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The Political Works of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Tr. by F. Barham
The Political Works of Marcus Tullius Cicero Tr by F Barham Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Petrus Pictaviensis likewise quotes a passage from the same work; from which Barthius infers that Peter must have perused the Republic entire. On the expectat... more »ions of discovering Cicero's Commonwealth in the subsequent Centuries. In subsequent periods, two Greek writers, we allude to Panudes and Gaza, the first of whom flourished in the 15th century, the other somewhat later, translated Scipio's Dream into the Greek language. But we need not suppose that these Greek interpreters possest the original MS. entire. For Scipio's Dream, divided from the political portion of the work, occurs in many collections of MSS., besides appearing in the works of Macrobius. We may, therefore, affirm, that after the 12th century, the knowledge of the political writings of Cicero was confined to few, though a report of their existence was still prevalent. Express mention is indeed made of the books of Cicero's Commonwealth with other works of the same kind, which Francis Petrarch, under the order of Pope Clement VI., diligently examined at great labour and expence. We have Petrarch's testimonyto this point, in a very prolix epistle, which treats of Cicero's writings. But his search for the Republic was unsuccessful; and he tells us that he despaired of ever finding it. He was equally unsuccessful in recovering the works of Varro, which he declares he perused when a boy. But to return. Leonard Aretino tells us that Cicero's Republic was diligently sought for in the time of Pogius, who recovered so many ancient MSS. Writing to Pogius, in the year 1416, to congratulate him on the recovery of Quinctilian, he says, " There is no ancient work, with the exception of Cicero's Republic, which I more eagerly desired to peruse. Pogius himself was most diligent in seeking for the lost Republic, at the i...« less