Author Description

Cicero's last dialogue, De amicitia, is a work of stylistic brilliance containing the fullest examination of the values and problems of friendship to survive from the Greco-Roman world. How do we make (and lose) friends? If a conflict arises between personal affection and ethical behavior, how do we decide what is right? What kinds of people make the most suitable friends? Written in 44 BCE, De amicitia provides both a striking analysis of the conflicts between personal and civic loyalty and a strong statement about the close links between friendship, wisdom, and virtue. In the first full commentary on De amicitia in more than a century, Katharina Volk and James Zetzel provide an illuminating guide to the dialogue, explaining language and style, philosophy, and historical context. An appendix contains a text with commentary of Cicero's famous correspondence with Matius about political and personal loyalty after the assassination of Caesar.