Author: Evangelou, Gabriel
Title: Loss of Self, Desperation, and Glimmers of Hope in Cicero’s Letters from Exile
Review/Collection: Deligiannis, Ioannis (ed.), Cicero in Greece, Greece in Cicero, Aspects of Reciprocal Reception from Classical Antiquity to Byzantium and Modern Greece, De Guyter, 2024, 274 p.
Place edition: Berlin, Boston
Editor: De Gruyter
Year edition: 2024
Pages: 31-54
Keywords: Biographie - Biografia - Biography
Description: This chapter explores Cicero’s banishment from Rome between March 58 and September 57 BCE by focusing on the safe haven that he found in Thessalonica. Through a close examination of his extant letters primarily to his intimate friend, Atticus, but also his wife, Terentia, and his brother, Quintus, the author investigates the magnitude of Cicero’s suffering, while drawing an important distinction between facts and claims found in his letters. Even though it appears that he experienced severe sorrow during his stay in Thessalonica, Cicero had ample reason throughout his exile to believe that he would one day be recalled to Rome. More importantly, his constant requests to his loved ones and the place in which he chose to reside are strong indications of the hope that he cherished during his exile. The discussion thus aims to challenge the conventional view of Cicero’s letters from exile as entirely genuine expressions of his condition by arguing that, because he was deprived of his public-facing oratory, the only weapon left in his arsenal was his rhetorical skills that he could use primarily in the letter exchange with his loved ones, in an attempt to stress the urgency of his proper return to Rome [Deligiannis 2024, 7].
Works:
Link: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111292779-004/pdf
Author initials: Evangelou 2024a
Title: Loss of Self, Desperation, and Glimmers of Hope in Cicero’s Letters from Exile
Review/Collection: Deligiannis, Ioannis (ed.), Cicero in Greece, Greece in Cicero, Aspects of Reciprocal Reception from Classical Antiquity to Byzantium and Modern Greece, De Guyter, 2024, 274 p.
Place edition: Berlin, Boston
Editor: De Gruyter
Year edition: 2024
Pages: 31-54
Keywords: Biographie - Biografia - Biography
Description: This chapter explores Cicero’s banishment from Rome between March 58 and September 57 BCE by focusing on the safe haven that he found in Thessalonica. Through a close examination of his extant letters primarily to his intimate friend, Atticus, but also his wife, Terentia, and his brother, Quintus, the author investigates the magnitude of Cicero’s suffering, while drawing an important distinction between facts and claims found in his letters. Even though it appears that he experienced severe sorrow during his stay in Thessalonica, Cicero had ample reason throughout his exile to believe that he would one day be recalled to Rome. More importantly, his constant requests to his loved ones and the place in which he chose to reside are strong indications of the hope that he cherished during his exile. The discussion thus aims to challenge the conventional view of Cicero’s letters from exile as entirely genuine expressions of his condition by arguing that, because he was deprived of his public-facing oratory, the only weapon left in his arsenal was his rhetorical skills that he could use primarily in the letter exchange with his loved ones, in an attempt to stress the urgency of his proper return to Rome [Deligiannis 2024, 7].
Works:
Link: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111292779-004/pdf
Author initials: Evangelou 2024a
