Early in Book 1 of his On Obligations, written late in 44BC, (following the death of Julius Caesar) Cicero offers a guide to honourable conduct, and he explains that “Fair dealing casts its own clear light ....” (By the way, Cicero was somewhere to the Right on the political spectrum). More importantly, the Romans had an obligation for fair dealing in war: “What must always be kept in mind when honouring a pledge is the intention, not the form of words.” Put another way, the Geneva Conventions are deeply rooted, with very strong antecedents in the Roman past, and even Stephen Harper might show some humility, if he were to allow history to be his guide (and the Prime Minister certainly seems to prefer the Roman stuff):
Consideration should also be shown to those who have been subdued by force, and men who lay down their arms and seek the sanctuary of our generals’ discretion should be granted access to them, even if a battering ram has shattered their city wall. In this respect justice has been observed so scrupulously by fellow Romans that those very men who conquered cities or nations in war and then admitted them to their protective discretion, subsequently became their patrons in accordance with ancestral custom.
The procedure for fair dealing in war has been most scrupulously committed to paper in the fetial code of the Roman people. This code can help us understand that no war is just unless it is preceded by a demand for satisfaction, or unless due warning is given first, and war is formally declared. ...
.... War with the Celtiberi and with the Cimbri was the equivalent of conflict with personal enemies, and thus was fought not for supremacy but for survival, whereas we fought with Latins, Sabines, Samnites, Carthaginians and Pyrrhus for extension of empire. True, Carthaginians broke treaties, and Hannibal was cruel, but others behaved more justly. So there is that celebrated speech of Pyrrhus about the restoration of prisoners:
No gold I ask for, no reward are you to give.
Let each of us as warriors, not traffickers
In war, with steel, not gold, determine life or death.
Which one of us Dame Fortune destines for the crown,
And what the end she brings, let us by valour seek.
Here too this word: those brave men whom war’s fate has spared
I too am minded both to spare and liberate.
Take them; I give you them. The great gods will it so.
Excerpted from Cicero, On Obligations, Tr. P. G. Walsh (Oxford: Oxford World Classics, 2008), 14-15.
No comments:
Post a Comment