Posts
| Marcus Tullius Cicero | |
|---|---|
 Mid-1st Century AD bust of Cicero in the Capitoline Museums | |
| Born | January 3, 106 BC Arpinum, Roman Republic |
| Died | December 7, 43 BC (aged 63) Formia, Roman Republic |
| Occupation | Politician, lawyer, orator and philosopher |
| Nationality | Ancient Roman |
| Subjects | politics, law, philosophy, rhetoric |
| Literary movement | Golden Age Latin |
| Notable work(s) | Orations: In Verrem, In Catilinam I-IV, Philippicae Philosophy: De Oratore, De Re Publica, De Legibus, De Finibus, De Natura Deorum, De Officiis |
 | |
| These articles cover Ancient Rome and the fall of the Republic | |
| Mark Antony, Cleopatra VII, Assassination of Julius Caesar, Pompey, Theatre of Pompey, Cicero, First Triumvirate, Roman Forum, Comitium, Rostra, Curia Julia, Curia Hostilia |
Marcus Tullius Cicero (January 3, 106 BC – December 7, 43 BC; sometimes anglicized as Tully[1]) was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul and constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.
He introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary -- with neologisms such as
qualitas,
quantitas, and
essentia --
distinguishing himself as a linguist, translator, and philosopher.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance.
According to Polish historian Tadeusz Zieliński,
"Renaissance was above all things a revival of Cicero, and only after him and through him of the rest of Roman antiquity."
The peak of Cicero's authority and prestige came during the eighteenth-century Enlightenment,[7] and his impact on leading Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke, David Hume, and Montesquieu was substantial.
Cicero's works rank among the most influential in European 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.
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 the government overthrow through an attack on the city from outside forces, and Cicero suppressed the revolt by executing five conspirators without due process.
During the chaotic latter half of the 1st century BC marked by civil wars and the dictatorship of Gaius Julius Caesar, Cicero championed a return to the traditional republican government.
Following Julius 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 subsequently murdered in 43 BC.
Cicero was born in 106 BC in Arpinum, a hill town 100 kilometers (62 mi) southeast of Rome.
His father was a well-to-do member of the equestrian order with good connections in Rome, though as a semi-invalid, he could not enter public life.
He compensated for this by studying extensively.
Although little is known about Cicero's mother, Helvia, it was common for the wives of important Roman citizens to be responsible for the management of the household.
Cicero's brother Quintus wrote in a letter that she was a thrifty housewife.
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.
However, it is more likely that Cicero's ancestors prospered through the cultivation and sale of chickpeas.
Romans often chose down-to-earth personal surnames: the famous family names of
beans, lentils, and peas.
Plutarch writes that Cicero was urged to change this deprecatory name when he entered politics, but refused, saying that he would make Cicero more glorious than Scaurus ("Swollen-ankled") and Catulus ("Puppy").
During this period in Roman history, to be considered "cultured" meant being able to speak both Latin and Greek.
Cicero, like most of his contemporaries, was therefore educated in the teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers, poets and historians.
The most prominent teachers of oratory of that time were themselves Greek.
Cicero used his knowledge of Greek to translate many of the theoretical concepts of Greek philosophy into Latin, thus translating Greek philosophical works for a larger audience.
It was precisely his broad education that tied him to the traditional Roman elite.
According to Plutarch, Cicero was an extremely talented student, whose learning attracted attention from all over Rome, affording him the opportunity to study Roman law under Quintus Mucius Scaevola.
Cicero's fellow students 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 later received the nickname "Atticus") would become Cicero's longtime chief emotional support and adviser.
Cicero wanted to pursue a public civil service career along the steps of the Cursus honorum.
In 90 BC–88 BC, he served both Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo and Lucius Cornelius Sulla as they campaigned in the Social War, though he had no taste for military life, being an intellectual first and foremost.
Cicero started his career as a lawyer around 83–81 BC.
His first major case, of which a written record is still extant, was his 80 BC defense of Sextus Roscius on the charge of patricide.
Taking this case was a courageous move for Cicero; patricide was considered an appalling crime, and the people whom Cicero accused of the murder, the most notorious being Chrysogonus, were favorites of Sulla.
At this time it would have been easy for Sulla to have the unknown Cicero murdered.
Cicero's defense was an indirect challenge to the dictator Sulla, and on the strength of his case, Roscius was acquitted.
In 79 BC, Cicero left for Greece, Asia Minor and Rhodes, perhaps because of the potential wrath of Sulla.
Cicero traveled to Athens, where he again met Atticus, who had become an honorary citizen of Athens and introduced Cicero to some significant Athenians.
