Cicero writes about his own experience with friendship. Cicero ponders the meaning of this friendship by using the relationship between Scipio Aemilianus and Laelius to expound his views. Laelius' speech comprises the most part and is instigated by the death of his best friend Scipio and he expresses how he could bear the loss, and explicates his grounds for bereavement. He enumerates what qualities make for good friends, explains what characteristics expose a bad friend, and provides examples from his personal life. Throughout the book, Cicero emphasizes the importance of virtue in friendship and how true friendship cannot exist without it. He writes this philosophy in the style of early Greek philosophers to get to the bottom of the concept of friendship, while presenting his case straightforwardly and in a way that resonates in each of us through human understanding.