Overview
The term res publica is derived from a Latin word that means an issue or matter which is within the public interest or domain and can be used politically to infer a republic. The Republic (res publica) meant a lot for the Roman citizens during the years of Cicero (Nicolet 145). The Roman people embraced this system of governance owing to the fact it prepared a democratic platform through which they could air their views and opinions regarding matters of political leadership. Males who were considered to be adults would be permitted to exercise their democratic rights by voting in political leaders whom they desired. The transformation of the Roman Empire came at a time when Carthage won several attacks to the eastern side. Roman history also experienced a new beginning due to the rapid growth of the empire in addition to slavery activities which had gathered momentum at this time. Slaves were being used as a potential source of labor. In addition, the new provinces which were created also ushered in a new phase for corruption to grow.
The Roman Republic during Cicero’s era
The Roman Republic by Cicero’s time had changed a lot. Several weaknesses were already evident and working against the system.
One such weakness was the high level of corruption. Those Romans who were wealthy often resorted to bribery to win favors. For instance, voters and judges could be bribed to compromise certain decisions. People were equally extorted by the consuls who were the provincial representatives. Worse still, political desires were sometimes forced on people without their consent. The military could be used to reinforce certain political agendas. Eventually, power was concentrated in one person contrary to how the situation was in the past. For instance, the habit of delegating authority to one man especially in times of atrocities became commonplace. Cicero wanted to re-instate an ideal Republic government that would be responsive to the needs of the people. After he continued with the trial job, he could not pursue his political ambition. Hence,
the only way to reach the masses was through writing. His writings focused on the need of restoring the Republic system which was by this time the worst form of governance. In one of his assertions, he emphasized that politics was a highly reputed profession compared to others. The Republic system of governance later became cumbersome to use in the Roman Republic during the late age. The Roman Kingdom still experienced significant opposition especially around the Mediterranean region because it was the only superpower from the west which was still in place. The new provinces in Spain were poorly managed and this was accompanied by opposition to the Roman authority. This made the running of the kingdom to be a real challenge for a considerably long period spanning close to two centuries. Romans were also able to reach the interior parts of Hispania when they emerged victorious over the Celtiberians. Nonetheless, the desire to expand into the further interior was still a big challenge to reckon with. There were several wars that were to be fought and won before Hispania could finally be subjugated by the Roman authorities. There were several leaders who proved to be rebellious especially during the period when Rome was under turmoil.
There was a myriad of unique features within the Roman government when it was being run as a republic. One such benevolent characteristic of the Roman republic was that it allowed its citizens to air their views and speak freely as far as matters of governance were concerned. This stage of political development did not come easy. It was made possible after a long period of poor governance and corrupt rule of King Tarquin around 509 B.C (Cicero & Shackleton-Bailey 173). Owing to this growing level of dissatisfaction by the Roman citizens, a consul system was incepted by the latter. Moreover, there were several other official authorities which were put in place to work alongside with the consul in order to address the challenge of bad governance.
One of the offices which were established was that of the Governor. Others include the Aedille, praetor, senator and questor. Not all these offices were incepted at the same time; there were those which came into force earlier while others later. One of the most striking features of the new system created was that it permitted the Roman citizens to have some democratic right to air their views on who were to hold political authorities. In other words, the ideals of democracy were ushered on board and it allowed all male grow-ups to cast their votes in electing political leaders of their choice. The misuse of power which had been a chronic problem engulfing the Roman Republic for long was to checked the type of republic structure which was set up. Hence, the consul system together with the political offices were to act as checks and balances for the Roman republic political leadership. Short tenure in office was one of the check and balance which was put in place to ensure that officers did not stay in office for too long and breed corruption. The other measure adopted was the handling of government affairs by a minimum of two officers in any given political office so as to improve transparency and accountability process in running the Roman government.
The Role of Cicero
The Republican system adopted in Rome was highly supported by Cicero during his reign. One core principle of his belief in the Republic system was that he regarded the Roman citizens and the office of the Senate as very important entities as far the Roman Republic was concerned. He strongly laid much emphasis on the need of not only protecting the republic but also giving it the utmost respect owing to the fact that it formed the centre of the Roman society. His success was largely attributed to the system of the Republic. He began pursuing the ideals of Republic system from a very humble position as an individual who was not a statesman. His education background was well backed by the best philosophical thinkers of that time. Besides, his oratory skills which were excellent beyond any reasonable doubt elevated him to the level of an outstanding orator and public figure as such. It is against this backdrop that he managed to climb the political ladder with time. He began as a quaestor. He was later capable of serving in the office of the Senate after he successfully graduated from the lower level as a quaestor.
