4.10. Marcus Cicero (106BC-43BC)

Marcus Cicero was a Roman orator, lawyer, politician, and philosopher who's life coincided with the first part of the fall of the Roman Empire. (The traditional date of the fall of the Roman Empire is September 4, 476 when Romulus Augustus, the de jure Emperor of the Western Roman Empire was deposed by Odoacer. Many historians question this date, noting that the Eastern Roman Empire continued until the Fall of Constantinople in 29 May 1453. -- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Cicero seemingly did everything within his power to restore 'virtue' in Rome even as corruption, decadence, and violence in and out of politics was running wild and destroying Rome. There was even inflation back then. Gold coins which were valuable when the Romans were conquering other lands lost their value when the Romans stopped conquering other lands, overspent their gold, and compensated by putting less gold into their coins. Consequently, the coins were of less value. Consumption ruled. Production stopped. Small farmers lost their farms because they could not compete with richer farm owners who had slaves and thus free labor.

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Reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire

Christianity / Decline in morals / Public heath issues / Political Corruption / Unemployment / Inflation / Urban Decay / Inferior Technology / Increased Military spending

All left Rome open to outside invaders
adapted from History Alive material, the internet

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In this context, Cicero did his best to try to restore virtue amongst the Roman people. Cicero was trained from Plato's Academy which by this time was being run by 'skeptics'. Cicero's skeptical background gave him the flexiblity to explore other schools of philosophy -- always on a tentative basis that allowed for the possibility of other, better ideas to come along -- and Cicero delved into Stoicism and Peripateicism. The first believes that virtue is the only thing to pursue, and that things like health and money are not important. The routes to virtue for the Stoics were through prudence, justice, temperance and courage. (Richard Osborne, Philosophy For Beginners, 1992.) The main idea that has come up through the centuries regarding Stoicism is that much human pain is self-imposed, among those who feel sorry for themselves and/or blame the world for their problems; in contrast the Stoic believes that you should bite your lip through your pain even as life is throwing one haymaker after another at you -- regardless, you suck it up, get off the mat from the blow or blows, say 'that's life' and you get back on with your life, pursuing virtue); the second believes that it is okay to pursue pleasure, that health and money are important, can be pursued, but not at the expense of turning your head on virtue. (I like the second one much better.) (Reference: Cicero: The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

Cicero was not a saint however, and it seems that he made two major political blunders -- and at least one major ethical blunder. The first was when, while he was in office, he unraveled and exposed the conspiricy of Catiline which aimed to take over the Roman State by force. Five of the conspirators were executed without trial on Cicero's orders. (So much for virtue although Cicero thought that he had saved the Commonwealth.) Big mistake. The executions without trial made him enemies and gave them an opening to get to him. Clodius -- a follower of Caesar -- proposed a law to be applied retroactively that anyone who killed a Roman citizen without trial would be stripped of his citizenship and forced into exile. The law passed and Cicero was chased out of Italy, forced into exile, with all his property confiscated.

A year and a half later, political conditions changed, Cicero was allowed back into Italy, his property restored, and he returned to popular approval. But then Cicero made his second major mistake following Caesar's murder on the Ides of March which Cicero witnessed. A power struggle ensued involving Mark Antony (of 'Anthony and Cleopatra' fame), Marcus Lepidus, and Octavian. With Caesar dead, the Senate was restored to prominence again, and Cicero, thinking he could still restore the Republic as well as get his man into power, opted to make a series of speeches trying to get the Senate to aid Octavian in overcoming Antony for power. However, Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian came to an agreement on sharing power and as part of their agreement, each of them who had their respective enemies, was allowed to eliminate these enemies. (Oops, so much for Cicero.) Antony put Cicero on his hit list and he was chased down and asassinated.

Regardless of Cicero's political mistakes, and major ethical mistake, he had a major influence on many philosophers right up to the 19th century. St. Augustine wrote that reading Cicero was the turning point in his turning away from 'sin' (read: sex). Enlightenment philosopers like Montesque and Jefferson were intrigued by Cicero's -- and before him the Stoic's -- concept of 'Natural Law', and the Stoic/Cicero idea of 'not pursuing pleasure when it has later negative consequences attached to it' can be seen in one of my favorite Jefferson quotes:

'Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know that there is no hook beneath it.' -- Thomas Jefferson

db, June 6th, 2007.