Dream of Scipio

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This page is about a story by Cicero. For the book by Iain Pears, see The Dream of Scipio.

The Dream of Scipio (Latin, Somnium Scipionis) is a dream-vision written by the Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero in which Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus meets his grandfather by adoption, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (236 BC - 184 BC), hero of the Second Punic War against Hannibal's Carthage. The Dream of Scipio forms a digression within the sixth book of Cicero's De re publica, (English: On the Republic), his treatise on the laws and polity of the Roman republic. Comparisons have been drawn between this concluding section of Cicero's work and the Myth of Er which appears in Plato's 'Res publica' and to which 'De re publica' is said to respond.

In the brief but compressed work Scipio Aemilianus travels through the planetary spheres. Digressions upon cosmology, dream-interpretation, prophecy, time-cycles, geography and doctrine upon the nature of the soul are included in it as well as advancing Pythagorean thought and the idea of the Music of the Spheres. Somnium Scipionis was studied by the Roman philosopher Macrobius (395 - 423); his Commentary upon Scipio's Dream was valued throughout the Middle Ages. The Dream of Scipio was known to the early Christian era philosopher Boethius. Chaucer was also acquainted with it, referencing the work explicitly in his Parliament of Foules and the Nun's Priest's Tale.

The 16-year old composer Mozart wrote a short opera entitled Il sogno di Scipione (K. 126) based upon Scipio Aemilianus's inter-planetary journey through the cosmos.

[edit] Gallery

Images from a 12th century manuscript of Macrobius' Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis (Parchment, 50 ff.; 23.9 × 14 cm; Southern France). Date: ca. 1150. Source: Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, ms. NKS 218 4°.

Initial E shaped in the form of a writing man, probably representing Macrobius himself.	The Universe, the Earth in the centre, surrounded by the seven planets within the zodiacal signs.	The five climes of the Earth. Frozen climes in yellow; Temperate climes in blue; Torrid clime in red.	Sketch map showing the inhabited northern region separated from the antipodes by an imagined ocean at the equator.
Diagram showing a lunar eclipse.	Diagram showing a solar eclipse.