We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2013
In September 46 bc, Cicero delivered a speech in the Senate, praising the dictator Caesar for the clemency and wisdom he had shown in pardoning M. Marcellus. The forgiveness of a man who had been, in Caesar's own words, characterized by particular acerbitas seemed all the more magnanimous, and Cicero recalls the occasion in a letter sent to his friend, S. Sulpicius Rufus. He was so overwhelmed by Caesar's generosity, he adds, that he broke a period of self-imposed silence and spoke at length when he was asked to give his opinion. The words he delivered apparently extempore were later written down and published, probably quite soon after the event of their delivery. It has come down to us as the Pro Marcello, and in this speech Cicero does not just praise the dictator but also attempts to influence Caesar, and steer him towards a more republican attitude.
Versions of this article were delivered as papers at the Pacific Rim Roman Literature seminar 2009 at University College London and at the Classical Association Conference 2010 at Cardiff, in the panel ‘Roman Constructions: Rhetoric and Historiography’ with Edward Bragg and Kathryn Welch. I wish to thank my co-panellists and both audiences for their reactions and helpful comments, especially Gesine Manuwald and Jonathan Powell, who have continued discussions with me informally on the points presented. All translations are my own.
1 This summary is largely a paraphrase of Cic. Fam. 4.4.3–4, discussed further below; Cicero had not spoken publicly for almost six years, and not at all since he had returned to Rome following the civil war.
2 It has even been suggested that the published text is a stenographic record of the speech that Cicero delivered on the day; thus V. Paladini, Scritti minori (Rome, 1973). I am not convinced by this suggestion, despite the tentative support it has received from Gotoff, H. C., Cicero's Caesarian Speeches (Chapel Hill, NC and London, 1993)Google Scholar, xxxiii, who admits that it may have been a possibility, given the lack of evidence to suggest that Cicero was involved in its publication. But Gotoff does add an important consideration as to why Cicero would have wanted the text transmitted quickly: namely, it was his first formal speech for over seven years. Furthermore, it was Cicero's general practice to publish orations of current interest quite soon after the moment of their delivery: see J. N. Settle, ‘The Publication of Cicero's Orations’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of North Carolina (1962), esp. 261–4.
3 On the title, see von Albrecht, M., Cicero's Style. A Synopsis (Leiden, 2003), 170–1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4 See also Gotoff, H. C., ‘Cicero's Caesarian Orations’, in May, J. M. (ed.), Brill's Companion to Cicero. Oratory and Rhetoric (Leiden, 2002), 219, 234–5Google Scholar. The structure of the oration reflects these mixed aims: useful outlines can be found in MacKendrick, P., The Speeches of Cicero (London, 1995), 406–8Google Scholar; and Winterbottom, M., ‘Believing the Pro Marcello’, in Miller, J. F., Damon, C. and Myers, K. S. (eds.), Vertis in Usum. Studies in Honor of E. Courtney (Munich, 2002)Google Scholar, 31, n. 13.
5 Fuller introductions to the problem of the Pro Marcello and the scholarly debate surrounding it can be found in Gotoff (n. 4), and Tedeschi, A., Lezione de buon governo per un dittatore. Cicerone, Pro Marcello, saggio di commento (Bari, 2005), 7–30Google Scholar. For an excellent overview of the interpretative difficulties of the Pro Marcello and the processes involved, see Dugan, J., ‘Cicero and the Politics of Ambiguity: Interpreting the Pro Marcello’, in Steel, C. and Van Der Blom, H. (eds.), Community and Communication: Oratory and Politics in Republican Rome (Oxford, 2013), 211–25Google Scholar.
6 Rawson, E., Cicero. A Portrait (London, 1975)Google Scholar, 219.
7 Nisbet, R. G. M., ‘The Speeches’, in Dorey, T. A. (ed.), Cicero (London, 1964)Google Scholar, 75.
8 Dyer, R. R., ‘Rhetoric and Intention in Cicero's Pro Marcello’, JRS 80 (1990), 17–30Google Scholar; Dyer's argument is taken further by Gagliardi, P., Il dissenso e l'ironia. Per una rilettura delle orazioni ‘cesariane’ di Cicerone (Naples, 1997)Google Scholar. In dating the publication of the Pro Marcello to 45 bc, after the death of M. Marcellus, she suggests that the speech, like all the Caesarian orations, is entirely ironic.
