1 1 My dear son Marcus, you have now been studying a full year under Cratippus, and that too in Athens, and you should be fully equipped with the practical precepts and the principles of philosophy; so much at least one might expect from the pre-eminence not only of your teacher but also of the city; the former is able to enrich you with learning, the latter to supply you with models.
Cicero makes a couple of claims here that strike me as interesting. First - that a year is enough time to get the practical precepts and principles of Philosophy. If that’s true, than what is the use of writing this letter?
More importantly, the role of the city in the education of a philosopher. Ultimately, he refers to the men of the city who have set examples in the past, assumedly. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle - these are the men whom Cicero must mean. They are part of the city; but today, do we celebrate New York because it was the home of Roosevelt, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt? I think we celebrate it, instead, because of the culture there, not the individuals. I moved to Brooklyn, and as far as I can remember, no one suggested that it was the people in New York who would provide me with models for better living; if anything, it was assumed I would be more dissolute there by being unable to enjoy the outdoors.
Nevertheless, just as I for my own improvement have always combined Greek and Latin studies — and I have done this not only in the study of philosophy but also in the practice of oratory — so I recommend that you should do the same, so that you may have equal command of both languages. And it is in this very direction that I have, if I mistake not, rendered a great service to our countrymen, so that not only those who are unacquainted with Greek literature but even the cultured consider that they have gained much both in oratorical power and in mental training.
2 You will, therefore, learn from the foremost of present-day philosophers, and you will go on learning as long as you wish; and your wish ought to continue as long as you are not dissatisfied with the progress you are making. For all that, if you will read my philosophical books, you will be helped; my philosophy is not very different from that of the Peripatetics (for both they and I claim to be followers of Socrates and Plato). As to the conclusions you may reach, I leave that to your own judgment (for I would put no hindrance in your way), but by reading my philosophical p5 writings you will be sure to render your mastery of the Latin language more complete. But I would by no means have you think that this is said boastfully. For there are many to whom I yield precedence in the knowledge of philosophy; but if I lay claim to the orator's peculiar ability to speak with propriety, clearness, elegance, I think my claim is in a measure justified, for I have spent my life in that profession.