Cicero Bust

Cicero’s surviving words allow an unusually close view of Roman political life. His speeches were crafted to persuade, while his letters reveal changing judgments and anxieties behind public positions. Neither should be read as a neutral transcript of the Republic’s final decades.

Born at Arpinum in 106 BCE, Marcus Tullius Cicero rose through advocacy and public office to the consulship in 63 BCE. His prosecution of the former Sicilian governor Verres made provincial exploitation a subject of powerful public accusation. During his consulship, he confronted Catiline’s conspiracy against the state.

That confrontation also exposed a contradiction in his defense of lawful government. Cicero had captured conspirators executed without a regular trial, a decision used against him when he was driven into exile. His political principles and his conduct under pressure did not always coincide.

His philosophical works brought Greek debates about ethics and knowledge into Latin prose. After Caesar’s assassination, the speeches known as the Philippics attacked Mark Antony. Cicero was killed in the proscriptions of 43 BCE after Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus formed their triumvirate. His later reputation as a model of eloquence should remain connected to this dangerous setting of partisan argument.