Cicero's roles as an exemplum

There were many achievements of which Cicero was proud and which he displayed as being particularly exemplary. He set himself up as an exemplary advocate, homo novus, great consul, an exiled consular recalled from banishment, ideal statesman and ideal orator, author, philosopher, and general, and a trustworthy guide to Rome's past, but to varying degrees and with varying success. This chapter explores these many roles. These various categories in which Cicero attempts to come across as exemplary overlap greatly with those aspects of Cicero's public persona for which he employs personal exempla, confirming the fact that Cicero's use of personal exempla was geared to promote his own agenda and public persona.

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