{"id":554,"date":"2017-08-13T09:54:05","date_gmt":"2017-08-13T08:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/?p=554"},"modified":"2017-06-08T09:20:09","modified_gmt":"2017-06-08T08:20:09","slug":"a-fathers-advice-cicero-de-officiis-on-duties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2017\/08\/13\/a-fathers-advice-cicero-de-officiis-on-duties\/","title":{"rendered":"A Father\u2019s Advice \u2013 Cicero De Officiis (On Duties)"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"kent-social-links\"><li><a href='http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2017\/08\/13\/a-fathers-advice-cicero-de-officiis-on-duties\/&amp;t=A Father\u2019s Advice \u2013 Cicero De Officiis (On Duties)' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-facebook' title='Share via Facebook'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=A Father\u2019s Advice \u2013 Cicero De Officiis (On Duties)%20https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2017\/08\/13\/a-fathers-advice-cicero-de-officiis-on-duties\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-twitter' title='Share via Twitter'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/share?url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2017\/08\/13\/a-fathers-advice-cicero-de-officiis-on-duties\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-google-plus' title='Share via Google Plus'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2017\/08\/13\/a-fathers-advice-cicero-de-officiis-on-duties\/&amp;title=A Father\u2019s Advice \u2013 Cicero De Officiis (On Duties)' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-linkedin' title='Share via Linked In'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='mailto:content=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2017\/08\/13\/a-fathers-advice-cicero-de-officiis-on-duties\/&amp;title=A Father\u2019s Advice \u2013 Cicero De Officiis (On Duties)' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-email' title='Share via Email'><\/i><\/a><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><em>This month, Ray Laurence reflects on how concepts of age by key Roman writers feature in Latin texts and how age shapes the expectations of the young by the old. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">The Lucius films feature a theme of the relationship between a teenage son and his father. Many have asked for the evidence for this relationship, it lies in many ancient texts and in this blog, we will take a look at what Cicero says about the matter in <em><a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a2007.01.0048\">On Duties<\/a><\/em> written in 44 BC.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><em>On Duties <\/em>or <em>De Officiis <\/em>was advice from Cicero to younger men in Rome in the aftermath of Caesar\u2019s murder on the Ides of March and, in particular, his son \u2013 Marcus junior \u2013 studying in Athens. His son is 21 years old and Cicero is 63. Marcus has returned from Athens, where he was taught by Cratippus.\u00a0\u00a0 Marcus has already gained military glory commanding cavalry under the leadership of Pompey (now dead<a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Cic.+Off.+2.45&amp;fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0048\">). LINK to 2.45.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Cicero sees that duties is a subject worthy of his <em>auctoritas<\/em> (authority) and his age (<a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Cic.+Off.+1.4&amp;fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0048\">LINK to section 1.4<\/a>) and the treatise was seen by him to replace a trip to see young Marcus in Athens.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Age plays its part in defining the difference between Cicero as a <em>senex <\/em>(an old man) and his son as a <em>iuvenis <\/em>(youngman). Their worlds are defined in <em>On Duties <\/em>as very different \u2013 but the intersection of the old and the young was essential for both the old and the young in (<a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Cic.+Off.+1.122&amp;fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0048\">Link to 1.122<\/a>):<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Youth must respect his elders and choose from their number the best and most upright person, whose advice and authority he will depend on;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">The good sense of old age was there to guide the inexperience of youth;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Youth was a period of time to guard against passions and to train the body and the mind in toil and endurance to flourish in both military and civil duties;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Pleasure was to be enjoyed but in a restrained way and one that did not bring shame on the youngman<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Never far away within <em>On Duties, <\/em>lies Cicero\u2019s greatest year of his life \u2013 his consulship \u2013 held when Marcus was an infant, not that this stops Cicero from raising the matter: \u2018I am allowed to boast to you Marcus. For yours, it is both to inherit my glory and to imitate my deeds\u2019. He can compare this to military triumphs of others, including Pompey, but notes that: \u2018Let arms yield to the toga\u2019. <a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Cic.+Off.+1.77&amp;fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0048\">LINK to 1.77-8<\/a>. It is his consulship that defines both his identity and that of his son.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">The Lucius films also set out to encapsulate the relationship between the inhabitants of Rome, both as citizens and as people who used the city of Rome. There is much on this in <em>On Duties. <\/em>Cicero sees a relationship between an individual and all humans, there is everybody in the world. Yet, then, can narrow things down to just those of the same race, tribe or language, or even further to living in a single city. Within cities, Cicero saw everyone sharing their citizenship, and also the physical aspects of the city: forum, temples, porticoes and roads. In addition, they also shared the same time laws, legal rights and elections; as well as business transactions. However, within each city \u2013 the closest group were relatives as the link to this passage shows <a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Cic.+Off.+1.53&amp;fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0048\">(Link to 1.53<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Cicero \u2013 junior, Marcus at the age of 21 years could have been looking to be married within the next three to five years and to establish a house in which things were shared. In fact, sharing can be seen as a key aspect of Roman identity from marriage through to citizenship. The bonds of family are also discussed in <em>On Duties<\/em>: with children, between brothers \u2013 think of the tempestuous relationship between Cicero and his brother (link here), and also bonds with cousins (Marcus and his Cousin Quintus) and second cousins. There are then 54 more forms of familial relatives listed. Kinship had its hierarchy, but was something to map very carefully.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Even the sort of house, a leading man should have is covered in <em>On Duties:<\/em> it needed to be open to the public gaze and Cicero considers the openness of a house to have been a factor in the gain or the loss of consular elections, as you can see <a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Cic.+Off.+1.138&amp;fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0048\">from this link 1.138<\/a>. Yet, a house does not win a consulship \u2013 it accommodates visitors and guests, but needs a limit on its luxuriousness or magnificence. To demonstrates this he cites the example of Lucullus living in villas to be imitated, but having a lifestyle no one would want to imitate (<a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Cic.