22. Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC)

Original language: Latin. [First entry here in Latin.]

I read On Friendship, On Old Age, and The Orations Against Catiline.

Many people call On Old Age a work of philosophy. But to me it is more like an op-ed, or a magazine piece. I’m not taking anything away from its merits, but no one today calls op-ed writers or magazine writers philosophers. 

I found the The Orations against Catiline tiresome. All one note. 

The sources I read on Cicero praised his Latin style. Nothing special about it came across in the translations I read.

Famous quotes: O tempora! O mores! is from Cicero, as is Cui bono?


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