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A philippic is a fiery, damning speech delivered to condemn a particular political actor.
The term originates with Demosthenes, who delivered an attack on Philip of Macedon in the fourth century, BC.
Cicero consciously modeled his own attack on Antony, in 44 BC, on Demosthenes's speech and called it a "philippic." Cicero thereby established the philippic as a standard form of oratory and rhetoric.
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