>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 06/09/03 8:14 PM >>> Cicero was defending the right of the Roman ruling class to be free of any limitations whatever on their exploitation of the populace. Julius felt that one shouldn't kill the proverbial goose that was laying the golden eggs. In other words Cicero's story reflects the tendency of some ruling classes to self-destruct unless either some sector of the class succeeds in imposing some limits or the laboring classes (in capitalism the working class) accumulate enough power to defend themselves. Carrol <<<<>>>>
check out neal wood's _cicero's social and political thought_, wood indicates that real significance of c's defense of property rights and his idea that protecting private property is principal state function was largely non-ethical formulation... cicero both endorsed and expressed concern about roman ruling class 'possessive individualism' counseling pursuit of 'enlightened' (read class) self-interest... c's political aim was to ground ruling class in "law" -he writes somewhere about being enslaved to the law - in order to, on one hand, secure and guarantee its power and property and, on the other, to establish means of reeling in private ambitions (caesarian vainglory) that foster conflict and endanger senatorial class rule... michael hoover
