Abstract
The Ciceronian corpus of philosophical works features on a number of occasions first-person speakers who explain how they live their Academic scepticism, whose hallmark was the rejection of certain knowledge. Lucullus 66 is an interesting instance of this: the Academic way of life is contrasted with that of the dogmatist with reference to an extended allegory relating to navigation at sea by night. The article aims to elucidate this passage, by considering how navigation by the stars worked in antiquity, to what extent the scholarly and poetic tradition of the night sky reflected these realities, and ultimately what the allegory does and does not illustrate. The Academic’s way of navigating life, while being avowedly imperfect and fallible, emerges as entirely serviceable.