In Athens, Cicero visited the sacred sites of the philosophers, but not before he consulted different rhetoricians in order to learn a less physically exhausting style of speech.
His chief instructor was the rhetorician Apollonius Molon of Rhodes. He instructed Cicero in a more expansive and less intense form of oratory that would define Cicero's individual style in years to come.[citation needed]
Cicero's interest in philosophy figured heavily in his later career and led to him introducing Greek philosophy to Roman culture, creating a philosophical vocabulary in Latin.
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",[19] sat enthusiastically at his feet and absorbed Plato's philosophy.
He admired especially Plato's moral and political seriousness, but he also respected his breadth of imagination.
Cicero nonetheless rejected Plato's theory of Ideas.
Cicero's first office was as one of the twenty annual Quaestors, a training post for serious public administration in a diversity of areas, but with a traditional emphasis on administration and rigorous accounting of public monies under the guidance of a senior magistrate or provincial commander. Cicero served as quaestor in western Sicily in 75 BC and demonstrated honesty and integrity in his dealings with the inhabitants.
As a result, the grateful Sicilians asked Cicero to prosecute Gaius Verres, a governor of Sicily, who had badly plundered Sicily. His prosecution of Gaius Verres was a great forensic success[20] for Cicero. Governor Gaius Verres hired the prominent lawyer of a noble family Quintus Hortensius Hortalus.
After a lengthy period on Sicily collecting testimonials, evidence and persuading witnesses to come forth, Cicero returned to Rome and won the case in a series of dramatic court battles. His unique style of oratory setting him apart from the flamboyant Hortalus. Upon the conclusion of this case, Cicero came to be considered the greatest orator in Rome. The view that Cicero may have taken the case for reasons of his own is viable. Quintus Hortensius Hortalus was, at this point, known as the best lawyer in Rome; to beat him would guarantee much success and prestige that Cicero needed to start his career.
Cicero's oratorical skill is shown in his character assassination of Verres and various other persuasive techniques used towards the jury. One such example is found in the speech Against Verres I, where he states "with you on this bench, gentlemen, with Marcus Acilius Glabrio as your president, I do not understand what Verres can hope to achieve".[21]
Oratory was considered a great art in ancient Rome and an important tool for disseminating knowledge and promoting oneself in elections, in part because there were no regular newspapers or mass media at the time.
Cicero was neither a patrician nor a plebeian noble; his rise to political office despite his relatively humble origins has traditionally been attributed to his brilliance as an orator.
Cicero grew up in a time of civil unrest and war. Sulla’s victory in the first of a series of civil wars led to a new constitutional framework that undermined libertas (liberty), the fundamental value of the Roman Republic. Nonetheless, Sulla’s reforms strengthened the position of the equestrian class, contributing to that class’s growing political power.
Cicero was both an Italian eques and a novus homo, but more importantly he was a Roman constitutionalist.
His social class and loyalty to the Republic ensured that he would "command the support and confidence of the people as well as the Italian middle classes."
The fact that the optimates faction never truly accepted Cicero 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), aedile in 69 (age 37), and praetor in 66 (age 40), where he served as president of the "Reclamation" (or extortion) Court. He was then elected consul at age 43.
[edit] Consul
Cicero was elected Consul for the year 63 BC.
His co-consul for the year, Gaius Antonius Hybrida, played a minor role.
During his year in office, he thwarted a conspiracy centred on assassinating him and overthrowing the Roman Republic with the help of foreign armed forces, led by Lucius Sergius Catilina.
Cicero procured a Senatus Consultum de Re Publica Defendenda (a declaration of martial law) and drove Catiline from the city with four vehement speeches (the Catiline Orations), which to this day remain outstanding examples of his rhetorical style.
The Orations listed Catiline and his followers' debaucheries, and denounced Catiline's senatorial sympathizers as roguish and dissolute debtors clinging to Catiline as a final and desperate hope.
Cicero demanded that Catiline and his followers leave the city.
At the conclusion of his first speech, Catiline hurriedly left the senate, (which was being held in the Temple of Jupiter Stator).
In his following speeches, Cicero did not directly address Catiline.
He delivered the second and third orations before the people, and the last one again before 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 with an army of "moral bankrupts and honest fanatics".
Catiline 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 Decimus Silanus 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 defence 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.
Cicero 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.
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.
In 58 BC, Publius Clodius Pulcher, the tribune of the plebs, introduced a law (the Leges Clodiae) threatening exile to anyone who executed a Roman citizen without a trial.
Cicero, having executed members of the Catiline conspiracy four years previously without formal trial, and having had a public falling out with Clodius, was clearly the intended target of the law.
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.
