View source for Cicero

{{Short description|Roman statesman and lawyer (106–43 BC)}}
{{About}}
{{redirect|Ciceronian|the imitation of Ciceronian style|Ciceronianism}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name                = Cicero
| image               = Bust of Cicero (1st-cent. BC) - Palazzo Nuovo - Musei Capitolini - Rome 2016.jpg
| image_upright       = 1
| alt                 = White marble bust
| caption             = First-century AD bust of Cicero at the [[Capitoline Museums]], Rome
| office              = {{plainlist|
* [[Quaestor]] ([[Sicilia (Roman province)|Sicily]]) (75&nbsp;BC)
* [[Aedile]] (69&nbsp;BC)
* [[Praetor]] (66&nbsp;BC)
* [[Roman consul|Consul]] (63&nbsp;BC)
* [[Legatus|Legate]] under [[Pompey]] (57&nbsp;BC)
* [[Proconsul]] ([[Cilicia (Roman province)|Cilicia]]) (51–50&nbsp;BC)
* [[Proconsul]] (Greece and Italy) (49–47&nbsp;BC)<ref>Magistracies and years thereof from {{harvnb|Broughton|1952|p=627}}.</ref>
}}
| birth_date          = 3 January 106 BC<!--THIS ARTICLE USES THE BC/AD ERA CONVENTION THROUGHOUT; PLEASE READ WP:ERA AND DISCUSS ON CICERO'S TALK PAGE BEFORE CHANGING-->
| birth_place         = [[Arpinum]], Italy
| death_date          = 7 December 43 BC (aged 63)
| death_place         = [[Formia]], Italy
| death_cause         = [[Assassination]] (by order of [[Mark Antony]])
| party               = <!-- Optimates and populares not a political party. Cicero claimed both "affiliations" for himself and for others as well. MA Robb (2010). -->
| occupation          = Statesman, [[lawyer]], writer, [[orator]]
| opponents           = 
| spouse              = {{ubl|[[Terentia]] (79–51 BC)|Publilia (46–45 BC)}}
| children            = [[Tullia (daughter of Cicero)|Tullia]] and [[Cicero Minor]]
| relatives           = [[Quintus Tullius Cicero]] (brother)
| notable_works      = {{collapsible list|title = Orations|{{ubl|''[[In Verrem]]''|''[[In Catilinam I–IV]]''}}}}
{{collapsible list|title = Philosophical works|{{ubl|''[[Academica (Cicero)|Academica]]''|''[[De Oratore]]''|''[[De re publica]]''|''[[De Natura Deorum]]''|''[[De Officiis]]''|''[[Tusculanae Quaestiones]]''|''[[De Divinatione]]''|''[[De Fato]]''}}}}
| era               = [[Hellenistic philosophy]]
| region            = [[Western philosophy]]
| school_tradition  = {{Ubl
  | [[Academic skepticism]]<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.iep.utm.edu/cicero-a| title = IEP – Cicero: Academic Skepticism| access-date = 20 March 2020| archive-date = 29 April 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200429192241/https://www.iep.utm.edu/cicero-a/| url-status = live}}</ref>
  | [[Classical republicanism]]
  | [[Eclecticism]]
  }}
| main_interests    = {{hlist|[[Political philosophy|Politics]]|[[Philosophy of law|law]]|[[rhetoric]]|[[theology]]|[[ethics]]|[[epistemology]]}}
| notable_ideas     = {{plainlist|
* ''[[Exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis]]''
* ''[[Humanitas]]''
* ''[[Inter arma enim silent leges]]''
* ''[[Non nobis solum]]''
* ''[[O tempora, o mores!]]''
* ''[[Salus populi suprema lex esto]]''
* ''[[Summum bonum]]''
}}
}}
{{Ancient Rome and the fall of the Republic}}

'''Marcus Tullius Cicero'''{{efn|The name is infrequently [[anglicized]] as '''Tully'''<ref>E.g., in Howard Jones, ''Master Tully: Cicero in Tudor England'' (Nieuwkoop: De Graaf, 1998).</ref> ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|ʌ|l|i}} {{respell|TUL|ee}}).}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪ|s|ə|r|oʊ}} {{respell|SISS|ə|roh}}; {{IPA|la|ˈmaːrkʊs ˈtʊlli.ʊs ˈkɪkɛroː|lang}}<!-- please note that i is [i] before vowels, not [ɪ] -->; 3 January 106 BC&nbsp;– 7 December 43&nbsp;BC) was a [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and [[Academic skeptic]],<ref>Cicero, ''Academica'' [http://attalus.org/cicero/academica2b.html#65 Book II, Section 65] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925155035/http://attalus.org/cicero/academica2b.html#65 |date=25 September 2022 }}</ref> who tried to uphold [[optimate]] principles during [[crisis of the Roman Republic|the political crises]] that led to the establishment of the [[Roman Empire]].{{sfn|Ferguson|Balsdon|2023}} [[Writings of Cicero|His extensive writings]] include treatises on [[rhetoric]], philosophy and politics. He is considered one of Rome's greatest [[orator]]s and [[prose]] stylists and the innovator of what became known as "Ciceronian rhetoric".<ref>[[Elizabeth Rawson|Rawson, E.]]: ''Cicero, a portrait'' (1975) p. 303</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Haskell |first1=Henry Joseph |title=This was Cicero |date=1964 |publisher=Fawcett Publications Incorporated |pages=300–301 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VeBBAAAAIAAJ |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=10 May 2023 |title=Cicero {{!}} Biography, Philosophy, Writings, Books, Death, & Facts {{!}} Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cicero |access-date=18 May 2023 |website=britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=14 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220714104556/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cicero |url-status=live }}</ref> Cicero was educated in Rome and in Greece. He came from a wealthy [[Municipium|municipal]] family of the [[Roman equestrian order]], and served as [[Roman consul|consul]] in 63&nbsp;BC.

He greatly influenced both ancient and modern reception of the [[Latin]] language. A substantial part of his work has survived, and he was admired by both ancient and modern authors alike.<ref name="Harrison2008">{{cite book|first=Stephen|last=Harrison|title=A Companion to Latin Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RI0ivXkSqjAC|year=2008|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4051-3737-9|page=31|quote=Latin literature in the period 90–40 BC presents one feature that is unique in Classical, and perhaps even in the whole of Western, literature. Although it is a period from which a substantial amount of literature in a wide variety of genres survives, more than 75 per cent of that literature was written by a single man: Marcus Tullius Cicero. Cicero wrote speeches, philosophical and rhetorical trea- tises, letters and poetry, which in terms of quantity outweigh all other extant writings of the period.|access-date=9 September 2020|archive-date=19 June 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619065428/https://books.google.com/books?id=RI0ivXkSqjAC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Inc1995">{{Cite book |last=Merriam-Webster, Inc |title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature |publisher=Merriam-Webster |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-87779-042-6 |page=244 |chapter=Ciceronian period |access-date=27 August 2013 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eKNK1YwHcQ4C&pg=PA244}}</ref><ref>Cicero, ''Selected Works'', 1971, p. 24</ref> Cicero adapted the arguments of the chief schools of [[Hellenistic philosophy]] in Latin and coined a large portion of Latin philosophical vocabulary via [[lexical innovation]] (e.g. [[neologism]]s such as {{lang|la|evidentia}},<ref>''Cicero, ''[http://attalus.org/cicero/academica2a.html#17 ''Acad.'' 2.17–18] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925154853/http://attalus.org/cicero/academica2a.html#17 |date=25 September 2022 }}</ref> ''generator'', {{lang|la|[[humanitas]]}}, ''infinitio'', {{lang|la|qualitas}}, {{lang|la|quantitas}}),<ref>Conte, G.B.: "Latin Literature: a history" (1987) p. 199</ref> almost 150 of which were the result of translating [[Greek language|Greek]] philosophical [[Technical term|terms]].<ref>Cf. C.J. Dowson (2023), ''Philosophia Translata: The Development of Latin Philosophical Vocabulary through Translation from Greek.'' Brill: Leiden-Boston, pp. 314ff</ref>

Though he was an accomplished orator and successful lawyer, Cicero believed his political career was his most important achievement. It was during his consulship that the [[Catiline conspiracy]] attempted to overthrow the government through an attack on the city by outside forces, and Cicero (by his own account) suppressed the revolt by summarily and controversially executing five conspirators without trial, an act which would later lead to his exile. During the chaotic middle period of the first century BC, marked by [[List of Roman civil wars and revolts|civil wars]] and the dictatorship of [[Julius Caesar]], Cicero was a supporter of the [[Optimates and populares|Optimates]] faction. Following Caesar's death, Cicero became an enemy of [[Mark Antony]] in the ensuing power struggle, attacking him in a [[Philippicae|series of speeches]]. He was [[proscribed]] as an enemy of the state by the [[Second Triumvirate]] and consequently executed by soldiers operating on their behalf in 43&nbsp;BC, having been intercepted during an attempted flight from the Italian peninsula. His severed hands and head (taken by order of Antony and displayed representing the repercussions of his anti-Antonian actions as a writer and as an orator, respectively) were then displayed on the [[Rostra]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Severed Heads and Hands |url=https://sights.seindal.dk/lexicon/roman-culture/severed-heads-and-hands/ |access-date=9 December 2022 |website=Photo Archive |date=6 August 2003 |language=en-GB |archive-date=9 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209222952/https://sights.seindal.dk/lexicon/roman-culture/severed-heads-and-hands/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Petrarch]]'s rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century [[Renaissance]] in [[Res publica|public affairs]], [[Renaissance humanism|humanism]], and classical Roman culture.<ref name="Wootton1996">{{Cite book |last=Wootton |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/modernpoliticalt00woot |url-access=registration |title=Modern Political Thought: Readings from Machiavelli to Nietzsche |publisher=Hackett Publishing |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-87220-341-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/modernpoliticalt00woot/page/1 1] |access-date=27 August 2013}}</ref> According to Polish historian [[Tadeusz Stefan Zieliński|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]]."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zieliński |first=Tadeusz |title=Cicero Im Wandel Der Jahrhunderte |publisher=Nabu Press}}</ref> The peak of Cicero's authority and prestige came during the 18th-century [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wood |first=Neal |title=Cicero's Social and Political Thought |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-520-07427-9}}</ref> and his impact on leading Enlightenment thinkers and political theorists such as [[John Locke]], [[David Hume]], [[Montesquieu]], and [[Edmund Burke]] was substantial.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nlnrac.org/classical/cicero |title=Cicero and the Natural Law |last=Nicgorski |first=Walter |publisher=Natural Law, Natural Rights, and American Constitutionalism |access-date=3 May 2012 |archive-date=14 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140114200527/http://www.nlnrac.org/classical/cicero |url-status=live }}</ref> His works rank among the most influential in global culture, and today still constitute one of the most important bodies of primary material for the writing and revision of [[Roman history]], especially the last days of the [[Roman Republic]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=Miriam |last1=Griffin |first2=John |last2=Boardman |first3=Jasper |last3=Griffin |first4=Oswyn |last4=Murray
|title=The Oxford Illustrated History of the Roman World |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordillustrate00john_1
|url-access=registration |access-date=10 August 2011 |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-285436-0 |pages=76ff }}</ref>

== Early life ==
[[File:Porta Saturno, Quartiere Colle,Arpino .jpg|thumb|[[Arpino]], Italy, birthplace of Cicero|left]]
[[File:The Young Cicero Reading.jpg|thumb|''[[The Young Cicero Reading]]'' by [[Vincenzo Foppa]] (fresco, 1464), now at the [[Wallace Collection]]|left]]

Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on 3 January 106&nbsp;BC in [[Arpinum]], a hill town {{convert|100|km|mi|sp=us}} southeast of Rome.<ref>{{cite book |contributor-last=Shackleton Bailey |contributor-first=D. R. |contribution=Introduction |author=Cicero |title=Letters to Atticus |volume=1 |series=Loeb Classical Library |year=1999 |translator-last=Shackleton Bailey |translator-first=D. R. |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge |page=3 |quote=Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on 3 January 106 BC at his family home near the hill town of Arpinum (still Arpino) about seventy miles to the east of Rome. }}</ref> He belonged to the ''[[Roman tribe|tribus]]'' Cornelia.<ref>''Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum'', [http://www.attalus.org/docs/sig2/s747.html 747] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180303225208/http://www.attalus.org/docs/sig2/s747.html |date=3 March 2018 }}.</ref> His father was a wealthy member of the [[equestrian order]] and possessed good connections in Rome. However, not being of robust health (he experienced poor digestion and inflammation of the eyes<ref>{{cite book |last1=Petersson |first1=Torsten |title=Cicero a biography |date=1963 |publisher=Biblo and Tannen |location=New York |isbn=0-8196-0119-5 |page=97}}</ref>), he could not enter public life and studied extensively to compensate. Little is known about Cicero's mother Helvia, but Cicero's brother [[Quintus Tullius Cicero|Quintus]] wrote in a letter that she was a thrifty housewife.<ref>Rawson, E.: ''Cicero, a portrait'' (1975) pp. 5–6; Cicero, ''Ad Familiares'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Cic.+Fam.+16.26.2 16.26.2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511161442/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Cic.+Fam.+16.26.2 |date=11 May 2008 }} (Quintus to Cicero)</ref>

