Posted on: 24 October 2011

Digital Rare Book :
The Treatises of Cicero
Literally translated chiefly by the Editor - C.D. Yonge
Published by G. Bell, London - 1878

De re publica (Latin: On the commonwealth, see below) is a dialogue on Roman politics by Cicero, written in six books between 54 and 51 BC. It is written in the format of a Socratic dialogue in which Scipio Africanus Minor (who had died a few decades before Cicero was born, several centuries after Socrates' death) takes the role of a wise old man — an obligatory part for the genre. Cicero's treatise was politically controversial: by choosing the format of a philosophical dialogue he avoided naming his political adversaries directly. Cicero employed various speakers to raise differing opinions in an attempt to make it more difficult for these adversaries to take him to task on what he had written.

English translations of the title of Cicero's De re publica

De re publica is referred to as...

(The) Republic - that translation neglects the first word of the Latin title, which is the equivalent of On, so other translations of the title include On the republic or Treatise on the republic.
Although "republic" can appear a neutral translation of "res publica", it is infected by the many interpretations given to the word republic afterwards, as mentioned above. So, the translation of "Res publica" (literally the "public thing" or the public cause) has many variants:
Sometimes "Res publica" is translated into Commonwealth, hence Treatise on the Commonwealth is a possible translation of the title.

- Wiki


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Read Book Online : http://www.archive.org/stream/treatisesofcicer00ciceuoft#page/282/mode/2up

Download pdf Book : http://www.archive.org/stream/treatisesofcicer00ciceuoft#page/282/mode/2up

Image details : An oil painting (23.5 x 30 centimeters) depicting Cicero discovering the tomb of Archimedes by the Austrian baroque painter Martin Knoller (1725-1804). It was painted in 1775 and is now located in a private collection in Mannheim, Germany.

Cicero, India, and free bread By Nathaniel Smith What possible connection could Cicero (see “Cicero and political life today,” May 1) have had with India, which was virtually unknown to Rome? Read more : http://westchesterview.tumblr.com/post/564680556/cicero-india-and-free-bread

I hope my friend Meena Borg is not around. I see Cicero as a wily lawyer and a very powerful propagandist. What Gibbon wrote about him is quite senseless. Mommsen was right. He was an opponent of Julius Caesar who, in my view, was a forerunner of Christ. F. Carotta also makes the same point.

Cicero was strongly hated by the early Christians. St. Jerome wrote that once Jesus reprimanded him in a dream for siding with Cicero. St. Augustine also criticized Cicero's idea of an ideal state. Cicero was in favour of Roman slavery.

Ranajit Pal : Thank you for providing so many insights behind these posts. That is what I would call as true sharing of knowledge. I only wish they are not as cryptic some of them appear to be.

Cicero, of course, was not a monster. He cherished the Republic and also wrote on 'Amicitia' or friendship. His relation with Julius Caesar was perhaps a complex one. He often praised Julius Caesar whose actions may ultimately have brought down the Republic but these were not deliberate. Luciano Canfora remarks that; "One should look therefore not to Cicero's De amicitia for an understanding of amicitia, but to Caesar's Commentaries on the civil war" but this may be too harsh on Cicero. Matius strikes a poignant note on amicitia and Asinius Pollio remarked later that the 'amicitiae principum' were inextricably intertwined with the causes of the civil war. When Pompey's severed head was brought to Julius Caesar he is said to have wept. Did Cicero weep after hearing about the assassination of Julius Caesar? I think it is not impossible.

In my view Amicitia of Cicero excluded the slaves and the underprivileged, whereas Amicitia of Asinius Pollio (St. Paul in my scheme) and Julius Caesar included all and was closer to Homonoia of Alexander the Great. It can, of course, be said on the basis of textual references that Alexander's homonoia concerned only the Greeks and Indo-Iranians but he may have had a more universalist world-view.