Cicero: Selected Letters

by Marcus Tullius Cicero, P.G. Walsh

How I wish that you had invited me to that most attractive feast on the Ides of March!' Cicero lived through some of the most turbulent years in the history of Rome, and witnessed at first-hand the overthrow of the republic and its replacement by a tyranny. His letters to friends and family are an astonishingly detailed record of daily life and politics in Rome. This selection, covering the years 68-43 BC, not merely documents in detail Cicero's career but simultaneously provides a month-by-month record of the final collapse of the Roman senatorial government. The letters provide from the inside a vivid picture of 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 once more brings alive the excitement and danger of ancient Rome.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

416 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 10, 2008

About the author

Born 3 January 106 BC, Arpinum, Italy
Died 7 December 43 BC (aged 63), Formia, Italy

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.

Alternate profiles:
Cicéron
Marco Tullio Cicerone


Note: All editions should have Marcus Tullius Cicero as primary author. Editions with another name on the cover should have that name added as secondary author.

Reviews

[silje]

«Pollex promised to be with me about 13 August, and duly appeared before me at Lanuvium on the 12th, but clearly as a Tom Thumb, and not an index finger.»

(pollex: en tommel)

[Lora]

I haven't finished but I can't keep reading this consistently. I usually don't have much pity for Rome. But Cicero's letters are hard to read in large amounts. I'll keep at it.
I want to know how it comes out. Don't spoil it for me.

[Erin Leigh]

philosophical GOAT

[Maj]

Read this one in two big chunks in March and May but between found myself reading 3 non-fiction history books at once and ended up needing a break.
The title says it all, it's a selection of letters, not all of them. I think it works well as an introduction if one wants to get to know Cicero a bit better, beyond, say, a biography.
It's good for what it is.