Cicero's retreat from Rome in early 58 BC

Title: Cicero's retreat from Rome in early 58 BC
Creator: Bellemore, Jane
Relation: Antichthon Vol. 42, p. 100-120
Relation: http://www.ascs.org.au//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=62
Publisher: Australasian Society for Classical Studies
Resource Type: journal article
Date: 2008
Description: In speeches made after his return, Cicero asserts that the threat of violence was the primary factor in his decision to leave Rome, and that if he had stayed in the city, he would have been forced to fight against Clodius, which would have destroyed the republic. Although Clodius no doubt used violence, first to push through his law, and then to stir up resentment against the absent Cicero, his overt intention by promulgating the lex de capite was surely not to force Cicero from the city, but to have him undergo a trial, during which the legitimacy of his actions as consul and those of the senate in 63 could have been called into question. Cicero has obscured what was in fact his seminal, exacerbating role in the events, and he has certainly exaggerated the level of violence used against him. We should reject his claim, therefore, that he was forced from the city to prevent bloodshed.
Subject: Cicero; ancient Rome; Clodius; lex de capite; Roman Republic
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/43159
Identifier: uon:5286
Identifier: ISSN:0066-4774
Language: eng
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