Good and bad examples. Cicero, Caesar and the shadow of Sulla

The exemplum, one of the tools of persuasion indicated by ancient rhetoric, is used by Cicero in Caesarian Orations with a careful strategy: the exemplary modeling of Caesar allows to define the boundaries of the correct management of res publica. Therefore, in the Pro Marcello Caesar is already presented as a "visible" exemplum, while in the following Pro Ligario the paradigm of Sulla (i.e. that of a dictator guided by crudelitas) becomes effective in admonishing Caesar from a possible degeneration of power.