The Revival of Platonism in Cicero’s Late Philosophy: Platonis aemulus and the Invention of Cicero

384 Pages·2016·8.55 MB·English

by  William H. F. Altman

The Revival of Platonism
in Cicero’s Late Philosophy

The Revival of Platonism
In Cicero’s Late Philosophy

Platonis aemulus
and the Invention of Cicero

William H. F. Altman
Published by Lexington Books
An imprint ofThe Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
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Copyright© 2016 by Lexington Books
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
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permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Altman, William H.F., 1955-author.
Title: The revival of Platonism in Cicero's late philosophy : Platonis
aemulus and the invention of Cicero I William H.F. Altman.
Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, 2016. I Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016000935 (print) I LCCN 2016004367 (ebook) I ISBN
9781498527118 (cloth: alk. paper) I ISBN 9781498527125 (Electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Cicero, Marcus Tullius. I Platonists. I Plato.
Classification: LCC B553 .A88 2016 (print) I LCC B553 (ebook) I DDC 186--dc23 LC record
available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016000935
9=
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI/NISO Z39. 48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
in memoriam

I. F. Stone (1907-1989)

who persuaded me to study Latin

and

B. D. Gordon (1894-1986)

who encouraged me to teach

nec ulli bonarum artium magistri non beati putandi

Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Preface xi

Introduction: Cicero as Platonis aemulus 1

Part 1: The Foundations of Cicero’s Platonic Revival 27-123

Chapter 1. Cicero’s Platonic personae and the Problem of De legibus 29
Chapter 2. Augustine’s Hortensius and the Invention of “Cicero” 57
Chapter 3. Self-Contradictory Skepticism in the Academica 81
Chapter 4. The Limits of Stoicism and Tullia’s Shrine in De finibus 101

Part 2: The Literary Fruits of Cicero’s Platonism 125-236

Chapter 5. Womanly Humanism in the Tusculanae Disputationes 127
Chapter 6. Phaedo and Timaeus in De natura deorum 159
Chapter 7. Interpreting Plato’s Dreams in De divinatione 179
Chapter 8. Epicurus, Chrysippus, and Homer in De fato 197
Chapter 9. The Ciceronian Renaissance in De senectute and De amicitia 217

Part 3: Cicero’s Platonism in Action 237-284

Chapter 10. Returning in Topica, De officiis, and the Philippics 239
Chapter 11. Brutus as Funeral Oration 259
Chapter 12. Ending with Orator 277

Bibliography 285

Index 303
Index verborum 333
Index locorum 341

About the Author 353

vii

Acknowledgements

Particularly in the case of this book, many of those whom I most need to thank
must remain anonymous. To begin with, the nucleus of several chapters first
appeared as peer-reviewed articles, and in every case, going back to 2007, I have
profited greatly from that process. In addition to this older class of nameless
ones, there are the anonymous reviewers of the book itself to be considered,
especially the last of them. Until a very late stage in the process, the manuscript
was subtitled “Studies in Cicero’s Late Philosophy,” and it is because of Lexing-
ton’s anonymous referee that it has been recast in its present form. While it is
easy to recommend that an author more fully integrate a work, it is difficult to
make one see how this both should and can be done; it is this invaluable service
that an anonymous reader performed for me. Of all the many reader-responses I
have received over the last decade, this one stands out for its seriousness, depth
of insight, detail of attention, and overall helpfulness. The general suggestion
that the book could be more fully integrated by breaking it into three was a bril-
liant one, as was the recommendation that chapter 9 should be the end of the
middle, and chapter 10 the beginning of the last part. In ways both large and
small, this comprehensive report was so useful that emphasizing its impact on
the final product here in the second-person seems the only fair way to proceed:
thanks to your help, this book has become as much ours as mine.
There are, of course, names to be mentioned. Among the scholars with
whom I have most profitably discussed Cicero are Elisabeth Begemann, David
Fott, Jon Hall, James Kasteley, David Konstan, Carlos Lévy, Tony Long, Gesine
Manuwald, Walter Nicgorski, Matt Sharpe, Gisela Striker, David West, and
Raphael Woolf. I likewise owe an important debt of gratitude to all who con-
tributed to Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Cicero; working with them in
tandem with completing this project proved to be a very great help indeed. But
where Cicero is concerned, my most important debts are considerably older, and
stretch back to the Roman section of the ninth-grade course “Three Democra-
cies.” Allan Mason Ward was my mentor on that project from the start thanks in
no small part to his grandmother Katie. My colleagues at Harwood Union High
School—Tom Dean, John Nelson, and Cathy Weeks-Cadwell—daily deepened
my appreciation for the “new man from Arpinum” in ways both large and small,
and I will never forget the feeling of joy I experienced when the eminently sober
and balanced Mr. Nelson finally decided that Cicero really was “the noblest
Roman of them all.” All of the Vermonters who chose between Lucretia, Cin-

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