Oratory and Political Debate in the Last Decades of the Roman Republic: Cassius Dio’s Reconstruction (with Some Notes from Remigio Nannini’s "Orationi Militari")

Among the various speeches attributed to leading figures of Roman history in Cassius Dio’s work, there are some that are useful because they provide a focus for the political conflicts and dynamics of the years that preceded the rise to power of Augustus, as well as his subsequent behaviour. In this vein, not only the orations during the Principate of Octavian Augustus, but also some earlier ones by Caesar Cicero and Marcus Antonius, addressed to soldiers, the Roman people or the Senate, are worthy of attention. By analysing specific passages taken from all these orations, we can study not only the way Cassius Dio represented these special orators, but also his reaction to publicly debated topics and trends relating to power and politics that derived from earlier sources and, as a result, his reconstruction of events during the transition from the Republic to the initial period of the Empire. Furthermore, the significance of these aspects can also be appreciated in specific sections of Remigio Nannini’s Orationi Militari (1557; 1560), which include Italian versions of the above-mentioned orations by Cassius Dio.