Cicero
Cicero | |
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![]() First-century AD bust of Cicero at the Capitoline Museums, Rome | |
Consul of the Roman Republic | |
In office 63 BC – 63 BC Serving with Gaius Antonius Hybrida | |
Governor of Cilicia | |
In office 51 BC – 50 BC | |
Personal details | |
Born | 3 January 106 BC Arpinum, Italy, Roman Republic |
Died | 7 December 43 BC (aged 63) Formia, Italy, Roman Republic |
Manner of death | Assassination (by order of Mark Antony) |
Spouses |
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Children | Tullia and Cicero Minor |
Relatives | Quintus Tullius Cicero (brother) |
Occupation | Statesman, lawyer, writer, orator |
Philosophy career | |
Notable work | Orations
Philosophical works
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Era | Hellenistic philosophy |
Region | Western philosophy |
School | |
Main interests | |
Notable ideas |
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Ancient Rome and the fall of the Republic |
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Marcus Tullius Cicero
His influence on the
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
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance in public affairs, humanism, and classical Roman culture.[15] 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."[16] The peak of Cicero's authority and prestige came during the 18th-century Enlightenment,[17] and his impact on leading Enlightenment thinkers and political theorists such as John Locke, David Hume, Montesquieu, and Edmund Burke was substantial.[18] 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.[19]
Personal life
Early life
Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on 3 January 106 BC
Cicero's
During this period in Roman history, "cultured" meant being able to speak both Latin and Greek. Cicero was therefore educated in the teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers, poets and historians; as he obtained much of his understanding of the theory and practice of rhetoric from the Greek poet Archias[25] and from the Greek rhetorician Apollonius.[26] 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.[27]
Cicero's interest in philosophy figured heavily in his later career and led to him providing a comprehensive account of Greek philosophy for a Roman audience,[28] including creating a philosophical vocabulary in Latin.[29] In 87 BC, Philo of Larissa, the head of the Platonic Academy that had been founded by Plato in Athens about 300 years earlier, arrived in Rome. Cicero, "inspired by an extraordinary zeal for philosophy",[30] sat enthusiastically at his feet and absorbed Carneades' Academic Skeptic philosophy.[31]
Cicero said of Plato's Dialogues, that if Zeus were to speak, he would use their language.[32] He would, in due course, honor them with his own convivial dialogues.[33]
According to Plutarch, Cicero was an extremely talented student, whose learning attracted attention from all over Rome,[34] affording him the opportunity to study Roman law under Quintus Mucius Scaevola.[35] 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", and whose sister married Cicero's brother) would become, in Cicero's own words, "as a second brother", with both maintaining a lifelong correspondence.[27]
In 79 BC, Cicero left for Greece,

Family
Cicero married
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 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.[43] In 46 or 45 BC,[44] Cicero married a young girl, Publilia, who had been his ward. It is thought that Cicero needed her money, particularly after having to repay the dowry of Terentia, who came from a wealthy family.[45] 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
Cicero hoped that his son
Public career
Early legal activity
Cicero wanted to pursue a public career in politics along the steps of the
Cicero started his career as a lawyer around 83–81 BC. The first extant speech is a private case from 81 BC (the
Cicero's case in the Pro Roscio Amerino was divided into three parts. The first part detailed exactly the charge brought by Ericius. Cicero explained how a rustic son of a farmer, who lives off the pleasures of his own land, would not have gained anything from committing patricide because he would have eventually inherited his father's land anyway. The second part concerned the boldness and greed of two of the accusers, Magnus and Capito. Cicero told the jury that they were the more likely perpetrators of murder because the two were greedy, both for conspiring together against a fellow kinsman and, in particular, Magnus, for his boldness and for being unashamed to appear in court to support the false charges. The third part explained that Chrysogonus had immense political power, and the accusation was successfully made due to that power. Even though Chrysogonus may not have been what Cicero said he was, through rhetoric Cicero successfully made him appear to be a foreign freed man who prospered by devious means in the aftermath of the civil war. Cicero surmised that it showed what kind of a person he was and that something like murder was not beneath him.[57]
Early political career
His 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 plundered the province. His prosecution of Gaius Verres was a great forensic success[58] for Cicero. Governor Gaius Verres hired the prominent lawyer of a noble family Quintus Hortensius Hortalus. After a lengthy period in Sicily collecting testimonials and evidence and persuading witnesses to come forward, Cicero returned to Rome and won the case in a series of dramatic court battles. His unique style of oratory set him apart from the flamboyant Hortensius. On 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. Hortensius was, at this point, known as the best lawyer in Rome; to beat him would guarantee much success and the prestige that Cicero needed to start his career. Cicero's oratorical ability is shown in his character assassination of Verres and various other techniques of persuasion used on 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".[59] 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. 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.[60]
Cicero grew up in a time of civil unrest and war.
