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Document Details : Title: Variability of the 'Ancients' and its Function in the Late 6th - Early 7th Centuries Subtitle: Cassiodorus, Gregory the Great, and Isidore of Seville Author(s): VORONTSOV, Sergey Journal: Latomus Volume: 83 Issue: 1 Date: 2024 Pages: 127-147 DOI: 10.2143/LAT.83.1.3293270 Abstract : The article considers the topos of referring to the ancients in texts from the final centuries of Late Antiquity, and argues that referring to the ancients is primarily a rhetorical device connoting authority. The variability of such references to the ancients has several functions. First, it enables the stereotypical element of the text to fit different contexts and thus to solve new rhetorical problems. Second, the authors may use variability as a resource to work out their own manner of elaborating arguments from the authority of the past without inventing new terms or meanings. To reveal these functions, the article begins by correlating the objects of references to the ‘ancients’ with stable rhetorical situations, which also demonstrate the complex system of literary authority accomplished by means of the variety of these references. It then proceeds to examine how they are used by three representative authors of the era. |
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