Abstract

This paper considers how the speech assigned to M. Aemilius Lepidus (cos. 78 B.C.) in Sallust’s fragmentary Historiae exploits the ancient reader’s instinctive sensitivity to rhetorical form and technique. Sallust’s use of the rhetorical narratio, confutatio, and conventional rhetorical locus of safety shows Sallust constructing a powerful voice for his speaker which is neither simply endorsed nor simply undermined. Moreover, the power of individual voices within Sallust’s Historiae suggests that the text, even when complete, was fractured: this quality of the Historiae can make us more confident of our ability to study the text in its present fragmentary state.

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