Author: Bishop, Caroline
Title: The Thrill of Defeat, Classicism and the Ancient Reception of Cicero’s and Demosthenes’ Philippics
Review/Collection: in : Pieper, Christoph & van der Velden, Bram, Reading Cicero’s Final Years, Receptions of the Post-Caesarian Works up to the Sixteenth Century – with two Epilogues [Pieper & van der Velden 2020] Volume 3 in the series CICERO (funded by Patrum Lumen Susti
Place edition: Berlin, Boston
Editor: De Gruyter
Year edition: 2020
Pages: 37-56
Keywords: Éloquence - Eloquenza - Eloquence, Héritage - Fortuna - Legacy
Description: Caroline Bishop examines the ancient reception of Cicero’s Philippics alongside the reception of Demosthenes’ ‘Philippic’ speeches. Cicero and Demosthenes alike were remembered as allegories for the failure of democratic free speech at the hands of autocracy, and each also represented both the pinnacle and the end of a classical period. Bishop argues that the published collection of Cicero’s Philippics plants the seeds for this sort of reception by imitating one of the most salient features of Demosthenes’ speeches: their valorization of failure as a necessary price to pay when a society’s attempt to maintain its classical glory exceeded its ability. By invoking the potential for a similarly noble defeat against Antony, Cicero’s collection of Philippics was meant to secure a Demosthenic reputation for himself should he also fail—a reputation with which his ancient readers obliged him [editor].
Works:
Link: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110716313-005/pdf
Author initials: Bishop 2020
Title: The Thrill of Defeat, Classicism and the Ancient Reception of Cicero’s and Demosthenes’ Philippics
Review/Collection: in : Pieper, Christoph & van der Velden, Bram, Reading Cicero’s Final Years, Receptions of the Post-Caesarian Works up to the Sixteenth Century – with two Epilogues [Pieper & van der Velden 2020] Volume 3 in the series CICERO (funded by Patrum Lumen Susti
Place edition: Berlin, Boston
Editor: De Gruyter
Year edition: 2020
Pages: 37-56
Keywords: Éloquence - Eloquenza - Eloquence, Héritage - Fortuna - Legacy
Description: Caroline Bishop examines the ancient reception of Cicero’s Philippics alongside the reception of Demosthenes’ ‘Philippic’ speeches. Cicero and Demosthenes alike were remembered as allegories for the failure of democratic free speech at the hands of autocracy, and each also represented both the pinnacle and the end of a classical period. Bishop argues that the published collection of Cicero’s Philippics plants the seeds for this sort of reception by imitating one of the most salient features of Demosthenes’ speeches: their valorization of failure as a necessary price to pay when a society’s attempt to maintain its classical glory exceeded its ability. By invoking the potential for a similarly noble defeat against Antony, Cicero’s collection of Philippics was meant to secure a Demosthenic reputation for himself should he also fail—a reputation with which his ancient readers obliged him [editor].
Works:
Link: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110716313-005/pdf
Author initials: Bishop 2020