He did not stop at this point as a Senator but he raised his ambitions higher. This is in fact perceived as one of the reasons why he eventually managed to play a very vibrant role in the running of the Republic system. He archived this by slowly moving up the political ladder right from the position of an Aedille and finally as a Consul. Cicero believed that the system of the Republic was the way to go and that beneficial political leadership could only be achieved through this system. His belief went along way in building a strong spirit of the Roman citizens who by far and large came to believe the same.
His political philosophy shared a similar ground to Stoics. It should be understood that it was through his philosophy that the Roman people desired to pursue and believe the system and apply it to the latter. One of his philosophical beliefs was that reason was associated with the need for justified legislation. There was no way any piece of law could be true without any good reason. Another philosophical belief held by Cicero was that anything which is good will always remains to be so and that this would also apply to anything which is bad (Nicolet 39). Finally, Cicero had very strong belief for conventional values which were being pursued by the Roman society from ancient times. Such beliefs highly motivated the Roman citizens to favor the Republic system (Grant 133).
Furthermore, the moral ideals which were upheld by Cicero were extremely high. It required a very high level of personal discipline and deep commitment in order to achieve them. This acted as an impetus to the pursuit of the Republic system. Besides, the moral standards were worth emulating by the Roman people and were equally cumbersome to be criticized.
His main aim for holding the high morals was that he really wanted the Roman citizens to enjoy the application of these principles within Rome. He made some writings on how the moral standards had gone down in the Roman empire and hence the need to facelift the indecent values. His writings mainly emphasized on the importance of the Roman traditional values which had been long forgotten while they were very important. He further highlighted that citizens could not enjoy their rights fully due to the poor leadership which was in place (Cicero, Rudd & Powell 108). He was further categorical that officers working for the government in different political positions were to be bound by duty of serving the entire republic and not themselves. In other words, Cicero played the role of calling for selfless leadership. His desire aimed at allowing people to generally participate and be part and parcel of governance because they were the right source of power and authority. Moreover, he stressed the need for the election of officers who were responsible and accountable.
The earlier system of governance condoned dictatorial rule. However, Cicero held a contrary view as he was highly opposed to one man kind of rule which would prove to be authoritative or totalitarian. According to Cicero, dictatorship of any kind was going against the Rome constitution, a legal document which is supposed to protect the rights and guarantee freedom of citizens (Grant 56). Hence, Cicero was deeply disappointed when Caesar came on board as the ruler. In fact, the presence of Caesar in power made it quite difficult for Cicero to attain his political ambitions. In fact, this seemed to be the genesis of fragility of the Republican system. Caesar was busy masterminding how he could bring down Cicero’s plans. To begin with, Cicero was invited by Caesar to form an alliance which would politically “benefit” the entire of Rome. However, Caesar just wanted to make use of the exemplary speaking talent of Cicero to his benefit. Nevertheless, Cicero rejected to join the alliance arguing that such an alliance would go against the constitution of which the Roman citizens were the key pillars. Therefore, Caesar’s plans really ruined the political goals which Cicero was aiming at making his pursuit for the Republic system to be elusive because the alliance which was formed worked against the unity of Rome at large as far his philosophical ideas were concerned.
The Exile of Cicero
Roman citizens could no longer be executed without trial according to the new piece of legislation which was enacted. In retrospect, Cicero was not innocent of this legal provision during the time when he served as a praetor. As a result, he found it urgently necessary to seek self exile before he could be convicted by the courts. Indeed, his official exile came in shortly after he departed Rome. This was another drawback towards achieving his political goals (Cicero, Rudd & Powell 62).
However, after being in exile for a period of one year, he was recalled back and started working with the members of alliance. This did not stop him from pursuing his political agenda because he fearlessly attacked the members of the political alliance and eventually Caesar was assassinated.
The fight for a Republic system did not end there. Cicero stated to fight Antony who had decided to assume authority in Rome with the assistance of Octavious. To begin with, the two allies decided to split the empire and also came up with a formidable truce. This political maneuver which was masterminded by Antony was received with a lot of resistance by Cicero who felt that the rights of the Roman citizens would be swept under the carpet. As part of his strategy to counteract the destructive political plans which Antony had, Cicero started making speeches to the general populace emphasizing that Antony was not suitable to run the political office bearing in mind that his political past record was not impressive. Cicero further argued that Antony had no moral values or standards and so he was just bound to spoil the Republic system of government (Nicolet 182).
