Commissiones Meras and Harenam Sine Calce : Suetonius, Caligvla 53.2

Despite the consensus that commissiones meras in Caligula’s disparagement of Seneca (Suet. Calig. 53.2 ) means ‘mere school exercises’ or the like, there is no firm evidence that commissio does indicate a speaking competition, much less a speech delivered at such a competition. Since it is not possible to be certain which Seneca was disparaged by Caligula, appeal to the style of father or son is not helpful for interpreting the barb, but the context in which it was hurled is. Caligula scorned Seneca’s style because it was too restrained and too elegant, not the menacing weapon that Caligula wielded. He was consumed with winning, whether in speaking or chariot racing. Since commissio most frequently refers to the beginning of public games, this article argues that Caligula uses it figuratively—‘mere beginnings’. This interpretation becomes more plausible with Justus Lipsius’s suggestion that harenam sine calce means ‘a racecourse without a finish line’. The second part of Caligula’s barb explains the first, and the whole means ‘Seneca composed nothing but beginnings, that is to say, his kind of writing was a racetrack without a finish line’. It may also be possible that harenam sine calce , like sanguinis missionem (‘bloodletting’, Suet. Calig. 29.2), is a pun and activates both senses of harenam sine calce : Seneca’s kind of writing was both a racetrack without a finish line and sand without lime—it never got to the point and did not hold together.