Dr Kathryn Tempest is senior lecturer in Latin literature and Roman history at the University of Roehampton, UK. Her research interests focus on ancient oratory especially Cicero and the Attic orators.

As the greatest Roman orator of his time, Cicero delivered over one hundred speeches in the law courts, in the senate and before the people of Rome. He was also a philosopher, a patriot and a private man. While his published speeches preserve scandalous accounts of the murder, corruption and violence that plagued Rome in the first century BC, his surviving letters give an exceptional glimpse into Cicero's own personality and his reactions to events as they unravelled around him - events, he thought, which threatened to destabilize the system of government he loved and establish a tyranny over Rome. From his rise to power as a self-made man, Cicero's career took him through the years of Sulla, and the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, to his own last fight against Mark Antony.
Drawing chiefly on Cicero's speeches and letters, as well as the most recent scholarship, Kathryn Tempest presents a new, highly readable narrative of Cicero's life and times from his rise to prominence until his brutal death. Including helpful features such as detailed chronological tables, a glossary, a guide to Greek and Roman authors and maps, the volume balances background and contextual information with analysis and explanation of Cicero's works. Organized chronologically and according to some of his most famous speeches, Cicero will appeal to anyone with an interest in Roman history, oratory and politics in the ancient world. This accessible yet comprehensive guide provides a thorough introduction to this key ancient figure, his works and influence, and the troubled political times in which he operated.

Prologue: A Master of Words and a Patriot
1. The Senate and the People of Rome
2. The Making of the Man
3. Climbing the Ladder of Offices
4. Cicero on the Attack
5. The New Man at Rome
6. Cicero's Bid for the Consulship
7. A Consulship and a Conspiracy
8. High Hopes and Shattered Dreams
9. Enemies, Exile and Return
10. Cicero and the Triumvirs
11. Clodius, Cicero and Milo
12. Away from Rome: Cilicia
13. Away from Rome Again: Civil War
14. Cicero and Caesar
15. The Tyranny of Antony
16. The Last Fight for Liberty
Epilogue: The Head and the Hands of Cicero