Are messages to the Ciceron quote about the hierarchy of people true?

In social networks, the description of how some people live at the expense of others allegedly proposed by the ancient philosopher is distributed. We checked the reliability of such publications.

The text gaining popularity in social networks usually looks as follows:

“Mark Tuli Cicero wrote:
Poor: works and works.
Rich: operates the poor.
Soldier: protects both.
Taxpayer: pays for all three.
Banker: robs all four.
Lawyer: Deceives all five.
Doctor: Setting accounts to all six.
Robber: intimidates all seven.
Politician: He lives happily at the expense of all eight.
Written in 43 BC. e., but relevant today "

This supposedly quote from the ancient philosopher is published by users "VKontakte", Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Pikabu, YouTube and other platforms.

Judging by the search results of Google, the list allegedly compiled by Cicero was not widely known until the fall of 2021, when publications began to appear on the site "Aidaprikol" and on social networks. Earlier references are quite rare: for example, in April, the quote appeared on the site Smart-Lab, and in 2017-on the portal "Outside the city". At the same time, there were no references to the collections of Cicero's texts, research by specialists in ancient philosophy and any authoritative or simply thematic sources in the search results.

Where the list attributed to Cicero used to be extended abroad - so much in 2016 viral publications Disassembled American Factswing Project Snopes, and two years later this Made Our Australian colleagues from AAP. According to them, for the first time the list introduced As a quote from an ancient philosopher in 2012 at the forum related to the movement OCCUPY WALL STRET. By the way, then it was not eight, but 11 points. In the Russian -speaking version, the wanderer, the drunkard (The Undertaker) disappeared in the Russian -speaking version.

Snopes and AAP could not find the references to this quote in the ancient author known to scientific texts. They also emphasize that Cicero itself is actively Engaged jurisprudence and politics, therefore it is unlikely that he openly oppose his colleagues in the workshop. The language of this text is described by our colleagues-factory, as an overly modern one, from which they conclude that we are not dealing with a genuine quote, but with the “invention of some kind of anonymous Internet playwoman”.

The reliability of the statements attributed by Cicero is also refuted by historians. Biography and heritage expert John Hall confirmed The guess of the fact that the style of the text does not coincide with the works of the ancient author, and also said that Cicero adhered to other views: “It seems to me that someone [another] came up with such a cynical view of the world. Hanging him on Cicero, he seemed to give him a raid by either authority or longevity. ” The position of his colleague supported and Antiquity researcher Sean McConnell.

In 2021, the American factory project Checkyourfact also Disassembled The statement attributed to Cicero. Our colleagues interviewed several large American experts at once: Professor Clifford Ando at the University of Chicago, Professor Tee Kory Brennan from the University of Rutgers and Professor Ann Carol Vasily from the University of Boston. All of them expressed confidence that Cicero has nothing to do with the viral list that has become.

Thus, the viral quote has nothing to do with Cicero, it does not have any of the works of the ancient philosopher. Antiquity experts deny the authenticity of such an attribution, and colleagues-factory colleagues pay attention to the fact that for the first time an unusual hierarchy was connected with Cicero only in 2012 at a regular forum.

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Snopes. Cicero’s View of Life
2. Aap. Marcus Cicero Wrote Many Pithy Quotes - But Not the Oones in this Meme
3. Checkyourfact. Fact Check: Vid Cicero Write Three Observations ABOUT Roman Society?
4. Did Cicero say: “The closer the collapse of the empire, the more crazy its laws”?