Love, Friendship, and Expediency in Cicero's Letters

Gabriel Evangelou (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

250 Seiten

2022 | Unabridged edition
Cambridge Scholars Publishing (Verlag)
978-1-5275-8136-4 (ISBN)

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By attacking Epicurean philosophy repeatedly in his public writings, Cicero established himself as one of Epicurus’ most fervent critics. The remarks that he makes about Epicureanism in his letters further suggest a genuine conviction that such a philosophy had no place in Roman society. This consistency in Cicero’s statements has led most scholars to assume that Cicero could not have embraced any of the principles of the Epicurean school. This book challenges the conventional view of Cicero as someone who completely rejected Epicurean philosophy-even in his private life-because of its utilitarian character. It argues that his relationship with Pompey, Caesar, Atticus, Quintus, Terentia, and Tullia encompassed several aspects of Aristotle’s account of φιλία (love and friendship) but was, nonetheless, ultimately based on expediency, in accord with Epicurus’ conception of φιλία. While Cicero’s statements in his public speeches and his letters to men with an active public life have been scrutinised for his lack of candour or for his tendency to exaggerate his achievements, the claims found in his letters to Atticus and to his family have not been treated with equal caution, as they tend be taken at face value. The book highlights the large number of discrepancies in his remarks and argues that, despite his anti-Epicurean statements, personal benefit played a vital role in all of his relationships.

Gabriel Evangelou is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Cyprus. He studied Classical Philology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where he developed a keen interest in the Late Roman Republic. He continued his classical studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he received a Master’s degree and wrote a PhD thesis on Cicero’s correspondence. After the completion of his PhD studies, he worked at the University of Cyprus and the University of Crete as Adjunct Lecturer of Latin. He has published on a variety of topics, including the use of emotion as a method of persuasion, Cicero’s anti-Epicureanism, and disgust and repulsion in Roman literature. His research interests lie chiefly in Cicero’s letters and philosophical works, in the use of invective as humour in Martial’s epigrams, in the ethics of Plato, Aristotle, and Epicurus, and in the evolution of reconciliation from Homer to modern times.

Erscheinungsdatum	03.05.2022
Verlagsort	Newcastle upon Tyne
Sprache	englisch
Maße	148 x 212 mm
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie Altertum / Antike
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
ISBN-10	1-5275-8136-5 / 1527581365
ISBN-13	978-1-5275-8136-4 / 9781527581364
Zustand	Neuware