Reading Cicero's Tusculan Disputations

Reading Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations Abigail Ver Mulm

Philosophy, Background Reading Oratory, and Grief

Cicero’s theory of the relationship between philosophy The contribution of Cicero’s oratorical, and oratory—namely, that they are mutually philosophical, and personal backgrounds should dependent on each other, was not a commonly held be kept in mind while reading the entirety of the belief. Disputations. Here, from Book V, is an example of On the one hand, Plato perpetuated the perspective how they can all factor into any given moment: that rhetoric was “insincere and unknowing” and that Recall how the discussion of Book IV concluded it was a diminished form of philosophy which led that a wise man (who is also, by default, a virtuous people astray. Thus, many philosophers were wary of man) is free from all disorders of the soul. One oratory. Cicero, on the other hand, suggested that “to should then conclude that virtue is sufficient for a commit one’s reflections to writing, without being able happy life. However, the character denoted “A.” did to arrange or express them clearly…indicates a man not do so. He says: “It does not appear to me that who makes an unpardonable misuse of leisure and his virtue can be sufficient for leading a happy life…if pen.” In other words, oratory is necessary to do you are going to do any good, you must look out for philosophy. some fresh arguments. Those you have given have Some figures in history loom so large they become On the other side of the controversy, philosophy was no effect on me.” A’s concern is specifically whether multiple people in the imagination, and Marcus primarily seen as a Greek pursuit, and it was not circumstance has a part to play in happiness. In a Tullius Cicero was certainly one. Cicero was a considered particularly respectable for a Roman similar passage in Book I, the interlocutor insists Roman orator, philosopher, writer, exile, father, and aristocrat to engage in it. However, Cicero had made that they have read Plato, have been convinced by many other things. clear his opinion on the subject in his work entitled On him while reading, but have accrued doubt once they put the book down. Unfortunately, these “sides” of Cicero are rarely the Orator. As the title suggests, Cicero’s focus was addressed at the same time by scholars, a practice what the ideal orator should be like. This is a These passages leave open the possibility of an which, while understandable, disrupts the continuity divergence from the typical oratory rule-book. Cicero’s airtight philosophical case that which remains of Cicero as a single human being. ideal orator is not a rule-follower, but a certain kind of unconvincing to the human conscience. In the person that can suit their speech to any situation. In preface of Book V, Cicero himself admits to having The Tusculan Disputations, written in 45 BCE, is one order to achieve that, Cicero argued, the ideal orator such human doubts, which likely has to do with of Cicero’s philosophical works wherein the needs universal knowledge, especially philosophy. the difficulty of his own circumstance. Cicero, continuity of Cicero is especially important to a Thus, oratory is reliant on philosophy. while he concludes that virtue is sufficient for a complete understanding. It is comprised of five In the years before and after the Tusculan happy life, remains ever so slightly unconvinced, books, each containing a preface from Cicero and a Disputations, Cicero had been writing many and it comes through in his work. fictitious discussion (disputation) taking place at his philosophical works which incorporated his counter- Tusculan villa between two interlocutors denoted However, Cicero’s grief is not the only factor. Cicero cultural stand on the relationship between philosophy merely as “A.” and “M.” Each disputation, in order, is, of course, engaging in philosophical discourse, and oratory. The Disputations are unique, however, in addresses these issues, which build on each other: is and he is relying on oratory. Cicero has spent his that they are the first philosophical work (that is, not death an evil? (not necessarily) is pain an evil? (not professional career persuading others not only including his Consolation) written after the death of his necessarily), is a wise man susceptible to distress through evidence and sound logic but through daughter, and there is clear evidence that Cicero was (no) is the wise man free from all disorders of the sounding convincing. still grieving at the time. Evidence of his affection for soul? (yes) is virtue sufficient for a happy life? (yes). his daughter during her life is frequently found in Thus, in the very same passage, Cicero shows Scholarship surrounding this work falls into two Cicero’s personal letters, where he speaks glowingly of himself to be a grieving father who needs to be general categories: most historians focus on the his “darling little Tullia.” Upon her death, Cicero writes convinced— not merely logically bested— as interplay between Cicero’s career in oratory and his to his friend Atticus about building her a shrine to regards whether virtue is sufficient for a happy life, passion for philosophy, but some historians focus “consecrate her memory by every kind of memorial and he shows a need for both philosophy and entirely upon Cicero’s grief, as his daughter, Tullia, borrowed from the genius of all the masters.” Later rhetoric blended in order to properly address the had died as a result of childbirth earlier in the year. letters also suggest that Cicero was criticized for issue. A complete, multi-faceted Cicero wrote this My aim is to reconcile these two perspectives, grieving an extended period of time, to which Cicero passage, and the same is true of the Tusculan viewing them together while reading because they responded “for my part I don’t see what people are Disputations as a whole. are equally significant factors in any given moment complaining of or what they expect of me. Not to of the Tusculan Disputations. grieve? How is that possible!”

Sources: Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Tusculan Disputations. Translated by J.E. King. The Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1945. ; Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Letters to Atticus. Translated by E.O. Winstedt. The Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960. ; Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De Oratore. Translated by E.W. Sutton. The Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959. ; Altman, William H. F. "Womanly Humanism in Cicero's Tusculan Disputations." Transactions of the American Philological Association 139, no. 2 (2009): 411-445. ; Baltussen, Han. “A Grief Observed: Cicero on Remembering Tullia.” Mortality 14, no. 4 (2009): 355–69. ; Baraz, Yelena. A Written Republic : Cicero’s Philosophical Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. ; Cooper, John M. Knowledge, Nature, and the Good : Essays on Ancient Philosophy. Princeton University Press, 2004. ; Jaeger, Mary. “Cicero and Archimedes' Tomb.” Journal of Roman Studies 92 (2002): 49–61. ; Powell, J. G. F. Cicero the Philosopher: Twelve Papers. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999. ; Sedley, David. The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, 2006.; Steel, C. E. W. The Cambridge Companion to Cicero. Cambridge University Press, 2013.; Striker, Gisela. “Cicero and Greek Philosophy.” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 97 (1995): 53–61.; Stull, William. “Reading the Phaedo in Tusculan Disputations 1.” Classical Philology 107, no. 1 (2012): 38-52.; Wisse, Jakob. “De Oratore: Rhetoric, Philosophy, and the Making of the Ideal Orator.” In Brill’s Companion to Cicero: Oratory and Rhetoric, edited by James M. May, 375-400. Leiden: Brill, 2002.; Woolf, Raphael. “Cicero and Gyges.” The Classical Quarterly 63, no. 2 (2013): 801–12.; Yavetz, Zvi. “Cicero: A Man of Letters in Politics.” In Philosophy and Power in the Graeco-Roman World: Essays in Honour of Miriam Griffin, edited by Gillian Clark and Tessa Rajak, 173-180. Oxford University Press, 2002.