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Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero[a] (/ˈsɪsər/ SISS-ə-roh; Latin: [ˈmaːrkʊs ˈtʊlli.ʊs ˈkɪkɛroː]; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, writer and Academic skeptic,[4] who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire.[5] His extensive writings include treatises on rhetoric, philosophy and politics. He is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists and the innovator of what became known as "Ciceronian rhetoric".[6][7][8] Cicero was educated in Rome and in Greece. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and served as consul in 63 BC.

For other uses, see Cicero (disambiguation).

Cicero

3 January 106 BC

Arpinum, Italy

7 December 43 BC (aged 63)

Formia, Italy

Assassination (by order of Mark Antony)

Statesman, lawyer, writer, orator

  • Terentia (79–51 BC)
  • Publilia (46–45 BC)

He greatly influenced both ancient and modern reception of the Latin language. A substantial percentage of his work has survived, and he was admired by both ancient and modern authors alike.[9][10][11] Cicero adapted the arguments of the chief schools of Hellenistic philosophy in Latin and created a large amount of Latin philosophical vocabulary via lexical innovation (e.g. neologisms such as evidentia,[12] generator, humanitas, infinitio, qualitas, quantitas),[13] almost 150 of which were the result of translating Greek philosophical terms.[14]


Though he was an accomplished orator and successful lawyer, Cicero believed his political career was his most important achievement. It was during his consulship that the Catiline conspiracy attempted to overthrow the government through an attack on the city by outside forces, and Cicero (by his own account) suppressed the revolt by summarily and controversially executing five conspirators without trial, an act which would later lead to his exile. During the chaotic middle period of the first century BC, marked by civil wars and the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, Cicero was a supporter of the Optimates faction. Following Caesar's death, Cicero became an enemy of Mark Antony in the ensuing power struggle, attacking him in a series of speeches. He was proscribed as an enemy of the state by the Second Triumvirate and consequently executed by soldiers operating on their behalf in 43 BC, having been intercepted during an attempted flight from the Italian peninsula. His severed hands and head (representing his career as an orator) were then displayed on the Rostra.[15]


Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance in public affairs, humanism, and classical Roman culture.[16] According to Polish historian Tadeusz Zieliński, "the Renaissance was above all things a revival of Cicero, and only after him and through him of the rest of Classical antiquity."[17] The peak of Cicero's authority and prestige came during the 18th-century Enlightenment,[18] and his impact on leading Enlightenment thinkers and political theorists such as John Locke, David Hume, Montesquieu, and Edmund Burke was substantial.[19] His works rank among the most influential in global culture, and today still constitute one of the most important bodies of primary material for the writing and revision of Roman history, especially the last days of the Roman Republic.[20]

Exile and return[edit]

In 60 BC, Julius Caesar invited Cicero to be the fourth member of his existing partnership with Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus, an assembly that would eventually be called the First Triumvirate. Cicero refused the invitation because he suspected it would undermine the Republic,[72] and was strongly opposed to anything unconsitutional that limited the powers of the consuls, and replaced them with non-elected officials.


During Caesar's consulship of 59 BC, the triumvirate had achieved many of their goals of land reform, publicani debt forgiveness, ratification of Pompeian conquests, etc. With Caesar leaving for his provinces, they wished to maintain their hold on politics. They engineered the adoption of patrician Publius Clodius Pulcher into a plebeian family and had him elected as one of the ten tribunes of the plebs for 58 BC.[73] Clodius used the triumvirate's backing to push through legislation that benefited them. He introduced several laws (the leges Clodiae) that made him popular with the people, strengthening his power base, then he turned on Cicero. Clodius passed a law which made it illegal to offer "fire and water" (i.e shelter or food) to anyone who executed a Roman citizen without a trial. Cicero, having executed members of the Catiline conspiracy four years previously without formal trial, was clearly the intended target.[74] Furthermore, many believed that Clodius acted in concert with the triumvirate who feared that Cicero would seek to abolish many of Caesar's accomplishments while consul the year before. Cicero argued that the senatus consultum ultimum indemnified him from punishment, and he attempted to gain the support of the senators and consuls, especially of Pompey.[75]


Cicero grew out his hair, dressed in mourning and toured the streets. Clodius' gangs dogged him, hurling abuse, stones and even excrement. Hortensius, trying to rally to his old rival's support, was almost lynched. The Senate and the consuls were cowed. Caesar, who was still encamped near Rome, was apologetic but said he could do nothing when Cicero brought himself to grovel in the proconsul's tent. Everyone seemed to have abandoned Cicero.[76]


After Clodius passed a law to deny to Cicero fire and water (i.e. shelter) within four hundred miles of Rome, Cicero went into exile.[74] He arrived at Thessalonica, on 23 May 58 BC.[77][78][79] In his absence, Clodius, who lived next door to Cicero on the Palatine, arranged for Cicero's house to be confiscated by the state, and was even able to purchase a part of the property in order to extend his own house.[71] After demolishing Cicero's house, Clodius had the land consecrated and symbolically erected a temple of Liberty (aedes Libertatis) on the vacant land.[80]


Cicero's exile caused him to fall into 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".[81] After the intervention of recently elected tribune Titus Annius Milo, acting on the behalf of Pompey who wanted Cicero as a client,[74] the Senate voted in favor of recalling Cicero from exile. Clodius cast the single vote against the decree. Cicero returned to Italy on 5 August 57 BC, landing at Brundisium.[82] He was greeted by a cheering crowd, and, to his delight, his beloved daughter Tullia.[83] In his Oratio De Domo Sua Ad Pontifices, Cicero convinced the College of Pontiffs to rule that the consecration of his land was invalid, thereby allowing him to regain his property and rebuild his house on the Palatine.[84][85]


Cicero tried to re-enter politics as an independent operator,[74] but his attempts to attack portions of Caesar's legislation were unsuccessful[73] and encouraged Caesar to re-solidify his political alliance with Pompey and Crassus.[86] The conference at Luca in 56 BC left the three-man alliance in domination of the republic's politics; this forced Cicero to recant and support the triumvirate out of fear from being entirely excluded from public life.[87] After the conference Cicero lavishly praised Caesar's achievements, got the Senate to vote a thanksgiving for Caesar's victories and grant money to pay his troops. He also delivered a speech 'On the consular provinces' (Latin: de provinciis consularibus)[87] which checked an attempt by Caesar's enemies to strip him of his provinces in Gaul.[88] After this, a cowed Cicero concentrated on his literary works. It is uncertain whether he was directly involved in politics for the following few years.[89]

Governorship of Cilicia[edit]

In 51 BC he reluctantly accepted a promagistracy (as proconsul) in Cilicia for the year; there were few other former consuls eligible as a result of a legislative requirement enacted by Pompey in 52 BC specifying an interval of five years between a consulship or praetorship and a provincial command.[90][91] He served as proconsul of Cilicia from May 51 BC, arriving in the provinces three months later around August.[90]


In 53 BC Marcus Licinius Crassus had been defeated by the Parthians at the Battle of Carrhae. This opened the Roman East for a Parthian invasion, causing unrest in Syria and Cilicia. Cicero restored calm by his mild system of government. He discovered that a great amount of public property had been embezzled by corrupt previous governors and members of their staff, and did his utmost to restore it. Thus he greatly improved the condition of the cities.[92] He retained the civil rights of, and exempted from penalties, the men who gave the property back.[93] Besides this, he was extremely frugal in his outlays for staff and private expenses during his governorship, and this made him highly popular among the natives.[94]


Besides his activity in ameliorating the hard pecuniary situation of the province, Cicero was also creditably active in the military sphere. Early in his governorship he received information that prince Pacorus, son of Orodes II the king of the Parthians, had crossed the Euphrates, and was ravaging the Syrian countryside and had even besieged Cassius (the interim Roman commander in Syria) in Antioch.[95] Cicero eventually marched with two understrength legions and a large contingent of auxiliary cavalry to Cassius's relief. Pacorus and his army had already given up on besieging Antioch and were heading south through Syria, ravaging the countryside again. Cassius and his legions followed them, harrying them wherever they went, eventually ambushing and defeating them near Antigonea.[96]


Another large troop of Parthian horsemen was defeated by Cicero's cavalry who happened to run into them while scouting ahead of the main army. Cicero next defeated some robbers who were based on Mount Amanus and was hailed as imperator by his troops. Afterwards he led his army against the independent Cilician mountain tribes, besieging their fortress of Pindenissum. It took him 47 days to reduce the place, which fell in December.[97] On 30 July 50 BC Cicero left the province[98] to his brother Quintus, who had accompanied him on his governorship as his legate.[99] On his way back to Rome he stopped in Rhodes and then went to Athens, where he caught up with his old friend Titus Pomponius Atticus and met men of great learning.[100]

Julius Caesar's civil war[edit]

Cicero arrived in Rome on 4 January 49 BC.[98] He stayed outside the pomerium, to retain his promagisterial powers: either in expectation of a triumph or to retain his independent command authority in the coming civil war.[98] The struggle between Pompey and Julius Caesar grew more intense in 50 BC. Cicero favored Pompey, seeing him as a defender of the senate and Republican tradition, but at that time avoided openly alienating Caesar.[101] When Caesar invaded Italy in 49 BC, Cicero fled Rome. Caesar, seeking an endorsement by a senior senator, courted Cicero's favor, but even so Cicero slipped out of Italy and traveled to Dyrrhachium where Pompey's staff was situated.[102] Cicero traveled with the Pompeian forces to Pharsalus in Macedonia in 48 BC,[103] though he was quickly losing faith in the competence and righteousness of the Pompeian side. Eventually, he provoked the hostility of his fellow senator Cato, who told him that he would have been of more use to the cause of the optimates if he had stayed in Rome. After Caesar's victory at the Battle of Pharsalus on 9 August, Cicero refused to take command of the Pompeian forces and continue the war.[104] He returned to Rome, still as a promagistrate with his lictors, in 47 BC, and dismissed them upon his crossing the pomerium and renouncing his command.[104]


