Cicero Quote on the Commonwealth: The Republic of the Whole

Quote

"The commonwealth is the property of the people: the people is the multitude bound together by the agreement on what is right and the community of interest — and the republic that has lost the justice has lost the name." — Cicero, De Re Publica (On the Republic), Book I (51 BCE)

Author

Cicero (106–43 BCE) was the greatest orator of the Roman Republic, a statesman, and the philosopher who transmitted Greek ethics to the Latin world. His definition of the commonwealth became the foundation of the Western republican tradition.

Source

The quotation is from Book I of the De Re Publica (On the Republic), written in 51 BCE. The translation follows C.W. Keyes's Loeb edition (1928).

Context

The passage belongs to the dialogue on the best form of the state, written in the last decade of the Roman Republic — the decade in which the Republic was collapsing into civil war. Cicero's definition of the commonwealth is the foundation of the republican ideal: the res publica is the property of the people (res populi), and the people is not the mere multitude but the multitude bound together by the agreement on justice and the community of interest. The republic that has lost the justice has lost the name — the definition carries the implicit critique of the Republic's collapse.

Meaning

The quotation states the Ciceronian account of the commonwealth with complete clarity. "The commonwealth is the property of the people" — the definition: the res publica is the property of the people — the common thing, the commonwealth — not the property of the ruler. "The people is the multitude bound together by the agreement on what is right" — the bond: the people is the bond — the agreement on the justice — the consent that makes the multitude a people. "And the community of interest" — the second bond: the community of the interest — the shared stake in the common good. "The republic that has lost the justice has lost the name" — the criterion: the justice is the condition of the name — the republic without the justice is not the commonwealth but the tyranny. The quotation is the foundation of the republican ideal, and it grounds the Stoic wisdom tradition's account of the just community.

Related Wisdom

The quotation belongs to the Stoic political philosophy and the ethics of justice. Its account of the commonwealth connects to the doctrine of the natural law and to the wider wisdom tradition's teaching on the just community. The passage is among the most influential in the history of political thought, and it grounds the republican ideal that shaped the modern tradition.