Marcus Tullius Cicero, sometimes referred to as
“Tully” was born on the 3rd of January in 106 B.C into a lower
aristocratic family of the equestrian order in Arpinum just south of
Rome. He lived during the tumultuous times of the civil war outbreaks of
the Roman republic and its impending decline, eventually becoming an
enemy of the state. Marcus Tullius Cicero was murdered by decree on
December 7th in the year 43 B.C. He was a lawyer, statesman, politician
and philosopher and came to be known as one of Rome’s greatest orators.
Marcus Tullius Cicero was an avid thinker and writer and his texts
include political and philosophical treatises, orations and rhetoric,
the latter of which has come to be known as “Ciceronian rhetoric,” and
an amass of letters. Above all, he considered politics of utmost
importance, which should be effectively influenced by philosophy, and
politics his greatest achievement.
Born into a land-owning and respected family of the provincial
gentry, Marcus Tullius Cicero was well cared for and well educated in
his childhood. He was the eldest of two sons. His father, whom he was
named after, did not have much of a public life due to his physical
disabilities yet was extremely learned and intellectual. His son became a
renowned student, developing a love and penchant for philosophy, taking
up poetry and successfully translating Homer. According to Plutarch’s
biography, he was so auspiciously talented as a young student it soon
afforded him the attention and opportunity to study in Rome.
While his intellectual prowess would soon gain him recognition and
entry into the Roman elite, coming from second tier aristocracy
inhibited him from entering into politics directly. Therefore, Marcus
Tullius Cicero had to either enter via military service or through the
practice of law. Prior to his commitment to the field of law, he did
serve in the military, albeit briefly, under Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo and
Lucius Cornelius Sulla, between the years 90-88 B.C. This was not the
path for the young intellectual and he followed the opportunity in Rome
to study under the renowned stoic and Roman politician, Quintus Mucius
Scaevola.
He studied alongside Servius Sulpicius Rufus and Titus Pomponius,
later known as Atticus. The former Cicero would come to regard as a far
better lawyer then he, the latter became Cicero’s closest confidant and
consult, like a “second brother”. Due in part to his family and in part
to his intellectual prowess, Marcus Tullius Cicero received patronage
from the well-regarded Roman consuls, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus and Lucius
Licinius Crassus, the latter of whom Cicero regarded most and who
became a significant mentor.
His love of philosophy also flourished during this time of study in
Rome (and subsequently over the rest of his life) in which he gained a
broad range of philosophical scholarship from the Epicurean school to
that of the Stoics. He and Atticus met with Phaedrus when he came to
Rome and exposed them to Epicurean philosophy. Atticus would become an
Epicurean, while Cicero mostly rejected it. Years later Philo of
Larissa, then head of Plato’s Academy in Athens, came to Rome and Marcus
Tullius Cicero apparently devoured the teachings from the Academy and
particularly of course, Plato’s philosophy. While it is said that he
disregarded Plato’s theory of Ideas, he came to admire his discussions
on morality. He also soon met Diodotus, a Stoic, who expanded Cicero’s
understanding of Stoicism, even though Cicero was not entirely convinced
of it, and Logic. Cicero highly regarded the philosopher and the two
became close friends; Diodotus would come to live with Cicero until his
death.
While he studied philosophy, and rhetoric, his dedication to
jurisprudence he favored and it soon led to his obtaining his first
major case by 80 B.C. in which he defended Sextus Roscius on the charge
of patricide (killing one’s father). It was a very big case and put
Marcus Tullius Cicero in a challenging position as he accused friends of
the general Sulla (whom he had served under) with the actual charge of
murder. He was triumphant and Roscius was acquitted. Soon thereafter,
Marcus Tullius Cicero left Rome for Greece, Rhodes and Asia Minor. He
met with Atticus, the now ‘full-fledged’ Epicurean who became an
honorary citizen of Athens, and was introduced to Athenian society. In
addition to further philosophical study he expanded his knowledge and
style of rhetoric with Apollonius Molon of Rhodes, which would have a
lasting impact on his oratory.
During this year, presumably 79 B.C, Marcus Tullius Cicero was
married to Terentia. Most likely a marriage of convenience, Terentia
came from the socially and economically noble family, Terenti Varrones,
and was purportedly more interested in Cicero’s career than in their
household management. The couple produced two children, a daughter,
Tullia, and a son, Marcus, whom Cicero hoped would become a philosopher.
