On Government Book

In the ancient world, rhetoric comprised nearly the whole of a young man's education. Philosophers like Plato were apt to look down upon this sort of upbringing, but the level-headed Aristotle was the first to proclaim the complementary nature of rhetoric and philosophy; Cicero was a proud exponent of the latter view, and so, with his mind set on truth and his heart on ambition, Cicero's career perfectly describes an arc from progressive to conservative views in politics, and this volume is arranged in chronological order to better understand this shift. It begins with Against Verres II, perhaps his most impassioned, and heartbreaking, plea against imperial corruption, and ends with several of the Phillipics against the alleged bid for absolute power by Antony. In between, selections from his treatises On The State and The Laws reveal a conservative distrust of the lower classes, even going so far as to advocate public, rather than secret, ballots; and in another case, For Murena, Cicero pleads to allow a corrupt official to take office using an "end justifies the means" argument. Friedrich Engels described him as "the most wicked man in history." By the time of the Phillipics, one can see why Engels thought so; his conservatism had completely blinded him into attacking Antony while praising Octavian to the skies. It is said that Brutus knew Octavian was a bigger threat to the republic than Antony, but when one looks at the history, it readily appears that no amount of eloquence, on any side, could've prevented the fall of the republic - but like the question, "What if Trotsky..." the question, "What if Cicero had attacked Octavian," will always arouse an academic sigh and a few moments of wasted thought.