Book 2, Letter 21
Part 2 of 2
To Cicero, on
Catiline
*
I cannot rest in
despondency, so I kept digging, and I found this in your book On
Duties, Book II, sections 21 - 24
You
make some statements about land and grain distribution that made some
sense to me. People like Catiline, and many who came before him,
clamoured at the injustice of all the land in Italy being owned by a
staggeringly small number of people, and the poor being unable to own
land due to this monopoly. Many of the plebeian tribunes tried to
break up the large estates of the rich, and distribute these land
parcels to returned soldiers. They
also tried to cancel debts that were driving the poor into slavery.
Of course, there were plenty of decadent rich folk who were in debt
up to their eye balls and loved the idea of debt cancellation as
well.
You,
Cicero, being a wealthy landowner yourself, take a stand firmly
against any sort of property land tax, and believe that to take land
from the rich, through the application of laws that limit the size of
acreage an individual can own, is simply theft. You feel the same
thing about debt cancellation.
In
your book, Cicero, you say that “...it is the peculiar
function of the state and the city to guarantee to every man the free
and undisturbed control of his own particular property.”
“And how is
it fair that a man who never had any property should take possession
of lands that had been occupied for many years or even generations,
and that he that had them before should loose possession of them.”
“And what is
the meaning of an abolition of debts, except that you buy a farm with
my money; that you have the farm, and that I have not my money.”
This
book of yours, On Duties, was written as a gift to your son, it is the
distilled wisdom of your life for him to read and learn from in your
absence. These ideas you deliver to him give me a much clearer sense
of your real beliefs, than, say, the Catiline Orations, or the
Philippics, which are so thick with propaganda and party line
rah rah that it is hard to say what you believe. Having said that,
the above quotes seem to show me where your loyalties lay, and
show your peculiar lack of concern for the welfare of the poor.
But
then you tell the story of Arytos of Sicyon,
“When his
city had been kept for fifty years in the hands of tyrants, he came
over from Argos to Sicyon, secretly entered the city and took it by
surprise; he fell suddenly upon the tyrant Nicocles, recalled from
banishment six hundred exiles who had been the wealthiest men of the
city, and by his coming made his country free. But he found great
difficulty in the matter of property and its occupancy; for he
considered it unjust, on the one hand, that those men whose property
others had taken possession; and he thought it hardly fair, on the
other hand, that tenure of fifty years' standing should be disturbed.
For in the course of that long period many of those estates had
passed into innocent hands by right of inheritance, many by purchase,
many by dower. He therefore decided that it would be wrong either to
take the property away from the present incumbents or to let them
keep it without compensation to its former possessors. So, when he
had come to the conclusion that he must have money to meet the
situation, he announced that he meant to make a trip to Alexandria
and gave orders that matters should remain as they were until his
return. And so he went in haste to his friend Ptolemy, then upon the
throne, the second king after the founding of Alexandria.
To him he
explained that he wished to restore constitutional liberty and
presented his case to him. And, being a man of the highest standing,
he easily secured from that wealthy king assistance in the form of a
large sum of money. And when he had returned with this to Sicyon, he
called into counsel with him fifteen of the foremost men of the city.
With them he investigated the cases both of those who were holding
possession of other people's property, and of those who had lost
theirs. And he managed by a valuation of the properties to persuade
some that it was more desirable to accept money and surrender their
present holdings; others he convinced that it was more to their
interest to take a fair price in cash for their lost estates that to
try to recover possession of what had been their own. As a result,
harmony was preserved, and all parties went their way without a word
of complaint.”
I can see now
that you were perhaps not so much on the side of the rich against the
poor, as you were on the side of peace and harmony against those who
would throw the state into turmoil with ill-considered and aggressive
tactics. Catiline did actually try to attack the city of Rome with a
mercenary army. Those who came after him, Milo and Clodius, resorted
to hiring street gangs to augment their political campaigning
efforts. Then Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and the rest is
history...
There are many
who can criticise their political opponents, but few who can offer
useful alternatives to their polarising policies. The inclusion of
the story of Arytos of Sicyon in your book, shows me that you
believed that there was another way, a third option between the
rioting of the Plebeians and the death squads of the Senators.
You tried,
Cicero. You tried.
*
I seek wisdom
like the drowning seek the land. I seek solutions to problems I
cannot solve on my own, Cicero. I seek the giants of antiquity that
I may stand upon their shoulders and keep my head above water.
There is a lot
more to read, Cicero, a lot more. I have begun reading your Tusculan
Disputations, and soon I will visit the little book store to order
your other treatises on politics and ethics. I have been learning
this week about the early history of Athens, and in doing so, I
learned that the word Stasis is
the term they invented to describe the class struggle between rich
and poor, in which the poor were gradually forced into slavery to pay
off the debts they owed to the rich. There are stories about Solon,
the elected tyrant of Athens (600's BCE) that help to illustrate by
comparison the agrarian and debt issues of the Catiline conspiracy,
and to offer alternative solutions. It seems that this issue of
Stasis has been well
understood for centuries, yet never resolved with any lasting
stability.
There
is always more to read. I continually feel as though my
understanding lacks nuance and subtlety. I read a story and it fills
my mind, each detail seems overwhelming. As I am exposed to the
thoughts and words of scholars who have devoted their lives to the
study of these histories, they reveal to me the broader scope of
societal pressures that brought about these major events and every
page I turn makes me feel smaller and smaller.
Stasis.
The past and the present and the future seem bound up in this
struggle. But you, Cicero, at least you believed there was another way.
So, with a glass
of wine in one hand, and a book of your letters in the other,
I salute you.
With Gratitude
and Respect.
Morgan.
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