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Cicero

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Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Country Roman Republic
Title Consul (63 BC.)
Military Rank saluted imperator
Honors Pater Patriae
Other functions Quaestor
Aedile
Praetor
Biography
Birth 3 January 106 BC. AD
Arpinum
Deaths December 7, 1943 Ave. AD
Formia
Child Marcus Tullius Cicero
and
Helvia
Spouse Terentia ( -79 to -46 )
Published ( -46 to -45 )
Children Tullia
Marcus

Cicero (in Latin born 3 January 106 BC. AD at Arpinum in Italy and murdered on 7 December 43 BC. AD in Formia , is a statesman Roman and Roman author.

Remarkable orator, he published an abundant production considered a model of the classical Latin phrase, which most of us came. If he is proud to have saved the Roman Republic of Catiline , his political life was variously assessed and commented: intellectual adrift in the middle of a rat race, come mounted Italian in Rome, versatile opportunist, "a passive instrument of the monarchy "rampant Pompey and then Caesar by Theodor Mommsen and Jerome Carcopino .

Cicero was sent to Rome to study law and has particular faculty's most famous jurists of the time, Scaevola. These studies are accompanied by a law firm philosophical training, with the academician Philo of Larissa (at a time when the New Academy was still marked by skepticism and probabilistic Carneades ) and from the Stoic Diodotus . Like all young citizens of Rome, Cicero did his military service to 17 years: it is under the command of Pompeius Strabo , father of the Great Pompey , during the Social War , it was probably at this time that he became acquainted with Pompey. Demobilized at the end of the war in 81 BC. BC, he returned to his law studies.

Cicero made a debut as a lawyer in 81 BC. AD with the Pro Quinctio (problem of succession). In 79 BC. BC, he delivered the Pro Roscio Amerino , he tackles a freedman of the Roman dictator Sulla , feeling supported by the nobility. He won the case but finds it more prudent to move away some time in Rome. That's why he left his training in Greece , from 79 to 77 BC. AD: There follows in particular the teaching of Antiochus of Ascalon (Academician eclectic successor of Philo of Larissa, also marked by the doctrines of Aristotelian and Stoic ), Zeno and Phaedrus (Epicurean) in Athens , the learned Stoic Posidonius of Apamea (Posidonius) in 78-77 BC. AD and rhetorician Molon in Rhodes . It is also in Athens he befriends Atticus , which remain one of his main correspondents correspondence. At the end of this training period, both as intellectual and philosophical oratory, Cicero returns to Rome, where he married Terentia , which gives him a daughter, Tullia , and a son, Marcus shortly before his consulate . Cicero resumed his activity as a business lawyer, which maintains its reputation and develops relations .

Beginnings in politics

Having reached the minimum age of 30 years to apply to magistrates , Cicero launches into the political career: in 75 BC he began the course honorum by being elected Quaestor , a position he held at Lilybaeum in Sicily West and opens its admission to the Senate. He acquired his fame in August 70 BC defending the Sicilians in their case against Verres , a former propraetor of Sicily which is involved in corruption cases, and has established a system of pillage of works Art : While trying Glasses buying voters to defeat the nomination of Cicero to the municipal administration , , it collects a lot of evidence in Sicily while being elected aedile: in August 1970 The accusation by Cicero is so vigorous and sustained by an impressive parade of prosecution witnesses as glass, which will nevertheless be defended by the greatest orator of the time (the famous Hortensius ), went into exile in Marseille immediately after the first speech (the actio prima) Cicero still publish all the speeches he has planned (the Verrines ) to establish its reputation as a lawyer committed against corruption .

After this event that truly marks its entry into the judicial and political life, Cicero follows the steps of the curriculum as honorum aedile in 69 BC. Sicilians thank him by donations in kind, it uses the food supply of Rome, thus lowering the price of wheat, and increasing its popularity . He became praetor in 66 BC : he defends this year the bill of tribune of the plebs Manilius, who moved to appoint Pompey chief commander of operations of the East against Mithridates VI , his speech lege of Manilia thus marks a move away from the Conservative Party of optimates , who are opposed to this project. From this time, Cicero thinks embody a third way in politics, that of "good men" (viri boni), between the conservatism of optimates and "reformism" increasingly radical populares ; yet, 66 av. BC to 63 BC , the emergence of figures like Caesar and Catiline in the camp of the populares , who advocate radical reforms, led Cicero to get closer optimates.

The glorious year 63 BC. AD

Now close to the Conservative party, Cicero was elected consul against Catiline for the year 63 BC. AD with tips of his brother Quintus Tullius Cicero - it is the First Consul homo novus for over thirty years (with no elected consul among his ancestors), which turned some " Nobles .

During his consulship he objects to the revolutionary tribune Rullus to constitute a committee of ten members with extensive powers, and the massive subdivision of the ager publicus. Cicero wins the neutrality of his colleague the consul Antonius Hybrida friend of Catiline and supportive of the project by assigning the burden of proconsul of Macedonia to be occupied the following year . His speech De lege agraria contra Rullum gets the rejection of this proposal.

To protect the sourcing of Rome and secure its port Ostia threats from hackers, Cicero launches repairs of walls and doors of Ostia , to be completed by Clodius Pulcher in 58 BC. AD .

