Cicero won the case against major resistance. Non dicam: ‘an effective form of comparatio, rising from a lesser variety of wrongdoing to a greater’: Mitchell (1986) 185. hoc dico…: Latin authors frequently add a demonstrative pronoun to verbs of thinking and stating that introduce an accusative + infinitive construction to give special emphasis to the indirect statement: ‘This I say, namely that you…’ The feature gains in force and prominence here by way of contrast to the non-dicam clause, where Cicero does not use it. 11After the selection of the jury in the second half of July, the trial began on 5 August. 2.1.53-86 can serve as an excellent point of departure for branching out into Roman history and culture, especially the imperial culture of the late republic and themes to do with the imperial expansion of Rome across the Mediterranean world, in particular the Greek East. Cicero in Verrem 2.1.53-86; Tacitus Annals 15.20–23, 33–45; Virgil Aeneid 4.1-299; Upload a Resource (test mode – don’t use) ... Register Login. Alexander, Hortensius' speech [in bibliography]) • Cicero subsequently publishes the Actio Secunda (In Verrem II) in five books, in which he has collected and arranged the list of Verres’ misdeeds 2. ; 82: Nolite... cogere,... nisi vos vindicatis! 2 Cicero, In Verrem II. ), Brill’s Companion to Cicero: Oratory and Rhetoric, Leiden, Boston, Cologne, 23-48. 13In the aftermath of the trial, Cicero not only published the Divinatio in Caecilium and the speech he gave during the actio prima (commonly labelled in Verrem 1), but also the five speeches he had prepared for the actio secunda (in Verrem 2.1-5). For each province, a lex provinciae defined the rights and obligations that the otherwise by and large self-governing civic communities (civitates) within a province had towards Rome. Oppidum est : in in, on, at; in accordance with/regard to/the case of; within in, auf, nach, an, gegen dans, sur, à, conformément à l'/ ce qui concerne les / le cas d'; dans in, su, su, in conformità con / per quanto riguarda / il caso di; all'interno en, sobre, en; de conformidad con / respecto a / el caso de, dentro de The staff included fairly high-ranking Romans with ambitions of entering the cursus honorum, that is, a political career involving magistracies and military commands. While it may go too far to see this institution, in which members of Rome’s ruling elite sat in judgement over their peers, as a means by which Rome’s imperial republic maintained for itself the myth of beneficial imperialism, in practice the court can be considered ‛the chief countervailing force against the all-powerful Roman magistrate and his companions in the military field and provincial government.’36, 31In the course of its history, arrangements of who could act as prosecutor and who manned the juries underwent several changes. See also Gurd, S. (2010), ’Verres and the Scene of Rewriting’, Phoenix 64, 80-101. In turn, a basic grasp of historical facts and figures will aid in understanding our passage. The senatorial monopoly of criminal jurisdiction was terminated.’37 Cicero obliquely links the case at hand to this imminent judicial reform, thereby putting his individual stamp on a watershed-year in Roman history. Vous allez être redirigé vers OpenEdition Search, Portail de ressources électroniques en sciences humaines et sociales, 2. Indeed, his talent for spin was only topped by his ability to assassinate someone’s character. For details, see Vasaly, A. 23 One may wish to distinguish the act of narration or the result thereof, i.e. And in § 76, Cicero describes the public execution of Philodamus and his son in the city of Laodicea as a tragic spectacle, matching the bestial cruelty (crudelitas) of the Roman officials Verres and Dolabella against the humanitas (humanity) and the family-values of the condemned. ), Kingdoms and Principalities in the Roman Near East, Stuttgart, 15-42. CONTENTS Chronological Table 3 Marcus Tullius Cicero 4 Gaius Verres 5 The Context of the Case 5 Roman Oratory 6 The Text: Cicero, In Verrem II. 21In this context, it is also worth noting how Cicero constantly engages the audience: he appeals to them as persons endowed with a special disposition and committed to certain values, but does not hesitate to let them know how disastrous it would be if they did not decide the case at hand in his favour. OpenEdition est un portail de ressources électroniques en sciences humaines et sociales. (cf. 1. Note also the crescendo from one accusative object (omnia) to two prepositional phrases in the ablative, the second with an attribute (ex