Reviving Cicero in Drama

CONTEXT: ‘CICERO’ AS A
CHARACTER IN LITERATURE
AND ART

Before the dramas in which ‘Cicero’ appears as a character are discussed (ch. 4), this section offers a brief glance on a selection of works of other literary genres and media in which ‘Cicero’ plays a role. This survey demonstrates that the interest in depicting Cicero as a personality is not limited to playwrights even if dramas showing ‘Cicero’ on stage constitute one of the most prolific forms of response.

At the same time there are dramas in which ‘Cicero’ does not appear as a character although he was involved in the underlying historical events. Information about such dramas completes the context in which the dramas with ‘Cicero’ among the protagonists have to be viewed.¹

The best-known contemporary literary work on Cicero is a trilogy by Robert Harris (b. 1957), a series of three novels (Imperium, 2006; Lustrum, 2009; Dictator, 2015) narrating the life of ‘Cicero’ within the framework of the political situation in the Roman Republic, from the perspective of Cicero's private secretary Tiro.² The popularity of these volumes (which have been translated into several modern languages) illustrates that Cicero can still attract the attention of a wide audience. This novel has recently been turned into a dramatic version (ch. 4.65). Therefore, the fact that hardly any genuine dramas on Cicero seem to have been written in the past few decades may have more to do with the role of the different media and literary genres in the modern world rather than with a loss of interest in the figure of Cicero. In view of this, it is even more noteworthy that in the modern period such a bestseller novel has been subsequently turned into drama.

Among earlier narrative treatments of events in Cicero's life,³ there are numerous novels on Catiline and the Catilinarian Conspiracy, most of which have ‘Cicero’ among the protagonists. These works include, for instance: Félix Deriège, Les mystères de Rome, ou la conjuration de Catilina (1847); Henry William Herbert, The Roman Traitor; or, The Days of Cicero, Cato and Cataline. A True Tale of the Republic (1853); Karl Wartenburg, Catilinas Söhne (1882); Edmund Friedemann, Catilina. Roman in zwei Bänden (1886); Karl Kreisler, Catilina. Roman eines Verschwörers (1938); Göran Hägg, Catilinas sammansvärjning (1981, Swedish); Yves Guéna, Catilina ou la gloire dérobée (1984); Albert Drach, ‘O Catilina’. Ein Lust- und Schaudertraum (1995); Miina Hint, Catilina (1999, Estonian). The period of Cicero's consulship, including his interventions against Catiline, has proved to be particularly popular because it allows comparisons with the respective contemporary political situation, as is obvious from the title and the comments in the preface of Pierre Huot's work: Catilina et La Commune (Rome 63 av. J.C., Paris 1871 ap. J.C.). Commentaires historiques, politiques, littéraires, etc., etc. d'après les sommaires de Salluste (La contre – internationale) (1872).⁴

The British novelist Phyllis Eleanor Bentley (1894–1977) composed a piece entitled Freedom Farewell (1936): it is her only fictional work not about Yorkshire and presents Caesar's rise to power and the fall of the Roman Republic (involving ‘Cicero’); it was prompted by Adolf Hitler's coming to power in Germany a few years previously.

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956), the well-known German playwright, did not write a drama about events in the late Republic; instead, they form the subject matter of the unfinished novel Die Geschäfte des Herrn Julius Caesar (of the planned six books only four were completed): it focuses on Caesar's career from the time of the Catilinarian Conspiracy, but also pays attention to Cicero within the description of that period.⁵

Examples of narratives focusing more explicitly on Cicero are the following texts: Theodor Birt, Der Besuch bei Cicero. Ein Intermezzo aus der Zeit der römischen Bürgerkriege (in: Novellen und Legenden aus verklungenen Zeiten, 1916); Max Brod, Armer Cicero (1955); Otto Zierer, Und dann verschlang mich Rom. Das Leben des Marcus Tullius Cicero (1958, a fictional autobiography); Kenneth Benton, Death on the Appian Way (1974). In those novels the emphasis has moved from the single event of the Catilinarian Conspiracy to Cicero's life as a whole set within a period of major political changes, as in Harris' recent trilogy.

