Latin 146: Ciceronian Invective

The aim of the class is to gain an understanding of political invective through select studies of some of the representatives of the genre primarily in Cicero. The emphasis throughout will be on Cicero's rhetorical technique and self-fashioning, his use of topoi of abuse, and on the social and rhetorical function of personal abuse and invective in politics in antiquity and today. Readings from Philippics 2, In Verrem 2.1 and In Pisonem and the late antique reception of these texts and themes in Claudian, In Eutropium.