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: 59.

2026

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 and Webb, Lewis (Eds.) (2026) Women, Wealth and Power in the Roman Republic. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009691802 (In Press)

2025

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 (2025) ‘Rule of law’ and the gods in the late republic. In: Cowan, Eleanor, Morrell, Kit, Pettinger, Andrew and Sevel, Michael (eds.) The Rule of Law in Ancient Rome. Series: Oxford scholarship online. Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 101-112. ISBN 9780198959359 (doi: 10.1093/9780198959359.003.0006)

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 Sat Nov 29 09:23:02 2025 GMT.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Edited Books
Number of items: 59.

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) ‘Rule of law’ and the gods in the late republic. In: Cowan, Eleanor, Morrell, Kit, Pettinger, Andrew and Sevel, Michael (eds.) The Rule of Law in Ancient Rome. Series: Oxford scholarship online. Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 101-112. ISBN 9780198959359 (doi: 10.1093/9780198959359.003.0006)

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

Steel, Catherine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3436-6989 and Webb, Lewis (Eds.) (2026) Women, Wealth and Power in the Roman Republic. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009691802 (In Press)

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 Sat Nov 29 09:23:02 2025 GMT.

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