Poet Catullus described Cicero as “the most eloquent of all the sons of Romulus,” while Quintilian wrote that Cicero was “regarded not as the name of a man, but as the name of eloquence itself.” Famed for his oratorical skills without rival in the Roman world, Cicero is remembered today for his speeches on law, politics, and philosophy.
But he was far more than a gifted writer and public speaker. Cicero was a key figure in the last decades of the Roman Republic. The three greatest attempts to overthrow the republic all happened within his lifetime: he managed to escape the first one by Sulla unscathed, he was instrumental in stopping the second by Catiline, and, despite his best efforts, failed to prevent the third by Caesar, which saw Cicero’s beloved republic crumble to dust.
Early Years
Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on January 3, 106 BC, in the Italian town of Arpinum (nowadays called Arpino), about 60 miles southeast of Rome. According to Plutarch, the main ancient source we have on the life of Cicero, the future statesman was descended from the Volsci, an Italic tribe that used to be a real thorn in Rome’s side during the early years of the Republic. After fighting for centuries, the Volscians were defeated and their territory was assimilated into the ever-growing Roman Republic around 300 BC.
Fortunately for Cicero, the Volscians received full Roman citizenship in 188 BC, so by the time he came on the scene, he had the same rights as regular Romans. That being said, some of his political opponents still tried to use the fact that Cicero was not a native Roman against him, with one of them deeming Cicero a “naturalized immigrant,” while another referred to his consulship as “the reign of an alien.”
For his part, Cicero remained proud of being an Arpinate, although he downplayed his Volscian roots and referred to himself as a Roman. He wrote he had “two father-lands, that of which he is a native, and that of which he is a citizen. [He] will never deny [his] allegiance to [his] native town, only [he] will never forget that Rome is [his] greater Fatherland and that Arpinum is but a portion of Rome.”
Volscian or not, Cicero was born into a wealthy and privileged family, with his father part of the equestrian order. Not much is known about his mother, except that her name was Helvia and, according to Plutarch, she was “well-born and lived an honorable life.” His father, meanwhile, supposedly traced his ancestry to Tullus Atticus, a king of the Volsci tribe who once waged war against the Romans.
The final family member worth mentioning was the original Cicero, who gave him his surname. The name comes from cicer, Latin for chickpea, and this ancestor gained the moniker because he had a cleft on the tip of his nose, making it look like a chickpea. Cicero was advised to change his name early in his career to something less legume-based, but he refused, stating instead that he “would strive to make the name of Cicero more illustrious than such names as Scaurus or Catulus.” Since most of us have no idea who those two even were without googling them, we argue that he succeeded.
And Cicero certainly maintained a good humor regarding his surname. On one occasion, when he offered a silver plate as a tribute to the gods, he requested the craftsman to inscribe his first two names, “Marcus” and “Tullus,” but instead of Cicero, to engrave an image of a chickpea, thus making him a pioneer in the use of emojis.
Cicero was a gifted student, described as “fond of learning and fond of wisdom, capable of welcoming all knowledge and incapable of slighting any kind of literature or training.” From a young age, Cicero showed a remarkable aptitude for poetry and oratory, and also began studying Roman law with the help of a prominent statesman named Mucius Scaevola.
However, a full Roman education could not be completed without military service. Therefore, in 90 BC, the 17-year-old Cicero went to fight in the Social War, first under Pompeius Strabo (Pompey the Great’s father) and then under Sulla. The Social War occurred between the Roman Republic and some of its Italian allies who, just like the Volsci tribe a century earlier, wanted to receive Roman citizenship. The Romans won, although we don’t know of any particulars of the war involving Cicero. It doesn’t seem like he spent much time in the army, though, because by 88 BC Cicero was already back home, learning from the greatest orators, statesmen, and philosophers that Rome and Greece had to offer.
Better Call Cicero
In 81 BC, the 25-year-old Cicero began his career as a lawyer, with his first appearance in court being the defense of a guy named Publius Quinctius. But it was a different case one year later that earned him acclaim, fame, and some powerful enemies.
At the time, Sulla had seized power in Rome following a civil war, but if you want to learn about that, check out the bio we have on Sulla. Once he was in charge, Sulla allowed his friends and supporters to enrich themselves through various shady dealings such as, for example, acquiring property on the cheap from people who had been exiled or executed.
That was the plan for a guy named Chrysogonus, who bought at auction the house of a deceased man from Ameria named Sextus Roscius. For the lavish countryside estate, Chrysogonus paid the low, low sum of 2,000 denarii, but in came the man’s son and heir, also named Sextus Roscius, who publicly decried the auction as a sham as the property was worth 250 talents, which was, to put it simply, a crapload more than what Chrysogonus paid for it. Angered that their actions would be called into question, Chrysogonus accused Roscius of killing his father and Sulla indicted him on trumped-up evidence. Most lawyers wanted nothing to do with the trial out of fear for Sulla, but wasn’t there anyone willing to take the case and fight for justice?
In came Marcus Cicero: Ace Attorney. Despite his lack of experience, Cicero delivered an impassioned speech where he accused Chrysogonus of being the mastermind behind the murder of Sextus Roscius the Elder and the frame-up of his son to get his hands on the deceased man’s fortune. But you know what? He was a lot better at this than we are, so let’s see what Cicero had to say:
“Chrysogonus asks you, gentlemen of the jury, that forasmuch as he has made himself master of so ample a fortune, which belongs by right to another man, and forasmuch as he is hindered and hampered in the enjoyment of that fortune by the fact that Sextus Roscius lives, he asks you, I say, to relieve his mind from every shade of doubt and anxiety. While Roscius is a citizen, he does not think that he can keep hold of Roscius’ rich and splendid inheritance; if only Roscius be condemned and cast forth from society, then he hopes that he may be able to squander in luxury and profusion that which he has won by crime. He begs you, gentlemen, to pluck from his bosom this rooted distrust which frets and plagues him night and day, and to lend yourselves to secure him his ill-gotten gain.”
There’s a lot more to it, but, in short, Cicero urged the jury not to fall for Chrysogonus’s scheme and to acquit Sextus Roscius and, guess what? They did. The defendant walked off a free man and Cicero became the Perry Mason of the Roman world. However, Roscius was only cleared of patricide. We don’t know if he ever got his family estate back or what happened to him or Chrysogonus after the trial.
But what about Cicero? Surely, now the high-profile cases would start flooding in. Well, not exactly, because after this victory, Cicero decided to take an extended leave from the bar and travel to Greece and Asia Minor. Some argued this was because he feared repercussions from Sulla, although Cicero wrote that he did it for health concerns due to “over-exertion and strain of the lungs.” Either way, he spent two years away from Rome. Once he returned in 77 BC, Sulla was dead, the Republic had mostly been restored to its old ways, and Cicero was again ready to resume his promising career.
From Quaestor to Consul
It didn’t take long for Cicero to become a rising star again. Despite his two-year absence, he was still well-regarded and was appointed quaestor in 76 BC, assigned to Sicily where his main duty was to ensure that the grain kept flowing to Rome. He kept practicing law while in Sicily, and his most high-profile case involved the successful prosecution of the ex-governor of Sicily, Gaius Verres, another of Sulla’s former supporters who stood accused of extortion.
Once back in Rome, Cicero was promoted to more important political and administrative positions, a progression usually referred to as the cursus honorum. He was already a member of the Senate thanks to his status as quaestor, and in 69 BC he was elected as aedile and then, in 66 BC, as praetor. Only one position remained – that of consul.
During the Roman Republic, the consulship was the highest elected office in the land. The consuls served for a term of one year and they were always elected two at a time, so there would never be a single man who held all the power. It was possible to be consul more than once, although Cicero served only one term in 63 BC alongside a politician named Gaius Antonius Hybrida. Although the two consuls were, technically, equal, Cicero was definitely the guy in charge, with Hybrida described by others as a “political nonentity” and “afraid of his own shadow,” doing it strictly so he could score a governorship in a rich province after his one year in office. Little did either of them know that their consulship would be so eventful.
For starters, Cicero had to navigate the tricky world of politics at a time when there were some important players on the rise in Rome; mainly talking about Julius Caesar and Pompey, with Marcus Crassus getting an honorable mention. A few years later, the three realized that together they would be unstoppable and formed an unofficial alliance dubbed the First Triumvirate, but for the moment, Pompey and Caesar were at odds with each other politically. And yes, we have bios on all three if you’re interested.
Also at odds were the two main political groups of Rome, informally dubbed the optimates and the populares. The former were more traditional and backed Pompey while the latter were populists in favor of Caesar and, in the middle of this brouhaha was the consul, Cicero. He usually sided with the optimates, as he felt the populares resorted to demagogy too often.
Indeed, one of Cicero’s first acts as consul was to oppose a bill put forward by an obscure tribune named Rullus, but really authored by Caesar. It was a plan to redistribute land among the poorer Romans and, on the face of it, it looked like something that would help the average citizens of Rome. However, Cicero objected to the fact that ten men, or “the ten kings,” as he called them, would have complete control over the confiscation, resettlement, and redistribution of the lands, thus giving them unchecked power to sell off whatever property they desired across the provinces. Three times was the bill put forward during his consulship and all three times Cicero fought vehemently to have it vetoed. This hurt his standing with the common people, who perceived it as Cicero and the optimates striking down something that would help them, whereas the populares were trying to look after their interests.
And, indeed, it is likely that was Caesar’s intention all along. Ever a shrewd statesman, he came out on top whether the bill was passed or not. But Caesar was not Cicero’s biggest problem during his consulship, but rather one of his allies named Lucius Sergius Catilina.
The Catiline Conspiracy
Catiline had previously stood for consulship two times unsuccessfully. After being rejected again by the voters in 63 BC, he began plotting a coup against the republic. Catiline had the support of multiple senators, many of them crippled with debts that he promised to erase, and intended to use foreign armies to overthrow the consuls and take over the republic by force.
Unfortunately for him, Cicero found out about his plan. According to Plutarch, several former allies of Catiline that he tried to recruit, including Marcus Crassus, informed Cicero of the plot. With this new information, the consul called a meeting of the Senate on October 21, 63 BC, and warned them that a rebellion was imminent. Everyone took the threat seriously and passed a decree “that matters should be put in the hands of the consuls” to preserve the city. Basically, this was martial law that gave Cicero the power to do whatever he deemed necessary to save the Republic.
A few days later, Cicero may have avoided an assassination attempt on himself thanks to a woman named Fulvia, who informed him that two men named Marcius and Cethegus would come to his house to pay their respects. However, they were Catiline’s men, who were going to strike Cicero down with swords as soon as they were inside. The two men did, indeed, arrive the following morning, but they were not allowed inside the house, despite their protests, so they just left. Whether or not they truly were assassins on Catiline’s payroll, we cannot say with certainty. We might as well point out at this stage that most of our info about the Catiline Conspiracy comes from the speeches of Cicero himself, and he has occasionally been accused of exaggerating the threat to the republic and his role in preventing it to boost his reputation.
As far as Catiline was concerned, he was allowed to speak before the Senate to defend himself, but no one was buying what he was selling. After his speech, Cicero banished him from the city and Catiline left and joined his army which was waiting in Etruria.
Cicero delegated duties – he stayed in Rome to deal with the threat in the city while his fellow consul, Hybrida, assisted by the more capable Quintus Metellus, would ride out and face the enemy in battle.
Believe it or not, Cicero had the more dangerous task ahead of him because one of Catiline’s allies named Lentulus intended to “ kill all the senators and as many of the other citizens as they could, to burn down the city itself, and to spare no one…” It was a stroke of luck that Cicero found out about the plan because Lentulus tried to recruit a Gallic tribe called the Allobroges to their side. He intercepted the Gallic envoys and made them send a fake reply to Lentulus requesting a written oath, signed and sealed, guaranteeing their alliance should the Allobroges help Catiline overthrow the republic. Basically, Cicero asked the traitors to stamp a giant “GUILTY” sign on their foreheads, and, guess what – they did it. Lentulus replied as requested, with the names and signatures of his co-conspirators who were immediately arrested.
Now came the controversial part – what to do with them? Cicero asked for input from the Senate. One group led by Caesar suggested life imprisonment, while another led by Cato the Younger demanded the death penalty. Both choices were illegal under Roman law since the conspirators were Roman citizens condemned without a trial. A vote was cast and Cato won even though, ultimately, it was Cicero’s call. He went along with the Senate vote and ordered the men executed.
The rest of the conspiracy quickly fell apart. Once word reached Catiline that the coup inside Rome didn’t work, most of his men abandoned him. By the time he fought Hybrida at the Battle of Pistoria in January 62 BC, he only had a few thousand men remaining. Catiline was killed in battle and his plot had failed.
Cicero was hailed as a hero for saving the republic. A few years later, his execution of the conspirators would come back to bite him in the ass, but for now, the people “voted him the greatest honors ever conferred and called him the father of his country.”
Exile, Civil War, and Death
For now, Cicero was the talk of the town, but once the serious crisis had been averted, it didn’t take long for Rome to fill up with its typical political shenanigans again. In 60 BC, Cicero did himself no favors when he refused to join Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus in the First Triumvirate that we mentioned earlier. Say what you will about the guy, but Cicero was a true believer in the principles of the republic and didn’t want any single entity to attain too much power, even if it was him…At least, not at the moment.
Unfortunately, this left Cicero vulnerable to attacks from his political enemies, and one of them struck. His name was Publius Clodius and he’s probably best remembered for the Bona Dea scandal where he supposedly dressed up as a woman to attend the secret rites for the goddess Bona Dea which forbade the presence of men. Thanks mainly to the influence of Caesar and the money of Crassus, Clodius not only escaped the scandal unscathed but was made tribune in 58 BC.
Clodius hated Cicero so, as soon as he had the power, he passed a law that outlawed anyone who had put to death Roman citizens without a trial. Clearly, this was aimed at Cicero for his execution of the Catiline conspirators. And it worked. Cicero suddenly found himself without many allies so, without any protection, he left Rome in exile, and, to add insult to injury, Clodius had his house torn down.
Cicero stayed exiled for about a year and a half. It was a dark time for him, where he even wrote about contemplating suicide. Luckily for him, Clodius quickly got drunk with power and began opposing Pompey and then even Caesar. Consequently, Pompey put forward a petition to recall Cicero to Rome and, with Caesar’s support, it was enthusiastically endorsed. Therefore, in August 57 BC, Cicero was back home, but with one major caveat – he had to crush those republican ideals he held so dear and not make any more disparaging comments towards the members of the triumvirate, particularly Caesar. Humbled and submissive, Cicero agreed to the terms.
Likely because he was kept on a leash, Cicero mostly stayed out of politics for the rest of the decade. On the bright side, he dedicated most of his time to writing and this period was when he produced many of his greatest works, particularly his papers on rhetoric and philosophy. Then, in 51 BC, Cicero’s servile demeanor was rewarded with a governorship in Cilicia. He was praised for the work he did in the province and this could have been the start of his political comeback. Unfortunately for him, Caesar had declared war on the republic.
We’ve talked about this civil war from the perspective of Caesar, Pompey, Mark Antony, Brutus, and probably others, so we’ll stick to the short version. In 49 BC, Julius Caesar refused the order of the Senate to give up his provinces and disband his army. Instead, he marched on Rome. His enemies, led by Pompey, abandoned the city to gather their forces. Cicero followed Pompey, but after the latter was defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus in August 48 BC, Cicero surrendered while others stayed to fight on.
Back in Rome, Caesar pardoned Cicero, hoping to turn him into a reluctant ally because this would help legitimize his power grab. For his part, Cicero seemed somewhat willing to accept his role, not because he had any love or trust for Caesar, but because he had utterly lost confidence in the republican side. However, whatever plans he had went out the window in 44 BC, when Caesar was assassinated during a meeting of the Senate by Brutus and dozens of other conspirators. Cicero himself had no part in the plot, although he certainly was a fan of it, writing in a letter to Gaius Trebonius: “How I could wish that you had invited me to that most glorious banquet on the Ides of March!”
After Caesar’s death, Cicero became one of the leaders of the republican faction, while the opposing Caesarians were led by Mark Antony, who was consul at the time. At first, the two sides seemed conciliatory. Cicero even proposed a compromise at a Senate meeting where Caesar’s assassins would not be punished for their deed, but all the acts passed by Caesar as dictator would stay in place and he would even receive a public funeral.
The smiles and handshakes were just for show, though. Mark Antony had no intention of letting bygones be bygones. Instead, he provoked a new civil war later that same year when he tried to take over Caesar’s former governorships by force. Cicero saw this as a great opportunity to be rid of Antony forever and declared him an enemy of the state.
Little did Cicero know that he doomed himself with that action. Mark Antony outplayed him, to be honest. He forged a new alliance with Marcus Lepidus and Caesar’s heir, Octavian, thus forming the Second Triumvirate. Together, they grabbed power and enacted proscriptions like Sulla did before them. They assembled a list of hundreds of rich and influential men who would be executed and their properties confiscated and Cicero was at the top of the list. Despite Octavian pleading for two days for Cicero’s life because he respected the old man, Mark Antony refused to listen to any terms “unless Cicero should be the first man to be put to death.”
And so he was. Cicero was at his villa in Tusculum when he heard of the proscriptions. He attempted to flee Italy, but bad weather turned his ship around. Eventually, Cicero accepted his fate; he returned to another villa in Caieta and awaited his executioners to track him down. They found him on December 7, 43 BC. Among his assassins was Popillius, a tribune whose life Cicero once saved by defending him in a case of parricide. The 63-year-old former consul and statesman offered no resistance and even stretched out his neck so his killers would land a good swing.
Cicero’s head and hands were delivered to Antony in Rome, who had them nailed to the Rostra for all Romans to see. Of course, things didn’t work out too well for Antony, either, as he was defeated by Octavian, who then took on the name of Augustus Caesar and became the first Roman emperor.
Plutarch ends his tale of Cicero with an anecdote. One day, when Augustus visited his nephew, the boy tried to hide that he was reading one of Cicero’s books. But the emperor took the book and began reading from it himself, and when he returned it to the boy, he said of Cicero: “A learned man, my child, a learned man and a lover of his country.”
