Cato Maior de Senectute with Introduction and Notes · Marcus Tullius Cicero
I. CICERO AS A WRITER ON PHILOSOPHY.
The Stoics and Peripatetics were divided by comparatively unimportant differences. In Ethics, considered by them as almost the whole of Philosophy, which was itself defined as 'the art of living', the main question between the two schools was the amount of importance to be attributed to Virtue,--the Stoics declaring that in comparison with Virtue all other things sink into absolute insignificance, while the Peripatetics maintained that these have a certain though infinitesimally small significance. The New Academy taught at this time no complete philosophical system. It simply proclaimed the view that in the field of knowledge certainty is unattainable, and that all the inquirer has to do is to balance probabilities one against the other. The New Academic, therefore, was free to accept any opinions which seemed to him to have the weight of probability on their side, but he was bound to be ready to abandon them when anything appeared which altered his views of the probabilities. He not only might be, but he could not help being, _eclectic_; that is, he chose such views promulgated by other schools as seemed to him at the moment to be most reasonable or probable. Cicero called himself an adherent of this school. On most points however, although eclectic, he agreed with the Peripatetics, but with a decided leaning toward the Stoic ethical system. The Stoic opinion that it is the duty of the wise man to abstain from public life, which the Peripatetics contested, Cicero decisively rejected. With the Epicureans he had absolutely no sympathy. Up to this time these schools and their teachings were known to the Romans only through the medium of the Greek. The only Latin philosophical literature was Epicurean, and, excepting the poem of Lucretius (_De Rerum Natura_), scarcely famous as yet, consisted entirely of books rudely written, although considerably read.
_De Consolatione_, an attempt to apply philosophy to the mitigation of his own sorrow and that of others; _Academica_, an exposition of the New Academic Philosophy, advocating probability rather than certainty as the foundation of philosophy; _De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_, a work criticising the most prominent views entertained concerning Ethics; _Disputationes Tusculanae_, treating of certain conditions essential to morality and happiness; _De Natura Deorum_, an examination of the principal theories regarding the nature and power of the gods; _Cato Maior_, on old age; _Laelius_, on friendship; _De Fato_, discussing Fate and Free Will; _Paradoxa_, a book setting forth certain remarkable views of the Stoics; _De Officiis_, a treatise on practical ethics, the application of moral principles to the questions and difficulties of ordinary life. These works, written mostly in 45 and 44, are, except the _De Cons.,_ still extant. To the list may be added also other works of a rhetorical nature, such as the _Topica_ and _De Optima Genere Dicendi_, and some lost philosophical books, such as _De Gloria_. Even though allowance be made for the fact that Cicero was giving in Latin the substance of Greek books with which he had been familiar from boyhood, the mental vigor and literary power exhibited by this series of works appear prodigious when we consider their great compass and variety and the generally high finish of their style.
_References._--For a fuller account of Cicero's philosophical views and writings consult Ritter, 'History of Ancient Philosophy', Vol. 4, Ch. 2; Maurice, 'Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy', Ch. 7, § 5; Tennemann and Morell, 'History of Philosophy', Ch. 3; Ueberweg, 'History of Philosophy', Vol I, § 61; J.B. Mayor, 'Sketch of Ancient Philosophy', pp. 223-244; Teuffel, 'History of Roman Literature', Vol. i, § 172 _et seq._ Cruttwell, 'History of Roman Literature', Bk. II. Part 1, Ch. 2; 'Cicero', by Collins, in Ancient Classics for English Readers, Ch. 10, et seq.; also the Introduction to Reid's edition of the _Academica_, and the account of Cicero by Prof. Ramsay in Smith's Dictionary of Biography and Mythology. The most attractive biography of Cicero in English is that by Forsyth. That by Trollope is able but quite partisan. On the philosophy, consult also Zeller's 'Eclectics.'
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.