9 Winterbottom (n. 4). Also contra Dyer's ironic reading (n. 8), see Levene, D. S., ‘God and Man in the Classical Latin Panegyric’, PCPhS 43 (1997), 66–103, esp. 68–9Google Scholar.
10 Winterbottom (n. 4), 33–4, 38.
11 Thus e.g. ‘If someone wants to call us in, not just as architects but even as workmen, to help build the res publica, we shall not refuse, indeed we shall hasten to it cheerfully’ (non deesse si quis adhibere volet, non modo ut architectos verum etiam ut fabros, ad aedificandum rem publicam, et potius libenter accurrere; Cic. Fam. 9.2.5).
12 This is the approach taken, in particular, by many biographers. Thus e.g. Stockton, D., Cicero. A Political Biography (Oxford, 1971)Google Scholar, 273: ‘It [the Pro Marcello] starts awkwardly and ponderously; but gradually he [Cicero] moves into his old stride, and words and ideas begin to flow freely again as he leaves the formal phrases of thanks behind him and warms to his favourite theme of the Res Publica and the need for constitutional reconstruction.’
13 For a discussion of the problems that Cicero faced as a politician struggling to adapt to the new circumstances, see e.g. Hall, J., ‘Serving the Times: Cicero and Caesar the Dictator’, in Dominik, W., Garthwaite, J., and Roche, P. (eds.), Writing Politics in Imperial Rome (Leiden, 2009), 89–110CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 103 ff.
14 On Cicero's character as an advisor, see M. Fusco, ‘From Auditor to Actor: Cicero's Dramatic Use of Personae in the Exordium’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Chicago (1988), 192–228; on his agenda and persuasive strategies, see Gotoff (n. 4), 219–71.
15 Cipriani, G., ‘La Pro Marcello e il suo significato come orazione politica’, Atene e Roma 22 (1977), 113–25Google Scholar. Other studies that have focused on Cicero's political agenda in the Pro Marcello are: Rambaud, M., ‘Le Pro Marcello el l'insinuation politique’, Caesarodonum 19 (1984), 43–56Google Scholar; Dobesch, G., ‘Politische Bemerkungen zu Ciceros Rede pro Marcello’, in Weber, E. and Dobesch, G. (eds.), Römische Geschichte. Festschrift A. Betz (Vienna, 1985), 153–231Google Scholar. Linked to this is the argument that the speech is also a speculum principis – a didactic work that seeks to instruct the ruler in how he ought to behave; thus Rochlitz, S., Das Bild Caesars in Ciceros Orationes Caesarianae. Untersuchungen zur clementia und sapientia Caesaris (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1993), esp. 79–102Google Scholar.
16 On this point, see Braund, S. Morton, ‘Praise and Protreptic in Early Imperial Panegyric: Cicero, Seneca, Pliny’, in Whitby, M. (ed.), The Propaganda of Power. The Role of Panegyric in Late Antiquity (Leiden, 1998), 54–76Google Scholar, reprinted in Rees, R. (ed.), Latin Panegyric (Oxford, 2012), 85–108.Google Scholar
17 Thus von Albrecht (n. 3), 171–2; Krostenko, B. A., ‘Style and Ideology in the Pro Marcello’, in Welch, K. and Hillard, T. W. (eds.), Roman Crossings. Theory and Practice in the Roman Republic (Swansea, 2005), 283–316Google Scholar; Tempest, K., ‘Hellenistic Oratory at Rome: Cicero's Pro Marcello’, in Kremmydas, C. and Tempest, K. (eds.), Hellenistic Oratory. Continuity and Change (Oxford, 2013), 295–318.Google Scholar
18 Gotoff (n. 4).
19 On the anxieties of appearing sincere, albeit in a different period and under different circumstances, see the illuminating discussion by Bartsch, S., Actors in the Audience. Theatricality and Doublespeak from Nero to Hadrian (Cambridge, MA, and London, 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. ch. 5, ‘The Art of Sincerity: Pliny's Panegyricus’, reprinted in Rees (n. 16), 148–93.
20 May, J. M., Trials of Character. The Eloquence of Ciceronian Ethos (Chapel Hill, NC, and London, 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 165.
