Mass Oratory and Political Power in the Late Roman Republic

Examining how public political discourse influenced the distribution of power between the Senate and people in the Late Roman Republic (133-42 BC), this work analyzes comprehensively the "ideology" of Republican mass oratory. Robert Morstein-Marx analyzes it within the institutional, historical and physical contexts of the public meetings in which these speeches were heard. Morstein-Marx emphasizes the perpetual negotiation and reproduction of power through communication.