Paradoxa Stoicorum
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~6,740 words · 32 passages
Cite this work
- APACicero. (n.d.). Paradoxa Stoicorum. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/paradoxa-stoicorum
- MLACicero. Paradoxa Stoicorum. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/paradoxa-stoicorum.
- ChicagoCicero. Paradoxa Stoicorum. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/paradoxa-stoicorum.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The Latin original of the little work of 46 BC in which Cicero defends six Stoic theses that seem unbelievable.
Context and history
The six paradoxes are the ones the Stoics themselves called by that name: that only the honourable is good; that virtue suffices for happiness; that all faults are equal; that every fool is mad; that only the wise man is free; and that only the wise man is rich. Cicero is not doing school philosophy here but a declared exercise: to test whether these theses, which the Stoa proved with dry logic, can be defended with the eloquence of the forum, before ordinary people and with Roman examples. He dedicates it to Brutus and himself presents it as a serious game. It is the shortest text of the philosophical Cicero and a splendid side door into Stoicism: one sees what the school asserted back when someone who was not a disciple still had to be convinced.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Laudetur vero hic imperator aut etiam appelletur aut hoc nomine dignus putetur! Quo modo aut cui tandem hic libero imperabit, qui non potest cupiditatibus suis imperare? Refrenet primum libidines, spernat voluptates, iracundiam teneat, coerceat avaritiam, ceteras animi labes repellat, tum incipiat aliis imperare, cum ipse improbissimis dominis, dedecori ac turpitudini, parere desierit; dum quidem his oboediet, non modo imperator, sed liber habendus omnino non erit. Praeclare enim est hoc usurpatum a doctissimis (quorum ego auctoritate non uterer, si mihi apud aliquos agrestes haec habenda esset oratio; cum vero apud prudentissimos loquar, quibus haec inaudita non sint, cur ego simulem me, si quid in his studiis operae posuerim, perdidisse?) dictum est igitur ab eruditissimis viris nisi sapientem liberum esse neminem. Quid est enim libertas? Potestas vivendi, ut velis. Quis igitur vivit, ut volt, nisi qui recte vivit? qui gaudet officio, cui vivendi via considerata atque provisa est, qui ne legibus quidem propter metum paret, sed eas sequitur et colit, quia id salutare esse maxime iudicat, qui nihil dicit, nihil facit, nihil cogitat denique nisi libenter ac libere, cuius omnia consilia resque omnes, quas gerit, ab ipso proficiscuntur eodemque referuntur, nec est ulla res, quae plus apud eum polleat quam ipsius voluntas atque iudicium; cui quidem etiam, quae vim habere maximam dicitur, Fortuna ipsa cedit, si, ut sapiens poeta dixit, 'suis ea cuique fingitur moribus.' Soli igitur hoc contingit sapienti, ut nihil faciat invitus, nihil dolens, nihil coactus. Quod etsi ita esse pluribus verbis disserendum est, illud tamen et breve et confitendum est, nisi qui ita sit adfectus, esse liberum neminem. Igitur omnes improbi servi. Nec hoc tam re est quam dictu inopinatum atque mirabile.…