Cicero, *Philippic* 2, 44–50, 78–92, 100–119 INGO GILDENHARD

Latin text, study aids with vocabulary, and commentary

# CICERO, *PHILIPPIC* 2, 44–50, 78–92, 100–119

# Cicero, *Philippic* 2, 44–50, 78–92, 100–119

Latin text, study aids with vocabulary, and commentary

*Ingo Gildenhard*

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© 2018 Ingo Gildenhard

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Ingo Gildenhard, *Cicero,* Philippic *2, 44–50, 78–92, 100–119. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary*. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2018. https://doi. org/10.11647/OBP.0156

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Classics Textbooks, vol. 6 | ISSN: 2054-2437 (Print) | 2054-2445 (Online)

ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-589-0 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-590-6 ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-591-3 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-592-0 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-593-7 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0156

Cover image: Portrait of a political personality, probably Mark Antony, from the oration area of the Roman Forum, Centrale Montemartini, Rome. Wikimedia, https://bit. ly/2OQRxNy

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*To Vivi and in memory of Lucio (3.6.1932–23.8.2016)*

## Contents

## Preface and Acknowledgements

The sections from *Philippic* 2 included in the present textbook will serve as one of the set texts for the OCR Latin AS and A Level specifications from 2019–2021. It is a challenging pick, not least since Cicero serves up a smorgasbord of topics in his invective assault on Antony: he finds occasion to weigh in on modes of fornication, electoral procedures, Rome's civic religion, political incidents and developments before and after the assassination of Caesar, and many other matters, all the while deploying a wide range of generic and discursive registers. Luckily, the availability of excellent resources facilitates engagement with the speech, including the commentaries by Mayor (1861), Denniston (1926), Ramsey (2003), and Manuwald (2007) (on *Philippics* 3–11, but of relevance to the entire corpus), the bilingual edition with commentary by Lacey (1986), and the translation by Shackleton Bailey (1986).

As in earlier commentaries, I have tended to summarize and cite (also at length), rather than refer to, primary sources and pieces of secondary literature: for my primary audience (students, but also teachers, in secondary education), a 'see e.g.' or a 'cf.' followed by a reference is at best tantalizing, but most likely just annoying or pointless. Gestures to further readings are not entirely absent, however, since I have tried to render this commentary useful also for audiences who have more time at their hand and can get access to scholarly literature, such as students wishing to do an EPQ. The commentary tries to cater for various backgrounds: it contains detailed explication of grammar and syntax, bearing in mind students who study the text on their own; and it tries to convey a flavour of Latin studies at undergraduate level for those who are thinking of pursuing classical studies at university.

Unless otherwise indicated, texts and translations of Greek and Latin texts are (based on) those in the Loeb Classical Library.

Along with my other volumes in this series, this one would not have been possible without the gallant support of John Henderson, who kindly explained to me what *Philippic* 2 is all about while turning around an unusually unwieldy draft with his customary speed and bountiful comments, now all incorporated in the commentary, and Alessandra Tosi, who has shepherded this project from first idea to final product with much-appreciated patience and enthusiasm. I am also grateful to Liam Etheridge for his nifty copy-editing, Bianca Gualandi for her magically swift generation of the proofs, and King's, my College at the University of Cambridge, which has generously contributed a grant to help cover the cost of publication.

Dedico questo libro ai miei suoceri, Vivi e Lucio.

## INTRODUCTION

When one day the head of Cicero was brought to them [sc. Antony and his wife Fulvia] — he had been overtaken and slain in flight —, Antony uttered many bitter reproaches against it and then ordered it to be exposed on the speakers-platform more prominently than the rest, in order that it might be seen in the very place where Cicero had so often been heard declaiming against him, together with his right hand, just as it had been cut off. And Fulvia took the head into her hands before it was removed, and after abusing it spitefully and spitting upon it, set it on her knees, opened the mouth, and pulled out the tongue, which she pierced with the pins that she used for her hair, at the same time uttering many brutal jests.

Cassius Dio 47.8.3–41

Like few other periods in (ancient) history, late-republican and earlyimperial Rome pullulated with memorable personalities. The years that saw the fitful transformation of a senatorial tradition of republican government into an autocratic regime produced a gallery of iconic figures that have resonated down the ages: Julius Caesar ('Cowards die many times before their deaths | the valiant never taste of death but once'), Marcus Tullius Cicero ('But for my own part [what he said] was Greek to me'), Marcus Brutus ('This was the noblest Roman of them all'), Gaius Cassius ('Men at some time are masters of their fates'), Marcus Antonius, a.k.a. Mark Antony ('Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears'), and Octavian, the future *princeps* Augustus ('The time of universal peace is near'), have all remained household names,

1 Cassius Dio (c. 155–c. 235 CE) was a Roman statesman and historiographer, writing in Greek.

partly because they have continued to inspire creative individuals also in post-classical times — not least Shakespeare.2 They are certainly good to think with, evoking Big Issues and Ideas, such as Civil War and Dictatorship (Caesar), Republican Liberty (Cicero), Tyrannicide (Brutus and Cassius), Power and Love (Antony and Cleopatra), and Empire (Augustus).

Consisting of selections from *Philippic* 2, the text set by OCR offers an excellent introduction to, intervention in, and commentary on this period of turmoil and transition. Composed in the autumn of 44 BCE, the year of Caesar's assassination, it includes a sustained attack by Cicero on Mark Antony, who was consul at the time — but whom Cicero suspected of aiming at autocratic power, another tyrant-in-waiting. *Philippic* 2 is conceived as Cicero's (imaginary) response to the verbal abuse Antony had hurled at him in a meeting of the senate on 19 September, but was in all likelihood never orally delivered: Cicero unleashed his sh•tstorm as a literary pamphlet sometime towards the end of the year (late November or December). Further efforts followed, all aimed at pushing a reluctant senate and the people of Rome into a violent confrontation with Antony, whom Cicero deemed (and managed to transform into) Public Enemy No 1. But when political fortune swung, Cicero found himself on the killing list of a triumvirate comprising Antony, Caesar Octavianus (the future Augustus), and M. Aemilius Lepidus ('a slight unmeritable man | meet to be sent on errands').3 And thus the maestro of the needling tongue was heading for decapitation — and Fulvia, Antony's wife at the time, made sure (or so Dio Cassius' story goes) that the reprisal stuck also postmortem, pricking republican *libertas* and *eloquentia* to death. Against the orator who knew how to use his word as sword, the sword got the final word. (Or has it? Ask yourself: why am I reading Cicero on Antony, not Antony on Cicero…? And you also might want to challenge the all-too-easy binary between word / sword in other ways as well: arguably the warmonger here was Cicero, while Antony, too, had considerable talent as orator.)

Much, then, is at stake with this text, and it is not easy to do it critical justice. The 'double whammy' of *Philippic* 2 — 'as on the one

2 The quotations are, respectively, from *Julius Caesar* 2.2, 1.2, 5.5, 1.2, 3.2, and *Antony and Cleopatra* 4.6.

3 So says Antony to Octavian in Shakespeare, *Julius Caesar* 4.1.

hand lengthiest and most hysterically warped, and on the other hand undelivered fake up' — invites analysis from a range of perspectives.4 To begin with, the text is a historical document: the speeches are crammed full with facts and figures about the political culture of republican Rome and, more specifically, the changes that happened in the wake of Caesar's victory in the civil wars and his rise to the dictatorship. This calls for some basic orientation about author, title, date, circumstances of composition, and whatnot (1). Secondly, the abusive pyrotechnics Cicero fires off in *Philippic* 2 should not blind us to the fact that the speech is carefully scripted rhetoric and repays close study as a literary artifact designed to intervene in a specific historical situation: it is meant to change (our perception of) reality, even though it would be a mistake to think that (m)any of the salacious secrets Cicero shares with us about (say) Antony's supposedly sordid sex life have a factual basis (2). Finally, Cicero *also* conceived of *Philippic* 2 as a monument of eloquence and political activism designed to *outlive* its context of production — and invites us to consider his speech as enacting a mode of politics and as a personal manifesto of political eloquence that possesses trans-historical relevance and universalizing import (3).

4 Henderson (2010).

## 1. Contexts and Paratexts

### 1.1 (Character) Assassination as a Means of Politics in Late-Republican Rome

The convulsive showdown between Cicero (berating) and Antony (beheading) is just one episode in a long series of violent confrontations between members of Rome's ruling elite that eventually resulted in the collapse of the republican commonwealth. But the 'extremist' politics of Cicero and Antony (and their generation) that aimed at the complete verbal and/or physical annihilation of a peer-turned-enemy, was a fairly recent phenomenon in Roman history. While we should not imagine early and mid-republican Rome as a conflict-free zone where sober ancestors beholden to a set of peasant values practised consensual politics in happy harmony, the murderous savagery of civil warfare, so familiar from the last generation of the Roman republic, did not really take off until the second half of the second century BCE. True, narratives that bemoan a decline in personal and political morality began to circulate from c. 200 BCE onwards. This was (not coincidentally) the time when Rome's imperial success and exploitation started to take off in earnest and resulted in increasing inequalities in wealth within Rome's ruling elite, which opened up novel possibilities for specific individuals to accumulate degrees of wealth and political power difficult to accommodate within an oligarchic system. But one could do worse than single out 133 BCE as the moment in time when the fabric of Rome's political culture first started to unravel violently: in that year, the *pontifex maximus* and ordinary senator Scipio Nasica, unaided by the consuls, took charge of the murder of one of the tribunes of the plebs, Tiberius Gracchus, and around three hundred of his supporters, on the suspicion that he aimed for tyranny.

In a commonwealth fundamentally grounded in power sharing, consensus politics, and default friendship among members of the ruling elite — but also with a pronounced ethics of revenge — the phenomenon of political murder proved deeply divisive.5 It was the moment when Romans first started to become deadly serious about turning 'adversaries' into 'enemies' — to use a distinction recently made by Michael Ignatieff.6 From then on, political measures designed to validate 'extremist' politics (such as the so-called '*hostis* declaration', the decision to regard a Roman citizen as an external enemy), which amounted to the 'othering' of part of the self, coincided with repeated episodes of outright civil war. The series of violent clashes (Marius with Sulla, Caesar with Pompey, Cicero and the senate with Mark Antony, to name only the most obvious) only ended in 31 BCE at the battle of Actium between Caesar Octavianus and Antony and Cleopatra. This led to the establishment of the principate, an autocratic form of government prefigured, not least, by the dictatorships of Sulla and Caesar. *Philippic* 2 is an explosive exhibit of 'the Roman culture of civil conflict'7 — composed in the brief period of republican revival that began with the murder of Caesar in March 44 and ended with the battle of Philippi in Northern Greece in October 42, where Antony and Caesar Octavianus triumphed over Caesar's foremost assassins, Brutus and Cassius. Philippi sounded the ultimate death knell of politics in

5 On default friendship: you might get a thought-provoking kick out of reading the exchange of letters between Cicero and Antony attached to Cicero's *Letter to Atticus* 14.13 = 367 SB, dating to 26 April 44 BCE.

6 See Michael Ignatieff, 'Enemies vs. Adversaries', http://www.nytimes. com/2013/10/17/opinion/enemies-vs-adversaries.html, an op-ed piece for *The New York Times* à propos the emergence of new forms of radical or even extremist politics across the globe, including Western democracies: 'For democracies [and, one might add, the Roman republic] to work, politicians need to respect the difference between an enemy and an adversary. An adversary is someone you want to defeat. An enemy is someone you have to destroy. With adversaries, compromise is honorable: Today's adversary could be tomorrow's ally. With enemies, on the other hand, compromise is appeasement'.

7 For the phrase (and a gloss), see the conference announcement by Wolfgang Havener, 'A Culture of Civil War? — *bellum civile* in the Late Republic and the Early Principate', https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/termine-34304

a republican key. Previously, Cicero's *Philippics*, not least *Philippic* 2, arguably hastened along the final demise of the *libera res publica* by advocating a second act of (prospective) tyrannicide and pushing the senate into an armed confrontation with Antony that turned out to be ill-advised. (Savour the paradox!)

### 1.2 The Antagonists: Cicero and Antony

Born in 106 BCE, Cicero reached political maturity during the reign of Sulla (82–79 BCE), who first introduced proscriptions (the drafting of 'kill lists') into Rome's political repertory, and lost his life in 43 BCE when the triumvirs resorted once more to the same measure (or, in the words of Seneca the Elder, *Suasoria* 6.3, when 'Sulla's thirst for citizen blood returned to the state' (*civilis sanguinis Sullana sitis in civitatem redit*). The autobiography that emerges from Cicero's oratorical selffashioning throughout his career as a public speaker reflects the tumultuous historical context in which he was operating. The following six stages can be distinguished:

was driven into exile for his illegal execution of the Catilinarians without trial.

Born in 83 or 82 BCE, Antony, unlike Cicero, was not a *homo novus*: 9 the *gens Antonia* belonged to the nobility (though was not of patrician origins). The most illustrious representative of the family clan was Antony's grandfather, the eponymous Marcus Antonius (I), one of the consuls of 99 BCE and immortalized by Cicero as one of the two principal interlocutors in his dialogue *On the Ideal Orator* (*de Oratore*).

8 Writing in the early imperial period, Seneca the Elder (54 BCE–39 CE) put together collections of materials for declamatory exercises. Two of his *Suasoriae* deal with the circumstances of Cicero's death: *Suasoria* 6 debates whether Cicero should have begged Antony's pardon if the opportunity had presented itself (and concludes with a collection of accounts of his actual death, including Livy's); *Suasoria* 7 explores the (again fictional) scenario: 'Antony Promises To Spare Cicero's Life If He Burns His Writings: Cicero Deliberates Whether To Do So'. Debate Away!

