Paradoxa Stoicorum
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~6,740 words · 32 passages
Cite this work
- APACicero. (n.d.). Paradoxa Stoicorum. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/paradoxa-stoicorum
- MLACicero. "Paradoxa Stoicorum." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/paradoxa-stoicorum.
- ChicagoCicero. Paradoxa Stoicorum. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/paradoxa-stoicorum.
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.
Animadverti, Brute, saepe Catonem, avunculum tuum, cum in senatu sententiam diceret, locos graves ex philosophia tractare abhorrentes ab hoc usu forensi et publico, sed dicendo consequi tamen, ut illa etiam populo probabilia viderentur. Quod eo maius est illi quam aut tibi aut nobis, quia nos ea philosophia plus utimur, quae peperit dicendi copiam, et in qua dicuntur ea, quae non multum discrepent ab opinione populari, Cato autem, perfectus mea sententia Stoicus, et ea sentit, quae non sane probantur in volgus, et in ea est haeresi, quae nullum sequitur florem orationis neque dilatat argumentum, minutis interrogatiunculis quasi punctis, quod proposuit, efficit. Sed nihil est tam incredibile, quod non dicendo fiat probabile, nihil tam horridum, tam incultum, quod non splendescat oratione et tamquam excolatur. Quod cum ita putarem, feci etiam audacius quam ille ipse, de quo loquor. Cato enim dumtaxat de magnitudine animi, de continentia, de morte, de omni laude virtutis, de dis inmortalibus, de caritate patriae Stoice solet oratoriis ornamentis adhibitis dicere, ego tibi illa ipsa, quae vix in gymnasiis et in otio Stoici probant, ludens conieci in communes locos. Quae quia sunt admirabilia contraque opinionem omnium [ab ipsis etiam parãdoja appellantur], temptare volui possentne proferri in lucem [id est in forum], et ita dici, ut probarentur, an alia quaedam esset erudita, alia popularis oratio, eoque hos locos scripsi libentius, quod mihi ista parãdoja quae appellant maxime