Rome – O Tempora, O Mores

Gibbon’s work on the dying years of the Roman Empire — well, all 1480 of them, from the day Augustus took the reins of the empire to the day the Ottomans sacked Constantinople — is as much a work of complex social science and of political philosophy as it is a work of history. Of major interest, however, are his short sentences, masterfully inserted in the midst of expansive discussions on minutiae of the functioning of the Empire, such as this one:

“In the purer ages of the commonwealth, the use of arms was preserved for those ranks of citizens who had a country to love, a property to defend, and some share in enacting those laws, which it was their interest, as well as duty, to maintain. But in proportion as the public freedom was lost in extent of conquest, war was gradually improved into an art, and degraded into a trade.”¹

Continue reading “Gibbon and Active Citizenship” →

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and the Fall of the Roman Empire, Chap. 1, § Military Establishment of the Roman Emperors. ↩

Cicero denouncing Catiline — Cesare Maracci, Cicerone denuncia Catalina, 1882–88. Mural in the Salone d’Onore, Palazzo Madama, Rome.

[All translations from Loeb Classical Library editions unless specified.]

For a blog whose name is borrowed from Cicero, it is only fitting that its first entry be dedicated to the memory of Marcus Tullius Cicero, and to the phrase in particular that was trotted out in exasperation and incredulity at those who commit wanton sedition. The instance I want to focus on is the Catiline conspiracy, one of the rare occasions where Cicero was prosecuting and not part of the defence. ¹ Lucius Sergius Catilina, whose sympathies lay with the populares, was actively seditious; Mary Beard describes him as “a disgruntled, bankrupt aristocrat and the architect of a plot … to assassinate Rome’s elected officials and burn the place down.” ² Cicero, as consul, ordered the arrest of Catiline, and then his summary execution — without a trial — on those fateful days in 64 B.C. In In Catilinam (hereinafter IC), he forcefully argues against sedition — sedition prompted by Catiline’s disregard for property rights, as shown by his proposal to forgive debts of both the rich and the poor if he did succeed in his rebellion.

Continue reading “Cicero’s ‘O Tempora, O Mores!’” →

“Throughout his career Cicero usually represented the defence; this was one of the rare occasions when he prosecuted.” Anthony Everitt, Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003), 77. ↩
Mary Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (London: Profile Books, 2016), 21. ↩