Professor Catherine Steel

  • Professor of Classics (Classics)

telephone: 01413304382
email: Catherine.Steel@glasgow.ac.uk

R514 Level 5, Classics, 65 Oakfield Avenue, Glasgow G12 8LP

Import to contacts

ORCID iDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989

Research interests

I am a historian of Rome, and I’m particularly interested in political history and the relationship between individual and collective action and the institutional structures which frame and underpin those actions.

I started my research career working on the orator and politician Cicero and I continue to research and publish on his writings, particularly his speeches. More recently I have been working on the other orators of the Roman Republic – a huge number of speakers, who either did not write down their speeches or whose speeches did not survive beyond the end of classical antiquity. I’ve held a European Research Council starting grant to edit the testimonia and fragments for orators other than Cicero: this project, The Fragments of Republican Roman Orators is producing an edition of the material (forthcoming, Oxford University Press) as well as a range of contextual material.

I also have an ongoing interest in the Roman Senate in the Republican period. I held a British Academy mid-career fellowship in 2011-2012 to look at its institutional history and its importance as a model of republican government for subsequent polities, and I am currently working on a monograph on the Republican Roman Senate.

I have taught and researched at the University of Glasgow since 1999. Before that I read Classics at Oxford, getting my BA in 1995 and my PhD in 1999.

Publications

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Number of items: 57.

2025

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2025) The cursus honorum, the Senate, and the lectio senatus in the long second century BCE. In: Pina Polo, Francisco (ed.) Cursus Honorum: Pathways to Rank and Power in the Roman Republic. Series: Libera Res Publica. Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza: Zaragoza, pp. 185-203. ISBN 9791387705138

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2025) L. Manlius Torquatus’ in Sullam. In: Conybeare, Catherine and May, Regine (eds.) Latin Lineages. A Family Tree of Intertextualities for Stephen Harrison. de Gruyter, pp. 27-42. (Accepted for Publication)

2024

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2024) Cicero’s De inventione and the shaping of the political sphere. Ciceroniana Online, 8(2), pp. 439-455. (doi: 10.13135/2532-5353/11643)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2024) Invective and provincial government: Cicero and his predecessors. In: Geitner, Philipp, Pausch, Dennis, Schwameis, Christoph and Wierzcholowski, Rainer (eds.) Ciceronian Invectives: Emotions, Configurations, and Reactions. Series: Emotions in antiquity. Mohr Siebeck: Tubingen, pp. 61-75. ISBN 9783161610356

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2024) Senatus frequens revisited: the quorum in the Roman Republican Senate. Historia: Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschichte, 73(4), pp. 410-424. (doi: 10.25162/historia-2024-0018)

2023

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2023) From inimici to hostes: internal conflict in the oratory of the Roman Republic, 133–88 BCE. In: Borm, H., Gotter, U. and Havener, W. (eds.) A Culture of Civil War? Series: Heidelberger althistorische Beiträge und epigraphische Studien (65). Franz Steiner Verlag, pp. 327-341. ISBN 9783515134019

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2023) Cultural memory and political change in the public speech of the late Roman Republic. In: Dinter, Martin T. and Guérin, Charles (eds.) Cultural Memory in Republican and Augustan Rome. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge ; New York, pp. 203-217. ISBN 9781009327756 (doi: 10.1017/9781009327749.012)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2023) The arrival of eloquence? The changing parameters of public speech in the second century. In: Santangelo, F. and Balbo, M. (eds.) A Community in Transition: Rome between Hannibal and the Gracchi. Oxford University Press: New York, pp. 293-309. ISBN 9780197655245 (doi: 10.1093/oso/9780197655245.003.0011)

