The first book to examine closely how the relationship of Cicero's oral and written skills bears on his legal argumentation.

Enos argues that, more than any other Roman advocate, Cicero developed a "literate mind" which enabled him to construct arguments that were both compelling in court and popular in society. Through close examination of the audience and substance of Cicero's legal rhetoric, Enos shows that Cicero used his writing skills as an aid to composition of his oral arguments; after the trial, he again used writing to edit and re-compose texts that appear as "speeches" but function as literary statements directed to a public audience far removed from the courtroom.

These statements are couched "in a mode that would eventually become a standard of literary eloquence." Enos explores the differences between oral and literary composition to reveal relationships that bear not only on different modes of expression but also on the conceptual and cultural factors that shape meaning itself.