On Duties (De Officiis)

Summary

On Duties is Cicero's last philosophical work, written in the autumn of 44 BC, in the months after the murder of Julius Caesar, and addressed as a letter in three books to his son Marcus, then studying philosophy at Athens under the Peripatetic Cratippus. Cicero follows, with freedom, the Stoic Panaetius of Rhodes, whose treatise on duty (kathēkon, Latin officium) he adapts for a Roman reader, adding examples from Roman history and from his own career. Book I treats the honestum, the morally good or honourable. Cicero derives all duty from four sources of virtue: wisdom, the perception of truth; justice together with beneficence, which hold human society together; greatness of spirit, or fortitude; and seemliness (decorum), the propriety and moderation that make a life consistent. Under justice he insists that no one may harm another unless provoked by wrong, that private property be respected, that promises be kept, that wars be waged only for peace and fought with good faith, and that even slaves be treated as hired labourers who receive their due. He ranks the claims of country, parents, children, kin and friends, and he argues that the statesman's courage in civil affairs can be greater than the general's in war, citing his own consulship. The book ends with practical counsel about speech, dress, conversation, houses and the choice of a career. Book II treats the utile, the expedient or advantageous: how a man wins the goodwill, trust and admiration of others. Cicero argues that it is far better to be loved than feared, that real glory rests on justice, and that liberality should be sensible rather than ruinous; he condemns the confiscations of Sulla and Caesar. Book III addresses the apparent conflict between the honourable and the expedient, which Panaetius promised but never wrote. Cicero's rule is that nothing can truly be expedient that is not honourable. He tests it on hard cases: the ring of Gyges, the corn merchant who arrives at starving Rhodes ahead of other ships, the house seller who conceals defects, the swindle of Pythius the banker, and above all Marcus Atilius Regulus, who returned to torture at Carthage rather than break his oath. The work became one of the most read books of moral philosophy in Europe: St Ambrose modelled a treatise for clergy on it, and it was among the first classical texts printed (Mainz, 1465). The library's text is Cyrus R. Edmonds's nineteenth-century Bohn translation, an OCR copy that also carries his footnotes and, after Book III, Cicero's dialogue On Friendship.

Plot or Argument

• Book I, preface and plan (ch. I–III)

  Cicero urges Marcus to join Latin study to Greek, explains why he follows the Stoics on duty, and divides the inquiry: whether an act is honourable, whether it is expedient, and what to do when the two seem to conflict.

• Book I, wisdom and justice (ch. IV–XVIII)

  The four sources of virtue are introduced. Justice forbids injury and requires faithfulness to promises; injustice comes by force or by fraud. Rules for war, for treatment of enemies and slaves, and for beneficence that harms no one and is measured by merit and closeness of tie.

• Book I, greatness of spirit (ch. XIX–XXVI)

  True fortitude serves justice, not ambition. Civil courage is set beside military glory, with Cicero's own consulship as an example; the statesman should care for the whole people and avoid faction.

• Book I, seemliness and the ordering of life (ch. XXVII–XLV)

  Decorum: acting in keeping with human nature and with one's own particular nature, the four 'personae', and practical counsel on speech, conversation, dress, the house, and choosing a calling. Medicine and architecture are listed among honourable professions.

• Book II, the expedient (ch. I–XXIV)

  Men help or harm each other more than any other cause. Goodwill is won by kindness, trust by justice and practical wisdom, and admiration by greatness; to be loved is better than to be feared. Liberality, hospitality and services rendered by eloquence and legal aid; Antipater's addition of the care of health and property.

• Book III, the rule (ch. I–VIII)

  Scipio's saying about never being less alone than when alone opens the book. Cicero states the formula: nothing is expedient that is not honourable, and to take from another for one's own advantage is more contrary to nature than death or pain.

• Book III, hard cases (ch. IX–XXV)

  The ring of Gyges, the Rhodian corn trade debated by Diogenes of Babylon and Antipater, concealment in the sale of a house, Pythius's staged fishing party, and other cases of deceit in contracts and politics.

• Book III, Regulus and the end of the argument (ch. XXVI–XXXIII)

  Regulus keeps his oath to the Carthaginians and refuses to advise an exchange of prisoners that would harm Rome. Cicero answers objections, then rejects the Epicurean claim that pleasure is the good, since it cannot be joined with temperance, justice or fortitude.

Characters

• Marcus Tullius Cicero, author and father

  Writes to his son as statesman and philosopher, often drawing on his own consulship and exile.

• Marcus Cicero the younger, addressee

  Cicero's son, about twenty, studying at Athens under Cratippus.

• Panaetius of Rhodes, principal source

  Stoic philosopher whose treatise on duty Cicero follows in Books I and II.

• Cratippus, teacher

  Peripatetic philosopher at Athens with whom Marcus is studying.

• Marcus Atilius Regulus, exemplar

  Roman general captured by Carthage who returned to captivity to keep his oath.

• Diogenes of Babylon and Antipater of Tarsus, disputants

  Stoic teacher and pupil who disagree over what a seller must disclose.

• Gyges, thought experiment

  Shepherd of Plato's story whose ring made him invisible.

