Cicero's actio secunda in Verrem is undoubtedly one of the best-known speeches by the great Roman politician. Nevertheless, it has so far only been partially analysed in modern commentaries.

This gap in research is closed by the commentary presented here for De praetura Siciliensi. The second book of the actio secunda is devoted to such diverse topics as bribery or enrichment in connection with civil and capital proceedings, municipal offices and honorary statues as well as cooperation with tax tenants. The commentary takes into account the findings of various research disciplines, especially legal and ancient historical research, critically analyses them and makes them useful for understanding the speech. Above all, however, it illuminates this individual speech from a philological perspective for the first time, discusses language, style and textual criticism and, above all, demonstrates the sophistication of Cicero's oratorical tactics in this speech and in the context of the entire corpus.

This provides readers with all the information they need to understand the various individual aspects of the speech and to appreciate Cicero's oratorical art.