 In Cicero’s hands, Carneades’ case against justice avails itself of the nomos/phusis contrast and of the kind of ambition for power expressed by Plato’s character Callicles in the Gorgias. Justice is not natural, as it differs radically among different peoples; it conflicts with wisdom, which tells us ”to rule over as many people as possible, to enjoy pleasures, to be powerful, to rule, to be a lord“ (III.24b), and it is fatal for states and empires, which can’t survive without injustice. In reply, the speech for justice avails itself of Stoic themes: ”true law is right reason, consonant with nature“; there is ”one eternal and unchangeable law“ [i.e. what has come to be known as ”natural law“] (III.33). This includes rule of the best over the weakest for the benefit of the latter (III.36): as in Plato’s Republic, the justice of rulership is not exploitation but paternalistic benefit. And as in Plato’s Republic Book X, where the myth of Er supplies a revisionary religious justification for justice (it will help you to choose your next reincarnation well), so Cicero’s Republic concludes with a dream recounted by Scipio Aemilianus about his even more eminent Roman ancestor, Scipio Africanus. The dream describes the divine order which not only rewards humans for just service to their city (VI.13), but also puts human affairs in a cosmic perspective designed to embolden them to care more for justice than for petty human advantage: