The Republic and The Laws (Oxford World's Classics) (30 page)

The
Dictator
or
Master of the People
was appointed only at times of crisis and held office for a maximum of six months. He was not elected by the people, but was nominated by a consul. His decisions were not subject to veto.

The
Magister Equitum
or
Master of the Cavalry
was appointed by the dictator as his assistant and had the rank of a praetor.

From about 443 two
Censors
were elected by the Assembly of Centuries from ex-consuls. They drew up a list of citizens and their property every five years for purposes of taxation. They entered office in the spring and held it for eighteen months; re-election was not allowed. They also revised the roll of the Senate and reviewed the knights, admitting new members and, in cases of disreputable conduct, expelling old ones. After the work was completed there was a public ceremony of purification in the Field of Mars, offering atonement for sin and thanks for blessings received.

Praetors
were originally two military leaders
(prae + ire)
; but at an early stage these came to be called consuls instead. In 366 the name praetor was attached to a newly instituted legal official, who had to be a patrician. He was elected by the Assembly of Centuries. In the middle of the third century the office was doubled, one praetor becoming the ‘city praetor’, the other (dealing with cases involving outsiders) the ‘foreign praetor’. As provinces were acquired the numbers rose to four (with Sicily and Sardinia) and then to six (with Nearer and Further Spain). Sulla raised the number to eight, to provide chairmen for his courts of inquiry. There were sixteen under Caesar.

In the early fifth century the
Aediles
were two plebeian officials, elected by the Council of the Plebs, who managed the temple
(aedes)
of Ceres and Liber on the Aventine Hill and looked after its archives. Gradually their responsibilities were widened to cover the administration of the city (streets, public buildings, markets, water- and food-supply, public order). In 367 two curule aediles (initially patrician) were added to share these duties. They were elected by the Assembly of Tribes. The aediles also shared the task of organizing public games.

The
Quaestors
were two legal and financial assistants to the consuls, elected after 447 by the Assembly of Tribes. In 421 the number was raised to four, and plebeians were admitted. As a result of Rome’s increasing power in Italy four more were added
c
. 267. Eventually Sulla raised the number to twenty and decided that the post should give automatic entry to the Senate. In the second century their duties became mainly financial. They included the supervision of treasury records, the collection of taxes and fines, and the sale of property acquired by conquest.

By 449 the number of
Tribunes of the Plebs
had risen to ten. Their duty was to intervene on behalf of plebeians in trouble with the law.
The plebeians, in turn, swore to obey and protect them. They presided at the Council of the Plebs, and referred grievances to the consuls and Senate. By 216 they could convene and preside over meetings of the Senate. Because the tribunes had the right of veto, they were used by the senatorial authorities as a way of blocking unwelcome legislation.

Priests

Roman religion was a matter of ritual rather than doctrine. The priesthoods, which were held by secular magistrates, were retained by the patricians until 300. Then four plebeian
pontiffs
and five plebeian
augurs
were added, bringing the numbers up to eight and nine respectively. There was a special group of priests who consulted the Sibylline oracles when instructed to do so by the Senate. Their number was raised from two to ten in 367, and then to fifteen in the time of Sulla. Mention should also be made of the
fetiales
who carried out the rituals concerned with war and treaties.

Down to the third century pontiffs and augurs were appointed by their own colleges; after that they were elected by seventeen out of the thirty-five tribes, chosen by lot. The college of pontiffs also included the three major
flamens
, those of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus (there were fifteen in all, appointed from patrician families). As well as supervising the state cult, the
pontifex maximus
(chief pontiff) was in charge of the calendar. This involved the periodic intercalation of a month to bring the Roman lunar year into line with the sun. At the start of every year the
pontifex maximus
would post a list of forthcoming events on a board outside his residence. Both pontiffs and augurs were standing committees of the Senate, but the augurs acquired greater political influence from the custom of taking auspices. By searching the sky for signs they attempted to ascertain the will of the gods. Since no public action could be taken without divine approval, the authorities regularly persuaded the augurs to obstruct unwelcome decisions by discovering adverse omens. The whole system depended on the credulity of the masses and (at least) the double-think of the aristocracy. For a table of priests and their functions see Beard and North 20–1.

