Cicero

III.9 Cicero (this subject may not be combined with I.10 Cicero: Politics and Thought in the Late Republic).

This option gives the opportunity to study a wide range of Cicero's speeches, varied in date (from the youthful extravagances of the Pro Roscio Amerino to the charged atmosphere of the Pro Sulla), in background (from the 'free' Republic to Caesar's dictatorship and beyond), in type (forensic, deliberative, quasi-panegyric), and tone (from the invective of the In Pisonem to the polite insinuations of the Pro Marcello). The beta texts also include parts of the anonymous treatise Ad Herennium, which codifies the rhetorical precepts on which Cicero was trained, and his own De Oratore, which throws light on his attitude to rhetorical theory and practice. The topic may well particularly appeal to those studying the Republican period in Ancient History (though note that it cannot be combined with I.10 Cicero: Politics and Thought in the Late Republic), but non-historians need not feel shy.

ood introduction to Cicero the man is given by E. Rawson,Cicero (London 1975), and to the rhetorical background by M. L. Clarke, Rhetoric at Rome (London 1953; revised edn. by D. Berry, 1996). See also J. Patterson, J. Powell (edd.) Cicero the Advocate (Oxford 2004). Teaching: lectures and tutorials