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CICERO
6. SPEECHES
It is primarily on his speeches, perhaps, that the literary reputation of Cicero
has depended in recent times, though to the present generation the style of
' o temporal o mores/' seems fustian and we are more stimulated by the unguarded
self-revelation of the letters. He himself could joke to Atticus about his own
pomposity: 'You know those paintpots of mine', and again, 'You know how I
can thunder on about all that; it was so loud you probably heard it over there in
Greece.' • But how did the spoken word become literature?
Although shorthand writers might operate when a speech was delivered in
court, the Romans were well aware that the published speeches they read were
not verbatim records. It was exceptional when Hortensius, who had a remarkable
memory, delivered one in a state fit for publication, or when Cicero read
out a speech, Post reditum in senatu, for the record. We know from Quintilian
that Cicero normally wrote out beforehand the exordium, peroration and other
vital passages (which incidentally show special care for rhythm) and learned
them by heart, the rest being preconceived in outline only, though apparently he
used notes (10.7.30-1). Everyone knew that his second Actio against Verres,
published in five books, had never been delivered because the opposing counsel,
Hortensius, threw up his brief after the first one and Verres went into voluntary
exile; that the Pro Milone as delivered fell far short of the polished form in
which we have it because he lost his nerve under heckling from Clodius'
gangsters, whom the presence of Pompey's soldiers did not intimidate; and that
the Second Philippic was not delivered on the ostensible occasion, with Antony
menacingly present in Rome, but published some weeks later, after he had left,
as a gauntlet thrown down. The Catilinarians, published more than two years
after the events concerned, betray by their defensiveness (Book 4 especially)
his anxiety now that he was under attack for having put Roman citizens to
death without trial. (Not that publication was normally so long delayed, as is
indicated by signs of haste in some other speeches; for instance, too many
apparently redundant passages are left in, such as might have been helpful to
hearers but are tiresome to readers.) Nor would two long passages in the Pro
Sestio on the true nature of 'Optimates' (96-105; 136-43), a politician's
apologia, have been relevant enough for even a Roman speech in court. 2 It has
also been shown, from a reconstruction of Roman legal procedure, that Cicero's
forensic speeches, published in the form most effective as literature, could not
have been delivered in that form in court. 3 They are essentially pamphlets.
1
For Cicero's speeches see, besides Laurand (1907/1936) and Buchner (1964), Clarke (1953)
chh. vi and vn, R. G. M. Nisbet's chapter in Dorey (1965), and Kennedy (1972).
2
Ntsbet in Dorey (1965) 66.
3 Humbert (1925); Douglas (1968) 14—15.
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