Celebrare Romam, celebrare imperatorem, celebrare patriam: istorie și memorie în Panegyrici Latini (sec. III-IV p. Chr.)
Celebrare Romam, celebrare imperatorem, celebrare patriam: History and Memory in the Panegyrici Latini (3rd – 4th c. AD)

Summary/Abstract: The fundamental objective of the Gallo-Roman panegyrici from the 3rd-4th centuries was the praise of the sovereign, respectively the hyperbolization of his facts,especially military, of his generosity, of his virtues. Laudatio principis was most often associated with laudatio Vrbis, between the emperors and Rome existing an indestructible connection. Finally, in celebration of the sovereign and Rome, the Gallo-Roman panegyrists joined enthusiastic amor patriae. Thus, princeps-Vrbs-patria are the dominant landmarks of praise. Related to the celebratory atmosphere mentioned and to the connection between memory and history, the panegyrici perform a triple function:they commemorate an inheritance, a tradition, a vetus memory (pre-imperial), dominant, an inexhaustible source of exempla and praxeis, and another recens (imperial), less represented; they relate a contemporary history; they create and disseminate a new exemplary past, a new memory. The connecting element of these three plans is represented by the sovereign, who, uniting in his virtutes and res gestae the emblematic past and the almost miraculous present, guarantees the eternity and continuity of Rome and its empire. Thus, as many former exegetes have already pointed out, panegyrists create and disseminate an official, altered, "quasi-fictional", ideologized history, in which memory and history have their particular mission – one conferring authority, the other –legitimacy.

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