“In exchange for mortal life, you have attained immortality”: Cicero’s ‘epitaphios logos’ for the legio Martia in Philippic 14

As part of a senate proposal to erect a commemorative monument for the fallen soldiers of the legio Martia (Philippic 14.30-35), Cicero delivered a eulogy that is strikingly similar to an Athenian epitaphios logos. This strategy of rhetorical intertextuality merits a closer examination: why would Cicero borrow so explicitly from the genre of Athenian epideictic oratory in a deliberative speech before the Roman Senate? A detailed comparison of Philippic 14.30-35 to the extant Athenian epitaphioi shows that Cicero imitates the Athenian funeral orations structurally, thematically, and verbally. This imitation not only strengthens his unprecedented proposal of a monument for the fallen soldiers, but also allows Cicero to depict the conflict with Marc Antony as an existential struggle for the survival of the res publica, to characterise Antony as a hostis, and to portray himself as ‘the guardian of the res publica’ and even as the ‘Roman Demosthenes.’