Beneficium, iustitia e imperium tra passato, presente e futuro

Abstract

The section of Cicero’s De Officiis on the circulation of benefits according to justice implies a redefinition of traditional customs ( mores ) through the identification of an unbridgeable distance between past and present. Indeed, in the second book of the treatise ( 2.26-30), the author seems to outline a of Roman power sub specie beneficii , a history in which the relinquishment of the practice of benefiting allies ( beneficium in socios ) is connected with the rise of a cruelty towards citizens ( crudelitas in cives ) embodied by Sulla. In Cicero's view, this is the crucial historical moment in which iniuriae replaced beneficia . The contrast between beneficium and iniuria reflects the opposition between bellum iustum and bellum iniustum , and these two antithetical conceptual poles correspond to a temporal dialectic between distant past and recent past/present. As concerns Cicero's connection between the preservation of Roman power and the practice of beneficentia , a major point of comparison is offered by Sallust's overview of the history of Roman customs and institutions in Cat . 6-13. In fact, b eneficium , iustitia and imperium are three pivotal elements which lay the foundations of Cicero's and Sallust's reflection on cultural history. In spite of their different intellectual perspectives and goals , both authors connect beneficence and offence, beneficium and iniuria , with two opposite temporal dimensions – past and present, respectively – and point out the relationship of these two notions to iustitia and imperium . Interesting evidence about the roots of the practice of beneficium and its application to conquered peoples is also provided by Virgil's Aeneid . In his epic poem dealing with the very origins of Rome, just a few moments before the final duel between Aeneas and Turnus, Virgil offers a typical example of leniency towards the defeated enemies ( beneficium in victos ). In Book 12 (175-194 ), Aeneas proposes to Latinus a pact which presents Rome as a paradigmatically merciful power. Further c onspicuous evidence on the concession of political benefits to foreign peoples comes from Caesar's Commentaries , which show the fundamental importance of beneficentia to Rome's domestic and foreign policy . U nder the dictatorship of Caesar, however, such a traditional practice was significantly undermined . After his victory in the Civil War, in fact, the dictator put special emphasis on his concession of the benefit of life as a gift for t he vanquished , thus intentionally assimilating beneficium in cives and beneificium in victos. A similar anomaly was fully perceived by Cicero , who alludes to the dangers of Caesar's leniency in several letters written to Atticus in 49. In light of such long-term developments , the prescriptive section on beneficentia in Cicero's De Officiis seems to play a truly critical role, for, on the one hand, this section recalls the paradigmatic value of the past as an ideal age of benefit-exchanges, and, on the other hand, it puts forth a new model of beneficium for the sake of future generations.