Cicero’s De inventione: Where is the Res Publica?

Authors

  • Henriette van der Blom University of Birmingham

Abstract

Cicero opens the work with the age-old problem of eloquence used for the wrong ends, and he evokes the res publica as part of that context. He mentions examples of such misuse in passing (the Gracchi at inv. 1, 5; 1, 91) but not Saturninus or Livius Drusus the Younger who arguably exemplified controversial oratorical interventions in the res publica shortly before he composed his work. And he mentions the problem of maiestas but mainly as a definitional problem, less as the major legal and political problem of the 90s and 80s BC illustrated in other extant sources. This paper discusses Cicero’s explicit mentions of the res publica, their meanings, and their implications for a reading of Cicero’s work as not only a handbook on the first task of the orator but also as a work composed by an author later formulating complex ideas of the res publica: indeed, where is the res publica in the De inventione?

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Author Biography

Henriette van der Blom, University of Birmingham

Henriette van der Blom is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Birmingham. She is a specialist of Cicero, Roman rhetoric and political speech, and has published widely on these topics, including Cicero’s Role Models (Oxford University Press, 2010), Oratory and Political Career in the late Roman Republic (Cambridge University Press, 2016). She is the founding director of the Network for Oratory and Politics, and a co-editor of the forthcoming Cambridge History of Rhetoric I: The Ancient World (with Harvey Yunis; Cambridge University Press) and The Fragments of the Roman Republican Orators (with Catherine Steel et alia; Oxford University Press). She has also co-authored Cicero, Paul and Seneca as Transformational Leaders in their Letter Writing (with Eve-Marie
Becker, Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser and Jacob P. B. Mortensen; De Gruyter).

Published

2025-01-31

How to Cite

van der Blom, H. (2025). Cicero’s De inventione: Where is the Res Publica?. Ciceroniana On Line, 8(2), 569–596. Retrieved from https://ojs.unito.it/index.php/COL/article/view/11647

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (2024): “Lecturae Ciceronis I, 2024. Le De inuentione entre philosophie, droit et rhétorique” Proceedings edited by Charles GUÉRIN and Veronica REVELLO

Section

Papers

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