On Old Age, On Friendship & On Divination

On Old Age, On Friendship & On Divination

4.1 of 5 stars 4.10  ·  rating details  ·  157 ratings  ·  10 reviews

Cicero (Marcus Tullius, 106 - 43 BCE), Roman lawyer, orator, politician and philosopher, of whom we know more than of any other Roman, lived through the stirring era which saw the rise, dictatorship, and death of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic. In his political speeches especially and in his correspondence we see the excitement, tension and intrigue of politics and

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Hardcover, Loeb Classical Library #154, 576 pages
Published January 1st 1923 by Harvard University Press
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Mary
Love.

On Old Age provides the source information about Isocrates' and Gorgias' late production, as well as the argument about "use it or lose it." In fact much of it is close to current thought, except the bit about how it's better to not feel passions as you age...Viagra!

On Friendship is not particularly startling, only that he suggests that friendships should be carefully vetted because people ought to take as good of care with their friendships as they do with their goats and sheep. Plenty quo...more
Mari
Nov 05, 2008 Mari rated it 5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Mari by: Frank
Shelves: classics-roman
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Bill
Feb 01, 2011 Bill added it
Cicero is a sweet old man who just wants to ramble at you for awhile. Lots of well thought out, timeless ideas of what it means to grow old and to die. All from a guy who has been dead for over two thousand years. By the end of it you will want to die....because he makes being old so great...not because it is boring. Because it isn't.
Dennis
Too bad one only gets around to reading this late in life. There is a lot to be learned.

We know more about Cicero than any other Roman writer, and he was one of the most prolific. There is an unfortunate portrayal of him in the HBO series "Rome" that leaves the impression of his being a scheming, pedantic, intellectually effite weasel (I think that covers it), but he was an astonishingly deep thinker and the epitomy of Aristotle's virtue.

"Divination" is less revealing than "Old Age" and "Friends...more
Donald
Cicero's style has never been beaten. This is elegant writing at its best.
Michelle
Beautiful ideas and writing style.
Marie
only read De Amicita
Victor
I'd like to read it again when I begin to age and fall apart. I liked the reference to the main character's (I forget the spelling) mastery of Greek after the age of 60 - made me feel like I shouldn't be so worried about running out of time to study the things I want to learn. It also contains a good deal of sound advice regarding choosing friends and interacting with them, although it can seem somewhat Machiavellian at times.
Megan
A must-read treatise on old age. Cicero answers four common complaints against old age and shows how advancing years are a blessing and may be enjoyed fully and without any unhappiness or fear of death.
Jeffry
Given how little we have how do I rate the ancient sources other than "must read?"
Chris
May 19, 2013 Chris marked it as to-read
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De Senectute, De Amicitia, De Divinatione
13755
January 3, 106 BC – December 7, 43 BC

A Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.
More about Marcus Tullius Cicero...
Selected Works On the Good Life Selected Political Speeches On the Republic/On the Laws On Duties (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

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