Tusculanae Disputationes

In the year 45 BC, when Cicero was around 61 years old, his daughter, Tullia, died following childbirth. Her loss afflicted Cicero to such a degree that he abandoned all public business and left the city retiring to Asterra, which was a country house that he had near Antium. It is largely agreed that Cicero wrote the Tusculan Disputations in the summer and/or autumn of 45 BC. Cicero addresses the Disputationes to his friend Brutus, a fellow politician of note, and later assassin of Julius Caesar. In the first book Cicero sets up the fiction that they are the record of five days of discussions with his friends written after the recent departure of Brutus. Cicero heavily relied on Crantor's "On Grief" (, ) in his Tusculan Disputations. Cicero also made great use of it while writing his celebrated Consolatio on the death of his daughter, Tullia. Several extracts from "On Grief" are preserved in Pseudo-Plutarch's treatise on Consolation addressed to Apollonius, which has many parallels with Tusculan Disputations. ==Books==

The Tusculanae Disputationes consist of five books: • "On the contempt of death" • "On bearing pain" • "On grief of mind" • "On other perturbations of the mind" • "Whether virtue alone be sufficient for a happy life" The purpose of Cicero's lectures is to fortify the mind with practical and philosophical lessons adapted to the circumstances of life, to elevate us above the influence of all its passions and pains. In each of the dialogues, one of the guests, who is called the Auditor, sets up a topic for discussion. Each dialogue begins with an introduction on the excellence of philosophy, and the advantage of adopting the wisdom of the Greeks into the Latin language. Cicero offers largely Platonist arguments for the soul's immortality, and its ascent to the celestial regions where it will traverse all space—receiving, in its boundless flight, infinite enjoyment. He dismisses the gloomy myths concerning the Greek underworld. This view he supports from a consideration of the insignificance of the pleasures of which we are deprived. Book 3 In the third book, Cicero treats of the best alleviations of sorrow. Cicero's treatment of this is closely parallel to that of pain. People have a false estimate of the causes of grief: deficiencies in wisdom and virtue, which ought to be the objects of the profoundest sorrow, occasioning less regret than is produced by comparatively slight disappointments or losses. Happiness and misery depend on character and are independent of circumstances, and Virtue is the source of all in this earthly life that is worth living for. ==Other themes==

The work contains frequent allusion to ancient fable, the events of Greek and Roman history, and the memorable sayings of heroes and sages. as well as of the sole mention of cultura animi as an agricultural metaphor for human culture. Cicero also mentions disapprovingly Amafinius, one of the first Latin writers on philosophy in Rome. ==Influence==

The rhetor's theme De contemptu mundi, on the contempt of the world, was taken up by Boethius in the troubled closing phase of Late Antiquity and by Bernard of Cluny in the first half of the 12th century. The book was an influence on Saint Augustine. For instance he references it in his Confessions, and also in The City of God. Thomas Jefferson included the "Tusculan questions", along with Cicero's De Officiis, in his list of recommendations to Robert Skipwith of books for a general personal library. ==Notes==