Scipio Africanus the Younger and his friends, gathered over a holiday, debate the best form of government and trace Rome’s constitution from its kings to the republic. Long known only in fragments, much of the dialogue was recovered from a palimpsest in the Vatican Library by Angelo Mai; this 1829 American translation by G. W. Featherstonhaugh followed soon after.
Read it beside Plato’s Republic to see how a Roman statesman answered the Greek. Download the free EPUB.