Essay Questions

Why did Cicero write a letter to his son in Athens?

On Duties was phrased as a letter to Cicero's son, in order to explain what is useful and what is honorable. Likely, Cicero was explaining this to his dear son because of all of the turmoil being experienced in Rome at the time, with the assassination of Julius Caesar. Cicero thought that this would be a good lesson to his son. Little did he know that, thousands of years later, scholars from around the world would be reading his work, analyzing ancient ideas on honor. However, Cicero does provide a very good keyhole to the past.

How did Cicero's past influence his writing of this letter?

Cicero was born into a wealthy family, meaning that he was destined to go into politics. However, with all of the trouble happening in Rome, it seemed that it was better not to even try. Cicero refused to join any sort of council, and turned to writing philosophy instead, like many great minds of the time. Upon his pondering, somewhere he decided on writing a letter to his son. Perhaps, this letter could be seen as an outrageous upheaval to the current political happening, but it is not viewed that way by most scholars.