357ON THE COMMONWEALTH.
translated by CD Yonge in 1877: available online from Project Gutenberg
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.
This work was one of Cicero’s earlier treatises, though one of those
which was most admired by his contemporaries, and one of which he
himself was most proud. It was composed 54 b.c. It was originally in
two books: then it was altered and enlarged into nine, and finally
reduced to six. With the exception of the dream of Scipio, in the last
book, the whole treatise was lost till the year 1822, when the
librarian of the Vatican discovered a portion of them among the
palimpsests in that library. What he discovered is translated here; but
it is in a most imperfect and mutilated state.
The form selected was that of a dialogue, in imitation of those of
Plato; and the several conferences were supposed to have taken place
during the Latin holidays, 129 b.c., in the consulship of Caius
Sempronius, Tuditanus, and Marcus Aquilius. The speakers are Scipio
Africanus the younger, in whose garden the scene is laid; Caius
Lælius; Lucius Furius Philus; Marcus Manilius; Spurius Mummius,
the brother of the taker of Corinth, a Stoic; Quintus Ælius
Tubero, a nephew of Africanus; Publius Rutilius Rufus; Quintus Mucius
Scævola, the tutor of Cicero; and Caius Fannius, who was absent,
however, on the second day of the conference.
In the first book, the first thirty-three pages are wanting, and there
are chasms amounting to thirty-eight pages more. In this book Scipio
asserts the superiority of an active over a speculative career; and
after analyzing and comparing the monarchical, aristocratic, and
democratic forms of government, gives a preference to the first;
although 358his idea of a perfect constitution would be one compounded
of three kinds in due proportion.
There are a few chasms in the earlier part of the second book, and the
latter part of it is wholly lost. In it Scipio was led on to give an
account of the rise and progress of the Roman Constitution, from which
he passed on to the examination of the great moral obligations which
are the foundations of all political union.
Of the remaining books we have only a few disjointed fragments, with
the exception, as has been before mentioned, of the dream of Scipio in
the sixth.
359INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST BOOK,
BY THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATOR.
Cicero introduces his subject by showing that men were not born for the
mere abstract study of philosophy, but that the study of philosophic
truth should always be made as practical as possible, and applicable to
the great interests of philanthropy and patriotism. Cicero endeavors to
show the benefit of mingling the contemplative or philosophic with the
political and active life, according to that maxim of Plato—“Happy is
the nation whose philosophers are kings, and whose kings are
philosophers.”
This kind of introduction was the more necessary because many of the
ancient philosophers, too warmly attached to transcendental metaphysics
and sequestered speculations, had affirmed that true philosophers ought
not to interest themselves in the management of public affairs. Thus,
as M. Villemain observes, it was a maxim of the Epicureans, “Sapiens ne
accedat ad rempublicam” (Let no wise man meddle in politics). The
Pythagoreans had enforced the same principle with more gravity.
Aristotle examines the question on both sides, and concludes in favor
of active life. Among Aristotle’s disciples, a writer, singularly
elegant and pure, had maintained the pre-eminence of the contemplative
life over the political or active one, in a work which Cicero cites
with admiration, and to which he seems to have applied for relief
whenever he felt harassed and discouraged in public business. But here
this great man was interested by the subject he discusses, and by the
whole course of his experience and conduct, to refute the dogmas of
that pusillanimous sophistry and selfish indulgence by bringing forward
the most glorious examples and achievements of patriotism. In this
strain he had doubtless commenced his exordium, and in this strain we
find him continuing it at the point in which the palimpsest becomes
legible. He then proceeds to introduce his illustrious interlocutors,
and leads them at first to discourse on the astronomical laws that
regulate the revolutions of our planet. From this, by a very graceful
and beautiful transition, he passes on to the consideration of the best
forms of political constitutions that had prevailed in different
nations, and those modes of government which had produced the greatest
benefits in the commonwealths of antiquity.
This first book is, in fact, a splendid epitome of the political
science of the age of Cicero, and probably the most eloquent plea in
favor of mixed monarchy to be found in all literature.
360BOOK I.
I. [Without the virtue of patriotism], neither Caius Duilius, nor Aulus
Atilius,293 nor Lucius Metellus, could have delivered Rome by their
courage from the terror of Carthage; nor could the two Scipios, when
the fire of the second Punic War was kindled, have quenched it in their
blood; nor, when it revived in greater force, could either Quintus
Maximus294 have enervated it, or Marcus Marcellus have crushed it; nor,
when it was repulsed from the gates of our own city, would Scipio have
confined it within the walls of our enemies.
But Cato, at first a new and unknown man, whom all we who aspire to the
same honors consider as a pattern to lead us on to industry and virtue,
was undoubtedly at liberty to enjoy his repose at Tusculum, a most
salubrious and convenient retreat. But he, mad as some people think
him, though no necessity compelled him, preferred being tossed about
amidst the tempestuous waves of politics, even till extreme old age, to
living with all imaginable luxury in that tranquillity and relaxation.
I omit innumerable men who have separately devoted themselves to the
protection of our Commonwealth; and those whose lives are within the
memory of the present generation I will not mention, lest any one
should complain that I had invidiously forgotten himself or some one of
his family. This only I insist on—that so great is the necessity of
this virtue which nature has implanted in man, and so great is the
desire to defend the common safety of our country, that its energy has
continually overcome all the blandishments of pleasure and repose.
II. Nor is it sufficient to possess this virtue as if it were some kind
of art, unless we put it in practice. An art, indeed, though not
exercised, may still be retained in knowledge; but virtue consists
wholly in its proper use 361and action. Now, the noblest use of virtue
is the government of the Commonwealth, and the carrying-out in real
action, not in words only, of all those identical theories which those
philosophers discuss at every corner. For nothing is spoken by
philosophers, so far as they speak correctly and honorably, which has
not been discovered and confirmed by those persons who have been the
founders of the laws of states. For whence comes piety, or from whom
has religion been derived? Whence comes law, either that of nations, or
that which is called the civil law? Whence comes justice, faith,
equity? Whence modesty, continence, the horror of baseness, the desire
of praise and renown? Whence fortitude in labors and perils? Doubtless,
from those who have instilled some of these moral principles into men
by education, and confirmed others by custom, and sanctioned others by
laws.
Moreover, it is reported of Xenocrates, one of the sublimest
philosophers, that when some one asked him what his disciples learned,
he replied, “To do that of their own accord which they might be
compelled to do by law.” That citizen, therefore, who obliges all men
to those virtuous actions, by the authority of laws and penalties, to
which the philosophers can scarcely persuade a few by the force of
their eloquence, is certainly to be preferred to the sagest of the
doctors who spend their lives in such discussions. For which of their
exquisite orations is so admirable as to be entitled to be preferred to
a well-constituted government, public justice, and good customs?
Certainly, just as I think that magnificent and imperious cities (as
Ennius says) are superior to castles and villages, so I imagine that
those who regulate such cities by their counsel and authority are far
preferable, with respect to real wisdom, to men who are unacquainted
with any kind of political knowledge. And since we are strongly
prompted to augment the prosperity of the human race, and since we do
endeavor by our counsels and exertions to render the life of man safer
and wealthier, and since we are incited to this blessing by the spur of
nature herself, let us hold on that course which has always been
pursued by all the best men, and not listen for a moment to the signals
of those who sound a retreat so loudly that they 362sometimes call back
even those who have made considerable progress.
III. These reasons, so certain and so evident, are opposed by those
who, on the other side, argue that the labors which must necessarily be
sustained in maintaining the Commonwealth form but a slight impediment
to the vigilant and industrious, and are only a contemptible obstacle
in such important affairs, and even in common studies, offices, and
employments. They add the peril of life, that base fear of death, which
has ever been opposed by brave men, to whom it appears far more
miserable to die by the decay of nature and old age than to be allowed
an opportunity of gallantly sacrificing that life for their country
which must otherwise be yielded up to nature.
On this point, however, our antagonists esteem themselves copious and
eloquent when they collect all the calamities of heroic men, and the
injuries inflicted on them by their ungrateful countrymen. For on this
subject they bring forward those notable examples among the Greeks; and
tell us that Miltiades, the vanquisher and conqueror of the Persians,
before even those wounds were healed which he had received in that most
glorious victory, wasted away in the chains of his fellow-citizens that
life which had been preserved from the weapons of the enemy. They cite
Themistocles, expelled and proscribed by the country which he had
rescued, and forced to flee, not to the Grecian ports which he had
preserved, but to the bosom of the barbarous power which he had
defeated. There is, indeed, no deficiency of examples to illustrate the
levity and cruelty of the Athenians to their noblest citizens—examples
which, originating and multiplying among them, are said at different
times to have abounded in our own most august empire. For we are told:
of the exile of Camillus, the disgrace of Ahala, the unpopularity of
Nasica, the expulsion of Lænas,295 the condemnation of
363Opimius, the flight of Metellus, the cruel destruction of Caius
Marius, the massacre of our chieftains, and the many atrocious crimes
which followed. My own history is by no means free from such
calamities; and I imagine that when they recollect that by my counsel
and perils they were preserved in life and liberty, they are led by
that consideration to bewail my misfortunes more deeply and
affectionately. But I cannot tell why those who sail over the seas for
the sake of knowledge and experience [should wonder at seeing still
greater hazards braved in the service of the Commonwealth].
IV. [Since], on my quitting the consulship, I swore in the assembly of
the Roman people, who re-echoed my words, that I had saved the
Commonwealth, I console myself with this remembrance for all my cares,
troubles, and injuries. Although my misfortune had more of honor than
misfortune, and more of glory than disaster; and I derive greater
pleasure from the regrets of good men than sorrow from the exultation
of the worthless. But even if it had happened otherwise, how could I
have complained, as nothing befell me which was either unforeseen, or
more painful than I expected, as a return for my illustrious actions?
For I was one who, though it was in my power to reap more profit from
leisure than most men, on account of the diversified sweetness of my
studies, in which I had lived from boyhood—or, if any public calamity
had happened, to have borne no more than an equal share with the rest
of my countrymen in the misfortune—I nevertheless did not hesitate to
oppose myself to the most formidable tempests and torrents of sedition,
for the sake of saving my countrymen, and at my own proper danger to
secure the common safety of all the rest. For our country did not beget
and educate us with the expectation of receiving no support, as I may
call it, from us; nor for the purpose of consulting nothing but our
convenience, to supply us with a secure refuge for idleness and a
tranquil spot for rest; but rather with a view of turning to her own
advantage the nobler portion of our genius, heart, and counsel; giving
us back for our private service only what she can spare from the public
interests.
V. Those apologies, therefore, in which men take refuge 364as an excuse
for their devoting themselves with more plausibility to mere inactivity
do certainly not deserve to be listened to; when, for instance, they
tell us that those who meddle with public affairs are generally
good-for-nothing men, with whom it is discreditable to be compared, and
miserable and dangerous to contend, especially when the multitude is in
an excited state. On which account it is not the part of a wise man to
take the reins, since he cannot restrain the insane and unregulated
movements of the common people. Nor is it becoming to a man of liberal
birth, say they, thus to contend with such vile and unrefined
antagonists, or to subject one’s self to the lashings of contumely, or
to put one’s self in the way of injuries which ought not to be borne by
a wise man. As if to a virtuous, brave, and magnanimous man there could
be a juster reason for seeking the government than this—to avoid being
subjected to worthless men, and to prevent the Commonwealth from being
torn to pieces by them; when, even if they were then desirous to save
her, they would not have the power.
VI. But this restriction who can approve, which would interdict the
wise man from taking any share in the government beyond such as the
occasion and necessity may compel him to? As if any greater necessity
could possibly happen to any man than happened to me. In which, how
could I have acted if I had not been consul at the time? and how could
I have been a consul unless I had maintained that course of life from
my childhood which raised me from the order of knights, in which I was
born, to the very highest station? You cannot produce extempore, and
just when you please, the power of assisting a commonwealth, although
it may be severely pressed by dangers, unless you have attained the
position which enables you legally to do so. And what most surprises me
in the discourses of learned men, is to hear those persons who confess
themselves incapable of steering the vessel of the State in smooth seas
(which, indeed, they never learned, and never cared to know) profess
themselves ready to assume the helm amidst the fiercest tempests. For
those men are accustomed to say openly, and indeed to boast greatly,
that they have never learned, and have never taken 365the least pains
to explain, the principles of either establishing or maintaining a
commonwealth; and they look on this practical science as one which
belongs not to men of learning and wisdom, but to those who have made
it their especial study. How, then, can it be reasonable for such men
to promise their assistance to the State, when they shall be compelled
to it by necessity, while they are ignorant how to govern the republic
when no necessity presses upon it, which is a much more easy task?
Indeed, though it were true that the wise man loves not to thrust
himself of his own accord into the administration of public affairs,
but that if circumstances oblige him to it, then he does not refuse the
office, yet I think that this science of civil legislation should in no
wise be neglected by the philosopher, because all resources ought to be
ready to his hand, which he knows not how soon he may be called on to
use.
VII. I have spoken thus at large for this reason, because in this work
I have proposed to myself and undertaken a discussion on the government
of a state; and in order to render it useful, I was bound, in the first
place, to do away with this pusillanimous hesitation to mingle in
public affairs. If there be any, therefore, who are too much influenced
by the authority of the philosophers, let them consider the subject for
a moment, and be guided by the opinions of those men whose authority
and credit are greatest among learned men; whom I look upon, though
some of them have not personally governed any state, as men who have
nevertheless discharged a kind of office in the republic, inasmuch as
they have made many investigations into, and left many writings
concerning, state affairs. As to those whom the Greeks entitle the
Seven Wise Men, I find that they almost all lived in the middle of
public business. Nor, indeed, is there anything in which human virtue
can more closely resemble the divine powers than in establishing new
states, or in preserving those already established.
VIII. And concerning these affairs, since it has been our good fortune
to achieve something worthy of memorial in the government of our
country, and also to have acquired some facility of explaining the
powers and resources of politics, we can treat of this subject with the
weight of 366personal experience and the habit of instruction and
illustration. Whereas before us many have been skilful in theory,
though no exploits of theirs are recorded; and many others have been
men of consideration in action, but unfamiliar with the arts of
exposition. Nor, indeed, is it at all our intention to establish a new
and self-invented system of government; but our purpose is rather to
recall to memory a discussion of the most illustrious men of their age
in our Commonwealth, which you and I, in our youth, when at Smyrna,
heard mentioned by Publius Rutilius Rufus, who reported to us a
conference of many days in which, in my opinion, there was nothing
omitted that could throw light on political affairs.
IX. For when, in the year of the consulship of Tuditanus and Aquilius,
Scipio Africanus, the son of Paulus Æmilius, formed the project
of spending the Latin holidays at his country-seat, where his most
intimate friends had promised him frequent visits during this season of
relaxation, on the first morning of the festival, his nephew, Quintus
Tubero, made his appearance; and when Scipio had greeted him heartily
and embraced him—How is it, my dear Tubero, said he, that I see you so
early? For these holidays must afford you a capital opportunity of
pursuing your favorite studies. Ah! replied Tubero, I can study my
books at any time, for they are always disengaged; but it is a great
privilege, my Scipio, to find you at leisure, especially in this
restless period of public affairs. You certainly have found me so, said
Scipio, but, to speak truth, I am rather relaxing from business than
from study. Nay, said Tubero, you must try to relax from your studies
too, for here are several of us, as we have appointed, all ready, if it
suits your convenience, to aid you in getting through this leisure time
of yours. I am very willing to consent, answered Scipio, and we may be
able to compare notes respecting the several topics that interest us.
X. Be it so, said Tubero; and since you invite me to discussion, and
present the opportunity, let us first examine, before any one else
arrives, what can be the nature of the parhelion, or double sun, which
was mentioned in the senate. Those that affirm they witnessed this
prodigy 367are neither few nor unworthy of credit, so that there is
more reason for investigation than incredulity.296
Ah! said Scipio, I wish we had our friend Panætius with us, who
is fond of investigating all things of this kind, but especially all
celestial phenomena. As for my opinion, Tubero, for I always tell you
just what I think, I hardly agree in these subjects with that friend of
mine, since, respecting things of which we can scarcely form a
conjecture as to their character, he is as positive as if he had seen
them with his own eyes and felt them with his own hands. And I cannot
but the more admire the wisdom of Socrates, who discarded all anxiety
respecting things of this kind, and affirmed that these inquiries
concerning the secrets of nature were either above the efforts of human
reason, or were absolutely of no consequence at all to human life.
But, then, my Africanus, replied Tubero, of what credit is the
tradition which states that Socrates rejected all these physical
investigations, and confined his whole attention to men and manners?
For, with respect to him what better authority can we cite than Plato?
in many passages of whose works Socrates speaks in such a manner that
even when he is discussing morals, and virtues, and even public affairs
and politics, he endeavors to interweave, after the fashion of
Pythagoras, the doctrines of arithmetic, geometry, and harmonic
proportions with them.
That is true, replied Scipio; but you are aware, I believe, that Plato,
after the death of Socrates, was induced to visit Egypt by his love of
science, and that after that he proceeded to Italy and Sicily, from his
desire of understanding the Pythagorean dogmas; that he conversed much
with Archytas of Tarentum and Timæus of Locris; 368that he
collected the works of Philolaus; and that, finding in these places the
renown of Pythagoras flourishing, he addicted himself exceedingly to
the disciples of Pythagoras, and their studies; therefore, as he loved
Socrates with his whole heart, and wished to attribute all great
discoveries to him, he interwove the Socratic elegance and subtlety of
eloquence with somewhat of the obscurity of Pythagoras, and with that
notorious gravity of his diversified arts.
XI. When Scipio had spoken thus, he suddenly saw Lucius Furius
approaching, and saluting him, and embracing him most affectionately,
he gave him a seat on his own couch. And as soon as Publius Rutilius,
the worthy reporter of the conference to us, had arrived, when we had
saluted him, he placed him by the side of Tubero. Then said Furius,
What is it that you are about? Has our entrance at all interrupted any
conversation of yours? By no means, said Scipio, for you yourself too
are in the habit of investigating carefully the subject which Tubero
was a little before proposing to examine; and our friend Rutilius, even
under the walls of Numantia, was in the habit at times of conversing
with me on questions of the same kind. What, then, was the subject of
your discussion? said Philus. We were talking, said Scipio, of the
double suns that recently appeared, and I wish, Philus, to hear what
you think of them.
XII. Just as he was speaking, a boy announced that Lælius was
coming to call on him, and that he had already left his house. Then
Scipio, putting on his sandals and robes, immediately went forth from
his chamber, and when he had walked a little time in the portico, he
met Lælius, and welcomed him and those that accompanied him,
namely, Spurius Mummius, to whom he was greatly attached, and C.
Fannius and Quintus Scævola, sons-in-law of Lælius, two
very intelligent young men, and now of the quæstorian age.297
When he had saluted them all, he returned through the portico, placing
Lælius in the middle; for there was in their friendship a sort of
law of reciprocal courtesy, so 369that in the camp Lælius paid
Scipio almost divine honors, on account of his eminent renown in war
and in private life; in his turn Scipio reverenced Lælius, even
as a father, because he was older than himself.
Then after they had exchanged a few words, as they walked up and down,
Scipio, to whom their visit was extremely welcome and agreeable, wished
to assemble them in a sunny corner of the gardens, because it was still
winter; and when they had agreed to this, there came in another friend,
a learned man, much beloved and esteemed by all of them, M. Manilius,
who, after having been most warmly welcomed by Scipio and the rest,
seated himself next to Lælius.
XIII. Then Philus, commencing the conversation, said: It does not
appear to me that the presence of our new guests need alter the subject
of our discussion, but only that it should induce us to treat it more
philosophically, and in a manner more worthy of our increased audience.
What do you allude to? said Lælius; or what was the discussion we
broke in upon? Scipio was asking me, replied Philus, what I thought of
the parhelion, or mock sun, whose recent apparition was so strongly
attested.
Lælius. Do you say then, my Philus, that we have sufficiently
examined those questions which concern our own houses and the
Commonwealth, that we begin to investigate the celestial mysteries?
And Philus replied: Do you think, then, that it does not concern our
houses to know what happens in that vast home which is not included in
walls of human fabrication, but which embraces the entire universe—a
home which the Gods share with us, as the common country of all
intelligent beings? Especially when, if we are ignorant of these
things, there are also many great practical truths which result from
them, and which bear directly on the welfare of our race, of which we
must be also ignorant. And here I can speak for myself, as well as for
you, Lælius, and all men who are ambitious of wisdom, that the
knowledge and consideration of the facts of nature are by themselves
very delightful.
Lælius. I have no objection to the discussion, especially as it
is holiday-time with us. But cannot we have the 370pleasure of hearing
you resume it, or are we come too late?
Philus. We have not yet commenced the discussion, and since the
question remains entire and unbroken, I shall have the greatest
pleasure, my Lælius, in handing over the argument to you.
Lælius. No, I had much rather hear you, unless, indeed, Manilius
thinks himself able to compromise the suit between the two suns, that
they may possess heaven as joint sovereigns without intruding on each
other’s empire.
Then Manilius said: Are you going, Lælius, to ridicule a science
in which, in the first place, I myself excel; and, secondly, without
which no one can distinguish what is his own, and what is another’s?
But to return to the point. Let us now at present listen to Philus, who
seems to me to have started a greater question than any of those that
have engaged the attention of either Publius Mucius or myself.
XIV. Then Philus said: I am not about to bring you anything new, or
anything which has been thought over or discovered by me myself. But I
recollect that Caius Sulpicius Gallus, who was a man of profound
learning, as you are aware, when this same thing was reported to have
taken place in his time, while he was staying in the house of Marcus
Marcellus, who had been his colleague in the consulship, asked to see a
celestial globe which Marcellus’s grandfather had saved after the
capture of Syracuse from that magnificent and opulent city, without
bringing to his own home any other memorial out of so great a booty;
which I had often heard mentioned on account of the great fame of
Archimedes; but its appearance, however, did not seem to me
particularly striking. For that other is more elegant in form, and more
generally known, which was made by the same Archimedes, and deposited
by the same Marcellus in the Temple of Virtue at Rome. But as soon as
Gallus had begun to explain, in a most scientific manner, the principle
of this machine, I felt that the Sicilian geometrician must have
possessed a genius superior to anything we usually conceive to belong
to our nature. For Gallus assured us that that other solid and compact
globe was a very ancient invention, and that the first 371model had
been originally made by Thales of Miletus. That afterward Eudoxus of
Cnidus, a disciple of Plato, had traced on its surface the stars that
appear in the sky, and that many years subsequently, borrowing from
Eudoxus this beautiful design and representation, Aratus had
illustrated it in his verses, not by any science of astronomy, but by
the ornament of poetic description. He added that the figure of the
globe, which displayed the motions of the sun and moon, and the five
planets, or wandering stars, could not be represented by the primitive
solid globe; and that in this the invention of Archimedes was
admirable, because he had calculated how a single revolution should
maintain unequal and diversified progressions in dissimilar motions. In
fact, when Gallus moved this globe, we observed that the moon succeeded
the sun by as many turns of the wheel in the machine as days in the
heavens. From whence it resulted that the progress of the sun was
marked as in the heavens, and that the moon touched the point where she
is obscured by the earth’s shadow at the instant the sun appears
opposite.298 * * *
XV. * * *299 I had myself a great affection for this Gallus,
and I know that he was very much beloved and esteemed by my father
Paulus. I recollect that when I was very young, when my father, as
consul, commanded in Macedonia, and we were in the camp, our army was
seized with a pious terror, because suddenly, in a clear night, the
bright and full moon became eclipsed. And Gallus, who was then our
lieutenant, the year before that in which he was elected consul,
hesitated not, next morning, to state in the camp that it was no
prodigy, and that the phenomenon which had then appeared would always
appear at certain periods, when the sun was so placed that he could not
affect the moon with his light.
372But do you mean, said Tubero, that he dared to speak thus to men
almost entirely uneducated and ignorant?
Scipio. He did, and with great * * * for his opinion was no
result of insolent ostentation, nor was his language unbecoming the
dignity of so wise a man: indeed, he performed a very noble action in
thus freeing his countrymen from the terrors of an idle superstition.
XVI. And they relate that in a similar way, in the great war in which
the Athenians and Lacedæmonians contended with such violent
resentment, the famous Pericles, the first man of his country in
credit, eloquence, and political genius, observing the Athenians
overwhelmed with an excessive alarm during an eclipse of the sun which
caused a sudden darkness, told them, what he had learned in the school
of Anaxagoras, that these phenomena necessarily happened at precise and
regular periods when the body of the moon was interposed between the
sun and the earth, and that if they happened not before every new moon,
still they could not possibly happen except at the exact time of the
new moon. And when he had proved this truth by his reasonings, he freed
the people from their alarms; for at that period the doctrine was new
and unfamiliar that the sun was accustomed to be eclipsed by the
interposition of the moon, which fact they say that Thales of Miletus
was the first to discover. Afterward my friend Ennius appears to have
been acquainted with the same theory, who, writing about 350300 years
after the foundation of Rome, says, “In the nones of June the sun was
covered by the moon and night.” The calculations in the astronomical
art have attained such perfection that from that day, thus described to
us by Ennius and recorded in the pontifical registers, the anterior
eclipses of the sun have been computed as far back as the nones of July
in the reign of Romulus, when that eclipse took place, in the obscurity
of which it was affirmed that Virtue bore Romulus to heaven, in spite
of the perishable nature which carried him off by the common fate of
humanity.
373XVII. Then said Tubero: Do not you think, Scipio, that this
astronomical science, which every day proves so useful, just now
appeared in a different light to you,301 * * * which the rest
may see. Moreover, who can think anything in human affairs of brilliant
importance who has penetrated this starry empire of the gods? Or who
can think anything connected with mankind long who has learned to
estimate the nature of eternity? or glorious who is aware of the
insignificance of the size of the earth, even in its whole extent, and
especially in the portion which men inhabit? And when we consider that
almost imperceptible point which we ourselves occupy unknown to the
majority of nations, can we still hope that our name and reputation can
be widely circulated? And then our estates and edifices, our cattle,
and the enormous treasures of our gold and silver, can they be esteemed
or denominated as desirable goods by him who observes their perishable
profit, and their contemptible use, and their uncertain domination,
often falling into the possession of the very worst men? How happy,
then, ought we to esteem that man who alone has it in his power, not by
the law of the Romans, but by the privilege of philosophers, to enjoy
all things as his own; not by any civil bond, but by the common right
of nature, which denies that anything can really be possessed by any
one but him who understands its true nature and use; who reckons our
dictatorships and consulships rather in the rank of necessary offices
than desirable employments, and thinks they must be endured rather as
acquittances of our debt to our country than sought for the sake of
emolument or glory—the man, in short, who can apply to himself the
sentence which Cato tells us my ancestor Africanus loved to repeat,
“that he was never so busy as when he did nothing, and never less
solitary than when alone.”
For who can believe that Dionysius, when after every possible effort he
ravished from his fellow-citizens their liberty, had performed a nobler
work than Archimedes, when, without appearing to be doing anything, he
manufactured the globe which we have just been describing? 374Who does
not see that those men are in reality more solitary who, in the midst
of a crowd, find no one with whom they can converse congenially than
those who, without witnesses, hold communion with themselves, and enter
into the secret counsels of the sagest philosophers, while they delight
themselves in their writings and discoveries? And who would think any
one richer than the man who is in want of nothing which nature
requires; or more powerful than he who has attained all that she has
need of; or happier than he who is free from all mental perturbation;
or more secure in future than he who carries all his property in
himself, which is thus secured from shipwreck? And what power, what
magistracy, what royalty, can be preferred to a wisdom which, looking
down on all terrestrial objects as low and transitory things,
incessantly directs its attention to eternal and immutable verities,
and which is persuaded that though others are called men, none are
really so but those who are refined by the appropriate acts of humanity?
In this sense an expression of Plato or some other philosopher appears
to me exceedingly elegant, who, when a tempest had driven his ship on
an unknown country and a desolate shore, during the alarms with which
their ignorance of the region inspired his companions, observed, they
say, geometrical figures traced in the sand, on which he immediately
told them to be of good cheer, for he had observed the indications of
Man. A conjecture he deduced, not from the cultivation of the soil
which he beheld, but from the symbols of science. For this reason,
Tubero, learning and learned men, and these your favorite studies, have
always particularly pleased me.
XVIII. Then Lælius replied: I cannot venture, Scipio, to answer
your arguments, or to [maintain the discussion either against] you,
Philus, or Manilius.302 * * *
We had a friend in Tubero’s father’s family, who in these respects may
serve him as a model.
Sextus so wise, and ever on his guard.
Wise and cautious indeed he was, as Ennius justly describes him—not
because he searched for what he could 375never find, but because he
knew how to answer those who prayed for deliverance from cares and
difficulties. It is he who, reasoning against the astronomical studies
of Gallus, used frequently to repeat these words of Achilles in the
Iphigenia303:
They note the astrologic signs of heaven,
Whene’er the goats or scorpions of great Jove,
Or other monstrous names of brutal forms,
Rise in the zodiac; but not one regards
The sensible facts of earth, on which we tread,
While gazing on the starry prodigies.
He used, however, to say (and I have often listened to him with
pleasure) that for his part he thought that Zethus, in the piece of
Pacuvius, was too inimical to learning. He much preferred the
Neoptolemus of Ennius, who professes himself desirous of philosophizing
only in moderation; for that he did not think it right to be wholly
devoted to it. But though the studies of the Greeks have so many charms
for you, there are others, perhaps, nobler and more extensive, which we
may be better able to apply to the service of real life, and even to
political affairs. As to these abstract sciences, their utility, if
they possess any, lies principally in exciting and stimulating the
abilities of youth, so that they more easily acquire more important
accomplishments.
XIX. Then Tubero said: I do not mean to disagree with you,
Lælius; but, pray, what do you call more important studies?
