Scriptae imagines: Fronto's correspondence as dialogue and portrayal

马库斯·科尼利厄斯·弗朗托（约公元100年至170年）至今仍是罗马帝国时期最被忽视的作家之一。弗朗托是未来皇帝马可·奥勒留的家庭教师，也是那个时代最著名的罗马演说家。他幸存下来的信件包括200多封来自皇帝安东尼努斯·庇护斯和他的两个指定继任者马可·奥勒留和卢修斯·维鲁斯的信件。弗朗托斯的信件包含了罗马皇帝工作方式的独特和第一手证据，以及教育王子的意义。然而，对Frontos信件进行详细的文学，风格和语言学调查仍然是一个理想。在这个项目中，我的目标是提出一种新的视角，将Frontos通信作为书信体文学的一种形式。在我对书信的分析中，我将关注与书信性相关的两个不同方面。首先，我将信件视为一种对话形式，其次，作为一种文学写照。这两方面书信性的区别在于各自的交际情境。在对话层面上，交流的对象是内部的“我”和内部的“你”（即通信者，彼此分享友谊的表达，轶事等），而在书信描写层面上，交流发生在“我”（特定信件的作者）和外部的“你”（已发表信件的读者）之间。将书信作为一种对话形式，本研究将阐明信件作为一个热心肠的贵族和一个平易近人的元首/皇帝之间博学而机智的对话，他们通过书信媒介构建了他们的独家友谊。调查他们的书信对话作为权力和权威的谈判和再分配，我将分析信件中丰富的语言，作为（重新）结构和（重新）塑造两个通信者之间关系的手段。这将是对这个问题的重要贡献，关于拉丁书信体话语如何参与重塑和重塑贵族与统治者之间的关系。该研究将重点放在作为一种描述形式的信件上，将详细展示弗朗托如何将自己作为皇帝的最佳教师、罗马有史以来最好的演说家和拉丁语的主要权威的自我形象，与他在精英群体中的中心地位的令人信服的主张联系起来。我将探索书信中描绘的精英生活、语言和行为的理想形象，作为这个时代罗马知识精英的典范。这项研究将把前沿书信体中知识分子和皇帝的肖像放在当代（自我）表现机制的背景下，将它们与广泛的媒体进行比较，包括文学和非文学（如肖像、雕像）。

Marcus Cornelius Fronto (c. 100 to 170 A.D.) remains until today one of the most neglected Roman authors of the Imperial period. Fronto was tutor to the future Emperor Marcus Aurelius and the most renowned Roman orator of his era. His surviving correspondence consists of a body of more than two hundred letters to and from the Emperor Antoninus Pius and his two designated successors, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. Frontos correspondence contains unique and first-hand evidence for the way Roman Emperors worked and what it meant to educate a prince. However, a detailed literary, stylistic and philological investigation of Frontos letters is still a desideratum.With this project I aim to present a new perspective on Frontos correspondence as a form of epistolary literature. In my analysis of the letters, I will focus on two different aspects related to epistolarity. First, I will read the letters as a form of dialogue and second, as a form of literary portrayal. The difference between these two aspects of epistolarity lies in the respective communicative situation. On the level of dialogicity, the communicating partners are the internal "I" and the internal "you" (i.e. the correspondents, sharing expressions of friendship, anecdotes etc. with each other), whereas on the level of epistolary portrayal, the communication takes place between the "I" (the writer of a particular letter) and an external "you", the reading audience of the published letters. Focusing on the letters as a form of dialogue, the study will elucidate the correspondence as a learned and witty conversation between a warm-hearted aristocrat and an accessible princeps / Emperor, who structure their exclusive friendship by means of the epistolary medium. Investigating their epistolary dialogue as a negotiation and redistribution of power and authority, I will analyse the rich language of the letters as a means to (re-)structure and (re-)shape the relation between the two correspondents. It will be an important contribution to the question, as to how Latin epistolary discourse participates in re-shaping and re-inventing the role of the aristocrat in relation to the ruler.Focusing on the letters as a form of portrayal, the study will demonstrate in detail how Fronto connects his self-image as the best teacher of Emperors, the best Roman orator of all times, and the leading authority on Latin, with a compelling assertion of his central position within an elite community. I will explore the ideal image of elite life, language and behaviour drawn in the letters as paradigmatic for the Roman intellectual elite of this age. The study will place Frontos epistolary portrayals of intellectuals and Emperors in the context of contemporary mechanisms of (self)-representation, comparing them with a broad spectrum of media, both literary and non-literary (e.g. portraits, statues).