Cicero, on duties (de officiis) 2.73.85:
73 The man
in an administrative office, however, must make it his first care that everyone
shall have what belongs to him and that private citizens suffer no invasion of
their property rights by act of the state.
It was a ruinous policy that Philippus proposed when in his tribuneship
he introduced his agrarian bill. However, when his law was rejected, he took
his defeat with good grace and displayed extraordinary moderation. But in his public speeches on the measure he
often played the demagogue, and that time viciously, when he said that
"there were not in the state two thousand people who owned any
property." That speech deserves
unqualified condemnation, for it favoured an equal distribution of property;
and what more ruinous policy than that could be conceived? For the chief purpose in the establishment of
constitutional state and municipal governments was that individual property
rights might be secured. For, although
it was by Nature's guidance that men were drawn together into communities, it
was in the hope of safeguarding their possessions that they sought the
protection of cities.
74 The
administration should also put forth every effort to prevent the levying of a
property tax, and to this end precautions should be taken long in advance. Such a tax was often levied in the times of
our forefathers on account of the depleted state of their treasury and their
incessant wars. But, if any state (I say
"any," for I would rather speak in general terms than forebode evils
to our own; however, I am not discussing our own state but states in general) -
if any state ever has to face a crisis requiring imposition of such a burden,
every effort must be made to let all the people realize that they must bow to
the inevitable, if they wish to be saved.
And it will also be the duty of those who direct the affairs of the
state to take measures that there shall be an abundance of the necessities of
life. It is needless to discuss the
ordinary ways and means; for the duty is self- evident; it is necessary only to
mention the matter.
…
78 But
they who pose as friends of the people, and who for that reason either attempt
to have agrarian laws passed, in order that the occupants may be driven out of their
homes, or propose that money loaned should be remitted to the borrowers, are
undermining the foundations of the commonwealth: first of all, they are
destroying harmony, which cannot exist when money is taken away from one party
and bestowed upon another; and second, they do away with equity, which is
utterly subverted, if the rights of property are not respected. For, as I said above, it is the peculiar
function of the state and the city to guarantee to every man the free and
undisturbed control of his own particular property.
79 And
yet, when it comes to measures so ruinous to public welfare, they do not gain
even that popularity which they anticipate.
For he who has been robbed of his property is their enemy; he to whom it
has been turned over actually pretends that he had no wish to take it; and most
of all, when his debts are cancelled, the debtor conceals his joy, for fear
that he may be thought to have been insolvent; whereas the victim of the wrong
both remembers it and shows his resentment openly. Thus even though they to whom property has
been wrongfully awarded be more in number than they from whom it has been
unjustly taken, they do not for that reason have more influence; for in such
matters influence is measured not by numbers but by weight. And how is it fair that a man who never had
any property should take possession of lands that had been occupied for many
years or even generations, and that he who had them before should lose
possession of them?
80 Now,
it was on account of just this sort of wrong- doing that the Spartans banished
their ephor Lysander, and put their king Agis to death - an act without
precedent in the history of Sparta. From
that time on - and for the same reason - disssensions so serious ensued that
tyrants arose, the nobles were sent into exile, and the state, though most
admirably constituted, crumbled to pieces.
Nor did it fall alone, but by the contagion of the ills that starting in
Lacedaemon, spread widely and more widely, it dragged the rest of Greece down
to ruin. What shall we say of our own
Gracchi, the sons of that famous Tiberius Gracchus and grandsons of
Africanus? Was it not strife over the
agrarian issue that caused their downfall and death?
…
83 A
great statesman, and worthy to have been born in our commonwealth! That is the
right way to deal with one's fellow- citizens, and not, as we have already
witnessed on two occasions, to plant the spear in the forum and knock down the
property of citizens under the auctioneer's hammer. But yon Greek, like a wise and excellent man,
thought that he must look out for the welfare of all. And this is the highest statesmanship and the
soundest wisdom on the part of a good citizen, not to divide the interests of
the citizens but to unite all on the basis of impartial justice. "Let them
live in their neighbour's house rent-free." Why so? In order that, when I have bought,
built, kept up, and spent my money upon a place, you may without my consent
enjoy what belongs to me? What else is that but to rob one man of what belongs
to him and to give to 84 another what does not belong to him? And what is the
meaning of an abolition of debts, except that you buy a farm with my money;
that you have the farm, and I have not my money?
We
must, therefore, take measures that there shall be no indebtedness of a nature
to endanger the public safety. It is a
menace that can be averted in many ways; but should a serious debt be incurred,
we are not to allow the rich to lose their property, while the debtors profit
by what is their neighbour's. For there
is nothing that upholds a government more powerfully than its credit; and it
can have no credit, unless the payment of debts is enforced by law. Never were measures for the repudiation of
debts more strenuously agitated than in my consulship. Men of every sort and rank attempted with
arms and armies to force the project through.
But I opposed them with such energy that this plague was wholly eradicated
from the body politic. Indebtedness was
never greater; debts were never liquidated more easily or more fully; for the
hope of defrauding the creditor was cut off and payment was enforced by
law. But the present victor, though
vanquished then, still carried out his old design, when it was no longer of any
personal advantage to him. So great was
his passion for wrongdoing that the very doing of wrong was a joy to him for
its own sake even when there was no motive for it.
85
Those, then, whose office it is to look after the interests of the state will
refrain from that form of liberality which robs one man to enrich another.
Above all, they will use their best endeavours that everyone shall be protected
in the possession of his own property by the fair administration of the law and
the courts, that the poorer classes shall not be oppressed because of their
helplessness, and that envy shall not stand in the way of the rich, to prevent
them from keeping or recovering possession of what justly belongs to them; they
must strive, too, by whatever means they can, in peace or in war, to advance
the state in power, in territory, and in revenues. Such service calls for great
men; it was commonly rendered in the days of our ancestors; if men will perform
duties such as these, they will win popularity and glory for themselves and at
the same time render eminent service to the state.
tr. W. Miller, text taken from http://www.stoics.com/cicero_book.html#BOOK2