Unmasks Cicero Catiline table Cesare Maccari (1840-1919)
"They all left the bench where he sat"
(Plutarch, Life of Cicero, XVI)

Catiline, having again failed to consular elections in October 63 BC. AD , is preparing a coup, which is informed by Cicero leakage . On 8 November he violently Catiline apostrophe in the middle session of the Senate often quoted the first sentence of the exordium of the first Catiline Orations : Quo usque tandem abutere, Catiline, patientia nostra? ("How long, Catiline, abuse- you for our patience? "), and in this same way - although this is not the only place in Cicero's work - found the proverbial O tempora! O mores! "(What a time! What manners!). Discovered, Catiline leaves Rome to foment an insurrection in Etruria , entrusting the execution of his accomplices coup in Rome. The next day, Cicero informs and reassures the crowd by delivering his second Roman Catiline Orations, and promised amnesty to rebels who give up their criminal plans. Then he manages to push through the Roman Senate a consultum ultimum senatus (exceptional procedure adopted during major crises, and gives particular its (his) Recipient (s) the right to raise an army to wage war, to contain by all means allies and fellow citizens, for inside and outside the supreme authority, military and civil ).

But a political scandal comes suddenly complicate the crisis: the consul-elect for 62 av. BC , Lucius Licinius Murena is accused by his unsuccessful competitor Sulpicius for buying voters, and the charge is supported by Cato. For Cicero, there is no question in this context to cancel the election and arrange new. It therefore ensures the defense of Murena (Pro Murena) and the fact relax, despite a probable guilt, ironically on rigor Stoic Cato leading to disproportionate and unhelpful positions: For if "all sins are equal, is an offense crime; strangle his father is no more guilty than to kill a chicken without necessity " .

In the meantime, the conspirators remained in Rome organized and recruit accomplices. By chance, they contact delegates Allobroges , promising to grant their complaints if they stimulate a tax revolt in Gaul, Narbonne. The delegates, wary, warn senators. Cicero suggests they require written commitments of the conspirators, they are getting. Having recovered these compelling physical evidence, five conspirators publicly confused Cicero (third Catiline Orations, 3 December), including former consul and praetor Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura. After Senate debate (fourth Catiline Orations), he makes them run without public trial, approved by Cato, but against the advice of Julius Caesar , who has proposed life imprisonment. Catiline was killed shortly after his supporters in a futile battle to Pistoia.

Accordingly, Cicero tries to present itself as the savior of his country (he was also called Pater Patriae , "Father of the Fatherland", by Cato of Utica ) and, not without vanity, that makes one forgets that glorious year 63 . Pierre Grimal however, believes that this trait of vanity is due to a lack of confidence and is more of a concern that the arrogance .

Main article: Conspiracy of Catiline.

His fortune

Cicero joined the Roman Senate , the top of the social hierarchy, aristocratic and wealthy. His wealth is largely based on a heritage property like any senator. Cicero has four buildings in Rome itself, and lavish Domus on the Palatine , old patrician neighborhood, he bought in 62 BC. AD to Crassus to 3.5 million sesterces. Are added in the Italian countryside ten farms ( Villae rusticae ), sources of income, plus six deversoria, small pied--terre . After its purchase of 62, he jokes with his friend Sestius financial condition: "Know that I am now so loaded with debts that I want to enter into a conspiracy, if one was willing to receive me .

Though his fortune is far from wealthy Lucullus , or Crassus , Cicero can and wants to live luxuriously. In his villa at Tusculum , he build a gymnasium and pleasant walks on two terraces, which he called Academy and Lyceum , evocations of Plato and Aristotle . He decorated his villa of Arpinum by an artificial cave, his Amalthum, referring Amaltheia who suckled Jupiter child.

His work as a lawyer is the only honorable activity for a senator, not financial or business practice. This does not prevent him from attending the business, putting its surplus cash or borrowing from his friend the banker Mr Pomponius Atticus. Sometimes it invests through its bankers, for example placing 2.2 million sesterces in a partnership publicans. Relationships among these stakeholders, Cicero also speaks of Vestorius "loan specialist, who has an arithmetic culture, and whose attendance is for this reason it is not always pleasant." And Cluvius, financial bequeathed to him by 45 av. AD some of its properties , including shops Pompeii , in very bad condition, but Cicero is a philosopher investor:

"... Two of my stores have fallen, others threaten ruin to such an extent that not only the tenants do not want to stay there, but that the rats themselves have abandoned. Others would call it a misfortune, I do not even qualify to worry, oh Socrates and Socratic philosophers you, I can not thank you enough! ... Following the idea that I suggested for Vestorius rebuild, I can get by following the advantage of this momentary loss "

Vicissitudes in a republic adrift

After the bang of the case Catiline , Cicero's political career continued subdued, withdrawn from political life dominated by ambitious demagogues. After training in 60 BC. AD of a secret association between Pompey, Caesar and Crassus (the First Triumvirate ), Caesar, consul in 59 BC. J,-C. , moved to Cicero as associate commissioner for the allocation of land to veterans in Campania , what it feels good to refuse .

In March 58 BC. AD , his political enemies, led by consuls Piso and Gabinius and tribune of the plebs Clodius Pulcher which dedicates a stubborn hatred since he mistook in 62 BC. AD in the case of the cult of Bona Dea , do exile under the pretext of illegal proceedings against the partisans of Catiline executed without being able to appeal. Isolated, released by Pompey, Cicero left Rome on March 11, the eve of passage of the law that strikes it. Appointed liquidator of property, Clodius is destroying his house on the Palatine, and instead devote a portal to Freedom, at the same time, Gabinius plunders Cicero's villa at Tusculum. As for Cicero, it depresses this forced retirement at Dyrrachium , then Thessaloniki .

Pompey, which rallied Cicero.

In Rome, his friends try to organize a vote to revoke the law of Clodius. Her brother seeks Pompey, who fell out with Clodius, Publius Sestius obtained while the neutrality of Caesar. But Clodius opposed all attempts by the legal vetoes of the tribunes, and with his gang. The new tribune of the plebs Titus Milo Annius supporter of Cicero in turn form the bands, the clashes are increasing. To have the advantage of numbers, Pompey sent him to Rome mass of citizens of Italian cities, and obtained 4 August 57 BC. BC vote rescinding the exile of Cicero .

Cicero can triumphantly return to Rome in early September 57 BC. AD. He immediately resumed judicial activity and successfully defended Publius Sestius (Pro Sestio) and Caelius (pro Caelio) involved in the riots that now oppose the gangs of Milo to those of Clodius. In his speech back in the Senate (in Senatu Reditum Post), he won the state compensates the 2 million sesterces for the destruction of his house on the Palatine, 500, 000 for his villa at Tusculum, 250, 000 for that of forms, it is too little elsewhere, he writes to Atticus criticizing their "jealousy" Senators . Stubborn, Cicero wants to reconstruct , but to recover his land is problematic, he will destroy a dedicated space. Cicero manages to break the consecration by priests for want of form (speech Pro domo sua), but Clodius was elected town councilor , is accused of sacrilege to the assembled comitia , his bands harass workers who started work, burned the house of Cicero's brother, attacked one of Milo. Pompey must intervene to restore order and allow the reconstruction of the house of Cicero.

In return for this protection of a triumvirate, Cicero speaks in the Senate Provinciis Consularibus of obtaining the extension of power proconsul Caesar over Gaul, which allows him to pursue the Gallic Wars.

The political battles degenerate into violent clashes between the followers of the populares and optimates, preventing the holding of regular elections. Clodius was killed early 52 BC. AD in one of these meetings; Cicero naturally takes the defense of his murderer Milon. But the tension is such that at trial Cicero, scared, and can advocate effectively loses the case . Milo anticipates a probable conviction in exile in Marseille. Cicero nevertheless publish his famous defense in Pro Milone.

Proconsul in Cilicia (51-50)

Cilicia and the neighboring regions

In 53 BC. BC , the Senate imposes a five-year interval between the exercise of an independent judiciary and that of promagistrature corresponding province to curb indebtedness during election campaigns, then reimbursed robbing the provinces. The measure forced by 51 BC. AD to find replacements for the outgoing consuls, who must wait to join their province. It overcomes the Senate by granting these provinces to former judges who have exercised their promagistrature. Cicero had given to Macedonia during his consulate therefore obtained a warrant of proconsul in Cilicia , a small Roman province of Asia Minor, he takes charge without enthusiasm . At that time, the province covers an area broader than it has under the empire , and also includes Lycia , the Pamphylia , the Pisidia , the Laconia , and also Cyprus as Rome just attach .

According to Plutarch , Cicero govern with integrity . Levert is the opportunity for Cicero to put into practice his philosophy of government of the provinces, based on peace and justice, primarily tax: it meets the local elites of the cities he passes through, remove unwarranted tax burdens , moderates usurious interest rates , tied alliance with Deiotarus king of Galatia and Ariobarzanes of Cappadocia. Moreover, Cicero must put down a revolt in the Amanus Mountains close to Syria , where Antioch is under the threat of raids Parthian. He raises his troops and appointed legate 's brother, who has gained the experience of military action during the Gallic War . After two-month siege of the city of Pindenissus, home of the insurgency, the insurgents surrendered. For this feat, Cicero was hailed imperator by his soldiers, and is considering asking his back the celebration of triumph , out of vanity or to reach the level of importance of Pompey and Caesar .

The turmoil of the civil war

On his return in 50 BC. AD , an acute political crisis between Caesar to Pompey and the Conservatives in the Senate. Cicero takes the side of Pompey , while trying to reach a compromise acceptable to Caesar, without success .

When the latter invaded Italy in 49 BC. BC , Cicero fled Rome as most senators, and took refuge in one of his country homes. His correspondence with Atticus expresses his confusion and hesitation about what to do. He considers the civil war that began as a calamity, whatever be the winner. Caesar, who wishes to combine the neutral and the moderates, he wrote then visited him and asked him to return to Rome as a mediator. Cicero refuses and says the party of Pompey. Cesar lets think, but Cicero eventually join Pompey in Epirus .

According to Plutarch, Cicero, poorly received by Cato, who said he would have been more useful for the Republic that he remains in Italy, behaved like dead weight and took no part in any military action by the Pompeian and after the victory of Caesar at Pharsalia in 48 BC. BC , he abandoned the party and returns to Rome Pompeii, where he is welcomed by Caesar. He took the opportunity to get Caesar's grace several of his friends (speech Pro Marcello, Pro Q. Ligario, Pro Rege Deiotarus). In a letter to Varro 's 20 April 46 BC. AD , he gave his vision of its role under the dictatorship of Caesar:

"I advise you to do what I propose to do myself - avoid being seen, even if we can not avoid talking about it ... If our voices are not heard in the Senate and the Forum we follow the example of wise elders and were serving our country through our writings, focusing on issues of ethics and constitutional law "

Cicero puts it into practice, is most often at his home in Tusculum and devoted himself to his writings, translations of Greek philosophers, even the writing of poetry . His private life is disrupted, however: he divorced Terentia in -46 , and married shortly after the young Publilia. In February 45 BC. AD , his daughter Tullia died, causing deep sorrow expressed in his treatise on pain: Tusculans. It Publilia divorce after his death, because she had welcomed the death of Tullia .

His relations with Caesar became quite remote. If Caesar is not the model of enlightened leader theorized that Cicero in his De Republica, it is not the bloodthirsty tyrant that had been feared, and anyway, it is now absolute master of Rome, so Cicero accommodate them. He wrote a eulogy of Cato , which he calls "the last Republican" small demonstration of independence of mind to which Caesar replied by issuing a Anticaton, a collection of what one can blame Cato / Sup>. Cicero concludes this editorial complimenting duel "between equals" Caesar for the literary quality of his writing , Caesar and his entourage invited themselves to dinner in the villa of Cicero at Pozzuoli. To the relief of Cicero, Caesar was seeking a relaxing evening, the conversation was pleasant and educated, dealing exclusively with literary subjects:

"Services magnificent and sumptuous. About good taste and an exquisite salt. Finally, if you want to know everything, the most amiable mood of the world. "

Three months later, Cicero is surprised by the assassination of Caesar, the Ides of March , 15 March 44 BC. AD , because the conspirators had left out of the confidence due to his excessive anxiety . Floating in the following policy, Cicero tries to rally the Roman Senate , and had approved a general amnesty which disarms tension while Mark Antony , consul and executor of Caesar, returned to power for a moment wavering. But the two men were unable to agree.

When the young Octavius , Caesar's heir, arrived in Italy in April, Cicero thinks of using it against Mark Antony, without success. In September he began attacking Marc Antony in a series of speeches increasingly violent, the Philippics . Cicero described his position in a letter to Cassius , one of the assassins of Caesar, the same month:

I'm glad you liked my proposal in the Senate and the speech that accompanies it ... Anthony is a madman, corrupt and worse than Caesar - you have found the man most despicable when you killed him. Antony wants to start a bloodbath ...

But the political situation is not that which prevailed in 63 BC. BC , Cicero can not reproduce with Philippics the effect of his Catiline Orations. The Senate, which was decimated by civil war and restored by Caesar many newcomers, is undecided and refused to declare Antony a public enemy. The following year, after a brief clash in Modena , Octavian and Mark Antony were reconciled and are with Lepidus the Second Triumvirate , which receives credentials.

The three men are quick to agree against their personal enemies. Despite the attachment to his former ally Octavian, he left Mark Antony proscribed Cicero. The latter was assassinated on 7 December 43 BC. AD ; his head and hands are exposed on the Rostra , the forum on the orders of Mark Antony. His brother Quintus and his nephew were executed shortly after their hometown of Arpinum. Only his son escapes this repression .

Death of Cicero

The cult of death "honorable" was very strong and heroic in ancient Rome and every man knew he would also be judged by his attitude, his attitudes or his comments during the last moments of his life. Depending on their political interests or their admiration for Cicero, his biographers have sometimes considered his death as an example of cowardice (Cicero was murdered while in flight) or more often, instead, as a model of heroism stoic (he bends his neck to his executioner, who can not bear his look).

The version of events given by Plutarch skillfully combines these two visions:

"At this moment came the murderers were the centurion and the military tribune Herennius Popilius Cicero had formerly defended a charge of parricide. . "

The oratory of Cicero

Cicero has a reputation as an excellent orator, during his lifetime and especially after his disappearance. According to Pierre Grimal , no one else was able to develop a theory of Roman eloquence, as a mode of expression and political means.

Cicero writes on the subject of numerous books, didactic or theoretical, historical and even with Brutus (sive Dialogus de claris oratoribus) brief history of the famous Roman orators to Caesar , he appreciates the quality of expression, and that it is pronounce a eulogy of Cicero , .

His style of eloquence

From the second century BC. AD, fluency of speech becomes a necessity for politicians who are competing at the trials that multiply in the debates in the Senate, and the catch words to seduce public opinion increasingly this . The Romans are in the school of rhetoricians Greek, true professionals of speech. At the time of Cicero, several styles are in vogue, all of Hellenic origin: the Asianism , a brilliant and effective speech native to Asia , but tending to the swelling and pathos , exaggeration, to easy effects, using expressions and mannerisms sought; the Attic , more focused and precise, tied to the purity of language, and finally the school of Rhodes, the simple eloquence and quiet flow, which Demosthenes was the model .

According to Cicero, excess emotion of Asianism not suitable for the gravitas, seriousness and extent of the Roman character. It ranks in the school of Rhodes, which he followed the teachings of Molo, and devoted a great admiration for Demosthenes .

Cicero argued his opinion on the styles of eloquence in Orator ad Brutum (On the Orator), where he praised style and abundant cared that he endorsed the cons atticism narrow . He said that some make this atticism arid is more likely to appeal to a grammarian to seduce and convince the crowd . It complements and supports his argument by examples presented in the De optimo genere oratorum (From the best style of speaking), since the Greek translation of two pleas of Aeschines and Demosthenes, he poses as an example of what he considers the atticism good, rich, expressive and harmonious. In this work, we have the introductory preface to Cicero, the translations themselves are lost .

His personal style of eloquence has critics, however: it was found superfluous, too complacent to be digressions nice but not necessary to the development of common areas , sometimes sacrificing the simplicity and accuracy to the effects of figures and the balancing of periods .

Speaking techniques

The Romans were few books devoted to speaking techniques before the days of Cicero, we only know that which Cato the Elder wrote for his son. Another manual of rhetoric, also a practical guide, The Rhetorica Herennius was long attributed to Cicero, and as such published following the De Inventione. Although this treaty can be dated from the time of Cicero from the characters he evokes, this paternity more restrained these days because of opinions expressed in the book that are quite different from those of Cicero.

Cicero set of rules of public speaking in an early work dating from 84 BC, AD , De inventione on the composition of the argument in rhetoric , including two of the four books which comprised have survived. Positioning themselves in relation to Greek masters, Aristotle and the following of Hermagoras Temnos he denies, Cicero devotes a long series of precepts to the first step in developing a speech , the inventio or finding items and arguments for each type of plane parts of speech: the exordium , the narration , division, confirmed the rebuttal and conclusion. For other stages, Cicero refers to the following books, lost or perhaps never written . However when it reaches maturity, it seems to regret this early publication and somewhat academic, he criticizes in the De Oratore .

