Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Browse subjects
  3. Politics and International Relations
  4. Texts in political thought
  5. Content listing

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

4095 results in Texts in political thought

Page 55 of 205

  • Book 4

  • from On the Commonwealth
  • Edited and translated by James E. G. Zetzel, Columbia University, New York
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero
  • Book:
    Cicero: <I>On the Commonwealth</I> and <I>On the Laws</I>
    Published online:
    14 September 2019
    Print publication:
    27 May 2017, pp 79-87

  • Summary

    … and finally that by its regular interposition it also creates the shade of night, something useful not only for the reckoning of days but for rest from toil. [+Nonius 234.14]

    And since in the autumn the earth has opened for the sowing of crops, in the winter has loosened up for preparing them, and in the ripeness of summer has softened some and parched others… [+Nonius 343.20]

    And the mind itself, which foresees the future, also remembers what is past. [+Nonius 500.9]

    Lactantius, On the Workmanship of God 1.11–13: Since reference has been made to the body and the mind, I will try to explain the rationale of each within the limited understanding of my feeble intelligence. I think it particularly important to take up this task, because Marcus Cicero, a man of outstanding talent, tried to do this in the fourth book of On the Commonwealth, but compressed a vast amount of material within a narrow compass and only touched lightly on the main points. Indeed he removes any excuse for not having dealt with the topic thoroughly by saying himself “that he had lacked neither the will nor the effort”: in the first book of On the Laws, when he was equally cursory on the same topic, he says: “As far as I am concerned, Scipio dealt adequately with this subject in the book which you have read” (1.27). Even so, he tried to give a fuller treatment of the same subject in the second book of On the Nature of the Gods.

    SCIPIO: * states, in which they seek the praise and respect of the best man, and flee shame and disgrace. But they aren't frightened so much by the fear and penalties established by law as by a sense of shame, which nature has given men as a sort of fear of criticism that is not undeserved. The leader of commonwealths strengthens this sense of shame by his opinions, and he brings it to perfection by institutions and education, so that shame does as much as fear to keep citizens from crime. These things are also relevant to praise, and they could be spoken on much more fully and elaborately.

  • Unplaced Fragments of On the Commonwealth

  • Edited and translated by James E. G. Zetzel, Columbia University, New York
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero
  • Book:
    Cicero: <I>On the Commonwealth</I> and <I>On the Laws</I>
    Published online:
    14 September 2019
    Print publication:
    27 May 2017, pp 105-106

  • Summary

    strive [Diomedes 1.339.31 K]

    they excel [Diomedes 1.374.17 K]

    Marius Victorinus, Commentary on Cicero's Rhetoric p.156.4–6 H: “Virtue” is identified by Cicero in his rhetorical works [i.e. De Inventione] with wisdom [sapientia], but elsewhere, in On the Commonwealth, it is said to be the same as judgment [prudentia].

    Lactantius, Inst. 1.18.11–13: In Ennius, Africanus says:

    If it is right for anyone to ascend into the tracts of the gods

    For me alone the greatest gate of heaven stands open.

    … Cicero agrees with this vanity, saying: “True enough, Africanus; that same gate stood open for Hercules.”

    Seneca, Moral Letters 108.32: When a grammarian explains the same text, he first reports that Cicero used the words reapse for re ipsa and sepse for se ipse, and then passes on to things that the custom of the times has altered, as when Cicero says: “since we have been called back by his summons from the very end of the race.” The ancients used the word calx [finish line] for what we now call creta in the circus.

    Anonymous Byzantine Dialogue on Politics, p.27.26–30 Mazzucchi: In saying this, Menodorus, you agree with Cicero, who says that it is proper for a king's entire thought to concern the selection of ten of the best men, who will be adequate and sufficient to make a selection of others whom they can use for the administration of the government.

  • Fragments of On the Laws

  • Edited and translated by James E. G. Zetzel, Columbia University, New York
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero
  • Book:
    Cicero: <I>On the Commonwealth</I> and <I>On the Laws</I>
    Published online:
    14 September 2019
    Print publication:
    27 May 2017, pp 178-178

  • Summary

  • 1. We should count ourselves lucky, because death will bring us to a condition that is either better than that in life or at least no worse. If the soul is active without the body, then its life is divine; and if it has no sensation, then it is nothing bad. [Lactantius, Inst. 3.19.2]

  • 2. Since the sun has descended a little from mid-day, and this spot is not yet sufficiently shaded by these young trees, do you think we should go down to the Liris, and pursue the remainder of the conversation under the shade of those alders? [Macrobius, Saturnalia 5.4.8; from Book 5]

  • Text and Translation

  • Edited and translated by James E. G. Zetzel, Columbia University, New York
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero
  • Book:
    Cicero: <I>On the Commonwealth</I> and <I>On the Laws</I>
    Published online:
    14 September 2019
    Print publication:
    27 May 2017, pp xxix-xxxvi

  • Summary

    Powell 2006 contains critical editions of the Latin text of both On the Commonwealth and On the Laws; Ziegler 1969 and Ziegler 1979 edited them separately. Most of the continuous portions of On the Commonwealth are included in Zetzel 1995. Although I have relied on Ziegler and Powell for their reports of the manuscripts (which at times differ), this translation is based on my own construction of the Latin text. In On the Laws, I have generally followed Powell, whose edition is based on a better understanding of the manuscript tradition than Ziegler's; for On the Commonwealth, on the other hand, Powell's edition is very problematic. It is excellent in presenting words that are indubitably Cicero's own, and I have often followed his choices of reading, punctuation, and paragraphing. For those interested in Cicero's thought rather than his style, however, Powell is much less useful. Ziegler's text is not without problems, but his treatment of the fragments and testimonia as well as of the order of pages in the palimpsest is far superior to Powell's, and he is much more cautious – as is appropriate with a fragmentary text – in making arbitrary alterations and deletions. Ziegler's treatment of fragments and testimonia is at times confusing (or wrong), but Powell has arranged the material in a manner that makes it almost impossible to understand what Cicero is saying. The arrangement and presentation of the fragments is thus my own, but I have maintained Ziegler's numbering of paragraphs (which, at least for the palimpsest, is also reported by Powell), with the addition of lower-case letters to indicate separate fragments which Ziegler has grouped under a single paragraph number. The index of fragments, arranged by source, gives locations in Ziegler's and Powell's editions, and major textual differences from their editions are indicated in the notes.

  • Book 1

  • from On the Laws
  • Edited and translated by James E. G. Zetzel, Columbia University, New York
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero
  • Book:
    Cicero: <I>On the Commonwealth</I> and <I>On the Laws</I>
    Published online:
    14 September 2019
    Print publication:
    27 May 2017, pp 107-130

  • Summary

    ATTICUS: I recognize that grove and the oak tree of the people of Arpinum: I've read about them often in the Marius. If that oak tree survives, this must be it; it's certainly old enough.

    QUINTUS: It survives, Atticus, and it will always survive: it's rooted in the imagination. No farmer's cultivation can preserve a tree so long as one sown in a poet's verse.

    ATTICUS: How so, Quintus? What kind of thing do poets sow? In praising your brother, I suspect you're looking for a vote of praise for yourself.

    QUINTUS: That's as may be; but as long as Latin literature has a voice, there will always be an oak right here called “Marius’,” and as Scaevola says about my brother's Marius, “it will grow old for countless generations.” But maybe you think your beloved Athens has been able to keep the olive tree on the Acropolis alive forever, or that the palm they show today on Delos is the same as the tall and slender tree that Homer's Ulysses says that he saw there: many other things in many places last longer in recollection than they could in nature. So let's assume that this “acorn-bearing oak” is the same as the one from which once flew off “the tawny messenger of Jove, seen in wondrous form.” But whenever a storm or old age destroys it, there will still be an oak right here which they will call “Marius’ oak.”

    ATTICUS: I have no doubt about that. But this question isn't for you, Quintus, but for the poet himself: was it your verses that planted this oak, or had you learned that what had happened to Marius took place as you wrote it?

    MARCUS: I'll give you an answer, Atticus, but not before you give me one: is it true that it was not far from your house that Romulus took a stroll after his death and told Proculus Iulius that he was a god and was named Quirinus, and ordered a temple to be dedicated to himself on that spot? And is it true that in Athens not far from your former home the North Wind snatched up Orithyia? – because that's what they say.

    ATTICUS: What's your point? Why do you ask?

    MARCUS: Just that you shouldn't look too closely at things passed down in stories of this kind.

  • Book 2

  • from On the Commonwealth
  • Edited and translated by James E. G. Zetzel, Columbia University, New York
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero
  • Book:
    Cicero: <I>On the Commonwealth</I> and <I>On the Laws</I>
    Published online:
    14 September 2019
    Print publication:
    27 May 2017, pp 33-58

  • Summary

    <When he saw that everyone was> eager to hear him, SCIPIO began to speak as follows: I'll tell you something Cato said in his old age. As you know, I was deeply attached to him and admired him very greatly; following the judgment of both my fathers and my own desire, I devoted myself to him completely from an early age. I could never get enough of what he said: he had so much experience of public affairs, in which he'd taken part with great distinction for a very long time, both in civil and military matters; he was so measured in speaking, mixing wit with seriousness; and he was passionately fond of both learning and teaching. His life was in complete harmony with his speaking style. Cato used to say that the organization of our state surpassed all other states for this reason: in others there were generally single individuals who had set up the laws and institutions of their commonwealths – Minos in Crete, Lycurgus in Sparta, and in Athens, which frequently changed its government, first Theseus, then Draco, then Solon, then Clisthenes, then many others; finally, when Athens was drained of blood and prostrate, it was revived by a learned man, Demetrius of Phalerum. Our commonwealth, in contrast, was shaped not by one man's talent but by that of many; and not in one person's lifetime, but over many generations. He said there never was a genius so great that he could miss nothing, nor could all the geniuses in the world brought together in one place at one time foresee all contingencies without the practical experience afforded by the passage of time. So I will follow his model, and take my start from the origin of the Roman people; I'm happy to make use of Cato's own word. I'll have an easier time completing my task, if I show you our commonwealth as it's born, grows up and comes of age, and as a strong and well-established state, than if I make up some state as Socrates does in Plato.

