Publisher's Synopsis
First published in 1880-1885, Joseph B. Mayor's influential three-volume edition of De Natura Deorum places Cicero's speculative theological dialogue in the context of his other writings and the arguments of the Epicureans, the Stoics, the Academics, and their predecessors. Equipped with detailed commentary and a substantial introduction to the history of the Greek philosophy, this edition remains a clear presentation of Cicero's complex philosophical project, an enquiry into the nature of the divine and its relationship to forms of human knowledge. Set within the home of the orator Caius Aurelius Catto, Cicero's wide-ranging work explores questions of divine providence, natural law, the creation of the world, and the worship of the Roman pantheon of gods. As Cicero strives to incorporate a rich inheritance of Greek metaphysics and natural philosophy within the Roman intellectual tradition, the book reveals the intellectual rigour and sceptical wit that characterise his thought.
