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Cicero on Religio and Superstitio

Author(s): Friedrich SolmsenSource: The Classical Weekly, Vol. 37, No. 14 (Feb. 14, 1944), pp. 159-160Published by: Classical Association of the Atlantic StatesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4341880

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CLASSICAL WEEKLY 159

god and at the same time amongthe rest of the deadin the underworld?De Nat. Deorum 3.I6.4, fin.).Apotheosis s in truth mere propagandao encouragepatriotism De Nat. Deorum3.I9.50). As a cult it issimply the resultof the traditionalables from Greece,

which all must combat, ne perturbentureligiones(De Nat. Deorum3.23.60).

No man has had reasonsmoreintimateor moreex-tensive or thinkinglong andcloselyaboutthe topic ofconsecratiohan Cicero. Fewhavecomecloser o a de-cisionthat a mortalhad attaineddivinity,and yet fewhaveswung farther o the opposite n refutinghis ownopinions.

JOHNJ. SULLIVANDUQUESNE UNIVERSITY

Cicero on Religio and Superstitio

In the last sentenceof De Natura DeorumCicerotells us that the speech of Balbus,who representsheStoicschool,seemedto him adveritatis imilitudinempropensior. He repeatsor, if you like, quotes thisstatementof preferencen his next work,the essayDeDivinatione.One wouldthink that this repetition n-dicates that he wishes it to be taken seriously,butscholarshavebeensurprisinglyeluctant o accept t atits facevalue.1 And yet one neednot lookveryfar tofind somegood reasonswhy in mattersconcerninghegods and their governmentof the worldCicerowouldfind the Stoic positionmore to his liking than anyother.

One reason s indicated n the proem of the wholework: Sunt enim philosophiet fuerunt (the referenceis to the Epicureans)qui omninonullamhaberecen-serentrerumhumanarumprocurationemeos; but ifthis theory s true,quaepotest essepietas,quae sancti-tas,quaereligio? De Nat. DeorumI.3). Forall thesevaluesStoictheology,aswe shallpresently ee,providesa place. A few linesbelowandin the samecontext,weread: sin autemdeinequepossuntnos iuvarenec voluntnec omninocurantnec quidagamusanimadvertuntecest quod ab uisad hominum vitam permanere ossit,quid est quod ullos deis immortalibusultus,honores,precesadhibeamus? I need not write out the nextsentenceswhich tell us that still other fundamentalvaluesof the respublica,n particularidesandiustitia,are threatenedf there is no roomfor pietas; for thelast sentencewhich I have quoted will suffice as abasisformy conclusion.Howeverdifficult t may havebeento establisha relationbetweenRoman eligionandGreekphilosophy,n fact howeverprimitive,unintellec-tual, and unphilosophical omanreligion n itself maybe, Cicerohas grasped he onefundamentalruth: thatall its rites and ceremoniesare completelyfutile and

have no meaningwhatsoeverunless it is assumed hatthe gods take an interest n human affairs.And thisrealizationmplies that Stoicismwith its doctrineofProvidenceand with the stress which it lays on theinterest of the gods in man is the one philosophical

systemthat may lend support o Romanreligio.There is at least one other point in which Stoicism

can satisfy Ciceromoreeasilythan any altemative ys-tem. The Epicureanpeaker,Velleius,boastsmore thanonce (see especially1.45.55-6) that Epicurusby histrue doctrine of the gods has freed mankind fromsuperstitio.Epicurus s the great liberator-the claimis familiar rom Lucretius. But Cotta, who repliestoVelleius, winds up his exposureof the Epicurean al-lacies by repudiating his very claim. It is easy, heargues, o freemanfromsuperstitiof at the sametimeyou destroyreligioandeveryvis deorum. ForEpicurusdeprivedhe godsof everycontactwith man,rendered

them powerless nd even cut the most important f allbonds-the bond of gratia-between god and man(1.1 I7ff., I2Iff.). Cicerodoubtless orrowsomeof thearguments or this finalblast at Epicurusrom Greekpolemicsagainsthis school (we get glimpsesof thesearguments n some Greekwriters2);yet the argumentshavebeengivena Roman ouchby the use of the wordreligiowhich has no equivalentn Greek,andby refer-ences to Romanpractices quid veneramur,quid pre-camurdeos, cur sacrispontifices, ur auspiciisaugurespraesunt . . 122). In view of the kinship betweenthe argumentsn this sectionand those whichwe havequotecl romthe proemwe may suspectthat not onlyCotta but Cicerohimselfis here

pointingout that theEpicureans estroyreligioalong with superstitio.

