Cicero's Art of Quotation

CICERO’S ART OF QUOTATION: POETRY IN THE PHILOSOPHICA AND RHETORICA A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Anthony George Hunter May 2010 © 2010 Anthony George Hunter CICERO’S ART OF QUOTATION: POETRY IN THE PHILOSOPHICA AND RHETORICA Anthony George Hunter, Ph. D. Cornell University 2010 This dissertation focuses on those poetic quotations which Cicero employs both in his rhetorical and philosophical works and aims to identify the role of these citations and to determine his art of quotation. Poetry is an important component of his desire to make publicly available a Romanized version of Greek philosophical and rhetorical theories, a desire which supports his convictions that knowledge of this literary medium is an essential part of the orator’s make-up and is a valuable tool of instruction and a source of learning for the philosopher. Previous studies of poetry in Cicero’s works have neglected for the most part detailed analyses of his use of poetry in conjunction with that of his contemporaries – such analyses, however, are a necessary starting point if we want to acquire an informed picture of his art of quotation. Intertextual comparisons between his early rhetorical treatise de Inuentione and the Auctor’s Rhetorica ad Herennium and between his ‘mature’ treatises and Varro’s contemporaneous linguistic treatise de Lingua Latina and his near contemporaneous dialogue Res Rusticae not only establish several basic and advanced fundamentals of a Latin prose author’s employment of poetic quotations, but also confirm that Cicero’s art of quotation is more innovative, flexible, and vibrant than that of his contemporaries. In addition to Cicero’s techniques of citation detailed intratextual examinations of his rhetorical treatise de Oratore and his philosophical treatise de Diuinatione reveal the often complex role poetry plays in the interaction between the interlocutors. The key to these two investigations is the interlocutors’ practice to contest ownership of the same poetry by repetition or allusion. This struggle for poetic rights reflects the notion that poetry is public domain and, crucially, extends to the reader’s reception of and involvement with the text. The examined evidence demonstrates that quotations are not only a malleable organizational tool for the formal structure of a treatise, but also constitute for the characters an important and emphatic means to support or refute key points, thereby helping to resolve the aporetic nature of the discourse. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Anthony George Hunter was born in Greymouth, New Zealand in 1974. In 1998 he graduated from the University of Canterbury with First Class Honours in Classics. Between 1998 and 2000 he earned an M.A. degree from the University of Canterbury. Between 2001 and 2010 he was a doctoral candidate and a teaching fellow at Cornell University. iii To Mum and The Chanticleer iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I should like to thank Cornell University for their generosity in providing me with the opportunity and funding necessary to undertake and complete this project. I am indebted to my academic committee: Frederick Ahl, Hunter Rawlings, and, above all, David Mankin. Throughout this process I have appreciated and benefited from the advice and support offered to me by members of the Cornell Classics Department. Finally, I should like to thank in particular Dave, for his friendship, and Stephen, for my home away from home. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Sketch iii Dedication iv Acknowledgments v Table of Contents vi List of Tables vii Chapter 1 – Introduction: Poetica Furta 1 Chapter 2 – Beginnings: The De Inuentione and the Rhetorica Ad Herennium 27 Chapter 3 – Cicero and Varro: The Farming of Linguistics and Ciceronian Correspondences 57 Chapter 4 – Staged: Poetic Occurrence and Re-Occurrence in the De Oratore 86 Chapter 5 – Overturnings: Poetic Quotations in Book 2 of the De Diuinatione 121 Chapter 6 – Conclusion 164 Bibliography 171 vi LIST OF TABLES 1. Poetic Quotations in Cicero’s Philosophical and Rhetorical Treatises 8 2. Poetic Quotations in the De Inuentione and the Rhetorica ad Herennium 30 3. Poetic Quotations in the De Diuinatione Book 1 124 4. Poetic Quotations in the De Diuinatione Book 2 126 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: POETICA FURTA Cicero: Appropriator of Poetry Cicero quotes a lot and in the ancient world there is a definite art of quotation.1 The process of appropriating material is a phenomenon common to authors of every genre; prose authors such as Plato, Plutarch, and Diogenes Laertius frequently intersperse their works with the thoughts or words of others and the same holds true for poetic authors.2 These literary appropriations consist of three broad categories: direct quotations, indirect quotations, and more oblique references. Direct quotations, in either a metrical or a prose form, are purportedly verbatim. Indirect quotations, a technique of citation which in some way paraphrases the words of author, occur both explicitly and implicitly. More oblique references may be to a specific author or his work or, even to a mythological event.3 Instances of all three categories of these literary appropriations appear in every area of Cicero‟s corpus, but the focus of this study is the sub-category of direct poetic quotations in his philosophical and rhetorical treatises. Cicero, as we shall see, quotes more direct poetry than prose and, for him, poetry, especially Latin poetry, plays an important part in his literary mission to bring Greek theories to a Roman audience. 