Character guide

Epicurus

major

Also known as Epicurus

Epicurus stands as the great counterweight in Cicero's argument, the teacher who told his followers that pleasure rightly understood is the highest good and that death, being mere dissolution, deserves no fear. Cicero cannot dismiss him, because the Epicurean account of mortality is seductive and coherent, and it threatens to make courage and virtue unnecessary. Much of the dialogue's energy comes from Cicero's determination to beat Epicurus on his own ground, showing that freedom from fear is not the same as greatness of soul.

Socrates

major

Also known as Socrates

Socrates hovers over the whole discussion as the living demonstration of everything Cicero wants to prove about virtue and mortality. He is the philosopher who reasoned his way to death and then walked into it without panic, making his composure a harder test case than any argument. For Cicero, Socrates matters because he shows that philosophy is not a pastime but a preparation for dying, and that the examined life can produce genuine fearlessness.

Plato

supporting

Also known as Plato

Plato is the heir who turned Socrates' stubborn questioning into a body of thought that shaped every school that followed. In Cicero's hands he is both an authority to be cited and a stylistic ancestor, since the dialogue form itself descends from him. He matters to the early arc because he represents the Greek inheritance Cicero is determined to naturalize into Latin, proving Rome can think as well as conquer.

Cicero

major

Also known as Cicero

Cicero opens the work as a man stepping back from the courts and the senate, resuming studies he never truly abandoned, and addressing his friend Brutus with the confidence of a statesman who has seen power up close. His driving tension is patriotic and personal at once: he wants to prove Rome can surpass Greece in wisdom, even as his own political world contracts around him. He matters because he is both the narrator and the stake of the book, a Roman testing whether philosophy can actually steady a life under pressure.

Aristotle

supporting

Also known as Aristotle

Aristotle appears as the third great name in the Greek philosophical succession, the thinker who broke with Plato and built his own comprehensive account of nature, logic, and ethics. Cicero treats him as part of the inherited treasury of Greek learning that Rome must now absorb and rival. He matters to the early arc as evidence for Cicero's larger claim: that Greek brilliance is real, but not inimitable, and that Latin letters can stand beside it.

Zeno of Citium

supporting

Also known as Zeno the Cittiaean, Zeno

Zeno built the Stoic school on the claim that virtue alone is good and everything else, including pain and death, is indifferent. Cicero leans toward this position more than any other, yet he keeps testing it, unwilling to accept a system without examining its foundations. Zeno matters because he supplies the ethical framework the Tusculan Disputations keeps circling back to, the stern alternative to Epicurean pleasure and the closest Greek cousin to old Roman severity.

Dionysius of Heraclea

minor

Also known as Dionysius of Heraclea, Dionysius

Stoic philosopher who later abandoned Stoicism; example of inconsistency.

Caius Marius

supporting

Also known as Caius Marius, Marius

Marius haunts Cicero's argument as the supreme Roman example of a life that climbed to the Capitol and ended in the marshes, so that even his triumphs became evidence for how little death should frighten the fortunate. His career embodies the tension between glory earned and glory lost, and Cicero uses him to press the question of whether a man can lose everything and still not lose himself. For readers entering the Tusculan Disputations, Marius is the hinge on which the whole first book's case against fearing death begins to turn.

Pompey

supporting

Also known as Cn. Pompey, Pompey

Pompey stands in the dialogue as the man whose military prestige once seemed unassailable, which is precisely why his downfall carries such argumentative weight for Cicero's meditation on death and fortune. The tension he embodies is between the immense public honor a Roman could accumulate and the vulnerability that honor cannot protect against. His presence in the early books gives the discussion its political stakes: if even Pompey could be undone, what consolation does philosophy actually offer?

Theophrastus

minor

Also known as Theophrastus

Peripatetic philosopher and student of Aristotle; cited on ethical topics.

Hector

minor

Also known as Hector

Trojan prince and hero from Homer's Iliad; exemplar of courage and grief.

Homer

supporting

Also known as Homer

Homer enters the dialogue as the oldest and most authoritative of the poets, the standard against which Cicero measures Rome's late arrival to literature and the model he quotes when he wants to examine what the Greeks imagined about the dead. The tension Homer represents is between poetic grandeur and philosophical truth: his verses move the soul, but Cicero must decide how far their pictures of the underworld can be trusted. His recurring presence gives the early argument its literary texture and shows that the question of death was first raised, for Rome, in Greek song.

