THE LATE ANTIQUE AFTERLIFE OF ROMAN EXEMPLARITY: THE CASE OF SCIPIO NASICA IN LIVY,AB VRBE CONDITABOOK 29 AND AUGUSTINE,DE CIVITATE DEI1.30–2.5

AbstractThis article calls for a new understanding of the relationship between classicizing and Christian discourses of exemplarity through a close reading of the figure of Scipio Nasica in Livy,Ab urbe conditaBook 29 and Augustine,De ciuitate DeiBooks 1–2. Nasica, whose selection as auir optimusby the Senate in 204b.c.e.has puzzled modern scholars, was a source of historiographical difficulty for Livy that prompted him to reflect upon exemplarity, mythmaking and the tenuous relationship between past and present. For Augustine, on the other hand, Nasica was a pagan, and thus imperfect, realization of Christianpietasand restraint from luxurious behaviour. Although differing in their interpretations of the Republicanexemplum, both Livy and Augustine point to the complexities inherent in invocations of paradigmatic Romanmaiores. The close study of Scipio Nasica thus reveals the classicizing precedent lingering behind the supposedly ‘Christian’ rejections of pre-Christian Roman culture in theDe ciuitate Dei.