Author: Clarke, Michelle T
Title: Liberty, the People, and Republican Constitutionalism in Cicero’s Pro Rabirio perduellionis reo
Review/Collection: «Polis» 42, 1
Year edition: 2025
Pages: 9-28
Keywords: Droit - Diritto - Law, Éloquence - Eloquenza - Eloquence, Politique - Politica - Politics
Description: This article examines Cicero’s treatment of libertas and its constitutional underpinnings in Pro Rabirio perduellionis reo. In Pro Rabirio, Cicero offers a concentrated discussion of libertas in which he downplays its relationship with popular institutions and procedures and emphasizes instead its strong correlation with social and political consensus. Indeed, for Cicero, libertas is more closely associated with the qualitative characteristics of peaceable association than any particular constitutional order. By characterizing libertas as an experience of calm security that goods citizens enjoy when they are consistently and effectively protected against by injury at the hands of moral degenerates, Cicero makes it possible to distance libertas from provocatio and auxilium, the two major legal and institutional mechanisms associated with libertas in the Roman context, and forge a much stronger connection with the self-regulating activity of the Roman ruling elite.
Works:
Author initials: Clarke 2025
Title: Liberty, the People, and Republican Constitutionalism in Cicero’s Pro Rabirio perduellionis reo
Review/Collection: «Polis» 42, 1
Year edition: 2025
Pages: 9-28
Keywords: Droit - Diritto - Law, Éloquence - Eloquenza - Eloquence, Politique - Politica - Politics
Description: This article examines Cicero’s treatment of libertas and its constitutional underpinnings in Pro Rabirio perduellionis reo. In Pro Rabirio, Cicero offers a concentrated discussion of libertas in which he downplays its relationship with popular institutions and procedures and emphasizes instead its strong correlation with social and political consensus. Indeed, for Cicero, libertas is more closely associated with the qualitative characteristics of peaceable association than any particular constitutional order. By characterizing libertas as an experience of calm security that goods citizens enjoy when they are consistently and effectively protected against by injury at the hands of moral degenerates, Cicero makes it possible to distance libertas from provocatio and auxilium, the two major legal and institutional mechanisms associated with libertas in the Roman context, and forge a much stronger connection with the self-regulating activity of the Roman ruling elite.
Works:
Author initials: Clarke 2025
