An Ancient Guide to Good Politics by Moryam VanOpstal

Author:Moryam VanOpstal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2022-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Notes

1. Cicero, DRP, 6.17; Z13.

2. Cicero, DRP, 6.15; Z11.

3. Cicero, DRP, 6.17; Z17.

4. Cicero, DRP, 6.19; Z15.

5. Cicero, DRP, 6.20; Z16.

6. Cicero, DRP, 6.21–23; Z17–19.

7. Cicero, DRP, 6.24; Z20.

8. Cicero, DRP, 6.20; Z16.

9. The question could be complicated further: Is it possible that the way of life that is “best” on Earth is not the way of life that leads to the Heavens? For example, is it possible that the contemplative life’s imitatio dei engages in the highest activity and rouses the rarest delight, but that it is the virtuous laborer who will win a place in the Heavens? This could be the case if contemplation is “best,” but justice is what is required. If this is so, human existence is tragically riven between duty and the good. However, Cicero does not seem to believe there is a disjunction between the good life and the life deserving of the Heaven’s reward. One of Cicero’s claims in De Republica, and in his writings generally, is that the good and the useful are fundamentally aligned. This difficulty and its resolution—that a man who has his eyes set on the Heavens will put his hand to the plow and persevere, come what may, on Earth—strikingly anticipate the mystery Christianity will bring to Rome within a century, that the life in imitation of God means embodying the suffering servant.

10. Cicero, DRP, 6.22; Z18.

11. Cicero, DRP, 6.23; Z19.

12. Cicero, DRP, 1.12; Zetzel, Selections, 241.

13. The list varies, but Fott renders it as including Bias, Chilon, Cleobulus, Myson, Pittacus, Solon, and Thales, with Thales being the notable exception to political involvement (Fott 34fn.28).

14. Schofield, Cicero, 108.

15. Cf. Zetzel, Selections, 232.

16. Cicero, DRP, 1.15, 26–29.

17. Cicero, DRP, 1.17.

18. Cicero, DRP, 1.26–29 (“Do you see, Africanus”).

19. Cicero, DRP, 1.38.

20. In addition to paraphrases of Plato’s Phaedrus in DRP 6.26–28 (cf. Zetzel, Selections, 249–253), which relate directly to the soul, Cicero translated Plato’s Timaeus into Latin, a dialogue related to explaining the origin of soul (Annas, On Moral Ends, xxii).

21. Cicero, DRP, 6.31; Z27.

22. Cicero, DRP, 6.32; Z28.

23. Cicero, DRP, 6.33; Z29.

24. Cicero, DRP, 1.20.

25. Cicero, DL, 2.3.

26. Cicero, DL, 2.3, 2.5; cf. DRP 1.14, 19.

27. Cf. Cicero’s comment vis-à-vis Tusculum and Rome in the beginning of DL 2.5.

28. Cicero, DRP, 6.30; Z26.

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