fanis, ex locis publicis), to three phrases indicating modalities of removal: palam (an adverb), spectantibus omnibus (an ablative absolute), plaustris (an instrumental ablative). Many more detailed accounts of the circumstances of the trial exist than the bare-bone coverage provided here. (1984), Roman provincial administration, 227 BC to AD 117, Princeton; and Lintott, A. 2.2-5 with the fourth. to 71 B.C., who was prosecuted by Cicero in 70 B.C. Ver. The traits Cicero emphasizes in the former are his murderous villainy and conspicuous stupidity, whereas the latter comes into Cicero’s rhetorical crosshairs for his yellow-bellied cowardice. Even after the climactic nullum signum, the ending -um continues Cicero’s habit of underscoring thematic coherence by means of stylistic coherence: in his discussion of the one item of art singled out for special attention, that is the introspective cithara-player, *homoioteleuton recurs (illum Aspendium citharistam; illum ipsum). 12 For details, see Marshall, A. J. 27After their year as magistrates, consuls and praetors were customarily appointed as governors of provinces, assuming the title of pro-consul (‛acting consul’) or pro-praetor (‛acting praetor’) during their time in office (usually one year, but often prolonged). His service as quaestor under the consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo came to an abrupt and disgraceful end when he scarpered with the public money entrusted to him (some half million sesterces) to Carbo’s enemy Sulla.5 And a couple of years later he repaid the support he had enjoyed as legate under Gnaeus Dolabella in Cilicia by acting as prime witness in the extortion trial that Dolabella faced upon his return to Rome.6 Complaints about his abuse of power dogged his governorship in Sicily throughout his term in office, even necessitating the (futile) intervention of a consul in 72 BC. In the context of the Verrines, the opportunity of inventing his facts was particularly available when Cicero covered the early stages of Verres’ career, which he did in in Verrem 2.1. My name is Fadil Nohur, a.k.a. ), Cicero the Advocate, Oxford, 187-213. 1 I. Nemini video dubium esse, iudices, quin apertissime C. Verres in Sicilia sacra profanaque omnia et privatim et publice spoliarit, versatusque sit sine ulla non modo religione verum etiam dissimulatione in omni genere furandi atque praedandi. The (fairly frequent) phenomenon of a relative pronoun assuming a twofold syntactic function is best illustrated by rephrasing the relative clause as a main clause: eum omnia ‘intus canere’ dicebant – ‘they used to say that he played all of his music inside’. (2002), ’Rhetorical Education in Cicero’s Youth’, in J. M. May (ed. A keynote of the speech (2.1: Neminem vestrum ignorare arbitror, iudices...) is that Cicero’s audience is in the know: Verres’ shenanigans, trickery, and attempts at deception cannot fool them.26 But since his guilt is so glaring and well-established, a verdict of innocent would reveal the judges inevitably as corrupt and unfit for their role. 27 For a highly readable and very stimulating account of how Rome became involved with the Greek world that includes all the important facts and figures with a hard look at scholarly orthodoxies, see Gruen, E. S. (2004), ’Rome and the Greek World’, in H. I. 19Cicero takes great care to provide vivid portrayals of the characters he deals with in his speeches.24 The Verrines are no exceptions. Cicero’s main aim in this paragraph is to illustrate the magnitude of Verres’ greed, in particular how it manifests itself in comprehensive looting. 35 Braund, D. C. (1998), ’Cohors. 16 For those speeches that he decided not to disseminate in written form, see Crawford, J. W. (1984), M. Tullius Cicero: The Lost and Unpublished Orations, Göttingen. plenissimum: Cicero is very fond of ‘extreme’ expressions, such as superlatives (as here; see also optimorum and intimis) or adjectives that articulate extremes or a sense of totality, such as nullus and omnis (which in this paragraph alone occurs three times): see next note. 7 Wiseman, T. P. (1971), New Men in the Roman Senate, Oxford; Gildenhard, I. 2.1 is primarily a warm-up to his account of Verres’ governorship of Sicily, to which he devoted the four subsequent speeches.20. unaffected by the mood-swings of the electorate, and who can therefore ensure a certain degree of institutional continuity from one legislative period to the next. The most important handbook on invention and style in classical and classicizing rhetoric is Lausberg, H. (1998), Handbook of Literary