Moreover, Cicero has found his way into the genre of the detective novel: in particular, he appears in several volumes of a series by the American author Steven Saylor (b. 1956), featuring the investigator Gordianus. For instance, Roman Blood (1991) is based on the trial in which the historical Cicero delivered the speech Pro Sexto Roscio Amerino, and Catilina's Riddle (1993) deals with the Catilinarian Conspiracy. The latest novel in that series The Throne of Caesar: A Novel of Ancient Rome (February 2018) is set around the time of Caesar's assassination in 44 BCE and includes both ‘Cicero’ and ‘Caesar’. The SPQR series by the American writer John Maddox Roberts (b. 1947) is a series of historical mystery novels set mainly in the first century BCE and narrated by the (fictional) senator Decius Caecilius Metellus: ‘Cicero’ appears in several of the novels, including The Catiline Conspiracy (1991) and The Sacrilege (1992).

The French theologian and writer François Fénelon (1651–1715) found another way of having ‘Cicero’ speak directly (outside drama): he wrote a series of Dialogues des Morts (1692–1696) when he was royal tutor. These include the dialogues ‘Cicéron et Démosthène’, ‘Caton et Cicéron’ and ‘Cicéron et Auguste’, covering discussions about rhetorical and political questions.⁶

Mr. Arthur Kensington, Scholar of Trinity College, won the Chancellor's Prize for Latin Verse at the University of Oxford in 1834 for his Latin poem on the topic Cicero ab exilio redux Romam ingreditur, which was recited in the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford.⁷

Il Cicerone by the Italian writer Giancarlo Passeroni (1713–1803), published in six volumes (1755–1774), is a long poem that purports to be a biography of Cicero, but includes a number of digressions, many of them satirical, commenting on issues of the author's own time.⁸

Moreover, ‘Cicero’ appears in operas, though less frequently than other figures from the ancient world: the Italian librettist and poet Giovanni Battista Casti (1724–1803) produced a libretto entitled Catilina (ch. 4.24), set to music by the Italian composer Antonio Salieri (1750–1825) in 1792 and again by Serafino de Ferrari (1824–1885) in 1852; it was first performed (with Salieri's music) on 16 April 1994 at the Hessisches Staatstheater in Darmstadt (Germany) in a German version by Josef Heinzelmann (1936–2010).⁹ There are more operas on the same event, including: Cristofano Martelli (librettist), Roma liberata dalla congiura di Catilina (1775), set to music by Giacomo Puccini (1712–1781), an ancestor of the more famous Puccini, and Florido Tomeoni (1755–1820); Pietro Emilio Francesconi (librettist) / Federico Cappellini (composer), Catilina (1890). Further operas have been developed from texts including dramas in which Cicero appears: e.g. Iain Ellis Hamilton (1922–2000), The Catiline Conspiracy (1974), based on the works of Ben Jonson (ch. 4.9), Sallust and Cicero. In opera as in drama, the context of the Catilinarian Conspiracy is the aspect of Cicero's life most frequently put on stage.

In modern film too incidents from the late Roman Republic are popular: there are a video game and a number of films featuring ‘Cicero’ as a character, including the TV series Rome (2005–2007), Mario Caserini's (1874–1920) Catilina (1910) / The Conspiracy of Catiline (1912), films on Julius Caesar and Cleopatra and detective films. Other films are based on texts including dramas involving ‘Cicero’ (e.g. versions of Shakespeare's play; see ch. 4.5). There does not seem to be a film portraying Cicero's life more comprehensively.

Another modern form of presenting ‘Cicero’ directly is by means of a TV drama or an audio drama. On 4 March 2005 BBC 2 broadcast a TV drama called Murder in Rome, written by the screenwriter Colin Swash and directed by Dave Stewart.¹⁰ In February 2017 the company Big Finish Productions released an audio drama of about an hour in length (recorded on 3 October 2016 at Moat Studios) entitled Cicero, written by David Llewellyn (b. 1978), a Welsh novelist and scriptwriter, and directed by Scott Handcock (b. 1984), an English writer, director and producer.¹¹ Both pieces present dramatic versions of Cicero's first appearance as an advocate in a criminal trial, his defence of Sextus Roscius from Ameria (Pro Sexto Roscio Amerino, 80 BCE). The selection of this incident from Cicero's life for a kind of dramatic presentation is a novel development, which works well for the chosen formats.

