INTRODUCING CICERO

PRO ARCHIA

The young Cicero, reading (Vincenzo Foppa; c. 1464

LATE REPUBLICAN AND AUGUSTAN AUTHORSLate republican (–31 BCE) Augustan (31 BCE–14 CE)

prose C. Julius CAESAR (100–44 BCE)•commentarii (historical notes)

M. Tullius CICERO (106–43 BCE)•letters •speeches • dialogues

SALLUST (historian)CORNELIUS NEPOS

(biographer)VARRO (scholar)

Titus Livius (LIVY, 59 BCE–17 CE)• Ab urbe condita (history)

poetry

C. Valerius CATULLUS (84–54?)•carmina (poetry in multiple genres)

LUCRETIUS (philosophical epic)

P. Virgilius Maro (VIRGIL) (70–19 BCE)•Eclogues (pastoral) •Georgics (didactic)

•Aeneid (epic)

HORACE (multiple genres)TIBULLUS, PROPERTIUS (love elegy)

P. Ovidius Naso (OVID) (43 BCE–17/18 CE)

•Amores (love elegy)•Tristia (exile poetry)•Metamorphoses (mythical epic)

A fuller timeline:http://prezi.com/lg2ryxvudqzw/timeline-of-latin-authors-and-roman-history/

A FRAGMENT FROM LIVY’S LOST BOOKS:CICERO’S LAST DAYS (43 BCE)

M. Cicero, pro certe habens, —id quod erat— non Antonio eripi se posse,

primum in Tusculanum fugit;

inde in Formianum,

ut ab Caieta navem conscensurus,

proficiscitur.

(fr. 50 = Oxford Latin Reader p. 54)So-called Tomba di Cicerone, Formia

CATULLUS ON CICERO49.

ad Marcum Tullium Ciceronem

DISERTISSIME Romuli nepotum,

quot sunt quotque fuere, Marce Tulli,

quotque post aliis erunt in annis,

gratias tibi maximas Catullus

agit pessimus omnium poeta,

tanto pessimus omnium poeta,

quanto tu optimus omnium patronus.

CICERO ON CLODIA (LESBIA?)

Pro Caelio 18:

Reprehendistis (Caelium), a patre quod semigrarit. …

Quo loco possum dicere id, quod vir clarissimus, M. Crassus, cum de adventu regis Ptolemaei quereretur, paulo ante dixit:

Utinam ne in nemore Pelio—

CICERO ON CLODIA (CONT.)Ac longius quidem mihi contexere hoc carmen liceret:

Nam numquam era errans

hanc molestiam nobis exhiberet

Medea animo aegra, amore saevo saucia.

Sic enim, iudices, reperietis, quod, cum ad id loci venero, ostendam, hanc Palatinam Medeam migrationemque hanc adulescenti causam sive malorum omnium sive potius sermonum fuisse.

SPEECHES (ORATIONES

)• political (e.g. In Catilinam)

• forensic (e.g. Pro Caelio, Pro

Archia)

DIALOGUES (DIALOGI)

• rhetorical (e.g. De oratore)

•philosophical (e.g. Tusculanae disputationes)

LIFE (VITA)63 BCE consul58–57 in exile49–48 civil war

45 death ofdaughter

Tullia43 dies

LETTERS (EPISTULAE)• Ad Familiares• Ad Atticum

POEMS (CARMINA)

•autobiographic (De consulatu suo)

• scientific (Aratea)

CICERO’S LIFE OF LETTERS

CICERO’S LETTERS:HISTORIA CONTEXTA

LETTERS (EPISTULAE)• Ad Familiares

• Ad Atticum

… undecim volumina epistularum ab consulatu eius usque ad extremum tempus ad Atticum missarum; quae qui legat, non multum desideret historiam contextam eorum temporum.

Sic enim omnia de studiis principum, vitiis ducum, mutationibus rei publicae perscripta sunt, ut nihil in his non appareat et facile existimari possit prudentiam quodam modo esse divinationem.

Non enim Cicero ea solum, quae vivo se acciderunt, futura praedixit, sed etiam, quae nunc usu veniunt, cecinit ut vates.

… eleven volumes of letters sent to Atticus, from the time of his consulship [63 BCE] to the end [43 BCE]. If anyone reads these, he will not need much more for a continuous history of those times.

For so much is written up there about the inclinations of the leaders, the weaknesses of the generals, the fluctuations of the republic, that nothing does not appear in these letters and his foresight can be judged to be a kind of divination.

For Cicero did not only predict those things that happened in his lifetime, but also, like a seer, he sang those which are now the case.

