Delphine Carron

Cet article retrace la réception latine de Caton d’Utique comme figure stoïcienne, du ier au xive siècle. Il distingue les témoignages qui le qualifient explicitement de stoïcien (Cicéron, Jérôme, gloses sur Lucain) de ceux qui, sans le nommer ainsi, transmettent des thèses stoïciennes à travers ses vertus et son suicide. Le Moyen Âge retient surtout ses vertus cardinales et son « honestas », plus consensuelles, et justifie son suicide comme un acte de liberté cohérent, en s’appuyant sur Lucain et Cicéron plutôt que sur la critique d’Augustin.

The Italian Dominican Ptolemy of Lucca (ca. 1240-1327) figures among the most significant political theoreticians of the Middle Ages. In his De regimine principum (ca. 1300), a continuation of Thomas Aquinas’ De regno, Ptolemy paints a highly original picture of civil happiness. Taking the Roman Republic as his model, Ptolemy praises the “political” government that is presented as a sufficient condition for felicitas civilis, and this through the virtue of its citizens, the balance of its forces, and the harmonious and active collaboration of the various groups that constitute the community.

The Italian Dominican Ptolemy of Lucca figures among the most significant political theoreticians of the Middle Ages. In his De regimine principum, a continuation of Thomas Aquinas’ De regno, Ptolemy paints a highly original picture of civil happiness. Taking the Roman Republic as his model, Ptolemy praises the “political” government that is presented as a sufficient condition for felicitas civilis, and this through the virtue of its citizens, the balance of its forces, and the harmonious and active collaboration of the various groups that constitute the community.