Cicero lived to see the waning of the Republic into its twilight years before its rebirth as a Principate under Octavian. Ever since the Catiline conspiracy in 63 BCE, Cicero had to maneuver himself politically on two fronts: the Senate and the Triumvirs. Despite all Cicero’s efforts, Pompey rejected Cicero’s advice to break ties with Caesar, causing Cicero to lose a great amount of political influence. This led Cicero to take a step back from political life to focus on his literary works. It was during this time (ca. 54–51 BCE) that Cicero wrote his De Republica, of which only sections survive, including the famous Somnium Scipionis. Using Plato’s Myth of Er as a model for Somnium, Cicero blends many elements of Greek philosophy, contemporary astrological lore, and Roman ethics to end his political treatise with an eschatological framework. This fusion minimizes the differences between the Stoic, Aristotelian, and Platonic schools and incorporates them into the broader Roman political background to appeal to educated Romans (Luck, 208). Rather than creating this philosophical concoction from scratch, Cicero likely depended upon his teacher, Antiochus of Ascalon (Luck, 214), who notoriously took many elements of Stoicism and integrated them with his Platonic doctrines. Still, this does not take away from Cicero’s literary achievement. His ability to take a complex blend of foreign philosophies and present them in an attractive, Roman political framework required ingenuity and discretion.
Although almost all of Cicero’s doctrines build upon one another, the primary doctrines put forth in the Somnium concern theology (or [meta]physics), psychology, and ethics. Since the primary rhetorical thrust of the Somnium is an ethical exhortation, physics and psychology serve as a foundation for these ethical injunctions. Therefore, starting from the foundational, (meta)physical framework, we will work toward the ethical core of the Somnium.
Physics and Metaphysics
One foundational doctrine of the Somnium is that God is the mind (mens), which animates and rules the universe. In some passages, the mind is pantheistic, like the Stoic pneuma (πνεῦμα), since it animates the whole universe and inhabits it as a temple (Somn. 15). Furthermore, Paulus identifies the outermost sphere of the cosmos as “that highest God ruling and containing the others” (summus ipse deus arcens et continens ceteros). However, he also states that the Sun is the mind that rules over the rest of the celestial bodies. This apparent contradiction is a fusion of the two Stoic traditions of Cleanthes, who identifies with the latter, and Posidonius, who identifies with the former. Cicero likely posits that the Sun’s rule stops at the sphere of the fixed stars (Powell, 159). Thirdly, Paulus also says that divine minds animate the stars. Rather than depending upon the Stoics, here, Cicero, is probably drawing from Plato’s Timaeus, where the fixed stars are called “living divine beings” (ζῷα θεῖα ὄντα; 40b). These stars, according to Cicero, are the source of the human soul/mind, which connects to the next, psychological layer of the Somnium.
The Harmony of the Spheres
However, before touching down on the Sominum’s psychology, it is necessary to stay afloat in the celestial regions to examine the doctrine of the harmony of the spheres. As Paulus explains the sounds of the universe to Scipio, he says that the seven musical notes created by the eight moving spheres form the “knot” (nodus) that ties all of reality together (Somn. 18). This doctrine derives from Pythagoras but was later taken up by Plato in his Myth of Er (617b). Paulus likely references the Pythagoreans when he says that there are some who imitated these harmonies and have gained access to the celestial realm (Somn. 18). This access, then, is the reuniting of the human soul to its origin in the astral realm.
