Cicero’s Ideal Statesman as the Helmsman of the Ship of State

Abstract

In De republica, Cicero describes his ideal statesman as a helmsman, a metaphor associated with sole rule in the rhetorical tradition. This comparison has been used to argue that Cicero saw individual authority as a solution to civic strife. When viewed in relation to his contemporary oratory, however, an alternative reading emerges. His speeches use ship-of-state symbolism to transform the helmsman into a model for collegial governance. Portraying the subordination of individual helmsmen to the senatorial helm, they reconcile exemplary statesmanship with the mixed constitution and offer an answer to what has been called “the issue of individual preeminence” in De republica.