INTRODUCTION

MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO (106 BC–43 BC) was the first

legal philosopher in history. In Cicero's thought we can find the
Stoic conception of Natural Law, i.e., that Law is derived from
God, Nature (Universe) and Human Reason.

Indeed, Cicero inherits from Stoicism the Pantheistic view of

Natural Law as right Reason in agreement with Nature and God
(who is its author, its promulgator and its enforcing judge as
well). It is a true Law of universal application, unchanging and
everlasting, valid for all nations and all times.

While Cicero derived many ideas on Natural Law from the

Greeks, he also contributed some key ideas of his own, for
instance, that whoever seeks to disobey the Natural Law flees
from himself and rejects man's nature. In other words, when
man obeys the Natural Law he is obeying not only a natural
and divine rule but also a rule that he gives himself as a fully
rational and autonomous legislator.

In this piece of research I will focus on the key aspects of

Cicero's Natural Law Theory through three masterpieces of his
legal and political thought: De Re Publica, De Legibus and De
Officiis, which had great influence over the medieval Christian
conception of Natural Law through Lactantius (one of the
Church Fathers) and Thomas Aquinas (the father of Thomism
and considered the greatest theologian and philosopher of the
Church).

The Ancient Roman Cicero’s idea of natural law has much to

teach us about the evolution of liberty.
Cicero is a rarity in history: a philosophically inclined man who
held political power. He was born in Arpinum in 106 BC. His
political career took place during the twilight of the ailing
Roman Republic. He was a self-described constitutionalist, but
also a dedicated moderate who wished for peace and harmony
above all else. Cicero’s natural law views persist as influential
to this day. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Cicero did not
forge a career by means of war but instead through oratory in
the law courts of his day. He opposed the tyranny of Caesar
and, subsequently, Mark Antony. Eventually, Cicero was
assassinated after delivering an intensely scathing
condemnation of the tyranny of Mark Antony as part of a series
of speeches entitled the Philippics.

Studying Cicero offers us key insights into both the

development of modern western theories of natural law and the
structuring of political communities around these principles.
Given Cicero’s massive influence, it is a shame that the praise
bestowed upon him has drastically waned in the last hundred
years. But it is never too late for a revival; Cicero’s work
proves consistently useful and relevant, especially considering
its wide-reaching repercussions on western intellectual and
political history.

GOD, THE DIVINE MIND OF THE UNIVERSE

Cicero was a skeptic of the religious beliefs of his day. As a
politician in a state in which religious institutions played a
prominent role, Cicero respected the Roman religion, though
solely on the grounds of tradition and utility. At certain points
in his writing he chastised people for taking the traditional
religious myths too seriously. On the topic of poetical works
and the people who take them literally he wrote that “they are
demanding in this case the kind of truth expected of a witness
rather than a poet.” Cicero knew that there was a difference
between historical and poetic truths. Cicero therefore did not
take as literal the descriptions of the Roman pagan gods.

But this is not to say that Cicero was an atheist. To the

contrary, since he was influenced by contemporary Stoics,
Cicero believed that there was a divine reason which governed
every aspect of the universe; “I say, then, that the universe
and all its parts both received their first order from divine
providence, and are at all times administered by it.” In the last
chapter of his De Re Publica, Cicero described how all people
are granted their souls by the eternal fires of the stars and
planets under God’s control.

For Cicero, this divine mind designed and ordered the universe.
He asserted that all things are implanted with a function and
end towards which they are directed by the dictates of their
own nature; this is called law. To Cicero, “law in the proper
sense is right reason in harmony with nature.” These laws are
not in constant flux or evolution. Cicero stated emphatically
that “there will not be one such law in Rome and another in
Athens, one now and another in the future, but all peoples at
all times will be embraced by a single and eternal
unchangeable law.”

Since everything is designed with an end or purpose in mind,

Cicero believed that by examining and understanding
something’s form and function, one could figure out how
something ought to act. Thus he argued that by examining
humanity he could understand how humanity ought to act. To
comprehend the nature of justice, one must seek it by
understanding the nature of humanity, since “moral excellence
is nothing other than the completion and perfection of nature.”
A DASH OF DIVINITY IN EACH PERSON
Cicero firmly believed that humanity stood between God and
the beasts, “for whereas nature made other animals stoop
down to feed, she made man alone erect, encouraging him to
gaze at the heavens as being, so to speak akin to him and his
original home.” The favored status accorded to humanity is
affirmed by our possession of the interrelated faculties of
reason and speech.

