The Hand of Cicero

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant work, tremendous pleasure.
Review: Fascinating in every respect, The Hand of Cicero uses the life and career of Rome's most famous orator in order to illuminate the centrality of writing and documentation to the ancient Latin world, long thought to be an almost exclusively oral culture. The book is elegantly written and persuasively argued. But in its extended meditations on Cicero's life, it is also utterly engrossing, as all great stories are. This is the best book that I have read about Cicero or about ancient rhetoric, aesthetics, and law in the last five years. I recommend it with unstinting enthusiasm to academic and non-academic readers alike.

Rating:
Summary: Shane Butler's The Hand of Cicero
Review: Though the writing is clear and lucid, his overall argument lacks clarity. The theories presented are interesting, but often a bit of a reach. The detailed nature of his accounts, though at times is fascinating, it can elsewhere contribute to the soporific tone of the book. However, it is evident that the author has a great deal of affinity for his subject, which contributes to an enthusiastic basis for the book, but cannot justify the obvious biases that he let seep into his writing.