Mark Antony’s assault of Publius Clodius: Another look
Abstract
This paper re-examines Cicero’s claim that Mark Antony tried to kill Publius Clodius in 53 BC. By investigating the historical, political and particularly the persuasive contexts in which Cicero makes the claim, it will be argued that the orator is exaggerating and misrepresenting a minor encounter between the two men, but one that cannot have been a premeditated assassination attempt, as he portrays it in the Second Philippic. The motives adduced by modern scholars to explain Antony’s attempt are unconvincing and the ramifications for accepting Cicero’s mendacity significant.
Downloads
Copyright (c) 2024 Ciceroniana On Line
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.