The Artistic Architecture and Closural Devices of Cicero’s ad Familiares 1 and 6

Abstract

The Artistic Architecture and Closural Devices of Cicero’s ad Familiares 1 and 61 Luca Grillo SPEAKING VOLUMES In Cicero’s era, members of the elite wrote many letters, some of which were circulated in collections. Perhaps following the lead of models like the Elder Cato (cf. Off. 1.37) and Cornelia (Brut. 211), Cicero intended to polish and publish a selection of his.2 Of his contemporaries, Caesar (Suet. Iul. 55.1, Gell. 17.9), Varro, and even his former slave Tiro (Fam. 16.17.1), among others, most likely planned to do the same.3 Additionally, addressees often kept the letters they had received, as Atticus kept Cicero’s, and Cicero Atticus’s (Att. 9.10.4 and 16.5.5; cf. Trapp 2003.12–13). More critically, however, third parties also gathered and circulated letters. For instance, Cicero successfully used a wealth of information from letters to incriminate Verres (cf. Verr. 2.1.78, 2.3.92, and Cugusi 1970a.1.134), but in 59, he grew concerned about another governor, his brother Quintus, whom he criticized for dispatching some letters carelessly (QFr. 1.2.8). Quintus should find and destroy as many as he could, while nothing could be done about those which had been already gathered and circulated against him, called “rolls of selected letters, which are usually criticized,” “volumina selectarum epistularum quae reprehendi solent” [End Page 399] (1.2.8). In other words, supporters or detractors of public figures employed collections of letters to boost or damage their writers’ public image. Ancient authors’ intentions in collecting and publishing their own letters, then, can be seen as an attempt to control their self-fashioning and, especially, to forestall undesirable competing images. Recently, scholars have productively inquired into the self-fashioning of authors who published their own letters like Ovid, Pliny, Jerome, and Augustine (Gibson 2012, with bibliography). The case of Cicero’s ad Familiares, however, is different: most likely, Cicero did not edit this collection, and attempts to identify the editor have produced only hypotheses (cf. White 2010.31–34 and 174–75). For a long time, failure to identify the editor has prevented scholars from appreciating the artistic design that some books of the ad Familiares display as collections; and as a result, Cicero’s self-fashioning has been considered in regard to specific letters (e.g., Fam. 1.9 or 5.12) taken singulatim, without asking what image specific books broadcast. Modern editors’ decision to break up the book units and reorganize the corpus chronologically or thematically reflects a modern focus of interest:4 understandably, his letters continue to be ransacked for evidence about Cicero and for answers to various questions about his times. Recently, however, Mary Beard wondered whether by approaching these letters chronologically, as modern editors invite us to do, “we have lost as much as we have gained” (2002.115).5 Indeed, a chronological [End Page 400] reorganization deeply affects the way we approach each letter and discourages us from asking the type of questions that, following Beard, I wish to pursue in this paper. In particular, I plan to consider two books (1 and 6) as collections and argue that the letters’ dispositio, “organization,” and, especially, these books’ closures, display some bold and meaningful choices; that with these choices, the editor, whoever he was, provides a positive image of Cicero; and lastly, that taking into account the editor’s organization, and reading some letters in the context of their collection can help to clarify obscure passages. AD FAMILIARES 1 The first book of ad Familiares collects eleven letters (counting 1.5 as two): the first ten are addressed to Lucius Lentulus Spinther, who was then governor of Cilicia, and the last one to a much less prominent character, Lucius Valerius. These letters span three years, from January 56 to December 54, covering a period which was far from easy for Cicero: after returning from exile, he experienced the hostility of some optimates; he felt compelled to support Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus; and, in turn, their influence forced him to recant some of his ideals. The letters to Lentulus represent only a sample of those Cicero sent him; the...