It is not a passage that could not be included were it not for the presence of a sympathetic praetor. The next paragraph takes us from the war against the Cimbri to the Third Mithridatic War, about which Archias had also written (and at much greater length). There is no partitio,16 and no reprehensio (unless 1011 are viewed as reprehensio). Archiass Roman citizenship has been called into question, and through an artful display of oratory and rhetoric, Cicero reconstructs the reality of Archiass life and contributions to provide proof of his worth as a citizen. Cicero's famous defense of the poet Aulus Licinius Archias in Pro Archia Poeta Oratio remains one of the most eloquent and important works of Latin literature to date. Whether this reason or his desire to protect his old teacher weighed more heavily with him it would be foolish to speculate.14 A third reason not explicitly mentioned in the speech but quite clear from it is that Cicero wished to oblige the Luculli. A typical jurorone of a panel of seventy-five20would have taken an entirely different view. Here again we find the elevated and lyrical style used earlier at 16; the opinion of some scholars29 that this passage isturgid is refuted by Quintilian, who cites it, sometimes with explicit approval, no fewer than six times (Inst. With typical rhetorical flourishes, Cicero asks the "cultivated audience and enlightened jury" 50 to allow this defense speech. In 14 he introduces a new idea, that literature inspires men to perform acts of self-sacrifice for the state. The Romans seem to have found it advantageous to make use of every argument at their disposal, not merely the decisive ones: this can be observed not only in oratory but also for example in Lucretius. Cicero, for his part, had no wish to become embroiled in this conflict between Pompey and Lucullus, and was anxious to remain on friendly terms with both men;23 although the speech contains much praise of Lucullus, the one reference that there is to Pompey is highly complimentary ( 24). 32), I hope that my departure from the practice and the conventions of the courts, and my digression upon the subject of my clients genius, and, in general terms, upon the art which he follows, has been welcomed by you in as generous a spirit as I am assured it has been welcomed by him who presides over this tribunal. Making a New Man, Oxford (2005). We know that Archias wrote, in Greek, a historical poem in several books on the Mithridatic War ( 21). Rome 309; Luc. Apparently Archias was writing a poem about Cicero's consulship, and Cicero was eager for him to complete it. In his speech defending Archias-the Pro Archia-Cicero argues that Archias was a Roman citizen. 1.25; Quint. He continues ( 14): Sed pleni omnes sunt libri, plenae sapientium voces, plena exemplorum vetustas; quae iacerent in tenebris omnia, nisi litterarum lumen accederet. 28), The measures which I, jointly with you, undertook in my consulship for the safety of the empire, the lives of our citizens, and the common weal of the state, have been taken by my client as the subject of a poem which he has begun; he read this to me, and the work struck me as at once so forcible and so interesting, that I encouraged him to complete it. Archias was not the sort of person that a Roman juror would necessarily have considered desirable as a member of the Roman citizen body. He'll need an impressive summer to enter the defensive end . Archias did not appear on the Roman census because he was away on campaign with Lucullus at each time they were taken. 4.74), and there is no reason to suppose that the one that heard Archias the following year was any different. The 6-foot-4, 251-pounder with a 79-inch wingspan and 4.63 speed had 3 1/2 sacks and nine tackles for loss last season with the Tigers. There he said that he intended to prove first that Archias is a Roman citizen, and secondly that, were he not a citizen, he ought to be one. Quaeres a nobis, Grati, cur tanto opere hoc homine delectemur. Literature, he says, provides him with material for his speeches: it is therefore useful (this argument incidentally helps to reinforce the impression, given in the exordium, that Archias has in some way played a part in Ciceros rhetorical training). When he does choose to discuss an intellectual subject at length, in Pro Murena, he begins, as we have seen, by flattering the jury on their erudition, and then proceeds to describe the Stoic school of philosophy in a way which first of all assumes no prior knowledge whatsoever, not even the name of the founder, and secondly serves merely to reinforce, for his own ends, the jurys anti-intellectual prejudices.21 Cicero was to admit, many years later, that the jury that heard Murenas case were an ignorant lot (Fin. Cicero cannot conceal or explain away Archias' occupation, and so he has no choice but to make a virtue of it. 1.13.6) by purchasing from Crassus a grand house on the Palatine overlooking the Forum. Clearly, then, in attempting