In a letter to Varro on c. 20 April 46 BC, Cicero outlined his strategy under Caesar's dictatorship. Cicero, however, was taken 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. Marcus Junius Brutus called out Cicero's name, asking him to restore the republic when he lifted his bloodstained dagger after the assassination.[105] 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!"[106][107] 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. In exchange for amnesty for the assassins, he arranged for the Senate to agree not to declare Caesar to have been a tyrant, which allowed the Caesarians to have lawful support and kept Caesar's reforms and policies intact.[108]

In archaeology[edit]

Cicero's great repute in Italy has led to numerous ruins being identified as having belonged to him, though none have been substantiated with absolute certainty. In Formia, two Roman-era ruins are popularly believed to be Cicero's mausoleum, the Tomba di Cicerone, and the villa where he was assassinated in 43 BC. The latter building is centered around a central hall with Doric columns and a coffered vault, with a separate nymphaeum, on five acres of land near Formia.[167] A modern villa was built on the site after the Rubino family purchased the land from Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies in 1868. Cicero's supposed tomb is a 24-meter (79 feet) tall tower on an opus quadratum base on the ancient Via Appia outside of Formia. Some suggest that it is not in fact Cicero's tomb, but a monument built on the spot where Cicero was intercepted and assassinated while trying to reach the sea.[168]


In Pompeii, a large villa excavated in the mid 18th century just outside the Herculaneum Gate was widely believed to have been Cicero's, who was known to have owned a holiday villa in Pompeii he called his Pompeianum. The villa was stripped of its fine frescoes and mosaics and then re-buried after 1763 – it has yet to be re-excavated.[169] However, contemporaneous descriptions of the building from the excavators combined with Cicero's own references to his Pompeianum differ, making it unlikely that it is Cicero's villa.[170]


In Rome, the location of Cicero's house has been roughly identified from excavations of the Republican-era stratum on the northwestern slope of the Palatine Hill.[171][172] Cicero's domus has long been known to have stood in the area, according to his own descriptions and those of later authors, but there is some debate about whether it stood near the base of the hill, very close to the Roman Forum, or nearer to the summit.[171][173] During his life the area was the most desirable in Rome, densely occupied with Patrician houses including the Domus Publica of Julius Caesar and the home of Cicero's mortal enemy Clodius.[174]

Notable fictional portrayals[edit]

In Dante's 1320 poem the Divine Comedy, the author encounters Cicero, among other philosophers, in Limbo.[175] Ben Jonson dramatised the conspiracy of Catiline in his play Catiline His Conspiracy, featuring Cicero as a character.[176] Cicero also appears as a minor character in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar.[177]


Cicero was portrayed on the motion picture screen by British actor Alan Napier in the 1953 film Julius Caesar, based on Shakespeare's play.[178] He has also been played by such noted actors as Michael Hordern (in Cleopatra),[179] and André Morell (in the 1970 Julius Caesar).[180] Most recently, Cicero was portrayed by David Bamber in the HBO series Rome (2005–2007) and appeared in both seasons.[181]


In the historical novel series Masters of Rome, Colleen McCullough presents a not-so-flattering depiction of Cicero's career, showing him struggling with an inferiority complex and vanity, morally flexible and fatally indiscreet, while his rival Julius Caesar is shown in a more approving light.[182] Cicero is portrayed as a hero in the novel A Pillar of Iron by Taylor Caldwell (1965). Robert Harris' novels Imperium, Lustrum (published under the name Conspirata in the United States) and Dictator comprise a three-part series based on the life of Cicero. In these novels Cicero's character is depicted in a more favorable way than in those of McCullough, with his positive traits equaling or outweighing his weaknesses (while conversely Caesar is depicted as more sinister than in McCullough).[183] Cicero is a major recurring character in the Roma Sub Rosa series of mystery novels by Steven Saylor.[184] He also appears several times as a peripheral character in John Maddox Roberts' SPQR series.[185]


Samuel Barnett portrays Cicero in a 2017 audio drama series pilot produced by Big Finish Productions. A full series was released the following year.[186] All episodes are written by David Llewellyn[187] and directed and produced by Scott Handcock.[188]

Works by Cicero at Perseus Digital Library

at Standard Ebooks

Works by Cicero in eBook form

at Project Gutenberg

Works by Cicero

at Internet Archive

Works by or about Cicero

at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Works by Cicero

at the Stoic Therapy eLibrary

Works by Cicero

(Latin): Works of Cicero

The Latin Library

Dickinson College Commentaries: Against Verres 2.1.53–86

Dickinson College Commentaries: On Pompey's Command (De Imperio) 27–49

Horace MS 1b Laelius de Amicitia at OPenn

Lewis E 66 Epistolae ad familiares (Letters to friends)

Works by Cicero


Biographies and descriptions of Cicero's time


Plutarch's biography of Cicero contained in the Parallel Lives