Cicero's Letters and Roman Epistolary Etiquette

vii, 48 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries under the call number: PA6298 .D78 2007In his Second Philippic, Cicero portrays Antony as a person whose conduct places him on the fringes of polite society, where Cicero envisions him trampling upon the most basic standards of Roman decorum. Among Antony's many offenses is his broadcasting of the contents of Cicero's personal correspondence. This revelation may at first appear to be a trivial matter compared to Antony's more appalling misdeeds, but closer inspection of Cicero's letters reveals how Antony's breach of etiquette lends itself to Cicero's portrait of him as one who has transgressed the bounds of Roman decency. This study uses Antony's breach of etiquette as a point of departure for an inquiry into Roman anxieties concerning epistolary etiquette; the hazards of communicating at a distance and how one's treatment of a letter that one has received can, in the Roman view, reflect upon one's humanitas.Adviser: Mary Jaege