The Graeco-Roman Era

Five speeches from the legendary orators Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Cicero, and Pericles. 431 BCE: Pericles’ Funeral Oration is a valedictory and eulogy for the great age of Athenian democracy. Reported by Thucydides, it was given at the first annual public funeral for casualties of the Peloponnesian War. That war ended twenty-seven years later with the democratic government of Athens overthrown by an oligarchy known as The Four Hundred. 324BCE: Two speeches by Alexander the Great, reported by the historian Arrian in his Anabasis. Both speeches are a direct address to his army on embarking on a new campaign. The first was given in Opis, Mesopotamia, when rallying his armies to start a new campaign into Persia. The army took heart, and successfully conquered the Persian Empire, adding it to Alexander’s many existing conquests. The second speech is given after the first campaign is over. This time Alexander is ready to move into the Indian subcontinent. After travelling across t