordiae instituit; cf. Apuleius, Met. 11. 153; Quint. 5. 11. 38. For the cf. Pausanias, 1. 17. 1; Cf. also Weinstock, , Divus Julius, p. 242, note 4.Google Scholar

page 348 note 1 This view of clementia coincides to some extent with the later concept of providentia (cf. Charlesworth, op. cit., pp. 517 ff.). Note also Pliny, Panegyricus, 80. 3 ff. ; further Claudian, Cons. Stil. 2. 6 ff., where the poet assigns to clementia what was normallyassigned to Amor, the ordering of chaos. The passage shows the very strong influence which Statius had upon Claudian who not only took over word sequences but whole concepts.