As a classicist, let me remark that the Cicero quotation is very nice, but was never said by Cicero. The quotation apparently was used by somebody not realizing it comes from a
novel about Cicero by conservative writer
Taylor Caldwell:
A Pillar of Iron. (published in the middle 1960's)
The quotation here is actually an expansion of the original piece from the novel:
"The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall."
Ronald Reagan even quoted the above without realizing the lines came from fiction.
Caldwell was a Conservative, and the words she invents for Cicero
could have been his!
In any case, Cicero was against dictatorship, and like Cato the Younger and Brutus, was trying to salvage what was left of the Republic in the waning years of the first century B.C.
So yes, the
essence of the statement is obviously correct: keep in mind that Cicero ultimately lost his bid to restore the Republic after Caesar's assassination by Brutus and Company. Brutus supposedly shouted after the assassination that Cicero could now restore the Republic.
But we see now that few wanted the old virtuous, hard-working Republic to be restored. The Good Guys do not always win. Cicero was executed by Mark Antony with the tacit agreement of future emperor Octavian/Augustus.
Empire and dictatorship brought peace at least, which after a century of sporadic civil war, brought some prosperity, especially since onerous taxation was not a factor. The early emperors did have some sense about that, which much later ones would not.
Time's up! My Latin II class is entering the arena!
Send in the lions!
