Engaging
A state, also known as a polis, was a developed community structure, and Plato defines a state as a body that should not tolerate diversity to bring about a socialist structure rather than individualist one for making everyone the same. Plato also defined a state as one that is constituted of military or police officers with the responsibility of maintaining order, executive group of philosophers, and people who were required to mind their own business. According to this composition, philosophers are meant to take superior positions in the state, usually as head of the state, because they possessed first-class education. This is because philosophers are the people who never wanted power over the state, but they accepted to rule because of fear to be governed by their intellectual inferiors. Plato felt that power is better in the hands of those with no ambition for power and does not need the benefits of what power brings, meaning that the one who rules should be free from bodily demands. Contrarily, Cicero defines a state as the matter or thing or assets of the people. The state as a commonwealth is for ethical purposes, and if it fails to achieve this mission, it is nothing. It is based on an agreement to share the common good. Cicero comments that our accountabilities to have supremacy over our commitments to our parents even when we receive more from our families. When we put responsibilities in order, we have the state, parents, household, close friends, friends, people who were close to us, and this situation has become a virtue in his philosophy.
The views about the state brought the need to define citizenship the need in an attempt to differentiate people of a state. According to Plato, citizenship meant sharing in the duties and privileges of membership in the polis or state. Those regarded as citizens were supposed to fight in defense of the state. They were anticipated to participate in the political life of the state by voting. At the same time, according to Cicero, the republican regime is a right via which society can acquire the status of the community of citizens that is citizenship. According to him, a citizen is a free being. When we consider citizenship as a totality of duties that can be acquired a posteriori, we can then conclude that his thoughts are not in line with the modern conceptualization of freedom. On the other hand, citizens of a state were expected to operate with virtue, as Plato considered it a unique element of the soul that is characterized by wisdom, courage, and passion through which justice comes forth. Plato reviewed that in a state, justice prevails whenever a person fulfills their personal functions, without interfering with the others. Meanwhile, according to him, the virtuous life comes from obedience to the authority, namely the state; hence this is the only condition for citizenship.