The Equites

An additional note is called for on the
equites
or
knights
. These men originally constituted the cavalry of the Roman army and had their horses supplied at public expense. They usually belonged to important families in the country towns, and had to possess fortunes of at least
400,000 sesterces. If they wished, they might gain entry to the lower ranks of the Senate; but, given the restrictions on the commercial activities of senators, many of them preferred to engage in business, which often involved the lucrative activity of letting contracts, including the right to collect taxes in the provinces. Between the time of Gaius Gracchus and Cicero (except for a short period under Sulla) the knights supplied at least a third of the court which tried cases of extortion. This gave them considerable political influence. Socially they mixed with senatorial families, with whom they formed a narrow upper-class band of the population.

THE REPUBLIC

B
OOK 1

The missing portion of the preface will have contained, at least, an address to the dedicatee of the work, probably Cicero’s brother Quintus, and an announcement of the subject, doubtless with some reference to Cicero’s own position at the time of writing (the preface to
De Oratore
may be read for comparison).

Abstention from public life was recommended principally by the Epicureans, though this was subject to qualification (1. 10 below), and in fact many members of the Roman ruling class combined an interest in Epicurean philosophy with an active political career. At the point where our text begins, Cicero is using a familiar argument from the exploits of Roman patriots, a type of argument which he employed also in different philosophical contexts (
Paradoxa
1. 12,
Tusculan Disputations
1. 39,
Cato Maior
75).

the two Scipios
:
Gnaeus and Publius: the latter was the father of Scipio Africanus the elder
.

Publius Africanus
:
Scipio Africanus the elder
.

Cato
: Cato the Elder, for whom Cicero had particular admiration as a ‘new man’ like himself; cf.
R
. 2. 1. Cato remained active in politics until his death in 149
BC
, at the age of 85. His political career was indeed stormy; he is said to have survived 44 prosecutions.

Tusculum
: now Frascati. This Latin community had received full Roman citizenship in 323
BC;
cf. L 2. 5.

moral excellence (virtus)
: see Note on the Translation. Cicero here touches on a question that was much discussed in ancient ethics; Socrates in Plato’s dialogues constantly draws the analogy between moral virtues and practical skills or branches of knowledge (such as medicine or carpentry), and the Stoics, taking over the Socratic principle that virtue is a kind of knowledge, maintained that the truly wise and virtuous man was good at everything, including politics, regardless of whether he ever put his knowledge into practice. Cicero here maintains the common-sense (and Peripatetic) view that only the practical display of virtue qualifies a person to be called morally excellent.

most important field of practice . . . is in the government of a state
: cf.
R
. 6. 13 (in the Dream of Scipio).

statesman
: Latin
civis
, literally ‘citizen’, but Cicero when using this word always envisages a leading member of a community who will take responsibility for governing it; cf. 1. 45 ‘a great citizen’ and the phrase
optimus civis
‘best citizen’, alias the
rector rei publicae
‘ruler’, ‘statesman’ (see Introd. p. xxii).

in wisdom itself
: the word
sapientia
‘wisdom’ was often used to refer to philosophy without further qualification, although it equally often referred to practical wisdom and common sense. Cicero’s argument here plays on the two meanings.

Camillus’ exile, etc.
: the first two of these examples belong to earlier Roman history; the others all belong to the turbulent period since the Gracchi. Nasica was the killer of Tiberius Gracchus: cf. on 6. 8.

murder of his chief supporters
: something appears to be missing from the text after C.
Mari clades
. We have assumed that Cicero is speaking only of the massacre of Marians by Sulla. It is clear from Appian
Bella Civilia
1.71 ff. that Marius gave as good as he got, but Cicero was loyal to his fellow-townsman. For a similar context (possibly of relevance for the reconstruction of the text here) cf.
De Oratore
3. 2. 8.

that the state had been saved
: Cicero was prevented by the tribune Metellus Nepos from making a speech on laying down his office as consul at the end of 63
BC
; so he merely took the customary oath, adding to it the words that he had ‘saved the state’ (referring to his defeat of the Catilinarian conspiracy). Evidently the public, or such of it as was present on the occasion, approved. Cf.
Earn
. 5. 2. 7 (letter to Metellus Nepos’ brother, Metellus Celer),
In Pisonem 6
.

maintenance
: normally owed by children to their parents, in the absence of old-age pensions. The image is as old as Aeschylus,
Seven against Thebes
477 θαvώv τϱoφεία πληϱώσει χθovί; cf. also Lysias 2. 70, Plato,
Republic
520b.

excuses
: in
De Officiis
1. 71, Cicero in a more reflective mood admits two classes of persons who need not take part in politics:
(a)
those with uncertain health (he was perhaps thinking of his own father, cf. L. 2. 3), and
(b)
‘those with outstanding intellect who have devoted themselves to learning’; but in the case of others he reiterates the arguments here advanced.

proviso
: this was the Epicurean doctrine. Cicero’s objection to it is telling, and this paragraph establishes the idea, important for the rest of the argument, that politics is a career or profession involving specific skills, training, and experience.

men who enjoy a very great authority
: Plato and Aristotle.

