Cicero Academicus 20 anos depois. Tendências recentes sobre o ceticismo acadêmico em Roma

In this paper I recap first briefly the status quaestionis in the research field of Cicero’s philosophical stance during the last twenty years and using as a starting point the momentous Cicero Academicus written by Carlos Lévy in 1992. After that, I deal with two particular problems in this area: 1. The exact relationships in Cicero’s thought between his own academic relativism and the moral and political necessity of truth-values according to the Roman tradition. 2. Cicero’s political stance during the composition of the Academici libri and the Tusculanae (spring-summer 45 BC): the contemporary efforts at writing political messages for Caesar (above all the so-called Symbuleutikón) prove in my opinion that Cicero was neither acting in this period as a covert opponent of the new régime nor showing himself as a weak opportunist; on the contrary, his principle has always been to serve his (ideal of) Roman Republic, adjusting his actions to the different circumstances (temporibus adsentiendum).