in defense of archias summary

He continues ( 14): Sed pleni omnes sunt libri, plenae sapientium voces, plena exemplorum vetustas; quae iacerent in tenebris omnia, nisi litterarum lumen accederet. There is an exordium ( 14a), then a narratio ( 4b7) outlining Archias career and the process by which he became a Roman citizen. Pal. 1.19.6, 1.20.3; cf. For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription. The passage on literature in general ends with 17. Manil. If Cicero had wished to be less ambiguous he could have said:When I was a child, Archias was my tutor in Greek poetry, and I benefited from his teaching. 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). This, then, is the attitude with which Cicero, himself derided as awee Greek (Graeculus) by his detractors (Dio 46.18.1; cf. Themistocles is cited as an example, but then we have the surprising sentence ( 20):It was for the same reason that Marius was so fond of L. Plotius: he thought that his achievements could be made famous by Plotius talent (Itaque ille Marius item eximie L. Plotium dilexit, cuius ingenio putabat ea quae gesserat posse celebrari). Instead of beginning with cum ("since") as what would be expected, Cicero suspends it to the end of the phrase to bring attention to the gravity of the names he states. C. also knows when less is more. He therefore declared himself before his friend the praetor Q. Metellus Pius and obtained Roman citizenship. In one sentence Cicero mentions ten consuls, the entire political establishment of the previous generation: this is name-dropping on the grandest scale imaginable. Latin Paleography, Editing, and the Transmission of Classi Maritime Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean, Philosophy, Dialectic in Ancient Greek and Roman. 41.36). 1.16.15). 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). But while the Roman people are honoured, Lucullus too is given a full share of the glory ( 21): Nostra semper feretur et praedicabitur L. Lucullo dimicante, cum interfectis ducibus depressa hostium classis est, incredibilis apud Tenedum pugna illa navalis, nostra sunt tropaea, nostra monumenta, nostri triumphi. Self-Reference in Ciceros Forensic Speeches, A Volscian Mafia? 54). Scholars all give the date as 62, citing our passage; but our passage is not so specific. I beg of you that you will grant me an indulgence in this trial which is appropriate to this defendant here, and, I trust, not disagreeable to youthat you will allow me, speaking as I am on behalf of an eminent poet and a most learned man and before this crowd of highly educated people, this civilized jury, and such a praetor as is now presiding, to speak rather more freely on cultural and literary matters, and, as befits the character of a man who because of his life of seclusion and study has had very little to do with the hazards of the courts, to employ a somewhat novel and unconventional manner of speaking. The comparison with Ennius at last brings Cicero to answer the objection that Archias writes in Greek ( 23). Roscius and Archias were artists of quite a different kind: Roscius was a Roman eques, now dead, who had acted in plays before large audiences; Archias was a Syrian immigrant who wrote poetry in Greek for a small number of aristocratic families. Mr. Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was detained minutes after he was handed a USB stick by a Russian acquaintance that Russia maintains contained a classified list of its security agents. 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. 4.74), and there is no reason to suppose that the one that heard Archias the following year was any different. The Twelve Tables allegedly were written by 10 commissioners (decemvirs) at the insistence of the plebeians, who felt their legal rights were hampered by the fact that court judgments were rendered according to unwritten custom preserved only within a small group of learned patricians. Macrob. This paper examines Cicero's Pro Archia Poeta Oratio and the author's implicit and explicit views on how Roman cultural identity is constructed. These great men would surely never have taken up the study of literature had it not been of help to them in attaining and practicing excellence. Cicero states that poets have a natural gift and that Ennius called poets holy. 1. We ask that comments be substantive in content and civil in tone and those that do not adhere to these guidelines will not be published. The argument here runs as follows: (i) even if we are not interested in literature, we should admire those who have literary talent; we admired the talent of the actor Q. Roscius Gallus; (and equally we should admire that of Archias); (ii) we loved Roscius merely because of the movements of his body; we should therefore respond to the movements of (Archias) mind. Even if we had not been informed by the scholia (175 Stangl), we would, I think, have been able to tell that the praetor in question is Ciceros brother Quintus. Here it is done with charm. But there are other reasons too which should be mentioned. 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. 