Tusculan Disputations
Cicero, -45
Out of power, Cicero argues himself out of the fear of death and grief — five afternoons of Roman argument at its wittiest and most consoling.
Cicero
-106–-43
Cicero wrote the Tusculans in 45 BCE, the year his daughter Tullia died; two years later Antony had his hands and head nailed to the Rostra.
Feels like morality, death and curiosity.
Measured against eternity, even a long life is one afternoon.
But because there is nothing beyond old age, we call that long. All these things are said to be long or short, according to the proportion of time they were given us for. Artistotle says there is a kind of insect near the river Hypanis, which runs from a certain part of Europe into the Pontus, whose life consists but of one day. Those that die at the eighth hour die in full age; those who die when the sun sets are very old, especially when the days are at the longest. Compare our longest life with eternity, and we shall be found almost as short-lived as those little animals. Books by Cicero
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