9 For his date of birth (disputed), see Denniston (1926: 100).

The next generation failed to live up to his lofty standards: Marcus Antonius (II), son of Marcus Antonius (I) and father of our Mark Antony did reach the praetorship in 74, but soon after suffered a fatal career break because of military failure followed by bankruptcy. His brother Gaius Antonius Hybrida got chucked out of the senate in 70, though managed a comeback as Cicero's colleague in the consulship in 63. Cicero quite literally bought his support against Catiline, not least by agreeing to swap pro-consular provincial assignments. But upon his return from Macedonia in 59, Hybrida was dragged into court for his approach to provincial government and went into exile. If Hybrida harboured significant sympathies for Catiline, Antony's stepfather P. Cornelius Lentulus Sura, one of the consuls of 71, but (just like Antonius Hybrida) stricken off the senatorial register the following year, was one of Catiline's ringleaders and among those whom Cicero had executed without trial.

Antony therefore had to overcome the failings of the previous generation of Antonii, but he could rely on the distinction of his grandfather and some family resources, which 'included the large Antonian *clientela* and access to wealth, arising both from the family's business interests in the East and from a possibly lucrative first marriage to Fadia, the daughter of a freedman'.10 His talents in the military sphere served as catalyst for a remarkable career. Antony first distinguished himself in service under Gabinius in the Near East (57–55), before joining Caesar in Gaul and becoming one of his most trusted lieutenants.11 With the help of Caesar's patronage, he started on his *cursus honorum* in Rome, holding the quaestorship in 52 and the tribuneship in 49. The outbreak of civil war then turbo-charged his rise to the top: 'In the first two years of the Civil War, Caesar twice deputed Antony to serve as his chief representative in Italy during prolonged periods of absence.

10 Welch (1995: 184), with further bibliography. She proceeds to offer the following character sketch of Mark Antony: 'Bluff good humour, moderate intelligence, at least a passing interest in literature, and an ability to be the life and soul of a social gathering all contributed to make him a charming companion and to bind many important people to him. He had a lieutenant's ability to follow orders and a willingness to listen to advice, even (one might say especially) from intelligent women. These attributes made Antony able to handle some situations very well. There was a more important side to his personality, however, which contributed to his political survival. Antony was ruthless in his quest for pre-eminence'.

11 Cicero covers these chapters of Antony's career in *Phil*. 2.48: see below.

Caesar did so first in April 49 when he set out for Spain to do battle with Pompey's legions. From April until Caesar's return in December, Mark Antony was granted pro-praetorian power by Caesar and entrusted with administering the whole of Italy, although at the time Antony was only a tribune of the plebs… A year later, in 48–47 Antony's powers were even more sweeping. As Caesar's *magister equitum* during Caesar's extended absence in Egypt and Asia Minor, Mark Antony exercised control over all of Italy and Rome until Caesar returned in September 47'.12 In the following years, he was busy raising much needed cash for Caesar by 'liquidating Pompey's assets by resale' — a 'complex financial enterprise' which he managed to carry off with aplomb and handsome rewards from Caesar in the form of further political offices and advancement.13

In the year of Caesar's death, Antony was consul — but the assassination of his patron left him very much exposed: while he initially tried to reach a compromise with the conspirators and work towards a peaceful resolution of the simmering tensions between Caesarians and republicans, he soon came under pressure from Caesarian hard-liners, and in particular Caesar's adopted heir Octavianus, who eroded his support among the veterans and other loyalists by adopting a strident stance towards the conspirators. To rally support, shore up his base, and increase his influence, Antony began to pursue a much more confrontational approach that included pronounced pro-Caesarian measures of his own — which brought him into open conflict with Cicero and set the stage for the *Philippics*.

Cicero did manage to forge an alliance against Antony, consisting of a reluctant senate (under his leadership), the two (Caesarian) consuls of 43 (Aulus Hirtius and Gaius Vibius Pansa) and their armies, and Caesar's heir Octavianus (and his private army of Caesarian veterans); but his success was short-lived. By the summer of 43, Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus had formed their triumvirate and taken control of Italy. Cicero was one of the first — and certainly the most prominent — victim of their kill list. Despite their successful squashing of the republican opposition, the alliance between Antony and Octavian remained uneasy — and it ultimately broke down entirely in the late 30s BCE. In preparation for

12 Ramsey (2004: 162).

13 Ramsey (2004), with citations from 172.

the final showdown, Octavian picked up where Cicero left off: with a wholesale propaganda war against the character and (its failings) of his adversary.14 At the centre of the effort stood the contention that Antony had lost his Roman ways and had fallen under the evil influence of the queen of Egypt, Cleopatra.15 After Antony and Cleopatra lost the battle of Actium against Octavian (and his general Agrippa), they fled to Egypt and ended their lives. Here is Shakespeare's take (*Antony and Cleopatra* 4.15.52–70):

#### Mark Antony

The miserable change now at my end Lament nor sorrow at, but please your thoughts In feeding them with those my former fortunes, Wherein I lived, the greatest prince o' th' world, The noblest, and do now not basely die, Not cowardly put off my helmet to My countryman — a Roman by a Roman Valiantly vanquished. Now my spirit is going. I can no more.

#### Cleopatra

 Noblest of men, woo't die? Hast thou no care of me? Shall I abide In this dull world, which in thy absence is No better than a sty? O see, my women, The crown o' th' earth doth melt. My lord! [*Antony dies*] O, withered is the garland of the war, The soldier's pole is fall'n: young boys and girls Are level now with men. The odds is gone, And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon.

For Shakespeare's Cleopatra, at least, Mark Antony was the world. As we stride into the Billingsgate that is *Philippic* 2, it is worth bearing in mind that hardly any politician in history has otherwise been treated more unfairly…

14 Scott (1933).

15 http://theconversation.com/the-fake-news-that-sealed-the-fate-of-antony-andcleopatra-71287

### 1.3 The *Philippics*: Background, Dates of Composition, Corpus and Title

Quite a few historians argue, blessed with the benefit of hindsight, that the murder of Caesar simply arrested for a brief and bloody period of time the inevitable transformation of an oligarchic into an autocratic regime at Rome that had long been underway and was finally completed by Octavian. But for those living in the thick of things, the period after the Ides of March 44 was one of high crisis and contingency: everything was suddenly up in the air again, with all options on the table — a reconstituted *libera res publica*, centered in the senatorial aristocracy; a prolonged descent into civic bloodshed with uncertain outcome; the rise of another autocrat.16

Cicero, for one, was overjoyed at Caesar's assassination (even though he did not seem to have been partial to the conspiracy). But disillusion quickly set in. Antony's behaviour in particular started to grate on him — and he began to suspect him of trying to assume Caesar's mantle. Already in April, Cicero gloomily toyed with the idea of leaving Rome for Athens, to visit his son and sit out the year of Antony's consulship in self-imposed withdrawal from active politics (*Att*. 14.10.1 = 364 SB; 19 April 44). But soon after he had finally departed in the summer, he changed his mind and decided to return to Rome (*Att*. 16.7 = 415 SB; 19 August 44).17 He arrived back in the capital on 31 August and, finding that the main item on the agenda for the senate meeting the following day was 'Honours for Caesar', sent in his apologies, claiming that he was too worn out by travel to attend. Antony, who was behind the motion of heaping further honours on the dead dictator, took this as a personal insult and furiously attacked Cicero in absentia during the meeting. Cicero replied at the senate meeting on the following day (2 September) with an oration that would become his *first Philippic* and constitutes a masterpiece of passive-aggressive insinuation.18 Antony stewed on this over the next fortnight or so and then burst into a tirade against Cicero

16 Excellent accounts of this period include the incisive treatment by Gotter (1996), to which this entire commentary is much indebted, and (on a broader canvass) Osgood (2018).

17 See Ramsey (2001) for discussion of the circumstances.

18 Stevenson (2009), Usher (2010).

during the senate meeting on 19 September. *Philippic* 2 pretends to be a spontaneous riposte to Antony's vituperations (with Antony still on hand to be put on the spot — in fact, it was Cicero who was not present on the day!), but was actually composed and edited in the aftermath of the meeting. In *Philippic* 5, Cicero himself gives an account of the verbal sparring between himself and Antony in September 44 (5.19–20):19

Huc nisi venirem Kalendis Septembribus, fabros se missurum et domum meam disturbaturum esse dixit. Magna res, credo, agebatur: de supplicatione referebat. veni postridie: ipse non venit. locutus sum de re publica, minus equidem libere quam mea consuetudo, liberius tamen quam periculi minae postulabant. at ille homo vehemens et violentus, qui hanc consuetudinem libere dicendi excluderet … inimicitias mihi denuntiavit; adesse in senatum iussit a. d. XIII Kalendas Octobris. ipse interea septemdecim dies de me in Tiburtino Scipionis declamitavit, sitim quaerens; haec enim ei causa esse declamandi solet. cum is dies quo me adesse iusserat venisset, tum vero agmine quadrato in aedem Concordiae venit atque in me absentem orationem ex ore impurissimo evomuit. quo die, si per amicos mihi cupienti in senatum venire licuisset, caedis initium fecisset a me; sic enim statuerat.

[If I did not come here on the Kalends of September (= 1 September) he said he would send workmen to vandalize my house. Important business was on the agenda, I seem to remember: discussion of a public thanksgiving! I came the following day (= 2 September): he himself didn't. I spoke on the commonwealth — less freely, for sure, than I am accustomed to, though more freely than his threats of danger warranted. Then this man of vehemence and violence, who wished to ban this custom of free speech, … declared me his personal enmity and ordered me to be present in the senate on 19 September. Meanwhile he spent seventeen days declaiming about me in Scipio's villa at Tibur, seeking to work up a thirst — his usual reason for declaiming. When the day on

19 See also *Fam*. 10.2 = 341 SB (to Plancus, c. 19 September 44 BCE): *Meum studium honori tuo pro necessitudine nostra non defuisset si aut tuto in senatum aut honeste venire potuissem; sed nec sine periculo quisquam libere de re publica sentiens versari potest in summa impunitate gladiorum nec nostrae dignitatis videtur esse ibi sententiam de re publica dicere ubi me et melius et propius audiant armati quam senatores* ('As a friend I should not have failed to support the decree in your honour, had I been able to enter the Senate in security and dignity. But it is dangerous for any man of independent political views to move about in public when swords are drawn with complete impunity; and it does not seem to comport with my dignity to make a speech in a House where men-at-arms would hear me better and at shorter distance than members').

which he had ordered me to be present came, he entered the Temple of Concord with his bodyguard in battle formation and vomited from that foulest of mouths a speech against me in my absence. If my friends had allowed me to come to the senate on that day as I wished, he would have started his slaughter with me; that was his resolve.]

Cicero here mocks Antony's rigorous rhetorical exercises in the run-up to the rant he unleashed on 19 September. But at least Antony delivered his speech in person — unlike Cicero. While posturing as an impromptu response, *Philippic* 2 is, rather, a long-deferred *written* response, carefully drafted (and edited) over several weeks and (as far as we can tell) never orally performed in the senate.20 Cicero attaches a draft of the oration to a letter to Atticus written on 25 October, wondering when (if ever) the moment for wider circulation might come (*Att*. 15.13 = 416 SB):

orationem tibi misi. eius custodiendae et proferendae arbitrium tuum. sed quando illum diem cum tu edendam putes?

[I am sending you the speech, to be kept back and put out at your discretion. But when shall we see the day when you will think proper to publish it?]

By 5 November 44, Atticus had read the speech and sent Cicero some comments, suggestions, and criticisms to which Cicero responded in turn.21 Overall, then, as Sussman (1994: 54) puts it: 'the characterization of Antony was painstakingly premeditated and the speech itself is a consummate piece of craftsmanship'. At the same time, the long process of gestation also shows how difficult it was for Cicero to find a voice (and make it heard). Even the final product, if one reads between the lines of the invective bluster, shows up Antony as a frightfully powerful adversary, capable and competent in equal measure, a power broker of the first order — if perhaps no Julius Caesar. Indeed, 'maybe the only glove that C really lands on him is the easy shot of billing him as a JC clone, one helluva disappointment after the real thing'.22

20 The cited passage from *Philippic* 5 contains an implicit apology for this unusual practice: Cicero claims that had he been present, he would not have had the opportunity to reply since he would have been killed in cold-blood.

21 See *Att*. 16.11 = 420 SB: *nostrum opus tibi probari laetor; ex quo ἄνϑη ipsa posuisti, quae mihi florentiora sunt visa tuo iudicio…* — 'I am glad you like my work. You have quoted the very gems, and your good opinion makes them sparkle the brighter in my eyes…').

22 John Henderson, *per litteras*.

### 1.4 The Wider Corpus and the Title

Cicero finally disseminated the text more widely in late November or early December.23 He was now fully committed to three interrelated objectives: to drag a reluctant senate into a military confrontation with Antony, whom he configured as the new tyrant-in-waiting; to act as self-appointed mentor of Octavian, who was courting Cicero as an influential establishment figure, and thereby ensure his support for the traditional order; and most importantly to restore the senatorial regime to power.

Over the next few months, Cicero weighed in with twelve more speeches against Antony.24 On 20 December 44, he addressed both the senate (*Phil*. 3) and the people (*Phil*. 4) and did so again on 1 January 43 (*Phil*. 5, to the senate; *Phil*. 6, to the people). The remaining eight *Philippics* were all delivered in the senate: *Phil*. 7 (mid-January 43), *Phil*. 8 (4 February 43), *Phil*. 9 and 10 (both in early February 43), *Phil*. 11 (end of February 43), *Phil*. 12 (beginning of March 43), *Phil*. 13 (20 March 43), and *Phil*. 14 (21 April 43). All seem to have been published rapidly.25 The last intervention occurred just after news had reached Rome of the battle of Forum Gallorum near Mutina (14/15 April 43). While the 'senatorial' alliance that Cicero helped put together against Antony won this encounter as well as a follow-up battle on 21 April at Mutina, the victories turned out to be Pyrrhic: soon after, Caesar Octavianus switched sides and Cicero was history.26 By choosing *Philippics* as the label for his last oratorical efforts, he preternaturally seems to have known where he was heading.

