 Both works are intensely Roman. The Republic takes as the best kind of state one that, to a large extent, consists in the traditional structures of the Roman republic. The Laws considers the sort of laws that will best maintain or restore those structures. To this extent, they challenge the idea, one that Cicero saw reflected in the utopianism of Plato’s Republic, that political philosophy should proceed in isolation from consideration of actual political structures and societies. Yet, in ways that make their overall message far from straightforward, both are deeply influenced by abstract theory as well, and by questions of how theory, history and practical politics interact.