Cicero, in Toga Candida Fr. 8

Echos du Monde Classique/Classical Views XXXIX, n.s. 14, 1995, 401-412 CICERO, IN TOGA CANDIDA FR. 81 A. H. MAMOOJEE Asconius, In orationem in toga candida F 8 (+ 24):2 Quid ego ut violaveris provinciam praedicem ? Nam ut te illic gesseris non audeo dicere, quoniam absolutus es. Mentitos esse equites Romanos, falsas fuisse tabelias honestissimae civitatis existimo, mentitum Q. Metellum Pium, mentitam Africam: vidisse puto nescio quid illos iudices qui te innocentem iudicarunt. 0 miser qui non sentias ilio iudicio te non absolutum verum ad aliquod severius iudicium ac maius supplicium reservatum! 1-2 : ex fro 24 suppleta 6 puto Manutius: apud L: aliud Bucheler The above passage is one of the more substantial among 28 fragments surviving from the oratio in toga candida, the speech delivered by Cicero in the Senate shortly before the consular elections for 63 B.C. The speech was essentially a harangue denigrating the orator's competitors L. Sergius Catilina and C. Antonius, and it was a response to an intervention made on their behalf by the tribune Q. Mucius Orestinus during debate on the need to tighten provisions of the law on electoral bribery (Asc. 83.4-12C). The extant fragments, preserved through Asconius' commentaries, feature the above piece 1 This is the formal version of a paper read at the 1995 meeting of the Classical Association of Canada held in Montreal at UQAM. I am grateful to Professor Ernst Badian of Harvard University for commenting on the oral version of the paper at the time of delivery with his usual acuity. His comments have led me to qualify my wording with greater caution at various points (see below, nn. 11 and 28). I am also indebted to Professor T. Wade Richardson of McGill University for the interesting suggestion recorded below in n. 31. To the anonymous referee of EMC/CV I am grateful for stylistic suggestions which have helped me in making myself clear. 2 A.C. Clark, Q. Asconii Pediani Orationum Ciceronis Quinque Enarratio (Oxford 1907) 86.26-87.8 + 92.4-7. 401 402 A.H. MAMOOJEE as number 8 in the conventional sequence; but it is actually a fuller version of fragment 24, and belongs in fact to a later phase of the speech, one comprising a direct colloquium addressed to Catiline.3 This fragment is one of the least scanty among a score or so of testimonia on Catiline's arraignment for misconduct as governor of Mrica in 67-66 B.C. From these slim testimonia in the contemporary or near-contemporary literature (Cicero's correspondence, Sallust's Catiline and Asconius' Commentaries, especially those on In toga candida4 ) skimpy information is gleaned on the subject. Catiline was prosecuted in the latter half of 65 B.C. under the lex Cornelia de repetundis by P. Clodius Pulcher, later Cicero's bitter enemy, who acted on grievances conveyed by Mrican envoys and resulting senatorial censures or criticisms of the impugned administration. The defence included consulares and the consul L. Manlius Torquatus as advocates or witnesses, and nearly enlisted Cicero himself, who contemplated awhile the prospect of an electioneering coitio with the defendant. Catiline was acquitted, according to Cicero, by a corrupt jury and with the prosecutor's collusion. Previous investigators of Catiline's trial have found nothing of particular interest to them5 in the featured passage. Earlier students of the speech In toga candida perused it with attention focused on 3 The circumstances and structure of the speech and the proper placement of the fragment have been elucidated by P. Koetschau, De M. Tullii Ciceronis Oratione in Toga Candida Habita (Leipzig 1880) and by K. Kumaniecki, "De oratione Tulliana in toga candida habita," Atti del I Congresso Intemazionale di Studi Ciceroniani (Rome 1961) 1.157-166. See now also J.W. Crawford, M. Tullius Cicero, The Fragmentary Speeches. An Edition with Commentary (Atlanta2 1994) 159-199. On the political context, see T.N. Mitchell, Cicero: The Ascending Years (New Haven 1979) 93-176. 4 In addition to the references cited hereafter, Cic. Att. 1.2.1 and 16.9, Sul. 81, Cael. 10 and 14, Har. 42, Pis. 23; Sal. Cat. 18.3; Asc. Tog. 85.1015C , 89.6...