Review of Jared Hudson. 2021. The Rhetoric of Roman Transportation. Vehicles in Latin Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp xvi, 353. Paperback. (ISBN 978-1-108-72323-7) $46.59.
Year: 2025
Type: book-review
Abstract: Jared hudson.2021.The rheTorIc of roman TransPorTaTIon.VehIcles In laTIn lITeraTure.camBridge: camBridge university Press.PP xvi, 353.PaPerBack.(isBn 978-1-108-72323-7) $46.59.The approach taken by Jared Hudson is to see rhetoric in the deployment of vehicles in Latin texts that he suggests encourages us as readers "to process literary vehicles in two separate and opposing ways: either too literally, as real tools of utility -and so beneath the threshold of meaning and interpretability; or else too metaphorically, as figures for more abstract and exalted concepts (poetry, for one) -and so little to do with the materiality of conveyance" (p.xiii).He seeks to play out this tension in the book to reveal the complexity of the representation of transport in Latin literature and sees the deployment of vehicles in texts as both metaphorical and realistic (p.xv).The approach to Latin texts via vehicle types is suggested as a new method or approach to these texts (p.xv).The question is whether this approach does more than a historian text-mining a keyword, such as carpentum, in the hope of revealing an understanding of the distinctiveness of such a vehicle, whilst appreciating the literary construction of our sources for each vehicle type?The book is structured around specific vehicle types used for transportation with each chapter anchored around a Latin keyword: chapter 1, Plaustrum; chapter two, Currus; chapter 3, Essendum; chapter 4, Carpentum; and chapter 5, Lectica.These five chapters are sandwiched between an "Introduction: En Route" and an "Envoi: The End of the Road."This presents us with a limitation to the book: the focus is upon vehicles without the motive power of animals, mules, donkeys, horses, oxen, or cows or humans, beyond those being carried along.These animals and drivers appear but briefly without any explanation of the rhetorical deployment of the word "mule" or explanation that mules were symbols of high status (e.g., p. 4).The introduction and chapter 4 rearticulate two previous publications, 1 and the content also draws on Hudson's 2013 PhD thesis On the Way: a Poetics of Roman Transportation with chapters on lectica, currus, and carpentum.2 As the author makes clear from the start of the book each chapter/vehicle type involves him in a farreaching close reading at scale shifting across genre and time, or as he summarizes: "The overall end is to watch Latin texts on their way, but also to get (and keep) Latin literature going" (xvi).The problem of this method for the reader wanting to discover more about Roman transportation is that they do not have the knowledge of the author and may not be able to keep up with his sudden shifts from author to author.Fortunately, Hudson does provide Latin texts with English translations.There are many texts covered in this book, and this alone makes Hudson's book of interest.The structure of the book with a focus on vehicles can cause a particular ancient author's approach to the deployment of vehicles of different types to be lost to the reader, unless willing to plough through the index locorum to reconstruct the overall pattern found in, say, Seneca or Cicero.It should be said that the approach is not philological and does not seek to explain the development of specialized vocabularies of transport.It is worth mentioning here that Latin was inventive in the area of transport with terms such as codicarii and lenunculari being almost exclusively used in inscriptions from Rome and Ostia to refer to barges and their crews.This should not undercut the work carried out in the creation of this book.The problem, though, is: how should we read the book that segments authors according to their use of a particular word for a particular type of vehicle?At times, I felt I was seeing the author (and the revelation of his knowledge) overwriting the texts that are
Source: New England classical journal
Author: Ray Laurence
Institution: Macquarie University
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4409003437