|
De Officiis (On Duties or On Obligations) is an essay by Marcus Tullius Cicero divided into three books, where Cicero explains his view on the best way to live. It is arguably the most influential non-religious work in the western world. An essay is a short work that treats a topic from an authors personal point of view, often taking into account subjective experiences and personal reflections upon them. ...
Marcus Tullius Cicero (standard English pronunciation ; Classical Latin pronunciation ) (January 3, 106 BC – December 7, 43 BC) was an orator and statesman of Ancient Rome, and is generally considered the greatest Latin orator and prose stylist. ...
Origin
It was written in the year 44 BC, Cicero's last year alive, when he was 62 years old. Cicero was at this time still active in politics, trying to stop revolutionary forces from taking control of the Roman empire. This did none the less happen the following year, when Cicero himself was killed trying to escape. Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 90s BC 80s BC 70s BC 60s BC 50s BC - 40s BC - 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC 0s BC 0s Years: 49 BC 48 BC 47 BC 46 BC 45 BC 44 BC 43 BC 42 BC 41 BC...
The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus), until its radical reformation in what was later to be known as the Byzantine Empire. ...
The essay was written in the form of a letter to his son with the same name, who studied philosophy in Athens, though judging from its form, it is likely that Cicero wrote to a larger audience. The essay was written toward the end of his life, likely in September and November of 44 BC, and published posthumously. The Acropolis in central Athens, one of the most important landmarks in world history. ...
Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 90s BC 80s BC 70s BC 60s BC 50s BC - 40s BC - 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC 0s BC 0s Years: 49 BC 48 BC 47 BC 46 BC 45 BC 44 BC 43 BC 42 BC 41 BC...
De Officiis has been described as an attempt to turn common men into a good citizens. It criticizes the recently overthrown dictator Julius Caesar in several places, and with his dictatorship as a whole. Gaius Julius Caesar (Classical Latin: IMP·C·IVLIVS·CAESAR·DIVVS) (b. ...
Contents Cicero was influenced heavily by the Greek philosophers, especially of the Stoic movement. The essay discusses what is honor and what is expedient, and what to do when they conflict. Cicero believed they are one in the same, and that they only appear to be in conflict. Stoicism is a school of philosophy founded (308 BCE) in Athens by Zeno of Citium (Cyprus). ...
Honor (or honor) comprises the reputation, self-perception or moral identity of an individual or of a group. ...
Cicero claims that the absence of political rights corrupts moral values. Cicero also speaks of a natural law that is said to govern both humans and gods alike; this has been compared to the writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes. The natural law or law of nature is a system of the justice that exists independently of the positive law of a given political order. ...
A deity or a god, is a postulated preternatural being, usually, but not always, of significant power, worshipped, thought holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, or respected by human beings. ...
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. ...
Cicero urged his son Marcus to follow nature and wisdom, as well as politics, and warns against pleasure and indolence. Cicero's essay relies heavily on anecdotes, much more than his other works, and is written in a more leisurely and less formal style than his other writings, perhaps because he under the circumstances was forced to write it hastily. Like the satires of Juvenal, Cicero's De Officiis refers frequently to current events of his time. ...
Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ...
Note: This article is about the Roman poet, who is the most famous person by this name. ...
Legacy The legacy of this work is huge. Even though it was a pagan work, St. Ambrose in 390 declared it legitimate for the Church to use (along with everything else Cicero, and the equally popular pagan philosopher Seneca, had written). It subsequently became the moral authority during the Middle Ages. Of the Church Fathers, Saint Augustine, St. Jerome and even more so St. Thomas Aquinas, are known to have read it. To illustrate its importance, 700 handwritten copies of it still exist in the libraries around the world; these copies would have been produced before the invention of printing in the mid-15th century. Only the Latin grammarian Priscian boasts more, with 900. Following the invention of the printing press, De Officiis was the second book to be printed -- second only to the Gutenberg Bible. Within a Christian context, paganism (from Latin paganus) and heathenry are catch-all terms which have come to connote a broad set of spiritual/religious beliefs and practices of a natural religion, as opposed to the Abrahamic religions based on scriptures. ...
Saint Ambrose, Latin Sanctus Ambrosius, Italian SantAmbrogio (circa 340 - April 4, 397), bishop of Milan, was one of the most eminent fathers of the Christian church in the 4th century. ...
Christianity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...
Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger) (ca. ...
The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...
The (Early) Church Fathers or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. ...
St. ...
For other uses see: Jerome (disambiguation) Jerome (about 340 - September 30, 420), (full name Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus) is best known as the translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. ...
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 - March 7, 1274) was a Catholic philosopher and theologian in the scholastic tradition, who gave birth to the Thomistic school of philosophy, which was long the primary philosophical approach of the Roman Catholic Church. ...
(14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ...
The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ...
The Gutenberg bible owned by the U.S. Library of Congress The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, and as the Mazarin Bible) is a print of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible that was printed by its namesake, Johann Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany. ...
In the 16th century, Erasmus developed a pocket version of it, since he thought it so important that one should always be able to keep it at hand. T. W. Baldwin said that "in Shakespeare's day De Officiis was the pinnacle of moral philosophy". Sir Thomas Elyot, in his popular Governour (1531), lists three essential texts for bringing up young gentlemen: Plato's Works, Aristotle's Ethics, and De Officiis. (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ...
Desiderius Erasmus in 1523 Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (also Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam) (October 27, probably 1466 – July 12, 1536) was a Dutch humanist and theologian. ...
Plato - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...
Nicomachean Ethics (sometimes spelled Nichomachean), one of Aristotles greatest works, discusses virtue and character and plays a prominent role in establishing Aristotles ethics system, or Aristotelian ethics. ...
In the 18th century, Voltaire said of De Officiis "No one will ever write anything more wise". And Frederick the Great thought so highly of the book that he asked the scholar Christian Garve to do a new translation of it, even though there had been already two German translations since 1756. Garve went ahead with the project anyhow, and added 880 pages of commentary. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ...
The last of Voltaires statues by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1781). ...
Frederick the Great Frederick II of Prussia (Friedrich der Große, Frederick the Great, January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was the Hohenzollern king of Prussia 1740–86. ...
It continues to be one of the most popular of Cicero's works because of its style, and because of the information it gives about Roman political life under the Republic.
Quotes - Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense.
- No man can be brave who thinks pain the greatest evil; nor temperate, who considers pleasure the highest good.
- Of evils one should choose the least.
Resources and further reading - Why Cicero's De Officiis? By Ben R. Schneider, Jr. Professor Emeritus of English at Lawrence University.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero et al, Cicero: On Duties (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought), Cambridge University Press (February 21, 1991).
- Nelson, N. E., Cicero's De Officiis in Christian Thought, University of Michigan Studies in Language and Literature 10 (1933).
External links |
Feeds |
Contact