The sources of On the Commonwealth

1. Plato 1 authority · 2 neutral · 1 extended 4 citations · 7 passages

   book 1 6 passages anchored here · book 4

   Plato's books are explicitly named as the authoritative source on Socrates' teaching and method.

   that when a tempest had carried him from the deep to unknown lands and a desert shore, and the rest were afraid through ignorance of the place, they say he noticed that certain geometric figures had been traced in the sand;

2. Lycurgus 2 neutral · 1 extended 3 citations · 6 passages

   book 2 4 passages anchored here · book 3 · book 4

   Lycurgus's Spartan constitution is repeatedly cited as a comparative institutional model that Rome parallels or surpasses

   And in doing this he first saw and judged the same thing that Lycurgus a little before had seen at Sparta:

3. Cicero, Marcus Tullius 1 extended · 1 endorsed 2 citations · 3 passages

   book 2 2 passages anchored here · book 3

   The dialogue explicitly refers back to and builds upon Scipio's earlier discourse on the kinds of commonwealths within the same work.

   When Scipio had said these things, and, all being silent, the rest of his discourse was awaited, then Tubero:

4. Twelve Tables decemvirs 2 authority 2 citations

   book 2 · book 4

   Explicitly named legal code cited as authority for the appeal right

   That appeal lay even from the kings the pontifical books declare, our augural ones too signify, and likewise that it is permitted to appeal from every judgment and penalty the Twelve Tables indicate in several laws;

5. Aeneid Virgil (via Servius) 1 neutral 1 citation

   book 4

   The paragraph is explicitly headed '[Servius, on Aeneid 5.546]', citing Virgil's Aeneid via Servius's commentary as the transmitting source.

   [Servius, on Aeneid 5.

6. Homer 1 authority 1 citation

   book 1

   Homer is explicitly named as the source of the image of Jove's nod.

   Whether these things were established by the leaders of commonwealths for the use of life—that a single king should be thought to be in heaven, who by his nod, as Homer says, would turn all Olympus, and be held both king and father of all—great is the authority and many are the witnesses, if indeed it is granted that all are to be called many, that the nations have so agreed, plainly by the decree …

7. Letters to Atticus Cicero 1 neutral 1 citation

   book 5

   The paragraph is explicitly headed '[Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 8.11.1]'.

   [Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 8.

8. Phaenomena Aratus 1 extended 1 citation

   book 1

   Aratus is explicitly named as the poet whose opening practice Scipio imitates.

   "Let us imitate, then, Aratus, who, setting out to speak of great matters, thinks one must begin from Jove.

9. Polybius 1 authority 1 citation

   book 2

   Polybius is explicitly named and endorsed as the authoritative source for dating Numa's reign

   So when he had reigned thirty-nine years in the utmost peace and concord (for let us follow above all our own Polybius, than whom none was more diligent in investigating dates), he departed from life, having confirmed two things most splendid for the long endurance of the commonwealth—religion and clemency.

10. Republic Plato 1 neutral 1 citation · 5 passages

    book 2 5 passages anchored here

    Plato's Republic and its Socratic method of state-construction are repeatedly and explicitly invoked as the reference point against which Scipio's historical approach is defined

    For that prince of writers, than whom in writing none was more excellent, took for himself a plot of ground on which to build a state at his own discretion—splendid indeed, perhaps, but far removed from the life and the manners of men;

11. Saturnalia Macrobius 1 neutral 1 citation

    book 6

    The paragraph is explicitly headed '[Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.4.2sq.]'.

    [Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.

Each stands at a single passage. The chapter carries the anchors.

book 1 12 sources

Anecdote/saying of Archytas · Annales (implied, verses on the death of a king) · Annals · Iphigenia · Letters (letter 138, to Marcellinus) · Unspecified verse (fragment on kingship and good faith) · commentaries of Philolaus · sayings/anecdote about Scipio Africanus (elder) · teachings/doctrine of Pythagoras · unspecified tragedy featuring Neoptolemus · unspecified tragedy featuring Zethus · unspecified work or sayings of Ennius

book 2 11 sources

City of God, 22.6 · Porcian laws · Reforms addressing citizen debt · [Nonius, 526M] fragment on the duration of Romulus's constitution · [Nonius, p. 342M] fragment on the mixed constitution · annals of the Greeks · augural books · consular law on the right of appeal · pontifical books · public annals of Rome · unspecified sayings/discourse of Cato

book 3 7 sources

Arguments against the natural existence of justice · Description of Syracuse's splendor · Doctrine of universal right extending to animals · Rules governing property acquired by conquest and the ephor/cosmoi institutions · The Voconian Law · The tragedy featuring the serpent-drawn chariot · Writings on justice

book 4 2 sources

City of God · unspecified work (grammatical/lexical citations)

book 5 2 sources

Attic Nights · verse on ancient Roman manners

book 6 1 source

commentary on the Dream of Scipio

fragments 6 sources

Aeneid (commentary) · Ars Grammatica · Codex manuscript note 458 · Divine Institutes · Letters · Paradoxa

The harvest records where a citation is made: the paragraph in the citing book, and the book that paragraph stands in. It does not record which page of this book is meant. Where the citing text names a locus, you will find it in the quotation.

1. On Moral Ends Cicero, Marcus Tullius 1 authority 1 citation

   book 2

   Explicitly named as a work ('our books On the Commonwealth') where Laelius addressed these matters.

   and on these matters enough has been said by Laelius in our books On the Commonwealth.

2. Tusculan Disputations Cicero, Marcus Tullius 1 authority 1 citation

   book 4

   Cicero explicitly names his own earlier work as the place where the topic was treated at length.

   these things have been treated by me with sufficient care in other places, and most of all in those six books which I wrote On the Commonwealth.

3. Letters to Lucilius Seneca, Lucius Annaeus 1 neutral 1 citation · 5 passages

   letter 108 5 passages anchored here

   The text is used as an example of how different readers approach the same material, reported neutrally

   When some philologist takes up Cicero's book On the Commonwealth, here, and a grammarian there, and there one devoted to philosophy, each directs his attention elsewhere.