Marguerite Yourcenar's Rome

Abstract

Rome is the setting for two of Marguerite Yourcenar's fictional works and the subject of several of her essays. It is the 'Mémoires d'Hadrien', an imaginary autobiography of a real second-century AD Roman emperor, which I wish to explore here. Published in 1951, this compelling work brought deserved fame to the author and led to her inclusion among the ranks of the 'immortels' in 1981. Rome is an important locus of meanings throughout these imaginary memoirs. Aspects of Rome and Roman-ness or 'Romanitas' are powerful symbols, progressively enriching the text and contributing to its complex themes and temporalities. The memoirs are in that most Roman of forms - a letter written by the ailing Hadrian to his seventeen-year-old heir, Marcus-Aurelius. As befits this most healthy stage m imperial Rome's history the period of the Antonines, known as the good emperors, who preceded the descent into chaos, heralded by Marcus-Aurelius' son, Commodus - the vision of Rome portrayed in this work is, on the whole, a positive, though highly nuanced, one. It is these nuances which I seek to explore in this paper. I shall limit myself largely to an exploration of the symbolic and thematic aspects of Rome, not only, in these memoirs, a city - a collection of fine and imposing edifices and of well-organised streets, to which Yourcenar's Hadrian refers - but, above all, the seat of government and a way of governing.