Stoicism, Cicero and Relations Among Nations

Abstract

Cicero was not an orthodox Stoic but incorporated many of its elements in his characterisation of one’s duties to humanity, and to one’s city, or state. Patriotism was as strong a component of the Stoic tradition as the idea of a common humanity with the obligation to conform to universal moral principles. Cicero’s recalibrated Stoicism gave the virtue of justice a much higher priority than the virtue of wisdom and a community of the wise. Justice, for him, is intrinsic to natural sociability and a nobility of spirit cultivated by a love of learning and the love of one’s commonwealth. His contention that we have a natural instinct to associate and form communities, because we are gregarious and naturally supportive of each other by nature, remained central to succeeding natural law theories. Cicero’s contention that social duties strengthen the bond that unites us is fundamental to the republican tradition in politics. He proposed a mixed constitution which accommodated competing class interests, subject to the rule of law. His firm belief in the civilising mission of Rome was attractive to later proponents of imperialism. Modern empires compared themselves with Rome in believing themselves to have a duty to bring civilisation to the savage peoples of the world.