Reason allows us to perform four main functions. Firstly, it

enables us to infer causal relationships between external
objects. We do not just see that dominos fall, but rather we
understand that they fall as part of a chain of events. Secondly,
reason equips us to remember events, thus allowing us to
accumulate knowledge and increase our understanding of the
world throughout our life. Thirdly, our capacity for reason
allows us to moderate our behavior; unlike animals who are
slaves to their passions, humans can act civilly around others
and be considerate. Lastly, and most importantly from Cicero’s
perspective, is humanity’s quest for truth: “above all, the
search after truth and its eager pursuit are peculiar to man.”
We have the urge to uncover the divine order of the universe in
all fields of life, whether it be through logic, astrology,
mathematics or philosophy.

Our other divine faculty is speech, which Cicero called “the

queen of arts.”Speech is a critical ability because it enables
people to cooperate, work towards common goals and
compromise on issues. Cicero insisted that, rather than using
brute force like beasts, we are instead capable of utilizing
rational discourse to achieve our ends: “There two types of
conflict: the one proceeds by debate, the other by force. Since
the former is the proper concern of a man, but the latter of
beasts, one should only resort to the latter if one may not
employ the former.” We also use speech to gain knowledge and
share it with our fellow people. Speech in combination with
memory, as facilitated by reason, allows people to learn more
than animals could ever comprehend. However, speech is not
only a tool, but a sign of humanity’s sociable nature. We are
not designed to live alone, “for our species is not made up of
solitary individuals or lonely wanderers.” Speech is a distinctive
quality of man that allows for cooperation. As Cicero concluded,
speech “has separated us from savagery and barbarism.”

UNIVERSALITY OF HUMANITY
Every person in possession of these faculties is considered a
member of the worldwide commonwealth of humanity. Each
human is endowed with two personas. The “second persona” is
individual to every person. It is composed of our talents, our
personal tastes and our respective duties assigned to us based
upon our individual abilities. The “first persona,” which is
common to all people, incorporates our capacity for speech and
reason. Cicero believed that reason is the highest good, for
“what is there, I will not say in man, but in the whole of heaven
and earth, more divine than reason?” The importance of reason
is emphasized because it is present both in humanity and in
God. Therefore, “there is a primordial partnership in reason
between man and God” which makes humanity special and
distinguishes man from other living beings. This partnership is
not limited to a certain sect of humanity, but to all who
resemble Cicero’s definition of man: the endowment of a soul
with speech and reason. “Thus however one defines man, the
same definition applies to us all. This is sufficient proof that
there is no essential difference within mankind.” Cicero further
affirmed the universality of humanity, stating that all races can
attain virtue by using nature as their guide. An important
consequence of this partnership between God and humans is
that every person is infused with a dash of divinity, meaning
both that they are worthy of dignity and that they command
our respect until proven otherwise.

As mentioned before, divine law implants everything in the

universe with an end goal, or a purpose for existing. Cicero
believed that humanity’s ultimate goal was justice. Stressing
this point, he exclaimed that “surely nothing is more vital than
the clear realization that we are born for justice.”For Cicero,
justice was not only a useful tool for creating harmony among
men, but was also a virtue in and of itself. All that is good,
according to Cicero, necessarily contains a degree of justice,
“for nothing can be honorable if justice is absent.” Justice
elevates all things to a more respectable plain, since “justice is
the crowning glory of all virtues.”

To Cicero, natural law was not merely a theory of individual

moral conduct; instead, it provided a blueprint for society.
Natural law played a crucial role in shaping Cicero’s political
philosophy, most notably in two key areas; Cicero’s normative
definition of law and his defense of private property.

LAW
Cicero insisted that civil law must shape itself in accordance
with the natural law of divine reason. To him, justice was not a
matter of opinion, but of fact. He believed that law “is spread
through the whole human community, unchanging and eternal,
calling people to their duty by its commands and deterring
them from wrongdoing by its prohibitions.” If the law of men
(civil law) does not conform with the commands of nature
(divine law), Cicero argued that by definition, the former
cannot be truly considered law, as true law is “right reason in
harmony with nature.” Since we derive justice from humanity’s
nature and man’s relationship to his environment, anything
contrary to this cannot be considered just or lawful.
Cicero concluded that the principles of justice are fourfold:

(1) do not initiate violence without good reason;

(2) keep one’s promises;

(3) respect people’s private property and common property;

(4) be charitable to others within one’s means.

