25. Spectacle and Elite in the Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus

Abstract

The Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus opens with a conventional-looking praeteritio that contrasts the chosen mythic narrative with a more overtly historical subject in this case, the recent conquest of Jerusalem by Titus. The mythic narrative of the Argonautic saga takes on aspects of a cultural commentary by importing key societal constructs and tensions from contemporary, late Flavian Rome. The amphitheatre was a cultural institution that assumed heightened importance during the Flavian period and that, in the wake of the construction of the Colosseum, fully captured the popular imagination. Thus the prominence of the amphitheatre as a narrative element in the Argonautica can be seen as a natural interpenetration of epic discourse and contemporary cultural idiom. This chapter argues that, through its amphitheatrical recasting of mythical narrative and its presentation of elite spectacle in this setting, Valerius' epic attempts a provisional recuperation of the arena as a space for aristocratic self-fashioning. Keywords: amphitheatre; Argonautica ; Colosseum; elite spectacle; Flavian Rome; Jerusalem; praeteritio ; Valerius Flaccus; Valerius' epic

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