Carthaginenses = Kartagińczycy

Abstract

The present work constitutes a scholarly edition and a translation into Polish of the Latin tragedy Carthaginenses of Denis Petau, and an introduction and commentary on the work. This tragedy, along with two other dramatic works of this author brought Petau relative fame. The author of the translation and the edition intended to familiarise a wider group of readers with this now-forgotten work, which is one the most worthwhile works - from the perspective of the tradition of humanist works by Jesuits in 17th-century Europe. As a dramatist Petau, does not conceal the great debt that he contracted from Seneca the Younger - not only does he imitate the Roman philosopher and tragedian in terms of formal and stylistic means in a fine manner but he also engages the themes of the stoic thought of this author. In the Carthaginenses, the Senecan perspective was employed in order to reinterpret the bloody episodes of the Third Punic War. Here Petau exhibited the figures of two strong women, who marked their presence in the history of Carthage: Dido, the mythical founder of the city, and the wife of Hasdrubal, the last Carthaginian commander. The death of the second heroine - the culmination of the plot of the tragedy - is used by the author to pose the difficult questions associated with human dignity and freedom.