The Philippics: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Philippics, credited to Marcus Tullius Cicero, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox reecording of Cicero's Philippic Orations, declaimed by ontheroad, proofed by Karen Merline, and produced by Kirsten Ferreri. A philippic is a fiery, damning speech delivered to condemn a particular political actor. The term originates with Demosthenes, who delivered an attack on Philip II of Macedon in the 4th century BCE.Cicero consciously modeled his own attacks on Mark Antony, in 44 BC and 43 BC, on Demosthenes's speeches, and if the correspondence between M. Brutus and Cicero are genuine [ad Brut. ii 3.4, ii 4.2], at least the fifth and seventh speeches were referred to as the Philippics in Cicero's time. They were also called the Antonian Orations by Aulus Gellius. It is ironic that they were named after a series of speeches that failed to effectively warn the Greeks of the danger of Philip of Macedon whose son, Alexander the Great, went on to be one of the greatest conquerors of all time. After the death of Caesar, Cicero privately expressed regrets that the murderers of Caesar had not included Antony in their plot and became focused on discrediting Antony. Cicero even promoted illegal action, such as legitimatizing Octavian's private army. In total, Cicero made 14 Phillipics in less than two years - an impressively energetic feat for the over 60 ex-consul. Cicero's focus on Antony, however, would contribute to his downfall as he failed to recognize the threat of Octavian and ignored and promoted illegal actions. Cicero's attacks on Antony did not go unpunished and in 43 BC he was proscribed and killed. His head and hands were publicly displayed in the forum discouraging those who would openly oppose the new Triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Philippics
• Author credits: Marcus Tullius Cicero
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 15
• Listed recording duration: 9:46:18

Catalogue topics

• audio books
• classics
• Roman history
• speeches
• orations

Track guide

1. 01 - 1rst Philippic — 39:16
2. 02A - 2nd Philippic — 58:04
3. 02 - 2nd Philippic — 56:14
4. 03 - 3rd Philippic — 43:58
5. 04 - 4th Philippic — 14:46
6. 05 - 5th Philippic — 54:21
7. 06 - 6th Philippic — 21:16
8. 07 - 7th Philippic — 25:21
9. 08 - 8th Philippic — 34:52
10. 09 - 9th Philippic — 18:42
11. 10 - 10th Philippic — 32:40
12. 11 - 11th Philippic — 49:33
13. 12 - 12th Philippic — 31:28
14. 13 - 13th Philippic — 1:03:23
15. 14 - 14th Philippic — 42:33

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.