Philosophic Esotericism and the End of Cicero’s De Natura Deorum

Abstract: By investigating the different types of philosophic esotericism (the deliberate concealment of philosophical views) described in Cicero’s De natura deorum , this article offers a new answer to the question of why Cicero endorses Balbus’s Stoic theology at the end of the work. For Cicero this modified form of Stoicism provides a new “myth” for Rome that is salutary for politics and esoterically preserves the genuine, that is, Platonic, activity of philosophizing. By contrast, Cicero rejects the Academic speaker Cotta’s esotericism because both Cotta and his Epicurus take traditional religion to be a complete fiction, which thus becomes an exoteric screen for their esoteric agnosticism and atheism respectively. In Cicero’s view, this conventionalist position renders preferences for regime-types arbitrary and does not uphold a natural basis for the Roman mixed regime. For this reason, Cotta’s traditionalism is an inadequate model for preserving the republic as Caesar’s dictatorship undermines its institutions.