Psychology
The most frequent philosophical doctrines in the Sominum are those relating to the animus. Several of these doctrines rely upon the astral origin of the human soul. Thus, because the human soul is composed of the fire from the stars, which are themselves animated by the divine mens, human souls: (1) are immortal; (2) preexist; (3) are the true essence of the human; (4) divine; (5) are imprisoned in corruptible bodies. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul arises after Africanus tells Scipio that there is an afterlife for dutiful patriots in 14. Later, Cicero translates the proof for the immortality of the soul from Plato’s Phaedrus 245c–246a (Somn. 27): since the soul is the cause of its own movement, the soul itself is eternal. On the one hand, the soul has no end and never dies. On the other hand, the soul has no beginning and pre-exists before it enters the body. This is hinted at in Somn. 13, when Africanus says “those ruling and preserving those states, after having been perfected, they return from here to that place” (harum [civitatum] rectores et conservatores hinc profecti huc revertuntur). Yet, unlike Plato’s Myth of Er, there is no discussion of the transmigration of souls or purgation. Rather, at the very end of the narrative, Paulus says that those obeying impulses and pleasures (probably Epicureans) will not return to their origin until they have been driven for many ages (Somn. 29).
Logically, then, since one’s identity survives after death in the mind, then one’s essence is the mind. Humans are not what is “able to be pointed at with a finger,” but rather “the mind of each is each person” (mens cuiusque is est quisque; Somn. 26). Therefore, humans are immortal and are gods, in a sense. Just as God rules the universe, humans rule the bodies which they inhabit (cf. Seneca, Ep. 41). Bodies themselves, however, are corruptible prisons in which our mind is bound. Cicero draws this from the sōma/sēma doctrine that originated in presocratic philosophy and Orphic religion and was passed down through Plato (Phaedo 67d; 82e). This doctrine purported that the body (σῶμα) is a prison (σῆμα) of the soul. Because of this negative view of the body and excitement for the afterlife, Scipio asks why he should continue to live in the body (Somn. 14). Paulus answers that suicide is unacceptable because it is impious toward God, who created humans to look after the earth (Somn. 15). Socrates in the Phaedo also says it is impious to commit suicide (61d-62c), yet the impiety resides in angering God by destroying his property (κτῆμα) rather than not fulfilling a duty.
Ethics
Two modes of life are necessary to return to one’s astral origin. First is the vita active (the active life), which involves fulfilling one’s social responsibilities. This way of life is lived out according to the two Mediterranean virtues, iustitia and pietas (justice and piety toward humans, government, and the gods), which Paulus says “is a road into heaven” (Somn. 16). The other mode of life is the vita contemplativa (the contemplative life), which consists of a withdrawal into philosophical inquiry, especially astrology. This mode of life accomplishes a separation of soul from body while still alive on the earth as far as possible (quam maxime; Somn. 29). George Luck observes that Cicero means for both lifestyles to be lived simultaneously and not as alternatives. The way one learns iustitia and pietas is by contemplating the heavenly bodies (Luck, 210). Cicero derives this “astral mysticism” from Hellenistic and Roman astronomers. Additionally, Posidonius believed that contemplation of the heavenly spheres purified the fiery soul so that it could ascend back into the World Soul occupying the highest sphere (Cumont, 150). But the view of astrological contemplation inducing a separation of the soul from the body is also Platonic (Phaedo, 67d).
Conclusion
The philosophical medley of Somnium Scipionis provides a rich metaphysical framework for Cicero’s politics. It combines an eschatological hope of ‘heaven’ as a reward for the contemplative, just, and pious leader with a cynical attitude toward earthly glory. Cicero likely intended this story to reinforce traditional Roman values (iustitia and pietas) among a nation whose leaders were compromising those values for the sake of honor and fama. The Dream also likely comforted Cicero as he faced political disappointment. No matter how bad the outcome, Cicero could look forward to everlasting honor and reward through withdrawal into philosophical contemplation.
Note: This work was adapted from an essay I wrote for my Hellenistic Eschatology course in 2022.
Resources:
Cumont, Franz. Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans. American Lectures on the History of Religions. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1912.
Luck, George. “Studia Divina in Humana: On Cicero’s Dream of Scipio and its Place in Graeco-Roman Philosophy.” HTR 49.4 (1956): 207–18.
Powell, J. G. F. Cicero: On Friendship & The Dream of Scipio. Aris & Phillips Classical Texts. Havertown, PA: OXBOW BOOKS, 2015.
