What a great feeling to hear such a voice of reason and maturity from over two millennia in the past, and that too in a modern, easily accessible style and idiom. A prominent personality in the Roman polity during the uneasy period between the Republic and the first emperors, Cicero was a man of diverse parts: while he weighed in on important political events, he refrained from taking up actual power (he declined an invitation to be a part of the ruling triumvirate after the collapse of the Republic). During his periods away from the centre-stage of the Roman Senate and Forum, he solaced himself with writing on philosophy and ethics; his natural Stoic bent served him well at the final testing moment, his execution by the minions of Marc Antony, against whom he had been outspoken to the point of scurrilianity. This volume includes his writings on "Philosophy at Rome", "Against Fear of Death", "Tusculan Disputations", "Friendship", "On Duties, Book I", and a short selection from different ancient authors on the "Death and Burial of Cicero". There is also an able Introduction on "Why Does Cicero's Philosophy Matter?" by the translator Thomas Habinek, and "Cicero's Life" by Siobhan McElduff. ( )