This is a full-scale scholarly edition of Cicero's speech in defense of P. Cornelius Sulla, delivered in 62 BC. It contains an introduction, a newly established Latin text, a commentary and appendices. The introduction includes a reassessment of Sulla's guilt and Cicero's undertaking of the case and also considers issues such as the prose rhythm of the speech and its publication. The commentary discusses history, text and syntax as well as rhetoric and style.

This book explores the interplay of form and function in both real and fictional oratory at Rome.