Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 2.80 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.80
Now, it was on account of just this sort of wrong-doing that the Spartans banished their ephor Lysander, and put their king Agis to death—an act without precedent in the history of Sparta. From that time on—and for the same reason—dissensions so serious ensued that tyrants arose, the nobles were sent into exile, and the state, though most admirably constituted, crumbled to pieces. Nor did it fall alone, but by the contagion of the ills that, starting in Lacedaemon, spread widely and more widely, it dragged the rest of Greece down to ruin. What shall we say of our own Gracchi, the sons of that famous Tiberius Gracchus and grandsons of Africanus? Was it not strife over the agrarian issue that caused their downfall and death?
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.80, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/2.80
Cicero, On Duties (De Officiis), tr. Walter Miller (Loeb, 1913). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesA historical example of how unjust seizing and redistributing of property tore Sparta apart, then helped bring down the Gracchi at Rome. Injustice by those in power spreads like a contagion and can ruin a whole state, however well built.
Older wording
- “ephor”
- — one of the elected magistrates of Sparta
- “Lacedaemon”
- — Sparta
- “agrarian issue”
- — the dispute over redistributing land
Themes and situations
- Justice and fairness
- Community and our duty to others
- Leadership and power
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