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INTERSECTIONALITY IN CICERONIAN INVECTIVE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 April 2023
Abstract
This article applies an intersectional approach to Roman invective (and praise) to elucidate how those at the centre of Roman power exploited discriminatory and laudatory ideologies relating to intersections of identity to sway a Roman jury. Analysing the depiction of an unnamed woman in the Pro Scauro shows how Cicero plays upon normalized prejudices to bias the jury against ista Sarda. These internalized prejudices could also be utilized to discredit women with privileged intersectional identities, as demonstrated by Cicero's portrayal of Clodia and Sassia in the Pro Caelio and the Pro Cluentio, a process that helps reify the marginalization of certain identities.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Footnotes
The first two sections of this article are based on a paper originally presented at the conference on ‘Gender, Identity, and Intersectionality in Antiquity: Models of Oppression and Privilege’, which developed into Chapter 3 of C. Chong, ‘The ethnic “other” in Cicero's Pro Scauro’ (Diss., The University of Melbourne, 2016). This Masters Thesis was financially supported by the Australian Government through a Research Training Program Scholarship (formerly an Australian Postgraduate Award). Sections of this article also have been presented at other conferences. Thank you for invaluable feedback to Professor K.O. Chong-Gossard, Professor W. Martin Bloomer, Professor Frederik Vervaet, Dr. Maxine Lewis, Professor Parshia Lee-Stecum, Dr. Tristan Taylor, Dr. Kit Morrell, Professor Andrew Riggsby (in his examiner's report), Professor Bruce Gibson and the CQ anonymous reviewers. All remaining errors are my own.
References
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13 Intersectionality's increasingly frequent application in classical and ancient historical studies further demonstrates a belief in its applicability to ancient texts and material culture; see e.g. the creation of Edinburgh University Press’ recent series, Intersectionality in Classical Antiquity.
14 On the socialization of male students through Roman declamation, see e.g. Bloomer, W.M., ‘Schooling in persona: imagination and subordination in Roman education’, ClAnt 16 (1997), 57–78Google Scholar; R.A. Kaster, ‘Controlling reason: declamation in rhetorical education at Rome’, in Y.L. Too (ed.), Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity (Leiden / Boston / Cologne, 2001), 317–37.
15 Bostar's mother is unnamed in the extant sections.
16 The use of ethnicity is not to deny the critical place race holds in intersectionality or that racism still pervades modern society; cf. Bilge, S., ‘Intersectionality undone: saving intersectionality from feminist intersectionality studies’, Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race 10 (2013), 405–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 413–14. Rather, it acknowledges the differences between Roman and modern perceptions of other peoples. Owing to the similarities between Roman and contemporary ethnic and racial ideologies, and Roman influence on modern racial thought, the term ‘race’ is used to describe the type of prejudice Romans directed towards non-Romans, which also recentres race as a central category of analysis. D.E. McCoskey, Race: Antiquity and its Legacy (Oxford and New York, 2012) provides a starting point for the complex question of race in antiquity. However, the work is problematic at times: see e.g. Kennedy, R.F., ‘Race in antiquity’, CR 63 (2013), 260–2Google Scholar.
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18 E. Olechowska (ed.), Pro M. Aemilio Scauro oratio (Leipzig, 1984), 19 deletes pestilentiae just before plena.
19 Prag, J.R.W., ‘Poenus plane est – but who were the “Punickes”?’, PBSR 74 (2006), 1–37Google Scholar, at 12–17 notes that Poenus could be used to mean Carthaginian. Here Cicero is most likely using Poeni to refer to the Carthaginians.
20 See also A.R. Dyck (transl. and comm.), Marcus Tullius Cicero: Speeches on Behalf of Marcus Fonteius and Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (Oxford, 2012), 153.
21 Cicero also relies upon known ethnic stereotypical tropes of unreliability or mendacious nature in the Pro Flacco (5[M], 6). However, Cicero could praise the credibility of foreign witnesses when it suited him, as in the In Verrem.
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27 Dyck (n. 20), 125.
28 Cf. Cic. Scaur. 6, where Cicero suggests that she was salsa, indicating a certain level of education.
29 For a complementary reading of Cicero's utilization of Theombrotus to belittle the death of ista Sarda as unjustifiable, see Williams (n. 23), 163–6.
30 Cicero also appears to use education to enhance the negativity of one's or a group's identity in the Pro Flacco (see e.g. Flac. 9, 11).
31 At Clu. 156, Cicero specifies that Cluentius is a Roman eques, suggesting that Cluentia too is Roman. Further, Larinum appears to have received Roman citizenship prior to the speech: E. Robinson and T. Sironen, ‘A new inscription in Oscan from Larinum: decisive evidence in favor of a local cult of Mars and Mater (Deum?)’, ZPE 185 (2013), 251–61, at 259. Whether Cluentius, Cluentia or Sassia identified themselves as culturally or ethnically Roman is not mentioned and, for Cicero, was irrelevant in his oratorical narrative.
32 For discussion of hanging in antiquity, see Edwards (n. 25), 107–9; E. Fraenkel, ‘Selbstmordwege’, Philologus 87 (1932), 470–3; van Hooff (n. 25), 64–72.
