Cicero on the Philosophy of Religion: On the Nature of the Gods and on Divination

✍ Scribed by J P F Wynne

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 318
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

During the months before and after he saw Julius Caesar assassinated on the Ides of March, 44 BC, Cicero wrote two philosophical dialogues about religion and theology: On the Nature of the Gods and On Divination. This book brings to life his portraits of Stoic and Epicurean theology, as well as the scepticism of the new Academy, his own school. We meet the Epicurean gods who live a life of pleasure and care nothing for us, the determinism and beauty of the Stoic universe, itself our benevolent creator, and the reply to both that traditional religion is better served by a lack of dogma. Cicero hoped that these reflections would renew the traditional religion at Rome, with its prayers and sacrifices, temples and statues, myths and poets, and all forms of divination. This volume is the first to fully investigate Cicero's dialogues as the work of a careful philosophical author.

✦ Table of Contents

FM
Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: Cicero and the Translation
Cicero’s Project in On the Nature of the Gods and On Divination
Velleius the Epicurean
Balbus the Stoic and Cotta the Skeptic
Quintus’ Stoic Case for Divination
Marcus’ Arguments against Divination
Marcus’ Stance on the Central Question
Terminology in DND and Div. for Religious Virtues and Vices, and Greek Equivalents
Velleius’ Strategies against his Opponents
Balbus’ Classification of the Gods
Bibliography
General index
Index locorum antiquorum