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Cicero and Political Life in the Late Roman Republic

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Cicero and Political Life in the Late Roman Republic JACT Teachers’ Notes AH 2.1 Cicero and political life in Late Republican Rome 1.1 Background information The scope of this option is relatively limited in chronological scope and its focus is firmly on political life at Rome. The earliest part of the sources (the beginning of the extract from Plutarch’s Life of Cicero) deals with Cicero’s praetorship in 66 B.C.; the latest is the pro Sestio, delivered in February 56 B.C. Useful general works include Wiedemann’s Cicero and the end of the Roman Republic and Patterson’s Political Life in the City of Rome (both in BCP’s Classical World series) and Beard and Crawford’s invaluable Rome in the late Republic: problems and interpretations (2nd ed., London 1999). There are two recent ‘Companions’ to the Republic as a whole, one from Blackwell (ed. Rosenstein and Morstein-Marx) and one from Cambridge (ed. Flower); the former contains a narrative chapter by Jeffrey Tatum on the period covered by this option with a very useful and more or less up-to-date set of suggestions for further reading. 1.2 Sources and resources Cicero, Against Catiline II. 17–23, IV. 7–10, 20–22 Quintus Cicero, Commentariolum Petitionis Cicero, Selected Letters 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16 Cicero Pro Sestio 96–105; Pro Murena 21–25; VII Cicero Pro Sestio 75–79 Sallust, Catiline 7–13, 20, 36–39, 51–52 Plutarch, Life of Cicero 9–23, Caesar 13–14, Pompey 47 Suetonius The Deified Julius 10, 19–20 Cicero The option covers only a small part of Cicero’s career but getting a grip on his biography as a whole is probably helpful. Lots of biographies are available in English; Rawson’s (Cicero: a portrait, London 1975) is very good (though its style can feel a little dated) and not relentlessly political; Fuhrmann’s (Cicero and the Roman Republic Oxford 1992) is more recent; the first of Mitchell’s two volume biography (Cicero, the ascending years, London 1979) is exhaustive. The selections from the speeches cover a range of audiences and situations. The second speech against Catiline is delivered to the people in the forum, the fourth to the Senate; pro Murena and pro Sestio are both from criminal trials, delivered to a mixed senatorial and equestrian jury in the Forum. In every case the question arises of the extent and nature of Cicero’s rewriting before dissemination of the text, and what dissemination might mean. There is an excellent summary of the problem in the introduction of Powell and Paterson’s Cicero the Advocate (Oxford 2004, 52-57); it’s probably fair to say that the current consensus is that, in most cases, alterations between delivery and publication are minor (but there may well be a degree of scholarly self-interest in that conclusion). A particular problem arises with the speeches against Catiline. In a letter from 60 BC (Ad Att 2.1; not unfortunately among the selection specified for this option) Cicero describes a collected edition of his 1 JACT Teachers’ Notes consular speeches, including the four against Catiline, which he is putting together. The letter suggests, though probably doesn’t conclusively prove, that this is the first time that the speeches have been circulated; if so, it’s possible that they have been rewritten to reflect the conditions of 60 rather than 63. There are no obvious anachronisms, but Cicero’s defensiveness (particularly evident in 4.20-22) may reflect the increasing pressure he was coming under because of the execution of the conspirators. On the speeches against Catiline more generally there is much useful material in Dominic Berry’s Oxford World’s Classics translation (Oxford 2006), both in his introduction and in the notes. There is also now Dyck’s Green and Yellow (Cambridge 2008) on the four speeches. The specific extract from the second speech is an excellent example of Cicero’s scare-mongering by creating an impression of a vast and shadowy group of disaffected individuals who threaten the state; it can be read in parallel with and as the converse to Cicero’s identification of a very broad category of decent citizens in 96-105 of the pro Sestio. What may in fact have underlain his analysis in this speech is much more difficult to identify, though it does point to heavy levels of debt and problems arising from Sulla’s confiscations and allotment of land to his veterans at the end of the 80s and in the early 70s. The passage is also a neat example of how logical inconsistency need not undermine rhetorical effectiveness: Cicero starts out by suggesting that Catiline’s supporters are a real threat but concludes by poking fun at Catiline’s effete young men. The first of the