Writings of Cicero


The writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero constitute one of the most renowned collections of historical and philosophical work in all of classical antiquity. Cicero was a Roman politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, philosopher, and constitutionalist who lived during the years of 106–43 BC. He held the positions of Roman senator and Roman consul and played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He was extant during the rule of prominent Roman politicians, such as those of Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Marc Antony. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.
Cicero is generally held to be one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome. He introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy, and also created a Latin philosophical vocabulary; distinguishing himself as a linguist, translator, and philosopher. A distinguished orator and successful lawyer, Cicero likely valued his political career as his most important achievement. Today he is appreciated primarily for his humanism and philosophical and political writings. His voluminous correspondence, much of it addressed to his friend Atticus, has been especially influential, introducing the art of refined letter writing to European culture. Cornelius Nepos, the 1st-century BC biographer of Atticus, remarked that Cicero's letters to Atticus contained such a wealth of detail "concerning the inclinations of leading men, the faults of the generals, and the revolutions in the government" that their reader had little need for a history of the period.
During the chaotic latter half of the first century BC, marked by civil wars and the dictatorship of Gaius Julius Caesar, Cicero championed a return to the traditional republican government. However, his career as a statesman was marked by inconsistencies and a tendency to shift his position in response to changes in the political climate. His indecision may be attributed to his sensitive and impressionable personality; he was prone to overreaction in the face of political and private change. "Would that he had been able to endure prosperity with greater self-control and adversity with more fortitude!" wrote C. Asinius Pollio, a contemporary Roman statesman and historian.

Transmission

Cicero was declared a "virtuous pagan" by the early Church, and therefore many of his works were deemed worthy of preservation. Important Church Fathers such as Saint Augustine and others quoted liberally from his works, e.g. "On the Commonwealth" and "On Laws", as well as Cicero's Latin translation of Plato's Timaeus dialogue. Cicero also articulated an early, abstract conceptualisation of rights, based on ancient law and custom.
Cicero's writings were widely available in the Middle Ages. Particularly of note is Paris MS 7530, written between 779 and 796 AD at the abbey of Monte Cassino, which contains some fifty-eight writings on grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, and related topics. From the 1000s onward there was a healthy commentary on many of Cicero's works including his juvenilia.
A manuscript containing Cicero's letters to Atticus, Quintus, and Brutus was discovered by Petrarch in 1345 at the Chapter Library of Verona. In Whig history, this rediscovery is mythologically credited for initiating the 14th-century Italian Renaissance, and for the founding of Renaissance humanism. Since the 1970s, historians beginning with Colin Morris and Caroline Walker Bynum have argued against the view of Petrarch as pioneering individualism, arguing that the differences in his approach to Cicero and other classic authors are more subtle.

Works

Speeches

Of his speeches, eighty-eight were recorded, fifty-two of which survive today. Some of the items below include more than one speech.

Legal speeches

  • Pro Quinctio
  • Pro Roscio Amerino
  • Pro Q. Roscio Comoedo
  • Pro Tullio
  • Divinatio in Caecilium
  • In Verrem
  • Pro Fonteio
  • Pro Caecina
  • Pro Cluentio
  • Pro Rabirio Perduellionis Reo
  • Pro Murena
  • Pro Sulla
  • Pro Archia Poeta
  • Pro Antonio
  • Pro Flacco
  • Pro Sestio
  • In Vatinium testem
  • Pro Caelio : English translation
  • Pro Balbo
  • Pro Plancio
  • Pro Rabirio Postumo
  • Pro Scauro
Several of Cicero's speeches are printed, in English translation, in the Penguin Classics edition Murder Trials. These speeches are included:
;;Early career
  • Pro Lege Manilia or De Imperio Cn. Pompei
  • In Toga Candida
  • De Lege Agraria contra Rullum
  • In Catilinam I–IV
  • Pro Flacco
;;Mid career
  • Post Reditum in Quirites
  • Post Reditum in Senatu
  • De Domo Sua
  • De Haruspicum Responsis
  • De Provinciis Consularibus
  • In Pisonem
  • Pro Milone
;;Late career
  • Pro Marcello
  • Pro Ligario
  • Pro Rege Deiotaro
  • Philippicae
.

