Cicero and Citizenship

CICERO AND CITIZENSHIP

Cicero’s ambition from his youth was to be involved in politics. His family was not prominent, so he chose to enter politics through the study of law. He was a very successful lawyer who made many useful connections. As a result, he was elected to various positions in the Roman government, ultimately serving as consul in 63 B.C.E. Some of his decisions, such as having certain rebels executed, later came back to haunt him, and he was forced into exile for a period, during which time he studied philosophy.

During the power struggles after the assassination of Julius Caesar, Cicero spoke eloquently in the Senate against the Roman leader Mark Antony and in favor of Antony’s rival Octavian. This earned Cicero a place on Antony’s list of enemies. Cicero tried to flee from Antony but he was caught and killed. His head and hands were nailed to the podium in the Senate as a warning to other potential traitors.

Cicero wrote an essay called On Duties (or On Obligations) during the last year of his life (44 B.C.E.) at the age of 62. It was written as if writing a letter to his son. Some scholarly readers of the essay have indicated that his beliefs were affected by the Greek philosophy called Stoicism and his desire to promote the Roman Republic. This legacy of this work by Cicero would be a significant influence on the ideas of Christians and non-Christians in Europe for hundreds of years.

Here is an excerpt from the essay. “As the Stoics hold, everything that the earth produces is created for man’s use; and as men, too, are born for the sake of men, that they may be able mutually to help one another … we ought to … contribute to the general good by an interchange of acts of kindness, by giving and receiving, and thus by our skill, our industry, and our talents to cement human society more closely together, man to man.”

Using the primary source excerpt, answer the questions.

A. Document-Based Question. 1. What were ways that Roman people could demonstrate good citizenship?

B. Interpreting Primary Source Questions 1. What did Cicero believe was the responsibility of Romans? 2. What could result, if Roman people behaved in the way described by Cicero?