Elementos retóricos en los senatus consulta de Germánico César y de Gneo Pisón

Abstract

This paper analyses three principal passages of the senatus consulta about the posthumous honours for Germanicus Caesar (Tabula Siarensis) and about Piso's trial (Senatus Consultum de Gnaeo Pisone Patre), in which the rhetorical elaboration of the original senatorial discourses are reflected: 1. the decree on the arch at the Circus Flaminius (TS I 9- 18); 2. the praise by the senate of the imperial house's moderatio during the aftermath of Germanicus' death (SCPP 123-151), and 3. the decree on the portraits of Germanicus and Drusus in the library on the Palatine (TS IIc 13-17). The remarkable use of epideictic oratory in these deliberative and judicial discourses is not accidental but intentional. It shows how the political ideology of the Principate influences the rhetorical practice.