Cicerone e la guerra: alcune note tra bellum iustum e ideologia imperialista romana

Cicero’s political conceptualisation of war, elaborated in his treatises De re publica and De officiis is a complex issue, as it interwines theoretical elements on war with elements derived from his life experience, in turn influenced by the Roman imperialist ideology. In his theoretical-political treatment of war, Cicero identifies a number of causes that define a war as just. Within the concept of just war, of bellum iustum, he includes wars in defence of allies, to respect a pact, wars for the salvation of Rome, wars to live in peace, wars aimed at glory, and wars for the hegemony of Rome, for its imperium. These types of war fall into three macro-typologies often intertwined: «defensive war», «preventive war», «war for hegemony». Yet Cicero, in his political thought, tried to balance the treatment of «things» of war, militares res, with due space dedicated to the importance of civil, political «things», civilis res, hence, for example, the significant elaboration of the concept of civilis scientia.