The tale of rhetorical trickery in Cicero’s pro Caecina

Schnetter, Marcus

Abstract

The prevailing scholarly view on pro Caecina opines that the speech is a striking example of Cicero’s resort to rhetorical deception. This paper posits, to the contrary, that there are plausible reasons to rely on the orator’s plea. Therefore, it is not warranted to accuse Cicero of deceit. The controversy about the speech is a paradigm example of misconceptions about the intimate relationship between Roman law and rhetoric.