67

This paper focuses on attacks on the honour of the aristocracy in political trials, namely a distinctive feature of the late Roman Republic. The widespread conflict and competitiveness of those years is attested by the judicial oratory, a privileged source in these pages. In particular, we intend to investigate the rhetorical arguments of inconstantia/ constantia and simulatio, often used jointly to tarnish the image of the nobility, with differences between the attacks inflicted on the traditional aristocracy and those directed at the new nobilitas formed after the Social War. Throughout a diachronic study of this type of attacks, a case dating back to the age of the Gracchi will be compared with some events dating back to first century BC and reconstructed from Cicero’s perspective.