701. In Vatinium. A speech Cicero gave on February 10, 56 B.C. against Vatinius who was serving as a witness against Cicero's client, Publius Sestius. Cicero owed Sestius a great deal in two different periods of his life. One during Cicero's consulship Sestius helped to defeat and outwit Catiline. And then later during Cicero's exile he was very helpful and kind to Cicero during his exile when he was in Thessalonika, Greece.
But this speech is mostly directed against Vatinius during that period when he was Tribune in 59 B.C. During that time Vatinius used violence to help push through Caesar's legislative agenda. He used force to prevent Consul Bibulus from blocking Caesdar's proposed laws. He announced and carried through his plans to ignore auspice and obnuntiatio. He threw aside safe guards which had been in place for extensive periods. He attempted to arrest a consul who opposed his business. His actions brought so much danger to a consul that that consul could not leave his house.
Auspicia needs to be explained. Elected officials had the right to declare that they were observing the skies for signs from the gods. By doing so it meant that an assembly could not be held nor could a bill be proposed. It may sound very odd to someone in modern times. But it is very important to keep in mind that for a very long time this was viewed as a means for an elected official to block something which was thought to be contrary to the interests of the Republic. It could be frustrating for a politician trying to get something done but by the same token it meant that a politician had to work with others in a very intense way. It was a safe guard which had served the Republic very well. When Cicero passed his bill into law, he followed all of the rules, worked with those he should to make sure the bill became law.
The Law which set up these procedures was the Lex Aelia Fufia. It appears that this law was ignored for the first time by Vatinius. The next year Clodius challenged the law and it seems suspended it for purposes of being able to exile Cicero. Since no one would be able to "watch the skies" in order to stop proceedings and save Cicero.
His methods continued the next year when he helped Clodius bring about Cicero's exile.
Cicero's main point is that the Tribunate of Vatinius sums up what is wrong with the Republic: people who consider their agenda more important than those rules and standards which give protection to all, who consider their agenda more important than proper give and take which exists in a Republic, who think their personal goals in their particular case over ride tradition and respect for authority or the needs and interests of anyone else.
In the course of dealing with this Cicero replied to Vatinius' comment that he, Cicero, acted tyrannically in handling the Catilinarian crisis. Cicero's primary response is that he followed the will of the Senate and worked for agreement on how to solve the problem. Vatinius did neither.
It may not be very elegant at this point to say that this speech was actually aimed at Caesar. Caesar was the one whose laws were at stake. His methods were ones of violence and the best one could say is that he looked the other way during Vatinius' excesses. Ambition and Cicero suggests blind ambition drove him to seek methods which were largely for his benefit at the expense of any ideas that anyone else had. It is a damning view of Caesar. It also took guts for Caesar was no trifle.
It just may be that Cicero was gambling that he felt that there was a rift in the Triumvirate, between Pompey and Crassus (heated words had been exchanged) and that Cicero could use this speech to sever Pompey's connection with Caesar. It did not work but it shows how Cicero was capable of looking way down the road in order to bring a plan together. His brain was always turning.
I often think that Cicero in a way can be viewed asRobert E.Lee can be viewed. When one looks at Lees photographs and views how his soldiers felt about him and the way he commanded it is very easy to forget how driven he was and how fierce. The same is true for Cicero his portraits show an intellectual fellow with a kindness and charm which belies the incredible ambition and drive which lay beneath.
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