Thorton Lockwood, "Cicero: Just War Philosopher"

Cicero’s On Duties (de officiis [Off.]) provides an account of the duties of justice that includes the duties of warfare or armed conflict (iura belli [Off. I.34-40]) that is remarkable for a number of reasons. First, although political philosophers like Plato and Aristotle provide reflections on the normativity of armed conflict (for example, Republic 5: 466d-471e or Politics 7.1-3), they fail to provide any systematic theory or philosophy of just war. Cicero’s account is thus the first systematic philosophy of armed conflict. Second, although Cicero claims that the structure of On Duties derives from the Stoic philosopher Panaetius (Off. 1.9), I argue that Cicero’s account of the duties of armed conflict is so clearly immersed in the military practices of the Roman Republic that it is unlikely to attribute this part of On Duties to Panaetius. Rather, Cicero’s account of just war seems unambiguously his own philosophy, grounded in reflection…