Laelius de amicitia

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The beginning of Laelius de amicitia in the manuscript Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vaticanus Palatinus lat. 1523, fol. 1r (early 15th century)

The Laelius de amicitia is a work of the Roman lawyer, politician, writer and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero , which was probably published in the autumn of 44 BC. And is dedicated to Cicero's friend Titus Pomponius Atticus . The work is written in dialogue form and discusses friendship . Cicero's sources may include works by Panaitios of Rhodes and Aristotle ( Nicomachean Ethics ).

The dialogue takes place in the year 129 BC. Shortly after the death of Scipio Aemilianus . The main characters are Quintus Mucius Scaevola and Gaius Fannius, as well as Gaius Laelius , from whom the dialogue got its name.

The main part of the dialogue is divided into the three subject areas of opinion on friendship, the essence of friendship and rules in friendship, by Fannius' request to speak.

Important topics in the work are the “value of friendship”, the “nature of friendship” and the distinction between a “friendship of wise men” and “ordinary friendship”.

Text editions and translations

  • Martin Biastoch : Cicero, Laelius de amicitia , Klett, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 3-12-623166-7
  • Karl Simbeck (Ed.): Cato maior. Laelius , Teubner, Leipzig 1917 (critical edition)
  • Cicero: Laelius. About friendship , translation, notes and afterword by Robert Feger , Reclam, Stuttgart 1986. ISBN 3-15-000868-9
  • Cicero: Cato the Elder on old age. Laelius on friendship , Latin-German, ed. by Max Faltner, Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf ³1999.
  • Jonathan GF Powell (Ed.): M. Tulli Ciceronis De re publica. De legibus. Cato maior de senectute. Laelius de amicitia , Clarendon Press, Oxford 2006 (critical edition)

literature

  • Karl Büchner : Der Laelius Ciceros , in: Museum Helveticum 9 (1952), pp. 88-106. ( doi : 10.5169 / seals-10694 )
  • Henri LF Drijepondt: Ciceros Laelius de amicitia. One unit , in: Acta Classica 6 (1963), pp. 64-80.
  • Konrad Heldmann : Ciceros Laelius and the limits of friendship. On the interdependence of literature and politics 44/43 BC Chr. , In: Hermes 104 (1976), pp. 72-103.
  • Karl August Neuhausen : M. Tullius Cicero, Laelius. Introduction and commentary , Winter, Heidelberg 1981/82.

Web links

Wikisource: Laelius de Amicitia  - Sources and full texts (Latin)
Wikiquote: Laelius de amicitia  - Quotes

Remarks

  1. ↑ Terminus ante quem : In De officiis (II, 31) Cicero mentions the work as already written.