Cicero: Bringing Greek Philosophy into Latin

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE) was Rome's greatest orator and a leading statesman, but he also made philosophy speak Latin. He had studied with the Academic Philo of Larissa and other Greek teachers. In 46–44 BCE, after Julius Caesar's rise pushed him out of politics and his daughter Tullia died, Cicero wrote a remarkable series of philosophical works, including the Academica, On Ends, the Tusculan Disputations and On the Nature of the Gods.

These works set out the views of the Stoics, Epicureans and Academics in dialogue form. Cicero created many Latin philosophical terms, such as qualitas (quality), and his Latin vocabulary passed into later European languages. He saw himself as an Academic skeptic, weighing positions without dogmatism. Cicero's works became a main route through which later Europeans learned about Hellenistic philosophy, and his elegant prose became a model of Latin style for centuries.