Examines the literary origin, rhetorical structure, and dramatic function of the speeches in the epic poem

Product Description: Speeches of praise and blame constituted a form of oratory put to brilliant and creative use in the classical Greek period (fifth to fourth century BC) and the Roman imperial period (first to fourth century AD), and they have influenced public speakers through all the succeeding ages...read more

Product Description: Pliny's Panegyricus (AD 100) survives as a unique example of senatorial rhetoric from the early Roman Empire. It offers an eyewitness account of the last years of Domitian's principate, the reign of Nerva and Trajan's early years, and it communicates a detailed senatorial view on the behaviour expected of an emperor...read more

Product Description: Rhetorical training was the central component of an elite Roman man's education, and declamations--imaginary courtroom speeches in the character of a fictional or historical individual--were the most advanced exercises in the standard rhetorical curriculum...read more

Product Description: With the growth of postcolonial theory in recent decades, scholarly views of Roman imperialism and colonialism have been evolving and shifting. Much recent discussion of the topic has centered on the ways in which ancient Roman historians consciously or unconsciously denigrated non-Romans...read more

Product Description: In this book Roman oratory is explored from the perspective of form and function. Leading scholars in the field of Latin prose consider not only the speeches of Cicero, Pliny, Apuleius and the later panegyrists, but also those found in Roman philosophical writing, and in the histories of Caesar, Sallust, Livy and Tacitus...read more

Product Description: As consul in 63 BC Cicero faced a conspiracy to overthrow the Roman state launched by the frustrated consular candidate Lucius Sergius Catilina. Cicero's handling of this crisis would shape foreverafter the way he defined himself and his statesmanship...read more

Product Description: An exciting series that provides students with direct access to the ancient world by offering new translations of extracts from its key texts. Cicero was one of the greatest and most human men of antiquity. He was on the closest terms with political giants such as Pompeius and Caesar and far surpassed them in oratorical and legal skills...read more

Declamation was a staple of education and cultured literary life in the Roman world over many centuries. This book offers a radical re-evaluation of the genre, its social importance, and its role in the history of the Western self. Ironically, this genre obsessed with "growing up" has been rejected by its own posterity. Erik Gunderson explores the social and psychic dynamics of this refusal within the ancient world as well as beyond. The book is of interest to specialists in classics, rhetoric, queer studies, and psychoanalytic literary criticism.

In 63 b.c., Lucius Sergius Catilina, a Roman aristocrat, formed a conspiracy to overthrow the Roman Republic. Cicero, who was consul that year, exposed the plot and documented his defeat of the conspiracy in his Orations against Catiline. The First Catilinarian Oration is well known and deservedly famous. Scholars are familiar with the other three speeches, but few students know them. This lapse is regrettable. The Third Oration is a fast-paced courtroom drama, and the Second and Fourth Orations provide critical information about this key event in Roman history. Susan O. Shapiro here makes all Cicero’s Catilinarian Orations accessible to the intermediate Latin student.O Tempora! O Mores! is designed to fit a variety of pedagogical approaches. Professors can assign any of the Catilinarian Orations independently or assign excerpts from several of the speeches. Shapiro’s historical essays bring a new dimension to Latin study, explaining the history and politics behind the texts. The essays are divided into short sections that can be assigned individually for class discussion. The volume is further amplified by a vocabulary, maps, a bibliography, and appendices. 

Product Description: In Making a New Man John Dugan investigates how Cicero (106-43 BCE) uses his major treatises on rhetorical theory (De oratore, Brutus, and Orator) in order to construct himself as a new entity within Roman cultural life: a leader who based his authority upon intellectual, oratorical, and literary accomplishments instead of the traditional avenues for prestige such as a distinguished familial pedigree or political or military feats...read more

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Life in Rome was relentlessly public, and oratory was at its heart. Orations were dramatic spectacles in which the speaker deployed an arsenal of rhetorical tricks and strategies aimed at arousing the emotions of the audience, and spectators responded vigorously and vocally with massed chants of praise or condemnation. Unfortunately, many aspects of these performances have been lost. In the first in-depth study of oratorical gestures and crowd acclamations as methods of communication at public spectacles, Gregory Aldrete sets out to recreate these vital missing components and to recapture the original context of ancient spectacles as interactive, dramatic, and contentious public performances.At the most basic level, this work is a study of communication -- how Roman speakers communicated with their audiences, and how audiences in turn were able to reply and convey their reactions to the speakers. Aldrete begins by investigating how orators employed an extraordinarily sophisticated system of hand and body gestures in order to enhance the persuasive power of their speeches. He then turns to the target of these orations -- the audience -- and examines how they responded through the mechanism of acclamations, that is, rhythmically shouted comments.Aldrete finds much in these ancient spectacles that is relevant to modern questions of political propaganda, manipulation of public image, crowd behavior, and speechmaking. Readers with an interest in rhetoric, urban culture, or communications in any period will find the book informative, as will those working in art history, archaeology, history, and philology.

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