Workshop: Cicero, Pro Balbo
03-04 July 2025 | University of Potsdam
Cicero's speech Pro Balbo was composed in 56 BCE to defend Lucius Cornelius Balbus from Gades from the accusation of having usurped the rights of a Roman citizen. Balbus had been conferred the Roman citizenship by Pompey for his services in the Sertorian War. In his speech, one of the most important sources on Roman citizenship laws and on the discussions surrounding the Roman citizenship in the 1st century BCE, Cicero develops important arguments about the right to change citizenship as well as on the Roman politics of conferring citizenship upon persons who had provided good services for Rome.
This workshop aims to provide a close reading of this fundamental text from different, interdisciplinary perspectives (classics, ancient history, legal history), situating it in its political and cultural context, as well as within Cicero's life, career and oeuvre.
Keynote Lecture
Building 11 | Room 0.09 | 3rd July | 06:15 pm
Catherine Steel (University of Glasgow): Cicero's Pro Balbo and the Shape of the Roman res publica: Insiders and Outsiders
Programme
Venue: Campus Am Neuen Palais | Building 8 | Room 0.56
For further information please refer to the flyer and poster of the event.
Thursday, July 3rd 2025
| 14:00 | Welcome |
| 14:30 | Andrea Raggi (Università di Pisa) The Prosecution's Reasons and the Legal Intrigue in the Pro Balbo |
| 14:50 | Francesca Benvenuti (Università di Bologna) Reading the Pro Balbo as a post reditum Speech: Where Legal Court Meets Politics |
| 15:10 | Franz Jaß (Universität Potsdam) The Implementation of Exempla and Their Significance in the Pro Balbo |
| 15:30 | Discussion |
16:00 | Coffee Break |
| 16:30 | Tommaso Ricchieri (Università di Bologna) The Pro Balbo, Its Context, and Second Thoughts |
| 16:50 | Irene Leonardis (Università eCampus) Ambiguous Message and Text in the Pro Balbo |
| 17:10 | Nicola Hömke (Universität Rostock) Ingeni minime voluntati paris - Cicero's "Rhetoric of a Weaker Voice" in the Pro Balbo |
| 17:30 | Discussion |
| 18:15 | Keynote lecture (room 1.11.0.09) Catherine Steel (University of Glasgow) Cicero's Pro Balbo and the Shape of the Roman res publica: Insiders and Outsiders |
Friday, July 4th 2025
| 09:00 | Henriette van der Blom (University of Birmingham) Anti-Immigration Rhetoric in the Pro Balbo (and Beyond) |
| 09:20 | Filippo Carlà-Uhink (Universität Potsdam) Identity, Alterity and Universalism in the Pro Balbo - or, of Cicero's Consistency |
| 09:40 | Paul du Plessis (University of Edinburgh) Law in the Republican Courtroom: The Evidence from Pro Balbo |
| 10:00 | Discussion |
| 10:30 | Coffee Break |
| 11:00 | Juan García González (Universitat de Girona) The Sertorian War Through the Lens of Cicero's Pro Balbo: Crafting a Pompeian Narrative of the Conflict |
| 11:20 | Matilde Oliva (Università di Firenze) Dealing with Power under the Triumvirate. Pompey's Portrait between Cicero's Pro Balbo and the Epistles |
| 11:40 | Barbara Del Giovane (Università di Firenze) Fuit apud me Cornelius, hunc dico Balbum, Caesaris familiarem. Balbus in Cicero's Letters |
| 12:00 | Discussion |
| 12:30 | Coffee Break |
| 12:45 | Final Discussion |
| 13:15 | Lunch |
Contact information
For further questions, please contact sekretariat-altertumuuni-potsdampde.
