Histories of the late Republic and biographies of Cicero have
previously tended to treat political and cultural developments as
essentially separate. In Cicero and the End of the Roman Republic,
Thomas Wiedemann takes a fresh approach, looking at Cicero's literary
works in the context of his public life, and of contemporary political
and social issues.

Wiedemann explores Cicero's role in the
creation of a new and effective ‘Roman' cultural identity demanded by
the process of Italian unification and the consequent collapse of the
old Republican party system.