Evan Dutmer

Evan Dutmer is Senior Instructor in Ethics and Curriculum Leader for the Department of Leadership Education at Culver Academies, where he also holds a Williamson Fellowship. His research interests lie in ancient philosophy (with special emphasis on the ethics and political philosophy of Cicero), virtue ethics, character education, leadership studies, Latin pedagogy and the history of Latin education, and the philosophy of well-being. He received his PhD in Ancient Philosophy from Northwestern University in 2019. He has published over a dozen articles in several peer-reviewed journals in his areas of expertise. He is the co-author of a forthcoming chapter in Leadership for Flourishing (Oxford University Press 2025).

Abstract: Marcus Tullius Cicero, ancient Roman politician, orator, and philosopher, lived amid crisis nearly his entire adult life. In contrast to the totalitarian tendencies of some of his contemporaries, Cicero advocated for a new kind of leadership (one he thought also very old) to respond to these crises. He sought selfless leaders who exhibited virtues and character strengths that allowed them to meet challenges head-on while staying true to their deepest values and those of the republic. In this, Cicero paints a picture of leadership that is startlingly modern, a responsive, bi-directional leadership centered around a transformational leader who motivates by virtues, persuasion, and authenticity—not by force and empty charisma. In this book, I show how Cicero’s ideal leader—the ‘rector rei publicae,’ “helmsperson of the commonwealth”—predates much of the preoccupations of contemporary Leadership Studies. Cicero’s ideal leaders lead as authentic transformational leaders, serving selflessly while exhibiting virtuous integrity in what they do and say. Far from naïve idealism, a growing consensus in Leadership Studies suggests that this is, in fact, the most effective way to lead, drawing on strong evidence in social science research. Here, for the first time, I connect Cicero’s proto-transformational vision with its contemporary parallels, drawing lessons for contemporary leadership theory and practice from one of ancient Rome’s most eminent political practitioners and thinkers.