Aphilippic (/fɪˈlɪpɪk/)[1] is a fiery, damning speech, ortirade, delivered to condemn a particular political actor. The term is most famously associated with three noted orators of the ancient world:Demosthenes ofancient Athens,Cato the Elder andCicero ofancient Rome. The term itself is derived from Demosthenes's speeches in 351 BC denouncing the imperialist ambitions ofPhilip of Macedon, which later came to be known asThe Philippics.
The original "philippics" were delivered byDemosthenes, anAthenianstatesman andorator inClassical Greece, who delivered several attacks onPhilip II of Macedon in the 4th century BC. Experts have questioned his intentions behind the philippics.[2]
AFirst,Second, andThird Philippic have been ascribed to Demosthenes. AFourth Philippic is also extant, but is of disputed authorship.
Cato the Elder is also associated with the concept of the Philippic. Just as Demosthenes had been warning of the militaristic intentions of Philip of Macedon, so Cato warned the Romans of the potential threat posed by the Carthaginians. Plutarch recorded a common ending to Cato's speeches: "Carthago delenda est" or 'Carthage must be destroyed'.
Cicero consciously modeled his own condemnations ofMark Antony on Demosthenes's speeches, and if the correspondence betweenMarcus Junius Brutus the Younger and Cicero is genuine [ad Brut. ii 3.4, ii 4.2], at least the fifth and seventh speeches were referred to as thePhilippicae in Cicero's time.[citation needed] They were also called the Antonian Orations by Latin author and grammarianAulus Gellius.
After the death ofCaesar, Cicero privately expressed his regret that the murderers of Caesar had not included Antony in their plot, and he bent his efforts to the discrediting of Antony. Cicero even promoted illegal action, such as legitimatizing the private army ofGaius Octavius, or Octavian. In all, Cicero delivered fourteen Philippics in less than two years. Cicero's focus on Antony, however, contributed to his downfall as he failed to recognize the threat of Octavian to his republican ideal.
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Cicero's attacks on Antony were neither forgiven nor forgotten, with the result that Cicero wasproscribed and killed in 43 BC. His head and hands were publicly displayed in theRoman Forum to discourage any who would oppose thenew Triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony andLepidus.
According to Roman historianTacitus, thePhilippicae, together with thePro Milone,In Catilinam, andIn Verrem, made Cicero famous, and much of his political career sprang from the effect of these works. Others[who?] would have it that thePro Ligario, in which Cicero defends Ligarius before Caesar, was the vehicle of his renown.
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