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On Government

Author Marcus Tullius Cicero
Introduction by Michael Grant
Translated by Michael Grant
Paperback
$20.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Classics
On sale Mar 01, 1994 | 432 Pages | 9780140445954
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"The creature you have to deal with, Romans, is not just a villainous crook"
 
Cicero (106-43BC) was a key figure in the Roman Republic and a witness to its dramatic collapse into a dictatorship. The seven works collected here expound his passionate belief in national harmony, fully demonstrating his formidable powers as an orator and writer. Delivered after the assassination of Julius Caesar when Mark Antony looked set to take over Rome, the Philippics are a brilliant attack on one-man rule that ultimately cost cicero his life. In Against Verres, he argues for the impeachment of a corrupt provincial governor, yet Cicero's principles were tested in For Murena and Far Balbus when he was forced to defend guilty men in order to maintain political stability. On the State and On Laws are treatises on the art of government, while the Brutus is masterly survey oratory, a Roman Statesman's most important skill.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Introduction
1. Against Verres (II, 5): How Not to Govern a Province
2. For Murena: When to Sacrifice a Principle
3. For Balbus: The Admission of Foreigners to Citizenship
4. On the State (III): The Ideal Form of Government (V, VI): The Good Statesman
5. On Laws (III): How to Run the Ideal Government
6. The Brutus: The Importance of Oratory
7. The Philippics (IV, V, X): Against Rule by One Man
Appendix I: Some of the Arguments used in For Balbus
Appendix II: Minor Orators Mentioned in the Brutus
Maps
The Roman Empire in 51 B.C.
Italy
Sicily
Eastern Europe
The East
Western Europe and North Africa
Plan of Rome

Further Reading

Index

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), Roman orator and statesman, was born at Arpinum of a wealthy local family. He was taken to Rome for his education with the idea of a public career and by the year 70 he had established himself as the leading barrister in Rome. In the meantime his political career was well under way and he was elected praetor for the year 66. One of the most permanent features of his political life was his attachment to Pompeii. As a politician, his greatest failing was his consistent refusal to compromise; as a statesman his ideals were more honorable and unselfish than those of his contemporaries. Cicero was the greatest of the roman orators, posessing a wide range of technique and an excpetional command of the Latin tongue. He followed the common practice of publishing his speeches, but he also produced a large number of works on the theory and practice of rhetoric, on religion, and on moral and political philosophy. He played a leading part in the development of the Latin hexameter. Perhaps the most interesting of all his works is the collection fo 900 remarkably informative letters, published posthumously. These not only contain a first-hand account of social and political life in the upper classes at Rome, but also reflect the changing personal feelings of an emotional and sensitive man. View titles by Marcus Tullius Cicero

About

"The creature you have to deal with, Romans, is not just a villainous crook"
 
Cicero (106-43BC) was a key figure in the Roman Republic and a witness to its dramatic collapse into a dictatorship. The seven works collected here expound his passionate belief in national harmony, fully demonstrating his formidable powers as an orator and writer. Delivered after the assassination of Julius Caesar when Mark Antony looked set to take over Rome, the Philippics are a brilliant attack on one-man rule that ultimately cost cicero his life. In Against Verres, he argues for the impeachment of a corrupt provincial governor, yet Cicero's principles were tested in For Murena and Far Balbus when he was forced to defend guilty men in order to maintain political stability. On the State and On Laws are treatises on the art of government, while the Brutus is masterly survey oratory, a Roman Statesman's most important skill.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Against Verres (II, 5): How Not to Govern a Province
2. For Murena: When to Sacrifice a Principle
3. For Balbus: The Admission of Foreigners to Citizenship
4. On the State (III): The Ideal Form of Government (V, VI): The Good Statesman
5. On Laws (III): How to Run the Ideal Government
6. The Brutus: The Importance of Oratory
7. The Philippics (IV, V, X): Against Rule by One Man
Appendix I: Some of the Arguments used in For Balbus
Appendix II: Minor Orators Mentioned in the Brutus
Maps
The Roman Empire in 51 B.C.
Italy
Sicily
Eastern Europe
The East
Western Europe and North Africa
Plan of Rome

Further Reading

Index

Author

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), Roman orator and statesman, was born at Arpinum of a wealthy local family. He was taken to Rome for his education with the idea of a public career and by the year 70 he had established himself as the leading barrister in Rome. In the meantime his political career was well under way and he was elected praetor for the year 66. One of the most permanent features of his political life was his attachment to Pompeii. As a politician, his greatest failing was his consistent refusal to compromise; as a statesman his ideals were more honorable and unselfish than those of his contemporaries. Cicero was the greatest of the roman orators, posessing a wide range of technique and an excpetional command of the Latin tongue. He followed the common practice of publishing his speeches, but he also produced a large number of works on the theory and practice of rhetoric, on religion, and on moral and political philosophy. He played a leading part in the development of the Latin hexameter. Perhaps the most interesting of all his works is the collection fo 900 remarkably informative letters, published posthumously. These not only contain a first-hand account of social and political life in the upper classes at Rome, but also reflect the changing personal feelings of an emotional and sensitive man. View titles by Marcus Tullius Cicero

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