The Late Republic the period following the rise of the Gracchi was known largely as a time period where chaos, disorder and the breakdown of tradition conspired to break down the Roman state that had functioned largely harmoniously since the end of the conflict of the orders and especially during the Middle Republic a time period ruled by the crisis of the Punic Wars. The Roman state and its Constitution were ruled not by any set of written down laws, but by tradition and the power of prestige. The Late republic was marked for a general breakdown of this consensus and the creation of new conflicts within the Roman state. The optimates and populares represented a growing and worrying amount of factionalism in Roman politics. The optimates preferred rule by tradition and by the best men, which Rome could offer. This emphasis on order, traditional political structures and the history of Roman institutions and history was highly favored by the optimates of which Cicero was one of the chief leaders throughout the crises of the late republic. Cicero's concern with the breakdown of order and tradition and the resulting rise of a new kind of Roman which did not care for tradition and the public good according to him led greatly to the decline of the Republic. Cicero's contemporaries, men like Julius Caesar and Pompey Magnus did not care about tradition, but only for wealth and power which did not square with Cicero's vision for the administration of the Roman state. Cicero through his political thought in De Re Publica prescribed what he thought were the features of a well-run state and the qualities of a virtuous leader taking examples from Roman history
Cicero throughout his life and during the period of the late republic was one of the leading advocates of a particular vision of the Roman state which was based on tradition, history and valued its ancient institutions that had been passed down since the foundation of Rome. This view of politics and constitutional thought was expounded by Cicero in his book De Re Publica, which consisted of a dialogue between Scipio Africanus and other important men from Cicero's time period. In de re Publica Cicero argued for what he thought was the best kind of government for Rome and it consisted of. In it, using Scipio’s voice he argued that a mixed government with an aristocratic bent was the best way to ensure the health of the state and its unity. Cicero argues that Tiberius Gracchus and his reforms only acted to divide Romans and the Senate into two factions. One which was chiefly concerned with giving more rights to the people, the Populares and those who wanted to maintain the power in the hands of the aristocracy the Optimates. The conflict between the Populares and the Optimates was one of the main reasons for the eventual decline of the Roman Republic and the rise of despotism in Roman politics.
The features of the government argued by Cicero in the pages of De Re Publica put a lot of importance on tradition, the uniqueness of the Roman constitution and the political history of Rome. Cicero argues that the instituttions of the Roman state had been effectively torn asunder by the new party, which under the Gracchi and later under other populist leaders aimed to divide Rome in two parts. Cicero claimed that after the death of Tiberius Gracchus there were “two senates in one republic and two separate people. This was clearly a departure from how things had always been done in Rome, which had for the longest time a tradition of being a republic, which valued working together in order to establish a well-functioning state it must have a principle of government, be it a monarchy, an aristocracy or a democracy. Cicero, using Scipio’s voice in this dialogue argues that the best government is in fact “mixed and moderated government, which is composed of the three particular forms I have before noticed.” The three kinds of government aforementioned by Cicero all have a particular attraction and are at the same point an important part of building a well functioning government. The Roman Constitution is one great example of how a mixed government can be the best way of assuring that it assures the liberty of all and the strength of the states.
Cicero’s political thought as laid down in De Re Publica asserted the uniqueness of the Roman political system and its strength. According to Cicero, the genius of Rome’s constitution lay in the fact that it was a system which was “founded and strengthened by leaders who were motivated by an ideal of service to the whole state. The Roman state functioned as it did for such a long time because of the men that worked to make it function. Each part recognized the need for the others. Most importantly, Cicero envisioned a system in which powerful men did not wield power for their own gain but for the betterment of the state. This emphasis on sacrifice, evenness and the belief in the public welfare were all very important features of Cicero’s political thought as it was advanced in De Re Publica.
The unique character of Rome’s institutions and form of government actually had their roots as far back as its founding by Romulus. The most important distinguishing characteristics of the Roman state which made it unique, the Senate, the division of the state between the patricians and the plebeians and the creation of a form of representative democracy. Dionysus of Halicarnassus describes a system where the Roman people had three privileges “ to choose magistrates, to ratify laws, and to decide concerning war whenever the king left the decision to them.” The people did not have a direct democracy though, Rome voted in curiae, or assemblies which had the power to decide on important matters of state. The legacy of Roman government which was handed down as far back as the founding of it by Romulus asserted an important reality about how important tradition and history were for to the establishment of political order in Roman politics.