33 Langlands (n. 22), 184–6.
34 For discussion of Lucretia, see S.R. Joshel, ‘The body female and the body politic: Livy's Lucretia and Verginia’, in A. Richlin (ed.), Pornography and Representation in Greece and Rome (New York and Oxford, 1992), 112–30; Joplin, P. Klindienst, ‘“Ritual work on human flesh”: Livy's Lucretia and the rape of the body politic’, Helios 17 (1990), 51–70Google Scholar.
35 See van Hooff (n. 25), 71, 105.
36 See also Dickey, E., Latin Forms of Address: From Plautus to Apuleius (Oxford and New York, 2002), 200–1Google Scholar. Watson, P., ‘Puella and virgo’, Glotta 61 (1983), 119–43Google Scholar discusses the term uirgo.
37 See e.g. Hill (n. 25).
38 V. Rosivach, ‘Anus: some older women in Latin literature’, CW 88 (1994), 107–17, at 107. See also T.G. Parkin, Old Age in the Roman World: A Cultural and Social History (Baltimore, 2003), 86–7.
39 Rosivach (n. 38), 110.
40 The portrayal of ista Sarda conforms with some chief elements of invective against old women identified by A. Richlin, The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor (rev. edn, New York and Oxford, 1992), 109.
41 See also Langlands (n. 22), 298.
42 The dangers of beauty are discussed in Langlands (n. 22).
43 See also A. Keith, ‘Cicero's Verres, Verres’ women’, in J. Fabre-Serris, A. Keith and F. Klein (edd.), Identities, Ethnicities and Gender in Antiquity (Berlin and Boston, 2021), 69–92, at 71, 73.
44 For discussion of the women in Cicero's In Verrem, see Keith (n. 43). See also R.G.M. Nisbet, ‘The orator and the reader: manipulation and response in Cicero's Fifth Verrine’, in T. Woodman and J. Powell (edd.), Author and Audience in Latin Literature (Cambridge / New York / Oakleigh, VIC, 1992), 1–17, at 6–8, 11–12; L'Hoir, F. Santoro, The Rhetoric of Gender Terms: ‘Man’, ‘Woman’, and the Portrayal of Character in Latin Prose (Leiden / New York / Cologne, 1992), 38–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
45 See also Cic. Verr. 2.4.136, 2.5.81.
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47 See also Cic. Verr. 2.5.81.
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50 See also Rhet. Her. 1.16.
51 Carbado (n. 10), 817.
52 Carbado (n. 10), 818.
53 For examination of ‘colourblind’ and ‘genderblind intersectionality’ in modern forensic cases, see Carbado (n. 10).
54 Cf. A.C. Clark (ed.), M. Tulli Ciceronis orationes: Pro Sex. Roscio, De imperio Cn. Pompei, Pro Cluentio, In Catilinam, Pro Murena, Pro Caelio (Oxford, 1905), who prefers Larino over Larinatem.
55 It is uncertain whether either of them was in court, although Kirby, J.T., The Rhetoric of Cicero's Pro Cluentio (Amsterdam, 1990), 61Google Scholar mentions that Cicero depicts Sassia as present. Alexander (n. 22), 321 n. 32 notes that it is not known if Clodia appeared as a witness; cf. Kirby (this note), 61 n. 25.
56 See also Cic. Clu. 44.
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59 For further discussion of this aspect of Clodia's characterization, see Ige (n. 57), 50–3.
60 Cicero calls Clodia a meretrix and uses the adjective meretricia at Cael. 1, 37, 38, 48–9, 50, 57.
61 For discussion of Cicero likening Clodia to Medea and to Clytemnestra in order to masculinize her, see B. Xinyue, ‘Imperatrix and bellatrix: Cicero's Clodia and Vergil's Camilla’, in D. Campanile, F. Carlà-Uhink and M. Facella (edd.), TransAntiquity: Cross-Dressing and Transgender Dynamics in the Ancient World (London and New York, 2017), 164–77, at 167–8.
62 The scholarship on Clodia is extensive, and recent bibliographies can be found in J.D. Hejduk, Clodia: A Sourcebook (Norman, 2008); M.B. Skinner, Clodia Metelli: The Tribune's Sister (New York, 2011); Abril, J.J. Valverde, ‘Bibliografía Clodiana (I): Nota bibliográfica sobre la figura de Clodia-Lesbia’, FlorIlib 20 (2009), 309–43Google Scholar.
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64 See also S. Treggiari, Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian (Oxford and New York, 1991), 330.
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68 Treggiari (n. 64), 325–6.
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71 K. McCarthy, Slaves, Masters, and the Art of Authority in Plautine Comedy (Princeton and Oxford, 2000), 69.
72 See also Rei, A., ‘Villains, wives, and slaves in the comedies of Plautus’, in Joshel, S.R. and Murnaghan, S. (edd.), Women and Slaves in Greco-Roman Culture: Differential Equations (London and New York, 1998), 92–108Google Scholar, at 95–6; Stärk, E., ‘Plautus’ uxores dotatae im Spannungsfeld literarischer Fiktion und gesellschaftlicher Realität’, in Blänsdorf, J. with André, J.-M. and Fick, N. (edd.), Theater und Gesellschaft im Imperium Romanum / Théâtre et société dans l'empire romain (Tübingen, 1990), 69–79Google Scholar, at 71–2; Treggiari (n. 64), 330.
73 OLD s.v. ops 1a, 2b.
74 OLD s.v. locuples.
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