Cicero: Oratory

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Marcus Tullius Cicero is widely considered the greatest orator in Roman history—a tireless advocate for democracy and the rule of law who fought to preserve the Rome he loved against the specter of empire. This class is not about that. Cicero was also one of the foremost practitioners of Roman invective, a ruthless insult comic who deployed every rhetorical trick available to highlight his targets’ violations of Roman norms. In this class, students will closely examine Ciceronian invective as both literature and history. Cicero’s attacks on figures like Catiline, Verres, and Marc Antony not only demonstrate the orator’s incredible facility with language but also the complex network of social expectations his opponents allegedly transgressed. Students will translate selections of Cicero’s most famous speeches with an eye towards understanding them as a literary product, and will also discuss the cultural and political context that made Cicero’s attacks so venomous. Students will be tested on this material with two translation-based exams and two papers.