Diogenes the Stoic

minor

Also known as Diogenes, Diogenes the Stoic

Stoic philosopher from Babylon; teacher of Panaetius and cited on ethics.

Pythagoras

minor

Also known as Pythagoras

Pre-Socratic philosopher and mathematician; known for theory of transmigration.

Dicaearchus

minor

Also known as Dicaearchus

Peripatetic philosopher and geographer; argued against immortality of soul.

Cato the Younger

supporting

Also known as Cato, M. Cato

Cato appears in the dialogue as the living embodiment of Roman probity, a man whose censure of others carried weight because he never exempted himself, and whose Stoic convictions shaped how Cicero frames the case for virtue as its own reward. The tension he carries is between principle and political survival: his rigidity was admired and isolating in equal measure. His presence in the early books anchors the discussion in a recognizable Roman moral world, reminding readers that the argument about death is also an argument about how to live.

Brutus

supporting

Also known as Brutus, L. Brutus, O Brutus

Brutus is the named recipient of the Tusculan Disputations, the intimate whose advice drew Cicero back to philosophy after his withdrawal from the courts and the senate, and whose seriousness as a student of Greek thought makes him a worthy audience for the argument. The tension he embodies is between the contemplative life Cicero is recommending and the political life Brutus cannot abandon. His presence frames the entire book as a conversation between friends about how to face death, which gives the philosophical content its warmth and its urgency.

Demosthenes

minor

Also known as Demosthenes

Athenian orator and statesman; exemplar of eloquence and resistance to Macedon.

Hercules

minor

Also known as Hercules

Mythological hero known for his labors; symbol of endurance and virtue.

Ajax

minor

Also known as Ajax, Ajax e'er

Greek hero of the Trojan War; emblematic of madness and suicide.

Alexander the Great

minor

Also known as Alexander

Macedonian conqueror; often cited as example of ambition and mortality.

Damocles

minor

Also known as Damocles

Courtier of Dionysius II; symbol of the precariousness of power.

Philoctetes

minor

Also known as Philoctetes

Greek hero with a festering wound; exemplar of suffering and endurance.

Aristoxenus

minor

Also known as Aristoxenus

Peripatetic philosopher and music theorist; argued soul is a harmony.

Telamon

minor

Also known as Telamon

Father of Ajax; mythological figure cited in discussions of grief.

Epaminondas

minor

Also known as Epaminondas, Epaminondas the Theban

Theban general and statesman; model of military virtue and integrity.

Cleanthes

minor

Also known as Cleanthes

Second head of the Stoic school; known for his hymn to Zeus.

Archytas

minor

Also known as Archytas 9, Archytas

Pythagorean philosopher and mathematician; friend of Plato.

Carneades

minor

Also known as Carneades, Carneades the Academic

Academic skeptic philosopher; known for his arguments against Stoicism.

Themistocles

minor

Also known as Themistocles

Athenian general and statesman; architect of Greek victory at Salamis.

Achilles

minor

Also known as Achilles

Greek hero of the Iliad; exemplar of wrath and grief.

Metrodorus

minor

Also known as Metrodorus

Epicurean philosopher; close friend and disciple of Epicurus.

Democritus

minor

Also known as Democritus

Pre-Socratic philosopher; developed atomic theory of the universe.

Anacharsis

minor

Also known as the Scythian Anacharsis, Anacharsis

Scythian philosopher; known for his blunt wisdom and critique of Greek customs.

Anaxagoras

minor

Also known as Anaxagoras

Pre-Socratic philosopher; introduced nous (mind) as cosmic principle.

Posidonius

minor

Also known as Posidonius

Stoic philosopher and polymath; influential on Roman Stoicism.

Tiberius Gracchus

minor

Also known as Gracchus, Tiberius Gracchus

Roman tribune who attempted land reform; killed by political opponents.

Philo of Larissa

minor

Also known as Philo

Academic philosopher; teacher of Cicero and advocate of probabilism.

Priam

minor

Also known as Priam, old Priam

King of Troy in Homer's Iliad; symbol of tragic loss and dignity.

Eurypylus

minor

Also known as Eurypylus

Greek hero from the Trojan War; mentioned in context of pain and wounds.

L. Calpurnius Piso

minor

Also known as Piso 36, Piso, L. Calpurnius Piso

Roman consul and patron; interlocutor in Cicero's philosophical dialogues.