The name *Philippics* alludes to the corpus of speeches that the Athenian orator Demosthenes (384–322 BCE) delivered against Philip II of Macedon (382–336 BCE), the father of Alexander the Great, who

23 See Hall (2002: 275, n. 6): 'While a written text of the speech was certainly being prepared in late October 44 (*Att*. 15.13.1–2; 15.13a.3; 16.11.1–2), the precise date of its circulation is not known. Early December seems plausible, given Antony's departure for Cisalpine Gaul at the end of November'.

24 Stroh (1982), followed by Manuwald (2008), argues that they form a cycle of twelve speeches in imitation of Demosthenes in their own right, to which *Philippic* 1 and 2 were later added.

25 Kelly (2008).

26 For a more detailed account of the historical context for each individual speech (and the nature of its intervention) see Manuwald (2007: 9–31: '2.1. Events in 44–43 BCE').

threatened to invade the Greek peninsula from the North and 'enslave' the Greek city-states, in particular Athens. He realized his ambitions after winning the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE, and Demosthenes' oratorical efforts against Philip acquired an iconic status as an eloquent stand on behalf of liberty against tyranny and oppression. In the 40s, Demosthenes more generally had become a prominent point of reference for Cicero's theorizing on oratory, and he began to think of himself as the Roman equivalent.27 The label *Philippics* for the set of speeches against Antony deftly extended the affinities he felt with Demosthenes to the sphere of politics and helped to endow Cicero's endeavours with historical prestige. It suggests an analogy: just as Demosthenes fought for the freedom of the Greeks against Philip, the Macedonian tyrant, so Cicero was fighting for the freedom of the Romans against Mark Antony, the would-be tyrant of Rome.

When, precisely, he started to conceive of the speeches against Antony as a thematically unified set in conscious imitation of Demosthenes' resistance to Philip II is impossible to reconstruct; it certainly happened while the corpus was still evolving, but seemingly some time after the initial two interventions were first drafted. In a letter written to Cicero (*Brut*. 2.3.4 = 2 SB; 1 April 43), written after perusal of *Philippic* 5 and 7, Brutus praises Cicero for his spirit (*animus*) and his genius (*ingenium*) before signing off on the label *Philippics* that Cicero himself had proposed, half in jest (because of its potentially presumptuous implications): *iam concedo ut vel Philippici vocentur, quod tu quadam epistula iocans scripsisti* ('I am now willing to let them be called by the name of 'Philippics', as you jestingly suggested in one of your letters').28 In the letter to Atticus that accompanied a draft of what would turn into *Philippic* 2, Cicero does not yet use the label, though one could argue that the speech already manifests a Demosthenic flavour: 'in the *Philippics*, beginning with the *Second Philippic*, one sees the first genuine attempt on Cicero's part to imitate Demosthenes' use of style and argumentation. After Antony's furious attack on him in the senate on 19 September, Cicero realized that reconciliation was not possible and that he was engaged in a death

27 Wooten (1983: 49).

28 See also *Brut*. 2.4.2 = 4 SB (Cicero to Brutus, 12 April 43): *haec ad te oratio perferetur, quoniam video delectari Philippicis nostris* ('The speech [= *Philippic* 11] will be sent to you, since I see you enjoy my Philippics').

struggle to preserve the only form of government in which he himself could function effectively (cf. *Letters to Friends*, | 12.2, 1). Moreover, Antony had attacked Cicero's whole career, as a politician, as an orator, and as a man; and Cicero realized that his reply had to be a defence of his entire life. Less than two years before, Cicero had put his hand to a Latin translation of Demosthenes' speech *On the Crown*. He had already come to think of himself, both as an orator and as a politician, in terms of Demosthenes'.29

You may want to ask yourself: does this analogy mean the speeches were pre-destined to make a posthumous hero out of Cicero (as they did of Demosthenes) but also doomed to seal permanent political failure? Though unlike Demosthenes', *Cicero's* Freedom Speech couldn't even turn up and make its Big Moment. Even within its own corpus, *Philippic* 2 is unusual: 'the speech is in fact something of an anomaly within the collection as a whole. Its function as invective means that it contains little of the deliberate style of oratory found elsewhere in the *Philippics*; and with a total of 119 sections it is more than twice as long as any of the other speeches'.30 See also Wooten (1983: 156): '… the primary aim of *Philippic* II is to establish firmly the character of the major participants in the conflict, very much like the first speech in the second action against Verres. As in this speech and as in Demosthenes' *Philippics* and *Olynthiacs*, narrative is used to discredit the character of the opponent. There is nothing in the speech about what actions should be taken to oppose Antony, nothing about Cicero's own political program, no rational analysis of the situation. Emotional appeals are used to

29 Wooten (1983: 50–51). (In his speech *On the Crown*, Demosthenes defended a fellow Athenian citizen Ctesiphon who had been dragged into court by Demosthenes' rival Aeschines for daring to propose that Demosthenes ought to be honoured with a civic crown for outstanding services to the city; Demosthenes used this occasion to justify his person and his politics.) NB: you might want to question Wooten's dogmatism: '…realized that…', 'Cicero realized…' — as if Cicero did not have any other options or might not have misjudged the situation. Likewise, imitation of his Greek models does not preclude emulation, not least in the area of hard-hitting verbal abuse. See Worman (2008: 321–22): 'Many of Cicero's most effective character assassinations rely on demonstrating that his opponents fail miserably in this bodily restraint. His extravagant portrait in the *Philippics* of Antony's appetitive outrages echoes in much more extreme form the excesses … that Demosthenes attributes to his opponents, most particularly Aeschines but also Meidias, Androtion and, of course, Philip'.

30 Hall (2002: 275).

galvanize Cicero's supporters, and vilification of character is used to set the stage for the exposition of the specific proposals that Cicero would eventually make' (from the third *Philippic* onwards).

Its special status raises all sorts of questions: do the rest of the speeches step around or recycle it, only this time for real in the public spaces of the city? Has Cicero integrated *Philippic* 2 in with the rest or does it stick out like a surgically removed thumb? Might it be the dustbin for everything he didn't get into the rest — highlights too juicy to chuck away?

# 2. The *Second Philippic* as a Rhetorical Artifact – and Invective Oratory

As we have seen, then, *Philippic* 2 is anything but an impromptu outburst by an irate orator who had just been raked over the coals and ridiculed in front of his peers. It is, rather, a deliberate and highly *literary* act of retaliation, composed (and revised) over several weeks and released in cold blood at an opportune moment (when Antony was no longer present in Rome). Despite the craftsmanship, the overall structure of the speech, however, is deceptively simple and straightforward:

§§ 1–3: *exordium* [= preface, introduction] §§ 3–41: Cicero's defence of himself §§ 42–43: Transition (attack on Antony as orator) §§ 44–114: Attack on Antony §§ 115–119: *peroratio* [= conclusion]

After the exordium, Cicero responds to the abuse that Antony heaped on him in the speech of 19 September. We can gather from his rebuttal that Antony seems to have charged him with a lack of honour that manifested itself not least in his failure to live up to the obligations of friendship and his ingratitude towards Antony, who claimed to have saved Cicero's life (cf. *Phil*. 2.3–10). Cicero's consulship must have come in for ridicule — as well as the epic poetry he afterwards composed about it (cf. *Phil*. 2.11–20). Antony even seems to have found a way to blame Cicero for the death of Clodius, the outbreak of civil war, and the assassination of Caesar (cf. *Phil*. 2.21–36). And he mocked the low level of esteem in which (he claimed) Cicero was held in Roman society (cf. *Phil*. 2.40–42). After a lengthy rebuttal of this battery of charges and a brief transition, Cicero turns the tables on Antony: what Antony blamed on him, he now blames on Antony — and more. The speech concludes with a defiant peroration, in which Cicero expresses his unconditional commitment to weather the crisis of the commonwealth caused by Antony's perceived power grab — albeit by sacrificing his life for the sake of Rome's freedom.

Throughout, Cicero keeps his text aligned with the fiction that it is a spontaneous response to Antony's discourse.31 In generic terms, *Philippic* 2 follows the conventions of oratory with a strong invective bent. Both of these terms — oratory and invective — are worth a closer look.

### 2.1 Oratory at Rome

The *orator*, operating in the domestic political sphere (*domi*), complemented the *imperator*, who was in charge of affairs outside the city (*militiae*). While military accolades, in particular the celebration of a triumph, outshone any other achievement, to be an esteemed public speaker was part of the portfolio of distinctions to which members of Rome's ruling elite aspired. Pliny's summary of the speech that Quintus Caecilius Metellus gave for his father Marcus in 221 BCE includes the assertion that dad could lay claim to the ten greatest and best achievements, which men with smarts spend their lives pursuing (Pliny the Elder, *Natural History* 7.139–40):32

Q. Metellus in ea oratione quam habuit supremis laudibus patris sui L. Metelli pontificis, bis consulis, dictatoris, magistri equitum, xvviri agris dandis, qui primus elephantos ex primo Punico bello duxit in triumpho, scriptum reliquit decem maximas res optumasque in quibus quaerendis sapientes aetatem exigerent consummasse eum: voluisse enim primarium bellatorem esse, optimum oratorem, fortissimum imperatorem, auspicio suo maximas res geri, maximo honore uti, summa sapientia esse, summum senatorem haberi, pecuniam magnam bono modo invenire, multos liberos relinquere et clarissimum in civitate esse.

[Quintus Metellus, in the speech that he delivered as the funeral oration of his father Lucius Metellus the pontiff, who had been consul twice, dictator, master of the horse and land-commissioner, and who was the first person who led elephants captured in the first Punic War in a triumph, has left it in writing that his father had achieved the ten greatest

31 Cf. Steel (2006: 59).

32 Cf. Pliny the Elder, *Natural History* 7.100: *Cato primus Porciae gentis tres summas in homine res praestitisse existimatur, ut esset optimus orator, optimus imperator, optimus senator* ('Cato of the Gens Porcia is deemed to have exemplified first the three supreme human achievements, excelling alike as orator, as general and as senator').

and highest objects in the pursuit of which wise men pass their lives: for he had made it his aim to be a most outstanding warrior, a supreme orator and a very brave commander, to be in charge of operations of the highest importance, to enjoy the greatest honour, to be supremely wise, to be deemed the most eminent senator, to obtain great wealth in an honourable way, to leave many children, and to achieve supreme distinction in the civic community.]

However, what exactly constituted a good public speaker remained controversial. Was (for instance) superior rhetorical skill more important than sound moral conviction? Under the influence of Greek rhetorical thought, the tension between technical proficiency and authoritative ethics acquired a cross-cultural complexion. When Cato the Elder (234–149 BCE) defined the orator as 'a good man who knows how to speak' (*vir bonus dicendi peritus*) he polemically asserted that the ability to coruscate with words was of secondary importance to the moral fiber of the speaker: no amount of sparkle, brilliance, and sophistication in the use of language can elevate a wordsmith to the status of an orator if he lacked proper ethics. In another adage — 'stick to the topic, the words will follow': *rem tene, verba sequentur* — Cato suggests that no formal training in rhetoric at all was needed to be a public speaker of substance.

To what extent he was representative of the first half of the second century BCE is difficult to determine, but by the late republic training in Greek and Latin rhetoric, including study trips to Greece, were part and parcel of an elite Roman education.33 Still, Greek rhetorical theory and technique retained their potentially problematic quality in Roman oratorical practice. In Cicero's dialogue *On the Ideal Orator* (*de Oratore*), written in the mid-50s BCE, one of the characters, Antonius (the grandfather of Mark Antony) maintains that any semblance of learning is best avoided, especially in speeches addressed to a wider public. Cicero himself, throughout his life, was invested in rhetorical education and the figure of the ideal orator (*summus orator*), who in his view combined wisdom (*sapientia*) with eloquence (*eloquentia*) and was equally versed in the best that Greek culture had to offer (in both rhetoric and philosophy) as well as the ancestral traditions of Rome. (Indeed, the way he put it, the best insights of Greek philosophy, especially in matters

33 Corbeill (2007) offers a good account.

of ethics and statesmanship, were simply the articulation in discourse of what the Roman ancestors had previously realized and enacted in practice.) Even though Cicero argued that his engagement with Greek cultural resources happened in the spirit of imperial co-option and emulation, his 'intellectual' preferences rendered him vulnerable to scorn. In his *Anti-Cato*, a treatise written in response to Cicero's praise of the republican hero Cato the Younger (95–46 BCE), Caesar included a plea to the reader (Plutarch, *Life of Julius Caesar* 3.4):34

And thus, at a later time, Caesar himself, in his reply to Cicero's *Cato*, begged that the discourse of a soldier not be judged by the standards of clever eloquence achieved by a *rhetor* who was naturally gifted and had plenty of free time to pursue his studies.

