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INTRODUCTION.

I. CICERO AS A WRITER ON PHILOSOPHY.

(i.) STATE OF PHILOSOPHY IN CICERO'S TIME.

In Philosophy the Romans originated nothing. Their energies in the earlier
years of the state were wholly absorbed in organization and conquest.
Resting in a stern and simple creed, they had little speculative interest
in matters outside the hard routine of their daily life. But with the close
of the Period of Conquest came a change. The influx of wealth from
conquered provinces, the formation of large landed estates, the excessive
employment of slave labor, and the consequent rise of a new aristocracy,
prepared the way for a great revolution. The old religion lost its hold on
the higher classes; something was needed to take its place. With wealth and
luxury came opportunity and desire for culture. Greece, with Art,
Literature, and Philosophy fully developed and highly perfected, stood
ready to instruct her rude conqueror.[1]

In Cicero's time the productive era of Greek Philosophy had well-nigh
passed. Its tendency was less speculative, more ethical and practical than
in the earlier time. There were four prominent schools, the New Academy,
the Peripatetic, the Stoic, and the Epicurean. The supporters of the
last-named advocated in Science the doctrine of the atom, in Ethics the
pursuit of pleasure, in Religion the complete inactivity of the gods.

The Stoics and Peripatetics were divided by comparatively unimportant