Cicero's [[cognomen]], a hereditary nickname, comes from the Latin for [[chickpea]], {{lang|la|cicer}}. [[Plutarch]] explains that the name was originally given to one of Cicero's ancestors who had a cleft in the tip of his nose resembling a chickpea.{{sfn|Tempest|2011|p=19, citing {{harvnb|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=1.3–5}} }} The famous family names of [[Fabia gens|Fabius]], [[Lentulus (disambiguation)|Lentulus]], and [[Calpurnia gens#Calpurnii Pisones|Piso]] come from the Latin names of beans, lentils, and peas, respectively. Plutarch writes that Cicero was urged to change this deprecatory name when he entered politics, but refused, saying that he would make ''Cicero'' more glorious than ''[[Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (consul 115 BC)|Scaurus]]'' ("Swollen-ankled") and ''[[Catulus]]'' ("Puppy").{{sfn|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=1.3–5}}

At the age of 15, in 90&nbsp;BC, Cicero started serving under [[Pompey Strabo]] and later [[Sulla]] in the [[Social War (91–87 BC)|Social war]] between Rome and its Italian allies.{{sfn|Tempest|2011|p=27}} When in Rome during the turbulent [[plebeian tribunate]] of [[Publius Sulpicius Rufus]] in 88&nbsp;BC which saw a short bout of fighting between the Sulpicius and Sulla, who had been elected consul for that year, Cicero found himself greatly impressed by Sulpicius' oratory even if he disagreed with his politics.{{sfn|Tempest|2011|pp=27–28}} He continued his studies at Rome, writing a pamphlet titled ''On Invention'' relating to rhetorical argumentation and studying philosophy with Greek academics who had fled the ongoing [[First Mithridatic War]].{{sfn|Tempest|2011|pp=xi, 28}}

=== Education ===
During this period in Roman history, Greek language and cultural studies were highly valued by the elite classes. Cicero was therefore educated in the teachings of the [[ancient Greek philosophers]], [[Ancient Greek literature|poets]] and [[Hellenic historiography|historians]]; as he obtained much of his understanding of the theory and practice of [[rhetoric]] from the Greek poet [[Aulus Licinius Archias|Archias]].{{sfn|Everitt|2001|p=34}} Cicero used his knowledge of Greek to translate many of the theoretical concepts of Greek philosophy into Latin, thus translating Greek philosophical works for a larger audience. It was precisely his broad education that tied him to the traditional Roman elite.{{sfn|Everitt|2001|p=35}}

Cicero's interest in philosophy figured heavily in his later career and led to him providing a comprehensive account of Greek philosophy for a Roman audience,<ref>De Officiis, book 1, n. 1</ref> including creating a philosophical vocabulary in Latin.{{sfn|Everitt|2001|pp=253–55}} In 87 BC, [[Philo of Larissa]], the head of the [[Platonic Academy]] that had been founded by [[Plato]] in Athens about 300 years earlier, arrived in Rome. Cicero, "inspired by an extraordinary zeal for philosophy",<ref>Rawson: "Cicero, a portrait" (1975) p. 18</ref> sat enthusiastically at his feet and absorbed [[Carneades]]' [[Academic skepticism|Academic Skeptic]] philosophy.<ref>J.P.F. Wynne, "Cicero's Skepticism" in ''Skepticism: From Antiquity to the Present'' Bloomsbury Academic 2018 p. 93</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Krebs |first=Christopher B |date=2009 |title=A Seemingly Artless Conversation: Cicero's ''De Legibus'' (1.1–5) |url=https://www.academia.edu/2434123 |journal=Classical Philology |volume=104 |issue=1 |pages=90–106 |doi=10.1086/603575 |s2cid=163218114 |issn=0009-837X |access-date=20 October 2022 |archive-date=20 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231220142217/https://www.academia.edu/2434123 |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to Plutarch, Cicero was an extremely talented student, whose learning attracted attention from all over Rome,{{sfn|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=2.2}} affording him the opportunity to study Roman law under [[Quintus Mucius Scaevola Augur|Quintus Mucius Scaevola]].{{sfn|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=3.2}} Cicero's fellow students were Gaius Marius Minor, [[Servius Sulpicius Rufus]] (who became a famous lawyer, one of the few whom Cicero considered superior to himself in legal matters), and [[Titus Pomponius Atticus|Titus Pomponius]]. The latter two became Cicero's friends for life, and Pomponius (who later received the nickname "Atticus", and whose sister married Cicero's brother) would become, in Cicero's own words, "as a second brother", with both maintaining a lifelong correspondence.{{sfn|Everitt|2001|p=35}}

In 79 BC, Cicero left for Greece, [[Asia Minor]] and [[Rhodes]]. This was perhaps to avoid the potential wrath of [[Sulla]], as Plutarch claims,<ref>Haskell, H.J.: "This was Cicero" (1940) p. 83</ref>{{sfn|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=3.2}} though Cicero himself says it was to hone his skills and improve his physical fitness.{{sfn|Cic. ''Brut.''|loc=313–314}} In [[Athens]] he studied philosophy with [[Antiochus of Ascalon]], the 'Old Academic' and initiator of [[Middle Platonism]].{{sfn|Cic. ''Brut.''|loc=315}} In Asia Minor, he met the leading orators of the region and continued to study with them. Cicero then journeyed to Rhodes to meet his former teacher, Apollonius Molon, who had taught him in Rome. Molon helped Cicero hone the excesses in his style, as well as train his body and lungs for the demands of public speaking.{{sfn|Cic. ''Brut.''|loc=316}} Charting a middle path between the competing [[Atticism|Attic]] and [[Asiatic style]]s, Cicero would ultimately become considered second only to [[Demosthenes]] among history's orators.<ref>Gesine Manuwald, Cicero: Philippics 3–9, vol. 2, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2007, pp. 129ff</ref>

== Early career ==
{{Main|Political career of Cicero}}

===Early legal activity===

While Cicero had feared that the law courts would be closed forever, they were reopened in the aftermath of [[Sulla's civil war]] and the purging of Sulla's political opponents in the [[Sulla's proscription|proscriptions]]. Many of the orators whom Cicero had admired in his youth were now dead from age or political violence. His first major appearance in the courts was in 81&nbsp;BC at the age of 26 when he delivered ''[[Pro Quinctio]]'', a speech defending certain commercial transactions which Cicero had recorded and disseminated.<ref>{{harvnb|Tempest|2011|p=32}}. See also {{cite book |last=Cicero |title=Pro Quinctio |year=1930 |translator-last=Freese |translator-first=J J |url=http://attalus.org/cicero/quinctius.html |access-date=10 April 2023 |archive-date=10 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410150714/http://attalus.org/cicero/quinctius.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

His more famous speech defending [[Sextus Roscius]] of [[Amelia, Umbria|Ameria]] – {{lang|la|[[Pro Roscio Amerino]]}} – on charges of [[parricide]] in 80&nbsp;BC was his first appearance in criminal court. In this high-profile case, Cicero accused a freedman of the dictator Sulla, [[Lucius Cornelius Chrysogonus|Chrysogonus]], of fabricating Roscius' father's proscription to obtain Roscius' family's property. Successful in his defence, Cicero tactfully avoided incriminating Sulla of any wrongdoing and developed a positive oratorical reputation for himself.{{sfn|Tempest|2011|p=37}}

While Plutarch claims that Cicero left Rome shortly thereafter out of fear of Sulla's response,{{sfn|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=3.2}} according to Kathryn Tempest, "most scholars now dismiss this suggestion" because Cicero left Rome after Sulla resigned his dictatorship.{{sfn|Tempest|2011|p=37}} Cicero, for his part, later claimed that he left Rome, headed for Asia, to develop his physique and develop his oratory.{{sfn|Cic. ''Brut.''|loc=315–316}} After marrying his wife, [[Terentia]], in 80&nbsp;BC, he eventually left for Asia Minor with his brother [[Quintus Cicero|Quintus]], his friend [[Titus Atticus]], and others on a long trip spanning most of 79 through 77&nbsp;BC.{{sfn|Tempest|2011|pp=37–38}} Returning to Rome in 77&nbsp;BC, Cicero again busied himself with legal defence.<ref>{{harvnb|Tempest|2011|p=39}}. {{harvnb|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=5.1–2}} claims that Cicero was unpopular and received a warning against oratory from the oracle at Delphi; this is unlikely and contradicted by Cicero's own claims.</ref>

===Early political career===
In 76&nbsp;BC, at the quaestorian elections, Cicero was elected at the minimum age required – 30 years – in the first returns from the ''[[comitia tributa]]'', to the post of [[quaestor]]. Ex officio, he also became a member of the [[Roman Senate|Senate]]. In the quaestorian lot, he was assigned to [[Sicily]] for 75&nbsp;BC. The post, which was largely one related to financial administration in support of the state or provincial governors, proved for Cicero an important place where he could gain clients in the provinces. His time in Sicily saw him balance his duties – largely in terms of sending more grain back to Rome – with his support for the provincials, Roman businessmen in the area, and local potentates. Adeptly balancing those responsibilities, he won their gratitude.{{sfn|Tempest|2011|pp=41–42}} He was also appreciated by local Syracusans for the rediscovery of the lost tomb of [[Archimedes]], which he personally financed.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Italian Academy |url=https://www.theitalianacademy.com/portfolio-posts/curious-case-tomb-archimedes/#:~:text=Cicero%20found%20it%20and%20accused%20the%20Syracusans%20of%20negligence. |website=The Curious Case of the Tomb of Archimedes |access-date=2 February 2024 |archive-date=2 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240202084909/https://www.theitalianacademy.com/portfolio-posts/curious-case-tomb-archimedes/#:~:text=Cicero%20found%20it%20and%20accused%20the%20Syracusans%20of%20negligence. |url-status=live }}</ref>

Promising to lend the Sicilians his oratorical voice, he was called on a few years after his quaestorship to prosecute the Roman province's governor [[Gaius Verres]],<ref>Verres was governor of Sicily for three years, 73–71&nbsp;BC. 
{{harvnb|Broughton|1952|pp=112, 119, 124}}. Prior to Verres, Sextus Peducaeus and Gaius Licinius Sacerdos had served as Sicilian ''propraetores'' (75 and 74&nbsp;BC, respectively). {{harvnb|Broughton|1952|pp=98, 104}}.</ref> for abuse of power and corruption.{{sfn|Tempest|2011|pp=42–45}} In 70&nbsp;BC, at the age of 36, Cicero launched his first high-profile prosecution against Verres, an emblem of the corrupt Sullan supporters who had risen in the chaos of the civil war.{{sfn|Tempest|2011|p=46}}

