Cicero and the Roman Republic

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Cicero and the Roman Republic
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The Early Life

• Cicero was born January 3, 106 B.C.
• According to Plutarch, he was an extremely adept
  student
• Cicero also had a love for almost everything
  Greek. He found the ancient philosophers such as
  Plato very thought provoking.
• Cicero served as quaestor (elected official) in
  western Sicily in 75 BC
• Despite his great political success, Cicero
  suffered from his lack of reputable ancestry
• In 63 BC, Cicero was elected to the Roman consul

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Life in the Consul

• His only significant accomplishment during his
  year in office was the suppression of the
  Catiline conspiracy, a plot to overthrow the
  Roman Republic
• Cicero was able to oust Catiline through a series
  of speeches to the Senate however he left behind
  his 'deputies' to start the revolution from
  within whilst Catiline assaulted it from without
  
• Cicero managed to have these 'deputies' of
  Catiline confess their crime in front of the
  entire Senate
• After much debate about their punishment in the
  Senate, Cicero had the conspirators taken to a
  Roman prison, where they were hanged.
• He was honored for suppressing the conspiracy,
  but thereafter lived in fear of trial or exile
  for having put Roman citizens to death without
  trial

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Life in Exile

• In 58 BC, a new law went into effect exiling any
  man who had put Roman citizens to death without
  trial
• Cicero claimed his honor had protected him
  against legal penalty, but he appeared ragged in
  public and began to beg for support from the
  people
• Cicero maintained that the Senate was jealous of
  him which was why they did not save him from
  exile
• While in exile, he began putting his speeches to
  paper.
• Cicero returned after over a dozen months from
  his exile to a cheering crowd

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Last Attempts at Politics

• Cicero was taken completely by surprise when
  Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March 44
  BC
• In a letter to one of the conspirators, Cicero
  expressed a wish of having been "...invited to
  that superb banquet"
• Cicero became a popular leader during the
  instability and was disgusted with Mark Antony
• Cicero and Antony became the leading men in Rome
  Cicero as spokesman for the Senate, and Antony as
  consul and as executor of Caesar's wishes
• During this time, Cicero became an unrivaled
  popular leader

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Ciceros Last Stand

• Cicero and Antony, quarreled bitterly over their
  political power and personalities.
• Cicero's failed plan to drive out Octavian and
  Antony resulted in bloodshed
• Cicero was soon numbered among the enemies of the
  state and was forced to flee Rome
• Antony hunted for Cicero most viciously
  throughout Italy. Many men fell bravely
• Ciceros confidants tried to protect him as long
  as they could. However, his executioners had
  arrived at his hideout.

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Ciceros Last Stand

• His last words were said to have been "there is
  nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier,
  but do try to kill me properly.
• He was decapitated by his pursuers on December 7,
  43 BC
• Antony's wife Fulvia took Cicero's head, pulled
  out his tongue, and jabbed the tongue repeatedly
  with her hairpin, taking a final revenge against
  Cicero's power of speech.

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Ciceros Legacy

• He was declared a "Righteous Pagan" by the early
  Catholic Church, and therefore many of his works
  were deemed worthy of preservation
• Saint Augustine and others quoted liberally from
  his works "The Republic" and "The Laws," and it
  is due to this that we are able to recreate much
  of the work from the surviving fragments
• Of Cicero's books, six on rhetoric have survived,
  as well as parts of seven on philosophy
• Of his speeches, eighty-eight were recorded, but
  only fifty-eight survive
• More than 800 letters by Cicero to others exist,
  and over 100 letters from others to him

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