Un-parallel lives? the younger Quintus and Marcus Cicero in Cicero’s Letters

This article considers the characterisation of two intertwined but increasingly contrasting figures from Cicero’s letters, namely the younger Marcus (Cicero’s son) and Quintus Cicero (Cicero’s nephew), reconstructing and adding nuance to significant moments in their lives as depicted in Cicero’s wri...

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Main Author: Ash, RE
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Dublin University Press 2023
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author Ash, RE
author_facet Ash, RE
author_sort Ash, RE
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description This article considers the characterisation of two intertwined but increasingly contrasting figures from Cicero’s letters, namely the younger Marcus (Cicero’s son) and Quintus Cicero (Cicero’s nephew), reconstructing and adding nuance to significant moments in their lives as depicted in Cicero’s writings. By tracing diachronically the two cousins’ depictions across his letter collections, this article takes us into the deep recesses of family life and explores expectations about educational and career trajectories of young aristocrats. It also shows how the cousins’ portraits shadow and develop in intriguing ways the relationship between their fathers, Cicero and his brother Quintus, adding further foiling and complexity to all four portraits. The trajectories of the boys’ lives, initially so closely entwined and unfolding in parallel, gradually diverge: the firecracker Quintus becomes increasingly alienated and angry, while the jovial Marcus, constantly indulged by his father, can apparently do no wrong, despite unwitting hints in the letters that he is not the paragon that Cicero assumes him to be.
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spelling oxford-uuid:2af52fb9-d8d1-428f-a5dc-bbd9e9faee8b2023-05-05T09:31:45ZUn-parallel lives? the younger Quintus and Marcus Cicero in Cicero’s LettersJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:2af52fb9-d8d1-428f-a5dc-bbd9e9faee8bEnglishSymplectic ElementsDublin University Press2023Ash, REThis article considers the characterisation of two intertwined but increasingly contrasting figures from Cicero’s letters, namely the younger Marcus (Cicero’s son) and Quintus Cicero (Cicero’s nephew), reconstructing and adding nuance to significant moments in their lives as depicted in Cicero’s writings. By tracing diachronically the two cousins’ depictions across his letter collections, this article takes us into the deep recesses of family life and explores expectations about educational and career trajectories of young aristocrats. It also shows how the cousins’ portraits shadow and develop in intriguing ways the relationship between their fathers, Cicero and his brother Quintus, adding further foiling and complexity to all four portraits. The trajectories of the boys’ lives, initially so closely entwined and unfolding in parallel, gradually diverge: the firecracker Quintus becomes increasingly alienated and angry, while the jovial Marcus, constantly indulged by his father, can apparently do no wrong, despite unwitting hints in the letters that he is not the paragon that Cicero assumes him to be.
spellingShingle Ash, RE
Un-parallel lives? the younger Quintus and Marcus Cicero in Cicero’s Letters
title Un-parallel lives? the younger Quintus and Marcus Cicero in Cicero’s Letters
title_full Un-parallel lives? the younger Quintus and Marcus Cicero in Cicero’s Letters
title_fullStr Un-parallel lives? the younger Quintus and Marcus Cicero in Cicero’s Letters
title_full_unstemmed Un-parallel lives? the younger Quintus and Marcus Cicero in Cicero’s Letters
title_short Un-parallel lives? the younger Quintus and Marcus Cicero in Cicero’s Letters
title_sort un parallel lives the younger quintus and marcus cicero in cicero s letters
work_keys_str_mv AT ashre unparallellivestheyoungerquintusandmarcusciceroincicerosletters