MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 106 43 B C Marcus

MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO (106 - 43 B. C. )

Marcus Tullius Cicero (was born in 106 B. C. the central Italian hill town of Arpinum (modern Arpino), which had been granted Roman citizenship in 188 B. C. . His father was a wealthy equestrian, a member of the class in Roman society from which the republic’s cavalry force had once been drawn but which later came increasingly to specialise in finance. The equites were second in status to the senatorial class. Cicero argued in later life that all those born in such towns had two `fatherlands’ - the `natural’ one of their home locality and (more importantly) the `legal’ one of the Roman state (de Legibus, II, 5).

Cicero received his earliest education at home and possibly also at a local school in Arpinum; Renaissance artist Vincenzo Foppa’s 1464 painting portrays him plausibly as a studious youngster but he would have read from scrolls rather than modern-style books!

In his teens, Marcus and his younger brother Quintus were taken to Rome where they studied under the prominent orators Lucius Licinius Crassus and Marcus Antonius (the grandfather of Mark Anthony), with whom they had family connections. Marcus also attended lectures by Philo of Larissa, who introduced him to Plato’s philosophy, and by Molo of Rhodes, a renowned teacher of public speaking.

In 90 B. C. , when Cicero may have assumed the toga virilis of adulthood, the balance between local and larger loyalty broke down. Many of Rome’s Italian allies, angered by her refusal to grant them full citizenship, revolted and tried to set up an independent state. They issued a coin showing the Italian bull trampling the Roman wolf. The war ended with a Roman victory in 88 but the Romans then granted the allies the citizenship rights they had originally demanded. Cicero himself served briefly in the Roman army in 89.

In 88 B. C. , the Roman general Sulla led his army into Rome itself to reverse the decision to transfer command in a war against King Mithridates in Asia Minor to a rival leader, Marius. Soldiers increasingly saw themselves as followers of their commander, who they expected to provide them with land after their retirement, rather than as servants of the state. Sulla was the victor in the civil war that followed his return from the East in 83. Cicero’s teacher, Marcus Antonius, who sided with Sulla, was killed by the Marians in 87 and another of his mentors killed on the orders of Marius’s son in 82. .

Sertorius, a former ally of Marius, established himself as an independent ruler in Spain and sought an alliance with King Mithridates in the eastern Mediterranean but he was assassinated in 72 B. C. and control by the government in Rome re-established.

Cicero began his career as a lawyer under Sulla’s dictatorship. In 81 B. C. he spoke on behalf of Publius Quinctius who was in a dispute with the business partner of his dead brother over the division of assets. His rise to public attention, however, came with his successful defence the following year of Sextus Roscius, accused of murdering his wealthy father. Cicero’s involvement was politically risky because relatives behind the prosecution, who may have ordered the murder themselves, were associates of one of Sulla’s favourites.

In 79 B. C. , perhaps partly for fear of Sulla, who although no longer in active control of the state was still influential, Cicero followed the example of many young upper-class Romans by travelling to Greece. He studied philosophy in Athens and oratory on Rhodes, where his teacher was Apollonius, son of the Milo who had taught Cicero in Rome a few years before. Apollonius is said to have expressed sorrow that the Greeks, who at least could before claim superiority in public speaking, had now been surpassed by this young Roman.

Whilst in Greece, he became acquainted with Titus Pomponius Atticus (`the Athenian’), a wealthy Roman financier and lover of literature who lived in Athens from 85 to 65 B. C. and was to become his life-long friend and confiidante. Atticus’s sister, Pomponia, maried Cicero’s brother, Quintus.

In 75 Cicero served as a quaestor (financial administrator) in the province of Sicily. Five years later, he established his reputation as one of Rome’s leading orators by successfully prosecuting at the Sicilians’request Gaius Verres, who had governed the province corruptly and cruelly from 73 to 71

Verres’ time in Sicily (73 -71 B. C. ) coincided with Rome’s struggle in Italy to put down a slave rebellion led by Spartacus. After the final defeat of the rebels by Crassus, thousands were crucified along the Via Appia. The picture is from the 1960 film starring Kirk Douglas.

