The Philippics form the climax of Cicero’s rhetorical achievement and political activity. Besides, these fourteen speeches are an important testimony to the critical final phase of the Roman Republic. Yet for a long time they have received little scholarly attention. This two-volume edition now provides a comprehensive scholarly commentary on Philippics 3-9, seven central speeches of the corpus. Full annotations explain the speeches in terms of linguistic, literary and historical issues (vol. 2); they are based on a revised Latin text with a facing translation into English as well as a detailed introduction dealing with problems relevant to the whole corpus; a bibliography and indices complete the edition (vol. 1). Besides a running commentary on each speech, the study shows these orations to be rhetorical constructs in a historical conflict; hence particular emphasis is placed on an analysis of Cicero’s rhetorical techniques and political strategies. The format of the commentary is also intended to present scholarly information to a wide and diverse readership.

This collection explores the issues raised by the writing and reading of commentaries on classical Greek and Latin texts. Written primarily by practising commentators, the papers examine philosophical, narratological, and historiographical commentaries; ancient, Byzantine, and Renaissance commentary practice and theory, with special emphasis on Galen, Tzetzes, and La Cerda; the relationship between the author of the primary text, the commentary writer, and the reader; special problems posed by fragmentary and spurious texts; the role and scope of citation, selectivity, lemmatization, and revision; the practical future of commentary-writing and publication; and the way computers are changing the shape of the classical commentary. With a genesis in discussion panels mounted in the UK in 1996 and the US in 1997, the volume continues recent international dialogue on the genre and future of commentaries.