Summary Of Cicero's Dream Of Scipio

Cicero’s first major philosophical work is The Republic, and was completed in 54 BCE. Cicero’s book is a dialogue regarding Roman politics, written in six books. The format is in a Socratic dialogue where Scipio Aemilianus portrays a clever old man. Cicero’s written work was politically controversial. The sixth book in particular, Dream of Scipio, describes a fictitious dream of Scipio Aemilianus before he instructed the demolition of Carthage. The nature of the dream consists of the elder Scipio coming to his (adopted) grandson, and explaining the life of the good after death and the formation of the Universe from a Stoic and Neo-Platonic perspective. This gave rise to address the nature of the cosmos and conveyed a great deal of philosophy to the later Middle Ages.

The beginning of the sixth book begins with the coming of Scipio Aemilianus into Africa, where he gets a visit from his grandfather, Scipio Africanus. Scipio Aemilianus gets his future predicted by his grandfather, and a great deal of emphasis is positioned in his hands, from the loyal duty of the Roman soldier. As an incentive, after death he will be presented: “inhabit the place which you now see, -- it was that circle that shines forth among the stars in the most dazzling white,

-- which you have learned from the Greeks to call the Milky Way" (Cicero, “De Re Publica”). However, he perceives that Rome is an irrelevant part of the Earth, and in which is dwarfed by the stars. The planetary spheres are numbered with references to Pythagorean ideas and the notion of the Music of the Spheres. Leading to the discussion of the divine, the soul, and virtue from the Stoic perspective.

Overall, the impact the Dream of Scipio had in a literary and philosophical standpoint was great. In Cicero’s Dream of Scipio, Scipio Africanus explains the rise into the celestial sphere. Also, a commentary on the Dream of Scipio by the late Roman writer Macrobius, had a great impact in spreading the idea of celestial spheres throughout the Early Middle Ages. In astronomy, this work is renowned for yielding the diameter of the Sun to be twice that of the Earth.
As mentioned above, Music of the Spheres is an early philosophical theory that views proportions in the movements of celestial bodies (the sun, moon, planets) as a form of musica. The term musica is the medieval Latin word for music, where the music is not actually capable of being heard but is solely a mathematical concept.

Greek music theory was constructed around the model of the tetrachord, meaning four strings. A tetrachord contains a set of four notes with three smaller intervals that in total entails an entire interval of a perfect fourth (4:3 frequency proportion). The fourth was seen as a simple unit for tuning, in comparison to the octave in modern western composition. Also, a tetrachord consisted of three tuning genera’s, implied by the most frequently emerging interval. All in all, it is evident that the ancient Greeks conceived of an integrated structure with the octave as the merging structure (interval).

“"What is this sound so strong and so sweet that fills my ears?" "This," he replied, "is the melody which, at intervals unequal, yet differing in exact proportions, is made by the impulse and motion of the spheres themselves, which, softening shriller by deeper tones, produce a diversity of regular harmonies” (Cicero, “De Re Publica”).

In the Timaeus Plato gives a numerical composition, which he applies to cosmology rather than strictly to music. When constructing his cosmology, Plato uses musical terminology and in fact built a Pythagorean diatonic scale. In The Dream of Scipio, the sun is characterized as being the leader of all things and this concept is undoubtedly a Pythagorean idea borrowed by Cicero. The reference to the music that Scipio listens to in his dream is an indication as to how we, living bodies, are deaf to the sounds of the Sphere because we are too familiar to them.

Scipio experienced a mystical revelation in his dream, starting when him and his grandfather look down upon the stars and earth from heaven. Scipio has the idea that the starry spheres were bigger than Earth, and began to think less of the empire of his. This book explained the Earth as a globe of insignificant size compared to the remainder of the cosmos. Scipio Africanus, portraying a spiritual mentor, disagrees with his grandson and begins to describe the beauty and harmony of the cosmos. He goes on pointing out the homeland of Scipio and argues that not only is the extent of mortal fame small in the big picture, but the period it lasts is but a concise instant in the immense river of time. He proceeds to present his conditions of his legacy, which is to do upon Earth as his ancestors have done (love, justice, and wisdom), and be faithful to your country which is seen as the utmost form of virtue. The elder encourages his descendants to see past the judgments of others, for good or for bad, and to be faithful to his soul, his ‘real self,’ and to his own moral values.

“Strive on, […] You have a god’s capacity of aliveness and sensation and memory and foresight; a god’s power to rule and govern and direct the body that is your servant, in the same way as God himself, who reigns over us, directs the entire universe” (Cicero, “De Re Publica”).

The elder makes Scipio to look at the Universe, the nine concentric spheres at the very middle, and consequently all fixed in place the Earth does not move.

Scipio then begins to perceive sounds, which is the music of spheres in motion, where its origin in mathematics and harmonic ratios. The Dream of Scipio emphasizes the link between city and state, and the affect it shares to justice and moral behavior. Cicero serves to demonstrate how public service is a delightfully sanctioned action. In addition, the major themes observed are the immortality of the soul and the link between human society and the divine order of the universe. In conclusion, Scipio is dreaming about having to choose a path between virtue or

pleasure.