(His son did not, but eventually became involved in politics after his
father’s murder, and under Augustus took action against Mark Antony in
honor of his father).
Not only did Marcus Tullius Cicero prove himself as a lawyer, his
improved skills at oration began to make an impact and his career in
politics started to flourish. He was successfully elected to each main
Roman government office—quaestor, aedile, praetor and consul—all at a
considerably young age. Another challenging move by the incredulous
philosophical politician was his exposing the Catiline conspiracy in 63
B.C. while he was serving his term as consul. The conspiracy was
attempting to forcefully take over the Roman state. Marcus Tullius
Cicero ordered the executions of five of the conspirators without a
trial. Execution without trial was a risky action to take by the
statesman, and earned him both praise and criticism.
Nonetheless, Marcus Tullius Cicero was much loved and admired. He
also became a member of the Roman Senate, which while not wielding any
direct authority, was a very influential body in Roman political life
and was depended upon for advice and counsel. The Roman republic was
heading towards instability and it proved to be a difficult and trying
time for the statesman. Power struggles would leave him in precarious
positions, not just politically. During what is considered the First
Triumvirate, Marcus Tullius Cicero chose to remain loyal to the Senate
and the idea of the Republic, however mythical the idea was in practice,
rather than join Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus in taking control of
the Roman state. In retribution, a law was passed in the tribune
Clodius, 58 B.C., to retroactively punish any order of execution without
trial. This led to Marcus Tullius Cicero’s exile, as his punishment was a
dismissal of Roman citizenship, which included property.
After approximately a year and a half of exile, Marcus Tullius Cicero
was restored to Rome due to another shift in the political landscape.
He was allowed to practice law, and had to, as he now owed a debt to the
Triumvirate for terminating his exile, yet he was not allowed to
practice politics. Between his exile and the subsequent years in which
he could not be a statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero enriched his studies
in philosophy and began to write as well. Roughly between the years 55
and 51 B.C., he wrote his infamous texts:
De republica (On the Republic)
De legibus (On Laws),
De officiis (On Duties).
On the Republic, except for Book VI containing the
Dream of Scipio,
was lost since the middle ages, but reconstructed from fragments,
quotes and a palimpsest found in the 19th century. The books
collectively focus on the conditions for republic, justice, human nature
and citizenry. Marcus Tullius Cicero very much identifies with the
Greek ideals of justice and a commonwealth following the Aristotelian
view of “giving each their due,” and the Platonic paternal notion of a
ruling justice. He contrasts with a Roman individuating sense of glory
and honor in favor of a virtuous commitment to justice. While the
dialogue in On the Republic was set in the past, the dialogue for
On Laws
was set in Cicero’s day in which he, his brother and his friend are the
main figure of the dialogue. Once again, only fragments remain, but the
premise is that of law and justice being of the highest reason and
while it can be corrupted, and must be exposed and discarded, it is in
fact man’s natural inclination as reason comes from nature. The
participants go on to discuss an ideal code of law that is essentially a
modified representation of the then contemporary Roman law code.
His final writing of this period, On Duties, is often considered
Cicero’s “republic.” It in fact very much parallels Plato’s Republic
positing a conflict between justice and individual advantage that is in
essence illusory as ethics, being true to the ethical, would disavow
such apparent conflict. Maintaining the inseparability between ethics
and politics, Marcus Tullius Cicero puts forth an exemplifying case that
acknowledges the too oft corruption of political power and self
advantage as that being a misunderstood relationship and confidence of
ethical duty as self advantageous. The latter is in effect the “moral”
of the story, such that conflict and tension between the two exists,
naturally, yet justice, and ethical duty, properly understood, is in
fact always advantageous for the one, and the many.
Marcus Tullius Cicero’s philosophy was primarily in service of his
role as a politician and to his commitment to the ideal of a/the
republic. And, in particular, to the Roman republic in which, or for
which, he translated much Greek philosophy and developed new
vocabularies in Latin to aid in translation and understanding for this
particular audience—many of our words used today come from this
development such as: morals, image, individual, property. The main
schools of thought that Marcus Tullius Cicero engaged with, whether in
disagreement or in affinity, were the Academy Skeptics, the Epicureans,
the Stoics and the Peripatetics.
