Johns Hopkins Professor Matthew Roller to Deliver McKibben Lecture on Competitive Oratory in Republican Rome April 20

Grinnell College is pleased to announce that Professor Matthew Roller from Johns Hopkins University will deliver the 2023 McKibben Lecture in Classical Studies. The lecture, titled “The Curious Case of Manius Curius: A Contested Will, a Trial, and Competitive Oratory in Republican Rome,” will explore a celebrated civil trial from the late Roman Republic involving a contested will and the resultant litigation between two parties seeking to be the heir. The trial is known to us through the works of the great Roman orator Cicero, who is primarily interested in the litigants’ advocates and the oratory these advocates deployed in arguing their clients’ cases. 

During the lecture, Professor Roller will consider what was at stake for the two advocates, how each argued his side of the case, what the criteria were for considering one advocate or the other superior, and who got to make that judgment. Finally, the lecture will examine how this trial’s outcome created the model of the skilled orator as the most effective political leader. 

The lecture will take place on Thursday, April 20, 2023, at 4:00 p.m. in HSSC A2231, the auditorium. The event is open to the public, and all are welcome to attend. This is a unique opportunity for classical studies scholars, students, and anyone interested in the subject to gain insights into this celebrated civil trial and the development of Latin oratory in the late Roman Republic. Refreshments will be served after the lecture.