Als Gegner der Politik Caesars ausgeschlossen vom politischen Tagesgeschaft, schreibt Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 43 v. Chr.) sich selbst und seinem Freund Atticus zum Trost diese beiden Dialoge uber Alter (Cato maior de senectute) und Freundschaft (Laelius de amicitia). Er legt die Gedanken, die ihn selbst bewegen, in den Mund bewunderter Personlichkeiten Roms. Die Texte gelten als Hohepunkte seines philosophischen Gesamtwerks nicht zuletzt ihrer vollendeten Sprache wegen.".

cicero, als der unbestrittene Meister der romischen Beredsamkeit in Theorie und Praxis, hat sich in mehreren Werken mit der Theorie der Rhetorik befasst. In seinen "Partitiones oratoriae" stellt er die Rhetorik als System dar. Der literarischen Form nach handelt es sich um einen Dialog oder einen Katechismus in Frage und Antwort: Sohn Marcus darf seinen Vater im Urlaub anhand einer griechischen Vorlage examinieren. Uber die Datierung des Werks besteht keine Ubereinstimmung: Einiges spricht fur seine Entstehung im Jahre 56 (...) v. Chr., vieles dafur, dass es erst zehn Jahre spater niedergeschrieben wurde. Das straff gegliederte Werk gibt einen ausgezeichneten Einblick in die vielfaltigen Anforderungen, denen ein Redner gerecht werden musste und auch heute noch genugen muss.". (shrink)

Nach dem Vorbild Platons fasste Cicero den Plan, seiner Schrift "De re publica" eine Abhandlung ber die Gesetze folgen zu lassen. Der Dialog "De legibus" wird von Marcus Cicero, Atticus und Quintus Cicero, dem Bruder des Politikers, in heiter-entspannter Atmosph re auf seinem Landgut in Arpinum gef hrt. Es handelt sich um drei B cher ber rechtsphilosophische Grundfragen, die in einer kommentierenden Darstellung der Sakralgesetzgebung und des Zivilrechts veranschaulicht werden. Die 52/52 v. Chr. entstandene Schrift beweist (...) Ciceros F higkeit, ein schwieriges und auf den ersten Blick spr des Thema faszinierend darzustellen. Das gilt auch f r die "Paradoxa Stoicorum", die Cicero Anfang 46 v. Chr. verfasst und seinem Freund Brutus gewidmet hat. Mit Hilfe geschichtlicher und biographischer Beispiele ist es dem Autor gelungen, seine Leser auf anregende Weise f r die Dogmen der stoischen Ethik zu interessieren. (shrink)

Timeless techniques of effective public speaking from ancient Rome's greatest orator All of us are faced countless times with the challenge of persuading others, whether we're trying to win a trivial argument with a friend or convince our coworkers about an important decision. Instead of relying on untrained instinct—and often floundering or failing as a result—we’d win more arguments if we learned the timeless art of verbal persuasion, rhetoric. How to Win an Argument gathers the rhetorical wisdom of Cicero, (...) ancient Rome’s greatest orator, from across his works and combines it with passages from his legal and political speeches to show his powerful techniques in action. The result is an enlightening and entertaining practical introduction to the secrets of persuasive speaking and writing—including strategies that are just as effective in today’s offices, schools, courts, and political debates as they were in the Roman forum. How to Win an Argument addresses proof based on rational argumentation, character, and emotion; the parts of a speech; the plain, middle, and grand styles; how to persuade no matter what audience or circumstances you face; and more. Cicero’s words are presented in lively translations, with illuminating introductions; the book also features a brief biography of Cicero, a glossary, suggestions for further reading, and an appendix of the original Latin texts. Astonishingly relevant, this unique anthology of Cicero’s rhetorical and oratorical wisdom will be enjoyed by anyone who ever needs to win arguments and influence people—in other words, all of us. (shrink)

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC-43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, political theorist, philosopher, and Roman constitutionalist. He is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists. He is generally perceived to be one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome. He introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary, distinguishing himself as a linguist, translator, and philosopher. An impressive orator and successful lawyer, he probably thought his (...) political career his most important achievement. Today, he is appreciated primarily for his humanism and philosophical and political writings. Although a great master of Latin rhetoric and composition, Cicero was not Roman in the traditional sense, and was quite self-conscious of this for his entire life. He was declared a "righteous pagan" by the early Catholic Church, and therefore many of his works were deemed worthy of preservation. Saint Augustine and others quoted liberally from his works On the Republic and On the Laws, and it is due to this that we are able to recreate much of the work from the surviving fragments. (shrink)

The third and fourth books of Cicero's Tusculan Disputations deal with the nature and management of human emotion: first grief, then the emotions in general. In lively and accessible style, Cicero presents the insights of Greek philosophers on the subject, reporting the views of Epicureans and Peripatetics and giving a detailed account of the Stoic position, which he himself favors for its close reasoning and moral earnestness. Both the specialist and the general reader will be fascinated by the (...) Stoics' analysis of the causes of grief, their classification of emotions by genus and species, their lists of oddly named character flaws, and by the philosophical debate that develops over the utility of anger in politics and war. Margaret Graver's elegant and idiomatic translation makes Cicero's work accessible not just to classicists but to anyone interested in ancient philosophy and psychotherapy or in the philosophy of emotion. The accompanying commentary explains the philosophical concepts discussed in the text and supplies many helpful parallels from Greek sources. (shrink)

