Cicero’s profound impact on Western intellectual history is undeniable. His esteem as a philosopher has fluctuated, ranging from the heights of the eighteenth century when he was widely regarded as the most important ancient philosopher, to the depths of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when his philosophy was largely ignored. In recent decades, Cicero’s philosophical writings have once again received careful and sustained scholarly attention. This most recent scholarly renaissance, considered as a whole, is profoundly interdisciplinary. The field of course owes much to those working within different subfields of classical studies: ancient philosophy, Latin literature, Roman history, and Late Antiquity. But any picture of our present understanding of Cicero’s philosophy that did not take into account the important work by philosophers, political scientists, and intellectual historians would be incomplete. Similarly, the most recent Ciceronian revival has been international in scope, with significant contributions coming from scholars working in North America, the UK, continental Europe, New Zealand, and beyond.
Our goal in this volume is to provide a guide to “Cicero the philosopher” as viewed through the lens of recent scholarship. We hope to provide an access point for readers who, interested either in the man himself or in one of the many philosophical topics explored by his writings, are approaching Cicero for the first time. But we also hope to invite those familiar with Cicero to view his philosophical writings afresh. We wish through this volume to encourage and shape the direction of future scholarship on Cicero’s philosophy. In particular, we aim to bring into focus the different research questions that have grown up independently in the diverse and sometimes distant sectors of this field. The international, interdisciplinary team of scholars represented in this volume highlights the present diversity and richness of the field, and suggests future pathways for scholarship on Cicero as we move through the twenty-first century.
The first four chapters cover Cicero’s creation of his philosophical oeuvre in its social and generic contexts. Chapters 5–7 have to do with Cicero’s appropriation and transformation of Greek philosophy, especially as it relates to his self-identification as a Roman writing in Latin and as a Platonist. Chapters 8–15 have to do with Cicero’s positions in and uses of philosophy within his Roman context. These chapters are arranged thematically: each typically focuses on one or two works that are especially important for the theme. Thus, readers will receive a helpful introduction to many of Cicero’s most important philosophical works. Chapters 16–18 focus on a few case studies that highlight the way in which Cicero’s writings have been useful for later philosophers to think with and against.
In completing this undertaking, we have incurred a number of debts over the years. I (Jed) would like to thank my research assistants, Alex Karsten (Duke) and Charlotte Champ (Princeton), who compiled the bibliographies of the individual chapters into a master bibliography and checked references. A trip to France in March 2018 gave Thomas and me an opportunity to work on the volume in person at an important stage of the project. I am grateful to Thomas for his hospitality in Lille and to Christelle Veillard, Juliette Dross, Jean-Baptiste Gourinat, and Charlotte Murgier for hosting me in Paris. Thomas also shouldered much of the burden of moving our project to completion during Fall 2020 as I began a term as departmental chair. The penultimate round of editing took place during my sabbatical for the 2019/2020 academic year. My sabbatical was made possible by the generous support of Duke University and, at Princeton University, the James Madison Program and the Politics department. I spent the Fall 2019 semester in Princeton. I am very grateful for the kind welcome offered by colleagues and staff in the departments of Politics and Classics, the University Center for Human Values, and the James Madison Program. Finally, I cannot imagine undertaking this or any other project without the love and support of Claire, William, and Caroline. When we were dating while I was in graduate school in Cambridge, Claire bought me Miller’s Loeb edition of De officiis and Powell’s OCT edition of De republica, De legibus, and other works, volumes now well-worn with use. She has patiently and lovingly encouraged me in both work and life in the fifteen years since.
I (Thomas) am very grateful to colleagues and friends who gave me opportunities to study Cicero as a philosopher in his own right, when I was mostly interested in his sources. Francis Wolff trusted me with an agrégation course on De finibus 3 in 1999–2000; I had various illuminating discussions about Cicero (often during sessions of the Séminaire de Philosophie Hellénistique et Romaine in Créteil or Paris) with the late Bernard Besnier, François Prost, José Kany-Turpin, Alain Gigandet, Valéry Laurand, Mauro Bonazzi, Gretchen Reydams-Schils, and Margaret Graver; the organizing committee of the Symposium Hellenisticum invited me to give a paper for its 2010 Budapest meeting on De finibus. I also thank all the participants in the monthly seminar on Cicero’s De republica, which I organized with Anne-Isabelle Bouton-Touboulic during the academic years 2017/2018 and 2018/2019. A délégation CNRS allowed me to devote all my time to research from January to July 2019; I was very fortunate to spend this semester in Cambridge thanks to a French government fellowship at Churchill College. I very much appreciated the kind welcome offered by colleagues and graduate students in the Classics Faculty, chiefly the B Caucus, and in Churchill College. I thank James Warren, David Sedley, and Ken Siddle for making me and my family feel very much at home in Cambridge. Finally, I am very grateful to Jed Atkins for taking care of much more than half of the editing work of this Companion when I was chair of my department in 2018 and teaching in 2020.
We both would like to thank our editor at CUP, Michael Sharp. Michael first suggested the possibility of a Cambridge Companion to Cicero’s Philosophy, and he patiently supported our project from conception to publication. We are also grateful to all of the contributors for the diligence, care, and professionalism with which they worked to help bring this volume to life. Above all, we are indebted to Malcolm Schofield and Carlos Lévy. Malcolm first introduced us to one another, and both Malcolm and Carlos read and gave us feedback on drafts of the original proposal. However, our debts to both men go much deeper and will last far longer. They directed our respective Ph.D. dissertations (Malcolm, Jed’s on Cicero’s political philosophy; Carlos, Thomas’ on the Stoic idea of practice as use) and have generously offered their guidance and support over the subsequent years. Given the immense debt that we, and indeed all who work on Cicero’s philosophy, owe to Malcolm and Carlos, we dedicate this Companion to them.
