De Cive is a book by Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...

 published in 1642, and one of his major works.

It anticipates the classical republican

Classical republicanism

Classical republicanism is a form of republicanism developed in the Renaissance inspired by the governmental forms and writings of classical antiquity. The earliest examples of the school were classical writers such as Aristotle, Polybius, and Cicero...

 line of argument in the better-known Leviathan

Leviathan (book)

Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil — commonly called simply Leviathan — is a book written by Thomas Hobbes and published in 1651. Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan...

. The famous phrase Bellum omnium contra omnes

Bellum omnium contra omnes

Bellum omnium contra omnes, a Latin phrase meaning "the war of all against all," is the description that Thomas Hobbes gives to human existence in the state of nature thought experiment that he conducts in De Cive and Leviathan ....

(war of all against all) appeared first in De Cive.

Background

De Cive is the first of a trilogy of works written by Hobbes dealing with human knowledge

Knowledge

Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...

, the other two works in the trilogy being De Corpore

De Corpore

De Corpore is a 1655 book by Thomas Hobbes. As its full Latin title Elementorum philosophiae sectio prima De corpore implies, it was part of a larger work, conceived as a trilogy. De Cive had already appeared, while De Homine would be published in 1658...

(‘On the body’), published in 1655 and De Homine (‘On man’), published in 1658. Because of the political turmoil of the time, namely the unrest leading up to the Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

 of 1642, Hobbes hastily "ripened and plucked" the work which would systematically come last: De Cive. This work comprises three parts: Libertas (liberty), Imperium (dominion), and Religio (religion). In the first part, he describes man’s natural condition, dealing with the natural law

Natural law

Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...

s; in the second, the necessity of establishing a stable government is indicated. Finally, in the third part,

Publication

De Cive was finished in November 1641 - before the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

 (thus arguments repeated a decade later in Leviathan cannot exclusively be influenced by that war). The book was published in Latin in 1642; a revised edition appeared in 1647. It was translated into English, entitled Philosophicall Rudiments Concerning Government and Society (published in 1651). John Aubrey

John Aubrey

John Aubrey FRS, was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the collection of short biographical pieces usually referred to as Brief Lives...

testifies that Hobbes translated part of the work into English himself with such success that an intended translator would rather leave Hobbes to do the job; it is not certain whether this was indeed the case.

The edition of the work by H. Warrender (Latin and English versions) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983) is at present standard.