to persuade a jury that Archias deserved to be a Roman citizen, Cicero faced an uphill struggle. In the second part, 1830, he turns from literature to poetry and brings Archias into the discussion (Archias is not referred to at all in 1317), arguing that poetry, and a fortiori Archias, is useful to society. Chief among his enemies, and one who would stand to gain much by disgracing Lucullus was Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, better known as Pompey the Great. Rome should therefore be grateful that Archias already belongs to her (the argument concludes in the same way as the argument from Homer at 19). As M. L. Clarke has pointed out, Archias was not the only one of Ciceros boyhood teachers whom he went out of his way to help: he had Diodotus to live in his house after he had become old and blind (Brut. (Cic. Pro Archia, then, is genuinely, all of it, an exercise in persuasion. For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription. He was defended by Cicero in the speech known as Pro Archia, but the issue of the trial is unknown. It was here that he earned a living as a poet and gained the patronage of the Roman general and politician L. Lucullus. This paper examines Cicero's Pro Archia Poeta Oratio and the author's implicit and explicit views on how Roman cultural identity is constructed. 115; Tusc. But Archias was only a poet, and it would be too much to suppose that the trial had any great political significance. Some time later, Archias accompanied M. Lucullus on a visit to Sicily, and on their return journey Lucullus arranged for him to be granted honorary citizenship at Heraclea in Lucania. H. C. Gotoff asserts that the reference iseither jocular or tasteless, and adds:Perhaps the best way to understand the reference to his brother is to take it together with Ciceros decision to speak in a style more epideictic than usually deemed effective in the law courts, and to assume that the orator had reason to be confident from the start in the outcome of the trial.32 This suggestion cannot be accepted, because a praetor in charge of a court had no means of determining or influencing a jurys verdict; this is why in his speeches Cicero addresses himself to the jury, and generally ignores the praetor. C. helps us to see the force of the parallel that Cicero does create: equating patriotic Romanness with the acceptance and fostering of poets (the kind of oratorical strategy that could, for the sake of engaging classroom discussion, be compared to some American politicians rhetorical equation of support for the war in Iraq with support for America). (Cic. He starts by saying that Archias enables him to unwind after a busy day in the courts (the jury will sympathize), but he then immediately broadens the discussion from poetry to literature in general, and he will stick firmly to literature in general until 18. A letter from Cicero to Titus Pomponius Atticus in the year following the trial makes mention of Archias, but there is no conclusive evidence about the outcome of the trial. How many finely executed portraits of the most valiant men have the Greek and Latin writers left us, and not only for our contemplation but for our emulation! 1. The digressio, then, is not simply an instrument of persuasion, it is also an elegant essay that would have been as appealing to its original audience as it has been to readers down the ages. In addition to the vocabulary at the back C. has chosen to provide a running vocabulary on the left-hand page, thus sparing pointless flipping through either this edition or a dictionary. "Pro Archia is a delightful speech delivered by Cicero in defense of A. Licinius Archias, a Greek poet whose eligibility for Roman citizenship was challenged in 62 bce. Poetry, Latin: From the Beginnings through the End of the Roman Italy, 4th Century bce to 3rd Century ce, Theoderic the Great and Ostrogothic Italy, Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature. The arguments that follow continue the close connection of poetry with military affairs. This is understandable in view of the higher social status of the Metelli. A show of stylistic brilliance on Ciceros part will therefore reflect creditably on the man who taught him. The prosecution laid out four accusations in its case against Archias: Because of Archias' close association with Lucullus, the case was probably a political attack directed at the politician by one of his many enemies. Cicero also wants to see that Archias is firmly set within the serious, masculine, and Roman context of warfare, rather than in the frivolous and self-regarding world of Greek poetry. But the connection brought social advantages too. The comparison with Ennius is a useful one for Cicero, since Ennius was Romes great national poet and would have been fully acceptable to the jury. He applied the three techniques that were expected of ancient oratory: pathos (emotional persuasion), ethos (credibility persuasion), and logos (logical