Ancient World Seminar: Ida Östenberg (University of Gothenburg), "Dulce et decorum – to die for the fatherland in ancient Greece and Rome"

Abstract

The Roman poet Horace (Horatius) famously wrote Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, ‘it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s fatherland’, an expression that Wilfred Owen, poet and soldier during the First World War, called ‘the old lie’. However my research suggests that Horace’s verse did not, contrary to the common opinion, represent a traditional Roman view. In Rome, victory was the only acceptable outcome. Thus, Rome as a society did not celebrate their fallen, nor did they bury them with honours. Instead, in my view, Horace gives voice to a Greek view that lauded the fallen youth and treated them as heroes. I believe further that Cicero was instrumental in introducing the concept in late Republican Rome, and that the idea was exploited by the novel imperial dynastic family, to make sense of the premature deaths of several young male members.

In my lecture, I will analyse and discuss the difference in the Greek and Roman view, while also providing examples of how the ancient ideas have been used and misused in other wars, historical and present.

About the speaker

Ida Östenberg is Professor, Classical Archaeology and Ancient History at the Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg, as well a an Honorary member, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. She is working in the areas of Roman political culture, Roman rituals, performances and spectacles, and Classical reception. She is known in particular for her work on the Roman triumph, and is an expert selected by the Swedish Research Council for inclusion in AcademiaNet. She is also the 2018 winner of the Stora historiepriset, Sweden's largest history prize.