On Duties was Cicero`s last philosophical work.In it he made use of Greek thought to formulate the political and ethical values values of Roman Republican society as he saw them ，revealing incidentally a great deal about actual practice .Writing at a time of political crisis after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC，when it was not clear how much of the old Repulican order would survive，Cicero here handed on the insights of and elder statesman，adept at political theory and practice ，to his son，and through him to the younger generation in generation in general.

The work has often been treated merely as a key to the lost Greek works that Cicero used.This volume,containing a new annotated translation and an Introduction,as well as information on chronology,vocabulary,bibliography and persons mentioned in the text,aims to make Dc Officiis,which had such an importand influence on later masterpieces of Western political thought,more intelligible by explaining its relation to its own time and place.