In 54 almost thirty years later, and with his experience, Cicero resumed his presentation on public speaking techniques with the very famous Dialog Oratore (The three dialogues on the speaker). It takes the distance with Greek masters, and more vividly presents his work as a dialogue between the great orators of a generation ago: Antony , Crassus and Scaevola , the latter subsequently replaced by his half brother and Catulus Caesar. They interact with Sulpicius and Cotta, young beginners eager to learn from experienced men . Their meeting date of the year 91 BC. AD turbulent period preceding the Social War and the bloody rivalry between Marius and Sulla , which is deliberately echoing Levert according to the situation prevailing politically troubled publication of this work . In the second dialogue, they hold forth the various steps defined by the rhetoric in the development of speech: invention, disposition, speech, memorization. Humor manipulator has its place even in the form of ridicule for the tone of speech or good words to arouse public excitement or calm .

Cicero returns to didactic lectures in two technical books of more limited scope. De partitionibus oratoriis, subdivisions of speech, dated 54, is an abstract methodology for his son. Topica is written in the 44 at the request of his friend Trebatius Testa , who asks to explain the rules of Aristotle on topoi , elements of the argument .

Role of speaker in the Republic

However, for Cicero, exercise oratory is not just learning processes Greek rhetoric. He inserts it into a broader vision, develops a theory of eloquence, and responds to criticism of Plato, who sees an exercise that is reduced to an art of pretexting .

For Cicero, the orator must be the central figure in Roman public life, an assertion that meets the ambition of the Imperator , who seek glory and power through their military successes and their triumphs. In his Brutus, he says of the superiority of Caesar's glory upon the eloquence of arms , . He must have first fundamental qualities: a philosophy and culture. In his ad Brutum Orator, Cicero asserts that the word is based on thought, and therefore can not be complete without the study of philosophy . On the other hand, the art of saying necessarily implies that the speaker has a thorough knowledge of the matter it deals .

The philosophy of Cicero

Extracted and Summary History of Roman literature, Albert, Paul (1827 - 1880) .

Philosophy in Rome before Cicero

Octave young Cicero, the elder over 40 years could not influence

Cicero is the first of the Roman authors who have written in Latin works of philosophy. He is proud, but he seems to apologize for such occupations spent part of his leisure. Because according to him, among his contemporaries, some could not accept in any way that dedicating himself to philosophy, others wanted us to do was with a certain degree, and without spending too much time and study. Others, despising the Latin letters, preferring to read the works of Greeks on these materials .

"So until now the philosophy has been neglected, and has received letters Latin illustrations. "

A taste of philosophical speculation for themselves was foreign to the Romans. They were primarily men of action and positive spirits. Rome hosts the Greek ideas from the second century BC. BC with some suspicion embodied by anti-Hellenism of Cato the Elder , while aristocrats like Scipio are interested: the senators did not want the people and youth engaged in studies absorbing all the intellectual activity, are seeking the leisure and produce indifference to things of real life, so in 173 BC. Two AD and Epicurean philosophers Alkios Philiskos are driven from Rome suspected of perverting the youth with a doctrine based on pleasure, and in 161 BC. BC, the lender is authorized to expel philosophers and rhetoricians. And three members from the senate philosophers by Athens , Carneades , Diogenes and Critolas not include any epicurean .

This is the stoicism that enters first in Rome, with Panetius Rhodes , a protg of Scipio Aemilianus , and which exerts a profound influence on members of his circle Laelius , Furius , Aelius Stilo and lawyers Q. Aelius Tubero and Mucius Scaevola . But other doctrines were soon to be introduced also in Rome, and there were followers. After the capture of Athens by Sulla (- 87 BC.), the writings of Aristotle were brought to Rome, Lucullus brings together a vast library that contained the monuments of Greek philosophy. At the same time, the Romans saw happen in their city representatives of the major schools of Greece. It was no longer allowed a Roman scholar to ignore science that so many teachers and books to put everyone's reach. Thus we see that among the contemporaries of Cicero, not one remained a stranger to philosophical studies. Each attached, following the trends of his character to a particular sect; Lucullus the new Academy , and Marcus Junius Brutus and Varro. Lucretia , Atticus , Cassius , Velleius Torquatus were Epicureans. The lawyers Q. Mucius Scaevola, Servius Sulpicius Bufus, Tubero, Cato , were Stoics. There was even a kind of Pythagorean , Nigidius Figulus and peripatetic , Mr. Pupius Piso .

Among the contemporaries of Cicero, a Amafinius wrote a book on Epicureanism. Mr. Brutus wrote a treatise on virtue and Varro summarized the opinions of ancient philosophers on the sovereign good. For them, philosophy was the mark of a high intellectual culture, a sort of distinction or luxury they have wanted, but they often reduced all philosophy to morality by making even predominate in the study of the moral convenience, immediate applications in the confining almost to nothing more than a handbook for the citizen and man.

Cicero's philosophical education

Cicero made no differently from his contemporaries in his youth, he studied philosophy , because it seemed a potent auxiliary of eloquence, but he resolved to compose philosophical works in the last years of his life , that is to say in circumstances where he could find another job of his leisure. He lives in this work a consolation this is the first origin of the philosophical works of Cicero. These are all among the works of circumstance. Anxious, depressed, sick mind, he will ask the wisdom of ancient cures the soul and the strength he needs.

