According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word plagiarism means "the action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft" (OED). Look, I know that the idea of property rights was a much more flexible theory back then, but COME ON. In the excerpt from Cicero's writings, the character of Scipio says, "If the state chooses its ruler by haphazard, it will be as easily upset as a vessel, if you chose a pilot by lots from the passengers" (7). In the writing world, it is one thing to take what someone says and restate it in your own words, and to a certain extent, that can be permissible. If, however, you choose to blatantly copy over someone's work, at least use different metaphors!
Okay, I'm done being silly! In all honesty, I think that Cicero used The Republic in the exact way that it was supposed to be used. Plato's work was not published so that he could receive praise, no matter how backwards that seems for that time period. Plato wanted the masses to be brought out of the cave of ignorance even though the light could burn. Cicero recognized this hard truth, and, through his own dialogue, he practically applied Plato's teaching to the real world. overall, it is really cool to see that even though Cicero was a defender of the Roman Republic, he could still see the pros and cons of the different forms of government, just like Plato wanted people to.
"Plagiarism." Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2020.
https://www-oed-com.umobile.idm.oclc.org/view/Entry/144939?redirectedFrom=plagiarism#eid
(See, Cicero? THIS IS HOW YOU CITE A SOURCE)
I think it is interesting how we read that line and instantly think about plagiarism. Plagiarism is a concept that is ingrained into our heads from day one. We are trained to know and fear it. I believe that Cicero was not plagiarizing because Sophocles probably spoke those words in public. Plato probably did not write “The Republic” until later. Because ideas were most commonly spread through word of mouth, I am sure it was not uncommon for scholars to paraphrase other scholars’ work.
ReplyDeleteI think Cicero using Plato's work is pretty ironic considering that Rome as a nation itself adopted many of ancient Greece's qualities and mythologies. A religion with greek-like deities, a spartan-like hunger, a necessity, for war; how did Rome receive credit for anything they portrayed in stories at all? Seems to be all derived from something else entirely *cough* Greece *cough*.
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