Dream of Scipio

October 23, 2024

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BCE – 43 BCE) was a prominent Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and writer. Born in Arpinum, Italy, Cicero came from a wealthy family and received an extensive education in Rome and Greece. His career was marked by his efforts to uphold republican principles during the turbulent final years of the Roman Republic. He is celebrated as one of Rome’s greatest orators and prose stylists, and his contributions to rhetoric, philosophy, and politics have left a lasting legacy. His notable works include treatises on rhetoric, such as “De Oratore,” philosophical texts like “De Officiis,” and numerous speeches and letters that provide valuable insights into the political landscape of his time.

One of Cicero’s most intriguing works is “The Dream of Scipio” (“Somnium Scipionis”), which is part of his larger work, “De Re Publica” (On the Republic). This piece is a fictional dream vision experienced by the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus. In the dream, Scipio is visited by his deceased grandfather, Scipio Africanus (prominent Roman general whose most significant achievement was defeating the Carthaginian general Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC., effectively ending the Second Punic War and secured Rome’s dominance over the western Mediterranean) who reveals profound insights about the universe, the nature of the soul, and the rewards of virtue. The dream emphasizes the insignificance of earthly concerns compared to the vastness of the cosmos and the eternal nature of the soul. “The Dream of Scipio” has been influential in both philosophical and literary traditions, particularly for its exploration of Stoic and Neoplatonic themes.

“ Dream of Scipio”

Scipio Aemilianus, also known as Scipio Africanus the Younger, dreams of meeting his deceased grandfather, Scipio Africanus the Elder, who appears to him in a celestial realm. This realm is depicted as a magnificent, starry heaven, symbolizing the afterlife.

In the dream, Scipio the Elder takes his grandson on a journey through the cosmos, showing him the Earth from a heavenly perspective. The Earth appears minuscule compared to the vastness of the universe. Scipio the Elder says, “These starry spheres were much larger than the earth. Indeed the earth now seemed to me so small that I began to think less of this empire of ours, which only amounts to a pinpoint on its surface”.

Scipio the Elder imparts several philosophical and ethical teachings to his grandson:

  1. The Transience of Earthly Glory:
  2. The Immortality of the Soul:
  3. The Cosmic Perspective:
  4. The Harmony of the Universe:

“The Dream of Scipio” serves as a meditation on the nature of power, the immortality of the soul, and the importance of virtue. It encourages readers to look beyond earthly concerns and to consider their place in the broader cosmos. The teachings of Scipio the Elder provide a timeless reminder of the values of wisdom, virtue, and the pursuit of a higher purpose.

Quotes from “The Dream of Scipio – Somnium Scipionis” (pp.3-14) [Translated by W. D. Pearman]

– Then there appeared to me,—for my part I believe, out of what we had been talking about: for it often happens that our thoughts and conversations give birth in sleep to some such fancy as that which Ennius records about Homer, of whom, to be sure, in his waking moments he was wont to think and talk very often— there appeared to me Africanus, in that form which was more familiar to me from his picture than from his person. When I recognized him, I shuddered, I assure you, but he said: “Be of good courage and banish fear, my Scipio, and record what I shall say.

– Know this: for all who have preserved their fatherland, furthered it, enriched it, there is in heaven a sure and allotted abode, where they may enjoy an immortality of happiness.

– …”For unless that God, to whom all this region that you can see belongs, has released you from the keeping of your body, the entrance to this place cannot be open to you. For men were created subject to this law, to keep to that globe, which you see in the centre of this region and which is called the Earth; and to them a soul was given formed from those everlasting fires, which you mortals call constellations and stars, that, round and spherical in form, alive with divine intelligences, complete their orbits and circles with marvellous swiftness.

– But rather, my Scipio — like your grandfather here, like me your sire — follow justice and natural affection, which though great in the case of parents and kinsfolk, is greatest of all in relation to our fatherland.

