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What Would Stoics Do

Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE

Tusculan Disputations 5 ¶53 — Cicero (on the Stoics)

From “Whether Virtue Alone Be Sufficient for a Happy Life”

Translation by C. D. Yonge (1853)

Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 5 ¶53

Note: Spoken by Cicero’s listener (“A.”), not by Cicero — the reply follows in the next passage.

A. What, when in torments and on the rack?
— Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 5 ¶53 · tr. C. D. Yonge (1853)Read in context →

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Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 5 ¶53, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853)

https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/tusculan-disputations/5.53

Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences

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In plain English

AI-written notes

A one-line objection in the dialogue asking whether the wise person can really be happy even while being tortured on the rack.

Older wording

“the rack”
— a medieval torture device that stretches the body

Themes and situations

  • Virtue and character
  • Adversity and hardship
  • Pleasure and pain

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Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 5 ¶53, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853)