Speeches for readers: motives and contexts for the circulation of Ciceronian oratory

This thesis takes as its focus the important relationship between orator and reader, and is especially interested in why Cicero disseminated his speeches and how his contemporary readers would receive them. Various comments in the theoretical literature suggest that producing written versions of speeches was largely a separate activity from delivering the original, oral versions and not just an extension of the same process: it required considerable extra effort and, to a certain extent, a different set of skills. Moreover, in circulation, the speeches do not simply fulfil the original aspirations for delivery, which have already been accomplished — they offer the reader something more. The written versions of speeches circulate among new consumers, with new objects in view. The aim of these inquiries is to scrutinise the important role readers play in construing the meaning and achievement of the speeches. By viewing the speeches less as transcripts of specific oratorical occasions, and more as texts catering to readers and readerly interests, we may begin to uncover whole repertoires of significance, shaped by the readers’ context, beliefs, and assumptions, as well as by the orator’s own literary intentions and motivations for circulation.