The Roman Republic of Letters: Scholarship, Philosophy, and Politics in the Age of Cicero and Caesar by Katharina Volk

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Roman Republic of Letters: Scholarship, Philosophy, and Politics in the Age of Cicero and Caesar by Katharina Volk Luca Grillo The Roman Republic of Letters: Scholarship, Philosophy, and Politics in the Age of Cicero and Caesar. By Katharina Volk. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2021. Pp. 400. The title, The Roman Republic of Letters, naturally establishes a conversation with some recent contributions on late republican literature (especially by Yelena Baraz, Sean Gurd, Sarah Stroup, and Ingo Gildenhard).1 However, unlike these monographs, which weigh the political force of literary works, Volk concentrates on the social dimension of intellectual endeavors. Specifically, Volk closely analyzes the last twenty years of the Roman republic, from 63 to 43 b.c.e. She takes her beginning from the observation that the senator-scholars who led the cultural flourishing were friends, but they also fought a bloody civil war against each other. The book combines the two narratives—of friendship and of conflict—and successfully treats them "as one and the same story" (2). To this end, Volk acknowledges her debt to Elizabeth Rawson's and Claudia Moatti's monographs on the intellectual history of the late Roman republic.2 While her line of inquiry often intersects with theirs, Volk aims to uncover the thoughts and intentions of a few leading intellectuals and politicians, seen as free agents in the libera respublica. She essentially asks: "why are the same men political players and intellectual luminaries? What are the social, political, and larger cultural circumstances that enable this convergence of roles? How do these men's political and intellectual activities relate to one another? and what is the relationship (if any) between the late Republic's cultural flourishing and its concomitant political collapse?" (3). Following the introduction in Chapter One, Chapter Two carefully analyzes the "vocabulary of learned pursuits" (16) and draws a lively sketch of the societas studiorum—that is, the thick web connecting a group of amici who were in the habit of collaborating on their intellectual activities. As Volk notes, these men regularly exchanged books and shared ideas, giving and receiving feedback; they strongly disagreed, and yet they respectfully remained in the same scholarly conversation, continuing to encourage one another. The remaining four chapters, which form the core of the monograph, consider how partaking in the societas studiorum affected the personal and public life of its members. Chapter Three argues against Griffin's view that one's personal practice of philosophy (and even one's open association with a philosophical school) made virtually no impact on [End Page 160] his political decisions. For example, having delivered a salutary reminder that Stoicism was not yet widespread in the late republic, Volk shows that Cato's idiosyncratic choice to endorse Stoic teachings explains his relentless focus on the virtue of an agent and patent disregard for results. This analysis follows the recent work of Kit Morrell,3 but while agreeing that Stoicism influenced Cato's politics, Volk upholds the traditional view of Cato as a staunch conservative. After Pharsalus, some defeated Pompeians engaged in a sort of "group therapy," seeking consolation in philosophy and supporting each other in coping with Caesar's increasing despotism (Chapter Four). The unprecedented political landscape strained the societas studiorum, but Volk demonstrates that, to an extent and perhaps contrary to expectations, freedom of speech and mutual politeness still set the tone for intellectual interactions between opponents such as Cicero, Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius. The societas held, yet philosophy influenced the conspirators' decision to murder Caesar and to reengage with politics after his death. Chapter Five is concerned with other scholarly enterprises, especially antiquarian and linguistic discussions in their political and religious contexts. While rationally discussing the pillars of republican institutions, both Varro's Antiquitates and Cicero's De Re Publica explore the disjunction between the Roman ideal and the reality of their times; they do so especially to investigate how contemporary Romans might live up to a forgotten ideal. Cicero, Varro, and Caesar engaged in a similar debate regarding Latinitas, or the proper use of Latin. They debated a model based on consuetudo, or common...