Rhetoric, Leiden. Assignments were usually done by lot, but could also be ‛arranged’ by those who were entitled to take up a provincial governorship in any given year. Private Enterprise in the Service of the Roman Republic, Oxford. hoc dīcō, nūllum tē Aspendī signum, Verrēs, relīquisse, omnia ex fānīs, ex locīs pūblicīs, palam, spectantibus omnibus, plaustrīs ēvecta exportātaque esse. 12Verres’ advocate Hortensius did not expect this deviation from standard procedure and faced a difficult challenge. For Classics teachers. or use a Roman numeral (Ver. edit. 1 I follow the practice of the Oxford Latin Dictionary in referring to the speeches, but reference s ; 2 Settle, J. N. (1962), The publication of Cicero’s orations, Diss. nullum te Aspendi signum, Verres, reliquisse, omnia ex fanis, ex locis publicis, palam, spectantibus omnibus, plaustris evecta exportataque esse: Cicero builds up carefully towards this quick-fire sentence, with its notably *asyndetic style. 18In his handling of the affair at Lampsacus, Cicero opts for a two-pronged approach to prove Verres’ guilt: to begin with, he simply presupposes that the sequence of events has as its unifying factor Verres’ inability to keep his lecherous instincts under control. (For deixis and the adjective ‘deictic’, which comes from the Greek deiktikos, meaning ‘able to show, showing directly’ see Morwood (1999) 151: ‘the use of words or expressions to point to some feature of a situation. For excellent and accessible treatments see Richardson, J. Not the least of their skills was the ability to think up procedural shenanigans to derail or at least delay the trial until the following year. The Content of Cic. Vous pouvez suggérer à votre bibliothèque/établissement d’acquérir un ou plusieurs livres publié(s) sur OpenEdition Books.N'hésitez pas à lui indiquer nos coordonnées :OpenEdition - Service Freemiumaccess@openedition.org22 rue John Maynard Keynes Bat. Cicero also knows how to underscore the reliability of his two prime witnesses: P. Tettius and C. Varro, who both served on the staff of Nero (§ 71). 2.1.53 You know that Aspendus is an ancient and noble town in Pamphylia, full of very fine statues. ; 72: andite, qnaeso, indices et... miseremini... et ostendite...! Cicero’s version of what happened at Lampsacus is the centrepiece of the first oration he prepared for the second hearing (i.e. Links to resources for finding sight reading passages of moderate difficulty, most with glosses. Non dicam illinc hoc signum ablatum esse et illud. 28 For a range of views on how and why Rome conquered the Greek East (from deliberate policy to mainly reactive to Greek concerns and invitations) see Harris, W. (1979), War and Imperialism in Republican Rome, Oxford; Gruen, E. S. (1984), The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome, Berkeley; and Morstein Kallet-Marx, R. (1995), Hegemony to Empire. 1 nobis G1. In § 69, he reports that Roman citizens in Lampsacus on business successfully intervened when the local mob was trying to burn down the house in which Verres stayed. Cicero triumphed with the (surviving) speech Divinatio in Caecilium, in which he showed that his adversary was just not up to the task.nominis delatio and nominis receptio (c. 20 January 70 or soon thereafter): after his victory over Caecilius, Cicero submitted a formal charge (nominis delatio), which was accepted by the praetor (nominis receptio).inquisitio: to prepare his case, Cicero asked for, and was granted, 110 days, during which he travelled to Sicily to secure witnesses and documentation. This proverb also applies to those who look much after their own personal interests at the expense of moral rectitude.). ), The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic, Cambridge, 242-67. ), Brill’s Companion to Cicero: Oratory and Rhetoric, Leiden, Boston, Cologne, 71-111 (87-103). (1993), Imperium Romanum. 2.1. ), Freundschaft und Gefolgschaft in den auswärtigen Beziehungen der Römer (2. The Verrines are full of magnificent passages that illustrate Cicero at his best: as a superb raconteur who generates a gripping story out of precious few facts; as a heavy-hitting cross-examiner who lays into his adversaries with a remorseless flurry of rhetorical questions; as a master in the projection or portrayal of character (so-called ethos or ethopoiea) and the manipulation of emotions (so-called pathos); and, not least, as a creative individual gifted with an impish imagination who knows how to entertain. See also the note on de quo saepe audistis below. in Verrem 2.1) and affords a privileged glimpse of the sordid underbelly of Roman imperialism – whatever degree of truth we are willing to grant to his spin on the events. . 