Consulship

Cicero, seizing the opportunity offered by optimate fear of reform, was elected consul for the year 63 BC;[61][62] he was elected with the support of every unit of the centuriate assembly, rival members of the post-Sullan establishment, and the leaders of municipalities throughout post-Social War Italy.[62] His co-consul for the year, Gaius Antonius Hybrida, played a minor role.[63]
He began his consular year by opposing a land bill proposed by a plebeian tribune which would have appointed commissioners with semi-permanent authority over land reform.[64][61] Cicero was also active in the courts, defending Gaius Rabirius from accusations of participating in the unlawful killing of plebeian tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus in 100 BC.[65] The prosecution occurred before the comita centuriata and threatened to reopen conflict between the Marian and Sullan factions at Rome.[65] Cicero defended the use of force as being authorised by a senatus consultum ultimum, which would prove similar to his own use of force under such conditions.[65]
The Catilinarian Conspiracy
Most famously – in part because of his own publicity
Catiline fled and left behind his followers to start the revolution from within while he himself assaulted the city with an army of "moral and financial bankrupts, or of honest fanatics and adventurers".
Cicero received the honorific "pater patriae" for his efforts to suppress the conspiracy,[69] but lived thereafter in fear of trial or exile for having put Roman citizens to death without trial.[citation needed] While the senatus consultum ultimum gave some legitimacy to the use of force against the conspirators,[b] Cicero also argued that Catiline's conspiracy, by virtue of its treason, made the conspirators enemies of the state and forfeited the protections intrinsically possessed by Roman citizens.[65] The consuls moved decisively. Antonius Hybrida was dispatched to defeat Catiline in battle that year, preventing Crassus or Pompey from exploiting the situation for their own political aims.[70]
After the suppression of the conspiracy, Cicero was proud of his accomplishment.[
Shortly after completing his consulship, in late 62 BC, Cicero arranged the purchase of a large townhouse on the
Exile and return
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.[77]
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
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.[81]
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.
Cicero's exile caused him to fall into depression. He wrote to
Cicero tried to re-enter politics as an independent operator,
Governorship of Cilicia
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.[95][96] He served as proconsul of Cilicia from May 51 BC, arriving in the provinces three months later around August.[95] He was given instructions to keep nearby Cappadocia loyal to King Ariobarzanes III, which he achieved 'satisfactorily without war'.
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.[97] He retained the civil rights of, and exempted from penalties, the men who gave the property back.[98] 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.[99] Previous governors had extorted enormous sums from the provincials in order to supply their households and bodyguards.
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.[100] 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.[101]
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
Julius Caesar's civil war
Cicero arrived in Rome on 4 January 49 BC.[103] 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.[103] 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.[106] 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 Dyrrachium (Epidamnos), Illyria, where Pompey's staff was situated.[107] Cicero traveled with the Pompeian forces to Pharsalus in 48 BC,[108] 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.[109] 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.[109] 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
Opposition to Mark Antony and death

In April 43 BC, "diehard republicans" may have revived the ancient position of princeps senatus (leader of the senate) for Cicero. This position had been very prestigious until the constitutional reforms of Sulla in 82–80 BC, which removed most of its importance.[114]
On the other side, Antony was consul and leader of the Caesarian faction, and unofficial executor of Caesar's public will. Relations between the two were never friendly and worsened after Cicero claimed that Antony was taking liberties in interpreting Caesar's wishes and intentions. Octavian was Caesar's adopted son and heir. After he returned to Italy, Cicero began to play him against Antony. He praised Octavian, declaring he would not make the same mistakes as his father. He attacked Antony in a series of speeches he called the Philippics,[115] after Demosthenes's denunciations of Philip II of Macedon. At the time, Cicero's popularity as a public figure was unrivalled.[116]

Cicero supported

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 on 7 December 43 BC leaving his villa in

As reported by Seneca the Elder, according to the historian Aufidius Bassus, Cicero's last words are said to have been:
Ego vero consisto. Accede, veterane, et, si hoc saltim potes recte facere, incide cervicem.