+Off.+1.140&amp;fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0048\">LINK to 1.140<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Everyone was at risk from the perils of luxury and if the old succumb, they were seen to drag the young down with them, which provides a view of the old (<a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Cic.+Off.+1.123&amp;fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0048\">Link to 1.123<\/a>):<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">\u00a0Use of the body was reduced, but the exercise of their minds increased;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">They should assist their friends and the young and most of all the republic with good advice;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Idleness and inactivity was best avoided;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Luxurious living was particularly dishonourable in old age;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Unrestrained passion in old age was shameful, but would also affect the young (who were advised by the elderly)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">There is a sense in which duties were performed for the future and the memory of those deeds in the present. As Cicero makes clear in book 2 of <em>On Duties:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><em>\u00a0<\/em>\u2018We must make an effort to affect as many as possible by kind services of such a sort that the memory of them is handed down to children and children\u2019s children, so that they too may not be without gratitude\u2019 (<a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Cic.+Off.+2.61&amp;fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0048\">Link to 2.61<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><em>\u00a0<\/em>Thus, the great banquets and games given by Julius Caesar would have been seen as extravagant and only to be remembered briefly; whereas the ransoming of captives from bandits, paying a friend\u2019s debts, provision of a friend\u2019s dowry for his daughter; or help a friend expand a property were seen more positively and to have been lasting over a longer time frame (<a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Cic.+Off.+2.55&amp;fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0048\">Link to 2.55-56<\/a>). Cicero reviews all the splendid games given by the aediles in the past, and discusses the building activities of Pompey: a theatre, temples and a porticus being open to critique as extravagant. Noting that: it would have been better to have spent the money on: but can simply say it would be better to spend money on walls, docks, harbours, or aqueducts \u2013 things of utility rather than of beauty (<a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Cic.+Off.+2.57&amp;fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0048\">Link to 2.57-60<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><em>On Duties <\/em>contains advice of an old man to his young son, who he sees as becoming independent through the study of philosophy \u2013 but nevertheless still needs guiding and advising by his father on how to live his life (Link to`3.5).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Reading this text, we might place Cicero in the law-courts or in the Forum; but the reality was, as he sets out in <em>On Duties<\/em> 3.1<em>,<\/em> that there was no place for Cicero in public life in 44 BC \u2013 he was living in enforced leisure (<em>otium<\/em>) and composed treatises such as <em>On Duties. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><strong>Further Research<br \/>\n<\/strong>You will have seen above how there are concepts of age embedded within the text of <em>On Duties <\/em>or <em>De Officiis<\/em>. You can examine almost any Latin text to see how age shapes the Roman conceptions of how people should behave, what they should do and so on. It is slightly surprising how age is often ignored or just missed in the reading of Latin literature. Thus, you may wish to examine how age influenced the writing of Cicero\u2019s speeches such as the <em>Pro Caelio<\/em> or in his <em>Letters to Atticus <\/em>from 43 BC that discuss the abilities of Octavian, who he wished to provide guidance for as an old man. The advice to the young by the old was an essential part of the role of the <em>senex. <\/em>Interestingly, most of Latin Literature was written by men in late mid-life to old age. This is particularly true of philosophical works by Cicero and Seneca. It could be said that stoicism was a philosophy that was designed by the old in order to endure the challenges of Old Age.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">More information on ageing is available:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Harlow, M. &amp; Laurence R. 2002. <strong><em>Growing Up and Growing Old in Ancient Rome: A Life Course Approach<\/em><\/strong><em>, <\/em>Routledge: London.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Harlow, M. &amp; Laurence R. 2011. <strong>\u2018Viewing the \u2018Old\u2019: Recording and Respecting the Elderly at Rome\u2019<\/strong>, in Christian Kr\u00f6tzl &amp; Katariina Mustakallio (eds) <em>De senectute et mortis:<\/em> <em>Ideals and Attitudes towards Old Age and Death in Antiquity and Middle Ages, <\/em>Brepolis, pp.3-24.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Harlow, M. &amp; Laurence R. 2010. \u2018<strong><em>De Amicitia<\/em>: The Role of Age\u2019<\/strong>,<em> Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae<\/em> 36: 21-32.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"kent-social-links\"><li><a href='http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2017\/08\/13\/a-fathers-advice-cicero-de-officiis-on-duties\/&amp;t=A Father\u2019s Advice \u2013 Cicero De Officiis (On Duties)' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-facebook' title='Share via Facebook'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=A Father\u2019s Advice \u2013 Cicero De Officiis (On Duties)%20https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2017\/08\/13\/a-fathers-advice-cicero-de-officiis-on-duties\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-twitter' title='Share via Twitter'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/share?url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2017\/08\/13\/a-fathers-advice-cicero-de-officiis-on-duties\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-google-plus' title='Share via Google Plus'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2017\/08\/13\/a-fathers-advice-cicero-de-officiis-on-duties\/&amp;title=A Father\u2019s Advice \u2013 Cicero De Officiis (On Duties)' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-linkedin' title='Share via Linked In'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='mailto:content=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2017\/08\/13\/a-fathers-advice-cicero-de-officiis-on-duties\/&amp;title=A Father\u2019s Advice \u2013 Cicero De Officiis (On Duties)' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-email' title='Share via Email'><\/i><\/a><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This month, Ray Laurence reflects on how concepts of age by key Roman writers feature in Latin texts and how&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2017\/08\/13\/a-fathers-advice-cicero-de-officiis-on-duties\/\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">A Father\u2019s Advice \u2013 Cicero De Officiis (On Duties)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40877,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[152658,152656,152666],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40877"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":556,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions\/556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}