Abstract

Cicero criticized his contemporary Sisenna for an inappropriate style in his „Historiae“: Sisenna is blamed for using too many theatrical elements in his historiographical narrative on the Social Wars and the dictatorship of Sulla. We may find this critique confirmed in such fragments like FRH 15,16 where an anonymous protagonist performs a so-called squalor - a highly dramatic staging in public. By deconstructing the debate of the anonymous’ identity the contribution shows that the fragment should not be regarded as proof of Cicero’s claim, but as an evidence for Sisenna’s close attention to detail that revives the political culture of late Republican Rome.