The prosecution of Gaius Verres was a great forensic success<ref>{{cite book
|title=The Oxford illustrated history of the Roman world
|publisher=OUP Oxford
|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordillustrate00john_1
|url-access=registration
|quote=extortionate.
|access-date=10 August 2011
|pages=84ff
|isbn=978-0-19-285436-0
|last1=Boardman
|first1=John
|year= 2001
}}</ref> for Cicero. While Verres hired the prominent lawyer, [[Quintus Hortensius]], after a lengthy period in Sicily collecting testimonials and evidence and persuading witnesses to come forward, Cicero returned to Rome and won the case in a series of dramatic court battles. His unique style of oratory set him apart from the flamboyant Hortensius. On the conclusion of this case, Cicero came to be considered the greatest orator in Rome. The view that Cicero may have taken the case for reasons of his own is viable. Hortensius was, at this point, known as the best lawyer in Rome; to beat him would guarantee much success and the prestige that Cicero needed to start his career. Cicero's oratorical ability is shown in his [[character assassination]] of Verres and various other techniques of persuasion used on the jury. One such example is found in the speech ''[[In Verrem]]'', where he states "with you on this bench, gentlemen, with [[Manius Acilius Glabrio (consul 67 BC)|Marcus Acilius Glabrio]] as your president, I do not understand what Verres can hope to achieve".<ref>Trans. Grant, Michael. Cicero: Selected Works. London: Penguin Books. 1960.</ref> Oratory was considered a great art in ancient Rome and an important tool for disseminating knowledge and promoting oneself in elections, in part because there were no regular newspapers or mass media. Cicero was neither a [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] nor a plebeian [[nobiles|noble]]; his rise to political office despite his relatively humble origins has traditionally been attributed to his brilliance as an orator.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bartleby.com/268/2/11.html |title=III. The First Oration Against Catiline by Cicero. Rome (218 B.C.–84 A.D.). Vol. II. Bryan, William Jennings, ed. 1906. The World's Famous Orations |website=www.bartleby.com |date=10 October 2022 |access-date=11 February 2020 |archive-date=26 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526230138/https://www.bartleby.com/268/2/11.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Cicero grew up in a time of civil unrest and war. Sulla's victory in the first of a series of civil wars led to a new constitutional framework that undermined {{lang|la|[[libertas]]}} (liberty), the fundamental value of the Roman Republic. Nonetheless, Sulla's reforms strengthened the position of the equestrian class, contributing to that class's growing political power. Cicero was both an Italian {{lang|la|eques}} and a {{lang|la|[[novus homo]]}}, but more importantly he was a [[Constitution of the Roman Republic|Roman constitutionalist]]. His social class and loyalty to the Republic ensured that he would "command the support and confidence of the people as well as the Italian middle classes". The [[optimates]] faction never truly accepted Cicero, and this undermined his efforts to reform the Republic while preserving the constitution. Nevertheless, he successfully ascended the cursus honorum, holding each magistracy at or near the youngest possible age: quaestor in 75 BC (age 30), [[aedile]] in 69 BC (age 36),{{efn|Whether Cicero was elected as ''[[plebeian]]'' aedile or ''[[Curule seat#Ancient Rome|curule]]'' aedile is uncertain: his own writings do not specify which but it may be deduced, from the classes of public games he mounted, that he probably held the curule chair.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Taylor |first1=Lily Ross |author1-link=Lily Ross Taylor |title=Cicero's Aedileship |journal=The American Journal of Philology |date=1939 |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=194–202 |doi=10.2307/291199 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/291199 |issn=0002-9475}}</ref>}} and [[praetor]] in 66 BC (age 39), when he served as president of the [[Lex Calpurnia de repetundis|extortion court]].{{sfn|Tempest|2011|p=76}} He was then elected consul at age 42.<!-- WP:CALC -->{{citation needed |reason=Roman magistrates take office at different points through the year; quaestors in December of the previous year, for example; just subtracting years is of insufficient credibility |date=December 2024 }}

==Consulship==
[[File:Cicero Denounces Catiline in the Roman Senate by Cesare Maccari.png|thumb|''Cicero Denounces Catiline'', [[fresco]] by [[Cesare Maccari]], 1882–1888|alt=|upright=1.2]]
Cicero, seizing the opportunity offered by optimate fear of reform, was elected consul for the year 63 BC;<ref name="JLP106">John Leach, ''Pompey the Great'', p. 106.</ref>{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=42}} he was elected with the support of every unit of the [[centuriate assembly]], rival members of the post-Sullan establishment, and the leaders of municipalities throughout post-Social War Italy.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=42}} His co-consul for the year, [[Gaius Antonius Hybrida]], played a minor role.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reed |first=Lawrence W. |date=29 August 2014 |title=How to Lose a Constitution{{snd}}Lessons from Roman History |url=https://fee.org/articles/how-to-lose-a-constitutionlessons-from-roman-history/ |access-date=30 January 2023 |website=fee.org |language=en |archive-date=19 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619065458/https://fee.org/articles/how-to-lose-a-constitutionlessons-from-roman-history/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

He began his consular year by opposing a land bill proposed by a plebeian tribune which would have appointed commissioners with semi-permanent authority over land reform.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=43}}<ref name="JLP106" /> Cicero was also active in the courts, defending [[Gaius Rabirius (senator)|Gaius Rabirius]] from accusations of participating in the unlawful killing of plebeian tribune [[Lucius Appuleius Saturninus]] in 100 BC.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=44}} The prosecution occurred before the {{lang|la|comita centuriata}} and threatened to reopen conflict between the Marian and Sullan factions at Rome.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=44}} Cicero defended the use of force as being authorised by a {{lang|la|senatus consultum ultimum}}, which would prove similar to his own use of force under such conditions.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=44}}

=== Catilinarian Conspiracy ===
{{Rhetoric}}
{{Main|Catilinarian conspiracy}}

Most famously{{snd}}in part because of his own publicity{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=42}}{{snd}}he thwarted a conspiracy led by [[Lucius Sergius Catilina]] to overthrow the [[Roman Republic]] with the help of foreign armed forces. Cicero procured a ''[[senatus consultum ultimum]]'' (a recommendation from the senate attempting to legitimise the use of force){{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=42}} and drove Catiline from the city with four vehement speeches (the [[Catilinarian orations]]), which remain outstanding examples of his rhetorical style.{{Sfn|Krebs|2020}}  The Orations listed Catiline and his followers' debaucheries, and denounced Catiline's senatorial sympathizers as roguish and dissolute debtors clinging to Catiline as a final and desperate hope. Cicero demanded that Catiline and his followers leave the city. At the conclusion of Cicero's first speech (which was made in the [[Temple of Jupiter Stator (3rd century BC)|Temple of Jupiter Stator]]), Catiline hurriedly left the Senate. In his following speeches, Cicero did not directly address Catiline. He delivered <!--maybe; some scholars think not all the Catilinarians were actually delivered, but were rather published-->the second and third orations before the people, and the last one again before the Senate. By these speeches, Cicero wanted to prepare the Senate for the worst possible case; he also delivered more evidence, against Catiline.<ref>Cicero, Marcus Tullius, ''Selected Works'', Penguin Books Ltd, Great Britain, 1971.</ref>

Catiline fled and left behind his followers to start the revolution from within while he himself assaulted the city with an army of "moral and financial bankrupts, or of honest fanatics and adventurers".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abbott |first1=Frank Frost |title=A History and Description of Roman Political Institutions |date=1901 |publisher=Ginn |location=United States |page=110}}</ref> It is alleged that Catiline had attempted to involve the [[Allobroges]], a tribe of [[Transalpine Gaul]], in their plot, but Cicero, working with the Gauls, was able to seize letters that incriminated the five conspirators and forced them to confess in front of the [[Roman Senate|Senate]].<ref>{{harvnb|Cic. ''Cat.''|loc=3.2.4–4.9}}; {{harvnb|Sall. ''Cat.''|loc=40–45}}; {{harvnb|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=18.4}}.</ref> The senate then deliberated upon the conspirators' punishment. As it was the dominant advisory body to the various [[legislative]] assemblies rather than a [[judicial]] body, there were limits to its power; however, martial law was in effect, and it was feared that simple house arrest or exile&nbsp;– the standard options&nbsp;– would not remove the threat to the state. At first [[Decimus Junius Silanus (consul)|Decimus Junius Silanus]] spoke for the "extreme penalty"; but during the debate many were swayed by Julius Caesar, who decried the precedent it would set and argued in favor of life imprisonment in various Italian towns. [[Cato the Younger]] then rose in defense of the death penalty and the Senate finally agreed on the matter, and came down in support of the death penalty. Cicero had the conspirators taken to the [[Tullianum]], the notorious Roman prison, where they were strangled. Cicero himself accompanied the former consul [[Publius Cornelius Lentulus Sura]], one of the conspirators, to the Tullianum.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shapiro |first1=Susan O. |title=O Tempora! O Mores! Cicero's Catilinarian orations; a student edition with historical essays |date=2005 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman, OK |isbn=9780806136622 |page=193}}</ref>

Cicero received the honorific "''[[pater patriae]]''" for his efforts to suppress the conspiracy,{{sfn|Everitt|2001|p=112}} but lived thereafter in fear of trial or exile for having put Roman citizens to death without trial.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stockton |first=David |title=Cicero: A Political Biography |year=1971 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn= |pages=174–175}}</ref> While the ''senatus consultum ultimum'' gave some legitimacy to the use of force against the conspirators,{{Efn|Wiedemann describes the senatus consultum ultimum by the late republic as "little more than a fig-leaf by those who could muster a majority in the senate ... to legitimate the use of force".{{sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=44}} }} Cicero also argued that Catiline's conspiracy, by virtue of its treason, made the conspirators enemies of the state and forfeited the protections intrinsically possessed by Roman citizens.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=44}} The consuls moved decisively. Antonius Hybrida was dispatched to defeat Catiline in battle that year, preventing [[Crassus]] or Pompey from exploiting the situation for their own political aims.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=46}}

After the suppression of the conspiracy, Cicero was proud of his accomplishment.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gwatkin |first=W. E. |date=1942 |title=Catilinarian conspiracy, the aftermath of the. |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1296296031 |journal=The Classical Bulletin |volume=18 |issue=15 |id={{ProQuest|1296296031}} |quote=This city and commonwealth has been preserved from destruction by me. |access-date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=19 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619065428/https://www.proquest.com/docview/1296296031 |url-status=live }} {{ProQuest|1296296031}}</ref> Some of his political enemies argued that though the act gained Cicero popularity, he exaggerated the extent of his success. He overestimated his popularity again several years later after being exiled from Italy and then allowed back from exile. At this time, he claimed that the republic would be restored along with him.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Cicero (106–43 BC) |encyclopedia=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/cicero/#H2 |access-date=21 October 2013 |last=Clayton |first=Edward |archive-date=22 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222161508/https://iep.utm.edu/cicero/#H2 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Shortly after completing his consulship, in late 62&nbsp;BC, Cicero arranged the purchase of a large townhouse on the [[Palatine Hill]] previously owned by Rome's richest citizen, Marcus Licinius Crassus.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=47}} To finance the purchase, Cicero borrowed some two million [[sesterces]] from [[Publius Cornelius Sulla]], whom he had previously defended from court.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Platts |first1=Hannah |last2=DeLaine |first2=Janet |chapter=Housing |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118300664 |title=A companion to the city of Rome |date=2018 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-4051-9819-6 |editor-last=Holleran |editor-first=Claire |doi=10.1002/9781118300664 |editor-last2=Claridge |editor-first2=Amanda |page=301 |s2cid=162821882 |access-date=26 November 2023 |archive-date=26 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231126071332/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118300664 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=47}} <!-- It cost an exorbitant sum, 3.5&nbsp;million [[sesterces]], which required Cicero to arrange for a loan from his co-consul Gaius Antonius Hybrida based on the expected profits from Antonius's proconsulship in Macedonia.{{sfn|Everitt|2001|pp=115–16}}<ref name="Dustan, William, 163-164">Dunstan, William (2010). ''Ancient Rome''. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. pp. 163–164. {{ISBN|0-7425-6834-2}}.</ref> --> Cicero boasted his house was ''"in conspectu prope totius urbis"'' ("in sight of nearly the whole city"), only a short walk from the [[Roman Forum]].<ref name="cicero_house">{{Cite news |last=Steven M. Cerutti |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/1104 |title=The Location of the Houses of Cicero and Clodius and the Porticus Catuli on the Palatine Hill |publisher=American Journal of Philology |year=1997 |issue=3 |volume=118 |page=417 |access-date=21 June 2018 |archive-date=21 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180621143314/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/1104 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Exile and return==
In 60 BC, Julius Caesar invited Cicero to be the fourth member of his existing partnership with Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus, an assembly that would eventually be called the [[First Triumvirate]]. Cicero refused the invitation because he suspected it would undermine the Republic,<ref>Rawson, E.: ''Cicero'', 1984 106</ref> and because he was strongly opposed to anything unconstitutional that limited the powers of the consuls and replaced them with non-elected officials.

