Katharina HedemannDie Darstellung des Marcus Antonius in Ciceros Philippischen Reden

About this book deutschenglish

The Philippics are a proof of Cicero’s rhetorical mastery and the enormous impact of his words. These speeches of Cicero have given the image of Antonius a shape which lasts to this day. While some historians deplore this one-sided perception of the Philippics, this work recognizes the hidden possibilities to thus reach a realistic view of Antonius. Through a comprehensive, comparative and critical analysis of the Philippics themselves as well as through a comparison of these speeches with other contemporary sources and historically documented facts this thesis uncovers Cicero’s conscious and unconscious falsifications and his increasingly extreme position toward Antonius.

This source-based study facilitates not only a placement of Antonius but also of Cicero in the political context of this eventful period. Unveiling his political behaviour as a betrayal of republican structures, Cicero’s propagated self-image as the last truthful protector of the res publica is undermined. The disintegration of the republic had already proceeded far and the different protagonists fought for power and influence in Rome as well as in the important provinces. At this particular time Cicero recognized in Antonius the central danger to the republic and accused him of striving for a dictatorship following Caesar’s example. Cicero condemned Antonius’s lifestyle and his political actions because Cicero did not accept the change of values which had taken place in Roman society. The young nobiles had developed a new class consciousness which found its embodiment in the political and private behaviour of Antonius. Antonius must not be judged by the antediluvian moral values of his opponent Cicero. Antonius’s political measures to secure and extend his position of power reveal a politically accomplished man who possessed a considerable and loyal following. Antonius often reacted only to political attacks aimed at him so that Cicero’s allegations concerning Antonius’s ambition for a tyrannis are doubtful. In the end Cicero did not only pay with his life for his rigid, anti-Antonius politics, he also smoothed the way for the abolishment of the res publica by the later princeps Octavian.

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