The influence of Cicero on John Adams

Abstract

In the United States of America we recently commemorated the 350th anniversary of the birth of the study of Latin and Greek in North America. Despite the distance :from the great centers of classical learning in Europe, and the complete absence Of relics of the Roman (not to mention the Greek) presence in our landscape, the classical curriculum was imported and speedily naturalized with the founding of th~ Boston Latin School in 1635 an Harvard College in Cambridge in 1636. The memory of Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare, King Jaines I and the King Jarp.es Bible were still :fresh to the American pioneers, and they carried witli them in their intellectual baggage across the Atlantic Ocean the models of the European educational system. This curriculum had at its core in the colonial grammar schools and colleges the study of the Latin and Greek languages, literatures and antiquities. In this country, :from its beginnings until the early 19th Century, besides the Bible, stood what some called the Sacred ( 1 ). The aims of this learning were to expose students to classical authors :from whomthey could derive useful knowledge. And among these selected Classics in early America Cicero took pride of place in the admiration of many liberally educated men as model authority for diction and style, as orator, lawyer, political theorist, letter writer, and guide to private and public virtue. As role model in the political arena Cicero was also idealized as a sort of secular saint for his patriotism, devotion to the Roman Republic, and opposition to tyranny (2). Despite the powerful impact of Cicero on many early Americans, little clarification of this pervasive influence was hot made until quite recently. In 1950 Bruno Weil in preparation for a book commemorating