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Studia Divina in Vita Humana. On Cicero's “Dream of Scipio” and its Place in Graeco-Roman Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Georg Luck
Georg Luck
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

In the first book of the Tusculanae, and in the last book of De Republica, Cicero has left us two notable documents in the development towards later views of the soul and the hereafter. Both works are among his best; both are composed with care, neither is a random compilation of doxographical material. In the Somnium Scipionis, the language of the dream reflects with particular persuasiveness the impulse of the soul to take wings and fly away into the ever-calling unknown. But the essential doctrines of both works are the same: the hereafter in its reality, as a return to the beginning of things, as the true life; and the death of kings and philosophers as a robing, a sacred investiture.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , October 1956 , pp. 207 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1956

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References

I am deeply grateful to Arthur Darby Nock, my teacher, colleague, and friend, for his criticism and kind encouragement.

1 Death is a peregrinatio, Somn. 9f. 15 (the Platonic poreia, see Apol. 40E), a return to our real home, Somn. 20.29 (cf. Tusc. 1,72.5,9), whereas what we call life is actually death, Somn. 14, an imprisonment of the soul in the body (Plato, Phd. 67D.Arist., Protr. fr. 10b W.). These concepts appear quite frequently in Hellenistic popular philosophy, cf. the pseudo-platonic Axioch. 365E. Virg. Aen. 6,734 and in general Boyancé, P., Etudes sur le Songe de Scipion (1936), 126 fGoogle Scholar.

2 Reinhardt, Pauly-Wissowa 22 (1953), 575–586 s. v. ‘Poseidonios,’ in a detailed discussion of Tusc. I, stressing its parallels to the Somnium, has maintained that this book reflects the thought of Antiochus of Ascalon. Independently and almost simultaneously, H. Strohm, “Studien zu der Schrift von der Welt,” Museum Helveticum (1952), 137 ff. and G. Luck, Der Akademiker Antiochos (1953), 36 ff. have come to the same conclusion.

3 For details see Usener, H., Rhein. Mus. (1873), 397 fGoogle Scholar. Harder, R., “Ueber Ciceros Somnium Scipionis,” Schr. Königsb. Gel. Ges., 6,3 (1929), 15Google Scholar. Philippson, R., Philol. Wochenschr. (1930), 1209Google Scholar. O. Seel, ibid. (1938), 489 f. Pohlenz, M., Die Stoa 2 (1949), 132Google Scholar.

4 But see, e.g., the pseudo-Platonic Axiochus 366A. Its close relationship to the Somnium deserves a special study; some points of view in Meister, M., De Axiocho dialogo (Diss. Bresl. 1915)Google Scholar.

5 This last point, taken by itself, would not justify our hypothesis that the Somnium is based on the (lost) work of a Hellenistic philosopher. Nock, A. D., “Sarcophagi and Symbolism”: AJA 50 (1946), 163 fCrossRefGoogle Scholar. has shown that, in Cicero's time, there was a great familiarity with astronomy. The subject was taught at schools. Aratus' poem was widely read and translated into Latin. A man like Galen was thoroughly at home in astronomy (Scripta minora 1,32 Marquardt). Cf. also Hanfmann, G. M. A., The Season Sarcophagus in Dumbarton Oaks, vol. 1, 1951, 124Google Scholar.

6 It is the concept of the ratio quasi deus (where ratio stands for the cosmic Nus, Theiler, W., Die Vorbereitung des Neuplatonismus, 1930, 44Google Scholar) that underlies the Somnium. If Cicero had intended the Somnium as a summary of his own political thought, he would have stressed more strongly the individual ratio as the agent responsible for the highest human achievements (Leisegang, H., Philol. Wochenschr. 1938, 1310Google Scholar); he does this only in the books of De Rep. and De Off. which are influenced by Panaetius (R. Philippson, ibid., 1930, 1175), but not in the Somnium and not in De Leg. I where the influence of Antiochus is reasonably certain (Luck, op. cit., 69 ff.).

7 See the remarks of Armstrong, A. H.: Gnomon (1954), 485Google Scholar.

8 Plato, Apol. 40 f. and — already taken for granted — in the Axioch. 371C.

9 Arist., Protr. fr. 12 W., quoted in Cicero's Hortensius, and in later eclectic literature, e.g., Cicero, Tusc. 1, 43 ff. 62. 73. De Fin. 2,51. 4,12. 5,48 ff.

