In Catilinam

Cicero

In this course, Dr Andrew Sillett (University of Oxford) provides an introduction to Cicero's life and times through six legal and political speeches, from his first speech (Pro Roscio Amerino), delivered when he was just 26, through the speeches that would shape the last years of the Roman Republic and his own death at the hands of hired thugs.

In Catilinam

In this module, Andrew introduces the speech made in what was probably the most important year of Cicero's life - the year of his consulship. In the Catilinarians, he attacks Catiline, a man who (according to Cicero) has been conspiring to burn Rome to the ground. Cicero's speech is successful: Catiline flees Rome to join an army in Etruria, while his co-conspirators who remain in Rome are all executed without trial. But in a consulship that was turning out to be a bit of a damp squib for Cicero, did he make the whole thing up just so he could look important?