To his contemporaries Cicero was primarily the great forensic and political orator of his time, however, today he stands out as a patriotic Roman of substantial honesty, who gave his life to check the inevitable fall of the commonwealth to which he was devoted. The evils which were undermining the Republic bear so many striking resemblances to those which threaten the civic and national life of America today that the interest of the period is by no means merely historical. As a philosopher, Cicero’s most important function was to make his countrymen familiar with the main schools of Greek thought. Much of this writing is thus of secondary interest to us in comparison with his originals, but in the fields of religious theory and of the application of philosophy to life he made important firsthand contributions which were formative in the Christian thought of the medieval era. This text has selections of his speeches, as well as his complete treatises on Friendship and Duties. This edition has extra wide margins for notetaking.