During Caesar's consulship of 59 BC, the triumvirate had achieved many of their goals of land reform, publicani debt forgiveness, ratification of Pompeian conquests, etc. With Caesar leaving for his provinces, they wished to maintain their hold on politics. They engineered the adoption of patrician [[Publius Clodius Pulcher]] into a plebeian family and had him elected as one of the ten [[tribunes of the plebs]] for 58 BC.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=51}} Clodius used the triumvirate's backing to push through legislation that benefited them. He introduced several laws (the ''[[leges Clodiae]]'') that made him popular with the people, strengthening his power base, then he turned on Cicero. Clodius passed a law which made it illegal to offer "fire and water" (i.e. shelter or food) to anyone who executed a Roman citizen without a trial.  
Cicero, having executed members of the Catiline conspiracy four years previously without formal trial, was clearly the intended target.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=50}} Furthermore, many believed that Clodius acted in concert with the triumvirate who feared that Cicero would seek to abolish many of Caesar's accomplishments while consul the year before. Cicero argued that the ''senatus consultum ultimum'' indemnified him from punishment, and he attempted to gain the support of the senators and consuls, especially of Pompey.<ref>Tom Holland, ''Rubicon'', pp. 237–239.</ref>

Cicero grew out his hair, dressed in mourning and toured the streets. Clodius' gangs dogged him, hurling abuse, stones and even excrement. Hortensius, trying to rally to his old rival's support, was almost lynched. The Senate and the consuls were cowed. Caesar, who was still encamped near Rome, was apologetic but said he could do nothing when Cicero brought himself to grovel in the proconsul's tent. Everyone seemed to have abandoned Cicero.<ref>Tom Holland, ''Rubicon'', pp. 238–239.</ref>

After Clodius passed a law to deny to Cicero fire and water (i.e. shelter) within four hundred miles of Rome, Cicero went into exile.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=50}} He arrived at [[Thessalonica]], on 23 May 58&nbsp;BC.<ref>Haskell, H.J.: ''This was Cicero'', (1964) p. 200</ref><ref>Haskell, H.J.: ''This was Cicero'', (1964) p. 201</ref><ref>Plutarch. ''Cicero'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Cicero*.html#32 32] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131100133/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Cicero%2A.html#32 |date=31 January 2024 }}</ref> In his absence, Clodius, who lived next door to Cicero on the Palatine, arranged for Cicero's house to be confiscated by the state, and was even able to purchase a part of the property in order to extend his own house.<ref name="cicero_house" /> After demolishing Cicero's house, Clodius had the land consecrated and symbolically erected a temple of Liberty (''aedes Libertatis'') on the vacant land.{{sfn|Everitt|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/cicerolifetimeso00ever/page/145 145]}}

Cicero's exile caused him to fall into depression. He wrote to Atticus: "Your pleas have prevented me from committing suicide. But what is there to live for? Don't blame me for complaining. My afflictions surpass any you ever heard of earlier".<ref>Haskell, H.J.: ''This was Cicero'' (1964) p. 201</ref> After the intervention of recently elected tribune [[Titus Annius Milo]], acting on the behalf of Pompey who wanted Cicero as a [[Patronage in ancient Rome|client]],{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=50}} the Senate voted in favor of recalling Cicero from exile. Clodius cast the single vote against the decree. Cicero returned to Italy on 5 August 57&nbsp;BC, landing at [[Brundisium]].<ref>Cicero, ''Samtliga brev/Collected letters'' (in a Swedish translation)</ref> He was greeted by a cheering crowd, and, to his delight, his beloved daughter Tullia.<ref>Haskell. H.J.: ''This was Cicero'', p. 204</ref> In his ''Oratio De Domo Sua Ad Pontifices'', Cicero convinced the [[College of Pontiffs]] to rule that the consecration of his land was invalid, thereby allowing him to regain his property and rebuild his house on the Palatine.{{sfn|Everitt|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/cicerolifetimeso00ever/page/165 165]}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cicero |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0020:text%3DDom.:chapter%3D1 |title=De Domo Sua |publisher=perseus.tufts.edu |access-date=20 February 2021 |archive-date=17 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117035405/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0020%3Atext%3DDom.%3Achapter%3D1 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Cicero tried to re-enter politics as an independent operator,{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=50}} but his attempts to attack portions of Caesar's legislation were unsuccessful{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=51}} and encouraged Caesar to re-solidify his political alliance with Pompey and Crassus.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=52}} The [[Lucca Conference|conference at Luca]] in 56&nbsp;BC left the three-man alliance in domination of the republic's politics; this forced Cicero to recant and support the triumvirate out of fear from being entirely excluded from public life.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=53}} After the conference, Cicero lavishly praised Caesar's achievements, got the Senate to vote a thanksgiving for Caesar's victories, and grant money to pay his troops.{{sfn|Everitt|2001|p=281–283}} He also delivered a speech 'On the consular provinces' ({{Langx|la|de provinciis consularibus|lit=}}){{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=53}} which checked an attempt by Caesar's enemies to strip him of his provinces in Gaul.<ref>John Leach, ''Pompey the Great'', p. 144.</ref> After this, a cowed Cicero concentrated on his literary works. It is uncertain whether he was directly involved in politics for the following few years.<ref>Grant, M: ''Cicero: Selected Works'', p. 67</ref> His legal work largely consisted of defending allies of the ruling {{Lang|la|triumvirs|italic=no}} and his own personal friends and allies; [[Pro Caelio|he defended]] his former pupil [[Marcus Caelius Rufus]] against a charge of murder in 56.{{Refn|{{cite book| last=Englert| first=Walter| year=2010| chapter=Cicero| editor-last=Gagarin| editor-first=Michael| title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome| publisher=Oxford University Press| place=Oxford| isbn=9780195388398| chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195170726.001.0001/acref-9780195170726-e-253?rskey=R67z5t&result=6| access-date=2024-07-23| via=Oxford Reference| chapter-url-access=subscription}} On Caelius's case, see {{cite book| last=Berry| first=Dominic H.| year=2020| title=Cicero's Catilinarians| publisher=Oxford University Press| place=Oxford| isbn=9780195326468|page=xx}}.}} Under the influence of the triumvirs, he had also defended his former enemies [[Publius Vatinius]] (in August 54&nbsp;BC), [[Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (praetor 56 BC)|Marcus Aemilius Scaurus]] (between July and September) and Gnaeus Plancius (with the {{Lang|la|[[Pro Plancio]]}}) in September, which weakened his prestige and sparked attacks on his integrity: Luca Grillo has suggested these cases as the source of the poet [[Catullus]]'s double-edged comment that Cicero was "the best defender of anybody".{{Refn|{{cite journal| last=Grillo| first=Luca| year=2014| title=A Double ''Sermocinatio'' and a Resolved Dilemma in Cicero's ''Pro Plancio''| journal=The Classical Quarterly| volume=64| issue=1| eissn=1471-6844| page=215| doi=10.1017/S0009838813000669| jstor=26546296}}, quoting Catullus 49.7.}}

==Governorship of Cilicia==
[[File:M. Tullius Cicero, Apamea Cibotus, AR cistophorus, 51-50 BC, Metcalf 470.jpg|thumb|[[Cistophorus]] minted by Cicero in [[Apamea (Phrygia)|Apamea Cibotus]] in 51–50 BC, while serving as proconsul of Cilicia.{{Sfn|Stumpf|1991|p=54}}]]
In 51 BC he reluctantly accepted a [[promagistracy]] (as proconsul) in [[Cilicia (Roman province)|Cilicia]] for the year; there were few other former consuls eligible as a result of a legislative requirement enacted by Pompey in 52&nbsp;BC specifying an interval of five years between a consulship or praetorship and a [[Roman province|provincial command]].{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=59}}{{sfn|Everitt|2001|pp=186–88}} He served as proconsul of Cilicia from May 51 BC, arriving in the provinces three months later around August.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=59}}

In 53 BC Marcus Licinius Crassus had been defeated by the [[Parthian Empire|Parthians]] at the [[Battle of Carrhae]]. This opened the Roman East for a Parthian invasion, causing unrest in Syria and Cilicia. Cicero restored calm by his mild system of government. He discovered that a great amount of public property had been embezzled by corrupt previous governors and members of their staff, and did his utmost to restore it. Thus he greatly improved the condition of the cities.<ref>[[Alfred John Church]], ''Roman Life in the Days of Cicero'', (Kindle edition), ch. XIII., loc. 1834</ref> He retained the civil rights of, and exempted from penalties, the men who gave the property back.<ref>Church, loc. 1871</ref> Besides this, he was extremely frugal in his outlays for staff and private expenses during his governorship, and this made him highly popular among the natives.<ref>Church, loc. 1834</ref>

Besides his activity in ameliorating the hard pecuniary situation of the province, Cicero was also creditably active in the military sphere. Early in his governorship he received information that prince [[Pacorus I|Pacorus]], son of [[Orodes II]] the king of the Parthians, had crossed the [[Euphrates]], and was ravaging the Syrian countryside and had even besieged [[Gaius Cassius Longinus|Cassius]] (the interim Roman commander in Syria) in [[Antioch]].<ref>Church, loc. 1845; Gareth C. Sampson, ''The defeat of Rome, Crassus, Carrhae & the invasion of the East'', pp. 155–158; Cicero, ''Letters to friends'', 15.3.1.</ref> Cicero eventually marched with two understrength legions and a large contingent of auxiliary cavalry to Cassius's relief. Pacorus and his army had already given up on besieging Antioch and were heading south through Syria, ravaging the countryside again. Cassius and his legions followed them, harrying them wherever they went, eventually ambushing and defeating them near Antigonea.<ref>Gareth C. Sampson, ''The defeat of Rome, Crassus, Carrhae & the invasion of the East'', p. 159; Cicero, ''Letters to friends'', 2.10.2.</ref>

Another large troop of Parthian horsemen was defeated by Cicero's cavalry who happened to run into them while scouting ahead of the main army. Cicero next defeated some robbers who were based on [[Mount Amanus]] and was hailed as [[imperator]] by his troops. Afterwards he led his army against the independent Cilician mountain tribes, besieging their fortress of Pindenissum. It took him 47 days to reduce the place, which fell in December.<ref>Church, loc. 1855</ref> On 30 July 50 BC Cicero left the province{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=62}} to his brother [[Quintus Cicero|Quintus]], who had accompanied him on his governorship as his [[Legatus|legate]].<ref>Church, ibid</ref> On his way back to Rome he stopped in Rhodes and then went to Athens, where he caught up with his old friend Titus Pomponius Atticus and met men of great learning.<ref>Plutarch, The Life of Cicero, 36.</ref>

==Julius Caesar's civil war==
Cicero arrived in Rome on 4 January 49 BC.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=62}} He stayed outside the [[pomerium]], to retain his promagisterial powers: either in expectation of a triumph or to retain his independent command authority in the coming civil war.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=62}} The struggle between Pompey and Julius Caesar grew more intense in 50 BC. Cicero favored Pompey, seeing him as a defender of the senate and Republican tradition, but at that time avoided openly alienating Caesar.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/lives/caesar*.html |title=Life of Caesar |last=Plutarch |website=University of Chicago |page=575 |quote=It was Cicero who proposed the first honours for [Caesar] in the senate, and their magnitude was, after all, not too great for a man; but others added excessive honours and vied with one another in proposing them, thus rendering Caesar odious and obnoxious even to the mildest citizens because of the pretension and extravagance of what was decreed for him. |access-date=19 February 2021 |archive-date=13 February 2018 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20180213130122/http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/lives/caesar%2A.html |url-status=live }}</ref> When Caesar invaded Italy in 49 BC, Cicero fled Rome. Caesar, seeking an endorsement by a senior senator, courted Cicero's favor, but even so Cicero slipped out of Italy and traveled to [[Dyrrhachium]] where Pompey's staff was situated.{{sfn|Everitt|2001|p=215}} Cicero traveled with the Pompeian forces to [[Farsala|Pharsalus]] in [[Macedonia (Roman province)|Macedonia]] in 48 BC,<ref>Plutarch, ''Cicero'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Cicero*.html#38 38.1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131100133/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Cicero%2A.html#38 |date=31 January 2024 }}</ref> though he was quickly losing faith in the competence and righteousness of the Pompeian side. Eventually, he provoked the hostility of his fellow senator Cato, who told him that he would have been of more use to the cause of the ''optimates'' if he had stayed in Rome. After Caesar's victory at the Battle of Pharsalus on 9 August, Cicero refused to take command of the Pompeian forces and continue the war.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=63}} He returned to Rome, still as a promagistrate with his [[lictor]]s, in 47 BC, and dismissed them upon his crossing the pomerium and renouncing his command.{{Sfn|Wiedemann|1994|p=63}}

In a letter to [[Varro]] on {{Circa|20 April 46 BC}}, Cicero outlined his strategy under Caesar's dictatorship. Cicero, however, was taken by surprise when the ''Liberatores'' assassinated Caesar on the [[ides of March]], 44 BC. Cicero was not included in the conspiracy, even though the conspirators were sure of his sympathy. Marcus Junius Brutus called out Cicero's name, asking him to restore the republic when he lifted his bloodstained dagger after the assassination.<ref>Cicero, [http://attalus.org/cicero/philippic2.html#28 ''Second Philippic'', xii.28] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410154917/http://attalus.org/cicero/philippic2.html#28 |date=10 April 2023 }}</ref> A letter Cicero wrote in February 43 BC to [[Trebonius]], one of the conspirators, began, "How I could wish that you had invited me to that most glorious banquet on the Ides of March!"<ref>Cicero, ''Ad Familiares'' [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/fam10.shtml#28 10.28] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603024803/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/fam10.shtml#28 |date=3 June 2023 }}.</ref><ref>Matthew B Schwartz, Finley Hooper, ''Roman Letters: History from a Personal Point of View'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=WbhoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA48 p. 48] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619065440/https://books.google.com/books?id=WbhoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA48#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=19 June 2024 }}.</ref> Cicero became a popular leader during the period of instability following the assassination. He had no respect for Mark Antony, who was scheming to take revenge upon Caesar's murderers. In exchange for amnesty for the assassins, he arranged for the Senate to agree not to declare Caesar to have been a [[tyrant]], which allowed the Caesarians to have lawful support and kept Caesar's reforms and policies intact.<ref>Cecil W. Wooten, "Cicero's Philippics and Their Demosthenic Model" [[University of North Carolina Press]]</ref>

