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Chapter 6 - Iuris consensu Revisited

from Part II - Political Philosophy and Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2023

By
Malcolm Schofield
Edited by
Nathan Gilbert ,
Margaret Graver  and
Sean McConnell
Nathan Gilbert
Affiliation:
University of Durham
Margaret Graver
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
Sean McConnell
Affiliation:
University of Otago, New Zealand
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Summary

In book I of De re publica Cicero famously defined the res publica as res populi, the business or the interest of the people, and then went on to flesh out what we should understand to constitute a people: ‘a collection of a great number of human beings, joined in partnership through agreement or unanimity of law or justice or right (iuris consensu) and through sharing in advantage (utilitatis communione)’. ‘Sharing in advantage’ seems clear enough. But my disjunctive rendering of iuris consensu, with its repeated ‘or’ and unconvincing ‘of’, is intended to give an indication of the difficulty translators and other interpreters have had in grasping what Cicero meant by the expression. This chapter offers a fresh attempt at the problem.

Keywords

Cicerocitizenshipconsensusiusjusticelawrightssociety
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Chapter
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Power and Persuasion in Cicero's Philosophy , pp. 119 - 139
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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