academica of cicero. - 912 Freedom Library

The Project Gutenberg eBook of ...
ed. = edition; edd. = editors; em. = emendation; ex. = example; exx. = examples; exc. = except;
esp. = especially; fragm. = fragment or fragments; Gr. and Gk. = Greek; Introd. = Introduction;
Lat. = Latin; n. = note; nn. = notes; om. = omit, omits, or omission; prep. = preposition; qu. =
quotes or quoted by; subj. = subjunctive.
R. and P. = Ritter and Preller's Historia Philosophiae ex fontium locis contexta.
THE ACADEMICA OF CICERO.
INTRODUCTION.
I. Cicero as a Student of Philosophy and Man of Letters: 90—45 B.C.
It would seem that Cicero's love for literature was inherited from his father, who, being of infirm
health, lived constantly at Arpinum, and spent the greater part of his time in study. [1] From him
was probably derived that strong love for the old Latin dramatic and epic poetry which his son
throughout his writings displays. He too, we may conjecture, led the young Cicero to feel the
importance of a study of philosophy to serve as a corrective for the somewhat narrow rhetorical
discipline of the time. [2]
Cicero's first systematic lessons in philosophy were given him by the Epicurean Phaedrus, then at
Rome because of the unsettled state of Athens, whose lectures he attended at a very early age,
even before he had assumed the toga virilis. The pupil seems to have been converted at once to
the tenets of the master. [3] Phaedrus remained to the end of his life a friend of Cicero, who
speaks warmly in praise of his teacher's amiable disposition and refined style. He is the only
Epicurean, with, perhaps, the exception of Lucretius, whom the orator ever allows to possess any
literary power. [4] Cicero soon abandoned Epicureanism, but his schoolfellow, T. Pomponius
Atticus, received more lasting impressions from the teaching of Phaedrus. It was probably at this
period of their lives that Atticus and his friend became acquainted with Patro, who succeeded
Zeno of Sidon as head of the Epicurean school. [5]
At this time (i.e. before 88 B.C.) Cicero also heard the lectures of Diodotus the Stoic, with whom
he studied chiefly, though not exclusively, the art of dialectic. [6] This art, which Cicero deems so
important to the orator that he calls it "abbreviated eloquence," was then the monopoly of the
Stoic school. For some time Cicero spent all his days with Diodotus in the severest study, but he
seems never to have been much attracted by the general Stoic teaching. Still, the friendship
between the two lasted till the death of Diodotus, who, according to a fashion set by the Roman
Stoic circle of the time of Scipio and Laelius, became an inmate of Cicero's house, where he died
in B.C. 59, leaving his pupil heir to a not inconsiderable property. [7] He seems to have been one
of the most accomplished men of his time, and Cicero's feelings towards him were those of
gratitude, esteem, and admiration. [8]
In the year 88 B.C. the celebrated Philo of Larissa, then head of the Academic school, came to
Rome, one of a number of eminent Greeks who fled from Athens on the approach of its siege
during the Mithridatic war. Philo, like Diodotus, was a man of versatile genius: unlike the Stoic
philosopher, he was a perfect master both of the theory and the practice of oratory. Cicero had
scarcely heard him before all inclination for Epicureanism was swept from his mind, and he
surrendered himself wholly, as he tells us, to the brilliant Academic. [9] Smitten with a marvellous
enthusiasm he abandoned all other studies for philosophy. His zeal was quickened by the
conviction that the old judicial system of Rome was overthrown for ever, and that the great career
once open to an orator was now barred. [10]
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