Liminal speakers in Valerius Maximus’ “Facta et dicta memorabilia”

The first major imperial-period work to engage with republican oratory and orators is Valerius Maximus’ Facta et dicta memorabilia from 27–31 CE. This work consists of more than 1000 anecdotes (exempla) about Romans and non-Romans, organised around themes and ethical values to convey moral lessons. Of these anecdotes, over 700 focus on Romans and among these about a third (ca. 225) involve republican-period Romans addressing a variety of audiences in a multitude of contexts. Indeed, public speech is extraordinarily significant among the Roman exempla, quantitatively as well as qualitatively. The Facta et dicta thus offers an exceptional opportunity to understand the early-imperial engagement with republican oratory at a point when the dynastic system of single rulership was still developing and memories of the republic fresher.

One of the questions I am asking in a major research project funded by a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship (2025–28) is how we should interpret Valerius’ engagement with alternatives to the vir bonus dicendi peritus; that is, those speakers who are not elite Roman males. While that Roman ideal dominates the projection of Roman republican oratory in the work—83% of Valerius’ orators are elite Roman men—the remaining 17% are non-elite, non-Roman and female speakers, an astounding statistic given the nature of Roman society. These ‘liminal’ orators demand scrutiny for what they can tell us about Valerius’ choices, and underlying views and values, and, in turn, Roman society. For example, most female speakers were engaged in judicial speech (often to protect citizen status and property to which they were legally entitled), but Valerius’ perspective highlights an imperial-period concern with female agency and correct Roman behaviour.

In this paper, I present an overview of Valerius’ engagement with these liminal orators: who they are, where they speak and for what purposes, where Valerius might have found the stories, and how Valerius angles the stories for what we must assume is his own programme of work. This will bring is closer to the nature of his work and how we might begin to use his work to understand the early reception of republican oratory and how this reflects on early imperial oratorical practices and expectation