Author: Fürst, Alfons
Title: Erwerben und Erhalten : ein Schema antiker Freundschaftstheorie in Ciceros Laelius
Review/Collection: "Philologus", 143, (1)
Year edition: 1999
Pages: 41-67
Keywords: Philosophie - Filosofia - Philosophy, Politique - Politica - Politics
Description: One of the dead ends that the interpretation of ancient texts can lead to is undoubtedly the long puzzlement in classical philology about the structure and composition of Cicero's treatise on friendship. Hardly any other work of Greek and Roman antiquity has been so thoroughly misunderstood for decades as the "Laelius". It is to Karl August Neuhausen's credit that he put the study of this little dialogue on a new footing. He was the first to recognise that the "Laelius" is not, as a whole, the scholarly discussion of friendship that Cicero announces towards the end of the proem (Lael. 5), and that the key to the structure of the writing is not to be found in Lael. 16. After a praise of Scipio the Younger and his friendship with Laelius (Lael. 6-15) and a first speech by Laelius, a hymn on true friendship (17-24), there follows a second speech by Laelius on friendship (26-104), which is to be regarded as a philosophical treatise περί φιλίας, as was customary in the Hellenistic schools. All further investigations into the structure of "Laelius" must be based on this insight. [Author]
Works:
Author initials: Fürst 1999
Title: Erwerben und Erhalten : ein Schema antiker Freundschaftstheorie in Ciceros Laelius
Review/Collection: "Philologus", 143, (1)
Year edition: 1999
Pages: 41-67
Keywords: Philosophie - Filosofia - Philosophy, Politique - Politica - Politics
Description: One of the dead ends that the interpretation of ancient texts can lead to is undoubtedly the long puzzlement in classical philology about the structure and composition of Cicero's treatise on friendship. Hardly any other work of Greek and Roman antiquity has been so thoroughly misunderstood for decades as the "Laelius". It is to Karl August Neuhausen's credit that he put the study of this little dialogue on a new footing. He was the first to recognise that the "Laelius" is not, as a whole, the scholarly discussion of friendship that Cicero announces towards the end of the proem (Lael. 5), and that the key to the structure of the writing is not to be found in Lael. 16. After a praise of Scipio the Younger and his friendship with Laelius (Lael. 6-15) and a first speech by Laelius, a hymn on true friendship (17-24), there follows a second speech by Laelius on friendship (26-104), which is to be regarded as a philosophical treatise περί φιλίας, as was customary in the Hellenistic schools. All further investigations into the structure of "Laelius" must be based on this insight. [Author]
Works:
Author initials: Fürst 1999
