In this close examination of the social and political thought of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Neal Wood focuses on Cicero's conceptions of state and government, showing that he is the father of constitutionalism, the archetype of the politically conservative mind, and the first to reflect extensively on politics as an activity.

Neal Wood is Professor of Political Science at York University. His most recent books are The Politics of Locke's Philosophy (California, 1983) and John Locke and Agrarian Capitalism (California, 1984).

"Neal Wood's new study comes as a compelling invitation to give Cicero once again the attention he deserves in our account of the history of political ideas."—John Nicholson, Classical Outlook

"An important study, not simply because it is the first of its kind but because it presents the complex character of this scholar-politician and the relation of his life to his writings in greater depth than any recent study. . . . It is the constant temptation of Cicero scholarship to simplify this complex figure, a temptation too often indulged in recent decades. Neal Wood's study is a quantum improvement over the one-dimensional portrayals of the past."—J. Jackson Barlow, American Political Science Review

"Cicero's attraction for Neal Wood lies in his influence on later Western political philosophy—Augustine, Bodin, Locke, Montesquieu—and especially in his unashamed defense of private property and economic individualism as part of a theory of state (the contemporary relevance is patent)."—Andrew Lintott, Times Higher Education Supplement