Lælius. I will tell you frankly, though perhaps you will think
lightly of my opinion, since you appeared so eager in interrogating
Scipio respecting the celestial phenomena; but I happen to think that
those things which are every day before our eyes are more particularly
deserving of our attention. Why should the child of Paulus
Æmilius, the nephew of Æmilius, the descendant of such a
noble family and so glorious a republic, inquire how there can be two
suns in heaven, and not ask how there can be two senates in one
Commonwealth, and, as it were, two distinct peoples? 376For, as you
see, the death of Tiberius Gracchus, and the whole system of his
tribuneship, has divided one people into two parties. But the
slanderers and the enemies of Scipio, encouraged by P. Crassus and
Appius Claudius, maintained, after the death of these two chiefs, a
division of nearly half the senate, under the influence of Metellus and
Mucius. Nor would they permit the man304 who alone could have been of
service to help us out of our difficulties during the movement of the
Latins and their allies towards rebellion, violating all our treaties
in the presence of factious triumvirs, and creating every day some
fresh intrigue, to the disturbance of the worthier and wealthier
citizens. This is the reason, young men, if you will listen to me, why
you should regard this new sun with less alarm; for, whether it does
exist, or whether it does not exist, it is, as you see, quite harmless
to us. As to the manner of its existence, we can know little or
nothing; and even if we obtained the most perfect understanding of it,
this knowledge would make us but little wiser or happier. But that
there should exist a united people and a united senate is a thing which
actually may be brought about, and it will be a great evil if it is
not; and that it does not exist at present we are aware; and we see
that if it can be effected, our lives will be both better and happier.
XX. Then Mucius said: What, then, do you consider, my Lælius,
should be our best arguments in endeavoring to bring about the object
of your wishes?
Lælius. Those sciences and arts which teach us how we may be most
useful to the State; for I consider that the most glorious office of
wisdom, and the noblest proof and business of virtue. In order,
therefore, that we may consecrate these holidays as much as possible to
conversations which may be profitable to the Commonwealth, let us beg
Scipio to explain to us what in his estimation appears to be the best
form of government. Then let us pass on to other points, the knowledge
of which may lead us, as I hope, to sound political views, and unfold
the causes of the dangers which now threaten us.
XXI. When Philus, Manilius, and Mummius had all expressed 377their
great approbation of this idea305 * * * I have ventured [to
open our discussion] in this way, not only because it is but just that
on State politics the chief man in the State should be the principal
speaker, but also because I recollect that you, Scipio, were formerly
very much in the habit of conversing with Panætius and Polybius,
two Greeks, exceedingly learned in political questions, and that you
are master of many arguments by which you prove that by far the best
condition of government is that which our ancestors have handed down to
us. And as you, therefore, are familiar with this subject, if you will
explain to us your views respecting the general principles of a state
(I speak for my friends as well as myself), we shall feel exceedingly
obliged to you.
XXII. Then Scipio said: I must acknowledge that there is no subject of
meditation to which my mind naturally turns with more ardor and
intensity than this very one which Lælius has proposed to us.
And, indeed, as I see that in every profession, every artist who would
distinguish himself, thinks of, and aims at, and labors for no other
object but that of attaining perfection in his art, should not I, whose
main business, according to the example of my father and my ancestors,
is the advancement and right administration of government, be
confessing myself more indolent than any common mechanic if I were to
bestow on this noblest of sciences less attention and labor than they
devote to their insignificant trades? However, I am neither entirely
satisfied with the decisions which the greatest and wisest men of
Greece have left us; nor, on the other hand, do I venture to prefer my
own opinions to theirs. Therefore, I must request you not to consider
me either entirely ignorant of the Grecian literature, nor yet
disposed, especially in political questions, to yield it the
pre-eminence over our own; but rather to regard me as a true-born
Roman, not illiberally instructed by the care of my father, and
inflamed with the desire of knowledge, even from my boyhood, but still
even more familiar with domestic precepts and practices than the
literature of books.
XXIII. On this Philus said: I have no doubt, my Scipio, that no one is
superior to you in natural genius, 378and that you are very far
superior to every one in the practical experience of national
government and of important business. We are also acquainted with the
course which your studies have at all times taken; and if, as you say,
you have given so much attention to this science and art of politics,
we cannot be too much obliged to Lælius for introducing the
subject: for I trust that what we shall hear from you will be far more
useful and available than all the writings put together which the
Greeks have written for us.
Then Scipio replied: You are raising a very high expectation of my
discourse, such as is a most oppressive burden to a man who is required
to discuss grave subjects.
And Philus said: Although that may be a difficulty, my Scipio, still
you will be sure to conquer it, as you always do; nor is there any
danger of eloquence failing you, when you begin to speak on the affairs
of a commonwealth.
XXIV. Then Scipio proceeded: I will do what you wish, as far as I can;
and I shall enter into the discussion under favor of that rule which, I
think, should be adopted by all persons in disputations of this kind,
if they wish to avoid being misunderstood; namely, that when men have
agreed respecting the proper name of the matter under discussion, it
should be stated what that name exactly means, and what it legitimately
includes. And when that point is settled, then it is fit to enter on
the discussion; for it will never be possible to arrive at an
understanding of what the character of the subject of the discussion
is, unless one first understands exactly what it is. Since, then, our
investigations relate to a commonwealth, we must first examine what
this name properly signifies.
And when Lælius had intimated his approbation of this course,
Scipio continued:
I shall not adopt, said he, in so clear and simple a manner that system
of discussion which goes back to first principles; as learned men often
do in this sort of discussion, so as to go back to the first meeting of
male and female, and then to the first birth and formation of the first
family, and define over and over again what there is in words, and in
how many manners each thing is stated. 379For, as I am speaking to men
of prudence, who have acted with the greatest glory in the
Commonwealth, both in peace and war, I will take care not to allow the
subject of the discussion itself to be clearer than my explanation of
it. Nor have I undertaken this task with the design of examining all
its minuter points, like a school-master; nor will I promise you in the
following discourse not to omit any single particular.
Then Lælius said: For my part, I am impatient for exactly that
kind of disquisition which you promise us.
XXV. Well, then, said Africanus, a commonwealth is a constitution of
the entire people. But the people is not every association of men,
however congregated, but the association of the entire number, bound
together by the compact of justice, and the communication of utility.
The first cause of this association is not so much the weakness of man
as a certain spirit of congregation which naturally belongs to him. For
the human race is not a race of isolated individuals, wandering and
solitary; but it is so constituted that even in the affluence of all
things [and without any need of reciprocal assistance, it spontaneously
seeks society].
XXVI. [It is necessary to presuppose] these original seeds, as it were,
since we cannot discover any primary establishment of the other
virtues, or even of a commonwealth itself. These unions, then, formed
by the principle which I have mentioned, established their headquarters
originally in certain central positions, for the convenience of the
whole population; and having fortified them by natural and artificial
means, they called this collection of houses a city or town,
distinguished by temples and public squares. Every people, therefore,
which consists of such an association of the entire multitude as I have
described, every city which consists of an assemblage of the people,
and every commonwealth which embraces every member of these
associations, must be regulated by a certain authority, in order to be
permanent.
This intelligent authority should always refer itself to that grand
first principle which established the Commonwealth. It must be
deposited in the hands of one supreme person, or intrusted to the
administration of certain delegated 380rulers, or undertaken by the
whole multitude. When the direction of all depends on one person, we
call this individual a king, and this form of political constitution a
kingdom. When it is in the power of privileged delegates, the State is
said to be ruled by an aristocracy; and when the people are all in all,
they call it a democracy, or popular constitution. And if the tie of
social affection, which originally united men in political associations
for the sake of public interest, maintains its force, each of these
forms of government is, I will not say perfect, nor, in my opinion,
essentially good, but tolerable, and such that one may accidentally be
better than another: either a just and wise king, or a selection of the
most eminent citizens, or even the populace itself (though this is the
least commendable form), may, if there be no interference of crime and
cupidity, form a constitution sufficiently secure.
XXVII. But in a monarchy the other members of the State are often too
much deprived of public counsel and jurisdiction; and under the rule of
an aristocracy the multitude can hardly possess its due share of
liberty, since it is allowed no share in the public deliberation, and
no power. And when all things are carried by a democracy, although it
be just and moderate, yet its very equality is a culpable levelling,
inasmuch as it allows no gradations of rank. Therefore, even if Cyrus,
the King of the Persians, was a most righteous and wise monarch, I
should still think that the interest of the people (for this is, as I
have said before, the same as the Commonwealth) could not be very
effectually promoted when all things depended on the beck and nod of
one individual. And though at present the people of Marseilles, our
clients, are governed with the greatest justice by elected magistrates
of the highest rank, still there is always in this condition of the
people a certain appearance of servitude; and when the Athenians, at a
certain period, having demolished their Areopagus, conducted all public
affairs by the acts and decrees of the democracy alone, their State, as
it no longer contained a distinct gradation of ranks, was no longer
able to retain its original fair appearance.
XXVIII. I have reasoned thus on the three forms of government, not
looking on them in their disorganized 381and confused conditions, but
in their proper and regular administration. These three particular
forms, however, contained in themselves, from the first, the faults and
defects I have mentioned; but they have also other dangerous vices, for
there is not one of these three forms of government which has not a
precipitous and slippery passage down to some proximate abuse. For,
after thinking of that endurable, or, as you will have it, most amiable
king, Cyrus—to name him in preference to any one else—then, to produce
a change in our minds, we behold the barbarous Phalaris, that model of
tyranny, to which the monarchical authority is easily abused by a
facile and natural inclination. And, in like manner, along-side of the
wise aristocracy of Marseilles, we might exhibit the oligarchical
faction of the thirty tyrants which once existed at Athens. And, not to
seek for other instances, among the same Athenians, we can show you
that when unlimited power was cast into the hands of the people, it
inflamed the fury of the multitude, and aggravated that universal
license which ruined their State.306 * * *
XXIX. The worst condition of things sometimes results from a confusion
of those factious tyrannies into which kings, aristocrats, and
democrats are apt to degenerate. For thus, from these diverse elements,
there occasionally arises (as I have said before) a new kind of
government. And wonderful indeed are the revolutions and periodical
returns in natural constitutions of such alternations and vicissitudes,
which it is the part of the wise politician to investigate with the
closest attention. But to calculate their approach, and to join to this
foresight the skill which moderates the course of events, and retains
in a steady hand the reins of that authority which safely conducts the
people through all the dangers to which they expose themselves, is the
work of a most illustrious citizen, and of almost divine genius.
There is a fourth kind of government, therefore, which, in my opinion,
is preferable to all these: it is that mixed and moderate government
which is composed of the three particular forms which I have already
noticed.
XXX. Lælius. I am not ignorant, Scipio, that such is 382your
opinion, for I have often heard you say so. But I do not the less
desire, if it is not giving you too much trouble, to hear which you
consider the best of these three forms of commonwealths. For it may be
of some use in considering307 * * *
XXXI. * * * And each commonwealth corresponds to the nature
and will of him who governs it. Therefore, in no other constitution
than that in which the people exercise sovereign power has liberty any
sure abode, than which there certainly is no more desirable blessing.
And if it be not equally established for every one, it is not even
liberty at all. And how can there be this character of equality, I do
not say under a monarchy, where slavery is least disguised or doubtful,
but even in those constitutions in which the people are free indeed in
words, for they give their suffrages, they elect officers, they are
canvassed and solicited for magistracies; but yet they only grant those
things which they are obliged to grant whether they will or not, and
which are not really in their free power, though others ask them for
them? For they are not themselves admitted to the government, to the
exercise of public authority, or to offices of select judges, which are
permitted to those only of ancient families and large fortunes. But in
a free people, as among the Rhodians and Athenians, there is no citizen
who308 * * *
XXXII. * * * No sooner is one man, or several, elevated by
wealth and power, than they say that * * * arise from their
pride and arrogance, when the idle and the timid give way, and bow down
to the insolence of riches. But if the people knew how to maintain its
rights, then they say that nothing could be more glorious and
prosperous than democracy; inasmuch as they themselves would be the
sovereign dispensers of laws, judgments, war, peace, public treaties,
and, finally, of the fortune and life of each individual citizen; and
this condition of things is the only one which, in their opinion, can
be really called a commonwealth, that is to say, a constitution of the
people. It is on this principle that, according to them, a people often
vindicates its liberty from the domination of kings and 383nobles;
while, on the other hand, kings are not sought for among free peoples,
nor are the power and wealth of aristocracies. They deny, moreover,
that it is fair to reject this general constitution of freemen, on
account of the vices of the unbridled populace; but that if the people
be united and inclined, and directs all its efforts to the safety and
freedom of the community, nothing can be stronger or more unchangeable;
and they assert that this necessary union is easily obtained in a
republic so constituted that the good of all classes is the same; while
the conflicting interests that prevail in other constitutions
inevitably produce dissensions; therefore, say they, when the senate
had the ascendency, the republic had no stability; and when kings
possess the power, this blessing is still more rare, since, as Ennius
expresses it,
In kingdoms there’s no faith, and little love.
Wherefore, since the law is the bond of civil society, and the justice
of the law equal, by what rule can the association of citizens be held
together, if the condition of the citizens be not equal? For if the
fortunes of men cannot be reduced to this equality—if genius cannot be
equally the property of all—rights, at least, should be equal among
those who are citizens of the same republic. For what is a republic but
an association of rights?309 * * *
XXXIII. But as to the other political constitutions, these democratical
advocates do not think they are worthy of being distinguished by the
name which they claim. For why, say they, should we apply the name of
king, the title of Jupiter the Beneficent, and not rather the title of
tyrant, to a man ambitious of sole authority and power, lording it over
a degraded multitude? For a tyrant may be as merciful as a king may be
oppressive; so that the whole difference to the people is, whether they
serve an indulgent master or a cruel one, since serve some one they
must. But how could Sparta, at the period of the boasted superiority of
her political institution, obtain a constant enjoyment of just and
virtuous kings, when they necessarily received an hereditary monarch,
good, bad, or indifferent, because he happened to be of the blood
royal? As to 384aristocrats, Who will endure, say they, that men should
distinguish themselves by such a title, and that not by the voice of
the people, but by their own votes? For how is such a one judged to be
best either in learning, sciences, or arts?310 * * *
XXXIV. * * * If it does so by hap-hazard, it will be as
easily upset as a vessel if the pilot were chosen by lot from among the
passengers. But if a people, being free, chooses those to whom it can
trust itself—and, if it desires its own preservation, it will always
choose the noblest—then certainly it is in the counsels of the
aristocracy that the safety of the State consists, especially as nature
has not only appointed that these superior men should excel the
inferior sort in high virtue and courage, but has inspired the people
also with the desire of obedience towards these, their natural lords.
But they say this aristocratical State is destroyed by the depraved
opinions of men, who, through ignorance of virtue (which, as it belongs
to few, can be discerned and appreciated by few), imagine that not only
rich and powerful men, but also those who are nobly born, are
necessarily the best. And so when, through this popular error, the
riches, and not the virtue, of a few men has taken possession of the
State, these chiefs obstinately retain the title of nobles, though they
want the essence of nobility. For riches, fame, and power, without
wisdom and a just method of regulating ourselves and commanding others,
are full of discredit and insolent arrogance; nor is there any kind of
government more deformed than that in which the wealthiest are regarded
as the noblest.
But when virtue governs the Commonwealth, what can be more glorious?
When he who commands the rest is himself enslaved by no lust or
passion; when he himself exhibits all the virtues to which he incites
and educates the citizens; when he imposes no law on the people which
he does not himself observe, but presents his life as a living law to
his fellow-countrymen; if a single individual could thus suffice for
all, there would be no need of more; and if the community could find a
chief ruler thus worthy of all their suffrages, none would require
elected magistrates.
385It was the difficulty of forming plans which transferred the
government from a king into the hands of many; and the error and
temerity of the people likewise transferred it from the hands of the
many into those of the few. Thus, between the weakness of the monarch
and the rashness of the multitude, the aristocrats have occupied the
middle place, than which nothing can be better arranged; and while they
superintend the public interest, the people necessarily enjoy the
greatest possible prosperity, being free from all care and anxiety,
having intrusted their security to others, who ought sedulously to
defend it, and not allow the people to suspect that their advantage is
neglected by their rulers.
For as to that equality of rights which democracies so loudly boast of,
it can never be maintained; for the people themselves, so dissolute and
so unbridled, are always inclined to flatter a number of demagogues;
and there is in them a very great partiality for certain men and
dignities, so that their equality, so called, becomes most unfair and
iniquitous. For as equal honor is given to the most noble and the most
infamous, some of whom must exist in every State, then the equity which
they eulogize becomes most inequitable—an evil which never can happen
in those states which are governed by aristocracies. These reasonings,
my Lælius, and some others of the same kind, are usually brought
forward by those that so highly extol this form of political
constitution.
XXXV. Then Lælius said: But you have not told us, Scipio, which
of these three forms of government you yourself most approve.
Scipio. You are right to shape your question, which of the three I most
approve, for there is not one of them which I approve at all by itself,
since, as I told you, I prefer that government which is mixed and
composed of all these forms, to any one of them taken separately. But
if I must confine myself to one of these particular forms simply and
exclusively, I must confess I prefer the royal one, and praise that as
the first and best. In this, which I here choose to call the primitive
form of government, I find the title of father attached to that of
king, to express that he watches over the citizens as over his
children, and endeavors 386rather to preserve them in freedom than
reduce them to slavery. So that it is more advantageous for those who
are insignificant in property and capacity to be supported by the care
of one excellent and eminently powerful man. The nobles here present
themselves, who profess that they can do all this in much better style;
for they say that there is much more wisdom in many than in one, and at
least as much faith and equity. And, last of all, come the people, who
cry with a loud voice that they will render obedience neither to the
one nor the few; that even to brute beasts nothing is so dear as
liberty; and that all men who serve either kings or nobles are deprived
of it. Thus, the kings attract us by affection, the nobles by talent,
the people by liberty; and in the comparison it is hard to choose the
best.
Lælius. I think so too, but yet it is impossible to despatch the
other branches of the question, if you leave this primary point
undetermined.
XXXVI. Scipio. We must then, I suppose, imitate Aratus, who, when he
prepared himself to treat of great things, thought himself in duty
bound to begin with Jupiter.
Lælius. Wherefore Jupiter? and what is there in this discussion
which resembles that poem?
Scipio. Why, it serves to teach us that we cannot better commence our
investigations than by invoking him whom, with one voice, both learned
and unlearned extol as the universal king of all gods and men.
How so? said Lælius.
Do you, then, asked Scipio, believe in nothing which is not before your
eyes? whether these ideas have been established by the chiefs of states
for the benefit of society, that there might be believed to exist one
Universal Monarch in heaven, at whose nod (as Homer expresses it) all
Olympus trembles, and that he might be accounted both king and father
of all creatures; for there is great authority, and there are many
witnesses, if you choose to call all many, who attest that all nations
have unanimously recognized, by the decrees of their chiefs, that
nothing is better than a king, since they think that all the Gods are
governed by the divine power of one sovereign; or if we suspect 387that
this opinion rests on the error of the ignorant, and should be classed
among the fables, let us listen to those universal testimonies of
erudite men, who have, as it were, seen with their eyes those things to
the knowledge of which we can hardly attain by report.
What men do you mean? said Lælius.
Those, replied Scipio, who, by the investigation of nature, have
arrived at the opinion that the whole universe [is animated] by a
single Mind311. * * *
XXXVII. But if you please, my Lælius, I will bring forward
evidences which are neither too ancient nor in any respect barbarous.
Those, said Lælius, are what I want.
Scipio. You are aware that it is now not four centuries since this city
of ours has been without kings.
Lælius. You are correct; it is less than four centuries.
Scipio. Well, then, what are four centuries in the age of a state or
city? is it a long time?
Lælius. It hardly amounts to the age of maturity.
Scipio. You say truly; and yet not four centuries have elapsed since
there was a king in Rome.
Lælius. And he was a proud king.
Scipio. But who was his predecessor?
Lælius. He was an admirably just one; and, indeed, we must bestow
the same praise on all his predecessors as far back as Romulus, who
reigned about six centuries ago.
Scipio. Even he, then, is not very ancient.
Lælius. No; he reigned when Greece was already becoming old.
Scipio. Agreed. Was Romulus, then, think you, king of a barbarous
people?
Lælius. Why, as to that, if we were to follow the example of the
Greeks, who say that all people are either Greeks or barbarians, I am
afraid that we must confess that he was a king of barbarians; but if
this name belongs rather to manners than to languages, then I believe
the Greeks were just as barbarous as the Romans.
Then Scipio said: But with respect to the present question, we do not
so much need to inquire into the nation as into the disposition. For if
intelligent men, at a period so 388little remote, desired the
government of kings, you will confess that I am producing authorities
that are neither antiquated, rude, nor insignificant.
XXXVIII. Then Lælius said: I see, Scipio, that you are very
sufficiently provided with authorities; but with me, as with every fair
judge, authorities are worth less than arguments.
Scipio replied: Then, Lælius, you shall yourself make use of an
argument derived from your own senses.
Lælius. What senses do you mean?
Scipio. The feelings which you experience when at any time you happen
to feel angry with any one.
Lælius. That happens rather oftener than I could wish.
Scipio. Well, then, when you are angry, do you permit your anger to
triumph over your judgment?
No, by Hercules! said Lælius; I imitate the famous Archytas of
Tarentum, who, when he came to his villa, and found all its
arrangements were contrary to his orders, said to his steward, “Ah! you
unlucky scoundrel, I would flog you to death, if it were not that I am
in a rage with you.”
Capital, said Scipio. Archytas, then, regarded unreasonable anger as a
kind of sedition and rebellion of nature which he sought to appease by
reflection. And so, if we examine avarice, the ambition of power or of
glory, or the lusts of concupiscence and licentiousness, we shall find
a certain conscience in the mind of man, which, like a king, sways by
the force of counsel all the inferior faculties and propensities; and
this, in truth, is the noblest portion of our nature; for when
conscience reigns, it allows no resting-place to lust, violence, or
temerity.
Lælius. You have spoken the truth.
Scipio. Well, then, does a mind thus governed and regulated meet your
approbation?
Lælius. More than anything upon earth.
Scipio. Then you would not approve that the evil passions, which are
innumerable, should expel conscience, and that lusts and animal
propensities should assume an ascendency over us?
Lælius. For my part, I can conceive nothing more wretched than a
mind thus degraded, or a man animated by a soul so licentious.
389Scipio. You desire, then, that all the faculties of the mind should
submit to a ruling power, and that conscience should reign over them
all?
Lælius. Certainly, that is my wish.
Scipio. How, then, can you doubt what opinion to form on the subject of
the Commonwealth? in which, if the State is thrown into many hands, it
is very plain that there will be no presiding authority; for if power
be not united, it soon comes to nothing.
XXXIX. Then Lælius asked: But what difference is there, I should
like to know, between the one and the many, if justice exists equally
in many?
And Scipio said: Since I see, my Lælius, that the authorities I
have adduced have no great influence on you, I must continue to employ
you yourself as my witness in proof of what I am saying.
In what way, said Lælius, are you going to make me again support
your argument?
Scipio. Why, thus: I recollect, when we were lately at Formiæ,
that you told your servants repeatedly to obey the orders of more than
one master only.
Lælius. To be sure, those of my steward.
Scipio. What do you at home? Do you commit your affairs to the hands of
many persons?
Lælius. No, I trust them to myself alone.
Scipio. Well, in your whole establishment, is there any other master
but yourself?
Lælius. Not one.
Scipio. Then I think you must grant me that, as respects the State, the
government of single individuals, provided they are just, is superior
to any other.
Lælius. You have conducted me to this conclusion, and I entertain
very nearly that opinion.
XL. And Scipio said: You would still further agree with me, my
Lælius, if, omitting the common comparisons, that one pilot is
better fitted to steer a ship, and a physician to treat an invalid,
provided they be competent men in their respective professions, than
many could be, I should come at once to more illustrious examples.
Lælius. What examples do you mean?
Scipio. Do not you observe that it was the cruelty and 390pride of one
single Tarquin only that made the title of king unpopular among the
Romans?
Lælius. Yes, I acknowledge that.
Scipio. You are also aware of this fact, on which I think I shall
debate in the course of the coming discussion, that after the expulsion
of King Tarquin, the people was transported by a wonderful excess of
liberty. Then innocent men were driven into banishment; then the
estates of many individuals were pillaged, consulships were made
annual, public authorities were overawed by mobs, popular appeals took
place in all cases imaginable; then secessions of the lower orders
ensued, and, lastly, those proceedings which tended to place all powers
in the hands of the populace.
Lælius. I must confess this is all too true.
All these things now, said Scipio, happened during periods of peace and
tranquillity, for license is wont to prevail when there is little to
fear, as in a calm voyage or a trifling disease. But as we observe the
voyager and the invalid implore the aid of some one competent director,
as soon as the sea grows stormy and the disease alarming, so our nation
in peace and security commands, threatens, resists, appeals from, and
insults its magistrates, but in war obeys them as strictly as kings;
for public safety is, after all, rather more valuable than popular
license. And in the most serious wars, our countrymen have even chosen
the entire command to be deposited in the hands of some single chief,
without a colleague; the very name of which magistrate indicates the
absolute character of his power. For though he is evidently called
dictator because he is appointed (dicitur), yet do we still observe
him, my Lælius, in our sacred books entitled Magister Populi (the
master of the people).
This is certainly the case, said Lælius.
Our ancestors, therefore, said Scipio, acted wisely.312 * * *
XLI. When the people is deprived of a just king, as Ennius says, after
the death of one of the best of monarchs,
They hold his memory dear, and, in the warmth
Of their discourse, they cry, O Romulus!
O prince divine, sprung from the might of Mars
To be thy country’s guardian! O our sire!
Be our protector still, O heaven-begot!
391Not heroes, nor lords alone, did they call those whom they lawfully
obeyed; nor merely as kings did they proclaim them; but they pronounced
them their country’s guardians, their fathers, and their Gods. Nor,
indeed, without cause, for they added,
Thou, Prince, hast brought us to the gates of light.
And truly they believed that life and honor and glory had arisen to
them from the justice of their king. The same good-will would doubtless
have remained in their descendants, if the same virtues had been
preserved on the throne; but, as you see, by the injustice of one man
the whole of that kind of constitution fell into ruin.
I see it indeed, said Lælius, and I long to know the history of
these political revolutions both in our own Commonwealth and in every
other.
XLII. And Scipio said: When I shall have explained my opinion
respecting the form of government which I prefer, I shall be able to
speak to you more accurately respecting the revolutions of states,
though I think that such will not take place so easily in the mixed
form of government which I recommend. With respect, however, to
absolute monarchy, it presents an inherent and invincible tendency to
revolution. No sooner does a king begin to be unjust than this entire
form of government is demolished, and he at once becomes a tyrant,
which is the worst of all governments, and one very closely related to
monarchy. If this State falls into the hands of the nobles, which is
the usual course of events, it becomes an aristocracy, or the second of
the three kinds of constitutions which I have described; for it is, as
it were, a royal—that is to say, a paternal—council of the chief men of
the State consulting for the public benefit. Or if the people by itself
has expelled or slain a tyrant, it is moderate in its conduct as long
as it has sense and wisdom, and while it rejoices in its exploit, and
applies itself to maintaining the constitution which it has
established. But if ever the people has raised its forces against a
just king and robbed him of his throne, or, as has frequently happened,
has tasted the blood of its legitimate nobles, and subjected the whole
Commonwealth to its own license, you can imagine 392no flood or
conflagration so terrible, or any whose violence is harder to appease
than this unbridled insolence of the populace.
XLIII. Then we see realized that which Plato so vividly describes, if I
can but express it in our language. It is by no means easy to do it
justice in translation: however, I will try.
When, says Plato, the insatiate jaws of the populace are fired with the
thirst of liberty, and when the people, urged on by evil ministers,
drains in its thirst the cup, not of tempered liberty, but unmitigated
license, then the magistrates and chiefs, if they are not utterly
subservient and remiss, and shameless promoters of the popular
licentiousness, are pursued, incriminated, accused, and cried down
under the title of despots and tyrants. I dare say you recollect the
passage.
Yes, said Lælius, it is familiar to me.
Scipio. Plato thus proceeds: Then those who feel in duty bound to obey
the chiefs of the State are persecuted by the insensate populace, who
call them voluntary slaves. But those who, though invested with
magistracies, wish to be considered on an equality with private
individuals, and those private individuals who labor to abolish all
distinctions between their own class and the magistrates, are extolled
with acclamations and overwhelmed with honors, so that it inevitably
happens in a commonwealth thus revolutionized that liberalism abounds
in all directions, due authority is found wanting even in private
families, and misrule seems to extend even to the animals that witness
it. Then the father fears the son, and the son neglects the father. All
modesty is banished; they become far too liberal for that. No
difference is made between the citizen and the alien; the master dreads
and cajoles his scholars, and the scholars despise their masters. The
young men assume the gravity of sages, and sages must stoop to the
follies of children, lest they should be hated and oppressed by them.
The very slaves even are under but little restraint; wives boast the
same rights as their husbands; dogs, horses, and asses are emancipated
in this outrageous excess of freedom, and run about so violently that
they frighten the passengers from the road. At length 393the
termination of all this infinite licentiousness is, that the minds of
the citizens become so fastidious and effeminate, that when they
observe even the slightest exertion of authority they grow angry and
seditious, and thus the laws begin to be neglected, so that the people
are absolutely without any master at all.
Then Lælius said: You have very accurately rendered the opinions
which he expressed.
XLIV. Scipio. Now, to return to the argument of my discourse. It
appears that this extreme license, which is the only liberty in the
eyes of the vulgar, is, according to Plato, such that from it as a sort
of root tyrants naturally arise and spring up. For as the excessive
power of an aristocracy occasions the destruction of the nobles, so
this excessive liberalism of democracies brings after it the slavery of
the people. Thus we find in the weather, the soil, and the animal
constitution the most favorable conditions are sometimes suddenly
converted by their excess into the contrary, and this fact is
especially observable in political governments; and this excessive
liberty soon brings the people collectively and individually to an
excessive servitude. For, as I said, this extreme liberty easily
introduces the reign of tyranny, the severest of all unjust slaveries.
In fact, from the midst of this unbridled and capricious populace, they
elect some one as a leader in opposition to their afflicted and
expelled nobles: some new chief, forsooth, audacious and impure, often
insolently persecuting those who have deserved well of the State, and
ready to gratify the populace at his neighbor’s expense as well as his
own. Then, since the private condition is naturally exposed to fears
and alarms, the people invest him with many powers, and these are
continued in his hands. Such men, like Pisistratus of Athens, will soon
find an excuse for surrounding themselves with body-guards, and they
will conclude by becoming tyrants over the very persons who raised them
to dignity. If such despots perish by the vengeance of the better
citizens, as is generally the case, the constitution is re-established;
but if they fall by the hands of bold insurgents, then the same faction
succeeds them, which is only another species of tyranny. And the same
revolution arises 394from the fair system of aristocracy when any
corruption has betrayed the nobles from the path of rectitude. Thus the
power is like the ball which is flung from hand to hand: it passes from
kings to tyrants, from tyrants to the aristocracy, from them to
democracy, and from these back again to tyrants and to factions; and
thus the same kind of government is seldom long maintained.
XLV. Since these are the facts of experience, royalty is, in my
opinion, very far preferable to the three other kinds of political
constitutions. But it is itself inferior to that which is composed of
an equal mixture of the three best forms of government, united and
modified by one another. I wish to establish in a commonwealth a royal
and pre-eminent chief. Another portion of power should be deposited in
the hands of the aristocracy, and certain things should be reserved to
the judgment and wish of the multitude. This constitution, in the first
place, possesses that great equality without which men cannot long
maintain their freedom; secondly, it offers a great stability, while
the particular separate and isolated forms easily fall into their
contraries; so that a king is succeeded by a despot, an aristocracy by
a faction, a democracy by a mob and confusion; and all these forms are
frequently sacrificed to new revolutions. In this united and mixed
constitution, however, similar disasters cannot happen without the
greatest vices in public men. For there can be little to occasion
revolution in a state in which every person is firmly established in
his appropriate rank, and there are but few modes of corruption into
which we can fall.
XLVI. But I fear, Lælius, and you, my amiable and learned
friends, that if I were to dwell any longer on this argument, my words
would seem rather like the lessons of a master, and not like the free
conversation of one who is uniting with you in the consideration of
truth. I shall therefore pass on to those things which are familiar to
all, and which I have long studied. And in these matters I believe, I
feel, and I affirm that of all governments there is none which, either
in its entire constitution or the distribution of its parts, or in the
discipline of its manners, is comparable to that which our fathers
received from our earliest ancestors, and which they have handed down
to 395us. And since you wish to hear from me a development of this
constitution, with which you are all acquainted, I shall endeavor to
explain its true character and excellence. Thus keeping my eye fixed on
the model of our Roman Commonwealth, I shall endeavor to accommodate to
it all that I have to say on the best form of government. And by
treating the subject in this way, I think I shall be able to accomplish
most satisfactorily the task which Lælius has imposed on me.
XLVII. Lælius. It is a task most properly and peculiarly your
own, my Scipio; for who can speak so well as you either on the subject
of the institutions of our ancestors, since you yourself are descended
from most illustrious ancestors, or on that of the best form of a
constitution which, if we possess (though at this moment we do not,
still), when we do possess such a thing, who will be more flourishing
in it than you? or on that of providing counsels for the future, as
you, who, by dispelling two mighty perils from our city, have provided
for its safety forever?
FRAGMENTS.
XLVIII. As our country is the source of the greatest benefits, and is a
parent dearer than those who have given us life, we owe her still
warmer gratitude than belongs to our human relations. * * *
Nor would Carthage have continued to flourish during six centuries
without wisdom and good institutions. * * *
In truth, says Cicero, although the reasonings of those men may contain
most abundant fountains of science and virtue; still, if we compare
them with the achievements and complete actions of statesmen, they will
seem not to have been of so much service in the actual business of men
as of amusement for their leisure.
396INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND BOOK,
BY THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATOR.
In this second book of his Commonwealth, Cicero gives us a spirited and
eloquent review of the history and successive developments of the Roman
constitution. He bestows the warmest praises on its early kings, points
out the great advantages which had resulted from its primitive
monarchical system, and explains how that system had been gradually
broken up. In order to prove the importance of reviving it, he gives a
glowing picture of the evils and disasters that had befallen the Roman
State in consequence of that overcharge of democratic folly and
violence which had gradually gained an alarming preponderance, and
describes, with a kind of prophetic sagacity, the fruit of his
political experience, the subsequent revolutions of the Roman State,
which such a state of things would necessarily bring about.
BOOK II.
I. [When, therefore, he observed all his friends kindled with the
de]sire of hearing him, Scipio thus opened the discussion. I will
commence, said Scipio, with a sentiment of old Cato, whom, as you know,
I singularly loved and exceedingly admired, and to whom, in compliance
with the judgment of both my parents, and also by my own desire, I was
entirely devoted during my youth; of whose discourse, indeed, I could
never have enough, so much experience did he possess as a statesman
respecting the republic which he had so long governed, both in peace
and war, with so much success. There was also an admirable propriety in
his style of conversation, in which wit was tempered with gravity; a
wonderful aptitude for acquiring, and at the same time communicating,
information; and his life was in perfect correspondence and unison with
his language. He used to say that the government of Rome was superior
to that of other states for this reason, because in nearly all of them
there had been single individuals, each of whom had regulated their
commonwealth 397according to their own laws and their own ordinances.
So Minos had done in Crete, and Lycurgus in Sparta; and in Athens,
which experienced so many revolutions, first Theseus, then Draco, then
Solon, then Clisthenes, afterward many others; and, lastly, when it was
almost lifeless and quite prostrate, that great and wise man, Demetrius
Phalereus, supported it. But our Roman constitution, on the contrary,
did not spring from the genius of one individual, but from that of
many; and it was established, not in the lifetime of one man, but in
the course of several ages and centuries. For, added he, there never
yet existed any genius so vast and comprehensive as to allow nothing at
any time to escape its attention; and all the geniuses in the world
united in a single mind could never, within the limits of a single
life, exert a foresight sufficiently extensive to embrace and harmonize
all, without the aid of experience and practice.
Thus, according to Cato’s usual habit, I now ascend in my discourse to
the “origin of the people,” for I like to adopt the expression of Cato.
I shall also more easily execute my proposed task if I thus exhibit to
you our political constitution in its infancy, progress, and maturity,
now so firm and fully established, than if, after the example of
Socrates in the books of Plato, I were to delineate a mere imaginary
republic.
II. When all had signified their approbation, Scipio resumed: What
commencement of a political constitution can we conceive more
brilliant, or more universally known, than the foundation of Rome by
the hand of Romulus? And he was the son of Mars: for we may grant this
much to the common report existing among men, especially as it is not
merely ancient, but one also which has been wisely maintained by our
ancestors, in order that those who have done great service to
communities may enjoy the reputation of having received from the Gods,
not only their genius, but their very birth.
It is related, then, that soon after the birth of Romulus and his
brother Remus, Amulius, King of Alba, fearing that they might one day
undermine his authority, ordered that they should be exposed on the
banks of the Tiber; and that in this situation the infant Romulus was
suckled 398by a wild beast; that he was afterward educated by the
shepherds, and brought up in the rough way of living and labors of the
countrymen; and that he acquired, when he grew up, such superiority
over the rest by the vigor of his body and the courage of his soul,
that all the people who at that time inhabited the plains in the midst
of which Rome now stands, tranquilly and willingly submitted to his
government. And when he had made himself the chief of those bands, to
come from fables to facts, he took Alba Longa, a powerful and strong
city at that time, and slew its king, Amulius.
III. Having acquired this glory, he conceived the design (as they tell
us) of founding a new city and establishing a new state. As respected
the site of his new city, a point which requires the greatest foresight
in him who would lay the foundation of a durable commonwealth, he chose
the most convenient possible position. For he did not advance too near
the sea, which he might easily have done with the forces under his
command, either by entering the territory of the Rutuli and Aborigines,
or by founding his citadel at the mouth of the Tiber, where many years
after Ancus Martius established a colony. But Romulus, with admirable
genius and foresight, observed and perceived that sites very near the
sea are not the most favorable positions for cities which would attain
a durable prosperity and dominion. And this, first, because maritime
cities are always exposed, not only to many attacks, but to perils they
cannot provide against. For the continued land gives notice, by many
indications, not only of any regular approaches, but also of any sudden
surprises of an enemy, and announces them beforehand by the mere sound.
There is no adversary who, on an inland territory, can arrive so
swiftly as to prevent our knowing not only his existence, but his
character too, and where he comes from. But a maritime and naval enemy
can fall upon a town on the sea-coast before any one suspects that he
is about to come; and when he does come, nothing exterior indicates who
he is, or whence he comes, or what he wishes; nor can it even be
determined and distinguished on all occasions whether he is a friend or
a foe.
IV. But maritime cities are likewise naturally exposed 399to corrupt
influences, and revolutions of manners. Their civilization is more or
less adulterated by new languages and customs, and they import not only
foreign merchandise, but foreign fashions, to such a degree that
nothing can continue unalloyed in the national institutions. Those who
inhabit these maritime towns do not remain in their native place, but
are urged afar from their homes by winged hope and speculation. And
even when they do not desert their country in person, still their minds
are always expatiating and voyaging round the world.
Nor, indeed, was there any cause which more deeply undermined Corinth
and Carthage, and at last overthrew them both, than this wandering and
dispersion of their citizens, whom the passion of commerce and
navigation had induced to abandon the cultivation of their lands and
their attention to military pursuits.
The proximity of the sea likewise administers to maritime cities a
multitude of pernicious incentives to luxury, which are either acquired
by victory or imported by commerce; and the very agreeableness of their
position nourishes many expensive and deceitful gratifications of the
passions. And what I have spoken of Corinth may be applied, for aught I
know, without incorrectness to the whole of Greece. For the
Peloponnesus itself is almost wholly on the sea-coast; nor, besides the
Phliasians, are there any whose lands do not touch the sea; and beyond
the Peloponnesus, the Ænianes, the Dorians, and the Dolopes are
the only inland people. Why should I speak of the Grecian islands,
which, girded by the waves, seem all afloat, as it were, together with
the institutions and manners of their cities? And these things, I have
before noticed, do not respect ancient Greece only; for which of all
those colonies which have been led from Greece into Asia, Thracia,
Italy, Sicily, and Africa, with the single exception of Magnesia, is
there that is not washed by the sea? Thus it seems as if a sort of
Grecian coast had been annexed to territories of the barbarians. For
among the barbarians themselves none were heretofore a maritime people,
if we except the Carthaginians and Etruscans; one for the sake of
commerce, the other of pillage. And this is one evident reason of the
calamities and revolutions of Greece, 400because she became infected
with the vices which belong to maritime cities, which I just now
briefly enumerated. But yet, notwithstanding these vices, they have one
great advantage, and one which is of universal application, namely,
that there is a great facility for new inhabitants flocking to them.
And, again, that the inhabitants are enabled to export and send abroad
the produce of their native lands to any nation they please, which
offers them a market for their goods.
V. By what divine wisdom, then, could Romulus embrace all the benefits
that could belong to maritime cities, and at the same time avoid the
dangers to which they are exposed, except, as he did, by building his
city on the bank of an inexhaustible river, whose equal current
discharges itself into the sea by a vast mouth, so that the city could
receive all it wanted from the sea, and discharge its superabundant
commodities by the same channel? And in the same river a communication
is found by which it not only receives from the sea all the productions
necessary to the conveniences and elegances of life, but those also
which are brought from the inland districts. So that Romulus seems to
me to have divined and anticipated that this city would one day become
the centre and abode of a powerful and opulent empire; for there is no
other part of Italy in which a city could be situated so as to be able
to maintain so wide a dominion with so much ease.
VI. As to the natural fortifications of Rome, who is so negligent and
unobservant as not to have them depicted and deeply stamped on his
memory? Such is the plan and direction of the walls, which, by the
prudence of Romulus and his royal successors, are bounded on all sides
by steep and rugged hills; and the only aperture between the Esquiline
and Quirinal mountains is enclosed by a formidable rampart, and
surrounded by an immense fosse. And as for our fortified citadel, it is
so secured by a precipitous barrier and enclosure of rocks, that, even
in that horrible attack and invasion of the Gauls, it remained
impregnable and inviolable. Moreover, the site which he selected had
also an abundance of fountains, and was healthy, though it was in the
midst of a pestilential region; for there are hills which at once
create a current 401of fresh air, and fling an agreeable shade over the
valleys.
VII. These things he effected with wonderful rapidity, and thus
established the city, which, from his own name Romulus, he determined
to call Rome. And in order to strengthen his new city, he conceived a
design, singular enough, and even a little rude, yet worthy of a great
man, and of a genius which discerned far away in futurity the means of
strengthening his power and his people. The young Sabine females of
honorable birth who had come to Rome, attracted by the public games and
spectacles which Romulus then, for the first time, established as
annual games in the circus, were suddenly carried off at the feast of
Consus313 by his orders, and were given in marriage to the men of the
noblest families in Rome. And when, on this account, the Sabines had
declared war against Rome, the issue of the battle being doubtful and
undecided, Romulus made an alliance with Tatius, King of the Sabines,
at the intercession of the matrons themselves who had been carried off.
By this compact he admitted the Sabines into the city, gave them a
participation in the religious ceremonies, and divided his power with
their king.
VIII. But after the death of Tatius, the entire government was again
vested in the hands of Romulus, although, besides making Tatius his own
partner, he had also elected some of the chiefs of the Sabines into the
royal council, who on account of their affectionate regard for the
people were called patres, or fathers. He also divided the people into
three tribes, called after the name of Tatius, and his own name, and
that of Locumo, who had fallen as his ally in the Sabine war; and also
into thirty curiæ, designated by the names of those Sabine
virgins, who, after being carried off at the festivals, generously
offered themselves as the mediators of peace and coalition.
But though these orders were established in the life of Tatius, yet,
after his death, Romulus reigned with still greater power by the
counsel and authority of the senate.
IX. In this respect he approved and adopted the principle which
Lycurgus but little before had applied to the government of
Lacedæmon; namely, that the monarchical 402authority and the
royal power operate best in the government of states when to this
supreme authority is joined the influence of the noblest of the
citizens.
Therefore, thus supported, and, as it were, propped up by this council
or senate, Romulus conducted many wars with the neighboring nations in
a most successful manner; and while he refused to take any portion of
the booty to his own palace, he did not cease to enrich the citizens.
He also cherished the greatest respect for that institution of
hierarchical and ecclesiastical ordinances which we still retain to the
great benefit of the Commonwealth; for in the very commencement of his
government he founded the city with religious rites, and in the
institution of all public establishments he was equally careful in
attending to these sacred ceremonials, and associated with himself on
these occasions priests that were selected from each of the tribes. He
also enacted that the nobles should act as patrons and protectors to
the inferior citizens, their natural clients and dependants, in their
respective districts, a measure the utility of which I shall afterward
notice.—The judicial punishments were mostly fines of sheep and oxen;
for the property of the people at that time consisted in their fields
and cattle, and this circumstance has given rise to the expressions
which still designate real and personal wealth. Thus the people were
kept in order rather by mulctations than by bodily inflictions.
X. After Romulus had thus reigned thirty-seven years, and established
these two great supports of government, the hierarchy and the senate,
having disappeared in a sudden eclipse of the sun, he was thought
worthy of being added to the number of the Gods—an honor which no
mortal man ever was able to attain to but by a glorious pre-eminence of
virtue. And this circumstance was the more to be admired in the case of
Romulus because most of the great men that have been deified were so
exalted to celestial dignities by the people, in periods very little
enlightened, when fiction was easy and ignorance went hand-in-hand with
credulity. But with respect to Romulus we know that he lived less than
six centuries ago, at a time when science and literature were already
advanced, and had got rid of many of the ancient errors that had
403prevailed among less civilized peoples. For if, as we consider
proved by the Grecian annals, Rome was founded in the seventh Olympiad,
the life of Romulus was contemporary with that period in which Greece
already abounded in poets and musicians—an age when fables, except
those concerning ancient matters, received little credit.
For, one hundred and eight years after the promulgation of the laws of
Lycurgus, the first Olympiad was established, which indeed, through a
mistake of names, some authors have supposed constituted, by Lycurgus
likewise. And Homer himself, according to the best computation, lived
about thirty years before the time of Lycurgus. We must conclude,
therefore, that Homer flourished very many years before the date of
Romulus. So that, as men had now become learned, and as the times
themselves were not destitute of knowledge, there was not much room
left for the success of mere fictions. Antiquity indeed has received
fables that have at times been sufficiently improbable: but this epoch,
which was already so cultivated, disdaining every fiction that was
impossible, rejected314 * * * We may therefore, perhaps,
attach some credit to this story of Romulus’s immortality, since human
life was at that time experienced, cultivated, and instructed. And
doubtless there was in him such energy of genius and virtue that it is
not altogether impossible to believe the report of Proculus Julius, the
husbandman, of that glorification having befallen Romulus which for
many ages we have denied to less illustrious men. At all events,
Proculus is reported to have stated in the council, at the instigation
of the senators, who wished to free themselves from all suspicion of
having been accessaries to the death of Romulus, that he had seen him
on that hill which is now called the Quirinal, and that he had
commanded him to inform the people that they should build him a temple
on that same hill, and offer him sacrifices under the name of Quirinus.
XI. You see, therefore, that the genius of this great man did not
merely establish the constitution of a new people, and then leave them,
as it were, crying in their cradle; but he still continued to
superintend their education 404till they had arrived at an adult and
wellnigh a mature age.
Then Lælius said: We now see, my Scipio, what you meant when you
said that you would adopt a new method of discussing the science of
government, different from any found in the writings of the Greeks. For
that prime master of philosophy, whom none ever surpassed in eloquence,
I mean Plato, chose an open plain on which to build an imaginary city
after his own taste—a city admirably conceived, as none can deny, but
remote enough from the real life and manners of men. Others, without
proposing to themselves any model or type of government whatever, have
argued on the constitutions and forms of states. You, on the contrary,
appear to be about to unite these two methods; for, as far as you have
gone, you seem to prefer attributing to others your discoveries, rather
than start new theories under your own name and authority, as Socrates
has done in the writings of Plato. Thus, in speaking of the site of
Rome, you refer to a systematic policy, to the acts of Romulus, which
were many of them the result of necessity or chance; and you do not
allow your discourse to run riot over many states, but you fix and
concentrate it on our own Commonwealth. Proceed, then, in the course
you have adopted; for I see that you intend to examine our other kings,
in your pursuit of a perfect republic, as it were.
XII. Therefore, said Scipio, when that senate of Romulus which was
composed of the nobles, whom the king himself respected so highly that
he designated them patres, or fathers, and their children patricians,
attempted after the death of Romulus to conduct the government without
a king, the people would not suffer it, but, amidst their regret for
Romulus, desisted not from demanding a fresh monarch. The nobles then
prudently resolved to establish an interregnum—a new political form,
unknown to other nations. It was not without its use, however, since,
during the interval which elapsed before the definitive nomination of
the new king, the State was not left without a ruler, nor subjected too
long to the same governor, nor exposed to the fear lest some one, in
consequence of the prolonged enjoyment of power, should become more
unwilling 405to lay it aside, or more powerful if he wished to secure
it permanently for himself. At which time this new nation discovered a
political provision which had escaped the Spartan Lycurgus, who
conceived that the monarch ought not to be elective—if indeed it is
true that this depended on Lycurgus—but that it was better for the
Lacedæmonians to acknowledge as their sovereign the next heir of
the race of Hercules, whoever he might be: but our Romans, rude as they
were, saw the importance of appointing a king, not for his family, but
for his virtue and experience.
XIII. And fame having recognized these eminent qualities in Numa
Pompilius, the Roman people, without partiality for their own citizens,
committed itself, by the counsel of the senators, to a king of foreign
origin, and summoned this Sabine from the city of Cures to Rome, that
he might reign over them. Numa, although the people had proclaimed him
king in their Comitia Curiata, did nevertheless himself pass a Lex
Curiata respecting his own authority; and observing that the
institutions of Romulus had too much excited the military propensities
of the people, he judged it expedient to recall them from this habit of
warfare by other employments.
XIV. And, in the first place, he divided severally among the citizens
the lands which Romulus had conquered, and taught them that even
without the aid of pillage and devastation they could, by the
cultivation of their own territories, procure themselves all kinds of
commodities. And he inspired them with the love of peace and
tranquillity, in which faith and justice are likeliest to flourish, and
extended the most powerful protection to the people in the cultivation
of their fields and the enjoyment of their produce. Pompilius likewise
having created hierarchical institutions of the highest class, added
two augurs to the old number. He intrusted the superintendence of the
sacred rites to five pontiffs, selected from the body of the nobles;
and by those laws which we still preserve on our monuments he
mitigated, by religious ceremonials, the minds that had been too long
inflamed by military enthusiasm and enterprise.
He also established the Flamines and the Salian priests 406and the
Vestal Virgins, and regulated all departments of our ecclesiastical
policy with the most pious care. In the ordinance of sacrifices, he
wished that the ceremonial should be very arduous and the expenditure
very light. He thus appointed many observances, whose knowledge is
extremely important, and whose expense far from burdensome. Thus in
religious worship he added devotion and removed costliness. He was also
the first to introduce markets, games, and the other usual methods of
assembling and uniting men. By these establishments, he inclined to
benevolence and amiability spirits whom the passion for war had
rendered savage and ferocious. Having thus reigned in the greatest
peace and concord thirty-nine years—for in dates we mainly follow our
Polybius, than whom no one ever gave more attention to the
investigation of the history of the times—he departed this life, having
corroborated the two grand principles of political stability, religion
and clemency.
XV. When Scipio had concluded these remarks, Is it not, said Manilius,
a true tradition which is current, that our king Numa was a disciple of
Pythagoras himself, or that at least he was a Pythagorean in his
doctrines? For I have often heard this from my elders, and we know that
it is the popular opinion; but it does not seem to be clearly proved by
the testimony of our public annals.
Then Scipio replied: The supposition is false, my Manilius; it is not
merely a fiction, but a ridiculous and bungling one too; and we should
not tolerate those statements, even in fiction, relating to facts which
not only did not happen, but which never could have happened. For it
was not till the fourth year of the reign of Tarquinius Superbus that
Pythagoras is ascertained to have come to Sybaris, Crotona, and this
part of Italy. And the sixty-second Olympiad is the common date of the
elevation of Tarquin to the throne, and of the arrival of Pythagoras.
>From which it appears, when we calculate the duration of the reigns
of the kings, that about one hundred and forty years must have elapsed
after the death of Numa before Pythagoras first arrived in Italy. And
this fact, in the minds of men who have carefully studied the annals of
time, has never been at all doubted.
407O ye immortal Gods! said Manilius, how deep and how inveterate is
this error in the minds of men! However, it costs me no effort to
concede that our Roman sciences were not imported from beyond the seas,
but that they sprung from our own indigenous and domestic virtues.
XVI. You will become still more convinced of this fact, said Africanus,
when tracing the progress of our Commonwealth as it became gradually
developed to its best and maturest condition. And you will find yet
further occasion to admire the wisdom of our ancestors on this very
account, since you will perceive, that even those things which they
borrowed from foreigners received a much higher improvement among us
than they possessed in the countries from whence they were imported
among us; and you will learn that the Roman people was aggrandized, not
by chance or hazard, but rather by counsel and discipline, to which
fortune indeed was by no means unfavorable.
XVII. After the death of King Pompilius, the people, after a short
period of interregnum, chose Tullus Hostilius for their king, in the
Comitia Curiata; and Tullus, after Numa’s example, consulted the people
in their curias to procure a sanction for his government. His
excellence chiefly appeared in his military glory and great
achievements in war. He likewise, out of his military spoils,
constructed and decorated the House of Comitia and the Senate-house. He
also settled the ceremonies of the proclamation of hostilities, and
consecrated their righteous institution by the religious sanction of
the Fetial priests, so that every war which was not duly announced and
declared might be adjudged illegal, unjust, and impious. And observe
how wisely our kings at that time perceived that certain rights ought
to be allowed to the people, of which we shall have a good deal to say
hereafter. Tullus did not even assume the ensigns of royalty without
the approbation of the people; and when he appointed twelve lictors,
with their axes to go before him315 * * *
XVIII. * * * [Manilius.] This Commonwealth of Rome, which you
are so eloquently describing, did not creep towards perfection; it
rather flew at once to the maturity of its grandeur.
408[Scipio.] After Tullus, Ancus Martius, a descendant of Numa by his
daughter, was appointed king by the people. He also procured the
passing of a law316 through the Comitia Curiata respecting his
government. This king having conquered the Latins, admitted them to the
rights of citizens of Rome. He added to the city the Aventine and
Cælian hills; he distributed the lands he had taken in war; he
bestowed on the public all the maritime forests he had acquired; and he
built the city Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, and colonized it. When
he had thus reigned twenty-three years, he died.
Then said Lælius: Doubtless this king deserves our praises, but
the Roman history is obscure. We possess, indeed, the name of this
monarch’s mother, but we know nothing of his father.
It is so, said Scipio; but in those ages little more than the names of
the kings were recorded.
XIX. For the first time at this period, Rome appears to have become
more learned by the study of foreign literature; for it was no longer a
little rivulet, flowing from Greece towards the walls of our city, but
an overflowing river of Grecian sciences and arts. This is generally
attributed to Demaratus, a Corinthian, the first man of his country in
reputation, honor, and wealth; who, not being able to bear the
despotism of Cypselus, tyrant of Corinth, fled with large treasures,
and arrived at Tarquinii, the most flourishing city in Etruria. There,
understanding that the domination of Cypselus was thoroughly
established, he, like a free and bold-hearted man, renounced his
country, and was admitted into the number of the citizens of Tarquinii,
and fixed his residence in that city. And having married a woman of the
city, he instructed his two sons, according to the method of Greek
education, in all kinds of sciences and arts.317 * * *
XX. * * * [One of these sons] was easily admitted to 409the
rights of citizenship at Rome; and on account of his accomplished
manners and learning, he became a favorite of our king Ancus to such a
degree that he was a partner in all his counsels, and was looked upon
almost as his associate in the government. He, besides, possessed
wonderful affability, and was very kind in assistance, support,
protection, and even gifts of money, to the citizens.
When, therefore, Ancus died, the people by their unanimous suffrages
chose for their king this Lucius Tarquinius (for he had thus
transformed the Greek name of his family, that he might seem in all
respects to imitate the customs of his adopted countrymen). And when
he, too, had procured the passing of a law respecting his authority, he
commenced his reign by doubling the original number of the senators.
The ancient senators he called patricians of the major families (patres
majorum gentium), and he asked their votes first; and those new
senators whom he himself had added, he entitled patricians of minor
families. After this, he established the order of knights, on the plan
which we maintain to this day. He would not, however, change the
denomination of the Tatian, Rhamnensian, and Lucerian orders, though he
wished to do so, because Attus Nævius, an augur of the highest
reputation, would not sanction it. And, indeed, I am aware that the
Corinthians were remarkably attentive to provide for the maintenance
and good condition of their cavalry by taxes levied on the inheritance
of widows and orphans. To the first equestrian orders Lucius also added
new ones, composing a body of three hundred knights. And this number he
doubled, after having conquered the Æquicoli, a large and
ferocious people, and dangerous enemies of the Roman State. Having
likewise repulsed from our walls an invasion of the Sabines, he routed
them by the aid of his cavalry, and subdued them. He also was the first
person who instituted the grand games which are now called the Roman
Games. He fulfilled his vow to build a temple to the all-good and
all-powerful Jupiter in the Capitol—a vow which he made during a battle
in the Sabine war—and died after a reign of thirty-eight years.
XXI. Then Lælius said: All that you have been relating
corroborates the saying of Cato, that the constitution 410of the Roman
Commonwealth is not the work of one man, or one age; for we can clearly
see what a great progress in excellent and useful institutions was
continued under each successive king. But we are now arrived at the
reign of a monarch who appears to me to have been of all our kings he
who had the greatest foresight in matters of political government.
So it appears to me, said Scipio; for after Tarquinius Priscus comes
Servius Sulpicius, who was the first who is reported to have reigned
without an order from the people. He is supposed to have been the son
of a female slave at Tarquinii, by one of the soldiers or clients of
King Priscus; and as he was educated among the servants of this prince,
and waiting on him at table, the king soon observed the fire of his
genius, which shone forth even from his childhood, so skilful was he in
all his words and actions. Therefore, Tarquin, whose own children were
then very young, so loved Servius that he was very commonly believed to
be his own son, and he instructed him with the greatest care in all the
sciences with which he was acquainted, according to the most exact
discipline of the Greeks.
But when Tarquin had perished by the plots of the sons of Ancus, and
Servius (as I have said) had begun to reign, not by the order, but yet
with the good-will and consent, of the citizens—because, as it was
falsely reported that Priscus was recovering from his wounds, Servius,
arrayed in the royal robes, delivered judgment, freed the debtors at
his own expense, and, exhibiting the greatest affability, announced
that he delivered judgment at the command of Priscus—he did not commit
himself to the senate; but, after Priscus was buried, he consulted the
people respecting his authority, and, being authorized by them to
assume the dominion, he procured a law to be passed through the Comitia
Curiata, confirming his government.
He then, in the first place, avenged the injuries of the Etruscans by
arms. After which318 * * *
XXII. * * * he enrolled eighteen centuries of knights of the
first order. Afterward, having created a great number of knights from
the common mass of the people, he 411divided the rest of the people
into five classes, distinguishing between the seniors and the juniors.
These he so constituted as to place the suffrages, not in the hands of
the multitude, but in the power of the men of property. And he took
care to make it a rule of ours, as it ought to be in every government,
that the greatest number should not have the greatest weight. You are
well acquainted with this institution, otherwise I would explain it to
you; but you are familiar with the whole system, and know how the
centuries of knights, with six suffrages, and the first class,
comprising eighty centuries, besides one other century which was
allotted to the artificers, on account of their utility to the State,
produce eighty-nine centuries. If to these there are added twelve
centuries—for that is the number of the centuries of the knights which
remain319—the entire force of the State is summed up; and the
arrangement is such that the remaining and far more numerous multitude,
which is distributed through the ninety-six last centuries, is not
deprived of a right of suffrage, which would be an arrogant measure;
nor, on the other hand, permitted to exert too great a preponderance in
the government, which would be dangerous.
In this arrangement, Servius was very cautious in his choice of terms
and denominations. He called the rich assidui, because they afforded
pecuniary succor320 to the State. As to those whoso fortune did not
exceed 1500 pence, or those who had nothing but their labor, he called
them proletarii classes, as if the State should expect from them a
hardy progeny321 and population.
Even a single one of the ninety-six last centuries contained
numerically more citizens than the entire first class. Thus, no one was
excluded from his right of voting, yet the preponderance of votes was
secured to those who had the deepest stake in the welfare of the State.
