Cicero and Historiography – Seminar

With Krasimir Ivanov
Mondays 4:30-6 pm UK time, Sep 29-Nov 30, 2025

The standard approach to historical events is to examine the decisions of a variety of different players from the perspective of posterity, sometimes at many centuries’ remove. Attention tends to focus on politics, major battles, and broad socio-economic trends.
Another way of looking at history is to narrow the focus by zooming in on one person’s life. Here, the interest lies in the depth of the individual’s thoughts, the critical moments of their life, their dedication to their duties, and so on.
This time, however, why not do something different and enjoy the fruits of both approaches? In this seminar we will take the life of Cicero as the basis of our discussions, but rather than talking only about him we will ask who he was close to, what his connections were, who his rivals and his enemies were, and why life brought them together. What happened? How did things turn out? What came to pass?
Above all in these classes we hope to get a sense of the upheavals of the times, their spirit, their hopes, battles, joys, and disappointments. Our aim will be to try and understand what it was to be born at that moment in history, to grow up, be educated, live, and die at that time. Let’s try and live, with Cicero, through the final act of the famous concordia ordinum.
In this first part of the series we will look at how the Romans expanded their interests to the extent that Rome became the capital of almost the entire known world, and how the seeds of its fall were sown. We will try and get a sense of the effort involved in bringing up one’s children, earning a living, and so on. We will look at how the Romans organised their domestic and military lives, where Cicero fits in to the first part of this century, and how he took his first steps on the cursus honorum.
This seminar is suitable for students who have completed their Latin grammar studies and are ready to examine one of the most important original Latin authors we have.