Reviving Cicero in Drama

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE) stands out among the illustrious personages of the ancient world (Greek and Roman): His written output has not only provoked a rich literary response, when later writers took up and engaged with themes, motifs and stylistic features of his works (as they did in the case of other classical authors in similar ways), but he has also been recognized as an individual personality and an historical figure with a turbulent life, which has led to another set of reactions to Cicero's biography and writings. One reason for this situation is that there is more (circumstantial) information on the figure of Cicero, his works and his life than there is for other ancient authors, because a large amount of his writings, including personal letters, survives and because he was active as a politician and therefore is referred to in ancient historiographical sources.

As a result, in addition to a number of rhetorical, political and philosophical works inspired by Cicero's treatises and interacting with ideas presented there as well as speeches using rhetorical features frequent in Cicero's orations,¹ there is a flourishing branch of the reception of Cicero devoted to Cicero the man: ‘Cicero’ appears as a character in a significant number of novels, dramas as well as (more recently) films and audio dramas and even paintings, to name but a few genres of literature and art. These pieces tend to focus on exciting episodes of Cicero's life rather than providing an overview of his entire biography. The framework for the selected sequences of events and information about protagonists with an historical basis have typically been taken from ancient sources; the views and characteristics attributed to the figure ‘Cicero’ have generally been created with his writings and reports in ancient historiographers used as starting points (sometimes filtered by intermediate sources). Beyond what has been developed from the historical evidence, there might be unhistorical, fictional characters and/or additional subplots; events or figures mentioned in passing in the historical sources may have been elaborated, with such characters given biographies of their own. In some scenes historical figures might be presented in situations for which no historical evidence exists. As a result of such additions and modifications ‘Cicero’ may be shown in new contexts. Then the focus is no longer on an accurate presentation of Cicero's personality (matching what transpires from the written record), but rather on exploiting this figure and the associated events as a vehicle to convey messages relevant for the time of composition.

In such works ‘Cicero’ is usually characterized as a well-known public figure and a famous orator, to whom positive or negative features can be ascribed, and he is often directly or indirectly interpreted as an exemplum. In this respect the poem by the German poet Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (1715–1769) ‘Der gehoffte Ruhm’ (‘The hoped-for fame’) is a telling example:² the piece presents the historical Cicero's account of his return to Italy after his quaestorship in the province of Sicily in 75 BCE (Cic. Planc. 64–66; Plut. Cic. 6) in a novel poetic form and develops a moral from Cicero's experiences:

Voll von sich selbst und von der That,

Die er vollführt, gieng Tullius entzücket,

Itzt aus Sicilien, wohin ihn der Senat

Vor einem Jahr als Quaestor abgeschicket;

Er gieng zurück nach Rom, und theilte zum voraus,

Im Namen Roms, sich die Belohnung aus.

Wer ist wohl itzt des Volks Verlangen?

Wen, dacht er, nennt man itzt, als mich?

Wen wird man jauchzender empfangen,

Als dich, o Tullius, als dich?

Das ist er, ruft man dir entgegen,

Der aus Sicilien der Theurung abgewehrt!

Der uns mit einem reichen Segen

Von Korn ein ganzes Jahr ernährt.

In diesen schmeichelnden Gedanken

Stieg bey Puteoli der Quaestor an das Land,

Wo er ganz unverhoft vornehme Römer fand,

Die damals gleich den Brunnen tranken.

Schnell ließ er sich vor seinen Gönnern sehn,

Und suchte schon sein Lob in ihren Minen.

Ist das nicht Cicero? rief einer unter ihnen,

Ja, ja, er ists; o das ist schön!

Wie lange haben wir schon nichts von Rom vernommen!

Wie stehts in Rom? Wenn reisten Sie von da?

Wie, rief er ganz erzürnt, wie könnt ich daher kommen!

Ich komm aus der Provinz – Vielleicht aus Afrika?

Versetzt ein Andrer hurtig wieder.

