Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, On the Nature of the Gods, and On the Commonwealth

spoke against him. This, as you know, is the old Socratic method Named after Socrates, who used a question-and-answer technique to uncover truth. of arguing against another’s opinion, for Socrates thought that truth would be more easily reached this way. But to give you a better notion of our disputations, I will not merely send you an account of them, but represent them to you as they were carried out. Therefore, let the introduction be as follows:

A. To me, death seems to be an evil.
M. What, to those who are already dead, or to those who must die?
A. To both.
M. It is a misery, then, because it is an evil?
A. Certainly.
M. Then those who have already died, and those who have still yet to die, are both miserable?
A. So it appears to me.
M. Then all are miserable?
A. Everyone.
M. And, indeed, if you wish to be consistent, all who are already born, or ever shall be, are not only miserable, but always will be so. If you maintain that only those who are currently dying are miserable, you would not exempt anyone living, for all must die. But there should be an end to misery in death. But seeing that the dead are supposedly miserable, we are born to eternal misery, for those who died a hundred thousand years ago must consequently be miserable—or rather, all who have ever been born.
A. So, indeed, I think.
M. Tell me, I beseech you, are you afraid of the three-headed Cerberus The multi-headed dog guarding the entrance to the underworld. in the shades below, the roaring waves of the Cocytus A river of wailing in the underworld., the passage over the Acheron A river of woe in the underworld., and Tantalus A figure in Greek mythology punished with eternal thirst while standing in water he cannot drink. expiring with thirst while the water touches his chin? And Sisyphus A figure in Greek mythology forced to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity., who sweats with arduous toil in vain / The steepy summit of the mount to gain? Perhaps, too, you dread the inexorable judges, Minos and Rhadamanthus Judges of the dead in the underworld., before whom neither L. Crassus Lucius Licinius Crassus, a famous Roman orator. nor M. Antonius Marcus Antonius the Orator, a Roman statesman. can defend you, and where, since the case lies before Grecian judges, you will not even be able to employ Demosthenes The greatest Greek orator.? You must plead for yourself.