==Opposition to Mark Antony and death==
[[File:Marcus Tullius Cicero dragged from his litter and assassinated by soldiers under the command of Marc Antony 43 BCE.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Marcus Tullius Cicero dragged from his litter and assassinated by soldiers under the command of Mark Antony 43 BC (1880 illustration)]]
In April 43 BC, "diehard republicans" may have revived the ancient position of ''[[princeps senatus]]'' (leader of the senate) for Cicero. This position had been very prestigious until the [[constitutional reforms of Sulla]] in 82–80 BC, which removed most of its importance.<ref>Ryan, ''Rank and Participation'', pp. 200–203.</ref>

On the other side, Antony was consul and leader of the Caesarian faction, and unofficial executor of Caesar's public will. Relations between the two were never friendly and worsened after Cicero claimed that Antony was taking liberties in interpreting Caesar's wishes and intentions. Octavian was Caesar's adopted son and heir. After he returned to Italy, Cicero began to play him against Antony. He praised Octavian, declaring he would not make the same mistakes as his father. He attacked Antony in a series of speeches he called the [[Philippicae|''Philippics'']],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/whic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?zid=5f8cc5dc35ef36395a3da25a000441ad&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CCX2878000037&userGroupName=ein_remote&jsid=c02d33644f4e1beaed19877135f2bf8c |title=World History in Context |website=ic.galegroup.com |language=en |access-date=3 January 2018 |archive-date=19 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619065545/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=WHIC&u=ein_remote&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CCX2878000037&asid=1718856000000~331bb947 |url-status=live }}</ref> named after Demosthenes's denunciations of [[Philip II of Macedon]]. At the time, Cicero's popularity as a public figure was unrivalled.<ref>Appian, ''Civil Wars'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Appian/Civil_Wars/4*.html#19 4.19] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210327022847/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Appian/Civil_Wars/4%2A.html#19 |date=27 March 2021 }}</ref>

[[File:Fulvia y Marco Antonio, o La venganza de Fulvia (Museo del Prado).jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.4|''The Vengeance of Fulvia'' by Francisco Maura y Montaner, 1888 depicting Fulvia inspecting the severed head of Cicero]]

Cicero supported [[Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus]] as governor of [[Cisalpine Gaul]] (''Gallia Cisalpina'') and urged the Senate to name Antony an enemy of the state. The speech of [[Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus (consul 58 BC)|Lucius Piso]], Caesar's father-in-law, delayed proceedings against Antony. Antony was later declared an enemy of the state when he refused to lift the siege of [[Mutina]], which was in the hands of Decimus Brutus. Cicero's plan to drive out Antony failed. Antony and Octavian reconciled and allied with [[Lepidus]] to form the Second Triumvirate after the successive battles of [[Battle of Forum Gallorum|Forum Gallorum]] and [[Battle of Mutina|Mutina]].  The alliance came into official existence with the ''[[lex Titia]]'', passed on 27 November 43 BC, which gave each triumvir a consular ''[[imperium]]'' for five years. The Triumvirate immediately began a proscription of their enemies, modeled after [[Sulla's proscription|that of Sulla]] in 82 BC. Cicero and all of his contacts and supporters were numbered among the enemies of the state, even though Octavian argued for two days against Cicero being added to the list.<ref>Plutarch, ''Cicero'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Cicero*.html#46.3 46.3–5] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131100133/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Cicero%2A.html#46.3 |date=31 January 2024 }}</ref>
[[File:Assassinat de Cicéron.jpg|thumb|Cicero's death (France, 15th century)]]
Cicero was one of the most viciously and doggedly hunted among the proscribed. He was viewed with sympathy by a large segment of the public and many people refused to report that they had seen him. He was caught on 7 December 43&nbsp;BC leaving his villa in [[Formiae]] in a [[Litter (vehicle)|litter]] heading to the seaside, where he hoped to embark on a ship destined for Macedonia.<ref name="Haskell_1964_293">Haskell, H.J.: ''This was Cicero'' (1964) p. 293</ref> When his killers – Herennius (a Centurion) and Popilius (a Tribune) – arrived, Cicero's own slaves said they had not seen him, but he was given away by Philologus, a [[freedman]] of his brother Quintus Cicero.<ref name="Haskell_1964_293" />

[[File:CiceroBust.jpg|thumb|Cicero about age&nbsp;60, from a marble bust]]

As reported by [[Seneca the Elder]], according to the historian [[Aufidius Bassus]], Cicero's last words are said to have been:
{{Blockquote
|text={{lang|la|Ego vero consisto. Accede, veterane, et, si hoc saltim potes recte facere, incide cervicem.}}<br />I go no further: approach, veteran soldier, and, if you can at least do so much properly, sever this neck.<ref>Seneca, ''Suasoria'' 6:18 (http://www.attalus.org/translate/suasoria6.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240116063553/http://www.attalus.org/translate/suasoria6.html |date=16 January 2024 }})</ref>
}}
He bowed to his captors, leaning his head out of the litter in a gladiatorial gesture to ease the task. By baring his neck and throat to the soldiers, he was indicating that he would not resist. According to Plutarch, Herennius first slew him, then cut off his head. On Antony's instructions his hands, which had penned the Philippics against Antony, were cut off as well; these were nailed along with his head on the [[Rostra]] in the Forum Romanum according to the tradition of [[Gaius Marius|Marius]] and Sulla, both of whom had displayed the heads of their enemies in the Forum. Cicero was the only victim of the proscriptions who was displayed in that manner. According to [[Cassius Dio]], in a story often mistakenly attributed to Plutarch,<ref>Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/47*.html#8.4 47.8.4] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210327022845/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/47%2A.html#8.4 |date=27 March 2021 }}</ref> Antony's wife [[Fulvia]] took Cicero's head, pulled out his tongue, and jabbed it repeatedly with her hairpin in final revenge against Cicero's power of speech.<ref>{{harvnb|Everitt|2001}}.{{page needed |date=November 2023}}</ref>

Cicero's son, Marcus Tullius Cicero Minor, during his year as a consul in 30 BC, avenged his father's death, to a certain extent, when he announced to the Senate Mark Antony's naval defeat at [[Battle of Actium|Actium]] in 31 BC by Octavian.{{sfn|Everitt|2001|p=302–304}}

Octavian is reported to have praised Cicero as a patriot and a scholar of meaning in later times, within the circle of his family.{{sfn|Plut. ''Cic.''|loc=49.5}} However, it was Octavian's acquiescence that had allowed Cicero to be killed, as Cicero was condemned by the new triumvirate.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Baños|first=José|date=26 February 2019|title=The brutal beheading of Cicero, last defender of the Roman Republic|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/2019/02/brutal-beheading-cicero-last-defender-roman-republic|url-status=live|access-date=15 March 2021|website=National Geographic|language=en-gb|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319000211/https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/2019/02/brutal-beheading-cicero-last-defender-roman-republic |archive-date=19 March 2021 }}</ref>

Cicero's career as a statesman was marked by inconsistencies and a tendency to shift his position in response to changes in the political climate. His indecision may be attributed to his sensitive and impressionable personality; he was prone to overreaction in the face of political and private change.{{sfn|Rawson|1975|p=203–205}} "Would that he had been able to endure prosperity with greater self-control, and adversity with more fortitude!" wrote [[Gaius Asinius Pollio (consul 40 BC)|C. Asinius Pollio]], a contemporary Roman statesman and historian.<ref>Haskell, H.J. ''This was Cicero'' (1964) p. 296</ref><ref>Castren and Pietilä-Castren: "Antiikin käsikirja", ''Handbook of antiquity'' (2000) p. 237</ref>

== Personal life and family ==
{{further|Personal life of Cicero}}

Cicero married [[Terentia]] probably at the age of 27, in 79 BC. According to the [[upper-class]] [[wikt:mores#English|mores]] of the day it was a marriage of convenience but lasted harmoniously for nearly 30 years. Terentia's family was wealthy, probably the [[plebeian]] noble house of Terenti Varrones, thus meeting the needs of Cicero's political ambitions in both economic and social terms. She had a half-sister named Fabia, who as a child had become a [[Vestal Virgin]], a great honour. Terentia was a strong-willed woman and (citing Plutarch) "took more interest in her husband's political career than she allowed him to take in household affairs".{{sfn|Rawson|1975|p=25}}

In the 50s BC, Cicero's letters to Terentia became shorter and colder. He complained to his friends that Terentia had betrayed him but did not specify in which sense. Perhaps the marriage could not outlast the strain of the political upheaval in Rome, Cicero's involvement in it, and various other disputes between the two. The divorce appears to have taken place in 51 BC or shortly before.{{sfn|Treggiari|2007|pp=76ff}} In 46 or 45 BC,{{sfn|Treggiari|2007|p=133}} Cicero married a young girl, Publilia, who had been his [[ward (law)|ward]]. It is thought that Cicero needed her money, particularly after having to repay the [[dowry]] of Terentia, who came from a wealthy family.<ref name="Rawson_1975_225">{{harvnb|Rawson|1975|p=225}}.</ref>

Although his marriage to Terentia was one of convenience, it is commonly known that Cicero held great love for his daughter [[Tullia (daughter of Cicero)|Tullia]].<ref>Haskell H.J.: ''This was Cicero'', p. 95</ref> When she suddenly became ill in February 45 BC and died after having seemingly recovered from giving birth to a son in January, Cicero was stunned. "I have lost the one thing that bound me to life," he wrote to Atticus.<ref name="Haskell_1964_249">Haskell, H.J.: "This was Cicero" (1964) p. 249</ref> Atticus told him to come for a visit during the first weeks of his [[bereavement]], so that he could comfort him when his pain was at its greatest. In Atticus's large library, Cicero read everything that the [[Greek philosophers]] had written about overcoming grief, "but my sorrow defeats all consolation."<ref>Cicero, ''Letters to Atticus'', 12.14. Rawson, E.: ''Cicero'' p. 225</ref> Caesar and [[Brutus]], as well as Servius Sulpicius Rufus, sent him letters of condolence.<ref>Rawson, E.: ''Cicero'' p. 226</ref><ref>Cicero, ''Samtliga brev/Collected letters''</ref>

Cicero hoped that his son [[Cicero Minor|Marcus]] would become a philosopher like him, but Marcus himself wished for a [[military career]]. He joined the army of [[Pompey]] in 49 BC, and after Pompey's defeat at [[Battle of Pharsalus|Pharsalus]] 48 BC, he was pardoned by Caesar. Cicero sent him to Athens to study as a disciple of the [[Peripatetic school|peripatetic]] philosopher [[Cratippus of Pergamon|Kratippos]] in 48 BC, but he used this absence from "his father's vigilant eye" to "eat, drink, and be merry."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Haskell |first=H.J |title=This was Cicero |year=1964 |pages=103–104}}</ref> After Cicero's death, he joined the army of the ''[[Liberatores]]'' but was later pardoned by [[Augustus]]. Augustus's bad [[conscience]] for having given in to Cicero's being put on the [[proscription]] list during the [[Second Triumvirate]] led him to aid considerably Marcus Minor's career. He became an [[augur]] and was nominated [[Roman consul|consul]] in 30 BC together with Augustus. As such, he was responsible for revoking the honors of [[Mark Antony]], who was responsible for the proscription and could in this way take revenge. Later he was appointed [[proconsul]] of [[Syria]] and the province of Asia.<ref>Paavo Castren & L. Pietilä-Castren: ''Antiikin käsikirja/Encyclopedia of the Ancient World''</ref>

==Legacy==
{{Republicanism sidebar}}
[[File:Thys Boke Is Myne.jpg|thumb|[[Henry VIII]]'s childhood copy of ''[[De Officiis]]'', bearing the inscription in his hand, "Thys boke is myne Prynce Henry"]]
Cicero has been traditionally considered the master of Latin prose, with [[Quintilian]] declaring that Cicero was "not the name of a man, but of eloquence itself."<ref>Quintilian, [[Institutio Oratoria]] 10.1.112</ref> The English words ''[[wikt:Ciceronian|Ciceronian]]'' (meaning "eloquent") and ''[[wikt:cicerone|cicerone]]'' (meaning "local guide") derive from his name.<ref>{{OEtymD|Ciceronian}}</ref><ref>{{OEtymD|cicerone}}</ref> He is credited with transforming Latin from a modest utilitarian language into a versatile literary medium capable of expressing abstract and complicated thoughts with clarity.<ref>''Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature'', "Ciceronian period" (1995) [https://books.google.com/books?id=eKNK1YwHcQ4C&pg=PA244 p. 244]</ref> Julius Caesar praised Cicero's achievement by saying "it is more important to have greatly extended the frontiers of the Roman spirit than the frontiers of the Roman empire".<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History'', 7.117</ref> According to [[John William Mackail]], "Cicero's unique and imperishable glory is that he created the language of the civilized world, and used that language to create a style which nineteen centuries have not replaced, and in some respects have hardly altered."<ref>Cicero, ''Seven orations'', 1912</ref>

