Cicero's oratory is well attested, but sixteen speeches survive only in quotations, filling gaps in our knowledge. These speeches attracted the interest of later authors for their exemplary content, oratorical strategies, or use of language. They fall into three periods: the preconsular, the consular, and the postconsular, and are presented chronologically, numbered continuously, and their fragments arranged in the order in which they would have occurred. This edition includes all speeches with attested fragments, along with testimonia.

Format: Hardback
Length: 512 pages
Publication date: 11 June 2024
Publisher: Harvard University Press

Cicero's Excerpts from Lost Orations

Cicero, a Roman advocate, orator, politician, poet, and philosopher, lived through the tumultuous era that witnessed the rise, dictatorship, and demise of Julius Caesar in a fragile republic. His political speeches and correspondence vividly portray the excitement, tension, and intrigue of politics, as well as his significant role in the turmoil of the time. While Cicero's oratory is well documented, with 106 known speeches, fifty-eight of which survive intact or in large part, the sixteen speeches that exist solely in quotations nonetheless fill gaps in our knowledge. These speeches, despite their fragmentary nature, attracted the attention of later authors, particularly Asconius and Quintilian, for their exemplary content, oratorical strategies, or use of language. However, they did not survive entire not because they were inferior in quality or interest but due to factors contingent on the way Cicero's speeches were read, circulated, and evaluated in (especially late) antiquity. The fragmentary speeches fall into three periods: the preconsular, the consular, and the postconsular, and here they are presented chronologically, numbered continuously, and their fragments arranged, in so far as possible, in the order in which they would have occurred, followed by unplaced quotations. Each speech receives an introduction and ample notation. This edition, which completes the Loeb Classical Library edition of Cicero, includes all speeches with attested fragments, together with testimonia. Based upon Crawford's edition of 1994, the sources have been examined afresh, and newer source-editions substituted where appropriate.

Weight: 364g
Dimension: 169 x 115 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780674997622