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Roman commonwealth
The form of our government is superior to that of all other states (civitates), because while the latter's commonwealth (res publica) was generally established by individual lawgivers through statutes and institutions, … ours was produced not by one, but by many talents, not over one's lifespan, but over several centuries and epochs.
So allegedly spoke Cato the Elder (died in 149 BCE), as quoted by Scipio Aemilianus (died 129 BCE) and reported by Cicero (died 44 BCE), all three senior politicians and figureheads of the Roman senatorial order. The Roman commonwealth—like the Latin res publica and Greek politeia/politeuma, which it translates, a rather ambiguous term—was a major topic of debate among statesmen and philosophers in the late Republican period and beyond, until modern times. It is ...
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