Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-261) and indexes.
Contents:
Introduction: Contexts -- Liberty, equality, and popular sovereignty -- Government -- Cosmopolitanism, imperialism, and the idea of law -- Republican virtues -- Republican decision-making -- Epilogue: Philosophical debate and normative theory.
Summary:
"This book offers an innovative account of Cicero's treatment of key political ideas: liberty and equality, government, law, cosmopolitanism and imperialism, republican virtues, and ethical decision-making in politics. Cicero (106-43 BC) was a major player in the turbulent politics of the last three decades of the Roman Republic. But he was a political thinker, too, influential for many centuries in the Western intellectual and cultural tradition. His theoretical writings stand as the first surviving attempt to articulate a philosophical rationale for republicanism. They were not written in isolation either from the stances he took in his political actions and political oratory of the period, or from his discussions of immediate political issues or questions of character or behaviour in his voluminous correspondence. Malcolm Schofield situates the intimate interrelationships between Cicero's writings within the historical context of a fracturing Roman political order. He shows the continuing attractions of Cicero's scheme of republican values, as well as some of its limitations as a response to the crisis that was engulfing Rome."-- Back cover
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.