Caesar here brings into play the antithesis between himself, a man of action and of the army, and the 'born *rhetor*' Cicero. In Rome, the pinnacle of glory resided in military success, and Caesar thus implies that his antagonist, unlike himself, is a *vir non vere Romanus* ('not a genuine Roman man'). He tops his slyly offensive characterization of Cicero as a clever man of the word by suggesting that his own rise to power, which coincided with the cessation of republican politics, created the perfect condition for Cicero to do what he does best. With him in charge, Cicero had the necessary leisure to pursue his natural calling, which Caesar locates in the field of rhetoric and literature, rather than politics or the military. He thereby maliciously insinuates that Cicero's retirement from politics, while perhaps stripping him of the trappings of his Roman identity, has brought him back in touch with his true nature. The larger cultural polarity between the Roman doer and the Greek thinker gives added force to these polemics. In effect, Caesar's characterization of Cicero as a 'born' *rhetor* brands the former *pater patriae* and senatorial colleague as someone who is, in essence, a Greek. Shakespeare picks up on this, when he makes Cicero pretentiously *speak* Greek — and hence remains incomprehensible to an uneducated Roman like Casca, to whom everything Cicero said was, indeed, Greek.

Antony, too, was an orator of distinction, who received the traditional training of a member of Rome's ruling elite — and who also continued

34 The following is adapted from Gildenhard (2007: 39–40).

to hone his rhetorical talents through special tuition later in life.35 In a letter to Q. Thermus (*Fam*. 2.18 = 115 SB, early May 50), Cicero himself refers to him and his two brothers as *summo loco natos, promptos, non indisertos* ('of the highest birth and no mean qualities of enterprise and eloquence') — not people one would want to cross needlessly. Antony certainly knew how to excite a crowd — as he proved when he delivered the funeral oration for Caesar.36 This may well count as 'the apogee of Antony's oratory' for those with a soft spot for Shakespeare, who re-imagines the performance as follows (*Julius Caesar* 3.2.73–107):37

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it. Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest – For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, all honourable men — Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me; But Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill; Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man. You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?

35 For Antony as orator see Huzar (1982), Mahy (2013) and van der Blom (2016), Ch. 8: 'Career-making in a time of crisis: Marcus Antonius' oratory'.

36 See below § 91.

37 The quotation is from Huzar (1982: 650). She notes: 'Even more than the first compromising speeches to the Senate, this address wrenched popular sentiment from the claims of the tyrannicides to sympathy for Caesar, hence leadership for Antony'.

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And, sure, he is an honourable man. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once, not without cause: What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him? O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason. Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me.

'Antony's Oration Over Caesar's Body', from: Edward Sylvester Ellis, *The Story of the Greatest Nations, from the Dawn of History to the Twentieth Century* (1900).38

Oratory is one of the main battlegrounds in *Philippics* 2. Cicero claims that Antony falls woefully short of the ideal, despite investing an enormous amount of money in substandard tuition. He mocks him for lack of

38 Image from Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The\_story\_of\_ the\_greatest\_nations,\_from\_the\_dawn\_of\_history\_to\_the\_twentieth\_century\_-\_a\_ comprehensive\_history,\_founded\_upon\_the\_leading\_authorities,\_including\_a\_ complete\_chronology\_of\_the\_world,\_and\_(14777797442).jpg

natural ability and the hiring of second-rate teachers, who nevertheless get rewarded handsomely from the public purse. Put bluntly, he wants to shut him up for good.

### 2.2 Invective

Ancient rhetorical theory distinguishes three branches of oratory: *forensic* or *judicial* (employed in court, as part of a trial), *deliberative* (used to sway an audience on a matter of public policy; in Rome the two primary settings were the Forum and the senate), and *epideictic* (a ceremonial verbal display, often with the purpose of dispensing blame or praise — as in a funeral oration). This rough-and-ready grid is useful as a basic orientation — but does not get us all that far with such an idiosyncratic text as *Philippic* 2: a written pamphlet that pretends to be the record of an epideictic (or deliberative?) speech delivered in the senate, put into circulation to persuade other members of Rome's ruling elite to pursue a specific course of political action. To come to critical terms with this particular 'oration' it is arguably more promising to focus on the dominant 'mode of discourse', rather than the genre of oratory that Cicero chose for the occasion, i.e. invective. Invective is best defined by its primary purpose: character assassination through verbal abuse.39 Invective speech operates across genres: as a means of discrediting opponents, it can (and does) occur in all three branches of oratory (as well as other literary forms: it is, for instance, prevalent in old comedy and satire, but also appears in other types of poetry and prose).

#### Invective's truth

Invective speech has a complex relationship with reality, especially in a culture without libel laws as that of ancient Rome. The principle 'anything goes' applied: as in contemporary 'roast comedy' any kind of insult and incrimination, however untrue, outrageous, or defamatory, was generally speaking fair game. Unlike contemporary roasting shows, however, the point of the abuse was to degrade the target for real — though (and here the roast parallel holds again), the most potent

39 On invective (often conceived in generic terms), see Nisbet (1961); Koster (1980); Ruffell (2003); Craig (2004); Powell (2006); Arena (2007a); Manuwald (2011).

form of abuse managed to combine hard-hitting humiliation with (a nasty sense of) humour. Thus in the speech on behalf of Caelius, which contains a similar invective assault as *Philippic* 2 (directed against Clodius' wife Clodia, who was a witness for the prosecution), Cicero distinguishes between boorish abuse and the urbane sophistication of a creative tongue-lashing. Those prosecuting his client, he suggests, are guilty of the former. By implication, he considered himself second to none in delivering the latter.40 Cicero was fully cognizant of the important contribution the eliciting of laughter can make to effective communication — and had a reputation for his merciless mocking and poisonous (if entertaining) put-downs.41 Indeed, 'murderous wit' is one of the qualities that Stockton identifies as hallmarks of Ciceronian invective — together with 'coarse raillery', 'pained incredulity', 'destructive logic', and 'moral fervour'.42

While much invective, then, is gleefully mendacious as it opts for the sleazy, the sensational, and the scandalous in its pursuit of vituperative s/laughter, it nevertheless operates under the pretence that it tells the truth. Invective discourse postures as a particular form of free speech — one that tears away veneers of respectability to expose and ridicule the hidden reality underneath. To some extent it is therefore pointless to enquire into the referential value of invective assertions designed not to give an accurate depiction of an individual's life or character, but to turn him into a kind of person you would not want to have in your community. Credibility in invective has little to do with checking facts or vetting evidence: a semblance of plausibility is all that is needed for even the most outrageous (and uproarious) insults to go forward: it is above all a creative, not primarily a representational mode of discourse. At the same time, invective mud sticks better if there is *some* connection with established facts. The abuse that Cicero attracted, for instance, tended to play off his relatively humble social background and place of origin (a new man from Arpinum), his actions as consul (the illegal executions of Roman citizens without trial), his endeavours to aggrandize himself, be it through the purchase of a magnificent villa

40 See *pro Caelio* 6, cited below 165.

41 His dialogue *On the Ideal Orator* contains a disquisition on humour in oratory (*de Orat*. 2.216–90). On Roman laughter see further Beard (2014).

42 Stockton (1971: 313), cited by Hall (2002: 293, n. 43).

on the Palatine, or through the insistent self-praise in his poetry.43 So 'rather than saying that the truth of invective allegations is irrelevant, we may more accurately say that it is of secondary importance'.44

Even so, by flouting standards of discursive decency, feeding on preconceptions, and pandering to prejudices, invective generates its own reality in and through rhetoric. And it is up to the audience, i.e. *you*, whether you want to buy into it or rather insist on a quick 'fact check', so as not to succumb to 'fake news' and incendiary spin…

#### Invective's impact

Given the highly conventional and plainly imaginary elements of political invective in republican Rome, one may wonder to what extent verbal attacks, however vile and vitriolic, permanently dented anybody's reputation. Perhaps the consequences of unleashing aspersion upon an aristocratic peer happened to be relatively minor: a jeer and chuckle here, some rise in blood pressure and temporary irritation there, but overall a routine part of the political game, a ritual flyting exercise that consisted in the anodyne traffic of predictable insults that had the status of tired clichés and yawn-inducing commonplaces. The 'no hard feelings' attitude may well have prevailed in some cases. But to imply, as some scholars have done, that invective never did any significant damage arguably underestimates its ability to leave a mark on inneraristocratic interactions. Its conventional nature does not exclude impact (not least since many blows in these verbal punch-ups were designed to land below the belt). As John Henderson (2006: 142–43) puts it:

Invective is all about getting retaliation in first — pinch, punch, and no returns! Reliant on expected moves, and on their anticipation, this lobbing of rotten tomatoes is expressive behaviour, semi-un-trammelled by the constraints of 'proper conduct', and risking real enough social-political 'face' in the clubhouse of Roman prestige: the casement of epideictic braggadocio cushioned plenty, but nevertheless however playfully traded clichés could at (all) times land wounds, brand butts, kick ass.

43 For Cicero as target of invective himself see Arena (2007a) 153 and van der Blom (2014).

44 Craig (2004: 196).

How could a speaker know that he was not playing with fire — about to start a feud, go beyond the pale, or, indeed, sign his death sentence?45 Language matters.

#### Invective's (dys-)function

By purporting to diagnose deviance, invective discourse illuminates the norms, values, and expectations of a civic community — as well as associated fears and anxieties. It stigmatizes difference and ostracizes those whom it perceives to fall short of community standards. As such, one could argue that invective had an important role to play in policing the boundaries of a civic community — as much recent scholarship has done, ably summarized by Arena:46

Invective also had the potential to reshape and remodel the ethical and political code of society by expelling its deviant elements (or at least by trying to do so; see Ruffell 2003). As Corbeill (1996) argues, through his use of invective the orator acts as a definer of his society's moral code. Indeed, given Roman society's lack of canonical moral texts, invective had an important social function to play through its highlighting of virtue and vice. Although it was designed to humiliate the opponent in front of the community, invective also helped, through its enumeration of negative qualities, to shape examples of virtues (cf. e.g. *Rhet. Her*. 3.11).

True, a speaker will always portray his decision to abuse as being motivated by concerns for the community, civic welfare, and a commitment to the truth: anything else would be counterproductive. The target has to be shamed, ostracized, or indeed killed for the common good. But it is important to bear in mind that invective invents just as much as it represents: it is part of a struggle over the definition of reality. We should therefore not necessarily presuppose that invective is always functional, that such muscular managers of meaning as Cicero who define who is in and who is out do a service to their community in identifying 'deviant elements' within that ought to be expelled. In light of our earlier discussion, we should perhaps also entertain the possibility that invective brings deviance into being — and in doing so can be dysfunctional, insofar as it *aggravates* tensions and divisions within a

45 Compare and contrast Nisbet (1961) and Henderson (2006).

46 Arena (2007a: 154).

civic community. After all, character assassination is a mode of (verbal) warfare. As Icks and Shiraev (2014b: 1) put it in their introduction to a volume on this phenomenon:

Throughout history, people have used the torch, the pitchfork, the bullet, the cannon, and (recently) the missile to damage, destroy, and kill. To protect themselves from attacks, people have built shields, armor, trenches, and fortresses, established military doctrines, and launched counterattacks. This book discusses attacks and defenses. Yet we have turned our attention to the destructive power of a different kind: words and images. Across countries and time, people have used images and words to harm, devastate, and completely destroy other people's reputation, status, and character.

Viewed in this light, invective becomes the rhetorical equivalent of civil warfare. Cicero's oratory arguably helped pave the way for an (even) 'nastier, more divided' Rome.

### 2.3 Cicero's Antony: Or How to Other a Peer

The 'identity' of a person is a composite and multifaceted phenomenon despite the etymology of the term (*identitas* = 'the quality of being always the same'). Some aspects of who we are (or perceive ourselves to be) are generic (gender, ethnicity, nationality, legal status), others unique (family background, biography, or personal traits). Despite undeniable elements of continuity, our identity is under continual negotiation — both for ourselves and for others: indeed, identities are just as much a matter of self-perception as how we are perceived by others: and the two perspectives need not necessarily (indeed rarely do) fully coincide. Identities can be negotiated and challenged in discourse — and that is where invective rhetoric, and its potentially transformative power, comes in: it tries to strip the individual under attack of the positive aspects of their identity — of who they are in their own eyes and those of others.

The identity sapping of invective discourse can take various forms. In the *Philippics*, Cicero opts for a combination of remorseless ridicule and drastic demonization. Antony is a fool — but a dangerous one: to be laughed at, savagely, but then to be terminated. As Hall (2002: 288) observes, perhaps downplaying the demonizing that is also part of *Philippic* 2:

Antony is portrayed through this rhetoric of crisis as a violent, dangerous man who must be vigorously resisted. On other occasions, however, Cicero sets out to undermine Antony's moral and political authority through mockery. The most famous examples appear in the invective of *Philippic* 2, where the principal aim is to characterize Antony not as dangerous but as ridiculous; as a man of unparalleled *levitas*, quite unworthy of respect or admiration.

 And at the heart of Cicero's verbal assault on Antony is a systematic 'othering' of his adversary, a transformation of a member of Rome's ruling elite, an aristocratic peer, into the veritable opposite:

#### *Introduction* 35

Cicero questions Antony's morals, masculinity, and maleness (*vir*, *virtus*) by imagining a lurid past as toy-boy (*puer*) and male prostitute (*cinaedus*, *meretrix*). In sharp contrast to his role as *augur* (a priestly office), he charges him with the perpetration of impieties. Rejecting his identity as a Roman (*Romanus*), he highlights his affiliation with barbarians (*barbarus*). Instead of a sober senator exercising the selfcontrol expected of a member of Rome's ruling elite, Antony comes across as a permanently intoxicated alcoholic (*vinolentus*), with strong emetic tendencies also in public (*vomitator*). Given the kind of person he is, the company he keeps is unsurprisingly equally depraved. He consorts with scum, 'attends birthday parties of professional clowns' (Hall 2002: 289 on *Phil*. 2.15), and has a love affair with the mime-actress Cytheris.  Yet, despite all of these personal failings, he is technically speaking consul, a high magistrate of the Roman people: in other words, he is an empowered pervert, whom Cicero identifies and outs not just as spitting counter-image of a member of Rome's ruling elite, but its mortal enemy. His verbal annihilation of Antony is not an end in itself: Cicero turns the skewering of the would-be tyrant who beleaguers the city with his soldiers into a rousing cry for (senatorial) freedom.

