Bloggus Sum

I've always dispised Cicero. I think the problem is the way I have always read him, i.e. in Latin unseen exams where I only have 20 minutes to deciper his chunky tangles. I read some this morning and, aided I admit by copious pencil notes from a previous owner, found myself really getting into it. I therefore offer you tips I have gleaned on the best way to make sense of and (dare I say it?) enjoy your Cicero time.

Having said all this, I still wish they wouldn't set Cicero in exams. They do it because it stretches your Latin to the limit, both in your understanding of basic constructions and technical, unusual vocabulary - but it took me several days to fully make sense of this speech, and I will never be able to read it under exam conditions.

1. Read it out loud
And, if you can, perform it. Before you try and understand what the words mean, try and grasp the swoops and lines of his argument. As you read, emphasise question words (nonne, num, an, quid), connectives (ut, et, atque), personal pronouns (tu, ego) and in particular, words he uses to build his case: si, aut, non. Once you have done this, you will find relative clauses, asides and subclauses popping out at you.

If you are self-conscious or in an exam, imagine someone reading it to you - I always find it helpful to imagine my Latin teacher, but try a favourite actor (someone with gravitas, like Brian Blessed...)

2. Circles and boxes
Like all Latin, your aim is to find a subject, object and main verb. You've just got to look harder because of his rhetorical style. Try not to resent it: Martin Luther King would have got nowhere if he boiled the "I have a dream" speech down to "racism is bad. Let's not do that. Let's be friends".

So start identifying things which definitely not S, O or V - and bracket off chunks which seem to belong together, like in hac re publica.

3. Punctuation
The Romans basically had no punctuation, and when roused to literary fury, write in uber-long sentences known as "periods". Because of this, the punctuation is built into the language, into the way clauses are structured and interelated. Grab a highlighter, and highlight all the words you emphasised before. Then start bracketing off relative clauses and conditional clauses. Try and see where he is balancing with words. For example, look at this mess:

Quid tandem te impedit? mosne maiorum? At persaepe etiam privati in hac re publica perniciosos cives morte multarunt. An leges, quae de civium Romanorum supplicio rogatae sunt? At numquam in hac urbe, qui a re publica defecerunt, civium iura tenuerunt. An invidiam posteritatis times?

Cicero begins with a general question: "OK, mate, so what is preventing you?" He then shoots down all possible reasons for delay with a question-answer structure:

• Quid tandem te impedit?
  
• mosne maiorum?
• At persaepe etiam privati in hac re publica perniciosos cives morte multarunt.
  
• An leges, quae de civium Romanorum supplicio rogatae sunt?
• At numquam in hac urbe, qui a re publica defecerunt, civium iura tenuerunt.
  
• An invidiam posteritatis times?

Even though I don't know what half those words mean yet, I can grasp the rhythm of his argument and can tell that - whatever it is - he is getting angry about something.

4. Before you start writing
Make sure every sentence or clause, you know exactly what the subject, object and verb is. It does bear repeating.


These few ideas occured to me this morning as really helping. Please add your own tips in the comments. And of course, they're not just handy for Cicero - he just writes in such a way that you have to pay more attention.