Personal names and invective in Cicero

Hyperboreus. STUDIA CLASSICA, 2018

Cicero’s use of wordplay with the names of his opponents is well-attested in his speeches, in the Verrines among other works, and has been discussed more than once. Both in the Divinatio in Caecilium and later in the Second Action against Verres Cicero masterfully and inventively uses this type of paronomasia in two ways: he not only exploits the meaning of the name itself (verres – ‘boar, hog’), but also creates lusus verborum based on the similarity of words, such as between Verres and everriculum ‘a broom’. The passage in Divinatio in Caecilium 48–50, which, as we argue, contains one more pun on the name of the Alienus lacks more detailed commentary. Having proven Caecilius’ incompetence as prosecutor (Div. Caec. 27–46), Cicero takes a further step by criticizing other potential supporters of this prosecution (subscriptores). One of them Titus Alienus receives treatment in two whole paragraphs (Div. Caec. 48–50) which are analyzed in this paper. The main focus of the discussion is the interpretation of ironic the phrase hunc tamen a subselliis which provides us with two options for interpreting the text, as well as paronomasia based on the meaning of Alienus’ name. I argue that the bitterly sarcastic characteristisation of Alienus in Div. Caec. 48–50 demonstrates not only the incompetence of Alienus but that of Caecilius as well: despite his name, Alienus “from the benches” is familiar to the reality of criminal courts in contrast to Caecilius himself. Thus the phrase hunc tamen a subselliis sounds as an ironic compliment, which highlights the lack of competence of Cicero’s main opponent even further, a topic already discussed by the orator in the previous chapters of the speech (Div. Caec. 27–46).

Keltische Forschungen, 2014

Ciceroniana: Atti del XIII Colloquium Tullianum, Milano 27-29 marzo 2008, 2009

Loci as Subject of Derision: Between Cicero’s Rhetorical Theory and Practice, 2022

There is no doubt that commonplaces, so called topoi, or loci, played a very important role both in the ancient rhetorical theory and in practice. They conform to the main part of invention in the rhetorical treatises, such as Rhetorica ad Herennium, Cicero's De Inventione, Topica etc., and they enable an orator to develop his argument in any desirable direction (in utramque partem), and sometimes become the main tool of rhetorical strategy. In his Orator, Cicero claims, that an accomplished speaker, whom he tries to delineate as an ideal, will be perfectly familiar with commonplaces and be able to treat them critically and manipulate according to his purposes. In this paper, on the ground Cicero's Verrine speeches, I shall analyze how the orator predicts his opponents' topoi and presents them in a different light, and by criticizing or even by mocking them, he diminishes them in order to strengthen his own arguments. In some cases, e.g. in the Fifth Book of the Actio secunda in Verrem (Verr. 2.5), this becomes the main strategy of speech, and corresponds to the methods delineated in the Orator 49.

2010

When the first volume of this authoritative commentary, then the responsibility of Anton Leeman and Harm Pinkster, appeared in 1981, everyone knew it was an important piece of work, but nobody knew quite how important it would turn out to be. How much has changed since then! Over the last twentyplus years, emerging interests not just in rhetoric but in performance broadly defined, in the place of Greek learning in the intellectual life of the Roman Republic, in oratory as cultural practice, and in Cicero himself as an intellectual as well as literary and political figure have so significantly altered the scholarly landscape that De oratore has grown from being an important text to being an essential one. It is now widely recognized as a key work for understanding this key period in the Roman experience. The readership for this fifth and final installment of the commentary project is thus likely to be, if anything, bigger, more diverse, and for that very reason more appreciative of its guidance than anyone might have expected in 1981. That readership will not be disappointed. The present volume is especially relevant to the new interests for several reasons. This last part of De oratore completes the transition from theoretical and philosophical discussion to technical explication, and it proceeds to treat among these technical matters two subjects, rhythm (171-98) and delivery (213-27), that are central to the analysis of prose style and to the appreciation of performance. This latter part of De oratore is also, and not by coincidence, a significant source of the tragic quotations long mined by the editors of poetic fragments, but the interest here is not exclusively textual. Cicero's use of tragic examples is increasingly appreciated as evidence for tragedy's reception in the late Republic, and his affection for the genre figures in such contested questions as the relationship of orators to actors and of book culture to performance culture. Yet the treatment of such matters in the work can be complex and difficult for modern readers, often as much for external reasons beyond our immediate experiencethe sound of Latin, the way one wears the toga, the details of tragedies now lost to view-as for the inherent sophistication of Cicero's argument, and the clarity of the commentary offered here benefits in significant ways from fundamentally wise decisions that were made at the very start of the project. Most obvious, as attested by the five successive title pages, was a willingness to expand the team of contributors as the text's own needs dictated. That practice began with the second volume, which called for special expertise in Roman law. Now primary responsibility has passed entirely to Jakob Wisse (JW), no stranger to De oratore, and he has recruited Michael Winterbottom (MW) to contribute the sections on prose rhythm and Elaine Fantham (EF) to treat delivery. The language of reviews/reseñas

Prolepsis' Fourth International Conference "The Limits of Exactitude" (19-20/12)), 2019