Kathryn Tempest

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

Ancient Rhetoric and Oratory; All aspects of Cicero; Roman Republic (History and Literature).

20072023

Research activity per year

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Personal profile

Qualifications

BA (hons, 1st), MA (Dist.), Phd (Lond.)

Research interests

My research focuses on Cicero, Roman Oratory, and Roman Republican history, as well as the theory and practice of rhetoric more generally. My book Cicero: Politics and Persuasion in Ancient Rome (Continuum, 2011; reprinted by Bloomsbury, 2013) explores the political and oratorical career of Rome’s foremost advocate. I have also co-edited a book on Hellenistic Oratory: Continuity and Change with Christos Kremmydas (Oxford University Press, 2013) revealing the dynamic character of oratory in the Hellenistic period. More recently, I have written a biography of Caesar's famous assassin: Brutus: The Noble Conspirator (Yale University Press, 2017). But it does not just tell the story of his life; it also examines how that story was transmitted and interpreted from antiquity to today (you can read reviews online at BMCR and History Today). I am currently completing work on the pseudepigrapha of M. Iunius Brutus and Mithridates; this project has received generous funding from the Leverhulme Trust and the International Society for the History of Rhetoric.

Teaching

I have over fifteen years' teaching and examining experience in the fields of Latin language, Latin literature and Roman history from introductory lecture courses to postgraduate seminars. At undergraduate level I teach general courses on Latin language and literature, as well as more specialised options such as 'Cicero and Rome in the Late Republic'. I welcome informal enquiries from postgraduate students who are interested in undertaking research for our MRes or PhD courses on any aspect of the literature and/or politics of the late republic and early imperial periods.

Professional affiliations

  • Vice President of The Classical Association 
  • Vice President of the Association of Latin Teachers
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Member of the Roman Society 
  • Member of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
  • Member of the Society for Classical Studies