Quae iam licet considant. La declinazione argomentativa di un adynaton nella De provinciis consularibus di Cicerone,

Quae iam licet considant. The argumentative declination of an adynaton in the De Provinciis Consularibus of Cicero. The purpose of this contribution is to conduct the analysis of a passage from Cicero’s De provinciis consularibus (prov. 14, 34) in which the orator pronounces before the assembly of patres a brief formula by which he hyperbolically ‘grants’ the Alps to lower themselves: Quae (scil. Alpes) iam licet considant. To do so, the analysis will focus on the tradition and theoretical status of the adynaton in order to highlight both the adherence and the originality of the Ciceronian solution in relation to them. It is the path that will lead to the observation of how the plastic quality of argumentation can go so far as to casually manipulate, subordinating it to persuasion, the very symbolic system evoked by its geographical referents. The recourse to the adynaton shows how such a literary and traditional form can, in Ciceronian reuse, regain an unexpected argumentative vitality.