Temple
of Cicero
Cicero (Marcus Tullius) (106-43 BC), Roman writer, statesman, and orator.
Although he had a distinguished political career, he is best known as Rome's
greatest orator and as a man of letters. Born in Arpinum (now Arpino, Italy),
he is also known in English as Tully. As a youth he studied law, oratory,
literature, and philosophy in Rome. After brief military service and three
years' experience as a lawyer defending private citizens, he traveled to
Greece and Asia, where he continued his studies. He returned to Rome in
77 BC and began his political career, aligning himself with statesman and
general Pompey the Great. In 74 BC he entered the Senate.
Although Cicero's family did not belong to the Roman aristocracy, he
was supported in the competition for the consulship in 64 BC by most rich
and powerful Romans because of their distrust of his aristocratic but less
respectable rival, Lucius Sergius Catilina, known as Catiline. Cicero was
elected, but during his administration Catiline organized a plot to overthrow
the government. Cicero suppressed the conspiracy and had several members
of Catiline's group executed. Julius Caesar and other Roman senators argued
that Cicero had acted too hastily, without giving the conspirators due
process of law. Because Cicero refused to make peace with Caesar, Pompey's
archrival, in 58 BC he was forced into exile. After a year in Macedonia
he was recalled at the instigation of Pompey.
Cicero occupied himself with reading and writing philosophy until 51
BC, when he accepted an assignment to govern the Roman province of Cilicia
as proconsul. He returned to Rome in 50 BC and joined Pompey, who had by
now become Caesar's bitter enemy. After Pompey was defeated by Caesar in
48 BC, Cicero, realizing that further resistance was hopeless, accepted
Caesar's overtures of political friendship. While Caesar was virtual dictator
of Rome, Cicero lived as a private citizen and wrote extensively. After
Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, Cicero returned to politics. Hoping to
see a restoration of the Republic, he supported Caesar's adopted son, Octavian,
later the emperor Augustus, in a power struggle with the Roman consul Marc
Antony. Octavian and Antony were reconciled, however, and Cicero was proscribed
and murdered on December 7, 43 BC.
In his writings Cicero created a rich prose style that has exercised
a pervasive influence on all the literary languages of Europe. His writing
covers numerous subjects of intellectual interest, and he greatly enriched
the vocabulary of his own language as well as those of the modern European
tongues. Nearly all of his philosophical works were borrowed from Greek
sources and, apart from their intrinsic merit, are of great value in preserving
much of Greek philosophy that might otherwise have remained unknown. Outstanding
are the treatises On the Republic, On the Laws, On Duty, and On the Nature
of the Gods. His rhetorical works, written in dialogue form-particularly
On the Orator-are of value as the products of an accomplished rhetorician
and as a rich source of historical material. The most famous of his orations
are the 4 speeches against Catiline and the 14 so-called Philippics against
Antony.
Among the minor works of Cicero, the treatises On Old Age and On Friendship
have always been admired for their tone of cultivated geniality. Highly
important for historians are four collections of letters written by Cicero
to acquaintances and friends. These letters are a spontaneous self-revelation
of their author and an excellent source of information on the politics
of the final years of the Roman Republic.
"Cicero (Marcus Tullius)," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 97 Encyclopedia.
(c) 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