I go no further: approach, veteran soldier, and, if you can at least do so much properly, sever this neck.[119]
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 would not 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 who was displayed in that manner. According to Cassius Dio, in a story often mistakenly attributed to Plutarch,[120] 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.[121]
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.[citation needed]
Octavian is reported to have praised Cicero as a patriot and a scholar of meaning in later times, within the circle of his family.[122] However, it was Octavian's acquiescence that had allowed Cicero to be killed, as Cicero was condemned by the new triumvirate.[123]
Cicero's 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; he was prone to overreaction in the face of political and private change.[citation needed]
"Would that he had been able to endure prosperity with greater self-control, and adversity with more fortitude!" wrote
Legacy
Part of the Politics series |
Republicanism |
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Cicero has been traditionally considered the master of Latin prose, with Quintilian declaring that Cicero was "not the name of a man, but of eloquence itself."[126] The English words Ciceronian (meaning "eloquent") and cicerone (meaning "local guide") derive from his name.[127][128] He is credited with transforming Latin from a modest utilitarian language into a versatile literary medium capable of expressing abstract and complicated thoughts with clarity.[129] Julius Caesar praised Cicero's achievement by saying "it is more important to have greatly extended the frontiers of the Roman spirit than the frontiers of the Roman empire".[130] According to John William Mackail, "Cicero's unique and imperishable glory is that he created the language of the civilized world, and used that language to create a style which nineteen centuries have not replaced, and in some respects have hardly altered."[131]
Cicero was also an 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, as suggested by a graffito at Pompeii, admonishing: "You will like Cicero, or you will be whipped".[132]
Cicero was greatly admired by influential
This influence further increased after the Early Middle Ages in Europe, where more of his writings survived than any other Latin author. Medieval philosophers were influenced by Cicero's writings on natural law and innate rights.[135][additional citation(s) needed]
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters provided the impetus for searches for ancient Greek and Latin writings scattered throughout European monasteries, and the subsequent rediscovery of classical antiquity led to the Renaissance. Subsequently, Cicero became synonymous with classical Latin to such an extent that a number of humanist scholars began to assert that no Latin word or phrase should be used unless it appeared in Cicero's works, a stance criticised by Erasmus.[136]
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 first 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.[137]
Among Cicero's admirers were
Cicero was especially popular with the
Voltaire called Cicero "the greatest as well as the most elegant of Roman philosophers" and even staged a play based on Cicero's role in the
Montesquieu produced his "Discourse on Cicero" in 1717, in which he heaped praise on the author because he rescued "philosophy from the hands of scholars, and freed it from the confusion of a foreign language".[144] Montesquieu went on to declare that Cicero was "of all the ancients, the one who had the most personal merit, and whom I would prefer to resemble."[143][145]
Internationally, Cicero the republican inspired the Founding Fathers of the United States and the revolutionaries of the French Revolution.[146] John Adams said, "As all the ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher united than Cicero, his authority should have great weight."[147] Thomas 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 revolution.[148] 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".[149]
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."[150]
Likewise, no other ancient personality has inspired as much venomous dislike as Cicero, especially in more modern times.[151] His commitment to the values of the Republic accommodated a hatred of the poor and persistent opposition to the advocates and mechanisms of popular representation.[152] 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.[153] Cicero has faced criticism for exaggerating the democratic qualities of republican Rome, and for defending the Roman oligarchy against the popular reforms of Caesar.[154] 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.[155]
Cicero also had an influence on modern astronomy. Nicolaus Copernicus, searching for ancient views on earth motion, said that he "first ... found in Cicero that Hicetas supposed the earth to move."[156]
Notably, "Cicero" was the name attributed to size 12 font in typesetting table drawers. For ease of reference, type sizes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 20 were all given different names.[157]
Works

Cicero was declared a
In archaeology
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.[161] 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.[162]
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.[163] 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.[164]
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.[165][166] 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.[165][167] 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.[168]
Notable fictional portrayals
In
Cicero was portrayed on the motion picture screen by British actor
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.[176] 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).[177] Cicero is a major recurring character in the Roma Sub Rosa series of mystery novels by Steven Saylor.[178] He also appears several times as a peripheral character in John Maddox Roberts' SPQR series.[179]
Samuel Barnett portrays Cicero in a 2017 audio drama series pilot produced by Big Finish Productions. A full series was released the following year.[180] All episodes are written by David Llewellyn[181] and directed and produced by Scott Handcock.[182]
See also
- Caecilia Attica
- Caecilia Metella (daughter of Metellus Celer)
- Civis romanus sum
- Clausula (rhetoric)
- A Dialogue Concerning Oratorical Partitions
- E pluribus unum
- Esse quam videri
- Ipse dixit
- List of ancient Romans
- Lorem ipsum
- Marcantonius Majoragio
- Marcus Tullius Tiro
- Marius Nizolius
- O tempora, o mores!
