Sen Scypiona z VI księgi De Re Publica Marka Tulliusza Cycerona na tle ówczesnych wierzeń greckich i rzymskich
The Dream of Scipio in Book VI of De Re Publica by Marcus Tullius Cicero against the Background of Contemporary Greek and Roman Beliefs

Summary/Abstract: The sixth book of Cicero’s De Re Publica, entitled The Dream of Scipio, provides the context for this article’s presentation of the beliefs of ancient Romans. It opens with an overview of the religiosity of Cicero’s contemporaries and how it evolved. It describes the organisation of the cult, procedures for declaring feast days by priest pontifex and activities of Roman flamens. It notices the influence of Pythagoreanism, Orphism and Greco-Oriental Rationalism on the religious life of the Romans, and – in Cicero’s view – a great beneficial effect of the traditional religion and emerging mysticism on political life of the state. His reflections on this theme, expressed in The Dream of Scipio in the sixth book of De Re Publica, demonstrate close affinity with Stoicism and Platonism, both very popular philosophical systems at the time. The article closes with a critical overview of the cults, piety and morality of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Their religiosity was de facto their personal matter, though they did not neglect the material benefits that could be drawn from the cults.

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