Written in the fall of 44 BCE, not long after the assassination of Julius Caesar, Cicero’s De Officiis represents a summary of some of the maturest and most influential ethical and political thought of classical antiquity. Students can easily find translations and commentaries elsewhere; this edition specifically aims at making the original Latin more accessible to those who are still striving to acquire facility in the language. It presents the entire text of De Officiis in Acceleration Reader format to facilitate the practice of the particular sequential acts of comprehension that establish reading mastery in Latin. The typographical isolation of chunks or units of meaning greatly supports a phrase-based approach to language acquisition. A convenient ereader version such as this can serve as an inexpensive, easily portable textbook for college courses, but its contents also offer all readers of the language an easy “on-ramp” to the authentic classical Latin of this highly influential ancient text. Small format ereaders also make it possible to create "bilingual editions" on the spot with any given translation in any language, as they can be held next to the version of choice. The length of this text is approximately 34,000 Latin words. It is intended to support language-proficiency rather than advanced philological analysis.
