Plato and Cicero; Comparison of Views on Government

Plato and Cicero; Comparison of Views on Government

Christopher Columbus was the first man to courageously sale across the ocean and discover what is now North America. He did this in a time where people questioned the contour of the Earth. His voyage achieved great heights for his era because he not only found a new continent, but also proved the long debated theory that the Earth was actually spherical. This instance highly relates to the life and works of both Plato as well as Cicero. Plato believed that there was something greater outside of life that he called the form. He thought that the average person did not know how to justify right from wrong and even started an Academy to teach young philosophers his values. Cicero on the other hand believed that every one should be under a "natural law" in which the only leader of this law was God himself. Roman government was falling apart and he wanted to restore it to a similar jurisdiction as to what it was years before. Both of these men were highly intelligent, but both tried to enforce their judgment in times where the people of greater power than them only cared about gaining more power, rather than keeping justice within their cities. These men also connect to each other because they both seem to not be completely aware of their milieu and driven by situations irrelevant to their main goal. Plato is motivated by his hatred for the government because he believes that his mentor, Socrates, was wrongly assassinated. Cicero, conversely, believed that Roman law was better in past years when situations were different within the city. They both took a very heroic stand in their period that ultimately cost them their lives; however, it was their work that was followed in years after that eventually was practiced, to a certain extent, and helped pave a better route for the citizens and the future or their cities.

Cicero prepared a list of new laws he believed that Rome should adopt. His laws concerned many topics that he felt were not strongly enough constructed in their government. One of his laws pertained to voting writes. The law states that high-ranking citizens... should be kept aware of what was going on, though the freedom of the ordinary person to vote as he wishes shall not be interfered with. He believed this would help because people being elected into office would be the figures that the public were rationally able to vote for. It would also help to prevent briberies from candidates. This was just one of his many laws. Plato also had views on the individuals who held office. He notes, different forms of government make laws democratical, aristocratical, tyrannical, with a view of their several interests; and these laws, which are made by them for their own interest, are the justice which they deliver to their subjects, and he who transgresses them they punish as breaker of the law, and unjust. And that is what I mean when I say that in all states there is the same principle of justice, which is the interest of the government; and as the government must be supposed to have power, the only reasonable conclusion is, that everywhere there is one principle of justice, which is the interest of the stronger. He believed that what was considered just or unjust in the eyes of officials were sometimes blurred with their own selfishness to have their way. As in if an authority really liked apples from a certain tree, and therefore determined that it was unjust for any common citizen to pick an apple from that tree, the act of doing so could be punishable by law. Picking an apple from a tree is not an unjust act until someone with power decides it is. Furthermore, Plato thought the only fit leaders were philosophers because of their greater knowledge. Cicero was worried about the same thing happening in Rome if unfit senators or consul men could bribe themselves into office.

Cicero also believed that that there should be some form of democracy or oligarchy. He even planned out each station that should be held for a proper running government. Starting with the aediles who's position was essentially to keep tabs on the city as well as senators, and moving up. The praetor shall be the man who administers justice, and pronounces or guides the verdicts in private lawsuits. It is he who shall be the guardian of the civil law. The praetors shall posses equal powers, and there shall be as many of them as the Senate decrees or the Assembly ordains. There shall also be two officials with the power that used to belong to the kings. This outline was very much like the one that Rome already had, but Cicero felt that his new adjustments made the system more balanced. He later states that, while he realizes it is impractical, he believes that the government would be run best by senator with tribunes in which they had no authority over. This was how it had been in earlier Rome. He realizes the bad but says nevertheless, the existence of tribunes prevents the Senate from becoming the target of envious attacks, and the masses do not launch perilous struggles on behalf of their rights. Plato, as stated earlier, believed the best fit leader was a philosophical one because they were able to have