Exemplary Negotiations of <em>Patientia</em>

Abstract

This paper examines the tensions that were inherent within the Roman moral concept, patientia, focusing on the versions of exemplary patientia provided by Cicero, Livy and Valerius Maximus. These authors use exemplarity to navigate the contradictory possibilities of patientia by emphasizing the agency and autonomy of their exempla. This allows authors to distinguish positive versions of the quality from negative versions, particularly those associated with women and enslaved individuals. This paper also considers how exemplary accounts of patientia facilitated a discussion about ideal morality and behaviour within shifting political circumstances and explores the roll of exemplarity in negotiating ideologies in Rome.