106 – 43 B.C.

Cicero

Worth knowing

The greatest Roman orator, consul in 63 B.C. He was killed in 43 B.C. on the orders of Mark Antony.
His Hortensius urged readers to love wisdom. It is lost, but Augustine read it at nineteen and says it turned his heart toward God (Confessions 3.4).
His On the Nature of the Gods laid out the pagan arguments about the gods, and Christian apologists such as Minucius Felix and Lactantius drew on it heavily.

In Scholar’s Dream, Cicero has one book

HortensiusCicero, Hortensius (lost; fragments only)RationalityAnthropology

Cicero’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Cicero that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“But perchance some one may ask of us the same question which Hortensius asks in Cicero: If God is one only, what solitude can be happy?”
Cicero, Hortensius — a line of the lost dialogue, quoted in Lactantius, Divine Institutes 1.7 (trans. William Fletcher, ANF 7, public domain).public domain

“I was thereby strongly roused, and kindled, and inflamed to love, and seek, and obtain, and hold, and embrace not this or that sect, but wisdom itself whatever it were; and this alone checked me thus unkindled, that the name of Christ was not in it.”
Augustine describing the Hortensius in Confessions 3.4 (trans. Pusey, 1838, public domain). His words, not Cicero’s — which is as close as the book itself now gets.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Exhortation to Wisdom

RationalityArgument · power 70 · 100% accurate

In the gameCicero wrote a book urging young men to stop chasing careers and chase wisdom instead. It worked on exactly one reader we can name, and it changed everything downstream of him.

Learned byHortensius (Lv 1)

Strong against

×2The Two Kingdomsan argument · why?

Cicero’s Hortensius set the young Augustine searching for wisdom. That search is what eventually led him out of the Manichees and to Christ.

Passages you can read in the game

Longer excerpts the Scriptorium holds on screen for a player to sit and read, word for word.

“But perchance some one may ask of us the same question which Hortensius asks in Cicero: If God is one only, what solitude can be happy?”
Cicero, Hortensius, quoted in Lactantius, Divine Institutes 1.7 (trans. Fletcher, ANF 7, public domain).

from Hortensius

“I was thereby strongly roused, and kindled, and inflamed to love, and seek, and obtain, and hold, and embrace not this or that sect, but wisdom itself whatever it were; and this alone checked me thus unkindled, that the name of Christ was not in it.”
Augustine describing the Hortensius, Confessions 3.4 (trans. Pusey, 1838, public domain). Augustine paraphrasing, not quoting — the closest thing to the book we have.

from Hortensius

Words Cicero’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”
James 1:19 (WEB).

How it works in the game: the move Steelman

RationalityType shift

In the gameRestate the foe’s position in its strongest form — exposing its true weak point. Lowers the foe’s Defend. Always fair; never a bad move to use.

Learned byHortensius (Lv 1)

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates at his trial, as Plato records it.
Plato, Apology 38a (trans. Jowett, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Socratic Question

RationalityArgument · power 50 · 100% accurate

In the gameQuestion after question until the seams show. Often finds the telling stroke.

Learned byHortensius (Lv 9)

“He who pleads his cause first seems right; until another comes and questions him.”
Proverbs 18:17 (WEB).

How it works in the game: the move Question the Premise

RationalityType shift

In the gameChallenge the foundation of an argument before it can be pressed. Lowers the foe’s Contend.

Learned byHortensius (Lv 17)

“At noon Elijah mocked them, ‘Yell louder! After all, he is a god; he may be deep in thought, or perhaps he stepped out for a moment or has taken a trip. Perhaps he is sleeping and needs to be awakened.’”
1 Kings 18:27 (NET) — the oldest sarcasm in the canon, and the warrant for every apologist who has used it since.

How it works in the game: the move Sarcasm

RationalityArgument · power 60 · 95% accurate

In the gameSay the argument back to it, straight-faced and in full, until the shape of it does the refuting. Often finds the telling stroke — and occasionally goes too far and misses.

Learned byHortensius (Lv 22)

Who else was alive

Cicero against everyone else in the game.

1050 B.C.800 B.C.550 B.C.300 B.C.50 B.C.A.D. 200A.D. 450

David Homer The prophets of Israel Herodotus Thucydides Plato Aristotle Cicero Virgil Matthew Paul John Mark Pliny the Elder Clement of Rome Ignatius An early Christian community Polycarp Claudius Ptolemy Hermas Justin Martyr Aristides Quadratus Melito Unknown authors writing under borrowed names Irenaeus The author of the Epistle to Diognetus Athenagoras Clement of Alexandria Tertullian Marcus Minucius Felix Origen Cyprian Plotinus Lactantius Eusebius Athanasius Eustathius of Sebaste Apollinaris of Laodicea Cyril of Jerusalem Epiphanius of Salamis Gregory of Nazianzus Basil of Caesarea Eunomius of Cyzicus Gregory of Nyssa Ambrose of Milan Jovinian Augustine The Macedonians Helvidius

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate52 authors sit outside this window