Text and translation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
The translation of On the Commonwealth is based on C. [K.] Ziegler (ed.), M. Tullius Cicero: De re publica (7th ed., Leipzig, 1969), and (for the continuous portions of the palimpsest and the Dream of Scipio). J. Zetzel (ed.), Cicero: De re publica: Selections (Cambridge, 1995). The translation of On the Laws is based on K. Ziegler (ed.), M. Tullius Cicero: De legibus (3rd ed., rev. by W. Goerler: Heidelberg, 1979). Most departures from these editions are indicated in the notes. It should be noted that a new critical edition of both texts is being prepared by J. G. F. Powell for Oxford Classical Texts.
On the Commonwealth differs in the format of the dialogue from On the Laws in that the latter is pure dialogue, with no narrator, and changes of speaker are marked (by convention) with the name of the speaker followed by a colon, as in dramatic texts; in On the Commonwealth, by contrast, there is a narrator, and in the Latin text speakers are often introduced by phrases such as “Then Scipio said.” To avoid extremely stilted translation, these phrases have been replaced here by the same dramatic convention as is used in On the Laws.
With respect to the order and presentation of the fragments of On the Commonwealth, there have been many departures from Ziegler's text.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cicero: On the Commonwealth and On the Laws , pp. xxxvi - xliPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999