The Heap in Roman Thought and Literature

This paper will trace the metaphorical use of the word “heap” (acervus) across a variety of Roman authors to describe the accumulation of examples, precepts, and ideas. I posit that Roman authors writing under the Principate deploy heap imagery as a way of mediating between two conflicting drives: the impulse to pile up as much information as possible on the one hand, and the compulsion to set clear boundaries on tautly-structured texts on the other. The bulk of this paper will treat two Roman compendia of exempla written in the first century CE: Valerius Maximus’ Facta et Dicta Memorabilia and Frontinus’ Strategemata. I will argue that, by describing his own work in terms of the famous sorites (“heaper”) paradox, Valerius Maximus is able to conjure a sense of endless literary accumulation that coexists with the bounded structure of his text. However, in an agonistic intertextual exchange with Valerius, Frontinus points to the impossibility of maintaining these two conflicting stylistic ideals. After treating this case study, I will explore how this line of inquiry might be expanded into a broader research project. This final section will contain methodological reflections as well as a sample of brief analyses of heap imagery in other Roman authors.

Reception to follow.