Ciceronian Invectives

Political communication in the late Roman Republic was highly coloured by rhetorical repertoires featuring disparagement, shaming, and other related phenomena. One of the most prolific perpetrators of such verbal conduct - known as invective - was the orator and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC). This volume, which gathers the contributions delivered during the conference »Ciceronian Invective. Emotions, Reactions, Performance«, held at Dresden's Technische Universität in 2020, takes a fresh look at the practices reflected in and relating to Cicero's tirades. By comprehending invective not only as a mere literary genre, but also as a practice embedded in social and political contexts, the aim is to arrive at a deeper understanding of Ciceronian invective. The emotions that such use of language aroused, its historical and rhetorical configurations, and the reactions of those offended by it or on its receiving end as an audience are all considered.Section I: Emotions
Christopher Degelmann: Ex ore impurissimo euomuit: Disgust and vomiting in Cicero's invective repertoire - Judith Hack: Sexual insults in Cicero? - Ken Heuring: Emotional language in the Second Philippic

Section II: Configurations
Catherine Steel: Invective and provincial government: Cicero and his predecessors - Rainer Wierzcholowski: Cicero's rhetorical technique of apostrophe and attack: The case of Hortensius in the Verrines - Christoph Schwameis: Incidents of invective in the 'pirate chapter' of De suppliciis

Section III: Reactions
Henriette van der Blom: The alternative story: Contemporary invective responses to Cicero - Kathryn Tempest: Cicero under attack: Deception and emotions in the Trial of Plancius - Christoph Pieper: Catilina in senatu obmutuit? Ancient and medieval responses to Cicero's first Catilinarian speech