Upotreba grčkog jezika u Ciceronovim pismima Atiku
The use of the Greek language in Cicero's letters to Atticus

Summary/Abstract: Marcus Tullius Cicero’s letters to his lifelong friend Titus Pomponius Atticus, collected in sixteen volumes, are abundant in Greek words, phrases, quotations and even whole periods, which is not only highly unusual in Roman public literature, but also undesirable from the point of Roman cultural norms, pride and literary taste. Even more peculiar is an almost total absence of Greek in his letters to other close friends and relatives, except to his brother Quintus, which makes the case of what is known as code‐switching in the Letters to Atticus even more difficult to account for. Cicero’s linguistic purism, so persistent in his published works and oratory, seems to contradict his epistolary bilingualism even more seriously. In this paper only the first 45 letters (or the first two volumes) of this correspondence are taken into detailed consideration (the period from 68 to 59 BC), but the same tendency of code‐switching is apparent throughout. There are over 160 examples of the Greek language in these letters, whether in the form of single words, phrases or whole sentences. The first part of the text is an elaborate description of the phenomenon with some of the examples, which are usually but not necessarily written down in the Greek alphabet. The examples are classified into the following categories: quotations, whole sentences, adjectives, substantives, verbs, modifiers, mixed Latin‐Greek periods and, finally, phrases and proverbs. In the second part of the text an attempt is made to highlight the nature of and possible motives for such an excessive use of Greek. First of all, it is emphasized that Cicero’s code‐switching can only be understood as an integral part of a very intimate correspondence, which was never meant to be published. Hence Cicero’s freedom to transgress the literary standards of his time. A mixture thus created is not a chaotic pidgin. It is rather a result of conscious and careful choices intended to create a linguistic unit superior in expression and more appropriate to a specific modus of communication. Cicero also uses Greek whenever he is unable to find a suitable Latin word or expression. Sometimes he does it as a joke, treating Greek as a source of argot expressions. In other times, when dealing with dangerous topics, he uses it as a sort of cryptography, covert language. But in all these instances one point is of crucial importance: the personality and position of Titus Pomponius Atticus. It is argued that only by taking into consideration Atticus’ personality and his specific relationship with Cicero we can come to understand the nature of Cicero’s epistolary bilingualism. Extremely refined and educated, living in Greece for decades, in one sense being more of a Greek than a Roman, Atticus inspires Cicero to use Greek in their communication the way he uses it nowhere else. In our opinion, the background of such a feature is to a great extent psychological, having to deal with subtle and complex emotional and intelectual exchange between Cicero and Atticus.

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