In message <Pine.GSO.3.95-960729.1020118110908.24173A- [EMAIL PROTECTED]>, M W Hughes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes >This is mainly a reply to a reply of some time ago (I've been disrupted >by my wife's death). I mentioned the reference to >'pillars decorated with gold, barbarian-style' (A II 504; following, I >think, words attributed to Cassandra by Naevius and admired by Cicero) as >problem illustrating V's use of 'focalisation', or as an indication of V's >readiness to exploit variant focalisation - uncertainty about whose point >of view certain words represent - in order to create an interesting >effect. ()Is Aeneas focalising 'barbarico' so that it refers to how the >Greek conquerors think or is he beginning, after seven years of exile >mainly amid Greek cultural influences, to think that there was something >barbaric about Troy? Since the verse as a whole runs 'barbarico postes auro spoliisque superbi', a hendiadys denoting spoils consisting in barbarian gold, the reference, at the most literal level, is to gold (a metal in which barbarians were known to rejoice) captured from the Trojans' subject peoples such as the barbarous-voiced Carians of Iliad 2. 867; likewise in Ennius (not Naevius) 'adstante ope barbarica' means 'with your barbarian auxiliaries for bodyguards'. On that footing, the Trojans would not themselves be barbarians; there need be no more contempt or disrespect than in images of fine manly Indian and African soldiers in our own imperial days, but it would seem unduly reductive to interpret the word as simply 'speaking foreign languages'. On the other hand, if we assume a self-inclusive sense ('our fellow barbarians'), the question is whether the appropriate parallel is the use by Aeschylus' Persians of barbaroi to denote themselves, a term put in their mouths by a Greek, or the Romans' self-referential use of _barbarus_ in Plautus' day, which in principle might be due to ignorance or to acceptance of a Greek view of things but in my opinion is far likelier to be the proud appropriation of an insult (like 'Whig', 'Tory', 'Old Contemptibles', and more recently 'Iron Lady', a badge of honour proffered to a grateful Mrs Thatcher by some dunderhead on TASS).
Leofranc Holford-Strevens *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* Leofranc Holford-Strevens 67 St Bernard's Road usque adeone Oxford scire MEVM nihil est, nisi ME scire hoc sciat alter? OX2 6EJ tel. +44 (0)1865 552808(home)/353865(work) fax +44 (0)1865 512237 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_* ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub