Cicero

For other uses, see Cicero (disambiguation).

Cicero at about age 60, from an ancient marble bust

Marcus Tullius Cicero (IPA:Classical Latin pronunciation: ['kikeroː], usually pronounced [ˈsɪsərəʊ] in English; January 3, 106 BC – December 7, 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, political theorist, philosopher, widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.

Cicero is widely recognized as one of the most versatile minds of Roman culture and his writing the paragon of Classical Latin. He introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary. An impressive orator and successful lawyer, Cicero likely thought his political career his most important achievement. But today he is appreciated primarily for his humanism and philosophical and political writings. His correspondence has been especially influential, introducing the art of refined letter writing to European culture.

During the chaotic latter half of the first century BC, marked by Civil Wars and the dictatorship of C. Julius Caesar, Cicero championed a return to the traditional Republican government; however, his career as a statesman was marked by inconsistencies and a tendancy to shift his position in response to changes in the political climate. His vacillations may be attributed to his sensitive and impressionable personality; he was prone to overreact to political and private changes. "Would that he had been able to endure prosperity with greater self-control and adversity with more fortitude!" wrote C. Asinius Pollio, a contemporary Roman statesman and historian. His inability to persevere with calm, unswerving determination was his main weakness.

Childhood and family

Cicero was born 3 January 106 BC in Arpinum (modern-day Arpino), a town 100 kilometres south of Rome. The Arpinians received Roman citizenship in 188 BC and therefore adopted Latin rather than their native Volscian. This made Cicero's future as an orator and writer possible; if he had spent his childhood speaking Volscian he would never have become the Latin literary great that he was.

At this period in Roman history, all cultured persons were bilingual, speaking both Greek and Latin. In fact, the Roman elite often preferred Greek, because it was a more evolved language and richer in nuances than Latin. Fortunately, Greek was taught already in the primary schools of Arpinum. Later, Cicero studied rethoric primarily in Greek because most prominent teachers of oratory at that time were Greeks. He later put his Greek eductaion to good use, translating the theoretical concepts of Greek philosophy into Latin.

Cicero's family belonged to the local gentry, domi nobiles but had no familial ties with the Roman senatorial class. Cicero was, however, distantly related to one notable person born in Arpinium, Gaius Marius. Marius led the populares faction during a Civil War against the optimates, led by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in the 80s BC. Cicero received little political benefit from this connection. In fact, it may have hindered his political aims, as the Marian faction was ultimately defeated.

Cicero's father was a well-to-do equestrian(knight) with good connections in Rome. He was, however, a semi-invalid who could not enter public life; he compensated for this by studying extensively. Cicero's mother was named Helvia. Little is known about her othe than what is recorded in a letter by Cicero's brother, Quintus; apparently, she was a thrifty housewife.

The name Cicero is derived from the Latin word cicer, meaning chickpea. Plutarch explains that the name was originally given to one of Cicero's ancestors who had a cleft in the tip of his nose resembling a chickpea. Plutarch adds that Cicero was urged to change this depreciatory name when he entered politics, but he refused, saying that he would make Cicero more glorious than Scaurus ("Swollen-ankled") and Catulus ("Puppy").

Early life and studies

The Young Cicero Reading, 1464 fresco, now at the Wallace Collection.

According to Plutarch, Cicero was an extremely talented student, whose learning attracted attention from all over Rome; he was granted the opportunity to study Roman law under Quintus Mucius Scaevola. In the same way, years later, the young Marcus Caelius Rufus and other young lawyers would study under Cicero; an association of the sort was considered a great honour to both teacher and pupil. He also had the support of his family's patrons, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus and Lucius Licinius Crassus. The latter was a model to Cicero both as an orator and as a statesman.

Cicero's fellow-students with Scaevola were Gaius Marius Minor, Servius Sulpicius Rufus (who became a famous lawyer, one of the few whom Cicero considered superior to himself in legal matters), and Titus Pomponius. The latter two became Cicero's friends for life, and Pomponius (who recieved the cognomen "Atticus" for his philhellenism) would become Cicero's chief emotional support and adviser. "You are a second brother to me, an 'alter ego' to whom I can tell everything", Cicero wrote in one of his letters to Atticus.

In his youth Cicero tried his hand at poetry, although his main interests lay elsewhere. His poetic works include translations of Homer and the Phaenomena of Aratus, which later influenced Virgil to use that poem in the Georgics.

In the late 90's and early 80's BC Cicero fell in love with philosophy, which was to have a great role in his life. He eventually would introduce Greek philosophy to the Romans and create a philosophical vocabulary for it in Latin. The first philosopher he met was the Epicurean Phaedrus when he was visiting Rome ca. 91 BC. His fellow-student at Scaevola's, Titus Pomponius, made company with him. Titus Pomponius (Atticus) would stay an Epicurean for the rest of his life, but not so Cicero.

In 87 BC, Philo of Larissa, the head of the Academy that was founded by Plato in Athens about 300 years earlier, arrived in Rome. Cicero, "inspired by an extraordinary zeal for philosophy", sat enthusiatically at his feet and absorbed Plato's philosophy. He even called Plato his god. What he admired in Plato most was his moral and political seriousness, but he also respected his breadth of imagination. Yet, Plato's theory of the Ideas was something Cicero rejected.

A little later, Cicero met Diodotus, an exponent of Stoicism. Stoicism had already been introduced to Roman society, during the previous generation. It appealed to the Romans because its stress on control of emotions and willpower agreed with ancient Roman ideals. Cicero could not completely accept such an austere philosophy, but he adopted a modified stoicism prevalent during the time. Diodotus the Stoic became Cicero's protegé and lived in his house until his death. Diodetus demonstrated a truly Stoic atttitude when he continued to study and teach despite the misfortune of losing his sight.

Cursus honorum

"Always to be best and far to excel the others", this quote from the Iliad by Homer, was Cicero's childhood dream. He was ambitious and he wanted to become somebody great. The road to position and authority, to the purple-bordered toga praetexta and the lictor's rods in Rome was just one: public service.

Cicero started his career as a lawyer in 84 BC. He took his first major case in 80 BC, defending Sextus Roscius on a charge of parricide. Taking this case was a courageous move for Cicero; parricide and matricide were considered appalling crimes, and the people whom Cicero accused of the murder — the most notorious being Chrysogonus — were favourites of Sulla. At this time it would have been easy for Sulla to have Cicero murdered, as Cicero was barely known in the Roman courts.

His arguments were divided into three parts: in the first, he defended Roscius and attempted to prove he did not murder; in the second, he attacked those who likely committed the crime — one being a relative of Roscius — and stated how the crime fitted them more than Roscius; in the third, he attacked Chrysogonus, stating Roscius' father was murdered to obtain his estate at a cheap price. On the strength of this case, Roscius was acquitted.

Cicero's successful defense was an indirect challenge to the Dictator Sulla. It was due to the potential wrath of Sulla and a sudden attack of laryngitis, brought on by Cicero’s early speaking style, that Cicero left for Greece and Rhodes, where he indulged his love of Hellenistic culture. While there, he visited Publius Rutilius Rufus, a former magistrate who had been exiled to Asia and who held staunch Republican ideals, and Posidonius, a famed philosopher and scholar who also held an idealized view of Rome. He also met and studied oratory with the rhetorician Molon of Rhodes. He instructed Cicero in a more expansive and less intense (and less strenuous on the throat) form of oratory that would define Cicero's individual style in years to come.

Entry into politics

After his return to Rome, Cicero's reputation rose very quickly, assisting his elevation to office in 75 BC. Cicero served as quaestor in western Sicily in 75 BC. He wrote that in Sicily he discovered the tomb of Archimedes of Syracuse, on whose gravestone was carved Archimedes’ favorite discovery in geometry, that the ratio of the volume of a sphere to that of the smallest right circular cylinder in which it fits is 2:3.

Cicero built an extremely successful law practice, and, in August 70 BC, attained prominence for his successful prosecution of Gaius Verres, the former governor of Sicily, who was represented by Hortensius, a former consul and reckoned to be Rome's greatest lawyer and orator.

Despite his great success as an advocate, Cicero had a lack of reputable ancestry; he was neither a noble nor patrician. There was the further hindrance that the last memorable "new man" to have been elected consulate without consular ancestors had been the politically radical and militarily innovative Gaius Marius — a distant relative of Cicero's who also came from Arpinum.

Cicero grew up in an environment of civil unrest and war. Sulla’s victory in the first of many civil wars led to a new constitutional framework that undermined libertas (liberty), the fundamental value of the Roman Republic. However Sulla’s reforms strengthened the position of the Equestrian class and contributed to that class’s growing political power. Cicero was both an Italian eques and a novus homo, but more importantly he was a constitutionalist, meaning he did not wish to side with the Populares faction and embark on a campaign of "seditious" reform. His social class and loyalty to the Republic ensured he would "command the support and confidence of the people as well as the Italian middle classes." However, his lack of social standing resulted in an inability to secure a reliable and viable power base, as the equites, his main support base, did not hold considerable power. The Optimates faction never truly accepted Cicero, despite his outstanding talents and vision for the security of the Republic. This undermined his efforts to reform the Republic while preserving the constitution. Nevertheless, he was able to successfully ascend the Roman cursus honorum, holding each magistracy at or near the youngest possible age: quaestor in 75 (age 31), curule aedile in 69 (age 37), praetor in 66 (age 40), and finally consul at age 43.

Consul

Cicero

Cicero was elected consul in 63 BC. During his year in office he thwarted the Catiline conspiracy, a plot to overthrow the Roman Republic led by Lucius Sergius Catilina, a disaffected patrician. Cicero procured a senatus consultum de re publica defendenda (a declaration of martial law, also called the senatus consultum ultimum), and he drove Catiline from the city by four vehement speeches, the Catiline Orations, in which he described Catline and his followers' debaucheries, and denounced his followers as a company of dissolute senators and assorted rogues who, deeply in debt, latched onto Catiline as a last hope. Cicero vehemently urged Catiline and his followers to leave the city. At the conclusion of his first speech, Catiline burst from the Temple of Jupiter Stator, where the Senate had convened, and made his way to Etruria. In his following speeches Cicero did not directly address Catiline but instead addressed the senate. By these speeches Cicero wanted to prepare the senate for the worst possible case; he also delivered more evidence against Catiline.

Catiline fled and left behind his followers to start the revolution from within while Catiline assaulted the city from without with an army recruited among Sulla’s veterans in Etruria. These five parties had attempted to involve the Allobroges, a tribe of Transalpine Gaul, in their plot, but Cicero, working with the Gauls, was able to seize letters which incriminated the five conspirators and forced them to confess their crimes in front of the Senate.

The Senate then deliberated upon the conspirators' punishment. As it was the dominant advisory body to the various legislative assemblies rather than a judicial body, there were limits to its power; however, martial law was in effect, and it was feared that simple house arrest or exile — the standard options — would not remove the threat to the state. At first most in the Senate spoke for the "extreme penalty"; many were then swayed by Julius Caesar, who decried the precedent it would set and argued in favor of life imprisonment in various Italian towns. Cato then rose in defense of the death penalty and all the Senate finally agreed on the matter. Cicero had the conspirators taken to the Tullianum, the notorious Roman prison, where they were strangled. Cicero himself accompanied the former consul Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura, one of the conspirators, to the Tullianum. After the executions had been carried out, Cicero announced the deaths by the formulaic expression Vixerunt ("they have lived," which was meant to ward off ill fortune by avoiding the direct mention of death). He received the honorific "Pater Patriae" for his efforts to suppress the conspiracy, but lived thereafter in fear of trial or exile for having put Roman citizens to death without trial. He also received the first public thanksgiving for a civic accomplishment; previously this had been a purely military honor. Cicero's four Catiline Orations remain outstanding examples of his rhetorical style.

Exile and return

In 61 BC Gaius Julius Caesar invited Cicero to be the fourth member of a partnership, along with Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus, which in due time would be called the First Triumvirate. After some hesitation, Cicero refused the invitation, for he suspected it would undermine the republic.

In 58 BC, Publius Clodius Pulcher, the tribune of the people, introduced a law exiling any man who executed a Roman citizen without trial. Although Cicero maintained that the senatus consultum ultimum indemnified him from punishment, he attempted to gain the support of the senators and consuls, and especially of Pompey. When help was not forthcoming, he went into exile in Thessalonica, Greece, and arrived there on May 23, 58 BC. The day Cicero left Italy Clodius proposed another bill forbidding him from approaching within 400 miles of Italy and confiscating his property. His villa on the Palatine was destroyed by Clodius' supporters, as were his villas in Tusculum and Formiae.

Cicero began to fall into a deep depression. He wrote to Atticus: "Your pleas have prevented me from committing suicide. But what is there to live for? Don't blame me for complaining. My afflictions surpass any you ever heard of earlier." In another, calmer, letter to Atticus, Cicero asserted that the Senate was jealous of him, and therefore it refused to recall him from exile. Cicero, in a letter to his brother Quintus, later correctly identified the factors which had put him in his untenable position: "the defection of Pompey, the hostility of the senators and judges, the timidity of equestrians, the armed bands of Clodius." Atticus borrowed 25,000 sestertii for Cicero's cause, and, with Cicero's wife, Terentia, attempted to recall him from exile.

Cicero returned from exile on August 5, 57 BC, landing in Brundisium (modern Brindisi), where he was met by his beloved daughter, Tullia. Greeted by a cheering crowd, he returned elated to Rome. Some time later the senate passed a resolution restoring his property, and ordered reparations to be paid for damages.

During the 50s, Cicero supported Milo as a counter to Clodius, who drew his support and power from armed mobs and political violence. During the mid-50s, Clodius was slain by Milo’s gladiators in the Via Appia. Cicero defended Milo against counts, alleged by Clodius' relatives, of murder, but lost the case. Cicero’s speech, Pro Milone, was considered by some as his masterpiece. Cicero argued that Milo had no reason to kill Clodius and had everything to gain from him being alive; moreover he asserted Milo did not expect to encounter Clodius in the Via Appia. The prosecution countered that Milo had freed slaves who were present during Clodius' murder, and therefore they would not testify against him. But Cicero argued that Milo’s slaves defended him honorably from Clodius, and that therefore they were entitled to their freedom. After his trial, Milo went into exile and continued to live in Massilia until he returned to stir up further trouble in the Civil War.

As the struggle between Pompey and Julius Caesar grew more intense in 50 BC, Cicero favored Pompey but tried to avoid turning Caesar into a permanent enemy. When Caesar invaded Italy in 49 BC, Cicero fled Rome. Caesar's attempts to convince him to return were futile. In June Cicero slipped out of Italy and traveled to Dyrrachium (Epidamnos), Illyria, where Pompeius' staff were situated. In 48 BC, Cicero was with the Pompeians at the camp of Pharsalus and was disappointed with all he saw. He quarreled with many of the commanders, including a son of Pompey. Even Cato told him that he would have been of more use to the cause of the optimates if he had stayed in Rome. In Cicero's own words:"I came to regret my action in joining the army of the optimates, not so much for the risk of my own safety as for the appalling situation which confronted me on arrival. To begin with, our forces were too small and had poor morale. Secondly, for the exception of the commander-in-chief and a handful of others, everyone was greedy to profit from the war itself and their conversation was so bloodthirsty that I shuddered at the prospect of victory.(...) In a word everything was wrong except the cause we were fighting for." After Caesar's victory at Pharsalus, Cicero returned to Rome slowly and hesitatingly. Caesar pardoned him and he tried his best to adjust to the situation, hoping that Caesar might revive the Republic and its institutions.

In a letter to Varro on c. April 20 46 BC, Cicero outlined his strategy under Caesar's dictatorship : "I advise you to do what I am advising myself – avoid being seen, even if we cannot avoid being talked about… If our voices are no longer heard in the Senate and in the Forum, let us follow the example of the ancient sages and serve our country through our writings, concentrating on questions of ethics and constitutional law."

Opposition to Mark Antony, and death

Cicero was taken completely by surprise when the Liberatores assassinated Caesar on the ides of March 44 BC. Cicero was not included in the conspiracy, even though the conspirators were sure of his sympathy and Marcus Junius Brutus called out Cicero's name when he lifted the bloodstained dagger after the assassination. A letter Cicero wrote in February 43 BC to Trebonius, one of the conspirators, began, "How I could wish that you had invited me to that most glorious banquet on the Ides of March!" Cicero became a popular leader during the period of instability following the assassination. He had no respect for Mark Antony, who was scheming to take revenge upon Caesar's murderers. He arranged to avoid having Caesar outlawed as a tyrant so that the Caesarians could have lawful support, in exchange for amnesty for the assassins – which the Senate agreed to.

Cicero and Antony, Caesar’s subordinate, became the leading men in Rome; Cicero as spokesman for the Senate, and Antony as consul and as executor of Caesar's will. But the two men had never been on friendly terms, and their relationship worsened after Cicero made it clear he felt Antony to be taking unfair liberties in interpreting Caesar's wishes and intentions. When Octavian, Caesar's heir and adopted son, arrived in Italy in April, Cicero formed a plan to play him against Antony. In September he began attacking Antony in a series of speeches he called the Philippics, in honour of his inspiration – Demosthenes. Praising Octavian to the skies, he labeled him a "god-sent child" and said that the young man only desired honor and would not make the same mistake as his father by adoption. Meanwhile, his attacks on Antony, whom he called a "sheep", rallied the Senate in firm opposition to Antony. During this time, Cicero became an unrivaled popular leader and, according to the historian Appian, he "had the [most] power any popular leader could possibly have." Cicero heavily fined the supporters of Antony for petty charges and had volunteers forge arms for the supporters of the republic. According to Appian (although the story is not supported by others), this policy was perceived by Antony's supporters to be so insulting that they prepared to march on Rome to arrest Cicero. Cicero fled the city and the plan was abandoned.

Cicero supported Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus as governor of Cisalpine Gaul (Gallia Cisalpina) and urged the Senate to name Antony an enemy of the state. One tribune, a certain Salvius, delayed these proceedings and was "reviled," as Appian put it, by Cicero and his party. The speech of Lucius Piso, Caesar's father-in-law, delayed proceedings against Antony. Antony was later declared an enemy of the state when he refused to lift the siege of Mutina, which was in the hands of Decimus Brutus. Cicero described his position in a letter to Cassius, one of Caesar's assassins, that same September: "I am pleased that you like my motion in the Senate and the speech accompanying it… Antony is a madman, corrupt and much worse than Caesar — whom you declared the worst of evil men when you killed him. Antony wants to start a bloodbath..."

Cicero’s plan to drive out Antony failed, however. After the successive battles of Forum Gallorum and Mutina, Antony and Octavian reconciled and allied with Lepidus to form the Second Triumvirate. Immediately after legislating their alliance into official existence for a five-year term with consular imperium, the Triumvirate began proscribing their enemies and potential rivals. Cicero and his younger brother Quintus Tullius Cicero, formerly one of Caesar's legates, and all of their contacts and supporters, were numbered among the enemies of the state (though reportedly Octavian fought against Cicero being added to the list for two days).

Among the proscribed, Cicero was one of the most viciously and doggedly hunted. Other victims included the tribune Salvius, who, after siding with Antony, moved his support directly and fully to Cicero. Cicero was viewed with sympathy by a large segment of the public and many people refused to report that they had seen him. He was eventually caught leaving his villa in Formiae in a litter going to the seaside from where he hoped to embark on a ship to Macedonia. When the assassins arrived, his slaves said they had not seen him, but a freed slave of Quintus Cicero, Philologus, gave Cicero away.

Cicero's last words were said to have been "there is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly." He was decapitated by his pursuers on December 7, 43 BC at Formia. His head and hands were displayed on the Rostra in the Forum Romanum according to the tradition of Marius and Sulla, both of whom had displayed the heads of their enemies in the Forum. He was the only victim of the Triumvirate's proscriptions to be so displayed. According to Cassius Dio (in a story often mistakenly attributed to Plutarch), Antony's wife Fulvia took Cicero's head, pulled out his tongue, and jabbed it repeatedly with her hairpin, taking a final revenge against Cicero's power of speech.

Cicero's son, Marcus Tullius Cicero Minor, during his year as a consul in 30 BC, got a small revenge for his father's death, when he announced to the Senate Mark Antony's naval defeat at Actium in 31 BC by Octavian and his able commander-in-chief Agrippa. The Senate voted in the same meeting that no Antonius would ever in the future have the right to use the name Marcus.

When Octavian, later in life, came upon one of his grandsons reading a book by Cicero and saw the boy trying to conceal it, fearing his grandfather's reaction, he instead took the book from him, read a large part of it and then handed the volume back with the words "He was a learned man, dear child, a learned man who loved his country."

Marriage and issue

Cicero had two children, a daughter, Tullia Ciceronis, probably born in 76 BC, and a son, Marcus Tullius Cicero Minor, born in 65 BC, from his marriage to Terentia. He later divorced Terentia, though the cause of this is unknown and a matter of much confusion. Cicero and Terentia's marriage had lasted thirty years and a good amount about the relationship is known from first-hand accounts from Cicero's own letters to his slave and friend Tiro, to his brother Quintus, his friend Atticus, and some to Terentia herself. The relationship had been warm and loving. Both were intelligent people, and their union was based on trust and mutual contribution; in fact, their marriage was much more of a modern style partnership than a typical Roman male-controlled situation. Despite this decades-long success, however, the relationship suddenly turned cold in the early 40's BC. In 47, Terentia was working on her will, a document that would have ensured the financial security of Tullia, and her brother Marcus, in the event of the death of their parents. This was of particular importance to Cicero, as throughout his career he was constantly finding himself on the wrong side of volatile political situations in Rome, and he was anxious to have Terentia secure Tullia's future, as his own was so uncertain. Terentia was slow to create the will, however, which seems to have caused great tension between the two, and could have been a part of their growing rift. Cicero's letters to Terentia became short, bitter, and focused only on business and financial matters between the two. Unfortunately, these later letters give us only circumstantial evidence about the reason for the divorce, allowing many theories but confirming none. Torsten Petersson believes, "apparently Cicero and Terentia drifted apart, and nobody can assign the blame."

Perhaps the marriage simply could not outlast the strain of the political upheaval in Rome, Cicero's involvement in it, and various other disputes between the two. The divorce appears to have taken place in 47 or 46, but the date has never been secure. It may have even been an amicable split, according to J.M. Claassen. Divorce enabled Terentia to protect her finances, as it would have made her a woman sui iuris, and thus would also have kept more money in Terentia's accounts for later inheritance by Tullia and Marcus. Regardless, the cause of the divorce cannot be gleaned from the letters we have today, and we cannot even know if it was contested or not. It is a confusing event in Cicero's life, especially because his writing was so prolific, and yet does not ever account for the split.

In late 46 BC Cicero remarried to a young girl who had been his ward, Publilia (then aged 15). It is thought that Cicero needed her money, particularly after having to repay the dowry of Terentia, who came from a wealthy family. This marriage did not last long. Shortly after the marriage had taken place Cicero's daughter, Tullia, died. Publilia had been jealous of her and was so unsympathetic over her death that Cicero divorced her. Several friends of his, among them Caerellia, a woman who shared Cicero's interest in philosophy, tried to mend the break though he remained adamant.

Cicero's children: Tullia and Marcus

Tullia was Cicero's great love (his marriage with Terentia was a marriage of convenience, as Roman marriages generally were at that time). She was the only person he never criticized. He describes her in a letter to his brother Quintus: "How affectionate, how modest, how clever! The express image of my face, my speech, my very soul." When she suddenly became ill in February 45 BC and died after having seemingly recovered from giving birth to a son in January, Cicero was stunned. "I have lost the one thing that bound me to life" he wrote to Atticus.

Atticus told him to come for a visit during the first weeks of his bereavement, so that he could comfort him when his pain was at its greatest. In Atticus' large library, Cicero read everything that the Greek philosophers had written about overcoming grief,- "but my sorrow defeats all consolation." Caesar and Brutus sent him letters of condolence. So did his old friend and colleague, the lawyer Servius Sulpicius Rufus. He sent an exquisite letter that posterity has much admired, full of subtle, melancholy reflection on the transiency of all things.

After a while, he withdrew from all company to complete solitude in his newly acquired villa in Astura. It was on a lonely spot, but not far from Neapolis (modern Naples). For several months he just walked in the woods, crying. "I plunge into the dense wild wood early in the day and stay there until evening", he wrote to Atticus. Later he decided to write a book for himself on overcoming grief. This book, Consolatio , was highly appreciated in antiquity, (and made an immense impression on St. Augustine for instance), but is unfortunately lost.A few fragments have survived, among them the poignant:"I have always fought against Fortune, and beaten her. Even in exile I played the man. But now I yield, and throw up my hand." He also planned to erect a small temple to the memory of Tullia, "his incomparable daughter." But he dropped this plan after a year, for reasons unknown.

Cicero hoped that his son Marcus would become a philosopher like him, but that was wishful thinking. Marcus himself wished for a military career. He joined the army of Pompey in 49 BC and after Pompey's defeat at Pharsalus 48 BC, he was pardoned by Caesar. Cicero sent him to Athens to study as a disciple of the peripatetic philosopher Kratippos in 48 BC, but he used this absence from "his father's vigilant eye" to "eat, drink and be merry".

After his father's murder he joined the army of the Liberatores but was later pardoned by Augustus. Augustus's bad conscience for having put Cicero on the proscription list during the Second Triumvirate led him to aid Marcus Minor's career considerably. He became an augur, and was nominated consul in 30 BC together with Augustus, and later appointed proconsul of Syria and the province of Asia.

Political and social thought

Cicero’s vision for the Republic was not simply the maintenance of the status quo. Nor was it a straightforward desire to revitalise what many, such as Sallust, term the ‘moral degradation’ of the Republican system. Cicero envisioned Rome as a "selfless nobility of successful individuals determining the fate of the nation via consensus in the Senate”. Cicero’s middle-class background resulted in a broader outlook, not marred by self-interest.

Cicero aspired to a Republican system dominated by a ruling aristocratic class of men, “who so conducted themselves as to win for their policy the approval of all good men”. Further, he sought a concordia ordinum, an alliance between the senators and the equites. This ‘harmony between the social classes’, “which he later developed into a consensus omnium bonorum to include tota italia (all citizens of Italy), demonstrated Cicero’s foresight as a statesman. He understood that fundamental change to the organization and the distribution of power within the Republic was required to secure its future. However, Cicero was also naïve to believe that ‘the best men’ would institute large-scale reforms which were contrary to their interests as the ruling oligarchy. Cicero's guiding principle throughout his political career was:

That “some sort of free-state” is the necessary condition of a noble and honourable existence; and that it is the worst calamity for a people to permanently renounce this ideal and to substitute for it the slave’s ideal of a good master.

Links with the Equestrian class, combined with his status as a novus homo meant that Cicero was isolated from the optimates. Thus, it is not surprising that Cicero envisioned a “selfless nobility of successful individuals” instead of the current system dominated by patricians. The fact remains that those who sat in the Senate had appropriated huge profits by exploiting the provinces. Repeatedly, the oligarchy had proved to be shortsighted, reactionary and “operating with restricted and outmoded institutions could no longer cope with vast territories containing multifarious populations.” The repeated failings of the oligarchy were not only due to leading patricians, such as Cato, but also to the influx of conservative equites into the Senate’s ranks.

The combination of the Roman governing system, established by the oligarchy to maximize economic exploitation, and the introduction of the business minded Knights only sought to increase the plundering of resources within the Empire. The large-scale extortion destabilized the political system further, which was continuously under pressure by both foreign wars and from the populares. Moreover, this period of Roman history was marked by constant in-fighting between senators and the equites over political power and control of the courts. The problem arose because Sulla originally enfranchised the equites, but then, these privileges were soon removed after he stepped down from office. Cicero, as an eques, naturally backed their claims to participate in the legal process; moreover the constant conflict was incompatible with his vision of a concordia ordinum. Furthermore, the conflict between the two classes showed no signs of a feasible solution in the short term. The ruling class for over a century had showed nothing of ‘selfless service’ to the Republic and through their actions only undermined its stability, contributing to the creation of a society ripe for revolution.

The establishment of individual power bases both within Rome and in the provinces undermined Cicero’s guiding principle of a free state, and thus the Roman Republic itself. This factionalised the Senate into cliques, which constantly engaged each other for political advantage. These cliques were the optimates, led by such figures as Cato, and in later years Pompey, and the populares, lead by such men as Julius Caesar and Crassus. It is important to note that the although the optimates were generally republicans there were instances of leaders of the optimates with distinctly dictatorial ways. Caesar, Crassus and Pompey were at one time the head of the First Triumvirate which directly conflicted with the Republican model as it did not comply with the system of holding a Consulship for one year only. Cicero’s vision for the Republic could not succeed if the populares maintained their position of power. Cicero did not envisage wide spread reform, but a return to the “golden age” of the Republic. Despite Cicero’s attempts to court Pompey over to the Republican side, he failed to secure either Pompey’s genuine support or peace for Rome.

After the civil war, Cicero recognised that the end of the Republic was almost certain. He stated that “the Republic, the Senate, the law courts are mere ciphers and that not one of us has any constitutional position at all.” The civil war had destroyed the Republic. It wreaked destruction and decimated resources throughout the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar’s victory had been absolute. Caesar’s assassination failed to reinstate the Republic, despite further attacks on the Romans’ freedom by “Caesar’s own henchman, Marc Antony.” Furthermore, his death only highlighted the stability of ‘one man rule’ by the ensuing chaos and further civil wars that broke out with Caesar’s murderers, Brutus and Cassius, and finally between his own supporters, Marc Antony and Octavian.

Cicero remained the ”Republic's last true friend” as he spoke out for his own ideals and that of the libertas the Romans had enjoyed for centuries. Cicero’s vision had a fundamental flaw. It harked back to a ‘golden age’ that never existed. Furthermore, the Republic had reached such a state of disrepair that regardless of Cicero’s talents and passion, Rome lacked “persons loyal to [the Republic] to trust with armies.” Cicero lacked the political power, nor had he any military skill or resources, to command true power to enforce his ideal. He also failed to recognize the real power structures that operated in Rome, instead following the rules of the ideal Republican game, which no longer (or perhaps had never) existed.

Cicero's phrase nec erit alia lex Romae, alia Athenis (De Re Publica 3.33) -- "nor will there be one law for Romen, another for Athens" -- has been utilized in debates over federalism and commerce in the United States.

Works

Cicero was declared a “Righteous Pagan” by the early Catholic Church, and therefore many of his works were deemed worthy of preservation. Saint Augustine and others quoted liberally from his works “On The Republic” and “On The Laws,” and it is due to this that we are able to recreate much of the work from the surviving fragments. Cicero also articulated an early, abstract conceptualization of rights, based on ancient law and custom.

Books

Of Cicero’s books, six on rhetoric have survived, as well as parts of eight on philosophy.

Speeches

Of his speeches, eighty-eight were recorded, but only fifty-eight survive. Some of the items below are more than one speech.

Judicial speeches

• (81 BC) Pro Quinctio (On behalf of Publius Quinctius)
• (80 BC) Pro Sex. Roscio Amerino (On behalf of Sextus Roscius of Ameria)
• (77 BC) Pro Q. Roscio Comoedo (On behalf of Quintus Roscius Gallus the Actor)
• (70 BC) Divinatio in Caecilium (Spoken against Caecilius at the inquiry concerning the prosecution of Gaius Verres)
• (70 BC) In Verrem (Against Gaius Verres, or The Verrines)
• (69 BC) Pro Tullio (On behalf of Tullius)
• (69 BC) Pro Fonteio (On behalf of Marcus Fonteius)
• (69 BC) Pro Caecina (On behalf of Aulus Caecina)
• (66 BC) Pro Cluentio (On behalf of Aulus Cluentius)
• (63 BC) Pro Rabirio Perduellionis Reo (On behalf of Gaius Rabirius on a Charge of Treason)
• (63 BC) Pro Murena (On behalf of Lucius Licinius Murena)
• (62 BC) Pro Sulla (On behalf of Publius Cornelius Sulla)
• (62 BC) Pro Archia Poeta (On behalf of the poet Aulus Licinius Archias)
• (59 BC) Pro Flacco (On behalf of Lucius Valerius Flaccus)
• (56 BC) Pro Sestio (On behalf of Sestius)
• (56 BC) In Vatinium (Against Publius Vatinius at the trial of Sestius)
• (56 BC) Pro Caelio (On behalf of Marcus Caelius Rufus): English translation
• (56 BC) Pro Balbo (On behalf of Cornelius Balbus)
• (54 BC) Pro Plancio (On behalf of Plancius)
• (54 BC) Pro Rabirio Postumo (On behalf of Gaius Rabirius Postumus)

Political speeches

Early career (before exile)

• (66 BC) Pro Lege Manilia or De Imperio Cn. Pompei (in favor of the Manilian Law on the command of Pompey)
• (63 BC) De Lege Agraria contra Rullum (Opposing the Agrarian Law proposed by Rullus)
• (63 BC) In Catilinam I-IV (Catiline Orations or Against Catiline)
• (59 BC) Pro Flacco (In Defense of Flaccus)

Mid career (after exile)

• (57 BC) Post Reditum in Quirites (To the Citizens after his recall from exile)
• (57 BC) Post Reditum in Senatu (To the Senate after his recall from exile)
• (57 BC) De Domo Sua (On his House)
• (57 BC) De Haruspicum Responsis (On the Responses of the Haruspices)
• (56 BC) De Provinciis Consularibus (On the Consular Provinces)
• (55 BC) In Pisonem (Against Piso)

Late career

• (52 BC) Pro Milone (On behalf of Titus Annius Milo)
• (46 BC) Pro Marcello (On behalf of Marcellus)
• (46 BC) Pro Ligario (On behalf of Ligarius before Caesar)
• (46 BC) Pro Rege Deiotaro (On behalf of King Deiotarus before Caesar)
• (44 BC) Philippicae (consisting of the 14 philippics, Philippica I–XIV, against Marcus Antonius)[1]

(The Pro Marcello, Pro Ligario, and Pro Rege Deiotaro are collectively known as "The Caesarian speeches").

Philosophy

Rhetoric

• (84 BC) De Inventione (About the composition of arguments)
• (55 BC) De Oratore (About oratory)
• (54 BC) De Partitionibus Oratoriae (About the subdivisions of oratory)
• (52 BC) De Optimo Genere Oratorum (About the Best Kind of Orators)
• (46 BC) Paradoxa Stoicorum (Stoic Paradoxes)
• (46 BC) Brutus (For Brutus, a short history of Roman oratory dedicated to Marcus Junius Brutus)
• (46 BC) Orator ad M. Brutum (About the Orator, also dedicated to Brutus)
• (45 BC) De Fato (On Fate)
• (44 BC) Topica (Topics of argumentation)
• (?? BC) Rhetorica ad Herennium (traditionally attributed to Cicero, but currently disputed)

Other philosophical works

• (51 BC) De Republica (On the Republic)
• (45 BC) Hortensius (Hortensius)
• (45 BC) Lucullus or Academica Priora (The Prior Academics)
• (45 BC) Academica Posteriora (The Later Academics)
• (45 BC) Consolatio (Consolation) How to console oneself at the death of a loved person
• (45 BC) De Finibus, Bonorum et Malorum (About the Ends of Goods and Evils) - a book on ethics.[2] Source of Lorem ipsum
• (45 BC) Tusculanae Quaestiones (Questions debated at Tusculum)
• (45 BC) De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods)
• (45 BC) De Divinatione (On Divination)
• (44 BC) Cato Maior de Senectute (Cato the Elder On Old Age)
• (44 BC) Laelius de Amicitia (Laelius On Friendship)
• (44 BC) De Officiis (On duties)
• (?? BC) De Legibus (On the Laws)
• (?? BC) De Consulatu Suo (On his ((Cicero's)) consulship - epic poem, only parts survive)
• (?? BC) De temporibus suis (His Life and Times- epic poem, only parts survive)
• (?? BC) Commentariolum Petitionis (Handbook of Candidacy)[3] (attributed to Cicero, but probably written by his brother Quintus)

Letters

More than 800 letters by Cicero to others exist, and over 100 letters from others to him.

• (68 BC-43 BC) Epistulae ad Atticum (Letters to Atticus)
• (59 BC-54 BC) Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem (Letters to his brother Quintus)
• (43 BC) Epistulae ad Brutum (Letters to Brutus)
• (43 BC) Epistulae ad Familiares (Letters to his friends)

Appearances in modern fiction

• Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare
• Masters of Rome series, by Colleen McCullough
• Rome (the character Marcus Tullius Cicero)
• Roma Sub Rosa series, by Steven Saylor
• Imperium, by Robert Harris
• A Pillar of Iron, by Taylor Caldwell
• Ides of March by Thornton Wilder

Appearances in modern historical writing

• The History of Rome by Theodor Mommsen

See also

• Caecilia Attica
• Quintus Tullius Cicero
• Marcus Tullius Tiro
• Category:Works of Cicero

Sources

• Everitt, Anthony 2001, Cicero: the life and times of Rome's greatest politician, Random House, hardback, 359 pages, ISBN 0-375-50746-9
• Haskell, H.J.: (1946) This was Cicero, Fawcett publications, Inc. Greenwich, Conn. USA
• Rawson, Elizabeth (1975) Cicero, A portrait, Allen Lane, London ISBN 0-7139-0864-5
• Taylor, H. (1918). Cicero: A sketch of his life and works. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co.

Further reading

• Francis A. Yates (1974). The Art of Memory, University of Chicago Press, 448 pages, Reprint: ISBN 0-226-95001-8
• Taylor Caldwell (1965), A Pillar of Iron, Doubleday & Company, Reprint: ISBN 0-385-05303-7

External links

• General:
  • Links to Cicero resources
  • University of Texas Cicero Homepage
  • The Internet Encyclopædia of Philosophy

• Works by Cicero:
  • Works by Cicero at Project Gutenberg
  • Perseus Project (Latin and English): Classics Collection (see: M. Tullius Cicero)
  • The Latin Library (Latin): Works of Cicero
  • UAH (Latin, with translation notes): Cicero Page
  • De Officiis, translated by Walter Miller
  • Cicero's works: text, concordances and frequency list
• Biographies and descriptions of Cicero's time:
  • At Project Gutenberg
    • Plutarch's biography of Cicero contained in the Parallel Lives
    • Life of Cicero by Anthony Trollope, Volume I – Volume II
    • Cicero by Rev. W. Lucas Collins (Ancient Classics for English Readers)
    • Roman life in the days of Cicero by Rev. Alfred J. Church
    • Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero by W. Warde Fowler
  • At Heraklia website
  • Dryden's translation of Cicero from Plutarch's Parallel Lives
  • At Middlebury College website
  • Prætor Brutus
• News article on a museum-guide robot named after him

1. Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Cicero’s letters to Atticus, Vol, I, II, IV, VI, Cambridge University Press, Great Britain, 1965
2. Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Latin extracts of Cicero on Himself, translated by Charles Gordon Cooper , University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1963
3. Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Selected Political Speeches, Penguin Books Ltd, Great Britain, 1969
4. Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Selected Works, Penguin Books Ltd, Great Britain, 1971
5. Cowell, Cicero and the Roman Republic, Penguin Books Ltd, Great Britain, 1973
6. Gruen, Erich, The last Generation of the Roman Republic, University of California Press, USA, 1974
7. Plutarch, Fall of the Roman Republic, Penguin Books Ltd, Great Britain, 1972
8. Rawson, Elizabeth, Cicero, Penguin Books Ltd, Great Britain, 1975
9. Scullard, H. H. From the Gracchi to Nero, University Paperbacks, Great Britain, 1968
10. Smith, R. E., Cicero the Statesman, Cambridge University Press, Great Britain, 1966
11. Strachan-Davidson, J. L., Cicero and the Fall of the Roman Republic, University of Oxford Press, London, 1936