Reading Cicero's Ad Familiares 1 as a Collection

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9664429
AutoresLuca Grillo (0000-0001-6115-276X, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, autor de correspondencia)
Año2015
Volumen65
Número2
Páginas655-668
Fecha de publicación2015-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Classical Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0009-8388 • E-ISSN: 1471-6844
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0009838815000208
OpenAlexW2605361609
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas6

Toward the end of the Republic, Cicero was not alone in planning to collect his own letters for publication ( Att . 16.5.5). Most likely, Caesar (Suet. Iul . 55.1; Gell. NA 17.9) and Varro, among others, intended to do the same, and Cicero had access to letters by the Elder Cato ( Off . 1.36–7) and Cornelia ( Brut . 211). But it was not only authors or recipients who assembled and circulated letters. In December 59, Cicero wrote to his brother Quintus, who was concluding his mandate as governor of Asia, and encouraged him to leave behind a positive image of himself ( relinque, quaeso, quam iocundissimam memoriam tui , QFr . 1.2.8). In particular, Cicero did not hide his concern at some carelessness Quintus displayed in sending out certain letters ( litterarum missarum indiligentiam reprehensam , 1.2.7): of those, Quintus should destroy the ones he was able to find ( tolle omnis, si potes, iniquas, tolle inusitatas, tolle contrarias , 1.2.8), while nothing could be done about some collections which had already been circulated and criticized ( esse uolumina selectarum epistularum quae reprehendi solerent , 1.2.8). In other words, both the authors (or their friends) and their ill-wishers selected, assembled and circulated letters. Who chose which letters mattered enormously, since collections had the power to enhance or damage a person's public image

Art · Art history · Brother · Cicero · Linguistics · Literature · Nothing · Political science · Power (physics · Reading (process · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Studies and Legal History · Classics · Law · Philosophy