What Truss and Sunak could learn from Cicero

As Miss Truss and Mr Sunak spray policies around on a range of topics which they hope will appeal to Conservative members, Tory MPs agonise about whom to support, presumably with jobs in mind. The philosopher and statesman Cicero (106-43 BC) was more interested in a politician’s personal qualities.

The Roman state was a res publica. At one point in his writings, Cicero rephrased that as res populi, which he interpreted as ‘the possession of the people’. By that, he did not mean a democracy – Romans disapproved of the Greek experiment – but a state in which the people did have an active and meaningful interest.

Further, while Romans had duties and obligations to nations, citizens, family and friends, for Cicero it was their devotion to the res publica which counted more than anything else: ‘there is no relationship that is more close or more dear than that which ties each one of us to the res publica’.

Given that indissoluble attachment, what sort of person is it that Cicero wanted to go into politics? At one level, a man whose relationship with the Roman people duplicated the characteristics of a true friend, i.e. affection (amo, ‘I love’, was the root of amicus, ‘friend’), goodwill, mutual advantage, generosity and most of all good faith. But on top of that, Cicero identified a long and impressive list of abstract qualities, often expressed in terms of value-laden nouns, of which a politician should be an example to all: justice, magnanimity, physical courage, fortitude, humility, temperance, propriety and self-control.

Moreover, Cicero goes on, a politician must act solely in the interests of those entrusted to his care. There must be no scrambling for office; he must treat political opponents with courtesy and forbearance; the more successful he becomes, the more he should seek the counsel of friends; and he should steer well clear of sycophants. Men of this sort could be trusted with the security and prosperity of the res publica.

Truss and Sunak are keen to show their adherence to the Conservative party’s principles. Do they have any message about what they expect of their MPs?