Friendship, the supposedly lower-maintenance and more relaxed type of love, has a myriad of considerations and requirements for success. In addition to common interests and mutual respect for one another, there are many other conditions that must be met for a friendship to remain balanced and healthy. In the treatise “On Friendship”, written by Marcus Tullius Cicero, the benefits, threats, and methods for success in friendship are explored.

In “On Friendship”, Cicero attempts to detail his thoughts on friendship in an imagined dialogue. In this conversation, he explores the various benefits of friendship. One such benefit is found in the answer to the question “What can be more delightful than to have some one to whom you can say everything with the same absolute confidence as to yourself?” (pg. 4).  In a friend, we find a reflection of ourselves, our interests and desires, a reflection that supports our ideals and beliefs. Cicero found that it is in our shared joy with others that we live a full life. This concept is further solidified in another ideal of his, that friendship “gives us bright hopes for the future and forbids weakness and despair” (pg. 5). By finding a friend, one who represents the best virtues within ourselves, and entering into a union developed around this mutual goodness for the sake of companionship, we find promise of a happier, more fulfilling life, as we have someone to share it with.

While the benefits of friendship are plenty, so are the threats against it. As with any type of love, there are certain dangers that threaten to destroy the bond. One common threat to friendship is conflict of interest. In the idea that two friends may be vying for the same coveted position in work, the affections of the same person, or some other common aspect that may spur competition between the two, the union’s stability is jeopardized by the conflict created. Cicero states “For while the most fatal blow to friendship in the majority of cases was the lust of gold, in the case of the best men it was a rivalry for office and reputation, by which it had often happened that the most violent enmity had arisen between the closest of friends” (pg. 7). This conflict can also occur among friends who maintain different ideals on the state of the republic. For instance, if one friend supports tyranny, the other may feel compelled to support his friend over his country. As such, Cicero finds it important to consider the possible wickedness within another before committing to friendship, so as to eliminate the possibility that one might ask of his friend “…anything that militated against his honour or his oath or the interest of the republic” (pg. 7). In addition, Cicero finds that “we must impress upon good men that, should they become inevitably involved in friendships with men of this kind, they ought not consider themselves under any obligation to stand by friends who are disloyal to the republic” (Pg. 7-8). Cicero found it vital that man not subject himself to the transgressions of such evil, evil that might create a “breach of religious obligation”.

Greed, and the general quest for great material wealth, also pose great threat to the success of friendship among men. In the chase for money and property, men lose sight of the importance of human affection. Cicero poses the question “…what can be more irrational than to take delight in many objects incapable of response…and yet take little or none in a sentient being endowed with virtue, which has the faculty of loving or…loving back?” (pg. 9). The idea that material objects can provide the companionship and affection that friendship can is denounced. “For who, in heaven’s name, would chose a life of the greatest wealth and abundance on condition of neither loving or being beloved by any creature?” (pg. 9).

Throughout the treatise, Cicero provides a guideline for success in friendship, while outlining the dangers, and offering suggestions on avoidance of such threats. In addition to this information, he also attempts to define the parameters of true friendship, the bond between good men. He finds friendship to be “the greatest thing in the world, for there is nothing which so fits in with our nature, or is so exactly what we want in prosperity or adversity” (pg. 4), with the beginning marked by the “clear indication of virtue, to which a mind of like character is naturally attracted…” (pg. 9). It is in this very ideal that true friendship is established and maintained.