The major declamations

The Major (or «longer») Declamations falsely ascribed to the Roman rhetorician Quintilian contain nineteen model speeches on fictitious court cases, more precisely termed controversiae. Composed by an unknown author or authors, perhaps in the second or third centuries A. D., these are the only extant full Latin controversiae, the practice speeches whose composition anddelivery formed the mainstay of Roman higher education. Declamation therefore had a profound effect on the literature of the Empire, and also on subsequent European literature, rhetoric, and education. This is the only full modern translation of the Major Declamations.