Review | Cicero and the Rise of Deification at Rome

Spencer Cole. Cicero and the Rise of Deification at Rome. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

In Cicero and the Rise of Deification at Rome, Spencer Cole offers a close reading of the Ciceronian corpus within the social, cultural, and especially, political context of the tumultuous late Roman Republic. By deftly combining textual analysis and historical considerations, Cole walks the readers through more than forty of Cicero’s writings (from his political orations, philosophical treatises, and personal letters) written between the late 70s and the late 40s BCE. Cole’s analysis demonstrates how Cicero introduced, experimented, and negotiated a new conceptualization of deification in Rome.

Cole’s introduction begins with memorable snippets about Cicero’s deification of his dead daughter Tullia. Through the entire book, Cole claims that this occurrence is anything but an unexpected event caused by Cicero’s personal loss and grief; rather, it needs to be understood in light of his life-long experimentation with, and development of, thought regarding human divinization. After introducing the overarching goals of the study, Cole unfolds his argument over four chapters, examining Cicero’s work in roughly chronological order. In each chapter the author frequently draws connections between earlier and later work to demonstrate how certain seminal ideas develop. Cole also discusses how some dramatis personae in Cicero’s writings draw on and/or refer back to earlier pieces (e.g., Cicero takes Scipio and Laelius from his earlier work, De re publica, and uses them in another setting in his later writing, De senectute).

Cole’s first two chapters mix methodological considerations (especially, contemporary metaphor research) and textual examination, along with some exploration of cultural backgrounds (e.g., Greek customs and philosophy). In Chapter 1, Cole focuses on Pro lege Manilia (66 BCE), in which Cicero argues that exceptional honors should be given to Pompey. Cicero was “in the process of calibrating the standards for an emerging discourse at Rome” (45). This chapter demonstrates Cicero’s earlier views on the divinization of humans through earthly honors. While retaining some important aspects, his later thoughts differed from that position. In Chapter 2, Cole highlights Pro Sestio, written in 56 BCE and containing “one of the fullest explications of Cicero’s political agenda” (80), De re publica, and De legibus (the latter two echo and expand the ideas presented in Pro Sestio). In this chapter, one observes Cicero’s articulation (and development process) of his distinctive notion of deification and his justification of this innovation. According to Cicero, exemplary Romans (individually) obtain posthumous deification based on their virtues and civic achievements. The Roman orator defends his claim by appealing to ancient examples, such as Hercules and (more importantly) Romulus. In these chapters, Cole pays attention to how Cicero’s divinizing metaphors close the conceptual gap between gods and humans, thereby driving, as well as reflecting, a cultural transformation in the late Republic.

The remaining chapters contain textual analyses highlighting political context. In Chapter 3, Cole discusses how Cicero in several of his orations challenged Caesar’s attempt to achieve earthly divinization. Cicero argues that divinity can only be achieved posthumously. That posthumous divinization will be contingent on Caesar demonstrating virtues and contributing to the Republic with clementia. Chapter 4 shifts focus to the final phase of Cicero’s career. Cole explores Cicero’s mature theoretical works (e.g., De natura deorum) and Cicero’s series of final speeches about Antony and Octavian in the new, more turbulent political landscape after Caesar’s assassination. One finds interesting observations on how Cicero’s view of deification developed (or even fluctuated) over decades, especially with respect to the political power(s) Cicero engaged—Pompey, Caesar, Antony, and Octavian.

Befitting the vast range of the study, Cole’s thesis is multilayered. At one level, Cole focuses on the ideas and strategies found in Cicero’s texts. Cole argues that: (1) Cicero developed the innovative concept of posthumous deification for prominent Romans, which depends on their moral responsibility and civic achievements, and (2) he legitimized this new idea through various devices, including appealing to (or reinventing) ancient Roman precedents. On another level, Cole illuminates the significance of this idea within Cicero’s socio-political context, while situating his entire study in the meta-theoretical discourse, i.e., “the cultural work of metaphor” (see the title of Chapter 1). In other words, Cicero’s linguistic expressions for deification exemplify a religious change in the late Republic and, conversely, showcase how this leading politician and theorist transformed Roman culture. Cole addresses modern historians and philologists of Roman antiquity to refute accounts that underestimate the significance of Cicero’s convictions in and contributions to the development of deification in the late Republic. As suggested by the book’s title, Cicero the politician, orator, and philosopher, was at the center of “the rise of deification at Rome.”

Cole’s intervention invites scholars to revisit these familiar texts from Cicero’s corpus. For example, his use of metaphor theory (especially his focus on “the way metaphor serves to set cultural priorities and shape perspectives” [13]) in the first two chapters warrants further research. A more active engagement with recent cognitive linguistic scholarship would further illuminate the relationship between language and the social reality of the late Republic and beyond. Another aspect that deserves further consideration is the relationship of Cicero’s innovation to what Cole views as the more traditional notion of the Roman afterlife, i.e., di manes as a collective afterlife in the underworld. Cole treats di manes mostly as a foil for the Ciceronian innovation of deification, yet he also notes that Cicero pioneered an individual notion of manes (e.g., 107). The significance and complexity of the cult of di manes and the dynamic, generative interactions between Cicero’s innovation and the traditional cult of di manes requires more than a brief discussion (see, e.g., 196).

Despite these criticisms, there is no doubt that Cole’s book advances the scholarly understanding of the Ciceronian corpus and Cicero’s creative contribution to the development of Roman deification. Cole weaves his careful exegesis of the wide range of Ciceronian writings into the political history of Rome in fascinating and admirable ways. Anyone who is interested in ancient Roman history, literature, and religion will gain valuable insight from this book, which Cole considers “a case study on the dynamics of religious change at Rome” (11). This book will also prove a great resource for many scholars of Second Temple Judaism, New Testament, and early Christianity, who wish to better understand the cultural transformation at the juncture of the late Republic and the early Principate.

Donghyun Jeong (donghyun.jeong@emory.edu) teaches at Emory University (Classics) and at Mercer University (Religion). He earned a PhD from Emory, completing his dissertation on Pauline baptism and the Greco-Roman mystery cults.