- Otium
- Socratici viri
- Tempest in a teapot
- Translation
- Writings of Cicero
Notes
References
Citations
- ^ "IEP – Cicero: Academic Skepticism".
- ^ E.g., in Howard Jones, Master Tully: Cicero in Tudor England (Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1998).
- ^ Cicero, Academica Book II, Section 65
- ^ Ferguson & Balsdon 2023.
- ^ Rawson, E.: Cicero, a portrait (1975) p. 303
- ^ Haskell, Henry Joseph (1964). This was Cicero. Fawcett Publications Incorporated. pp. 300–301.
- ^ "Cicero | Biography, Philosophy, Writings, Books, Death, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 10 May 2023. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
- ISBN 978-1-4051-3737-9.
Latin literature in the period 90–40 BC presents one feature that is unique in Classical, and perhaps even in the whole of Western, literature. Although it is a period from which a substantial amount of literature in a wide variety of genres survives, more than 75 per cent of that literature was written by a single man: Marcus Tullius Cicero. Cicero wrote speeches, philosophical and rhetorical trea- tises, letters and poetry, which in terms of quantity outweigh all other extant writings of the period.
- ISBN 978-0-87779-042-6. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- ^ Cicero, Selected Works, 1971, p. 24
- ^ Cicero, Acad. 2.17–18
- ^ Conte, G.B.: "Latin Literature: a history" (1987) p. 199
- ^ Cf. C.J. Dowson (2023), Philosophia Translata: The Development of Latin Philosophical Vocabulary through Translation from Greek. Brill: Leiden-Boston, pp. 314ff.
- ^ "Severed Heads and Hands". Photo Archive. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-87220-341-9. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
- ^ Zieliński, Tadeusz. Cicero Im Wandel Der Jahrhunderte. Nabu Press.
- ISBN 978-0-520-07427-9.
- ^ Nicgorski, Walter. "Cicero and the Natural Law". Natural Law, Natural Rights, and American Constitutionalism.
- ISBN 978-0-19-285436-0. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ Shackleton Bailey, D. R. (1999). Introduction. Letters to Atticus. By Cicero. Loeb Classical Library. Vol. 1. Translated by Shackleton Bailey, D. R. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. p. 3.
Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on 3 January 106 BC at his family home near the hill town of Arpinum (still Arpino) about seventy miles to the east of Rome.
- ^ Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 747.
- ^ Rawson, E.: Cicero, a portrait (1975) pp. 5–6; Cicero, Ad Familiares 16.26.2 (Quintus to Cicero)
- vetch" and the chickpea(Cicer arietinum) remains uncertain.
- ^ Plutarch, Cicero 1.3–5
- ^ Everitt, A.:"Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician" (2001) p. 34
- ^ Plutarch. "Life of Caesar". University of Chicago. p. 447.
After this, Sulla's power being now on the wane, and Caesar's friends at home inviting him to return, Caesar sailed to Rhodes to study under Apollonius the son of Molon, an illustrious rhetorician with the reputation of a worthy character, of whom Cicero also was a pupil.
