Claim: Cicero's Paradoxa Stoicorum was written around 46 BC and dedicated to Marcus Brutus, and may not have been serious work but rhetorical exercises to classify elements that are good and not good.
Evidence: The Paradoxa Stoicorum (English: Stoic Paradoxes) is a work by the Academic Skeptic philosopher Cicero in which he attempts to explain six famous Stoic sayings that appear to go against common understanding. It was written sometime around 46 BC. The work is dedicated to Marcus Brutus. It is thought that he did not regard these essays as serious works of philosophy, but rather as rhetorical exercises. In this book Cicero presents the Stoic classifications of what elements of life are genuinely good, and what elements are not good.