When help was not forthcoming, he went into exile.
He arrived at Thessalonica, Greece, on May 23, 58 BC.
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".[29]
After the intervention of recently elected tribune Titus Annius Milo, the senate voted in favor of recalling Cicero from exile.
Clodius cast a single vote against the decree.
Cicero returned to Italy on August 5, 57 BC, landing at Brundisium.
He was greeted by a cheering crowd, and, to his delight, his beloved daughter Tullia.
Cicero tried to reintegrate himself into politics, but his attack on a bill of Caesar's proved unsuccessful.
The conference at Luca in 56 BC forced Cicero to make a recantation and pledge his support to the triumvirate.
With this, a cowed Cicero retreated to his literary works.
It is uncertain whether he had any direct involvement in politics for the following few years.
He only reluctantly accepted a promagistracy in Cilicia for 51 BC, after a shortage of eligible governors was created by legislation requiring an interval of five years between a consulship or praetorship and a provincial command.
He was absent from Italy as proconsul of Cilicia from May 51 to November 50 BC.
Accompanied by his brother Quintus as a legate, he was mostly spared from warfare due to internal conflict among the Parthians, yet for storming a mountain fortress he acquired the title of imperator.
The struggle between Pompey and Julius Caesar grew more intense in 50 BC.
Cicero chose to favour Pompey as he was in defence of the senate and Republican tradition, but at the same time he prudently avoided openly alienating Caesar.
When Caesar invaded Italy in 49 BC, Cicero fled Rome.
Caesar, seeking the legitimacy an endorsement by a senior senator would provide, courted Cicero's favour, but even so Cicero slipped out of Italy and traveled to Dyrrachium (Epidamnos), Illyria, where Pompey's staff was situated.
Cicero traveled with the Pompeian forces to Pharsalus in 48 BC,[34] though he was quickly losing faith in the competence and righteousness of the Pompeian lot.
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 Pharsalus, Cicero returned to Rome only very cautiously.
Caesar pardoned him and Cicero tried to adjust to the situation and maintain his political work, 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.
Cicero, however, 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.
Marcus Junius Brutus called out Cicero's name, asking him to restore the republic 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.
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.
Cicero and Antony then became the two leading men in Rome; Cicero as spokesman for the Senate and Antony as consul, leader of the Caesarian faction, and unofficial executor of Caesar's public will.
The two men had never been on friendly terms and their relationship worsened after Cicero made it clear that 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, after Demosthenes's denunciations of Philip II of Macedon.
Praising Octavian, he said that the young man only desired honor and would not make the same mistake as his adoptive father.
During this time, Cicero's popularity as a public figure was unrivalled.
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.
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’s plan to drive out Antony failed.
Antony and Octavian reconciled and allied with Lepidus to form the Second Triumvirate after the successive battles of Forum Gallorum and Mutina.
The Triumvirate began proscribing their enemies and potential rivals immediately after legislating the alliance into official existence for a term of five years with consular imperium.
Cicero and all of his contacts and supporters were numbered among the enemies of the state, and reportedly, Octavian argued for two days against Cicero being added to the list.
Cicero was one of the most viciously and doggedly hunted among the proscribed. He was viewed with sympathy by a large segment of the public and many people refused to report that they had seen him.
He was caught December 7, 43 BC leaving his villa in Formiae in a litter going to the seaside where he hoped to embark on a ship destined for Macedonia.
When his killers – Herennius (a centurion) and Popilius (a tribune) – arrived, Cicero's own slaves said they had not seen him, but he was given away by Philologus, a freed slave of his brother Quintus Cicero.
Cicero's last words are said to have been,
"There is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly."
He bowed to his captors, leaning his head out of the litter in a gladiatorial gesture to ease the task.
By baring his neck and throat to the soldiers, he was indicating that he wouldn't resist.
According to Plutarch, Herennius first slew him, then cut off his head.
On Antony's instructions his hands, which had penned the Philippics against Antony, were cut off as well.
These were nailed along with his head 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.
Cicero was the only victim of the proscriptions to be displayed in that manner.
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 in final revenge against Cicero's power of speech.
Cicero's son, Marcus Tullius Cicero Minor, during his year as a consul in 30 BC, avenged his father's death, to a certain extent, when he announced to the Senate Mark Antony's naval defeat at Actium in 31 BC by Octavian and the capable commander-in-chief of his, Agrippa.
Octavian (or Augustus, as he was later called) is reported to have praised Cicero as a patriot and a scholar of meaning in later times, within the circle of his family.
However, it was the acquiescence of Augustus that allowed Cicero's assassination, as Cicero was proscribed by the new Triumvirate.
