Cover -- Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Figures and maps -- Acknowledgments -- Note on translations -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- mass oratory and political action -- democratic persuasion -- rhetorical evidence -- plan of the work -- Chapter 2: Setting the stage -- the contio -- physical setting -- cicero on contional speech -- Chapter 3: Civic knowledge -- intriguing allusions in de lege agraria 2 -- speech and monument -- monumental memory -- the recent past -- Chapter 4: The Voice of the People -- the will of the people -- but which people? -- contional ventriloquism -- the ambivalent populace -- the contiones after caesar's assassination -- Chapter 5: Debate -- guest speakers -- routing the opposition -- eleventh-hour debates -- legislative failure in the contio -- an unequal argument -- Chapter 6: Contional ideology: the invisible "optimate" -- cicero popularis: a "plebs'-eye view" -- ideological monotony -- Chapter 7: Contional ideology: the political drama -- dramatic illusion -- credibility and authority -- Chapter 8: Conclusion -- References -- Index.