Cicero and the Constitution

We the People

National Constitution Center

News, News Commentary, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How did Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman statesman and philosopher, influence the Founding generation, the Constitution, and American political thought? Join Scott Nelson, author of Cicero, Politics, and the 21st Century; Benjamin Straumann, author of Crisis and Constitutionalism: Roman Political Thought from the Fall of the Republic to the Age of Revolution; and Caroline Winterer, author of The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780-1910, for a conversation exploring the political ideas of Cicero, his impact on America, and what we can learn from him today. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates. Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello friends. I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution
0:07.2	Center and welcome to We The People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.
0:11.5	The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit charted by Congress to increase awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.
0:20.0	In November, we hosted a great conversation about Cicero, a Roman statesman and philosopher and his central influence on the American founding. We were joined by Scott Nelson, author of Cicero, politics in the 21st century.
0:34.7	Benjamin Strowman, author of crisis and constitutionalism, Roman political thought from the
0:39.5	fall of the republic to the age of Revolution, and Caroline Winter,
0:43.2	author of the culture of classicism,
0:45.2	ancient Greece and Rome in American intellectual life.
0:48.3	We're sharing the episode as part of our Best of 2022 Town Hall series. Enjoy the show and happy holidays.
0:55.0	Have a wonderful New Year, dear We The People Friends, and look forward to reconvene in
0:59.8	2023.
1:01.0	Welcome Scott Nelson, Benjamin Strowman, and Carolyn Winter.
1:06.0	Carolyn, we were honored to have you join last year for a great program on the classics and the founders today.
1:12.0	You're teaching a class at
1:14.6	Stanford now on the influence of the classics on the founders and Cicero's on duties
1:21.7	was by some measures the most frequently cited text in the founding era.
1:27.0	Introduce our audience to this wonderful topic of what Cicero's influence was on the founding generation.
1:34.3	Yeah, well, thank you for having all of us here today.
1:36.8	It's a pleasure to be back.
1:38.5	The founding era loved Cicero and the other Romans of the late Republican period because they saw themselves reliving that moment where they felt that they were on a precipice between political liberty and political
1:56.5	despotism, with despotism symbolized by King George III of England and his minions in Parliament.
2:05.1	And so they looked to people like Cicero,
	...

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