Hier zitterten dem Quaestor alle Glieder.

‘Nein, aus Sicilien komm ich als Quaestor wieder’

Ja, fuhr nunmehr ein Dritter fort,

Er kömmt daher. Verlaßt Euch auf mein Wort!

Mit diesem Ruhm schlich Tullius sich fort.

* * *

Du, der du denkst, daß alle von dir wissen,

Von dir itzt alle reden müssen,

Und dich im Herzen stolz erhebst;

Von Tausenden, die dich nach deiner Meynung kennen,

Und dich und deine Thaten nennen,

Weis oft kaum einer, daß du lebst.³

The incident depicted demonstrates Cicero's huge disappointment when, at his return from his tenure as quaestor in the province, he is not immediately recognized and has to realize that he is not as widely known as he thought he was: this leads to the concluding observation that people often proudly think that everyone is familiar with them while in fact hardly anyone knows that they exist. For its story this poem transforms prose sources indicating the historical Cicero's experiences into a verse narrative; this is written in the third person, but thoughts and motivations are attributed to the main character ‘Cicero’. Thus, while ‘Cicero’ does not emerge as a rounded personage as he might do in an appearance on stage, important characteristics of the historical figure are illustrated, especially the enormous desire for glory.

Having ‘Cicero’ act in a drama, rather than in poetry, enables a more immediate encounter with him as a ‘person’. Dramas involving historical figures have had a kind of forerunner in ancient Rome since, in contrast to Greece, Rome had a specific type of serious drama portraying events from Roman history, i.e. the dramatic genre of fabula praetexta. Yet ancient dramas in which ‘Cicero’ appears as a character are not attested. The historical Cicero did not write any dramas (though his brother did), and he did not encourage others to write dramas about his experiences; he rather pushed for memoirs and historical works about his achievements (e.g. Cic. Fam. 5.12; Att. 2.1) and presented these himself in poetry and in prose. On the other hand, as again Cicero records, re-performances of well-known dramas (not only of fabulae praetextae) in the first century BCE could be endowed with a political dimension, especially by giving individual lines a topical meaning out of context. In this framework the historical Cicero can be regarded as a kind of ‘dramatic figure’: for instance, Cicero refers to a dramatic performance in connection with his recall from exile in Greece, where the actor not only lamented Cicero's exile amid approval from the audience, but a line from Accius' historical drama on Brutus, the founder of the Roman Republic (‘Tullius, who had established liberty for the citizens’, presumably referring to king Servius Tullius), was even allegedly applied to Marcus Tullius Cicero (Cic. Sest. 123).⁴

‘Cicero’ became a proper dramatic figure in new dramas written about him from the sixteenth century onwards. The emergence of pieces presenting a ‘dramatic Cicero’ is in line with a shift in his reception around that time: interest in Cicero the person (in addition to that in his writings) increased after the collections of his letters were rediscovered in the fourteenth century and more details about his personal and private life became available.⁵ The attractiveness of and the interest in the multifaceted nature of Cicero as an individual and his political activities have meant that over the centuries up to the present day he has frequently been revived as a personality on stage in numerous countries. Thus, the dramas involving ‘Cicero’ constitute one of the oldest and most continuous forms of performative engagement with and creative reception of the historical Cicero; versions in film or audio drama can be regarded as modern transpositions into other media. The appeal of dramatic versions of Cicero and presentations of the Roman Republic through him extends up to the present day: Robert Harris (b. 1957) recently expressed his delight at the fact that the adaptation of his novels will bring ‘Cicero’ on stage (cf. ch. 4.65):⁶ ‘It's a curious fact that Shakespeare in his Roman plays gives hardly any lines to Cicero, arguably the greatest orator in history. So I'm especially delighted that through the RSC his voice will at last be heard on stage in Stratford. There could hardly be a more timely moment to look at the collapse of the Roman Republic, a political institution destroyed by ambition, money and unscrupulous demagogues who treated the laws with contempt’, while he does not seem to be aware of the large number of predecessors of this stage play.⁷

