Contaminations culturelles dans le récit livien

Abstract

EnglishCultural contaminations in the Livian account. From the beginning, the writing of history in Rome has been characterized by some effects of ideological distortion. Livy does not hesitate either to give to his narrative the form that presupposes his general philosophy of history, which does not fail to influence his way of treating his sources and to have a distorting effect. This contribution aims more specifically to ascertain how the Livian narrative tries to show that the seeds of the disease destined to produce the decline of the city are introduced while Rome is still engaged in the ascending phase of its history. It seemed to us that the capture of Syracuse by Marcellus played this role for the Livian historical cycle, while the arrival of Tarquin the Elder in Rome produced the same effect within the historico-legendary cycle, whose mechanisms are thought analogically. When the dialectical situation of the development of the Vrbs lent itself to it, Livy gave to some Etruscan figures, characteristics peculiar to the Hellenistic world as claimed by a conservative tradition going from Cato to Augustus. francaisL’ecriture de l’histoire a Rome est des ses origines caracterisee par des effets de distorsion ideologique. Tite-Live n’hesite pas lui non plus a donner a son recit la forme que presuppose sa philosophie generale de l’histoire, ce qui ne manque pas au demeurant d’influer sur sa maniere de traiter ses sources et ne laisse pas d’avoir un effet deformant. Cette contribution essaiera plus precisement d’etablir comment le recit livien s’emploie a demontrer que les germes de la maladie destinee a produire le declin de la cite sont introduits alors que Rome est encore engagee dans la phase ascendante de son histoire. Il nous a semble que la prise de Syracuse par Marcellus jouait ce role pour le cycle historique livien, tandis que l’arrivee de Tarquin l’Ancien a Rome produisait le meme effet a l’interieur du cycle historico-legendaire, dont les mecanismes sont penses de facon analogique. Lorsque la situation dialectique du developpement de l’Vrbs s’y pretait, Tite-Live a ainsi donne a quelques figures etrusques des caracteristiques propres au monde hellenistique, tel que pretendait le representer une tradition conservatrice allant de Caton a Auguste.