Ethics, Identity, and Community in Later Roman DeclamationRhetorical training was the central component of an elite Roman man's education, and declamations imaginary courtroom speeches in the character of a fictional or historical individual were the most advanced exercises in the standard rhetorical curriculum. The Major Declamations is a collection of nineteen full length Latin speeches attributed in antiquity to Quintilian but most likely composed by a group of authors in the second and third centuries