Mithridates’ Letter in Sallust’s Historiae: Roman and Pontic Propaganda

Authors

  • Anton V. Korolenkov State Academic University for the Humanities, 26, Maronovski per., Moscow, 119049, Russian Federation; Pskov State University, 2, pl. Lenina, Pskov, 180000, Russian Federation

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu20.2023.206

Abstract

According to the author of the article, Mithridates VI Eupator’s letter to the Parthian monarch Arsaces in Sallust’s Historiae does not reproduce the genuine document from the personal archives of the Pontic king as some researchers believe. The opinion that Sallust criticized Roman politics under Mithridates’mask is rejected; many scholars consider this letter to be a condemnation of deep moral decline of the Roman society. On the contrary, the Roman writer attributes to the Pontic king the weak and vulnerable arguments based on the false facts (at least from the Roman point of view) to discredit his (and not only his) criticism of Roman foreign policy. He calls the Romans “strangers without a homeland, without parents”, but it is naturally that Romans themselves did not think in this way. The author objects to E. Adler, who believes that most of Sallust’s readers did not know history well enough to mark the distortions of facts in Mithridates’ letter. There is every reason to believe that Sallust was counting on an educated public that would be able to appreciate these distortions and their meaning. The author thinks that Mithridates’ argumentation looks like a parody of the anti-Roman propaganda and it might have been perceived as such by Sallust’s readers.

Keywords:

Sallust, Historiae, Mithridates VI Eupator, anti-Roman propaganda

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Published

2023-12-30

How to Cite

Korolenkov, A. V. (2023). Mithridates’ Letter in Sallust’s Historiae: Roman and Pontic Propaganda. Philologia Classica, 18(2), 216–229. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu20.2023.206

Issue

Vol. 18 No. 2 (2023)

Section

Orbis Romanus

License

Articles of "Philologia Classica" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.