De Officiis
Author | Cicero |
---|---|
Country | Roman Republic |
Language | Classical Latin |
Subject | Ethics |
Genre | Philosophy |
Publication date | 44 BC |
Original text | De Officiis at Latin Wikisource |
De Officiis (On Duties, On Obligations, or On Moral Responsibilities) is a 44 BC treatise by Marcus Tullius Cicero divided into three books, in which Cicero expounds his conception of the best way to live, behave, and observe moral obligations. The work discusses what is honorable (Book I), what is to one's advantage (Book II), and what to do when the honorable and private gain apparently conflict (Book III). For the first two books Cicero was dependent on the Stoic philosopher Panaetius, but wrote more independently for the third book.
Background
De Officiis was written in October–November 44 BC, in under four weeks.
Writing
De Officiis is written in the form of a letter to his son Cicero Minor, who studied philosophy in Athens. Judging from its form, it is nonetheless likely that Cicero wrote with a broader audience in mind. The essay was published posthumously.
Although Cicero was influenced by the
Cicero urged his son Marcus to follow nature and wisdom, as well as politics, and warned against pleasure and indolence. Cicero's essay relies heavily on
Contents
The work discusses what is
Book I
The first book treats of what is honorable in itself.[6] He shows in what true manner our duties are founded in honor and virtue.[6] The four constituent parts of virtue are truth, justice, fortitude, and decorum, and our duties are founded in the right perception of these.[6]
Book II
The second book enlarges on those duties which relate to private advantage and the improvement of life.[6] The book focuses on political advancement, and the means employed for the attainment of wealth and power.[6] The honorable means of gaining popularity include generosity, courtesy, and eloquence.[6]
Book III
The third book discusses the choice to be made when there is an apparent conflict between virtue and expediency.[6] True virtue can never be put in competition with private advantage.[6] Thus nothing should be accounted useful or profitable if not strictly virtuous, and there ought to be no separation of the principles of virtue and expediency.[6]
Cicero proposes some rules for cases of doubt, where seeming utility comes into competition with virtue.
Themes
De Officiis has been characterized as an attempt to define ideals of public behavior.[9] It criticizes the recently overthrown dictator Julius Caesar in several places, and his dictatorship as a whole. Cicero claims that the absence of political rights corrupts moral virtues. Cicero also speaks of a natural law that is said to govern both humans[10] and gods alike.[11]
Legacy
The work's legacy is profound. Although not a
Petrarch, the father of humanism and a leader in the revival of Classical learning, championed Cicero. Several of his works build upon the precepts of De Officiis.[14] Prince Peter, Duke of Coimbra, member of the Order of the Garter, translated the treatise to Portuguese in 1437, signal of the wide spread of the work in medieval courts.[15] The Catholic humanist Erasmus published his own edition in Paris in 1501. His enthusiasm for this moral treatise is expressed in many works.[14][16] The German humanist Philip Melanchthon established De Officiis in Lutheran humanist schools.[14]
T. W. Baldwin said that "in Shakespeare's day De Officiis was the pinnacle of moral philosophy".[17] Sir Thomas Elyot, in his popular Governour (1531), lists three essential texts for bringing up young gentlemen: Plato's works, Aristotle's Ethics, and De Officiis.[18]
In the 17th century it was a standard text at English schools (Westminster and Eton) and universities (Cambridge and Oxford). It was extensively discussed by Hugo Grotius and Samuel von Pufendorf.[19] Grotius drew heavily on De Officiis in his major work, On the Law of War and Peace.[14] It influenced Robert Sanderson and John Locke.[19]
In the 18th century, Voltaire said of De Officiis "No one will ever write anything more wise".[20] Frederick the Great thought so highly of the book that he asked the scholar Christian Garve to do a new translation of it, even though there had been already two German translations since 1756. Garve's project resulted in 880 additional pages of commentary.
In 1885, the city of Perugia was shaken by the theft of an illuminated manuscript of De Officiis from the city's Library Augusta. The chief librarian Adamo Rossi, a well-known scholar, was originally suspected but exonerated after a lengthy administrative and judicial investigation. The culprit in the theft was never found. Suspicion fell on a janitor who a few years later became well-to-do enough to build for himself a fine house. The former janitor's house was nicknamed "Villa Cicero" by residents of Perugia.
