1. In Catilinam

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, Andrew introduces the speech made in what was probably the most important year of Cicero's life - the year of his consulship. In the Catilinarians, he attacks Catiline, a man who (according to Cicero) has been conspiring to burn Rome to the ground. Cicero's speech is successful: Catiline flees Rome to join an army in Etruria, while his co-conspirators who remain in Rome are all executed without trial. But in a consulship that was turning out to be a bit of a damp squib for Cicero, did he make the whole thing up just so he could look important?

Course

In this course, Dr Andrew Sillett (University of Oxford) provides an introduction to Cicero's life and times through six legal and political speeches, from his first speech (Pro Roscio Amerino), delivered when he was just 26, through the speeches that would shape the last years of the Roman Republic and his own death at the hands of hired thugs.

Lecturer

Andrew joined Brasenose in 2006 to study for his BA in Classics (Course IIA). Thanks to the generosity of the Helmore Fund, he was able to stay on for his MSt in Classical Languages & Literature. As a senior Germaine Scholar, he recently completed his DPhil on the early imperial reception of Cicero under the supervision of Llewelyn Morgan. His research interests include the reception of Cicero in the early imperial period, politics and thought in the late Roman Republic and early Principate.