Roman Philosophy in Its Political and Historiographical Context

This chapter takes up two topics. On one hand it examines the philosophical background of the historical genre in Rome and focuses on the “past-present” dialectic in the Prefaces of three Roman historians (Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus), examining the nature of their political theory. On the other hand, it deals with what is today called “political philosophy.” It first looks at Roman philosophical contributions to understanding the nature of the res publica and to healing its ills. It then turns to ethical approaches, predicated on the moral qualities of the citizen or ruler, and to the radical criticism of any commitment to public affairs. In all these areas, consideration is given not only to recognized philosophical writers such as Cicero, Lucretius, and Seneca, but also, more broadly, to the philosophical elements recoverable in writers who were not professional philosophers.