Moreover, with reference to the accensi, velati, trumpeters,
hornblowers, proletarii322 * * *
XXIII. * * * That that republic is arranged in the best
manner which, being composed in due proportions of those 412three
elements, the monarchical, the aristocratical, and the democratic, does
not by punishment irritate a fierce and savage mind. * * * [A
similar institution prevailed at Carthage], which was sixty-five years
more ancient than Rome, since it was founded thirty-nine years before
the first Olympiad; and that most ancient law-giver Lycurgus made
nearly the same arrangements. Thus the system of regular subordination,
and this mixture of the three principal forms of government, appear to
me common alike to us and them. But there is a peculiar advantage in
our Commonwealth, than which nothing can be more excellent, which I
shall endeavor to describe as accurately as possible, because it is of
such a character that nothing analogous can be discovered in ancient
states; for these political elements which I have noticed were so
united in the constitutions of Rome, of Sparta, and of Carthage, that
they were not counterbalanced by any modifying power. For in a state in
which one man is invested with a perpetual domination, especially of
the monarchical character, although there be a senate in it, as there
was in Rome under the kings, and in Sparta, by the laws of Lycurgus, or
even where the people exercise a sort of jurisdiction, as they used in
the days of our monarchy, the title of king must still be pre-eminent;
nor can such a state avoid being, and being called, a kingdom. And this
kind of government is especially subject to frequent revolutions,
because the fault of a single individual is sufficient to precipitate
it into the most pernicious disasters.
In itself, however, royalty is not only not a reprehensible form of
government, but I do not know whether it is not far preferable to all
other simple constitutions, if I approved of any simple constitution
whatever. But this preference applies to royalty so long only as it
maintains its appropriate character; and this character provides that
one individual’s perpetual power, and justice, and universal wisdom
should regulate the safety, equality, and tranquillity of the whole
people. But many privileges must be wanting to communities that live
under a king; and, in the first place, liberty, which does not consist
in slavery to a just master, but in slavery to no master at all323
* * *
413XXIV. * * * [Let us now pass on to the reign of the
seventh and last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus.] And even this
unjust and cruel master had good fortune for his companion for some
time in all his enterprises. For he subdued all Latium; he captured
Suessa Pometia, a powerful and wealthy city, and, becoming possessed of
an immense spoil of gold and silver, he accomplished his father’s vow
by the building of the Capitol. He established colonies, and, faithful
to the institutions of those from whom he sprung, he sent magnificent
presents, as tokens of gratitude for his victories, to Apollo at Delphi.
XXV. Here begins the revolution of our political system of government,
and I must beg your attention to its natural course and progression.
For the grand point of political science, the object of our discourses,
is to know the march and the deviations of governments, that when we
are acquainted with the particular courses and inclinations of
constitutions, we may be able to restrain them from their fatal
tendencies, or to oppose adequate obstacles to their decline and fall.
For this Tarquinius Superbus, of whom I am speaking, being first of all
stained with the blood of his admirable predecessor on the throne,
could not be a man of sound conscience and mind; and as he feared
himself the severest punishment for his enormous crime, he sought his
protection in making himself feared. Then, in the glory of his
victories and his treasures, he exulted in insolent pride, and could
neither regulate his own manners nor the passions of the members of his
family.
When, therefore, his eldest son had offered violence to Lucretia,
daughter of Tricipitinus and wife of Collatinus, and this chaste and
noble lady had stabbed herself to death on account of the injury she
could not survive—then a man eminent for his genius and virtue, Lucius
Brutus, dashed from his fellow-citizens this unjust yoke of odious
servitude; and though he was but a private man, he sustained the
government of the entire Commonwealth, and was the first that taught
the people in this State that no one was a private man when the
preservation of our liberties was concerned. Beneath his authority and
command our city rose against tyranny, and, stirred by the recent
414grief of the father and relatives of Lucretia, and with the
recollections of Tarquin’s haughtiness, and the numberless crimes of
himself and his sons, they pronounced sentence of banishment against
him and his children, and the whole race of the Tarquins.
XXVI. Do you not observe, then, how the king sometimes degenerates into
the despot, and how, by the fault of one individual, a form of
government originally good is abused to the worst of purposes? Here is
a specimen of that despot over the people whom the Greeks denominate a
tyrant. For, according to them, a king is he who, like a father,
consults the interests of his people, and who preserves those whom he
is set over in the very best condition of life. This indeed is, as I
have said, an excellent form of government, yet still liable, and, as
it were, inclined, to a pernicious abuse. For as soon as a king assumes
an unjust and despotic power, he instantly becomes a tyrant, than which
nothing baser or fouler, than which no imaginable animal can be more
detestable to gods or men; for though in form a man, he surpasses the
most savage monsters in ferocious cruelty. For who can justly call him
a human being, who admits not between himself and his
fellow-countrymen, between himself and the whole human race, any
communication of justice, any association of kindness? But we shall
find some fitter occasion of speaking of the evils of tyranny when the
subject itself prompts us to declare against them who, even in a state
already liberated, have affected these despotic insolencies.
XXVII. Such is the first origin and rise of a tyrant. For this was the
name by which the Greeks choose to designate an unjust king; and by the
title king our Romans universally understand every man who exercises
over the people a perpetual and undivided domination. Thus Spurius
Cassius, and Marcus Manlius, and Spurius Mælius, are said to have
wished to seize upon the kingly power, and lately [Tiberius Gracchus
incurred the same accusation].324 * * *
XXVIII. * * * [Lycurgus, in Sparta, formed, under the name of
Elders,] a small council consisting of twenty-eight members only; to
these he allotted the supreme legislative 415authority, while the king
held the supreme executive authority. Our Romans, emulating his
example, and translating his terms, entitled those whom he had called
Elders, Senators, which, as we have said, was done by Romulus in
reference to the elect patricians. In this constitution, however, the
power, the influence, and name of the king is still pre-eminent. You
may distribute, indeed, some show of power to the people, as Lycurgus
and Romulus did, but you inflame them, with the thirst of liberty by
allowing them even the slightest taste of its sweetness; and still
their hearts will be overcast with alarm lest their king, as often
happens, should become unjust. The prosperity of the people, therefore,
can be little better than fragile, when placed at the disposal of any
one individual, and subjected to his will and caprices.
XXIX. Thus the first example, prototype, and original of tyranny has
been discovered by us in the history of our own Roman State,
religiously founded by Romulus, without applying to the theoretical
Commonwealth which, according to Plato’s recital, Socrates was
accustomed to describe in his peripatetic dialogues. We have observed
Tarquin, not by the usurpation of any new power, but by the unjust
abuse of the power which he already possessed, overturn the whole
system of our monarchical constitution.
Let us oppose to this example of the tyrant another, a virtuous
king—wise, experienced, and well informed respecting the true interest
and dignity of the citizens—a guardian, as it were, and superintendent
of the Commonwealth; for that is a proper name for every ruler and
governor of a state. And take you care to recognize such a man when you
meet him, for he is the man who, by counsel and exertion, can best
protect the nation. And as the name of this man has not yet been often
mentioned in our discourse, and as the character of such a man must be
often alluded to in our future conversations, [I shall take an early
opportunity of describing it.]325 * * *
XXX. * * * [Plato has chosen to suppose a territory and
establishments of citizens, whose fortunes] were precisely equal. And
he has given us a description of a city, rather to be desired than
expected; and he has made out 416not such a one as can really exist,
but one in which the principles of political affairs may be discerned.
But for me, if I can in any way accomplish it, while I adopt the same
general principles as Plato, I am seeking to reduce them to experience
and practice, not in the shadow and picture of a state, but in a real
and actual Commonwealth, of unrivalled amplitude and power; in order to
be able to point out, with the most graphic precision, the causes of
every political good and social evil.
For after Rome had flourished more than two hundred and forty years
under her kings and interreges, and after Tarquin was sent into
banishment, the Roman people conceived as much detestation of the name
of king as they had once experienced regret at the death, or rather
disappearance, of Romulus. Therefore, as in the first instance they
could hardly bear the idea of losing a king, so in the latter, after
the expulsion of Tarquin, they could not endure to hear the name of a
king.326 * * *
XXXI. * * * Therefore, when that admirable constitution of
Romulus had lasted steadily about two hundred and forty years.
* * * The whole of that law was abolished. In this humor, our
ancestors banished Collatinus, in spite of his innocence, because of
the suspicion that attached to his family, and all the rest of the
Tarquins, on account of the unpopularity of their name. In the same
humor, Valerius Publicola was the first to lower the fasces before the
people, when he spoke in the assembly of the people. He also had the
materials of his house conveyed to the foot of Mount Velia, having
observed that the commencement of his edifice on the summit of this
hill, where King Tullius had once dwelt, excited the suspicions of the
people.
It was the same man, who in this respect pre-eminently deserved the
name of Publicola, who carried in favor of the people the first law
received in the Comitia Centuriata, that no magistrate should sentence
to death or scourging a Roman citizen who appealed from his authority
to the people. And the pontifical books attest that the right of appeal
had existed, even against the decision of the kings. Our augural books
affirm the same thing. And the Twelve 417Tables prove, by a multitude
of laws, that there was a right of appeal from every judgment and
penalty. Besides, the historical fact that the decemviri who compiled
the laws were created with the privilege of judging without appeal,
sufficiently proves that the other magistrates had not the same power.
And a consular law, passed by Lucius Valerius Politus and Marcus
Horatius Barbatus, men justly popular for promoting union and concord,
enacted that no magistrate should thenceforth be appointed with
authority to judge without appeal; and the Portian laws, the work of
three citizens of the name of Portius, as you are aware, added nothing
new to this edict but a penal sanction.
Therefore Publicola, having promulgated this law in favor of appeal to
the people, immediately ordered the axes to be removed from the fasces,
which the lictors carried before the consuls, and the next day
appointed Spurius Lucretius for his colleague. And as the new consul
was the oldest of the two, Publicola ordered his lictors to pass over
to him; and he was the first to establish the rule, that each of the
consuls should be preceded by the lictors in alternate months, that
there should be no greater appearance of imperial insignia among the
free people than they had witnessed in the days of their kings. Thus,
in my opinion, he proved himself no ordinary man, as, by so granting
the people a moderate degree of liberty, he more easily maintained the
authority of the nobles.
Nor is it without reason that I have related to you these ancient and
almost obsolete events; but I wished to adduce my instances of men and
circumstances from illustrious persons and times, as it is to such
events that the rest of my discourse will be directed.
XXXII. At that period, then, the senate preserved the Commonwealth in
such a condition that though the people were really free, yet few acts
were passed by the people, but almost all, on the contrary, by the
authority, customs, and traditions of the senate. And over all the
consuls exercised a power—in time, indeed, only annual, but in nature
and prerogative completely royal.
The consuls maintained, with the greatest energy, that rule which so
much conduces to the power of our nobles and great men, that the acts
of the commons of the people 418shall not be binding, unless the
authority of the patricians has approved them. About the same period,
and scarcely ten years after the first consuls, we find the appointment
of the dictator in the person of Titus Lartius. And this new kind of
power—namely, the dictatorship—appears exceedingly similar to the
monarchical royalty. All his power, however, was vested in the supreme
authority of the senate, to which the people deferred; and in these
times great exploits were performed in war by brave men invested with
the supreme command, whether dictators or consuls.
XXXIII. But as the nature of things necessarily brought it to pass that
the people, once freed from its kings, should arrogate to itself more
and more authority, we observe that after a short interval of only
sixteen years, in the consulship of Postumus Cominius and Spurius
Cassius, they attained their object; an event explicable, perhaps, on
no distinct principle, but, nevertheless, in a manner independent of
any distinct principle. For recollect what I said in commencing our
discourse, that if there exists not in the State a just distribution
and subordination of rights, offices, and prerogatives, so as to give
sufficient domination to the chiefs, sufficient authority to the
counsel of the senators, and sufficient liberty to the people, this
form of the government cannot be durable.
For when the excessive debts of the citizens had thrown the State into
disorder, the people first retired to Mount Sacer, and next occupied
Mount Aventine. And even the rigid discipline of Lycurgus could not
maintain those restraints in the case of the Greeks. For in Sparta
itself, under the reign of Theopompus, the five magistrates whom they
term Ephori, and in Crete ten whom they entitle Cosmi, were established
in opposition to the royal power, just as tribunes were added among us
to counterbalance the consular authority.
XXXIV. There might have been a method, indeed, by which our ancestors
could have been relieved from the pressure of debt, a method with which
Solon the Athenian, who lived at no very distant period before, was
acquainted, and which our senate did not neglect when, in the
indignation which the odious avarice of one individual excited, 419all
the bonds of the citizens were cancelled, and the right of arrest for a
while suspended. In the same way, when the plebeians were oppressed by
the weight of the expenses occasioned by public misfortunes, a cure and
remedy were sought for the sake of public security. The senate,
however, having forgotten their former decision, gave an advantage to
the democracy; for, by the creation of two tribunes to appease the
sedition of the people, the power and authority of the senate were
diminished; which, however, still remained dignified and august,
inasmuch as it was still composed of the wisest and bravest men, who
protected their country both with their arms and with their counsels;
whose authority was exceedingly strong and flourishing, because in
honor they were as much before their fellow-citizens as they were
inferior in luxuriousness, and, as a general rule, not superior to them
in wealth. And their public virtues were the more agreeable to the
people, because even in private matters they were ready to serve every
citizen, by their exertions, their counsels, and their liberality.
XXXV. Such was the situation of the Commonwealth when the quæstor
impeached Spurius Cassius of being so much emboldened by the excessive
favor of the people as to endeavor to make himself master of
monarchical power. And, as you have heard, his own father, having said
that he had found that his son was really guilty of this crime,
condemned him to death at the instance of the people. About fifty-four
years after the first consulate, Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus Aternius
very much gratified the people by proposing, in the Comitia Centuriata,
the substitution of fines instead of corporal punishments. Twenty years
afterward, Lucius Papirius and Publius Pinarius, the censors, having by
a strict levy of fines confiscated to the State the entire flocks and
herds of many private individuals, a light tax on the cattle was
substituted for the law of fines in the consulship of Caius Julius and
Publius Papirius.
XXXVI. But, some years previous to this, at a period when the senate
possessed the supreme influence, and the people were submissive and
obedient, a new system was adopted. At that time both the consuls and
tribunes of 420the people abdicated their magistracies, and the
decemviri were appointed, who were invested with great authority, from
which there was no appeal whatever, so as to exercise the chief
domination, and to compile the laws. After having composed, with much
wisdom and equity, the Ten Tables of laws, they nominated as their
successors in the ensuing year other decemviri, whose good faith and
justice do not deserve equal praise. One member of this college,
however, merits our highest commendation. I allude to Caius Julius, who
declared respecting the nobleman Lucius Sestius, in whose chamber a
dead body had been exhumed under his own eyes, that though as decemvir
he held the highest power without appeal, he still required bail,
because he was unwilling to neglect that admirable law which permitted
no court but the Comitia Centuriata to pronounce final sentence on the
life of a Roman citizen.
XXXVII. A third year followed under the authority of the same
decemvirs, and still they were not disposed to appoint their
successors. In a situation of the Commonwealth like this, which, as I
have often repeated, could not be durable, because it had not an equal
operation with respect to all the ranks of the citizens, the whole
public power was lodged in the hands of the chiefs and decemvirs of the
highest nobility, without the counterbalancing authority of the
tribunes of the people, without the sanction of any other magistracies,
and without appeal to the people in the case of a sentence of death or
scourging.
Thus, out of the injustice of these men, there was suddenly produced a
great revolution, which changed the entire condition of the government,
or they added two tables of very tyrannical laws, and though
matrimonial alliances had always been permitted, even with foreigners,
they forbade, by the most abominable and inhuman edict, that any
marriages should take place between the nobles and the commons—an order
which was afterward abrogated by the decree of Canuleius. Besides, they
introduced into all their political measures corruption, cruelty, and
avarice. And indeed the story is well known, and celebrated in many
literary compositions, that a certain Decimus Virginius was obliged, on
account of the libidinous violence of one of these decemvirs, to stab
his virgin daughter 421in the midst of the forum. Then, when he in his
desperation had fled to the Roman army which was encamped on Mount
Algidum, the soldiers abandoned the war in which they were engaged, and
took possession of the Sacred Mount, as they had done before on a
similar occasion, and next invested Mount Aventine in their arms.327
Our ancestors knew how to prove most thoroughly, and to retain most
wisely. * * *
XXXVIII. And when Scipio had spoken in this manner, and all his friends
were awaiting in silence the rest of his discourse, then said Tubero:
Since these men who are older than I, my Scipio, make no fresh demands
on you, I shall take the liberty to tell you what I particularly wish
you would explain in your subsequent remarks.
Do so, said Scipio, and I shall be glad to hear.
Then Tubero said: You appear to me to have spoken a panegyric on our
Commonwealth of Rome exclusively, though Lælius requested your
views not only of the government of our own State, but of the policy of
states in general. I have not, therefore, yet sufficiently learned from
your discourse, with respect to that mixed form of government you most
approve, by what discipline, moral and legal, we may be best able to
establish and maintain it.
XXXIX. Africanus replied: I think that we shall soon find an occasion
better adapted to the discussion you have proposed, respecting the
constitution and conservatism of states. As to the best form of
government, I think on this point I have sufficiently answered the
question of Lælius. For in answering him, I, in the first place,
specifically noticed the three simple forms of government—monarchy,
aristocracy, and democracy; and the three vicious constitutions
contrary to them, into which they often degenerate; and I said that
none of these forms, taken separately, was absolutely good; but I
described as preferable to either of them that mixed government which
is composed of a proper amalgamation of these simple ingredients. If I
have since depicted our own Roman constitution as an example, it was
not in order to define the very best form of government, for that may
be understood without an example; but I wished, in the exhibition of a
422mighty commonwealth actually in existence, to render distinct and
visible what reason and discourse would vainly attempt to display
without the assistance of experimental illustration. Yet, if you still
require me to describe the best form of government, independent of all
particular examples, we must consult that exactly proportioned and
graduated image of government which nature herself presents to her
investigators. Since you * * * this model of a city and
people328 * * *
XL. * * * which I also am searching for, and which I am
anxious to arrive at.
Lælius. You mean the model that would be approved by the truly
accomplished politician?
Scipio. The same.
Lælius. You have plenty of fair patterns even now before you, if
you would but begin with yourself.
Then Scipio said: I wish I could find even one such, even in the entire
senate. For he is really a wise politician who, as we have often seen
in Africa, while seated on a huge and unsightly elephant, can guide and
rule the monster, and turn him whichever way he likes by a slight
admonition, without any actual exertion.
Lælius. I recollect, and when I was your lieutenant I often saw,
one of these drivers.
Scipio. Thus an Indian or Carthaginian regulates one of these huge
animals, and renders him docile and familiar with human manners. But
the genius which resides in the mind of man, by whatever name it may be
called, is required to rein and tame a monster far more multiform and
intractable, whenever it can accomplish it, which indeed is seldom. It
is necessary to hold in with a strong hand that ferocious329
* * *
XLI. * * * [beast, denominated the mob, which thirsts after
blood] to such a degree that it can scarcely be sated with the most
hideous massacres of men. * * *
But to a man who is greedy, and grasping, and lustful, and fond
of wallowing in voluptuousness.
423The fourth kind of anxiety is that which is prone to mourning
and melancholy, and which is constantly worrying itself.
[The next paragraph, “Esse autem angores,” etc., is wholly
unintelligible without the context.]
As an unskilful charioteer is dragged from his chariot, covered
with dirt, bruised, and lacerated.
The excitements of men’s minds are like a chariot, with horses
harnessed to it; in the proper management of which, the chief
duty of the driver consists in knowing his road: and if he keeps
the road, then, however rapidly he proceeds, he will encounter
no obstacles; but if he quits the proper track, then, although he
may be going gently and slowly, he will either be perplexed on
rugged ground, or fall over some steep place, or at least he will
be carried where he has no need to go.330
XLII. * * * can be said.
Then Lælius said: I now see the sort of politician you require,
on whom you would impose the office and task of government, which is
what I wished to understand.
He must be an almost unique specimen, said Africanus, for the task
which I set him comprises all others. He must never cease from
cultivating and studying himself, that he may excite others to imitate
him, and become, through the splendor of his talents and enterprises, a
living mirror to his countrymen. For as in flutes and harps, and in all
vocal performances, a certain unison and harmony must be preserved
amidst the distinctive tones, which cannot be broken or violated
without offending experienced ears; and as this concord and delicious
harmony is produced by the exact gradation and modulation of dissimilar
notes; even so, by means of the just apportionment of the highest,
middle, and lower classes, the State is maintained in concord and peace
by the harmonic subordination of its discordant elements: and thus,
that which is by musicians called harmony in song answers and
corresponds to what we call concord in the State—concord, the strongest
and loveliest bond of security in every commonwealth, being always
accompanied by justice and equity.
XLIII. And after this, when Scipio had discussed with considerable
breadth of principle and felicity of illustration the great advantage
that justice is to a state, and the great injury which would arise if
it were 424wanting, Pilus, one of those who were present at the
discussion, took up the matter and demanded that this question should
be argued more carefully, and that something more should be said about
justice, on account of a sentiment that was now obtaining among people
in general, that political affairs could not be wholly carried on
without some disregard of justice.
XLIV. * * * to be full of justice.
Then Scipio replied: I certainly think so. And I declare to you that I
consider that all I have spoken respecting the government of the State
is worth nothing, and that it will be useless to proceed further,
unless I can prove that it is a false assertion that political business
cannot be conducted without injustice and corruption; and, on the other
hand, establish as a most indisputable fact that without the strictest
justice no government whatever can last long.
But, with your permission, we have had discussion enough for the day.
The rest—and much remains for our consideration—we will defer till
to-morrow. When they had all agreed to this, the debate of the day was
closed.
INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD BOOK,
BY THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATOR.
Cicero here enters on the grand question of Political Justice, and
endeavors to evince throughout the absolute verity of that inestimable
proverb, “Honesty is the best policy,” in all public as well as in all
private affairs. St. Augustine, in his City of God, has given the
following analysis of this magnificent disquisition:
“In the third book of Cicero’s Commonwealth” (says he) “the question of
Political Justice is most earnestly discussed. Philus is appointed to
support, as well as he can, the sophistical arguments of those who
think that political government cannot be carried on without the aid of
injustice and chicanery. He denies holding any such opinion himself;
yet, in order to exhibit the truth more vividly through the force of
contrast, he pleads with the utmost ingenuity the cause of injustice
against justice; and endeavors to show, by plausible examples and
specious dialectics, that injustice is as useful to a statesman as
justice would be injurious. Then Lælius, at the general request,
takes up the plea for justice, and maintains with all his eloquence
that nothing could be so ruinous to states as injustice and dishonesty,
and that 425without a supreme justice, no political government could
expect a long duration. This point being sufficiently proved, Scipio
returns to the principal discussion. He reproduces and enforces the
short definition that he had given of a commonwealth—that it consisted
in the welfare of the entire people, by which word ‘people’ he does not
mean the mob, but the community, bound together by the sense of common
rights and mutual benefits. He notices how important such just
definitions are in all debates whatever, and draws this conclusion from
the preceding arguments—that the Commonwealth is the common welfare
whenever it is swayed with justice and wisdom, whether it be
subordinated to a king, an aristocracy, or a democracy. But if the king
be unjust, and so becomes a tyrant; and the aristocracy unjust, which
makes them a faction; or the democrats unjust, and so degenerate into
revolutionists and destructives—then not only the Commonwealth is
corrupted, but in fact annihilated. For it can be no longer the common
welfare when a tyrant or a faction abuse it; and the people itself is
no longer the people when it becomes unjust, since it is no longer a
community associated by a sense of right and utility, according to the
definition.”—Aug. Civ. Dei. 3-21.
This book is of the utmost importance to statesmen, as it serves to
neutralize the sophistries of Machiavelli, which are still repeated in
many cabinets.
BOOK III.
I. * * *331 Cicero, in the third book of his treatise On a
Commonwealth, says that nature has treated man less like a mother than
a step-dame, for she has cast him into mortal life with a body naked,
fragile, and infirm, and with a mind agitated by troubles, depressed by
fears, broken by labors, and exposed to passions. In this mind,
however, there lies hidden, and, as it were, buried, a certain divine
spark of genius and intellect.
Though man is born a frail and powerless being, nevertheless he is safe
from all animals destitute of voice; and at the same time those other
animals of greater strength, although they bravely endure the violence
of weather, cannot be safe from man. And the result is, that reason
does more for man than nature does for brutes; since, in the latter,
neither the greatness of their strength nor the firmness of their
bodies can save them from being oppressed by us, and made subject to
our power. * * *
426Plato returned thanks to nature that he had been born a man.
II. * * * aiding our slowness by carriages, and when it had
taught men to utter the elementary and confused sounds of unpolished
expression, articulated and distinguished them into their proper
classes, and, as their appropriate signs, attached certain words to
certain things, and thus associated, by the most delightful bond of
speech, the once divided races of men.
And by a similar intelligence, the inflections of the voice, which
appeared infinite, are, by the discovery of a few alphabetic
characters, all designated and expressed; by which we maintain converse
with our absent friends, by which also indications of our wishes and
monuments of past events are preserved. Then came the use of numbers—a
thing necessary to human life, and at the same time immutable and
eternal; a science which first urged us to raise our views to heaven,
and not gaze without an object on the motions of the stars, and the
distribution of days and nights.
III. * * *332 [Then appeared the sages of philosophy], whose
minds took a higher flight, and who were able to conceive and to
execute designs worthy of the gifts of the Gods. Wherefore let those
men who have left us sublime essays on the principles of living be
regarded as great men—which indeed they are—as learned men, as masters
of truth and virtue; provided that these principles of civil
government, this system of governing people, whether it be a thing
discovered by men who have lived amidst a variety of political events,
or one discussed amidst their opportunities of literary tranquillity,
is remembered to be, as indeed it is, a thing by no means to be
despised, being one which causes in first-rate minds, as we not
unfrequently see, an incredible and almost divine virtue. And when to
these high faculties of soul, received from nature and expanded by
social institutions, a politician adds learning and extensive
information concerning things in general, like those illustrious
personages who conduct the dialogue in the present treatise, none will
refuse to confess the superiority of such persons to all others; for,
in fact, what 427can be more admirable than the study and practice of
the grand affairs of state, united to a literary taste and a
familiarity with the liberal arts? or what can we imagine more perfect
than a Scipio, a Lælius, or a Philus, who, not to omit anything
which belonged to the most perfect excellence of the greatest men,
joined to the examples of our ancestors and the traditions of our
countrymen the foreign philosophy of Socrates?
Wherefore he who had both the desire and the power to acquaint himself
thoroughly both with the customs and the learning of his ancestors
appears to me to have attained to the very highest glory and honor. But
if we cannot combine both, and are compelled to select one of these two
paths to wisdom—though to some people the tranquil life spent in the
research of literature and arts may appear to be the most happy and
delectable—yet, doubtless, the science of politics is more laudable and
illustrious, for in this political field of exertion our greatest men
have reaped their honors, like the invincible Curius,
Whom neither gold nor iron could subdue.
IV. * * *333 that wisdom existed still. There existed this
general difference between these two classes, that among the one the
development of the principles of nature is the subject of their study
and eloquence, and among the other national laws and institutions form
the principal topics of investigation.
In honor of our country, we may assert that she has produced within
herself a great number, I will not say of sages (since philosophy is so
jealous of this name), but of men worthy of the highest celebrity,
because by them the precepts and discoveries of the sages have been
carried out into actual practice. And, moreover, though there have
existed, and still do exist, many great and glorious empires, yet since
the noblest masterpiece of genius in the world is the establishment of
a state and commonwealth which shall be a lasting one, even if we
reckon but a single legislator for each empire, the number of these
excellent men will appear very numerous. To be convinced of this, we
have only to turn our eyes on any nation of Italy, Latium, the
428Sabines, the Volscians, the Samnites, or the Etrurians, and then
direct our attention to that mighty nation of the Greeks, and then to
the Assyrians, Persians, and Carthaginians, and334 * * *
V. * * * [Scipio and his friends having again assembled,
Scipio spoke as follows: In our last conversation, I promised to prove
that honesty is the best policy in all states and commonwealths
whatsoever. But if I am to plead in favor of strict honesty and justice
in all public affairs, no less than in private, I must request Philus,
or some one else, to take up the advocacy of the other side; the truth
will then become more manifest, from the collision of opposite
arguments, as we see every day exemplified at the Bar.]
And Philus replied: In good truth, you have allotted me a very
creditable cause when you wish me to undertake the defence of vice.
Perhaps, said Lælius, you are afraid, lest, in reproducing the
ordinary objections made to justice in politics, you should seem to
express your own sentiments; though you are universally respected as an
almost unique example of the ancient probity and good faith; nor is it
unknown how familiar you are with the lawyer-like habit of disputing on
both sides of a question, because you think that this is the best way
of getting at the truth.
And Philus said: Very well; I obey you, and wilfully, with my eyes
open, I will undertake this dirty business; because, since those who
seek for gold do not flinch at the sight of the mud, so we who are
searching for justice, which is far more precious than gold, are bound
to shrink from no annoyance. And I wish, as I am about to make use of
the antagonist arguments of a foreigner, I might also employ a foreign
language. The pleas, therefore, now to be urged by Lucius Furius Philus
are those [once employed by] the Greek Carneades, a man who was
accustomed to express whatever [served his turn].335
* * *336429Let it be understood, therefore, that I by no
means express my own sentiments, but those of Carneades, in order that
you may refute this philosopher, who was wont to turn the best causes
into joke, through the mere wantonness of wit.
VI. He was a philosopher of the Academic School; and if any one
is ignorant of his great power, and eloquence, and acuteness
in arguing, he may learn it from the mention made of him by
Cicero or by Lucilius, when Neptune, discoursing on a very
difficult subject, declares that it cannot be explained, not even
if hell were to restore Carneades himself for the purpose. This
philosopher, having been sent by the Athenians to Rome as an
ambassador, discussed the subject of justice very amply in the
hearing of Galba and Cato the Censor, who were the greatest
orators of the day. And the next day he overturned all his
arguments by others of a contrary tendency, and disparaged
justice, which the day before he had extolled; speaking not
indeed with the gravity of a philosopher whose wisdom ought to be
steady, and whose opinions unchangeable, but in a kind of
rhetorical exercise of arguing on each side—a practice which he
was accustomed to adopt, in order to be able to refute others who
were asserting anything. The arguments by which he disparaged
justice are mentioned by Lucius Furius in Cicero; I suppose,
since he was discussing the Commonwealth, in order to introduce a
defence and panegyric of that quality without which he did not
think a commonwealth could be administered. But Carneades, in
order to refute Aristotle and Plato, the advocates of justice,
collected in his first argument everything that was in the habit
of being advanced on behalf of justice, in order afterward to be
able to overturn it, as he did.
