Cicero on the Origins of Civilization and Society: The Preface to De re publica Book 3

Abstract

A re-examination of the preface to Book 3 of Cicero's De re publica leads to a rearrangement of the order of the fragments as presented in Powell's recent OCT; a fragment that Powell had moved from Book 5 to Book 3 is given a new location in Book 4. The article reconstructs Cicero's argument in the preface and in De re publica as a whole, and includes discussion of Cicero's views of the relative values of philosophy and public life and of the parallels in structure and argument between De re publica and De oratore.

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