Assignment for Mon. October 24/Wed. October 26

• We turn now to the Pro Roscio comoedo. This week read (in Latin) RoscCom 1-26. We’ll focus on Monday on Chaps. 1-13; and on Wednesday, on your written translations of 14-26 (see below!).

NB: There is no commentary on this speech. But because a good deal of the speech is quite technical, legalistically speaking, you’ll need some guidance. For that reason:

a) Please read, as legal background, A.H.J. Greenidge’s explanation of the circumstances surrounding the trial and the legal technicalities. This may be found in Appendix II.2 (pp. 542-51) of his The Legal Proceedings of Cicero’s Time (Oxford 1901): I have placed the seminar room copy of this book on our reserve shelf.

b) I have also put on our reserve shelf a photocopy of the Loeb text and translation of and introduction to this speech. You should read the introduction; and the notes accompanying the text and translation are very helpful indeed...and may serve as a sort of commentary. Resist the temptation to consult the translation, though here too again you may find the translation occasionally useful in untangling the legal technicalities

Translation exercise

Please write a Penguinesque translation of your assigned passage. By ‘Penguinesque’ I mean a translation suitable for a Penguin translation – i.e., moderately elegant and readable, not necessarily literal…something that aims to replicate (insofar as one can in English) the flavor of the original.

Email your translation to me by the end of the day on Tuesday (feel free to send it earlier!). I will collate your translations and make copies for everybody prior to class on Wednesday. Then we’ll go over them…

Pseudo-Roscius: 14-15

Robin: 16

Richard: 17

Lindsay: 18

Brent: 19

Ashli: 20

Jaime: 21

Ruben: 22

Pseudo-Roscius: 23

Jason: 24

Hans: 25

Rachel: 26

Ponderanda

• For those of you familiar with Cicero’s later speeches, this one will perhaps come as something of a surprise. How does it differ thus far from other speeches by Cicero you’ve read?
• You have become familiar with Roscius through the fairly numerous references to him in De oratore. As you read this speech over the next two weeks, consider the ways in which the nature and character of the defendant appear to affect the way Cicero presents the case. Is there, that is, any sense in which Cicero plays upon Roscius’ profession – and his standing in that profession?