in defense of archias summary in defense of archias summary

The legal argument now being triumphantly concluded, it might be assumed that Ciceros defence is over. Metellus had died by the time of the trial, but Cicero talks in 26 of Metellus concern to have his achievements immortalized in verse, and it seems that Archias put his obligation to that family before his obligation to Cicero. quae cum ita sint, although there seems to be nothing on esse videa(n)tur). In addition to the vocabulary at the back C. has chosen to provide a running vocabulary on the left-hand page, thus sparing pointless flipping through either this edition or a dictionary. Inst. Archias had become eligible for Roman citizenship under the Lex Iulia de Civitate Latinis Danda, passed in 90 BC, and the Lex Plautia Papiria de Civitate Sociis Danda, passed in 89 BC. This twofold pattern of argument is a common one in Cicero, and is found most famously in Pro Milone:Milo did not set out deliberately to kill Clodius; but had he done so, it would have been justified.18 In Pro Archia, the first stage of the argument (enstasis) occupies 4b11, while the encomium of literature, occupying 1230, is formally the second stage (antiparastasis). (III) For when first Archias grew out of childhood, and out of the studies of those arts by which young boys are gradually trained and refined, he devoted himself to the study of writing. Archiass defense was undertaken by a former pupil of his, the previous years Consul, Marcus Tullius Cicero. The Romans seem to have found it advantageous to make use of every argument at their disposal, not merely the decisive ones: this can be observed not only in oratory but also for example in Lucretius. Poets (at least good ones) were of course highly esteemed by cultured Romans such as the Catuli, the Luculli, and Cicero himself, but such men were a minority. Phil. In 2 Cicero decides to meet head-on the objection that Archias is not a rhetor: Ac ne quis a nobis hoc ita dici forte miretur, quod alia quaedam in hoc facultas sit ingeni neque haec dicendi ratio aut disciplina, ne nos quidem huic uni studio penitus umquam dediti fuimus. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. 32), I hope that my departure from the practice and the conventions of the courts, and my digression upon the subject of my clients genius, and, in general terms, upon the art which he follows, has been welcomed by you in as generous a spirit as I am assured it has been welcomed by him who presides over this tribunal. First, M. Lucullus arranged for him to be granted honorary citizenship at Heraclea. The comparison with Ennius at last brings Cicero to answer the objection that Archias writes in Greek ( 23). 309; Luc. If Archias had not already possessed Roman citizenship, Cicero says, he could easily have obtained it as a favour from some general such as Sulla, or from his friend Metellus Pius ( 2526a). Cicero came to his former teacher's defense at his trial in 62 BC, only months after delivering the famous Catiline Orations. There is also a further consideration. That astonishing naval battle off Tenedos, when L. Lucullus killed the enemy commanders and sank their fleet, will always be spoken of and proclaimed as ours: ours are the trophies, ours the monuments, ours the triumphs. 4. [4], Last edited on 23 December 2022, at 13:40, "M. Tullius Cicero, For Archias, chapter 7", M. TVLLI CICERONIS PRO A. LICINIO ARCHIA POETA ORATIO, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pro_Archia_Poeta&oldid=1129081531, There was no official enrollment record for Archias as a citizen of Heraclea, Archias did not maintain a permanent residence in Rome. As M. L. Clarke has pointed out, Archias was not the only one of Ciceros boyhood teachers whom he went out of his way to help: he had Diodotus to live in his house after he had become old and blind (Brut. First of all at Antioch, (for he was born there, and was of high rank there,) formerly an illustrious and wealthy city, and the seat of learned men and of . Here, however, Cicero does need to explain briefly why Archias was never included in a census: that of 89 was abandoned, and when censuses were held in 86 and 70 he was each time accompanying L. Lucullus on campaign in the East. The technique is similar to that employed the previous year in Pro Murena (Mur. Archias poetry, according to Cicero, is serious historical poetry, written to celebrate the glorious exploits of Romes generals and statesmen and make them known throughout the worlda large part of which, he adds, speaks only Greek. The Lex Iulia granted Roman citizenship to all citizens of municipia on the Italic peninsula, provided they had not fought against Rome in the Social War. Cicero's famous defense of the poet Aulus Licinius Archias in Pro Archia Poeta Oratio remains one of the most eloquent and important works of Latin literature to date. Archias must indeed be a teacher of genius, the jury will conclude, if he taught Cicero to speak like this. With 259 selections made, the league's teams will soon begin figuring out how to fit all of these puzzle pieces together. First, then, let us review 1217. During