Marcus Tullius Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, advocate, orator, and philosophical writer whose Latin prose helped transmit Greek ethical debate to later readers. On the Good Life is a Penguin Classics selection, translated and introduced by Michael Grant, that gathers Cicero’s reflections on moral integrity, friendship, public duty, and happiness. Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations belongs to his late philosophical period and presents five dialogues on resilience, emotion, virtue, and the conditions of a flourishing life. Modern scholarly editions often divide or excerpt those books, while historical English translations preserve the complete sequence under varying titles. Cicero also wrote extensively on rhetoric, religion, political philosophy, and public responsibility, leaving speeches and letters that illuminate both Roman institutions and his changing private judgments.