This 2003 doctoral dissertation, presented to the Faculty of Law, University of Munich, consists of a collection of studies and short notes on the text and interpretation of Cicero’s Pro Quinctio. Although no consistent interpretation of the speech as a whole is presented — contradictory positions are adopted in different parts of the text and in general the book shows signs of haste in composition —, it offers a number of detailed examinations of individual passages and problems in the speech, drawing on epigraphic, papyrological and literary comparanda, as well as on Cicero and the legal authors.
The text of 19 passages is investigated and some conjectures are proposed (there is a separate index of textual discussions on p.300). The events which preceded the trial are examined in turn, and the chronology of the course of events is reconstructed by calculating travel-times to and from Gaul (74-84; the findings are summarised in a time-line, p.279). Legal themes treated include the heritability of the status of socius (19-30), the practical application of the vadimonium (44-74), and the question of whether the Praetor’s Edict included a clause allowing missio in possessionem in the case of a defendant’s absence from court (157-230).
Although the formal divisions into chapters and sections are not a good guide to the content, the ‘Quellenregister’ (290-300) and the fact that the sequence of studies broadly follows the course of Cicero’s speech will enable readers to locate discussions of relevance to particular passages.