• Publius Scipio Africanus, exemplar

  Conqueror of Hannibal, quoted at the opening of Book III.

Lessons

• The honourable and the useful are one

  Cicero's central claim is that a real conflict between what is right and what is advantageous is an illusion; the apparent conflict arises when people misjudge what benefits them. Book III tests the claim against cases where deceit or oath-breaking seem to pay.

  • In the case of the Rhodian corn merchant, whose view is stronger, Diogenes' or Antipater's, and why does Cicero side with Antipater?
  • Does the story of Regulus prove Cicero's rule, or does it show that the honourable can cost everything?
  • Why does Cicero think the ring of Gyges settles nothing about what a good man would do?

• Duties ranked by closeness

  Cicero does not treat all obligations as equal. He ranks the claims of country, parents, children, household, kin and friends, and he adds that circumstances change the ranking, so that a neighbour may have the better claim at harvest and a kinsman in court.

  • Why does Cicero put country and parents first?
  • How does his example of helping a neighbour bring in his corn show that duty depends on the situation?

• Justice even toward enemies

  In Book I Cicero argues that war is waged only so that people may live in peace without injury, that promises to an enemy must be kept, and that the conquered who were not cruel should be spared. These pages fed into later Christian and early modern writing on just war.

  • What limits does Cicero place on the conduct of war?
  • Why does he think fraud is worse than force?

• Fitting conduct and one's own nature

  Decorum asks a person to act in keeping with human nature and with his own particular gifts, station and stage of life. Cicero tells Marcus to choose a calling that fits his character rather than imitate another's.

  • What does Cicero mean by seemliness, and how is it related to temperance?
  • Is it a duty to know oneself before choosing a career?

Context

Cicero wrote On Duties in the last months of the Roman Republic, between Caesar's assassination in March 44 BC and the war with Antony that would end in his own death. The book reads in part as a statesman's testament: it praises the Republic's laws and condemns those who seized power or property by force.

Composition

Composed in autumn 44 BC, at about the same time as the first Philippics, during a period of remarkable output that also produced On Old Age and On Friendship. Books I and II follow Panaetius's lost Greek treatise on duty, freely adapted; Book III, on conflicts between honour and expediency, Cicero says he worked out himself with help from Posidonius and others. Cyrus R. Edmonds's English version appeared in Bohn's Classical Library in the nineteenth century, with notes citing later moralists.

Reception

St Ambrose of Milan wrote his De officiis ministrorum for clergy on Cicero's model, and the work was copied and studied through the Middle Ages. It was among the first classical books printed (Mainz, 1465) and became a school text across Europe; Erasmus admired it, and Locke recommended it in Some Thoughts Concerning Education. Its teaching on just war and good faith with enemies passed into Grotius and the law of nations.

Comparisons

• the-prince

  Machiavelli answers Cicero directly: Cicero says fraud belongs to the fox and force to the lion and both are unworthy of man, while The Prince, ch. XVIII, tells the ruler to know how to be both; Cicero's preference for being loved over feared is reversed in ch. XVII.

• the-nicomachean-ethics

  Cicero's four virtues and his doctrine of seemliness rework Greek ethics; reading Aristotle's account of justice, magnanimity and liberality shows what the Roman adapts and what he takes from Stoicism instead.

• cicero-republic-and-laws

  Cicero's earlier dialogues set out the best constitution and natural law; On Duties applies those principles to the personal conduct of a citizen and statesman.

• grotius-rights-of-war-and-peace

  Grotius cites Cicero's rules on just war, good faith with enemies and the society of mankind as foundations of the law of nations.

• letters-from-a-stoic

  Seneca's letters to Lucilius, written a century later, are another Roman adaptation of Stoic ethics in letter form, more inward and less political than Cicero's.

• meditations

  Marcus Aurelius gives the Stoic teaching on duty from the emperor's private notebook, where Cicero gives it as a republican statesman's public counsel to his son.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The four sources of virtue laid out in Book I, ch. V, and how every later rule is traced back to one of them.
• Cicero's own consulship of 63 BC, which he brings in as proof that peaceful statesmanship can outshine victory in war.
• The turn in Book II from what is honourable to what wins goodwill, and his warning that the man who rules by fear is in danger.
• Book III's hard cases: Gyges' ring, the corn ships bound for Rhodes, the house with hidden defects, and Pythius's fishing party.
• The long treatment of Regulus near the end of Book III, where Cicero answers every objection to his return to Carthage.

Key terms and names

Officium

Latin for duty or appropriate action, Cicero's rendering of the Stoic kathēkon. The whole work is about the duties that follow from virtue.

Honestum

The morally good or honourable, treated in Book I; Edmonds keeps the Latin word in places and elsewhere translates it as virtuous.

Utile

The expedient or advantageous, the subject of Book II, which Cicero refuses to set against the honestum in Book III.

Decorum

Seemliness or propriety, the fourth source of duty, which governs speech, dress, bearing and the fit between a person's conduct and his nature.

Panaetius

The Stoic of Rhodes whose treatise on duty Cicero adapts; he promised a discussion of conflicts between honour and advantage but never wrote it.

