Cicero: Tusculan Disputations Book I

A significant two-fold development in recent classical scholarship has been a revival of interest in, and respect for, post-Aristotelian Greek philosophy and Cicero’s contribution to our knowledge of it. Of Cicero’s major works in this field the Tusculan disputations is perhaps the most approachable. Less technical than Academica and De finibus, it still provides many insights into Hellenistic philosophical controversies especially those concerning the two great schools of Stoicism and Epicureanism. At the same time it contains significant evidence of a reviving interest in Plato and Aristotle themselves. The theme of the first Tusculan is whether death is an evil. Of the many popular beliefs about the nature of the soul and its fate after death Cicero has little to say but the philosophically based approach which he adopts is rich in material and provides the inspiration for striking passages worthy of the great orator.