Project Gutenberg's The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1, by Marcus Tullius Cicero

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Title: The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1
The Whole Extant Correspodence in Chronological Order

Author: Marcus Tullius Cicero

Translator: Evelyn S. Shuckburgh

Release Date: April 22, 2007 [EBook #21200]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LETTERS OF CICERO, VOLUME 1 ***

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THE LETTERS OF

CICERO

THE WHOLE EXTANT CORRESPONDENCE
IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH

BY

EVELYN S. SHUCKBURGH, M.A.

LATE FELLOW OF EMMANUEL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
AUTHOR OF A TRANSLATION OF POLYBIUS, A HISTORY OF ROME, ETC

IN FOUR VOLUMES

VOL. I. B.C. 68-52

LONDON
GEORGE BELL AND SONS
1899

CHISWICK PRESS:--CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

PREFACE

The object of this book is to give the English-speaking public, in a
convenient form, as faithful and readable a copy as the translator was
capable of making of a document unique in the literature of antiquity.
Whether we regard the correspondence of Cicero from the point of view of
the biographer and observer of character, the historian, or the lover of
_belles lettres_, it is equally worthy of study. It seems needless to
dwell on the immense historical importance of letters written by
prominent actors in one of the decisive periods of the world's history,
when the great Republic, that had spread its victorious arms, and its
law and discipline, over the greater part of the known world, was in the
throes of its change from the old order to the new. If we would
understand--as who would not?--the motives and aims of the men who acted
in that great drama, there is nowhere that we can go with better hope of
doing so than to these letters. To the student of character also the
personality of Cicero must always have a great fascination. Statesman,
orator, man of letters, father, husband, brother, and friend--in all
these capacities he comes before us with singular vividness. In every
one of them he w