Marcus Tullius Cicero
The Voice of the Republic · 3 January 106 BCE, Arpinum - 7 December 43 BCE, Formiae
The greatest orator Rome ever produced and one of the most influential prose writers in Western history. Statesman, philosopher, and fierce defender of the Roman Republic, his writings shaped Latin style for centuries and helped transmit Greek philosophy to the Western world.
Life and legacy
Marcus Tullius Cicero was born in Arpinum, a hill town southeast of Rome, to a prosperous equestrian family. Though not from the Roman aristocracy, he rose through sheer intellectual brilliance and oratorical skill to become one of the most powerful men in the Republic. He studied philosophy in Athens and Rhodes, absorbing the traditions of the Platonic Academy and Stoicism, and returned to Rome to begin a legal and political career that would make him the most famous advocate of his age.
Cicero's rise was spectacular. His prosecution of the corrupt governor Verres in 70 BCE established his reputation as Rome's foremost orator. Elected consul in 63 BCE - a remarkable achievement for a "new man" without aristocratic lineage - he faced the conspiracy of Catiline, a disgruntled patrician who plotted to overthrow the government. Cicero's four speeches against Catiline, the Catilinarian Orations, are among the most famous in all of rhetoric. He crushed the conspiracy and was hailed as "Father of the Fatherland," but his decision to execute the conspirators without trial would haunt him politically for the rest of his life.
Beyond politics, Cicero was the most prolific intellectual of the late Republic. His philosophical works - including De Republica, De Legibus, De Officiis, and the Tusculan Disputations - translated Greek philosophical concepts into Latin and made them accessible to Roman readers. He championed a moderate skepticism drawn from the New Academy while incorporating Stoic ethics into his vision of public duty. His rhetorical treatises, particularly De Oratore, established the principles of persuasive speech that influenced Western education for nearly two thousand years.
Cicero's political fortunes rose and fell with the tides of civil war. He reluctantly supported Pompey against Caesar, was pardoned by the dictator, and then after Caesar's assassination in 44 BCE, threw himself into one final defense of the Republic. His fourteen Philippics - blistering orations against Mark Antony modeled on Demosthenes' attacks on Philip of Macedon - are masterpieces of political invective. But when Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate, Cicero was placed on their proscription list.
On 7 December 43 BCE, Cicero was caught attempting to flee from his villa at Formiae. According to Plutarch, he faced his killers with composure, baring his neck to the centurion's sword with the words: "There is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly." His severed head and hands were displayed on the Rostra in the Roman Forum - the very platform from which he had delivered his greatest speeches. His death marked the effective end of the Roman Republic and free public speech.
Key accomplishments
- Delivered the Catilinarian Orations (63 BCE), crushing a conspiracy against the Republic
- Wrote De Republica, De Officiis, and other philosophical works that transmitted Greek philosophy to the Latin West
- Established the principles of classical rhetoric in De Oratore, shaping Western education for centuries
- Composed the Philippics against Mark Antony, among the finest examples of political oratory ever written
- Elected consul as a "novus homo" (new man), the first in his family to reach the office
Quotes
The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
Philippica IX, 5
To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.
Orator, 120