Opening On Duties — Cicero in Plato Scroll…
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Cicero · Walter Miller
Translated by Walter Miller, 1913. Cicero’s last philosophical work, addressed to his son: three books on moral duty — the honourable, the expedient, and the apparent conflict between them. In The de Officiis we have, save for the latter Philippics, the great orator’s last contribution to literature. The last, sad, troubled years of his busy life could not be given to his profession; and he turned his never-resting thoughts to the second love of his student days and made Greek philosophy a possibility for Roman readers. The senate had been abolished; the courts had been closed. His occupation was gone; but Cicero could not surrender himself to idleness. In those days of distraction (46‑43 B.C.) he produced for publication almost as much as in all his years of active life. The liberators had been able to remove the tyrant, but they could not restore the republic. Cicero’s own life was in …
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