Seven Wise Men
: the usual list was: Thales, Pittacus, Bias, Solon, Cleobulus, Periander, and Chilon (though there were many variants).

Thales is the only one who was not a leading politician and the only one who is now counted as a philosopher.

preserving
: this echoes Cicero’s own claim to have ‘saved’ the state.

Since I have had the good fortune ...
: cf. L. 3. 14.

(I am not unqualified. . .)
: there is clearly a gap in the text; the insertion necessary for the sense is here made before
auctores
, following Keyes (NB full details of modern sources are given in the Bibliography).

to you and me
: Cicero is in all probability addressing his brother Quintus. The alleged reporting of the conversation by Rutilius Rufus is a transparent but plausible fiction. Rutilius had been an associate of Scipio and his circle; he was in exile in Asia Minor from 92
BC
until his death in 77, and Cicero and his brother visited him there during their tour of Greece and the East in 78–77
BC
(cf.
Brutus
83). Rutilius was something of a historian of his own times and Cicero doubtless learned from his writings as well as from his conversation.

this whole matter
: reading
ad rationem omnium (harum) rerum
with Ziegler.

consulship of Tuditanus and Aquilius
: 129
BC
, the year in which Scipio Aemilianus died.

Latin holidays
: the
feriae Latinae
commemorated the alliance between Rome and the Latins and traditionally marked the beginning of the campaigning season; all the magistrates left Rome to offer sacrifice on the Alban Mount together with the leaders of other Latin communities. Scipio and his friends, not being magistrates in that year, could treat the period of the festival simply as a holiday. It was a ‘moveable feast’, the date being fixed by the consuls on entering office. In the earlier period of the Republic it took place in the spring, but from 153
BC
the beginning of the consular year was changed to coincide with the beginning of the civil year on 1 January (cf. note on L. 2. 54; see Michels 97–9) and the Latin festival was apparently moved earlier; in the present dialogue it is still winter (1. 18), though a fine day.

a second sun
: this portent is referred to by Cicero also at
De Natura Deorum
2. 14 and there is no reason to doubt that the report of it came from historical records; similar occurrences are mentioned from time to time, e.g. Cic.
De Divinatione
1. 97, Livy 28. 11. 3, 4T.
IT.
13, Pliny,
Natural History
2. 99. In the passage from
De Natura Deorum
it is taken to foreshadow the death of Scipio Aemilianus; if this was the usual interpretation there would be a dramatic irony in making Scipio and his friends discuss it here with such rational confidence. The phenomenon is a well-recognized natural one, and there is no need either to suppose that the portent was mere invention or hallucination, or to invoke literary precedents like the distressing experience of Pentheus in Euripides,
Bacchae
918. Images of the sun may appear in different parts of the sky, caused by reflection and/or refraction of light by ice crystals in the atmosphere. The commonest such phenomenon is the
parhelion
or ‘sun-dog’, which occurs to one side of the sun itself; there may be two, one on either side. Parhelia appear significantly smaller and fainter than the sun; they are not round but usually appear the shape of a tear-drop with the narrow end pointing away from the sun; and they show rainbow-like colour effects due to refraction of light. A parhelion may have been thought of as a second sun, but a more likely candidate is the
anthelion
or counter-sun, which appears at the same altitude as the sun but opposite to it in the sky. It is not so often observed, but descriptions indicate that it appears about the same size, shape and colour as the sun, although significantly fainter. Being uncoloured it is assumed to arise from reflection alone, not refraction. (The fact that the anthelion appears opposite the sun would also enhance its status as a symbol of political confrontation.) Ancient scientists were well aware of these phenomena. Aristotle,
Meteorologica
3. 2. 6. 372
^a
gives a brief account; Seneca,
Naturales Quaestiones
1. 11. 2–3 refers to the double or triple suns reported as omens, and explains them as parhelia, the cause of which he gets approximately right; cf. also Pliny,
Natural History
2. 99. For a modern meteorological account see Geddes, 326–3
T
. We are most grateful to Dr David Jones of the Chemistry Department, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, for information on this subject.