Cicero: A Short Biography

Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) was born on January 3, 106 BC to an aristocratic family with little political power or wealth. He had as a primary goal to gain political prestige. While he did serve in the Roman military for a short time, he detested such a career, and so turned to law.

Being a lawyer in the Roman Republic helped ambitious Roman citizens to make the connections and reputation needed to become a politically important figure. Such connections were the basis of political competition in that time, rather than the actual ideologies promoted. Studying legal and political philosophy, Cicero eventually began to take part in legal cases. Being a skilled orator, Cicero was elected to the offices of quaestor, aedile, praetor, and consul in his first tries, and at the youngest possible age for each office. He became a member of the Roman Senate as a result of his political achievements.

Around 63 BC, the Republic was in a fairly tumultuous state, with the threat of the oligarchy's destruction and replacement with a tyrannical regime. Lucius Sergius Catilina, a Roman politician who had lost the consulship to Cicero, was in support of Sulla during his civil war twenty-five years earlier. The Catiline conspiracy hoped to use allies from Gaul, arson of public structures, and the assassination of several political enemies, such as Cicero, to create a dictatorship under his rule. However, Cicero discovered the conspiracy, and, at his order, five of the conspirators were executed without trial. Catiline himself fled Rome, but Roman soldiers found him near Tuscany, and the leader of the Catiline conspiracy died in battle.

Cicero claimed, perhaps exaggeratedly, that his actions had saved the Republic. The Senate conferred the title "Pater Patriae" (or "Father of the Fatherland") for his actions, a title given only to those who had done a great service in preserving the state. He also received the first public thanksgiving for a non-military action.

However, this glory was not to last. During 60 BC, the political turbulence in Rome had greatly intensified, and Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus (who were eventually known as the First Triumvirate) used the politicial situation to gain prominence and power. They tried several times to win Cicero to their side, recognizing his oratorial talents as a useful gift, but Cicero refused. His dedication to the idea of republic and the Senate eventually put his life in danger, when Publius Clodius Pulcher, a follower of Caesar, introduced in 58 BC a law exiling all people who had put a Roman citizen to death without trial. Cicero's decisive actions in executing the Catiline conspirators here condemned him, and he was forbidden to live within 500 miles of Italy. As a result of his removal from politics, he turned to philosophy, composing a series of writings on law and government.

After over a year, the political situation grew less chaotic, and with the political winds shifting, the Triumvirate lifted Cicero's exile, and allowed his return to Rome. Cicero returned, announcing that the Republic had been restored, to the support of the Roman people. While still barred from politics, he was able to continue his career as a lawyer, and went on to write more philosophical works, such as On the Orator (in which he speaks on the ideal orator and the value of rhetoric), On the Republic (his defense of the current republican system as ideal, as opposed to recent aristocratic decay), and On the Laws (describing the regulations of an ideal commonwealth). However, the Triumvirate was inherently unstable, and in 53 BC, Crassus was killed in battle (his desires for wealth were ironically granted when his Parthian captors killed him by pouring molten gold down his throat), and a power play between Caesar and Pompey led to a civil war. Cicero supported Pompey, but only grudgingly; he saw little point in taking sides at this point in events, because the Republic was already irrevocably lost. Julius Caesar eventually triumphed over Pompey, and in 48 BC became the first emperor. He permitted Cicero's return to Rome (Cicero had fled again, during Caesar's invasion), but barred him from politics, and so Cicero turned once again to his new passion of philosophy, writing many new works during this period.

On the Ides of March in 44 BC, Cicero was present at Caesar's assassination by the Senate, although he himself was no conspirator. However, the orator saw this as an opportunity to attempt a restoration of the Roman Republic and the power of the Senate. With Caesar's death, another power struggle ensued, this time between Mark Antony, Marcus Lepidus, and Octavian (later to become Augustus). Cicero hoped that the young Octavian would be a useful (and eventually disposable) tool for the Senate's power, and so he, in what many have called his finest political hour, gave a series of eloquent speeches in support of Octavian against Antony.

These speeches, known as the Philippics, backfired in the end, however. The power struggle of the three leaders ended, not in the elimination of one, but the joint sharing of power, to the dismay of the Senate. Each member of this Second Triumvirate was allowed to eliminate certain political enemies, and Cicero was placed on Antony's "hit list" for his Philippic speeches. Even Octavian, who owed much of his political success to Cicero, chose not to grant protection to him. Cicero, his brother, and his nephew attempted to flee Rome, but the orator's family members were killed when they stopped to buy more supplies for the journey. On December 7, 43 BC, Mark Antony's forces, led by Herennius, found the wearied Cicero, who did not try to flee. The historian Plutarch describes Cicero as "look[ing] steadfastly at his murderers.... Most of those who stood by covered their faces while Herennius was killing him." Cicero's throat was cut, and his severed hands and head were nailed to the podium in the Senate as a warning to others.

Cicero's life exemplifies devotion to a republican system of government, and a determination to preserve the current system in the face of those who worked to destroy the Republic. His altruistic loyalty to the Senate cost him his life, and his political philosophy, while not original or earth shattering, is an ideal model of oratory, government, and the function of the state. Cicero, therefore, is a subject of great admiration and attention when studying early Roman history.