Marcus Tullius Cicero, Philippicae Orationes [Philippics]

Jonathan C. R. Hall (University of Otago)

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: Anca Dan (École Practique de Hautes Études PSL), Martine Diepenbroek (University of Johannesburg), 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), Guendalina Daniela Maria Taietti (University of Liverpool), Jula Wildberger (American University of Paris)

Domains

Rhetoric and Oratory

Dates

First circulation or publication 44 - 43

Places

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

Resources

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“Philippics” (or Latin

Philippica

) is the label given to fourteen speeches composed by the Roman politician and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero between September 44 and April 43 BCE, during a period of constitutional crisis in Late Republican Rome. All the speeches contain some degree of personal attack upon Mark Antony, who was attempting to establish himself as the dominant political figure following Caesar’s assassination in March 44. This confrontational aspect of the speeches, as well as their political context, led Cicero to compare them with the fiery orations of the same name delivered by Demosthenes, the fourth century BCE Athenian statesman who denounced the ambitions of Philip of Macedon (see Cicero

Letters to Brutus

2.3.4). Cicero’s

Second Philippic

is the most vitriolic…

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524 words

Citation: Hall, Jonathan C. R. . "Philippicae Orationes". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 August 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20503, accessed 22 November 2024.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Philippicae Orationes [Philippics]

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