Dramas featuring Cicero as a character are meant to be appealing and entertaining for their respective audiences. In addition, they can demonstrate how Roman political conflicts were viewed, depending on the time and place of the writers as well as their respective political attitudes and those of the expected audiences. Scholarly discussion of Cicero dramas, however, has largely been neglected so far in comparison with works starring other ancient personalities such as Julius Caesar. In order to document and explore this unique and telling form of reception of a character from the ancient world, this study collects and presents all identifiable spoken dramas in which ‘Cicero’ appears as a (major or minor) character (ch. 4).⁸ While some of these plays and their authors are famous (e.g. William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Voltaire), most of the plays are not widely read or performed today; several were written by authors who are now obscure and sometimes even anonymous. The less popular dramas often seem to be known mainly to a few scholars of the literature in the respective languages. Therefore, bringing all this material together, covering texts from different countries and periods, which are sometimes hard to track down, as well as contextual information, should contribute to showing the spread and the popularity of engagement with a ‘dramatic Cicero’. Accordingly, the present study can be a starting point for further research on this aspect of Cicero's afterlife.

The dramas will be presented in chronological order; thus each piece can initially be assessed on its own terms at its historical position. For the convenience of readers, the section on each play offers information about the author (if available), the context of the play (where known) and on the text (often now accessible online) before its relationship to ancient sources and to earlier Cicero plays as well as its portrayal of ‘Cicero’ and the possible message in its time are discussed (with different emphasis for each play as appropriate).⁹

At the end, a conclusion (ch. 5) assesses the portrayal of Cicero in drama over time and highlights particular features, recurring aspects and developments. To prepare for the study of the individual plays, beyond this introduction (ch. 1), there will first be a brief overview of Cicero's life with a focus on the key events most frequently dramatized, and of the sources on Cicero available to writers since the (early) modern period (ch. 2). To set the study of ‘Cicero’ in completed and surviving dramas into context, there will also be brief remarks on the figure of ‘Cicero’ as a character in literature and art more generally (ch. 3).

As this study is an investigation of the reception of Cicero in dramatic works, the discussion of the dramas will be selective and concentrate on what is relevant for establishing a portrayal of Cicero in each piece as well as through the ages. The focus on ‘Cicero’ also means that the survey is limited to dramas in which ‘Cicero’ appears as a character, excluding further pieces in which he is merely mentioned. Apart from the fact that considering those too would make it difficult to define the boundaries, such plays provide evidence of the fact that awareness of the figure of ‘Cicero’ and of his involvement in specific historical events is widespread, but they are less meaningful for the authors' engagement with Cicero and nuances of his portrayal.

The pieces featuring Cicero analysed here all belong to the genre of ‘spoken drama’. Despite this unifying characteristic, there is a wide variety: the items cover a period of more than 400 years (1574–2017), are written in a number of European languages (Latin, English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Czech) and for different venues and audiences. What they share by virtue of being dramas is that they are all divided into acts and / or scenes, feature a series of speaking characters and consist of monologues, dialogues and sometimes utterances by a chorus. Beyond that, the presentation can vary widely. For instance, some pieces are written in verse, others in prose. Some plays come with detailed stage directions and descriptions of the respective locations; others just present the dialogues. Depending on the conventions of the period or the preferences of the playwrights, the dramas may have introductions and / or prefaces by the dramatists, which provide information about their aims and sources, give an overview of the plot and its background or discuss the relationship to earlier plays. These formal characteristics will be taken into account in so far as they influence the depiction of ‘Cicero’.

Obviously, none of these dramas conveys what might be regarded as an historically accurate portrayal of Cicero, but they bring to life a man and politician who already attracted a lot of attention in his own time and also illustrate developments in his assessment. The historical Cicero, who is well known to have been concerned about his lasting reputation, might have been happy to find that from the early modern period onwards he became an object of dramas, even though not all dramas paint a positive picture of him!