Ciceronis Orationes

By Cicero

Published in 1547

Reference #0057

In Latin, printed in double columns with woodcut initials. This volume contains several of Cicero’s judicial and political speeches between 84 B.C. and 44 B.C. Cicero made his oratorical debut under the dictatorship of Sulla, his first public success occurring in 80 BC. His greatest success was marked in 63B.C. with his four brilliant orations (included in this volume) against Catiline, who plotted to overthrow the Roman government.

The ‘Catiline Oration’ demonstrates that “Cicero was not only a master of the Roman art of pleading but also a master of the equally Roman art of politics; he emerges as a beleaguered patriot protecting himself from paid assassins, a shrewd chief of state gathering the means to overcome a civil criminal, and a clever propagandist presenting himself to the people as one greater than Romulus, for Romulus merely founded Rome, while Cicero was its savior… Through his philosophical treatises, he helped to make Latin a strong, yet surprisingly flexible, vehicle for logical speculation.”

Works By Cicero