– And as I surveyed them from this point, all the other heavenly bodies appeared to be glorious and wonderful,—now the stars were such as we have never seen from this earth; and such was the magnitude of them all as we have never dreamed; and the least of them all was that planet, which farthest from the heavenly sphere and nearest to our earth, was shining with borrowed light, but the spheres of the stars easily surpassed the earth in magnitude—already the earth itself appeared to me so small, that it grieved me to think of our empire, with which we cover but a point, as it were, of its surface.

– Thereupon: “I see,” said Africanus, “that you are even now regarding the abode and habitation of mankind. And if this appears to you as insignificant as it really is, you will always look up to these celestial things and you won’t worry about those of men. For what renown among men, or what glory worth the seeking, can you acquire? You see that on the earth only scattered and narrow plots are inhabited; while even in the very patches, as it were, in which men dwell, vast deserts are interspersed; and among those who live on the earth, there are not only such breaks that no communication can pass from one set to another, but some live in opposite zones; some on opposite sides of a zone; some even at the opposite point of the earth to you; and from these, at any rate, you can expect no glory.

– And yet of these very lands, which are frequented and familiar, could your name or that of any of your race have climbed beyond the summit of the Caucasus here or crossed the waters of the Ganges there? Who in the other remote regions of the rising or the setting sun or of the North or South will hear your name? Yet, leaving these aside, you can certainly see in what a narrow field your human glory aspires to spread. Again, the very men who talk of you, how long will they talk?

– So, should you have lost hope of return to this place, on whom great and illustrious men rest all their hopes, what then is your human glory worth, which can hardly affect a scanty portion of a single year? Therefore, if you will choose to look aloft and fix your gaze on this our resting-place and eternal home, nor ever enslave thyself to the rumours of the rabble, nor stake the hope of your life on the rewards of men: virtue must draw you by her own attraction to true glory; what others say of you, let that be their own concern; but still they will talk.  However, all that talk of theirs is both confined within those narrow bounds, which you can see, and has never been of long continuance in the case of any. It is buried with the men themselves, and ends in the forgetfulness of posterity.”

– “Strive indeed,” said he, “and be persuaded of this: it is not you that are mortal, but this body. For you are not that which your bodily form presents to view, but it is the mind of any man that is the man, not that figure which can be pointed out by the finger. Know then that you are a god; since he is a god who possesses force, feeling, memory and prescience, who directs, governs, and moves that body, of which he is the master, just as much as the supreme God of all moves this universe.  And as the universe which is in some degree perishable is moved by God, who is himself eternal, so is the frail body moved by an immortal soul.

– For that which moves all the time is eternal; but that which imparts motion to something else and itself receives its motion from some other source, must have a limit to its life because its motion can end. Therefore that only which moves of itself, because it never abandons itself so it never ceases to move. Moreover this is the source, this is the original cause of motion to all other things that move.

– Now an original cause has no origin; for all things originate from it, but the original cause itself cannot arise from anything else. For it would not be an original cause if it had originated from something else. And as it has no origin so it never perishes. For if the original cause once perish it will neither be itself reproduced by another nor will it create another from itself; since all things must necessarily spring from the original cause. Hence we see that the original cause of motion resides in that, which is itself self-motive. Now that can neither be born nor die; otherwise the whole heaven and all nature would collapse and come to a standstill, nor would it find any power to give it the first impulse of motion.

–  Exercise this soul in the noblest activities. Now the noblest are cares and exertions for our country’s welfare.  And the soul which has been enlivened and trained by these will speed more fleetly to this its resting-place and home. And this will it do more readily if, even while still imprisoned in the body it strains beyond it, and, surveying that which lies outside it, as much as possible, endeavours to withdraw itself from the body.

For the souls of those who have given themselves over to the pleasures of the body, and have yielded themselves to be their servants, as it were, and at the prompting of those lusts which wait upon pleasures have broken the laws of God and man; when they have glided from their bodies, go grovelling over the face of the earth; nor do they return to this place, except after many ages of wandering.”

Link to full text: Cicero, The Dream of Scipio – Somnium Scipionis (1883) pp.3-14 (tertullian.org)

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