{"product_id":"9781400842162","title":"A Written Republic: Cicero's Philosophical Politics","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the 40s BCE, during his forced retirement from politics under Caesar's dictatorship, Cicero turned to philosophy, producing a massive and important body of work. As he was acutely aware, this was an unusual undertaking for a Roman statesman because Romans were often hostile to philosophy, perceiving it as foreign and incompatible with fulfilling one's duty as a citizen. How, then, are we to understand Cicero's decision to pursue philosophy in the context of the political, intellectual, and cultural life of the late Roman republic? In \u003ci\u003eA Written Republic\u003c\/i\u003e, Yelena Baraz takes up this question and makes the case that philosophy for Cicero was not a retreat from politics but a continuation of politics by other means, an alternative way of living a political life and serving the state under newly restricted conditions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e Baraz examines the rhetorical battle that Cicero stages in his philosophical prefaces--a battle between the forces that would oppose or support his project. He presents his philosophy as intimately connected to the new political circumstances and his exclusion from politics. His goal--to benefit the state by providing new moral resources for the Roman elite--was traditional, even if his method of translating Greek philosophical knowledge into Latin and combining Greek sources with Roman heritage was unorthodox.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003ci\u003eA Written Republic\u003c\/i\u003e provides a new perspective on Cicero's conception of his philosophical project while also adding to the broader picture of late-Roman political, intellectual, and cultural life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47152069771504,"sku":"9781400842162","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781400842162_p0.jpg?v=1763713845","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781400842162","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}