In:The Reality of Women in the Universe of the Ancient Novel
Edited by María Paz López Martínez, Carlos Sánchez-Moreno Ellart and Ana Belén Zaera García
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 40] 2023
► pp. 277–296
Chapter 18Plotting Plotina? The reception of an empress in Roman provincial
prose (fiction)
Published online: 1 December 2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.40.18trn
https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.40.18trn
Abstract
This chapter explores the reception of the empress
Plotina in three texts from three literary traditions within the Roman
Empire: the Acta Hermaisci, the Talmud, and Apuleius’
Metamorphoses. It argues that the Plotina character we
see in these texts is based on an idea of the Roman empress’ ability to
influence the emperor to the detriment of provincial groups. This ‘plotting
Plotina’ figure is the opposite of the official ideal found in Pliny’s
Panegyricus and may develop the suspicion we see in
Roman historical texts that Plotina exercised improper influence on
Hadrian’s succession. Indeed, the motherhood of the ‘plotting Plotina’
character may respond to the problematic childlessness of the real empress.
In addition to exploring how provincial texts fictionalized a historical
woman to articulate the powerlessness of being a Roman subject, this chapter
provides an example of how one theme could be deployed in texts from
different cultures written in the same empire. It thus offers a perspective
on how a broad understanding of ‘imperial literature’ can inform our
knowledge of connections between the literary cultures that coexisted under
Roman rule.
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