"De oratore" is Cicero's most ambitious and original work. Written at the height of his oratorical powers in 55 BC, in the form of a literary dialogue, it goes far beyond "rhetoric" as it was taught in antiquity. It addresses the question of the skills and knowledge of the consummate orator, and pays particular attention to the hotly debated issue of the relationship between oratory and philosophy. This is the final volume of the "Leeman-Pinkster-Commentary" on "De oratore" recently dubbed "one of the great resources of modern Ciceronian scholarship". It covers the important second half of the third book, which contains Cicero's final statement on the relationship between oratory and philosophy; a discussion of the stylistic topics of word choice, prose rhythm, figures of speech, and appropriateness of style; and a discussion of oratorical delivery.
