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CLA 79 — The Politics of Loyalty: Cicero and the Ethics of Friendship

Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Christopher Krebs
Duration: 8 weeks
Location: Online
Date(s): Jan 22—Mar 19
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Wednesdays
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Please Note: No class on February 12
Tuition: $465
   
Refund Deadline: Jan 24
 
Unit(s): 1
   
Status: Registration opens Dec 2, 8:30 am (PT)
 
Quarter: Winter
Day: Wednesdays
Duration: 8 weeks
Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jan 22—Mar 19
Unit(s): 1
Location: Online
 
Tuition: $465
 
Refund Deadline: Jan 24
 
Instructor(s): Christopher Krebs
 
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
 
Recording Available: Yes
 
Status: Registration opens Dec 2, 8:30 am (PT)
 
Please Note: No class on February 12
 
 
What is the nature of friendship? How does it negotiate differences, and what, generally speaking, are its limits? In times of political turmoil, where do the boundaries of friendship lie? In this course, we’ll explore these timeless questions through Cicero’s famous dialogue On Friendship, written in the aftermath of Julius Caesar’s assassination. As we examine Cicero’s advice on loyalty, honor, and state duty, we’ll consider its relevance in today’s world of political conflict and social division.

Together, we’ll examine Cicero’s work in depth: its literary predecessors (including the Greek writer and statesman Xenophon), its late 2nd-century setting, and its resonances with Cicero’s life and struggles. We’ll also consider later thinkers like Michel de Montaigne, who built on Cicero’s work, asking: What do we owe our friends when their actions challenge the moral or legal order? Through lectures, readings, and discussions, students will gain insights into Cicero’s life and work, his treatise on friendship, and the ethical dilemmas that continue to trouble friendships today—and leave with a deeper understanding of loyalty, justice, and political courage.

CHRISTOPHER KREBS
Gesue and Helen Spogli Professor of Italian Studies, Professor of Classics and, by courtesy, of German Studies and of Comparative Literature, Stanford

Christopher Krebs studied Classics and philosophy in Berlin, Kiel, and Oxford and taught at Harvard before coming to Stanford. He is the author of A Most Dangerous Book: Tacitus’s Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich and Caesar: Bellum Gallicum Book VII, as well as the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Writings of Julius Caesar.