In 67 B. C. , Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey), a general who had been one of Sulla’s followers, was given sweeping powers to rid the Mediterranean of pirates. As praetor in 66, Cicero then successfully supported a bill appointing Pompey to command in the third war fought against Rome by King Mithridates of Pontus in Asia Minor. This ended with the death of Mithridates and Pompey’s reorganisation of the East, incuding bringing Palestine under Roman rule.

Cicero was elected one of the two consuls for 63 B. C. During his consulship a conspiracy to take over the government was formed by an indebted aristocrat, Cataline, who fled the city after Cicero had denounced him in the senate. Cicero had some of Cataline’s collaborators executed without trial and Cataline himself was defeated in battle.

In 60 B. C, rising politician Julius Caesar (centre) reconciled rival strongmen Pompey (left) and Crassus (right) and the three formed an informal alliance known as the `First Triumvirate’. It was agreed that after serving as consul in 59, Caesar should become governor of Ilyricum (former Yugoslavia), and of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul (the Po valley in northern Italy and southern France). Cicero was asked by Caesar to collaborate with them, but held himself aloof.

Cicero’s younger brother Quintus served as a lēgātus (comander of a legion) under Caesar in Gaul, accompanying him to Britain in 54 B. C. and the following winter successfully resisting a siege of his winter camp during a Gallic revolt.

In 58 B. C. , Cicero was sent into exile under a law proposed by a personal enemy, the tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher, which banished anyone who had executed Roman citizens without trial. He was recalled the following year after Pompey, who had refused to help him the previous year, turned against Clodius. In 56 B. C. Cicero defended Marcus Caelius Rufus against charges which included the attempted poisoning of Clodius’s sister, Clodia, who may have been the `Lesbia’ of Catullus’s poems. Cicero’s speech made much of the accusation that Clodius had an incestuous relationship with his sister and also of his alleged donning of women’s clothing in 62 B. C. to enter a females-only religious ritual at Julius Caesar’s house.

In 52 B. C. a clash between Clodius and rival gang leader Milo’s followers on the Appian Way resulted in the former’s death and Milo’s prosecution for murder. Cicero’s task was made difficult by the weight of evidence against Milo, intimidation by crowds of Clodius’s supporters and probably political pressure from Pompey to have Milo convicted. He was found guilty and went into exile in Massilia (Marseilles). Cicero subsequently published an embellished version of his speech and sent it to Milo, who joked that if the speech actually delivered had been as good, he would not now be enjoying Massilia’s fine seafood.

In 51 -50 Cicero served as governor of the province of Cicilia in Asia Minor. Although he had been reluctant to leave Rome, he was able to put local finances in a sound position after the looting by his predecessor.

Although he had very little military experience, Cicero campaigned successfully against mountain tribesmen and was hailed as `Imperator’ (victorious general’) by his men. He also camped near the site of Alexander’s great victory against the Persians at Issus (333 B. C. ), on the banks of the River Payas

Shortly after Cicero’s return to Rome, the growing rivalry between Pompey and Caesar culminated in civil war as Pompey and the senate refused Caesar’s request to be allowed to step straight from command in Gaul into a second consulship, thus retaining immunity from prosecution by his political enemies. In January 49 B. C, when no compromise could, Caesar led his troops across the Rubicon, the small river separating Cisalpine Gaul and Italy, to begin another civil war. Cicero hesitated before deciding to back Pompeyand following him to Greece as Italy fell to Caesar’s forces.

Caesar defeated Pompey and his allies at Pharsalus in Greece (48 B. C. ), and then other opponents in Egypt, Asia Minor, North Africa and Spain. In 46 B. C. he was appointed dictator for ten years and then at the beginning of 44 B. C. `dictator perpetuus’ (supreme ruler for life). His measures included reform of the calendar with the introduction of leap years and the month Quintilis was subsequently renamed `Iulius’ (July) after him.

Turmoil in politics was accompanied by turmoil in Cicero’s personal life. In 46. B. C. he divorced his wife Terentia and remarried but, after the death in childbirth the following year of his daughter Tullia, to whom he was deeply devoted, he divorced his new wife also.

