Cover not available
Article published In:
Exploring (im)politeness in ancient languages
Edited by Kim Ridealgh
[Journal of Historical Pragmatics 20:2] 2019
► pp. 225–243

Seneca’s De Beneficiis and non-verbal politeness in ancient Rome

 | University of Otago, New Zealand
This paper examines the philosophical treatise De Beneficiis written by Seneca the Younger (c. 4 bce to 65 ce) and discusses some of the insights that it offers regarding the pragmatics of interpersonal encounters in ancient Rome. In particular, it identifies types of appropriate and inappropriate non-verbal behaviour sometimes employed when making requests. Seneca’s close observation of these social nuances alerts us to the importance of non-verbal elements for a complete understanding of (im)politeness in everyday life.
Keywords: De Beneficiis , facial expression, non-verbal politeness, refusals, requests, Seneca (the Younger)
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Roman social context
  • 3.Seneca’s evidence: Methodological issues
    • 3.1A modern example
  • 4.Seneca on facial expression
    • 4.1Initiating a social exchange
    • 4.2Asking for a favour: The petitioner’s facial expression
    • 4.3Bestowing a favour: The donor’s facial expression
    • 4.4Receiving a favour: The petitioner’s facial expression
    • 4.5Refusing a request: The donor’s facial expression
    • 4.6Receiving a refusal: The petitioner’s facial expression
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 10 December 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.00030.hal
References (45)
References
Argyle, Michael. 1988. Bodily Communication. (Second edition.) London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Arndt, Horst and Richard W. Janney. 1987. InterGrammar: Toward an Integrative Model of Verbal, Prosodic, and Kinesic Choices in Speech. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Basore, John W. 1935. Seneca: Moral Essays Volume 3. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Beard, Mary. 2014. Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tickling and Cracking Up. Berkeley: University of California Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brown, Lucien and Pilar Prieto. 2017. “(Im)politeness: Prosody and Gesture”. In Jonathan Culpeper, Michael Haugh and Daniel Kádár (eds), Palgrave Handbook of Linguistic (Im)politeness, 357–379. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruce, Vicki and Andrew Young. 1998. In the Eye of the Beholder: The Science of Face Perception. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brunt, Peter A. 1965. “ Amicitia in the Late Republic”. Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society n.s. 21: 1–20. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cairns, Douglas L. 2003. “Ethics, Ethology, Terminology: Iliadic Anger and the Cross-cultural Study of Emotion”. In Susanna M. Braund and Glenn W. Most (eds), Ancient Anger: Perspectives from Homer to Galen, 11–49. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cairns, Douglas. 2005. “Bullish Looks and Sidelong Glances: Social Interaction and the Eyes in Ancient Greek Culture”. In Douglas Cairns (ed.), Body Language in the Greek and Roman Worlds, 123–155. Swansea: Classical Press of Wales. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan. 2009. “Historical Sociopragmatics: An Introduction”. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 10 (2): 179–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011a. Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011b. “‘It’s Not What You Said, It’s How You Said It!’: Prosody and Impoliteness”. In Linguistic Politeness Research Group (ed.), Discursive Approaches to Politeness, 57–83. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eckman, Paul. 1979. “About Brows: Emotional and Conversational Signals”. In Mario V. Cranach, Klaus Foppa, Wolf Lepenies and Detlev Ploog (eds), Human Ethology: Claims and Limits of a New Discipline, 169–202. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Givens, David. 1981. “Greeting a Stranger: Some Commonly Used Nonverbal Signals of Aversiveness”. In Adam Kendon (ed.), Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture: Selections from Semiotica, 219–235. The Hague: Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1963. Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe.Google Scholar
Goldbeck, Fabian. 2010. Salutationes: Die Morgenbegrüssungen in Rom in der Republik und der frühen Kaiserzeit. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grammer, Karl, Wulf Schiefenhövel, Margret Schleidt, Beatrice Lorenz and Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt. 1988. “Patterns on the Face: The Eyebrow Flash in Crosscultural Comparison”. Ethology 77 (4): 279–299. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Griffin, Miriam T. 2003a. “ De Beneficiis and Roman Society”. Journal of Roman Studies 931: 92–113. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003b. “Seneca as a Sociologist: De Beneficiis ”. In Arturo De Vivo and Elio Lo Cascio (eds), Seneca, uomo politico e l’età di Claudio e di Nerone, 89–122. Bari: Edipuglia.Google Scholar
