Cicero: Politics and Thought in the Late Republic

This subject examines both the private and public life and the varied literary output of Marcus Tullius Cicero, one of the major political figures of the later Roman Republic and one of the greatest writers Rome ever produced. As Cicero’s letters and speeches are the major source for the political history of his time and his rhetorical and philosophical treatises the principal evidence for the cultural history of the period, the man is inevitably studied in historical context.

The emphasis is, however, on studying Cicero himself in the round. His writings show him thinking about the major political issues of his time, such as the nature of the Roman constitution and of Roman imperialism, but they also reveal his religious and moral attitudes. They show him concerned with his political and literary ambitions, but also with the management of his property and of his difficult relatives. Above all, they show him anxious to believe and demonstrate the value of a broad and liberal education to the orator and statesman. One can study how he tried to apply his theoretical knowledge to his practical life and to use his practical experience to develop theories less abstract than those of the Greek models he used.

The texts prescribed for the subject include, besides a representative selection of Cicero’s own writings, some letters addressed to him by other notable figures of the time, such as Caesar, Cato and Brutus, a contemporary biography of Atticus, who was Cicero’s closest friend and favourite addressee, and an account by the historian Sallust of the conspiracy that Cicero helped to suppress in his consulship. A knowledge of Latin is not required for this subject. All of the prescribed texts are in translation and good translations of all the set texts and good commentaries on most of them are readily available. One paper of the examination consists of passages for comment, and there is the option of doing some passages set in Latin.