Abstract
Reviewed by: Aaron W Godfrey, Stony Brook University, USA
Latin teachers, historians, and classicists have relied on the Loeb Classical Library for generations. These are bilingual editions of the Greek and Latin classics with text and translations on opposite pages, and are named for James Loeb (1867–1933), a banker who retired in 1911 to promote accessible translations of works of classical antiquity with the original texts on facing pages. Loebs were originally printed in London by Heinemann, and in New York by Putnam, and later by Harvard University Press. Less than a generation ago, in 2002, Princeton University Press produced a short book, How to Win an Election, with Latin text translations and commentary by Philip Freeman on a brief letter written by Cicero’s brother Quintus. A practical guide for a political candidate, its principles are still relevant. The book has been praised by such political operatives as Karl Rove and Gary Hart. This work spawned a series of small books under the general description of “ancient wisdom for modern readers.” Thus far, the work of Cicero dominates the series, though Seneca the Younger and Epictetus are represented.
How to Run a Country, published in 2013, draws its ideas from many Ciceronian sources including his longer works On the Laws (De legibus) and On the Republic (De republica). Freeman summarizes Cicero’s conclusions, the most telling of which are these: 1. The best form of government includes a balance of powers; 2. Leaders should be of exceptional character and integrity; 3. Compromise is the key to getting things done; 4. Do not raise taxes unless absolutely necessary; 5. Immigration makes a country stronger; 6. Corruption destroys a nation.
In this work, in which the Latin text follows the English translation, it is clear how little politics has changed over the centuries.
How to Grow Old, from Cicero’s On Old Age (De senectute), was written as a consolation to his friend Atticus. Freeman summarizes it in 10 lessons, of which the most significant are: 1. A good old age begins in youth; 2. Old age can be a rewarding part of life; 3. The elderly have much to teach the young; 4. Old age is not the end, but limitations must be accepted; 5. The mind is like a muscle, and must be exercised; 6. Sex and partying are greatly overrated; 7. Death is not to be feared. Readers throughout history, including founding fathers John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, have admired this work. I have taught On Old Age to my classes, and students have been surprised at its relevance. It compels them to think not only of their own later years but also of those of their parents and grandparents.
Last year (2018), Freeman published How to Be a Friend (De amicitia), in my opinion a less compelling composition than the others, though some of the advice certainly applies to today’s self-absorbed world. It includes: 1. Choose friends carefully; 2. Friends should make one a better person; 3. Friends should be honest with each other; 4. A friend never asks a friend to do something wrong; 5. Friendships can change over time. In this much admired work, however, the author fails to mention that in the Greco-Roman world true friendships could exist only between men.
How to Win an Argument, edited by James M May (Cicero MT [2018] How to Win an Argument. Translated by Philip Freeman, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), is less satisfactory than the previous works produced by Freeman, and is quite a bit longer. It is more like a college textbook on rhetoric—dry, yet somewhat useful. At the end, however, is “A Ciceronian Cheat Sheet” summarizing the salient points of Cicero’s rhetorical work.
Cicero, greatly admired in the Middle Ages, was less revered when Petrarch rediscovered his letters in the 14th century, and later became almost marginalized by the savage criticism of his life and work in the late 19th century by the German Nobel Prize winner Theodore Mommsen. We know more about Cicero than almost anyone else in antiquity, and like all of us, he had imperfections, some of them fatal. Nonetheless, his philosophical works, though not original, are accessible and still relevant and practical guides. To quote from the book of Ecclesiastes (1:9), “There is nothing new under the sun.”