365 Days of Facts

Marcus Tullius Cicero (3 January 106 – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, and scholar. He played important roles in the politics of the late Roman Republic and as a member of the conservative boni held optimate principles during the crisis that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire.

He authored numerous documents including treatises on rhetoric, philosophy and politics, and he is considered one of Rome’s greatest orators and prose stylists. He came from a wealthy family of the Roman equestrian order, and served as consul in 63 BC.

He had significant influence on the Latin language. He wrote more than three-quarters of surviving Latin literature from the period of his adult life.

Cicero introduced into Latin the arguments of the chief schools of Hellenistic philosophy. He created a Latin philosophical vocabulary with neologisms such as evidentia, humanitas, qualitas, quantitas, and essentia, distinguishing himself as both translator and philosopher.

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 second Catilinarian conspiracy attempted to overthrow the government through an attack on the city by outside forces. Cicero suppressed the revolt by summarily and controversially executing five conspirators. During the chaotic latter half of the 1st century BC marked by civil wars and the dictatorship of Gaius Julius Caesar, Cicero championed a return to the traditional republican government.

Following Julius Caesar’s death, Cicero became an enemy of Mark Antony in the power struggle that followed. Cicero attacked Anthony in a series of speeches. He was branded an enemy of the state by the Second Triumvirate and consequently executed.

Marcus Tullius Cicero Execution

Marcus Tullius Cicero’s execution was exceptionally brutal. It was carried out by soldiers acting on behalf of Cicero’s biggest political enemy, Mark Antony.

Initially,  his throat was cut, but it took three blows to cut off his head with a sword – wielded by a soldier who had never beheaded anybody before.

In a final insult, his hands were chopped off and his remains showcased in a public macabre display on the Rostra.

Marcus Tullius Cicero Influence

Petrarch’s rediscovery of Cicero’s letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance in public affairs, humanism, and classical Roman culture.

According to Polish historian Tadeusz Zieliński, “the Renaissance was above all things a revival of Cicero, and only after him and through him of the rest of Classical antiquity.”The peak of Cicero’s authority and prestige came during the 18th-century Enlightenment.

John Locke, David Hume, Montesquieu and Edmund Burke, among other Enlightenment thinkers and theorists were all influenced by Cicero.