»Should I Stay or Should I Go«: Ciceron Atiku, krajem 44.
»Should I Stay or Should I Go«: Cicero to Atticus, Late 44 BC

Summary/Abstract: The voluminous correspondence of Cicero to Atticus encompasses sixteen books of letters written in the period from 68 to 44 BC, thus during the turbulent and dramatic times of Roman history. This coincidence certainly cannot be considered a coincidence, since the specified letters were not written by a man who did not participate in almost all of those events. Cicero portrayed the final decades of the Roman Republic in numerous speeches, mostly delivered in the period in which the letters to Atticus were written, which does not diminish the importance of these later ones, not only with regard to the difference between these literary genres, but also because Cicero wrote both speeches and letters as the same person. Therefore, Cicero's letters can greatly facilitate the reading of his speeches, and provide insight into his oratorical, psychological, and even manipulative abilities in addressing judges, senators, citizens, Caesar... There is a huge difference, for example, in the way he expressed his fear and concern for the well-being of the state in the speeches against Catiline and his fear for his own life in the last letters addressed to Atticus at the end of 44. Apart from the discretion, which is mostly ensured in the correspondence, the style and content of these letters are also marked by the fact that they were addressed to almost a contemporary, a friend from school days, a very close man of similar education and origin. Cicero's attachment to Atticus is portrayed most of all in the last letters, written almost daily, in which indecision, doubt, and fear are expressed without hiding, sometimes ironically. The impression is created that Cicero did not see in Atticus only a friend, but also a person to whom he could always confide and confess – perhaps Atticus would have been a successful psychoanalyst for Cicero.

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