Tusculan Disputations; On the Nature of the Gods; On the Commonwealth

About this book

In the Tusculan Disputations, written at his country house at Tusculum after the death of his beloved daughter Tullia, Cicero discusses in five books how to face death, endure pain, master grief and the other disturbances of the mind, and whether virtue alone is enough for a happy life. On the Nature of the Gods sets an Epicurean, a Stoic and a sceptic arguing over whether the gods exist and whether they care for humanity. The volume also includes what survives of On the Commonwealth, with its famous 'Dream of Scipio'.

Context and significance

Cicero wrote the Disputations and On the Nature of the Gods in 45 BC, when he had been pushed out of politics, to make Greek philosophy available in Latin, and in doing so he created much of the philosophical vocabulary of Latin, and through it of modern European languages. On the Commonwealth, written a decade earlier, was largely lost until parts were found in a Vatican manuscript in 1819. This translation is chiefly by C. D. Yonge. From here, try his Treatises on Friendship and Old Age.

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