Cicero's Philippics: History, Rhetoric, Ideology(v. 37-38 Prudentia S.)

After the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44BC, Mark Antony took control of Rome. Before the end of the year Cicero had taken on the leadership of the opposition in the Senate to Antony and his policies. The speeches made by Cicero against Antony, later published under the title Philippics, mounted a sustained attack on the way Antony exercised and abused his position of power. As historical sources the Philippics were often neglected and disparaged during the 20th century, but they have recently attracted renewed scholarly interest for their political significance and as models of Roman and especially senatorial oratory. The time when the speeches were delivered coincided with the early public career of the future emperor Augustus. Many of the ideas and much of the political vocabulary of the Philippics continued to resonate in the cultural life and imperial ideology of the Augustan principate. This volume collects papers by a series of specialists in the field of Ciceronian studies who have set out to reconsider the historical impact of the Philippic speeches and their later significance in Roman culture. Delivered at a crucial point in the painful political transition from the Roman Republic to the imperial system, the Philippics are the final speeches of Rome's greatest orator at the peak of his powers. He paid the price for the political stance he took in the speeches with his life.

Table of Contents:
Cicero's Philippics: History, Rhetoric and Ideology, Tom Stevenson and Marcus Wilson -- Publishing the Philippics, 44-43BC, Douglas Kelly -- Cicero Versus Antonius: On the structure and construction of the Philippic collection, Gesine Manuwald -- Phantoms in the Philippics: Catiline, Clodius and Antonian parallels, Richard Evans -- Cicero's Tenth and Eleventh Philippics: The Republican advance in the East, Martin Drum -- Tyrants, Kings and Fathers in the Philippics, Tom Stevenson -- Clementia and Beneficium in the Second Philippic, Natalie Angel -- The Second Philippic as a Source for Aristocratic Values, Roger A Pitcher Libertas in the Philippics, Eleanor Cowan -- A Philosophy of Legitimacy in Cicero's Philippics, Emily Christian -- Cicero, Antony and the Senatus Consultum Ultimum in the Second Philippic, Julian Larsen -- Nimium Felix: Caesar's Felicitas and Cicero's Philippics, Kathryn Welch -- Greek Ethics and Roman Statesmen: De Officiis and the Philippics, A M Stone -- O singulari prodigium: Ciceronian invective as a religious expiation, Anthony Corbeill -- Finessing Failure: The Sixth Philippic, Catherine Steel -- The Encomium of Brutus in Philippic Ten, Tia Dawes -- The Rhetorical Design and the Success of the Twelfth Philippic, Jon Hall -- Your Writings or Your Life: Cicero's Philippics and declamation, Marcus Wilson