16.04.27: Topic / Level 4; transport [7]: wheeled vehicles (7) raeda; Cicero and the defence of Milo [ii]

The following excerpt comes much later in Cicero’s speech, and invites the jury to picture the event and decide which description naturally fits an assassin. The focus is entirely on the visual.

Rēs loquitur ipsa, iūdicēs, quae semper valet plūrimum. Sī haec nōn gesta audīrētis, sed picta vidērētis, tamen appārēret uter esset īnsidiātor, uter nihil malī cōgitāret, cum alter veherētur in raedā paenulātus, ūna sedēret uxor. Quid hōrum nōn impedītissimum? vestītus an vehiculum an comes? quid minus prōmptum ad pugnam, cum paenulā inretitus, raedā impedītus, uxōre paene cōnstrictus esset?

The facts themselves speak, gentlemen of the jury, and they always carry the greatest weight. If you were not to hear these actions, but to see them depicted in a picture, it would nevertheless be clear which of the two was the ambusher and which was harbouring no evil intention, when one was being conveyed in a carriage, clad in a travelling cloak, with his wife sitting beside him. Which of these circumstances was not a very great hindrance? His clothing, his vehicle, his companion? What could have been less suited to a fight, when he was entangled in his cloak, impeded by his carriage, and almost bound fast by his wife?

Note:

[1] juxtaposition, placing two opposing ideas side-by-side, again creating the powerful antithesis evident in the first excerpt:

uter esset īnsidiātor, uter nihil malī cōgitāret

[2] rhetorical questions

Rhetorical questions do not invite answers since they are already obvious in context; rather, they are designed to persuade the jury mentally to reach their own conclusions.

Quid hōrum nōn impedītissimum?

vestītus an vehiculum an comes?

quid minus prōmptum ad pugnam, cum paenulā inretitus, raedā impedītus, uxōre paene cōnstrictus esset?

[3] Cicero’s use of the tricolon:

(1) vestītus (2) an vehiculum (3) an comes?

cum (1) paenulā inretitus, (2) raedā impedītus, (3) uxōre paene cōnstrictus esset

It could be argued that Cicero is using a tactic which, in our contemporary terms, is described as ‘anchoring’. The word is particularly associated with advertising and encourages consumers to focus on one striking feature of a product. Here, Cicero focuses on how the events look and on the circumstances pertaining to a specific part of the case to the exclusion of other factors that may be pertinent and not in his favour.