The nature and origin of partes prudentiae in cic. Inv. 2.160

Abstract

The concept of prudentia in Cicero has deservedly received a lot of scholarly attention lately. Fundamental insights have been offered into its different uses in Latin, its relation to Greek φρόνησις, its emphasis on the semantic field of sight and on providentia, its relation to divination, and its philosophical background. One of its most important aspects, though, the understanding, linking and combining of past, present and future events in order to establish causal relationships and thus substantiate one’s decision-making process, needs to be more deeply addressed than has been done so far. I believe that some important aspects of Ciceronian prudentia have until now eluded scholars because of an understandable methodological concern to stick to the occurrences of the word (and its cognate providentia) in Cicero’s corpus. Nevertheless, by following the numerous philosophical treatments of the intellectual ability to correlate past, present and future in Cicero’s work, we will be able to get a clearer picture of Ciceronian prudentia in general and of the enumeration of its partes in De inventione. Also, we will be able to expand on Malaspina’s recent conclusion that the presentation of the parts of prudentia in De inventione is compatible with Chrysippus’ doctrine: it will be shown that Panaetius is the most likely thinker to have adapted Chrysippus’ conceptions in his reworking of Stoic doctrine.