Cicero and the Beasts

J.M. May: Cicero and the Beasts143 Cicero and the Beasts James M. May In speeches from all stages of his career, Cicero chooses to characterize his chief adversaries by identifying them with beasts or inhuman monsters. While scholars have discussed this technique in connection with individual speeches or series of speeches, they have not examined its significance as a persuasive motif in the Ciceronian corpus, nor its close connection with Cicero's philosophical beUefs.1 This paper attempts to illustrate that, for Cicero, the association of enemies with beasts is much more than a stock rhetorical device; it is, radier, fundamental to his Une of argumentation. In the pubUshed version of his most important case during his rise to the consulship, Cicero portrays Verres, the corrupt governor of Sicily, as an importunum animal (In Verrem 2.1.42), a portentum (In Verrem 2.1.40), a novum monstrum (In Verrem 2.5.145; cf. 2.2.79, 2.4.47), more dangerous than Scylla or Charybdis, a second Cyclops (In Verrem 2.5.146), a fera atque immanis belua (In Verrem 2.5.109). Punning on Verres' name, the corrupt governor becomes an 1 See, e.g., A. Cossarini, Belua e Bestia: Un'antitesi semántica dall'epoca arcaica all'età Augustea (Florence 1983) especiaUy 53-99. M.E. Clark and J.S. Ruebel ("Philosophy and Rhetoric in Cicero's Pro Milone," RhM 128 [1985] 57-92) have carefully examined the philosophical underpinnings ofCicero's approach in his defense of MUo, although their conclusions are rather too narrowly focused; see below, page 135, note 33. For a more general account of Cicero's depiction of his enemies, see J.M. May, Trials ofCharacter: The Eloquence ofCiceronian Ethos (Chapel HUl and London 1988) passim; also T. Loposzko and H. Kowalski, "Catilina und Clodius: Analogien und Differenzen," KUo 72 (1990) 199-210; and L. Havas, "Schemata und Wahrheit in der Darstellung der spätrepublikanischen politischen Ereignisse," KUo 72 (1990) 216-24. 144Syllecta Classica 7 (1996) immanissimus verres2 rivaling Hercules' Erymanthian boar, which his predecessor, C. Licinius Sacerdos ("Mr. Priest"), ought to have sacrificed (In Verrem 2.1.121):3 alii etiam frigidiores erant, sed quia stomachabantur ridiculi videbantur esse, cum Sacerdotem exsecrabantur qui verrem tam nequam reliquisset. Others were even more silly, only that their anger made them appear funny, when they cursed Sacerdos for having left such a worthless "hog" [i.e., Verres] behind him. Nearly a decade later, as consul embroiled in die Catilinarian affair, Cicero conjures up die image of the misbegotten monster (monstrum illud atque prodigium), this time to describe the leader of the conspiracy.4 Moreover, he characterizes Catiline's cohorts as having audacity and passions beyond human proportions (Non enim iam sunt mediocres hominum libídines, non humanae et tolerandae audaciae; In Catilinam 2.10); their crimes, he says, are marked by an extraordinary degree of inhumanity.5 In fact, they have so debased their natures that they can no longer be considered human beings; rather, they have become beasts masquerading in human form (Pro Sulla 76): Nolite, iudices, arbitrari hominum ilium impetum et conatum fuisse—neque enim ulla gens tam barbara aut tam immanis umquam fuit in qua non modo tot, sed unus tam crudelis hostis patriae sit inventus—beluae quaedam illae ex portentis immanes ac ferae forma hominum indutae exstiterunt. Do not think, gentlemen of the jury, that this attack and this enterprise were the work of human beings—there was never a race so barbarous or so monstrous as to produce a single enemy of his country so cruel, let alone a host as numerous. They were a sort of beast, sprung into being from monstrosities—wild animals clothed in human form. 2 In Verrem 2.4.95: Numquam tam male est Siculis quin aliquidfacete et commode dicant, velut in hac re aiebant in labores Herculis non minus hunc immanissimum verrem quam illum aprum Erymanthium referri oportere. 3 Cf. also in this same passage the pun comparing Verres' judgments to worthless "pork gravy": . . . negabant mirandum esse ius tam nequam esse verrinum; see also 2.2.191: Videtis Verrucium? videtis primas litteras integras? videtis extremam partem nominis, codam ¡Ham Verrinam tamquam in luto...