Tracking Plato and Cicero in Syracuse
Random notes from the greatest and most beautiful of “Greek” cities
I am writing this while sitting in an Airbnb apartment in Ortigia, the beautiful island that is part of the greater city of Syracuse, in Sicily. I’m here with my wife as part of our sabbatical from the City University of New York. She is writing a novel set in the American midwest during World War II. I am writing a book on Cicero and co-authoring another one on practical Hellenistic philosophies (together with my friends Greg Lopez and Meredith Kunz).
One reason to come to Syracuse was to “track down,” so to speak, Cicero, who was Quaestor of Sicily in 75 BCE, aged 31. This was the first step in his cursus honorum, the series of political offices that eventually culminated with his consulship in 63 BCE. Indeed, several other stops during my sabbatical are related to Cicero: Rome, of course; western Turkey (he was governor of Cilicia, in the southern coast of modern Turkey); and Athens, where he went several times during his life to study or simply get away from the sometimes turbulent affairs of the capital, not to mention to visit his lifelong friend, Atticus.
Cicero visited Syracuse and described it (in his oration Against Verres) as “the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all.” He spent time here…
