Animalizing the Romans: the use of animal metaphors by ancient authors to criticize Roman power or its agents

Abstract

Ancient authors who equated or associated barbarians, pagans and heretics with animals and monstrous creatures shared a common rhetorical aim: to highlight the fact that they lie beyond the bounds of humanity. I propose in this paper to approach animal imagery from a different perspective: to examine the use of animal similes or metaphors to criticize Roman power. While the assimilation of people to wild animals or monstrous beasts often represented a form of moral criticism, in some cases the trope was used to do more than simply denounce vices. Animal imagery could be employed to direct political criticism against Roman power, be it criticism of the emperor, the agents of imperial power in the provinces, or the Roman people as a whole. One aim of this paper is to highlight the evolution of these uses of animal imagery to characterize Rome in the longue durée, specifically, by placing non-Christian and Christian sources into dialogue. Once I have shown that, in most cases, Roman power figures or people were associated with wild animals or monstrous beasts, I will highlight the distinctiveness of the Jewish perspective, that is, the comparison of Rome, in rabbinic sources, to a pig or a boar.