persuasion). Archias was a Greek poet, a native of Antioch, who came to Rome in the train of Lucullus, when Cicero was a child. If I have any natural talent, members of the juryand I am aware how limited it is; or if I have any experience in public speakingin which I do not deny that I am moderately well practised; or if there is any technical skill in my oratory which has been derived from application and training in the liberal artsand I admit that I have never at any period of my life been averse to such training: if I do have any of these capabilities, then A. Licinius here is entitled almost as of right to be among the very first to claim from me the benefits which they may bring. In one sentence Cicero mentions ten consuls, the entire political establishment of the previous generation: this is name-dropping on the grandest scale imaginable. 3. Such silences are thoughtful exclusions rather than negligent omissions and should be considered among the editions cardinal virtues. It is the encomium of literature, however, for which Pro Archia is read and remembered, and which makes this speech a particular favourite among readers for whom the cut and thrust of late Republican politics is not a primary concern. During his school days, he showed "unusual talent as a poet.". While the defense of Archias relies on the Lex Julia and Lex Plautia Papiria, Cicero verges from the conventional legal dialogue. It was no doubt publicly performed at Lucullus triumph in 63.11. Just about all that the two men had in common was that they were both at some point represented in court by Cicero (they were also linked by the fact that Archias, like his patron Catulus (Nat. Thereafter, Archias was set up with a permanent residence in Rome in preparation for achieving full Roman citizenship. What he does, in fact, is to base his defence upon a positive, robust view of literature (as we shall see below), and in this strategy the style of his speech, as displayed initially in the exordium, plays an integral part. See also C. Murgias detailed review of Gotoffs book: Murgia, C. Review Article: Analyzing Ciceros Style, CP 76 (1981): 301-313. He wisely refuses to encumber a students progression through the text (and therefore progress in Latin) with minutiae better left to more advanced readers, such as the distinction between a potentially less assertive certe scio and the less reluctant certo scio with which Cicero unreservedly concludes the speech. The argument itself is feeble (if rhetorically neat) and requires no further comment. He does not have documentary proof that Archias is a citizen of Heraclea, he says, because the public record office at Heraclea was burnt down in the Social War and all the records destroyed;19 but he can nevertheless produce M. Lucullus as a witness to Archias enrolment, and an official deputation has been sent from Heraclea with a written statement confirming Archias claim. It is one of the best. After a brief hit at philosophers for their hypocrisy in writing their names on the books they have written, we are back with Roman generals once again: D. Junius Brutus Callaicus inscribed his monuments with poems by Accius, and M. Fulvius Nobilior dedicated his spoils of war to the Muses ( 26b27). In 65 the tribune C. Papius had carried a law expelling from Rome all non-citizens who did not have a fixed residence in Italy: residents of Rome, therefore, who could not prove themselves Roman citizens, were liable to be prosecuted under the law and expelled from the city. 2.26; Val. But there are other reasons too which should be mentioned. In the first, 1217 (Porter and MacKendrick also agree on a break at around 17), Cicero discusses literature in general rather than specifically poetry (here I do disagree with Porter), and provides a series of arguments to show that literature is useful, or at least not harmful. After providing the jury with the legal foundations of Archiass citizenship, he proceeds to argue that even if reasonable doubt were to surround Archiass claim to be a Roman citizen, he should nevertheless be considered worthy of inclusion in the citizen body as a result of the contribution his poetry has made to the Republic. Catiline would presumably not have made such a remark unless he expected it at least to carry some weight with some of the senators. The Lex Iulia granted Roman citizenship to all citizens of municipia on the Italic peninsula, provided they had not fought against Rome in the Social War. In the narratio, the facts are very simply stated. In Pro Lege Manilia, admittedly a speech to the people, he pretends to be only vaguely aware that Athens was once a great sea power (Leg. He asks the court to indulge him with a novum genus dicendi "new manner of speaking", similar to the style of a poet. In his argument, Cicero discusses the benefits of literature, the intrinsic dignity or virtue of poets and the relationship of the poet to the state. The two examples he mentions here are Alexander the Great and