Avoiding the Responsibility: Cicero and the Suppression of Catiline's Conspiracy

Abstract

In Book 1 1 of the Institutio Oratoria, Quintilian warns that an orator should avoid boasting, as this might offend his listeners (1 1.1.15-16). He notes that Cicero, despite his reputation for boasting, generally speaks of his achievements in his orations only when he must do so, either to help clients who assisted him in suppressing the conspiracy, or to respond to his own critics, and so in these cases he is defending rather than glorifying himself (11.1.17-18). Later Quintilian states, evidendy as an example of how one successful orator tried to avoid the appearance of boasting, that Cicero often speaks of the suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy, but attributes it to the senate or the gods (11.1.23 EtM. Tullius saepe dicit de oppressa coniuratione Catilinae, sed modo id virtuti senatus, modo providentiae deorum immortalium adsignat).1 It is when he must defend himself from his enemies and detractors, Quintilian claims, that the orator takes more credit for these actions (Plerumque contra mimicos atque obtrectatores plus vindicat sibi: erant enim ilia tuenda cum obicerentur). A study of Cicero's orations after 63 B.C., however, indicates that Quintilian is mistaken in this last statement; in fact, the reverse is true. It is precisely when he is defending himself from the attacks of his adversaries— particulary Clodius, Piso, and Antony-that the orator seems most eager to assign responsibility for the suppression of the conspiracy to others. In the orations after his consulship, and especially in those after his exile, Cicero often states or implies that the senate or others were responsible for putting down the conspiracy, and omits or minimizes his own part in this action. No modem