The renowned Gallic poet Pacatus Drepanius journeyed to Rome in the summer of AD 389 to deliver a speech to the Emperor Theodosius; both men stood for the first time before the Roman Senators. It was a moment of high political charge. The Latin speech survives and is here presented both in the original and with facing English translation; the introduction and commentary capture the groundbreaking character of the work and set it in its historical, rhetorical and literary contexts.