We should all cancel Netflix and read Roman declamation instead. It combines — with unspeakable vice — intrigue and incest, violence and vivisection, abduction and adoption, as well as cannibalism and epigrammatism, and even throws in the occasional ghost for good measure. Bé Breij has now given us the final volume of the so-called Cassino series of commentaries on the Major Declamations ascribed to Quintilian, the only complete mock-forensic speeches extant from Roman antiquity. The series editor, Bari's indefatigable Antonio Stramaglia, has thus successfully orchestrated well-priced paperback commentaries on all nineteen of the Major Declamations: Santorelli/Stramaglia (2017) on 1; Krapinger/Stramaglia (2015) on 2; Schneider (2004) on 3; Stramaglia (2013) on 4; van Mal-Maeder (2018) on 5; Zinsmaier (2009) on 6; Breij (2020) on 7; Stramaglia (1999) on 8; Krapinger (2007) on 9; Schneider (2013) on 10; Santorelli (2014) on 11/16; Stramaglia (2002) on 12; Krapinger (2005) on 13; Longo (2008) on 14/15; Pasetti (2011) on 17; Breij (2015) on 18/19. Some twenty years ago, Michael Winterbottom enthusiastically praised the arrival of the series’ first volume (Classical Review 50.1 (2000), 305–6), and today we are lucky enough to appreciate the full run. Much has changed in the field of declamation studies since the inception of this series, not least due to Stramaglia's own editorial work. He has co-edited the late Lennart Håkanson's works on declamation (2014–16), Michael Winterbottom's papers on Quintilian and ancient declamation (2019) as well as a volume on the Major Declamations in Imperial Rome (2021), and given a new critical text in a three-volume Loeb edition of the Major Declamations (2021). All this — taken together with a steady stream of commentaries, edited volumes, journal articles and monographs on Seneca the Elder, [Quintilian] and Calpurnius Flaccus — has made the long-neglected genre of Roman declamation more accessible and pushed it onto centre stage.

B. is an experienced hand at writing commentaries on [Quintilian], having previously authored a commentary, which originated from her PhD thesis, on Major Declamations 18/19, The Son Suspected of Incest with His Mother. The Poor Man's Torture is thus the labour of love of a scholar who knows her way round the hidden alleyways of Sophistopolis, the fictional town inhabited by the archetypal Rich Man and Poor Man, who are, after Father and Son, the most prominent protagonists of Roman Declamation. The book falls into three parts: a detailed Introduction (11–76), the Latin text with facing translation (77–106) — B.'s text follows that of Håkanson (1982), but not without several convincing changes — and an extensive commentary (107–256) plus bibliography (257–79). The Major Declamations have been dated, mostly but not only on rhythmical grounds, to between the early second century c.e. and c. 250, with a final recensio in the late fourth century (74). The seventh declamation, for which a composition date between 125 and 175 c.e. has been proposed, lacks similarities with the other Major Declamations in the collection, a fact discussed in the commentary (75). B. begins her introduction with a closer look at the declamation's protagonists, Poor Man and Rich Man (13–32). First, she illuminates their interactions across the corpus of Roman Declamation. Having decoded how their respective archetypes function, she runs through their characterisation in Major Declamation 7. Accordingly, once we have been made aware that Rich Man is famously cruel, we understand why Poor Man peppers his speech with such epithets as saeve, crudelis, crudelissime, and uses saevitia (twice), latro (twice) as well as sixteen instances of percussor and twelve of inimicus (30). In our case, Poor Man/Father has witnessed the murder of Son, accuses his enemy, Rich Man, of said murder and offers himself up for torture to prove it. However, the law (in this case both of Sophistopolis and Rome) states: ‘It shall be illegal to torture a free person’. Rich Man thus refuses Poor Man's offer. Major Declamation 7 then centres upon Poor Man's desperate plea to be tortured. Breij provides excellent background on different types of torture, standard arguments for and against torture (debating clubs take note!) and torture instruments, as well as both historical and fictional torture laws (32–43), before linking Poor Man's plea for torture to other extant declamations which revolve around a similar premise (43–66). A detailed analysis of the structure, language, style, grammar, syntax, lexical features, figures and tropes follows (66–74); these observations inform the commentary that ensues. In addition, the volume contains a rich bibliography, which serves not only connoisseurs of declamation but also those interested in ancient forms of torture. In summary, B. has made accessible a long-neglected text which relates both to present-day debates on the permissible use of violence and ancient educational practice. I cannot wait to use her commentary in the classroom.