Marcus Tullius Cicero
Ancient Roman · 1st century BCE
Roman statesman, orator, and writer known for his rhetorical speeches including the Catilinarian orations, which Uncle Jerry cites as a classical example of apophasis/litotes.
Connection to Taylor Swift
Uncle Jerry uses Cicero's Catilinarian orations as the classical exemplar of apophasis, saying the thing you claim you're not going to say, to explain James's opening rhetorical move in betty.
Notable Works
- Catilinarian Orations, De Oratore, De Re Publica
Appears in the Archive
Context within the Archive
Catilinarian Orations
“Betty, I won't make assumptions About why you switched your homeroom, but I think it's 'cause of me”
Uncle Jerry cites Cicero's Catilinarian orations as the classical exemplar of apophasis, the rhetorical move of saying the thing you claim you will not say. He pulls the example from his high-school Latin: 'In my very first maybe it was my second year of Latin in high school, I think we had to translate Cicero's Catilinian oration. So there's bad guy named Cataline and he has attempted to overthrow the state and Cicero, an attorney, is prosecuting him... And Cicero uses litotes all the time when he says, you know, I don't have to tell you what an evil man Cataline is.' He uses the Cicero example to frame James's opening rhetorical move ('I won't make assumptions about why you switched your homeroom, but I think it's 'cause of me') as a classical apophasis, pre-concluding a debatable point by claiming not to say it. The reference is to a rhetorical tradition rather than a direct Taylor allusion.