Die lateinische Deklamation

From the last years of the republic to the late imperial period, Latin declamation as a rhetorical exercise formed a significant part of school education, and in the form of public oration, was a distinctive element of Roman society as a whole. Having been neglected by researchers for a long time, declamation has in recent decades increasingly become the focus of philological, historical and legal studies. The present volume offers an overview of the development and social significance of declamation, and of the historical information it can convey. While focusing primarily on four main sources – the works of the Elder Seneca and Calpurnius Flaccus, and the two collections of shorter and longer declamations – it also draws on other sources to which we owe our knowledge of Latin declamation. A comprehensive overview of relevant research and of individual interpretations of selected pieces give an impression of the information that this long-disregarded literary genre can offer us, not least relating to the history of Roman society and its mentality.