 Antony is a creature of base instinct, leading a life devoted to gluttony, gambling, drinking, and debauchery. A paradox emerges: a Roman man and magistrate ought to exercise legitimate power over others (the *potestas* of a *paterfamilias* and consul); but Antony is not even able to exercise power over himself. Cicero renders the paradox explicit at *Phil*. 6.4, where he mocks the notion that someone like Antony would listen to a senatorial embassy:

Facile vero huic denuntiationi parebit, ut in patrum conscriptorum atque in vestra potestate sit, qui in sua numquam fuerit! quid enim ille umquam arbitrio suo fecit? semper eo tractus est, quo libido rapuit, quo levitas, quo furor, quo vinulentia; semper eum duo dissimilia genera tenuerunt, lenonum et latronum; ita domesticis stupris, forensibus parricidiis delectatur, ut mulieri citius avarissimae paruerit quam senatui populoque Romano.

[He will no doubt readily obey this intimation, so as to submit to the conscript fathers and your power — a man who has never had himself in his power! For what has that man ever done on his own initiative? He has always been dragged where lust, where levity, where frenzy, where intoxication, has dragged him; two different classes of men have always held him in their grip, pimps and brigands. He so enjoys lecheries at home and murders in the forum that he would sooner obey a most avaricious woman than the senate and the Roman people.]

As this and other similar passages (not least from *Philippic* 2) are designed to illustrate, any ability Antony may have had to assert himself is severely compromised by base appetites, emotions, or character faults (sexual desire, fickleness, insanity, alcohol-addiction) and the ill-reputed company he keeps (pimps, brigands, a depraved wife). Since Antony is unable to exercise the requisite power (*potestas*) over his instincts and associates, he is unwilling to accept the legitimate power (*potestas*) of the senate and the people of Rome — instead, he remains beholden to the wrong people, a weak-kneed slave of his desires. Moreover, the depravity of Antony manifests itself in equal measure in the domestic sphere (in the form of acts of sexual transgressions: *stupra*) and the civic realm (murders in the forum: *parricidia*).

In Cicero's view, to have someone like Antony as consul (and, soon, pro-consul) poses an existential threat to the senatorial tradition of republican government. According to him, Antony has forfeited his right to be a member of Rome's ruling elite, indeed to be a part of Roman society or even the human species. The attack on the mainstays of Antony's identity — his status as *vir*, *nobilis*, *orator*, *augur*, *consul*, *civis Romanus* — culminates in Cicero's denial of his humanity. As Santoro L'Hoir (1992: 26) observes:

Cicero fires his ultimate blast of vitriol in his glorious last stand against Antony. Like his predecessors Verres and Clodius, Antony is a *homo amentissimus* (*Phil*. 2.42; 5.37; cf. 3.2), and a *homo audacissimus* (2.78; 5.13; 6.2). He is, furthermore: *h. acutus* (2.28); *h. adflictus et perditus* (3.25); *h. detestabilis* (2.110); *h. impotentissimus* (5.42); *h. ingratissimus* (13.41); *h. nequam* and *nequissimus* (2.56; 61; 70; 78); *h. numquam sobrius* (2.81); *h. perditissimus* (5.13); *h. profligatus* (3.1); *h. sceleratus* (4.12); *h. simplex*

(2.111); *h. stupidus* (3.22); *h. turpissimus* (2.105); *h. vehemens et violentus* (5.19), among others. At one point, Antony ranks even lower than a *homo*: *Non est vobis res, Quirites, cum scelerato homine ac nefario, sed cum immani taetraque belua!* (*Phil*. 4.12: 'You have not now to deal, Romans, with a man merely guilty and villainous, but with a monstrous and savage beast').

Like his other adversaries (Verres, Catiline, Clodius, Piso and Gabinius, occasionally also Caesar) Cicero thus dehumanizes Antony. He casts him as a monstrous, amoral pervert, hell-bent on subverting Rome's social institutions and its political culture. He turns Antony into a repellent beast to instigate and rationalize drastic political action against him, turning him into an outlaw, foreigner, enemy, subhuman, who has lost the protection afforded by law, by his status as a Roman citizen, and by being human.

# 3. Why Read Cicero's *Second Philippic* Today?

'Classical' texts, or at least those we consider classical that have come to us from Greco-Roman antiquity, are texts that have managed to outlive the immediate historical context or even wider culture for which they were originally intended, attracting ever-new audiences down the ages. At times, such texts are simply read because they have been accorded the status of 'classical' at some point in the past. This, however, is a rather weak justification for continuing to read them — it might imply being in thoughtless thrall of choices that earlier generations have made for us. It is, therefore, always a good idea to ponder what makes the Greek or Latin text you have been asked to read (or happen to be reading: no need to stick to the syllabus) particularly relevant in the here-andnow. The following offers some suggestions of why at present *Philippic* 2 might be particularly good to think with.

### 3.1 Extremist Politics and the Rhetoric of Crisis

*Philippic* 2 bears witness to a desperately divided political community (and in particular its ruling elite), in which different interest groups struggled over the definition of facts and figures in increasingly polarized ways.  Or was there perhaps a middle way—the possibility of amnesty and reconciliation, rather than retaliation and further bloodshed? In this embittered battleground over the meaning of recent events, Cicero uses *Philippic* 2 to position himself as an extremist voice. In the first half of the speech he flatly denies the possibility of a middle ground when it comes to assessing the assassins (§§ 30–31). And in the second half (and the rest of the corpus) he opts for a 'rhetoric of crisis' that precludes compromise and furthers confrontation. As Wooten (1983: 58) explains:

One of the most striking characteristics, therefore, of the rhetoric of crisis is the clarity and simplicity with which the orator views the situation that he faces. To him the contest is black and white, the struggle of good against evil; and what is at stake, he argues, is the very existence of the civilization that he is defending. He tries to convince the members of his audience that the history of their state has reached a fundamental crisis in which its very existence as they know it and everything that it represents are in danger. He then presents the situation as a clear choice between mutually exclusive and fundamentally opposed systems by means of what may be called the disjunctive mode.

Increasingly polarized political discourse, the attendant loss of a middle ground that cultivates commonly shared views and values as basis for compromise, and the rhetoric of crisis and existential emergency are phenomena that many political pundits also see on the rise in contemporary society and politics. One particularly intriguing question here again involves the power of rhetoric: to what extent does the language of crisis help produce — rather than react to — the problem it tries to fight?

### 3.2 Hate Speech

In a recent monograph on Cicero, Tahin draws a comparison between the public use of language in Greco-Roman antiquity and today:47

It is crucial to state that a Greek or Roman orator was not bound by any modern standard of rationality, logic or rhetorical measure unless the circumstances of a particular case demanded it in order to win the case. Forms of argument (such as personal abuse, distortion or omission of facts, malicious slander, irrelevant details or sequences of narrative, logical *non sequitur*, counter accusations) which today are considered fallacious or inadmissible elements of reasoning in any rational discourse

47 Tahin (2016: 1).

(e.g. court hearings) were widely accepted tools of persuasion so long as they served the purposes of the orator.

The thought that we moderns live in a more enlightened and civilized age than the Greeks and the Romans is reassuring. And it is true that we possess libel laws. But recent developments may well prompt us to wonder about 'modern standards of rationality, logic or rhetorical measure', which may indeed be ruled out of court, but seem to thrive in the Bloggosphere and on Twitter — as well as more generally. The protocols of public discourse seem to have become more fluid in recent years, the boundary between the sayable and the unspeakable are shifting. We seem to have a heightened awareness of the fact that words can hurt, that there is a need for sensitive use of language and safe spaces, yet all the while crudity and extremism proliferate in public discourse, including the criminalization of adversaries: judges who come up with an inopportune ruling are labelled 'enemies of the people', politicians who beg to differ from the party line run the risk of being turned into 'traitors'.

Throw in the phenomenon of factoids and invented facts broadcast as news and parallels worth pondering between late-republican Rome and contemporary politics are not all that hard to come by, especially when it comes to abusive language (or hate speech). Invective blurs the distinction between truth and lies, reality and fiction. Much of what Cicero says in *Philippic* 2 is 'fake news' or malicious spin, served up in the service of a higher truth, a code of civic ethics. Does the end justify the means?

### 3.3 The Power of Eloquence and Post-Truth Politics

Cicero conceived of the *Philippics* as monumental oratory—his rhetorical testament as it were: 'Invoking the dangers he submits to as well as his contempt for death, a *Leitmotiv* in the *Philippics*, Cicero not only amplifies and dramatises the contemporary political situation, but he refashions it into the time-transcending narrative of a man desperately but resolutely fighting for his convictions. Thus Cicero ensures that his speeches would be read long after the conflict had been resolved and, more importantly, even in case Antony prevailed'.48 While he failed in his efforts to restore republican freedom to the Roman commonwealth, he certainly succeeded in bequeathing his vision (of himself, of Antony, of the world) to posterity. What remains are his writings: they articulate an (arguably tragic) vision of resistance against (perceived) tyranny and constitute a type of political activism and civic commitment in a time of chaos, when constitutional safeguards and institutions, legal procedures and republican norms arguably no longer guaranteed the survival of the senatorial commonwealth. (What do you think: does Cicero take a courageous stance against tyranny here or is he a deluded and self-righteous warmonger who tries to rip Antony's heart out while shooting himself in the foot?)

As a (now classical) speech-act of universalizing import, *Philippic* 2 invites questions of a trans-historical nature: about the judgment of the author, the secrets of persuasive oratory, the power of spin, the divisive impact of hate-speech and its relation to physical violence, to name a few. Cicero was a master of (re-)defining reality — indeed inventing it — whenever the facts did not suit his purpose. In the *Philippics*, he generated a largely imaginary character portrait and corresponding *curriculum vitae* of Antony, which he embedded within a narrative on Roman politics to produce a moment of existential crisis, of bare survival, of life or death for each individual and the civic community at large — a favourite script of his, in which he invested throughout his career. The text to be studied is both a sensational exercise of dragging someone's reputation through the sewer and a fantastic illustration of how Cicero managed to make an impact on, indeed invent, reality through his rhetorical skills and the powers of his imagination. Cicero's approach in *Philippic* 2 thus arguably has certain affinities with contemporary variants of 'post-truth' politics, in which decency, respect for one's opponents, and cultivation of civilized language give way to polarizing abuse. In Cicero's case, the abuse has become classical — should it continue to inspire?

48 Scheidegger-Lämmle (2017: 34).

### TEXT

### **§ 44: A Glance at Teenage Antony: Insolvent, Transgendered, Pimped, and Groomed**

Visne igitur te inspiciamus a puero? sic opinor; a principio ordiamur. tenesne memoria praetextatum te decoxisse? 'patris', inquies, 'ista culpa est'. concedo. etenim est pietatis plena defensio. illud tamen audaciae tuae quod sedisti in quattuordecim ordinibus, cum esset lege Roscia decoctoribus certus locus constitutus, quamvis quis fortunae vitio, non suo decoxisset. sumpsisti virilem, quam statim muliebrem togam reddidisti. primo vulgare scortum; certa flagitii merces nec ea parva; sed cito Curio intervenit, qui te a meretricio quaestu abduxit et, tamquam stolam dedisset, in matrimonio stabili et certo collocavit.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 45: Desire and Domesticity: Antony's Escapades as Curio's Toy-Boy**

Nemo umquam puer emptus libidinis causa tam fuit in domini potestate quam tu in Curionis. quotiens te pater eius domu sua eiecit, quotiens custodes posuit ne limen intrares! cum tu tamen nocte socia, hortante libidine, cogente mercede, per tegulas demitterere. quae flagitia domus illa diutius ferre non potuit. scisne me de rebus mihi notissimis dicere? recordare tempus illud cum pater Curio maerens iacebat in lecto; filius se ad pedes meos prosternens, lacrimans, te mihi commendabat; orabat ut se contra suum patrem, si sestertium sexagiens peteret, defenderem; tantum enim se pro te intercessisse dicebat. ipse autem amore ardens confirmabat, quod desiderium tui discidi ferre non posset, se in exilium iturum.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 46: Family Therapy: Cicero as Counselor**

Quo tempore ego quanta mala florentissimae familiae sedavi vel potius sustuli! patri persuasi ut aes alienum fili dissolveret; redimeret adulescentem, summa spe et animi et ingeni praeditum, rei familiaris facultatibus eumque non modo tua familiaritate sed etiam congressione patrio iure et potestate prohiberet. haec tu cum per me acta meminisses, nisi illis quos videmus gladiis confideres, maledictis me provocare ausus esses?

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 47: Hitting 'Fast-Forward', or: How to Pull Off a** *Praeteritio*

Sed iam stupra et flagitia omittamus: sunt quaedam quae honeste non possum dicere; tu autem eo liberior quod ea in te admisisti quae a verecundo inimico audire non posses. sed reliquum vitae cursum videte, quem quidem celeriter perstringam. ad haec enim quae in civili bello, in maximis rei publicae miseriis fecit, et ad ea quae cotidie facit, festinat animus. quae peto ut, quamquam multo notiora vobis quam mihi sunt, tamen, ut facitis, attente audiatis. debet enim talibus in rebus excitare animos non cognitio solum rerum sed etiam recordatio; etsi incidamus, opinor, media ne nimis sero ad extrema veniamus.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 48: Antony Adrift**

Intimus erat in tribunatu Clodio qui sua erga me beneficia commemorat; eius omnium incendiorum fax, cuius etiam domi iam tum quiddam molitus est. quid dicam ipse optime intellegit. inde iter Alexandriam contra senatus auctoritatem, contra rem publicam et religiones; sed habebat ducem Gabinium, quicum quidvis rectissime facere posset. qui tum inde reditus aut qualis? prius in ultimam Galliam ex Aegypto quam domum. quae autem domus? suam enim quisque domum tum obtinebat nec erat usquam tua. domum dico? quid erat in terris ubi in tuo pedem poneres praeter unum Misenum, quod cum sociis tamquam Sisaponem tenebas?

