Marcus Tullius Cicero, In Catilinam [Against Catiline]

Kathryn Tempest (University of Roehampton)

Ed. by William John Dominik, University of Otago
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.2: Ancient Roman Writing and Culture (Republic and Empire), -750-476.
Vol. editors: William John Dominik (University of Otago), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Victoria Fendel (University of Oxford), Thomas Habinek (University of Southern California), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Sophia Papaioannou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Jula Wildberger (American University of Paris)

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Rhetoric and Oratory

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First circulation or publication 63

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Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire) (Country of Origin)

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The suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy in 63 BCE was the major event of Cicero’s consulship, if not his career, and it is thus not surprising that Cicero would want to preserve an account of the speeches he delivered. These speeches, four in total, were published as the

In Catilinam

together with other speeches that Cicero had delivered during his consulship. It seems that Cicero waited almost three years before publishing these orations as part of a consular ‘corpus’ (Cicero,

Letters to Atticus

2.1.3). Consequently, the accuracy of the

In Catilinam

, as well as Cicero’s motives for publishing the collection, has been variously interpreted. For, by 60 BCE, when Cicero published the speeches, there was a need for Cicero to defend his actions as a consul and, in particular,…

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Citation: Tempest, Kathryn. "In Catilinam". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 June 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20488, accessed 31 October 2024.]

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Marcus Tullius Cicero, In Catilinam [Against Catiline]

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