Religio e officium: il cuore dell'etica civile secondo Cicerone

According to Cicero, ratio and religio are incompatible only in theory. Their contradiction is connected to the fact that religio is based on fides and fides, in turn, is based on the negation (or overcoming) of ratio. However, in habitual practice, i.e. in the doctrine of the state and of social policy, we find a strategic similarity in ratio and religio and, in parallel, an identity of purpose which, without surprising, accompanies human action. Religio – with all that it entails: liturgies, sacrifices, offerings – can be a real tool for social control, an instrument available to the ratio. To give weight to this conviction, Cicero leans both on the tradition founded on the maiores and on the centrality of the ‘duty’ which must innervate the practical initiative of man.