However, his career as a statesman was marked by inconsistencies and a tendency to shift his position in response to changes in the political climate.
His indecision may be attributed to his sensitive and impressionable personality.
Cicero was prone to overreaction in the face of political and private change. "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.[44][45]
Cicero married Terentia probably at the age of 27, in 79 BC.
According to the upper class mores of the day it was a marriage of convenience, but endured harmoniously for some 30 years.
Terentia's family was wealthy, probably the plebeian noble house of Terenti Varrones, thus meeting the needs of Cicero's political ambitions in both economic and social terms.
She had a half sister (or perhaps first cousin) named Fabia, who as a child had become a Vestal Virgin, a very great honour.
Terentia was a strong willed woman and (citing Plutarch) "she took more interest in her husband's political career than she allowed him to take in household affairs."
In the 50s BC, Cicero's letters to Terentia became shorter and colder.
He complained to his friends that Terentia had betrayed him but did not specify in which sense.
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 51 BC or shortly before.
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.
Although his marriage to Terentia was one of convenience, it is commonly known that Cicero held great love for his daughter Tullia.
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's large library, Cicero read everything that the Greek philosophers had written about overcoming grief, "but my sorrow defeats all consolation."
Cicero hoped that his son Marcus would become a philosopher like him, but 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 Cicero's murder he joined the army of the Liberatores but was later pardoned by Augustus.
Augustus' bad conscience for not having objected to Cicero's being put on the proscription list during the Second Triumvirate led him to aid considerably Marcus Minor's career.
As such, he was responsible for revoking the honors of Mark Antony, who was responsible for the proscription, and could in this way take revenge. Later he was appointed proconsul of Syria and the province of Asia.[56]
Cicero was declared a "righteous pagan" by the early Catholic Church, and therefore many of his works were deemed worthy of preservation.
Subsequent Roman writers quoted liberally from his works De Re Publica (On The Republic) and De Legibus (On The Laws), and much of his work has been recreated from these surviving fragments.
Cicero also articulated an early, abstract conceptualization of rights, based on ancient law and custom.
Of Cicero's books, six on rhetoric have survived, as well as parts of eight on philosophy.
Of his speeches, 88 were recorded, but only 58 survive.
- Speeches
- (80 BC) Pro Roscio Amerino (In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria)
- (70 BC) In Verrem (Against Gaius Verres, or The Verrine Orations)
- (66 BC) Pro Cluentio (On behalf of Aulus Cluentius)
- (63 BC) In Catilinam I-IV (Catiline Orations or Against Catiline) Archived March 2, 2005 at the Wayback Machine
- (63 BC) Pro Murena (In Defense of Lucius Licinius Murena, in the court for electoral bribery)
- (62 BC) Pro Archia Poeta (In Defense of Aulus Licinius Archias the poet)
- (56 BC) Pro Caelio (In Defense of Marcus Caelius Rufus): English translation
- (52 BC) Pro Milone (In Defense of Titus Annius Milo)
- (44 BC) Philippicae (the 14 philippics, Philippica I–XIV, against Mark Antony)[57]
- Rhetoric & Philosophy
- (55 BC) De Oratore ad Quintum fratrem libri tres (On the Orator, three books for his brother Quintus)
- (51 BC) De Re Publica (On the Republic)
- (?? BC) De Legibus (On the Laws)
- (46 BC) Brutus (Brutus)
- (46 BC) Orator (Orator)
- (45 BC) Academica (On Academic Skepticism)
- (45 BC) De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (On the Ends of Good and Bad Things) - a book on ethics.
- (45 BC) Tusculanae Quaestiones (Tusculan Disputations)
- (45 BC) Hortensius - an exhortation to philosophy, now lost.
- (45 BC) De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods)
- (44 BC) De Divinatione (On Divination)
- (44 BC) De Fato (On Fate)
- (44 BC) Cato Maior de Senectute (Cato the Elder On Old Age)
- (44 BC) Laelius de Amicitia (Laelius On Friendship)
- (44 BC) De Gloria (On Glory) - now lost.
- (44 BC) De Officiis (On Duties)
- Letters
- (68–43 BC) Epistulae ad Atticum (Letters to Atticus)
- (59–54 BC) Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem (Letters to his brother Quintus)
- (43 BC) Epistulae ad Brutum (Letters to Brutus)
- (62–43 BC) Epistulae ad Familiares (Letters to his friends)
[edit] Legacy
Cicero was a gifted and energetic writer, with an interest in a wide variety of subjects in keeping with the Hellenistic philosophical and rhetorical traditions in which he was trained.
The quality and ready accessibility of Ciceronian texts favored very wide distribution and inclusion in teaching curricula.