In his youth, he first studied the Epicureanism : this doctrine was then very many representatives as the first philosophical writings of the Romans, those Amafinius of Catius, and the poem of Lucretius , are exhibitions of the Epicureanism. Cicero was a pupil of Phaedrus and Zeno , both epicurean. Later Philo of Larissa academician, Antiochus of Ascalon , and the Stoics Diodotus and Posidonius were alternately or simultaneously its teachers. In the example of his countrymen, he attached himself exclusively to any school, it was eclectic. However, his preferences were for the new Academy. The doctrine of probabilism and likely was perfect for a lawyer. On the other hand, the stoicism , by its moral elevation and its involvement in the life of the city appealed the Roman politician. This mixture consists of doctrines so-called philosophy of Cicero .

Moral Philosophy

Marc-Antoine, hated by Cicero. Bust designed by Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901)

In its latest treaties and especially in De finibus, Cicero, like all ancient philosophers, addresses the fundamental question in ethics, one of the highest good, supreme value and purpose of life, which must determine the direction of our lives and our actions .

For Cicero, this principle, once established, all other sets. Ignoring the highest good is to ignore the whole act of our lives. In contrast, when knowledge of special purpose things we manage to understand what is the ultimate good or what is the climax of evil, our life has found its way and our duties their precise formula . Summarizing the analysis of Greek philosophers he studied, Cicero identifies three possible answers: For some, the highest good is pleasure, for others is the honesty or virtue, for of Others, the mixture or the meeting of pleasure and virtue. , . In other words, the Epicurean , the Stoic or Platonism. Although his friend Atticus is epicurean, Cicero does not adhere to this trend, because it does not advocate that we withdraw from public life. Although expressing some interest in stoicism, he refuses isolation, because for him, man is made to act, and he prefers Platonism .

His philosophical work

Republic

The earliest of his works is 54 BC. AD. It is the Treaty on the Republic, or the government, in six books, addressed to Atticus.

It is a dialogue whose interlocutors are the young Scipio Africanus , Laelius, Manilius Philus, Tubero, Mucius Scaevola , C. Fannius, talking together about 129 BCE. AD on the constitution and government of the Republic , a few years before the great revolution attempted by the Gracchi. Until 1814, no one knew of this important work that the conclusion preserved by Macrobius in the title of Dream of Scipio, and some very short passages quoted by St. Augustine , Lactantius and grammarians. The philologist Italian Angelo Mai (1782-1854) discovered a manuscript palimpsest of St. Augustine comments on the psalms , some text deleted from the Treaty of the Republic. Despite these refunds, the book is still defective: entire books are so mutilated that one can hardly recognize the complete plan of the book. Contemporaries, the ancient whole, the Church Fathers themselves were the biggest case, Cicero does not mention that with a predilection, he is not far from his friends believe that he finally managed to surpass the Greeks , and that his republic is far superior to that of Plato and the Treaty of Aristotle on the policy.

Found in Cicero's famous Platonic theory of justice , which is based on all the treaty of the republic there are also the dream of the Pamphilien Er, this bright vision of the other wonders of life. The Dream of Scipio , one of the most perfect pieces that Cicero wrote, is an appetizer imitated Greek and Roman dressed. As for Aristotle , it is not difficult to note the many loans that Cicero has made. The description of the three forms of constitutions pure, the democracy , the aristocracy , the monarchy , the analysis of mixed constitutions, principles specific to each form of government, and finally the theory of slavery , does not belong in own. And thus the dogmatic part and technical part are taken from Greece. But what made the eyes of contemporary originality and superiority of the book is the considerable What was Rome. Cicero had indeed taken place as of any government the Roman constitution, not as it existed in his time , already altered in principle, and clearly leaning toward a monarchy military, but as it had been established the Catos , the Scipio , the Fabii : she appeared as a blend of three forms of government, aristocracy, democracy, the monarchy.

But Cicero also makes a heartfelt tribute to the Stoic philosophy of law: Is quidem vera lex recta ratio naturae congruens, diffusa in omnes, Constans, sempiterne, quae ad officium vocet subendo .... Through this desire to bring the right to expression of reason, a reason for all (diffusa in omnes), he expresses with a precision unmatched doctrine of natural law: a logical law, according to nature immutable and permanent.

The consuls were the monarchy, tempered by the short tenure, the Senate represented the aristocracy and the people represented democracy. The powers and functions of the three levels were defined so wisely, and there was a balance between these forces so happy and not otherwise different, that Cicero refrained from seeking the ideal republic had imagined Plato and Aristotle had on this superiority that he could conclude by saying I found the form of government most perfect, that the Stagyrite had never dared to do. That is what constitutes the originality of this Treaty. It is an essentially Roman and it is not surprising that it has excited such admiration. The legitimacy of the conquests of Rome demonstrated the Romans, the praise of national institutions, the glorification of the traditions of the homeland, it was all well done to appeal to contemporary. Perhaps would it not difficult to show that even well designed, this book is remarkably close to that of Polybius , philosophical and practical at once, and that he, too, took as its starting point in its history Universal Roman constitution.

Laws

Bust of Cicero old. Prado Museum, Madrid

The Treatise on the Laws, which seemed likely at 702 (-52), when Cicero had been appointed omen , can be considered as supplementary to the Treaty on the Republic. It has the same qualities and the same defects as the latter. This book is neither a purely philosophical nor a work of pure law , but a sort of compromise between speculation and practice. In the first book, apparently inspired by Plato, and probably also of the treaty Special Chrysippus on the Act (Peri nomou), Cicero demonstrates a great elevation of thought and style of the existence of a universal law, eternal, immutable, according to reason and divine mingling with her. It is she who is the natural right , antecedent and superior to positive law , it existed before any law had been written before that no city had been founded. After this fine introduction, Cicero abandons the metaphysics of law, and proceeded to the consideration of positive laws. But he needs to search for the legal applications of various forms of government, as did Montesquieu. Just as there was in his eyes the other republic that the Roman republic , it seems that there are other laws that the laws of Rome. The first time he met the most perfect legislation, but is limited to an enumeration of the texts to which one could blame a lack of methodical and rational order. The laws that mainly attract his attention are those that regulate the details and the order of worship. This is explained quite naturally by his promotion to the augurat. He may have wished to appear in the eyes of his contemporaries, deeply versed in knowledge of things of religion , and well worthy of the sacred trust confided to him.

