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Topica (Aristotle)
Aristotle's Topics
also: Topica Aristotelea, Topics of Aristotle
Aristotle's treatise on dialectical commonplaces (topoi), the model on which Cicero based his own Topica for Trebatius (Fam. 7.19).
Reading notes
- Ad Familiares 7.19 §1 I set about composing the \textit{Topics} of Aristotle
Cicero composed his own Topica for Trebatius on the voyage of 44 BC, modelling it on Aristotle's Topics, the treatise on dialectical commonplaces; he claims (with some exaggeration) to have written it from memory while at sea.
- Topics: To Gaius Trebatius §1 Stirred by the title
Aristotle's Topics, his treatise on dialectical argument from commonplaces. Cicero's own Topica shares only the title and the governing idea: in practice it is an independent, largely Stoic-influenced and Roman-legal handbook, not a summary of Aristotle's work, which Cicero claims to have reconstructed from memory on shipboard.