Cicero's dialogue "On Friendship" examines the unique value of friendship and connects the idea of being a caring and compassionate person with being a good friend. After all, if someone cared only about themselves, how could they ever be a good friend? About the author: Marcus Tullius Cicero was born in Arpinum in 106 BC. Cicero was a contemporary of Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great, although Cicero was a lawyer and a scholar, not a military leader. The years in which Cicero lived were tumult