How to Win an Election

A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice (8/5/2012) "Were he alive today, no doubt, Quintus would be making big bucks as a political consultant... Speaking to us from a distance of more than two millenniums, Quintus Cicero's words are incisive and revelatory: They remind us that, when it comes to that strange beast known as politics, human nature hasn't changed very much since then. The past, that's right, isn't even past."--Nick Owchar, Los Angeles Times "How to Win an Election ... is a timely new edition for the US 2012 campaign... Most reviewers of How to Win an Election have been struck by its modernity."--Mary Beard, New York Review of Books "Two thousand years ago, Quintus Tullius Cicero gave his elder brother, Marcus, an unusually frank guide to winning votes--and, on the principle that democracy's brutal essentials have changed little over the centuries, Princeton University Press has now brought out How to Win an Election... [The book] shows that a campaigner's concerns have remained just as constant as the debate about whether any democracy is ever democratic enough."--Peter Stothard, Wall Street Journal "Just in time for the primaries and the big showdown in November comes the wisdom of the ancients, in this case from Quintus Tullius Cicero, younger brother of Marcus, the greatest ancient Roman orator--perhaps the greatest of all time--who, more than two thousand years ago, ran for the highest office in the Roman Republic."--Steve Levingston, WashingtonPost.com's Political Bookworm blog "The pamphlet of Quintus Cicero is filled with savvy political soundbites, still relevant today... Some things never change."--Maggie Galehouse, HoustonChronicle.com's Bookish blog "[Quintus Cicero's] How to Win an Election is a quick, punchy, and thoroughly entertaining read, cleanly translated by Philip Freeman, chairman of the classics department at Luther College."--John Kass, Chicago Tribune "The advice holds up. These candidates must have classics scholars on staff, because a close read of Cicero reveals they're following his counsel."--David Weigel, Slate "Besides the fact that this small book contains such time-worn advice as 'promise everything to everybody' to the value of being a social chameleon, I learned that sexual scandals were fodder for upending an opponent's political campaign even as far back as 64 B.C. Well, as they say, mutatione rerum magis, tanto magis stetisse ('the more things change, the more they stay the same'), or something like that."--Guardian.co.uk's GrrlScientist blog "I just hope my opponent in the next campaign doesn't get a copy."--James Carville, Foreign Affairs "There is solace at hand in this little book, which takes only a few minutes to read... Translated (the Latin text appears on facing pages) and put in context by Philip Freeman, whose biography of Julius Caesar was widely praised, the letter is cynical, worldly wise, and oddly reassuring."--John Wilson, Christianity Today "One of the more entertaining books of this campaign season comes to us from 2,000 years ago... [C]icero's memo accurately describes today's politics."--Joshua Rothman, Boston Globe's Ideas page blog Brainiac "The release of [How to Win an Election] was no doubt timed to coincide with this year's U.S. presidential election and as campaigning unfolds it's hard not to see some of Quintus' advice in practice... This text has an almost whimsical quality and bluntly lays out what has been all but established practice in politics for--as the book proves--millennia."--Prague Post "A quick and fairly broad sketch of Roman politics in Cicero's era."--Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed "Candidates, voters and dedicated observers of this vaunted political ritual would do well

Philip Freeman is the author of many books, including Oh My Gods: A Modern Retelling of Greek and Roman Myths, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar (all Simon & Schuster). He received his PhD from Harvard University and holds the Qualley Chair of Classical Languages at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.

Introduction vii A Note on the Translation xxiii How to Win an Election 1 The Results of the Election 87 Glossary 89 Further Reading 97