Author: Tsouni, Georgia
Title: Athens’ Authority in Cicero’s Philosophical Works
Review/Collection: Deligiannis, Ioannis (ed.), Cicero in Greece, Greece in Cicero, Aspects of Reciprocal Reception from Classical Antiquity to Byzantium and Modern Greece, De Guyter, 2024, 274 p.
Place edition: Berlin, Boston
Editor: De Gruyter
Year edition: 2024
Pages: 11-30
Keywords: Philosophie - Filosofia - Philosophy
Description: Georgia Tsouni investigates how Cicero in his philosophical works constructs and discusses Athens’ cultural authority (auctoritas). The authority of the city itself is reflected most prominently in the way Cicero presents Athens’ cultural landmarks in the prologue to De finibus 5. Athens’ authority is linked there to its role as a primary centre of liberal education and to being the birthplace of authoritative figures of the past, like Plato. At the same time, Cicero’s philosophical dialogues testify to a cultural appropriation of Athens’ intellectual legacy, whereas his dramatic settings aim at transferring Athenian landmarks, together with philosophical discourse, to Roman soil. Furthermore, by putting an emphasis on Roman traditions and exempla, but also by engaging in the justification of his own preoccupation with philosophy in the prologues to his works, Cicero places intellectual (‘theoretical’) activities (particularly linked to Athens) under the primacy of political action taking place in Rome. Cicero’s attitude towards Athens’ intellectual tradition ultimately reveals the ambivalence involved in his attempt to integrate Greek learning into a Roman context [Deligiannis 2024, 5].
Link: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111292779-003/pdf
Author initials: Tsouni 2024
Title: Athens’ Authority in Cicero’s Philosophical Works
Review/Collection: Deligiannis, Ioannis (ed.), Cicero in Greece, Greece in Cicero, Aspects of Reciprocal Reception from Classical Antiquity to Byzantium and Modern Greece, De Guyter, 2024, 274 p.
Place edition: Berlin, Boston
Editor: De Gruyter
Year edition: 2024
Pages: 11-30
Keywords: Philosophie - Filosofia - Philosophy
Description: Georgia Tsouni investigates how Cicero in his philosophical works constructs and discusses Athens’ cultural authority (auctoritas). The authority of the city itself is reflected most prominently in the way Cicero presents Athens’ cultural landmarks in the prologue to De finibus 5. Athens’ authority is linked there to its role as a primary centre of liberal education and to being the birthplace of authoritative figures of the past, like Plato. At the same time, Cicero’s philosophical dialogues testify to a cultural appropriation of Athens’ intellectual legacy, whereas his dramatic settings aim at transferring Athenian landmarks, together with philosophical discourse, to Roman soil. Furthermore, by putting an emphasis on Roman traditions and exempla, but also by engaging in the justification of his own preoccupation with philosophy in the prologues to his works, Cicero places intellectual (‘theoretical’) activities (particularly linked to Athens) under the primacy of political action taking place in Rome. Cicero’s attitude towards Athens’ intellectual tradition ultimately reveals the ambivalence involved in his attempt to integrate Greek learning into a Roman context [Deligiannis 2024, 5].
Link: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111292779-003/pdf
Author initials: Tsouni 2024
