On Invention. The Best Kind of Orator. Topics

On Invention. The Best Kind of Orator. Topics by Cicero presents the works of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE), a Roman lawyer, orator, politician, and philosopher. Cicero, of whom we know more than any other Roman, lived through the era that witnessed the rise, dictatorship, and death of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic.

In his political speeches, especially, and in his correspondence, we observe the excitement, tension, and intrigue of politics, as well as the part he played in the turmoil of the time. Out of approximately 106 speeches delivered either before the Roman people or the Senate, if they were political, or before jurors, if judicial, 58 survive, although a few of them incompletely.

In the fourteenth century, Petrarch and other Italian humanists discovered manuscripts containing over 900 letters, more than 800 of which were written by Cicero and nearly 100 by others to him. These letters offer a striking revelation of the man, especially since most were not intended for publication.

Six rhetorical works survive, along with another in fragments. Cicero's philosophical contributions consist of seven extant major compositions and several others, some of which are lost. There is also poetry, some original and some translated from Greek.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Cicero is available in twenty-nine volumes.