Ex tuis tenebris. La simbologia della toga pulla nella In Vatinium di Cicerone

The speech against the tribune Publius Vatinius offers an important discussion upon the way post reditum Cicero conducts his invectives and, at the same time, upon the ideological motifs which fuel his works of that period. The attack against Vatinius becomes thereby an unmitigated offensive against his bodily appearance and his dress choices, in particular the conscious choice to participate to a sacred feast donning the toga pulla, the dark garment of mourning and of political and private protest. From this chromatic association, the orator realizes a conversion of Vatinius from a political protester to a ‘fury’ of the Republic.