F.C. Conybeare, “Ananias of Shirak (A.D. 600–c.650),” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 6 (1897) 572–574;
A. Abrahamyan, Anania Sˇirakacu Matenagrutyuneˇ [The Works of Anania Sˇirakaci] (1944) 206–209;
H. Berbérian, “Autobiographie d’Anania Sˇirakaci,” Revue des études arméniennes 1 (1964) 189–194.
Edward G. Mathews, Jr.
M. Tullius Cicero (80 – 43 BCE)
Born 106 BCE; Academic philosopher, but with eclectic
allegiances including a strong sympathy for Stoic ethics.
His philosophical dialogues are a seminal source for Sto-
icism generally and for Stoic physics and theology in
particular. He was instrumental in bringing Greek phil-
osophy into Latin, inventing some of what would
become the basic Latin vocabulary for discussing
philosophy (most famously coining the words essentia,
qualitas, and moralis, the roots of our essence, quality, and
moral).
Cicero’s reputation as a philosopher in his own right
has fluctuated considerably: he played a prominent role
in Early Modern and Enlightenment philosophy and
political theory (it is now evident, for example, that
Cicero was used as a resource for those who wanted to
argue against moral skepticism – like that apparent in
Hobbes and Mandeville – and his De natura deorum was a
model and inspiration for Hume’s Dialogues Concerning
Natural Religion). Nevertheless, in the 20th century, his
importance was downplayed, and he has often been
mined only as a source for Hellenistic philosophy –
unfortunate, as this seriously underestimates the force and originality of Cicero’s
thinking.
Cicero’s trilogy of De natura deorum, De diuinatione, and De fato represent sophisticated
treatments of contemporary theology (particularly Stoic), as well as the physics and logic of
divination, causation, and free will. What is usually seen as a straightforward rationalist
skepticism of superstition in De diuinatione can better be read as the insistence on causal (as
opposed to indicative) accounts of the relationships between signs and predictions, further
confirmed by the emphasis on particular logical questions in the De fato.
Cicero’s Dream of Scipio, together with M’ substantial Commentary, was an
important source for (particularly early) medieval cosmology. Originally written as part of
Cicero’s Republic (corresponding to the myth of Er in P’s Republic), the Dream, cleaved
and circulated as a text in its own right during the Middle Ages, describes a dream
reported by P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus the Younger in which his dead grandfather,
Scipio Africanus the Elder, takes him up through the spheres of the stars to see the
structure of the Kosmos and to hear the music of the heavens. They look down upon the
Earth, and the grandfather reflects on the futility of worldly glory. Although the point of
the Dream is ultimately ethical, the story made a profound impression on the medieval
cosmological imagination, and formed the model for the heavenly journey in Dante’s
Paradiso.
M. Tullius Cicero Reproduced
with permission of the Soprin-
tendenza speciale per il Polo Muse-
ale fiorentino
M. TULLIUS CICERO