Clodia, Celio and the rhetoric of abandonment (About Cic. Cael. 61)
Abstract
The 'rhetoric of abandonment ' is based on topical elements and behavioral mechanisms, as evidenced by poetry and theater. Oratory also makes use of it. Cicero, for example, includes in the topic of a crudelissimum discidium the accusations that Clodia had made against Celio (Cic. Cael. 30-31). The word discidium is therefore useful to make the defense persuasive, because it communicates the image of the violence of separation: it produces resentment and devastating emotional consequences that turn into words and actions aimed at hitting an ex-lover. The transformation of the harmonious consuetudo into acrimonious simultas, described in Cic. Cael. 61, therefore, is the cause of the imputations: an effective way to mitigate the crimes attributed to the young man and to undermine the reliability of the witness.
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