in defense of archias summary

Beyond this, the speech also offers readers a glimpse at the complicated procedures involved in spreading Roman citizenship throughout the Italian peninsula. Such language does not occur often in Ciceros speeches, at least after the earlier ones:27 as we have already observed, the style of this speech is pitched at a higher level than normal. This second edition by Steven M. Cerutti (hereafter C.) of Cicero's speech in defense of the poet Archias delivers an introduction, text, commentary, vocabulary, and two appendices covering (respectively) proper or place names and rhetorical or political terminology. Cicero begins by explaining to the jury why he is obliged to defend Archias (or A. Licinius, as he prefers to call him at important moments in the speech). 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. Our information about Archias derives almost exclusively from Ciceros speech. The notes to section 27 could offer more help with Fulvius non dubitavit Martis manubias Musis consecrare. 4. It is clear from Pro Flacco that the sort of unremarkable, upper-class men who for the most part constituted Roman juries cannot have had any great respect for the Greek nation. He starts with his trademark periodic sentence by depicting his strengths of natural talent, experience, and strategy while appearing humble and inferior to the qualities of his client. (Cic. Bringing these considerations to class can also help teachers win over the next generation of students, given the practical pressures that equate getting students into the classroom with getting resources into the department. Archias was a Greek poet, a native of Antioch, who came to Rome in the train of Lucullus, when Cicero was a child. Manil. While naming the law under which Archias was granted citizenship at Heraclea, Cicero begins with the verb to emphasize that citizenship was indeed granted (Data est). 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. JavaScript is disabled for your browser. A large part of Archias output, and his entire output before he attracted Roman patronage, would doubtless have consisted of poems on typical Hellenistic themes (the epigrams in the Greek Anthology which may be his include erotic poems, dedications to a god, epitaphs, and poems on a work of art). 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). A number of epigrams in the Greek Anthology appear under the name of Archias. 4. And Purpose Of The Law - JSTOR Licinius Archias was born in Antioch around 120 BC and arrived in Rome in 102 BC. Cicero und das rmische Brgerrecht: die Verteidigung des Dichters It is not a passage that could not be included were it not for the presence of a sympathetic praetor. There is then a confirmatio ( 811), which consists of arguments based on the facts as given in the narratio. This was a suitable house for a member of the nobility, as Cicero now was, and it would, incidentally, have been one of the ones frequented by Archias in the 90s, having been the residence then of M. Drusus (Vell. Cicero's client is not, as so often, a prominent Roman aristocrat accused of violence, bribery, or extortion, but a Syrian poet whose claim to Roman citizenship was disputed. The argument reaches a climax at the beginning of 19: Sit igitur, iudices, sanctum apud vos, humanissimos homines, hoc poetae nomen quod nulla umquam barbaria violavit. The exordium ends ( 4a) with a statement of what Cicero intends to prove: (i) that Archias is a Roman citizen, and (ii) that, were he not a citizen, he ought to be one (and ought therefore to be acquitted). Abstract. But the Asiatic Greeks (and it was the Asiatic part of the Greek world from which Archias originated) are presented in uniformly negative terms. By Adam Reiss and Dareh Gregorian. That astonishing naval battle off Tenedos, when L. Lucullus killed the enemy commanders and sank their fleet, will always be spoken of and proclaimed as ours: ours are the trophies, ours the monuments, ours the triumphs. It was in 62 that Cicero sought to improve his social position (Att. In Pro Archia Poeta, Cicero implied that Archias, a resident of Heraclea, might have qualified for citizenship under the Lex Julia and Lex Plautia Papiria, 1 but chose instead to base his defense on Archias' status as a heralded Roman poet. It is one of the best. 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). erature or the humanities and the law, the defense of Archias the poet is indeed a story worth recounting today and for ages hence.' Due to an eloquent, lengthy, and, arguendo, even quite unnecessary digression, Cicero's speech on the poet's behalf, Pro Auluo Licinio Archia Poeta Oratio, has justly achieved a measure Again, in outlining the content of Platos Phaedo in Pro Scauro, he implies that he has not read the work, and adds, for the jurys benefit, that Plato was a great philosopher (Scaur. This chapter reviews the historical circumstances of Archias' trial, and then discusses the speech itself and some of the issues it raises, especially that of why the encomium of literature is included, and how it contributes to the defence. So let the name of poet, gentlemen, which no barbarian race has ever treated with disrespect, be a sacred name among you, the most enlightened of men. His method of dealing with this prejudice is to include a lengthy passage on literature which presents Archias and his poetry in terms which the jurors will find unobjectionable, and perhaps even praiseworthy. Pro Archia has been described as undoubtedly the least typical forensic speech of Cicero. In this regard the commentary puts its finger on one of the most difficult tasks in learning (and teaching) Latin at this stage: no longer reading solely in order to translate for the test but also in order to develop a more refined Sprachgefhl. At 18 Cicero moves to the second part of the digressio. The extent of upper-class Roman prejudice regarding a mans place of origin is revealed by the fact that, in the year before Archias trial, Cicero himself had been described in the Senate by one patrician as animmigrant citizen (inquilinus civis, Sal. If Archias accuser is indeed connected with Pompey, as seems likely, then the reference has added point: in seeking to deprive Lucullus man of his citizenship, Grattius is ignoring the precedent set by his own patron. The transition is made by mentioning Archias (not referred to since 12, or named since 9) and marvelling at his ability both to improvise (cf. 