Cicero was also an energetic writer with an interest in a wide variety of subjects, in keeping with the [[Hellenistic philosophy|Hellenistic philosophical]] and rhetorical traditions in which he was trained. The quality and ready accessibility of Ciceronian texts favored very wide distribution and inclusion in teaching curricula, as suggested by a graffito at Pompeii, admonishing: "You will like Cicero, or you will be whipped".<ref>Hasan Niyazi, ''From Pompeii to Cyberspace – Transcending barriers with Twitter'' {{Cite web |url=http://www.3pipe.net/2011/05/from-pompeii-to-cyberspace-transcending.html |title=Account Suspended |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114062841/http://www.3pipe.net/2011/05/from-pompeii-to-cyberspace-transcending.html |archive-date=14 November 2012 |access-date=7 September 2012}}</ref>

Cicero was greatly admired by influential [[Church Fathers]] such as [[Augustine of Hippo]], who credited Cicero's [[Lost literary work|lost]] ''[[Hortensius (Cicero)|Hortensius]]'' for his eventual conversion to Christianity,<ref>Augustine of Hippo, ''Confessions'', 3:4</ref> and St. [[Jerome]], who had a feverish vision in which he was accused of being "follower of Cicero and not of Christ" before the judgment seat.<ref>Jerome, ''Letter to Eustochium'', XXII:30</ref>

This influence further increased after the [[Dark Ages (historiography)|Early Middle Ages]] in Europe, where more of his writings survived than any other Latin author's. Medieval philosophers were influenced by Cicero's writings on [[natural law]] and innate rights.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goodey |first=C.F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zgaiAgAAQBAJ&q=Medieval+philosophers+were+influenced+by+Cicero%27s+writings+on+natural+law+and+innate+rights.&pg=PA154 |title=A History of Intelligence and 'Intellectual Disability': The Shaping of Psychology in Early Modern Europe |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4094-8235-2 |language=en |access-date=25 October 2020 |archive-date=19 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619065550/https://books.google.com/books?id=zgaiAgAAQBAJ&q=Medieval+philosophers+were+influenced+by+Cicero%27s+writings+on+natural+law+and+innate+rights.&pg=PA154#v=onepage&q=Medieval%20philosophers%20were%20influenced%20by%20Cicero's%20writings%20on%20natural%20law%20and%20innate%20rights.&f=false |url-status=live }}{{page needed|date=December 2020}}</ref>{{additional citation needed|date=December 2016}}

[[Petrarch]]'s rediscovery of Cicero's letters provided the impetus for searches for ancient Greek and Latin writings scattered throughout European monasteries, and the subsequent rediscovery of [[classical antiquity]] led to the [[Renaissance]]. Subsequently, Cicero became synonymous with classical Latin to such an extent that a number of humanist scholars began to assert that no Latin word or phrase should be used unless it appeared in Cicero's works, a stance criticised by [[Erasmus]].<ref>Erasmus, [[Ciceronianus]]</ref>

His voluminous correspondence, much of it addressed to his friend Atticus, has been especially influential, introducing the art of refined letter writing to European culture. [[Cornelius Nepos]], the first century BC biographer of Atticus, remarked that Cicero's letters contained such a wealth of detail "concerning the inclinations of leading men, the faults of the generals, and the revolutions in the government" that their reader had little need for a history of the period.<ref>Cornelius Nepos, ''[http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/nepos.htm#Atticus Atticus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107233658/http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/nepos.htm#Atticus |date=7 November 2017 }}'' 16, trans. John Selby Watson.</ref>

Among Cicero's admirers were [[Desiderius Erasmus]], [[Martin Luther]], and [[John Locke]].<ref>Richards 2010, p. 121</ref> Following the invention of Johannes Gutenberg's printing press, ''[[De Officiis]]'' was the [[List of editiones principes in Latin|second book printed in Europe]], after the [[Gutenberg Bible]]. Scholars note Cicero's influence on the rebirth of religious toleration in the 17th century.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12681 |title=John Marshall. John Locke, Toleration and Early Enlightenment Culture: Religious Toleration and Arguments for Religious Toleration in Early Modern and Early Enlightenment Europe |last=Gibson |first=William |year=2006 |publisher=H-Albion |access-date=8 July 2012 |archive-date=8 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130608173102/http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12681 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Cicero was especially popular with the [[Philosophes]] of the 18th century, including [[Edward Gibbon]], [[Diderot]], [[David Hume]], [[Montesquieu]], and [[Voltaire]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peter Gay |title=The Enlightenment: An Interpretation |publisher=W.W. Norton |year=1966 |page=105}}</ref> Gibbon wrote of his first experience reading the author's collective works thus: "I tasted the beauty of the language; I breathed the spirit of freedom; and I imbibed from his precepts and examples the public and private sense of a man...after finishing the great author, a library of eloquence and reason, I formed a more extensive plan of reviewing the Latin classics..."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peter Gay |title=The Enlightenment: An Interpretation |publisher=W.W. Norton |year=1966 |page=56}}</ref>

Voltaire called Cicero "the greatest as well as the most elegant of Roman philosophers" and even staged a play based on Cicero's role in the [[Catilinarian conspiracy]], called ''Rome Sauvée, ou Catilina'', to "make young people who go to the theatre acquainted with Cicero."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peter Gay |title=The Enlightenment: An Interpretation |publisher=W.W. Norton |year=1966 |page=106}}</ref> Voltaire was spurred to pen the drama as a rebuff to his rival [[Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon|Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon's]] own play ''Catilina'', which had portrayed Cicero as a coward and villain who hypocritically married his own daughter to Catiline.<ref name="Matthew Sharpe">{{Cite book |last=Matthew Sharpe |title=Cicero, Voltaire and the philosophes in the French Enlightenment |page=329}}</ref>

Montesquieu produced his "Discourse on Cicero" in 1717, in which he heaped praise on the author because he rescued "philosophy from the hands of scholars, and freed it from the confusion of a foreign language".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Montesquieu |title=Discourse on Cicero |publisher=Political Theory Vol. 30, No. 5 |pages=733–737}}</ref> Montesquieu went on to declare that Cicero was "of all the ancients, the one who had the most personal merit, and whom I would prefer to resemble."<ref name="Matthew Sharpe" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Montesquieu |title=Discourse on Cicero |publisher=Political Theory Vol. 30, No. 5 |page=734}}</ref>

Cicero the republican inspired the [[Founding Fathers of the United States]] and the revolutionaries of the [[French Revolution]].<ref>De Burgh, W.G., "The legacy of the ancient world"</ref> [[John Adams]] said, "As all the ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher united than Cicero, his authority should have great weight."<ref>''American republicanism: Roman Ideology in the United States'' [[Mortimer Sellers|Mortimer N. S. Sellers]], NYU Press, 1994</ref> [[Thomas Jefferson]] names Cicero as one of a handful of major figures who contributed to a tradition "of public right" that informed his draft of the Declaration of Independence and shaped American understandings of "the common sense" basis for the right of revolution.<ref>Thomas Jefferson, "Letter to Henry Lee," 8 May 1825, in The Political Thought of American Statesmen, eds. Morton Frisch and Richard Stevens (Itasca, Ill.: F. E. Peacock Publishers, 1973), 12.</ref> [[Camille Desmoulins]] said of the French republicans in 1789 that they were "mostly young people who, nourished by the reading of Cicero at school, had become passionate enthusiasts for liberty".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aulard |first=François-Alphonse |url=https://archive.org/details/histoirepolitiqu01aula |title=Histoire politique de la Révolution française: Origines et Développement de la Démocratie et de la République (1789–1804) |publisher=Librairie Armand Colin |year=1901 |page=[https://archive.org/details/histoirepolitiqu01aula/page/5 5]}}</ref>

In the modern era, American [[libertarian]] [[Jim Powell (historian)|Jim Powell]] starts his history of liberty with the sentence: "Marcus Tullius Cicero expressed principles that became the bedrock of liberty in the modern world."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Powell |first=Jim |url=https://archive.org/details/triumphofliberty00powe/page/2 |title=The Triumph of Liberty: A 2,000 Year History Told Through the Lives of Freedom's Greatest Champions |date=2000 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-684-85967-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/triumphofliberty00powe/page/2 2–10]}}</ref>

Likewise, no other ancient personality has inspired as much venomous dislike as Cicero, especially in more modern times.<ref>Bailey, D.R.S. ''Cicero's letters to Atticus'' (1978) p. 16</ref> His commitment to the values of the Republic accommodated a hatred of the poor and persistent opposition to the advocates and mechanisms of popular representation.<ref>''Letters to Atticus I & II''</ref> [[Friedrich Engels]] referred to him as "the most contemptible scoundrel in history" for upholding republican "democracy" while at the same time denouncing land and class reforms.<ref>Noted in Michael Parenti, ''The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome'', 2003:86. {{ISBN|1-56584-797-0}}</ref> Cicero has faced criticism for exaggerating the democratic qualities of republican Rome, and for defending the Roman oligarchy against the popular reforms of Caesar.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://elearning-gilman.remote-learner.net/pluginfile.php/51701/mod_resource/content/0/Cicero--Justifying_Caesar_s_Death.pdf |title=On Duties |last=Cicero |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119051143/https://elearning-gilman.remote-learner.net/pluginfile.php/51701/mod_resource/content/0/Cicero--Justifying_Caesar_s_Death.pdf |archive-date=19 January 2017 }}</ref> [[Michael Parenti]] admits Cicero's abilities as an orator, but finds him a vain, pompous and hypocritical personality who, when it suited him, could show public support for popular causes that he privately despised. Parenti presents Cicero's prosecution of the Catiline conspiracy as legally flawed at least, and possibly unlawful.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parenti |first=Michael |title=The assassination of Julius Caesar: a people's history of ancient Rome |date=2004 |publisher=New Press |isbn=978-1-56584-797-2 |location=New York |pages=93, 107–11 }}</ref>

Cicero also had an influence on modern astronomy. [[Nicolaus Copernicus]], searching for ancient views on earth motion, said that he "first&nbsp;... found in Cicero that [[Hicetas]] supposed the earth to move."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spielvogel |first=Jackson |url=https://archive.org/details/westerncivilizat00jack_3/page/492 |title=Western Civilization since 1300 |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-111-34219-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/westerncivilizat00jack_3/page/492 492]}}</ref>

Notably, "Cicero" was the name attributed to size 12 font in typesetting table drawers. For ease of reference, type sizes 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 20 were all given different names.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tomiša|first=Mario|title=The Impact of the Historical Development of Typography on Modern Classification of Typefaces|journal=Tehnicki Vjesnik- Strojarski Fakultet|issn=1330-3651|location=Varaždin, Croatia|page=906}}</ref>

==Works==
[[File:Marci Tullii Ciceronis Opera Omnia.tif|thumb|''Marci Tullii Ciceronis Opera Omnia'' (1566)]]
{{Main|Writings of Cicero}}
Cicero was declared a [[righteous pagan]] by the [[Chalcedonian Christianity|Early Church]].{{sfn|Everitt|2001|p=259}} Subsequent Roman and medieval Christian writers quoted liberally from his works ''[[De re publica]]'' (''On the Commonwealth'') and ''[[De Legibus]]'' (''On the Laws''), and much of his work has been recreated from these surviving fragments. Cicero also articulated an early, abstract conceptualization of rights, based on ancient law and custom. Of Cicero's books, six on rhetoric have survived, as well as parts of seven on philosophy.<ref name=Herrick>{{cite book |last1=A. Herrick |first1=James |title=The History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction |year=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-34784-2 |page=94 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=29VRCgAAQBAJ&q=Cicero+rhetoric+philosophy+books+survived&pg=PA94 |access-date=29 June 2021 |archive-date=19 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619065435/https://books.google.com/books?id=29VRCgAAQBAJ&q=Cicero+rhetoric+philosophy+books+survived&pg=PA94#v=snippet&q=Cicero%20rhetoric%20philosophy%20books%20survived&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Of his speeches, 88 were recorded, but only 52 survive.{{efn|Sources vary, but seem to indicate that 52 survived in whole and 6 more in part}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dueck |first1=Daniela |title=Illiterate Geography in Classical Athens and Rome |year=2020 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-22502-0 |page=58 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VhIHEAAAQBAJ&q=Cicero+speeches+88+recorded+58+survived&pg=PA58 |access-date=29 June 2021 |archive-date=19 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619065948/https://books.google.com/books?id=VhIHEAAAQBAJ&q=Cicero+speeches+88+recorded+58+survived&pg=PA58#v=snippet&q=Cicero%20speeches%2088%20recorded%2058%20survived&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