2022

Steel, Catherine E. W. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2022) The reception of Cicero’s speeches in the early empire. In: Berno, Francesca Romana and La Bua, Giuseppe (eds.) Portraying Cicero in Literature, Culture, and Politics: From Ancient to Modern Times. Series: CICERO (4). de Gruyter: Berlin, pp. 233-245. ISBN 9783110748420 (doi: 10.1515/9783110748703-014)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2022) Rhetoric and Roman Political Culture. In: Arena, Valentina and Prag, Jonathan (eds.) A Companion to Roman Political Culture. Series: Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Wiley-Blackwell: Hoboken, NJ; Chichester., pp. 446-454. ISBN 9781444339659 hbk, 9781119673712 pbk, 9781119673651 ePDF, 9781119673590 oBook, 9781119673675 epub (doi: 10.1002/9781119673675.ch32)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2022) Consulars, political office and leadership in the middle and late republic. In: Frolov, Roman and Burden-Strevens, Christopher (eds.) Leadership and Initiative in Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome. Series: Mnemosyne, supplements (453). Brill: Leiden, pp. 133-148. ISBN 9789004511392

2021

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2021) Philosophy in Cicero's speeches. In: Atkins, Jed W. and Bénatouïl, Thomas (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Cicero's Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, pp. 59-70. ISBN 9781108241649 (doi: 10.1017/9781108241649.006)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2021) A single ruling class? The evidence of electoral oratory. In: Pitia, Sylvia, Schettino, Maria Teresa and Zecchini, Giuseppe (eds.) Héritages de Sylla. Series: Monografie del Centro Ricerche di Documentazione sull'Antichità Classica (52). L'Erma de Bretschneider: Rome, pp. 77-92. ISBN 9788891322814

2020

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2020) The intersection of oratory and political change. In: Pina Polo, Francisco (ed.) The Triumviral Period: Civil War, Political Crisis and Socioeconomic Transformations. Series: Libera Res Publica. Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza: Zaragoza, pp. 191-204. ISBN 97884134009609

2019

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2019) Sulla the orator. In: Eckert, Alexandra and Thein, Alexander (eds.) Sulla: Politics and Reception. De Gruyter, pp. 19-32. ISBN 9783110618099 (doi: 10.1515/9783110624700-002)

Chaniotis, Angelos and Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2019) Emotions in public: collectivities and polities. In: Cairns, Douglas (ed.) A Cultural History of the Emotions in Antiquity. Series: The cultural histories series, 1. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781472515063

2018

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2018) Past and present in Sulla's dictatorship. In: Zecchini, Giuseppe and Schettino, Maria Teresa (eds.) The Age of Sulla/L'Età di Silla Atti del Convegno presso l'Istituto Italiano per la Storia Antica. Roma 23-24 marzo 2017. L'Erma di Bretschneider, pp. 225-228. ISBN 9788891316967

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2018) Roman citizenship between law and practice. In: Ellis, Steven Godfrey (ed.) Enfranchising Ireland? Citizenship, Identity and State. Royal Irish Academy: Dublin, pp. 7-18. ISBN 9781908997845

van der Blom, Henriette, Gray, Christa and Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (Eds.) (2018) Institutions and Ideology in Republican Rome: Speech, Audience and Decision. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 9781108429016

Gray, Christa, Balbo, Andrea, Marshall, Richard M.A. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5645-3135 and Steel, Catherine E.W. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (Eds.) (2018) Reading Republican Oratory: Reconstructions, Contexts, Receptions. Oxford University Press: Oxford ; New York. ISBN 9780198788201

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989, Gray, Christa, Van Der Blom, Henriette and Marshall, Richard ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5645-3135 (2018) The Fragments of the Roman Republican Orators: Text, Translation and Commentary. Oxford University Press: Oxford. (Accepted for Publication)

2017

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2017) Re publica nihil desperatius: salvaging the state in Cicero’s pre-civil war philosophical works. In: Müller, Gernot Michael and Zini, Fosca Mariani (eds.) Philosophie in Rom - Römische Philosophie? Kultur-, literatur- und philosophiegeschichtliche Perspektiven. Series: Beiträge zur Altertumskunde (358). De Gruyter, pp. 269-282. ISBN 9783110493108 (doi: 10.1515/9783110493108-011)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2017) Cicero’s defence of Sextus Roscius and the Sullan Res Publica. Lampas, 50(4), pp. 453-462.