    When everyone had agreed, SCIPIO said: What beginning of any established commonwealth is so famous and universally known as the foundation of this city by Romulus?

  • Book 5

  • from On the Commonwealth
  • Edited and translated by James E. G. Zetzel, Columbia University, New York
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero
  • Book:
    Cicero: <I>On the Commonwealth</I> and <I>On the Laws</I>
    Published online:
    14 September 2019
    Print publication:
    27 May 2017, pp 88-92

  • Summary

    Augustine, City of God 2.21: Thus, when the Roman commonwealth was in the condition that Sallust describes, it was no longer terrible and highly criminal, as he says, but altogether no commonwealth at all according to the argument set out in the discussion concerning the commonwealth held by the greatest leaders of the time. Cicero himself, speaking at the outset of the fifth book, not using the voice of Scipio or one of the others but in his own voice, first quoted the verse of the poet Ennius in which he said:

    The Roman state stands upon the morals and men of old.

    He then said: “That verse, in its brevity and its truthfulness, he seems to me to have spoken as if from an oracle. For if the state had not had such morals, then the men would not have existed; nor, if such men had not been in charge, would there have been such morals as to be able to establish or preserve for so long a commonwealth so great and ruling so widely. And so, before our time, ancestral morality provided outstanding men, and great men preserved the morality of old and the institutions of our ancestors. But our own age, having inherited the commonwealth like a wonderful picture that had faded over time, not only has failed to renew its original colors, but hasn't even taken the trouble to preserve at least its shape and outlines. What remains of the morals of antiquity, upon which Ennius said that the Roman state stood? We see that they are so outworn in oblivion that they are not only not cherished, but are now unknown. What am I to say about the men? The morals themselves have passed away through a shortage of men; and we must not only render an account of such an evil, but in a sense we must defend ourselves like people being tried for a capital crime. It is because of our own flaws, not because of some bad luck, that we preserve the commonwealth in name alone, but have long ago lost its substance.”

  • Book 1

  • from On the Commonwealth
  • Edited and translated by James E. G. Zetzel, Columbia University, New York
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero
  • Book:
    Cicero: <I>On the Commonwealth</I> and <I>On the Laws</I>
    Published online:
    14 September 2019
    Print publication:
    27 May 2017, pp 1-32

  • Summary

    Fragments of the Preface

  • 1 [4.7f Ziegler]. Augustine, Epist. 91.3: Take a brief look at that book On the Commonwealth, from which you drank up that attitude of a patriotic citizen, that there is for good men no limit or end of looking out for one's country.

  • 2 [fr. 1a]. Thus, since our country provides more benefits and is a parent prior to our biological parents, we clearly have a greater obligation to it than to our parents. [+Nonius 426.8]

  • 3 [fr. 1d]. From which those people call <us> away. [+Arusianus 7.457.14 K]

  • 4 [fr. 1b]. Pliny, Natural History, praef. 22: Cicero is honest: in On the Commonwealth he announces that he is Plato's companion.

  • 5 [fr. 1 c]. Pliny, Natural History, praef. 7: There is also a kind of public rejection of the learned. Even Cicero uses it, although his genius is beyond all doubt; more surprising is that he does so through a spokesman: “and not for the very learned: I don't want Persius to read this, I do want Junius Congus to.” If Lucilius, the creator of verbal wit, thought he had to speak this way, and Cicero thought he had to borrow it, especially when writing about the commonwealth, how much more do I have a reason to defend myself from some judge?

  • 6 [fr. 1e]. Lactantius, Inst. 3.16.5: They seek not utility but pleasure from philosophy, as Cicero attests: In fact, although all the discourse of such people contains the richest sources for virtue and knowledge, in comparison to the actions and accomplishments of the others I'm afraid it seems to have brought less utility to men's activities than enjoyment to their leisure.

  • 7 [fr. 1 f]. Nor would Carthage have had so much wealth for nearly six hundred years without discernment and order. [+Nonius 526.8]

    • <If they had not preferred virtue to pleasure,…> would <not> have freed Rome from the attack <of Pyrrhus>; Gaius Duilius, Aulus Atilius, and Lucius Metellus would not have freed Rome from the terror of Carthage; the two Scipios would not have put out with their own blood the rising flames of the Second Punic War; when it flared up with greater force Quintus Fabius Maximus would not have weakened it or Marcus Marcellus crushed it or Scipio Africanus torn the war from the gates of Rome and forced it back within the enemy's walls.

Page 55 of 205