Captatio benevolentiae in late antique epistologaphy as a means of preserving communication of the intellectual elite

The article analyzes the epistolary collections of Late Antique authors of the IV-VI centuries: Ausonius, Sidonius Apollinaris, Ruricius of Limoges and others. These representatives of the Late Antique intellectual elite got a brilliant education, and were engaged in literary activities. The epistolary genre was popular among the highest aristocracy not only as a means of communication at a distance, but also as a field for manifesting its education and literary talent. Epistolary contacts connected various regions of the Mediterranean world into a unified network, the members of which supported their Roman identity (“Romanitas”) using a set of rhetorical rules and techniques. The purpose of this study is to reveal the literary trope “captatio benevolentiae” expressing the writers' desire to belittle their merits. This rhetorical technique was used to win favor with the audience due to the authors' modesty and to motivate the addressee to continue the epistolary dialogue. Lowering the level of their talent and education, as well as the quality of the texts, the authors of the letters forced the interlocutors to refute unfair self-assessment, thereby, maintaining epistolary communication and social ties, as well as forming a closed, elite community of like-minded people distinguished by a refined culture and high level of education and, thus, differentiating themselves from the masses of common people and barbarians.