Datazione e paternità delle Declamazioni maggiori pseudo-quintilianee

This essay focuses on the dating of the Major Declamations and the in- terrelations between the speeches handed down to us in this collection. Since the late XIX century, scholarship has singled out a number of linguistic and sty- listic indicators pointing to internal connections among the extant pieces, with the aim of ascribing them to a number of authors of the imperial age. This study assesses the findings of previous inquiries in the light of a renewed analysis of the individual declamations. Account being taken not only of language and sty- le, but also of clause-rhythm, references to the Roman legal background, and a number of hints as to the expected audience of the speeches, it is argued that the Major Declamations were the work of a number of teachers (or advanced stu- dents) of rhetoric, on a time span ranging from the outset of the II to the mid-III century AD or slightly later.