By James M. May

Description

This Latin reader offers 14 selections from the works of Marcus Tullius Cicero, orator, statesman, philosopher, and man of letters, who lived (106-43 BCE) during the final generations of the Roman Republic. Passages have been selected from Cicero's orations, his rhetorical and philosophical writings, and his letters. Each of the passages (which vary in length from 25 to 60 lines) has a detailed commentary, explicating grammatical, syntactical, and historical points of interest.

Selections (total approximately 600 lines) include: De inventione 1.1; In Catilinam 2. 22-25; Pro Archia 12-16; De amicitia 19-23; Pro Sestio 45-46; De oratore 1. 16-20; Pro Milone 24-29; De officiis 1. 134-137; Brutus 1-9; Letters: Ad Familiares 14.1; Ad Q. Fratrem 2.4;Ad Familiares 16.4; Ad Familiares 14.18; Ad Familiares 14.20

The volume also contains an introduction, a full vocabulary, a chronological table of important dates and events in Cicero's life, three maps, and a bibliography. Illustrations may also be included.

James M. May is Professor of Classics and Provost and Dean of the College at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, where he has taught since 1977, after finishing his doctoral studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has published extensively in the fields of ancient rhetoric, pedagogy, and in particular, Ciceronian oratory. He is co-author (with Anne Groton) of Thirty-Eight Latin Stories (1986), the author of Trials of Character: The Eloquence of Ciceronian Ethos (1988), co-author (with Jakob Wisse) of Cicero: On the Ideal Orator (2001), and editor of Brill’s Companion to Cicero: Rhetoric and Oratory (2002). He has been the recipient of four NEH awards, the American Philological Association’s Award for Excellence in the Teaching of the Classics, and The Sears-Roebuck Foundation Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award. He has served as Vice-President for Education for the American Philological Association, Director of its Campus Advisory Service, and currently as its Vice-President for Professional Matters. He has been the President of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, and currently serves as the Association’s official orator.

Comments and Reviews

One of the true pleasures of becoming fluent in Latin is being able to enjoy the writing speeches and writings of Marcius Tullius Cicero in his own language. A gifted orator, statesman, and philosopher, Cicero was a contemporary of such luminaries as Julius Caesar, Pompey, Crassus, marc Antony, and Octavian during the final years of the Roman Republic and witness to the events that were to give rise to the Roman Empire. "A Cicero Reader: Selections from Five Essays and Four Speeches, With Five Letters" by James M. May (Professor of Classics, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota) is a superbly presented, 136 page compendium that begins with an introduction to Cicero's life, accomplishments, and world. Comprised of 605 lines of unadapted Latin text selected from eleven of Cicero's orations and writings, "A Cicero Reader" is augmented for the student informative notes, a complete vocabulary, suggested readings, a chronological appendix, two maps, and an illustration. An excellent curriculum supplemental resource, "A Cicero Reader" is very highly recommended for personal and academic library Latin Language instructional reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

— James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review, May 2013