two extracts from the fourth speech summarises the two proposals about the conspirators that the Senate was deciding between. Cicero’s focus on Caesar is notable here, as well as his self-presentation as entirely even-handed in his approach to both proposals. The second is Cicero’s defence of himself – a key passage in support of the thesis that there was rewriting before publication in 60, though it can also be argued that it would have been obvious in 63 that there could well be a very hostile response to the Senate’s decision to execute the conspirators and to Cicero’s role in carrying that decision out. The pro Murena was delivered between the second and third speeches against Catiline, at some point in late November. There’s an excellent translation of the whole speeches with useful introduction and notes in Berry’s World’s Classics translation of some of Cicero’s defence speeches. The set passage is a very specific analysis of military activity, oratory and jurisprudence as contributions to electoral success, from which the wider context does not really emerge; but there are close links with the Catilinarian conspiracy, because one of Cicero’s chief arguments in support of Murena’s acquittal is that the safety of the state requires two consuls in office on January 1st, since, if he is convicted, the elections for his replacement will not take place in time for this to happen. The complex background to the pro Sestio is best explored now via Kaster’s edition in the Clarendon Ancient History series; this has a detailed introduction and exhaustive notes relating to his translation of the speech in the same volume. Most of the set letters are to Atticus; a close friend, obviously, but it’s worth considering whether Cicero is really completely unguarded with him – Atticus knew 2 JACT Teachers’ Notes everyone, as Cicero remarks at the end of letter 4. Later on in SB’s selection are some of Cicero’s letters to his brother Quintus (19, 25, 26, 31, 35, 36) and he’s arguably much franker, as well as more detailed, in them – though it’s a matter for debate whether this is the result of tact or trust. Letter 7 is the exception, to Pompey; its formality and tenseness are remarkable by contrast with the others. Most of the set letters are also included in Walsh’s new Oxford World’s Classics translation of selected letters (I provide a concordance below). This is an excellent extra resource; it contains a somewhat wider selection of letters and the notes are more extensive. SB Walsh 3 3 4 - 7 52 8 9 9 10 10 12 14 21 15 23 16 24 Commentariolum Opinion is still divided on whether Quintus Cicero is the author of this work; although there are not any irrefutable anachronisms, those who argue for its authenticity need to provide a context and purpose for publication. There is a brief summary of the arguments for and against in the introduction to the work in Shackleton Bailey’s Loeb translation (which is included in the volume of letters to Quintus and Brutus) and it also provides some further bibliography. Most commentators have assumed that, whoever the author, the treatise does at least provide reasonable information about late Republican electoral practice; but cf. M.C.Alexander’s paper at the 2006 APA (abstract available at http://www.apaclassics.org/AnnualMeeting/06mtg/abstracts/alexander.pdf; the article itself is due for publication in Athenaeum 2009) arguing that the work is satirical in purpose. Curiously enough, apart from Cicero’s letters, the Commentariolum is the only text set in its entirety for this option and one can have fun with it as an example of a trend in late Republican intellectual life to classify and organise knowledge: the project undertaken ‘in order to bring into a single view by rational organisation matters which in real life seem to be split up and undefined.’ But it’s less clear that it was prescribed for this option with such questions in mind. Sallust It is a pity that the specification still has Handford as the translation; that has now been superseded by Woodman’s, also in Penguin. The best introduction to Sallust as a 3 JACT Teachers’ Notes writer is the chapter in Kraus and Woodman’s New Survey on the Latin Historians (Oxford 1997) and there’s a copious introduction to Woodman’s translation. For an introduction to problems and issues relating to ancient historiography more generally, Marincola’s Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography (Cambridge 1997) is constantly stimulating. There are useful chapters on Sallust and related matters by Levene and by O’Gorman in the Blackwell Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography (Oxford 2007) Plutarch and Suetonius The extracts are fairly short so a detailed investigation of either author may not be a priority.
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