Leading scholars in the field of Latin prose explore Roman oratory through an analysis of the interplay of form and function. They examine both the speeches of Cicero, Pliny and Apuleius, and those found in philosophical writing and the histories of Caesar, Sallust, Livy and Tacitus.

Contributors; Preface; List of figures; 1. Form and function D. H. Berry and Andrew Erskine; Part I. The Orator and his Setting: 2. Court procedure and rhetorical strategy in Cicero J. G. F. Powell; 3. Tribunician sacrosanctity and oratorical performance in the late republic Catherine Steel; 4. Togate statues and petrified orators Glenys Davies; Part II. Rhetorical Strategies: 5. Means and ends of Indignatio in Cicero's Pro Roscio Amerino Christopher Craig; 6. Form as global strategy in Cicero's Second Catilinarian Andrew M. Riggsby; 7. The form and function of narrative in panegyric Roger Rees; 8. Unending praise: Pliny and ending panegyric Bruce Gibson; Part III. Texts in Speeches: 9. The function of a divinely inspired text in Cicero's De harvspicvm responsis Anthony Corbeill; 10. Debate at a distance: a unique rhetorical strategy in Cicero's Thirteenth Philippic John T. Ramsey; 11. The function of verse quotations in Apuleius' speeches: making the case with Plato Regine May; Part IV. Speeches in Philosophy: 12. Teaching philosophy, a form or function of Roman oratory: Velleius' speech in Cicero's De Natvra Deorvm Carl Joachim Classen; 13. Form and function of speech in the prose work of the younger Seneca Harry Hine; Part V. Speeches in Historiography: 14. Catiline's speeches in Sallust's Bellvm Catilinae William W. Batstone; 15. Speech and silence in Caesar's Bellvm Gallicvm Christina Shuttleworth Kraus; 16. Rhetorical history: the struggle of the orders in Livy Christopher Smith; 17. Oratory in Tacitus' Annals Roland Mayer; 18. Aliena Facvndia: Seneca in Tacitus A. J. Woodman; Notes; Abbreviations and bibliography; Indexes.