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **Discussion Points:**

• *cuius domi – quam domum – quae autem domus? – suam domum – nec erat … tua [*sc. *domus] – domum dico*: what is Cicero trying to achieve with his relentless focus on the home / household? How does this emphasis relate to the 'imperial geography' that his references to Alexandria, Gaul, and Spain evoke?

#### **§ 49: Credit for Murder**

venis e Gallia ad quaesturam petendam. aude dicere te prius ad parentem tuam venisse quam ad me. acceperam iam ante Caesaris litteras ut mihi satis fieri paterer a te: itaque ne loqui quidem sum te passus de gratia. postea sum cultus a te, tu a me observatus in petitione quaesturae; quo quidem tempore P. Clodium approbante populo Romano in foro es conatus occidere, cumque eam rem tua sponte conarere, non impulsu meo, tamen ita praedicabas, te non existimare, nisi illum interfecisses, umquam mihi pro tuis in me iniuriis satis esse facturum. in quo demiror cur Milonem impulsu meo rem illam egisse dicas, cum te ultro mihi idem illud deferentem numquam sim adhortatus. quamquam, si in eo perseverares, ad tuam gloriam rem illam referri malebam quam ad meam gratiam.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **Discussion Points:**

• The paragraph is stuffed full with technical terms to do with socio-political relations in republican Rome such as *satis facere*, *gratia*, *colo*, *observare*, as well as practices that smoothed the economy of friendship and patronage, such as letters of recommendation (cf. *acceperam iam ante Caesaris litteras*). How does Cicero get invective mileage out of this idiom?

#### **§ 50: With Caesar in Gaul: Profligacy and Profiteering**

quaestor es factus: deinde continuo sine senatus consulto, sine sorte, sine lege ad Caesarem cucurristi. id enim unum in terris egestatis, aeris alieni, nequitiae perditis vitae rationibus perfugium esse ducebas. ibi te cum et illius largitionibus et tuis rapinis explevisses, si hoc est explere, haurire quod statim effundas, advolasti egens ad tribunatum, ut in eo magistratu, si posses, viri tui similis esses.

accipite nunc, quaeso, non ea quae ipse in se atque in domesticum decus impure et intemperanter, sed quae in nos fortunasque nostras, id est in universam rem publicam, impie ac nefarie fecerit. ab huius enim scelere omnium malorum principium natum reperietis.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 78: Caesar's Approach to HR, or Why Antony Has What it Takes**

Et domi quidem causam amoris habuisti, foris etiam turpiorem, ne L. Plancus praedes tuos venderet. productus autem in contionem a tribuno pl. cum respondisses te rei tuae causa venisse, populum etiam dicacem in te reddidisti. sed nimis multa de nugis: ad maiora veniamus.

C. Caesari ex Hispania redeunti obviam longissime processisti. celeriter isti redisti, ut cognosceret te, si minus fortem, at tamen strenuum. factus es ei rursus nescio quo modo familiaris. habebat hoc omnino Caesar: quem plane perditum aere alieno egentemque, si eundem nequam hominem audacemque cognorat, hunc in familiaritatem libentissime recipiebat.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 79: The Art of Nepotism**

His igitur rebus praeclare commendatus iussus es renuntiari consul et quidem cum ipso. nihil queror de Dolabella qui tum est impulsus, inductus, elusus. qua in re quanta fuerit uterque vestrum perfidia in Dolabellam quis ignorat? ille induxit ut peteret, promissum et receptum intervertit ad seque transtulit; tu eius perfidiae voluntatem tuam ascripsisti. veniunt Kalendae Ianuariae; cogimur in senatum: invectus est copiosius multo in istum et paratius Dolabella quam nunc ego.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 80: Antony Augur, Addled and Addling**

Hic autem iratus quae dixit, di boni! primum cum Caesar ostendisset se, priusquam proficisceretur, Dolabellam consulem esse iussurum — quem negant regem, qui et faceret semper eius modi aliquid et diceret — sed cum Caesar ita dixisset, tum hic bonus augur eo se sacerdotio praeditum esse dixit ut comitia auspiciis vel impedire vel vitiare posset, idque se facturum esse asseveravit. in quo primum incredibilem stupiditatem hominis cognoscite.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 81: Compounding Ignorance through Impudence**

Quid enim? istud quod te sacerdoti iure facere posse dixisti, si augur non esses et consul esses, minus facere potuisses? vide ne etiam facilius. nos enim nuntiationem solum habemus, consules et reliqui magistratus etiam spectionem. esto: hoc imperite; nec enim est ab homine numquam sobrio postulanda prudentia. sed videte impudentiam. multis ante mensibus in senatu dixit se Dolabellae comitia aut prohibiturum auspiciis aut id facturum esse quod fecit. quisquamne divinare potest quid viti in auspiciis futurum sit, nisi qui de caelo servare constituit? quod neque licet comitiis per leges et si qui servavit, non comitiis habitis sed priusquam habeantur, debet nuntiare. verum implicata inscientia impudentia est: nec scit quod augurem nec facit quod pudentem decet.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

• How does Cicero generate a sense of ridicule at Antony's supposed stupidity and a sense of outrage at his impudence in this paragraph?

#### **Discussion Points:**

• Explore the ways in which Cicero draws on Rome's civic religion to expose Antony as supposedly ignorant. Then ask yourself whether Antony did not know very well exactly what he was doing.

#### **§ 82: Antony Galloping after Caesar Only to Hold his Horses**

Itaque ex illo die recordamini eius usque ad Idus Martias consulatum. quis umquam apparitor tam humilis, tam abiectus? nihil ipse poterat; omnia rogabat; caput in aversam lecticam inserens, beneficia quae venderet a collega petebat. ecce Dolabellae comitiorum dies. sortitio praerogativae; quiescit. renuntiatur: tacet. prima classis vocatur, renuntiatur. deinde, ita ut assolet, suffragia; tum secunda classis. quae omnia sunt citius facta quam dixi.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 83: Antony's Fake Auspices**

Confecto negotio bonus augur — C. Laelium diceres — 'alio die' inquit. o impudentiam singularem! quid videras, quid senseras, quid audieras? neque enim te de caelo servasse dixisti nec hodie dicis. id igitur obvenit vitium quod tu iam Kalendis Ianuariis futurum esse provideras et tanto ante praedixeras. ergo hercule magna, ut spero, tua potius quam rei publicae calamitate ementitus es auspicia; obstrinxisti religione populum Romanum; augur auguri, consul consuli obnuntiasti. nolo plura, ne acta Dolabellae videar convellere, quae necesse est aliquando ad nostrum collegium deferantur.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **Discussion Points:**

• How sincere do you think Cicero was when he conjured the prospect of divine punishment because of Antony's alleged abuse of the auspices? And is 'sincerity' a useful category for discussing rhetoric involving the divine sphere?

#### **§ 84: On to the Lupercalia…**

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **Discussion Points:**

• How does Cicero bring the theme of augural manipulation to a close and segue into the following topic?

#### **§ 85:** *Vive le roi! Le roi est mort*

Sedebat in rostris collega tuus amictus toga purpurea, in sella aurea, coronatus. escendis, accedis ad sellam — ita eras Lupercus, ut te consulem esse meminisse deberes — diadema ostendis. gemitus toto foro. unde diadema? non enim abiectum sustuleras, sed attuleras domo, meditatum et cogitatum scelus. tu diadema imponebas cum plangore populi; ille cum plausu reiciebat. tu ergo unus, scelerate, inventus es qui, cum auctor regni esses eumque quem collegam habebas dominum habere velles, idem temptares quid populus Romanus ferre et pati posset.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

• Discuss Cicero's use of tenses (present, imperfect, pluperfect) in this paragraph.

#### **Discussion Points:**

• Do you find Cicero's account of the incident entirely plausible? What do you think happened in the Roman forum on 15 February 44 BCE — and why?

#### **§ 86: Antony as Willing Slave and Would-Be King-Maker**

At etiam misericordiam captabas: supplex te ad pedes abiciebas. quid petens? ut servires? tibi uni peteres, qui ita a puero vixeras ut omnia paterere, ut facile servires; a nobis populoque Romano mandatum id certe non habebas. o praeclaram illam eloquentiam tuam cum es nudus contionatus! quid hoc turpius, quid foedius, quid suppliciis omnibus dignius? num exspectas dum te stimulis fodiamus? haec te, si ullam partem habes sensus, lacerat, haec cruentat oratio. vereor ne imminuam summorum virorum gloriam; dicam tamen dolore commotus: quid indignius quam vivere eum, qui imposuerit diadema, cum omnes fateantur iure interfectum esse qui abiecerit?

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

• Analyze the rhetorical design of *haec te … oratio*.

#### **Discussion Points:**

• At the end of the paragraph, Cicero argues that Antony deserves to be dead — indeed, ought to have been killed for his attempt to crown Caesar king. In what scenarios (if any) do you endorse capital punishment as a justified response to politically motivated actions?

#### **§ 87: Historical Precedent Demands Antony's Execution**

At etiam ascribi iussit in fastis ad Lupercalia C. Caesari dictatori perpetuo M. Antonium consulem populi iussu regnum detulisse, Caesarem uti noluisse. iam iam minime miror te otium perturbare; non modo urbem odisse sed etiam lucem; cum perditissimis latronibus non solum de die sed etiam in diem bibere. ubi enim tu in pace consistes? qui locus tibi in legibus et in iudiciis esse potest, quae tu, quantum in te fuit, dominatu regio sustulisti? ideone L. Tarquinius exactus, Sp. Cassius, Sp. Maelius, M. Manlius necati ut multis post saeculis a M. Antonio, quod fas non est, rex Romae constitueretur?

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **Discussion Points:**

• What we seem to capture here is Antony's (and Caesar's) version in retrospect of what happened at the Lupercalia. How does it differ from Cicero's?

#### **§ 88: Antony on the Ides of March**

Sed ad auspicia redeamus; de quibus Idibus Martiis fuit in senatu Caesar acturus. quaero: tum tu quid egisses? audiebam equidem te paratum venisse, quod me de ementitis auspiciis, quibus tamen parere necesse erat, putares esse dicturum. sustulit illum diem Fortuna rei publicae. num etiam tuum de auspiciis iudicium interitus Caesaris sustulit? sed incidi in id tempus quod eis rebus in quas ingressa erat oratio praevertendum est. quae tua fuga, quae formido praeclaro illo die, quae propter conscientiam scelerum desperatio vitae, cum ex illa fuga beneficio eorum qui te, si sanus esses, salvum esse voluerunt, clam te domum recepisti!

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **Discussion Points:**

• Reconstruct the events — and the likely motivations and psychology of the main actors — in the wake of Caesar's assassination. Why did the conspirators only kill Caesar and not also his main supporters?

#### **§ 89: No Compromise with a Public Enemy!**

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

• Analyze the rhetorical design and the ideological punch of *neque … credidi*.

#### **Discussion Points:**

• Was Cicero correct in thinking that any compromise with Antony was bound to fail?

#### **§ 90: Antony's Finest Hour**

Qui tibi dies ille, M. Antoni, fuit! quamquam mihi inimicus subito exstitisti, tamen me tui miseret quod tibi invideris. qui tu vir, di immortales, et quantus fuisses, si illius diei mentem servare potuisses! pacem haberemus, quae erat facta per obsidem puerum nobilem, M. Bambalionis nepotem. quamquam bonum te timor faciebat, non diuturnus magister offici; improbum fecit ea quae, dum timor abest, a te non discedit, audacia. etsi tum, cum optimum te multi putabant me quidem dissentiente, funeri tyranni, si illud funus fuit, sceleratissime praefuisti.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

• How does design reinforce sense in the sentence *quamquam bonum … audacia*?

#### **Discussion Points:**

• Do you agree with Cicero that the republican commonwealth and peace could have been restored had Antony continued to collaborate with the senate?

#### **§ 91: Antony as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde**

Tua illa pulchra laudatio, tua miseratio, tua cohortatio; tu, tu, inquam, illas faces incendisti, et eas quibus semustilatus ille est et eas quibus incensa L. Bellieni domus deflagravit. tu illos impetus perditorum et ex maxima parte servorum quos nos vi manuque reppulimus in nostras domos immisisti. idem tamen quasi fuligine abstersa reliquis diebus in Capitolio praeclara senatus consulta fecisti, ne qua post Idus Martias immunitatis tabula neve cuius benefici figeretur. meministi ipse de exsulibus, scis de immunitate quid dixeris. optimum vero quod dictaturae nomen in perpetuum de re publica sustulisti: quo quidem facto tantum te cepisse odium regni videbatur ut eius omnem propter proximum dictatorem metum tolleres.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 101: Revels and Remunerations**

Cui tu urbi minitaris. utinam conere, ut aliquando illud 'paene' tollatur! at quam nobilis est tua illa peregrinatio! quid prandiorum apparatus, quid furiosam vinulentiam tuam proferam? tua ista detrimenta sunt, illa nostra: agrum Campanum, qui cum de vectigalibus eximebatur ut militibus daretur, tamen infligi magnum rei publicae vulnus putabamus, hunc tu compransoribus tuis et collusoribus dividebas. mimos dico et mimas, patres conscripti, in agro Campano collocatos. quid iam querar de agro Leontino? quoniam quidem hae quondam arationes Campana et Leontina in populi Romani patrimonio grandiferae et fructuosae ferebantur. medico tria milia iugerum: quid si te sanasset? rhetori duo: quid si te disertum facere potuisset? sed ad iter Italiamque redeamus.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **Discussion Points:**

• Can you think of more recent instances in history where individuals benefitted financially from close association with powerful politicians? (Put differently, to what extent is kleptocracy a universal?)

