CICERO AS OVERLIVER

Abstract

Aside from his actual exile, Cicero describes himself as an exile and overliver in two other stressful periods: during the civil war of 49 and during life at Rome under Caesar's autocracy. Scholars have long noted the exile imagery in Cicero's letters of 46–45, but not in those of 49. Also unnoticed is the image of the overliver, well known from epic and tragedy, who, shamed by a single event, feels he has lived too long yet cannot escape life. In the first two periods, Cicero also deftly employs the themes and figures of lamentation to underline his distress and his liminal state as an overliver and to rebut Atticus' criticism of his self-pity. This self-presentation, sustained over three lengthy and traumatic episodes of Cicero's life, contrasts with his occasional assumption of literary exempla for his own behaviour.