2013. Seneca on Society: A Guide to the De Beneficiis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Griffin, Miriam T. and Brad Inwood. 2011. Seneca: On Benefits. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hübler, Axel. 2007. The Nonverbal Shift in Early Modern English Conversation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, Andreas and Andreas H. Jucker. 1995. “The Historical Perspective in Pragmatics”. In Andreas H. Jucker (ed.), Historical Pragmatics: Pragmatic Developments in the History of English, 3–33. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Jong, Peter J. 1999. “Communicative and Remedial Effects of Social Blushing”. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 23 (3): 197–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keating, Caroline F. 1985. “Human Dominance Signals: The Primate in Us”. In Steve L. Ellyson and John F. Dovidio (eds), Power, Dominance, and Nonverbal Behavior, 89–108. New York: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keltner, Dacher. 1995. “Signs of Appeasement: Evidence for the Distinct Displays of Embarrassment, Amusement, and Shame”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 68 (3): 441–454. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kendon, Adam and Andrew Ferber. 1990. “A Description of Some Human Greetings”. In Adam Kendon (ed.), Conducting Interaction: Patterns of Behaviour in Focused Encounters, 153–207. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Catherine. 2011. “From Good Manners to Facework: Politeness Variations and Constants in France, from the Classic Age to Today”. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 12 (1–2): 133–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kleinke, Chris L. 1986. “Gaze and Eye Contact: A Research Review”. Psychological Bulletin 100 (1): 78–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kraut, Robert E. and Robert E. Johnston. 1979. “Social and Emotional Messages of Smiling: An Ethological Approach”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37 (9): 1539–1553. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krostenko, Brian A. 2001. Cicero, Catullus, and the Language of Social Performance. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lateiner, Donald. 1995. Sardonic Smile: Nonverbal Behavior in Homeric Epic. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laver, John. 1975. “Communicative Functions of Phatic Communion”. In Adam Kendon, Richard M. Harris and Mary R. Key (eds), Organization of Behavior in Face-to-Face Interaction, 215–238. The Hague: Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leary, Mark R., Thomas W. Britt, William D. Cutlip II and Janice L. Templeton. 1992. “Social Blushing”. Psychological Bulletin 112 (3): 446–460. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
MacCary, W. Thomas and Malcolm M. Willcock. 1976. Casina: Plautus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Marchese, Rita R. 2009. “Dignità e diseguaglianza. Il rispetto nella relazione fra benefattori e beneficati”. In Giusto Picone, Lucia Beltrami and Licinia Ricottilli (eds), Benefattori e beneficati: La relazione asimmetrica nel de beneficiis di Seneca, 245–271. Palermo: Palumbo.Google Scholar
Mazur, Allan. 2005. Biosociology of Dominance and Deference. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Picone, Giusto, Lucia Beltrami and Licinia Ricottilli (eds). 2009. Benefattori e beneficati: La relazione asimmetrica nel de beneficiis di Seneca. Palermo: Palumbo.Google Scholar
Ricottilli, Licinia. 2009. “Aspetti della rappresentazione gestuale nel de beneficiis”. In Giusto Picone, Lucia Beltrami and Licinia Ricottilli (eds), Benefattori e beneficati: La relazione asimmetrica nel de beneficiis di Seneca, 399–429. Palermo: Palumbo.Google Scholar
Risselada, Rodie. 1993. Imperatives and Other Directive Expressions in Latin: A Study in the Pragmatics of a Dead Language. Amsterdam: Gieben. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taavitsainen, Irma and Andreas H. Jucker. 2015. “Twenty Years of Historical Pragmatics: Origins, Developments and Changing Thought Styles”. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 16 (1): 1–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Unceta Gómez, Luis. 2009. La Petición Verbal en Latín: Estudio Léxico, Semántico y Pragmático. Madrid: Ediciones Clasicas.Google Scholar
Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew. 1989. “Patronage in Roman Society from Republic to Empire”. In Andrew Wallace-Hadrill (ed.), Patronage in Ancient Society, 63–87. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wharton, Tim. 2009. Pragmatics and Non-Verbal Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Unceta Gómez, Luis
2019. Conceptualizations of linguistic politeness in Latin. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 20:2 ► pp. 286 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.