While the second book is devoted to the inventory arid. The third book, marred by some flaws, is devoted to politics. Cicero examines the nature and organization of power, the character of the various functions of the State , the salutary antagonism, which must exist between the forces which constitute it. These questions of general interest so intense that they affect directly the problem of political freedom, had considerable importance and a sort of news to contemporaries of Cicero. What would be the part of the aristocracy or the senate , and that of people in the government of the republic? The time was not far distant when Caesar had to decide the issue. All the spirits of notice to a disaster are working to consolidate the authority of the senate and legislation to oppose the Democratic tide gate stronger. Quintus , Cicero's brother, is in the discussion on this serious issue, stubbornness and arrogance patrician. It will even fight the institution of the tribunes he says impolitic and dangerous. Cicero, without fully accepting the views of his brother, however, recognizes the dangers that such a judiciary may provide for the maintenance of peace and freedom , but it also shows that it is not very difficult to deceive the people , and thus break the hands of the tribunes a formidable weapon. He advises to do so, he believes the right thing and useful. What must he have thought later, when he saw Caesar's practice to destroy the constitution of the state, a theory which he believed made to save him?

We have only the first three books of the Treaty of Laws: there were probably six. The fourth was devoted to examining the political right, the fifth in criminal law , the sixth in the civil law. These books are lost. We must all the more regrettable that no other book of Cicero on similar materials can not replace them for us.

Let us not forget that treaties of the Republic and Laws were written at a time when the Roman constitution was still standing before the civil war and the ruin of the ancient freedom. This circumstance explains the character of two books: they are both theoretical and practical, even technical. When the revolution will be consummated, the speculative element will dominate the philosophy of Cicero, and the reality of public life escaping him, he took refuge in the contemplation.

The Academic

The earliest of these philosophical works of the second period of his life is one designated under the title of Academics (Academica). It can be viewed as the natural introduction to the works that follow. Indeed, the philosophy of Cicero had to borrow the main systems of Greeks often contradictory elements that constitute it. Cicero is neither an Aristotelian nor a scholar, he belongs more in the new Academy. It was the most recent philosophical doctrines, one that enjoyed the time of Cicero among the Romans, the highest consideration. The skepticism that characterized moderate, this theory credible erected in absolute criterion, a trend of new scholars to present and rebut each other by the views of various schools, the resources that such a system offered to public speaking : that's probably determined the preferences of Cicero.

We often judge that Cicero is more interesting as a historian of philosophy than as a philosopher , and in that he strongly resembles his masters of the new Academy. The work which we possess under the title Academica consists of two books: there were two editions, one in two books, one in four, we kept the first book of the second edition, and second of the first. This is a summary of the history of Greek philosophy from Socrates to representatives of the old Academy, a summary by the learned Varro. Cicero then took the floor and exposes the doctrine of the new Academy , and finally Lucullus establishes the differences between the new Academy of the former. It is in this book that says Cicero in philosophy that will always be, a man who never says, I'm sure, but I think (opinator). He also sometimes criticized for having too often wore the same indecision in the acts of his life policy.

De finibus

Cicero, Florentine marble bust, seventeenth century Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte

In the year following the death of Cato at Utica , Cicero wrote and addressed to Brutus , Cato's nephew, the treaty with the title: Real property and real evils. Il traduisit, par le mot , le titre grec de l'ouvrage de Chrysippe sur le mme sujet ( / ).

Ce problme du souverain bien, retourn en tous sens par les coles de l'antiquit, tait la pierre de touche de chacune d'elles. En quoi l'homme doit-il faire consister le vrai bien ? Est-ce dans la volupt ? Dans l'absence de la douleur , dans la jouissance de la vie sous le gouvernement de la vertu , dans la vertu seule ? Toutes ces solutions avaient t donnes et d'autres encore qui, moins radicales, essayaient d'accorder ensemble la volupt et la vertu. Suivant que l'on adoptait telle ou telle doctrine, on tait dans la conduite de la vie l'homme du plaisir, l'homme du devoir austre et rigoureux, ou l'homme des tempraments, qui s'accommode aux circonstances, ne rompt en visire avec personne, et, sans cease to be honest, can agree to some extent with those who do not.

There were then at Rome with representatives of each of these views, and most of them proved themselves in practice faithful to their theories. The Treaty of Cicero, which is the complete exhibition and discussion of the doctrines of Epicurus , of Zeno , the peripatetic and the former Academy , would be a very keen interest to his contemporaries. The same characters he portrays, Lucius Manlius Torquatus , Cato, Atticus , Papius Piso, and expose the system philosophy adopted by each of them, givers of life, so to say to these doctrines. In the first book, Manlius Torquatus develops the principles of Epicureanism , that is to say, the theory of pleasure regarded as the highest good. It is an ingenious argument, but very incomplete. It is refuted in the second book by another plea Cicero. Epicureanism is the only doctrine that Cicero never wanted to admit his eclecticism universal, and yet he was the friend of the most remarkable epicurean this time, Atticus. In the third book, which exposes Cato the Stoic doctrine. This book is often considered the most beautiful and most solid of all the work. Cicero was always a secret sympathy stoicism which he could not relax. He rallied once more the excesses of arrogant doctrine, but he well understood that it was only the great citizens and those truly honest. He denies in the fourth book, but weakly, in his challenging the originality of his principles, he claims borrowed Socratic. The fifth book is devoted to the exposition of the doctrine of the old Academy.

