Commentary

• Cicero: The Senior Statesman.

  - Thomas N. Mitchell, Cicero: The Senior Statesman. New Haven, 1991.

• Machiavelli’s Virtue

  - Harvey C. Mansfield, Machiavelli’s Virtue. Chicago, 1996.
  Review: –  Uniting thirty years of authoritative scholarship by a master of textual detail, Machiavelli’s Virtue is a comprehensive statement on the founder of modern politics. Harvey Mansfield reveals the role of sects in Machiavelli’s… More

• The Idea of Natural Rights: Studies on Natural Rights, Natural Law and Church Law 1150-1625.

  - Brian Tierney, The Idea of Natural Rights: Studies on Natural Rights, Natural Law and Church Law 1150-1625. Emory University Studies in Law and Religion. Atlanta, 1997.
  Overview: –  This series, originally published by Scholars Press and now available from Eerdmans, is intended to foster exploration of the religious dimensions of law, the legal dimensions of religion, and the interaction of legal and religious ideas,… More

• Liberty Before Liberalism

  - Quentin Skinner, Liberty Before Liberalism. Cambridge, 1998.
  Overview: –  This extended essay by one of the world’s leading historians seeks, in its first part, to excavate, and to vindicate, the neo-Roman theory of free citizens and free states as it developed in early-modern Britain. This analysis leads… More

• “Cicero’s definition of Res Publica”

  - Malcolm Schofield, “Cicero’s definition of Res Publica,” in Powell, 63-83, 1995 and reprinted in Schofield as Ch. 10., 1999.

• Cicero: On the Commonwealth and On the Laws.

  - James E. G. Zetzel (ed. and trans.) Cicero: On the Commonwealth and On the Laws. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
  Overview: –  Cicero’s On the Commonwealth and On the Laws are his most important works of political philosophy. The present volume offers a scholarly reconstruction of the fragments of On the Commonwealth and a masterly translation of both… More

• “Theodicy and providential care in Stoicism.”

  - Dorothea Frede, “Theodicy and providential care in Stoicism,” in Traditions in Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, Its Background and Aftermath, eds. D. Frede and A. Laks. Leiden: 85-117., 2002.

• “The development of the idea of citizens’ rights.”

  - Annabel Brett, “The development of the idea of citizens’ rights,” in States and Citizens: History, Theory, Prospects, eds. Q. Skinner and B. Stråth. Cambridge University Press: 97-112., 2003.
  Overview: States and Citizens offers a coherent survey of perceptions of the state, its history, its theoretical underpinnings, and its prospects in the contemporary world. The coverage of the Western European experience is thorough and wide-ranging, with the… More

• The Roman World of Cicero’s De Oratore

  - Elaine Fantham, The Roman World of Cicero’s De Oratore. Oxford. 2004.
  Overview: –  The Roman World of Cicero’s De Oratore aims to provide an accessible study of Cicero’s first and fullest dialogue, on the ideal orator-statesman. It illustrates the dialogue’s achievement as a reflection of a civilized… More

• Reading Cicero: Genre and Performance in Late Republican Rome.

  - Catherine E. W. Steel, Reading Cicero: Genre and Performance in Late Republican Rome. London, 2005.
  Overview: –  M. Tullius Cicero was a prolific writer, his writing covering an astonishingly wide spectrum: oratory, letters, epic and didactic poetry, pamphlets, philosophical and rhetorical treatises. He was also a major political figure at Rome… More

• “A new kind of model: Cicero’s Roman constitution in De Republica.”

  - Elisabeth Asmis,  “A new kind of model: Cicero’s Roman constitution in De Republica,” The American Journal of Philology,  126.3: 377-416., 2005.
   
  Overview: –  This article attempts to answer the question: What makes the Roman constitution “by far the best,” as Cicero claims in “De republica”? Following Polybius, Cicero analyses the Roman constitution as a mixed… More

• Lectures in the History of Political Thought

  - Michael Oakeshott, Lectures in the History of Political Thought, eds. T. Nardin and L. O’Sullivan. Exeter, 2006.
  Overview: –  Oakeshott’s memorable lectures on the history of political thought, delivered each year at the London School of Economics, will now be available in print for the first time as Volume II of his Selected Writings. Based on manuscripts in… More

• Cicero and the Jurists: From Citizens’ Law to the Lawful State.

  - Jill Harries, Cicero and the Jurists: From Citizens’ Law to the Lawful State. Duckworth, 2006.London, 2006.
  Overview: –  This book traces Cicero’s thought on law as an advocate; as the friend of jurists; as writer on the philosophy of the ‘higher law’; and as a politician who both asserted and subverted the rights of citizens under the law.… More

• Cicero: Speech on Behalf of Publius Sestius.

