The classics heavily influenced many aspects of European modern culture, yet it is not easy to trace their intellectual power on any author. In this volume, Gloria Vivenza takes on the impressive task of examining how philosophy, history, literature, politics, ethics all played a part in shaping Adam Smith’s thought as a scholar, philosopher and economist. This book will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in the history of economic thought, the history of philosophy, moral philosophy, political theory and the Enlightenment.

This book defines the relationship between the thought of Adam Smith and that of the ancients---Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and the Stoics. Vivenza offers a complete survey of all Smith's writings with the aim of illustrating how classical arguments shaped opinions and scholarship in the eighteenth century.