Cicero Anti-Catillin, Mural, 1881, Cesare Maccari
The republic is the foundation, but for Cicero, what does it actually mean? At the very least, a stable government that respects the law and precedent. The republic prospers when the government is arranged by free aristocratic debate; when violence or bribery controls honor and policy, the republic is lost.
The content of Cicero's political thought is precisely determined by his experience, and the most profound is the constant civil war he experienced. As he saw, in the heyday of the Senate, aristocratic debates determined foreign policy and internal disputes, and military glory was a reward for those who fought against the enemies of Rome. Now, the leaders of the city-states began to use their private armies to fight each other, and thus against Rome. Cicero's ideological response was to analyse the factors that gave him stability and peace in the traditional form of government and to diagnose and treat their shortcomings.
The resulting moral and political theories were rooted in at least four specific aspects in the social context of the time:
(1) Analysis of political change
Cicero inherited the Greek tradition that political upheaval was a terrible thing, and the events he experienced confirmed this. From Aristotle (perhaps indirectly), he learned that political stability requires a complementary balance of different interest groups. Like Plato (and Roman historiography), he conducted a moral analysis of decline. But it was different from his moral diagnosis of the failure of the Roman aristocratic elite. It was the duty of this class to serve the public and, above all, to make wise proposals, but they were tempted to win glory through war. Cicero's task, therefore, was to recombine the system of ambition and patriotic virtue.
(2) Republican centrism
In Cicero's theory, the central role of patriotism is the original development of political thought. The function of justice is to preserve society, especially the society of the republic. Other virtues are conditioned by it. The virtues of the individual are manifested in the goodness of society (I believe that this conclusion can still hold even if the section of On the Republic on the discussion of psychology is handed down). In Roman law and political speech, it was common knowledge to appeal to the values that preclude the Republic, and the emergency law passed by the Senate even provided a constitutional mechanism to substantiate them. Cicero exploited this traditional sentiment, making it the core of his system of ethics.
Cicero bust, 1st century BC, in the Museum of the Temple of Jupiter
(3) The essence of the Republic
The republic is the foundation, but for Cicero, what does it actually mean? At the very least, a stable government that respects the law and precedent. But that's a widely shared idea. Cicero's preoccupation with the role of the Senate gave his republicanism a special flavor. The republic prospers when the government is arranged by free aristocratic debate; when violence or bribery controls honor and policy, the republic is lost.
Thus, Cicero was interested in a thoroughly Roman concept of dignity, authority, advice, and oratory. At the same time, Cicero did not ignore the role of the people. They also have the appropriate freedoms, and ignoring these will lead to disaster. But they should be combined into a system of government dominated by the nobility through the election of officials (and therefore the right to enter the Senate).
(4) Rome as the most ideal republic
Plato's ideal city-state exists in the imagination; Aristotle's collective form of government is imperfect. By making the heyday Roman Republic the embodiment of the finest polity that could have existed; Cicero romanized the Platonic tradition from within. This is what theory can describe, but only experience can create city-states and politicians. Cicero's exaggerated patriotism inspired him to adopt a prominent, non-platonic attitude of trust in historical and empirical sources in his political discussions.
In short, Cicero's thinking on the extension of social and political issues is entirely determined by contemporary events. The Civil War taught Cicero that he could only unconditionally support the Roman nobility's passionate pursuit of glory and could not endorse the Greek philosophers' contempt for it. In addition, the dissatisfaction of the people shows that the public defender has an important position for the stability of the political system. Just as his personal letters and public speeches show the influence of philosophy on his imagination, his theoretical creations show that his ideas are closely related to the realities of political life. As a result, his works of political philosophy became outright political actions (which is why it is sometimes dangerous to publish them). Greek philosophy provided him with the tools of theoretical analysis, and Rome provided him with raw materials.
Fresco of Cicero in Reading, Vincenzo Foppa, 1646
This is not to say that Cicero's practice is consistent with his theory, that his political judgments have always been inconsistent, and that what he has shown in the end hastened the demise of the Republic. Nor do I mean to argue whether his theory is anachronistic, because he did not provide practical remedies for the ills of that era.
The Empire had long since exceeded the dominance of the noisy, rival aristocratic governments, and moral education, no matter how noble, could not turn back the clock. But the final coercion of the monarchy came at the cost of brutal war and ruthless annihilation of the enemy. While it is naïve to offer an alternative strategy for the restoration and maintenance of peace, it is certain that it is not worthless.
The individualized, philosophical spirit of the Roman Republic expressed by Cicero, especially through the influence of On Duty, will have a lasting charm. Those who do not understand the specific purpose of Cicero's theory will also recognize the permanent nature of the themes of patriotism and public service, courage and ambition, giving and friendship, in a word, the moral themes of aristocratic politics and war. The elite of the ruling clique of the Roman Republic were fully familiar with such problems. Under the pressure of contemporary crises, Cicero revised and demonstrated their insights in detail so that future generations could reuse them.
(This article is excerpted from the epilogue to Chapter 24 of the Cambridge History of Greco-Roman Political Thought, Cambridge, the Commercial Press.) ）
The Death of Cicero, France, 15th century
The Cambridge History of Greco-Roman Political Thought is the first comprehensive and comprehensive study of ancient Greco-Roman political thought in the English-speaking world, beginning with Homer and ending in the late Classical period, ending with Christian and pagan reflections on the divine and human order. The subject is the study of Plato, Aristotle, and a range of other thinkers, important or minor—poets, historians, and philosophers—while highlighting their individuality through a wide range of arguments. On the one hand, the book examines the ancient context in which many ideas find themselves; on the other hand, it explores the ideological systems that these ideas make up. These ideas still reverberate in modern times, or have always been the object of concern, so this fast-moving work will long be a convenient and authoritative guide for the study of Greek and Roman thinking about governance and community, and then truly understand the Western political ideology and its development.
chief editor:
Christopher Rowe, Professor of Greek in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University, UK, specializes in the history of ancient Greek philosophy and classical philology, best known for his studies of Aristotle and Plato.
Malcolm Schofield is a Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge, professor of ancient philosophy, whose main research areas are ancient political thought and Cicero philosophy.
translator:
Yan Shaoxiang is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of History of Capital Normal University, the vice president and secretary general of the Chinese World Ancient medieval history research association, and the president of the ancient history professional committee of the Chinese World Ancient medieval history research association. His research interests include the ancient history of the world, especially the history of the classical world, and the evolution of the classical tradition in the Western world.