Recent scholarship has emphasised that ancient oratory was primarily a performance art. At Rome during the Republican period, public speaking was one of the most important ways in which politicians created support for themselves among the citizen body. The change of political system to a monarchy transformed the functions of oratory but left its importance as an elite skill intact. This New Survey offers an introduction to the topic, and the modern scholarship on it, which emphasises the fact that the occasions of speaking were prior to subsequent written texts. Without ignoring Cicero as the...

Community and Communication: Oratory and Politics in Republican Rome brings together nineteen international contributions which rethink the role of public speech in the Roman Republic. Speech was an integral part of decision-making in Republican Rome, and oratory was part of the education of every member of the elite. Yet no complete speech from the period by anyone other than Cicero survives, and as a result the debate on oratory, and political practice more widely, is liable to be distorted by the distinctive features of Cicero's oratorical practice.
With careful attention to a wide...

Examines the clash between political systems and political action as the Roman Republic disintegrated.