VII. Many philosophers indeed, and especially Plato and
Aristotle, have spoken a great deal of justice, inculcating that
virtue, and extolling it with the highest praise, as giving to
every one what belongs to him, as preserving equity in all
things, and urging that while the other virtues are, as it were,
silent and shut up, justice is the only one which 430is not absorbed in
considerations of self-interest, and which is not secret, but
finds its whole field for exercise out-of-doors, and is desirous
of doing good and serving as many people as possible; as if,
forsooth, justice ought to exist in judges only, and in men
invested with a certain authority, and not in every one! But
there is no one, not even a man of the lowest class, or a beggar,
who is destitute of opportunities of displaying justice. But because
these philosophers knew not what its essence was, or whence it
proceeded, or what its employment was, they attributed that first
of all virtues, which is the common good of all men, to a few
only, and asserted that it aimed at no advantage of its own, but
was anxious only for that of others. So it was well that
Carneades, a man of the greatest genius and acuteness, refuted
their assertions, and overthrew that justice which had no firm
foundation; not because he thought justice itself deserving of blame,
but in order to show that those its defenders had brought forward
no trustworthy or strong arguments in its behalf.
Justice looks out-of-doors, and is prominent and conspicuous in
its whole essence.
Which virtue, beyond all others, wholly devotes and dedicates
itself to the advantage of others.
VIII. * * * Both to discover and maintain. While the other,
Aristotle, has filled four large volumes with a discussion on abstract
justice. For I did not expect anything grand or magnificent from
Chrysippus, who, after his usual fashion, examines everything rather by
the signification of words than the reality of things. But it was
surely worthy of those heroes of philosophy to ennoble by their genius
a virtue so eminently beneficent and liberal, which everywhere exalts
the social interests above the selfish, and teaches us to love others
rather than ourselves. It was worthy of their genius, we say, to
elevate this virtue to a divine throne, not far from that of Wisdom.
And certainly they neither wanted the will to accomplish this (for what
else could be the cause of their writing on the subject, or what could
have been their design?) nor the genius, in which they excelled all
men. But the weakness of their cause was too great for either their
intention or their eloquence to make it popular. In fact, this justice
on which we reason is a civil right, but no natural one; for if it were
natural and universal, then justice and injustice would be recognized
similarly by all men, just as the heat and cold, sweetness and
bitterness.
IX. Now, if any one, carried in that chariot of winged serpents of
which the poet Pacuvius makes mention, could 431take his flight over
all nations and cities, and accurately observe their proceedings, he
would see that the sense of justice and right varies in different
regions. In the first place, he would behold among the unchangeable
people of Egypt, which preserves in its archives the memory of so many
ages and events, a bull adored as a Deity, under the name of Apis, and
a multitude of other monsters, and all kinds of animals admitted by the
same nation into the number of the Gods.
In the next place, he would see in Greece, as among ourselves,
magnificent temples consecrated by images in human form, which the
Persians regarded as impious; and it is affirmed that the sole motive
of Xerxes for commanding the conflagration of the Athenian temples was
the belief that it was a superstitious sacrilege to keep confined
within narrow walls the Gods, whose proper home was the entire
universe. But afterward Philip, in his hostile projects against the
Persians, and Alexander, who carried them into execution, alleged this
plea for war, that they were desirous to avenge the temples of Greece,
which the Greeks had thought proper never to rebuild, that this
monument of the impiety of the Persians might always remain before the
eyes of their posterity.
How many—such as the inhabitants of Taurica along the Euxine Sea; as
the King of Egypt, Busiris; as the Gauls and the Carthaginians—have
thought it exceedingly pious and agreeable to the Gods to sacrifice
men! And, besides, the customs of life are so various that the Cretans
and Ætolians regard robbery as honorable. And the
Lacedæmonians say that their territory extends to all places
which they can touch with a lance. The Athenians had a custom of
swearing, by a public proclamation, that all the lands which produced
olives and corn were their own. The Gauls consider it a base employment
to raise corn by agricultural labor, and go with arms in their hands,
and mow down the harvests of neighboring peoples. But we ourselves, the
most equitable of all nations, who, in order to raise the value of our
vines and olives, do not permit the races beyond the Alps to cultivate
either vineyards or oliveyards, are said in this matter to act with
prudence, but not with justice. You see, then, that wisdom 432and
policy are not always the same as equity. And Lycurgus, that famous
inventor of a most admirable jurisprudence and most wholesome laws,
gave the lands of the rich to be cultivated by the common people, who
were reduced to slavery.
X. If I were to describe the diverse kinds of laws, institutions,
manners, and customs, not only as they vary in the numerous nations,
but as they vary likewise in single cities—in this one of ours, for
example—I could prove that they have had a thousand revolutions. For
instance, that eminent expositor of our laws who sits in the present
company—I mean Manilius—if you were to consult him relative to the
legacies and inheritances of women, he would tell you that the present
law is quite different from that he was accustomed to plead in his
youth, before the Voconian enactment came into force—an edict which was
passed in favor of the interests of the men, but which is evidently
full of injustice with regard to women. For why should a woman be
disabled from inheriting property? Why can a vestal virgin become an
heir, while her mother cannot? And why, admitting that it is necessary
to set some limit to the wealth of women, should Crassus’s daughter, if
she be his only child, inherit thousands without offending the law,
while my daughter can only receive a small share in a bequest.337
* * *
XI. * * * [If this justice were natural, innate, and
universal, all men would admit the same] law and right, and the same
men would not enact different laws at different times. If a just man
and a virtuous man is bound to obey the laws, I ask, what laws do you
mean? Do you intend all the laws indifferently? But neither does virtue
permit this inconstancy in moral obligation, nor is such a variation
compatible with natural conscience. The laws are, therefore, based not
on our sense of justice, but on our fear of punishment. There is,
therefore, no natural justice; and hence it follows that men cannot be
just by nature.
Are men, then, to say that variations indeed do exist in the laws, but
that men who are virtuous through natural conscience follow that which
is really justice, and not a mere semblance and disguise, and that it
is the distinguishing 433characteristic of the truly just and virtuous
man to render every one his due rights? Are we, then, to attribute the
first of these characteristics to animals? For not only men of moderate
abilities, but even first-rate sages and philosophers, as Pythagoras
and Empedocles, declare that all kinds of living creatures have a right
to the same justice. They declare that inexpiable penalties impend over
those who have done violence to any animal whatsoever. It is,
therefore, a crime to injure an animal, and the perpetrator of such
crime338 * * *
XII. For when he339 inquired of a pirate by what right he dared
to infest the sea with his little brigantine: “By the same
right,” he replied, “which is your warrant for conquering the
world.” * * *
Wisdom and prudence instruct us by all means to increase our power,
riches, and estates. For by what means could this same Alexander, that
illustrious general, who extended his empire over all Asia, without
violating the property of other men, have acquired such universal
dominion, enjoyed so many pleasures, such great power, and reigned
without bound or limit?
But justice commands us to have mercy upon all men, to consult the
interests of the whole human race, to give to every one his due, and
injure no sacred, public, or foreign rights, and to forbear touching
what does not belong to us. What is the result, then? If you obey the
dictates of wisdom, then wealth, power, riches, honors, provinces, and
kingdoms, from all classes, peoples, and nations, are to be aimed at.
However, as we are discussing public matters, those examples are more
illustrious which refer to what is done publicly. And since the
question between justice and policy applies equally to private and
public affairs, I think it well to speak of the wisdom of the people. I
will not, however, mention other nations, but come at once to our own
Roman people, whom Africanus, in his discourse yesterday, traced from
the cradle, and whose empire now embraces the whole world. Justice
is340 * * *
434XIII. How far utility is at variance with justice we may learn
from the Roman people itself, which, declaring war by means of
the fecials, and committing injustice with all legal formality,
always coveting and laying violent hands on the property of
others, acquired the possession of the whole world.
What is the advantage of one’s own country but the disadvantage
of another state or nation, by extending one’s dominions by
territories evidently wrested from others, increasing one’s
power, improving one’s revenues, etc.? Therefore, whoever has
obtained these advantages for his country—that is to say, whoever
has overthrown cities, subdued nations, and by these means filled
the treasury with money, taken lands, and enriched his
fellow-citizens—such a man is extolled to the skies; is believed
to be endowed with consummate and perfect virtue; and this
mistake is fallen into not only by the populace and the ignorant,
but by philosophers, who even give rules for injustice.
XIV. * * * For all those who have the right of life and death
over the people are in fact tyrants; but they prefer being called by
the title of king, which belongs to the all-good Jupiter. But when
certain men, by favor of wealth, birth, or any other means, get
possession of the entire government, it is a faction; but they choose
to denominate themselves an aristocracy. If the people gets the upper
hand, and rules everything after its capricious will, they call it
liberty, but it is in fact license. And when every man is a guard upon
his neighbor, and every class is a guard upon every other class, then
because no one trusts in his own strength, a kind of compact is formed
between the great and the little, from whence arises that mixed kind of
government which Scipio has been commending. Thus justice, according to
these facts, is not the daughter of nature or conscience, but of human
imbecility. For when it becomes necessary to choose between these three
predicaments, either to do wrong without retribution, or to do wrong
with retribution, or to do no wrong at all, it is best to do wrong with
impunity; next, neither to do wrong nor to suffer for it; but nothing
is more wretched than to struggle incessantly between the wrong we
inflict and that we receive. Therefore, he who attains to that first
end341 * * *
XV. This was the sum of the argument of Carneades: that men had
established laws among themselves from considerations of
advantage, 435varying them according to their different customs,
and altering them often so as to adapt them to the times; but
that there was no such thing as natural law; that all men and all
other animals are led to their own advantage by the guidance of
nature; that there is no such thing as justice, or, if there be,
that it is extreme folly, since a man would injure himself while
consulting the interests of others. And he added these arguments,
that all nations who were flourishing and dominant, and even the
Romans themselves, who were the masters of the whole world, if
they wished to be just—that is to say, if they restored all that
belonged to others—would have to return to their cottages, and to
lie down in want and misery.
Except, perhaps, of the Arcadians and Athenians, who, I presume,
dreading that this great act of retribution might one day arrive,
pretend that they were sprung from the earth, like so many field-mice.
XVI. In reply to these statements, the following arguments are often
adduced by those who are not unskilful in discussions, and who, in this
question, have all the greater weight of authority, because, when we
inquire, Who is a good man?—understanding by that term a frank and
single-minded man—we have little need of captious casuists, quibblers,
and slanderers. For those men assert that the wise man does not seek
virtue because of the personal gratification which the practice of
justice and beneficence procures him, but rather because the life of
the good man is free from fear, care, solicitude, and peril; while, on
the other hand, the wicked always feel in their souls a certain
suspicion, and always behold before their eyes images of judgment and
punishment. Do not you think, therefore, that there is any benefit, or
that there is any advantage which can be procured by injustice,
precious enough to counterbalance the constant pressure of remorse, and
the haunting consciousness that retribution awaits the sinner, and
hangs over his devoted head.342 * * *
XVII. [Our philosophers, therefore, put a case. Suppose, say they, two
men, one of whom is an excellent and admirable person, of high honor
and remarkable integrity; the latter is distinguished by nothing but
his vice and audacity. And suppose that their city has so mistaken
their characters as to imagine the good man to be a scandalous,
impious, and audacious criminal, and to esteem the wicked 436man, on
the contrary, as a pattern of probity and fidelity. On account of this
error of their fellow-citizens, the good man is arrested and tormented,
his hands are cut off, his eyes are plucked out, he is condemned,
bound, burned, exterminated, reduced to want, and to the last appears
to all men to be most deservedly the most miserable of men. On the
other hand, the flagitious wretch is exalted, worshipped, loved by all,
and honors, offices, riches, and emoluments are all conferred on him,
and he shall be reckoned by his fellow-citizens the best and worthiest
of mortals, and in the highest degree deserving of all manner of
prosperity. Yet, for all this, who is so mad as to doubt which of these
two men he would rather be?
XVIII. What happens among individuals happens also among nations. There
is no state so absurd and ridiculous as not to prefer unjust dominion
to just subordination. I need not go far for examples. During my own
consulship, when you were my fellow-counsellors, we consulted
respecting the treaty of Numantia. No one was ignorant that Quintus
Pompey had signed a treaty, and that Mancinus had done the same. The
latter, being a virtuous man, supported the proposition which I laid
before the people, after the decree of the senate. The former, on the
other side, opposed it vehemently. If modesty, probity, or faith had
been regarded, Mancinus would have carried his point; but in reason,
counsel, and prudence, Pompey surpassed him. Whether343 * * *
XIX. If a man should have a faithless slave, or an unwholesome house,
with whose defect he alone was acquainted, and he advertised them for
sale, would he state the fact that his servant was infected with
knavery, and his house with malaria, or would he conceal these
objections from the buyer? If he stated those facts, he would be
honest, no doubt, because he would deceive nobody; but still he would
be thought a fool, because he would either get very little for his
property, or else fail to sell it at all. By concealing these defects,
on the other hand, he will be called a shrewd man—as one who has taken
care of his own interest; but he will be a rogue, notwithstanding,
because he will be deceiving his neighbors. Again, 437let us suppose
that one man meets another, who sells gold and silver, conceiving them
to be copper or lead; shall he hold his peace that he may make a
capital bargain, or correct the mistake, and purchase at a fair rate?
He would evidently be a fool in the world’s opinion if he preferred the
latter.
XX. It is justice, beyond all question, neither to commit murder nor
robbery. What, then, would your just man do, if, in a case of
shipwreck, he saw a weaker man than himself get possession of a plank?
Would he not thrust him off, get hold of the timber himself, and escape
by his exertions, especially as no human witness could be present in
the mid-sea? If he acted like a wise man of the world, he would
certainly do so, for to act in any other way would cost him his life.
If, on the other hand, he prefers death to inflicting unjustifiable
injury on his neighbor, he will be an eminently honorable and just man,
but not the less a fool, because he saved another’s life at the expense
of his own. Again, if in case of a defeat and rout, when the enemy were
pressing in the rear, this just man should find a wounded comrade
mounted on a horse, shall he respect his right at the risk of being
killed himself, or shall he fling him from the horse in order to
preserve his own life from the pursuers? If he does so, he is a wise
man, but at the same time a wicked one; if he does not, he is admirably
just, but at the same time stupid.
XXI. Scipio. I might reply at great length to these sophistical
objections of Philus, if it were not, my Lælius, that all our
friends are no less anxious than myself to hear you take a leading part
in the present debate, especially as you promised yesterday that you
would plead at large on my side of the argument. If you cannot spare
time for this, at any rate do not desert us; we all ask it of you.
Lælius. This Carneades ought not to be even listened to by our
young men. I think all the while that I am hearing him that he must be
a very impure person; if he be not, as I would fain believe, his
discourse is not less pernicious.
XXII.344 True law is right reason conformable to nature, 438universal,
unchangeable, eternal, whose commands urge us to duty, and whose
prohibitions restrain us from evil. Whether it enjoins or forbids, the
good respect its injunctions, and the wicked treat them with
indifference. This law cannot be contradicted by any other law, and is
not liable either to derogation or abrogation. Neither the senate nor
the people can give us any dispensation for not obeying this universal
law of justice. It needs no other expositor and interpreter than our
own conscience. It is not one thing at Rome, and another at Athens; one
thing to-day, and another to-morrow; but in all times and nations this
universal law must forever reign, eternal and imperishable. It is the
sovereign master and emperor of all beings. God himself is its author,
its promulgator, its enforcer. And he who does not obey it flies from
himself, and does violence to the very nature of man. And by so doing
he will endure the severest penalties even if he avoid the other evils
which are usually accounted punishments.
XXIII. I am aware that in the third book of Cicero’s treatise on
the Commonwealth (unless I am mistaken) it is argued that no war
is ever undertaken by a well-regulated commonwealth unless it be
one either for the sake of keeping faith, or for safety; and what
he means by a war for safety, and what safety he wishes us
to understand, he points out in another passage, where he says,
“But private men often escape from these penalties, which even
the most stupid persons feel—want, exile, imprisonment, and
stripes—by embracing the opportunity of a speedy death; but to states
death itself is a penalty, though it appears to deliver
individuals from punishment. For a state ought to be established
so as to be eternal: therefore, there is no natural decease for a
state, as there is for a man, in whose case death is not only
inevitable, but often even desirable; but when a state is put an
end to, it is destroyed, extinguished. It is in some degree, to
compare small things with great, as if this whole world were to
perish and fall to pieces.”
In his treatise on the Commonwealth, Cicero says those wars are
unjust which are undertaken without reason. Again, after a few
sentences, he adds, No war is considered just unless it be
formally announced and declared, and unless it be to obtain
restitution of what has been taken away.
But our nation, by defending its allies, has now become the
master of all the whole world.
XXIV. Also, in that same treatise on the Commonwealth, he argues
most strenuously and vigorously in the cause of justice against
injustice. And since, when a little time before the part of
injustice was upheld against justice, and the doctrine was urged
that a republic could not 439prosper and flourish except by
injustice, this was put forward as the strongest argument, that
it was unjust for men to serve other men as their masters; but
that unless a dominant state, such as a great republic, acted on
this injustice, it could not govern its provinces; answer was
made on behalf of justice, that it was just that it should be so,
because slavery is advantageous to such men, and their interests
are consulted by a right course of conduct—that is, by the
license of doing injury being taken from the wicked—and they will
fare better when subjugated, because when not subjugated they
fared worse: and to confirm this reasoning, a noble instance,
taken, as it were, from nature, was added, and it was said, Why, then,
does God govern man, and why does the mind govern the body, and
reason govern lust, and the other vicious parts of the mind?
XXV. Hear what Tully says more plainly still in the third book of
his treatise on the Commonwealth, when discussing the reasons for
government. Do we not, says he, see that nature herself has given
the power of dominion to everything that is best, to the extreme
advantage of what is subjected to it? Why, then, does God govern
man, and why does the mind govern the body, and reason govern
lust and passion and the other vicious parts of the same mind?
Listen thus far; for presently he adds, But still there are
dissimilarities to be recognized in governing and in obeying. For
as the mind is said to govern the body, and also to govern lust, still
it governs the body as a king governs his subjects, or a parent
his children; but it governs lust as a master governs his slaves,
because it restrains and breaks it. The authority of kings, of
generals, of magistrates, of fathers, and of nations, rules their
subjects and allies as the mind rules bodies; but masters control their
slaves, as the best part of the mind—that is to say,
wisdom—controls the vicious and weak parts of itself, such as
lust, passion, and the other perturbations.
For there is a kind of unjust slavery when those belong to some
one else who might be their own masters; but when those are
slaves who cannot govern themselves, there is no injury done.
XXVI. If, says Carneades, you were to know that an asp was lying
hidden anywhere, and that some one who did not know it was going
to sit upon it, whose death would be a gain to you, you would
act wickedly if you did not warn him not to sit down. Still, you
would not be liable to punishment; for who could prove that you
had known? But we are bringing forward too many instances; for it
is plain that unless equity, good faith, and justice proceed
from nature, and if all these things are referred to interest, a
good man cannot be found. And on these topics a great deal is
said by Lælius in our treatise on the Republic.
If, as we are reminded by you, we have spoken well in that
treatise, when we said that nothing is good excepting what is
honorable, and nothing bad excepting what is disgraceful.
* * *
XXVII. I am glad that you approve of the doctrine that the
affection borne to our children is implanted by nature; indeed,
if it be not, there can be no conection between man and man which
has its origin in nature. And if there be not, then there is an
end of all society in life. May it turn out well, says Carneades,
speaking shamelessly, but still 440more sensibly than my friend Lucius
or Patro: for, as they refer everything to themselves, do they
think that anything is ever done for the sake of another? And
when they say that a man ought to be good, in order to avoid
misfortune, not because it is right by nature, they do not
perceive that they are speaking of a cunning man, not of a good
one. But these arguments are argued, I think, in those books by
praising which you have given me spirits.
In which I agree that an anxious and hazardous justice is not
that of a wise man.
XXVIII. And again, in Cicero, that same advocate of justice,
Lælius, says, Virtue is clearly eager for honor, nor has she
any other reward; which, however, she accepts easily, and
exacts without bitterness. And in another place the same
Lælius says:
When a man is inspired by virtue such as this, what bribes can you
offer him, what treasures, what thrones, what empires? He considers
these but mortal goods, and esteems his own divine. And if the
ingratitude of the people, and the envy of his competitors, or the
violence of powerful enemies, despoil his virtue of its earthly
recompense, he still enjoys a thousand consolations in the approbation
of conscience, and sustains himself by contemplating the beauty of
moral rectitude.
XXIX. * * * This virtue, in order to be true, must be
universal. Tiberius Gracchus continued faithful to his fellow-citizens,
but he violated the rights and treaties guaranteed to our allies and
the Latin peoples. But if this habit of arbitrary violence begins to
extend itself further, and perverts our authority, leading it from
right to violence, so that those who had voluntarily obeyed us are only
restrained by fear, then, although we, during our days, may escape the
peril, yet am I solicitous respecting the safety of our posterity and
the immortality of the Commonwealth itself, which, doubtless, might
become perpetual and invincible if our people would maintain their
ancient institutions and manners.
XXX. When Lælius had ceased to speak, all those that were present
expressed the extreme pleasure they found in his discourse. But Scipio,
more affected than the rest, and ravished with the delight of sympathy,
exclaimed: You have pleaded, my Lælius, many causes with an
eloquence superior to that of Servius Galba, our colleague, whom you
used during his life to prefer to all others, even to the Attic orators
[and never did I hear you speak with 441more energy than to-day, while
pleading the cause of justice]345 * * *
* * * That two things were wanting to enable him to speak in
public and in the forum, confidence and voice.
XXXI. * * * This justice, continued Scipio, is the very
foundation of lawful government in political constitutions. Can we call
the State of Agrigentum a commonwealth, where all men are oppressed by
the cruelty of a single tyrant—where there is no universal bond of
right, nor social consent and fellowship, which should belong to every
people, properly so named? It is the same in Syracuse—that illustrious
city which Timæus calls the greatest of the Grecian towns. It was
indeed a most beautiful city; and its admirable citadel, its canals
distributed through all its districts, its broad streets, its
porticoes, its temples, and its walls, gave Syracuse the appearance of
a most flourishing state. But while Dionysius its tyrant reigned there,
nothing of all its wealth belonged to the people, and the people were
nothing better than the slaves of one master. Thus, wherever I behold a
tyrant, I know that the social constitution must be not merely vicious
and corrupt, as I stated yesterday, but in strict truth no social
constitution at all.
XXXII. Lælius. You have spoken admirably, my Scipio, and I see
the point of your observations.
Scipio. You grant, then, that a state which is entirely in the power of
a faction cannot justly be entitled a political community?
Lælius. That is evident.
Scipio. You judge most correctly. For what was the State of Athens
when, during the great Peloponnesian war, she fell under the unjust
domination of the thirty tyrants? The antique glory of that city, the
imposing aspect of its edifices, its theatre, its gymnasium, its
porticoes, its temples, its citadel, the admirable sculptures of
Phidias, and the magnificent harbor of Piræus—did they constitute
it a commonwealth?
Lælius. Certainly not, because these did not constitute the real
welfare of the community.
442Scipio. And at Rome, when the decemvirs ruled without appeal from
their decisions, in the third year of their power, had not liberty lost
all its securities and all its blessings?
Lælius. Yes; the welfare of the community was no longer
consulted, and the people soon roused themselves, and recovered their
appropriate rights.
XXXIII. Scipio. I now come to the third, or democratical, form of
government, in which a considerable difficulty presents itself, because
all things are there said to lie at the disposition of the people, and
are carried into execution just as they please. Here the populace
inflict punishments at their pleasure, and act, and seize, and keep
possession, and distribute property, without let or hinderance. Can you
deny, my Lælius, that this is a fair definition of a democracy,
where the people are all in all, and where the people constitute the
State?
Lælius. There is no political constitution to which I more
absolutely deny the name of a commonwealth than that in which all
things lie in the power of the multitude. If a commonwealth, which
implies the welfare of the entire community, could not exist in
Agrigentum, Syracuse, or Athens when tyrants reigned over them—if it
could not exist in Rome when under the oligarchy of the
decemvirs—neither do I see how this sacred name of commonwealth can be
applied to a democracy and the sway of the mob; because, in the first
place, my Scipio, I build on your own admirable definition, that there
can be no community, properly so called, unless it be regulated by a
combination of rights. And, by this definition, it appears that a
multitude of men may be just as tyrannical as a single despot; and it
is so much the worse, since no monster can be more barbarous than the
mob, which assumes the name and appearance of the people. Nor is it at
all reasonable, since the laws place the property of madmen in the
hands of their sane relations, that we should do the [very reverse in
politics, and throw the property of the sane into the hands of the mad
multitude]346 * * *
XXXIV. * * * [It is far more rational] to assert that a wise
and virtuous aristocratical government deserves 443the title of a
commonwealth, as it approaches to the nature of a kingdom.
And much more so in my opinion, said Mummius. For the unity of power
often exposes a king to become a despot; but when an aristocracy,
consisting of many virtuous men, exercise power, that is the most
fortunate circumstance possible for any state. However this be, I much
prefer royalty to democracy; for that is the third kind of government
which you have remaining, and a most vicious one it is.
XXXV. Scipio replied: I am well acquainted, my Mummius, with your
decided antipathy to the democratical system. And, although, we may
speak of it with rather more indulgence than you are accustomed to
accord it, I must certainly agree with you, that of all the three
particular forms of government, none is less commendable than democracy.
I do not agree with you, however, when you would imply that aristocracy
is preferable to royalty. If you suppose that wisdom governs the State,
is it not as well that this wisdom should reside in one monarch as in
many nobles?
But we are led away by a certain incorrectness of terms in a discussion
like the present. When we pronounce the word “aristocracy,” which, in
Greek, signifies the government of the best men, what can be conceived
more excellent? For what can be thought better than the best? But when,
on the other hand, the title “king” is mentioned, we begin to imagine a
tyrant; as if a king must be necessarily unjust. But we are not
speaking of an unjust king when we are examining the true nature of
royal authority. To this name of king, therefore, do but attach the
idea of a Romulus, a Numa, a Tullus, and perhaps you will be less
severe to the monarchical form of constitution.
Mummius. Have you, then, no commendation at all for any kind of
democratical government?
Scipio. Why, I think some democratical forms less objectionable than
others; and, by way of illustration, I will ask you what you thought of
the government in the isle of Rhodes, where we were lately together;
did it appear to you a legitimate and rational constitution?
444Mummius. It did, and not much liable to abuse.
Scipio. You say truly. But, if you recollect, it was a very
extraordinary experiment. All the inhabitants were alternately senators
and citizens. Some months they spent in their senatorial functions, and
some months they spent in their civil employments. In both they
exercised judicial powers; and in the theatre and the court, the same
men judged all causes, capital and not capital. And they had as much
influence, and were of as much importance as * * *
FRAGMENTS.
XXXVI. There is therefore some unquiet feeling in individuals,
which either exults in pleasure or is crushed by annoyance.
[The next is an incomplete sentence, and, as such,
unintelligible.]
The Phœnicians were the first who by their commerce, and by the
merchandise which they carried, brought avarice and magnificence
and insatiable degrees of everything into Greece.
Sardanapalus, the luxurious king of Assyria, of whom Tully, in
the third book of his treatise on the Republic, says, “The
notorious Sardanapalus, far more deformed by his vices than even
by his name.”
What is the meaning, then, of this absurd acceptation, unless
some one wishes to make the whole of Athos a monument? For what
is Athos or the vast Olympus? * * *
XXXVII. I will endeavor in the proper place to show it, according
to the definitions of Cicero himself, in which, putting forth
Scipio as the speaker, he has briefly explained what a
commonwealth and what a republic is; adducing also many
assertions of his own, and of those whom he has represented as
taking part in that discussion, to the effect that the State of
Rome was not such a commonwealth, because there has never been
genuine justice in it. However, according to definitions which
are more reasonable, it was a commonwealth in some degree, and it
was better regulated by the more ancient than by the later Romans.
It is now fitting that I should explain, as briefly and as
clearly as I can, what, in the second book of this work, I
promised to prove, according to the definitions which Cicero, in
his books on the Commonwealth, puts into the mouth of Scipio,
arguing that the Roman State was never a commonwealth; for he
briefly defines a commonwealth as a state of the people; the
people as an assembly of the multitude, united by a common
feeling of right, and a community of interests. What he calls a
common feeling of right he explains by discussion, showing in this way
that a commonwealth cannot proceed without justice. Where,
therefore, there is no genuine justice, there can be no right,
for that which is done according to right is done justly; and
what is done unjustly cannot 445be done according to right, for
the unjust regulations of men are not to be called or thought rights;
since they themselves call that right (jus) which flows from the
source of justice: and they say that that assertion which is
often made by some persons of erroneous sentiments, namely, that
that is right which is advantageous to the most powerful, is
false. Wherefore, where there is no true justice there can be no
company of men united by a common feeling of right; therefore
there can be no people (populus), according to that definition of
Scipio or Cicero: and if there be no people, there can be no
state of the people, but only of a mob such as it may be, which
is not worthy of the name of a people. And thus, if a commonwealth is a
state of a people, and if that is not a people which is not
united by a common feeling of right, and if there is no right
where there is no justice, then the undoubted inference is, that
where there is no justice there is no commonwealth. Moreover,
justice is that virtue which gives every one his own.
No war can be undertaken by a just and wise state unless for faith or
self-defence. This self-defence of the State is enough to insure its
perpetuity, and this perpetuity is what all patriots desire. Those
afflictions which even the hardiest spirits smart under—poverty, exile,
prison, and torment—private individuals seek to escape from by an
instantaneous death. But for states, the greatest calamity of all is
that of death, which to individuals appears a refuge. A state should be
so constituted as to live forever. For a commonwealth there is no
natural dissolution as there is for a man, to whom death not only
becomes necessary, but often desirable. And when a state once decays
and falls, it is so utterly revolutionized, that, if we may compare
great things with small, it resembles the final wreck of the universe.
All wars undertaken without a proper motive are unjust. And no war can
be reputed just unless it be duly announced and proclaimed, and if it
be not preceded by a rational demand for restitution.
Our Roman Commonwealth, by defending its allies, has got possession of
the world.
