The concept of libido in Cicero’s assessment

The article analyzes Cicero’s assessment of ‘libido’. In the political context it denotes an outrage of a bad ruler and has a negative connotation. ‘Libido’ is combined with the negative moral categories (‘audacia’, ‘avaritia’, ‘crudelitas’, ‘cupiditas’, etc.) and opposed to the positive Stoic concepts (‘honestum’, ‘virtus’, ‘officium’, ‘cogitatio’, ‘industria’, ‘prudentia’, etc.) and the Roman political terms (‘auctoritas’, ‘dignitas’, etc.). Besides, ‘libido’ correlates with the concept of ‘lex’ within the frames of the antithesis “lawlessness-legitimacy”. In the ethical and philosophical discourse ‘libido’ means lust and, as well as in the political context, it is used with the negative moral categories (‘audacia’, ‘crudelitas’, ‘cupiditas’, ‘luxuria’, ‘nequitia’, ‘turpitudo’, ‘voluptas’, etc.). It is contrasted with the terms of the Stoic doctrine of the moral beauty alongside with the Roman ethic terms. In Cicero’s works ‘libido’ is more often employed in the ethical and philosophical context. However, in some passages the political, ethical and philosophical meanings of ‘libido’ intersect.