21 I say ‘partially’ because Cicero's character is clearly thrown into the spotlight in the exordium (Marcell. 1–4), where he comments on his long-held silence and connects the pardon of Marcellus with his own political rehabilitation. At Marcell. 14–15, too, Cicero comments on his promotion of peace during the civil war, an attitude which he also ascribes to Marcellus at Marcell. 16.
22 Quotations from the Latin text are taken from J. Powell, G. F., M. Tulli Ciceronis. De republica. De legibus (Oxford, 2006)Google Scholar (OCT); in passages where there may be some room for doubt, I also cite from Ziegler, K., Cicero. De republica (Leipzig, 1992 [1915]) (Z).Google Scholar
23 For a recent attempt to piece together Cicero's overall message in the De republica, see Powell, J. G. F., ‘Cicero's De re publica and the Virtues of the Statesman’, in Nicgorski, W. (ed.), Cicero's Practical Philosophy (Notre Dame, IN, 2012), 14–42.Google Scholar
24 The reference is to the Roman game of trigon, in which the ball was passed among the players in a random order; thus Powell, J. G. F., ‘Were Cicero's Laws the Laws of Cicero's Republic?’, in Powell, J. G. F. and North, J. A (eds.), Cicero's Republic (London, 2001), 17–39Google Scholar. My discussion here is indebted to his article, especially pp. 24–5.
25 Elsewhere Cicero makes Laelius say that ‘our state could live on forever, if our ancestral principles and customs continue to thrive’ (quae poterat esse perpetua si patriis viveretur institutis et moribus; Rep. 3.41).
26 Although Cicero expresses this ideal through a variety of words in the De Republica, it is always with the sense of a leading statesman. Other references can be found at Rep. 2.45, 51, 67–9; 5.9; 6.1. For discussion, see How, W. W., ‘Cicero's Ideal in his De re publica’, JRS 20 (1930), 24–42, esp. 40–1Google Scholar; Powell, J. G. F., ‘The rector rei publicae of Cicero's De Republica’, SCI 13 (1994), 19–29Google Scholar; Ferrary, J. –L., ‘The Statesman and the Law in the Political Philosophy of Cicero’, in Laks, A. and Schofield, M. (eds.), Justice and Generosity. Studies in Hellenistic Social and Political Philosophy (Cambridge, 1995), 48–73, esp. 52–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
27 The full quotation reads: ‘Consider, now, how wisely other provisions have been made for that partnership of citizens in a happy and honourable life: for that is the main reason for men coming together, and it should be accomplished for them by the state, partly by established customs, partly by laws’ (Considerate nunc cetera quam sint provisa sapienter ad illam civium beate et honeste vivendi societatem: ea est prima causa coeundi, et id hominibus effici ex republica debet, partim institutis alia legibus).
28 The reinforcement of moral standards, especially through the threat of ignominia, is also discussed in the extant fragments of Book 4; see J. E. G. Zetzel: ‘Citizen and Commonwealth in De re publica’, in Powell and North (n. 24), 83–97, esp. 90–1.
29 See e.g. Cic. Att 7.3.2 (on his own performance); at Cic. Att. 8.11, written in February 49, Cicero states that neither Caesar nor Pompey has behaved according to the criteria he has set for the ideal statesman.
30 As noticed, for example, by Lepore, E., Il princeps ciceroniano e gli ideali politici della tarda repubblica (Naples, 1954)Google Scholar, 357: ‘Le orazione cesariane, a cominciare dalla pro marcello…respirano ancora nel clima dottrinale del De re publica’ (‘The Caesarian orations, beginning with the Pro Marcello…still breathe the doctrinal air of the De republica’).
31 Cicero may well have in mind here the plot of which he later accused Antony at Phil. 2.74; cf. Plut. Vit. Caes. 57.7; thus also Winterbottom (n. 4), 32, n. 17.
32 Thus Tedeschi (n. 5), 120; on the ‘sting’ in this sentence, see e.g. Gotoff (n. 4), 231.
33 Compare, for example Cicero's discussion of the ideal citizen at Rep. 2.51 to the description of his own service to the state during his consulship at Rep. 1.10–11.
34 Gotoff (n. 4), 221; the phrase is taken from Cicero's own suggestion, several years earlier, that he could play the ‘Sapiens’ to Pompey, who was hence the ‘Scipio’ in the relationship (Cic. Fam. 5.7.3).
