Selected Letters

by Cicero; Walsh, P. G.

• ISBN13: 9780199214204
• ISBN10: 0199214204
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-08-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Cicero lived through some of the most turbulent years in the history of Rome and witnessed first-hand the overthrow of the republic and its replacement by the tyranny of Pompey, Caesar, Mark Antony, and Octavian. One of Rome's most memorable and keenly observant writers, his letters to friends and family are an astonishingly detailed record of daily life and politics in Rome. Here is the largest one-volume selection of Cicero's letters currently available, documenting Cicero's tumultuous career and providing a month-by-month record of the final collapse of the Roman senatorial government. Covering the years 68-43 BC, the letters illuminate events from the high point of Cicero's consulship of 63, through the humiliation of his exile and subsequent subjection to the dynasts, to the assassination of Caesar in 44, and Cicero's brief hour of glory in leading senatorial resistance to the tyranny of Mark Antony. In P. G. Walsh's lively new translation, Cicero's correspondence brings to life once more all the intrigue, excitement, and danger of ancient Rome.

Author Biography

P. G. Walsh has translated Apuleius, The Golden Ass; Petronius, Satyricon; Cicero, The Nature of the Gods and On Obligations; Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy; and Pliny, Complete Letters.

Table of Contents

A Chronology of Cicero
Maps
Selected Letters
The Years Before the Consulship (68-65 B.C.): Letters 1-3	p. 3
The Return of Pompey, and the Enmity of Clodius (62-60 B.C.): Letters 4-18	p. 9
Disillusionment and Exile (59-57 B.C.): Letters 19-31	p. 48
Restoration and Recantation (57-54 B.C.): Letters 32-51	p. 74
Cicero as Provincial Governor (51-50 B.C.): Letters 52-66	p. 114
Civil War (49-46 B.C.): Letters 67-106	p. 151
The Dictatorship of Caesar (46-44 B.C.): Letters 107-134	p. 195
The Last Stand for the Republic (44-43 B.C.): Letters 135-166	p. 228
Concordance of the Letters with the Standard Collections	p. 274
Explanatory Notes	p. 276
Glossary of Terms	p. 353
Index	p. 359
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