From the end of the Roman Republic until late antiquity Latin declamation was a defining
element of Roman society in general and of school education in particular. By far the smallest
of the surviving collections of declamations are the excerpts of Calpurnius Flaccus. The
collection contains neither complete speeches nor longer passages of speech but rather a few
particularly concise or successful sentences on a total of 53 topics of declamation. Despite
its brevity the work offers an excellent impression of the nature content and effect of
ancient Latin declamation due to its thematic and rhetorical diversity. This edition is the
first ever German translation of this collection.
