Commentary

On the probable amount of material lost before the start of the extant text see Introduction, §§4.1.3-4. 1 because it relates to character] The text as we have it opens with references to ethical philosophy and to logic. The Stoics, and Hellenistic philosophers in general, divided philosophy into three main parts, logic, physics and ethics; (cf. Diogenes Laertius 7.41 (= LS 26B) and Cicero ...

Introduction

This chapter focuses on Cicero's treatise titled On Fate (De fato), which is part of the second group of his philosophical writings that dates from the period of Julius Caesar's ascendancy at the end of the Civil War and the period immediately after his assassination. It explains how De fato considers the relation of the gods to human affairs and problems that arise therefrom. It also discusses the natural connection between different occurrences that the Stoics spoke of as “sympathy” that may have some influence on human behaviour but not remove the freedom of action altogether. The chapter describes how Cicero is characteristically scornful of the arguments by Stoics and favors the view of Carneades that free will could be defended against the Stoics. It talks about the freedom of the will in antiquity that can be divided into areas concerned with physical causation and questions of logic.

M. Tulli Ciceronis

[I][1] … quia pertinet ad mores, quod illi vocant, nos earn partem philosophiae de moribus appellare solemus, sed decet augentem linguam Latinam nominare moralem. explicandaque vis est ratioque enuntiationum, quae Graeci vocant; quae de re futura cum aliquid dicunt deque eo quod possit fieri aut non possit, quam vim habeant obscura quaestio est, quam philosophi appellant; totaque est quam rationem disserendi voco. quod autem in aliis libris feci, qui sunt de natura deorum, itemque in iis, quos de divinatione edidi, ut in utramque partem ...