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Encyclopedia entry: De officiis
- Article from:
- The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature
- Author:
Copyright© The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information)
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De officiis
(‘on [moral] duties’), by Cicero, his last work on moral philosophy, finished in November 44 BC (see
CICERO (1) 5
), in the form of a letter to his son Marcus then studying philosophy at Athens. It consists of three books of moral advice, based on Stoic precepts and, in the first two books, on the teaching of
Panaetius
; the third is based on that of
Posidonius
and others.
The first book deals with the four cardinal virtues, wisdom, justice, fortitude, and temperance, develops the various duties that devolve from these, and passes on to their application to individual people who vary in age, position, abilities, etc. The second and third books discuss the ...