- ^ a b Everitt, A.: "Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician" (2001) p. 35
- ^ De Officiis, book 1, n. 1
- ^ Everitt, A.:" Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician" (2001) pp. 253–255
- ^ Rawson: "Cicero, a portrait" (1975) p. 18
- ^ J.P.F. Wynne, "Cicero's Skepticism" in Skepticism: From Antiquity to the Present Bloomsbury Academic 2018 p. 93
- ^ "Plato". www.ellopos.net.
- ^ C. B. Krebs, "A seemingly artless conversation," Classical Philology 104 (2009): 90–106.
- ^ Plutarch, Cicero 2.2
- ^ Plutarch, Cicero 3.2
- ^ Haskell, H.J.: "This was Cicero" (1940) p. 83
- ^ Plutarch, Cicero 3.2–5
- ^ Cicero, Brutus, 313–314
- ^ Cicero, Brutus, 315
- ^ Cicero, Brutus, 316
- ^ Gesine Manuwald, Cicero: Philippics 3–9, vol. 2, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2007, pp. 129ff
- ^ Rawson, E.: "Cicero, a portrait" (1975) p. 25
- ^ Susan Treggiari, Terentia, Tullia and Publilia: the women of Cicero's family, London: Routledge, 2007, pp. 76ff.
- ^ 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
- ^ E.g. Cicero, pro Quinctio 4
- ^ Rawson, E.: "Cicero, a portrait" (1975) p. 22
- ^ Everitt, A.: "Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician" (2001) p. 61
- ^ Cicero, pro Caecina 97
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extortionate.
- ^ Trans. Grant, Michael. Cicero: Selected Works. London: Penguin Books. 1960.
- ^ "III. The First Oration Against Catiline by Cicero. Rome (218 B.C.–84 A.D.). Vol. II. Bryan, William Jennings, ed. 1906. The World's Famous Orations". www.bartleby.com. 10 October 2022.
- ^ a b John Leach, Pompey the Great, p. 106.
- ^ a b c d Wiedemann 1994, p. 42.
- ^ Reed, Lawrence W. (29 August 2014). "How to Lose a Constitution – Lessons from Roman History". fee.org. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
- ^ Wiedemann 1994, p. 43.
- ^ a b c d e Wiedemann 1994, p. 44.
- ^ Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Selected Works, Penguin Books Ltd, Great Britain, 1971.
- ^ Abbott, Frank Frost (1901). A History and Description of Roman Political Institutions. United States: Ginn. p. 110.
- ^ Cicero, In Catilinam 3.ii.4–iv.9 (at attalus.org); Sallust, Bellum Catilinae 40–45 (at Lacus Curtius); Plutarch, Cicero 18.4 (at Lacus Curtius).
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- ^ Wiedemann 1994, p. 46.
- ProQuest 1296296031.
- ^ Clayton, Edward. "Cicero (106–43 BC)". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
- ^ Wiedemann 1994, p. 47.
- ^ Anthony Everitt (2003). Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Orator. Random House. pp. 115–116.
- ^ ISBN 0-7425-6834-2.
- ^ a b Steven M. Cerutti (1997). "The Location of the Houses of Cicero and Clodius and the Porticus Catuli on the Palatine Hill". Vol. 118, no. 3. American Journal of Philology. p. 417.
- ^ Rawson, E.: Cicero, 1984 106
- ^ a b Wiedemann 1994, p. 51.
- ^ a b c d Wiedemann 1994, p. 50.
- ^ Tom Holland, Rubicon, pp. 237–239.
- ^ Tom Holland, Rubicon, pp. 238–239.
- ^ Haskell, H.J.: This was Cicero, (1964) p. 200
- ^ Haskell, H.J.: This was Cicero, (1964) p. 201
- ^ Plutarch. Cicero 32
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- ^ 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
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- ^ Cicero. De Domo Sua. perseus.tufts.edu.
- ^ Wiedemann 1994, p. 52.
- ^ a b Wiedemann 1994, p. 53.
- ^ John Leach, Pompey the Great, p. 144.
- ^ Grant, M: Cicero: Selected Works, p. 67
- ^ a b Wiedemann 1994, p. 59.