10 On the background of Sen., Epist. 90 and Manil., Astr. 1, 66 ff. see F. Boll, Jahrb. f. Philol. Supp. 21 (1894), 221 ff.

11 Edelstein, L., AJP (1938), 363Google Scholar. He is the first scholar who has without qualification ascribed the Somnium to Antiochus.

12 R. Hirzel, Unters. 2. Cic. philos. Schr., 2 (1880), 657 ff. R. Philippson, s. v. ‘Tullius’: Pauly-Wissowa 7A (1939), 1137 ff. G. Luck, op. cit., 57 ff.

13 The promise of eternal rewards to those who served their country, is a wellknown Platonic theme (Phd. 82 A/B. Rep. 615 B). It may seem tempting, for a moment, to connect it with the cult of the ruler as benefactor and savior, but Nock, A. D., “Soter and Euergetes,” in: The Joy of Study, ed. by S. E. Johnson, 1951, 122 ffGoogle Scholar. has shown that the word soter, when applied to a man, did not necessarily suggest that he belonged or even approximated to the category of the gods.

14 Latest competent discussion by Pohlenz, M., s. v. ‘Panaitios,’ Pauly-Wissowa 18 (1949), 418 ffGoogle Scholar.

15 Sen., Epist. 90,5 f. Manil., Astr. 1,762 ff. See F. Boll, loc. cit. Festugière, A. J., La Révélation d'Hermès Trismégiste 2, 1948, 443Google Scholar, n.2. F. Cumont, Lux Perpetua, 1949, 174–182).

16 Reitzenstein, R., Nachr. Gött. Ges. (1917), 399 ffGoogle Scholar. Pohlenz, M., Gött. Gel. Anz. (1938), 134Google Scholar and Pauly-Wissowa, s. v. ‘Panaitios,’ 437. The definition of the state in De Rep. 1,39 (cf. 40 f. 49. 2,34. 3,43) which determines to a large extent the structure of the whole work, corresponds to Panaetius' in De Off. 2,73.

17 Cf. De Off. 1,69 ff., based on Panaetius' work Peri tu kathekontos, and the discussion of this passage by Pohlenz, Pauly-Wissowa s. v. ‘Panaitios,’ 435 f.

18 He was, as Pohlenz 433 puts it, “gefühlsmässig … reiner Diesseitsmensch.”

19 Both Panaetius (fr. 33 Fowler) and Posidonius (Jones, R. M., Class. Philol. 1923, 211 ffGoogle Scholar.) maintained that the tropical and arctic zones of the earth are inhabitable; this theory is implicitly rejected, Somn. 16 (cf. Tusc. 1,45. 68 f.).

20 Both Posidonius and Panaetius denied the immortality of the individual soul; for Panaetius, this deviation from Plato is attested by Cicero, Tusc. 1,79 (cf. Cumont, Lux Perp., 115), for Posidonius by Hermias, In Plat. Phaedr. (ed. Couvreur, 1901) 102, while Somn. 27 f. (= Tusc. 1,53f.) preserves the Platonic tradition.

21 The Somnium specifies (19) that the milky way is the ultimate destination of the soul, and its natural home; but in a parallel text (Tusc. 1,43), the soul is said to ascend to the sphere of the moon. It is not quite clear whether Cicero, in the Somnium, visualizes the milky way at an infinite distance from the earth (moon and earth appear quite small, the former ultima a caelo). There is some evidence, however, that Aristotle and Heraclides of Pontus did not locate the milky way in the sphere of the fixed stars, at the outer limits of the universe, but closer to the earth, at the confinium of air and aether (P. Boyancé, Rev. Et. Gr., 1952, 335. M. P. Nilsson, Numen, 1954, 108 f.), and this confinium, according to b o t h Tusc. I and Somn., coincides with the lunar sphere.

22 On Posidonius' eschatology, reflected in such texts as Sext. Emp., Adv. Math. 9,73. Plut., De Fac. in Orb. Lun., p. 928, see Reinhardt, Pauly-Wissowa s. v. ‘Poseidonios’ 574.

