Abstract
Cicero recognizes general moral principles independent of human convention, to which the actual laws and conventions that human societies devise must conform. Yet he believes that differences in local circumstances mean that the way in which conformity is realized may vary considerably across time and place. Conformity need not, and perhaps should not, imply uniformity. Furthermore, Cicero is attuned to the question of how societies develop towards a better realization of the natural law. Genuinely lasting improvement does not result from imposing wholesale change but by engaging reflectively and critically with tradition, custom and history. These points are established through a reading of three of Cicero’s philosophical works: De Re Publica, De Officiis, and especially De Legibus.
