The Liberty of Thomas Hobbes

Abstract

The concept of liberty arose and developed in the republican tradition of Cicero and Rome, which dissident authors praised in retrospect from the moment Caesar and Augustus confirmed its loss. Many patriots in Italy, England, America, and France fought and died to restore republican institutions. But many others regretted the bloodshed and turmoil that ensued. One of the earliest and most influential critics of republican liberty, Thomas Hobbes,¹ blamed England’s civil war on mixed government, and the division of powers between king, lords and commons.² This “Libertie, where of there is so frequent, and honorable mention, in the Histories, and Philosophy of the Ancient Greeks, and Romans” produced (Hobbes believed) a dangerous class of “masterless men.”³ He criticized Aristotle and Cicero for perpetuating republican opinions, so that “by reading of these Greek, and Latine Authors, men from there childhood have gotten a habit (under a false shew of liberty) of favouring tumults, and … controlling the actions of their Sovereigns; and again of controlling these controllers, with the effusion of so much blood; as I think I may truly say, there was never anything so dearly bought, as these Western parts have bought the learning of the Greek and Latine tongues.”⁴