Although the Republic system of governance appeared to be distinct and well laced with beneficial policies, there were several fragile points which were conspicuous throughout the period when this form of governance was in place. For instance, the struggle between two orders ensued from 300 B.C. There were two groups in the Roman society which emerged as competitors to one another. One of the groups was referred to as the Patricians while the other class was known as the Plebeians. By any standards of definition, the patricians constituted merely less than 10 percent of the entire human count in Rome. Fortunately or unfortunately, they commanded immense political and economic resources in Rome compared to all the other social groups combined. One of the areas which they dominated was land. This was indeed against the constitution which would have been used at this time and which also prescribed the need for equal rights and equal opportunities for all citizens regardless of social, economic or political status in the society (Cicero, Rudd & Powell 144). The Patricians who were even dismal in population controlled all the three main domains of the society namely social, political and economic. Hence, these two social groups maintained a lifelong struggle on the control of important aspects of the Roman society. Those who were peasants and had no land had a burning desire to raise their social status to the level of the Patricians.
The main reason why there was social struggle within Rome even with the application of the constitution and much desired Republic system was the question of legality. The absence of traditional practices in the legal framework of the Republic system was the main challenge. All issues affecting the society could only be resolved using the well laid down pieces of legislation. At this point in time, Senate membership was reserved to the patricians only. On the other hand, the Plebeians could exercise their democratic right by casting their ballot in their assembly. However, the patricians could still influence their votes because the latter were more superior to them. Therefore, it can be observed that in spite of the application of the Republic system, there were still several legal loopholes in the constitution which proved the fragility of the system in one way or the other.
We cannot overlook the genesis and significance of the social struggle which affected Rome when the Republic system was being used (Cicero & Shackleton-Bailey 325). As already noted, the system was apparently fragile because of the legal framework which was not exhaustive enough to incorporate the interests of all the social groups in the Roman society. Nonetheless, the system of assimilation and compromise which followed later may have been genesis of the social struggle witnessed by the patricians and plebeians. The patricians assimilated the rich plebeians. it is therefore possible to draw a conclusive remark that no deal was reached to cater for the needs and rights of most roman people or better still, the social groups. Some of the compromises which were struck were merely done for the sake of peace in order to refrain from the possible outbreak of war in Rome. Hence, most citizens were made to endure their state of life whether it was deplorable or not just for the interest of social stability. At the initial stages, making successful compromises and also assimilating certain groups was perceived to be the hallmark and strength of Roman civilization but this later became the weakest point and an enormous loophole in the history of Rome and its citizens.
A possible reason why the Roman Republic system of governance could not have been considered to be distinct was due to the numerous wars which were fought during Republican era. If indeed this system of governance was worth it, then the Republican years would not have been characterized with war and subsequent human suffering. The First Punic Wars which were fought with Carthage was one of the notable instabilities when republic system was being used. The war was fought between 264 and 241 B.C and it started as a small dispute due to the Carthaginian soldiers who had been seen in the vicinity of Messana. The troops had been called by Messanians in order to provide security but this later turned out to be a conflict on who was supposed to assume authority of Sicily town (Cicero & Shackleton-Bailey 276). The second war broke out in Spain while in the third Punic War; Carthage was seized and massively destroyed. Judging from the outset and occurrence of events in Rome, it was evident that the Republic system of governance could not have deterred the outbreak of the Punic Wars which were fought in three consecutive phases. This was a serious lack of capacity by the governance system and structure to address lack of peace and stability within Rome and its borders. There was still underlying and deeper desire to have total control of some towns regardless of the human suffering it would bring. In addition to Punic Wars, Rome was simultaneously in active conflict with Macedonia. Consequently, Asia Minor and Greece were annexed to the benefit of the Roman Republic. Eventually, Rome managed to have control of several regions which it had succeeded to annex in the pursuit of continental power.
Works Cited
Cicero, Tullius Marcus and Shackleton-Bailey, D.R. Cicero: Letters to Atticus: Books 14-16, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967. Print.
Cicero, Tullius Marcus, Rudd, Niall and Powell, J. G. F. The republic, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.
Grant, Michael. Cicero: Selected Works. New York. : Penguin Books. 1971.
Nicolet, Claude. The world of the citizen in republican Rome, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980. Print.