The Master's Voice.
Imperial Public Speaking between Documentary Recording and Literary Reworking (1st century BC - 6th century AD)
Abstract
This paper aims at tracing evolutions in the documentary recording of imperial official action and public speaking from the age of Augustus to the sixth century AD. The author preliminarily addresses methodological issues related to the definition of the documentary genre under scrutiny, and outlines the criteria followed in gathering a corpus of relevant sources; a catalogue of attestations is provided in appendix. Based on this material, the analysis moves on to reconstruct the changing patterns of circulation and preservation of documents which record imperial oral pronouncements and public performances. Finally, a historical interpretation of these documents’ function is proposed, with particular attention to their significance as witnesses to the public interactions between Roman rulers and their subjects, in the framework of official imperial communication.
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