Political Morality and the Friends of Scipio

Abstract

The dramatic date is the Feriae Latinae of 129 B.C., the consulship of Tuditanus and Aquilius, the scene the gardens of Scipio Aemilianus, the theme for discussion the Roman state. Who could expound the subject better than Aemilianus himself for, says Laelius, ‘not only is it proper that an eminent statesman rather than anyone else should discuss the State, but also I recollect that you used to converse very frequently with Panaetius on this subject in company with Polybius—two Greeks who were perhaps the best versed of them all in politics—and that you assembled many arguments to prove that the form of government handed down to us by our ancestors is by far the best of all.’ Here is Cicero's assurance that sometime before 129 Panaetius, Scipio and Polybius used to discuss the Roman State together—though he does not tell us when or where. According to Velleius Scipio kept Polybius and Panaetius, praecellentis ingenio uiros , beside him domi militiaeque , so many opportunities for such conversations offered themselves. Was Panaetius perhaps present, like Polybius, at the siege of Carthage? Possibly, though there is no proof. For it is now generally agreed that Panaetius' voyage with Telephus' fleet and the two years devoted to general education (πρὸς φιλομάθησιν)—or was it research?—before he went to Athens (which we learn of from a fragmentary passage in the Index Stoicorum discovered at Herculaneum) have nothing to do with any ships the Rhodians may have sent to help Rome during the siege of Carthage (as Cichorius thought), but belong to Panaetius' early years.