"The only excuse for war is that we may live in peace unharmed"
About this Quote
Cicero ties the legitimacy of war to a single end: a peace in which citizens can live without injury. That standard narrows the field dramatically. War is not for glory, profit, vengeance, or domination; it is a hard, instrumental choice made only to remove threats that prevent a just and secure civic life. By anchoring war’s excuse in the protection of peace, he converts strategy into ethics, subordinating force to the common good.
This line emerges from Cicero’s broader project in De Officiis, where he teaches that public duty blends wisdom with justice. He draws on Roman ideas of bellum iustum, insisting that a republic should undertake no war except for fidelity and safety, and that the end of war must be peace. The phrase “peace unharmed” matters: mere cessation of hostilities does not suffice. A coerced silence under tyranny is not the peace he imagines. The goal is a condition where rights, reputation, and security are preserved, and where citizens need not fear injury from enemies or their own rulers.
The standard also disciplines leaders. If the intention drifts toward aggrandizement or plunder, the rationale collapses. The means must align with the end: proportional force, restraint toward noncombatants, and readiness to make peace once safety is secured. Cicero thus anticipates later just war criteria of right intention and last resort.
His own life underscores the tension. He backed force against conspirators like Catiline and later urged resistance to Antony, claiming the Republic’s survival was at stake. The principle did not immunize him from tragedy, but it gave him a moral compass: fight only to secure a durable, uninjured peace.
Read today, the line tests modern explanations for conflict. If policy cannot plausibly show that war is necessary to achieve a peace that leaves people unharmed, the excuse fails. If it can, then war is a regrettable means, not a prize, to restore the conditions that make a civic life possible.
This line emerges from Cicero’s broader project in De Officiis, where he teaches that public duty blends wisdom with justice. He draws on Roman ideas of bellum iustum, insisting that a republic should undertake no war except for fidelity and safety, and that the end of war must be peace. The phrase “peace unharmed” matters: mere cessation of hostilities does not suffice. A coerced silence under tyranny is not the peace he imagines. The goal is a condition where rights, reputation, and security are preserved, and where citizens need not fear injury from enemies or their own rulers.
The standard also disciplines leaders. If the intention drifts toward aggrandizement or plunder, the rationale collapses. The means must align with the end: proportional force, restraint toward noncombatants, and readiness to make peace once safety is secured. Cicero thus anticipates later just war criteria of right intention and last resort.
His own life underscores the tension. He backed force against conspirators like Catiline and later urged resistance to Antony, claiming the Republic’s survival was at stake. The principle did not immunize him from tragedy, but it gave him a moral compass: fight only to secure a durable, uninjured peace.
Read today, the line tests modern explanations for conflict. If policy cannot plausibly show that war is necessary to achieve a peace that leaves people unharmed, the excuse fails. If it can, then war is a regrettable means, not a prize, to restore the conditions that make a civic life possible.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
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