Marcus Tullius Cicero (January3, 106BC - December 7, 43 BC) was an orator andstatesman of Rome, and is generally considered the greatest Latin prosestylist.
Marcus Tullius Cicero at about age 60, from an ancient marblebust
Cicero was born in Arpinum and died in Rome. His family, the TulliiCicerones, was one of the landed gentry in Arpinum and resented thefame and fortunes of the other great Arpinate families, the Marii. Throughout his life, theconservative Cicero loathed being compared to the then more famousMarius.
Cicero served as a quaestor in Western Sicily in 75 BC. He built an extremelysuccessful career as an advocate, and first attained prominence forhis successful prosecution in August 70 BC of Gaius Verres, theformer governor of Sicily. Despite his great successes as anadvocate, Cicero suffered from his lack of reputable ancestry; asno Tullius Cicero had been consul before him, he was neither noble norpatrician, and his family was considered unimportant. He wasfurthermore hindered by the fact that the last man to have beenelected to the consulate without consular ancestors (i.e., the last"New Man", or Novus Homo) had been the political radicalMarius.
In 63 BC,Cicero became the first New Man in more than 30 years by beingelected consul. His only significant historical accomplishmentduring his year in office was the suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy, a plot to overthrowthe Roman Republic led by Lucius SergiusCatilina, a disaffected patrician. Cicero procured a senatus consultum de re publicadefendenda (a declaration of martial law, also called thesenatus consultum ultimum) and ordered the summaryexecution of a handful of the conspirators in Rome. He received thehonorific "Pater Patriae" for his actions insuppressing the conspiracy, but thereafter lived in fear of trialor exile for having put Roman citizens to death without trial.
In 58 BC,the demagoguePublius Clodius Pulcherintroduced a law exiling any man who had put Roman citizens todeath without trial. Although Cicero maintained that he had beenindemnified against legal penalty by virtue of having been made apocket dictator by the senatus consultum ultimum, henevertheless left Italy for a year and spent his quasi-exilesetting his speeches to paper.
As the struggle between Pompey and Julius Caesar grew moreintense in 50BC, Cicero favored Pompey but tried to avoid making Caesar intoa permanent enemy. When Caesar invaded Italy in 49 BC, Cicerofled Rome. Caesar attempted vainly to convince him to return, andin June of that year Cicero slipped out of Italy and travelled toSalonika. He returned to Rome, however, afterCaesar's victory.
In a letter to Varro on April 20, 46 BC, Ciceroindicated what he saw as his role under the dictatorship of Caesar:"I advise you to do what I am advising myself – avoid beingseen, even if we cannot avoid being talked about... If our voicesare no longer heard in the Senate and in the Forum, let us followthe example of the ancient sages and serve our country through ourwritings, concentrating on questions of ethics and constitutionallaw."
In February 45 BC Cicero's daughter Tullia died. He neverentirely recovered from this shock.
Cicero was taken completely by surprise when Caesar wasassassinated on the Ides of March44 BC. Cicero and Caesar'ssubordinate Mark Antony became the leading men in Rome;Cicero as spokesman for the senate, and Antony as consul and asexecutor of Caesar's will. But the two men had never been onfriendly terms. When Octavian, Caesar'sheir, arrived in Italy in April, Cicero formed a plan to play himagainst Antony. In September he began attacking Antony in a seriesof speeches he called the Philippics.
Cicero described his position in a letter to Cassius,one of Caesar's assassins, that same September: "I am pleased thatyou like my motion in the Senate and the speech accompanying it...Antony is a madman, corrupt and much worse than Caesar - whom youdeclared the worst of evil men when you killed him. Antony wants tostart a bloodbath..."
Cicero's plan to drive out Octavian and Antony failed, however.The next year the two reconciled and allied with Lepidusto form the Triumvirate for the Constitution of theRepublic. Immediately after legislating their alliance intoofficial existence for a five-year term with consular imperium, the Triumviri began proscribing their enemies and potentialrivals. Cicero and his younger brother Quintus Tullius Cicero,formerly one of Caesar's legates, were both numbered among the enemiesof the state.
Cicero was decapitated by his pursuers on December 7, 43 BC; his head and hands weredisplayed on the Rostra in the Forum Romanum accordingto the tradition of Marius and Sulla, both of whom haddisplayed the heads of their enemies in the Forum. He was the onlyvictim of the Triumvirate's proscriptions to have been so displayedafter death.