his school days, he showed "unusual talent as a poet.". He therefore declared himself before his friend the praetor Q. Metellus Pius and obtained Roman citizenship. First, Cicero must be exaggerating Archias youth: he has just told us that the people of Tarentum, Rhegium, and Neapolis had honoured him with their citizenship, and it is inconceivable that they should have done this if he was still a boy. Several more arguments follow, but they are of little practical value since Cicero has already proved his case. From the persuasive point of view, it is the second of these questions that is the more difficult, and therefore the more interesting. By the end of 63, it was already clear that Cicero would be open to attack for his execution of the conspirators, and it was therefore useful to him to remain closely allied with the conservative elements in the Senate, who would (at least until the formation of theFirst Triumvirate) be in a position to protect him. Plut. A letter from Cicero to Titus Pomponius Atticus in the year following the trial makes mention of Archias, but there is no conclusive evidence about the outcome of the trial. The high stylistic level, secondly, serves to establish an atmosphere of culture and sophistication, and this too is something that was best done right from the start. 1.25; Quint. We know that Archias wrote, in Greek, a historical poem in several books on the Mithridatic War ( 21). In addition to defending Archias at this time, he also undertook the defence of Pompeys brother-in-law P. Sulla Fam. Cicero and his Italian Clients in the Forensic Speeches, The Rhetoric of Character in the Roman Courts, Audience Expectations, Invective, and Proof. He reinforces that proposition through the alliteration of Mars, manubiae, and the Muses: the language demonstrates the idea. He continues ( 14): Sed pleni omnes sunt libri, plenae sapientium voces, plena exemplorum vetustas; quae iacerent in tenebris omnia, nisi litterarum lumen accederet. For the argument to be effective, Cicero has to imply that it was Archias who made him the great orator he has become; this then demands an element of vagueness as to precisely what Archias contribution was. 1.19.6, 1.20.3; cf. Indeed, I myself when serving as a magistrate, have always kept these men before my eyes, and have modelled myself on them, heart and mind, by meditating on their excellences. His aim is to draw attention to Archias' profession and appeal to his value in Roman culture. Such poetry was unfamiliar to most Romans, and had not yet been widely imitated in Latin. Cic. Cicero makes a final emotional appeal to the jury. The occasional note that relates sentence structure or vocabulary choice to larger themes both fulfills pedagogical needs and also reminds us of the tricky balancing act between simply teaching and inspiring real interest in sophisticated texts with a readership at this level: fit your line solely with technical syntactical and rhetorical terms or with explanations of subjunctive X in subordinate clause Y and students are less likely to take the bait. C. has introduced some modifications to the commentary to meet the perceived needs of high-school students reading the Pro Archia as part of the Advanced Placement Latin Literature curriculum. Gotoff (cited n. 1) 211, 21213 (cf. Theophanes is, nevertheless, a good example for Cicero to cite, not only because he was a Greek who was given the citizenship, but because he was given it by Pompey. 4. This, then, is the attitude with which Cicero, himself derided as awee Greek (Graeculus) by his detractors (Dio 46.18.1; cf. He does not have documentary proof that Archias is a citizen of Heraclea, he says, because the public record office at Heraclea was burnt down in the Social War and all the records destroyed;19 but he can nevertheless produce M. Lucullus as a witness to Archias enrolment, and an official deputation has been sent from Heraclea with a written statement confirming Archias claim. The style marks the speech as being a self-consciously literary product, and thus cleverly reinforces Ciceros contention that literature can be directed towards useful, practical ends, and is therefore something of value to society. C. also promotes invaluable reading strategies along the way. Were it not for his study of literature, he says, he would never have stood up to Catiline. Life of Archias. I focus here on its usefulness to an introductory/intermediate-level university class, drawing partly upon my experience with C.s first edition to teach a third-semester Latin Prose course at Yale University in the Fall of 2003 to a group of 20 undergraduate and graduate students. The extent of upper-class Roman prejudice regarding a mans place of origin is revealed by the fact that, in the year before Archias trial, Cicero himself had been described in the Senate by one patrician as animmigrant citizen (inquilinus civis, Sal. For centuries it has been seen as a charming encomium of literature, and it would be wrong to deny that it is that. In both speeches Cicero encourages the jury to feel that they possess the cultural knowledge which will entitle them to pronounce on intellectual questions (and in both speeches he is extremely careful to place only minimal demands on that supposed cultural knowledge). 