The Tusculans

The Tusculans year are 709 (-45). Caesar is master of the republic, Cato of Utica has killed himself, there is more freedom. The dictator is human mercy to his enemies, but he knows them that, if alive, they will be nothing in the state that what he pleases. Cicero has composed the praise of Cato, lost work for us, Caesar has responded with an Anti-Cato .

The Paradoxes of the Stoics by Albert Paul is an exercise in casuistry oratory often considered of little value .

Treaty obligations

The latest of philosophical writings is a political work, the Treatise on homework (De Officiis), which appeared in 44 BC. AD , after the death of Caesar. It is addressed by Cicero to his son Marcus , who was studying philosophy at Athens under the direction of Cratippus. The first book deals with the honest, the second of the useful, the third of the comparison between the honest and helpful. The bottom of the structure and divisions are borrowed Panatios Rhodes , author of a treatise on duty. Do not ask Cicero, even in matters of morality , where he is more assertive, deep research on the first principles and scientific rigor. Cicero is a practical mind, his book is a collection of precepts addressed to his son. He wants to make a good Roman citizen , prepare for the performance of duties which constitute the virtue of man's world that is not excessive and the absolute. Hence, the necessary accommodations between the Stoic and the inflexibility peripateticism much more conciliatory .

From 1779 to 1783, the German philosopher, Christian Garve (1748-1792), wrote an annotated translation of De Officiis at the request of Frederick II of Prussia. Whereas about Cicero is intended primarily for an elite may run public affairs, he believes in its comments that it transforms the moral prescriptions of the maxims of political philosophy applied disregarding somewhat more universal aspects of Duties of Man in general. If Cicero is relatively shallow but clear on the duties imposed by society, the rules of fashion and society and how this could lead to ways to love and respect, he considers less comfortable in more theoretical notions such as under perfect and imperfect , double decorum and order and its proof on the rule of virtue on the social other virtues , .

Less critical, Bertrand Borie recalls the context of acute political crisis between Cicero and Antony at the publication of the book. If Cicero contrasts the morality of the useful and suitable duties of citizens, to that interest, it indirectly calls the senators not fighting injustice (meaning Antoine), and by this attitude, commit .

Philosophical works lost

Other philosophical works of Cicero we have not. We possess a fragment of the Timaeus (Timaeus, seu Universo), imitation of Plato. The treaties of Glory (De gloria libri duo ad Atticum), translations of The Economy of Xenophon and Protagoras of Plato , the Eulogy of Cato (Laus Catonis), composed after the death of the latter at Utica in 708 (-46), while another praised Porcia, daughter of Cato, a book on Philosophy (De philosophia liber ad Hortensium, year 708), a Consolation (Consolatio, sive of minuendo luctu) that Cicero addressed himself after the death of his daughter Tullia , have disappeared for us .

Review philosophy

Judgments about Cicero philosopher were often very severe: Cicero is not a philosopher, is a Roman who, according to the Greek philosophers, consists of written questions on some clear, elegant and even eloquent. It engages in this study in the enforced leisure that he created the miseries of the time, there is a distraction to his sad thoughts and a consolation. He hoped also to play the Greeks victory in this genre, as he had done for eloquence, and to give his country a philosophical literature that was missing.

Some felt that it lacked originality, and he cared very little indeed. There can be little doubt that he thought himself superior to most Greeks imitated it, if we except Plato. And it is likely that they were indeed higher in point of style, elegance and abundance. Perhaps he was convinced that the practical common sense, which he was gifted at the highest point, made him a philosopher more remarkable and useful to his contemporaries that Zeno and Epicurus. He seems to admit this claim in the Treaty of duty, his last work. And it is not surprising that contemporaries for whom he wrote would have shared this vision. The philosophy of Cicero would indeed be to them the true philosophy, one that only suited the Romans.

Despite these criticisms, it is difficult to deny merit to Cicero: it is for us one of the most valuable sources for the history of philosophy , because of the extreme rarity of the books stored. Also add that he wore in the composition of his writings the admirable qualities of his mind and style. He has no sovereign grace of Plato , it can not be compared in the form of dialogue, for Cicero can not converse, he must plead: but in that one find clarity, elegance, brightness and movement?

The term''Greek translator of Cicero "shows the victory of the great Roman orator through the philosophical terms he invented in Latin from the Greek words that have enjoyed a great fortune in the West. It was he who invented a special vocabulary to account for Greek philosophy . He created for neologisms such as Latin Providencia, qualities, medietas .

Works

List dates established on the basis of the table works of Cicero Ancient Roman Guide Hacquard George, Jean Dautry, O Maisani , corroborated by various biographical sources.

Cicero is considered the greatest writer latin classic, both in style than the height of moral views.

He must also pay tribute to his slave and secretary Tiro, whose competence as reporter is no stranger to the amount of works that have survived. Cicero freed in 53 BC. AD , and became Tiro Marcus Tullius Tiro remained his collaborator . After the death of Cicero, he published his correspondence and numerous speeches, publications credible if one believes Aulus Gellius who read two centuries later .

See attached list of works translated into French in the article works of Cicero

  • Online Directories ancient philosophical works translated into French:

Argument and discourse

Among the speeches of Cicero, 88 are known, and 58 were retained. Here is a list of major. Those who call themselves Pro xxx or xxx In oral arguments are made on the occasion of the trial, the xxx name is the name of the party represented by Cicero (Pro) or party (In).


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