Cicero’s Letters

About the lecture

In this module, we provide an introduction to Cicero’s letters as a whole, focusing in particular on: (i) the importance of letters in the ancient world, especially in a political culture such as Rome’s where social connections were vitally important to one’s political aspirations, and where Roman elites could expect to be geographically separate from each other for long periods of time; (ii) Cicero’s letters to Atticus (Epistulae ad Atticum) – including the figure of Atticus, the nature of the relationship between Cicero and Atticus, and the style of their letters; (iii) Cicero’s letters to his ‘friends’ (Epistulae ad Familiares) – including the range of correspondents and the type of letters Cicero was sending to them; (iv) the ways in which each of these letter collections was ‘edited’ – in what order do the letters appear? has anything been missed out?; (v) two more letter collections – Cicero’s letters to Brutus (Epistulae ad Brutum) and his letters to Quintus (Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem) – and the nature of the correspondence in both of these cases; (vi) other letter collections that haven’t survived, e.g. Cicero’s letters to Octavian (the future Emperor Augustus); and (vii) three key questions to keep in mind when reading Cicero’s letters.

About the lecturer

Catherine Steel is Professor of Classics and Head of the Department of Classics at the University of Glasgow. Her research interests relate to the Roman Republic, the writings of Cicero and Roman oratory. Her recent publications include Reading Cicero: Genre and Performance in Late Republican Rome (2005), The End of the Roman Republic, 146-44 B.C.: Conquest and Crisis (2013) and (with Dr Henriette van der Blom) Community and Communication: Oratory and Politics in Republican Rome (2013).