ht embracing stoicism would cure his worldly pains. Namely the loss of his daughter Tullia, whom he obviously loved very much. Equally stoicism may have given him escape during his time of exile from Rome. But early stoics had certain fundamental traits of comportment, which in some instances of his life, Cicero as a roman and a person abolished. One trait at practice was the stoics aversion to violence stoics as Cicero also shared this disgust. In addition stoics also avoided and scorned personal glory. However Cicero had a very different demeanor towards this type of behavior. The quest for glory on a national and personal level was a widely held feature of roman disposition. It was intensely present within Cicero's temperament, the posterity of his and his family name was an abnormally great desire. Cicero's family name was relatively unfamiliar in Rome. Plutarch tells of a tale which although may be untrue conveys the right idea of Cicero's desire for glory;12 "Cicero himself is said to have given a lively reply to his friends on one occasion. When he first entered politics, they said he ought to drop or change the name. He said that he would do his best to make the name Cicero more famous than names like Scaurus or Catulus. (Plutarch, life of Cicero I)13 In a letter to his son Cicero admitted that sometimes his sentiment for glory and tradition provided a better direction than the life of philosophy. " One should know what philosophy teaches, but live like a gentleman."14 Cicero displayed an air of Roman vanity, which denies him of being a true early stoic. As such Cicero's aspirations are of a Roman political life, not that of a stoic good life. Cicero either consciously or accidentally, permanently changed early stoicism into its later identity; middle stoicism. Cicero did not agree to everything stoicism taught, he sought to accept what had merit and what was true to him. At times this proved to contradict Cicero's ideas, he was...
