Author: Kurke, Alexander David
Title: Theme and Adversarial Presentation in Cicero’s “Pro Flacco”
Place edition: Ann Arbor
Editor: University of Michigan
Year edition: 1989
Pages: 333
Keywords: Droit - Diritto - Law, Éloquence - Eloquenza - Eloquence, Politique - Politica - Politics
Description: [Kurke] [Abstract] In 59 B.C., L. Valerius Flaccus, the Roman governor of Asia in 62, was tried at Rome for extortion in that province. One of Flaccus' advocates was the prominent orator M. Tullius Cicero; the speech which he delivered to conclude the proceedings, the Pro Flacco, has survived for the most part intact. Ancient and modern readers of the speech agree that the defendant seems to have "regarded his governorship as an opportunity for self-enrichment and he seems to have shown little hesitancy in exploiting the province entrusted to his care." However, Flaccus was acquitted, and this fact makes Cicero's speech an important document for assessing the way that a Roman advocate went about preparing a successful defense brief for an extortion trial. In my first chapter, I examine the political and historical background to the trial of Flaccus. In the second chapter of the dissertation, my aim is to show how political factors figured into the trial of Flaccus. Cicero's discussion of the political factors involved in the trial of Flaccus, may represent a fiction devised by Cicero. In the third chapter of the dissertation I examine the conflicting views of "social" themes in the trial of Flaccus. In the fourth chapter, I discuss Cicero's refutation of individual charges. I have defined four types of strategies which Cicero employs, and which I call the "attack," the "redefinition," the "reinterpretation," and the "justification" strategies. In an epilogue, I suggest ways in which Cicero's presentation may have achieved Flaccus' acquittal.
Works:
Author initials: Kurke 1989
Title: Theme and Adversarial Presentation in Cicero’s “Pro Flacco”
Place edition: Ann Arbor
Editor: University of Michigan
Year edition: 1989
Pages: 333
Keywords: Droit - Diritto - Law, Éloquence - Eloquenza - Eloquence, Politique - Politica - Politics
Description: [Kurke] [Abstract] In 59 B.C., L. Valerius Flaccus, the Roman governor of Asia in 62, was tried at Rome for extortion in that province. One of Flaccus' advocates was the prominent orator M. Tullius Cicero; the speech which he delivered to conclude the proceedings, the Pro Flacco, has survived for the most part intact. Ancient and modern readers of the speech agree that the defendant seems to have "regarded his governorship as an opportunity for self-enrichment and he seems to have shown little hesitancy in exploiting the province entrusted to his care." However, Flaccus was acquitted, and this fact makes Cicero's speech an important document for assessing the way that a Roman advocate went about preparing a successful defense brief for an extortion trial. In my first chapter, I examine the political and historical background to the trial of Flaccus. In the second chapter of the dissertation, my aim is to show how political factors figured into the trial of Flaccus. Cicero's discussion of the political factors involved in the trial of Flaccus, may represent a fiction devised by Cicero. In the third chapter of the dissertation I examine the conflicting views of "social" themes in the trial of Flaccus. In the fourth chapter, I discuss Cicero's refutation of individual charges. I have defined four types of strategies which Cicero employs, and which I call the "attack," the "redefinition," the "reinterpretation," and the "justification" strategies. In an epilogue, I suggest ways in which Cicero's presentation may have achieved Flaccus' acquittal.
Works:
Author initials: Kurke 1989
