During the last years of the Roman Republic, Marcus Tullius Cicero was a prominent Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, orator, and writer who lived from 106 to 43 BC. Cicero was a brilliant writer and philosopher who wrote a tremendous deal on politics, eloquence, and philosophy. His writings have endured for centuries. Among his many hobbies was a curiosity about the paranormal, a topic deeply ingrained in ancient Roman society’s belief systems.
Biography
About 70 miles southeast of Rome, in the town of Arpinum, Cicero was born into a family of horsemen. He grew up in the chaotic latter decades of the Roman Republic, which were characterized by political unrest, civil wars, and the progressive deterioration of republican ideals. In spite of this turbulent environment, Cicero was a superb student who learned eloquence, philosophy, and law. In 63 BC, his devotion to the Republic and skill as a speaker elevated him to the position of Roman consul. Cicero established himself as a champion of Roman democracy when he notably foiled the Catiline conspiracy, an attempt to topple the Republic, while serving as consul.
However, political unrest and the Republic’s slow decline marred Cicero’s later career. Eventually, entangled in the political rivalry between Julius Caesar and Pompey, he sided with Pompey the Great. After Caesar’s victory in the civil war, the Second Triumvirate first pardoned Cicero before putting him to death in 43 BC, allegedly on Mark Antony’s orders. The Roman Forum openly exposed Cicero’s severed head and hands, cruelly ending one of Rome’s greatest orators and statesmen. Cicero’s vast body of work on politics, eloquence, and philosophy secured his influence on Western thought and intellectual traditions even after his untimely death (Lorenzen, 2023). The Fall of the Republic brought about bad actors such as Nero but the Cicero’s writings remind us that some tried to prevent this from ever happening.
Cicero on the Paranormal
Throughout his life and writings, Cicero wrestled with issues regarding the nature of the soul, the afterlife, and the influence of prophecies and omens on human affairs. His philosophical writings, which include On the Nature of the Gods and On Divination, examined these ethereal phenomena from the perspectives of Epicureanism, Academic Skepticism, and Stoicism.
Pythagorean and Platonic ideas greatly affected Cicero’s ideas about the soul. He held that the soul exists both before and after physical life and is eternal. In Tusculan Disputations, he made the case that the soul is an eternal, divine essence that animates the body and has the capacity to exist apart from it. His idea of a hereafter, in which people would either ascend to the heavenly realms or be reborn based on their good deeds throughout their lifetime, was intimately related to his belief in the immortality of the soul.
Cicero combined logic with skepticism and an open mind when it came to the supernatural. He emphasized the value of reason and critical analysis in comprehending these topics, even if he acknowledged the presence of phenomena like omens, prophecies, and the immortal soul.
Likewise, in his investigation of the soul and the afterlife, Cicero examines a number of philosophical claims, assessing their viability through reason and logic. In Tusculan Disputations, he makes a logical case for the soul’s immortality based on its divine and immaterial nature, but he also takes into account the opposing viewpoints of those who disagree that the soul lives on after death.
In the end, Cicero’s openness to these theories, balanced by a dedication to logic and critical thought, marked his perspective on the paranormal. In addition to acknowledging the events’ cultural and theological significance in Roman culture, he attempted to comprehend these phenomena via philosophical investigation and reasoned conversation.
Omens and Prophecy
Cicero also placed a great deal of importance on omens and prophecies. Being a member of the Roman aristocracy, he was familiar with the customs and traditions of Roman augury, which entailed reading signals from the gods in natural occurrences like lightning strikes, animal entrails, and bird flights. Although he remained somewhat skeptical of their veracity and trustworthiness, Cicero acknowledged the significance of these omens in Roman religious and political life.
In his treatise On Divination, Cicero makes cases for and against the veracity of omen interpretation and divination. He articulates the Stoic perspective, according to which the gods send signals and portents that knowledgeable augurs can understand logically. He does, however, also address the skeptic academic viewpoint, which questioned the validity of divination and contended that coincidence or natural causes could account for apparent omens (Schofield, 1986).
Cicero appears to have taken a mixed stance, acknowledging the religious and cultural significance of predictions and omens in Roman culture while also challenging them with reason. He thought that interpreting auguries required talent, and that there were occasions when it made sense.
Cicero wrote about the various types of portents and omens commonly recognized in classical Roman culture. In On Divination, Cicero discusses the art of augury, which included watching bird behavior and flights to decipher heavenly messages. He gives examples of how people interpreted the appearance or sounds of specific birds, such as ravens, vultures, and eagles, as either unfavorable or fortunate omens. Cicero observed that people often interpreted astronomical occurrences like comets, eclipses, and meteors as signs of impending catastrophes or the gods’ wrath.
Cicero narrates in his philosophical treatise On the Republic the tale of the birth of the fabled Roman monarch Servius Tullius, marked by prophecies of his greatness, such as the appearance of flames around his head. Cicero recounts instances where people interpreted the appearance or behavior of animals, like wolves, snakes, or oxen, as either a good or bad omen.
The ancient Romans considered thunder and lightning’s timing, direction, and strength to be potentially auspicious signs. In On Divination, Cicero discusses these ideas and how they influenced significant decisions and endeavors. Cicero also delves into various prodigies and portents, believed to be divine signals necessitating elucidation and potential pacification via sacrifices or rituals. Examples of these include anomalous natural events, birth abnormalities, and other strange occurrences (Krostenko, 2000).
Conclusion
Cicero’s beliefs about the paranormal were not just idle speculation; they had real-world consequences for Roman society. His philosophical writings influenced the opinions of later leaders and philosophers, as well as the intellectual conversation surrounding these subjects. In addition, his participation in augury ceremonies and his position as a statesman gave these ideas some respectability and contributed to their continued impact in the Roman culture.
The religious and philosophical traditions of Cicero’s day firmly ingrained his views on the supernatural, including the immortal soul, the afterlife, omens, and predictions. Even though he handled these topics critically, his writings and public persona as a well-known Roman citizen helped cemented these paranormal ideas into the fabric of Roman society, making a lasting impression on the ancient world’s intellectual and cultural milieu.
References
Cicero, M. T. (55 B.C.E.). De natura deorum [On the nature of the gods].
Cicero, M. T. (44 B.C.E.). De divinatione [On divination].
Cicero, M. T. (45 B.C.E.). Tusculanae disputationes [Tusculan disputations].
Cicero, M. T. (51 B.C.E.). De re publica [On the republic].
Krostenko, B. A. (2000). Beyond (dis) belief: rhetorical form and religious symbol in Cicero’s de Divinatione. In Transactions of the American Philological Association (Vol. 130, No. 1, pp. 353-391). Johns Hopkins University Press.
Lorenzen, M. (2023). Cicero. In B. A. Geier (Ed.), The Palgrave handbook of educational thinkers (pp. 1-14). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81037-5_4-1
Schofield, M. (1986). Cicero for and against Divination. The Journal of Roman Studies, 76, 47-65.
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