Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE) was an important Roman statesman, orator, and philosopher. His many letters to his friends, associates, and family members are a precious witness to life in first-century-BCE Rome. Yelena Baraz is the Kennedy Foundation Professor of Latin Language and Literature at Princeton University and director of the Princeton Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts. Her books include Cicero: A Very Short Introduction and A Written Republic: Cicero's Philosophical Politics (Princeton).