Cicero and Dionysios the Elder, or the End of Liberty

Cicero and Dionysios the Elder, or The End of Liberty Dr. W.M. Verbaal Universiteit Gent Dpt. : Romaanse talen (andere dan Frans) Sect.: Protoromaans en Postklassiek Latijn Ghent University Dpt.: Romance Languages (other than French) Sct.: Protoromance and Postclassical Latin Blandijnberg 2 B - 9000 GENT tel : xx32 / (0)9 / 264.40.35 fax : xx32 / (0)9 / 264.41.63 e-mail : [email protected] Cicero and Dionysios the Elder, or The End of Liberty Latin writing often conceals more than might be uncovered by a mere philological and historical approach. To understand the message of a text, traditional analyses ought to be supported by the more recent requirements on the field of textual criticism and literary sciences. Close reading, combined with a more structural textual analysis, may offer insights, which, from a historical point of view, perhaps, might have no implications, but which, nonetheless, can contribute to a better understanding of an author’s writing technics and of his intentions in writing the text under discussion. This article proposes a more complex reading of Cicero’s Tusculanae disputationes, especially of the fifth book, taking as a point of departure Cicero’s handling of Dionysios of Syracuse as a prototype of tyranny. The extraordinary emphasis put on this particular example can, to our opinion, only be understood in its connection to the contemporary political situation, dominated by Caesar’s victory. Close reading thus renders a striking actuality to the text and the writing of Cicero’s philosophical masterpiece. At different places in his œuvre, Cicero mentions Dionysios the Elder, tyrant of Syracuse (406-367).1The frequency of Dionysios' appearance, especially in the later works belonging to the so-called second philosophical period, seems to indicate that, by this time, the tyrant had assumed a charged significance for Cicero. This article seeks to evaluate Cicero's rhetorical use of Dionysios in an attempt to understand the message which he intends to transmit to the reader. As the most elaborate evocation of Dionysios appears in the fifth book of the Tusculanae disputationes, our analysis will concentrate on this work, without ignoring its historical and literary context. 1 1. Dionysios and Cicero A first observation ought to be made: Cicero never distinguishes clearly between the elder and the younger Dionysios, between the father and the son. Although he must have been conscious of the existence of two Syracusan tyrants with this name, he refers only once explicitly to the first as superiorem illum Dionysium (Off. II.7.25), whereas he refers once clearly to the younger one (Ad Fam. IX.18). Normally, however, he combines the tradition attaching to both tyrants in one rhetorical unity of a Syracusan tyrant Dionysios, exemplifying the strange combination of sanguinary cruelty with refined education2. In the earlier works, Dionysios simply appears as the best historical example of cruel despotism, in line with the semi-mythical Phalaris or with Alexander the Great, who brutally murdered Callisthenes.3 In the later period, however, the tyrant takes on a new dimension as a counterexample to true wisdom.4 He does not lose his despotic traits but from that point Cicero concentrates more on the tension between Dionysios' refined education and the consequences of his tyranny. In Tusculanae V this tension is most widely developed, illustrated most clearly in the story of Damocles. The reader of the Tusculanae has, on arrival at this passage, already passed four days in the philosophical school of Cicero's Tusculum, and the fifth and last day is half done. Today he is to learn that virtus suffices to assure the sage, everywhere and always, a blissful life. As an illustration Cicero enumerates some counter-examples from recent Roman history. Cinna's fourfold bloody consulship (87-84) is opposed to the much admired Gaius Laelius, who was destined to become the protagonist of one of Cicero's subsequent treatises (Laelius de amicitia) and who had been consul only once in 140 after having suffered a refusal the year before. Marius' six consulates are contrasted with the attitude of Quintus Lutatius Catulus, his colleague in the consulship, with whom he shared the victory over the Cimbri.5 2 This enumeration is crowned by the most extensive and liveliest portrait of the Syracusan Dionysios in Cicero's entire œuvre.6 Even in the Tusculanae, this passage is exceptional with respect to its dimensions. No figure is allowed such prominence in the earlier books, although