#### **§ 102: Antony Colonized a Colony!**

Deduxisti coloniam Casilinum, quo Caesar ante deduxerat. consuluisti me per litteras de Capua tu quidem, sed idem de Casilino respondissem: possesne, ubi colonia esset, eo coloniam novam iure deducere. negavi in eam coloniam quae esset auspicato deducta, dum esset incolumis, coloniam novam iure deduci: colonos novos ascribi posse rescripsi. tu autem insolentia elatus omni auspiciorum iure turbato Casilinum coloniam deduxisti, quo erat paucis annis ante deducta, ut vexillum tolleres, ut aratrum circumduceres; cuius quidem vomere portam Capuae paene perstrinxisti, ut florentis coloniae territorium minueretur.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **Discussion Points:**

• Do you find it plausible that Antony consulted Cicero on a religious technicality to do with his settlement policy?

#### **§ 103: Antony's Enrichment Activities**

Ab hac perturbatione religionum advolas in M. Varronis, sanctissimi atque integerrimi viri, fundum Casinatem. quo iure, quo ore? 'Eodem', inquies, 'quo in heredum L. Rubri, quo in heredum L. Turseli praedia, quo in reliquas innumerabiles possessiones'. et si ab hasta, valeat hasta, valeant tabulae modo Caesaris, non tuae, quibus debuisti, non quibus tu te liberavisti. Varronis quidem Casinatem fundum quis venisse dicit, quis hastam istius venditionis vidit, quis vocem praeconis audivit? misisse te dicis Alexandriam qui emeret a Caesare; ipsum enim expectare magnum fuit.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

• Analyze the design of the sentence *Varronis quidem … audivit?*

#### **Discussion Points:**

• How does Cicero play off Caesar against Antony in this paragraph?

#### **§ 104:** *Animal House*

Quis vero audivit umquam — nullius autem salus curae pluribus fuit — de fortunis Varronis rem ullam esse detractam? quid? si etiam scripsit ad te Caesar ut redderes, quid satis potest dici de tanta impudentia? remove gladios parumper illos quos videmus: iam intelleges aliam causam esse hastae Caesaris, aliam confidentiae et temeritatis tuae. non enim te dominus modo illis sedibus sed quivis amicus, vicinus, hospes, procurator arcebit. at quam multos dies in ea villa turpissime es perbacchatus! ab hora tertia bibebatur, ludebatur, vomebatur. o tecta ipsa misera, 'quam dispari domino' — quamquam quo modo iste dominus? — sed tamen quam ab dispari tenebantur! studiorum enim suorum receptaculum M. Varro voluit illud, non libidinum deversorium.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **Discussion Points:**

• What would *you* do as a lodger in Varro's villa?

#### **§ 105:** *Animal House***: The Sequel**

Quae in illa villa antea dicebantur, quae cogitabantur, quae litteris mandabantur! iura populi Romani, monumenta maiorum, omnis sapientiae ratio omnisque doctrinae. at vero te inquilino — non enim domino — personabant omnia vocibus ebriorum, natabant pavimenta vino, madebant parietes, ingenui pueri cum meritoriis, scorta inter matres familias versabantur. Casino salutatum veniebant, Aquino, Interamna: admissus est nemo. iure id quidem; in homine enim turpissimo obsolefiebant dignitatis insignia.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **Discussion Points:**

• Compare and contrast Cicero's depiction of Antony's conduct in Varro's villa in §§ 104–05 with contemporary frat-boy comedies such as *Animal House*: what is (or isn't) funny — and why?

#### **§ 106: Antony Cocooned**

Cum inde Romam proficiscens ad Aquinum accederet, obviam ei processit, ut est frequens municipium, magna sane multitudo. at iste operta lectica latus per oppidum est ut mortuus. stulte Aquinates: sed tamen in via habitabant. quid Anagnini? qui cum essent devii, descenderunt ut istum, tamquam si esset consul, salutarent. incredibile dictu + sed cum vinus + inter omnis constabat neminem esse resalutatum, praesertim cum duos secum Anagninos haberet, Mustelam et Laconem, quorum alter gladiorum est princeps, alter poculorum.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

• What stylistic devices does Cicero use in his portrayal of Antony's alleged mistreatment of locals on his journey back to Rome?

#### **Discussion Points:**

• Discuss the implications of Cicero challenging Antony's status as consul (cf. *tamquam si esset consul*).

#### **§ 107: Symbolic Strutting after Caesar**

Quid ego illas istius minas contumeliasque commemorem quibus invectus est in Sidicinos, vexavit Puteolanos, quod C. Cassium et Brutos patronos adoptassent? magno quidem studio, iudicio, benevolentia, caritate, non, ut te et Basilum, vi et armis, et alios vestri similis quos clientis nemo habere velit, non modo illorum cliens esse. interea dum tu abes, qui dies ille collegae tuo fuit, cum illud quod venerari solebas bustum in foro evertit! qua re tibi nuntiata, ut constabat inter eos qui una fuerunt, concidisti. quid evenerit postea nescio — metum credo valuisse et arma; collegam quidem de caelo detraxisti effecistique non tu quidem etiam nunc ut similis tui, sed certe ut dissimilis esset sui.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

• What stylistic features help to underscore Cicero's spitting contempt in *illas istius minas contumeliasque commemorem*?

#### **§ 108: Swords Galore, or: Antony's Return to Rome**

Qui vero inde reditus Romam, quae perturbatio totius urbis! memineramus Cinnam nimis potentem, Sullam postea dominantem, modo Caesarem regnantem videramus. erant fortasse gladii, sed absconditi nec ita multi; ista vero quae et quanta barbaria est! agmine quadrato cum gladiis sequuntur, scutorum lecticas portari videmus. atque his quidem iam inveteratis, patres conscripti, consuetudine obduruimus. Kalendis Iuniis cum in senatum, ut erat constitutum, venire vellemus, metu perterriti repente diffugimus.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **Discussion Points:**

• How do you think Antony would have advertised his return to Rome?

#### **§ 109: Playing Fast and Loose with Caesar's Legislation**

At iste, qui senatu non egeret, neque desideravit quemquam et potius discessu nostro laetatus est statimque illa mirabilia facinora effecit. qui chirographa Caesaris defendisset lucri sui causa, is leges Caesaris easque praeclaras, ut rem publicam concutere posset, evertit. numerum annorum provinciis prorogavit; idemque, cum actorum Caesaris defensor esse deberet, et in publicis et in privatis rebus acta Caesaris rescidit. in publicis nihil est lege gravius; in privatis firmissimum est testamentum. leges alias sine promulgatione sustulit, alias ut tolleret promulgavit. testamentum irritum fecit, quod etiam infimis civibus semper obtentum est. signa, tabulas, quas populo Caesar una cum hortis legavit, eas hic partim in hortos Pompei deportavit, partim in villam Scipionis.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

• In this paragraph, we get a cascade of main clauses, with the verbs in the perfect tense: *desideravit – laetatus est – effecit – evertit – prorogavit – rescidit – sustulit – promulgavit – fecit – deportavit*. What is the rhetorical effect? And what does the principle, stated in the present tense halfway through the paragraph (*in publicis nihil est lege gravius; in privatis firmissimum est testamentum*), add to the overall design and rhetorical impact?

#### **Discussion Points:**

• Is Cicero here making mountains out of molehills?

#### **§ 110: Caesar: Dead Duck or Deified Dictator?**

Et tu in Caesaris memoria diligens, tu illum amas mortuum? quem is honorem maiorem consecutus erat quam ut haberet pulvinar, simulacrum, fastigium, flaminem? est ergo flamen, ut Iovi, ut Marti, ut Quirino, sic divo Iulio M. Antonius. quid igitur cessas? cur non inauguraris? sume diem, vide qui te inauguret: collegae sumus; nemo negabit. o detestabilem hominem, sive quod tyranni sacerdos es sive quod mortui! quaero deinceps num hodiernus dies qui sit ignores. nescis heri quartum in circo diem ludorum Romanorum fuisse, te autem ipsum ad populum tulisse ut quintus praeterea dies Caesari tribueretur? cur non sumus praetextati? cur honorem Caesaris tua lege datum deseri patimur? an supplicationes addendo diem contaminari passus es, pulvinaria contaminari noluisti? aut undique religionem tolle aut usque quaque conserva.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **Discussion Points:**

• Cicero here blasts Antony for inconsistency in his attitude towards Caesar.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

• Cicero here blasts Antony for his lack of eloquence. What ensures that he does so eloquently?

#### **Discussion Points:**

• Explore the role of ancestors in Roman culture — and political oratory.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **Discussion Points:**

• Do you agree with Cicero that the best 'bodyguard' a statesman can have is the devotion and benevolence he inspires among his fellow-citizens?

#### **§ 113: The** *Res Publica* **Has Watchers!**

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 114: Caesar's Assassination: A Deed of Unprecedented Exemplarity**

Quod si se ipsos illi nostri liberatores e conspectu nostro abstulerunt, at exemplum facti reliquerunt. illi quod nemo fecerat fecerunt.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 115: Looking for the Taste of (Genuine) Glory…**

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 117: Once Burnt Lesson Learnt!**

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

• What do the stylistic devices on display here, such as alliteration or asyndetic tricola, contribute to the tone of the passage?

#### **§ 118: Here I Stand. I Can Do Naught Else**

Certatim posthac, mihi crede, ad hoc opus curretur neque occasionis tarditas exspectabitur. respice, quaeso, aliquando rem publicam, M. Antoni; quibus ortus sis, non quibuscum vivas, considera. mecum, ut voles: redi cum re publica in gratiam. sed de te tu videris; ego de me ipse profitebor. defendi rem publicam adulescens, non deseram senex: contempsi Catilinae gladios, non pertimescam tuos. quin etiam corpus libenter obtulerim, si repraesentari morte mea libertas civitatis potest, ut aliquando dolor populi Romani pariat quod iam diu parturit!

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

#### **§ 119: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!**

Etenim si abhinc annos prope viginti hoc ipso in templo negavi posse mortem immaturam esse consulari, quanto verius nunc negabo seni! mihi vero, patres conscripti, iam etiam optanda mors est, perfuncto rebus eis quas adeptus sum quasque gessi. duo modo haec opto, unum ut moriens populum Romanum liberum relinquam — hoc mihi maius ab dis immortalibus dari nihil potest — alterum ut ita cuique eveniat ut de re publica quisque mereatur.

#### **Study Questions:**

#### **Stylistic Appreciation:**

## COMMENTARY

# § 44: A Glance at Teenage Antony: Insolvent, Transgendered, Pimped, and Groomed

Since OCR invites us to parachute right into the middle of *Philippic* 2, here is a quick orientation of where exactly in the text we are when we reach § 44: after his opening statement (§§ 1–2) and his rebuttal of Antony's attack on him (§§ 3–41), Cicero spends the following two paragraphs inveighing against his adversary's skills as a public speaker, with particular reference to Antony's oratorical efforts in the period immediately after Caesar's assassination. This transitional section (§§ 42–43) helps to set up the second main part of the speech, which begins here in § 44: it features a prolonged and systematic assault on Antony. This portion is of prodigious length (§§ 44–114) and will bring us right up to the concluding peroration (§§ 115–19). Still, Cicero alleges at the end of § 43 that in detailing Antony's depravities he will proceed selectively, so as to have something in reserve for future jousts (*nec enim omnia effundam, ut, si saepius decertandum sit, ut erit, semper novus veniam*). Shortage of subject matter won't be a problem: after all, Antony's vices and misdeeds are legion (*quam facultatem mihi multitudo istius vitiorum peccatorumque largitur*).

One theme that offers continuity across §§ 40–44 is 'inheritance and bankruptcy'. Cicero concludes his self-defence by debunking Antony's slur that bequests do not come his way (§ 40: *hereditates mihi negasti venire*), before noting, at the beginning of § 42, that this line of attack is a bit rich coming from someone like Antony who refused to accept his father's estate because it was loaded with debts (*quamquam hoc maxime admiratus sum, mentionem te hereditatum ausum esse facere, cum ipse*  *hereditatem patris non adisses*). Antony senior died debt-ridden around 71 BCE, when Antony junior was eleven or twelve years old, and Cicero chooses this shameful loss of family fortune as the point of departure for his obloquy in § 44. It enables him to suggest that Antony comes from a disreputable branch of the *gens Antonia* and lacks filial *pietas* on top (since he chose to disown his father). And it dovetails nicely into his main line of attack in the opening paragraph, Antony's shockingly disgraceful sex-life, including the willingness to earn money as a male prostitute before ending up as Curio's toy-boy.

*Moment in time*: This and the following three paragraphs (45–47) detail, or allude to, events that allegedly (! Cicero freely mixes fact and fiction) took place in the late 70s and early to late 60s BCE.

**Visne igitur te inspiciamus a puero?**: Cicero began the previous paragraph with a direct address to his wider (imaginary) audience (43: *at quanta merces rhetori data est! audite, audite, patres conscripti, et cognoscite rei publicae vulnera* — 'But what a fee was given to Antony's teacher in rhetoric! Hear, hear, senators, and learn about the wounds inflicted on the commonwealth!'). By contrast, he opens § 44 with a rhetorical question addressed specifically to Antony, who is also imagined in attendance: *vis* is the 2nd person singular of *volo*, *velle*, attached to which is the enclitic interrogative particle -*ne*. Verbs of will and desire are followed either by an accusative-plus-infinitive (*visne … nos te inspicere …?*) or a subordinate clause introduced by *ut* or *ne* — though 'when the idea of Wishing is emphatic, the simple Subjunctive, without *ut*, is employed' (Gildersleeve and Lodge 347). This is the construction here. In the English translation, an infinitive might be a good way of linking *vis* and *inspiciamus*: 'would you like us to examine you…?'