446INTRODUCTION TO THE FOURTH BOOK,
BY THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATOR.
In this fourth book Cicero treats of morals and education, and
the use and abuse of stage entertainments. We retain nothing of
this important book save a few scattered fragments, the beauty of
which fills us with the greater regret for the passages we have
lost.
BOOK IV.
FRAGMENTS.
I. * * * Since mention has been made of the body and of the
mind, I will endeavor to explain the theory of each as well as
the weakness of my understanding is able to comprehend it—a duty
which I think it the more becoming in me to undertake, because
Marcus Tullius, a man of singular genius, after having attempted
to perform it in the fourth book of his treatise on the
Commonwealth, compressed a subject of wide extent within narrow
limits, only touching lightly on all the principal points. And
that there might be no excuse alleged for his not having followed
out this topic, he himself has assured us that he was not wanting
either in inclination or in anxiety to do so; for, in the first
book of his treatise on Laws, when he was touching briefly on the
same subject, he speaks thus: “This topic Scipio, in my opinion,
has sufficiently discussed in those books which you have read.”
And the mind itself, which sees the future, remembers the past.
Well did Marcus Tullius say, In truth, if there is no one who
would not prefer death to being changed into the form of some
beast, although he were still to retain the mind of a man, how
much more wretched is it to have the mind of a beast in the form
of a man! To me this fate appears as much worse than the other as
the mind is superior to the body.
Tullius says somewhere that he does not think the good of a ram
and of Publius Africanus identical.
And also by its being interposed, it causes shade and night,
which is adapted both to the numbering of days and to rest from
labor.
And as in the autumn he has opened the earth to receive seeds, in
winter relaxed it that it may digest them, and by the ripening
powers of summer softened some and burned up others.
When the shepherds use * * * for cattle.
Cicero, in the fourth book of his Commonwealth, uses the word
“armentum,” and “armentarius,” derived from it.
447II. The great law of just and regular subordination is the basis of
political prosperity. There is much advantage in the harmonious
succession of ranks and orders and classes, in which the suffrages of
the knights and the senators have their due weight. Too many have
foolishly desired to destroy this institution, in the vain hope of
receiving some new largess, by a public decree, out of a distribution
of the property of the nobility.
III. Consider, now, how wisely the other provisions have been adopted,
in order to secure to the citizens the benefits of an honest and happy
life; for that is, indeed, the grand object of all political
association, and that which every government should endeavor to procure
for the people, partly by its institutions, and partly by its laws.
Consider, in the first place, the national education of the people—a
matter on which the Greeks have expended much labor in vain, and which
is the only point on which Polybius, who settled among us, accuses the
negligence of our institutions. For our countrymen have thought that
education ought not to be fixed, nor regulated by laws, nor be given
publicly and uniformly to all classes of society. For347 * * *
According to Tully, who says that men going to serve in the army
have guardians assigned to them, by whom they are governed the
first year.
IV. [In our ancient laws, young men were prohibited from appearing]
naked in the public baths, so far back were the principles of modesty
traced by our ancestors. Among the Greeks, on the contrary, what an
absurd system of training youth is exhibited in their gymnasia! What a
frivolous preparation for the labors and hazards of war! what indecent
spectacles, what impure and licentious amours are permitted! I do not
speak only of the Eleans and Thebans, among whom, in all love affairs,
passion is allowed to run into shameless excesses; but the Spartans,
while they permit every kind of license to their young men, save that
of violation, fence off, by a very slight wall, the very exception on
which they insist, besides other crimes which I will not mention.
448Then Lælius said: I see, my Scipio, that on the subject of the
Greek institutions, which you censure, you prefer attacking the customs
of the most renowned peoples to contending with your favorite Plato,
whose name you have avoided citing, especially as * * *
V. So that Cicero, in his treatise on the Commonwealth, says that
it was a reproach to young men if they had no lovers.
Not only as at Sparta, where boys learn to steal and plunder.
And our master Plato, even more than Lycurgus, who would have
everything to be common, so that no one should be able to call
anything his own property.
I would send him to the same place whither he sends Homer,
crowned with chaplets and anointed with perfumes, banishing him
from the city which he is describing.
VI. The judgment of the censor inflicts scarcely anything more
than a blush on the man whom he condemns. Therefore as all
that adjudication turns solely on the name (nomen), the
punishment is called ignominy.
Nor should a prefect be set over women, an officer who is created
among the Greeks; but there should be a censor to teach husbands
to manage their wives.
So the discipline of modesty has great power. All women abstain
from wine.
And also if any woman was of bad character, her relations used
not to kiss her.
So petulance is derived from asking (petendo); wantonness
(procacitas) from procando, that is, from demanding.
VII. For I do not approve of the same nation being the ruler and
the farmer of lands. But both in private families and in the
affairs of the Commonwealth I look upon economy as a revenue.
Faith (fides) appears to me to derive its name from that being
done (fit) which is said.
In a citizen of rank and noble birth, caressing manners, display,
and ambition are marks of levity.
Examine for a while the books on the Republic, and learn that
good men know no bound or limit in consulting the interests of
their country. See in that treatise with what praises frugality,
and continency, and fidelity to the marriage tie, and
chaste, honorable, and virtuous manners are extolled.
VIII. I marvel at the elegant choice, not only of the facts, but
of the language. If they dispute (jurgant). It is a contest
between well-wishers, not a quarrel between enemies, that is
called a dispute (jurgium),
Therefore the law considers that neighbors dispute (jurgare)
rather than quarrel (litigare) with one another.
The bounds of man’s care and of man’s life are the same; so by
the pontifical law the sanctity of burial * * *
They put them to death, though innocent, because they had left
those men unburied whom they could not rescue from the sea
because of the violence of the storm.
449Nor in this discussion have I advocated the cause of the
populace, but of the good.
For one cannot easily resist a powerful people if one gives them
either no rights at all or very little.
In which case I wish I could augur first with truth and fidelity
* * *
IX. Cicero saying this in vain, when speaking of poets, “And when
the shouts and approval of the people, as of some great and wise
teacher, has reached them, what darkness do they bring on! what
alarms do they cause! what desires do they excite!”
Cicero says that if his life were extended to twice its length,
he should not have time to read the lyric poets.
X. As Scipio says in Cicero, “As they thought the whole
histrionic art, and everything connected with the theatre,
discreditable, they thought fit that all men of that description
should not only be deprived of the honors belonging to the rest
of the citizens, but should also be deprived of their franchise
by the sentence of the censors.”
And what the ancient Romans thought on this subject Cicero
informs us, in those books which he wrote on the Commonwealth,
where Scipio argues and says * * *
Comedies could never (if it had not been authorized by the common
customs of life) have made theatres approve of their scandalous
exhibitions. And the more ancient Greeks provided a certain correction
for the vicious taste of the people, by making a law that it should be
expressly defined by a censorship what subjects comedy should treat,
and how she should treat them.
Whom has it not attacked? or, rather, whom has it not wounded? and whom
has it spared? In this, no doubt, it sometimes took the right side, and
lashed the popular demagogues and seditious agitators, such as Cleon,
Cleophon, and Hyperbolus. We may tolerate that; though indeed the
censure of the magistrate would, in these cases, have been more
efficacious than the satire of the poet. But when Pericles, who
governed the Athenian Commonwealth for so many years with the highest
authority, both in peace and war, was outraged by verses, and these
were acted on the stage, it was hardly more decent than if, among us,
Plautus and Nævius had attacked Publius and Cnæus, or
Cæcilius had ventured to revile Marcus Cato.
Our laws of the Twelve Tables, on the contrary—so careful to attach
capital punishment to a very few crimes only—have included in this
class of capital offences the offence of composing or publicly reciting
verses of libel, slander, and defamation, in order to cast dishonor and
infamy 450on a fellow-citizen. And they have decided wisely; for our
life and character should, if suspected, be submitted to the sentence
of judicial tribunals and the legal investigations of our magistrates,
and not to the whims and fancies of poets. Nor should we be exposed to
any charge of disgrace which we cannot meet by legal process, and
openly refute at the bar.
In our laws, I admire the justice of their expressions, as well as
their decisions. Thus the word pleading signifies rather an amicable
suit between friends than a quarrel between enemies.
It is not easy to resist a powerful people, if you allow them no
rights, or next to none.
The old Romans would not allow any living man to be either
praised or blamed on the stage.
XI. Cicero says that comedy is an imitation of life; a mirror of
customs, an image of truth.
Since, as is mentioned in that book on the Commonwealth, not only
did Æschines the Athenian, a man of the greatest eloquence,
who, when a young man, had been an actor of tragedies, concern
himself in public affairs, but the Athenians often sent
Aristodemus, who was also a tragic actor, to Philip as an
ambassador, to treat of the most important affairs of peace and
war.
INTRODUCTION TO THE FIFTH BOOK,
BY THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATOR.
In this fifth book Cicero explains and enforces the duties of
magistrates, and the importance of practical experience to all
who undertake their important functions. Only a few fragments
have survived the wreck of ages and descended to us.
BOOK V.
FRAGMENTS.
I. Ennius has told us—
Of men and customs mighty Rome consists;
which verse, both for its precision and its verity, appears to me as if
it had issued from an oracle; for neither the 451men, unless the State
had adopted a certain system of manners—nor the manners, unless they
had been illustrated by the men—could ever have established or
maintained for so many ages so vast a republic, or one of such
righteous and extensive sway.
Thus, long before our own times, the force of hereditary manners of
itself moulded most eminent men; and admirable citizens, in return,
gave new weight to the ancient customs and institutions of our
ancestors. But our age, on the contrary, having received the
Commonwealth as a finished picture of another century, but one already
beginning to fade through the lapse of years, has not only neglected to
renew the colors of the original painting, but has not even cared to
preserve its general form and prominent lineaments.
For what now remains of those antique manners, of which the poet said
that our Commonwealth consisted? They have now become so obsolete and
forgotten that they are not only not cultivated, but they are not even
known. And as to the men, what shall I say? For the manners themselves
have only perished through a scarcity of men; of which great misfortune
we are not only called to give an account, but even, as men accused of
capital offences, to a certain degree to plead our own cause in
connection with it. For it is owing to our vices, rather than to any
accident, that we have retained the name of republic when we have long
since lost the reality.
II. * * * There is no employment so essentially royal as the
exposition of equity, which comprises the true interpretation of all
laws. This justice subjects used generally to expect from their kings.
For this reason, lands, fields, woods, and pastures were reserved as
the property of kings, and cultivated for them, without any labor on
their part, in order that no anxiety on account of their personal
interests might distract their attention from the welfare of the State.
Nor was any private man allowed to be the judge or arbitrator in any
suit; but all disputes were terminated by the royal sentence.
And of all our Roman monarchs, Numa appears to me to have best
preserved this ancient custom of the kings of Greece. For the others,
though they also discharged this 452duty, were for the main part
employed in conducting military enterprises, and in attending to those
rights which belonged to war. But the long peace of Numa’s reign was
the mother of law and religion in this city. And he was himself the
author of those admirable laws which, as you are aware, are still
extant. And this character is precisely what belongs to the man of whom
we are speaking. * * *
III. [Scipio. Ought not a farmer] to be acquainted with the nature of
plants and seeds?
Manilius. Certainly, provided he attends to his practical business also.
Scipio. Do you think that knowledge only fit for a steward?
Manilius. Certainly not, inasmuch as the cultivation of land often
fails for want of agricultural labor.
Scipio. Therefore, as the steward knows the nature of a field, and the
scribe knows penmanship, and as both of them seek, in their respective
sciences, not mere amusement only, but practical utility, so this
statesman of ours should have studied the science of jurisprudence and
legislation; he should have investigated their original sources; but he
should not embarrass himself in debating and arguing, reading and
scribbling. He should rather employ himself in the actual
administration of government, and become a sort of steward of it, being
perfectly conversant with the principles of universal law and equity,
without which no man can be just: not unfamiliar with the civil laws of
states; but he will use them for practical purposes, even as a pilot
uses astronomy, and a physician natural philosophy. For both these men
bring their theoretical science to bear on the practice of their arts;
and our statesman [should do the same with the science of politics, and
make it subservient to the actual interests of philanthropy and
patriotism]. * * *
IV. * * * In states in which good men desire glory and
approbation, and shun disgrace and ignominy. Nor are such men so much
alarmed by the threats and penalties of the law as by that sentiment of
shame with which nature has endowed man, which is nothing else than a
certain fear of deserved censure. The wise director of a government
453strengthens this natural instinct by the force of public opinion,
and perfects it by education and manners. And thus the citizens are
preserved from vice and corruption rather by honor and shame than by
fear of punishment. But this argument will be better illustrated when
we treat of the love of glory and praise, which we shall discuss on
another occasion.
V. As respects the private life and the manners of the citizens, they
are intimately connected with the laws that constitute just marriages
and legitimate offspring, under the protection of the guardian deities
around the domestic hearths. By these laws, all men should be
maintained in their rights of public and private property. It is only
under a good government like this that men can live happily—for nothing
can be more delightful than a well-constituted state.
On which account it appears to me a very strange thing what this
* * *
VI. I therefore consume all my time in considering what is the
power of that man, whom, as you think, we have described
carefully enough in our books. Do you, then, admit our idea of
that governor of a commonwealth to whom we wish to refer
everything? For thus, I imagine, does Scipio speak in the fifth
book: “For as a fair voyage is the object of the master of a
ship, the health of his patient the aim of a physician, and
victory that of a general, so the happiness of his
fellow-citizens is the proper study of the ruler of a
commonwealth; that they may be stable in power, rich in
resources, widely known in reputation, and honorable through
their virtue. For a ruler ought to be one who can perfect this,
which is the best and most important employment among mankind.”
And works in your literature rightly praise that ruler of a
country who consults the welfare of his people more than
their inclinations.
VII. Tully, in those books which he wrote upon the Commonwealth,
could not conceal his opinions, when he speaks of appointing a
chief of the State, who, he says, must be maintained by glory;
and afterward he relates that his ancestors did many admirable
and noble actions from a desire of glory.
Tully, in his treatise on the Commonwealth, wrote that the chief
of a state must be maintained by glory, and that a commonwealth
would last as long as honor was paid by every one to the chief.
[The next paragraph is unintelligible.]
Which virtue is called fortitude, which consists of magnanimity,
and a great contempt of death and pain.
VIII. As Marcellus was fierce, and eager to fight, Maximus
prudent and cautious.
454Who discovered his violence and unbridled ferocity.
Which has often happened not only to individuals, but also to
most powerful nations.
In the whole world.
Because he inflicted the annoyances of his old age on your
families.
IX. Cicero, in his treatise on the Commonwealth, says, “As
Menelaus of Lacedæmon had a certain agreeable sweetness of
eloquence.” And in another place he says, “Let him cultivate
brevity in speaking.”
By the evidence of which arts, as Tully says, it is a shame for
the conscience of the judge to be misled. For he says, “And as
nothing in a commonwealth ought to be so uncorrupt as a suffrage
and a sentence, I do not see why the man who perverts them by
money is worthy of punishment, while he who does so by eloquence
is even praised. Indeed, I myself think that he who corrupts the
judge by his speech does more harm than he who does so by money,
because no one can corrupt a sensible man by money, though he may
by speaking.”
And when Scipio had said this, Mummius praised him greatly, for
he was extravagantly imbued with a hatred of orators.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SIXTH BOOK.
In this last book of his Commonwealth, Cicero labors to show that
truly pious philanthropical and patriotic statesmen will not only
be rewarded on earth by the approval of conscience and the
applause of all good citizens, but that they may expect hereafter
immortal glory in new forms of being. To illustrate this, he
introduces the “Dream of Scipio,” in which he explains the
resplendent doctrines of Plato respecting the immortality of the
soul with inimitable dignity and elegance. This Somnium
Scipionis, for which we are indebted to the citation of
Macrobius, is the most beautiful thing of the kind ever written.
It has been intensely admired by all European scholars, and will
be still more so. There are two translations of it in our
language; one attached to Oliver’s edition of Cicero’s Thoughts,
the other by Mr. Danby, published in 1829. Of these we have
freely availed ourselves, and as freely we express our
acknowledgments.
BOOK VI.
SCIPIO’S DREAM.
I. Therefore you rely upon all the prudence of this rule, which
has derived its very name (prudentia) from foreseeing (a
providendo). Wherefore the citizen must so prepare himself as to
be always armed against those things which trouble the
constitution of a state. And that 455dissension of the citizens,
when one party separates from and attacks another, is called
sedition.
And in truth in civil dissensions, as the good are of more
importance than the many, I think that we should regard the
weight of the citizens, and not their number.
For the lusts, being severe mistresses of the thoughts, command
and compel many an unbridled action. And as they cannot be
satisfied or appeased by any means, they urge those whom they
have inflamed with their allurements to every kind of atrocity.
II. Which indeed was so much the greater in him because though
the cause of the colleagues was identical, not only was
their unpopularity not equal, but the influence of Gracchus was
employed in mitigating the hatred borne to Claudius.
Who encountered the number of the chiefs and nobles with these
words, and left behind him that mournful and dignified expression
of his gravity and influence.
That, as he writes, a thousand men might every day descend into
the forum with cloaks dyed in purple.
[The next paragraph is unintelligible.]
For our ancestors wished marriages to be firmly established.
There is a speech extant of Lælius with which we are all
acquainted, expressing how pleasing to the immortal gods are the
* * * and * * * of the priests.
III. Cicero, writing about the Commonwealth, in imitation of
Plato, has related the story of the return of Er the Pamphylian
to life; who, as he says, had come to life again after he had
been placed on the funeral pile, and related many secrets about
the shades below; not speaking, like Plato, in a fabulous
imitation of truth, but using a certain reasonable invention of
an ingenious dream, cleverly intimating that these things which
were uttered about the immortality of the soul, and about heaven,
are not the inventions of dreaming philosophers, nor the
incredible fables which the Epicureans ridicule, but the
conjectures of wise men. He insinuates that that Scipio who by
the subjugation of Carthage obtained Africanus as a surname for
his family, gave notice to Scipio the son of Paulus of the
treachery which threatened him from his relations, and the course
of fate, because by the necessity of numbers he was confined in
the period of a perfect life, and he says that he in the
fifty-sixth year of his age * * *
IV. Some of our religion who love Plato, on account of his
admirable kind of eloquence, and of some correct opinions which
he held, say that he had some opinions similar to my own touching
the resurrection of the dead, which subject Tully touches on in
his treatise on the Commonwealth, and says that he was rather
jesting than intending to say that was true. For he asserts that
a man returned to life, and related some stories which harmonized
with the discussions of the Platonists.
V. In this point the imitation has especially preserved the
likeness of the work, because, as Plato, in the conclusion of his
volume, represents a certain person who had returned to life,
which he appeared to have quitted, as indicating what is the
condition of souls when stripped of the 456body, with the
addition of a certain not unnecessary description of the spheres and
stars, an appearance of circumstances indicating things of the
same kind is related by the Scipio of Cicero, as having been
brought before him in sleep.
VI. Tully is found to have preserved this arrangement with no
less judgment than genius. After, in every condition of the
Commonwealth, whether of leisure or business, he has given the
palm to justice, he has placed the sacred abodes of the immortal
souls, and the secrets of the heavenly regions, on the very
summit of his completed work, indicating whither they must come,
or rather return, who have managed the republic with prudence,
justice, fortitude, and moderation. But that Platonic relater of
secrets was a man of the name of Er, a Pamphylian by nation, a
soldier by profession, who, after he appeared to have died from
wounds received in battle, and twelve days afterward was about to
receive the honors of the funeral pile with the others who were
slain at the same time, suddenly either recovering his life, or
else never having lost it, as if he were giving a public
testimony, related to all men all that he had done or seen in the
days that he had thus passed between life and death. Although Cicero,
as if himself conscious of the truth, grieves that this story has
been ridiculed by the ignorant, still, avoiding giving an example
of foolish reproach, he preferred speaking of the relater as of
one awakened from a swoon rather than restored to life.
VII. And before we look at the words of the dream we must explain
what kind of persons they are by whom Cicero says that even the
account of Plato was ridiculed, who are not apprehensive that the
same thing may happen to them. Nor by this expression does he
wish the ignorant mob to be understood, but a kind of men who
are ignorant of the truth, though pretending to be philosophers
with a display of learning, who, it was notorious, had read such
things, and were eager to find faults. We will say, therefore,
who they are whom he reports as having levelled light reproaches
against so great a philosopher, and who of them has even left an
accusation of him committed to writing, etc. The whole faction of
the Epicureans, always wandering at an equal distance from truth,
and thinking everything ridiculous which they do not understand,
has ridiculed the sacred volume, and the most venerable mysteries
of nature. But Colotes, who is somewhat celebrated and remarkable
for his loquacity among the pupils of Epicurus, has even recorded
in a book the bitter reproaches which he aims at him. But since
the other arguments which he foolishly urges have no connection
with the dream of which we are now talking, we will pass them
over at present, and attend only to the calumny which will stick
both to Cicero and Plato, unless it is silenced. He says that a
fable ought not to have been invented by a philosopher, since no
kind of falsehood is suitable to professors of truth. For why,
says he, if you wish to give us a notion of heavenly things and
to teach us the nature of souls, did you not do so by a simple
and plain explanation? Why was a character invented, and
circumstances, and strange events, and a scene of cunningly
adduced falsehood arranged, to pollute the very door of the
investigation of truth by a lie? Since these things, though they
are said of the Platonic Er, do also attack the rest of our
dreaming Africanus.
457VIII. This occasion incited Scipio to relate his dream, which
he declares that he had buried in silence for a long time. For
when Lælius was complaining that there were no statues of
Nasica erected in any public place, as a reward for his having
slain the tyrant, Scipio replied in these words: “But although
the consciousness itself of great deeds is to wise men the most
ample reward of virtue, yet that divine nature ought to have, not
statues fixed in lead, nor triumphs with withering laurels, but
some more stable and lasting kinds of rewards.” “What are they?” said
Lælius. “Then,” said Scipio, “suffer me, since we have now
been keeping holiday for three days, * * * etc.” By
which preface he came to the relation of his dream; pointing out
that those were the more stable and lasting kinds of rewards
which he himself had seen in heaven reserved for good governors
of commonwealths.
IX. When I had arrived in Africa, where I was, as you are aware,
military tribune of the fourth legion under the consul Manilius, there
was nothing of which I was more earnestly desirous than to see King
Masinissa, who, for very just reasons, had been always the especial
friend of our family. When I was introduced to him, the old man
embraced me, shed tears, and then, looking up to heaven, exclaimed—I
thank thee, O supreme Sun, and ye also, ye other celestial beings, that
before I depart from this life I behold in my kingdom, and in this my
palace, Publius Cornelius Scipio, by whose mere name I seem to be
reanimated; so completely and indelibly is the recollection of that
best and most invincible of men, Africanus, imprinted in my mind.
After this, I inquired of him concerning the affairs of his kingdom.
He, on the other hand, questioned me about the condition of our
Commonwealth, and in this mutual interchange of conversation we passed
the whole of that day.
X. In the evening we were entertained in a manner worthy the
magnificence of a king, and carried on our discourse for a considerable
part of the night. And during all this time the old man spoke of
nothing but Africanus, all whose actions, and even remarkable sayings,
he remembered distinctly. At last, when we retired to bed, I fell into
a more profound sleep than usual, both because I was fatigued with my
journey, and because I had sat up the greatest part of the night.
Here I had the following dream, occasioned, as I verily believe, by our
preceding conversation; for it frequently happens that the thoughts and
discourses which have employed us in the daytime produce in our sleep
an effect somewhat similar to that which Ennius writes happened to him
about Homer, of whom, in his waking hours, he used frequently 458to
think and speak.
Africanus, I thought, appeared to me in that shape, with which I was
better acquainted from his picture than from any personal knowledge of
him. When I perceived it was he, I confess I trembled with
consternation; but he addressed me, saying, Take courage, my Scipio; be
not afraid, and carefully remember what I shall say to you.
XI. Do you see that city Carthage, which, though brought under the
Roman yoke by me, is now renewing former wars, and cannot live in
peace? (and he pointed to Carthage from a lofty spot, full of stars,
and brilliant, and glittering)—to attack which city you are this day
arrived in a station not much superior to that of a private soldier.
Before two years, however, are elapsed, you shall be consul, and
complete its overthrow; and you shall obtain, by your own merit, the
surname of Africanus, which as yet belongs to you no otherwise than as
derived from me. And when you have destroyed Carthage, and received the
honor of a triumph, and been made censor, and, in quality of
ambassador, visited Egypt, Syria, Asia, and Greece, you shall be
elected a second time consul in your absence, and, by utterly
destroying Numantia, put an end to a most dangerous war.
But when you have entered the Capitol in your triumphal car, you shall
find the Roman Commonwealth all in a ferment, through the intrigues of
my grandson Tiberius Gracchus.
XII. It is on this occasion, my dear Africanus, that you show your
country the greatness of your understanding, capacity, and prudence.
But I see that the destiny, however, of that time is, as it were,
uncertain; for when your age shall have accomplished seven times eight
revolutions of the sun, and your fatal hours shall be marked put by the
natural product of these two numbers, each of which is esteemed a
perfect one, but for different reasons, then shall the whole city have
recourse to you alone, and place its hopes in your auspicious name. On
you the senate, 459all good citizens, the allies, the people of Latium,
shall cast their eyes; on you the preservation of the State shall
entirely depend. In a word, if you escape the impious machinations of
your relatives, you will, in quality of dictator, establish order and
tranquillity in the Commonwealth.
When on this Lælius made an exclamation, and the rest of the
company groaned loudly, Scipio, with a gentle smile, said, I entreat
you, do not wake me out of my dream, but have patience, and hear the
rest.
XIII. Now, in order to encourage you, my dear Africanus, continued the
shade of my ancestor, to defend the State with the greater
cheerfulness, be assured that, for all those who have in any way
conduced to the preservation, defence, and enlargement of their native
country, there is a certain place in heaven where they shall enjoy an
eternity of happiness. For nothing on earth is more agreeable to God,
the Supreme Governor of the universe, than the assemblies and societies
of men united together by laws, which are called states. It is from
heaven their rulers and preservers came, and thither they return.
XIV. Though at these words I was extremely troubled, not so much at the
fear of death as at the perfidy of my own relations, yet I recollected
myself enough to inquire whether he himself, my father Paulus, and
others whom we look upon as dead, were really living.
Yes, truly, replied he, they all enjoy life who have escaped from the
chains of the body as from a prison. But as to what you call life on
earth, that is no more than one form of death. But see; here comes your
father Paulus towards you! And as soon as I observed him, my eyes burst
out into a flood of tears; but he took me in his arms, embraced me, and
bade me not weep.
XV. When my first transports subsided, and I regained the liberty of
speech, I addressed my father thus: Thou best and most venerable of
parents, since this, as I am informed by Africanus, is the only
substantial life, why do I linger on earth, and not rather haste to
come hither where you are?
That, replied he, is impossible: unless that God, whose temple is all
that vast expanse you behold, shall free you 460from the fetters of the
body, you can have no admission into this place. Mankind have received
their being on this very condition, that they should labor for the
preservation of that globe which is situated, as you see, in the midst
of this temple, and is called earth.
Men are likewise endowed with a soul, which is a portion of the eternal
fires which you call stars and constellations; and which, being round,
spherical bodies, animated by divine intelligences, perform their
cycles and revolutions with amazing rapidity. It is your duty,
therefore, my Publius, and that of all who have any veneration for the
Gods, to preserve this wonderful union of soul and body; nor without
the express command of Him who gave you a soul should the least thought
be entertained of quitting human life, lest you seem to desert the post
assigned you by God himself.
But rather follow the examples of your grandfather here, and of me,
your father, in paying a strict regard to justice and piety; which is
due in a great degree to parents and relations, but most of all to our
country. Such a life as this is the true way to heaven, and to the
company of those, who, after having lived on earth and escaped from the
body, inhabit the place which you now behold.
XVI. This was the shining circle, or zone, whose remarkable brightness
distinguishes it among the constellations, and which, after the Greeks,
you call the Milky Way.
From thence, as I took a view of the universe, everything appeared
beautiful and admirable; for there those stars are to be seen that are
never visible from our globe, and everything appears of such magnitude
as we could not have imagined. The least of all the stars was that
removed farthest from heaven, and situated next to the earth; I mean
our moon, which shines with a borrowed light. Now, the globes of the
stars far surpass the magnitude of our earth, which at that distance
appeared so exceedingly small that I could not but be sensibly affected
on seeing our whole empire no larger than if we touched the earth, as
it were, at a single point.
XVII. And as I continued to observe the earth with great attention, How
long, I pray you, said Africanus, 461will your mind be fixed on that
object? why don’t you rather take a view of the magnificent temples
among which you have arrived? The universe is composed of nine circles,
or rather spheres, one of which is the heavenly one, and is exterior to
all the rest, which it embraces; being itself the Supreme God, and
bounding and containing the whole. In it are fixed those stars which
revolve with never-varying courses. Below this are seven other spheres,
which revolve in a contrary direction to that of the heavens. One of
these is occupied by the globe which on earth they call Saturn. Next to
that is the star of Jupiter, so benign and salutary to mankind. The
third in order is that fiery and terrible planet called Mars. Below
this, again, almost in the middle region, is the sun—the leader,
governor, and prince of the other luminaries; the soul of the world,
which it regulates and illumines; being of such vast size that it
pervades and gives light to all places. Then follow Venus and Mercury,
which attend, as it were, on the sun. Lastly, the moon, which shines
only in the reflected beams of the sun, moves in the lowest sphere of
all. Below this, if we except that gift of the Gods, the soul, which
has been given by the liberality of the Gods to the human race,
everything is mortal, and tends to dissolution; but above the moon all
is eternal. For the earth, which is the ninth globe, and occupies the
centre, is immovable, and, being the lowest, all others gravitate
towards it.
XVIII. When I had recovered myself from the astonishment occasioned by
such a wonderful prospect, I thus addressed Africanus: Pray what is
this sound that strikes my ears in so loud and agreeable a manner? To
which he replied: It is that which is called the music of the spheres,
being produced by their motion and impulse; and being formed by unequal
intervals, but such as are divided according to the justest proportion,
it produces, by duly tempering acute with grave sounds, various
concerts of harmony. For it is impossible that motions so great should
be performed without any noise; and it is agreeable to nature that the
extremes on one side should produce sharp, and on the other flat
sounds. For which reason the sphere of the fixed stars, being the
highest, and being 462carried with a more rapid velocity, moves with a
shrill and acute sound; whereas that of the moon, being the lowest,
moves with a very flat one. As to the earth, which makes the ninth
sphere, it remains immovably fixed in the middle or lowest part of the
universe. But those eight revolving circles, in which both Mercury and
Venus are moved with the same celerity, give out sounds that are
divided by seven distinct intervals, which is generally the regulating
number of all things.
