1st Edition

Cicero, Classicism, and Popular Culture

By Marshall Fishwick Copyright 2007
    262 Pages
    by Routledge

    262 Pages
    by Routledge

    Learn why Cicero is considered one of the most important individuals in all of Western culture!

    Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was a poet, philosopher, writer, scholar, barrister, statesman, patriot, and the linguist who helped make Latin into a universal language. His many influences in rhetoric, politics, literature, and ideas are seen throughout Western civilization. Cicero, Classicism, and Popular Culture explores the fascinating man behind the eloquence and his monumental effect on language, morality, and popularity of Western culture. One of the leading authorities on popular culture, Dr. Marshall Fishwick discusses the multifaceted man who may be, besides Jesus, the central figure in all of Western civilization.

    The author recounts his own personal quest of traveling the land and ancient cities of Italy, gleaning insights from people he met along the way who have knowledge about Cicero’s life and times. However, Cicero, Classicism, and Popular Culture is more than a simple search for the man and his accomplishments, a man whose mere words changed the way people think. This book shows in each of us the roots of our own ideas, beliefs, and culture.

    Cicero, Classicism, and Popular Culture discusses:

    • Cicero’s rise to acclaim
    • his affect on the language of popular culture
    • common traits Cicero shared with Thomas Jefferson
    • rhetoric, the art of oratory
    • community
    • two pivotal essays on friendship and old age
    • vision of his reputation
    • the search for peace
    • Marshall McLuhan, Ciceronian
    • Cicero’s Rome
    • Cicero’s ancestral home of Arpinum
    • Julius Caesar, politics, and the influences of Cicero
    • the Roman republic and its downfall
    • America as the new Rome
    • much more!

    Cicero, Classicism, and Popular Culture is a startling, entertaining examination of the man who made Western culture what it is today. The book is insightful reading for educators, students, or anyone interested in one of the major forces in popular culture.

    • About the Author
    • Contributors
    • Foreword (Kathy Merlock Jackson)
    • Acknowledgments
    • THE SEARCH BEGINS: A CICERONIAN MOSAIC
    • Prelude
    • Cicero, Model for the Ages
    • Moving Up the Ladder: The New Man from Arpinum
    • Cicero: Godfather of Popular Culture
    • Soul Mates: Cicero and Jefferson
    • Logos
    • Cicero and Community
    • Two Pivotal Essays
    • Reputation
    • THE SEARCH WIDENS: EXPLORING ITALY
    • Strolling Through Time
    • Countess Caesarii
    • Off to Arpinum
    • Florence
    • Dreaming
    • Bologna
    • Urbino
    • Proto
    • Good-Bye Roma
    • THE SEARCH CONTINUES: CICERO’S LEGACY
    • Hail, Caesar!
    • Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic
    • Does Cicero Still Speak?
    • America: The New Rome
    • Cicero’s Fate (James Combs)
    • Cicero Still Speaks (Franco de Battaglia)
    • Some Final Thoughts
    • Notes
    • Bibliographic Essay: an Electronic Search for Cicero
    • Index

    Biography

    Authored by Fishwick, Marshall