Fecial law

The old Roman religious law governing declarations of war and treaties, which Cicero cites in explaining why Regulus was bound by his oath.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What are the four sources from which Cicero says all duty arises, and what does each require?
2. Comprehension Why does Cicero say that injustice by fraud is worse than injustice by force?
3. Comprehension What did Regulus do after being sent to Rome by the Carthaginians, and why?
4. Interpretation Cicero holds that nothing expedient can be dishonourable. Is he saying that virtue always pays, or redefining what counts as paying?
5. Interpretation Why might Cicero, writing just after the death of Caesar, insist so strongly that being feared is the worst way to keep power?
6. Interpretation How does the Rhodian corn case show the difference between obeying the law and being just?
7. Interpretation What does Cicero's advice to his son about choosing a calling suggest about how he sees his own life?
8. Big Question Is it ever right to deceive in order to protect oneself or one's country, or is good faith owed even to enemies?

Faith Connections

• Psalm 15:4 (Scripture)

  The psalm praises the one who swears to his own hurt and does not change. Regulus's return to Carthage is the pagan example Cicero offers of the same steadfastness in an oath.

• Mark 8:36 (Scripture)

  Jesus asks what it profits a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul. Cicero's rule that nothing is truly expedient that is dishonourable reaches a similar conclusion by reasoning about human nature.

• Ambrose, De officiis ministrorum I (Church Fathers)

  Ambrose of Milan wrote his book of duties for his clergy on the model of Cicero's, keeping the cardinal virtues and many of the cases but drawing his examples from Scripture, so that Abraham, Joseph and David stand where Cicero placed Roman heroes.

• Augustine, Confessions III.4 (Great Conversation)

  Augustine says it was Cicero's Hortensius, another of his philosophical works, that first turned him toward the love of wisdom; On Duties shows the moral seriousness that Christian readers found in Cicero.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Human beings are made by nature for society and for the pursuit of truth. Whatever accords with nature and the virtues is honourable, and whatever truly benefits a person accords with nature. Taking from another for one's own gain violates the fellowship of mankind and so goes against nature. Therefore nothing dishonourable can be expedient, and when a conflict seems to arise, the error lies in our judgment of what is useful.

Rhetorical device: exemplum. Book III proves its rule through a series of examples, culminating in Regulus, whose return to Carthage in the First Punic War is examined from every side so that the example itself carries the argument.

Debate: Resolved: that the corn merchant at Rhodes is bound to tell the buyers that more ships are coming.

Memory Work

But (as has been strikingly said by Plato) we are not born for ourselves alone, and our country claims her share, and our friends their share of us

fraud being the property of a fox, force that of a lion ; both are utterly repugnant to society, but fraud is the more detestable.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Using Gyges' ring, the Rhodian corn merchant and Regulus, explain how Cicero defends his claim in Book III that the honourable and the expedient never truly conflict, and assess whether his defence succeeds.

Comparison with The Prince: Cicero's Book I, ch. XIII, condemns both the fox and the lion; Machiavelli's Prince, ch. XVIII, tells the ruler to imitate both. Compare the two chapters and the political circumstances of each writer, and argue which better understands what keeps a state secure.

Medical Lens

On Duties is not a medical work, but it shows how an educated Roman placed medicine and health within a moral life. Cicero ranks medicine with architecture and teaching as an honourable calling for those of suitable rank, a mark of the status of physicians (often Greek) in late Republican Rome. He uses the physician's practice of matching gentle remedies to mild illness and strong remedies to grave disease as a model for prudence in danger. In Book II he records the Stoic Antipater's complaint that Panaetius omitted the care of health, and summarizes it as knowing one's own constitution, observing what helps or harms, temperance in food and comfort, and resort to the skill of those whose art it is. The Stoic picture of virtue as governing the passions belongs to the long tradition of philosophy as care of the soul.

• Book I, ch. XXIV

  The prudent man in danger is compared to physicians who use gentle medicines for gentle illnesses and stronger, riskier cures for dangerous diseases.

  Physicians Doctors
• Book I, ch. XLII

  Medicine, architecture and the liberal arts listed as honourable professions for those whose station they suit.

  Physicians Doctors Ancient Medicine
• Book II, end

  Antipater of Tyre's addition of the care of health: self-knowledge of the body, temperance, and the help of the medical art.

  Ancient Medicine

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Stage the Rhodian corn debate from Book III: one team argues Diogenes' position that the merchant need only obey the law of sale, the other Antipater's that he must disclose the approaching ships; then read Cicero's verdict.

• Essay

  Cicero says fraud belongs to the fox and force to the lion; Machiavelli advises the prince to be both. Write an essay comparing the two passages and the political experience behind each.

• Fiction

  Write the letter young Marcus might have sent his father from Athens after reading Book III, with his questions about Regulus.

Further Reading

• On Duties (trans. M. T. Griffin and E. M. Atkins), Cicero

  Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought translation with introduction.

• Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician, Anthony Everitt

• On Old Age and On Friendship, Cicero

  Dialogues written in the same year; On Friendship follows Book III in the library's OCR file.

• Cicero's De Officiis: A Commentary, Andrew R. Dyck