“The first duty is to the immortal gods; the second, to one's country; the third, to one's parents; and so on in a descending scale to the rest.”Cicero · Despre îndatoriri · -44 · cartea I, paragraful 160
Duties are not equal in weight: the divine, the country and family outrank any personal claim.
Cicero builds a ladder of moral obligations, from the broadest to the closest. The logic is that responsibilities are not equally weighted: a claim on us by the whole community or by divine order outweighs a personal preference. A concrete example: a judge owes justice to the city even when a relative asks for a favor; family loyalty cannot reorder the ladder.
Why it matters It helps anyone pulled in opposite directions by family, work, and conscience decide which claim takes priority, instead of yielding to the loudest one.