Autore: Keeline, Thomas J.
Titolo: Were Cicero’s Philippics the Cause of his Death?
Rivista/Miscellanea: In : Pieper, Christoph & Velden, Bram van der ed.), Reading Cicero’s Final Years Receptions of the Post-Caesarian Works up to the Sixteenth Century, Boston Berlin, De Gruyter, 2020, 300 p.
Anno edizione: 2020
Pagine: 15-36
Parole chiave: Biographie - Biografia - Biography, Héritage - Fortuna - Legacy
Descrizione: Ancient sources and modern scholars alike seem to agree that Cicero was killed on Mark Antony’s orders. The Philippics, it is alleged,were what caused Antony’s intense hatred. However, Thomas Keeline alleges that this longstanding and convenient story is unlikely to be true, or at least unlikely to be the whole truth. Whatever Antony knew of Cicero’s Philippics, it was not the canonical corpus that we read today. Moreover, Keeline asserts, the rhetoric of the Philippics was insufficient to motivate Cicero’s murder, and Antony and Cicero could have patched up any breach in amicitia—people often changed sides in the late Republic, not least Cicero. Finally and most importantly, the young Octavian must have played an important role in Cicero’s proscription, a role which he was later at pains to cover up. The commonly accepted story of Cicero’s death has more to do with early imperial propaganda and two millennia of reception than with historical reality. [Pieper and Velden 2020, ix]
Opere:
Link: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110716313-004/pdf
Sigla autore: Keeline 2020
Titolo: Were Cicero’s Philippics the Cause of his Death?
Rivista/Miscellanea: In : Pieper, Christoph & Velden, Bram van der ed.), Reading Cicero’s Final Years Receptions of the Post-Caesarian Works up to the Sixteenth Century, Boston Berlin, De Gruyter, 2020, 300 p.
Anno edizione: 2020
Pagine: 15-36
Parole chiave: Biographie - Biografia - Biography, Héritage - Fortuna - Legacy
Descrizione: Ancient sources and modern scholars alike seem to agree that Cicero was killed on Mark Antony’s orders. The Philippics, it is alleged,were what caused Antony’s intense hatred. However, Thomas Keeline alleges that this longstanding and convenient story is unlikely to be true, or at least unlikely to be the whole truth. Whatever Antony knew of Cicero’s Philippics, it was not the canonical corpus that we read today. Moreover, Keeline asserts, the rhetoric of the Philippics was insufficient to motivate Cicero’s murder, and Antony and Cicero could have patched up any breach in amicitia—people often changed sides in the late Republic, not least Cicero. Finally and most importantly, the young Octavian must have played an important role in Cicero’s proscription, a role which he was later at pains to cover up. The commonly accepted story of Cicero’s death has more to do with early imperial propaganda and two millennia of reception than with historical reality. [Pieper and Velden 2020, ix]
Opere:
Link: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110716313-004/pdf
Sigla autore: Keeline 2020
