1300 187 187
In the 40s BCE, during his forced retirement from politics under Caesar's dictatorship, Cicero turned to philosophy, producing a massive and important body of work. As he was acutely aware, this was an unusual undertaking for a Roman statesman because Romans were often hostile to philosophy, perceiving it as foreign and incompatible with fulfilling one's duty as a citizen. How, then, are we to understand Cicero's decision to pursue philosophy in the context of the political, intellectual, and cultural life of the late Roman republic? In A Written Republic, Yelena Baraz takes up this question and makes the case that philosophy for Cicero was not a retreat from politics but a continuation of politics by other means, an alternative way of living a political life and serving the state under newly restricted conditions.
Baraz examines the rhetorical battle that Cicero stages in his philosophical prefaces--a battle between the forces that would oppose or support his project. He presents his philosophy as intimately connected to the new political circumstances and his exclusion from politics. His goal--to benefit the state by providing new moral resources for the Roman elite--was traditional, even if his method of translating Greek philosophical knowledge into Latin and combining Greek sources with Roman heritage was unorthodox.
A Written Republic provides a new perspective on Cicero's conception of his philosophical project while also adding to the broader picture of late-Roman political, intellectual, and cultural life.
[T]his is an excellent study, and will be valuable reading for anyone interested in Cicero's philosophical works and the cultural and political environments from which they emerged. -- Walter Englert Bryn Mawr Classical Review
| Acknowledgments | p. ix |
| Abbreviations and Translations | p. xi |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Otiose Otium: The Status of Intellectual Activity in Late Republican Prefaces | p. 13 |
| Cicero's Ennins, or Anxiety about Too Much Philosophy | p. 15 |
| Sallust, or Anxiety about Writing | p. 22 |
| Rhetorica ad Herennium, or Anxiety about Status | p. 36 |
| On a More Personal Note: Philosophy in the Letters | p. 44 |
| Philosophy as a Basis for Action | p. 46 |
| Philosophy and Politics | p. 61 |
| Writing as a Primary Occupation | p. 78 |
| The Consolation of Philosophy | p. 86 |
| The Gift of Philosophy: The Treatises as Translations | p. 96 |
| The Shape of Translation: Tusculans I | p. 103 |
| Why Translation? De Finibus I | p. 113 |
| With the Same Voice: Oratory as a Transitional Space | p. 128 |
| The Philosophizing Orator: A Stoic or an Academic? Cato versus Cicero in the Paradoxa Stoicorum | p. 131 |
| Always Philosophizing: Cicero as the Linchpin in De Natura Deorum I | p. 137 |
| From Oratory to Philosophy: The Logic of Tusculan Disputations I | p. 140 |
| Reading a Ciceronian Preface: Strategies of Reader Management | p. 150 |
| Making Friends with Strangers: Topica | p. 156 |
| Drawing Strength from Tradition: De Senectute | p. 173 |
| Philosophy after Caesar: The New Direction | p. 187 |
| Looking Back: De Divinatione II | p. 188 |
| From the Ides to the De Officiis | p. 194 |
| From Quintus the Elder to Marcus the Younger: The Pattern of Dedications | p. 204 |
| The Final Encounter: De Officiis | p. 212 |
| Bibliography | p. 225 |
| Index Locorum | p. 243 |
| sGeneral Index | p. 249ÿþ |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9780691153322
ISBN-10: 0691153329
Audience:
Professional
Format:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 272
Published: 9th April 2012
Dimensions (cm): 24.1 x 16.7
x 2.7
Weight (kg): 0.53
9am - 4pm AEST, Monday - Friday
