Coping with Caesar
Coping with Caesar
This chapter investigates the strategies that Cicero used to cope with Caesar, who had crushed the community he had always imagined as constitutive of himself and his oratory, in the three speeches that he delivered before the dictator, the pro Marcello, the pro Ligario, and the pro rege Deiotaro. The discussion of select passages from each of the three speeches illustrates how Cicero positions himself and Caesar within the new topography of power. This includes critical reflections on the terms of Caesar's self‐promotion, the problem of agency and accountability in the wake of civil conflict, and changes in the dynamics of eloquence, which turned civic occasions and public encounters into artificial affairs dominated by the dictator.
Keywords: Caesar, civil war, omnipotence, power, pro Ligario, pro Marcello, pro rege Deiotaro, tyranny
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