The paper focuses on the way Cicero formulates the theme 'who is responsible for the civil war between Caesar and Pompey' and make it an effective vituperative topos. Different from the historiographical topos of 'causes of wars', the theme 'who is responsible and guilty for the civil war' is suggested to Cicero by the oratory of Mark Antony the triumvir in the political, and rhetorical, clash that opposes them from September 44 BC. In the Second Philippic Cicero points to Antony alone as being responsible for the civil war. In order to formulate this accusation, he uses rhetorical figures of increasing gradatio, the highest point of which is the reproduction of one of Antony's speeches (Cic. Phil. 2.72): a vituperative prosopopoeia that, behind the appearance of a documentary account of his adversary's words, composes a portrait of Antony marked by the most radical negativity.
Chi è il responsabile della guerra civile? L'ultima risposta di Cicerone.
Alessandra Romeo
2023-01-01
Abstract
The paper focuses on the way Cicero formulates the theme 'who is responsible for the civil war between Caesar and Pompey' and make it an effective vituperative topos. Different from the historiographical topos of 'causes of wars', the theme 'who is responsible and guilty for the civil war' is suggested to Cicero by the oratory of Mark Antony the triumvir in the political, and rhetorical, clash that opposes them from September 44 BC. In the Second Philippic Cicero points to Antony alone as being responsible for the civil war. In order to formulate this accusation, he uses rhetorical figures of increasing gradatio, the highest point of which is the reproduction of one of Antony's speeches (Cic. Phil. 2.72): a vituperative prosopopoeia that, behind the appearance of a documentary account of his adversary's words, composes a portrait of Antony marked by the most radical negativity.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
