Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 3.71 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.71
Away, then, with sharp practice and trickery, which desires, of course, to pass for wisdom, but is far from it and totally unlike it. For the function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil; whereas, inasmuch as all things morally wrong are evil, trickery prefers the evil to the good. It is not only in the case of real estate transfers that the civil law, based upon a natural feeling for the right, punishes trickery and deception, but also in the sale of slaves every form of deception on the vendor's part is disallowed. For by the aediles' ruling the vendor is answerable for any deficiency in the slave he sells, for he is supposed to know if his slave is sound, or if he is a runaway, or a thief. The case of those who have just come into the possession of slaves by inheritance is different.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.71, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/3.71
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 notesTrickery tries to pass for wisdom but is its opposite, since real wisdom tells good from evil while trickery picks evil. Roman civil law, grounded in a natural sense of right, punishes deception in sales; the example used here is the sale of enslaved people, which modern readers may find troubling.
Older wording
- “sharp practice”
- — dishonest or unscrupulous dealing
- “aediles”
- — Roman magistrates who supervised markets and sales
Themes and situations
- Justice and fairness
- Virtue and character
- An ethical dilemma
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