Important incidents in Cicero's life not only appear in narratives in various formats, but also in works of art: for instance, there is an etching ‘Cicero in Catilinam’ by James Sayers (1748–1823), published by Thomas Cornell (active 1780–1792) on 17 March 1785,¹² or a painting ‘Cicero denounces Catiline’ by Cesare Maccari (1840–1919), a fresco from the 1880s for the Palazzo Madama in Rome,¹³ as well as paintings showing ‘Fulvie découvrant à Cicéron la conjuration de Catilina’ (1822) by Nicolas-André Monsiau (1754–1837)¹⁴ and ‘Cicerone e Catilina’ (c. 1841–1867) by Paolo Barbotti (1821–1867).¹⁵ Works of art cover not only these dramatic events, but also quieter aspects of Cicero's personal life, such as the famous fresco of ‘The Young Cicero Reading’ (c. 1464) by Vincenzo Foppa (1427–1515)¹⁶ or a scene by Richard Wilson (1713/14–1782), showing ‘Cicero with his friend Atticus and brother Quintus, at his villa at Arpinum’ (c. 1771–1775).¹⁷

An enormous number of literary works feature passing references to Cicero, mainly depicting him as a well-known orator and politician. Interestingly, some of these comments are intended to create a comic effect, when characters mention Cicero trying to show their erudition, but their remarks rather reveal their ignorance. This role of Cicero may have been triggered as a reaction to the extreme appreciation of Cicero as an orator and linguistic model since the humanist period.

To name just a few works in English: Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) refers to Cicero as an oratorical model in An Apology for Poetry or The Defence of Poesy:¹⁸ ‘Tully, when he was to drive out Catiline, as it were with a thunderbolt of eloquence, often used that figure of repetition, Vivit. Vivit? Imo vero etiam in senatum venit, &c. Indeed, inflamed with a well-grounded rage, he would have his words (as it were) double out of his mouth, and so do that artificially which we see men do in choler naturally.’

In Thomas May's (1595–1650) Cleopatra (1639)¹⁹ Cicero is given a brief mention: the speaker Marcus Antonius describes Cicero by two characteristics that are often attributed to him, his oratory and his love of his country (286–290: ‘Marcus Antonius: Behold the list. / But one among the rest most comforts me, / That talking fellow Cicero, that us'd / To taxe the vicious times, and was forsoeth / A lover of his Country.’). This description leads his interlocutor Aristocrates to question whether lovers of the country like Cicero should live as he interfered with Catiline's plot (291–295: ‘Aristocrates: Out upon him, / Then he was rightly serv'd: for is it fit / In a well govern'd state such men should live / As love their Country? had't not been for him / Catiline's plot had thriv'd.’). Thus this brief exchange adumbrates the issue of how to assess Cicero's political activities, which is an important theme in many plays in which Cicero plays a major role.

In a comedy performed in Cambridge in 1599–1600 a character called ‘Mounsier’ says ‘Goe, goe, mee vill ripe tine horse, tit no matter for tut Marcus Tullio Ricero non facit lectio hodie, profecto ego volo te vapulabor.’²⁰ In a passage in Dombey and Son (1848) by Charles Dickens (1812–1870) Cicero is mentioned as follows: ‘Miss Blimber, too, although a slim and graceful maid, did no soft violence to the gravity of the house. There was no light nonsense about Miss Blimber. She kept her hair short and crisp, and wore spectacles. She was dry and sandy with working in the graves of deceased languages. None of your live languages for Miss Blimber. They must be dead – stone dead – and then Miss Blimber dug them up like a Ghoul. Mrs. Blimber, her mama, was not learned herself, but she pretended to be, and that did quite as well. She said at evening parties, that if she could have known Cicero, she thought she could have died contented.… “But really”, pursued Mrs. Blimber, “I think if I could have known Cicero, and been his friend, and talked with him in his retirement at Tusculum (beautiful Tusculum!), I could have died contented.”²¹

Cicero's role as an orator is recognized when a collection of English speeches is published under the title ‘The British Cicero’: The British Cicero; Or, A Selection of the Most Admired Speeches in the English Language; arranged under three distinct heads of popular, parliamentary, and judicial oratory: with historical illustrations: to which is prefixed, an introduction to the study and practice of eloquence (by Thomas Browne. In three volumes, London 1808).²²

Further, there are works in which one might expect ‘Cicero’ to feature as a character, but he does not. This applies to a fairly substantial number of plays on the Catilinarian Conspiracy and Caesar's assassination. Such a procedure might be surprising because of Cicero's historical position and since the authors were familiar with the historical sequence of events; yet they seem to have felt that Cicero's role was not decisive for the dramatic conflicts they wished to present by means of this historical event.