According to Cicero, the state exists to uphold laws which are

in harmony with the universal principles of nature. If a state
does not uphold right reason in agreement with nature, it is not
a state. The law and the state are normative in nature, rather
than conventional. He argued that without the key element of
justice embodied in law, a state cannot be formed, observing
that “many harmful and pernicious measures are passed in
human communities—measures which come no closer to the
name of laws than if a gang of criminals agreed to make some
rules.” In his speeches condemning Mark Antony, Cicero even
suggested that the laws Mark Antony passed held no validity as
he enforced them using naked violence, rather than right
reason. For Cicero law is more than just force, it is right reason
in agreement with nature. Similarly, on the subject of Caesar,
Cicero believed the emperor’s reign was a state in form but not
in ethical substance.

PRIVATE PROPERTY
Cicero’s philosophy is characterized by a strong sense of
individualism. This is most evident in his approach to private
property. Agreeing with the Stoics, Cicero believed that God
gave the world to man for his own use: “everything produced
on the earth is created for the use of mankind.” However this
does not mean that we share everything in common, for Cicero
argued that every creature has a tendency to preserve itself,
but the difference between human and beast lies within man’s
capacity to plan for the future. Thus, private property is
important and necessary as it allows people to live in peace.
Every person is expected to appropriate for themselves and
their family what they need to survive. Cicero held that one of
the reasons people united in the state of nature was in order to
preserve what was already in their possession.

For Cicero, property has always existed, even in the state of

nature, i.e., in the absence of a governmental body. Cicero did
not claim that ownership of property is a natural right, but
rather believed that it was established through a mixture of
convention and consent. Even though property is not a natural
right, it is a logical extension of our nature. One of the main
features of Cicero’s natural law theory is the concept of “to
each his due.”

If the state is authentic in its conduct (i.e. adhering to the

principles of natural law), then it will formalize and protect
what each person has legitimately appropriated from nature.

Many ancient Greek thinkers had previously discussed why

people congregated in political communities. Aristotle’s
description of humanity as a “political animal” was
commonplace throughout ancient thought. However, Cicero
was one of the first thinkers to posit the view that the
preservation of property rights was one of the core reasons
people formed states. On the duties of public officials Cicero
wrote that “the men who administer public affairs must first of
all see that everyone holds on to what is his, and that private
men are never deprived of their goods by public acts.”

One can justly acquire property through due process of the law,
long occupancy, purchase, and conquest through just
war.Cicero’s stance on private property conforms to his
principles of justice: “of justice, the first office is that no man
should harm another unless he has been provoked by injustice;
the next that one should treat common goods as common and
private ones as one’s own.” Unlike Plato and Aristotle, Cicero
did not believe that the highest function of the state was the
molding of people’s characters; instead, he asserted that it was
to safeguard people’s life and liberty.

While Cicero condemned excessive greed and lust, he generally

believed that people should be allowed to accumulate wealth so
long as they do not harm others in their ventures. Quoting the
Stoic Chrysippus, Cicero made the comparison between the
accumulation of wealth and a race; there is no issue with
putting all your effort into winning the race, provided one does
not trip others along the way. The theme of “leaving people
alone, as long as they do not harm others” is a recurring idea
in Cicero’s thought.

CICERO’S LASTING INFLUENCE

Cicero’s views have had enormous impact on the development
of western thought. It is therefore a tragedy that he has
become increasingly overlooked in recent times. The
marginalization of Cicero is in part a consequence of
accusations that his work consists solely of restated views of
Greek philosophers. The originality of Cicero’s work is a difficult
topic to discuss as many of the sources he would have “copied”
are lost to the ravages of time. However, it is certain that his
writings are the first surviving works of political philosophy that
discuss extensively the fundamental concept of natural law and
the way in which society could be organized on the basis of its
principles.

Admirers of Cicero throughout history have been in no short

supply. The Roman biographer Plutarch tells the story of the
emperor Augustus walking through his home. While Augustus,
an enemy of Cicero, is strolling he finds his grandchild
attempting to hide the fact that he was reading Cicero. When
Augustus saw the book, he took it and then gave it back,
telling his grandson that its author was “a learned man, my
child, a learned man and a lover of his country.”

During the medieval period, the ethical handbook De Officiis

was one of the most widely read texts in Europe, next to the
Bible. Throughout the Renaissance, Cicero was widely praised
amongst the Italian republics for his skill as an orator and for
his just conduct as a statesman. He was praised by Petrarch,
the father of humanism, as “the great genius” of antiquity.

In early modern England, John Locke employed Cicero’s

phrase “salus populi suprema lex,” or “let the welfare of the
people be the ultimate law,” as an epigraph to his most famous
work, The Second Treatise On Government. Locke even went
so far to say that “‘salus populi suprema lex’ is certainly so just
and fundamental a rule, that he, who sincerely follows it,
cannot dangerously err.”

