particular historical circumstances and with given person, place 
and time. With the advent of the printed book grammatica  
surged back to a dominance it had enjoyed before 
scholasticism and the moderni  and the new universities had 
swept it aside. Scholasticism in ancient Rome was also an oral 
affair, and Bonner points out Cicero’s letter to Atticus in which 
Cicero mentions a list of theses which he himself declaimed in 
private:

     They are almost exclusively concerned with the subject of 
     tyrants and tyranny—‘Should one work for the tyrant’s 
     downfall, even though it may jeopardize the State, or 
     merely prevent his overthrower’s elevation?’ . . . ‘Should 
     one attempt to help one’s country, when subject to a 
     tyrant, by opportune speech rather than by force of 
     arms?’ There are eight such subjects, which Cicero says