Cicero - Political Speeches (Oxford Worlds Classics)

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D. H. Berry 2006

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First published as an Oxford Worlds Classics paperback 2006

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
[Speeches. Selections. English]
Political speeches/Cicero; translated with introductions and notes by D. H. Berry.
p. cm.(Oxford worlds classics)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
1. Cicero, Marcus TulliusTranslations into English. 2. Speeches,
addresses, etc., LatinTranslations into English. 3. RomePolitics
and government26530 B.C.Sources. I. Berry, D. H. II. Title.
III. Series: Oxford worlds classics (Oxford University Press)
PA6307.A4B474 2006 875.01dc22 2005020919

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ISBN 0192832662 9780192832665
1

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OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

CICERO

Translated with Introductions and Notes by
D. H. BERRY

OXFORD WORLDS CLASSICS

POLITICAL SPEECHES

MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO (10643 BC) was the son of a Roman eques from Arpinum, some 70 miles south-east of Rome. He rose to prominence through his skill in speaking and his exceptional success in the criminal courts, where he usually spoke for the defence. Although from a family that had never produced a Roman senator, he secured election to all the major political offices at the earliest age permitted by law. His consulship fell in a year (63) in which a dangerous insurrection occurred, the Catilinarian conspiracy; by his persuasive oratory and his controversial execution of five confessed conspirators, he prevented the conspiracy from breaking out at Rome and was hailed as the father of his country. Exiled for the executions by his enemy Clodius in 58 but recalled the following year, he lost his political independence as a result of the domination of politics by the military dynasts Pompey and Caesar. His governorship of Cilicia (5150) was exemplary in its honesty and fairness. Always a firm republican, he reluctantly supported Pompey in the Civil War, but was pardoned by Caesar. He was not let into the plot against Caesar, but was in a sense its inspiration, being seen by now as a symbol of the republic. After Caesars assassination (44), he supported the young Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) and led the senate in its operations against Mark Antony. When Octavian and Antony formed the second triumvirate with Lepidus in 43, Cicero was their most prominent victim; he met his end with great courage.

Ciceros speeches are models of eloquence and persuasion; and together with his letters they form the chief source for the history of the late republic. His philosophical treatises, written in periods when he was deprived of his political freedom, are the main vehicle by which Hellenistic philosophy was transmitted to the west. His prose style raised the Latin language to an elegance and beauty that was never surpassed.

D. H. BERRY is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Leeds. He has published an edition of and commentary on Ciceros Pro Sulla (Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries, 1996) and a translation Cicero: Defence Speeches (Oxford Worlds Classics, 2000), to which this book is a companion volume. He lives in Leeds and the Scottish Borders.

To my father

THIS book has long been overdue to my patient publisher. That I have finally had time to write it, and with the care that it required, is due entirely to the generosity of two bodies: the University of Leeds, which granted me a University Study Leave Award in the Humanities from September 2003 to January 2004, and the Arts and Humanities Research Board, which granted me a Research Leave Award from February to May 2004. I am deeply grateful to both of them for effectively giving me the year I needed to bring this project to completion.

I am also grateful to Professor Andrew R. Dyck for letting me see his list of textual readings and his appendix on the date of In Catilinam I from his forthcoming Cambridge edition of the Catilinarians. It should perhaps be pointed out that I have not seen his edition and he has not seen this book; readers who use both works together will no doubt discover important differences of opinion between us. On the subject of editions, I should mention that I have profited enormously from those of W. K. Lacey, D. R. Shackleton Bailey, and, especially, J. T. Ramsey on the Second Philippic. If works of this quality were available for Ciceros other speeches, my task would have been much easierthough also perhaps less necessary.