Hand out, plug in, count, turn over

At first he became rude, called his opponent a “piece of feces”, then he also belittled his father and mother. We are not talking about Austria’s Marko Arnautovic, who was recently banned from a game during the European Football Championship after attacking a North Macedonian opponent in a similar way. Rather, what speaks here is Cicero, the rhetorical lamp of classical antiquity. And his counterpart was none other than Lucius Calpurnius Piso, Caesar’s father-in-law.

Well, may there exclaim educated citizens who still consider antiquity to be a haven of decency. Obviously this is a misunderstanding, nourished not least by all the pure white statues, which in reality were screamingly colorful. All other illusions are likely to get a crack after reading Dennis Pausch’s “Virtuoso Malice”. Because the Dresden classical philologist has taken on the “art of insulting in antiquity” in a current book.

Mores are rough these days, not just since Donald Trump considered foreign countries during his US presidency shithole countries or the open brutality of Andrea Nahles threatened the Union before moving to the head of the SPD parliamentary group that they would soon get “in the face”. It becomes downright criminal when politicians like the Green Renate Künast have had to defend themselves in court for years against the most evil insults that are thrown at them from the anonymity of the Internet.

Hate speech, also known as hate speech, has long been part of the law, for example in the Network Enforcement Act, which was last amended in 2020. And they are the subject of a discussion between the Poles of sedition and freedom of expression.

Cicero may seem like folklore

A Cicero may seem like folklore at first. However, it is not. It is part of an occidental culture that goes back a long way, whose roots can also produce extremely strange blossoms and therefore deserves a closer look.

“O tempora, o mores – what times, what customs”: With this exclamation, Cicero himself lamented the moral decline in the first century BC. In its time, the insult was an art form, the subject of political debate. Because a politician of the Roman Republic was expected to endure ridicule and to be ready to hand it out himself. Politics was performed like in the theater.

Package suggests that the Romans knew the whole range of things. Impressive evidence of the tone of the street is provided by the numerous graffiti that have survived under the volcanic ash of Pompeii, which was buried 2000 years ago, at the foot of Vesuvius. Archaeologists were given sentences like “Aephebus, you are a lazy man”, “Oppius, you break clown, you thief, you thief”, or “Albanus is a fagot”.

Ancient insults often have a sexual connotation, which they have in common with the American F-word. Caesar too had to listen to the mocking songs of his soldiers who accused him of either homosexual acts or notorious infidelity. Fecal words are dropped, names are corrupted, xenophobic clichés are served, for example when the Iberian is accused of brushing his teeth with urine, the Carthaginian clothes are dismissed as effeminate or the Celts are simply regarded as dumb fools.

But who is this supposed to affect at a time when there is no internet, and where the spread has its limits. Well, to fail to recognize the effect would mean, on the one hand, to underestimate the astonishingly high level of literacy in ancient Rome. So one can assume that every Roman soldier could read and write. In addition, according to Pausch, the Romans enjoyed the abuse so much that it was omnipresent.

Rhetoric for the upper classes

For the upper classes, the art of mockery was one of the central contents of a rhetorical training. Paradoxically, as Pausch explains, some of the same thinkers rejected insults who taught corresponding techniques in their writings. In addition, quick wit, but also the art of wrapping Sottisen in supposedly real stories that make the other person look even worse.

But it was not just politics that made use of the wickedness. Noteworthy are the duels between writers who already wore the features of battlerap, as people like Fler and Bushido fight today. For example, when an author like Catullus concisely classified the work of the unknown Volusius as cacata carta, as crap paper.

Despite all the appreciation that the speech duel enjoyed in ancient Rome, it was not just words. This may be represented by the fate of the sharp-tongued Cicero, who perished with the republic and was finally murdered and mutilated. His head was exhibited in public, and one of his fiercest opponents is said to have pierced his tongue with a hairpin. A tangible commentary on Cicero’s rhetoric.

The abusive criticism cultivated during the republic also culminated in violence. The following empire then knew the law against lese majesty. Originally introduced solely to protect the monarch, it was quickly expanded significantly. It was sold as a pacification of the divided society in the republican years. Which is why the Stoic Seneca did not dare to publish his disparaging criticism of Emperor Claudius until after his death. Anything else would have been life-threatening.

The lessons from Dennis Pausch’s clever book are also worth considering. It shows how much insults can poison the climate of a society. In ancient Rome they ultimately led to censorship.