Pompey the Great ( 24); the comparison is highly complimentary to the latter. Archias, who first arrived in Rome in 102 BCE, had, since the conclusion of the Social War in 89 BCE, been living as a Roman citizen and enjoying all of its attendant privileges. Luc. Cicero describes that his personal connection to Archias is through his writings. The prosecutor, Grattius, is not otherwise known, but in view of the hostility between Lucullus and Pompey he is usually assumed to have been one of Pompeys supporters, and the prosecution is therefore interpreted as an attack by a supporter of Pompey on the protg of Pompeys enemy Lucullus.12 This seems plausible: it is difficult to see why anyone should otherwise have wished to call into question Archias citizenship, which had gone unchallenged for twenty-seven years. With 259 selections made, the league's teams will soon begin figuring out how to fit all of these puzzle pieces together. By now Cicero may or may not have persuaded the jury of Archias legal claim. It is for that reason that many noble Romans had a poet to write for them. Yet beyond its simultaneous appeal both as and for belles-lettres the recent attention paid to this work as part of Ciceronian self-fashioning can lend sophistication and new direction to classroom discussions about the place of the Pro Archia in Ciceros public career and in Roman culture more generally.4 C. economically yet sufficiently highlights the works social and historical contexts. The greater part of the speech contains finely crafted rhetoric and an increased frequency of such poetical devices as hendiadys, chiasmus, and the golden line. The brief introduction (Section B) includes the background of the trial, defense strategy, date, outcome (probably acquittal), and an outline of the speech. 2.14.3). For all branches of culture are linked by a sort of common bond and have a certain kinship with one another. [3] Due to political unrest, Archias, while yet a mere youth, left Antioch and travelled around the major cities of Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, in each of . He makes it out to be not an exclusive or intellectual subject, but something practical and useful to society. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here. Name: Reading guide for Cicero's Speech in Defense of the Poet Archias (on Blackboard) Note: The defendant's birth name is Archias (a Greek name), Cicero refers to him as Aulus Licinius, the name he took once he moved to Italy and attained Roman citizenship. If he can somehow imply that Archias trains advocates, then that will give a much more favourable impression than saying that he merely provides instruction in Greek poetry. Archias's Roman citizenship has been called into question, and through an artful display of oratory and rhetoric, Cicero reconstructs the reality of Archias's life and contributions to provide proof of his worth as a citizen. Although there is no direct evidence that this speech was a success, a later letter to Atticus suggests that Archias was indeed acquitted and remained a part of life at Rome. 5.113), and it was partly for Phaedrus sake that he intervened with C. Memmius to prevent him from demolishing Epicurus house in Athens (Fam. The conclusio ( 312) recapitulates the main points of the case, and contains no emotional appeal. 1.16.15), and will obviously have stopped short of Pompeys appointment. 3). Thus in the last (hopelessly corrupt) sentence of section 5, C. informs us of a textual crux but maintains focus upon the meaning of the sentence as printed. He continued to live with the Luculli, accompanying L. Lucullus to the East in the 80s and again during the Third Mithridatic War (7363 bc), in the period when Lucullus was in command of the Roman forces (7367). So much for the historical circumstances; I now turn to examine the speech itself The structure is, in its main divisions, extremely straightforward. Cicero emphasizes the stature of those who gave patronage to Archias by altering the usual word order. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2017 found similar patterns in firearm owners' stated reasons for owning a gun.. Around half of Americans (48%) see gun violence as a very big problem in the country today, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in April 2021. From the persuasive point of view, it is the second of these questions that is the more difficult, and therefore the more interesting. So the necessity to present Archias and his poetry in a favourable light is Ciceros main reason for including a lengthy digressio in his speech. Then ( 5): Statim Luculli, cum praetextatus etiam tum Archias esset, eum domum suam receperunt. He was born in Antioch, Syria (modern Antakya, Turkey ). He is represented as a genius, and as equalling theancient writers (veterum scriptorum)a phrase which leaves it conveniently vague whether we are to think of Greeks (Homer) or Romans (Ennius).
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