Bibliography
| Title: Friendship and Monarchy: Dio of Prusa's Third Oration on Kingship Secondary Title: Symbolae Osloenses Volume: 72 Pages: 124-43 Type: Journal Article Year: 1997 Abstract: David Konstan is fascinated by Dio of Prusa’s emphasis on “friendship” as an important royal virtue in his Third Kingship Oration. The subject of philia (Lat. amicitia) is either not present or not elaborated in most of the surviving Greek tradition of “kingship” treatises, for which Konstan admits our sources are fragmentary. Later Greek orators who do employ the Hellenic notion of “friendship” --- the term does not really do justice to the rather large semantic field of the Greek expression, which can include numerous relationships --- depend directly on Dio for much of their discourse. Authors such as Themistius, Synesius, and Julian all model the respective sections of their speeches on the Third Kingship Oration; there is no trace at all of any influence from earlier Hellenistic or even Classical influences.
A second line that Konstan pursues is the apparent originality of Pliny’s Panegyricus, delivered to Trajan in 100 CE in celebration of his consulship. Formally an actio gratiarum, Pliny seems to have turned a mere formality –- which Konstan points out was not even recorded as a genre of declamation by Quintilian --- into the literary embodiment of the Senatorial notion of the ideal constitutional ruler. From this late first- century source, which includes a relatively small section on friendship, Konstan traces the way in which later Latin writers such as Claudius Mamertinus and Pacatus have followed Pliny’s lead. While there has been widespread scholarly consensus on the general similarities between Dio and Pliny, Konstan stresses that the latter’s treatment does not come close to matching the extent or detail of the Third Kingship Oration. Keywords: panegyric, eulogy, friendship, virties, Dio, Pliny, kingship, philia, amicitia |