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The Reality of Women in the Universe of the Ancient Novel
Edited by María Paz López Martínez, Carlos Sánchez-Moreno Ellart and Ana Belén Zaera García
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 40] 2023
► pp. 277–296

Chapter 18
Plotting Plotina? The reception of an empress in Roman provincial prose (fiction)

 | University of Colorado, Boulder
This chapter explores the reception of the empress Plotina in three texts from three literary traditions within the Roman Empire: the Acta Hermaisci, the Talmud, and Apuleius’ Metamorphoses. It argues that the Plotina character we see in these texts is based on an idea of the Roman empress’ ability to influence the emperor to the detriment of provincial groups. This ‘plotting Plotina’ figure is the opposite of the official ideal found in Pliny’s Panegyricus and may develop the suspicion we see in Roman historical texts that Plotina exercised improper influence on Hadrian’s succession. Indeed, the motherhood of the ‘plotting Plotina’ character may respond to the problematic childlessness of the real empress. In addition to exploring how provincial texts fictionalized a historical woman to articulate the powerlessness of being a Roman subject, this chapter provides an example of how one theme could be deployed in texts from different cultures written in the same empire. It thus offers a perspective on how a broad understanding of ‘imperial literature’ can inform our knowledge of connections between the literary cultures that coexisted under Roman rule.
Keywords: Plotina, reception of Roman empresses, Acta Alexandrinorum, the Talmud, Apuleius Metamorphoses, Roman imperial literature, provincial literature
Published online: 1 December 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.40.18trn
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