Contemporary likeness
Cicero
106–43 BCE
RhetoricPhilosophyPoliticsRoman
Roman lawyer and statesman who carried Greek philosophy into Latin prose.
Contemporary likeness. Roman portrait sculpture of Cicero was made in or near his lifetime.
Why they still matter
Much of what Europe knew of Greek thought for centuries came through his vocabulary.
The world they thought in
The collapse of the Roman Republic, which killed him.
What they wrote
The questions they worked on
Political philosophy
Who should rule, and why would anyone accept it?
Take this further
Ponderers is the historical layer. A rabbit hole brings the same question into what people are arguing about now.