many names have been mentioned and several examples have been presented to the reader, especially in the first book.7 Yet they consist without exception of shorter anecdotes or of rather simple illustrations for specific philosophical theses. The Dionysios whom the reader encounters in the fifth book is undeniably of greater importance to Cicero. He himself constitutes the central figure in an entire series of anecdotes. He neither illustrates any particular proposition, nor does he embody any philosophical school or theory. He rather appears as the touchstone of Cicero's whole argument, which has filled the preceding days. In order to make this clearer, the compository setting of the Tusculanae must first be examined. 2. The Art of Writing Philosophy Cicero informs us on his reasons for writing the Tusculanae in the first paragraphs of the second book On divination, which will be finished less than one year later: 'Next, and in the same number of volumes [as his De finibus], came the Tusculan Disputations, which made plain the means most essential to a happy life. For the first volume treats of indifference to death, the second of enduring pain, the third of the alleviation of sorrow, the fourth of other spiritual disturbances; and the fifth embraces a topic which sheds the brightest light on the entire field of philosophy since it teaches that virtue is sufficient of itself for the attainment of happiness.'8 Death, pain, sorrow, perturbation and virtue: a simple and lucid programme giving no cause for amazement. The creation of the book acquires another meaning, however, when the date of its composition is taken into consideration. The Tusculanae were finished in the 3 autumn of 45, i.e. approximately half a year after the death of Cicero’s daughter Tullia, a loss that plunged him into the depths of pain and distress.9 In his search for consolation, he found no relief in any of the ancient works written to console those who are left behind. Thus he decided to write a Consolatio himself.10 It meant a new start and in an amazingly short period Cicero wrote some of his major philosophical works. Before the Tusculanae and in the same year, he also finished the Hortensius, the four books Academica and the five books De finibus bonorum et malorum. The Tusculanae were closely followed by the three books De natura deorum. During the next year, the two books De divinatione, Cato Maior de senectute, Laelius de amicitia, De fato, the lost De gloria and the three books De officiis came into being.11 A clear line can be discovered in the writings of this so-called second philosophical period. Reading the consolatory writings of the Greeks after the death of Tullia brought the realization that the existing works did not suffice. They were incapable of relieving the pain he felt. When he took up the pen himself, one of his aims was to find a remedy for this defect in philosophical literature. Philosophy must have a practical purpose, otherwise Cicero’s Roman critics after the publication of his Hortensius were right indeed: a man should not spend his time and energy on these sorts of activities.12 For this reason, Cicero could not afford to confine himself to a purely theoretical discourse, but rather looked immediately for the practical application. If the Academica and De finibus were still strongly theoretical, the Tusculanae constituted the first step towards their translation into practice. In the succeeding writings this tendency was to continue.13 If Cicero attempted to concreticize the philosophical principles of the Hortensius, the Academica and the De finibus in the Tusculanae, then the historical and biographical context of the book must be taken into account, and perhaps to a greater extent than for the preceding works. Now two facts have shaped the foundations for the composition of the Tusculanae. 4 First, it must be remembered that they were finished within several months of Tullia’s death. The composition of the work seems to reflect the personal struggle and development through which Cicero passed in these few months. After having coped with death in book I, he reflects on how to deal with pain (book II) and with sorrow (book III, describing what today we might call a depression). This leads to a position on each form of spiritual disturbance (book IV). Whereas the first four books are basically negative in their opposition to disruptive or destructive influences, book V strikes a more positive attitude: the blissful state of the sage. The happiness of the sage has already figured in the first book, when Cicero