On Obligations

Cicero’s De Officiis, written as a letter to his son in 44 BC in the months after Caesar’s assassination and shortly before Cicero’s own: what duty requires, how the honourable relates to the expedient, and why he held that the two could not finally conflict. On Obligations is P. G. Walsh’s Oxford World’s Classics title for the work; it also circulates in English as On Duties.

Why it’s on the list: It is assigned in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy with Diogenes Laertius, Plutarch’s Essays and Boethius — the Roman practical end of a course otherwise spent on the Greek schools, and the text in which a working politician tries to say what the philosophy obliges him to do.

Where I saw it: Assigned in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy on the University of Austin’s Fall 2025 reading list — “65 Texts Our Students Are Reading”, 65 assigned texts across 12 courses, shared by @uaustinorg on November 13 2025 and saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Books To Read”. The full curriculum is transcribed on UATX Fall Reading List.

Connections

• UATX Fall Reading List — the curriculum this was assigned in.
• The University of Austin — the institution whose course list this is.
• Cicero — the author.
• Stoicism — the framework he is working within.
• Classics
• Human Nature