Cicero at the End of the Republic: Politics, Letters, and Philosophy

We study Cicero's writings from the last months of his life, when both his own personal legacy and the fate of the Republic were at stake. During this turbulent period he produced the Philippics against his arch-enemy Mark Antony, letters offering an intimate perspective on friendship and family life, and the De Officiis, a treatise on ethical duties that became one of the most influential works of moral philosophy ever written. We read the Second Philippic, several letters, and most of De Officiis Book I in Latin, plus selections of other Philippics and all the De Officiis in English.