This influence increased after the Dark Ages in Europe, from which more of his writings survived than any other Latin author.
Medieval philosophers were influenced by Cicero's writings on natural law and innate rights.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters provided impetus for searches for ancient Greek and Latin writings scattered throughout European monasteries, and the subsequent rediscovery of Classical Antiquity led to the fourteenth-century movement called Renaissance.
His voluminous correspondence, much of it addressed to his friend Atticus, has been especially influential, introducing the art of refined letter writing to European culture.
Cornelius Nepos, the 1st century BC biographer of Atticus, remarked that Cicero's letters contained such a wealth of detail "concerning the inclinations of leading men, the faults of the generals, and the revolutions in the government" that their reader had little need for a history of the period.
Among Cicero's admirers were Desiderius Erasmus, Martin Luther, and John Locke.
Following the invention of the printing press, De Officiis was the second book to be printed – second only to the Gutenberg Bible.
Scholars note Cicero's influence on the rebirth of religious toleration in the 17th century.
While Cicero the humanist deeply influenced the culture of the Renaissance, Cicero the republican inspired the Founding Fathers of the United States and the revolutionaries of the French Revolution.
John Adams said of him "As all the ages of the world have not produced a greater philosopher than Cicero, his authority should have great weight."
Jefferson names Cicero as one of a handful of major figures who contributed to a tradition “of public right” that informed his draft of the Declaration of Independence and shaped American understandings of "the common sense" basis for the right of revolutin.
Camille Desmoulins said of the French republicans in 1789 that they were "mostly young people who, nourished by the reading of Cicero at school, had become passionate enthusiasts for liberty".
Jim Powell starts his book on the history of liberty with the sentence:
Marcus Tullius Cicero expressed principles that became the bedrock of liberty in the modern world." Legitimate government protects liberty and justice according to "natural law."
Murray N. Rothbard praised Cicero as 'the great transmitter of Stoic ideas from Greece to Rome. ...
Stoic natural law doctrines ... helped shape the great structures of Roman law which became pervasive in Western Civilization.
Government's purpose was the protection of private property.
Likewise, no other antique personality has inspired venomous dislike as Cicero especially in more modern times.
Friedrich Engels referred to him as "the most contemptible scoundrel in history" for upholding republican "democracy", while at the same time denouncing land and class reforms.
Cicero has faced criticism for exaggerating the democratic qualities of republican Rome, and for defending the Roman oligarchy against the popular reforms of Caesar.
Michael Parenti admits Cicero's abilities as an orator, but finds him a vain, pompous and hypocritical personality who, when it suited him, could show public support for popular causes that he privately despised.
Parenti presents Cicero's prosecution of the Catiline conspiracy as legally flawed at least, and possibly unlawful.
Cicero also had an influence on modern astronomy.
Nicolaus Copernicus, searching for ancient views on earth motion, say that he "first ... found in Cicero that Hicetas supposed the earth to move."
Ben Jonson dramatised the Catiline conspiracy in his play Catiline His Conspiracy, featuring Cicero as a character.
Cicero also appears as a minor character in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar.
Cicero was portrayed on the motion picture screen by British actor Alan Napier in the 1953 film Julius Caesar, based on Shakespeare's play. He has also been played by such noted actors as Michael Hordern (in Cleopatra), and Andre Morell (in the 1970 Julius Caesar).
Most recently, Cicero was portrayed by David Bamber in the HBO series Rome (2005–2007) and appeared in both seasons.
In her series of historical novels "Masters of Rome" Colleen McCullough presents an unflattering 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.
Cicero is portrayed as a hero in the novel A Pillar of Iron by Taylor Caldwell (1965).
Robert Harris' novels Imperium and Lustrum (Conspirata in the U.S.) are the first two parts of a planned trilogy of novels based upon the life of Cicero.
In these novels Cicero's character is depicted in a more balanced 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).
Cicero is a major recurring character in the Roma Sub Rosa series of mystery novels by Steven Saylor. He also appears several times as a peripheral character in John Maddox Roberts's SPQR series.
Roberts's protagonist, Decius Metellus, admires Cicero for his erudition, but is disappointed by his lack of real opposition to Caesar, as well as puzzled by his relentless fawning on the Optimates, who secretly despise Cicero as a parvenu.
In Spartacus: Swords and Ashes (2012) by Jonathan Clements, a young Cicero clashes with Verres shortly before the latter becomes the governor of Sicily, establishing another motive for their later antagonism.
