New Fragments of Cicero's de re Publica Author(s): Friedrich Solmsen Source: Classical Philology, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Oct.

, 1940), pp. 423-424 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/264041 Accessed: 04/10/2008 05:44
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NOTES AND DISCUSSIONS

423

NEW FRAGMENTS OF CICERO'S DE RE PUBLICA In De civ. Dei xix. 21 Augustine reverts to the task to which he has devoted a good deal of energy in the first books of the work, namely, the refutation of the notion of "iustitia" put forward by Cicero in De re publica iii: "Quapropter nunc est locus ut quam potero breviter ac dilucide expediam .... secundum definitiones quibus apud Ciceronem utitur Scipio in libris de re publica nunquam rem publicam fuisse Romanam." He is going to refute Cicero through Cicero. Thus, we are not surprised to find him in the next sentences referring to Scipio's definitions of "res publica" and of "populus." These definitions have been duly incorporated by the editors of De re publica among the fragments of Book iii. Yet, unless Augustine departed from his original intention, the sentence "Justitia porro ea virtus est quae suum cuique tribuit" (xix. 21; p. 390, 1. 15 [Dombart-Kalb]) must also be a quotation from De re pub. iii; for he uses this definition in the same way and to the same end as the others, insisting that the Roman state failed to live up to it. So far from "suum cuique tribuere," they denied God what is God's. There would be no point in Augustine's argument unless we assume that this actually was Scipio's definition in his great speech in De re pub. iii. And, after all, we have his word that he is proceeding "secundum definitiones quibus apud Ciceronem utitur Scipio." This is not the place to go into the history of this definition of "iustitia," which was adopted by Ulpian (Dig. i. 1. 10), found a place at the beginning of the Institutiones and was in the Middle Ages echoed by Dante in De monarchiaand by many other writers.l It will suffice to note that Cicero shows his familiarity with it in De inv. ii. 160; De legg. i. 19; De nat. deor.iii. 38; De off. i. 15. He refers to it also in the "doxographic" exposition at the beginning of Book iii (sec. 10), which we know through Lactantius. Yet, it is one thing to mention the definition in a historical account among a variety of approaches and another to make the principal character adopt it as the basis of his discussion. I started by citing the first sentence of chapter xxi. In chapter xx Augustine contrasts the "bona aeterna" with "res ista," our earthly existence. The last sentence of this chapter contains his judgment on the "res ista": Non veris animi bonis utitur quoniam non est vera sapientia quae intentionem suam in his quae prudenter discernit,geritfortiter, cohibettemperanter iustequedistribuitnon ad illum dirigit finem ubi erit Deus omnia in omnibus,aeternitate certa et pace perfecta. The description of the activities of the earthly "sapientia" is astonishingly concrete. I do not pretend to have any definite evidence that Augustine borrowed the description from a pagan writer, but I think it will be well to bear in mind (1) that Cicero endowed his "rector" or "princeps" with the four Pla1 Cf. Leopold Wenger, "Suum cuique in antiken Urkunden" in Aus der Geisteswelt des Mittelalters (Munster i. W., 1935), pp. 1415-25, and, more generally, Felix Senn, Les Origines de la notion de jurisprudence (Paris, 1926), passim.

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NOTES AND DISCUSSIONS

tonic cardinal virtues2 (which Plato himself had divided among the different classes), (2) that the four virtues are not among the Platonic dogmas which the Neo-Platonists were anxious to revive, and (3) that this sentence marks the transition to Augustine's final refutation of Cicero's political theories. For good reasons Augustine reserved the mention of Cicero and his work to the next sentence,3 but this should not stop us from recognizing that the words "prudenter discernit, gerit fortiter, cohibet temperanter iusteque distribuit" are a hit at the De re publica. They indicate (more definitely than the fragments quoted in n. 2) how Cicero expected his "rector" to employ each of his four Platonic virtues. "Iusteque distribuit" recalls the definition of "iustitia" which we have just vindicated for Book iii.
FRIEDRICHSOLMSEN MICHIGAN OLIVETCOLLEGE,

PLATO CRATYLUS 398 c-e: TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION

But the hero. What would he be? HERMOGENES: This is not hard to see; for their name, indicating its origin from SOCRATES: has been but slightly changed (rapiKTaL). pwos, HERM.: How do you mean? Soc.: Do you not know heroes are demigods? HERM.: Well, what then? Soc.: All have probably fallen in love (yey6vaatv epaaOiveTE)l' either as gods with a mortal woman or as mortals with a goddess. If you examine this in the early Attic, you will understand it better. For it will show that in addition to the from which heroes have been derived (ey-y6vaaLv),2 there has been a slight word ipcos change (Trap7ryAkvov iUTri) favoring respectability (6v6arToS XapLv).3 Cf. De re pub. vi. 1. 6 (Macr. in Somn. Scip. i. 1. 8). "quapropter" at the beginning of this sentence. 1 The text followed here is that of manuscripts lettered by Schanz as B, G, H, P, T: 7r&vres 6t7rov yesy6vaoavipaoOEVT'es iXOeoi Ov7Tl'S i Ov77TOlOeai. In spite of the very high authority of these MSS, modern editors have preferred a reading that involved a genitive absolute--paafVO7os .... 0eo0 .... OvTrog--andthat was seen by an "anonymous" in the now lost Gudianus 44. This "anonymous" made a transposition of two of the words, and in this form it stands in the editions of Heindorf, Bekker, Stallbaum, Schanz, Burnet, etc. A correction in Schanz's G is somewhat similar. Modern editors probably preferred this reading of the "Anonymous" because it squared with one defiof gods"-as in Laws 853 c4 Gsfev irauolv .... Tols ipoatv. nition of "heroes"--"children 2 A second yey6va-Lav occurs here in the sense of "etymologically derived"-a meaning common in the Cratylus. Its occurrence here has misled editors into thinking that both verbs should have the same meaning. However, there is an evident purpose to attain variety of expression in this entire passage. This is shown by the use of 7raprjKat and later 7rapqyJThvov iaT'iv as synonymous. 36vjwaTrosXa&ptis called "sine dubio corruptum" by Schanz and variously emended by others. But this use of ovo,uaneeds only to be compared with that of Apol. 34 e4:
2

3 Notice

TrJXLK,bve

OPTa

TOoTO

TOpIvoCLa 9XovTa.