Cicero, Shakespeare, Marlowe and the Stars, Dear Brutus

Joshua B. Stein

Roger Williams University

Cicero's "The dream of Scipio" purports in part to discuss the known universe (in comparison to the known world). That even historians of the post seventeenth century world know that he got it all wrong is irrelevant.

I will show how Cicero's use of then current astronomical thought promoted his philosophical ideas of the value of the state, the value of human life, the understanding of self. I will then segue to William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlow who both used astronomy in the development of plots for their plays "Julius Caesar" and "Dr. Faustus." Time permitting I will bring this study around to our century's use of astronomy as a tool to better understand ourselves.