Chapter 8, The Ideal Constitution, Writing about Politics, 55-43 B.C. Summary and Analysis

Cicero began to turn towards writing about politics from 55 to 43 B.C., starting with a book on oratory in November 55 B.C., defending the practice of rhetoric. While Cicero was more famous for his oratory and had a reputation for writing too much, these books were well received. He also wrote books in dialogue form called On the State and On Law. The focus of On the State (published in 51 B.C.) was on the ideal constitution and the ideal citizen. It required a lot of work. Cicero has one of his characters, Scipio, argue that the best government combines monarchy, aristocracy and democracy as the Roman constitution does. This theory of the mixed constitution has had great historical influence. However, Cicero did...