Despite having joined Pompey’s side in the Civil War, Cicero was treated with kindness by Caesar. However, his grief at the death of his daughter Tullia, was compounded by his anger at Caesar’s evident intention to retain all power in his own hands. When in 44 B. C. he was assassinated by a group of senators who wished to restore the republican system. Cicero rejoiced at the news.

After the assassination, his lieutenant Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony) pretended to be willing to co-operate with Brutus, Cassius and the other conspirators but then in his speech at Caesar’s funeral incited the crowd to turn against them.

Fearing that Antony wanted to become a new dictator. Cicero allied himself with Octavian, Caesar’s greatnephew, who had been adopted and named as heir in Caesar’s will and was Antony’s rival for the loyalty of Caesar’s veterans and of the common people of Rome. He vehemently denounced Antony in his fourteen Philippics, speeches which Cicero himself named after those delivered against King Philip of Macedon by the Athenian orator Demosthenes in the 4 th century B. C. Cicero spoke both in the senate and outside to the general public but the 2 nd, Phillipic, which reads as if made to the senators, may actually have been a pamphlet not published till after his death.

In autumn 43 B. C. Octavian decided that he would be better off joining Antony. The two quickly defeated the opposition within Italy and, together with a third partner, Lepidus, had themselves declared triumvirī reī pūblicae cōnstituendae (3 -man commission for organising the state) Since many of the conspirators against Caesar had been former Republicans pardoned by him, Antony and Octavian were ruthless against their own opponents. Antony, who had been the target of Cicero’s bitterest denunciations, insisted he be included on the list of those to die. Cicero attempted to flee to Greece but unable to stand seasickness on the stormy Adriatic, returned to land to meet his death. His brother Quintus and his nephew also died in the purge.

Vindictive to the end, Antony had Cicero’s head and hands nailed to the Rostra, or speaker’s platform in the forum, from which he had so often addressed the people of Rome. He is also said to have kept the head for some time in his own residence to gloat over it.

In 42 B. C. Anthony and Octavian went on to fight a decisive battle against the republicans at Philippi in Greece , which ended with the suicide of Brutus (shown here) and Cassius. Cicero’s son had fought in the defeated army but he was pardoned by Octavian and, after the victors quarreled, he fought in Greece again, this time on Octavian’s side at the Battle of Actium against Anthony and Cleopatra. Octavian’s victory left him master of the Roman world and he chose Cicero’s son to announce his success to the senate. .

Probably out of a sense of guilt at his failure to save the elder Cicero, Octavian, soon to take the name Augustus, allowed the son to become consul in 30 B. C. Plutarch (Life of Cicero, 49. 5), records also Augustus’s later remarks to a grandson, who he found reading a book of Cicero’s: `. . the boy…. was terrified and sought to hide it in his gown; but [Augustus] saw it, and took the book, and read a great part of it as he stood, and then gave it back to the youth, saying: "A learned man, my child, a learned man and a lover of his country. ” ’

In addition to his many political and courtroom speeches, a large volume of other writing by Cicero has survived - essays on political and philosophical topics and on oratory, often in the form of dialogue put in the mouth of historical figures. They were mostly produced when there was little scope for normal politics, either in the 50 s B. C. when the constitutional power structure was sidelined by the First Triumvirate or in the period following Caesar’s victory in the Civil War against Pompey. Notable among these works are: De Republica (`On the State’) – 56 B. C. De Legibus (`On Laws’) – 56 B. C. De Amicitia (`On Friendship’) - 44 B. C. De Officiis (`On Duties’), addressed to his son in 44 B. C. - correspondence with his family and friends, comprising around 900 letters published by Tiro and Atticus after his death. Cicero himself would probably have never wanted these released to outsiders, but their re-discovery by the Itallian Renaissance poet and humanist Petrarch ensured that we know more about Cicero than about anyone else in the ancient world