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2017) Defining public speech in the Roman Republic: occasion, audience and purpose. In: Rosillo-López, Cristina (ed.) Political Communication in the Roman World: Transmission and Exchange. Series: Impact of Empire (27). Brill: Leiden, pp. 17-33. ISBN 9789004350830

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2017) Speech without limits: defining informality in Republican Oratory. In: Papaioannou, Sophia, Serafim, Andreas and Da Vela, Beatrice (eds.) The Theatre of Justice: Aspects of Performance in Greco-Roman Oratory and Rhetoric. Series: Mnemosyne supplements, monographs on Grek and Latin language and literature (403). Brill: Leiden, pp. 75-89. ISBN 9789004334649 (doi: 10.1163/9789004341876_007)

2016

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2016) Early career prosecutors: forensic activity and senatorial careers in the Late Republic. In: Du Plessis, Paul J. (ed.) Cicero's Law: Rethinking Roman Law of the Late Republic. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, pp. 205-227. ISBN 9781474408820 (doi: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474408820.003.0012)

2015

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2015) The Roman political year and the end of the Roman Republic. In: Goušchin, Valerij and Rhodes, Peter John (eds.) Deformations and Crises of Ancient Civil Communities. Franz Steiner Verlag: Stuttgart, pp. 141-155. ISBN 9783515111621

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2015) Introduction: the legacy of the Republican Roman Senate. Classical Receptions Journal, 7(1), pp. 1-10. (doi: 10.1093/crj/clu011)

2014

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2014) Rethinking Sulla: the case of the Roman Senate. Classical Quarterly, 64(2), pp. 657-668. (doi: 10.1017/S0009838814000421)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2014) The Roman senate and the post-Sullan res publica. Historia, 63(3), pp. 323-339.

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2014) Rhetoric and pedagogy in Ancient Rome. In: The Oxford Handbook of Rhetorical Studies. Oxford University Press: Oxford. ISBN 9780199731596 (doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199731596.013.016)

2013

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (Ed.) (2013) The Cambridge Companion to Cicero. Series: Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 9780521729802

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 and Van Der Blom, H. (Eds.) (2013) Community and Communication: Oratory and Politics in Republican Rome. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. ISBN 9780199641895

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2013) Cicero's autobiography: narratives of success in the pre-consular orations. Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz, 23, pp. 251-266.

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2013) The End of the Roman Republic, 146-44 B.C.: Conquest and Crisis. Series: Edinburgh history of Ancient Rome, 3. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh. ISBN 9780748619443

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2013) Structure, meaning and authority in Cicero's dialogues. In: Follinger, S. and Muller, G.M. (eds.) Der Dialog in der Antike: Formen und Funktionen einer literarischen Gattung zwischen Philosophie, Wissensvermittlung und dramatischer Inszenierung. Series: Beiträge zur Altertumskunde (315). De Gruyter: Berlin, Germany, pp. 221-234. ISBN 9783110311839

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2013) Pompeius, Helvius Mancia and the politics of public debate. In: Steel, Catherine and van der Blom, Henriette (eds.) Community and Communication: Oratory and Politics in Republican Rome. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 151-159. ISBN 9780199641895 (doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199641895.003.0010)

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 and van der Blom, H. (2013) Introduction. In: Steel, C. and van der Blom, H. (eds.) Community and Communication: Oratory and Politics in Republican Rome. Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 1-7. ISBN 9780199640895

Van Der Blom, H. and Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2013) Introduction. In: Community and Communication: Oratory and Politics in Republican Rome. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. ISBN 9780199641895

2012

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2012) The Lex Pompeia de Provinciis of 52 B.C.: a reconsideration. Historia, 61(1), pp. 83-93.

2011

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2011) Cicero's oratory of praise and blame and the practice of elections in the late Roman Republic. In: Smith, C. and Covino, R. (eds.) Praise and Blame in Roman Republican Rhetoric. Classical Press of Wales: Swansea, pp. 35-48. ISBN 9781905125463

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2011) Heroism and despair in Velleius' republican narrative. In: Cowan, E. (ed.) Velleius Paterculus: Making History. Classical Press of Wales: Swansea, pp. 265-277. ISBN 9781905125456

2010

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2010) Tribunician sacrosanctity and oratorical performance in the late republic. In: Berry, D.H. and Erskine, A. (eds.) Form and Function in Roman Oratory. Cambridge University Press, pp. 37-50. ISBN 9780521768955

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 and Gibson, R. (2010) The indistinct literary careers of Cicero and Pliny the younger. In: Hardie, P. and Moore, H. (eds.) Classical Literary Careers and Their Reception. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521762977

2009

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2009) Divisions of speech. In: Gunderson, E. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rhetoric. Series: Cambridge companions to literature. Cambridge University Press, pp. 77-91. ISBN 9780521860543

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2009) Friends, associates and wives. In: Griffin, M.T. (ed.) A Companion to Julius Caesar. Series: Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World: Ancient History. Wiley-Blackwell: Chichester, UK, pp. 112-125. ISBN 9781405149235

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2009) Oratory. In: Erskine, A. (ed.) A Companion to Ancient History. Series: Blackwell companions to the ancient world: ancient history. Wiley-Blackwell: Chichester, UK, pp. 67-76. ISBN 9781405131506

2008

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2008) Finessing failure: the Sixth Philippic. In: Stevenson, T. and Wilson, M. (eds.) Cicero's Philippics: History, Rhetoric, Ideology. Polygraphia: Auckland, New Zealand, pp. 255-265. ISBN 9781877332562

2007

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2007) Lost orators of Rome. In: Dominik, W.J. and Hall, J. (eds.) A Companion to Roman Rhetoric. Series: Blackwell companions to the ancient world: literature and culture. Blackwell: Malden, USA, pp. 237-249. ISBN 9781405120913

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2007) Name and shame? Invective against Clodius and others in the post-exile speeches. In: Booth, J. (ed.) Cicero on the Attack: Invective and Subversion in the Orations and Beyond. Classical Press of Wales: Swansea, UK, pp. 105-127. ISBN 9781905125197

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2007) The rhetoric of the de frumento. In: Prag, J.R.W. (ed.) Sicilia Nutrix Plebis Romanae: Rhetoric, Law, and Taxation in Cicero's Verrines. Series: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies: supplement (97). Institute of Classical Studies: London, UK, pp. 37-48. ISBN 9781905670116

2006

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2006) Consul and consilium: suppressing the Catilinarian conspiracy. In: Spencer, D. and Theodorakopoulos, E. (eds.) Advice and its Rhetoric in Greece and Rome. Series: Nottingham Classical Literature Studies (9). Levante: Bari, Italy, pp. 63-78. ISBN 9788879494397

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2006) Roman Oratory. Series: New surveys in the classics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521687225

2005

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2005) Reading Cicero: Genre and Performance in Late Republican Rome. Duckworth. ISBN 0715632795

2004

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2004) Being economical with the truth: what really happened at Lampsacus? In: Powell, J.G.F. and Paterson, J. (eds.) Cicero the Advocate. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 233-251. ISBN 9780198152804

2003

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2003) Cicero's Brutus: the end of oratory and the beginning of history? Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 46, pp. 195-211.

2002

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2002) Cicero, Rhetoric and Empire. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199248478

This list was generated on Tue Jul 15 16:09:32 2025 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Edited Books
Number of items: 57.

Articles

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2024) Cicero’s De inventione and the shaping of the political sphere. Ciceroniana Online, 8(2), pp. 439-455. (doi: 10.13135/2532-5353/11643)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2024) Senatus frequens revisited: the quorum in the Roman Republican Senate. Historia: Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschichte, 73(4), pp. 410-424. (doi: 10.25162/historia-2024-0018)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2017) Cicero’s defence of Sextus Roscius and the Sullan Res Publica. Lampas, 50(4), pp. 453-462.

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2015) Introduction: the legacy of the Republican Roman Senate. Classical Receptions Journal, 7(1), pp. 1-10. (doi: 10.1093/crj/clu011)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2014) Rethinking Sulla: the case of the Roman Senate. Classical Quarterly, 64(2), pp. 657-668. (doi: 10.1017/S0009838814000421)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2014) The Roman senate and the post-Sullan res publica. Historia, 63(3), pp. 323-339.

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2013) Cicero's autobiography: narratives of success in the pre-consular orations. Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz, 23, pp. 251-266.

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2012) The Lex Pompeia de Provinciis of 52 B.C.: a reconsideration. Historia, 61(1), pp. 83-93.

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2003) Cicero's Brutus: the end of oratory and the beginning of history? Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 46, pp. 195-211.

Books

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989, Gray, Christa, Van Der Blom, Henriette and Marshall, Richard ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5645-3135 (2018) The Fragments of the Roman Republican Orators: Text, Translation and Commentary. Oxford University Press: Oxford. (Accepted for Publication)

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2013) The End of the Roman Republic, 146-44 B.C.: Conquest and Crisis. Series: Edinburgh history of Ancient Rome, 3. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh. ISBN 9780748619443

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2006) Roman Oratory. Series: New surveys in the classics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521687225

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2005) Reading Cicero: Genre and Performance in Late Republican Rome. Duckworth. ISBN 0715632795

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2002) Cicero, Rhetoric and Empire. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199248478

Book Sections

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2025) The cursus honorum, the Senate, and the lectio senatus in the long second century BCE. In: Pina Polo, Francisco (ed.) Cursus Honorum: Pathways to Rank and Power in the Roman Republic. Series: Libera Res Publica. Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza: Zaragoza, pp. 185-203. ISBN 9791387705138

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2025) L. Manlius Torquatus’ in Sullam. In: Conybeare, Catherine and May, Regine (eds.) Latin Lineages. A Family Tree of Intertextualities for Stephen Harrison. de Gruyter, pp. 27-42. (Accepted for Publication)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2024) Invective and provincial government: Cicero and his predecessors. In: Geitner, Philipp, Pausch, Dennis, Schwameis, Christoph and Wierzcholowski, Rainer (eds.) Ciceronian Invectives: Emotions, Configurations, and Reactions. Series: Emotions in antiquity. Mohr Siebeck: Tubingen, pp. 61-75. ISBN 9783161610356

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2023) From inimici to hostes: internal conflict in the oratory of the Roman Republic, 133–88 BCE. In: Borm, H., Gotter, U. and Havener, W. (eds.) A Culture of Civil War? Series: Heidelberger althistorische Beiträge und epigraphische Studien (65). Franz Steiner Verlag, pp. 327-341. ISBN 9783515134019

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2023) Cultural memory and political change in the public speech of the late Roman Republic. In: Dinter, Martin T. and Guérin, Charles (eds.) Cultural Memory in Republican and Augustan Rome. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge ; New York, pp. 203-217. ISBN 9781009327756 (doi: 10.1017/9781009327749.012)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2023) The arrival of eloquence? The changing parameters of public speech in the second century. In: Santangelo, F. and Balbo, M. (eds.) A Community in Transition: Rome between Hannibal and the Gracchi. Oxford University Press: New York, pp. 293-309. ISBN 9780197655245 (doi: 10.1093/oso/9780197655245.003.0011)