==In archaeology==
Cicero's great repute in Italy has led to numerous ruins being identified as having belonged to him, though none have been substantiated with absolute certainty. In [[Formia]], two Roman-era ruins are popularly believed to be Cicero's mausoleum, the ''Tomba di Cicerone'', and the villa where he was assassinated in 43 BC. The latter building is centered around a central hall with Doric columns and a coffered vault, with a separate [[nymphaeum]], on five acres of land near Formia.<ref>{{Cite news |last=L. Richardson Jr. |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:entry=formiae&highlight=formia |title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=1976 |access-date=20 February 2021 |archive-date=27 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527073336/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:entry=formiae&highlight=formia |url-status=live }}</ref> A modern villa was built on the site after the Rubino family purchased the land from [[Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies]] in 1868. Cicero's supposed tomb is a 24-meter (79 feet) tall tower on an ''[[opus quadratum]]'' base on the ancient Via Appia outside of Formia. Some suggest that it is not in fact Cicero's tomb, but a monument built on the spot where Cicero was intercepted and assassinated while trying to reach the sea.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Redazione ANSA |url=http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2015/07/21/mayor-launches-appeal-to-save-ciceros-villa-from-ruin_55a57cf3-5104-4a1a-8e19-bc4cd3261dbd.html |title=Mayor launches appeal to save Cicero's villa from ruin |date=25 July 2015 |access-date=19 June 2018 |publisher=ANSA English |archive-date=19 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619085928/http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2015/07/21/mayor-launches-appeal-to-save-ciceros-villa-from-ruin_55a57cf3-5104-4a1a-8e19-bc4cd3261dbd.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In [[Pompeii]], a large villa excavated in the mid 18th century just outside the Herculaneum Gate was widely believed to have been Cicero's, who was known to have owned a holiday villa in Pompeii he called his ''Pompeianum''. The villa was stripped of its fine frescoes and mosaics and then re-buried after 1763 – it has yet to be re-excavated.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/RV/Villa%20Cicero.htm |title=Villa Cicero |publisher=pompeiiinpictures.com |access-date=19 June 2018 |archive-date=23 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623121845/http://pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/RV/Villa%20Cicero.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> However, contemporaneous descriptions of the building from the excavators combined with Cicero's own references to his ''Pompeianum'' differ, making it unlikely that it is Cicero's villa.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mary Beard |title=The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |year=2010 |page=45}}</ref>

In Rome, the location of Cicero's house has been roughly identified from excavations of the Republican-era stratum on the northwestern slope of the Palatine Hill.<ref name="rome_alive">{{Cite book |last=Bolchazy-Carducci |title=Rome Alive: A Source Guide to the Ancient City |year=2004 |page=Vol. 1.5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://archive1.village.virginia.edu/spw4s/RomanForum/GoogleEarth/AK_GE/AK_HTML/GF-014.html |title=Palatine Hill |publisher=archive1.village.virginia.edu |access-date=20 June 2018 |archive-date=14 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814134918/http://archive1.village.virginia.edu/spw4s/RomanForum/GoogleEarth/AK_GE/AK_HTML/GF-014.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Cicero's ''domus'' has long been known to have stood in the area, according to his own descriptions and those of later authors, but there is some debate about whether it stood near the base of the hill, very close to the Roman Forum, or nearer to the summit.<ref name="rome_alive" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Filippo Coarelli |title=Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide |year=2014 |page=93}}</ref> During his life the area was the most desirable in Rome, densely occupied with Patrician houses including the ''Domus Publica'' of Julius Caesar and the home of Cicero's mortal enemy Clodius.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Samuel Ball Platner & Thomas Ashby |title=Palatinus Mons, Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1929}}</ref>

==Notable fictional portrayals==
In [[Dante]]'s 1320 poem the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', the author encounters Cicero, among other philosophers, in [[Limbo]].<ref>Inf. IV, 141</ref> [[Ben Jonson]] dramatised the [[Second Catilinarian Conspiracy|conspiracy of Catiline]] in his play ''[[Catiline His Conspiracy]]'', featuring Cicero as a character.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mansky|first=Joseph|date=March 2019|title='Look No More': Jonson's Catiline and the Politics of Enargeia|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/look-no-more-jonsons-catiline-and-the-politics-of-enargeia/2CCD5C1C81F839DA7BDC417881CE33A7|journal=PMLA|language=en|volume=134|issue=2|pages=332–350|doi=10.1632/pmla.2019.134.2.332|hdl=11244/325627|s2cid=181501254|issn=0030-8129|hdl-access=free|access-date=21 February 2021|archive-date=1 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401011749/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/look-no-more-jonsons-catiline-and-the-politics-of-enargeia/2CCD5C1C81F839DA7BDC417881CE33A7|url-status=live}}</ref> Cicero also appears as a minor character in [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=William Shakespeare – Julius Caesar|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Shakespeare|access-date=21 February 2021|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|archive-date=3 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503171055/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/537853/William-Shakespeare|url-status=live}}</ref>

Cicero was portrayed on the motion picture screen by British actor [[Alan Napier]] in the 1953 film ''[[Julius Caesar (1953 film)|Julius Caesar]]'', based on Shakespeare's play.<ref>{{TCMDb title|79974|Julius Caesar}}</ref> He has also been played by such noted actors as [[Michael Hordern]] (in ''[[Cleopatra (1963 film)|Cleopatra]]''),<ref>{{TCMDb title|71069|Cleopatra}}</ref> and [[André Morell]] (in the 1970 ''[[Julius Caesar (1970 film)|Julius Caesar]]'').<ref>{{TCMDb title|79976|Julius Caesar}}</ref> Most recently, [[List of Rome characters|Cicero]] was portrayed by [[David Bamber]] in the HBO series ''[[Rome (TV series)|Rome]]'' (2005–2007) and appeared in both seasons.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.hbo.com/rome/cast-and-crew |title=Rome – Cast and Crew |website=HBO |language=en |access-date=5 December 2018 |archive-date=6 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181206002013/https://www.hbo.com/rome/cast-and-crew |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the historical novel series ''[[Masters of Rome]]'', [[Colleen McCullough]] presents a not-so-flattering depiction of Cicero's career, showing him struggling with an inferiority complex and vanity, morally flexible and fatally indiscreet, while his rival Julius Caesar is shown in a more approving light.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://haciendapublishing.com/articles/caesars-women-%25E2%2580%2594-mcculloughs-idolatry-and-politics-ancient-rome |title=Caesar's Women – McCullough's Idolatry and Politics in Ancient Rome |last=Faria |first=Miguel A. |date=14 August 2013 |website=Hacienda Publishing |access-date=5 December 2018 |archive-date=6 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181206002036/https://haciendapublishing.com/articles/caesars-women-%25E2%2580%2594-mcculloughs-idolatry-and-politics-ancient-rome |url-status=dead }}</ref> Cicero is portrayed as a hero in the novel ''[[A Pillar of Iron]]'' by [[Taylor Caldwell]] (1965). [[Robert Harris (novelist)|Robert Harris]]' novels ''[[Imperium (Harris novel)|Imperium]]'', ''[[Lustrum (novel)|Lustrum]]'' (published under the name ''Conspirata'' in the United States) and ''[[Dictator (Harris novel)|Dictator]]'' comprise a three-part series based on the life of Cicero. In these novels Cicero's character is depicted in a more favorable way than in those of McCullough, with his positive traits equaling or outweighing his weaknesses (while conversely Caesar is depicted as more sinister than in McCullough).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Higgins |first=Charlotte |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/29/robert-harris-interview-cicero |title=Robert Harris: 'I'm not sure you can be the world's superpower and remain a democracy' |date=29 June 2018 |work=The Guardian |access-date=5 December 2018 |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Cicero is a major recurring character in the ''[[Roma Sub Rosa]]'' series of mystery novels by [[Steven Saylor]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.stevensaylor.com/RomaSubRosa.html |title=Roma Sub Rosa Mystery Series |website=www.stevensaylor.com |access-date=5 December 2018 |archive-date=8 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181208063907/http://www.stevensaylor.com/RomaSubRosa.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He also appears several times as a peripheral character in [[John Maddox Roberts]]' [[SPQR series|''SPQR'' series]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steel |first=C.E.W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ARhaAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA356 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Cicero |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-521-50993-0 |page=356 |language=en |access-date=5 December 2018 |archive-date=19 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619065934/https://books.google.com/books?id=ARhaAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA356#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Samuel Barnett (actor)|Samuel Barnett]] portrays Cicero in a 2017 [[audio drama]] series pilot produced by [[Big Finish Productions]]. A full series was released the following year.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/cicero-series-01-1777 |title=1. Cicero Series 01 – Big Finish Originals – Big Finish |website=www.bigfinish.com |access-date=6 February 2019 |archive-date=7 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207015442/https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/cicero-series-01-1777 |url-status=live }}</ref> All episodes are written by [[David Llewellyn (author)|David Llewellyn]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bigfinish.com/contributors/v/David-Llewellyn-2366 |title=David Llewellyn – Contributions – Big Finish |website=www.bigfinish.com |access-date=7 September 2019 |archive-date=19 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719144700/https://www.bigfinish.com/contributors/v/David-Llewellyn-2366 |url-status=live }}</ref> and directed and produced by [[Scott Handcock]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bigfinish.com/contributors/v/Scott-Handcock-891 |title=Scott Handcock – Contributions – Big Finish |website=www.bigfinish.com |access-date=7 September 2019 |archive-date=19 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719144655/https://www.bigfinish.com/contributors/v/Scott-Handcock-891 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Giancarlo Esposito]] portrays Mayor Franklyn Cicero, a character from [[Francis Ford Coppola]]'s 2024 sci-fi epic film [[Megalopolis (film)|Megalopolis]], which is a modern futuristic interpretation of the [[Catiline Conspiracy]]. In the film, Esposito stars opposite [[Adam Driver]], who portrays a character named Cesar Catilina.<ref>{{cite web |title=MEGALOPOLIS |url=https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/megalopolis/ |website=Festival de Cannes |access-date=5 May 2024 |archive-date=5 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240505034904/https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/megalopolis/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Ancient Rome}}
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Caecilia Attica]]
* [[Caecilia Metella (daughter of Celer)]]
* ''[[Civis romanus sum]]''
* [[Clausula (rhetoric)]]
* ''[[A Dialogue Concerning Oratorical Partitions]]''
* ''[[E pluribus unum]]''
* ''[[Esse quam videri]]''
* ''[[Ipse dixit]]''
* [[List of ancient Romans]]
* [[Lorem ipsum]]
* [[Marcantonius Majoragio]]
* [[Marcus Tullius Tiro]]
* [[Marius Nizolius]]
* [[Otium]]
* ''[[Socratici viri]]''
* [[Tempest in a teapot]]
* [[Translation#Western theory|Translation]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{notelist|30em}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|23em}}