Ad Familiārēs X, 28 (from a letter written in February 43 B. C. to Trebonius, one of the plotters against Caesar, who detained Mark Antony in conversation whilst the assassination was carried out. Cicero complains that Antony should have been eliminated at the same time. ) • Quam vellem ad illās pulcherrimās epulās mē Īdibus Mārtiīs invītāssēs! Reliquiārum nihil habērēmus: at nunc cum iīs tantum negōtiī est, ut vestrum illud dīvīnum in rem pūblicam beneficium nōnnūllam habeat querēlam. Quod vērō ā tē, virō optimō, sēductus est tuōque beneficiō adhūc vīvit haec pestis, interdum – quod mihi vix fās est – tibi subīrāscor; mihi enim negōtiī plūs relīquistī ūnī quam praeter mē omnibus. • How I wish you had invited me to that splendid banquet on the Ides of March! We would have no left-overs: but now there is so much trouble with them, that there is some reason for complaint about that divine act of kindness of yours towards the republic. For indeed since by you, excellent man that you are, this pest was led aside and thanks to your kindness still lives, sometimes , though I scarcely have the right. I am a little angry with you; for you have left more trouble for me alone than for all the others.

Dē Rēpūblicā 3. 33 The Doctrine of Natural Law Est quidem vēra lēx rēcta ratiō nātūrae congruens, diffūsa in omnēs, cōnstāns, sempiterna, quae vocet ad officium iubendō, vetandō a fraude dēterreat; quae tamen neque probōs frūstrā iubet aut vetat nec improbōs iubendō aut vetandō movet. Huic lēgī nec obrogārī fās est neque dērogārī ex hāc aliquid licet neque tōta abrogārī potest, nec vērō aut per senātum aut per populum solvī hāc lēge possumus, neque est quaerendus explānātor aut interpres eius alius, nec erit alia lēx Rōmae, alia Athēnīs, alia nunc, alia posthāc, sed et omnēs gentēs et omnī tempore ūna lēx et sempiterna et immūtābilis continēbit, unusque erit commūnis quasi magister et imperātor omnium deus, ille lēgis huius inventor, disceptātor, lātor; cui qui non pārēbit, ipse sē fugiet ac nātūram hominis aspernātus hōc ipsō luet maximās poenās, etiamsī cētera supplicia, quae putantur, effūgerit

Dē Rēpūblicā 3. 33 The Doctrine of Natural Law There is indeed a true law – right reason in harmony with nature, spread amongst all, unchanging, eternal, which calls us to duty by its orders and deters us from dishonesty by its prohibitions, but which neither commands the righteous in vain nor moves the unrighteous by order or prohibition. It is not right to evade this law, nor is it allowed to abrogate it either in part or in whole, nor indeed can we be freed from this law by either senate or people, nor does anyone have to be found to explain or interpret it; nor will there be one law for Rome and another for Athens, or one now and another later but for all nations and all time there will be one binding, eternal and immutable law, and there will be one common god of all, the master and commander, as it were, he who is the inventor, judge and enactor of this law; he who will not obey this will be in flight from himself, and having spurned human nature, will automatically pay the heaviest penalty, even if escaping the other things commonly thought of as punishments.

Cicero’s legacy • Though Cicero’s struggle to preserve the republican system was in vain, his effect on the Latin language was enormous. He equipped his native tongue with technical terms to discuss Greek philosophical concepts. Then, especially after the Renaissance drive to restore a `pure’ Latinity supposedly corrupted in the Middle Ages, his prose style became the gold standard for writing in the language. He achieved posthumously the undying glory he had always longed for.

Cicero’s career has recently been brought brilliantly to life in Robert Harris’ trilogy, narrated in the person of Cicero’s secretary, Tiro, and based on a careful reading of the original sources,

• https: //crayonmaniac. deviantart. com/art/Publius-Clodius-Pulcher 185573211 • http: //www. oxfordscholarship. com/view/10. 1093/acprof: oso/9780199 216444. 001. 0001/acprof-9780199216444 -chapter-4 (on the Pro Quinctio) • http: //diximus. fr/un-proces-a-rome-pro-sexto/ (court room illustration) • http: //www. newsweek. com/2015/06/19/discovery-dead-infantsathenian-well-sheds-light-ancient-greek-society-341681. html (Athens) • https: //www. pinterest. com/pin/295126581815709731/ (rostrum picture) • https: //www. realmofhistory. com/2017/03/27/15 -facts-gallic-wars-partii/ (war in Gaul) • http: //visualizingbirth. org/classical-roman-birth-scene (woman giving birth) • Some information has been taken from Rose Wiliams, Cicero the Patriot.