35 See Crawford, M., Roman Republican Coinage, 2 vols (Cambridge, 1974)Google Scholar, i.89–94 (nos. 442–79), with further discussion at ii.735–7.
36 In particular, a clay relief from the Via Cassia from about this period depicts a woman (often identified with Roma) kneeling at the feet of a victorious general, who is identified with Weinstock, Caesar. S., Divus Julius (Oxford, 1971), 45–6Google Scholar, offers the interpretation that it depicts Caesar giving his hand to help raise Roma up from prostration. If this is correct, it suggests that Cicero is adopting an artistic theme of Roma, resurgent with Caesar's help, and adapting it to an oratorical context.
37 That Cicero enlarges on, corrects, or twists aspects of Caesar's own self-representation has been noted before, but in different contexts. Thus von Albrecht (n. 3), 171, notes how at Marcell. 7 Cicero qualifies and twists Caesar's own self-portrait in the Bellum Civile and the stress he places on the value of a general's consilium; see also von Albrecht's discussion of how Cicero adapts Caesar's interpretation of dignitas and sapientia (ibid., 168–9). In an unpublished PhD thesis, Charles E. Ramos suggests that Cicero uses the terms laus and gloria in the Pro Marcello to criticize Caesar's own (selfish) interpretation of these ideals, and steer him instead towards a more civic-orientated point of view (‘Politics and Rhetoric: Studies in Cicero's Caesarian speeches’ [University of Texas, 1994], 132–72). Similarly, Krostenko (n. 17), 292, considers how Cicero's reference to Caesar's lenitas is used to bind Caesar to a course of merciful action.
38 See e.g. Gelzer, M., Caesar. Politician and Statesman, trans. Needham, P. (Cambridge, MA, 1968)Google Scholar, 280, who states that ‘the main significance of the speech is that it gives expression to Cicero's own political programme’.
39 For Caesar's programme of reform, see Suet. Iul. 40–4.
40 On the emphasis on morality and these provisions in the De republica, compare the comment of Augustine: ‘Look at it, I pray, and see how much praise he bestows there on frugality and temperance, and on faith in the marital bond, as well as on chaste, honest, and upright customs’ (Intuere, obsecro te, et cerne quantis ibi laudibus frugalitas et continentia praedicetur, et erga coniugale vinculum fides, castique honesti ac probi mores; August. Ep. 91.3).
41 A fragment of the sixth book repeats this point: ‘For our ancestors desired for marriages to be strongly established’ (Firmiter enim maiores nostri stabilita matrimonia esse voluerunt; Rep. 6.10 OCT = 6.2e Z).
42 It is a metaphor that Cicero often uses in this context; thus he employs similar terms to exhort Pompey in the Pro Milone: ‘But who does not understand that all the sick and ailing parts of the res publica have been put in your care, so that you can heal and strengthen them by these weapons’ (Sed quis non intellegit omnis tibi rei publicae partis aegras et labantis, ut eas his armis sanares et confirmares, esse commissas, Cic. Mil. 68).
43 As noted, for example, by Gotoff (n. 2), 70, and (n. 4), 232; Tedeschi (n. 5), 129.
44 For the same idea elsewhere, see Rep. 1.8: ‘For our country did not endow us with laws or life, without expecting to receive some form of reimbursement, as it were, from us’ (neque enim hac nos patria lege genuit aut educavit, ut nulla quasi alimentaexspectaret a nobis). The word alimenta specifically refers to a reimbursement owed to one's parents: see Zetzel, J. E. G., Cicero. De re publica (Cambridge, 1995)Google Scholar, ad loc.
45 As has recently been argued by J. G. F. Powell (n. 24).
46 Generally, Caesar's clementia has been singled out as the virtue that Cicero praises in the Pro Marcello, but this focus switches in the second half of the oration. On the importance of sapientia, see Rochlitz (n. 15) and von Albrecht (n. 3) 172–3.
47 Commenting on this opening sentence, Gotoff (n. 2), 12, remarks: ‘Gentle Caesar or his divine clementia might have comprised the first theme, or the noble and valued Marcellus and his imminent return to Rome. Instead Cicero explores the effect of the occasion on himself and claims that Caesar's decision creates a critical moment in his own career and in the life of the Republic.’