=== Modern sources ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite journal |last=Badian |first=Ernst |title=Cicero and the Commission of 146 BC |journal=Collection Latomus |volume=101 |year=1969 |pages=54–65 }}
* {{cite book |last=Broughton |first=Thomas Robert Shannon |year=1952 |title=The magistrates of the Roman republic |location=New York |publisher=American Philological Association |author-link=Thomas Robert Shannon Broughton |volume=2}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Ferguson |last2=Balsdon |first1=John |first2=J P V D |title=Marcus Tullius Cicero |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |date=19 June 2023 |type=online |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cicero |author-link2=J. P. V. D. Balsdon |access-date=26 October 2019 |archive-date=14 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220714104556/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cicero |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite book |last=Caldwell |first=Taylor |title=A Pillar of Iron |publisher=Doubleday & Company |year=1965 |isbn=978-0-385-05303-7 |location=New York |author-link=Taylor Caldwell}}
* {{cite book |last=Cowell |first=F R |year=1948 |title=Cicero and the Roman republic |publisher=Penguin }}
* {{Cite book |last=Everitt |first=Anthony |title=Cicero: the life and times of Rome's greatest politician |publisher=Random House |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-375-50746-5 |location=New York}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gruen |first=Erich S |title=The Last Generation of the Roman Republic |publisher=University of California Press |year=1974 |author-link=Erich S. Gruen}}
* {{Cite book |last=Haskell |first=H J |title=This was Cicero |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=1942}}
* {{cite journal|last=Krebs|first=Christopher B.|year=2020|url=https://www.academia.edu/44864361|title=Painting Catiline into a Corner. Form and Content in Cat. 1.1|journal=The Classical Quarterly|volume=70|issue=2|pages=672–676|doi=10.1017/S0009838820000762 |access-date=17 May 2024|archive-date=17 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240517101323/https://www.academia.edu/44864361/PAINTING%20CATILINE%20INTO%20A%20CORNER%20FORM%20AND%20CONTENT%20IN%20CICEROS%20IN%20CATILINAM%201%201|url-status=live}}
* {{Cite journal |last=March |first=Duane A |year=1989 |title=Cicero and the 'Gang of Five' |journal=Classical World |volume=82 |issue=4 |pages=225–234 |doi=10.2307/4350381 |jstor=4350381}}
* {{Cite book |last=Narducci |first=Emanuele |title=Cicerone. La parola e la politica |publisher=Laterza |year=2009 |isbn=978-88-420-7605-6 |language=it }}
* {{cite book |last=Rawson |first=Beryl |title=The Politics of Friendship: Pompey and Cicero |publisher=[[Sydney University Press]] |year=1978 }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Rawson |first=Elizabeth |year=1972 |title=Cicero the Historian and Cicero the Antiquarian |journal=Journal of Roman Studies |volume=62 |pages=33–45 |doi=10.2307/298924 |jstor=298924|s2cid=161169064 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Rawson |first=Elizabeth |title=Cicero: a portrait |year=1975 |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=0-7139-0864-5 |location=London |oclc=1531175}}
* {{Cite book |last=Richards |first=Carl J |title=Why We're All Romans: The Roman Contribution to the Western World |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7425-6778-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Scullard |first=H H |title=From the Gracchi to Nero |year=1963 |orig-year=1959 |edition=University paperback |publisher=Methuen & Co }} Reprinted 1968.
* {{cite book |contributor-last=Seager |contributor-first=Robin |contribution=Introduction |author=Plutarch |title=Fall of the Roman Republic: Six lives by Plutarch |publisher=Penguin Classics |year=1972 |orig-year=1958 |translator-last=Warner |translator-first=Rex }}
* {{cite book |last=Smith |first=R E |title=Cicero the Statesman |year=1966 |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}
* {{Cite book |last=Strachan-Davidson |first=James Leigh |author-link=James Leigh Strachan-Davidson |year=1936 |title=Cicero and the Fall of the Roman Republic |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{cite book |last=Stumpf |first=Gerd R. |title=Numismatische Studien zur Chronologie der römischen Statthalter in Kleinasien (122 v. Chr.-163 n. Chr.) |year=1991 |publisher=Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag |isbn=9783925036583 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=H |year=1918 |title=Cicero: A sketch of his life and works |location=Chicago |publisher=A.C. McClurg & Co.}}
* {{Cite book |last=Tempest |first=Kathryn |title=Cicero: politics and persuasion in ancient Rome |date=2011 |publisher=Continuum |isbn=978-1-84725-246-3 |location=London}}
* {{cite book |last=Treggiari |first=S |author-link=Susan Treggiari |year=2007 |title=Terentia, Tullia and Publilia: the women of Cicero's family |location=London |publisher=Routledge }}
* {{cite book |last=Uttschenko |first=Sergej L |year=1978 |title=Cicero |translator-first=Rosemarie |translator-last=Pattloch |publisher=[[Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften]] |location=Berlin, Germany |url=https://d-nb.info/790155087 |access-date=28 July 2019 |archive-date=19 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619070058/https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&cqlMode=true&query=idn%3D790155087 |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite book |last=Wistrand |first=M |title=Cicero ''Imperator'': Studies in Cicero's Correspondence 51–47 BC |year=1979 |location=Göteborg |publisher=University of Gothenburg}}
* {{Cite book |last=Wiedemann |first=Thomas E J |title=Cicero and the end of the Roman Republic |publisher=Bristol Classical Press |year=1994 |isbn=1-85399-193-7 |location=London |oclc=31494651}}
* {{Cite book |last=Yates |first=Frances A |title=The Art of Memory |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-226-95001-3 |location=Chicago |author-link=Frances Yates}}
{{refend}}

=== Ancient sources ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* <!-- Att -->{{cite book |last=Cicero |title=Letters to Atticus |year=1999 |series=Loeb Classical Library |publisher=Harvard University Press |translator-last=Shackleton Bailey |translator-first=D R |isbn=978-0-674-99571-0 |ref={{harvid|Cic. ''Att.''}} }}
* <!-- Brut -->{{cite book |last=Cicero |title=Brutus |year=1939 |series=Loeb Classical Library |translator-last=Hendrickson |translator-first=G L |translator-last2=Hubbell |translator-first2=H M |ref={{harvid|Cic. ''Brut.''}} }}
* <!-- Cat -->{{cite book |last=Cicero |title=In Catiliniam |year=1974 |series=Loeb Classical Library |publisher=Harvard University Press |translator-last=MacDonald |translator-first=C |isbn=978-0-674-99358-7 |ref={{harvid|Cic. ''Cat.''}} }}
* <!-- Fam -->{{Cite book |last=Cicero |title=Letters to friends |year=2001 |series=Loeb Classical Library |publisher=Harvard University Press |translator-last=Shackleton Bailey |translator-first=D R |isbn=978-0-674-99588-8 |ref={{harvid|Cic. ''Fam.''}} }}
* <!-- Off -->{{cite book |last=Cicero |title=De Officiis |trans-title=On Duties |year=1913 |translator-last=Miller |translator-first=Walter |isbn=978-0-674-99033-3 |publisher=Harvard University Press |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi055 |via=Perseus Digital Library |ref={{harvid|Cic. ''Off.''}} |access-date=26 November 2023 |archive-date=26 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231126074729/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi055 |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite book |author=Sallust |title=Bellum Catilinae |trans-title=[[Bellum Catilinae|War of Catiline]] |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Sallust/Bellum_Catilinae*.html |series=Loeb Classical Library |year=1921 |orig-year=1st century BC |translator-first=John C |translator-last=Rolfe |via=LacusCurtius |ref={{harvid|Sall. ''Cat.''}} |access-date=19 February 2021 |archive-date=31 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731043828/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Sallust/Bellum_Catilinae%2A.html |url-status=live }}
* <!-- Plut Vit -->{{cite book |author=Plutarch |title=Parallel Lives }}
** {{cite book |author=Plutarch |author-mask=0 |title=Life of Caesar |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Crassus*.html |series=Loeb Classical Library |year=1916 |orig-year=2nd century AD |volume=3 |translator-first=Bernadotte |translator-last=Perrin |oclc=40115288 |via=LacusCurtius |ref={{harvid|Plut. ''Caes.''}} |access-date=26 November 2023 |archive-date=10 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200410020040/http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Crassus*.html |url-status=live }}
** {{cite book |author=Plutarch |author-mask=0 |title=Life of Cicero |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Cicero*.html |series=Loeb Classical Library |year=1919 |orig-year=2nd century AD |volume=7 |translator-first=Bernadotte |translator-last=Perrin |oclc=40115288 |via=LacusCurtius |ref={{harvid|Plut. ''Cic.''}} |access-date=19 February 2021 |archive-date=31 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131100133/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Cicero%2A.html |url-status=live }}
** {{cite book |author=Plutarch |author-mask=0 |title=Life of Crassus |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Crassus*.html |series=Loeb Classical Library |year=1916 |orig-year=2nd century AD |volume=3 |translator-first=Bernadotte |translator-last=Perrin |oclc=40115288 |via=LacusCurtius |ref={{harvid|Plut. ''Crass.''}} |access-date=26 November 2023 |archive-date=10 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200410020040/http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Crassus*.html |url-status=live }}
** {{cite book |author=Plutarch |author-mask=0 |title=Life of Pompey |url=http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Pompey*.html |series=Loeb Classical Library |year=1917 |orig-year=2nd century AD |volume=5 |translator-first=Bernadotte |translator-last=Perrin |oclc=40115288 |via=LacusCurtius |ref={{harvid|Plut. ''Pomp.''}} |access-date=26 November 2023 |archive-date=20 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420154411/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Cic.+Q.+fr.+2.3 |url-status=live }}
** {{cite book |author=Plutarch |author-mask=0 |title=Life of Sulla |url=http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0007.tlg033.perseus-eng1 |series=Loeb Classical Library |year=1916 |orig-year=2nd century AD |volume=4 |translator-first=Bernadotte |translator-last=Perrin |oclc=40115288 |via=Perseus Digital Library |ref={{harvid|Plut. ''Sull.''}} |access-date=26 November 2023 |archive-date=19 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619070053/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0007.tlg033.perseus-eng1 |url-status=live }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Wikisource author}}
{{Wikisourcelang|la|Marcus Tullius Cicero|Marcus Tullius Cicero}}
{{Wikiversity|Cicero}}
{{EB1911 poster|Cicero}}
{{Library resources box |by=yes |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Cicero |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}'''Works by Cicero'''
* [http://catalog.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cite:perseus:author.364 Works by Cicero at Perseus Digital Library]
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/cicero}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=128}}
* {{Internet Archive author}}
* {{Librivox author |id=3336}}
* [https://www.stoictherapy.com/elibrary#cicero Works by Cicero] at the Stoic Therapy eLibrary
* [[The Latin Library]] (Latin): [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cic.html Works of Cicero]
* [http://dcc.dickinson.edu/cicero-verres/preface-and-acknowledgements Dickinson College Commentaries: ''Against Verres 2.1.53–86'']
* [http://dcc.dickinson.edu/cicero-de-imperio/preface-and-acknowledgments Dickinson College Commentaries: ''On Pompey's Command (De Imperio) 27–49'']
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/horace_ms_1b.html Horace MS 1b Laelius de Amicitia at OPenn]
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0023/html/lewis_e_066.html Lewis E 66 Epistolae ad familiares (Letters to friends)]
'''Biographies and descriptions of Cicero's time'''

[[Plutarch]]'s biography of Cicero contained in the [[gutenberg:674|''Parallel Lives'']]
* ''Life of Cicero'' by Anthony Trollope, [[gutenberg:8945|Volume I]] & [[gutenberg:28676|Volume II]]
* [[gutenberg:11448|''Cicero'' by Rev. W. Lucas Collins (''Ancient Classics for English Readers'')]]
* [[gutenberg:13481|''Roman life in the days of Cicero'' by Rev. Alfred J. Church]]
* [[gutenberg:11256|''Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero'']] by [[W. Warde Fowler]]
* {{Cite web |url=http://www.heraklia.fws1.com/contemporaries/cicero/ |title=At Heraklia website |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060114090741/http://www.heraklia.fws1.com/contemporaries/cicero/ |archive-date=14 January 2006 |access-date=31 March 2017 }}
* [http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/cicero.html Dryden's translation of ''Cicero'' from Plutarch's ''Parallel Lives'']
* [http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/LatinAuthors/Cicero.html At Middlebury College website]
* {{Sep entry|cicero|Cicero|Raphael Woolf}}

{{S-start}}
{{S-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Lucius Julius Caesar (consul 64 BC)|L. Julius Caesar]]|before2=[[Gaius Marcius Figulus (consul 64 BC)|C. Marcius Figulus]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Roman consuls|Roman consul]]|years=63 BC|with=[[Gaius Antonius Hybrida|C. Antonius Hybrida]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Decimus Junius Silanus (consul)|D. Junius Silanus]]|after2=[[Lucius Licinius Murena (consul)|L. Licinius Murena]]}}
{{S-end}}
{{Cicero}}
{{navboxes
|list=
{{Ancient Rome topics|state=collapsed}}
{{Plutarch}}
{{Catholic virtue ethics}}
{{Ethics}}
{{Philosophical skepticism}}
{{Social and political philosophy}}
{{Political philosophy}}
{{Platonists}}
}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Cicero| ]]
[[Category:106 BC births]]
[[Category:43 BC deaths]]
[[Category:2nd-century BC Romans]]
[[Category:1st-century BC executions]]
[[Category:1st-century BC philosophers]]
[[Category:1st-century BC Roman augurs]]
[[Category:1st-century BC Roman consuls]]
[[Category:1st-century BC writers in Latin]]
[[Category:Academic skeptics]]
[[Category:Ancient landowners]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman equites]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman exiles]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman jurists]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman rhetoricians]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman scholars of religion]]
[[Category:Classical humanists]]
[[Category:Deaths by edged and bladed weapons]]
[[Category:Executed ancient Roman people]]
[[Category:Executed philosophers]]
[[Category:Executed writers]]
[[Category:Golden Age Latin writers]]
[[Category:Letter writers in Latin]]
[[Category:Optimates]]
[[Category:People executed by the Roman Republic]]
[[Category:People from Arpino]]
[[Category:Plebeian aediles]]
[[Category:Philosophers of Roman Italy]]
[[Category:Recipients of ancient Roman pardons]]
[[Category:Roman governors of Cilicia]]
[[Category:Roman quaestors]]
[[Category:1st-century BC Roman praetors]]
[[Category:Roman Republican praetors]]
[[Category:Roman-era Skeptic philosophers]]
[[Category:Roman-era students in Athens]]
[[Category:Translation scholars]]
[[Category:Translators of Ancient Greek texts]]
[[Category:Trope theorists]]
[[Category:Tullii]]
[[Category:People of the War of Mutina]]
[[Category:Natural law ethicists]]