The Roman state, although it had experienced some turbulence and was not always a picture of stability for various stretches in reality it had reached a consensus during the Middle Republic during the period of the Punic Wars which at least worked to subsume aristocratic rivalry for a common cause of defeating Carthage and the expansion of the Republic. Conquest and wealth with time led to a wearing away of the traditions of Roman society and that is something which Cicero railed against. Cicero saw the crisis of the late Republic as a crisis of morality. Rome’s government by the time of Cicero’s career was corrupted, by “the great, exhausted by their luxury and vices, made no other use of their governments, than to enrich themselves by the spoils of the foreign provinces.” These powerful men used their provinces as a way of making money to buy offices and as a way of corrupting the citizens at home. This was largely a departure from how things had usually been done in Roman politics for the longest time and he located this crisis during his lifetime as coinciding with a strain of political thought led by the populares. Cicero, defined populares as “those who wished all that they said and did to be pleasing to the people. He included among them all who sought social or political change and were prepared to achieve it by appeal to the extra senatorial elements in the state.” All of these men which Cicero called to one extent or another populares, Cinna, Sulla, and Sulpicius were all men who had been corrupted by avaritia, luxuria and crudelitas. Greed, luxury and cruelty which were the main factors of the moral corruption of the Roman state. Cicero in his own way worked throughout his career to find a way to rescue the Roman state from the power of corruption and the political depredations of the populares.
During his political career Cicero as one of the leading optimates, a representative of tradition and order in the Roman state worked tirelessly to try and create a coalition against what he perceived where the vicissitudes of the populares. Namely the fomenting of division, social and political disorder and the spreading of those values which he thought were largely responsible for the decline of the Republic. Cicero attempted to do this by creating a coalition between “the equestrian order with the senate into one common party and interest.” The equestrian order was alongside the senatorial class made up of the wealthiest families and those who were most concerned were charged with revenue farming had the most to do with the future of the republic. Cicero intended to do this by allying with Pompey Magnus as a man of power and dignity, a man who could be the Scipio to Cicero’s Laelius.
Cicero through his work aimed to find a way to fix what he saw were the biggest weaknesses for the future survival of the Roman state.
Cicero was one of the most accomplished politicians and commentators of Roman politics and society during the late Republic. He was one of the leading promoters of a version of Roman values which had been worn away as the conflicts between the optimates and populares exacerbated themselves throughout the course of Cicero’s life. The strength of the populares in Roman politics aimed to change the basis of how the Roman state functioned. One of these laws which were key to the functioning of the Roman state, according to Cicero were laws which called for the dissolution of the comitia according to the omens. Clodius, the tribune repealed these laws which gave the power more people to transact their business. Cicero for his own right had called these laws “the most sacred and salutary laws of the state, the fences of their civil peace and quiet, the very walls and bulwarks of the republic.” This law was able to intercede against the most significant enemies of liberty as detailed by Cicero; the Gracchi, Saturninus, Drusus, Cinna and Sulla. Cicero again is a valuable resource because he had an unique view of Roman politics as one of the leading optimates of the era. He found that there were clearly certain institutions of the Roman republic, which were eroding and caused the weakness that led to the civil disorder that was plain to see in his lifetime.
Cicero saw around him a state in crisis, the Roman Republic which had for so long functioned on the basis of the mos maiorum and the political tradition of the cursus honorum seemed to be in a tailspin where factionalism had replaced a due love of order and patriotism. Cicero commented that the rise of the Gracchi and the increasing factionalism under the guise of democracy and fairness. Division, factionalism and the corruption of Roman values by increasing wealth, avaritia and luxuria, worried Cicero and he thought it necessary to attempt to rectify these issues through the optimates asserting their power in league with the equestrian classes. Cicero was a shrewd political thinker and one of the leading men of the Roman state during his lifetime, ascending to the consulship and being one of the most important men in the unfolding of events during the late Republic. He attempted to find a way to deal with the problem of what he saw as the decline of the Roman system of government, although he was not ultimately successful in restoring Rome to its glory, of a well-organized and structured republican government with due honor to tradition and history.
Bibliography
Asmis, Elizabeth. "A new kind of model: Cicero's roman constitution in De republica." American journal of philology 126, no. 3 (2005): 377-416.
Cary, E. "Dyonisius of Halicarnassus: Roman Antiquities." (1937). http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/2A*.html
Cicero, Marcus Tullius. "The political works of marcus tullius cicero: comprising his treatise on the commonwealth; and his treatise on the laws."Barham, Esq.(trans.). London: Edmund Spettigue.[On-line.] Available: http://oll. libertyfund. org/Home3/Book. php (1841).
Hoyos, B. D. 2015. A Companion to the Punic wars.
Middleton, Conyers. The Life of Marcus Tullius Cicero. W. Green, 1816.
Mitchell, Thomas N. "Cicero on the moral crisis of the late Republic."Hermathena 136 (1984): 21-41.
Strachan-Davidson, J. L. 1894. Cicero and the fall of the Roman republic. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