This celestial harmony has been imitated by learned musicians both on
stringed instruments and with the voice, whereby they have opened to
themselves a way to return to the celestial regions, as have likewise
many others who have employed their sublime genius while on earth in
cultivating the divine sciences.
By the amazing noise of this sound the ears of mankind have been in
some degree deafened; and indeed hearing is the dullest of all the
human senses. Thus, the people who dwell near the cataracts of the
Nile, which are called Catadupa348, are, by the excessive roar which
that river makes in precipitating itself from those lofty mountains,
entirely deprived of the sense of hearing. And so inconceivably great
is this sound which is produced by the rapid motion of the whole
universe, that the human ear is no more capable of receiving it than
the eye is able to look steadfastly and directly on the sun, whose
beams easily dazzle the strongest sight.
While I was busied in admiring the scene of wonders, I could not help
casting my eyes every now and then on the earth.
XIX. On which Africanus said, I perceive that you are still employed in
contemplating the seat and residence of mankind. But if it appears to
you so small, as in fact it really is, despise its vanities, and fix
your attention forever on these heavenly objects. Is it possible that
you should attain any human applause or glory that is worth the
contending for? The earth, you see, is peopled but in a very few
places, and those, too, of small extent; and they appear like so many
little spots of green scattered through vast, uncultivated deserts. And
those who inhabit the 463earth are not only so remote from each other
as to be cut off from all mutual correspondence, but their situation
being in oblique or contrary parts of the globe, or perhaps in those
diametrically opposite to yours, all expectation of universal fame must
fall to the ground.
XX. You may likewise observe that the same globe of the earth is girt
and surrounded with certain zones, whereof those two that are most
remote from each other, and lie under the opposite poles of heaven, are
congealed with frost; but that one in the middle, which is far the
largest, is scorched with the intense heat of the sun. The other two
are habitable, one towards the south, the inhabitants of which are your
antipodes, with whom you have no connection; the other, towards the
north, is that which you inhabit, whereof a very small part, as you may
see, falls to your share. For the whole extent of what you see is, as
it were, but a little island, narrow at both ends and wide in the
middle, which is surrounded by the sea which on earth you call the
great Atlantic Ocean, and which, notwithstanding this magnificent name,
you see is very insignificant. And even in these cultivated and
well-known countries, has yours, or any of our names, ever passed the
heights of the Caucasus or the currents of the Ganges? In what other
parts to the north or the south, or where the sun rises and sets, will
your names ever be heard? And if we leave these out of the question,
how small a space is there left for your glory to spread itself abroad;
and how long will it remain in the memory of those whose minds are now
full of it?
XXI. Besides all this, if the progeny of any future generation should
wish to transmit to their posterity the praises of any one of us which
they have heard from their forefathers, yet the deluges and combustions
of the earth, which must necessarily happen at their destined periods,
will prevent our obtaining, not only an eternal, but even a durable
glory. And, after all, what does it signify whether those who shall
hereafter be born talk of you, when those who have lived before you,
whose number was perhaps not less, and whose merit certainly greater,
were not so much as acquainted with your name?
XXII. Especially since not one of those who shall hear 464of us is able
to retain in his memory the transactions of a single year. The bulk of
mankind, indeed, measure their year by the return of the sun, which is
only one star. But when all the stars shall have returned to the place
whence they set out, and after long periods shall again exhibit the
same aspect of the whole heavens, that is what ought properly to be
called the revolution of a year, though I scarcely dare attempt to
enumerate the vast multitude of ages contained in it. For as the sun in
old time was eclipsed, and seemed to be extinguished, at the time when
the soul of Romulus penetrated into these eternal mansions, so, when
all the constellations and stars shall revert to their primary
position, and the sun shall at the same point and time be again
eclipsed, then you may consider that the grand year is completed. Be
assured, however, that the twentieth part of it is not yet elapsed.
XXIII. Wherefore, if you have no hopes of returning to this place where
great and good men enjoy all that their souls can wish for, of what
value, pray, is all that human glory, which can hardly endure for a
small portion of one year?
If, then, you wish to elevate your views to the contemplation of this
eternal seat of splendor, you will not be satisfied with the praises of
your fellow-mortals, nor with any human rewards that your exploits can
obtain; but Virtue herself must point out to you the true and only
object worthy of your pursuit. Leave to others to speak of you as they
may, for speak they will. Their discourses will be confined to the
narrow limits of the countries you see, nor will their duration be very
extensive; for they will perish like those who utter them, and will be
no more remembered by their posterity.
XXIV. When he had ceased to speak in this manner, I said, O Africanus,
if indeed the door of heaven is open to those who have deserved well of
their country, although, indeed, from my childhood I have always
followed yours and my father’s steps, and have not neglected to imitate
your glory, still, I will from henceforth strive to follow them more
closely.
Follow them, then, said he, and consider your body only, not yourself,
as mortal. For it is not your outward form 465which constitutes your
being, but your mind; not that substance which is palpable to the
senses, but your spiritual nature. Know, then, that you are a God—for a
God it must be, which flourishes, and feels, and recollects, and
foresees, and governs, regulates and moves the body over which it is
set, as the Supreme Ruler does the world which is subject to him. For
as that Eternal Being moves whatever is mortal in this world, so the
immortal mind of man moves the frail body with which it is connected.
XXV. For whatever is always moving must be eternal; but that which
derives its motion from a power which is foreign to itself, when that
motion ceases must itself lose its animation.
That alone, then, which moves itself can never cease to be moved,
because it can never desert itself. Moreover, it must be the source,
and origin, and principle of motion in all the rest. There can be
nothing prior to a principle, for all things must originate from it;
and it cannot itself derive its existence from any other source, for if
it did it would no longer be a principle. And if it had no beginning,
it can have no end; for a beginning that is put an end to will neither
be renewed by any other cause, nor will it produce anything else of
itself. All things, therefore, must originate from one source. Thus it
follows that motion must have its source in something which is moved by
itself, and which can neither have a beginning nor an end. Otherwise
all the heavens and all nature must perish, for it is impossible that
they can of themselves acquire any power of producing motion in
themselves.
XXVI. As, therefore, it is plain that what is moved by itself must be
eternal, who will deny that this is the general condition and nature of
minds? For as everything is inanimate which is moved by an impulse
exterior to itself, so what is animated is moved by an interior impulse
of its own; for this is the peculiar nature and power of mind. And if
that alone has the power of self-motion, it can neither have had a
beginning, nor can it have an end.
Do you, therefore, exercise this mind of yours in the best pursuits.
And the best pursuits are those which consist in promoting the good of
your country. Such employments will speed the flight of your mind to
this its 466proper abode; and its flight will be still more rapid, if,
even while it is enclosed in the body, it will look abroad, and
disengage itself as much as possible from its bodily dwelling, by the
contemplation of things which are external to itself.
This it should do to the utmost of its power. For the minds of those
who have given themselves up to the pleasures of the body, paying, as
it were, a servile obedience to their lustful impulses, have violated
the laws of God and man; and therefore, when they are separated from
their bodies, flutter continually round the earth on which they lived,
and are not allowed to return to this celestial region till they have
been purified by the revolution of many ages.
Thus saying, he vanished, and I awoke from my dream.
A FRAGMENT.
And although it is most desirable that fortune should remain forever in
the most brilliant possible condition, nevertheless, the equability of
life excites less interest than those changeable conditions wherein
prosperity suddenly revives out of the most desperate and ruinous
circumstances.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES:
1 Archilochus was a native of Paros, and flourished about 714-676 b.c.
His poems were chiefly Iambics of bitter satire. Horace speaks of him
as the inventor of Iambics, and calls himself his pupil.
Parios ego primus Iambos
Ostendi Latio, numeros animosque secutus
Archilochi, non res et agentia verba Lycamben.
Epist. I. xix. 25.
And in another place he says,
Archilochum proprio rabies armavit Iambo—A.P. 74.
2 This was Livius Andronicus: he is supposed to have been a native of
Tarentum, and he was made prisoner by the Romans, during their wars in
Southern Italy; owing to which he became the slave of M. Livius
Salinator. He wrote both comedies and tragedies, of which Cicero
(Brutus 18) speaks very contemptuously, as “Livianæ fabulæ
non satis dignæ quæ iterum legantur”—not worth reading a
second time. He also wrote a Latin Odyssey, and some hymns, and died
probably about 221 b.c.
3 C. Fabius, surnamed Pictor, painted the temple of Salus, which the
dictator C. Junius Brutus Bubulus dedicated 302 b.c. The temple was
destroyed by fire in the reign of Claudius. The painting is highly
praised by Dionysius, xvi. 6.
4 For an account of the ancient Greek philosophers, see the sketch at
the end of the Disputations.
5 Isocrates was born at Athens 436 b.c. He was a pupil of Gorgias,
Prodicus, and Socrates. He opened a school of rhetoric, at Athens, with
great success. He died by his own hand at the age of ninety-eight.
6 So Horace joins these two classes as inventors of all kinds of
improbable fictions:
Pictoribus atque poetis
Quidlibet audendi semper fuit æqua potestas.—A. P. 9.
Which Roscommon translates:
Painters and poets have been still allow’d
Their pencil and their fancies unconfined.
7 Epicharmus was a native of Cos, but lived at Megara, in Sicily, and
when Megara was destroyed, removed to Syracuse, and lived at the court
of Hiero, where he became the first writer of comedies, so that Horace
ascribes the invention of comedy to him, and so does Theocritus. He
lived to a great age.
8 Pherecydes was a native of Scyros, one of the Cyclades; and is said
to have obtained his knowledge from the secret books of the Phœnicians.
He is said also to have been a pupil of Pittacus, the rival of Thales,
and the master of Pythagoras. His doctrine was that there were three
principles (Ζεὺς, or Æther; Χθὼν, or Chaos; and Χρόνος, or Time)
and four elements (Fire, Earth, Air, and Water), from which everything
that exists was formed.—Vide Smith’s Dict. Gr. and Rom. Biog.
9 Archytas was a native of Tarentum, and is said to have saved the life
of Plato by his influence with the tyrant Dionysius. He was especially
great as a mathematician and geometrician, so that Horace calls him
Maris et terra numeroque carentis arenæ
Mensorem.
Od. i. 28.1.
Plato is supposed to have learned some of his views from him, and
Aristotle to have borrowed from him every idea of the Categories.
10 This was not Timæus the historian, but a native of Locri, who
is said also in the De Finibus (c. 29) to have been a teacher of Plato.
There is a treatise extant bearing his name, which is, however,
probably spurious, and only an abridgment of Plato’s dialogue
Timæus.
11 Dicæarchus was a native of Messana, in Sicily, though he lived
chiefly in Greece. He was one of the later disciples of Aristotle. He
was a great geographer, politician, historian, and philosopher, and
died about 285 b.c.
12 Aristoxenus was a native of Tarentum, and also a pupil of Aristotle.
We know nothing of his opinions except that he held the soul to be a
harmony of the body; a doctrine which had been already discussed by
Plato in the Phædo, and combated by Aristotle. He was a great
musician, and the chief portions of his works which have come down to
us are fragments of some musical treatises.—Smith’s Dict. Gr. and Rom.
Biog.; to which source I must acknowledge my obligation for nearly the
whole of these biographical notes.
13 The Simonides here meant is the celebrated poet of Ceos, the
perfecter of elegiac poetry among the Greeks. He flourished about the
time of the Persian war. Besides his poetry, he is said to have been
the inventor of some method of aiding the memory. He died at the court
of Hiero, 467 b.c.
14 Theodectes was a native of Phaselis, in Pamphylia, a distinguished
rhetorician and tragic poet, and flourished in the time of Philip of
Macedon. He was a pupil of Isocrates, and lived at Athens, and died
there at the age of forty-one.
15 Cineas was a Thessalian, and (as is said in the text) came to Rome
as ambassador from Pyrrhus after the battle of Heraclea, 280 b.c., and
his memory is said to have been so great that on the day after his
arrival he was able to address all the senators and knights by name. He
probably died before Pyrrhus returned to Italy, 276 b.c.
16 Charmadas, called also Charmides, was a fellow-pupil with Philo, the
Larissæan of Clitomachus, the Carthaginian. He is said by some
authors to have founded a fourth academy.
17 Metrodorus was a minister of Mithridates the Great; and employed by
him as supreme judge in Pontus, and afterward as an ambassador. Cicero
speaks of him in other places (De Orat. ii. 88) as a man of wonderful
memory.
18 Quintus Hortensius was eight years older than Cicero; and, till
Cicero’s fame surpassed his, he was accounted the most eloquent of all
the Romans. He was Verres’s counsel in the prosecution conducted
against him by Cicero. Seneca relates that his memory was so great that
he could come out of an auction and repeat the catalogue backward. He
died 50 b.c.
19 This treatise is one which has not come down to us, but which had
been lately composed by Cicero in order to comfort himself for the loss
of his daughter.
20 The epigram is,
Εἴπας Ἥλιε χαῖρε, Κλεόμβροτος Ὥμβρακιώτης
ἥλατ’ ἀφ’ ὑψηλοῦ τείχεος εἰς Ἀΐδην,
ἄξιον οὐδὲν ἰδὼν θανάτου κακὸν, ἀλλὰ Πλάτωνος
ἓν τὸ περὶ ψύχης γράμμ’ ἀναλεξάμενος.
Which may be translated, perhaps,
Farewell, O sun, Cleombrotus exclaim’d,
Then plunged from off a height beneath the sea;
Stung by pain, of no disgrace ashamed,
But moved by Plato’s high philosophy.
21 This is alluded to by Juvenal:
Provida Pompeio dederat Campania febres
Optandas: sed multæ urbes et publica vota
Vicerunt. Igitur Fortuna ipsius et Urbis,
Servatum victo caput abstulit.—Sat. x. 283.
22 Pompey’s second wife was Julia, the daughter of Julius Cæsar,
she died the year before the death of Crassus, in Parthia. Virgil
speaks of Cæsar and Pompey as relations, using the same
expression (socer) as Cicero:
Aggeribus socer Alpinis atque arce Monœci
Descendens, gener adversis instructus Eois.—Æn. vi. 830.
23 This idea is beautifully expanded by Byron:
Yet if, as holiest men have deem’d, there be
A land of souls beyond that sable shore
To shame the doctrine of the Sadducee
And sophist, madly vain or dubious lore,
How sweet it were in concert to adore
With those who made our mortal labors light,
To hear each voice we fear’d to hear no more.
Behold each mighty shade reveal’d to sight,
The Bactrian, Samian sage, and all who taught the right!
Childe Harold, ii.
24 The epitaph in the original is:
Ὦ ξεῖν’ ἀγγεῖλον Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
κείμεθα, τοῐς κείνων πειθόμενοι νομίμοις.
25 This was expressed in the Greek verses,
Ἀρχὴς μὲν μὴ φῦναι ἐπιχθονίοισιν ἄριστον,
φύντα δ’ ὅπως ὤκιστα πύλας Ἀΐδϋο περῆσαι
which by some authors are attributed to Homer.
26 This is the first fragment of the Cresphontes.—Ed. Var. vii., p. 594.
Ἔδει γὰρ ἡμᾶς σύλλογον ποιουμένους
Τὸν φύντα θρηνεῖν, εἰς ὅσ’ ἔρχεται κακά.
Τὸν δ’ αὖ θανόντα καὶ πόνων πεπαυμένον
χαίροντας εὐφημοῖντας ἐκπέμειν δόμων
27 The Greek verses are quoted by Plutarch:
Ἤπου νήπιε, ἠλίθιοι φρένες ἀνδρῶν
Εὐθύνοος κεῖται μοιριδίῳ θανάτῳ
Οὐκ ἠν γὰρ ζώειν καλὸν αὐτῷ οὔτε γονεῦσι.
28 This refers to the story that when Eumolpus, the son of Neptune,
whose assistance the Eleusinians had called in against the Athenians,
had been slain by the Athenians, an oracle demanded the sacrifice of
one of the daughters of Erechtheus, the King of Athens. And when one
was drawn by lot, the others voluntarily accompanied her to death.
29 Menœceus was son of Creon, and in the war of the Argives against
Thebes, Teresias declared that the Thebans should conquer if Menœceus
would sacrifice himself for his country; and accordingly he killed
himself outside the gates of Thebes.
30 The Greek is,
μήδε μοι ἄκλαυστος θάνατος μόλοι, ἀλλὰ φίλοισι
ποιήσαιμι θανὼν ἄλγεα καὶ στοναχάς.
31 Soph. Trach. 1047.
32 The lines quoted by Cicero here appear to have come from the Latin
play of Prometheus by Accius; the ideas are borrowed, rather than
translated, from the Prometheus of Æschylus.
33 From exerceo.
34 Each soldier carried a stake, to help form a palisade in front of
the camp.
35 Insania—from in, a particle of negative force in composition, and
sanus, healthy, sound.
36 The man who first received this surname was L. Calpurnius Piso, who
was consul, 133 b.c., in the Servile War.
37 The Greek is,
Ἀλλά μοι οἰδάνεται κραδίη χόλῳ ὅπποτ’ ἐκείνου
Μνήσομαι ὅς μ’ ἀσύφηλον ἐν Ἀργείοισιν ἔρεξεν.—Il. ix. 642.
I have given Pope’s translation in the text.
38 This is from the Theseus:
Ἐγὼ δὲ τοῦτο παρὰ σοφοῦ τινος μαθὼν
εὶς φροντίδας νοῦν συμφοράς τ’ ἐβαλλόμην
φυγάς τ’ ἐμαυτῷ προστιθεὶς πάτρας ἐμῆς.
θανάτους τ’ ἀώρους, καὶ κακῶν ἄλλας ὁδοὺς
ὡς, εἴ τι πάσχοιμ’ ὠν ἐδόξαζόν ποτε
Μή μοι νέορτον προσπεσὸν μᾶλλον δάκοι.
39 Ter. Phorm. II. i. 11.
40 This refers to the speech of Agamemnon in Euripides, in the
Iphigenia in Aulis,
Ζηλῶ σε, γέρον,
ζηλῶ δ’ ἀνδρῶν ὃς ἀκίνδυνον
βίον ἐξεπέρασ’, ἀγνὼς, ἀκλεής.—v. 15.
41 This is a fragment from the Hypsipyle:
Εφυ μὲν οὐδεὶς ὅστις οὐ πονεῖ βροτῶν
θάπτει τε τέκνα χἄτερ’ αὖ κτᾶται νεὰ,
αὐτός τε θνήσκει. καὶ τάδ’ ἄχθονται βροτοὶ
εἰς γῆν φέροντες γῆν ἀναγκαίως δ’ ἔχει
βίον θερίζειν ὥστε κάρπιμον στάχυν.
42
Πολλὰς ἐκ κεφαλῆς προθελύμνους ἕλκετο χαίτας.—Il. x. 15.
43
Ἤτοι ὁ καππέδιον τὸ Ἀληΐον οἶος ἀλᾶτο
ὅν θυμὸν κατεδὼν, πάτον ἀνθρώπων ἀλεείνων.—Il. vi. 201.
44 This is a translation from Euripides:
Ὥσθ’ ἵμερος μ’ ὑπῆλθε γῇ τε κ’ οὐρανῷ
λέξαι μολούσῃ δεῦρο Μηδείας τύχας.—Med. 57.
45
Λίην γὰρ πολλοὶ καὶ ἐπήτριμοι ἤματα πάντα
πίπτουσιν, πότε κέν τις ἀναπνεύσειε πόνοιο;
ἀλλὰ χρὴ τὸν μὲν καταθαπτέμεν, ὅς κε θάνησι,
νηλέα θυμὸν ἔχοντας, ἔπ’ ἤματι δακρυσάντας.—
Hom. Il. xix. 226.
46 This is one of the fragments of Euripides which we are unable to
assign to any play in particular; it occurs Var. Ed. Tr. Inc. 167.
Εἰ μεν τόδ’ ἦμαρ πρῶτον ἦν κακουμένῳ
καὶ μὴ μακρὰν δὴ διὰ πόνων ἐναυστόλουν
εἰκὸς σφαδάζειν ἦν ἂν, ὡς νεόζυγα
πῶλον, χάλινον ἀρτίως δεδεγμένον
νῦν δ’ ἀμβλύς εἰμι, καὶ κατηρτυκὼς κακῶν.
47 This is only a fragment, preserved by Stobæus:
Τοὺς δ’ ἂν μεγίστους καὶ σοφωτάτους φρενὶ
τοιούσδ’ ἴδοις ἂν, οἶός ἐστι νῦν ὅδε,
καλῶς κακῶς πράσσοντι συμπαραινέσαι
ὅταν δὲ δαίμων ἀνδρὸς εὐτυχοῦς τὸ πρὶν
μάστιγ’ ἐπίσῃ τοῦ βίου παλίντροπον,
τὰ πολλὰ φροῦδα καὶ κακῶς εἰρημένα.
48
Ωκ. Οὐκοῦν Προμηθεῦ τοῦτο γιγνώσκεις ὅτι
ὀργῆς νοσούσης εἰσὶν ἰατροὶ λόγοι.
Πρ. ἐάν τις ἐν καιρῷ γε μαλθάσσῃ κεάρ
καὶ μὴ σφριγῶντα θυμὸν ἰσχναίνη βιᾳ.—
Æsch. Prom. v. 378.
49 Cicero alludes here to Il. vii. 211, which is thus translated by
Pope:
His massy javelin quivering in his hand,
He stood the bulwark of the Grecian band;
Through every Argive heart new transport ran,
All Troy stood trembling at the mighty man:
E’en Hector paused, and with new doubt oppress’d,
Felt his great heart suspended in his breast;
’Twas vain to seek retreat, and vain to fear,
Himself had challenged, and the foe drew near.
But Melmoth (Note on the Familiar Letters of Cicero, book ii. Let. 23)
rightly accuses Cicero of having misunderstood Homer, who “by no means
represents Hector as being thus totally dismayed at the approach of his
adversary; and, indeed, it would have been inconsistent with the
general character of that hero to have described him under such
circumstances of terror.”
Τὸν δὲ καὶ Ἀργεῖοι μέγ’ ἐγήθεον εἰσορόωντες,
Τρωὰς δὲ τρόμος αἶνος ὑπήλυθε γυῖα ἕκαστον,
Ἕκτορι δ’ αὐτῷ θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι πάτασσεν.
But there is a great difference, as Dr. Clarke remarks, between θυμὸς
ἐνὶ στήθεσσι πάτασσεν and καρδέη ἔξω στηθέων ἔθρωσκεν, or τρόμος αἶνος
ὑπήλυθε γυῖα.—The Trojans, says Homer, trembled at the sight of Ajax,
and even Hector himself felt some emotion in his breast.
50 Cicero means Scipio Nasica, who, in the riots consequent on the
reelection of Tiberius Gracchus to the tribunate, 133 b.c., having
called in vain on the consul, Mucius Scævola, to save the
republic, attacked Gracchus himself, who was slain in the tumult.
51 Morosus is evidently derived from mores—“Morosus, mos, stubbornness,
self-will, etc.”—Riddle and Arnold, Lat. Dict.
52 In the original they run thus:
Οὔκ ἐστιν οὐδὲν δεινὸν ὧδ’ εἰπεῖν ἔπος,
Οὐδὲ πάθος, οὐδὲ ξυμφορὰ θεήλατος
ἧς οὐκ ἂν ἀροιτ’ ἄχθος ἀνθρώπον φύσις.
53 This passage is from the Eunuch of Terence, act i., sc. 1, 14.
54 These verses are from the Atreus of Accius.
55 This was Marcus Atilius Regulus, the story of whose treatment by the
Carthaginians in the first Punic War is well known to everybody.
56 This was Quintus Servilius Cæpio, who, 105 b.c., was
destroyed, with his army, by the Cimbri, it was believed as a judgment
for the covetousness which he had displayed in the plunder of Tolosa.
57 This was Marcus Aquilius, who, in the year 88 b.c., was sent against
Mithridates as one of the consular legates; and, being defeated, was
delivered up to the king by the inhabitants of Mitylene. Mithridates
put him to death by pouring molten gold down his throat.
58 This was the elder brother of the triumvir Marcus Crassus, 87 b.c.
He was put to death by Fimbria, who was in command of some of the
troops of Marius.
59 Lucius Cæsar and Caius Cæsar were relations (it is
uncertain in what degree) of the great Cæsar, and were killed by
Fimbria on the same occasion as Octavius.
60 M. Antonius was the grandfather of the triumvir; he was murdered the
same year, 87 b.c., by Annius, when Marius and Cinna took Rome.
61 This story is alluded to by Horace:
Districtus ensis cui super impiâ
Cervice pendet non Siculæ dapes
Dulcem elaborabunt saporem,
Non avium citharæve cantus
Somnum reducent.—iii. 1. 17.
62 Hieronymus was a Rhodian, and a pupil of Aristotle, flourishing
about 300 b.c. He is frequently mentioned by Cicero.
63 We know very little of Dinomachus. Some MSS. have Clitomachus.
64 Callipho was in all probability a pupil of Epicurus, but we have no
certain information about him.
65 Diodorus was a Syrian, and succeeded Critolaus as the head of the
Peripatetic School at Athens.
66 Aristo was a native of Ceos, and a pupil of Lycon, who succeeded
Straton as the head of the Peripatetic School, 270 b.c. He afterward
himself succeeded Lycon.
67 Pyrrho was a native of Elis, and the originator of the sceptical
theories of some of the ancient philosophers. He was a contemporary of
Alexander.
68 Herillus was a disciple of Zeno of Cittium, and therefore a Stoic.
He did not, however, follow all the opinions of his master: he held
that knowledge was the chief good. Some of the treatises of Cleanthes
were written expressly to confute him.
69 Anacharsis was (Herod., iv., 76) son of Gnurus and brother of
Saulius, King of Thrace. He came to Athens while Solon was occupied in
framing laws for his people; and by the simplicity of his way of
living, and his acute observations on the manners of the Greeks, he
excited such general admiration that he was reckoned by some writers
among the Seven Wise Men of Greece.
70 This was Appius Claudius Cæcus, who was censor 310 b.c., and
who, according to Livy, was afflicted with blindness by the Gods for
persuading the Potitii to instruct the public servants in the way of
sacrificing to Hercules. He it was who made the Via Appia.
71 The fact of Homer’s blindness rests on a passage in the Hymn to
Apollo, quoted by Thucydides as a genuine work of Homer, and which is
thus spoken of by one of the most accomplished scholars that this
country or this age has ever produced: “They are indeed beautiful
verses; and if none worse had ever been attributed to Homer, the Prince
of Poets would have had little reason to complain.
“He has been describing the Delian festival in honor of Apollo and
Diana, and concludes this part of the poem with an address to the women
of that island, to whom it is to be supposed that he had become
familiarly known by his frequent recitations:
Χαίρετε δ’ ὑμεῖς πᾶσαι, ἐμεῖο δὲ καὶ μετόπισθε
μνήσασθ’, ὅπποτέ κέν τις ἐπιχθονίων ἀνθρώπων
ἐνθάδ’ ἀνείρηται ξεῖνος ταλαπείριος ἐλθὼν
ὦ κοῦραι, τίς δ’ ὕμμιν ἀνὴρ ἥδιστος ἀοιδῶν
ἐνθάδε πωλεῖται καὶ τέῳ τέρπεσθε μάλιστα;
ὑμεῖς δ’ εὖ μάλα πᾶσαι ὑποκρίνασθε ἀφ’ ἡμῶν,
Τυφλὸς ἀνὴρ, οἰκεῖ δὲ Χίῳ ἐνὶ παιπαλοέσσῃ,
τοῦ πᾶσαι μετόπισθεν ἀριστεύουσιν ἀοιδαί.
Virgins, farewell—and oh! remember me
Hereafter, when some stranger from the sea,
A hapless wanderer, may your isle explore,
And ask you, ‘Maids, of all the bards you boast,
Who sings the sweetest, and delights you most?’
Oh! answer all, ‘A blind old man, and poor,
Sweetest he sings, and dwells on Chios’ rocky shore.’”
Coleridge’s Introduction to the Study of the Greek Classic Poets.
72 Some read scientiam and some inscientiam; the latter of which is
preferred by some of the best editors and commentators.
73 For a short account of these ancient Greek philosophers, see the
sketch prefixed to the Academics (Classical Library).
74 Cicero wrote his philosophical works in the last three years of his
life. When he wrote this piece, he was in the sixty-third year of his
age, in the year of Rome 709.
75 The Academic.
76 Diodorus and Posidonius were Stoics; Philo and Antiochus were
Academics; but the latter afterward inclined to the doctrine of the
Stoics.
77 Julius Cæsar.
78 Cicero was one of the College of Augurs.
79 The Latinæ Feriæ was originally a festival of the
Latins, altered by Tarquinius Superbus into a Roman one. It was held in
the Alban Mount, in honor of Jupiter Latiaris. This holiday lasted six
days: it was not held at any fixed time; but the consul was never
allowed to take the field till he had held them.—Vide Smith, Dict. Gr.
and Rom. Ant., p. 414.
80 Exhedra, the word used by Cicero, means a study, or place where
disputes were held.
81 M. Piso was a Peripatetic. The four great sects were the Stoics, the
Peripatetics, the Academics, and the Epicureans.
82 It was a prevailing tenet of the Academics that there is no certain
knowledge.
83 The five forms of Plato are these: οὐσία, ταὐτὸν, ἕτερον, στάσις,
κίνησις.
84 The four natures here to be understood are the four elements—fire,
water, air, and earth; which are mentioned as the four principles of
Empedocles by Diogenes Laertius.
85 These five moving stars are Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and
Venus. Their revolutions are considered in the next book.
86 Or, Generation of the Gods.
87 The πρόληψις of Epicurus, before mentioned, is what he here means.
88 Στερέμνια is the word which Epicurus used to distinguish between
those objects which are perceptible to sense, and those which are
imperceptible; as the essence of the Divine Being, and the various
operations of the divine power.
89 Zeno here mentioned is not the same that Cotta spoke of before. This
was the founder of the Stoics. The other was an Epicurean philosopher
whom he had heard at Athens.
