What follows are samples from each of the four declamatory authors discussed in the preceding text. I offer full versions of four cases so that the reader can appreciate the difference between the different authors. It is also useful to see these cases whole and in their original order given that the commentaries in the main text of this book present them in a fragmentary and scattered fashion. As was noted in the first appendix, it can be difficult if not outright impossible to find some of these texts in English.

A certain number of “stage directions” have been added into some of the translations in order to make the material more accessible. These additions are marked by parentheses. It will be noted that the declamatory texts as they come down to us can jump swiftly from idea to idea. This phenomenon can be attributed both to the genre itself and to the editorial process guiding the composition of the various texts. Words and phrases have also been inserted to complete the sense of especially elliptical moments in the Latin original. These are usually marked with square brackets.

THE MAJOR DECLAMATIONS

Date

Unknown. Quintilian lived perhaps from 30 to 100 ce. But these speeches are not by him. They are not even the product of a single author. There are accordingly various dates for various speeches. All of these are inferential, but the earliest speeches may be roughly contemporaneous with Quintilian. The latest may well have been written as many as two or three centuries later.