Cicero's Letters (J.) Hall Politeness and Politics in Cicero's Letters. Pp. xii + 275. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Cased, £50. ISBN: 978-0-19-532906-3 (original) (raw)

2010, The Classical Review

ment, Epicurean views on death and the telos, and the relation between Epicurean tranquillitas and Ciceronian otium cum dignitate. There is an epilogue, drawing the threads of the argument together. Cicero rejects above all Epicurean quietism, but because, as he recognises, Epicurus is a systematic thinker, he fi nds it necessary also to probe the physics and the conception of the cosmos on which the whole system is founded. M. is a level-headed and well-informed scholar, who writes pleasantly. His main thesis and detailed discussions perhaps break little fresh ground, but they constitute an eminently reliable and readable account of Cicero's engagement with Epicureanism as evidenced in the philosophical dialogues. M. is generous in his citation of the most relevant non-Ciceronian evidence on the Epicurean topics in Cicero listed above, and helpfully deploys an impressive knowledge of bibliography. All this makes the book-beautifully produced to Bibilopolis's usual high standards, with good indexes-a resource anyone working on this material will fi nd it useful to consult. There are one or two missed opportunities. One thing which might have enriched M.'s study would have been fuller exploitation of Cicero's non-philosophical writings, particularly the letters. M. has interesting remarks in observations on otium and amicitia (pp. 143-50, which rather oddly form part of the introduction to his account of the doxography of ND 1), and on otium honestum (pp. 279-99, where good use is made of the speeches, Pro Sestio in particular). More in this vein would have been welcome. M. does not appear to know Yasmina Benferhat's fi ne study Cives Epicurei (2005; reviewed in CR 57 [2007], 179-81), which is illuminating inter alia on Atticus' Epicureanism and Cicero's attitude to it. As for the dialogues, M. has nothing to say about the remarkable philosophical rhetoric of the concluding pages of Book 5 of the Tusculan Disputations, where having argued at length for the Stoic thesis that virtue alone is suffi cient for happiness, Cicero takes up the challenge of showing that even Epicurus can make a powerful case for thinking that the sapiens will remain beatus whatever gruesome misfortunes come his way (TD 5.88-118). After the critique of Epicurean ethics in Book 2 of De fi nibus, could Cicero's readers ever have anticipated that in handling that locus qui totam philosophiam maxime illustrat (Div. 2.2), the culminating tour de force would present even Epicurean philosophy as in this supremely important matter uitae … dux (TD 5.5)?