Divinity And Virtue

In the history of political thought, Cicero is often regarded as a less important figure, an inheritor without any creativity and originality. He was considered a mere imitator who just dully followed that doctrines of Platonic-Aristotelian tradition and Stoic natural law teachings which highly inspired him.But this somewhat stereotypical impression ignored that historical changes had never estranged him from his mentors, actually, he himself despised those dizzling creativities in philosophy, De Republica and De Legibus, was definitely modeled on Plato’s Republic and The Laws. However, we must look deeply into the intentions and seriousness of Cicero’s plan about this old issue of political philosophy from the outset. The engnimatic Dream of Scipio was based on the Er Myth of Plato, and was set in a dream, in which Africanus Scipio and Paulus was deified and told Scipio that the glories and rewards of this world must be put in oblivion, and what he saw from the vault of heaven must be remembered by heart.Cicero’s Dream of Scipio obviously referred to many Platonic myths, the natural fate of soul was taken from Phaedo and Phaedrus, and the Genealogy of Cosmos from Timaeus. It implies that human nature and political virtues must be seen under the divine dimension of the providence which belongs to the whole nature as such. In the light of the divinity set by the Dream of Scipio, we could find the root of true sophia and virtues revealed by the classical natural right teaching.