Now, what have the Stoicsto offer in the matterofreligioand superstitio?Their contribution s pointedout, not as one might expect in the context of theStoictheoryof Providence, ut in that sectionof BookII in whichCiceroconcludeshis surveyof all differenttypesof Deities whomthe Stoicseitherrecognizeor atleast'explain.'The godsof the civicreligionare in thelattercategory.They may be explainedwith the helpof etymologies but to believe in them would be amistake. Cicero refers to them as commenticii et fictidei. They have given rise to erroresturbulenti and tosuperstitiones paena aniles; for the

poets have carriedall these preposterous notions to extreme lengths.Against these two forms of approach to the gods, theratio civilis and the ratio fabularis, stands the rightapproach, the ratio physica 3 uis fabulis spretis ac

ISee especially A. S. Pease in TAPhA 54 (1913) 25ff. Thepassages are De Nat. Deorum 3.95; De Div. I.9.

2Cf. Plut. non posse suav. viv. sec. Epic. 21. See alsoPhilod. de piet. 86.I 3ff, 145. s5ff. Gomperz. The passages inPhilodemus are brief and somewhat problematical; still if theyare read with Plutarch and Cicero in mind they will enable usto reconstruct the Greek background to Cotta's arguments.

3Ciceio does not actually use these terms in 2.70-2; but theyseem to underlie his discussion. See for them Varro, Antiq.Rer. Divin. frgm. 6 Agahd (Augustine, De Civ. Dei 6.5).

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160 CLASSICAL WEEKLY

repudiatis eus pertinensper naturam uiusquerei, perterrasCeres,per mariaNeptunus, alii per aliapoteruntintellegi qui qualesque int. . . . These are the gods

quos ... venerari t coleredebemus. And what is the

right wayof colere, he ideal cult'? The purest,holiest,and most pious worship is to approach them pura, in-tegra, incorrupta t mente et voce. For, Cicerocon-tinues,not only the philosophers ut also our Romanancestors avemadea fundamental istinctionbetweenreligio and superstitio.He concludesthis discussionwith an etymologicalexplanationof the two wordswhich is irrelevanto our purpose.4

The Stoic solution seems to be satisfactory.Other-wise the maioresnostri-alwaysan authority or Cicero-would not be invoked.5 If we wonderwhether theseparationf religio romsuperstitiowasreallya matterof seriousconcernto Cicero,we may look at the lastparagraphsof De Divinatione: superstitiofusa per

gentes oppressitomnium fere animosatque hominumimbecillitatem occupavit; quod et in iis libris dictum

est qui sunt de natura deorumet hac disputationedmaxumeegimus;multumenim et nobisipsiset nostnrsprofuturi idebamuri eamfunditus ustulissemus.Necvero-id enim diligenter intellego volo-superstitionetollenda eligio ollitur.6

Now it may well be maintained hat Cicerohimselfhas in BookII of De Natura Deorummade somecon-cessions o what he wouldnormally all superstitio;ornot only doeshe report he Stoic doctrineabout divine

manifestationsn omina, dreamsand the like, he evensupports his doctrineby a goodly numberof exemplaRomana drawn from national legend (see especially2.6-12). It is not possible o discuss his questionhere

at length. If we did we shouldhardlyfind necessaryto abandon our thesis that Cicero found in Stoicismboth a support or Romanreligioand a help for theurgent task of separating he wheat in it from thechaff,but we might come to understandwhy he feltthe need of supplementingthe books De NaturaDeorumby those De Divinatione n which even thoseforms of superstitio or which the former work stillshowed some weakness are exposed to ridicule andeither rejectedor excused on the groundof politicalexpediency.

For Ciceroreligiois a political,not a privateprob-lem. He is anxious to steer a middle coursebetween

those radicalswho, whilemakingno distinctionbetweenreligioandsuperstitio,eject he wholenational eligioustradition itherunderthe one name or underthe other(compareLucretius'ight againstreligio), and on theother hand those conservativeswho, like Cotta, dog-gedly cling to every item of cult and ritual that hasbeen handed down by the forefathers nd insist thatno Zenoand no Cleantheswillever makethem give upan inch of theirground.7

FRIEDRICH SOLMSEN

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

4For a modern explanation and etymology see Walter F.Otto, Archiv fur Religionswiss.2 (1909) 533ff; 14 (19II)

4o6ff. Varro's differentiationof the same two terms is foundin Augustine, De Civ. Dei 6.9 (frgm. 29a Agahd).

SSee however 3.43-52: Carneades has shown that it is noreasy to determine which gods are real.

6De Div. 2.148. Note also that Cicero refers to De NaturaDeorum 2 as a 'defense of religion' (ibid. I.9, defensa religioest).

7De Nat. Deorum 3.5ff. For a somewhat different view ofCicero's attitude see Th. Zielinski, Cicero im Wandel derJahrhunderte3, iigff; also A. S. Pease in the Introductionofhis edition of De Divinatione (Urbana 1920-3), sOff.

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