1 German and French studies have traditionally led the way in the study of quotations from a theoretical standpoint, which, more often than not, prove too technical to be of use in the present study. Cf. Simon 1984 for a survey of the field. 2 For studies of various ancient authors and their uses of citations, see, for example, Howes 1895, Mantel 1916, Apfel 1935, Hinman 1935, Householder 1941, Klotz 1944, Hagendahl 1947, McEnerney 1950, Tarrant 1951, 1958, Knauer 1952, 1964, Hines 1973, Conte 1974, Ahl 1976, 1985, Edwards 1981, Gambla 1981, Farrell 1983, Rissman 1983, Primmer 1985, Blaensdorf 1986, Hoek 1988, 1996. 3 Cf. Hoek 1996: 229. 1 Prose ‘Quotations’: Paraphrase and Anecdote While there are over four-hundred poetic quotations in Cicero‟s philosophical and rhetorical treatises alone,4 he does not often quote prose authors in any genre of his corpus. It might seem unusual to begin a study of poetry in the works of Cicero with an overview of material he draws from prose authors, but it is only by establishing the paucity of direct prose quotations in his corpus, that the frequent occurrence of direct poetic quotations is thrown into relief thereby hinting at the importance of poetry in a Ciceronian prose work. Most prose quotations in Cicero‟s works are from Greek authors and appear, in Latin, generally in the form of a paraphrase or anecdote.5 In his philosophical treatises citations from and references to Greek philosophers are frequent, a phenomenon which is not to be unexpected in works where he is dealing with philosophical issues derived from Greek intellectual personages. Platonic quotations, mainly in the form of paraphrase, are especially common6 and in the Fin., for instance, he quotes or paraphrases Epicurus no less than eight times.7 An interesting case of citation, which involves both prose and poetry, occurs in the Diu. when Quintus relates a scene from Plato‟s Crito:8 4 See below 8-9. 5 Cf. Gotoff 1981. No comprehensive compendium exists for prose quotations in Cicero‟s works (see, however, Clavel 1868 for a collection of Cicero‟s translations from Greek sources), but a quick examination of his treatises, for example, confirms the paucity of direct prose quotations in comparison to poetic quotations. 6 E.g. Tusc. 1.97-99 (= Pl. Ap. 40c-42a), 5.36 (= Pl. Mx. 247e-48a), Sen. 6-9 (= Pl. R. 328e-30a). 7 Fin. 1.57 (indirect quotation), 63 (indirect quotation), 68 (nearly direct: paene uerbis), 2.84 (probable paraphrases), 96 (an extract from a letter which, Cicero says, Epicurus wrote to Hermarchus), 97 (apparent re-phrasing of part of the extract from the letter or a pithy quotation), 98 (pithy quotation), 100 (quotation from a book of Epicurus). 8 ΣΩ. οὐ ηοίνςν ηῆρ ἐπιούζηρ ἡμέπαρ οἶμαι αὐηὸ ἥξειν ἀλλὰ ηῆρ ἑηέπαρ. ηεκμαίπομαι δὲ ἔκ ηινορ ἐνςπνίος ὃ ἑώπακα ὀλίγον ππόηεπον ηαύηηρ ηῆρ νςκηόρ· καὶ κινδςνεύειρ ἐν καιπῷ ηινι οὐκ ἐγεῖπαί με. ΚΡ. ἦν δὲ δὴ ηί ηὸ ἐνύπνιον; ΣΩ. ἐδόκει ηίρ μοι γςνὴ πποζελθοῦζα καλὴ καὶ εὐειδήρ, λεςκὰ ἱμάηια ἔσοςζα, καλέζαι με καὶ εἰπεῖν· “῏Ω Σώκπαηερ, ἤμαηί κεν ηπιηάηῳ Φθίην ἐπίβωλον ἵκοιο.” ΚΡ. ἄηοπον ηὸ ἐνύπνιον, ὦ Σώκπαηερ. ΣΩ. ἐναπγὲρ μὲν οὖν, ὥρ γέ μοι δοκεῖ, ὦ Κπίηων (Pl. Cri. 44a-b). 2 Est apud Platonem Socrates, cum esset in custodia publica, dicens Critoni, suo familiari, sibi post tertium diem esse moriendum; uidisse se in somnis pulchritudine eximia feminam, quae se nomine appellans diceret Homericum quendam eius modi uersum: tertia te Phthiae tempestas laeta locabit.9 quod, ut est dictum, sic scribitur contigisse (Diu. 1.52). Here, Quintus, although he paraphrases the prose of this passage, faithfully preserves the metrical form of the line of verse.10 Besides Greek philosophers Cicero also cites, but rarely quotes, other Greek prose authors, such as historians and orators. For example, Herodotus, whom he calls the “father of history” (Leg. 1.5), Cicero at all times paraphrases.11 In his letters, where convention allows him to do so, he twice directly quotes Thucydides in Greek,12 but outside of the epistles he primarily limits his comments on the historian‟s work to matters of style.13 And, despite having translated Demosthenes‟ De Corona into Latin,14 he tends only to summarize and describe extracts from the orator‟s speeches.15 The exactness of these Latinized prose quotations in relation to the original Greek varies, but for the most part it is clear that Cicero freely paraphrases and abridges his Greek prose sources.16 9 Cic.

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