Strategia e tecnica retorica nella "cognitio senatus": a proposito di πρόληψις in Plin., ep. 3.9

From a long and detailed letter written by Pliny the Younger we have gathered information regarding the charges against the former governor Caecilius Classicus and, after his death, also against his accomplices and collaborators, accused of crimen repetundarum with saevitia, by the ambassadors of the southern Iberian province of Baetica (ep. 3.9) in 99 AD. Probably started at the end of 100 AD, this cognitio senatus has attracted the attention of many scholars. Previous researchers have focused on the procedural situation of two prominent figures among the socii ministrique proconsulis: Baebius Probus and Fabius Hispanus. This paper will, instead, focus on the rhetorical strategy (προκατάληψις) adopted by Pliny to support the accusation against them. Pliny's accusation aims to restrain and weaken the defensive arguments, through preventive refutation, which effectively deprived the counterpart lawyer of the possibility of setting up the defence to its liking.