2.1 1–32 Introduction iv §58) : non modo apud populum Romanum sed etiam ext. This is in direct antithesis to the emphasis on the public despoiling (palam), which everyone witnessed as onlookers (omnibus spectantibus). Loading... Unsubscribe from andyjkeen? upon the death of King Attalus III of Pergamum. True, consistency of character was an important argument in Roman law courts – anyone who could be shown to have a criminal record was considered more likely to have perpetrated the crime for which he was on trial, whereas an unblemished past could be marshalled in support of a plea of innocence. interior, -ius, gen. -ōris, sup. Answer this question with reference to, What is the technical term of the stylistic device that links. After several failed attempts to delay the trial, Verres chose to abandon his defense and lived in exile in Massilia until 43 B.C. Section 1 provides a minimum of biographical information on Cicero and Verres. Jahrhundert n. My name is Fadil Nohur, a.k.a. When the Sicilians turned to Rome for help against the plundering and extortion perpetrated by Verres, Cicero was a natural point of contact: he had been quaestor in Sicily only a few years earlier, knew the province well, had close ties with various leading locals, and saw himself as their patron.13 He agreed to act as the Sicilians’ legal representative, in what shaped up as a case for one of Rome’s ‘standing courts’, the so-called quaestio de repetundis.14 Because Roman officials enjoyed immunity from prosecution d… Many, but by no means all, cases that came before the quaestio de repetundis involved the exploitation of provincial subjects by Roman magistrates. 1 I follow the practice of the Oxford Latin Dictionary in referring to the speeches, but reference systems vary. nat. – 1. (2002), ’Cicero’s Early Speeches’, in J. M. May (ed. As a countermove and to accelerate proceedings, Cicero broke with conventions in his opening speech: instead of a lengthy disquisition setting out all of the charges (oratio perpetua), followed by a prolonged hearing of supporting witnesses, he quickly and summarily sketched out each of the charges and produced a limited number of supporting witnesses. But what the cithara-player of Aspendos is wont to do is difficult: for he does not use both hands in a performance, but does everything, that is, the entire performance, ‘inside’ and with the left hand only. 29 For a spectacular biography of a spectacular subject, see Mayor, A. In §§ 78-85, he explores and rebuts potential lines of defence Verres might have adopted to cast doubt on Cicero’s interpretation and give an alternative explanation of what happened. 4This introduction contains some background material designed to aid in the understanding of the rhetorical and historical dimension of the chosen passage. Yet while it is the centre of Ver. fiddle_n, the author of these sets back in 2011-2012. Soon after the first hearing (actio prima), Verres withdrew into voluntary exile; he was found guilty in absentia without the need for a second hearing (actio secunda). plaustris wagon, cart, wain; constellation of Great Bear/Big Dipper; euecta carry away, convey out; carry up; exalt; jut out, project; exportō, -āre, -āvī, -ātum, [ex + portō], 1, a., carry away, send away, export. Cicero presents the lurid details of Verres' alleged crimes in exquisite and sophisticated prose. Book 2 1 Book 2 2 Book 2 3 Book 2 4 Book ... 1. Other powerful supporters chipped in by embarking upon strategic intimidation of the Sicilian witnesses. This is followed by an account of the infamous episode at Lampsacus, which revolves around an unsuccessful attempt to abduct and rape a local woman that resulted in the death of a Roman official, provincials pushed to the brink of rioting, and judicial murder. The evidence is murky. Search. Some may consider a recurrent um-ending plodding, or even cacophonous in principle, but here it produces an *onomatopoetic effect that enhances Cicero’s feeling of outrage at Verres’ misdeeds.43. Atque etiam illum Aspendium citharistam, dē quō saepe audīstis id quod est Graecīs hominibus in prōverbiō, quem omnia ‘intus canere’ dīcēbant, sustulit et in intimīs suīs aedibus posuit, ut etiam illum ipsum suō artificiō superāsse videātur. 