ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the texts by Cicero which provided the foundations of 'Ciceronian humanism' in late sixteenth-century England. The 'philosophical' aspect of humanitas is discussed in Cicero's informal treatise De officiis; 'literary' humanitas is dealt with in his oration Pro Archia poeta and the De oratore throws light on the 'courtly' or 'urbane' side of Elizabethan humanism. The De officiis is Cicero's last major philosophical work, completed in November 44 BC, not long after his political adversary Julius Caesar was murdered in the Senate House. Cicero did not take part in the conspiracy, but he had made an enemy in Mark Antony, whose troops eventually killed him as he tried to escape Italy. Cicero's remarks gave rise to a cult of 'magnanimity' in the Renaissance. Cicero particularly admired Lucius Licinius Crassus, who was a leading figure in the conservative 'party' of noblemen known as the optimates, to which Cicero also owed allegiance.
