"Cicero's On the Commonwealth and On the Laws were his first and most substantial attempts to adapt Greek theories of political life to the circumstances of the Roman Republic. They represent Cicero's understanding of government and remain his most important works of political philosophy. On the Commonwealth survives only in part, and On the Laws was never completed. The new edition of this volume has been revised throughout to take account of recent scholarship, and features a new introduction, a new bibliography, a chronological table and a biographical index. James E. G. Zetzel offers a scholarly reconstruction of the fragments of On the Commonwealth and a masterly translation of both dialogues. The texts are further supported by notes and synopsis, designed to assist students in politics, philosophy, ancient history, law and classics"-- "Cicero's On the Commonwealth (De re publica) and On the Laws (De legibus) represent the most significant surviving contribution to political thought in the 700+ years between the death of Aristotle and Augustine's City of God. They are ambitious and complex works, difficult to interpret not merely because so little survives of the Hellenistic philosophy on which Cicero drew, but because we possess only parts of them: On the Commonwealth is fragmentary, and perhaps a third of it is still extant, while On the Laws not only survives only in part (three books out of at least five), but was apparently left unfinished at Cicero's death. The goal of this introduction is to offer some background for reading these texts and some explanation of their form, structure, and arguments"--