Cicerono Tryliktoji filipika: dialogas su nesančiu žmogumi
Cicero's Thirteenth Philip: A dialogue with a missing person

Summary/Abstract: The publication consists of the first published translation of Cicero’s Thirteenth Philippic into Lithuanian, accompanied by an article which analyses the use of the letter by Mark Antony in this speech (Phil. XIII, 22–48). In the Thirteenth Philippic, whose main purpose is to characterise Mark Antony and his followers, one can detect more traits of an invective than in any other Philippic. This is what makes this speech stand out in the whole set of the Philippics, and makes it close to the Second Philippic, which is not a speech in the strict definition of the genre, but a political pamphlet and a specimen of a Roman invective. The conventions of a Roman invective, which allow for unrestrained denigration of the opponent, and strong exaggeration or even distortion of facts, create certain patterns, repetitive places (loci communes, topoi). In this way the usual sallies against one’s personal life, family, habits and vices become formulaic and ineffective. This is why Cicero chooses more subtle forms of derision, as if transgressing the boundaries of the traditional obloquy: in the Second Philippic he creates an impression of a comedy by making Mark Antony to appear as character of a comedy, and in the Thirteenth Philippic Cicero characterises him by quoting and commenting on his letter.

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