Ancient World Seminar: Christoph Pieper (Leiden), ''Catilina orator? Catiline's answer(s) to Cicero's first Catilinarian''

Due to Covid-19 measures, the Ancient World Seminar's will be held in the University of Groningen Library. Pre-registration is required.

Abstract

Cicero’s first speech against Catiline (quousque tandem…) is among the best-known texts of antiquity. Cicero urges Catiline to leave the city. It has completely overshadowed what Catiline might have said in return. If we may believe Cicero, he simply ran away and just uttered menaces; Sallust knows of an unsuccessful formal speech to answer the consul’s attack; other ancient authors offer other versions still. This talk will ask the question how antiquity imagined Catiline to react to Cicero’s masterful invective, and it will, in the second part, finally give the word to Catiline himself - in the form of a medieval speech written in his name as a response to Cicero.

About the speaker

Christoph Pieper is a university lecturer Latin at Leiden University. Currently, his research focusses mainly on Roman rhetoric, in particular on Cicero and the reception of his work in Antiquity and later times. Besides this, he is interested in Latin literature of Italian humanism (mainly the 15th century) – a theme dear to him ever since his dissertation on the Florentine poet Cristoforo Landino.

To register please send an e-mail to crasis.aws rug.nl.
Blackboard link livestream (offline location will be announced soon): https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/8d569adf7bc74b8dbd79d2e9db6ae973