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New collaboration by St. Olaf Prof. James M. May is first translation in 60 years of Cicero classic

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May 3, 2001

NORTHFIELD, Minn. ? St. Olaf College Prof. James M. May and University of Newcastle upon Tyne (United Kingdom) lecturer Jakob Wisse have completed a new, annotated translation of Cicero?s On the Ideal Orator (De oratore) ? the first translation in 60 years of the Roman orator?s classic work, and the most comprehensive effort ever.

Marcus Tullius Cicero ? the greatest Roman orator and prose writer of his day ? wrote De oratore in 55 B.C. Cast in the lively, literary form of a dialogue, De oratore explains Cicero?s mature opinions on rhetoric, oratory and philosophy. It presents a daring view of the orator as master of all language communication, while emphasizing his role at the heart of Roman society and politics.

Cicero: On the Ideal Orator is the result of nearly a decade of collaboration between May, associate dean for humanities and professor of classics at St. Olaf College, and Wisse, lecturer in classics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. The translation, available in cloth and paperback editions, was published recently by Oxford University Press.

The new May-Wisse translation uses the most recent advances in scholarship, incorporating many relevant aspects of ancient rhetoric, philosophy and history. The translation includes extensive annotation and is enhanced by a full introduction covering all important aspects of the work and its historical background. It also includes appendices on Cicero?s works; figures of thought and speech and alternate manuscript readings; a glossary of terms from rhetoric and Roman life and politics; and a comprehensive index of names and places.

Cicero?s concept of the ideal orator was a synthesis of the positions of philosophers and rhetoricians ? two disciplines that have quarreled for ages. His work had a profound influence on subsequent generations, and is still considered one of the most important western texts arguing for education based on the liberal arts.

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James May has taught at St. Olaf College since 1977. He earned a Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina, where he studied under renowned ancient rhetoric scholar George Kennedy. May also is the author of Trials of Character: The Eloquence of Ciceronian Ethos (1988), and is co-author (with St. Olaf classics professor Anne Groton) of Thirty-Eight Latin Stories (1986). He is under contract with E.J. Brill for a forthcoming volume on Cicero, A Companion to Cicero: Rhetoric and Oratory.

May has published many articles on ancient rhetoric and has lectured extensively on classical subjects in the United States and in Europe. In 1986 he received the American Philological Association?s Award for Excellence in the Teaching of the Classics, and in 1991 received the prestigious Sears-Roebuck Foundation Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award.

Twice he has conducted National Endowment for the Humanities Seminars on Cicero at St. Olaf, and twice he has received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for College Teachers. May also has served in high positions of leadership in regional and national classical associations: he has been president of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, and vice president for education of the American Philological Association. Currently he is director of the national Campus Advisory Service of the American Philological Association. He lives in rural Northfield with his wife Donna and children, Joseph and Michael.

St. Olaf College prepares students to become responsible citizens of the world, fostering development of mind, body and spirit. A four-year, coeducational liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), St. Olaf has a student enrollment of 2,950 and a full-time faculty complement of approximately 300. It is one of Money Guide?s top 100 "elite values in college education today," and it leads the nation?s colleges in percentage of students who study abroad.

Contact Michael Cooper at 507-786-3315 or cooperm@stolaf.edu.