TFG went from being #Cicero to #Catiline over the span of only 4 years.
Even the founders educated by the #ScottishEnlightenment and protagonists of the #American Revolution would been incredulous he ate the whole wheel of cheese, they’d have been amazed.
The first alleged nonagricultural use of the word "culture" occurred in the Tusculanae Disputationes, a text on Greek philosophy. Penned by Cicero around 45 B.C., it used the phrase "cultura animi" to suggest the psyche could be cultivated in the same manner as a grapevine: through strategic care and attention. He developed this concept during his withdrawal from public life. Tullia, his only daughter, had died after giving birth to her second son, and, overwhelmed by emotion, Cicero disappeared from Roman high society. He escaped to his villa in Tusculum, or more specifically, to its library, where he immersed himself in Greek classics. It was widely known that Tullia was his favorite child, and without her he wasn't sure how to exist. His only recourse was to study, searching for methodologies that would enable him to confront his pain. But, of course, he knew such an endeavor, even as he undertook it, was bound to fail. He wrote to his friend Atticus, "My sorrow defeats all consolation."