Voltaire and Cicero
strongly, especially in De Officiis , that a life of personal enjoyment ( otium ) led to a far less fulfilling life than that of service to the state (civitas). Although contrary to medieval beliefs that the vita activa was lesser in the eyes of God than a vita contemplativa , Voltaire and fellow Enlightenment philosophes are in complete accordance with Cicero. As Voltaire famously said about the book, ‘No one will ever write anything more wise, more true, or more useful.’ 18 This arguably explains why the philosophes of the 18 th Century took such an interest in Cicero, seeing him as innovative in terms of attitude and belief. They tried to persuade people of their viewpoints through the ‘feelings, beliefs, and hopes of fellow citizens.’ 19 Taken straight out of Cicero’s De Oratione , they realized that repeating pompous aphorisms were not enough to sway the common people. In conclusion, for Voltaire, Cicero was ‘the champion of freedom and the rule of law against tyranny, but also as a kind of Roman ‘philosophe.’’ 20 In terms of scepticism, their beliefs were much one and the same, with Voltaire ‘joking that his entry on Superstition was ‘a chapter taken from Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch.’’ 21 There always seemed to be a part of Voltaire that was Ciceronian, notably displayed during Voltaire’s reenactment of him in his play Rome Sauvée . Although looking back, there seemed to be some discrepancies between traditional and enlightenment values, it would be crude to aver that they were not similar. Overall, Voltaire was greatly inspired by Cicero for his innovative beliefs and his elegance in how he displayed himself, through rhetoric and wit; one might go as far as to say that if Cicero were a bourgeois who grew up in 18 th century Paris, the two would be indistinguishable. Bibliography About Voltaire’s writings . https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/about-voltaires-writings / . Consulted 26/08/2025 Burrows, S. (2022) ‘Cicero, Voltaire and the Bible: French Best-Sellers in the Age of Enlightenment?’, Knygotyra 78: 46-79 Cronk, N. About Voltaire . https://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/about-voltaire/. Consulted 20/08/2025 Cronk, N; Roe, G. The humanist world of Voltaire’s correspondence . https://voltairefoundation.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/the-humanist-world-of-voltaires- correspondence/. Consulted 20/08/2025 Donway, W. Voltaire: The French Enlightenment Is Born . https://oll.libertyfund.org/publications/reading- room/2023-06-14-donway-voltaire-french-enlightenment . Consulted 20/08/2025 Gay, P. (1966) The Enlightenment, an interpretation . New York Ridgway, R. (1968) ‘Voltaire as an Actor’, Eighteenth-Century Studies 1, No. 3: 261-276 Sharpe, M. (2015) Cicero, Voltaire and the philosophes in the French Enlightenment . In Altman, W. (ed.). Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Cicero . Leiden. Simkin, J. Cicero . https://spartacus-educational.com/ROMcicero.htm. Consulted 20/08/2025 Thayer, B. De Officiis by Cicero . https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cicero/de_Natura_Deorum/1B*.html. Consulted 20/08/2025 Voltaire. (1753) Supplément au Siècle de Louis XIV, Catilina . Dresden Younge, C. Cicero, Nature of the Gods . https://topostext.org/work.php?work_id=137. Consulted 20/08/2025
18 See Simkin 1997 (updated 2020). 19 See Sharpe 2015: 346, quoting De Oratione.
20 See Ridgway 1968: 275. 21 See Sharpe 2015: 352.
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