Cicero: exile, letters and repetitions

Abstract

Considering the relevance both of Cicero’s letters in the domain of classical studies and of figures of repetition in the rhetorical field, this article aims to verify the use that the famous orator, statesman and Roman writer of the first century BC made of such figures in the 34 letters written by him during his exile that occurred between 58- 57 BC due to a political persecution undertaken by Publius Clodius Pulcher, tribune of the plebs at that time. The methodology of this study is based on the bibliographic review relating to figures of repetition and on a survey of all occurrences of those figures in Cicero’s exilic correspondence, with the aim of interpreting them in order to reveal an underlying communicative intention in the orator’s argumentation. The text shows how the use of such rhetorical resources, in a textual genre generally considered unpretentious in terms of style, helped to enlarge Cicero’s power of persuasion in relation to the original readers of the set of letters composed in one of the most tempestuous periods of his life. Thus, this paper intends to contribute not only to expand the knowledge of the argumentative force of the repetition figures but also to diffuse a significant part of the work of one of the most important names of the universal literature.