Cicerone – il più grande dei poeti

Marcus Tullius Cicero “enjoys” the reputation of a poetaster, or the greatest graphomaniac in the history of poetry – the absolute embodiment of all the possible sins against the Muses. The aim of this article is to question this stereotype. First, an analysis of the most important opinions on the value of his verses is undertaken to identify the roots of these criticisms. As a result, the political and religious background of Ciceronian poetry is revealed, and his poems regain their importance in Cicero’s cultural program as described by Emanuele Narducci in Cicerone e l’eloquenza romana. Retorica e progetto culturale (1997). This program consisted in Cicero’s assuring a longue durée to his ideas through literature. I show how the Arpinate, through his poetry, transmitted his own image as dux togatus together with his vision of an ideal Republic and the concept of peace. Finally, on this backdrop, the ambiguous poem 49 of Catullus is analyzed in order to demonstrate how a serious and careful reconsideration of the case of Cicero the poet allows us to see in a new light, if not to solve, a famous enigma of Latin literature.