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. Thus he became a Roman citizen, calling himself in the Roman fashion, A. Licinius Archias, the nomen Licinius being adopted out of respect for his patrons the Luculli. Archias poetry, according to Cicero, is serious historical poetry, written to celebrate the glorious exploits of Romes generals and statesmen and make them known throughout the worlda large part of which, he adds, speaks only Greek. Clearly Cicero would not have jeopardized his relationship with such a family by refusing to defend their poet. 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. The important point is then made that Archias poetry celebrates the military glory of the Roman people: his poem on the war against the Cimbri actually won the approval of Marius. 4). Cicero's Defense of Archias, Political Motives in, 62-70 Cognate Accusative Relative Clauses in Greek, 281-288 College (The) of Quindecim-viri (Sacris Faciundis) in 17 B. C., 289-294 Constitution (The) of the Five Thousand, 189-198 COPLEY, FRANK O. Catullus 55, 9-14, 295-297 Covenant, Hannibal's, 1-2 PAGE Cretan Heroic Poetry and Homer: A Study . Gotoff (cited n. 1) 211, 21213 (cf. The digressio concludes ( 2830) with Ciceros admission that he too wishes to be immortalized in verse; as he has demonstrated, there are many honourable precedents for this. Archias was not the sort of person that a Roman juror would necessarily have considered desirable as a member of the Roman citizen body. Now Plotius was not a poet but a rhetorician, and if he praised Marius he would have done so in a Latin speech, not a Greek poem. 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. Our information about Archias derives almost exclusively from Ciceros speech. Thereafter, Archias was set up with a permanent residence in Rome in preparation for achieving full Roman citizenship. Plut. Also, teachers hoping to touch upon the basics of prose rhythm will miss the absence of vowel quantities in the vocabulary. 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. 6.53.910; Cic. JavaScript is disabled for your browser. 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. Saxa atque solitudines voci respondent, bestiae saepe immanes cantu flectuntur atque consistunt; nos instituti rebus optimis non poetarum voce moveamur? Cicero describes that his personal connection to Archias is through his writings. 3.15.6), and we have from Plutarch the attractive story of how Pompey and Cicero invited themselves round to Lucullus house for dinner, and how he tricked them into thinking that he dined on the most lavish scale even when eating alone (Luc. On the political aspect see further Gruen and Stockton (cited n. 12), the former making too much of and the latter too little of the trials political significance. Finally, the digressio performs an important function in diverting attention from the political aspect of the trial. He is however certain the judges have received it gladly: quae a foro aliena iudicialique consuetudine et de hominis ingenio et communiter de ipsius studio locutus sum, ea, iudices, a vobis spero esse in bonam partem accepta, ab eo, qui iudicium exercet, certo scio. When Cicero states Primum Antiochaenam ibi natus est loco nobilicelebri quondam urbe (section 4), he slips in the detail loco nobili not in praise of Antioch, but rather in order to designate Archias social standing: he was born there into a good/noble family (cf. Making a New Man, Oxford (2005). It is not a passage that could not be included were it not for the presence of a sympathetic praetor. In the Fourth Verrine, for example, when he is dealing with Verres theft of art treasures, he affects to be unable to recall the name of the famous sculptor Polyclitus (Verr. Max. 4. 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. C. largely bases his text on Clarks OCT (1911) and mentions textual problems only when absolutely necessary. Aulus Licinius Archias, (born c. 120 bc, Antioch, Syria [now Antakya, Turkey]), ancient Greek poet who came to Rome, where he was charged in 62 bc with having illegally assumed the rights of a Roman citizen. But Roscius was a figure who was familiar to the jury and entirely acceptable to them (partly, perhaps, on account of his high social status, unusual for an actor): Cicero now hopes that he can lay claim to that acceptance for Archias too. Consequently this passage, though it might formally be termed digressio, is, like other digressions in Ciceros speeches, central to the case. Cokun notes that the second part of Cicero's pleading is integral to the defense and should not be regarded as an indication that Archias' legal case was weak. 10.7.19, based on this passage) and to produce written compositions. Cf. The high stylistic level, secondly, serves to establish an atmosphere of culture and sophistication, and this too is something that was best done right from the start. 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). Stripped to its essentials, the argument runs as follows:If I have any talent, experience in speaking, or technical skill in oratory derived from training in the liberal arts, then Archias has a strong claim on it. Manil. Cicero divided the speech by following the formal structure of the dispositio: Cicero begins his speech by gaining the goodwill or benevolentia of the judges. 