evokes briefly the glory of the spirit returning to its celestial home after the death of the body.14 ‘For the beauty of that vision [of the heavenly regions] even here on earth called into being that philosophy “of sires and grandsires,” as Theophrastus terms it, which was first kindled by longing for knowledge. But theirs will be the chief enjoyment who, even in the days they sojourned on earth amid the encircling gloom, longed all the same to pierce it by the keenness of mental vision.’15 The celestial beatitude which, according to the first book, the sage will enjoy in the afterlife, corresponds to the earthly happiness which is accorded to him in the fifth book. This may indicate that, in spite of the high speed with which he apparently finished the Tusculanae, Cicero at no point lost sight of the literary and rhetorical requirements of writing.16 The five books of the Tusculanae are organized according to a clear and austere composition which is not only characterized by the linear argument exposed above17, but which also shows a circular structure. Books I and V outline the principal idea of the entire work: the sage has his share in beatitude before, in and after death. The intervening books examine the factors which seem to disturb this happiness in life: pain, sorrow and passion. In reality they serve only to throw extra light on the central theme of the whole work as expressed in the first and last books. As regards the linear composition, they show how the 5 mind of the sage leaves less and less room for disturbing influences, thus enhancing the parts dedicated to virtus, which alone constitutes true beatitude.18 Simultaneously, they close the circle by which Cicero tries to demonstrate that the blessed death of the sage, as described in book I, is only possible after a life of virtus. Books I and V, then, complement each other. Their importance for a good understanding of the work as a whole is not only expressed by their respective subject, but also by their size. Together they form approximately half of the Tusculanae. In addition to these elements, they alone contain illustrative examples. In book I (40:96-43:104), a heroic attitude towards death is illustrated by the examples of Theramenes, Socrates, the Spartans, Diogenes and Anaxagoras, all models for imitation. In book V, on the contrary, examples are given for a despicable way of life. And no philosophers are introduced, but only figures from recent Roman history, who enjoyed social success but whose attitude to life was so reprehensible that no one ought to be envious of their fate. These negative examples are crowned by Dionysios of Syracuse. 3. Dionysios the Wise Tyrant Unlike the examples of the first book, where each stands on its own, the enumeration in the fifth opens with two couples, each consisting of extreme opposites. Cicero opposes the terror of Cinna’s fourfold consulship to Laelius’ integrity, Marius’ thirst for blood and revenge to Catulus’ voluntary suicide, because he preferred to suffer injustice than to commit it.19 After these two pairs of opposites, Cicero introduces Dionysios. It is striking that he does not immediately oppose anyone to the tyrant. Only much later, when Dionysios has disappeared from the scene, Archimedes is mentioned, who has figured in opposition to Dionysios elsewhere.20 I will have to return to Cicero’s use of Archimedes in the Tusculanae. 6 There may be an internal reason for giving Dionysios no immediate opponent. Although the tyrant is not inferior to Cinna or Marius with respect to his cruelty, he is nonetheless expressly presented by Cicero as a man who meets all the qualities of a sage which have been treated during the preceding five days. ‘And yet we are told on the authority of trustworthy writers that this man was exceedingly temperate in his way of life and showed intelligence and zeal in the conduct of public affairs.’21 Besides, he was a gifted musician and writer of tragedies.22 Apparently Dionysios does not need an antipode: he himself embodies both extremes! Being perhaps something of a degenerate sage, he realizes very well that a blessed life is not his share. The anecdote on his courtier Damocles offers the best possible illustration. Damocles sees only the exterior and judges happiness from what is visible. Dionysios, however, is aware that his visibile pleasures concern just the outside, that true bliss consists of an inner peace which is lost to him forever. Even were he to abdicate, he could never again trust anyone.23 Cicero could have stopped here. The anecdote on Damocles suffices to