Augustine in His Own Words (continued)
[Cicero] himself, at the beginning of his fifth book [of the Republic], quotes the verse of the poet Ennius declaring: "The Roman state rests on men and on the ancient way of life," and in his own words, not those of Scipio or any other, remarks:
That line for its conciseness and truth sounds to me like the utterance of an oracle. For, had not the state been blessed with a wholesome body of citizens, and had not those men stood at the head, neither men nor morals could have availed to found or so long maintain a republic of such might to rule so far and wide and so justly. Indeed, long before our time, it was the custom of the land to appoint distinguished men who held fast to the ancient traditions and the institutions of our forefathers. Our own generation inherited the republic, an exquisite masterpiece, indeed, though faded with age; but it failed to restore its original colors. Worse, alas; it did not even move a finger to preserve as much as its form, or its barest outlines. What is there left of the ancient virtue which the illustrious poet Ennius declared was the mainstay of the Roman state? We are aware only that it has been so utterly cast to the winds that morals are not merely unobserved, but are positively ignored. What can we say of the men? Precisely for want of men the good old customs have been lost, and for so great an evil not only are we responsible but we should face judgment like culprits fearing the penalty of death. By our own vices, not by chance, we have lost the republic, though we retain the name.42
All this, Cicero avowed many years . . . before the coming of Christ. If such reproaches were expressed or entertained after the triumphant advance of the Christian religion, there is not a pagan who would not think of charging them to the Christians. Why, then, did their gods not save from disaster that republic which, long before Christ appeared in the flesh, Cicero mournfully deplores as lost? Let its panegyrists really take a look at the republic in the day of those ancient men and customs. Let them ask whether true justice flourished and inspired morality or was merely a colored painting of justice, as Cicero himself unwittingly suggests, while meaning to praise it. . . .
I shall endeavor to show later that that ancient creation was never a true republic, because in it true justice was never practiced. I shall base my position on Cicero's own definitions, in the light of which he briefly determined, through the mouth of Scipio, what was a republic and what was a people. There are many confirmatory opinions expressed in that discussion both by himself and by the interlocutors he introduced. According to some definitions, however, that are nearer the truth, it was a commonwealth of a sort, and it was better governed by the earlier Romans than by those who came later. But true justice is to be found only in that commonwealth—if we may so
42. Cicero, De re publica 5.1.