How The Works of Cicero drew on The Nicomachean Ethics
A documented line of influence: Marcus Tullius Cicero demonstrably engaged Aristotle’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle · c. 330 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
The Works of Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero · c. 50 BCE
Ancient RomeRelevance
5/10
On The Works of Cicero’s page
- Cicero is in direct conversation with the Nicomachean Ethics — he names it, argues over its authorship, and engages its Peripatetic doctrine head-on
- The Ethics is clearly reflected in De Finibus, especially Book II's treatment of virtue and the good
- Read Aristotle first and you'll see Cicero translating Greek ethical theory into a Roman key — right down to framing De Officiis as advice to his own son
On The Nicomachean Ethics’s page
- Cicero names the Nicomachean Ethics outright in De Finibus, even pausing to debate whether Aristotle or his son Nicomachus actually wrote it
- The teaching of the Ethics runs visibly through De Finibus, especially Book II, where Cicero works through Peripatetic theories of virtue
- Even the gesture is borrowed: Cicero casts De Officiis as a father-to-son ethics, mirroring Aristotle's dedication to Nicomachus