The hand of Cicero

THE HAND OF CICERO. By SHANE BUTLER. London: Routledge. 2002. Pp. x, 165.

THIS SHORT STUDY calls attention to the power of the written word in the business of forensic persuasion and, more briefly, political struggle in the late Republic. It offers a series of vignettes of "Cicero at work in environments amply characterized by the written word, seen mostly through the lens of his surviving oratorical works" (3). The first chapter tackles the Pro Quinctio and the Pro Sexto Roscio Amerino to show that "documentary culture could have psychological resonance" (23). Consideration of the Verrines constitutes the core of the monograph and provides a useful catalogue (35-60) of the extent of documentary practice: Butler discusses litterae publicae, testimonium publicum, accounts, correspondence, inscriptions, records of legal proceedings, edicts, wills, treaties, the interesting apologia written by a condemned ship's captain (Verr. 2.5.112), and other documents. Then we jump to the role of written texts in Cicero's campaign against the Catilinarians before finishing up with the Second Philippic and Antony's hatred of Cicero. The possible display of Cicero's severed hands alongside his head upon the Rostra frames the whole as an effective emblem of "the direct relationship between oratorical practice and written texts of many kinds" (2). Each chapter has some independence as "a vignette of Cicero at work in environments amply characterized by the written word" (3). But, despite the framing, the chapters do not add up to a comprehensive and thorough analysis of the values and functions of written texts in Ciceronian Rome. Moreover, for all Butler's alert interest in a "complex picture of Cicero...