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The editors have labelled the larger section, comprising political texts, `Against Tyranny' (which they also call, anachronistically, `totalitarianism'). Cicero perhaps doesn't need introducing. Originally a lawyer and an orator, he made his name prosecuting corrupt figures of the senatorial establishment, before joining the conservative camp against the populist tribunes and against Caesar. Without necessarily wanting to reach for the multiple tomes of the complete Loeb edition, you may consider browsing for a meatier sample of Cicero's political writings, perhaps the Oxford Classics, and a separate selection of the treatises and letters.
It misses fancier but interesting essays such as On Divination (Cicero was also an augur, an official soothsayer) and On the Nature of the Gods. The selection of letters, finally, is interesting, though only for the reader with good basic knowledge of their background (the editors' notes don't quite suffice).Cicero's style is easy to read. The philosophical, second section likewise aims to portray Cicero as a grand old moral figure, comprising only On Duties and On Old Age. The Catilinarian speeches, perhaps his best known, are essential to an honest portrait of Cicero's politics; they are missing from this edition.
His writings are massive and are one of the period's key historical sources, even if obviously not unbiased. Moreover, the editors avoid mention of Cicero's contentious role, as consul, in using extra-judicial means to repress the Catilinarian conspiracy. He was a powerful politician of the last decades of the Roman Republic, the 70s to the 40s BC. This section includes the Verrine indictment and speeches in defiance of Marc Antony, glossing over Cicero's switching to the side of Verres' friends in the intervening decades.
The selection, furthermore, is problematic. Cicero was consul in 63BC. He also wrote a set of philosophical treatises.This edition contains only a tiny portion of the 800 or so letters, countless speeches, works on the constitution, on laws, and on moral questions that Cicero produced.
A great read and it really makes you think about what could happen if we do not change things in the United States. Only by studying the past can we change the future. The craziness of politics of Rome is here today in the United States. Everyone should read this if they are concerned with the way things are going in today's world. Enjoy. This book shows that the more things change the more they can stay the same. The corruption of politics of the Roman empire is mirrored in our own government and Cicero talks about the key issues and how to solve them.
I am not sure how can anyone rate this book anthing less than five stars, where there is no other translation available for most of it, and where the writer, Cicero, is one of the greatest minds in history. From the wisdom fo Cicero, to the thrilling details of Roman's daily life, and finally, from a purely entertainment standpoint, this book is worthy of your time. Let's face it, if you wrote something 2,000 years ago and its still in print, it's damn good. Unless you can translate a book yourself, there is never knowing whether or not the translation is any good or not. What counts really is that this is an excellent book whichever way you look at it.
As Michael Grant explains in his introduction, Cicero's reputation has waxed and waned over the past two thousand years. I would also guess that they didn't write this into the Constitution because it was so terribly obvious: every well-educated man understood Cicero and his concept of Natural Law. He was admired for many reasons, but perhaps the most outstanding was his concept of Natural Law, which had an enormous influence on the people who wrote the Constitution. Relevant.
In either case, there is no reason to fear death.Another essay included in this book, "On Old Age," is a true Ciceronian classic. But they lived before the advent of Karl Marx.I also suspect that Cicero's "religion" was pretty close to the religion of the Founding Fathers. As far as the afterlife, Cicero basically whittled the possibilities down to two. If I had my druthers, everyone would receive a free copy on his 60th birthday. Either we cease to exist, and cease to feel pain, or there is an afterlife, and we will enter it. That reputation was at its zenith at the time of the founding of the United States, and Cicero was like an old friend to Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers.
Cicero imagined the mind of the Universe to be God, while the physical body of the universe was made up by all the natural phenomena around us, and he was quite sure that each one of us carried within himself a spark of that divinity. It's a simple, short read, and cannot really be summarized in a short review.Another excellent book by Michael Grant. And for that reason alone, it's worth getting to know Cicero. You can hardly get more than a few pages into "On Duties (III)" before you come across this:"Granted that there is nothing unnatural in a man preferring to earn a living for himself rather than someone else, what nature forbids is that we should increase our own means, property and resources by plundering others."I would guess that the Founding Fathers agreed with this sentiment completely, for the simple reason that once citizens begin plundering one another, one of the primary social goals (living safely and without fear of your neighbor) is instantly destroyed.
For serious readers of Cicero and political theory chose a different book. Cicero: Selected WorksThis book is a good start for those interested in a basic overview of Cicero's style and more famous quotes.
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