90 That is, there would be the same uncertainty in heaven as is among
the Academics.
91 Those nations which were neither Greek nor Roman.
92 Sigilla numerantes is the common reading; but P. Manucius proposes
venerantes, which I choose as the better of the two, and in which sense
I have translated it.
93 Fundamental doctrines.
94 That is, the zodiac.
95 The moon, as well as the sun, is indeed in the zodiac, but she does
not measure the same course in a month. She moves in another line of
the zodiac nearer the earth.
96 According to the doctrines of Epicurus, none of these bodies
themselves are clearly seen, but simulacra ex corporibus effluentia.
97 Epicurus taught his disciples in a garden.
98 By the word Deus, as often used by our author, we are to understand
all the Gods in that theology then treated of, and not a single
personal Deity.
99 The best commentators on this passage agree that Cicero does not
mean that Aristotle affirmed that there was no such person as Orpheus,
but that there was no such poet, and that the verse called Orphic was
said to be the invention of another. The passage of Aristotle to which
Cicero here alludes has, as Dr. Davis observes, been long lost.
100 A just proportion between the different sorts of beings.
101 Some give quos non pudeat earum Epicuri vocum; but the best copies
have not non; nor would it be consistent with Cotta to say quos non
pudeat, for he throughout represents Velleius as a perfect Epicurean in
every article.
102 His country was Abdera, the natives of which were remarkable for
their stupidity.
103 This passage will not admit of a translation answerable to the
sense of the original. Cicero says the word amicitia (friendship) is
derived from amor (love or affection).
104 This manner of speaking of Jupiter frequently occurs in Homer,
——πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε,
and has been used by Virgil and other poets since Ennius.
105 Perses, or Perseus, the last king of Macedonia, was taken by
Cnæus Octavius, the prætor, and brought as prisoner to
Paullus Æmilius, 167 b.c.
106 An exemption from serving in the wars, and from paying public taxes.
107 Mopsus. There were two soothsayers of this name: the first was one
of the Lapithæ, son of Ampycus and Chloris, called also the son
of Apollo and Hienantis; the other a son of Apollo and Manto, who is
said to have founded Mallus, in Asia Minor, where his oracle existed as
late as the time of Strabo.
108 Tiresias was the great Theban prophet at the time of the war of the
Seven against Thebes.
109 Amphiaraus was King of Argos (he had been one of the Argonauts
also). He was killed after the war of the Seven against Thebes, which
he was compelled to join in by the treachery of his wife Eriphyle, by
the earth opening and swallowing him up as he was fleeing from
Periclymenus.
110 Calchas was the prophet of the Grecian army at the siege of Troy.
111 Helenus was a son of Priam and Hecuba. He is represented as a
prophet in the Philoctetes of Sophocles. And in the Æneid he is
also represented as king of part of Epirus, and as predicting to
Æneas the dangers and fortunes which awaited him.
112 This short passage would be very obscure to the reader without an
explanation from another of Cicero’s treatises. The expression here, ad
investigandum suem regiones vineæ terminavit, which is a metaphor
too bold, if it was not a sort of augural language, seems to me to have
been the effect of carelessness in our great author; for Navius did not
divide the regions, as he calls them, of the vine to find his sow, but
to find a grape.
113 The Peremnia were a sort of auspices performed just before the
passing a river.
114 The Acumina were a military auspices, and were partly performed on
the point of a spear, from which they were called Acumina.
115 Those were called testamenta in procinctu, which were made by
soldiers just before an engagement, in the presence of men called as
witnesses.
116 This especially refers to the Decii, one of whom devoted himself
for his country in the war with the Latins, 340 b.c., and his son
imitated the action in the war with the Samnites, 295 b.c. Cicero
(Tusc. i. 37) says that his son did the same thing in the war with
Pyrrhus at the battle of Asculum, though in other places (De Off. iii.
4) he speaks of only two Decii as having signalized themselves in this
manner.
117 The Rogator, who collected the votes, and pronounced who was the
person chosen. There were two sorts of Rogators; one was the officer
here mentioned, and the other was the Rogator, or speaker of the whole
assembly.
118 Which was Sardinia, as appears from one of Cicero’s epistles to his
brother Quintus.
119 Their sacred books of ceremonies.
120 The war between Octavius and Cinna, the consuls.
121 This, in the original, is a fragment of an old Latin verse,
——Terram fumare calentem.
122 The Latin word is principatus, which exactly corresponds with the
Greek word here used by Cicero; by which is to be understood the
superior, the most prevailing excellence in every kind and species of
things through the universe.
123 The passage of Aristotle to which Cicero here refers is lost.
124 He means the Epicureans.
125 Here the Stoic speaks too plain to be misunderstood. His world, his
mundus, is the universe, and that universe is his great Deity, in quo
sit totius naturæ principatus, in which the superior excellence
of universal nature consists.
126 Athens, the seat of learning and politeness, of which Balbus will
not allow Epicurus to be worthy.
127 This is Pythagoras’s doctrine, as appears in Diogenes Laertius.
128 He here alludes to mathematical and geometrical instruments.
129 Balbus here speaks of the fixed stars, and of the motions of the
orbs of the planets. He here alludes, says M. Bonhier, to the different
and diurnal motions of these stars; one sort from east to west, the
other from one tropic to the other: and this is the construction which
our learned and great geometrician and astronomer, Dr. Halley, made of
this passage.
130 This mensuration of the year into three hundred and sixty-five days
and near six hours (by the odd hours and minutes of which, in every
fifth year, the dies intercalaris, or leap-year, is made) could not but
be known, Dr. Halley states, by Hipparchus, as appears from the remains
of that great astronomer of the ancients. We are inclined to think that
Julius Cæsar had divided the year, according to what we call the
Julian year, before Cicero wrote this book; for we see, in the
beginning of it, how pathetically he speaks of Cæsar’s usurpation.
131 The words of Censorinus, on this occasion, are to the same effect.
The opinions of philosophers concerning this great year are very
different; but the institution of it is ascribed to Democritus.
132 The zodiac.
133 Though Mars is said to hold his orbit in the zodiac with the rest,
and to finish his revolution through the same orbit (that is, the
zodiac) with the other two, yet Balbus means in a different line of the
zodiac.
134 According to late observations, it never goes but a sign and a half
from the sun.
135 These, Dr. Davis says, are “aërial fires;” concerning which he
refers to the second book of Pliny.
136 In the Eunuch of Terence.
137 Bacchus.
138 The son of Ceres.
139 The books of Ceremonies.
140 This Libera is taken for Proserpine, who, with her brother Liber,
was consecrated by the Romans; all which are parts of nature in
prosopopœias. Cicero, therefore, makes Balbus distinguish between the
person Liber, or Bacchus, and the Liber which is a part of nature in
prosopopœia.
141 These allegorical fables are largely related by Hesiod in his
Theogony.
Horace says exactly the same thing:
Hâc arte Pollux et vagus Hercules
Enisus arces attigit igneas:
Quos inter Augustus recumbens
Purpureo bibit ore nectar.
Hâc te merentem, Bacche pater, tuæ
Vexere tigres indocili jugum
Collo ferentes: hâc Quirinus
Martis equis Acheronta fugit.—Hor. iii. 3. 9.
142 Cicero means by conversis casibus, varying the cases from the
common rule of declension; that is, by departing from the true
grammatical rules of speech; for if we would keep to it, we should
decline the word Jupiter, Jupiteris in the second case, etc.
143 Pater divûmque hominumque.
144 The common reading is, planiusque alio loco idem; which, as Dr.
Davis observes, is absurd; therefore, in his note, he prefers planius
quam alia loco idem, from two copies, in which sense I have translated
it.
145 From the verb gero, to bear.
146 That is, “mother earth.”
147 Janus is said to be the first who erected temples in Italy, and
instituted religious rites, and from whom the first month in the Roman
calendar is derived.
148 Stellæ vagantes.
149 Noctu quasi diem efficeret. Ben Jonson says the same thing:
Thou that mak’st a day of night,
Goddess excellently bright.—Ode to the Moon.
150 Olympias was the mother of Alexander.
151 Venus is here said to be one of the names of Diana, because ad res
omnes veniret; but she is not supposed to be the same as the mother of
Cupid.
152 Here is a mistake, as Fulvius Ursinus observes; for the discourse
seems to be continued in one day, as appears from the beginning of this
book. This may be an inadvertency of Cicero.
153 The senate of Athens was so called from the words Ἄρειος Πάγος, the
Village, some say the Hill, of Mars.
154 Epicurus.
155 The Stoics.
156 By nulla cohærendi natura—if it is the right, as it is the
common reading—Cicero must mean the same as by nulla crescendi natura,
or coalescendi, either of which Lambinus proposes; for, as the same
learned critic well observes, is there not a cohesion of parts in a
clod, or in a piece of stone? Our learned Walker proposes sola
cohærendi natura, which mends the sense very much; and I wish he
had the authority of any copy for it.
157 Nasica Scipio, the censor, is said to have been the first who made
a water-clock in Rome.
158 The Epicureans.
159 An old Latin poet, commended by Quintilian for the gravity of his
sense and his loftiness of style.
160 The shepherd is here supposed to take the stem or beak of the ship
for the mouth, from which the roaring voices of the sailors came.
Rostrum is here a lucky word to put in the mouth of one who never saw a
ship before, as it is used for the beak of a bird, the snout of a beast
or fish, and for the stem of a ship.
161 The Epicureans.
162 Greek, ἀὴρ; Latin, aer.
163 The treatise of Aristotle, from whence this is taken, is lost.
164 To the universe the Stoics certainly annexed the idea of a limited
space, otherwise they could not have talked of a middle; for there can
be no middle but of a limited space: infinite space can have no middle,
there being infinite extension from every part.
165 These two contrary reversions are from the tropics of Cancer and
Capricorn. They are the extreme bounds of the sun’s course. The reader
must observe that the astronomical parts of this book are introduced by
the Stoic as proofs of design and reason in the universe; and,
notwithstanding the errors in his planetary system, his intent is well
answered, because all he means is that the regular motions of the
heavenly bodies, and their dependencies, are demonstrations of a divine
mind. The inference proposed to be drawn from his astronomical
observations is as just as if his system was in every part
unexceptionably right: the same may be said of his anatomical
observations.
166 In the zodiac.
167 Ibid.
168 These verses of Cicero are a translation from a Greek poem of
Aratus, called the Phænomena.
169 The fixed stars.
170 The arctic and antarctic poles.
171 The two Arctoi are northern constellations. Cynosura is what we
call the Lesser Bear; Helice, the Greater Bear; in Latin, Ursa Minor
and Ursa Major.
172 These stars in the Greater Bear are vulgarly called the “Seven
Stars,” or the “Northern Wain;” by the Latins, “Septentriones.”
173 The Lesser Bear.
174 The Greater Bear.
175 Exactly agreeable to this and the following description of the
Dragon is the same northern constellation described in the map by
Flamsteed in his Atlas Cœlestis; and all the figures here described by
Aratus nearly agree with the maps of the same constellations in the
Atlas Cœlestis, though they are not all placed precisely alike.
176 The tail of the Greater Bear.
177 That is, in Macedon, where Aratus lived.
178 The true interpretation of this passage is as follows: Here in
Macedon, says Aratus, the head of the Dragon does not entirely immerge
itself in the ocean, but only touches the superficies of it. By ortus
and obitus I doubt not but Cicero meant, agreeable to Aratus, those
parts which arise to view, and those which are removed from sight.
179 These are two northern constellations. Engonasis, in some
catalogues called Hercules, because he is figured kneeling ἐν γόνασιν
(on his knees). Ἐνγόνασιν καλέουσ’, as Aratus says, they call Engonasis.
180 The crown is placed under the feet of Hercules in the Atlas
Cœlestis; but Ophiuchus (Ὀφιοῦχος), the Snake-holder, is placed in the
map by Flamsteed as described here by Aratus; and their heads almost
meet.
181 The Scorpion. Ophiuchus, though a northern constellation, is not
far from that part of the zodiac where the Scorpion is, which is one of
the six southern signs.
182 The Wain of seven stars.
183 The Wain-driver. This northern constellation is, in our present
maps, figured with a club in his right hand behind the Greater Bear.
184 In some modern maps Arcturus, a star of the first magnitude, is
placed in the belt that is round the waist of Boötes. Cicero says
subter præcordia, which is about the waist; and Aratus says ὑπὸ
ζώνῃ, under the belt.
185 Sub caput Arcti, under the head of the Greater Bear.
186 The Crab is, by the ancients and moderns, placed in the zodiac, as
here, between the Twins and the Lion; and they are all three northern
signs.
187 The Twins are placed in the zodiac with the side of one to the
northern hemisphere, and the side of the other to the southern
hemisphere. Auriga, the Charioteer, is placed in the northern
hemisphere near the zodiac, by the Twins; and at the head of the
Charioteer is Helice, the Greater Bear, placed; and the Goat is a
bright star of the first magnitude placed on the left shoulder of this
northern constellation, and called Capra, the Goat. Hœdi, the Kids, are
two more stars of the same constellation.
188 A constellation; one of the northern signs in the zodiac, in which
the Hyades are placed.
189 One of the feet of Cepheus, a northern constellation, is under the
tail of the Lesser Bear.
190 Grotius, and after him Dr. Davis, and other learned men, read
Cassiepea, after the Greek Κασσίεπεια, and reject the common reading,
Cassiopea.
191 These northern constellations here mentioned have been always
placed together as one family with Cepheus and Perseus, as they are in
our modern maps.
192 This alludes to the fable of Perseus and Andromeda.
193 Pegasus, who is one of Perseus and Andromeda’s family.
194 That is, with wings.
195 Aries, the Ram, is the first northern sign in the zodiac; Pisces,
the Fishes, the last southern sign; therefore they must be near one
another, as they are in a circle or belt. In Flamsteed’s Atlas Cœlestis
one of the Fishes is near the head of the Ram, and the other near the
Urn of Aquarius.
196 These are called Virgiliæ by Cicero; by Aratus, the Pleiades,
Πληϊάδες; and they are placed at the neck of the Bull; and one of
Perseus’s feet touches the Bull in the Atlas Cœlestis.
197 This northern constellation is called Fides by Cicero; but it must
be the same with Lyra; because Lyra is placed in our maps as Fides is
here.
198 This is called Ales Avis by Cicero; and I doubt not but the
northern constellation Cygnus is here to be understood, for the
description and place of the Swan in the Atlas Cœlestis are the same
which Ales Avis has here.
199 Pegasus.
200 The Water-bearer, one of the six southern signs in the zodiac: he
is described in our maps pouring water out of an urn, and leaning with
one hand on the tail of Capricorn, another southern sign.
201 When the sun is in Capricorn, the days are at the shortest; and
when in Cancer, at the longest.
202 One of the six southern signs.
203 Sagittarius, another southern sign.
204 A northern constellation.
205 A northern constellation.
206 A southern constellation.
207 This is Canis Major, a southern constellation. Orion and the Dog
are named together by Hesiod, who flourished many hundred years before
Cicero or Aratus.
208 A southern constellation, placed as here in the Atlas Cœlestis.
209 A southern constellation, so called from the ship Argo, in which
Jason and the rest of the Argonauts sailed on their expedition to
Colchos.
210 The Ram is the first of the northern signs in the zodiac; and the
last southern sign is the Fishes; which two signs, meeting in the
zodiac, cover the constellation called Argo.
211 The river Eridanus, a southern constellation.
212 A southern constellation.
213 This is called the Scorpion in the original of Aratus.
214 A southern constellation.
215 A southern constellation.
216 The Serpent is not mentioned in Cicero’s translation; but it is in
the original of Aratus.
217 A southern constellation.
218 The Goblet, or Cup, a southern constellation.
219 A southern constellation.
220 Antecanis, a southern constellation, is the Little Dog, and called
Antecanis in Latin, and Προκύων in Greek, because he rises before the
other Dog.
221 Pansætius, a Stoic philosopher.
222 Mercury and Venus.
223 The proboscis of the elephant is frequently called a hand, because
it is as useful to him as one. “They breathe, drink, and smell, with
what may not be improperly called a hand,” says Pliny, bk. viii. c.
10.—Davis.
224 The passage of Aristotle’s works to which Cicero here alludes is
entirely lost; but Plutarch gives a similar account.
225 Balbus does not tell us the remedy which the panther makes use of;
but Pliny is not quite so delicate: he says, excrementis hominis sibi
medetur.
226 Aristotle says they purge themselves with this herb after they
fawn. Pliny says both before and after.
227 The cuttle-fish has a bag at its neck, the black blood of which the
Romans used for ink. It was called atramentum.
228 The Euphrates is said to carry into Mesopotamia a large quantity of
citrons, with which it covers the fields.
229 Q. Curtius, and some other authors, say the Ganges is the largest
river in India; but Ammianus Marcellinus concurs with Cicero in calling
the river Indus the largest of all rivers.
230 These Etesian winds return periodically once a year, and blow at
certain seasons, and for a certain time.
231 Some read mollitur, and some molitur; the latter of which P.
Manucius justly prefers, from the verb molo, molis; from whence, says
he, molares dentes, the grinders.
232 The weasand, or windpipe.
233 The epiglottis, which is a cartilaginous flap in the shape of a
tongue, and therefore called so.
234 Cicero is here giving the opinion of the ancients concerning the
passage of the chyle till it is converted to blood.
235 What Cicero here calls the ventricles of the heart are likewise
called auricles, of which there is the right and left.
236 The Stoics and Peripatetics said that the nerves, veins, and
arteries come directly from the heart. According to the anatomy of the
moderns, they come from the brain.
237 The author means all musical instruments, whether string or wind
instruments, which are hollow and tortuous.
238 The Latin version of Cicero is a translation from the Greek of
Aratus.
239 Chrysippus’s meaning is, that the swine is so inactive and slothful
a beast that life seems to be of no use to it but to keep it from
putrefaction, as salt keeps dead flesh.
240 Ales, in the general signification, is any large bird; and oscinis
is any singing bird. But they here mean those birds which are used in
augury: alites are the birds whose flight was observed by the augurs,
and oscines the birds from whose voices they augured.
241 As the Academics doubted everything, it was indifferent to them
which side of a question they took.
242 The keepers and interpreters of the Sibylline oracles were the
Quindecimviri.
243 The popular name of Jupiter in Rome, being looked upon as defender
of the Capitol (in which he was placed), and stayer of the State.
244 Some passages of the original are here wanting. Cotta continues
speaking against the doctrine of the Stoics.
245 The word sortes is often used for the answers of the oracles, or,
rather, for the rolls in which the answers were written.
246 Three of this eminent family sacrificed themselves for their
country; the father in the Latin war, the son in the Tuscan war, and
the grandson in the war with Pyrrhus.
247 The Straits of Gibraltar.
248 The common reading is, ex quo anima dicitur; but Dr. Davis and M.
Bouhier prefer animal, though they keep anima in the text, because our
author says elsewhere, animum ex anima dictum, Tusc. I. 1. Cicero is
not here to be accused of contradictions, for we are to consider that
he speaks in the characters of other persons; but there appears to be
nothing in these two passages irreconcilable, and probably anima is the
right word here.
249 He is said to have led a colony from Greece into Caria, in Asia,
and to have built a town, and called it after his own name, for which
his countrymen paid him divine honors after his death.
250 Our great author is under a mistake here. Homer does not say he met
Hercules himself, but his Εἴδωλον, his “visionary likeness;” and adds
that he himself
μετ’ ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσι
τέρπεται ἐν θαλίῃς, καὶ ἔχει καλλίσφυρου Ἥβην,
παῖδα Διὸς μεγάλοιο καὶ Ἥρης χρυσοπεδίλου.
which Pope translates—
A shadowy form, for high in heaven’s abodes
Himself resides, a God among the Gods;
There, in the bright assemblies of the skies,
He nectar quaffs, and Hebe crowns his joys.
251 They are said to have been the first workers in iron. They were
called Idæi, because they inhabited about Mount Ida in Crete, and
Dactyli, from δάκτυλοι (the fingers), their number being five.
252 From whom, some say, the city of that name was called.
253 Capedunculæ seem to have been bowls or cups, with handles on
each side, set apart for the use of the altar.—Davis.
254 See Cicero de Divinatione, and Ovid. Fast.
255 In the consulship of Piso and Gabinius sacrifices to Serapis and
Isis were prohibited in Rome; but the Roman people afterward placed
them again in the number of their gods. See Tertullian’s Apol. and his
first book Ad Nationes, and Arnobius, lib. 2.—Davis.
256 In some copies Circe, Pasiphae, and Æa are mentioned
together; but Æa is rejected by the most judicious editors.
257 They were three, and are said to have averted a plague by offering
themselves a sacrifice.
258 So called from the Greek word θαυμάζω, to wonder.
259 She was first called Geres, from gero, to bear.
260 The word is precatione, which means the books or forms of prayers
used by the augurs.
261 Cotta’s intent here, as well as in other places, is to show how
unphilosophical their civil theology was, and with what confusions it
was embarrassed; which design of the Academic the reader should
carefully keep in view, or he will lose the chain of argument.
262 Anactes, Ἄνακτες, was a general name for all kings, as we find in
the oldest Greek writers, and particularly in Homer.
263 The common reading is Aleo; but we follow Lambinus and Davis, who
had the authority of the best manuscript copies.
264 Some prefer Phthas to Opas (see Dr. Davis’s edition); but Opas is
the generally received reading.
265 The Lipari Isles.
266 A town in Arcadia.
267 In Arcadia.
268 A northern people.
269 So called from the Greek word νόμος, lex, a law.
270 He is called Ὦπις in some old Greek fragments, and Οὖπις by
Callimachus in his hymn on Diana.
271 Σαβάζίος, Sabazius, is one of the names used for Bacchus.
272 Here is a wide chasm in the original. What is lost probably may
have contained great part of Cotta’s arguments against the providence
of the Stoics.
273 Here is one expression in the quotation from Cæcilius that is
not commonly met with, which is præstigias præstrinxit;
Lambinus gives præstinxit, for the sake, I suppose, of playing on
words, because it might then be translated, “He has deluded my
delusions, or stratagems;” but præstrinxit is certainly the right
reading.
274 The ancient Romans had a judicial as well as a military
prætor; and he sat, with inferior judges attending him, like one
of our chief-justices. Sessum it prætor, which I doubt not is the
right reading, Lambinus restored from an old copy. The common reading
was sessum ite precor.
275 Picenum was a region of Italy.
276 The sex primi were general receivers of all taxes and tributes; and
they were obliged to make good, out of their own fortunes, whatever
deficiencies were in the public treasury.
277 The Lætorian Law was a security for those under age against
extortioners, etc. By this law all debts contracted under twenty-five
years of age were void.
278 This is from Ennius—
Utinam ne in nemore Pelio securibus
Cæsa cecidisset abiegna ad terram trabes.
Translated from the beginning of the Medea of Euripides—
Μήδ’ ἐν νάπαισι Πηλίον πεσεῖν ποτε
τμηθεῖσα πεύκη.
279 Q. Fabius Maximus, surnamed Cunctator.
280 Diogenes Laertius says he was pounded to death in a stone mortar by
command of Nicocreon, tyrant of Cyprus.
281 Elea, a city of Lucania, in Italy. The manner in which Zeno was put
to death is, according to Diogenes Laertius, uncertain.
282 This great and good man was accused of destroying the divinity of
the Gods of his country. He was condemned, and died by drinking a glass
of poison.
283 Tyrant of Sicily.
284 The common reading is, in tympanidis rogum inlatus est. This
passage has been the occasion of as many different opinions concerning
both the reading and the sense as any passage in the whole treatise.
Tympanum is used for a timbrel or drum, tympanidia a diminutive of it.
Lambinus says tympana “were sticks with which the tyrant used to beat
the condemned.” P. Victorius substitutes tyrannidis for tympanidis.
285 The original is de amissa salute; which means the sentence of
banishment among the Romans, in which was contained the loss of goods
and estate, and the privileges of a Roman; and in this sense
L’Abbé d’Olivet translates it.
286 The forty-seventh proposition of the first book of Euclid is
unanimously ascribed to him by the ancients. Dr. Wotton, in his
Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, says, “It is indeed a
very noble proposition, the foundation of trigonometry, of universal
and various use in those curious speculations about incommensurable
numbers.”
287 These votive tables, or pictures, were hung up in the temples.
288 This passage is a fragment from a tragedy of Attius.
289 Hipponax was a poet at Ephesus, and so deformed that Bupalus drew a
picture of him to provoke laughter; for which Hipponax is said to have
written such keen iambics on the painter that he hanged himself.
Lycambes had promised Archilochus the poet to marry his daughter to
him, but afterward retracted his promise, and refused her; upon which
Archilochus is said to have published a satire in iambic verse that
provoked him to hang himself.
290 Cicero refers here to an oracle approving of his laws, and
promising Sparta prosperity as long as they were obeyed, which Lycurgus
procured from Delphi.
291 Pro aris et focis is a proverbial expression. The Romans, when they
would say their all was at stake, could not express it stronger than by
saying they contended pro aris et focis, for religion and their
firesides, or, as we express it, for religion and property.
292 Cicero, who was an Academic, gives his opinion according to the
manner of the Academics, who looked upon probability, and a resemblance
of truth, as the utmost they could arrive at.
293 I.e., Regulus.
294 I.e., Fabius.
295 It is unnecessary to give an account of the other names here
mentioned; but that of Lænas is probably less known. He was
Publius Popillius Lænas, consul 132 b.c., the year after the
death of Tiberius Gracchus, and it became his duty to prosecute the
accomplices of Gracchus, for which he was afterward attacked by Caius
Gracchus with such animosity that he withdrew into voluntary exile.
Cicero pays a tribute to the energy of Opimius in the first Oration
against Catiline, c. iii.
296 This phenomenon of the parhelion, or mock sun, which so puzzled
Cicero’s interlocutors, has been very satisfactorily explained by
modern science. The parhelia are formed by the reflection of the
sunbeams on a cloud properly situated. They usually accompany the
coronæ, or luminous circles, and are placed in the same
circumference, and at the same height. Their colors resemble that of
the rainbow; the red and yellow are towards the side of the sun, and
the blue and violet on the other. There are, however, coronæ
sometimes seen without parhelia, and vice versâ. Parhelia are
double, triple, etc., and in 1629, a parhelion of five suns was seen at
Rome, and another of six suns at Arles, 1666.
297 There is a little uncertainty as to what this age was, but it was
probably about twenty-five.
298 Cicero here gives a very exact and correct account of the
planetarium of Archimedes, which is so often noticed by the ancient
astronomers. It no doubt corresponded in a great measure to our modern
planetarium, or orrery, invented by the earl of that name. This
elaborate machine, whose manufacture requires the most exact and
critical science, is of the greatest service to those who study the
revolutions of the stars, for astronomic, astrologic, or meteorologic
purposes.
299 The end of the fourteenth chapter and the first words of the
fifteenth are lost; but it is plain that in the fifteenth it is Scipio
who is speaking.
300 There is evidently some error in the text here, for Ennius was born
515 a.u.c., was a personal friend of the elder Africanus, and died
about 575 a.u.c., so that it is plain that we ought to read in the text
550, not 350.
301 Two pages are lost here. Afterward it is again Scipio who is
speaking.
302 Two pages are lost here.
303 Both Ennius and Nævius wrote tragedies called “Iphigenia.”
Mai thinks the text here corrupt, and expresses some doubt whether
there is a quotation here at all.
304 He means Scipio himself.
305 There is again a hiatus. What follows is spoken by Lælius.
306 Again two pages are lost.
307 Again two pages are lost. It is evident that Scipio is speaking
again in cap. xxxi.
308 Again two pages are lost.
309 Again two pages are lost.
310 Here four pages are lost.
311 Here four pages are lost.
312 Two pages are missing here.
313 A name of Neptune.
314 About seven lines are lost here, and there is a great deal of
corruption and imperfection in the next few sentences.
315 Two pages are lost here.
316 The Lex Curiata de Imperio, so often mentioned here, was the same
as the Auctoritas Patrum, and was necessary in order to confer upon the
dictator, consuls, and other magistrates the imperium, or military
command: without this they had only a potestas, or civil authority, and
could not meddle with military affairs.
317 Two pages are missing here.
318 Here two pages are missing.
319 I have translated this very corrupt passage according to Niebuhr’s
emendation.
320 Assiduus, ab ære dando.
321 Proletarii, a prole.
322 Here four pages are missing.
323 Two pages are missing here.
324 Two pages are missing here.
325 Here twelve pages are missing.
326 Sixteen pages are missing here.
327 Here eight pages are missing.
328 A great many pages are missing here.
329 Several pages are lost here; the passage in brackets is found in
Nonius under the word “exulto.”
330 This and other chapters printed in smaller type are generally
presumed to be of doubtful authenticity.
331 The beginning of this book is lost. The two first paragraphs come,
the one from St. Augustine, the other from Lactantius.
332 Eight or nine pages are lost here.
333 Here six pages are lost.
334 Here twelve pages are missing.
335 We have been obliged to insert two or three of these sentences
between brackets, which are not found in the original, for the sake of
showing the drift of the arguments of Philus. He himself was fully
convinced that justice and morality were of eternal and immutable
obligation, and that the best interests of all beings lie in their
perpetual development and application. This eternity of Justice is
beautifully illustrated by Montesquieu. “Long,” says he, “before
positive laws were instituted, the moral relations of justice were
absolute and universal. To say that there were no justice or injustice
but that which depends on the injunctions or prohibitions of positive
laws, is to say that the radii which spring from a centre are not equal
till we have formed a circle to illustrate the proposition. We must,
therefore, acknowledge that the relations of equity were antecedent to
the positive laws which corroborated them.” But though Philus was fully
convinced of this, in order to give his friends Scipio and Lælius
an opportunity of proving it, he frankly brings forward every argument
for injustice that sophistry had ever cast in the teeth of reason.—By
the original Translator.
336 Here four pages are missing. The following sentence is preserved in
Nonius.
337 Two pages are missing here.
338 Several pages are missing here.
339 He means Alexander the Great.
340 Six or eight pages are lost here.
341 A great many pages are missing here.
342 Six or eight pages are missing here.
343 Several pages are lost here.
344 This and the following chapters are not the actual words of Cicero,
but quotations by Lactantius and Augustine of what they affirm that he
said.
345 Twelve pages are missing here.
346 Eight pages are missing here.
347 Six or eight pages are missing here.
348 Catadupa, from κατὰ and δοῖπος, noise.