L’usage de la poésie dans le De Legibus

 

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This article fits in a research about the way Cicero reads Plato, especially in his political work. In the De Legibus, Cicero, like Plato in his Laws, uses legislative preambles, which have connections with poetical processes. But, while, in Plato, these preambles come within the idea that poetry plays a part in persuasion, as well as in education, in Cicero, the preamble’s notion is to be distinguished from the Platonician example. Cicero does not have the same vision neither of poetry nor of the preamble. According to him, their aim is neither to persuade nor to educate. Instead, he tries to restore the old process of carmen, a religious preamble to Roman law. In this way, Cicero restores the legislative process, by giving it a new dimension. He also places the poetic language within the legislative process, and therefore within the Roman political space, without making it lose its other dimensions.

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