The Example and its Antagonist

Overview & Synopsis

An understanding of the idea of imitatio that Cicero defends in his work reveals a way of thinking in dialogue with a tradition that the Roman orator never ceases to construct for political purposes. Hence, the study of Cicero the imitator provides us with an extraordinary example of the need that every human community has to construct an integrating narrative by resorting to the memory of the texts and events that favour coexistence and those that make it impossible. The memory of the former should incite us to imitate them; that of the latter, to reject them.