The 2002 George Mason Memorial in Washington, D.C. includes De Officiis as an element of the statue of a seated Mason.
De Officiis continues to be one of the most popular of Cicero's works because of its style, and because of its depiction of Roman political life under the Republic.
Footnotes
Citations
- ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero and P. G. Walsh. On Obligations. 2001, p. ix
- ^ Atkins & Griffin 1991, p. xix
- ^ Cicero, Miller: On Duty, iii. 23
- ^ a b Dunlop 1827, p. 257
- ^ a b Miller 1913, p. xiv
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Dunlop 1827, p. 258
- ^ Cicero, Grant: "Selected Works", p. 158
- ^ Cicero, Grant: "Selected Works", p. 157
- ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero and P. G. Walsh. On Obligations. 2001, p. xxx
- ^ Atkins & Griffin 1991, p. xxvi
- ^ Cicero, Miller: On Duty, Book III. v. 23
- ^ Hannis Taylor, Cicero: A Sketch of His Life and Works, A.C. McClurg & Co. 1916, p. 9
- ^ Jürgen Leonhardt, Latin: A World Language (Belknap Press 2013) p. 99.
- ^ a b c d Cicero; Walsh: "On Obligations" pp. xliii–xliv
- ^ Manuel Cadafaz de Matos, "A PRESENÇA DE CÍCERO NA OBRA DE PENSADORES PORTUGUESES NOS SÉCULOS XV E XVI (1436-1543)", Humanitas 46 (1994)
- ^ Erasmus' Epistolae 152
- ^ T. W. Baldwin, "William Shakspere's Small Latine & lesse Greeke", Vol. 2, University of Illinois Press, 1944, p. 590, Available online Archived 2012-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Sir Thomas Elyot, The Boke named the Governour, Vol. 1, Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co. 1883 pp. 91–94
- ^ a b John Marshall, "John Locke: Resistance, Religion, and Responsibility", Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 162, 164, 299
- ^ Voltaire, Cicero, Philosophical Dictionary Part 2 Orig. Published 1764
References
- Atkins, E. M.; Griffin, M. T. (1991), Cicero: On Duties (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought), Cambridge University Press
- Dunlop, John (1827), History of Roman literature from its earliest period to the Augustan age, vol. 1, E. Littell
- Miller, Walter (1913), Cicero: de Officiis, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press
Further reading
- Why Cicero's De Officiis? By Ben R. Schneider Jr. Professor Emeritus of English at Lawrence University.
- Atkins, E. M.; Cicero, Marcus Tullius; Griffin, M. T., Cicero: On Duties (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought), Cambridge University Press (1991)
- Cicero, Marcus Tullius; Grant, Michael, "Selected Works", Penguin Classics (1960)
- Cicero, Marcus Tullius; Miller, Walter, "On Duties", Loeb Classical Library No. 30 (1913)
- Cicero; Walsh, P. G., On Obligations, Oxford University Press (2001)
- Dyck, Andrew R., A Commentary on Cicero, De Officiis, Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press (1996)
- Griffin, Miriam T. and Margaret E. Atkins, Cicero. On Duties, Cambridge University Press (1991)
- Nelson, N. E., Cicero's De Officiis in Christian Thought, University of Michigan Studies in Language and Literature 10 (1933)
- Newton, Benjamin Patrick, Marcus Tullius Cicero: On Duties (Agora Editions), Cornell University Press (2016)
- Woolf, Raphael (2023). Cicero's De Officiis: a critical guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316518014.
External links
- Media related to De Officiis at Wikimedia Commons
- Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article: De Officiis
- De Officiis in Latin and English at the Perseus Project
- De Officiis – Latin with English translation by Walter Miller (1913) – Loeb Classical Library edition, Internet Archive
- De Officiis, English translation by Walter Miller (1913), LacusCurtius
- De Officiis at Project Gutenberg
- De Officiis, English translation by Walter Miller public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- De Officiis online in Latin at The Latin Library
- De Officiis – From the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress