Pacatus the poet doing Plinian prose

Abstract

Juxtaposition of Pacatus's speech to Theodosius next to Pliny's Panegyricus in the PanLat collection invites comparison of the two. Intertexts reveal Pacatus's debts to Pliny, but his speech also regularly features stylistic elements which cannot be traced to the Panegyricus; in particular, the speech has passages which owe more to Pacatus's interests as a poet. The stylistic adventure which Pacatus dares has implications for the history of Latin epideictic oratory and its aesthetic evolution—and for contemporary politics, as in his praise of Theodosius, Pacatus both recalls and surpasses Pliny to Trajan.