In Toga Candida

In Toga Candida was a speech given by the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero in 64 BC, shortly before the election of the consuls for 63 BC. Cicero was standing in that election and used the speech to attack two rival candidates, Lucius Sergius Catilina (known in English as Catiline) and Gaius Antonius Hybrida.

The full text of the speech has been lost, but over a thousand words of it have been preserved in quotation by Asconius, who wrote a detailed commentary on the speech about a century after it was given, which has survived.[1]

Name

The conventional Latin title of the speech is Oratio in Toga Candida, lit. 'speech in a whitened garment'. The toga was a cloth robe worn by Roman men on formal occasions. It was typically made of undyed wool, though magistrates were identified by a Tyrrhenian purple stripe on their toga. While a politician was actively campaigning for an election, it was traditional for their toga to be made a more brilliant white (candidus), by bleaching the wool then rubbing it with chalk. The resulting garment was known as the toga candida; this is the origin of the English word 'candidate'.[2] Therefore the title of the speech can also be translated as 'speech as a candidate'[3] or 'speech while dressed for an election'.

Political context

The politics of the Roman Republic was dominated by aristocratic families. The electoral system for the most powerful magistrates (by the centuriate assembly) favoured richer voters, who tended to support candidates from a nobile family – those with ancestors who had previously held the office of consul (head of state). In contrast, Cicero was a novus homo lit. 'new man', the first of his family to be elected to public office. He had risen through the series of increasingly powerful offices that formed the cursus honorum and was now standing for the position of consul.

Two consuls were elected each summer, for a one-year term that began in the following January. In the early Republic the position had been monopolised by the patricians, but over the centuries laws had been put in place to limit their dominance. By the late Republic, only one of the consuls each year could be a patrician; one or two of those elected had to be plebian.

For the consular elections of 64 BC, there were an unusually large number of candidates, with seven men standing for the two positions. Two were patricians: Catiline and Publius Sulpicius Galba. Five were plebians: Hybrida, Cicero, Lucius Cassius Longinus, Quintus Cornificius and Gaius Licinius Sacerdos. Catiline, Galba, Hybrida and Longinus were all nobiles. In an attempt to secure their joint election, Catiline and Hybrida had formed an alliance (akin to a modern joint ticket) and were engaging in electoral bribery, backed by funds from Marcus Licinius Crassus and facilitated by Gaius Julius Caesar.

Concerned by the increasing use of bribery, the Roman Senate proposed stricter rules against it. However the Senate was not a legislative body, so its proposed law had to be voted on by the tribal assembly. When that assembly was held, the law was vetoed by Quintus Mucius Orestinus, one of the plebian tribunes, preventing it from being passed. As an explanation of his veto, Orestinus made a speech declaring that Cicero was unworthy to become consul.[4] Cicero had previously defended Orestinus in a legal case, securing his acquittal, so felt that Orestinus was obliged to support him and that his behaviour was a breach of their patron-client relationship.

The Senate debated the issue again on the day after the bill was vetoed, when Cicero was called upon to speak.[4] He had prepared a speech to attack the characters of Catiline and Hybrida, and the veto applied by Orestinus.[4] He avoided directly naming Crassus and Caesar, but alluded to their roles as key supporters and enablers of the bribery.

Contents

In the speech, Cicero accused Catiline and Hybrida as having met with a 'prominent citizen' (probably Crassus or Caesar) to organise bribery.[5] He calls Catiline a murderer for the latter's role in Sulla's proscriptions, particularly his execution of Marius Gratidianus and parading of Gatidianus' severed head through the city.[5] He points out that Catiline openly admitted his actions during the proscriptions, while similar actions by other supporters of Sulla had resulted in criminal convictions.[5] Cicero also decries Catiline's rapacious governorship of Africa, pointing out that Catiline had withdrawn from a previous consular election because he was being prosecuted for extortion in Africa.[5] That case ended in Catiline being acquitted, but Cicero obliquely criticises the judge and prosecutor in the case (the latter was Catiline's friend Publius Clodius Pulcher) without naming them.[5]

Although most of the speech is directed at Catiline, Cicero also directly attacks Hybrida and Orestinus.

Aftermath

The tactics were successful and he secured the consulship.[6][7][8]

A commentary on the speech was written by Asconius between 54 and 57 AD.[3] Asconius provides background on each of the candidates in the election, then quotes numerous passages of Cicero's speech, interspersing them with his own historical comments and observations.[3]

References

  1. ^ Petersson, Torstein (1920). Cicero: A Biography. Out of Copyright reprint Kessinger Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1417951864. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  2. ^ "Candidate". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2012-11-07.
  3. ^ a b c M. G. L. Cooley, ed. (2023). "Asconius' commentary on Cicero's speech as a candidate". Cicero's Consulship Campaign (second ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 29. doi:10.1017/9781009383547.005.
  4. ^ a b c Jane W. Crawford; Andrew R. Dyck, eds. (2024). "In Toga Candida". Cicero, Fragmentary Speeches. Loeb Classical Library. Vol. 556. Harvard University Press. p. 178.
  5. ^ a b c d e "The Fragments of the Speech of Cicero in His White Gown (In Toga Candida), against C. Antonius and L. Catilina, His Competitors for the Consulship. Delivered in the Senate". Translated by Barbara Saylor Rodgers. 2009. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  6. ^ H.H. Scullard From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome 133 BC to AD 68 2010 p92 "In a speech to the Senate (Oratio in Toga Candida: candidates wore specially whitened togas) Cicero denounced his rivals and hinted that there were secret powers behind Catilinia. Thus Cicero, the novus homo, secured the consulship for 63"
  7. ^ Erich S. Gruen The Last Generation of the Roman Republic 1974 270 "Catilinia's early career gained impetus from nimble maneuvering and resourceful and unscrupulous tactics. Tradition registers a catalogue of perversities, several drawn from Cicero's venomous In Toga Candida and the Commentariolum Petitionis: adulterous activities, incest, sacrilege, and domestic homicide."
  8. ^ Shotter, David Colin Arthur (2005). The Fall Of The Roman Republic (Second ed.). New York, N.Y.: Routledge. p. 55. ISBN 0-415-31940-4. In two places — in his own election speech (Oratio in Toga Candida) in 64 and in his Orations against Catiline in the following year — Cicero alleged that on 1 January 65, Catiline was in the Forum with a dagger ready to assassinate the incoming consuls...
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