Voltaire and Cicero
Voltaire’s affinity of his classical idol did not stop on paper either, as he was known to have played the role of Cicero in Rome Sauvée in his private theatre, feeling that he was truly the living embodiment of him. For those who watched these performances, there was no one who could play the part better or immerse themselves as deeply. Longchamp epitomizes it when recalling it later: Never, in any role, has any actor carried the illusion so far: we thought we were seeing the consul. It was not verses recited from memory that we heard, but a speech coming from the soul of the speaker. Those who attended this spectacle, more than thirty years ago, still remember the moment when the author of Rome Sauvée cried out: ‘Romans, I love glory and do not want to keep quiet,’ with such striking truth that we did not know whether this noble confession had just escaped the soul of Cicero or that of Voltaire. 8 This portrayal was not only contrary to the beliefs of Crébillon, but also to some other significant figures. In the 14 th Century, Petrarch believed that Cicero lacked a certain masculinity to the point of being classed effeminate with his frivolity in rhetoric and his averred mourning for his daughter and his country at Tusculum. This was reinstated by some others in the 18 th century. Yet, Voltaire defended Cicero once again, expressing how these actions made him more human. Jean Jacques Rousseau also publicly opines, in response to Rome Sauvée, that Cicero was to blame, due to his indecisiveness and false actions against Catiline, for the arrival of empiricism in Rome. 9 On the other hand, Montesquieu also extensively and almost naively marvelled Cicero when he was younger, exalting him in his Discourse on Cicero . Both he and Voltaire saw in Cicero an exemplary profile of an Enlightenment figure: ‘a fine general (allegedly), the complete master of Greek philosophy, an unsurpassed popularizer, orator and stylist, a remarkable poet (so says Voltaire), an honest friend, a devoted husband and father, a virtuous governor and an indomitable servant of the republic and the people of Rome.’ 10 Voltaire loved the idea of a Ciceronian figure, so much so that he wished he could almost travel back in time and have a conversation with him regarding enlightenment philosophy; this was the concept of Lettres de Memmius à Ciceron . By taking on the persona of one of Cicero’s more philosophically independent contemporaries, these epistolary conversations allowed Voltaire to not only bypass political barriers when critiquing, through allegory, the philosophical models of some fellow Enlightenment thinkers such as Diderot and Holbach, but also to reflect on his own ideals that he presumes Cicero shares. The tone of the letters is lighter than most philosophical literature at the time, such that it seems like Voltaire is addressing an old friend – which is how he may see Cicero. These letters are very similar to the way in which Cicero philosophized: they are more an internal debate, open for scepticism, rather than a set order of values that one must follow. In the preface, Voltaire says ‘all scholars have recognized unanimously to be from Memmius;’ 11 this sarcastic farce emphasizes that one should not instinctively accept something just because scholars decide so, but should ‘reserve judgment even concerning what is only the most likely’. 12 Both Voltaire and Cicero, in their works, seldom state something as definite, only provide people with facts and analogies to allow people to form a judgement for themselves – as Cicero states in De Natura Deorum : ‘what rashness is so unworthy of the gravity and stability of a philosopher as either to maintain false opinions, or, without 8 See Ridgway 1968: 267, quoting Longchamp and Wagniere, II, 281. Translated. 9 See Sharpe 2015: 337. 10 See Sharpe 2015: 348. 11 See Sharpe 2015: 354, quoting Voltaire, Lettres de Memmius à Cicéron in Oeuvres, XIX, 324. 12 See Sharpe 2015: 356, quoting Voltaire, Lettres de Memmius à Cicéron, 332.
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