This book its titled "Cicero de Officiis", about the life of Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman statesman who was killed after the death of Julius Caesar for speaking up against Mark Antony after Caesar was killed. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC) was not only a Roman statesman, but a lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic scholar who tried to support the citizenry during the political upheavals that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire. His writings include treatises on philosophy and politics, and he is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists. Cicero came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order and was educated in Rome and Greece, and served as consul in 63 BC. A group of Romans senators assassinated Caesar on the ides of March, 44 BC, and Cicero was assassinated the following year. According to Plutarch, he was killed by two soldiers - they cut off his head and hands, which were nailed on the rostra, a large platform, in the Roman Forum - and he was killed for speaking out against Antony. De Officiis (On Duties or On Obligations) was a treatise written by Cicero in 44 BC; it was divided into three books, in which Cicero expands his conception of the best way to live, behave, and observe moral obligations. The work discusses what is honorable (Book I), what is to one's advantage (Book II), and what to do when the honorable and private apparently conflict (Book III). He wrote the treatise in under four weeks, from October to November 44 BC; this was Cicero's last year alive, he was 62 years of age, still active in politics, and trying to stop revolutionary forces from taking control of the Roman Republic. Despite his efforts, the republican system failed to revive even after Caesar was killed, and Cicero was himself killed shortly thereafter. The treatise is written in the form of a letter to his son Cicero Minor, who studied philosophy in Athens. Judging from its form, it is nonetheless likely that Cicero wrote with a broader audience in mind, and the essay was published posthumously. The book was published in London by Arthur L. Humphreys in 1902, with gilt-ruled borders, gilt lettering, and "1902" in gilt on the spine, the covers are bound in crushed morocco, with triple gilt-fillet borders, beautiful marbled endpapers with gilt fillet borders on the front paste-down, the half-title and a simple title page, 278 pages of text, and the top edge is gilt. The work's legacy is profound, Although not a Christian work, in 390 St. Ambrose declared it legitimate for the Church to use (along with everything else Cicero had written). It became a moral authority during the Middle Ages. The book measures 8 7/8 x 7 3/8 in. wide, with a tight binding and clean pages and text. There is light rubbing at the heel and a slight blemish in the center of the front cover, a small white speck on the front paste-down, a small bump in the top left corner of the back cover, specks of rubbing at the tips and along the bottom edge of the back cover, and an attractive book for scholars of early Roman history. #84 #1672