academica of cicero. - 912 Freedom Library
academica of cicero. - 912 Freedom Library
academica of cicero. - 912 Freedom Library
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Plato, which he knew well and translated, is especially important. It must not be forgotten, also,<br />
that the Stoic physics were in the main Aristotelian, and that Cicero was well aware <strong>of</strong> the fact.<br />
Very few words are necessary in order to characterize Cicero's estimate <strong>of</strong> the Peripatetic and<br />
Epicurean schools. The former was not very powerfully represented during his lifetime. The<br />
philosophical descendants <strong>of</strong> the author <strong>of</strong> the Organon were notorious for their ignorance <strong>of</strong><br />
logic [112] , and in ethics had approximated considerably to the Stoic teaching. While not much<br />
influenced by the school, Cicero generally treats it tenderly for the sake <strong>of</strong> its great past, deeming<br />
it a worthy branch <strong>of</strong> the true Socratic family. With the Epicureans the case was different. In<br />
physics they stood absolutely alone, their system was grossly unintellectual, and they discarded<br />
mathematics. Their ethical doctrines excited in Cicero nothing but loathing, dialectic they did not<br />
use, and they crowned all their errors by a sin which the orator could never pardon, for they were<br />
completely indifferent to every adornment and beauty <strong>of</strong> language.<br />
III. The aim <strong>of</strong> Cicero in writing his philosophical works.<br />
It is usual to charge Cicero with a want <strong>of</strong> originality as a philosopher, and on that score to<br />
depreciate his works. The charge is true, but still absurd, for it rests on a misconception, not<br />
merely <strong>of</strong> Cicero's purpose in writing, but <strong>of</strong> the whole spirit <strong>of</strong> the later Greek speculation. The<br />
conclusion drawn from the charge is also quite unwarranted. If the later philosophy <strong>of</strong> the Greeks<br />
is <strong>of</strong> any value, Cicero's works are <strong>of</strong> equal value, for it is only from them that we get any full or<br />
clear view <strong>of</strong> it. Any one who attempts to reconcile the contradictions <strong>of</strong> Stobaeus, Diogenes<br />
Laertius, Sextus Empiricus, Plutarch and other authorities, will perhaps feel little inclination to<br />
cry out against the confusion <strong>of</strong> Ciceros ideas. Such outcry, now so common, is due largely to the<br />
want, which I have already noticed, <strong>of</strong> any clear exposition <strong>of</strong> the variations in doctrine which<br />
the late Greek schools exhibited during the last two centuries before the Christian era. But to<br />
return to the charge <strong>of</strong> want <strong>of</strong> originality. This is a virtue which Cicero never claims. There is<br />
scarcely one <strong>of</strong> his works (if we except the third book <strong>of</strong> the De Officiis), which he does not<br />
freely confess to be taken wholly from Greek sources. Indeed at the time when he wrote,<br />
originality would have been looked upon as a fault rather than an excellence. For two centuries,<br />
if we omit Carneades, no one had propounded anything substantially novel in philosophy: there<br />
had been simply one eclectic combination after another <strong>of</strong> pre-existing tenets. It would be hasty<br />
to conclude that the writers <strong>of</strong> these two centuries are therefore undeserving <strong>of</strong> our study, for the<br />
spirit, if not the substance <strong>of</strong> the doctrines had undergone a momentous change, which ultimately<br />
exercised no unimportant influence on society and on the Christian religion itself.<br />
When Cicero began to write, the Latin language may be said to have been destitute <strong>of</strong> a<br />
philosophical literature. Philosophy was a sealed study to those who did not know Greek. It was<br />
his aim, by putting the best Greek speculation into the most elegant Latin form, to extend the<br />
education <strong>of</strong> his countrymen, and to enrich their literature. He wished at the same time to strike a<br />
blow at the ascendency <strong>of</strong> Epicureanism throughout Italy. The doctrines <strong>of</strong> Epicurus had alone<br />
appeared in Latin in a shape suited to catch the popular taste. There seems to have been a very<br />
large Epicurean literature in Latin, <strong>of</strong> which all but a few scanty traces is now lost. C. Amafinius,<br />
mentioned in the Academica [113] , was the first to write, and his books seem to have had an<br />
enormous circulation [114] . He had a large number <strong>of</strong> imitators, who obtained such a favourable<br />
reception, that, in Cicero's strong language, they took possession <strong>of</strong> the whole <strong>of</strong> Italy [115] .<br />
Rabirius and Catius the Insubrian, possibly the epicure and friend <strong>of</strong> Horace, were two <strong>of</strong> the<br />
most noted <strong>of</strong> these writers. Cicero assigns various reasons for their extreme popularity: the easy<br />
nature <strong>of</strong> the Epicurean physics, the fact that there was no other philosophy for Latin readers, and<br />
the voluptuous blandishments <strong>of</strong> pleasure. This last cause, as indeed he in one passage seems to<br />
allow, must have been <strong>of</strong> little real importance. It is exceedingly remarkable that the whole <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Roman Epicurean literature dealt in an overwhelmingly greater degree with the physics than with<br />
the ethics <strong>of</strong> Epicurus. The explanation is to be found in the fact that the Italian races had as yet a<br />
strong practical basis for morality in the legal and social constitution <strong>of</strong> the family, and did not<br />
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[xxvi]<br />
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