confirm the portrait of the sage as it has been given somewhat earlier in this same fifth book. ‘Therefore if there is a man able to regard the power of fortune, to regard all human vicissitudes that can possibly befall, as so far endurable that neither fear nor worry touch him, and if the same man should covet nothing, neither be disturbed by any empty pleasure in his soul, what reason is there why he should not be happy? And if virtue makes this possible, what reason is there why virtue of its own power alone should not make men happy?’24 Dionysios proves to Damocles that his own desires have brought him into a continuous deadly fear, which makes impossible any feeling of happiness. But Cicero did not stop here. The image of an imperturbable, impassive man cannot serve to characterize the perfect sage25. Thus, the anecdote on Damocles will not suffice to 7 describe the true misery of Dionysios. Cicero gives yet another, final illustration and refers to the famous story of the Pythagorean friends Phintias and Damon.26 Dionysios’ wish to become a third member in their friendship demonstrates best, according to Cicero, how well the tyrant understood his own disaster. ‘How wretched it was for him to cut himself off from the intimacy of friendship, from the enjoyment of social life, from any intimate intercourse at all! Particularly in the case of a man who had received instruction from childhood and was trained in the liberal arts.’27 In spite of his education, a truly human life had become almost impossible to him. ‘He denied himself all the spiritual enjoyment of human life. He associated with runaways, with criminals, with barbarians. He regarded no man who either felt worthy of freedom, or had any wish at all to be free, as a friend.’28 4. A Roman Dionysios This last remark closes the excursion on Dionysios and introduces at once the actuality of Cicero’s personal life. For, in addition to Tullia’s death, a second element constantly plays in the background of Cicero’s second philosophical period: the changed political situation in Rome after the defeat of the senatorial armies by Caesar. It had become clear to Cicero that, politically, there was no further place for him. On the 25th of September 47 he himself experiences Caesar’s famous clementia. He travels to Brundisium to meet the victor of Pharsalos on his return from Egypt. Letters have reassured him of Caesar’s attitude. He knows that he has nothing more to fear from the man who recently still considered him an enemy and partisan of his adversaries. And indeed, as soon as Caesar catches sight of him, he descends from his chariot and walks along with Cicero. Nor does he evince any desire to detract from Cicero’s claim to a triumphal procession or from his escort of twelve lictors, to which he has every right as an imperator and onto which he has held obstinately since his return from his proconsulship in Cilicia in January 49.29 8 Yet this benevolent attitude of Caesar’s has a more deadly effect on Cicero than open enmity. Immediately after the encounter, Cicero sends away his lictors and renounces his claim to a triumph.30 He knows now that his political career has finished. ‘I have dropped all my concern for public affairs, all preoccupation with what to say in the Senate, all study of briefs, and flung myself into the camp of my old adversary Epicurus.’31 In this forced passivity, Cicero reverts to his books and his writing. He concentrates for the moment on rhetorical treatises (Brutus, the Orator), evoking the time when words could sound in freedom. Tullia’s death, then, brings him back to true philosophy and to his writing of the Tusculanae and their portrait of Dionysios. Now, it is remarkable that Dionysios crowns an enumeration of Roman examples out of recent history. It must not have been difficult for the Roman reader of Cicero’s works to see in Cinna’s fourfold and Marius’ sixfold consulship the preliminaries to the contemporary political scene. Had not Caesar become consul for a third time in 46? Had he not been elected dictator for ten years? But there was more: Caesar had every necessary attribute to become another Dionysios. His was a good education and schooling, yet he strove for absolute power, thus making himself into a Roman tyrant. According to Cicero, this meant absolute solitude and the final deprivation of true friendship, which was only possible among people who consider freedom of paramount importance. Shortly after his own pardon, Cicero had written a laudation on Cato, the last champion of freedom. Caesar, apparently, felt obliged to