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C
Ancient World
Cicero
106–43 BCE · Roman republicanism
A commonwealth is the affair of the people, not of one man.
In their words
“We are slaves of the law so that we may be free.”
In De Re Publica and De Legibus, Cicero defined a commonwealth as the people's affair, a partnership in law for the common good, and argued that a ruler who becomes a master dissolves it. He defended private property as an ancient institution and natural law as a standard above any legislator. He was murdered for the speeches in which he said so.
Why it matters for freedom
He drew the line that later liberty depends on: power must answer to a rule, not to a person.
Who they stood against
tyrants, and the men who thought law was whatever the strongest declared