This study examines how Tacitus’ representation of speech
determines the roles of speakers within the political sphere, and
explores the possibility of politically effective speech in the
principate. It argues against the traditional scholarly view that
Tacitus refuses to offer a positive view of senatorial power in the
principate: while senators did experience limitations and changes
to what they could achieve in public life, they could aim to create
a dimension of political power and efficacy through speeches
intended to create and sustain relations which would in turn
determine the roles played by both senators or an emperor. Ellen
O’Gorman traces Tacitus’ own charting of these modes of speech,
from flattery and aggression to advice, praise, and censure, and
explores how different modes of speech in his histories should be
evaluated: not according to how they conform to pre-existing
political stances, but as they engender different political worlds
in the present and future. The volume goes beyond literary analysis
of the texts to create a new framework for studying this essential
period in ancient Roman history, much in the same way that Tacitus
himself recasts the political authority and presence of senatorial
speakers as narrative and historical analysis.
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