answer with an Anticato. Besides, the entire Tusculanae are dedicated to Brutus, Caesar’s confidant but Cicero’s friend.32 If Cicero from his powerless position intended to show Caesar a way out of becoming a Roman Dionysios, he could not have done better than by this work and its dedicatee. By concluding a series of types of recent Roman potentates with the Syracusan tyrant, Cicero was able to hold a mirror to Caesar’s face and to paint for him the dangers of absolute power, a 9 power that can trust no person in whom still breathes the spirit of freedom. Even in his philosophical writing, Cicero remains the realist and pragmatist. And besides, he who knew how to refine the Latin word and language when this could be done in freedom, also found first how to use the power of that language to transmit his call for freedom when this could no longer openly be uttered. 5. The Roman Archimedes If one may read in the portrait of Dionysios a murmured warning intended for Caesar, then the pages which follow also acquire a polyvalent meaning. Only after concluding the excursus on Dionysios does Cicero introduce the Syracusan mathematician Archimedes whom he contrasts elsewhere with the tyrant (Rep. I. 28). In this earlier work all emphasis was placed on the opposition between concrete power and intellectual creativity, between the temporary earthly stage and the perpetual works of the spirit. An entirely different image of Archimedes appears in the Tusculanae. ‘I shall call up from the dust and his measuring-rod an obscure, insignificant person belonging to the same city, who lived many years after, Archimedes. When I was quaestor I tracked down his grave, which was unknown to the Syracusans (as they totally denied its existence), and found it enclosed all round and covered with brambles and thickets.’ The account follows of Cicero’s search for Archimedes’ tomb: how, on the basis of some small fragmentary senarii, he knew that a globe and a cylinder crowned it, how he thus recognized the stela outside the ramparts, exposed it and ascribed it to the philosopher thanks to some corroded verses. ‘So you see, one of the most famous cities of Greece, once indeed a great school of learning as well, would have been ignorant of the tomb of its most ingenious citizen, had not a man of Arpinum pointed it out.’33 The protagonist of this entire episode is not Archimedes but Cicero himself. 10 What is emphasized is not the philosophical and scientific knowledge of the Greek, but rather the respect for tradition and the practical insight of the Roman. One wonders if this passage has no other sense than offering simply another example of Cicero’s self-praise. What might be its place within the overall argument of the fifth book? Cicero has been treating the opposition between the happiness of the sage and the misery of the powerful, of which Dionysios of Syracuse offered a vivid example. Yet the oblivion to which Archimedes had been relegated cannot be a true counterweight to the lasting fame of the tyrant. It rather seems to undermine Cicero’s thesis. Unless, that is, Cicero aims at some other, less overt link between the two Syracusans. If Cicero’s portrait of Dionysios may be read as a warning for Caesar, his own discovery of Archimedes’ tomb also hides a more profound meaning. The series of contrasting personalities which started with the couples Cinna / Laelius and Marius / Catulus is then crowned in a double sense: first with the historical and explicit opposition between Dionysios and Archimedes, but also with the inherent contrast between Caesar and Cicero. Cicero’s search for virtus, based on a life of knowledge and truth, takes a visible form in his success in saving Archimedes from oblivion. Caesar, on the contrary, in his striving for power and tyranny, seems to succeed in bringing back to life the inner dissension and terror of Dionysios’ existence. Just as Cicero’s practical disposition (as symbolized by his quaestorship) is always founded on his longing for truth and virtue (symbolized by the weedgrown tomb of the mathematician), so can it be understood from the story of Dionysios what hovers underneath Caesar’s ambition. If we admit such a reading, it will be understandable that, immediately after the anecdote from Cicero’s quaestorship, follows a portrait of the perfect sage.34 He ought to dispose of a sharp intelligence and a strong desire to know the truth, which will lead to a threefold spiritual offspring: ‘one centred in the knowledge of the universe and the 11 disentanglement of the secrets of nature; the second in distinguishing the things that should be sought out or avoided in framing a rule of life; the third in judging what is the consequence to every premise, what is incompatible with it, and in this lies all refinement of argument and truth of judgement.’35 These spiritual efforts lead the sage to study the celestial spheres, first the stars, but afterwards also the ordering principle which is itself the foundation of all natural phenomena. Thus he achieves ‘the knowledge enjoined by the god at Delphi, that the mind should know its own self and feel its union with the divine mind, the source of the fulness of joy unquenchable.’ By this knowledge he knows what to strive for, what to avoid, thus reaching a state of contemplating the world around him in perfect inner quiet. Then he participates in the virtue which makes life truly blessed.36 This inner peace is closely connected to a third study in the advancement of wisdom: knowledge of the dialectic methodology, which befits the sage best as his most joyful occupation. ‘But this is the occupation of leisure: let the wise man we have imagined also pass to the maintenance of the public weal. What course more excellent could he take, since his prudence shows him the true advantage of his fellow citizens, his justice lets him divert nothing of theirs to his own family, and he is strong in the exercise of so many different remaining virtues? Add to this the fruit which springs from friendships in which learned men find the counsel which shares their thoughts and almost breathes the same breath throughout the course of life, as well as the charm of daily social intercourse.’37 The portrait of the sage has become the mirror image of that of Dionysios, especially in the two last stages. The inner peace contrasts sharply with the continuous fear of Damocles / Dionysios. The riches of friendship which the wise man enjoys stand out against Dionysios’ desperate wish to enter into the friendship of Damon and Phintias. The excursion on the tyrant of Syracuse thus finds its end only with this portrait of the perfect sage, which concludes at 12 the same time the series of antipodes which opened with the pair Cinna and Laelius. Dionysios thus is contrasted with the sage, represented by Archimedes, and in contrast with Dionysios’ alter ego, the Roman Caesar, the portrait of the sage also implies a matching alter ego for the Greek, the Roman Cicero. 6. Philosophical Virtue The true argument of the fifth book in the Tusculanae thus ends with a passionate but indirect evocation of the tensions from which Cicero suffers in his own life, and in the political life of Rome. Rarely have the politics of wisdom and public interest been contrasted so sharply with a politics of power and self-interest. The entire Greek philosophical tradition from Socrates to Archimedes is recruited to the cause of the Roman republican tradition. They alone can represent a spiritual world which will allow man to enjoy a true state of bliss. But as such they collide with the personal longing for power of a politician such as Caesar, even though Cicero still seems to hope for a change for the better. He still considers Caesar as a possible sage. Yet, should this hope prove to be vain, Cicero gives us to understand that a wise man is always superior to all political and earthly forms of power. Even submitted to torture the sage will not yield, as is confirmed by all philosophical schools without regard to other differences between them. His joy is not of this world and thus cannot be damaged here on earth. This is the ultimate fact which Cicero wants to demonstrate in his work.38 And even when all possible physical pains are piled upon man, there always remains a last resort. ‘For my part I think that in life we should observe the rule which is followed at Greek banquets: “Let him either drink”, it runs, “or go!” And rightly; for either he should enjoy the pleasure of tippling along with the others or get away early, so that a sober man may not fall victim to the 13 violence of those who are heated with wine. Thus by running away one can escape the assaults of fortune which one cannot face.”39 Death is always a possibility for the sage. He does not consider it a threat, rather a reward. Thus is the circle rounded. The life of the sage is crowned in his death. Undoubtedly, Cicero will have had the image of Cato in his mind as an exhortation to confront his own possible destiny. He wrote his Tusculanae to strengthen himself and to testify to his intention, for the sake of freedom, of public interest, of truth, of the right to true friendship, not