Duae patriae: Cicero and political cosmopolitanism in Rome

Cosmopolitanism in the ancient world is often associated with Diogenes the Cynic as well as with Stoic thinkers, particularly Zeno. Recently, philosophers have claimed ancient cosmopolitanism as a ground for defending its revival in modernity. In my dissertation, I argue that we should seek the sources of political cosmopolitanism not in the Hellenistic Stoics, but in late republican Roman literary and cultural discourse. I contend that in addition to Stoic thought, Roman expansion and imperialism has an effect on Cicero's arguments for citizenship.I begin by showing that Hellenistic cosmopolitanism is moral in nature and confined to an abstract cosmic city of the wise. I then move to Cicero's philosophical works. I examine how Cicero uses ideas of kinship and affiliation to mediate tensions that result between local and Roman identity within Rome's empire. I focus on De Re Publica, De Legibus, De Finibus and De Officiis and examine the ways in which Cicero applies Stoic ideas of the ideal state, kinship, and affiliation to Roman history and politics. Next, I turn to the Pro Archia and Pro Balbo to look at ways in which Cicero uses notions of cultural kinship and Roman political virtue to argue for the legal citizenship of Archias and Balbus. Finally, I use the Verrine orations as a case study for how Cicero constructs ideas of Roman-ness and kinship to draw provincials lacking citizenship status into a closer relationship with Rome.