Creative Eloquence

The statesman Cicero (106-43 BC) left behind a corpus of about 50 orations, all designed as interventions in the legal and political struggles that marked the final decades of the Roman republic. Ever since their publication during his lifetime they have functioned as models of eloquence. However, they also contain profound philosophical thoughts on the question of being human, on politics, society, and culture, and on the sphere of the divine. Now, for the first time, Ingo Gildenhard systematically analyses this dimension of Cicero's oratory and, in so doing, touches upon many key issues and concepts that still preoccupy us today, such as the ethics of happiness or the notion of conscience, the distinction between civilization and barbarity, or the problem of divine justice.