During the American Revolution, Founding Father John Adams

wrote in reference to Cicero that ‘all the ages of the world have
not produced a greater statesman and philosopher united in
the same character, his authority should have great weight.”
When fellow Founding Father Thomas Jefferson was drafting
the Declaration of Independence, he cited what he called “the
elementary books of public right.” Among these were the works
of Cicero. Jefferson referred to Cicero as both an “exalted
patriot” and “the father of eloquence and philosophy.”

Arguably, the influence of Cicero rivals that of philosophical

heavyweights Aristotle and Plato. For anyone interested in the
evolution of liberty from the natural rights-based tradition of
politics, Cicero is undoubtedly an invaluable resource.
KINDS OF LAW
 Eternal Law God
 Divine Law God as revealed in scripture
 Natural Law
 Human Law laws worked out in states (General Law)

 ETERNAL LAW: Cicero defines as ‘rational governance

of everything on the part of God as ruler of the universe.’
Eternal law is identical to the mind of God. A law because
God stands to the universe which he creates as a ruler
does a community he rules. He regulates the universe.

 DIVINE LAW: Eternal law as it appears to humans,

especially through revelation, is derived from eternal law.
I.e., divine law is eternal law when it appears to humans
as divine commands, (through scripture). It is divided into
Mosaic (Old Testament) Law and New Law (New
Testament). When speaking of the Mosaic Law, Aquinas is
thinking mainly of the 10 Commandments. In speaking of
the new law he has the teachings of Jesus in mind. The
mosaic law reaches humans through their capacity for
fear; it promises earthly rewards; social peace and its
benefits. New Law: Commands internal conduct; reaches
humans by example of divine love; promises heavenly
reward. Emphasizes the grace of Christ in our hearts.

 NATURAL LAW: Defined by Cicero as ‘The participation

in the eternal law by human beings.’ We have a natural
inclination to things. Reason has the capacity to perceive
what is good for human beings by following ‘the order of
our natural inclinations’. These are: self-preservation;
family life and bringing up offspring, (shared by all
animals); and the goals of knowing God and living in
 society (shared with all rational creatures). They are an
application of the basic principle ‘good is to be done and
evil avoided’. Also, preserving human life. A good
justification for moral or legal rule is that it promotes the
preservation of life. All living things possess an inclination
for survival. Sexual intercourse, education of offspring and
the life have a proper place in human life, as in other
animal life. Humans are under an obligation to avoid
ignorance, (to seek to know God) and to avoid offending
those among whom one has to live. He does not like the
idea of natural law as a rule-book.

 HUMAN LAW: Human law is often defined as a ‘positive

law’. I.e., laws enacted and enforced in our human
communities. Laws which fall short of what they should be,
are not true laws at all. Law is always directed to the
common good, human law is no different. Promotion of
virtue is necessary for the common good, and human laws
are instruments in the promotion of virtue. Cicero has
same as Aristotle’s conviction that most people are kept
from crime by fear of the law. It is good to codify and
draw up laws. Deliberation is important in designing laws
and laws are necessary to guide judgment.

All human laws must be directed toward the common good.

Specific laws for merchants for example, are general in some
way; applicable in more than one case. We should also not
over legislate. For Cicero, human laws are particular
determinations of natural laws. It is law with moral content,
being more general than human law. It deals with necessary
rather than variable or changeable things. Natural law is more
perfect than human law for natural law is not variable. Human
laws are applications of natural law and cannot deviate from
the spirit of the natural law.
Cicero’s view of natural law is as our participation in eternal law.
It is part of our high calling as creatures made by God. We
need Him, part of his providential care. We are more Godlike as
we provide for others. This sharing in the Eternal Law by
intelligent creatures is what we call natural law. It is about our
life in God. Natural Law is sharing in divine providence, sharing
in the divine life. Our real relationship with God!

CONCLUSION

The Romans, at least judging by the surviving sources,

developed one of the most sophisticated legal systems in the
pre-modern world. This legal system first emerged during the
Roman Republic (ca. 500 BCE to 31 BCE), although its early
development is not well documented.