Steel, Catherine E. W. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2022) The reception of Cicero’s speeches in the early empire. In: Berno, Francesca Romana and La Bua, Giuseppe (eds.) Portraying Cicero in Literature, Culture, and Politics: From Ancient to Modern Times. Series: CICERO (4). de Gruyter: Berlin, pp. 233-245. ISBN 9783110748420 (doi: 10.1515/9783110748703-014)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2022) Rhetoric and Roman Political Culture. In: Arena, Valentina and Prag, Jonathan (eds.) A Companion to Roman Political Culture. Series: Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Wiley-Blackwell: Hoboken, NJ; Chichester., pp. 446-454. ISBN 9781444339659 hbk, 9781119673712 pbk, 9781119673651 ePDF, 9781119673590 oBook, 9781119673675 epub (doi: 10.1002/9781119673675.ch32)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2022) Consulars, political office and leadership in the middle and late republic. In: Frolov, Roman and Burden-Strevens, Christopher (eds.) Leadership and Initiative in Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome. Series: Mnemosyne, supplements (453). Brill: Leiden, pp. 133-148. ISBN 9789004511392

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2021) Philosophy in Cicero's speeches. In: Atkins, Jed W. and Bénatouïl, Thomas (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Cicero's Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, pp. 59-70. ISBN 9781108241649 (doi: 10.1017/9781108241649.006)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2021) A single ruling class? The evidence of electoral oratory. In: Pitia, Sylvia, Schettino, Maria Teresa and Zecchini, Giuseppe (eds.) Héritages de Sylla. Series: Monografie del Centro Ricerche di Documentazione sull'Antichità Classica (52). L'Erma de Bretschneider: Rome, pp. 77-92. ISBN 9788891322814

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2020) The intersection of oratory and political change. In: Pina Polo, Francisco (ed.) The Triumviral Period: Civil War, Political Crisis and Socioeconomic Transformations. Series: Libera Res Publica. Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza: Zaragoza, pp. 191-204. ISBN 97884134009609

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2019) Sulla the orator. In: Eckert, Alexandra and Thein, Alexander (eds.) Sulla: Politics and Reception. De Gruyter, pp. 19-32. ISBN 9783110618099 (doi: 10.1515/9783110624700-002)

Chaniotis, Angelos and Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2019) Emotions in public: collectivities and polities. In: Cairns, Douglas (ed.) A Cultural History of the Emotions in Antiquity. Series: The cultural histories series, 1. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781472515063

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2018) Past and present in Sulla's dictatorship. In: Zecchini, Giuseppe and Schettino, Maria Teresa (eds.) The Age of Sulla/L'Età di Silla Atti del Convegno presso l'Istituto Italiano per la Storia Antica. Roma 23-24 marzo 2017. L'Erma di Bretschneider, pp. 225-228. ISBN 9788891316967

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2018) Roman citizenship between law and practice. In: Ellis, Steven Godfrey (ed.) Enfranchising Ireland? Citizenship, Identity and State. Royal Irish Academy: Dublin, pp. 7-18. ISBN 9781908997845

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2017) Re publica nihil desperatius: salvaging the state in Cicero’s pre-civil war philosophical works. In: Müller, Gernot Michael and Zini, Fosca Mariani (eds.) Philosophie in Rom - Römische Philosophie? Kultur-, literatur- und philosophiegeschichtliche Perspektiven. Series: Beiträge zur Altertumskunde (358). De Gruyter, pp. 269-282. ISBN 9783110493108 (doi: 10.1515/9783110493108-011)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2017) Defining public speech in the Roman Republic: occasion, audience and purpose. In: Rosillo-López, Cristina (ed.) Political Communication in the Roman World: Transmission and Exchange. Series: Impact of Empire (27). Brill: Leiden, pp. 17-33. ISBN 9789004350830

