In addition to his desire to undermine Epicureanism in Italy, Cicero had a patriotic wish to remove from the literature of his country the reproach that it was completely destitute where Greek was richest. He often tries by the most far-fetched arguments to show that philosophy had left its mark on the early Italian peoples[[117]]. To those who objected that philosophy was best left to the Greek language, he replies with indignation, accusing them of being untrue to their country[[118]]. It would be a glorious thing, he thinks, if Romans were no longer absolutely compelled to resort to Greeks[[119]]. He will not even concede that the Greek is a richer tongue than the Latin[[120]]. As for the alleged incapacity of the Roman intellect to deal with philosophical
enquiries, he will not hear of it. It is only, he says, because the energy of the nation has been diverted into other channels that so little progress has been made. The history of Roman oratory is referred to in support of this opinion[[121]]. If only an impulse were given at Rome to the pursuit of philosophy, already on the wane in Greece, Cicero thought it would flourish and take the place of oratory, which he believed to be expiring amid the din of civil war[[122]].
There can be no doubt that Cicero was penetrated by the belief that he could thus do his country a real service. In his enforced political inaction, and amid the disorganisation of the law-courts, it was the one service he could render[[123]]. He is within his right when he claims praise for not abandoning himself to idleness or worse, as did so many of the most prominent men of the time[[124]]. For Cicero idleness was misery, and in those evil times he was spurred on to exertion by the deepest sorrow[[125]]. Philosophy took the place of forensic oratory, public harangues, and politics[[126]]. It is strange to find Cicero making such elaborate apologies as he does for devoting himself to philosophy, and a careless reader might set them down to egotism. But it must never be forgotten that at Rome such studies were merely the amusement of the wealthy; the total devotion of a life to them seemed well enough for Greeks,
but for Romans unmanly, unpractical and unstatesmanlike[[127]]. There were plenty of Romans who were ready to condemn such pursuits altogether, and to regard any fresh importation from Greece much in the spirit with which things French were received by English patriots immediately after the great war. Others, like the Neoptolemus of Ennius, thought a little learning in philosophy was good, but a great deal was a dangerous thing[[128]]. Some few preferred that Cicero should write on other subjects[[129]]. To these he replies by urging the pressing necessity there was for works on philosophy in Latin.
Still, amid much depreciation, sufficient interest and sympathy were roused by his first philosophical works to encourage Cicero to proceed. The elder generation, for whose approbation he most cared, praised the books, and many were incited both to read and to write philosophy[[130]]. Cicero now extended his design, which seems to have been at first indefinite, so as to bring within its scope every topic which Greek philosophers were accustomed to treat[[131]]. Individual questions in philosophy could not be thoroughly understood till the whole subject had been mastered[[132]]. This design then, which is not explicitly stated in the two earliest works which we possess, the Academica and the De Finibus, required the composition of a sort of philosophical encyclopaedia. Cicero never claimed to be more than an interpreter of Greek philosophy
to the Romans. He never pretended to present new views of philosophy, or even original criticisms on its history. The only thing he proclaims to be his own is his style. Looked at in this, the true light, his work cannot be judged a failure. Those who contrive to pronounce this judgment must either insist upon trying the work by a standard to which it does not appeal, or fail to understand the Greek philosophy it copies, or perhaps make Cicero suffer for the supposed worthlessness of the philosophy of his age.
In accordance with Greek precedent, Cicero claims to have his oratorical and political writings, all or nearly all published before the Hortensius, included in his philosophical encyclopaedia[[133]]. The only two works strictly philosophical, even in the ancient view, which preceded the Academica, were the De Consolatione, founded on Crantor's book, περι πενθους, and the Hortensius, which was introductory to philosophy, or, as it was then called, protreptic.
For a list of the philosophical works of Cicero, and the dates of their composition, the student must be referred to the Dict. of Biography, Art. Cicero.
IV. History of the Academica.
On the death of Tullia, which happened at Tusculum in February, 45 B.C., Cicero took refuge in the solitude of his villa at Astura, which was pleasantly situated on the Latin coast between Antium and