Physical description

The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero Vol 1
Translated by C D Yonge
Publisher: Henry G Bohn
Date: 1856

Publication type

non-fiction

Inscriptions & markings

Label on spine cover with typed text PAT 875.2 CIC
Paste down front end paper has sticker from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute and Free Library covered by a sticker from Corangamite Regional Library Service
Front loose end paper has a stamp from Corangamite Regional Library Service

Summary

Volume 1 of The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero is the beginning in the widely published 4-volume English translation by Charles Duke Yonge for Bohn's Classical Library series and focuses on Cicero's earliest legal masterpieces.
The volume captures his meteoric rise from a brilliant young defense attorney to Rome's leading forensic advocate, culminating in his famous take down of a corrupt governor. The core contents in this volume contains several pivotal legal cases, which can be divided into his early legal defenses and his massive prosecution of Verres. Included is Cicero’s very first surviving public speech (delivered in 81 BC). It is a civil partnership dispute regarding property and debt. Notably, Cicero had to argue against Rome's greatest orator of the time, Quintus Hortensius.
Key themes in this volume is his fight against corruption and the exposure of provincial extortion and the greed of the Roman senatorial class. He exercised judicial integrity with his struggle to keep Rome's legal courts fair when faced with political bribery and intimidation.