REDITUS AD REM: Observations on Cicero's Use of Digressio

Cicero's employment of digressio is sufficiently widespread in his speeches for it to rank as a major device in his oratorical repertoire1). Since, ex hypothesis it marks a departure from the main theme, the manner of its insertion is of interest to the student of Cicero's style, for it is prima facie likely that the linkage of the digressio to the main argument will reveal either skilful dexterity or roughness of style. An otherwise consummate orator-cum-writer might well exhibit a polished facility in the general flow of his argument, but it is at the obvious breaks in the argument that the fluency may fail and any "heaviness" be apparent. Cicero himself speaks2) not merely of the obvious desirability of digressio as an element of rhetoric, but also of the necessity for a smooth return to the main theme at its close: et ... digressio in qua cum fuerit delectado, turn reditus ad rem aptus et concinnus esse debebit. Conversely, one might add that the introduction to the digressio should be accomplished with equal fluency. For convenience, I shall in future use the terms 'pre-linkaee' and 'post-linkage' to denote respectively the introductory and concluding links of the digressio to the main theme. Neither in the passage in question, nor in other passages where he discusses digressicr) does Cicero deal explicitly with the pre-linkage to digressio. This was probably intentional since the pre-linkage will occasion no difficulty to a competent writer; it necessarily grows out of, or is suggested by, the preceding argument. But the return to the main theme is a very different matter, and Cicero rightly saw that this is where care and skill are required. The present paper accordingly concentrates