Cicero

From late antiquity into the nineteenth century, Cicero was the single most influential political thinker from the classical world. And although he was largely neglected beginning in the late nineteenth century, interest in Cicero as a serious political theorist climbed sharply from the late twentieth century until today. The body of the chapter on Cicero’s political theory examines the relationship between Cicero’s rhetoric, republicanism, and philosophy. It highlights the tensions and unities both within these concepts and between these concepts. The chapter concludes by surveying Cicero’s influence on other political theorists from late antiquity through the eighteenth century.