Cornelius Nepos on Cicero and Atticus’ correspondence (Atticus 16.3–4):

CICERO’S FOCUS ON SELF-IMAGECicero’s plea to the historian L. Lucceius (Ad familiares

5.12):Ardeo cupiditate incredibilineque, ut ego arbitror, reprehendenda,

nomen ut nostrum scriptis illustretur et celebretur tuis.

…

[cupio] quam celerrime res nostras monumentis commendari tuis.

I burn with an unbelievable desire,one not, in my view, to be frowned upon,

that my namebe illuminated and celebrated in your writings.

I desireas quickly as possiblefor my historyto be commended to your monuments.

ō fortūnātam nātam mē consule Rōmam!(De consulatu suo)

CICERO’S STYLE: AN ANCIENT ASSESSMENT

Oratores vero vel praecipue Latinam eloquentiam parem facere Graecae possunt: nam Ciceronem cuicumque eorum fortiter opposuerim.

It is our orators above all who enable us to put Roman eloquence on equal terms with Greek. I would happily pit Ciero against any of the Greeks.

Quare non inmerito ab hominibus aetatis suae regnare in iudiciis dictus est, apud posteros vero id consecutus ut Cicero iam non hominis nomen sed eloquentiae habeatur.

hunc igitur spectemus, hoc propositum nobis sit exemplum, ille se profecisse sciat cui Cicero valde placebit.

It was not without reason that his contemporaries said [Cicero] was “king” of the courts, and that for posterity Cicero has become not so much the name of a man as a synonym for eloquence itself.

Let us fix our eyes on him, let him be the model we set before ourselves; if a student comes to love Cicero, let him assure himself that he has made progress.

Quintilian, An orator’s education 10.105, 112

CICERO’S STYLE: THREE GOALS OF SPEAKING

Ita omnis ratio dicendi tribus ad persuadendum rebus est nixa:

1. ut probemus vera esse, quae defendimus;

2. ut conciliemus eos nobis, qui audiunt;

3. ut animos eorum, ad quemcumque causa postulabit motum, vocemus.

DOCĒRE

DELECTĀRE

MOVĒRE

NB—This sentence is itself a good example of the “Ciceronian period”

(peri-odos, “circuitous path”).Note especially the “rising tricolon”

and deferral of the final verb.

CICERO’S STYLE:THREE “CICERONIAN PERIODS” REFERRING TO ROMULUS

1. An vero tibi Romulus ille

aut pastores et convenas congregasse

aut Sabinorum conubia coniunxisse

aut finitimorum vim repressisse

eloquentiā videtur,

non consiliō et sapientiā singularī? (De oratore 1.37)

Or indeed does the famous Romulus seem to you

either to have brought together shepherds and refugees

or to have arranged marriages with the Sabines

or to have suppressed the force of neighbors

by eloquence,

and not by judgment and wisdom?

CICERO’S STYLE:THREE “CICERONIAN PERIODS” REFERRING TO ROMULUS

2. Romulus … igitur, ut natus sit, cum Remo fratre dicitur ab Amulio, rege Albano, ob labefactandi regni timorem ad Tiberim exponi iussus esse;

quo in loco cum esset silvestris beluae sustentatus uberibus pastoresque eum sustulissent et in agresti cultu laboreque aluissent,

perhibetur, ut adoleverit, et corporis viribus et animi ferocitate tantum ceteris praestitisse,

ut omnes, qui tum eos agros, ubi hodie est haec urbs, incolebant, aequo animo illi libenterque parerent.

Romulus, then, is said,when he was born,along with his brother Remus, is said to have been exposed on the banks of the Tiber by Amulius, the Alban king, on account of fear of the overthrowing of the kingdom;

in that placewhen he had been suckled by the breasts of a woodland beastand the shepherds had lifted him upand nourished him in rustic upbringing and labor,

he is said,when he grew up,both in his physical strengthand in the fierceness of his mindto have surpassed the others so much,

that allwho at that time inhabited those fields where this city is today,with calm mind and willingly obeyed that man.

(De republica 2.1)

CICERO’S STYLE:THREE “CICERONIAN PERIODS” REFERRING TO ROMULUS

3. Ac Romulus

cum septem et triginta regnavisset annos et haec egregia duo firmamenta rei publicae peperisset, auspicia et senatum,

tantum est consecutus,

ut,

cum subito sole obscurato non conparuisset, deorum in numero conlocatus putaretur;

—quam opinionem nemo umquam mortalis adsequi potuit sine eximia virtutis gloria. (De republica 2.17)

And Romulus,

when he had reigned for thirty-seven years and laid those two admirable foundation-stones of the state,

namely the auspices and the Senate,

attained so much

that

when,the sun suddenly eclipsed,he failed to reappear,he was thought to have been placed in the rank of the gods

—an idea which could never have gained currency for any human being

who had not posssessed an outstanding reputation for valor and integrity.