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2017) Speech without limits: defining informality in Republican Oratory. In: Papaioannou, Sophia, Serafim, Andreas and Da Vela, Beatrice (eds.) The Theatre of Justice: Aspects of Performance in Greco-Roman Oratory and Rhetoric. Series: Mnemosyne supplements, monographs on Grek and Latin language and literature (403). Brill: Leiden, pp. 75-89. ISBN 9789004334649 (doi: 10.1163/9789004341876_007)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2016) Early career prosecutors: forensic activity and senatorial careers in the Late Republic. In: Du Plessis, Paul J. (ed.) Cicero's Law: Rethinking Roman Law of the Late Republic. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, pp. 205-227. ISBN 9781474408820 (doi: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474408820.003.0012)

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2015) The Roman political year and the end of the Roman Republic. In: Goušchin, Valerij and Rhodes, Peter John (eds.) Deformations and Crises of Ancient Civil Communities. Franz Steiner Verlag: Stuttgart, pp. 141-155. ISBN 9783515111621

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2014) Rhetoric and pedagogy in Ancient Rome. In: The Oxford Handbook of Rhetorical Studies. Oxford University Press: Oxford. ISBN 9780199731596 (doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199731596.013.016)

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2013) Structure, meaning and authority in Cicero's dialogues. In: Follinger, S. and Muller, G.M. (eds.) Der Dialog in der Antike: Formen und Funktionen einer literarischen Gattung zwischen Philosophie, Wissensvermittlung und dramatischer Inszenierung. Series: Beiträge zur Altertumskunde (315). De Gruyter: Berlin, Germany, pp. 221-234. ISBN 9783110311839

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2013) Pompeius, Helvius Mancia and the politics of public debate. In: Steel, Catherine and van der Blom, Henriette (eds.) Community and Communication: Oratory and Politics in Republican Rome. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 151-159. ISBN 9780199641895 (doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199641895.003.0010)

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 and van der Blom, H. (2013) Introduction. In: Steel, C. and van der Blom, H. (eds.) Community and Communication: Oratory and Politics in Republican Rome. Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 1-7. ISBN 9780199640895

Van Der Blom, H. and Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2013) Introduction. In: Community and Communication: Oratory and Politics in Republican Rome. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. ISBN 9780199641895

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2011) Cicero's oratory of praise and blame and the practice of elections in the late Roman Republic. In: Smith, C. and Covino, R. (eds.) Praise and Blame in Roman Republican Rhetoric. Classical Press of Wales: Swansea, pp. 35-48. ISBN 9781905125463

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2011) Heroism and despair in Velleius' republican narrative. In: Cowan, E. (ed.) Velleius Paterculus: Making History. Classical Press of Wales: Swansea, pp. 265-277. ISBN 9781905125456

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2010) Tribunician sacrosanctity and oratorical performance in the late republic. In: Berry, D.H. and Erskine, A. (eds.) Form and Function in Roman Oratory. Cambridge University Press, pp. 37-50. ISBN 9780521768955

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 and Gibson, R. (2010) The indistinct literary careers of Cicero and Pliny the younger. In: Hardie, P. and Moore, H. (eds.) Classical Literary Careers and Their Reception. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521762977

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2009) Divisions of speech. In: Gunderson, E. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rhetoric. Series: Cambridge companions to literature. Cambridge University Press, pp. 77-91. ISBN 9780521860543

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2009) Friends, associates and wives. In: Griffin, M.T. (ed.) A Companion to Julius Caesar. Series: Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World: Ancient History. Wiley-Blackwell: Chichester, UK, pp. 112-125. ISBN 9781405149235

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2009) Oratory. In: Erskine, A. (ed.) A Companion to Ancient History. Series: Blackwell companions to the ancient world: ancient history. Wiley-Blackwell: Chichester, UK, pp. 67-76. ISBN 9781405131506

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2008) Finessing failure: the Sixth Philippic. In: Stevenson, T. and Wilson, M. (eds.) Cicero's Philippics: History, Rhetoric, Ideology. Polygraphia: Auckland, New Zealand, pp. 255-265. ISBN 9781877332562