[edit] See also
- Caecilia Attica
- Titus Pomponius Atticus
- Quintus Tullius Cicero
- Tullia Ciceronis
- Caecilia Metella (daughter of Metellus Celer)
- Servius Sulpicius Rufus
- Marcus Tullius Tiro
- A Dialogue Concerning Oratorical Partitions
- Otium
- Translation
Notes
- ^ E.g. H. Jones, Master Tully: Cicero in Tudor England (Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1998).
- ^ Rawson, E.: Cicero, a portrait (1975) p.303
- ^ Haskell, H.J.: This was Cicero (1964)p.300–301
- ^ Conte, G.B.: "Latin Literature: a history" (1987) p.199
- ^ Wooton, D. "Modern political thought" (1996) p.1
- ^ Tadeusz Zieliński. Cicero Im Wandel Der Jahrhunderte. Nabu Press.
- ^ Wood, Neal (1991). Cicero's Social and Political Thought. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07427-9.
- ^ Nicgorski, Walter. "Cicero and the Natural Law". Natural Law, Natural Rights, and American Constitutionalism. http://www.nlnrac.org/classical/cicero.
- ^ Miriam Griffin; John Boardman, Jasper Griffin, Oswyn Murray (15 January 2001). The Oxford Illustrated History of the Roman World. Oxford University Press. pp. 76–. ISBN 978-0-19-285436-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=w95Nb-BJWRcC&pg=PA76. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ Rawson, E.: Cicero, a portrait (1975) p.5–6; Cicero, Ad Familiares 16.26.2 (Quintus to Cicero)
- ^ Trollope, Anthony. The Life of Cicero Volume 1. p. 42
- ^ Plutarch, Cicero 1.3–5
- ^ Rawson, E.:"Cicero, a portrait" (1975) p.8
- ^ Everitt, A.:"Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician" (2001) p.35
- ^ Plutarch, Cicero 2.2
- ^ Plutarch, Cicero 3.2
- ^ Rawson, E.: "Cicero, a portrait" (1975) p.22
- ^ Haskell, H.J.: "This was Cicero" (1940) p.83
- ^ Rawson:"Cicero, a portrait" (1975) p.18
- ^ The Oxford illustrated history of the Roman world. pp. 84–. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=w95Nb-BJWRcC&lpg=PP1&dq=The%20Oxford%20illustrated%20history%20of%20the%20Roman%20world&pg=PA84#v=onepage&q=extortionate&f=false. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ Trans. Grant, Michael. Cicero: Selected Works. London: Penguin Books. 1960.
- ^ Bartleby.com
- ^ Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Selected Works, Penguin Books Ltd, Great Britain, 1971
- ^ Cicero, In Catilinam 3.2 (at the Perseus Project); Sallust, Bellum Catilinae 40-45 (at Lacus Curtius); Plutarch, Cicero 18.4 (at Lacus Curtius).
- ^ Rawson, E.: Cicero, 1984 106
- ^ Haskell, H.J.: This was Cicero, 1964 200
- ^ Haskell, H.J.: This was Cicero, 1964 p.201
- ^ Plutarch. Cicero 32
- ^ Haskell, H.J.: "This was Cicero" (1964) p.201
- ^ Cicero, Samtliga brev/Collected letters (in a Swedish translation)
- ^ Haskell. H.J.: This was Cicero, p.204
- ^ Grant, M: "Cicero: Selected Works", p67
- ^ Everitt, Anthony: Cicero pp. 215.
- ^ Plutarch, Cicero 38.1
- ^ Cicero, Second Philippic Against Antony
- ^ Cicero, Ad Familiares 10.28
- ^ Cecil W. Wooten, "Cicero's Philippics and Their Demosthenic Model" University of North Carolina Press
- ^ Appian, Civil Wars 4.19
- ^ Plutarch, Cicero 46.3–5
- ^ a b Haskell, H.J.: This was Cicero (1964) p.293
- ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History 47.8.4
- ^ Everitt, A.: Cicero, A turbulent life (2001)
- ^ Plutarch, Cicero, 49.5
- ^ Haskell, H.J.:"This was Cicero" (1964) p.296
- ^ Castren and Pietilä-Castren: "Antiikin käsikirja" /"Handbook of antiquity" (2000) p.237
- ^ Rawson, E.: "Cicero, a portrait" (1975) p.25
- ^ Susan Treggiari, Terentia, Tullia and Publilia: the women of Cicero's family, London: Routledge, 2007, pp. 76f.
- ^ Treggiari, op. cit., p. 133
- ^ Rawson, E.: Cicero p.225
- ^ Haskell H.J.: This was Cicero, p.95
- ^ Haskell, H.J.:"This was Cicero" (1964) p.249
- ^ Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 12.14. Rawson, E.: Cicero p. 225
- ^ Rawson, E.:Cicero p.226
- ^ Cicero, Samtliga brev/Collected letters
- ^ Haskell, H.J (1964). This was Cicero. pp. 103–104.
