Tragic quotations in Favorinus’ ‘De exilio’: literary texture, politics, and consolation

This paper analyses the presence of references to and quotations from Attic tragedy in the Περὶ φυγῆς of second-century CE rhetor Favorinus of Arelate. By focusing on select fifth-century tragedies referred to in Favorinus’ consolation on exile, the paper argues that the rhetor deliberately chose to include quotations from dramas concerned with the clash of identities between Greeks and barbarians (such as Euripides’ ‘Telephus’ and ‘Erechtheus’ and Sophocles’ ‘Tereus’). The paper further argues that this choice may be taken to reflect both Favorinus’ particular concern for the issue – the Gaul Favorinus was himself a de facto barbarian who strove to acquire Greek identity through Hellenic paideia – and his rejection of the ingrained Greek-barbarian distinction. By Favorinus’ day, in fact, such a distinction had been rendered obsolete by the unified political entity of the Roman Empire. Favorinus’ penchant for politically ‘loaded’ tragedies, then, may ultimately show his endorsement of the political unity granted by Rome and its universalising power.