Shortly after the assassination of Julius Caesar the great orator and lawyer Cicero gave a series of speeches in the Roman Senate attacking the political ambitions of Marc Antony. In the two polemics contained in this slim volume Cicero, with surgical precision, eviscerates Antony’s character and undermines his crude attempts to take power in Caesar’s place.
Easy to read and very powerful, these speeches are delightfully acerbic. Dripping with poisoned sarcasm they show just how dangerous a talented public speaker can be to the naked ambition of a lesser man. I probably missed some of the nuanced effect due to my relative ignorance of the events following the demise of Caesar. However, it was hard to miss the unrelenting assault on Antony and I for one would not have liked being on the receiving end of Cicero’s tongue lashing. Not surprisingly after the polemics failed to have the desired effect of denying Marc Antony a position of power, Antony had Cicero assassinated.
This was one of the series of Penguin Great Ideas books which are, generally, very good indeed (if sometimes extracts from much larger works). This is no exception and gives an insight into events taking place at the very beginnings of the Roman Empire. Interesting both from an historical and political point of view.
7 comments:
I recently read Cicero tut-tutting at the idea of people making personal attacks in political speeches, and I had a rather good laugh at that! I've not read much of Cicero myself -- translations I have access to tend to be longwinded and dry.
I used to have an image of Cicero denouncing Cataline as my desktop wallpaper.
This one - translated by Michael Grant - is very fluid. The sarcasm is sharp and biting yet still funny in places. You can almost hear the senators laughing at Antony's expense.
I think you'd like it.
More Cicero (and others) to come this year.
Cicero?!!
CICERO???!!!
*lunges into 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid/Cleaning Woman' style beserker rage, arms flailing and foaming at the mouth, as five years of translating hypocritical and smug-little-bastard speeches from the original latin suddenly come flooding back*
...cicero...
[snigger]
Now you know why I only read stuff in English!
"Not surprisingly after the polemics failed to have the desired effect of denying Marc Antony a position of power, Antony had Cicero assassinated." Is this a case where the sword was mightier than the pen/voice?
I love the idea of these voices speaking to us from the grave, as it were. I'll have to add this to my list.
v v said: Is this a case where the sword was mightier than the pen/voice?
It's actually *often* the case....
wunelle said: I love the idea of these voices speaking to us from the grave, as it were.
Isn't it just... I love the fact that these things have been written down at the time and that they have survived long enough to be read by people the originators could hardly conceive of. It's a real hot-line straight into our past.
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