Thematic Essay: Roman Political and Social Thought

B

Sallust

In the 1st century bc the Republic deteriorated into civil war. The period was characterized by the existence of private armies and conspiracies, and by the frequent suspension of established political structures. Roman historian Gaius Sallustius Crispus, known as Sallust, served as a public official for several years but withdrew from political participation to write histories of contemporary political events. In his most famous work, Bellum Catilinae (The Catiline War), he described how political leader Lucius Sergius Catilina, known as Catiline, conspired to overthrow the government. While Sallust condemns the motives and plots of Catiline and his allies, he attributes the emergence of such individuals to broad historical transformations of the Roman state. He claimed that morals had declined from a golden age when virtuous Romans dedicated themselves to the welfare of the whole city. Sallust believed that the golden age had passed. With its passing, men, no longer virtuous by nature, had to be restrained by laws. Sallust here introduces the notion, adopted by other Roman authors, that an increase in the number of laws signifies a moral decline.

Sallust attributes the general moral decline to Rome's military successes, especially the conquest of Carthage in the last, or Third, Punic War (149-146 bc). After destroying Carthage, Rome ruled unchallenged over the Mediterranean, and metus hostilii, or fear of the enemy, no longer motivated the Romans. Further, Sallust believed that Rome's conquests exposed Roman soldiers to a life of feasts and wine in what he considered the decadent East. According to Sallust, exposure to the luxuries found there undermined the hardy masculinity of the Roman soldier.

Sallust's tale of the Catiline conspiracy ends with a contrast between the stern quaestor (magistrate) Marcus Porcius Cato, known as Cato the Younger, and the generous statesman Gaius Julius Caesar. Caesar and Cato each demanded a different punishment for the surviving conspirators. Sallust does not articulate a preference for either form of leadership. Rather, he praises the leadership of each while bewailing the Roman failure to appreciate their noble example. Sallust writes his history to set forth models of behavior that earn praise or blame, hoping that the desire for a good reputation would move men to noble actions.

C

Cicero

Cicero was a major participant in Rome’s political turmoil of the mid-1st century bc. Cicero rose from modest circumstances to the highest rank of consul. Political entanglements forced Cicero into exile several times. While exiled, he composed important works on political theory but lamented that he was reduced to writing rather than to acting directly in the political life of the city. In On Duty, a lengthy letter to his son, Cicero discusses men’s natural obligation to serve others and devote their lives to public service. Although he believes that the philosophic, contemplative life is admirable, Cicero encourages his son to live according to nature in the service of others.

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Among his many works Cicero wrote two dialogues, On the Republic and On the Laws. These dialogues recalled those of ancient Greek philosopher Plato in title and form. However, Cicero’s conclusions differed substantially from Plato’s. Only scattered fragments of Cicero’s On the Republic remain. In those that were preserved, Cicero portrays a discussion taking place in the previous century, before disputes over agrarian reform and redistribution of wealth undermined the political stability of the Republic. In this dialogue, political and intellectual leaders discuss what would be the best regime.

In contrast to Plato’s Republic, in which the participants in the dialogue imagine a regime that has little relation to actual experience, Cicero’s dialogue participants find their best regime in the mixed constitution of Rome. To Cicero, the history of Rome itself provides the model of the ideal regime. Similarly, in Cicero’s On the Laws, the characters do not discuss theoretical regimes as they do in Plato’s Laws. Instead, they identify the value of the laws that are followed by Roman citizens.

In On the Republic Cicero presents a debate on the nature of justice. This debate includes one of the earliest expressions of a belief in a universal, natural law that serves as a standard against which particular laws can be judged. In the dialogue, a character named Philus notes that laws differ depending on where and when one lives. Philus claims that justice has no foundation in nature; therefore, it should not concern us. He then asks whether Rome could have acquired an empire if she cared about justice. In response, the character Laelius argues that there is a higher law than the particular laws of different cities and that nature requires obedience to that law. Laelius adds that the acquisition of empire was just because nature requires the superior to rule over the inferior for the benefit of those who are their subjects. Here, he expresses the common Roman justification for empire. Cicero puts these arguments into the voice of his characters, so we do not know if they represent his own views. All he makes clear in his own voice is the natural obligation of individuals to seek public office for the welfare of others.

IV

The Principate

In 27 bc the civil wars of the 1st century Republic were ended by Roman statesman Gaius Octavius, the grandnephew of Julius Caesar, later to be known as Augustus. Octavius instituted the Principate, in which he ruled not as king, a word hated by the Romans since the rise of the Republic, but as princeps, or prince. The Principate retained the appearance of separation of powers through institutions of the Republic, such as the Senate, but Octavius alone had authority. The Senate gave Octavius the name Augustus, meaning consecrated or holy. Augustus contributed significantly to the welfare of Rome, but the rulers who succeeded him, called imperators (emperors), became more autocratic in their authority. Some, such as Caligula and Nero, were clearly excessive in their arbitrary exercise of power and their claims to personal divinity.

A

Virgil

The Roman poet Virgil composed the Aeneid, the national epic of Rome, in the early period of Augustus’s reign. In the poem he foreshadows the greatness of Rome's empire by tracing the journey of the central character Aeneas across the Mediterranean to Italy. In Italy, Aeneas marries the local princess and fathers the Roman race. Many scholars believe that Virgil composed the Aeneid intending to praise Augustus and celebrate Rome’s return to greatness. In the work, Aeneas, the national hero, is throughout obedient to his Fate to become founder of Rome, in spite of the fact that in his submission to the gods he loses personal happiness. In one of the central stories of the poem, Aeneas leaves the love of queen Dido of Carthage to continue traveling to Rome. The poem reveals the wrenching personal sacrifices that accompany the rise of an empire. Nevertheless, Virgil expresses the ideology that expansion of the Roman empire justifies the sacrifice. On a visit to the underworld, Aeneas encounters the ghost of his father, who predicts Rome's future greatness and tells the future Romans to conquer in order to impose what Virgil terms “the habit of peace.”

B

Tacitus

The Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus analyzed the early years of the Principate through ad 69. He is notable for the psychological insights found in his analysis. In the Annales (Annals, 115-117), he briefly records the history of Augustus’s reign and then describes the reigns of the emperors from Tiberius through Nero. His Historiae (Histories, 104-109) records the years of rule by four emperors following Nero’s death. The surviving books reveal Tacitus’s conclusion that the Principate was founded on people’s weariness of civil war and their desire for economic and social stability, which in turn led the Romans to lose interest in self-rule. His vivid portraits of emperors and their families detailed the corruption that infected their autocratic regimes and the harmful effect such regimes had on the populace. Tacitus believed that the loss of the outlets for political engagement left men feeling impotent and fearful.

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