James E. G. Zetzel
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199999767
- eISBN:
- 9780190268862
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199999767.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter argues that Cicero is simultaneously our major source for Roman intellectual life (including philosophy) in Republican Rome and the major obstacle to gaining an accurate picture of it. ...
More
This chapter argues that Cicero is simultaneously our major source for Roman intellectual life (including philosophy) in Republican Rome and the major obstacle to gaining an accurate picture of it. Not only does Cicero exaggerate his own importance, giving little significance to other writers of philosophy, but according to this chapter he also represents only one way—historical and doxographical—of writing about philosophy. In reality, the chapter argues, there was a much wider range of philosophical thought at Rome, and conversation about ideas was hardly restricted to the villas of the elite. The alternative “street”-discourse that the text here discerns finds its closest literary reflection in Roman satire, and particularly in Varro’s Menippean satires, written in the 70s and 60s bce. The chapter concludes with a discussion of their underestimated significance for the history of Roman philosophy.Less
This chapter argues that Cicero is simultaneously our major source for Roman intellectual life (including philosophy) in Republican Rome and the major obstacle to gaining an accurate picture of it. Not only does Cicero exaggerate his own importance, giving little significance to other writers of philosophy, but according to this chapter he also represents only one way—historical and doxographical—of writing about philosophy. In reality, the chapter argues, there was a much wider range of philosophical thought at Rome, and conversation about ideas was hardly restricted to the villas of the elite. The alternative “street”-discourse that the text here discerns finds its closest literary reflection in Roman satire, and particularly in Varro’s Menippean satires, written in the 70s and 60s bce. The chapter concludes with a discussion of their underestimated significance for the history of Roman philosophy.
Katharina Volk
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199999767
- eISBN:
- 9780190268862
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199999767.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter explores a chapter in the history of philosophy at Rome that falls outside the more familiar narrative of the Roman reception and adaptation of Greek philosophical systems in the wake of ...
More
This chapter explores a chapter in the history of philosophy at Rome that falls outside the more familiar narrative of the Roman reception and adaptation of Greek philosophical systems in the wake of the conquest of the Greek east from the second century BCE onward. From early on, the chapter demonstrates, the Romans felt a special affinity to the philosophy of Pythagoras, an intellectual movement that was perceived as authentically Italian, not an importation from abroad. In tracing the evolution of this tradition down to the end of the Republic, the chapter focuses not on the history of Roman Pythagoreanism as such, but on the role that this philosophy played in the Romans’ construction and understanding of their own intellectual formation.Less
This chapter explores a chapter in the history of philosophy at Rome that falls outside the more familiar narrative of the Roman reception and adaptation of Greek philosophical systems in the wake of the conquest of the Greek east from the second century BCE onward. From early on, the chapter demonstrates, the Romans felt a special affinity to the philosophy of Pythagoras, an intellectual movement that was perceived as authentically Italian, not an importation from abroad. In tracing the evolution of this tradition down to the end of the Republic, the chapter focuses not on the history of Roman Pythagoreanism as such, but on the role that this philosophy played in the Romans’ construction and understanding of their own intellectual formation.