5.11.25, 8.3.75, 9.4.44, 11.1.34, 11.3.84, 11.3.167). His aim is to draw attention to Archias' profession and appeal to his value in Roman culture. 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. D. 1.79), wrote a poem on Roscius (Div. In this section, Cicero discredits the four points raised against his client. Here Cicero was confronted by a marked xenophobic and anti-intellectual prejudice, one with which he and his brother had no sympathy, but which was prevalent among the jury. Etenim omnes artes quae ad humanitatem pertinent habent quoddam commune vinclum et quasi cognatione quadam inter se continentur. There is no partitio,16 and no reprehensio (unless 1011 are viewed as reprehensio). The work celebrates the merits of literature and art, which offers a powerful description of what makes an individual Roman. Du Bois, the influence of Cicero's Pro Archia Poeta on The Souls of Black Folk is one of the most important. Theophanes is, nevertheless, a good example for Cicero to cite, not only because he was a Greek who was given the citizenship, but because he was given it by Pompey. It was here that he earned a living as a poet and gained the patronage of the Roman general and politician L. Lucullus. The occasional note that relates sentence structure or vocabulary choice to larger themes both fulfills pedagogical needs and also reminds us of the tricky balancing act between simply teaching and inspiring real interest in sophisticated texts with a readership at this level: fit your line solely with technical syntactical and rhetorical terms or with explanations of subjunctive X in subordinate clause Y and students are less likely to take the bait. I am grateful to Professor A. J. Woodman for drawing my attention to the Sallust passage. Quint. He was born in Antioch, Syria (modern Antakya, Turkey ). The jury must be persuaded both that Archias is a Roman citizen and that he deserves to be one. Catiline would presumably not have made such a remark unless he expected it at least to carry some weight with some of the senators. This is a fair parallel, since Homer and Archias were both Greek poets who produced poems narrating the exploits of military leaders. Cat. Examples of hendiadys abound, and C. carefully explains and smoothly translates these tricky bits of Ciceronian fullness, as in section 3, where tanto conventu hominum ac frequentia is both translated literally and then rendered as with so numerous a throng of men. Students are taught to distinguish the literal meaning from Ciceros meaning. At the same time the names confer legitimacy and respectability not only on Archias, but on the world of intelligent culture to which he belongs. 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. One quibble: it seems odd that C. defines civitas only as citizenship in the vocabularies, although Cicero also employs civitas in the more familiar meaning city (C. gives this sense, however, in the note cum translation at the end of section 6). Secondly, the digressio is an enjoyable diversion for the jurors (and also an intellectually undemanding one, despite Ciceros flattery). Archias was acquitted, as he surely deserved to be: of Ciceros clients, Archias is one of those of whom we can say with most certainty that he was innocent of the crime with which he was charged.15 We hear of him again in 61, presumably still living in Rome, and contemplating writing a poem for the Metelli (Att. By the end of 63, it was already clear that Cicero would be open to attack for his execution of the conspirators, and it was therefore useful to him to remain closely allied with the conservative elements in the Senate, who would (at least until the formation of theFirst Triumvirate) be in a position to protect him. In Pro Archia Poeta, Cicero implied that Archias, a resident of Heraclea, might have qualified for citizenship under the Lex Julia and Lex Plautia 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. 3). (Watts translation[4]). But the Asiatic Greeks (and it was the Asiatic part of the Greek world from which Archias originated) are presented in uniformly negative terms. 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. this page. But the Luculli were aristocrats in the fishpond class (Att. He studied at his native city, and received a liberal education. W. M. Porter divides it into three parts, 1216 covering the benefits afforded by the study of poetry, 1719 covering the intrinsic virtues of poets, and 2030 covering the relationship of the poet and his poetry to the state. A brief discussion of content would also be useful at this crucial moment in the speech. Arch. The notes to section 27 could offer more help with Fulvius non dubitavit Martis manubias Musis consecrare. as for the part of my speech which was out of keeping with the Forum and the tradition of the courtswhen I discussed my clients talents and literary studies in generalI hope that this has been received in good part by you, gentlemen, as I know it has been by the man who is presiding over this court. Later, in 89, the lex Plautia Papiria was passed, and Cicero quotes the clause which covered Archias case: persons would be granted Roman citizenship if (a) they had previously been enrolled as a citizen of a federate state, (b) they had had a fixed residence in Italy at the time when the law was passed, and (c) they declared themselves before a praetor within sixty days ( 7). In (p. xviii); there are two very similar notes on inde usque (p. 5); the cross-reference to 199-200 (on quae cum ita sint) should probably read 200-203 (p. 85). Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Archias had become eligible for Roman citizenship under the Lex Iulia de Civitate Latinis Danda, passed in 90 BC, and the Lex Plautia Papiria de Civitate Sociis Danda, passed in 89 BC. Cicero and his Italian Clients in the Forensic Speeches, The Rhetoric of Character in the Roman Courts, Audience Expectations, Invective, and Proof. So much for the historical circumstances; I now turn to examine the speech itself The structure is, in its main divisions, extremely straightforward. All good men wish their name to live on for ever after their lives are over; and whether or not Cicero, after his death, will have any awareness of his posthumous fame, he at least derives pleasure at this moment from the thought that his achievements will be remembered. 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. 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. Treating the jury as intellectuals also serves to reduce the apparent cultural distance separating them and Archias: during the trial, Cicero, Archias, and the jury will all be literary men together. There was no official enrollment record for Archias in Heraclea because the records office had notoriously been destroyed during the, He also appeared in the records of the praetor. Quaeres a nobis, Grati, cur tanto opere hoc homine delectemur. 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. In 65 BC, the Roman Senate passed the Lex Papia de Peregrinis, which challenged false claims of citizenship and expelled foreigners from Rome. For centuries it has been seen as a charming encomium of literature, and it would be wrong to deny that it is that. Rocks and deserts respond to the poets voice; ferocious wild animals are often turned aside by singing and stopped in their tracks: shall we, then, who have been brought up to all that is best, remain unmoved by the voice of a poet? 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. In some cases, however, the ascriptions read not justArchias butArchias the grammatikos,Archias of Macedon,Archias of Byzantium,Archias of Mytilene, and Archias the younger. The first point to bear in mind, then, is that this passage is, formally at least, the second stage of Ciceros argument as announced at 4a. In this regard C.s correct but unconnected observation on Ciceros avoidance of strict parallelism at the end of section 27 (sentence 2 on the note to togati iudices) strikes me as awkwardly formalistic (one wonders if Gotoffs analysis lurks in the background).3 Yet the immediately preceding comment (sentence 1) on Ciceros attempt to insert Archias into an esteemed line of Roman exempla both hits the mark and gives students food for thought. The authority of these great Romans (all were consuls and two were also censor) wins Cicero his point after all; the technique is the same as that used at 6. Ciceros reasons for undertaking the defence are apparent from the speech. 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. By this line of argument, Archias, though Greek, is turned into someone who helps to promote Roman values and bolsters Roman authority and tradition.22 He therefore has an important part to play in Roman society, and hence deserves his place within it as a Roman citizen. He starts with two chiastic structures identifying his witnesses, Lucius Lucullus and the embassy, and then ridicules the prosecution with a tricolon crescendo. The speech then comes to stand as proof of Archiass great teaching, as Ciceros exceptional command of language and rhetoric illustrates his teachers vast influence. 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. Quint. Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. 2.26; Val. In Tacitus Dialogus de Oratoribus, one of the speakers, Maternus, is made to remark,It is not, I take it, the speeches which Demosthenes composed against his guardians that make him famous, nor is it Ciceros defences of P. Quinctius or Licinius Archias that make him a great orator: it was Catiline and Milo and Verres and Antony who covered him with glory (Non, opinor, Demosthenen orationes inlustrant quas adversus tutores suos composuit, nec Ciceronem magnum oratorem P. Quinctius defensus aut Licinius Archias faciuntCatilina et Milo et Verres et Antonius hanc illi famam circumdederunt, Dial. Several more arguments follow, but they are of little practical value since Cicero has already proved his case. D. 1.79).7 The other consul, Marius, though reputedly uninterested in Greek culture, approved of Archias poem on Marius own defeat of the Cimbri in 101 ( 19). 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. Archias did not appear on the Roman census because he was away on campaign with Lucullus at each time they were taken. 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.

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