Politeness and Politics in Cicero's Letters

288 Pages·2009·2.3 MB·English

by  Jon Hall

POLITENESS AND POLITICS
IN CICERO’S LETTERS
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POLITENESS AND POLITICS
IN CICERO’S LETTERS
Jon Hall
1
2009
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hall, Jon (Jon C. R.), 1961–
Politeness and politics in Cicero’s letters / Jon Hall.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-532906-3
1. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Correspondence. 2. Cicero, Marcus
Tullius—Criticism and interpretation. 3. Letter writing, Classical. I. Title.
PA6350.H35 2009
876'.01—dc22 2008031791
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the academic support provided by the University
of Otago over the past decade or so, especially the provision of reasonable
teaching loads, regular research leave, and contestable research grants.
I would also like to thank my colleagues in the Classics department (both
past and present) for their patient, if quizzical, indulgence of my interests in
politeness. Dr. Graham McGregor (University of Otago) and Professor Janet
Holmes (Victoria University at Wellington) have given me welcome assis-
tance in the fi eld of sociolinguistics. Charlotte Francis provided invaluable
help as my research assistant in preparing the typescript for publication.
For encouragement and support over the years in Ciceronian matters, I
am indebted to Lea Beness, Tony Corbeill, Chris Craig, Sander Goldberg, Tom
Hillard, Jim May, Emanuele Narducci, John Ramsey, and (most especially)
Jeff Tatum. Stefan Vranka at Oxford University Press rescued the manuscript
from oblivion and guided it through to publication with tact and effi ciency.
Th anks are due also to the three anonymous referees at Oxford who off ered
constructive criticism. For assistance with the cover illustration, I am grateful
to the museums of Tusculum College and Robert Hannah. Leoda Anderson,
Michele Clement, Anne Hewton, and Nicola Richmond provided support
and assistance in various ways during the writing of this book. Finally, I am
grateful to my parents for not taking personally the g eographical distance
that has steadily grown between us over the last twenty-fi ve years or so.
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Contents
Abbreviations ix
Note on Texts and Translations xi
Introduction 3
Cicero’s Letters and Linguistic Politeness
1 Doing Aristocratic Business 29
Affi liative Politeness and the Politeness of Respect
2 From Polite Fictions to Hypocrisy 78
3 Redressive Politeness 107
Requests, Refusals, and Advice
4 Politeness in Epistolary Confl ict 135
5 Politeness and Political Negotiation 169
Conclusion 191
viii contents
Appendix 197
Some Common Strategies Used in Affi liative
Politeness and the Politeness of Respect
Notes 211
Bibliography 247
Index Locorum 263
Index 267
Abbreviations
CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Ed. Th . Mommsen et al.
(Berlin 1863–2003)
LSJ A Greek-English Lexicon. Ed. H. G. Liddell and R. Scott, revised
and augmented by H. S. Jones, with a revised supplement
(Oxford 1996)
OCD Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd edition revised. Ed. Simon
Hornblower and Antony Spawforth (Oxford 2003)
OLD Oxford Latin Dictionary. Ed. P. G. W. Glare (Oxford 1982)
RE Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft .
Ed. A. von Pauly, G. Wissowa and W. Kroll (Stuttgart 1893–1980)
TLL Th esaurus Linguae Latinae (Leipzig 1900–)
All references to ancient texts are to works by Cicero unless stated other-
wise. Abbreviations for ancient authors and their works follow the conven-
tions used in the Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd edition revised), except
for Quintus Cicero Commentariolum Petitionis, for which the abbreviation
Q. Cic. Comm. Pet. is used. References to Cicero’s letters include the refer-
ence number assigned by D. R. Shackleton Bailey in his commentaries, texts,
and translations, in the form (e.g.) SB 123. See the Bibliography for further
details.
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