- ^ Paavo Castren & L. Pietilä-Castren: Antiikin käsikirja/Encyclopedia of the Ancient World
- ^ M. Tullius Cicero, Orations: The fourteen orations against Marcus Antonius (Philippics) (ed. C. D. Yonge)
- ^ Epicurus.info : E-Texts : De Finibus, Book I
- ^ Cicero On Moral Ends. (De Finibus) Julia Annas - editor, Raphael Woolf – transltr Cambridge University Press, 2001
- ^ Cornelius Nepos, Atticus 16, trans. John Selby Watson.
- ^ Richards (2010). p. 121.
- ^ William Gibson (2006). "John Marshall. John Locke, Toleration and Early Enlightenment Culture: Religious Toleration and Arguments for Religious Toleration in Early Modern and Early Enlightenment Europe". H-Albion. http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12681. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
- ^ De Burgh, W.G., "The legacy of the ancient world"
- ^ American republicanism: Roman Ideology in the United States Mortimer N. S. Sellers, NYU Press, 1994
- ^ Thomas Jefferson, “Letter to Henry Lee,” 8 May 1825, in The Political Thought of American Statesmen, eds. Morton Frisch and Richard Stevens (Itasca, Ill.: F. E. Peacock Publishers, 1973), 12.
- ^ Aulard, François-Alphonse (1901). Histoire politique de la Révolution française: Origines et Développement de la Démocratie et de la République (1789-1804). Librairie Armand Colin. p. 5.
- ^ Powell, Jim (July 4 2000). The Triumph of Liberty: A 2,000 Year History Told Through the Lives of Freedom's Greatest Champions. Free Press. pp. 2–10. ISBN 978-0684859675.
- ^ Bailey, D.R.S. "Cicero's letters to Atticus" (1978) p.16
- ^ Noted in Michael Parenti, The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome, 2003:86. ISBN 1-56584-797-0
- ^ Michael Parenti, The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome, 2003, pp. 107–111, 93. ISBN 1-56584-797-0
- ^ Spielvogel, Jackson (2011). Western Civilization since 1300. Cengage Learning. p. 492. ISBN 978-1-111-34219-7.
References
- Badian, E: "Cicero and the Commission of 146 B.C.", Collection Latomus 101 (1969), 54-65.
- Caldwell, Taylor (1965). A Pillar of Iron. New York: Doubleday & Company. ISBN 0-385-05303-7.
- Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Cicero’s letters to Atticus, Vol, I, II, IV, VI, Cambridge University Press, Great Britain, 1965
- Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Latin extracts of Cicero on Himself, translated by Charles Gordon Cooper, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1963
- Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Selected Political Speeches, Penguin Books Ltd, Great Britain, 1969
- Cicero, Marcus Tullius, De Officiis (On Duties), translated by Walter Miller. Harvard University Press, 1913, ISBN 978-0-674-99033-3, ISBN 0-674-99033-1
- Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Selected Works, Penguin Books Ltd, Great Britain, 1971
- Cowell, F R: Cicero and the Roman Republic (Penguin Books, 1948; numerous later reprints)
- Everitt, Anthony (2001). Cicero: the life and times of Rome's greatest politician. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50746-9.
- Gruen, Erich S. (1974). The Last Generation of the Roman Republic. University of California Press.
- Haskell, H. J. (1942). This was Cicero. Alfred A. Knopf.
- March, Duane A. (1989). "Cicero and the 'Gang of Five'". Classical World 82 (4): 225–234. doi:10.2307/4350381.
- Narducci, Emanuele (2009). Cicerone. La parola e la politica. Laterza. ISBN 88-420-7605-8.
- Plutarch Penguins Classics English translation by Rex Warner, Fall of the Roman Republic, Six Lives by Plutarch: Marius, Sulla, Crassus, Pompey, Caesar, Cicero (Penguin Books, 1958; with Introduction and notes by Robin Seager, 1972)
- Rawson, Beryl: The Politics of Friendship: Pompey and Cicero (Sydney University Press, 1978)
- Rawson, Elizabeth:
- "Cicero the Historian and Cicero the Antiquarian", JRS 62 (1972), 33-45.
- Cicero: A Portrait (Allen Lane, Penguin Books Ltd., 1975) ISBN 0-7139-0864-5. Revised edition: Bristol Classical Press, 1983. ISBN 0-86292-051-5. American edition of revised edition: Cornell University Press, 1983. ISBN 0-8014-1628-0 (hardcover); ISBN 0-8014-9256-4 (paperback).
