The Lesser Declamations perhaps date from the second century CE and are perhaps derived from Quintilian. The collection originally consisted of 388 sample cases for legal training. 145 survive. Comments and suggestions the instructor adds to his model speeches for fictitious court cases offer insight into Roman law and education.

Roman secondary education aimed principally at training future lawyers and politicians. Under the late Republic and the Empire, the main instrument was an import from Greece -- declamation, the making of practice-speeches on imaginary subjects. There were two types of such speeches: controversiae on law-court themes, suasoriae on delibertaive topics. On both types a prime source of our knowledge is the work of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a Spaniard from...