Representations. Images of the World in Ciceronian Oratory by Ann Vasaly (review)

428 BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS and will guarantee that they speak only to themselves as they drain the life-blood of classical literature. JAMES L. BUTRICA DEAPARTMENT OF CLASSICS MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY OF NEWFOUNDLAND ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND AIC 5S7 ANN VASALY. Representations. Images of the World in Ciceronian Oratory. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993. Pp. xii + 301. ISBN 0-52007755 -5. Representations is addressed to specialist and non-specialist readers alike, driven by the conviction that an understanding of Ciceronian oratory is worthwhile even to the ordinary citizen of our day. Rightly so. Ann Vasaly of Boston University explores an aspect of the subject little attended to in the past, and one of considerable interest in the present consumer age. Her focus is on Cicero's "representation" of contemporary reality, or "re-creation" of "images of the world" to his audience on the occasion of the actual or hypothetical delivery of his speeches. Her work concerns not only the Roman public's current perceptions, thoughts, and feelings regarding the concrete reality of the time, but also the art of the orator in manipulating this external "ambiance" to induce in his listeners' minds attitudes favourable to his rhetorical goals. The Roman orator's consciousness of the rhetorical potential for exploiting this physical and metaphysical "ambiance" is the subject matter of the first chapter ("Ambiance, rhetoric and the meaning of things"). Vasaly covers the ground by examining a) instances from the Roman historical tradition illustrating how speakers sway their audience by appealing explicitly to the surrounding visible topography and its emotional content; b) the role assigned in rhetorical theory to topographia, the description and characterisation of places or physical milieux as a means of developing a convincing forensic narrative and a compelling argument; and c) Cicero's own observations, notably in De Oratore, De Finibus, and De Legibus, on the emotive power exuded by landscapes pregnant with historical and spiritual associations. Chapter 2 ("Transforming the visible") treats Cicero's incorporation of a visible topographical milieu into the oratorical strategy employed in the first and third orations In Catilinam. We BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 429 are given a full account of the physical venues of these two speeches, their architectural and monumental environs, and the metaphysical atmosphere emitted for the audience by their legendary, historical and religious associations. This topographical description is followed by a rhetorical analysis of the speeches. In the first Catilinarian we are shown how the temple of Jupiter Stator, as commemorative site of Romulus' divinely approved foundation of the City and its protection in the first military crisis, is made to provide an implicit sanction for the alarming theme of a national emergency, the call for a patriotic rally of senators under inspired leadership, and expulsion of the public enemy infiltrated within the walls. In the third Catilinarian the Rostra-Forum complex, as focal point of the people's communal life and of historical interface between principes and populus, combines with the overlooking statue of Capitoline Jupiter to constitute a visual confirmation for the reassuring popularis theme of the urbs, headed by a vigilant consul and guided by the god's illuminating supervision, continuing to survive deadly conspiracy. Chapter 3 ("Signa and signifiers: a world created") deals with Cicero's handling of a remote and unseen milieu, the Sicilian artworks looted by Verres, an inventory of little intrinsic interest to the hypothetical audience listening to Ver. 2.4 (De signis). Here we are shown the devices used to give shape and coherence to the unpromising and amorphous "raw material" and to secure the emotional engagement of a potentially indifferent public. By applying the rhetorical technique of evidentia (Greek Evc'xpyEla) and mnemonic principles of the ars memoriae, Cicero creates in the listeners' minds a picturesque imaginary world of his own design, conducive to his rhetorical purpose. A sequence of vivid images of places and objects is crafted, embedded in the context of dramatic narratives, and invested with meaning as visual symbols of the abstract charges to be conveyed: the predatory governor's criminal character, his compromise of the people's national interest, and his violation of the Roman moral code. From specific places, monuments and...