**igitur**: the conjunction here serves to introduce the promised topic: Antony's depravity (see *OLD* s.v. 4): 'So then'.

**a puero**: *puer* means 'boy', and the ablative phrase indicates a point of origin in time, i.e. 'from boyhood'.

#### *Extra information*:

The precise reference of Roman age-terms is often difficult to determine. In his dialogue *Cato Maior de Senectute* 33, Cicero outlines the 'race-course of life' as involving the following four stages:

For further details, see Parkin (2003) and Cokayne (2003).

**sic opinor**: *sic* here means 'yes' and *opinor* in response to a question 'I think so'. Cicero answers his own rhetorical question with a colloquial affirmation that gives his discourse a snarky flavour: he clearly relishes the prospect of going through Antony's imaginary *CV*.

**a principio ordiamur**: *ordiamur* is an exhortative subjunctive ('Let us…'). The hiatus here, i.e. the collocation of vowels at the end of one word (*principi-o*) and the beginning of another (*o-rdiamur*), is unusual: in good prose style, 'the juxtaposition of the same long vowels should be avoided' (Kirchner 2007: 191). One is therefore left wondering whether Cicero here deliberately breaches stylistic conventions, perhaps to feign distaste at the material he is about to delve into. The phrase *a principio* reiterates and fortifies *a puero* in a mock-serious tone designed to suggest meticulous attention to detail, reminiscent of the *Sound-of-Music* principle 'Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start' or Lewis Carroll, *Alice in Wonderland*: '"Begin at the beginning", the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop"'. (And — nice irony — it must have been the cue for OCR to jump in here!)

**tenesne memoria praetextatum te decoxisse?**: another rhetorical question held in the 2nd person singular, again with the verb (*tenes*) upfront and the enclitic interrogative particle -*ne* tagged on. *tenes … memoria* (= *meministi*) introduces an indirect statement with *te* as subject accusative and the intransitive *decoxisse* as verb. ‖ *decoquo* is a culinary term, meaning 'to diminish the volume of a liquid by boiling (*coquo*) it down (*de*)'. Metaphorically, it was used to refer to squandering resources (the Latin equivalent to our 'to burn through money') as well as the outcome thereof: 'to become insolvent', which is its meaning here. The waste of Antony's patrimony and its toxic consequences are key themes in the paragraph, reinforced through lexical repetition: see *decoctoribus*, *decoxisse*. ‖ *praetextatum* stands in predicative position to *te*: 'when you (still) wore the *toga praetexta*', i.e. 'when you were a boy'. Cicero's use of *praetextatus* as age-label (rather than *puer*, *iuvenis*, or *adulescens*) prepares the ground for the sartorial satire to follow.

**'patris', inquies, 'ista culpa est'**: Cicero imagines Antony's response to the charge of bankruptcy to be a 'It's all me dad's fault'. *inquies* is 2nd person singular future indicative active. ‖ The sentence well illustrates the power of dramatic word order. Stripped of rhetorical amplification, the Latin might read: *culpam esse patris dicet* ('He will say that it is the fault of his father'). Instead of any such bland and boring pronouncement, Cicero offers up a rhetorical gem. To start with, we get an instance of so-called *sermocinatio* or 'dialogue', as Cicero switches from direct address (*visne*…?) to impersonation:1 he acts out what he imagines to be Antony's reply to the charge of insolvency. The use of direct (instead of indirect) speech adds drama to the occasion and also enables Cicero 'to perform Antony'. It further conveys the impression that Antony is under cross-examination, and what he (according to Cicero) comes up with in a moment of stress is not pretty: in a shocking act of shameless disloyalty, he blames his father. The exposed position of the genitive *patris*, further emphasized by the inset *inquies*, enacts Antony's willingness to leave his father hung out to dry, to deflect responsibility from himself.

**patris**: Rome's political culture, with its emphasis on the emulation of forebears and commitment to the preservation of ancestral customs (*mores maiorum*), was much invested in the figure of the father and the notion of paternal discipline (*patria potestas*), in particular their role in transmitting standards of behaviour and adherence to social norms across the generations. Cicero here intimates that Antony, lacking a proper father figure, was set adrift early on with disastrous consequences. His biological father, the disreputable Marcus Antonius Creticus, was strikingly unsuccessful as a military commander, had a nasty reputation for large-scale provincial exploitation, and died in bankruptcy. And his stepfather, Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, joined Catiline's conspiracy and was among those executed by Cicero in

1 For the technique of impersonation see *Rhetorica Ad Herennium* 4.65; *Silva Rhetoricae*, http://rhetoric.byu.edu/: 'Speaking dramatically in the first person for someone else, assigning language that would be appropriate for that person's character (and for one's rhetorical purpose)'.

63 BCE. (In § 14, Cicero explicitly blames Antony for choosing Lentulus as role model rather than a morally more upright relative; cf. also § 17.)

**ista culpa**: there is a hidden agenda in Cicero's use of the demonstrative pronoun *ista*. It implies a sense of relief, coupled with an admission of guilt, on Antony's part: *in this particular instance*, he is able to shift the blame onto someone else, and does so gladly even if it amounts to a betrayal of his progenitor; yet the over-emphatic demonstrative suggests a guilty conscience — a nervous awareness that further charges are bound to stick.  But as we read on, it becomes apparent that the quasi-conciliatory tone in fact prepares the way for a sucker punch:

**etenim est pietatis plena defensio**: *etenim* sets up the sarcastic quip that Cicero only lets him off the hook since Antony anyway impales himself: his imaginary line of defence (shifting blame onto his father) manifests a shocking lack of *pietas*. Cicero again uses extraordinary word order to highlight the key lexeme: just as *patris*, the genitive *pietatis* takes pride of place. The correlated fronting of both *patris* and *pietatis* (words further linked by alliteration) energizes Cicero's sarcasm stylistically. (Contrast the 'unmarked' variant: *etenim defensio est plena pietatis*.) Antony here violates a fundamental Roman value: 'the father / son relationship was bilateral in nature, including devotion and affection on the part of the sons and consideration and respect on the part of the fathers. The Latin word *pietas*, used to describe moral and social duty of both sons and fathers, encapsulated this dual set of emotional obligations' (Cantarella 2003: 286).

**etenim**: the conjunction is used for 'adding something in explanation or corroboration of what has been said or implied' (*OLD* s.v.).

**plena**: for *plenus* + genitive see Gildersleeve & Lodge 239: 'Of adjectives of *Fulness*, with the Genitive, only *plenus*, *repletus*, *inops*, and *inanis* are classical and common; … *Plenus* occurs very rarely with the Abl. in Cicero and Caesar, more often in Livy'.

**illud** [est] **tamen audaciae tuae quod sedisti in quattuordecim ordinibus, cum esset lege Roscia decoctoribus certus locus constitutus, quamvis quis fortunae vitio, non suo decoxisset**: the main verb of the sentence (*est*) is understood. *audaciae tuae* is a genitive of characteristic. The substantive *quod*-clause (in the indicative: Cicero claims to be reporting a fact) elaborates on — and stands in apposition to — *illud*. The subsequent *cum*- and *quamvis*-clauses explain why Cicero objects to Antony having taken a seat in the theater in the front fourteen rows. At Rome, 'seating arrangements at the games were a reflection and reaffirmation of the social hierarchy' (Edwards 1993: 111), and in 67 BCE the tribune of the people Lucius Roscius Otho passed the *lex Roscia theatralis*, which reserved the first fourteen rows (the *quattuordecim ordines*) behind the orchestra in the Roman theatre for the 'knights' (*equites*) — a social rank based in part on the assessment of wealth, i.e. property and possessions worth at least 400,000 sesterces. (We play the same games of privilege, eg John Lennon at the Royal Variety Performance, 'For our last number I'd like to ask your help. Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry'.) Roscius' law stipulated that those whose fortune dipped below this level lose the privilege of special seating — even if (as Cicero goes on to stress in the *quamvis*-clause) the insolvency was not their fault, but a stroke of bad luck. See further Rawson (1987: 102).

**audaciae tuae**: *audacia* ('recklessness'), which might be a useful quality in battle, 'is exclusively negative in Cicero's works' (McDonnell 2006: 59). *audax* and *audacia* are common slurs in Cicero's political invective, referring generally 'to those who oppose the *boni* with disregard for the law' (Grillo 2015: 124), with reference to Wirszubski (1961) and Weische (1966: 28–33), and Cicero, *de Inventione* 1.5); yet 'the intensive application within [the second speech against Catiline] associates them specifically with the conspirators' (Hutchinson 2005: 185). In *Philippic* 2, Cicero comes back to the thematic link between Catiline and *audacia* right away, calling Antony 'more reckless than Catiline' (*audacior quam Catilina*) in the programmatic opening paragraph. *audacia* remains a hallmark of Antony throughout the speech: see §§ 4 (*o incredibilem audaciam*), 9 (*audaciae tuae*), 19 (Antony takes pride in his *audacia*, though certain of his seemingly reckless acts should rather be ascribed to his stupidity), 43 (*homo audacissime*), 64 (Antony's *audacia* tops that of everyone else), 68 (*o audaciam immanem*), 78 (*nequam hominem audacemque*), 90 (*audacia*). Here we might capture a sly dig at Antony's stepfather (see above on *patris*), who passed on his wicked disposition to his impressionable charge. Words 'of the *audeo*, *audax*, *audacia* family' also occur frequently in Roman comedy to refer to improper or outrageous behaviour: see Sussman (1998: 117, n. 8). The two frames of reference — political invective and comedy — are clearly not mutually exclusive.

**decoctoribus certus locus constitutus**: this is the first of three instances of the attribute *certus, -a, -um* in the paragraph, all mockingly alliterated. (In addition to *decoctoribus certus locus constitutus*, see *certa … merces* and *cito Curio* … *in matrimonio … certo collocavit* below.) The collocation *certus locus* would seem to imply that Roscius' law, on top of depriving the insolvent of the privilege to sit with their rank, allocated them to a special area (of shame?), though our sources are silent on what that area might have been.

**quamvis quis fortunae vitio, non suo** [vitio] **decoxisset**: the law did not differentiate between those who became insolvent owing to circumstances beyond their control such as parental mismanagement (= *fortunae vitio*, where *fortuna* means something akin to 'bad luck') and those who were personally responsible for their family's loss of wealth.

**sumpsisti virilem, quam statim muliebrem togam reddidisti**: after dealing with one instance of teenage delinquency, Cicero moves on to the moment when Antony came of age, which in Rome was marked by the ritual change of the *toga praetexta* (the boyhood *toga*) for the *toga virilis* (the manhood *toga*). Cicero's syntax suggests that Antony instantly perverted the garment — turning it into something suitable for a person the exact opposite of a man with citizenship status, i.e. a woman (*mulier*) for sale (as the next sentence shows): the noun that *virilem* modifies, i.e. *togam*, which also serves as antecedent to the relative pronoun *quam*, has been sucked into the relative clause to keep close company with *muliebrem*: 'you assumed the toga of manhood, which you instantly turned into the outfit worn by female prostitutes'. This is humiliation not by cross-dressing but by trans-gendering: 'Accusations of men wearing women's clothing are a well-attested form of invective and there are repeated examples of this within Cicero's speeches. In this passage, however, it is not that Antony has made himself effeminate

by wearing women's clothes, he has instead worn the *toga muliebris* and so has become a *scortum*, a prostitute' (Dixon 2014: 302). (In fact, Cicero puts it the other way around, claiming that Antony as soon as he came of age, prostituted himself and thereby transformed his brand-new *toga virilis*, which ought to have been a badge of pride, into a *toga muliebris*, a mark of shame.) 'Woman' is a common aspersion in the hypermasculine, testosterone-fuelled world of Roman politics, which often coincides with charges of sexual licentiousness: in one of his speeches against Verres (2.2.192), for instance, Cicero suggests that it is impossible to find a man lazier and more cowardly, more a man among women and a contemptible woman among men than his adversary (*homo inertior, ignavior, magis vir inter mulieres, impura inter viros muliercula proferri non potest*); and in the speech on his house (*de Domo sua* 139), his archenemy Clodius is said to have violated religious sensibilities by being a woman among men and a man among women (*contra fas et inter viros saepe mulier et inter mulieres vir*). Interestingly enough, Curio Pater is supposed to have quipped about Caesar that he was 'every woman's man and every man's woman' (Suetonius, *Life of Julius Caesar* 52.3: *omnium mulierum virum et omnium virorum mulierem*).

**primo** [eras] **vulgare scortum**: the original meaning of *scortum* is 'leather' or 'hide', but it is also a word for both male and female prostitute from Plautus onwards, presumably on account of a fantasised connection between the working of leather and sexual intercourse: see Adams (1983), who also notes that *scortum* was a more pejorative term than *meretrix*. 2 So *scortum vulgare* = 'a whore — and a common one to boot'. (In fact, the underlying idea might be that the *scortum* is like an 'old boot', supposedly worn 'hard' — and worn out — by too much sex.) The practice of prostitution carried a heavy social stigma in republican Rome and included 'the exclusion of prostitutes and pimps from the senatorial order, the equestrian order, the roll of judges (*album iudicum*), the decurionate, and the army' — as well as a host of other civic disabilities (McGinn 1998: 26). The accusation of prostitution is a standard topos of political invective: 'Not surprisingly, prostitutes