CICERO’S USE OF THE CONCEPT OF <i>PRUDENTIA</i> FOR DESIGNATION OF THE VIRTUE OF WISDOM
The article aims at analysing the peculiarities of Cicero’s use of the concept of prudentia to denote the virtue of wisdom. This concept is a Latin technical term for the Stoic virtue of wisdom and is used by Cicero more than 270 times (for comparison, the concept of sapientia occurs about 300 times, scientia - about 200, cognitio - about 150). Cicero’s prudentia is a virtue that is exclusive, superior, useful, and genuine. Prudence (prudentia) is possessed by philosophers, ancestors, elderly people, relatives, gods, kings, pontifices, senators, magistrates, judges, orators, eminent Romans. According to statistics, prudentia is most often used in the same context with words associated with the semantic field “virtue” (virtus, justitia, temperantia, scientia, fortitudo, benevolentia, sapientia, etc.) and “mental activities” (consilium, ratio, ingenium, mens, etc.). We can also find the joint use of prudentia with its antonyms stultitia, calliditas, and malitia.