- Richards, Carl J. (2010). Why We're All Romans: The Roman Contribution to the Western World. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-6778-8.
- Scullard, H. H. From the Gracchi to Nero, University Paperbacks, Great Britain, 1968
- Smith, R E: Cicero the Statesman (Cambridge University Press, 1966)
- Stockton, David: Cicero: A Political Biography (Oxford University Press, 1971)
- Strachan-Davidson, James Leigh (1936). Cicero and the Fall of the Roman Republic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Taylor, H. (1918). Cicero: A sketch of his life and works. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co..
- Wistrand, M. (1979). Cicero Imperator: Studies in Cicero's Correspondence 51-47 B.C.. Göteborg.
- Yates, Frances A. (1974). The Art of Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-95001-8.
Further reading
- Everitt, Anthony (2001). Cicero. A turbulent life. London: John Murray Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7195-5493-3.
- Fuhrmann, Manfred (1992). Cicero and the Roman Republic. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-17879-1.
- Ingo Gildenhard, Creative Eloquence: The Construction of Reality in Cicero's Speeches (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
- Habicht, Christian (1990). Cicero the politician. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-3872-X.
- Parenti, Michael (2004). The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome. New York: The New Press. ISBN 1-56584-942-6. http://thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1011.
- Powell, J.G.F., ed. (1995). Cicero the philosopher : twelve papers. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-814751-1.
- Shackleton Bailey, D. R. (1971). Cicero. London: Duckworth. ISBN 0-7156-0574-7.
- Sihler, Ernest G. (1914). Cicero of Arpinum: A Political and Literary Biography. New Haven: Yale University Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=3TckAAAAMAAJ.
[edit] External links
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cicero |
 | Wikisource has original works written by or about: |
| Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
 | Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Cicero |
| Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Cicero. |
- General
- Philosophy
- Works by Cicero
- List of online translations of Cicero's works
- Cicero's De amicitia, Paradoxa, De senectute, and the text known as "Sallust's invectives," Center for Digital Initiatives, University of Vermont Libraries
- Online Library of Liberty
- Ethical Writings of Cicero: De Officiis (On Moral Duties); De Senectute (On Old Age); De Amicitia (On Friendship), and Scipio’s Dream, trans. Andrew P. Peabody (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1887). 3 volumes in 1. See original text in The Online Library of Liberty.
- Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero: with his Treatises on Friendship and Old Age, trans. E.S. Shuckburgh. And Letters of Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, trans. William Melmoth, revised by F.C.T. Bosanquet (New York: P.F. Collier, 1909). See original text in The Online Library of Liberty.
- The Political Works of Marcus Tullius Cicero: Comprising his Treatise on the Commonwealth; and his Treatise on the Laws. Translated from the original, with Dissertations and Notes in Two Volumes. By Francis Barham, Esq. (London: Edmund Spettigue, 1841–42). 2 vols. See original text in The Online Library of Liberty.
- The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, trans. C.D. Yonge (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1913–21). 4 vols. See original text in The Online Library of Liberty.
- 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
- SORGLL: Cicero, In Catilinam I; I,1-3, read by Robert Sonkowsky
- 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
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Lucius Julius Caesar and Gaius Marcius Figulus | Consul of the Roman Republic with Gaius Antonius Hybrida 63 BC | Succeeded by Decimus Junius Silanus and Lucius Licinius Murena |
| |||
| ||
| ||
View page ratings
Rate this page
Saved successfully
Your ratings have not been submitted yet
Your ratings have expired
Thanks! Your ratings have been saved.
Thanks! Your ratings have been saved.
An account will help you track your edits, get involved in discussions, and be a part of the community.
or
Thanks! Your ratings have been saved.
Categories:
- 106 BC births
- 43 BC deaths
- People from the Province of Frosinone
- 1st-century BC Romans
- 1st-century BC writers
- Ancient Roman rhetoricians
- Translation scholars
- Ancient Roman senators
- Cicero
- Classical humanists
- Executed Ancient Romans
- Executed writers
- Golden Age Latin writers
- Humor researchers
- Latin letter writers
- People executed by the Roman Republic
- Political theorists
- Philosophers of Roman Italy
- Roman-era philosophers
- Ancient Roman scholars of religion
- Roman Republican consuls
- Ancient Roman jurists
- Tullii
- Roman-era students in Athens
- 1st-century BC executions
- Ancient Roman exiles
- Recipients of Ancient Roman pardons
- Trope theorists
- Deaths by blade weapons
- 1st-century BC philosophers
- Executed philosophers
No comments:
Post a Comment