De Amicitia, Scipio's Dream

The book is titled De Amicitia, Scipio's Dream, by Cicero, translated with an introduction and notes by Andrew P. Peabody. The synopsis lists, among others, that true friendship can exist only among good men, friendship defined, the benefits derived from friendship, and friendship founded not on need, but on nature.

The text says that the special duties of friendship constituted an essential department of ethics in the ancient world. The text says: let admonition be administered, too, not only in plain terms, but even with severity, if need be, and let heed be given to such admonition. The speaker says that some things that appear strange have, as the speaker is told, been maintained by certain Greeks who are accounted as philosophers, and that some of them hold that very intimate friendships are to be avoided. The text describes the earth, the ninth sphere, as remaining motionless and always fixed in the lowest place, occupying the centre of the universe.