did cicero actually say this about cleopatra?
“Her (Cleopatra’s) way of walking, her clothes, her way of talking, her embraces and kisses, her beach parties and dinner parties, all show her to be a tart.”
I stumbled upon this quote totally by accident and I honestly have never come across it before which is baffling because I thought that I had read all of Cicero’s writings on Cleopatra. The source said it was from a speech c. 43 BCE. I suspect it might actually be about Fulvia maybe?
Is it from Philippics? (Or somewhere else? Or not even an actual quote?) @myfaenwy @just-late-roman-republic-things @fulviavincit @diantha @germanicuscaesars @dionysushoe etc!!!!!!!!
Tagging some classics moots & putting in the tags for HELP please thank you! Also hope it is ok to tag @catilinas even though we are not moots
that’s pro caelio section 49! from 56 bce. and yeah it’s not about cleopatra at all, it’s about clodia metelli
here is the same passage in the translation by r.y. hathorn:
Imagine a woman with no husband who turns her house into a house of assignation, openly behaves like a harlot, entertains at her table men who are perfect strangers, and does all this in town, in her suburban places, and in the crowded vacation land around Baiae; in fine, imagine that her walk, her way of dressing, the company she keeps, her burning glances, her free speech, to say nothing of her embraces and kisses or her capers at beach-parties and banquets and yachting-parties, are all so suggestive that she seems not merely a whore but a particularly shameless and forward specimen of the profession.
and here is the latin:
Si quae non nupta mulier domum suam patefecerit omnium cupiditati palamque sese in meretricia vita collocarit, virorum alienissimorum conviviis uti instituerit, si hoc in urbe, si in hortis, si in Baiarum illa celebritate faciat, si denique ita sese gerat non incessu solum, sed ornatu atque comitatu, non flagrantia oculorum, non libertate sermonum, sed etiam complexu, osculatione, actis, navigatione, conviviis, ut non solum meretrix, sed etiam proterva meretrix procaxque videatur
elly | 24 | uk
