Rivers as rhetorical tropes in Pliny the Younger’s Panegyric

Abstract

In Pliny the Younger’s Panegyric, delivered at the Roman Senate in 100 CE and later revised into its written version, rivers are employed as rhetorical tropes (metonymy, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole). In addition, the mention of a river can intertextually evoke the precedent representations of that river and points to political actions related to the regions and peoples connected to such river. Thus, all mentions of rivers in the Panegyric are replete with political and aesthetical motivations. In oratory, rivers also convey a metarhetorical reflection, such as the connotation of the orator’s declarations of style or techniques. Throughout the Panegyric, rivers are much more than mere courses of water – they bespeak eloquently about Trajan and politics and about Pliny and oratory.