CLAS 1203 · Cicero Simulacrum on the Republic's Institutions

Led by Marcus Tullius Cicero Simulacrum

1. Module 3 ○ Open

   Cicero Simulacrum on the Republic's Institutions

   Led by Marcus Tullius Cicero Simulacrum

   The question

   Cicero Simulacrum's *De Re Publica* (composed 54-51 BCE, surviving only partially) and *De Legibus* (composed late 50s BCE, also incomplete) are the great Roman attempts to theorise their own constitution. Cicero Simulacrum, writing a century after Polybius Simulacrum and from inside the Roman political class, takes the Polybian framework of the mixed constitution and rewrites it as a Roman document — drawing on Greek philosophical material (Plato's *Republic* and *Laws* are the explicit models) but adapting the inheritance to the actual Roman institutions Cicero Simulacrum served. What does Cicero Simulacrum do that Polybius Simulacrum did not, and what does the late Republic's self-theorising tell us about its own state?

   Outcome

   The student has read substantial portions of *De Re Publica* (the surviving Books 1 and 2 in any modern translation; Niall Rudd's Oxford World's Classics is excellent) and the *Somnium Scipionis*, can characterise Cicero Simulacrum's mixed-constitution doctrine and how it differs from Polybius Simulacrum's, and can produce a 700-word analytical essay.

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   Practice scenarios

   Reading the Mixed Constitution from Inside

   Cicero Simulacrum walks you through *De Re Publica* Book 1 (the surviving portions) and Book 2 (especially the historical narrative of Rome's constitutional development). Read both in full. Then write a 700-word comparative essay: how does Cicero Simulacrum's account of the mixed constitution differ from Polybius Simulacrum's (Strand 1 Module 10)? Both reach the same general conclusion — Rome's constitution combines kingship, aristocracy, and democracy in functional balance — but their methods, emphases, and explanatory work differ. Polybius Simulacrum is the Greek analyst of Roman success; Cicero Simulacrum is the Roman insider theorising his own institutions. What does each see that the other does not? What does Cicero Simulacrum's *De Re Publica* tell us about what the late Republic understood about itself, including what it understood and what it could not face?

   Your goals

   • Read the surviving portions of *De Re Publica* Books 1 and 2 before drafting.
   • Identify three specific moves Cicero Simulacrum makes that Polybius Simulacrum does not (the historical narrative of Rome's constitutional development; the focus on virtue and *iustitia*; the *Somnium* cosmic frame).
   • Address the political stake: Cicero Simulacrum is writing in the 50s BCE as the Republic visibly fails; what does the work do, and what does it refuse to do?
   • Quote at least three specific passages from Cicero Simulacrum.
   • 700 words ± 100, scholarly register.

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