Cominciare e finire. La parola che non c’è ancora e quella che non c’è più nel "Brutus" di Cicerone

Abstract

In the spring of 46 BCE "Brutus" is Cicero’s return to writing, and in particular to rhetorical treatises. But this work is rooted in a broader space of meaning, in which are intertwined the author’s assessment of his oratorical activity, the feeling of being a survivor, the confrontation with his ghosts, and an ethical-political program of crossing the "nox rei publicae" towards an unknown direction. Cicero offers the reconstruction of the history of Greek and Latin eloquence as the “continuation” of an interrupted discourse that is worth continuing. However, the conclusion of the treatise escapes the ritual “end” of the narrative and instead seems to open up a new story. In this paper, I will try to outline this peculiar morphology of the work, which begins in a non-simple manner and ends abruptly, or rather perhaps not at all: a structure that reflects the historical depth and specific complexities in which is set the exploration of Roman eloquence, as a social and political as well as literary phenomenon.