to recoil from torture or death, should Caesar turn out to be indeed another Dionysios. The Tusculanae are thus not so much a philosophical treatise, lacking great profundity, as a sincere confession of this inwardly torn man confronted by the actual demands of history. ‘In doing this I cannot readily say how much I shall benefit others. At any rate, in my cruel sorrows and the various troubles which beset me from all sides, no other consolation could have been found.’40 1 In all, Dionysios is mentioned some twenty times in the Ciceronian œuvre, almost all mentions appearing in the later works, after 55. During this year Cicero must have read the historical work of Philistus of Syracuse († 357). See his first mentioning Philistus in De oratore II.57. Around the same time, he mentions his preference for Philistus in comparison to Callisthenes in a letter to his brother Quintus, dated by Shackleton Bailey on 14th of February 54: D. R. Shackleton Bailey (ed), Cicero: Epistulae ad Quintum fratrem et M. Brutum (Cambridge 1980) 69. 2 This becomes very clear in his use of the story about Phintias and Damon, belonging to the stories around the younger Dionysios but connected to the older one in Cicero’s account. 3 See In Verrem II.5: Dionysios is just an example of a ‘crudelis tyrannis’, typical for Sicily. 4 This second period starts after the reading of Philistus around 55, see Ad Quintum II.12 and De oratore II.57. In both passages, emphasis is put more onthe historian than on the tyrant but in the De republica, written after 54 Dionysios appears twice as an example of the opposition of tyranny to democracy (Rep. I.28 and III.12). 5 Tusc V.54-56. 6 Tusc V.57-63. 7 For the meaning of the examples in the Tusculanae in a rhetorical sense, see A.E. Douglas, “Form and Content in the Tusculan Disputations.” in Cicero the philosopher. Twelve papers. ed. by J. G. F. Powell (Oxford-New York 1995), 197-218, esp. 199. 8 Div. II.1.2: ‘Totidem subsecuti libri Tusculanarum disputationum res ad beate vivendum maxime necessarias aperuerunt. Primus enim est de contemnenda morte, secundus de tolerando dolore, de aegritudine lenienda tertius, quartus de reliquis animi perturbationibus, quintus eum locum complexus est, qui totam philosophiam maxime illustrat; docet enim ad beate vivendum virtutem se ipsa esse contentam.’ Latin text according to the Loeb Classical Library (1959), p. 370 with the English translation by William Armistead Falconer, p. 371. 9 For the background of grief in Cicero’s writing of the Tusculanae, see Stephen A. White, “Cicero and the Therapists”, in Powell (above, n.7), 219-246, esp. 224-225. 10 Att XII.14.3. For the lost Consolatio, see White (above, n.9) 223-224. 11 For a chronology of the writings in Cicero’s second philosophical period, see the list in Powell (above, n.7) xiii-xvii. 12 Fin I.1. 13 For the importance of the Tusculanae in Cicero’s philosophical project, see Philippe Muller, “La cinquième « Tusculane », une philosophie sans transcendance.” in Nomen Latinum: mélanges de langue, de littérature et de 14 civilisation latines offerts au professeur André Schneider à l'occasion de son départ à la retraite, ed. by Denis Knoepfler (Genève 1997), 45-54, esp. 46. A more balanced opinion on the coherence of the works in Cicero’s second philosophical period is expressed by J.G.F. Powell, “Introduction: Cicero’s Philosophical Works and their Background.” in Powell (above, n.7), 1-35, esp. 7. 14 Tusc I.43-49, where Cicero resumes concisely the theme which he treated in the Somnium Scipionis. 15 Tusc I.45: ‘Haec enim pulchritudo etiam in terris patritam illam et avitam, ut ait Theophrastus, philosophiam cognitionis cupiditate incensam excitavit. Praecipue vero fruentur ea, qui tum etiam, cum has terras incolentes circumfusi erant caligine, tamen acie mentis dispicere cupiebant.’ Latin text throughout according to M.Tulli Ciceronis Tusculanarum Disputationum Libri Quinque, by Thomas Wilson Dougan and Robert Mitchell Henry, 2 Vols. (Cambridge 1905,1934) vol. I 59-60. English translation throughout by J.E. King in Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass., 1960) 55. 16 A brief but incisive treatment of some rhetorical aspects of the Tusculanae can be found in Douglas (above, n.7) 197-218. 17 For a concise summary of the linear composition, see Muller (above, n.13) 47-48. 18 Muller (above, n.13) 49-50. 19 Tusc I.55-56. 20 Cf. Rep I.28. 21 Tusc V.57: ‘Atqui de hoc homine a bonis auctoribus sic scriptum accepimus, summam fuisse eius in victu temperantiam in rebusque gerundis virum acrem et industrium.’ Douglas (above, n.7) 248-49, King (above, n.15) 483. 22 Tusc V.63. 23 Tusc V.62. 24 Tusc V.17: ‘Quodsi est qui vim fortunae, qui omnia humana, quaecumque accidere possunt, tolerabilia ducat, ex quo nec timor eum nec angor attingat, idemque si nihil concupiscat, nulla ecferatur animi inani voluptate, quid est cur is non beatus sit? et si haec virtute efficiuntur, quid est cur virtus ipsa per se non efficiat beatos?’ Douglas (above, n.7) 216-17, King (above, n.15) 443. 25 Cf. the remark of the auditor and Cicero’s decision to continue his argument in Tusc V.17-18. 26 Cicero refers thrice to the story of the two Pythagoreans: De finibus II.24.79, De officiis III.10.45 and in the Tusculanae, which seems to be the first mentioning. 27 Tusc V.63: ‘Quam huic erat miserum carere consuetudine amicorum, societate victus, sermone omnino familiari, homini praesertim docto a puero et artibus ingenuis erudito.’ Douglas (above, n.7) 255, King (above, n.15) 489. 28 Tusc V.63: ‘Omni cultu et victu humano carebat; vivebat cum fugitivis, cum facinerosis, cum barbaris; neminem, qui aut libertate dignus esset aut vellet omnino liber esse, sibi amicum arbitrabatur.’ Douglas (above, n.7) 256, King (above, n.15) 491. 29 Otto Seel, Cicero. Wort – Staat – Welt. Stuttgart 1953) 258-59. Karl Büchner, Cicero. Bestand und Wandel seiner geistigen Welt. (Heidelberg 1964) 321-22. 30 Manfred Fuhrmann, Cicero and the Roman Republic. (Oxford 1990) 144. 31 Fam IX.20.1: ‘Nam omnem nostram de re publica curam, cogitationem de dicenda in senatu sententia, commentationem causarum abiecimus, in Epicuri nos, adversarii nostri, castra coiecimus.’ Latin text and English translation according to D.R. Shackleton Bailey, Cicero. Letters to Friends, 3 Vols. , Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass., 2001) vol. II 214-15. 32 This link of Dionysios with Caesar and the dedication to Brutus has been made before by Winfried Schindler, “Die Erzählung vom Damokles-Schwert-eine lateinische Parabel ? : Cicero : Tusculanen V 61-62.” in Der Altsprachliche Unterricht 37.6 (1994) 71-79, in which it is connected to a second manner of hermeneutic reading, characterized as the Brechtian way: 75-78. The writer even wants to read the Damocles-episode as an exhortation to murder the tyrant, which may be attractive in reading the passage with scholars, but which forces the otherwise interesting treatment of the theme a trifle too much. 33 Tusc V.64-66: ‘Ex eadem urbe humilem homunculum a pulvere et radio excitabo, qui multis annis post fuit, Archimedem. Cuius ego quaestor ignoratum ab Syracusenis, cum esse omnino negarent, saeptum undique et vestitum vepribus et dumetis indagavi sepulcrum. ... Ita nobilissima Graeciae civitas, quondam vero etiam doctissima, sui civis unius acutissimi monumentum ignorasset, nisi ab homine Arpinate didicisset.’ Douglas (above, n.7) 256-58, King (above, n.15) 491-93. 34 Tusc V.68-72. 35 Tusc V.68: ‘unus in cognitione rerum positus et in explicatione naturae, alter in discriptione expetendarum fugiendarumque rerum et in ratione vivendi, tertius in iudicando, quid cuique rei sit consequens, quid repugnans, in quo inest omnis cum subtilitas disserendi, tum veritas iudicandi.’ Douglas (above, n.7) 259-60, King (above, n.15) 495. 15 36 Tusc V.70-71: ‘illa a deo Delphis praecepta cognitio, ut ipsa se mens adgnoscat coniunctamque cum divina mente se sentiat, ex quo insatiabili gaudio compleatur.’ Douglas (above, n.7) 262, King (above, n.15) 496. 37 Tusc V.72: ‘Sed haec otii. Transeat idem iste sapiens ad rem publicam tuendam. Quid eo possit esse praestantius, cum contineri prudentia utilitatem civium cernat, iustitia nihil in suam domum inde derivet, reliquis utatur tot tam variisque virtutibus? Adiunge fructum amicitiarum, in quo doctis positum est cum consilium omnis vitae consentiens et paene conspirans, tum summa iucunditas e cotidiano cultu atque victus usu.’ Douglas (above, n.7) 264, King (above, n.15) 499. 38 Tusc V.73-118. 39 Tusc V.118: ‘Mihi quidem in vita servanda videtur illa lex quae in Graecorum conviviis obtinetur: “Aut bibat,” inquit, “aut abeat.” Et recte. Aut enim fruatur aliquis pariter cum aliis voluptate potandi aut, ne sobrius in violentiam vinolentorum incidat, ante discedat. Sic iniurias fortunae quas ferre nequeas defugiendo relinquas.’ Douglas (above, n.7) 302, King (above, n.15) 543-45. 40 Tusc V.121: ‘In quo quantum ceteris profuturi simus non facile dixerim, nostris quidem acerbissimis doloribus variisque et undique circumfusis molestiis alia nulla potuit inveniri levatio.’ Douglas (above, n.7) 304, King (above, n.15) 546. 16