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. Scholars all give the date as 62, citing our passage; but our passage is not so specific. First, whatever the jurors private views on poetry and culture, it is nevertheless flattering for them to be treated as intellectuals, as a select group of people who are well educated and superior to the common herd (cf. Cicero does not bother to mention the further censuses of 65 and 64, since the jury would be aware that they too had been abandoned. He therefore declared himself before his friend the praetor Q. Metellus Pius and obtained Roman citizenship. The introductory material places the Pro Archia among Ciceros most aesthetically powerful orations and stresses the speechs championing of humanistic principles. He reveals this thesis in lines 2022: He continues with this approach in the final lines of this section where he proposes that even if Archias were not enrolled as a citizen, his virtuous qualities should compel us to enroll him. The sententious and lyrical language in which the point is made effectively proves the point ( 16): Nam ceterae neque temporum sunt neque aetatum omnium neque locorum; at haec studia adulescentiam acuunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solacium praebent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur. 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. The next example, however, is that of Pompey giving Roman citizenship to Theophanes of Mytilene.31 This parallel is less valid since Theophanes was not a poet but a prose historian (scriptorem,writer, is the ambiguous word Cicero uses). 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). If Archias was Ciceros grammatikos, he would have taught him to recite Homer and other Greek poets, and the vocal training that this involved may genuinely have helped him on his way to becoming a great orator. 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 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. 1.79)). 115; Tusc. 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. He does so by presenting poetry in a particular way likely to appeal to his audience. Archias career is recounted up as far as his arrival in Rome in 102; Cicero impressively manages to connect him with both the consuls of that year, Marius and Catulus. Arch. Indeed, I myself when serving as a magistrate, have always kept these men before my eyes, and have modelled myself on them, heart and mind, by meditating on their excellences. Undoubtedly such virtues partly account for its enduring value and apparent comeback in college curricula in competition with the Catiline orations or the defense of Caelius. Archiass defense was undertaken by a former pupil of his, the previous years Consul, Marcus Tullius Cicero. The head of the family, L. Licinius Lucullus, went into exile, probably in 102, after being convicted of misconduct in Sicily the previous year, but he had two teenage sons at home, Lucius and Marcus, and Archias no doubt assisted with their education. Abstract. Expressions of thanks or praise should be sent directly to the reviewer, using the email address in the review. P. MacKendrick on the other hand, divides it into four parts, 1217a, 17b22, 237, and 2830.24 Without wishing to dispute either of these schemes, I prefer myself to divide the passage into just two basic parts. In Defense of the Poet Archias Marcus Tullius Cicero Context Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus Lucius Licinius Lucullus Cicero Terms Magnus - Pompey Theophanes the Mitylenaean - Pompey's Poet Sulla - Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (82-79 BC) by Cesare Maccari Archias Gratius 62 B.C. Inst. Persuasion of a different kind occurs in the next section ( 6): Erat temporibus illis iucundus Q. Metello illi Numidico et eius Pio filio, audiebatur a M. Aemilio, vivebat cum Q. Catulo et patre et filio, a L. Crasso colebatur, Lucullos vero et Drusum et Octavios et Catonem et totam Hortensiorum domum devinctam consuetudine cum teneret, adficiebatur summo honore , Back in those days Archias was regarded with affection by the famous Q. Metellus Numidicus and his son Pius; his recitations were attended by M. Aemilius; he was constantly in the company of Q. Catulus and his son; his friendship was cultivated by L. Crassus; and as for the Luculli, Drusus, the Octavii, Cato, and the entire family of the Hortensii, he was on the closest terms with all of them and was treated by them with the greatest respect . He says that he was yet only sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing the striped toga or praetextatus, when he began his studies in the arts and gained the attention of some of Rome's most influential citizens. Finally, the digressio performs an important function in diverting attention from the political aspect of the trial. Literary commemoration, he says, incites men to undertake dangerous and heroic deeds. The legal argument now being triumphantly concluded, it might be assumed that Ciceros defence is over. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide, This PDF is available to Subscribers Only. 1.16.15). He reinforces that proposition through the alliteration of Mars, manubiae, and the Muses: the language demonstrates the idea. of good disposition, large fortune, respect- III. After this, Cicero goes on to declare that poets are divinely inspired, and hence sacred. That generation will be fortunate to begin reading the Pro Archia with this edition. In any case, Archias is mentioned once more by Cicero, in a philosophical treatise of 44, with affection (Div. Now that I have become a famous advocate, I feel that I have a duty to defend him. But this would of course be much less neat rhetorically, and would also make Ciceros obligation appear much less pressing. But Archias was only a poet, and it would be too much to suppose that the trial had any great political significance. It is therefore impossible that Quintus should have assured Cicero in advance that an epideictic style would be well received or that Archias would be acquitted.

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