Theramenes

minor

Also known as Theramenes

Athenian politician and orator; known for his role in the Thirty Tyrants.

Chrysippus

minor

Also known as Chrysippus

Third head of the Stoic school; systematized Stoic logic and ethics.

Crantor

minor

Also known as Crantor

Academic philosopher; wrote on grief and consolation, cited by Cicero.

Theseus

minor

Also known as Theseus

Mythical king of Athens; exemplar of heroism and civic duty.

Laelius

minor

Also known as Laelius

Roman statesman and friend of Scipio; interlocutor in Cicero's dialogues.

Panaetius

minor

Also known as Panaetius, Pauaestius

Stoic philosopher who introduced Stoicism to Rome; influenced Cicero.

Euripides

minor

Also known as Euripides

Greek tragedian; his plays are frequently quoted for emotional depth.

Ulysses

minor

Also known as Ulysses

Greek hero of the Odyssey; symbol of cunning and endurance.

Scipio Africanus

minor

Also known as Africanus

Roman general who defeated Hannibal; model of Roman virtue.

M. Crassus

minor

Also known as M. Crassus, Miserable M. Crassus, Crassus

Roman general and politician; member of the First Triumvirate.

Clitomachus

minor

Also known as Clitomachus, the Larissaean of Clitomachus

Academic philosopher; student of Carneades and head of the Academy.

Tarquin the Proud

minor

Also known as Tarquin the Proud, Tarquin

Last king of Rome; symbol of tyranny and exile.

Hegesias

minor

Also known as Hegesias

Cyrenaic philosopher; advocated suicide as escape from pain.

Menoeceus

minor

Also known as Menoeceus

Theban prince who sacrificed himself; exemplar of patriotic suicide.

Alcibiades

minor

Also known as Alcibiades

Athenian general and politician; known for his charisma and treachery.

Xenocrates

minor

Also known as Xenocrates

Academic philosopher; third head of Plato's Academy.

Simonides

minor

Also known as Simonides, The Simonides

Greek lyric poet; known for his epitaphs and wisdom literature.

Archimedes

minor

Also known as Archimedes

Greek mathematician and inventor; symbol of intellectual absorption.

Agamemnon

minor

Also known as King Agamemnon, Agamemnon

King of Mycenae and leader of the Greek forces at Troy.

Sophocles

minor

Also known as Sophocles

Greek tragedian; author of Oedipus Rex and Antigone.

Prometheus

minor

Also known as Prometheus

Titan who gave fire to humanity; symbol of suffering for knowledge.

Antiochus of Ascalon

minor

Also known as Antiochus

Academic philosopher who moved toward Stoicism; teacher of Cicero.

Appius Claudius Caecus

minor

Also known as Appius, Appius Caecus, old Appius, Claudius, Appius Claudius Caecus

Roman censor and statesman; builder of the Appian Way.

Hieronymus of Rhodes

minor

Also known as Hieronymus the Rhodian, Hieronymus

Peripatetic philosopher; known for his ethical writings.

Isocrates

minor

Also known as Isocrates

Athenian rhetorician and educator; influential on Cicero's style.

Lycurgus

minor

Also known as Lycurgus

Legendary lawgiver of Sparta; model of austere legislation.

Solon

minor

Also known as Solon, the wise Solon

Athenian lawgiver and poet; founder of democratic institutions.

Xenophon

minor

Also known as Xenophon

Athenian historian and soldier; student of Socrates and author.

Aristippus

minor

Also known as Aristippus

Cyrenaic philosopher; founder of hedonistic school of thought.

Diodorus the Stoic

minor

Also known as Diodorus, Diodorus the Stoic

Stoic philosopher; known for his logical paradoxes.

Heraclitus

minor

Pre-Socratic philosopher; known for doctrine of flux and fire.

Empedocles

minor

Pre-Socratic philosopher; proposed four elements and love/strife.

Protagoras

minor

Sophist philosopher; famous for 'man is the measure of all things'.

Gorgias

minor

Sicilian sophist and rhetorician; known for his nihilistic philosophy.

Thales

minor

Pre-Socratic philosopher; first to propose water as fundamental substance.

Anaximenes

minor

Pre-Socratic philosopher; proposed air as the primary substance.

Diogenes of Sinope

minor

Cynic philosopher; known for his ascetic lifestyle and biting wit.