Roman Precursors of Modern Human Rights Doctrine: Cicero and Tertullian

Bruce W. Frier

The modern theory of Human Rights, as developed especially since 1948 by the United Nations in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its successors, treats Human Rights as derived from an inherent Human Dignity. Two Roman sources have been held to anticipate both of these ideas: Cicero, De Officiis 1.105–107, for the concept of Human Dignity; and Tertullian, Ad Scapulam 2.2, for a resulting Human Right to freedom of religion. This paper discusses the extent to which these sources do in fact represent precursors. I suggest that, although the evidence is admittedly less than robust, both the modern conceptions may well have originated in the philosophy of the Middle Stoa (ca. 150–50 BCE). My conclusion discusses the more general problem of how important ethical ideas such as these originate and come to inform moral discourse.

Roman Legal Tradition, 20 (2024), 1-42

DOI 10.55740/2024.1

This work is licensed under Creative Commons License CC BY-SA 4.0. Copyright © 2024 by Bruce W. Frier. Roman Legal Tradition is published by the Ames Foundation at the Harvard Law School and the Alan Rodger Endowment at the University of Glasgow. ISSN 1943-6483.

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