115; Tusc. Callim. Cicero's oration Pro Archia Poeta ("On Behalf of Archias the Poet") is the published literary form of his defense of Aulus Licinius Archias, a poet accused of not being a Roman citizen. In this chapter I shall briefly review the historical circumstances of Archias trial, and then discuss the speech itself and some of the issues it raises, especially that of why the encomium of literature is included, and how it contributes to the defence. Here again we find the elevated and lyrical style used earlier at 16; the opinion of some scholars29 that this passage isturgid is refuted by Quintilian, who cites it, sometimes with explicit approval, no fewer than six times (Inst. Pro Archia, then, is genuinely, all of it, an exercise in persuasion. 5.7 (April 62 bc) shows him seeking to form closer ties with Pompey. But Archias was only a poet, and it would be too much to suppose that the trial had any great political significance. P. MacKendrick on the other hand, divides it into four parts, 1217a, 17b22, 237, and 2830.24 Without wishing to dispute either of these schemes, I prefer myself to divide the passage into just two basic parts. But Ciceros technique is not simply one of flattery. It is most likely under this law that Archias was prosecuted. 5.113), and it was partly for Phaedrus sake that he intervened with C. Memmius to prevent him from demolishing Epicurus house in Athens (Fam. Quam multas nobis imagines non solum ad intuendum verum etiam ad imitandum fortissimorum virorum expressas scriptores et Graeci et Latini reliquerunt! Students will miss a definition of dubitare plus infinitive as to hesitate (to do to have second thoughts (about doing X). Cicero cannot conceal or explain away Archias occupation, and so he has no choice but to make a virtue of it. A typical jurorone of a panel of seventy-five20would have taken an entirely different view. 3.15.6), and we have from Plutarch the attractive story of how Pompey and Cicero invited themselves round to Lucullus house for dinner, and how he tricked them into thinking that he dined on the most lavish scale even when eating alone (Luc. For a short speech defending a man of relatively little importance on a charge of no great gravity, the reader of Ciceros Pro Archia is well-served with a broad range of Latin texts, English translations, and commentaries approaching the speech from a variety of angles (literary, historical, legal, and philological). Instead of beginning with cum ("since") as what would be expected, Cicero suspends it to the end of the phrase to bring attention to the gravity of the names he states. (Cic. First some nuts and bolts. Plutarch tells us that Cicero was a good friend of L. Lucullus (Luc. The comparison with Ennius is a useful one for Cicero, since Ennius was Romes great national poet and would have been fully acceptable to the jury. Du Bois, the influence of Cicero's Pro Archia Poeta on The Souls of Black Folk is one of the most important. A number of epigrams in the Greek Anthology appear under the name of Archias. 1.79)). Cicero begins by explaining to the jury why he is obliged to defend Archias (or A. Licinius, as he prefers to call him at important moments in the speech). The brief introduction (Section B) includes the background of the trial, defense strategy, date, outcome (probably acquittal), and an outline of the speech. 19.9.1014 (19.9.14: cf. Apparently Archias was writing a poem about Cicero's consulship, and Cicero was eager for him to complete it. In 14 he introduces a new idea, that literature inspires men to perform acts of self-sacrifice for the state. Ciceros defense of his teacher, the Pro Archia, is far from the expert orators most well-known work, yet it presents fascinating questions for analysis. It is not a passage that could not be included were it not for the presence of a sympathetic praetor. Comments are moderated. Archias was not the sort of person that a Roman juror would necessarily have considered desirable as a member of the Roman citizen body. W. M. Porter divides it into three parts, 1216 covering the benefits afforded by the study of poetry, 1719 covering the intrinsic virtues of poets, and 2030 covering the relationship of the poet and his poetry to the state. It argues that Pro Archia is an exercise in persuasion. Teachers who recognized the numerous virtues of the first edition (1998) will equally welcome the second. It is only in Pro Archia, however, that the style is made to play an active part in the process ( 3): quaeso a vobis ut in hac causa mihi detis hanc veniam accommodatam huic reo, vobis, quem ad modum spero, non molestam, ut me pro summo poeta atque eruditissimo homine dicentem hoc concursu hominum litteratissimorum, hac vestra humanitate, hoc denique praetore exercente iudicium, patiamini de studiis humanitatis ac litterarum paulo loqui liberius, et in eius modi persona quae propter otium ac studium minime in iudiciis periculisque tractata est uti prope novo quodam et inusitato genere dicendi.