Pro M. Marcello

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Pro M. Marcello ("In the name of Marcus Marcellus") is a speech that Marcus Tullius Cicero 46 BC. Before the Senate .

background

Marcus Claudius Marcellus came from a famous Roman family and had been consul with Servius Sulpicius Rufus . In this position he had insulted Caesar very much by petitioning the Senate to withdraw his command . In the civil war he supported Pompey and was 48 BC. He was present at the battle of Pharsalus , after which he retired into exile in Lesbos . Cicero himself had broken with Pompey's successors after the battle and was therefore already 47 BC. BC received an amnesty for former Pompey supporters. He stayed in contact with Marcellus by letter even after his return to Rome.

46 BC The Senate spoke to Caesar in favor of pardoning Marcellus and allowing him to return. Although Caesar saw that the Senate was unanimous in his motion for Marcellus, he still put the motion for a pardon to the vote and asked for the opinion of each individual Senator. Cicero seems to have believed that Caesar wanted to restore the republic , as he mentions in his letters. When Caesar gave in to the requests, Cicero gave the speech to Pro M. Marcello , in which he thanked Caesar for his leniency. Actually, as he wrote in a letter to Sulpicius Rufus , he had been determined not to comment on it; but he was afraid that if he kept quiet, Caesar would interpret it as evidence that he did not approve of his politics.

Marcellus was born in 45 BC. Murdered on his return from exile.

content

Cicero begins his speech by praising Caesar's clementia as almost divine wisdom. Caesar's pardon for an important political opponent was a decisive political turning point. It was only this mildness that moved him to end his silence. He contrasts this act of grace with Caesar's “war achievements”, which in the long run would bring him less fame than a wise policy. In what follows, he compares the virtues Caesar displayed with Plato's ideal of a just state. In doing so, he indirectly appealed to Caesar, who had made himself dictator for the third time that year , to restore the libera res publica , the republic.

Web links

Wikisource: Pro Marcello  - Sources and full texts (Latin)

Remarks

  1. ↑ Epistulae ad Familiares 13.68.
  2. ↑ Epistulae ad Familiares 4.4.
  3. ^ Pro Marcello 1, epistulae ad familiares 4, 4, 4; Collins, Caesar and the Corruption of the Power , in; Historia 1955, no. 4, pp. 445-465, also in: Paths of Research 43, Darmstadt 1967, pp. 379-412, esp. 387
  4. ^ Pro Marcello 26
  5. ^ Pro Marcello 23