Ethical Writings of Cicero

BOOK III.

§ 1. Introduction.
2. There can be no real conflict between expediency and the Right.
3, 4. This appears from the nature of the Right.
4, 5. From the nature of the Expedient.
6. The benefit of each and the benefit of all are identical.
7. Justice never to be sacrificed to expediency. The seeming repugnancy of the Right and the Expedient can in no case and by no possibility be real.
8. Even to think otherwise is morally evil.
9. The story of Gyges, showing that concealment cannot affect the character of moral acts.
10, 11. Cases where expediency may create right, by altering the primary conditions on which the Right depends, and other cases where the clearest show of expediency is inadequate to create right.
12. The case of the Alexandrian corn-merchant who arrives with his cargo at Rhodes in a famine, and knows that other corn-laden ships are on their way to Rhodes. Shall he tell this, or keep silence? Arguments on both sides.
13. Must a man who is going to sell his house divulge all its defects and discomforts?
14. A case of downright fraud in the sale of an estate.
15, 16. Legal provisions against criminal fraud, and how evaded.
17. Laws seek to prevent fraud by the power of the state; philosophers, by reason and intelligence.
18. A case of venal complicity in fraud on the part of two of the chief citizens of Rome.
19. The idea of a good man in one's own inner consciousness includes perfect and impartial justice.
20. Men are tempted to what seem very small wrongs by the prospect of immensely greater gains. Cases of Caius Marius and Marius Gratidianus.
21. Case of Julius Caesar.