O espetáculo da vida humana em Cato Maior De Senectute
Authors: Cardoso Isabella Tardin 
Published: June 2015

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-RomanA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-RomanA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">The dialogue </span><em><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-ItalicA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-ItalicA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">Cato Maior </span></em><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-RomanA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-RomanA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">(</span><em><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-ItalicA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-ItalicA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">De senectute</span></em><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-RomanA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-RomanA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">) is often considered the Ciceronian text in which the topos of the “theater of life” (</span><em><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-ItalicA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-ItalicA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">theatru mundi</span></em><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-RomanA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-RomanA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">) is explicitly revealed most frequently (five of the eight times in which it apears in all of the works of this author). Little attention, however, has been given to the effects of this topos on the dialog itself. It has been treated as a mere embellishment (</span><em><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-ItalicA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-ItalicA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">ornatus</span></em><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-RomanA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-RomanA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">), e.g. a resource used occasionally to apeal to more popular tastes. However, this article intends, firstly, to show that the </span><em><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-ItalicA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-ItalicA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">theatrum mundi </span></em><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-RomanA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-RomanA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">is an integral part of this philosophical dialogue; secondly, to provide a reflection </span><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-RomanA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-RomanA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">on the theatricalization of the </span><em><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-ItalicA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-ItalicA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">Cato Maior</span></em><span style="font-family: 'Aldine401BT-RomanA','serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Aldine401BT-RomanA; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">, suggesting philosophical effects arising from the use of the topos.</span></p>