Souvenirs of Cicero : Shaping Memory in the Epistulae Ad Familiares

Cicero's letters have figured prominently in some of western modernity's most cherished illusions about the immediacy of its encounter with Classical antiquity. Celebrated since their discovery in the Renaissance for their intimate mode of self-expression, they have been prized since then for the unparalleled proximity they appear to lend to the events and leading figures of the late Republic. However, the letters were only organized into books and collections and published as such by editors after Cicero's death, and are therefore also the products of a later era. Souvenirs of Cicero Âis a study of the narratives that the letter collections plot, and of the belated, post-Republican perspectives that shape them. It focuses on the Epistulae ad Familiares , the collection that incorporates Cicero's widest cast of correspondents, and which has been most vulnerable to the modern editorial impulse to reorganize the letter collections along chronological lines. This book attempts to reverse that impulse by appraising the collection in the format transmitted from antiquity and attending to its status as an artefact of the later imperial age. Francesca K. A. Martelli traces the social, political and technological agencies that shaped this letter collection in antiquity, and elucidates the interests that these editorial interventions serve both for ancient readers and for our interpretation of the letters today. Integrating close readings of the letters with hypotheses drawn from contemporary media theory, she makes the case for considering Cicero's letters as residual media, which haunt subsequent history with the Republic's lost futures as they circulate beyond their own era. Cicero's letters have figured prominently in some of western modernity's most cherished illusions about the immediacy of its encounter with Classical antiquity. Celebrated since their discovery in the Renaissance for their intimate mode of self-expression, they have been prized ever since for the unparalleled proximity they appear to give us to the events and leading figures of the late Republic. However, they were only organized into books and collections, and published as such, by unknown editors long after Cicero's death. Modern editors have also dismantled these collections and reorganized the letters chronologically in an attempt to reconstruct the events that they document more accurately. Souvenirs of Cicero studies the narratives that the letter collections unfold and the post-Republican perspectives that shape them. It looks closely at the ancient format of Epistulae ad Familiares, the collection that incorporates Cicero's widest cast of correspondents and has been most vulnerable to this practice of reorganization, and reverses it, attending instead to the collection's status as an artefact of the later imperial age. Francesca K. A. Martelli traces the social, political, and technological agencies that shaped this letter collection in antiquity and elucidates the interests that these editorial interventions serve both for ancient readers and for our interpretation of the letters today by integrating a close analysis of these letters with hypotheses drawn from contemporary media theory. Cicero's letters emerge from this study as residual media, which haunt subsequent history with the Republic's lost futures as they circulate beyond their own era. Cover 1 Souvenirs of Cicero 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Preface 10 Note on the Text 12 Introduction: Receiving Cicero’s Letters—​A Brief History 14 1. Letters to the Editor: Constructing the Editor in Fam. 16 46 2. Enclosing the Collection: Frames of Meaning in Fam. 1 and Fam. 15 71 3. Reorienting the Collection: Cicero as Addressee and the Arena of Letters in Fam. 8 98 4. Ordering the Collection: History and Counter-​History in Fam. 10–​12 126 5. Structures of Feeling: The Household of Familiaritas in Fam. 13 175 Conclusion 208 Appendix: The Chronological Order of Letters in Fam. 10–​12 222 Bibliography 234 Index Locorum 248 Index 256