Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 3.60 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.60
Canius was furious; but what could he do? For not yet had my colleague and friend, Gaius Aquilius, introduced the established forms to apply to criminal fraud. When asked what he meant by "criminal fraud," as specified in these forms, he would reply: "Pretending one thing and practising another"—a very felicitous definition, as one might expect from an expert in making them. Pythius, therefore, and all others who do one thing while they pretend another are faithless, dishonest, and unprincipled scoundrels. No act of theirs can be expedient, when what they do is tainted with so many vices.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.60, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/3.60
Cicero, On Duties (De Officiis), tr. Walter Miller (Loeb, 1913). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesAquilius defined criminal fraud as pretending one thing while doing another, and anyone who does this is faithless and unprincipled however clever. Nothing done with so many vices attached can truly be to their advantage.
Older wording
- “felicitous”
- — well chosen and apt
- “criminal fraud”
- — deliberate deception to gain advantage, as defined in Roman legal forms
Themes and situations
- Justice and fairness
- Speech and silence
- Virtue and character
- An ethical dilemma
- Betrayal
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