Cicero’s speeches and letters scholars

Tempest on Verres

“as entertaining as it was shocking, emotional and tragic”

“an act of self-promotion”

“success had depended a lot on his speed”

Gruen on Verres

“Cicero magnifies out of all proportion the significance of the Verres case… for change”

Rawson on Verres

after, Cicero was “master of the courts”

Wiedemann on Pro Roscius

“Cicero could later represent the case as a blow for liberty against a tyrant”

Wiedemann on Quaestorship

“won him friends at Rome as well as the taxpayers of Sicily”

Scullard on letters

“they form a priceless store of information”

Tempest on letters

they show he is “obsessed with the idea of his own self importance”