Cicero as Evidence

The book is intended to show historically-minded readers how they should read Cicero's abundant writings: not only the letters, but the speeches and the theoretical texts on rhetoric and philosophy. Though neither a complete biography nor a history of the late Republic, it seeks to provide fundamental material for both topics, which are made both interesting and difficult to study by the wealth of evidence provided. It also seeks to serve as a corrective for interpretations of them based either on belief in what Cicero himself chose to say or on accounts circulated after the statesman's...

The book is intended to show historically-minded readers how they should read Cicero's abundant writings: not only the letters, but the speeches and the theoretical texts on rhetoric and philosophy. Though neither a complete biography nor a history of the late Republic, it seeks to provide fundamental material for both topics, which are made both interesting and difficult to study by the wealth of evidence provided. It also seeks to serve as a corrective for interpretations of them based either on belief in what Cicero himself chose to say or on accounts circulated after the statesman's death, based on the bitterness of hindsight and the propagandistic exploitation of the past. It is divided into four parts: ‘Reading Cicero’, on the general problem of seeking historical evidence in his works; ‘Reading Oratory’, on the same problem with specific relation to his speeches down to his defence of C. Rabirius in his consulate; ‘History in Speeches and Letters’, covering the period between his earliest preserved correspondence and his return from exile; and ‘History and Ideas’, on the remaining portion of his life. Each part is subdivided into short chapters. There are eight appendices covering particular matters in more detail.