Marcus Tullius Cicero

Lore & Background

Cicero came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order. His father was a wealthy member of the equestrian order with good connections in Rome, but could not enter public life due to poor health. Cicero's cognomen comes from the Latin for chickpea (cicer); Plutarch explains the name was originally given to an ancestor with a cleft in the tip of his nose resembling a chickpea. At age 15 in 90 BC, Cicero started serving under Pompey Strabo and later Sulla in the Social War. In 88 BC, he was greatly impressed by the oratory of Publius Sulpicius Rufus. He studied philosophy with Greek academics who had fled the First Mithridatic War and wrote a pamphlet titled On Invention relating to rhetorical argumentation. In 87 BC, Philo of Larissa, head of the Platonic Academy, arrived in Rome, and Cicero sat enthusiastically at his feet, absorbing Carneades' philosophy of academic skepticism. He studied Roman law under Quintus Mucius Scaevola. In 79 BC, Cicero left for Greece, Asia Minor, and Rhodes—perhaps to avoid Sulla's wrath, though Cicero himself said it was to hone his skills. In Athens, he studied philosophy with Antiochus of Ascalon. In Rhodes, he met his former teacher Apollonius Molon, who helped him hone the excesses in his style and train his body and lungs for public speaking. His first major court appearance was in 81 BC at age 26 with Pro Quinctio, defending commercial transactions. In 80 BC, he delivered Pro Roscio Amerino, his first criminal case, accusing a freedman of Sulla, Chrysogonus, of fabricating a proscription. After marrying Terentia in 80 BC, he left for Asia Minor with his brother Quintus and friend Titus Atticus, returning to Rome in 77 BC.

Reader's Guide

Cicero's political career was his most important achievement in his own view. During his consulship in 63 BC, he suppressed the Catilinarian conspiracy, but because he summarily and controversially executed five conspirators without trial, he was exiled in 58 BC and recalled the next year. He spent much of the 50s unhappy with Roman politics, took a governorship in Cilicia in 51 BC, and returned to Italy on the eve of Caesar's civil war. Supporting Pompey during the war, Cicero was pardoned after Caesar's victory. After the assassination of Caesar in 44 BC, he led the Roman Senate against Mark Antony, attacking him in a series of speeches called the Philippicae. He elevated Caesar's heir Octavian to rally support against Antony in the War of Mutina, but after Octavian and Antony reconciled to form the Second Triumvirate with Lepidus, Cicero was proscribed and executed in late 43 BC while attempting to escape Italy. His severed hands and head were displayed on the Rostra by order of Antony. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance in public affairs, humanism, and classical Roman culture. According to Polish historian Tadeusz Zieliński, 'the Renaissance was above all things a revival of Cicero, and only after him and through him of the rest of Classical antiquity.' The peak of Cicero's authority and prestige came during the 18th-century Enlightenment, and his impact on leading thinkers such as John Locke, David Hume, Montesquieu, and Edmund Burke was substantial. His works rank among the most influential in global culture and constitute one of the most important bodies of primary material for Roman history, especially the last days of the Roman Republic.

Did You Know?

• Cicero's cognomen comes from the Latin for chickpea (cicer); Plutarch says it was originally given to an ancestor with a cleft in the tip of his nose resembling a chickpea.
• Cicero coined almost 150 Latin neologisms by translating Greek philosophical terms, including evidentia, generator, humanitas, infinitio, qualitas, and quantitas.
• After his execution, Cicero's severed hands and head were displayed on the Rostra by order of Mark Antony.
• Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited with initiating the 14th-century Renaissance.
• Cicero served as quaestor in Sicily in 75 BC, a post largely related to financial administration.