"Andrew R. Dyck's full commentary on this work is the first to appear in English or any other language for over a century. Whereas previous commentaries focused primarily on grammar and textual criticism, this one, while not neglecting those areas, insightfully relates the text to the trends, political, philosophical, and religious, of Cicero's times; identifies the influences on Cicero's thinking; and analyzes the relation of this theoretical treatise to his other utterances, public and private, of the time."--BOOK JACKET.

Recovering the Ancient View of Founding questions the consensus view of contemporary scholars who view Cicero as an eclectic and unoriginal political thinker. For them, De Legibus is perhaps the most striking example of this eclecticism. They say that Cicero claims a universal ground for laws that would restore the political privileges of his own aristocratic class. Yet Timothy Caspar shows that Cicero offers a unified, coherent, and original teaching about politics whose aim is justice for the entire republic, not just a part of it. Contrary to the prevailing view, Cicero does not embrace but rejects Stoicism--and any philosophy that culminates in a community of the wise--as a standard for politics. Instead, nature serves as the foundation of Cicero's laws, and he elucidates a political standard grounded in nature and applicable to all citizens. Thus, the law codes of De Legibus are not only in harmony with but required by Cicero's natural law principles. Caspar's Recovering the Ancient View of Founding is a reinterpretation of a key work of ancient Roman political philosophy and belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in philosophy, politics, or ancient Rome.

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