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CICERO, Quintus Tullius, Commentariolum petitionis. Herausgegeben, übersetzt und kommentiert von G. Laser. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 2007. VI,200p. Paperback. Series: Texte zur Forschung, Band 75. Nice copy. (Rare). 'This edition, translation and commentary of the 'Commentariolum petitionis' attributed to Quintus Cicero poses a problem for a reviewer in an English-language journal. To judge from its conscious sacrifice of philological minutiae (p.1), its minimal indulgence in prosopographical or institutional detail (for which the reader is often referred to 'Der neue' or even 'Der kleine Pauly', and the space devoted to exposition of problems of interpretation, this book is evidently directed chiefly not at the scholar but at intermediate students. Consequently, however well this book meets its primary pedagogical purpose, its value is necessarily somewhat limited for scholars - who alone in the anglophone countries will have the inclination and the linguistic competence to read it. This is not to depreciate the quality and interest of the ideas that appear herein. Major themes include the claims that clients were free agents who could not simply be commanded to further an electoral campaign; that the Republic was a fictive (…) ‘face-to-face society’, demanding continual communication and interaction between political leaders and a politically active urban citizenry; and that a will-integrated plebs normally acquiesced in the leadership of the Senate provided that least symbolic gestures of solicitude for its ‘commoda’ were forthcoming. These views represent important strands of the current lively debate on the nature of the Republican political system. (…) For scholars the chief interest of this edition may lie in tracking L.’s position in the current debate about the ‘res publica’. In textual matters, one will still consult Nardo and Shackleton Bailey first. And we must still await a detailed scholarly commentary to ground further progress in interpreting this enigmatic text.’ (ROBERT MORSTEIN-MARX in The Classical Review (New Series), 2004, pp.362-363). € 35.00 (Antiquarian)