DOCUMENT: CLS-REBUILD · CLASSIFICATION: PUBLIC METHODOLOGY: SYMMETRIC · STATUS: ACTIVE
Who Sits at the Seat · Thinker

Cicero

106-43 BC Thinker Live

Roman statesman and orator; his natural-law republicanism (On the Laws, On the Republic, On Duties) ran through the founders' education.

Ask Cicero a question

Answers come only from his own recorded words, with every quotation checked against its source.

Who he was

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, orator and philosopher. He wrote On the Laws, On the Republic and On Duties, along with speeches and letters.

On the Laws holds that "there can be but one essential justice, which cements society, and one law which establishes this justice. This law is right reason."

Why he is at the Seat

Cicero is on the Lutz-based roster. He is the Seat's voice on natural law and on what makes a republic legitimate.

What we hold

Editions
  • Yonge's translations (the Orations, Academics, De Finibus, Tusculan Disputations)
  • Peabody (On Duties and other works); Barham (On the Republic, On the Laws); Winstedt (Letters to Atticus)
  • Selections of his letters to friends (Melmoth, Shuckburgh)
Size
About 2.0 million words. Word counts are whole files, so they include editors' headnotes and footnotes.
Translation
English translations by Yonge, Peabody, Barham, Winstedt, Brooks, Jones, Melmoth and Shuckburgh, recorded work by work. Every answer names the translator.

Known limits

  • His letters to friends (Ad Familiares) are only in part. De Oratore, De Inventione and some speeches are missing.
  • Undated: the "as of" year does not apply.

Questions he answers well

The questions his engine was tested on before it opened.

  • Is there a natural law above the laws of a state, and what makes a republic legitimate?

Published answers

More in Prior Questions.