17 Excellent recent discussions include Berry, D. H. (2004), ’The Publication of Cicero’s Pro Roscio Amerino’, Mnemosyne 57, 80-87, Gurd, S. (2007), ’Cicero and Editorial Revision’, Classical Antiquity 26, 49-80, and Lintott, A. Diplomatic activity within and across provinces was fairly intense. Some Remarks on the Language of amicitia’, in A. Coşkun (ed. ), Law, Politics and Society in the Ancient Mediterranean World, Sheffield, 156-92; and Kaizer, T. and Facella, M. (2010), ’Introduction’, in idem (eds. Staff of provincial governors also included such functionaries as lictors, messengers (viatores), heralds (praecones), and scribes (scribae). ‘who, as they used to say, played all of his music inside’. In his account of what happened at Lampsacus and the aftermath (the trial and execution of Philodamus and his son) Verres is presented as the mastermind behind the scene, first by plotting sexual assault, then by trying to cover up his guilt. After reading the passage, are you convinced that Cicero has proved Verres’ guilt? Latin Cicero In Verrem 2.1 Chapter 53 Translation [Click Info tab for entire description] Hello! Aspendum a town in Pamphylia that came under Roman rule in 133 B.C. 15 For an excellent account of the corpus and its context, see Vasaly, A. Sicily was the first, established in 241 BC, in the wake of the First Punic War. That assessment, though, may have been somewhat premature as further military adventures and significant territorial gains continued to happen afterwards. ACTIONIS IN C. VERREM SECVNDAE LIBER TERTIVS [1] Omnes qui alterum, iudices, nullis impulsi inimicitiis, nulla privatim laesi iniuria, nullo praemio adducti in iudicium rei publicae causa vocant providere debent non solum quid oneris in praesentia tollant, sed quantum in omnem vitam negoti suscipere conentur. The driving forces and motivations behind Rome’s imperial expansion have been the subject of much controversial debate.28 But whatever the intent, by the time of the Verrines, the rise of Rome from a town on the Tiber to the centre of an empire that spanned the entire Mediterranean world was by and large complete. 39 Vasaly, A. [53] Aspendum vetus oppidum etnobile in Pamphylia scitisesse, plenissimum signorumoptimorum.You know that Aspendus is an ancientand noble town in Pamphylia, ve… Whereas Verres and his ilk appear as villains and perverts, he lavishes praise upon the inhabitants of Lampsacus and in particular Philodamus and his son. In Verrem ("Against Verres") is a series of speeches made by Cicero in 70 BC, during the corruption and extortion trial of Gaius Verres, the former governor of Sicily.The speeches, which were concurrent with Cicero's election to the aedileship, paved the way for Cicero's public career. 22Cicero’s report of Verres’ looting of artworks and his narrative of the Lampsacus affair are both fraught with pathos, meant to generate indignation, if not downright outrage, at Verres’ conduct. It is impossible to reproduce this construction literally in English: one can either turn the relative clause into a main clause or add the verb in apposition, i.e. Rome and the Mediterranean in the Late Republic, 4.1 Rome’s military conquest of Greece and Asia Minor, http://books.openedition.org/obp/docannexe/image/196/img-1.jpg, Suggérer l'acquisition à votre bibliothèque. ), Frankfurt a. M., 29-44; Edmondson, J. 22 The classic treatment of ethos and pathos in ancient rhetoric is Wisse, J. (2008), Cicero as Evidence: A Historian’s Companion, Oxford, p. 81 and 83. scitis … te…, Verres: the second person plural addressing the judges, the deictic pronoun, and the vocative are all features that produce and sustain the illusion of a life-performance: Cicero wants his audience to re-imagine the courtroom setting and him turning to and directly addressing the main parties involved in the trial: here he makes a gesture to the judges before turning to the defendant. Nōn dīcam illinc hoc signum ablātum esse et illud. 26 The judges are addressed in the second person plural or as iudices throughout our passage: 53: scitis, andistis; 57: cognoscite; 58: indices; 60: indices; 62: existimatis? Their critical engagement with the commentary and ability to improve upon my own reading of Cicero exemplify my notion of this volume’s ideal reader. (Cicero, In Verrem, 2.1.53.) Dextra plectro utitur, et hoc est foris canere; sinistrae digiti chordas carpunt, et hoc est intus canere. By turning it into a fact, Cicero both flatters and bullies the audience: since no one likes to appear ignorant, presumably even those members of the audience (most likely the majority) who had never heard of either the statue or the proverb would have nodded knowingly. Site Activity; Resources. 3The orations are brilliant models of eloquence (as well as spin) by arguably the supreme prose stylist ever to write in Latin.