The political and cultural ideas underlying Roman law emerge

more clearly into view in the last century or so of the
Republican period, especially through the extensive writings of
the lawyer and philosopher Cicero who tried, but failed, to
defend the Republic against the rise of dictators like Julius
Caesar. Although Cicero lost this political battle, his ideas
powerfully influenced later Western thought, including that of
America’s founders. Through the nineteenth century Cicero was
considered to be a model of oratory and a leading thinker on
legal and political matters. In particular, Cicero is noted for
having reshaped and transmitted the Greek Stoics’ tradition of
Natural Law, i.e., the idea that there is a universal law that is
part of nature itself. Cicero’s version of Natural Law included
such ideas as human equality and that government should be
based on the consent of the governed.
NATURAL LAW: “

Nature not only endowed man himself with intelligence, but

also gave him the senses as guides and messengers, as well as
the obscure, insufficiently elucidated conceptions of many
things as a foundation of knowledge… All of this is really a
preface…, and its purpose is to make it more easily understood
that justice is inherent in nature… It has been the opinion of
the wisest of men that law is not a product of man’s thought,
nor is it any enactment of peoples, but rather something
eternal that rules the whole universe by its wisdom in
command and prohibition. Thus they have been accustomed to
say that law is the primal and ultimate mind of god, whose
reason directs all things either by compulsion or restraint

HUMAN EQUALITY:

“[We should realize] that we are born for justice and that right
is based not on men’s opinions, but upon nature. This will
already be evident if you examine the fellowship and
connection of men among themselves. For there is nothing so
similar, so exactly alike, as all of us are to one another… And
so, however we may define man, a single definition will apply
to all. That is a sufficient proof that there is no difference in
kind within the species… And indeed reason, which alone raises
us above the level of the beasts…, is certainly common to us all,
and though varying in what it learns, at least in the capacity to
learn it is invariable… In fact, there is no one, from any people
whatever, who, if he finds a guide, cannot attain to virtue… For
virtue originates in our natural inclination to love our fellow
men, and this is the foundation of justice”
GOVERNMENT BY CONSENT:

“A commonwealth (res publica) is the property of a people. But

a people is not any collection of men brought together in any
sort of way, but many people united by agreement on justice
and a partnership for the common good. The first cause of such
an association is not so much man’s weakness, but rather a
certain social spirit that nature has implanted in him. For man
is not a solitary or unsocial creature, but born with such a
nature that not even under conditions of great prosperity of
every sort is he willing to be isolated”

TYRANNY VIOLATES CONSENSUAL GOVERNMENT:

“How can that state be called a republic [res publica], which

means the property of the people? For there all were oppressed
by the cruelty of one, and there was no bond of justice
whatever, nor any agreement of partnership among those
gathered there, though this is part of the definition of a
people… Therefore, wherever a tyrant rules…we really have no
republic at all… But when the multitude inflicts punishment on
whomsoever it wills, when it seizes, plunders, retains, and
wastes whatever it will…, the name of a republic is no more
applicable to the despotism of the multitude…, because there
can be nothing more horrible than that monster that falsely
assumes the name and appearance of a people”

GOVERNMENT EXISTS TO PROTECT PROPERTY RIGHTS:

“A governing official must make it his first care that everyone
shall have what belongs to him and that public acts do not
infringe on private property… For the chief purpose in the
establishment of cities and republics was that each person
might have what belongs to him. For, although it was by
nature’s guidance that men were drawn together into
communities, it was in the hope of safeguarding their
possessions that they sought the protection of cities”

THE BEST TYPE OF GOVERNMENT:

“Every republic…must be governed by some deliberative body if

it is to be permanent… This function must either be granted to
one man, or to certain selected citizens, or it must be
undertaken by the whole multitude. When the supreme
authority is in the hands of one man, we call him a king, and
this form of state a kingdom.

When selected citizens hold this power, the state is said to be

ruled by an aristocracy. But a popular government (for so it is
called) exists when all the power is in the hands of the people.
If the bond which originally joined the citizens together in the
partnership of the state holds fast, any of these three forms of
government may be tolerable… For either a just and wise king,
or a select number of leading citizens, or even the people itself,
though this is the least commendable type, can form a
government that is sufficiently stable… [But] a fourth form of
government…, a moderate and balanced form of government,
which is a combination of the three good simple forms, is
preferable…, because the primary forms already mentioned
degenerate easily into the corresponding perverted forms, the
king being replaced by a despot, an aristocracy by a faction,
and the people by a mob and anarchy”
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 SOURCES-

 SABINE, A HISTORY OF POLITICAL THEORY

 SUKHVIR SINGH, WESTERN POLITICAL
THOUGHT
 O.P. GAUBA WESTERN POLITICAL THOUGHT

 WEBSITE SOURCES-

 WWW.GOOGLE.COM
 WWW.BOOKS.GOOGLE.COM
 WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG