Orazioni di senatori nel primo principato: fra tecnica declamatoria e saperi giuridici

The chapter focuses at first on the rhetorical and legal training of the senatorial elite at the outset of the imperial age (with hints at the Suasoriae of Seneca the Elder). Then it examines a selection of orations delivered in the Seate, in particular some speeches of Claudius (ILS 212 and Tac. Ann. 11, 23–24; BGU 611) and the sententia of Cassius Longinus in AD 61 (Tac. Ann. 14, 43–44). The aim is to point out patterns and models of declamatory techniques in these speeches and their argumentative framework. The paper ends with an examination of some features of Major Declamation 4, regarded as a model of ‘assembly speech’