The Scientific Sublime in Imperial Rome: Manilius, Seneca, Lucan, and the Aetna [Hardcover]

The Scientific Sublime in Imperial Romecharts the significance of the sublime in first-century debates about how and why we investigate the natural world. By connecting Manilius'Astronomica, Seneca'sNatural Questions, Lucan'sCivil War,and the anonymousAetnafor the first time, it tells a new story about the study of nature at Rome, locates the sublimity of that study at the center of early imperial Latin literature, and thereby renders the classical sublime more expansive, dynamic, and contested.The Scientific Sublime in Imperial Romecharts the role of the sublime in first-century debates about how and why we investigate the natural world. It shows how the sublimity of the study of nature--the scientific sublime--animates Manilius'Astronomica, Seneca'sNatural Questions, Lucan'sCivil War, and the anonymousAetna, and explores how these authors inflect and deploy the scientific sublime in their respective historical and socio-political contexts.Imbued with the triumphal optimism of the Augustan moment, Manilius takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride through the expanses of the heavens, reveling in the infinite dimensions of the cosmos and the astounding ability of his mathematical calculations to uncover the mind of god; this is the ultimate intellectual pursuit. The instability and paranoia of the Neronian period fundamentally compromise this posture. InNatural Questions, Seneca rejects Manilius' celestial adventure and redirects the reader's gaze to atmospheric phenomena. The turbulence and tumult of meteorological inquiry do not lead to certain knowledge, but Seneca hopes that its electric vitality might counteract the allure of morally corrupt pastimes and of political power itself. For Lucan, the Manilian and Senecan projects are delusional fantasies. The study of nature, stripped of the illusion that it serves some higher purpose, constitutes a distraction from thel“(