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2007) Lost orators of Rome. In: Dominik, W.J. and Hall, J. (eds.) A Companion to Roman Rhetoric. Series: Blackwell companions to the ancient world: literature and culture. Blackwell: Malden, USA, pp. 237-249. ISBN 9781405120913

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2007) Name and shame? Invective against Clodius and others in the post-exile speeches. In: Booth, J. (ed.) Cicero on the Attack: Invective and Subversion in the Orations and Beyond. Classical Press of Wales: Swansea, UK, pp. 105-127. ISBN 9781905125197

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2007) The rhetoric of the de frumento. In: Prag, J.R.W. (ed.) Sicilia Nutrix Plebis Romanae: Rhetoric, Law, and Taxation in Cicero's Verrines. Series: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies: supplement (97). Institute of Classical Studies: London, UK, pp. 37-48. ISBN 9781905670116

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2006) Consul and consilium: suppressing the Catilinarian conspiracy. In: Spencer, D. and Theodorakopoulos, E. (eds.) Advice and its Rhetoric in Greece and Rome. Series: Nottingham Classical Literature Studies (9). Levante: Bari, Italy, pp. 63-78. ISBN 9788879494397

Steel, C.E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2004) Being economical with the truth: what really happened at Lampsacus? In: Powell, J.G.F. and Paterson, J. (eds.) Cicero the Advocate. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 233-251. ISBN 9780198152804

Edited Books

van der Blom, Henriette, Gray, Christa and Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (Eds.) (2018) Institutions and Ideology in Republican Rome: Speech, Audience and Decision. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 9781108429016

Gray, Christa, Balbo, Andrea, Marshall, Richard M.A. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5645-3135 and Steel, Catherine E.W. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (Eds.) (2018) Reading Republican Oratory: Reconstructions, Contexts, Receptions. Oxford University Press: Oxford ; New York. ISBN 9780198788201

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (Ed.) (2013) The Cambridge Companion to Cicero. Series: Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 9780521729802

Steel, C. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 and Van Der Blom, H. (Eds.) (2013) Community and Communication: Oratory and Politics in Republican Rome. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. ISBN 9780199641895

This list was generated on Tue Jul 15 16:09:32 2025 BST.

Grants

2012-17

2011-12

  • £141,000: British Academy mid-career fellowship - 'SPQR: the Roman Republican Senate in the 21st century'

2010-11

  • £17,500: Director of Classics, HEA HCA subject centre
  • £450: Carnegie Trust: 'Reconsidering Roman Government at the end of the Republic: Pompeius' lex de prouinciis in context'0

2009-10

  • £15,000: Director of Classics, HEA HCA subject centre

Supervision

Research proposals

I am particularly interested in supervising research students working on the following areas and topics:

  • Cicero
  • the Roman Republic, particularly its political history
  • Roman oratory
  • Roman political theory and practice, including its reception

I am also very happy to discuss proposals across a broader range of topics in Latin prose literature and Roman history.

Current projects

I am currently supervising research students working on:

  • Cicero and the Just War tradition
  • rhetoric and the formation of Roman law
  • the Severan monarchy
  • Trajanic monumentality.

Past projects

Past PhD theses supervised include:

  • The pontifex maximus in the late Republic
  • Dio the Rhetorician: Studies in Rhetoric and Rhetorical Education in Cassius Dio’s ‘Roman History’
  • A New Study of the Rhetorica ad Herennium.

Teaching

  • Roman History; Latin language and prose literature

Professional activities & recognition

Grant committees & research advisory boards

  • 2018: Irish Research Council, Postdoctoral Fellowships Outer Board

Editorial boards

  • 2008 - 2017: Journal of Roman Studies

Professional & learned societies

  • 2012 - 2017: Secretary, Council of University Classical Departments
  • 2008 - 2017: Council Member, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Selected international presentations

  • 2016: Prentice Lecture (Princeton University)
  • 2014: Rothman Lecture (University of Florida)

Catherine Steel