On the Republic

…came to admit in the De republica that republican government required the presence of a powerful individual—an idealized Pompey perhaps—to ensure its stability, he showed little appreciation of the intrinsic weaknesses of Roman republican administration.

His De republica and De legibus (Laws) are both dialogues and reflect the Classical sense of purpose: “to make human life better by our thought and effort.” Cicero defined the republic as an association held together by law; he further asserted, as Plato had maintained with…