The Primacy of Virtue. The Transition from De finibus to Tusculanae Disputationes 5 George Karamanolis 1 Introduction The aim of this paper is to first show that Cicero, in a manner reminiscent of Plato, continues in Tusculunae Disputationes, especially in book 5, the enquiry regarding the role of virtue in attaining happiness, which he had initially systematically carried out in De finibus. In De finibus Cicero appears to eventually suspend judgment regarding the self-sufficiency of virtue, at the end rejecting both the Stoic as well as the Antiochean ethical positions as inadequate, namely the (Stoic) position, according to which virtue alone is sufficient for happiness, and the (Antiochean) position, according to which, apart from virtue, external goods and the goods of the body contribute to happiness. In Tusculanae Disputationes, however, which is written immediately after the De finibus, 1 Cicero speaks openly in book V in favour of the Stoic position of the self-sufficiency of virtue and criticizes the positions of all other philosophical schools, including those of the Peripatetics and Antiochus. This fact alone, however, does not mean, I shall suggest, that Cicero decides to side with the Stoics on that matter. Rather, I will argue that Cicero endorses in Tusculanae 5 a position that he traces back to Plato, in dialogues such as the Protagoras, the Euthydemus and the Meno, and he does this for the philosophical reasons that he finds in these dialogues, which I will attempt to spell out. If this is the case, then Cicero operates as an academic sceptic: he critically reviews the positions of the main philosophical schools but at the end he remains unconvinced by their arguments. This brings him first to a state of aporia in De finibus, which then serves as a starting point for the further * The paper has benefited from comments I received from J. Müller and G. M. Müller and the participants of the conference Cicero Ethicus in Eichstätt and from a set of comments from Vasilis Politis. It has also benefited from the stylistic care of Anthony Croytor. 1 The De finibus was written between April and July 45BCE and the Tusculanae most probably immediately afterwards, from July/August presumably to December 45 BCE. On Cicero’s philosophical program more generally, see Hunt 1954, p. 1–12 and Powell 1995.