A righteous pagan in the starry heavens? Cicero's republicanism and his just war principles

Abstract

This dissertation provides an exegesis of Cicero's writings on justice in warfare which, as far as I have been able to determine, has never been carried out in the English Language. The method employed is a close reading of three of Cicero's philosophical works: De Re Publica, De Legibus and De Officiis, with occasional reference to and critical analysis of some secondary literature on matters broadly related to his just war thinking. I construe Cicero as drawing intelligently on a number of ostensibly incongruous schools of Greek and Hellenistic philosophy and bringing them to bear on Roman history and practice in such a way that what emerges is a highly innovative and juristic conception of the just war informed by his unique brand of republicanism. By way of conclusion, I point to his legacy in the just war tradition which is commonly taken by scholars to begin in his successor, Augustine, as as an indication of Cicero's enduring relevance, I apply his style of thinking to both a contemporary problem in the ethics of warfare and the field itself which studies them.