Description
Book SynopsisThe creature you have to deal with, Romans, is not just a villainous crook Cicero (106-43BC) was a key figure in the Roman Republic and a witness to its dramatic collapse into a dictatorship. The seven works collected here expound his passionate belief in national harmony, fully demonstrating his formidable powers as an orator and writer. Delivered after the assassination of Julius Caesar when Mark Antony looked set to take over Rome, the Philippics are a brilliant attack on one-man rule that ultimately cost cicero his life. In Against Verres, he argues for the impeachment of a corrupt provincial governor, yet Cicero's principles were tested in For Murena and Far Balbus when he was forced to defend guilty men in order to maintain political stability. On the State and On Laws are treatises on the art of government, while the Brutus is masterly survey oratory, a Roman Statesman's most important skill.
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Table of Contents"Against Verres" (II,5): how not to govern a province; "For Murena" - when to sacrifice a principle; "For Balbus" - the admission of foreigners to citizenship; "On the state" (III) - the ideal form of government; (V,VI) the good statesman; "On Laws" (III) - how to run the ideal government; the "Brutus" - the importance of oratory; the "Philippics" (IV), V, X) - against rule by one man. Appendices some of the arguments used in "For Balbus"; minor orators mentioned in the "Brutus".