Rhetoric and politics

  • De Inventione
  • De Oratore ad Quintum fratrem libri tres
  • De Partitionibus Oratoriae
  • De Optimo Genere Oratorum
  • De Re Publica
  • Brutus
  • Orator ad M. Brutum
  • Topica
  • De Legibus
  • De Consulatu Suo
  • De temporibus suis '''' – epic poem, entirely lost

    Philosophy

  • Translation of Aratus' Φαινόμενα
  • Paradoxa Stoicorum
  • Hortensius
  • Academica Priora – – a book about Academic Skepticism, the school of philosophy of which Cicero was an adherent.
  • Academica Posteriora or Academici Libri
  • Consolatio
  • De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum – a book on ethics
  • Tusculanae Quaestiones
  • Translation of Plato's Timaeus
  • Translation of Plato's Protagoras – testimonia quoted in Priscian, Jerome, and Donatus
  • De Natura Deorum
  • De Divinatione
  • De Fato
  • Cato Maior de Senectute
  • Laelius de Amicitia
  • ''De Officiis''

    Letters

Cicero's letters to and from various public and private figures are considered some of the most reliable sources of information for the people and events surrounding the fall of the Roman Republic. While 37 books of his letters have survived into modern times, 35 more books were known to antiquity that have since been lost. These included letters to Caesar, to Pompey, to Octavian, and to his son Marcus.
  • Epistulae ad Atticum
  • Epistulae ad Brutum
  • Epistulae ad Familiares
  • ''Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem''

    Spurious works

Several works extant through having been included in influential collections of Ciceronian texts exhibit such divergent views and styles that they have long been agreed by experts not to be authentic works of Cicero. They are also never mentioned by Cicero himself, nor any of the ancient critics or grammarians who commonly refer to and quote passages from Cicero's authentic works.
  • Rhetorica ad Herennium
  • ''Commentariolum Petitionis''

    Selected critical editions and translations

Philippics

2003. Ramsay, J. Cicero: Philippics I–II. Cambridge University Press.
2012. Manuwald, G. Cicero, "Philippics" 3–9: Edited with Introduction, Translation and Commentary. Volume 1: Introduction, Text and Translation, References and Indexes. Volume 2: Commentary. De Guyter.

Pro Sestio

2006. Kaster, R.A. Cicero: Speech on Behalf of Publius Sestius. Oxford University Press.

Selected Orations

1993. Gotoff. H. Cicero's Caesarian Speeches: A Stylistic Commentary. University of North Carolina Press.2009. Zetzel. J. Marcus Tullius Cicero: Ten Speeches. Hackett Publishing.
2001. Siani-Davies. M. Cicero's Speech Pro Rabirio Postumo. Clarendon Press.
2011. Gildenhard. I. Cicero, Against Verres, 2.1.53–86: Latin Text with Introduction, Study Questions, Commentary and English Translation. Open Book Publishers.

De Re Publica

1928. De Re Publica, De Legibus. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Loeb Classical Library. Latin text and English translation by Clinton Walker Keyes.
1980. Bréguet, E. La République. Paris: Belles Lettres. Collection des universités de France..
1984. Büchner, K. De Re Publica. Heidelberg: Winter. Wissenschaftliche Kommentare zu griechischen und lateinischen Schriftstellern.
1995. Zetzel, J. De Re Publica. Selections. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Edited with Introduction and Commentary.
2006. Powell. J.G.F. De Re Publica, De Legibus, Cato Maior De Senectute, Laelius De Amicitia. New York: Oxford University Press.
2008. Powell J. and N. Rudd.The Republic, the Laws. New York: Oxford University Press. Oxford World's Classics.
2010. Nickel. R. Der Staat = De Re Publica. Düsseldorf: Artemis & Winkler. Lateinisch–Deutsch.

De legibus

1928. Keyes. C.W. De Re Publica, De Legibus. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Loeb Classical Library.
1959. Plinval. G de.Traité Des Lois. Paris Belles Lettres. Collection des universités de France.
1972. Kenter, L. P. De Legibus. A Commentary on Book I. Amsterdam: Hakkert. By L. P. Kenter. Translation from the Dutch by Margie L. Leenheer-Braid.
1983. Giraret, K. M. Die Ordnung Der Welt. Ein Beitrag Zur Philosophischen Und Politischen Interpretation Von Ciceros Schrift De Legibus. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner.
1994. Nickel, R. De Legibus = Über Die Gesetze; Paradoxa Stoicorum = Stoische Paradoxien. Zürich: Artemis & Winkler. Lateinisch–Deutsch. Herausgegeben.
1999. Zetzel, J. On the Commonwealth; on the Laws. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2004. Dyck, A. A Commentary on Cicero, De Legibus. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
2007. Sauer, J. Argumentations- Und Darstellungsformen Im Ersten Buch Von Ciceros Schrift De Legibus. Heidelberg: Winter.
2010. Caspar, T. W. Recovering the Ancient View of Founding. A Commentary on Cicero's De Legibus. Lanham: Lexington Books.