  - Robert A. Kaster, Cicero: Speech on Behalf of Publius Sestius. Oxford: Oxford University Press,  2006.
  Review: “…constantly enlightening and extremely broad in its scope…” – Bryn Mawr Reviews   Overview: –  This volume contains a new translation of, and commentary on, Cicero’s defense of Publius Sestius against… More

• “Religion and ius publicum.”

  - Cliffton Ando  “Religion and ius publicum,” in Religion and Law in Classical and Christian Rome, eds. Cliffton Ando and Jörg Rüpke. Stuttgart: 126-45., 2006.
  Overview: –  Law is a particularly fruitful means by which to investigate the relationship between religion and state. It is the mechanism by which the Roman state and its European successors have regulated religion, in the twin actions of constraining… More

• “Law in Roman philosophy.”

  - Inwood, B. and F. D. Miller, Jr., “Law in Roman philosophy,” in Treatise of Legal Philosophy and General Jurisprudence Vol. VI: A History of the Philosophy of Law from the Ancient Greeks to the Scholastics. Dordrecht: 133-65., 2007.
  Overview: –  Legal philosophy in late antiquity must be understood in relation to Roman law, a system which continued to evolve from the traditional founding of Rome (753 B.C.) until the fall of the Eastern Roman (or Byzantine) Empire (A.D. 1453). Rome… More

• Cicero’s Philosophy of History

  - Matthew Fox, Cicero’s Philosophy of History. Oxford University Press, 2007.
  Overview: –  Cicero has long been seen to embody the values of the Roman republic. This provocative study of Cicero’s use of history reveals that rather than promoting his own values, Cicero uses historical representation to explore the… More

• Thinking about Property: From Antiquity to the Age of Revolution.

  - Peter Garnsey, Thinking about Property: From Antiquity to the Age of Revolution. Cambridge, 2007.
  Overview: –  Explores ancient ‘foundational’ texts relating to property and their reception by later thinkers in their various contexts up to the early nineteenth century. The texts include Plato’s vision of an ideal polity in the… More

• “Ciceronian dialogue.”

  - Malcolm Schofield “Ciceronian dialogue,” in S. Goldhill (2008), 63-84., 2008.

• The Matter of the Gods: Religion and the Roman Empire

  - Cliffton Ando The Matter of the Gods: Religion and the Roman Empire. Berkeley, California, 2008.
  Overview: What did the Romans know about their gods? Why did they perform the rituals of their religion, and what motivated them to change those rituals? To these questions Clifford Ando proposes simple answers: In contrast to ancient Christians, who had… More

• “Cicero on natural law and the laws of the state.”

  - Elisabeth Asmis, “Cicero on natural law and the laws of the state,” Classical Antiquity, 27.1: 1-33., 2008.

• “Realism in political theory.”

  - William A. Galston, “Realism in political theory,” European Journal of Political Theory 9: 385-411., 2010.
  Overview: –  In recent decades, a ‘realist’ alternative to ideal theories of politics has slowly taken shape. Bringing together philosophers, political theorists, and political scientists, this countermovement seeks to reframe inquiry into politics… More

• Recovering the Ancient View of Founding: A Commentary on Cicero’s De Legibus

  - Timothy W.  Caspar, Recovering the Ancient View of Founding: A Commentary on Cicero’s De Legibus. Lanham, Md., 2011.
  Review: A discursive yet exclusively philosophical commentary on the arguments of the dialogue itself…. Overall Caspar offers a very successful challenge to the conventional view that Cicero’s Laws is a derivative or misconceived work of political… More

• Republicanism, Rhetoric, and Roman Political Thought: Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus

  - Daniel J. Kapust, Republicanism, Rhetoric, and Roman Political Thought: Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. Cambridge; New York:  Cambridge University Press, 2011.
  Overview: Republicanism, Rhetoric, and Roman Political Thought develops readings of Rome’s three most important Latin historians – Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus – in light of contemporary discussions of republicanism and rhetoric. Drawing on… More

• “L’argument du De Republica et le Songe de Scipion.”

  - Jed W. Atkins, “L’argument du De Republica et le Songe de Scipion.”, 2011.

• “Roman cosmopolitanism: the stoics and Cicero.”

  - Thomas L. Pangle, "Roman cosmopolitanism: the stoics and Cicero." in Lee Trepanier & Khalil M. Habib (eds.), Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Globalization: Citizens Without States. University Press of Kentucky, 2011.

• “Cicero and the stability of states.”

  - Xavier Marquez, “Cicero and the stability of states,” History of Political Thought 32.3: 397-423., 2011.

• A Written Republic: Cicero’s Philosophical Politics.

  - Yelena Baraz, A Written Republic: Cicero’s Philosophical Politics. Princeton, New Jersey, 2012.
  Overview: –  In 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… More