Cicero

106–43 BC

Stoicism·Roma

Marcus Tullius Cicero — orator, statesman, philosopher. He translated Greek philosophy into Latin and made it accessible to Rome. He wrote about friendship, old age, duty, and fate with a directness that remains readable today. He was executed for his political convictions. He knew it was coming. He did not flee.

Key Ideas

01

Otium — the value of philosophical leisure

02

Friendship as the highest human good after virtue

03

The commonwealth as philosophical responsibility

04

Death faced with reason, not fear

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