ARISTOTLE TO AUGUSTINE Divination puts to good use arguments he had learnt, at a remove, from Carneades.17 Cicero wrote philosophy without profundity, but his arguments are often acute, his style is always elegant, and he is capable of great warmth His essays on friendship and old age have been popular throughout the ages His Wnal work on moral philosophy, On Duties (de OYciis), was addressed to his son shortly after the assassination of Julius Caesar in March 44 It was, during various periods of history, regarded as an essential item in the education of a gentleman After Caesar’s death Cicero returned to politics with a series of bitter attacks on the Caesarian consul Mark Antony After Antony went into partnership with Caesar’s adopted son Octavian, Cicero was executed in the putsch that they jointly organized He did not live to see the quarrel between the two that led to Antony’s defeat at Actium in 31 He was dead before Octavian became the Wrst Roman emperor, changing his name to Augustus Judaism and Christianity For the long-term development of philosophy the most important event in the Wrst century of the Roman Empire was the career of Jesus of Nazareth The impact of his teaching on philosophy was, of course, delayed and indirect, and his own moral doctrine was not without precedent He taught that we should not render evil for evil; but so had Plato’s Socrates He urged his hearers to love their neighbours as themselves; but he was quoting the ancient Hebrew book of Leviticus He told us that we must refrain not just from wrong deeds, but from wrong thoughts and desires; Aristotle too had said that the really virtuous person is one who never even wants to wrong Jesus taught his disciples to despise the pleasures and honours of the world; but so, in their diVerent ways, did the Epicureans and the Stoics Considered as a moral philosopher, Jesus was not a great innovator: but that, of course, was not at all how he and his disciples saw his role The framework of Jesus’ teaching was the world-view of the Hebrew Bible, according to which the Lord God Yahweh had created, by mere Wat, 17 See Ch below 104