23 This correspondence between the main theme of the Somnium and De Fin. 5,57 has been pointed out by L. Edelstein, loc. cit.

24 De Fin. II follows very closely a text of Antiochus directed against the Epicureans, probably part of the same work on which books IV and V depend (Philippson, R., Pauly-Wissowa 7A, 1939, 1137 ffGoogle Scholar. Luck, op. cit. 56 f.).

25 The body is only the vessel of the soul (on this topos see Husner, F., Philologus Supp. 17,3, 1924, 77 ffGoogle Scholar. Theiler, W., Marc Aurel, 1951, 312Google Scholar); the real man is identical with his soul (Plato, Leg. 959B. Arist., NE 1178a7; Stoic testimonies collected by Husner 141. Boyancé, Etudes 124. Theiler 340) and therefore divine.

26 Those who obey the passions and pleasures of the body will find it very difficult to fly through the universe (Somn. 29). If they have violated the laws of gods and men, they will be imprisoned in the atmosphere of the earth for many centuries (cf. Tusc. 1,27 on the after-life of the undistinguished and on the topos peri palingenesias in general see E. Norden on Virg. Aen. 6,733 ff.).

27 The fact has been established conclusively by Madvig in his annotated edition of Cic. De Fin.3 (1876) and by Hirzel, R., Unters. 3 (1882) 691 ffGoogle Scholar.; see Luck 55 ff.

28 Cic, De Fin. 5,7. 14. Luc, 131. De Leg. 1,53 f. Sext. Emp., Pyrrh. Hyp. 1,235, etc. Gigon, O., Deutsche Lit. Zeit. (1955), 171Google Scholar has pointed out that this tendency to integrate earlier philosophies is not completely new; it is tangible anyalready in Arist., Met. 983b6 ff. De An. 403b24 ff. and in the fragments of Theophrastus' Physikon Doxai. Antiochus, however, carried it to an extreme and based his whole interpretation of Platonism on it.

29 The testimonies for this tentative reconstruction of Antiochus' biography are collected and discussed by Luck, 13 ff., 73 ff.

30 Wilsing, N., Aufbau und Quellen von Ciceros Schrift de re publica (Diss. Leipz., 1929Google Scholar) has presented the evidence. On Pohlenz' theory of Panaetius as chief “source” see above, n. 16.

31 His relationship to Lucullus was very close. He accompanied Lucullus on a trip to Alexandria, 87/6 B.C., and was later, during the Second Mithridatic War, his constant companion. It is hard to believe that, in such a case, the fascination was purely one-sided. Whoever lives, for so many years, close to a grand-seigneur of Lucullus' class, is bound to become a different person (Wili, W., Horaz und die Augusteische Kultur, 1948, 25Google Scholar).

32 See above n. 1. Following Empedocles and Plato (Norden, E., Jahrb. Philol. Supp., 18, 1892, 330 ffGoogle Scholar.), the Somnium (17) identifies the underworld with the atmosphere of the earth, cf. Xenocrates fr. 15 H., Cic. Tusc. 1, 92 and in general Cumont, F., Le Symbolisme funéraire des Romains (1942), 124Google Scholar. Lux Perp. 208.

33 On this concept see Boyancé, Etudes, 147 ff. Cumont, Lux Perp. 135.

34 A theme frequent in Post-Aristotelian philosophy, see Festugière, A. J., Eranos 44 (1946), 379 ffGoogle Scholar. Cumont, Lux Perp. 6 (on Posidonius).

35 Suicide is forbidden, for the universe, including our earth, is a temple of God (Boyancé, Etudes, 115 ff. Festugière, Révélation, 2,233 ff.), and man fulfills an essential function in this life (Somn. 15).

36 Plato, Rep. 486. Tht. 173E. Arist., Protr. fr. 10a W.

37 Another Platonic concept (e.g. Symp. 208C/E), popularized by Cicero in one of his speeches (Pro Arch. 26), see Cumont, Lux Perp., 133 f.

38 When Scipio has learned to measure the Roman Empire with cosmic standards, he is ashamed of its small size, ut me imperii nostri … paeniteret (Somn. 16).

39 On Cicero's personal attitude toward glory see Knoche, U., Philologus (1934), 102 ffGoogle Scholar.