Soft hands, hard power : sponging off the empire of leisure (Virgil, Georgics 4)
Abstract
This article seeks to jumpstart the politico-historicist scholarship on Virgil's Georgics in the direction of Marxist criticism. I argue that the Georgics should be understood less as a battle site for intra-elite power struggles or civil strife, more as an ideological stomping ground to work out, and dig in, the particular relationships of slavery and imperialism disfiguring the Roman world in 29 b.c.e. After a brief analysis of the dynamics of labor in Books 1–3, I train on a close reading of Book 4, which sees the bees (et al.) as crucial to the new dominant logic of compelling others (whether slaves or provincial subjects) to produce and give up the fruits of their labour — all for the leisured enjoyment of the upper crust.
Citation
Geue , T 2018 , ' Soft hands, hard power : sponging off the empire of leisure (Virgil, Georgics 4) ' , Journal of Roman Studies , vol. 108 , pp. 115-140 . https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075435818000266
Publication
Journal of Roman Studies
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0075-4358Type
Journal article
Rights
© The Author(s) 2018. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075435818000266
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