Research Catalog

Title

Cicero "haruspex" : political prognostication and the viscera of a deceased body politic.

Author

Schneider, Maridien

Publication

Piscataway, NJ : Gorgias Press, 2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 270 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

"This monograph explores Marcus Rumus Cicero's awareness and interpretation of contemporary political events as reflected in his private correspondence during the last years of both the Roman republic and his own life. Cicero's correspondence gives a detailed view of current political events in Rome and constitutes, together with Caesar's writings, our major contemporary evidence for the circumstances of the civil war of 49 B.C." "Cicero 'Haruspex' takes as Leitmotiv Cicero's own judgment of the state as 'sacrificial victim' to the ambitions of individual politicians, with as metaphor his examination of a 'deceased' body politic in the manner of a haruspex inspecting the entrails of a sacrificial animal. It raises the question as to whether Cicero understood the message of political decline signaled by the 'entrails' of the 'carcass' of the res publica, and whether this ability enabled him to anticipate future political development in Rome." "The theoretical input of Cicero's predecessors, their perceptions of constitutional development, in particular of Roman politics, as well as Cicero's perception of their political theories are scrutinized to determine the extent of Cicero's awareness of a larger pattern of political events. Further, this study investigates how consistent Cicero was in his analyses of such patterns, so as to determine to what extent he may be taken serious as a political observer."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

• Gorgias Studies in Classical and Late Antiquity ; 13
• Gorgias dissertations. Classics ; v. 2

Uniform Title

• Gorgias dissertations. Classics v. 2.
• Gorgias studies in classical and late antiquity 13

Subject

• Cicero, Marcus Tullius > Criticism and interpretation
• 100 b.C.-0

Genre/Form

Personal correspondence

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-249) and indexes.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

I. Origines -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Overview of scholarship -- 3. Historical overview -- 4. The evidence -- 5. Philosophy and politics -- 6. The Roman concept of decline -- 7. Theory and practice vs practice and theory -- II. Mediis in rebus -- 8. Cicero's period of governorship in Cilicia -- 9. Close encounters -- 10. And so the end draws near -- III. Exitus -- 11. Non multo, inquam, secus possum vaticinari -- 12. Conspectus -- 13. Epilogue.

ISBN

1593330944

OCLC

• 56136314
• SCSB-12611261

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library