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Cicero
Summary: Marcus Cicero (MAR-kuss SISS-ah-roh)
Marcus Cicero and Julius Caesar were both in Roman politics at approximately the same time with very
different viewpoints. Cicero was a huge advocate for the Roman Republic and spoke out in favor of
trying to reform (change) it to make it work. He frequently used his public speaking skills to get across
his views. Cicero strongly opposed the three leaders (triumvirate) who came to power around 60 CE
and the expansion of Rome. He believed expansion hurt Rome because it weakened the stability of the
government.
Cicero was born six years before Julius Caesar. These two famous men were never close friends, but
they did know each other, and they were in politics at the same time.
Cicero was from a wealthy family. He was educated as a lawyer. He served in the Senate. He served as
elected Consul, the highest position in government under the Republic.
He was a wonderful speaker. When Cicero spoke, people listened. Julius Caesar knew that. Cicero's
power with the people was a concern to Julius Caesar. If anyone could block Caesar's success, he
believed it would most likely be Cicero.
When Cicero spoke out about government, people listened. Cicero said: "In a kingdom, only the king
has many rights. Kings can be wise and just. But rule by one person can easily become tyranny."
(tyranny = cruel or unfair treatment by a government)
When Julius Caesar entered the city of Rome with his army, and declared himself dictator, just as Julius
Caesar had expected him to, Cicero was quick to respond. Cicero announced: "I see no reason for ...
being alarmed except the fact that, once departure has been made from the law, everything is
uncertain; and nothing can be guaranteed as to the future which depends upon another man's will, not
to say caprice [change your mind suddenly]. When Caesar declared himself dictator for life, his action
was in direct violation of the principals of a constitutional republic."
http://rome.mrdonn.org/cicero.html
Cicero, … tried to use philosophy to bring about his political goals. Like most intellectual endeavors in
Cicero’s time, philosophy was an activity in which Greece (and especially Athens) still held the lead. The
Romans were more interested in practical matters of law, governance, and military strategy than they
were in philosophy and art (many of Cicero’s writings include justifications for his study of philosophy
and arguments that it ought to be taken seriously). But for Cicero to really use philosophy effectively,
he needed to make it accessible to a Roman audience. He did this in part by translating Greek works
into Latin, including inventing Latin words where none seemed suitable for Greek concepts (including
the Latin words which give us the English words morals, property, individual, science, image, and
appetite), and in part by drawing on and idealizing Roman history to provide examples of appropriate
conduct and to illustrate the arguments of philosophy. He also summarized in Latin many of the beliefs
of the primary Greek philosophical schools of the time (and he is the source of much of our knowledge
about these schools).
http://www.iep.utm.edu/cicero/#H2
Greek philosophy and rhetoric moved fully into Latin for the first time in the speeches, letters and
dialogues of Cicero (106-43 B.C.), the greatest orator of the late Roman Republic. A brilliant lawyer and
the first of his family to achieve Roman office, Cicero was one of the leading political figures of the era
of Julius Caesar, Pompey, Marc Antony and Octavian. A string of misjudged alliances saw him exiled and
eventually murdered, but Cicero’s writings barely waned in influence over the centuries. It was through
him that the thinkers of the Renaissance and Enlightenment discovered the riches of Classical rhetoric
and philosophy.
http://www.history.com/topics/marcus-tullius-cicero