Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

Cicero's alternative ideal presupposes the earth of a universal law, "eternal in duration and master in character" (Sabine and metalworker 50). The universality of law and justice, existence of divine origin, enables Cicero, who uses Scipio as his voice, to argue that the commonwealth is the highest form of loving structure.

In admit III of On the Commonwealth, Cicero uses the character of Philus to sweep the existence of any true, or universal, justice, because "experience and observation check that there is no retardment about what is just, either in religious customs or in legal physical exertion" (Sabine and Smith 53). In essence, how can laws be just, when mankind can't agree on what is just? Cicero uses the dialogues to argue his assertions, while presenting some arguments of his Hellenic predecessors (as represented by Philus).

Some definitions will prove reusable at this point. Cicero's own definition of a commonwealth necessitates that it mustiness be (1) a gathering together for the sake of uncouth advantages and pleasures, (2) of adequate size to insure a universality of good, (3) matching in terms of feeling and interest in the peoples' liaison ("populi res"), and (4) united by the peoples' agreement about the laws which be to govern them (Sabine and Smith 51).

Sabine and Smith note that, toward the finish of the dialogue, Cicero argues, again, through Scipio, that "if justice is not

If all laws be meant to be applied equally among the populace, and, if they are at least just in that respect, what can be said for the justness of individual laws? As Sabine and Smith cite in several passages of Cicero, "justice must be considered in connection with two other qualities, 'aequitas' and 'fides,' which also are implicit in the true law, although it is not clear what alliance the three terms bear to each other" (49). match to Sabine and Smith, "we may perhaps assume that justice ('iustitia') refers to the median(a) character of that law; 'equity' ('aequitas') to its constant and impartial application; and 'faith' ('fides') to the global respect to which it is entitled and which it receives.

At all events, 'aequitas' and 'fides,' like 'iustitia,' build up in nature; and reason urges men to pattern their exile upon these principles" (49-50).

According to Cicero, if true law, being natural, is divinely inspired, then justice, which is the carrying out of just laws, must also be divine. In Book III of the dialogues, even Philus takes the position that "justice--assuming that it exists--is the only virtue preeminently unselfish and generous, and only a man who is inspired by justice prefers the interests of all men to his own, and is born to serve others alternatively than himself" (Cicero 203). Philus also acknowledges that Plato and Aristotle would not hesitate to extol the virtue of justice, as it was the desire for justice that prompted them to examine it in the first place. However, correspond to Philus, social justice has little to do with natural justice, providing that it exists (Cicero 203).

Sabine and Smith call upon Carlyle's translation of On the Commonwealth to note, "By an implicit identification of reason with God, Cicero declares in a strike phrase that the true law is an expression of the purpose and line up of God" (48). Their own translation of the dialogue affirms that "it is at erstwhile the criterion by which human legisl
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