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Marcus Tullius Cicero was
born on January 3, 106 BC and was murdered on December 7, 43 BC. His
life coincided with the decline and fall of the Roman Republic, and he
was an important actor in many of the significant political events of
his time (and his writings are now a valuable source of information to
us about those events). He was, among other things, an orator, lawyer,
politician, and philosopher. Making sense of his writings and
understanding his philosophy requires us to keep that in mind. |
He
placed politics above philosophical study; the latter was valuable in
its own right but was even more valuable as the means to more effective
political action. The only periods of his life in which he wrote
philosophical works were the times he was forcibly prevented from taking
part in politics
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