Antonella TEDESCHI (Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali, Università di Foggia)
L’INGANNO DEL VOLTO E LA VERITÀ DELL’ODORE (A PROPOSITO DI CIC. PIS. 1; 13)
Keywords: Vultus, eloquentia corporis, evidentia, physiognomy.
Abstract: Deceptive face and truthful smell (Cic. Pis. 1; 13). The lexical analysis of the descriptive elements of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus’ vultus (Cic. Pis. 1) and his bad bodily smells (Cic. Pis. 13) is the focus of this work: it aims at understanding the way Cicero builds the ‘figure of the enemy’ in the speech In Pisonem. Cicero shows that Piso’s facial signals are deceptively falsified, aimed at providing a false image of himself (Cic. Pis. 1). Instead, the sensory analysis of odors, which he leaves behind, reveals his true degenerate nature. In a vituperatio full of comical vis, the proof of the physical and moral turpitudo of Piso is provided by the eloquentia corporis. The evocation of a visit to his home (Cic. Pis. 13) offers the opportunity for a full description of the olfactory perceptions: the smell of wine and ganeae around Piso recreate with great evidentia the atmosphere of the meeting. In this way, Cicero reveals the marks of Piso’s vitia and stimulates disgust and condemnation towards him.