Vasileios Sazaklidis, University of Texas at Austin
The Roman conceptual understanding of geography and the circa-Mediterranean space has been predominantly Roman-centric, as Clarke (2008) has -rightly- demonstrated. The Tabula Peutingeriana reinforces the notion of a maximalized Roman epicenter and the subsequent coordination of the rest of the world on the basis of relativity to Rome, in terms of spatial proximity, commercial affiliations, and historical significance. The entire oikoumene revolves around the axon of Rome. The scholarship has traditionally tied the Roman-centric chartography of the world -expressed either in picta illustrations or descriptive narratives - with the imperial project of expansionism, thus limiting any pre-imperial expressions of spatial awareness to the level of incidental impressionistic memoirs (McIntosh 2013).
In my paper, I will use Cicero’s letters of exile to retrace the Roman-centric conception of the world to the late years of the Republic. In my interpretive approach to the epistolography of exile (Att. 3.8, 14-15, 19-21, 26-27; 4.1-3. Fam. 5.4, 14.2), I will agree with McIntosh’s proposal of a perplexed vs linear description of space based on Cicero’s emotional state. However, I will refrain from the psychological determinism of McIntosh’s analysis in favour of a spatial awareness of the Roman world based on Cicero’s perceptual evaluation of Rome’s institutional stability. I will borrow Riggsby’s (2002) interpretive method of the post reditum speeches (ad S.; ad. P.; De Domo Sua) and his analysis on Cicero’s ‘counter history’ narrative to argue that the perceived political reality of Rome, as it is retrospectively presented by Cicero, impacts his understanding of space. When Cicero perceived the institutional collapse of Rome (Rem Publicam esse nullam putavi, PRP 14), the spatial coherence of the Roman world dissolved (neque mihi locum … esse, ibid). And vice versa, when the political reality in Rome was reinstated during his return, his spatial conception became linear and coherent.
The conceptual production of the Greco-Roman world as presented in Cicero’s epistolography of exile has been mainly examined on the basis of his emotional disposition. I will note refute the psychological significance that McIntosh identifies in the letters. The purpose of my argument is to introduce a secondary premise -next to the psychological focus- comprised of the cognitive appraisal of the political reality and the consequent impact that it has on one’s spatial conception.