He was most aligned with the Academy Skeptics and the general view
that nothing can be known with certainty and that ‘truth’ is essentially
relative probability. The skeptic approach appealed to him especially
as an effective strategy in law and politics. The skeptic must seek as
many perspectives as possible and tease out as many probabilities in
order to present a valid argument. As well, it also accepts and
advocates malleability as probabilities and perspectives fluctuate over
time, and ‘evidence’ proves otherwise. While he was most aligned with
the Academy he also incorporated aspects of the other Hellenistic
philosophies, as Skepticism could not attend as well to the practice of
jurisprudence in the everyday with the everyday man. Thus, through a
skeptical approach, he looked to the Stoics for a philosophy as the best
probable form to attend to the significance and sanctity of law and
justice in society. His Stoic ideas are very much present in his
writings on law and duties in which natural law, a product of reason, is
man’s guiding principle. When employed ‘properly’ this creates a set of
laws and a community of men that share in their duty to their just
collectivity and thus to themselves. As such, political participation is
then an expected virtue. Perhaps one could say that his overarching
philosophy essentially revolved around justice and its possibility.
Marcus Tullius Cicero would continue his engagement with philosophy
and writing as the Triumvirate eventually collapsed and he was again
exiled from Rome for (barely) siding with Pompey over Caesar, who became
first Roman emperor in 48 B.C. Caesar soon pardoned Marcus Tullius
Cicero a year later, but he was forced to abstain from active political
life. Following the political upheavals that were ensconcing Rome, he
and his wife divorced. It is said that he believed his wife to have
betrayed him, yet it wasn’t clear how specifically he meant as such. It
seems the official divorce occurred in 51 BCE and a few years later,
either in 46 or 45 B.C., he married a young women. It is presumed it was
out of a need for financial gain, as he owed the debt of his x-wife’s
dowry. His second marriage was short lived and Marcus Tullius Cicero was
soon thereafter ensconced with bereavement over the loss of his
daughter whom he was enamored with and in which his text on death and
consolation derived from:
The whole life of the philosopher is a preparation for death.
Marcus Tullius Cicero would have a final role in Roman politics
before his death in the period immediately following the murder of
Caesar; members of the Senate executed the latter in 44 B.C. Marcus
Tullius Cicero was witness to the murder but was presumably not a part
of the conspiracy. While another power struggle ensued, among Mark
Antony, Marcus Lepidus, and Octavian (who would come to be called
Augustus), Marcus Tullius Cicero hoped that he could assure the
possibility for the continuance of the Roman republic. Addressing the
Senate once again, Marcus Tullius Cicero made a series of orations that
are known as the Philippics. The name comes from an infamous moment in
Greek history when Demosthenes orated the rise of the Athenians against
Philip of Macedon. In Cicero’s case, it was a call to rise against Mark
Antony in support of Octavian and the survival of the Roman republic.
Although this moment of voice has become infamous, it failed, one
could say, by subversive power as opposed to justice. Mark Antony and
Octavian partnered together in taking over Roman power and Marcus
Tullius Cicero was to become an enemy of the state since Octavian chose
not to protect him. On the orders of Mark Antony, the man of justice was
murdered—slit in the throat with his head and hands decapitated, which
were then hung on the podium in the Senate as a warning. It has been
noted that Marcus Tullius Cicero, upon capture, told his would be
murderers, “there is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier,
but do try to kill me properly.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero was a dedicated and committed man of justice,
of justice as probability. He was extremely prolific, and while, and
only because he was detained from political practice, wrote extensively
on philosophy through dialogic writing. He wrote as well his numerous
orations that reveal both his political philosophy as well as his
political prowess in their provocative challenging rhetoric. Finally, he
was an ardent and prolific letter writer having exchanged countless
letters, most often with Atticus and his brother, in which hundreds
remain in archive.
His legacy is long lasting and had its greatest effect in the Roman
era and later during the Renaissance. St. Augustine credits Marcus
Tullius Cicero’s thought and writing with his pursuit of a greater
purpose in life. His political thought and activism is said to have
inspired the figures of both the American Revolution and the French
revolution. The translations and writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero are
often considered to be the bedrock of much European philosophical
training and understanding and thus long-lasting effect. Yet in the more
modern era, discrepancies in his thought and character, revealed
through revisionist insight and the distribution of his private letters,
have very much tainted and caused great criticism of his ideal yet
subsequently contradictory practice.
