The alternative story: Contemporary invective responses to Cicero

Cicero’s invective aimed at others is our best source for invective in a Roman setting. But Cicero was also at the receiving end, and his attempts to reject criticism of his person, his actions, and his behaviour offer further perspectives into the genre of Roman invective and into the contemporary reception of Cicero and his narrative about himself. Through a detailed analysis of five main derogatory themes and two case studies of Clodius’ and Mark Antony’s attacks on Cicero, this chapter argues that the invective against Cicero reflects late republican elite (political) culture and that we need to identify and analyse such non-Ciceronian voices in order to better understand Roman invective as a genre and as a political weapon and thereby get behind the Ciceronian version of the late republican narrative.