The fate of Varius' Thyestes in the context of Augustus' cultural policies

Abstract

L. Varius Rufus' lost tragedy Thyestes appears to have been one of the poetic texts that were most infuential and most supported by the state at the beginning of Augustus' rule; at the same time, by the end of his reign, Augustus seems to have abandoned serious support of its diffusion. The article puts forward the hypothesis that Seneca's Thyestes is to a considerable extent dependent on this tragedy and that some features of Varius' work can be reconstructed from Seneca's play. It appears that Varius criticized Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, recently defeated by Octavian, but failed to dedicate any extensive positive praise of the princeps. Early Augustus' interest in using drama for political needs can be explained by his wish, within the context of a fashion for esoteric learned poetry, to turn to a more conservative genre oriented towards communicating with the people as a whole: thus, he sought to restore the pragmatic context and the content features of Athenian tragedy. But the momentary relevance of Athenian-style tragedy was a bad ft with regard to its future use in propaganda, while the successful compromise between “democratic” features and learned style achieved in Vergil's Aeneid was the primary reason why Augustus reconsidered the guidelines of his cultural policies and abandoned his reliance on drama.