- ^ Everitt, A. Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician (2001), pp. 186–188
- ^ Alfred John Church, Roman Life in the Days of Cicero, (Kindle edition), ch. XIII., loc. 1834
- ^ Church, loc. 1871
- ^ Church, loc. 1834
- ^ Church, loc. 1845; Gareth C. Sampson, The defeat of Rome, Crassus, Carrhae & the invasion of the East, pp. 155–158; Cicero, Letters to friends, 15.3.1.
- ^ Gareth C. Sampson, The defeat of Rome, Crassus, Carrhae & the invasion of the East, p. 159; Cicero, Letters to friends, 2.10.2.
- ^ Church, loc. 1855
- ^ a b c Wiedemann 1994, p. 62.
- ^ Church, ibid
- ^ Plutarch, The Life of Cicero, 36.
- ^ Plutarch. "Life of Caesar". University of Chicago. p. 575.
It was Cicero who proposed the first honours for [Caesar] in the senate, and their magnitude was, after all, not too great for a man; but others added excessive honours and vied with one another in proposing them, thus rendering Caesar odious and obnoxious even to the mildest citizens because of the pretension and extravagance of what was decreed for him.
- ^ Everitt, Anthony: Cicero p. 215.
- ^ Plutarch, Cicero 38.1
- ^ a b Wiedemann 1994, p. 63.
- ^ Cicero, Second Philippic, xii.28
- ^ Cicero, Ad Familiares 10.28.
- ^ Matthew B Schwartz, Finley Hooper, Roman Letters: History from a Personal Point of View, p. 48.
- ^ Cecil W. Wooten, "Cicero's Philippics and Their Demosthenic Model" University of North Carolina Press
- ^ Ryan, Rank and Participation, pp. 200–203.
- ^ "World History in Context". ic.galegroup.com. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
- ^ Appian, Civil Wars 4.19
- ^ Plutarch, Cicero 46.3–5
- ^ a b Haskell, H.J.: This was Cicero (1964) p. 293
- ^ Seneca, Suasoria 6:18 (http://www.attalus.org/translate/suasoria6.html)
- ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History 47.8.4
- ^ Everitt, A.: Cicero, A turbulent life (2001)
- ^ Plutarch, Cicero, 49.5
- ^ Baños, José (26 February 2019). "The brutal beheading of Cicero, last defender of the Roman Republic". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 19 March 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
- ^ Haskell, H.J. This was Cicero (1964) p. 296
- ^ Castren and Pietilä-Castren: "Antiikin käsikirja", Handbook of antiquity (2000) p. 237
- ^ Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 10.1.112
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "Ciceronian". Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "cicerone". Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, "Ciceronian period" (1995) p. 244
- ^ Pliny, Natural History, 7.117
- ^ Cicero, Seven orations, 1912
- ^ Hasan Niyazi, From Pompeii to Cyberspace – Transcending barriers with Twitter "Account Suspended". Archived from the original on 14 November 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
- ^ Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, 3:4
- ^ Jerome, Letter to Eustochium, XXII:30
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- ^ Erasmus, Ciceronianus
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- ^ Richards 2010, p. 121
- ^ Gibson, William (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. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
- ^ Peter Gay (1966). The Enlightenment: An Interpretation. W.W. Norton. p. 105.
- ^ Peter Gay (1966). The Enlightenment: An Interpretation. W.W. Norton. p. 56.
- ^ Peter Gay (1966). The Enlightenment: An Interpretation. W.W. Norton. p. 106.
- ^ a b Matthew Sharpe. Cicero, Voltaire and the philosophes in the French Enlightenment. p. 329.
- ^ Montesquieu. Discourse on Cicero. Political Theory Vol. 30, No. 5. pp. 733–737.
- ^ Montesquieu. Discourse on Cicero. Political Theory Vol. 30, No. 5. p. 734.
- ^ 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
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- ^ 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.
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- ^ Bailey, D.R.S. Cicero's letters to Atticus (1978) p. 16
- ^ Letters to Atticus I & II
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- ^ Mary Beard (2010). The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found. Harvard University Press. p. 45.
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- ^ Inf. IV, 141
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Sources
- Badian, E: "Cicero and the Commission of 146 B.C.", Collection Latomus 101 (1969), 54–65.
- Ferguson, John & Balsdon, J.P.V.D. (19 June 2023). "Marcus Tullius Cicero". Encyclopædia Britannica (online).