For instance, the play Catiline (1848–49) by Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906), Ibsen's first play, was inspired by Cicero's Catilinarian Orations and the contemporary situation in Europe, but does not incorporate Cicero among the characters.²³ Le Banquet de Catilina, fragment dramatique (d'après Saluste), en un acte et en vers (1850) by Alexandre Rolland focuses, like Sallust's narrative, on the interactions between the conspirators.²⁴ Ferdinando Tirinnanzi (1878–1940), a poet, playwright and journalist, sympathizing with the nationalistic movement, wrote a tragedy as the first item in a trilogy about the greatness of Rome: Roma. I. Catilina. Tragedia in 3 atti (publ. Firenze 1935; written April 1919); the focus is on Catiline as an enemy of Rome, and Cicero does not appear in the play.²⁵

The French humanist Marc Antoine Muret / Muretus (1526–1585) wrote a drama Iulius Caesar (first published in Iuvenilia of 1552);²⁶ it does not include Cicero, although Muret used Cicero's writings and engaged in discussions about Cicero (e.g. Sermo habitus cum Dario Bernardo de stultitia quorundam qui se Ciceronianos vocant, 1559).²⁷ The piece was the basis for a French version by Jacques Grévin (c. 1539–1570) entitled César (1561): Grévin translated some passages freely, elsewhere adjusted Muret's words and ideas; he also introduced new characters and scenes and arranged the plot differently, on the basis of historical sources and the model of Greek and Roman tragedy.²⁸ Muret's piece was adapted into Dutch in shortened form by Johan van Michiels / Johannes Michaelius (1614–1646), entitled Julius Caesar, ofte Kaiser-Moorders (1645), according to his own testimony.²⁹ This version was again reworked and expanded by Johannes van Someren (1622–1676) in C. Iulius Caesar, ofte wraeck van vermande vryheydt (Dordrecht 1670).³⁰

Further plays about Caesar's assassination do not have Cicero as a character either, for instance: Il Cesare Tragedia (Verona 1594) by Orlando Pescetti (c. 1556–1624),³¹ La Mort de Cæsar by Georges de Scudery (1601–1667),³² De Doodt van Julius Cæzar Gerijmt door H. Verbiest. Vertoont op d’ Amsterdamsche Schouwburg, In ’t Jaar M D C L (Amsterdam 1650), a Dutch version of de Scudery's piece,³³ as well as several lost plays. The tragedy Brutus (first 1596) by Michael Virdung (1575–1637) was intended as a kind of sequel to Muret's Iulius Caesar and has a plot without Cicero.³⁴

C. Iulius Caesar (100–44 BCE) has a reception history of his own, mainly focused on his biography, occasionally combined with references to his commentarii about the Gallic and the civil wars.³⁵ The historical circumstances of Caesar's life and the way in which these are represented mean that Cicero sometimes features in these works and there is interaction between the two men, while in other contexts Caesar is portrayed without any involvement of Cicero. Several plays about Caesar are attested for Shakespeare's period, but too little is known about them as to determine their relationship to Shakespeare's own Julius Caesar (ch. 4.5) or the role of Cicero within them.

Among works in which ‘Cicero’ is presented there are some that were planned, but not completed.

For instance, the Austrian writer Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872) planned a drama Catilina, in which Cicero would have had a part, but it was never written.³⁷ The poet apparently studied Sallust carefully at the time (1824).³⁸ He seems to have had views about Cicero, for he notes in his diaries (1835):³⁹ ‘Wenn Cicero eine starke Wirkung auf seine Zuhörer beabsichtigt, wird er pomphaft, erschöpft Tropen und Figuren, regt den tiefsten Boden der menschlichen Leidenschaften auf, spricht zu den Augen, den Ohren, den Herzen. Demosthenes thut das auch; wo er aber den Hauptschlag führen will, wird er immer einfacher, ja stiller, aber schärfer und eine logische Schlußfolge erringt endlich und befestigt den Sieg.’

Franz von Dingelstedt (1814–1881), a German poet, dramatist, journalist and theatre director, considered a drama entitled ‘Catilina’, in which Cicero would have a role and this figure would show the power of oratory (cf. ch. 4.50).⁴⁰

The English poet Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) was planning a drama on the late Roman Republic for many years, but it never materialized; only a few fragments as well as notes and comments in letters survive.⁴¹ In preparation Arnold read widely, including works of Cicero and Plutarch, some of Shakespeare's tragedies as well as publications by contemporary ancient historians. Interestingly, and in contrast to all other plays featuring Cicero, Arnold's play was to focus on the Roman philosophical poet Lucretius (and it is known under that title), while it would still have included Cicero and other important political players of the period.⁴²

If those dramas had been realized, the number of dramas on Cicero from the nineteenth century had increased even further, while this is already the period to which the largest number of known Cicero plays belongs: Cicero's story and the themes that could be associated with it were obviously felt to be relevant at that time.