In the de Officiis we have, save for the latter Philippics, the great orator's last contribution to literature. The last, sad, troubled years of his busy life could not be given to his profession; and he turned his never-resting thoughts to the second love of his student days and made Greek philosophy a possibility for Roman readers. The senate had been abolished; the courts had been closed. His occupation was gone; but Cicero could not surrender himself to idleness. In (...) those days of distraction (46-43 b.c.) he produced for publication almost as much as in all his years of active life.The liberators had been able to remove the tyrant, but they could not restore the republic. Cicero's own life was in danger from the fury of mad Antony and he left Rome about the end of March, 44 b.c. He dared not even stop permanently in any one of his various country estates, but, wretched, wandered from one of his villas to another nearly all the summer and autumn through. He would not suffer himself to become a prey to his overwhelming sorrow at the death of the republic and the final crushing of the hopes that had risen with Caesar's downfall, but worked at the highest tension on his philosophical studies. (shrink)

First published in 1964 and aimed at advanced school students, this useful collection contains forty passages, coherent in themselves, illustrating Cicero's thinking on government, religion, law and ethics. An introduction gives the essential background, including a brief outline of Greek philosophy. There are practical notes on the texts, observations on Cicero's style and a select vocabulary.

Cicero's On the Commonwealth and On the Laws were his first and most substantial attempts to adapt Greek theories of political life to the circumstances of the Roman Republic. They represent Cicero's understanding of government and remain his most important works of political philosophy. On the Commonwealth survives only in part, and On the Laws was never completed. The new edition of this volume has been revised throughout to take account of recent scholarship, and features a new introduction, (...) a new bibliography, a chronological table and a biographical index. James E. G. Zetzel offers a scholarly reconstruction of the fragments of On the Commonwealth and a masterly translation of both dialogues. The texts are further supported by notes and synopsis, designed to assist students in politics, philosophy, ancient history, law and classics. (shrink)

This is the first new critical edition of this text since 1908, and the first to appear in the Oxford Classical Texts series. The edition is informed by a comprehensive analysis of the entire tradition of Lucullus and Academicus Primus, and by a thorough rethinking of the text documented in the accompanying commentary volume. Lucullus and Academicus Primus are a key body of evidence for the development of Academic scepticism, one of the two varieties of scepticism in antiquity. The texts (...) also shed light on the re-emergence of dogmatic Platonic philosophy in the first century BC. (shrink)

It deals with the problems of the Latin text (taking account of Michael Winterbottom's new edition), it delineates the work's structure and sometimes elusive train of thought, clarifies the underlying Greek and Latin concepts, and provides starting points for approaching the philosophical and historical problems that De Officiis raises.

On Obligations was written by Cicero in late 44 BC after the assassination of Julius Caesar to provide principles of behaviour for aspiring politicians. It explores the apparent tensions between honourable conduct and expediency in public life, and the right and wrong ways of attaining political leadership. The principles of honourable behaviour are based on the Stoic virtues of wisdom, justice, magnanimity, and propriety; in Cicero's view the intrinsically useful is always identical with the honourable. Cicero's famous (...) treatise has played a seminal role in the formation of ethical values in western Christendom. Adopted by the fourth-century Christian humanists, it beame transmuted into the moral code of the high Middle Ages. Thereafter, in the Renaissance from the time of Petrarch, and in the Age of Enlightenment that followed, it was given central prominence in discussion of the government of states. Today, when corruption and conflict in political life are the focus of so much public attention, On Obligations is still the foremost guide to good conduct. (shrink)

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Excerpt from De Finibus Bonorum Et Malorum: Libri Quinque About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We (...) do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

In THE NATURE OF THE GODS, the eminent Roman statesman and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.E.) analyzes the positions of the Stoic, Epicurean, and Academic schools on the existence and nature of the gods, and whether they act in the interests of humankind. In the dialogue of ON DIVINATION, Cicero and his brother Quintus examine various sorts of divination against Stoic principles.

A significant two-fold development in recent classical scholarship has been a revival of interest in, and respect for, post-Aristotelian Greek philosophy and Cicero's contribution to our knowledge of it. Of Cicero's major works in this field the Tusculan disputations is perhaps the most approachable.

Excerpt from Philosophische Anmerkungen und Abhandlungen zu Cicero's Büchern von den Pflichten 3um fiewtilc bitbbtt lann w bienen, me Qicero de n. 1. Von (einen berben großem 930rgdmern in ber ä3mbfamleit. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged (...) copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

'But I must stop now. I can no longer speak for tears - and my client has ordered that tears are not to be used in his defence.' Cicero was the greatest orator of the ancient world: he dominated the Roman courts, usually appearing for the defence. His speeches are masterpieces of persuasion: compellingly written, emotionally powerful, and somtimes hilariously funny. This book presents five of his most famous defences: of Roscius, falsely accused of murdering his father; of the (...) consul-elect Murena, accused of electoral bribery; of the poet Archias, on a citizenshiup charge; of Caelius, ex-lover of Clodia Metelli, on charges of violence; and of Milo, for mudering Cicero's hated enemy Clodius. Cicero's clients were rarely whiter-than-white; but so seductive is his oratory that the reader cannot help taking his side. In these speeches we are plunged into some of the most exciting courtroom dramas of all time. These new translations preserve Cicero's literary artistry and emotional force, and achieve new standards of accuracy. Each speech has its own introduction, and a general introduction discusses Cicero's public career and the criminal courts. The substantial explanatory notes guide the reader through the speeches, and offer new scholarship presented in a clear way. (shrink)