Julia Mebane (Indiana University) "Carthago et Numantia: Republican History in Horace Ode 2.12"

Talk description:

In the recusatio of Ode 2.12, Horace declares the unsuitability of the lyre to the weighty subjects of history, conveyed by a list of conflicts that moves chronologically backward from the Numantine War to the Second Punic War to the First Punic War. This paper asks why Horace begins with the bellum Numantinum, which marked the final stage of the long and unpopular Iberian Wars that occupied Rome for much of the second century BCE. I argue that his choice becomes legible in relation to Cicero, who uses Numantia as a proxy for Carthage to denote the decline of the republic. Through his engagement with this tradition, Horace explores questions of civil strife, exemplary statesmanship, and the periodization of Roman history.

Short Bio:

Julia Mebane is Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Classical Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. Her research explores the role of metaphor and allusion in Roman political thought. Her first book, The Body Politic in Roman Political Thought, came out with Cambridge in 2024 and was the recipient of the Goodwin Award. She is currently working on projects related to the symbolic seascapes of republican prose and the "weight of empire" trope in early imperial literature.

This talk will not be recorded and will not be available on Zoom.