- ISBN 978-0-385-05303-7.
- 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 ISBN 978-0-674-99033-3
- Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Selected Works, Penguin Books Ltd, Great Britain, 1971
- Cowell, F.R. (1948). Cicero and the Roman Republic. Penguin Books
- Everitt, Anthony (2001). Cicero: the life and times of Rome's greatest politician. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-50746-5.
- 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. JSTOR 4350381.
- Narducci, Emanuele (2009). Cicerone. La parola e la politica. Laterza. ISBN 978-88-420-7605-6.
- 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 (1972). "Cicero the Historian and Cicero the Antiquarian". Journal of Roman Studies. 62: 33–45. S2CID 161169064.
- Rawson, Elizabeth. (1975). Cicero : a portrait. London: Allen Lane. OCLC 1531175.
- 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.
- Uttschenko, Sergej L. (1978): Cicero, translated from Russian by Rosemarie Pattloch, VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin, Germany.Cicero
- Wistrand, M. (1979). Cicero Imperator: Studies in Cicero's Correspondence 51–47 B.C. Göteborg.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Wiedemann, Thomas E. J. (1994). Cicero and the end of the Roman Republic. London: Bristol Classical Press. OCLC 31494651.
- ISBN 978-0-226-95001-3.
Further reading
- Boissier, Gaston, Cicéron et ses amis. Étude sur la société romaine du temps de César (1884)
- 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 978-0-631-17879-8.
- Gildenhard, Ingo (2011). Creative Eloquence: The Construction of Reality in Cicero's Speeches. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
- Hamza, Gabor, L'optimus status civitatis di Cicerone e la sua tradizione nel pensiero politico. In: Tradizione romanistica e Costituzione. Cinquanta anni della Corte Costituzionale della Repubblica Italiana. vol. II. Napoli, 2006. 1455–1468.
- Hamza, Gabor, Ciceros Verhältnis zu seinen Quellen, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Darstellung der Staatslehre in De re publica. KLIO – Beiträge zur alten Geschichte 67 (1985) 492–497.
- Hamza, Gabor, Cicero und der Idealtypus des iurisconsultus. Helixon 22–27 (1982–1987) 281–296.
- Hamza, Gabor, Il potere (lo Stato) nel pensiero di Cicerone e la sua attualità. Revista Internacional de Derecho Romano (RIDROM) 10 (2013) 1–25. Revista Internacional de Derecho Romano – Index
- Hamza, Gabor, Zur Interpretation des Naturrechts in den Werken von Cicero. Pázmány Law Review 2 (2014) 5–15.Macdonald, C. (1986). De imperio (Nachdr. d. Ausg. Basingstoke 1966. ed.). Bristol: Bristol Classical Press. ISBN 978-0-86292-182-8.
- ISBN 978-0-525-54187-5.
- OCLC 750831024.
- Parenti, Michael (2004). The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome. New York: The New Press. ISBN 978-1-56584-942-6.
- Powell, J.G.F., ed. (1995). Cicero the philosopher : twelve papers. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-814751-0.
- Ryan, Francis X (1998). Rank and Participation in the Republican Senate. Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 3-5150-7093-1.
- Shackleton Bailey, D. R. (1971). Cicero. London: Duckworth. ISBN 978-0-7156-0574-5.
- Sihler, Ernest G. (1914). Cicero of Arpinum: A Political and Literary Biography. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Treggiari, S. (2007). Terentia, Tullia and Publilia. The women of Cicero's family. London: Routledge.
- Weiskopf, Michael (1991). "Cicero". In ISBN 978-0-939214-72-3.
External links






Library resources about Cicero |
By Cicero |
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Works by Cicero
- Works by Cicero at Perseus Digital Library
- Works by Cicero in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
- Works by Cicero at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Cicero at Internet Archive
- Works by Cicero at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by Cicero at the Stoic Therapy eLibrary
- The Latin Library (Latin): Works of Cicero
- 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)
Biographies and descriptions of Cicero's time
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
- W. Warde Fowler
- "At Heraklia website". Archived from the original on 14 January 2006. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
- Dryden's translation of Cicero from Plutarch's Parallel Lives
- At Middlebury College website
- Raphael Woolf. "Cicero". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.