Reading Cicero’s Narratives

Abstract

Abstract Ancient rhetorical theorists recommended that the typical forensic speech should contain a section known as the narratio, the part that normally followed the preliminary discussion — the exordium — and set out the facts of the case prior to a full discussion of the issues. The narratio is thus not precisely identical to ‘narrative’ in its modern sense: any part of Cicero's speech may contain something that a modern scholar would call narrative. This chapter discusses the narratio as defined by the ancient theorists, the exordium and the ways in which this provides (or fails to provide) a context for the narrative that follows, and whether speeches would typically be published to be read by students and others interested in rhetoric. In treating Cicero's forensic speeches, the chapter considers not only the narratives themselves, but also to what extent the reader, in reading the narrative, is expected to employ information provided by the exordium.