Caroline Bishop
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- December 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198829423
- eISBN:
- 9780191867941
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198829423.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter investigates Cicero’s desire to enshrine himself as a classic from a different perspective than the rest of the book. It analyses Cicero’s appropriation not of a classical Greek figure ...
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This chapter investigates Cicero’s desire to enshrine himself as a classic from a different perspective than the rest of the book. It analyses Cicero’s appropriation not of a classical Greek figure but of himself, by examining his self-quotation of his earlier poetry (primarily the Aratea) within his late philosophical dialogues De Natura Deorum and De Divinatione. While Cicero likely found the Greek source for his poem, Aratus, quoted within the Greek philosophical works he used as sources for these dialogues, quoting his own poetry obviously carried a different charge. The chapter concludes that by staging the reading of his earlier works within these dialogues, Cicero was modelling the proper way to read his corpus: namely, as a set of works every bit as authoritative as the Greek classics he had adapted throughout his literary career.Less
This chapter investigates Cicero’s desire to enshrine himself as a classic from a different perspective than the rest of the book. It analyses Cicero’s appropriation not of a classical Greek figure but of himself, by examining his self-quotation of his earlier poetry (primarily the Aratea) within his late philosophical dialogues De Natura Deorum and De Divinatione. While Cicero likely found the Greek source for his poem, Aratus, quoted within the Greek philosophical works he used as sources for these dialogues, quoting his own poetry obviously carried a different charge. The chapter concludes that by staging the reading of his earlier works within these dialogues, Cicero was modelling the proper way to read his corpus: namely, as a set of works every bit as authoritative as the Greek classics he had adapted throughout his literary career.
Nathan Powers
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199666164
- eISBN:
- 9780191751936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199666164.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
One of ancient Stoicism's central claims is that the cosmos as a whole is a rational being, with plans and impulses of its own; but their justification for this claim has not been well understood. ...
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One of ancient Stoicism's central claims is that the cosmos as a whole is a rational being, with plans and impulses of its own; but their justification for this claim has not been well understood. This paper argues, on the basis of a reexamination of the crucial evidence in Book 2 of Cicero's De natura deorum, that the Stoics took the rationality of the cosmos to be established as a consequence of two further claims which they endorsed: (1) the cosmos is an object unified by a nature; and (2) the various powers (including reason) found in the parts of a natured object originate, and are contained in, the ruling faculty of its nature.Less
One of ancient Stoicism's central claims is that the cosmos as a whole is a rational being, with plans and impulses of its own; but their justification for this claim has not been well understood. This paper argues, on the basis of a reexamination of the crucial evidence in Book 2 of Cicero's De natura deorum, that the Stoics took the rationality of the cosmos to be established as a consequence of two further claims which they endorsed: (1) the cosmos is an object unified by a nature; and (2) the various powers (including reason) found in the parts of a natured object originate, and are contained in, the ruling faculty of its nature.
Andrew Lintott
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199216444
- eISBN:
- 9780191712180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199216444.003.0018
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter begins with a discussion of Ciceros's letters following the assassination of Caesar. It then discusses his philosophical projects, which include De Natura Deorum, De Divinatione, and De ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of Ciceros's letters following the assassination of Caesar. It then discusses his philosophical projects, which include De Natura Deorum, De Divinatione, and De Fato. Cicero's works on practical ethics, De Amicitia (On Friendship) and De Officiis (On Duties), and correspondence with Matius are considered.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of Ciceros's letters following the assassination of Caesar. It then discusses his philosophical projects, which include De Natura Deorum, De Divinatione, and De Fato. Cicero's works on practical ethics, De Amicitia (On Friendship) and De Officiis (On Duties), and correspondence with Matius are considered.
Mattias P. Gassman
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190082444
- eISBN:
- 9780190082475
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190082444.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
Formerly professor of Latin in the court of the emperor Diocletian, Lactantius responded to the Tetrarchic ‘Great Persecution’ with the most extensive defence and exposition of Christianity written ...
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Formerly professor of Latin in the court of the emperor Diocletian, Lactantius responded to the Tetrarchic ‘Great Persecution’ with the most extensive defence and exposition of Christianity written in Latin before Augustine’s City of God. His seven-book Divine Institutes, the last Christian apology written before Constantine’s rise to power, credited the invention of pagan cults to a historical King Jupiter. Building on this euhemeristic narrative, Lactantius reinterpreted the philosophical theories surveyed in Cicero’s On the Nature of the Gods to attack polytheism as an irrational display of empty religiosity. With the help of Christian cosmology and eschatology, he set the present sufferings of Christians in a grand historical context, predicting the final victory over paganism at the return of Christ, a few centuries after his own day. Lactantius later hailed the victories of Constantine and Licinius as a divine vindication of persecuted Christians. Nevertheless, he still expected pagan domination and persecution to continue until Christ’s return. His eschatology, not the experience of imperial politics, set his basic approach to paganism before and after the ‘Constantinian revolution’.Less
Formerly professor of Latin in the court of the emperor Diocletian, Lactantius responded to the Tetrarchic ‘Great Persecution’ with the most extensive defence and exposition of Christianity written in Latin before Augustine’s City of God. His seven-book Divine Institutes, the last Christian apology written before Constantine’s rise to power, credited the invention of pagan cults to a historical King Jupiter. Building on this euhemeristic narrative, Lactantius reinterpreted the philosophical theories surveyed in Cicero’s On the Nature of the Gods to attack polytheism as an irrational display of empty religiosity. With the help of Christian cosmology and eschatology, he set the present sufferings of Christians in a grand historical context, predicting the final victory over paganism at the return of Christ, a few centuries after his own day. Lactantius later hailed the victories of Constantine and Licinius as a divine vindication of persecuted Christians. Nevertheless, he still expected pagan domination and persecution to continue until Christ’s return. His eschatology, not the experience of imperial politics, set his basic approach to paganism before and after the ‘Constantinian revolution’.
