Analyse the speech according to the following questions: Why does Cicero have to speak at all? What are the circumstances surrounding the speech and how do they influence the speech?
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Murena on a charge of ambitus late in 63 B. The most difficult aspect of that challenge is certainly the handling of Cato. In view of the lavish bribery in the consular elections, he had promised that he would prosecute the briber, whoever he might be. As a subscriptor speaking last for the prosecution, Cato brought the full moral weight of his Stoic beliefs and his ancestral tradition to bear against Murena.
He even Rhetorical terms of ciceros catilinarian orations essay Cato the Censor as his inspiration None of this could secure Murena's conviction, however, since Cato's best efforts to minimize the apparent I The most thorough and useful analysis of the speech is A.
Also, see the fine introduction to Boulanger's Bude edition. Zumpt BerlinG. Heitland Cambridgeand J. Hereafter, the works mentioned above will be referenced by the authors' last names.
I have been unable to obtain the commentary of Halm Berlin and subsequent editions. So Cicero's quotation of Cato at section 62, "Dixi in senatu me nomen consularis candidati delaturum," and Plut. Craig Catilinarian danger failed to convince the jury.
In the end, the iudices felt that Murena's guilt or innocence was not the primary concern; a guilty verdict would endanger the state. He could make clear to the jury that an acquittal would bring upon them the stigma of having disregarded justice and of holding in contempt the traditional Roman values for which he spoke.
Cicero, speaking last for the defense 48 ' has the special task of neutralizing this strong moral censure. His duty is complicated by the need to avoid offending Cato, who is a valuable political ally at this critical time.
Cicero's solution to this problem is the well-known lampooning of Cato's Stoicism Cato's action is taken to be the result of his training in an unrealistic philosophy.
As Quintilian notes with admiration, Cato cannot be offended at this; the philosophy, not the man, is held to be at fault. Modern scholars, in turn, admire, but find little need to analyze, the humor with which Cicero shows Cato to be unreaiistic.
I agree with the communis opinio that Cicero succeeds, in sectionsin deflating Cato's power of censure by making the young Stoic's behavior seem ridiculously unrealistic.
I also agree with Leeman's astute observation in his discussion of Cicero's treatment of the charges in sections that " Cicero could only venture on such an almost ludicrous defense, because he had established a kind of understanding with the jury.
Nemo illorum iudicum clarissimis viris accusantibus audiendum sibi de ambitu putavit, cum bellum iam gerente Catilina omnes me auctore duos consules Kalendis Ianuariis scirent esse oportere. Quintilian Cato's argument that Cicero exaggerated the Catilinarian danger is inferred from section 79, "Quaeris a me ecquid Catilinam metuam.
Ayers and Kennedy seem to accept completely Cicero's portrait of Cato as a man more concerned with morality than with expediency in this time of real danger for the state.
Kumaniecki seems to agree with Cato that Cicero exaggerated the danger as part of his persuasive strategy. Leeman believes that Cicero certainly used the supposed danger as a lever, but that he was so overwrought by the events of his consulship that he himself believed that the Catilinarian threat was substantial.
The views of these latter two scholars are more attractive: Cato would not have argued that the danger from Catiline should be discounted unless there were some good grounds for this view. The tribuneelect was a man of principle, not an utter pachyderm. Cicero's creation, through affective means, of a feeling of community with the jury so that he may reach such an understanding is an essential characteristic of his oratory.
Antonius' remarks at de Or 4 Cicero's Speech for Murena forma, since it would not do to omit a defense against the charges in a criminal trial.Rhetorical Strategies of Identity-Construction in Juvenal's Satire VI and Cicero's Catiline Orations Christine Harrison In Satire VI and In Catilinam I and II, Juvenal and Cicero both make attacks on their enemies' personal conduct to construct a Roman identity while appealing to "Roman values.".
Download "Cato's Stoicism and the Understanding of Cicero's Speech for Murena". man who wrote the following essay. He makes a noteworthy attempt to Cicero's Catilinarian Orations. Michael C. Left' Few events in ancient history are as well documented as the conspiracy of Catiline in B.C.
1. The rhetorical critic could say much the same about Burke. Ranging over a. Free essys, homework help, flashcards, research papers, book report, term papers, history, science, politics.
Cicero Cicero's essay On Friendship (de amicitia) is of interest as much for the light it sheds on Roman society as for its embodiment of ancient philosophical views on the subjects of friendship. The Dream of Scipio was excerpted in late antiquity from Cicero's De Republica.
BIBLIOGRAPHY xli Macaulay, T.
B. Essay on Warren Hastings. The Macmillan Co. Madvig, J. Die Verfassung und Verwaltung des romischen Staates. Leipzig, Maine, Henry S. Ancient Law, with introduction by Frederick Pollock.