[Glenn Wright]

Classical writers, of course, invented literary irony. The best study of biting, vicious irony in the Latin corpus is Juvenal’s satires. Horace wrote satires with a gentler touch, and we still use the adjectives Juvenalian and Horatian to describe the different flavors of satire. My personal favorite to study rhetorical irony is Cicero’s Pro Caelio. The background is that Rufus Caelius, a young playboy, has abruptly and rudely ended his affair with Clodia, a wealthy, notorious woman and former lover of the poet Catullus. In revenge, she brought a lawsuit against Caelius, accusing him of trying to murder her for her money. Cicero, an inveterate enemy of Clodia’s family, defended Caelius, and realized that in order to win, he would have to completely discredit Clodia. Cicero’s scathing attack on her is masterful, and a wonderful lesson in the manipulation of ironic tone.