93 Facts About Cicero

Cicero wrote more than three-quarters of extant Latin literature that is known to have existed in his lifetime, and it has been said that subsequent prose was either a reaction against or a return to his style, not only in Latin but in European languages up to the 19th century.

Cicero's severed hands and head were then, as a final revenge of Mark Antony, displayed on the Rostra.

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

Cicero's father was a well-to-do member of the equestrian order and possessed good connections in Rome.

Cicero's brother Quintus wrote in a letter that she was a thrifty housewife.

However, it is more likely that Cicero's ancestors prospered through the cultivation and sale of chickpeas.

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 Scaurus and Catulus.

Cicero was therefore educated in the teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers, poets and historians; as he obtained much of his understanding of the theory and practice of rhetoric from the Greek poet Archias and from the Greek rhetorician Apollonius.

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.

Cicero, "inspired by an extraordinary zeal for philosophy", sat enthusiastically at his feet and absorbed Carneades' Academic Skeptic philosophy.

Cicero said of Plato's Dialogues, that if Zeus were to speak, he would use their language.

In 79 BC, Cicero left for Greece, Asia Minor and Rhodes.

Cicero then journeyed to Rhodes to meet his former teacher, Apollonius Molon, who had previously 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.

Cicero married Terentia probably at the age of 27, in 79 BC.

Cicero had a half-sister named Fabia, who as a child had become a Vestal Virgin, a great honour.

Cicero complained to his friends that Terentia had betrayed him but did not specify in which sense.

In 46 or 45 BC, Cicero married a young girl, Publilia, who had been his ward.

Cicero hoped that his son Marcus would become a philosopher like him, but Marcus himself wished for a military career.

Cicero joined the army of Pompey in 49 BC and after Pompey's defeat at Pharsalus 48 BC, he was pardoned by Caesar.

Cicero wanted to pursue a public career in politics along the steps of the.

The first extant speech is a private case from 81 BC, delivered when Cicero was aged 26, though he refers throughout to previous defenses he had already undertaken.

Cicero's defense was an indirect challenge to the dictator Sulla, and on the strength of his case, Roscius was acquitted.

Cicero explained how a rustic son of a farmer, who lives off the pleasures of his own land, would not have gained anything from committing patricide because he would have eventually inherited his father's land anyway.

Cicero told the jury that they were the more likely perpetrators of murder because the two were greedy, both for conspiring together against a fellow kinsman and, in particular, Magnus, for his boldness and for being unashamed to appear in court to support the false charges.

Cicero surmised that it showed what kind of a person he was and that something like murder was not beneath him.

Cicero served as quaestor in western Sicily in 75 BC and demonstrated honesty and integrity in his dealings with the inhabitants.

Cicero's prosecution of Gaius Verres was a great forensic success for Cicero.

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 was neither a patrician nor a plebeian noble; his rise to political office despite his relatively humble origins has traditionally been attributed to his brilliance as an orator.

Cicero was both an Italian and a, but more importantly he was a Roman constitutionalist.

Cicero 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.

Cicero defended the use of force as being authorised by a, which would prove similar to his own use of force under such conditions.

Cicero procured a senatus consultum ultimum and drove Catiline from the city with four vehement speeches, which remain outstanding examples of his rhetorical style.

Cicero demanded that Catiline and his followers leave the city.

Cicero delivered the second and third orations before the people, and the last one again before the Senate.

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.

Cicero overestimated his popularity again several years later after being exiled from Italy and then allowed back from exile.

Cicero, who had been elected consul with the support of the Optimates, promoted their position as advocates of the status quo resisting social changes, especially more privileges for the average inhabitants of Rome.

Shortly after completing his consulship, in late 62 BC, Cicero arranged the purchase of a large townhouse on the Palatine Hill previously owned by Rome's richest citizen, Marcus Licinius Crassus.

In return Cicero gained a lavish house which he proudly boasted was "in conspectu prope totius urbis", only a short walk from the Roman Forum.

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.

Cicero introduced several laws that made him popular with the people, strengthening his power base, then he turned on Cicero by threatening exile 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.

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.

Cicero grew out his hair, dressed in mourning and toured the streets.

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.

Cicero was greeted by a cheering crowd, and, to his delight, his beloved daughter Tullia.

Cicero tried to re-enter politics as an independent operator, but his attempts to attack portions of Caesar's legislation were unsuccessful and encouraged Caesar to re-solidify his political alliance with Pompey and Crassus.

Cicero delivered a speech 'On the consular provinces' which checked an attempt by Caesar's enemies to strip him of his provinces in Gaul.

Cicero was given instructions to keep nearby Cappadocia loyal to King Ariobarzanes III, which he achieved 'satisfactorily without war'.

Cicero 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.

Cicero retained the civil rights of, and exempted from penalties, the men who gave the property back.

Besides his activity in ameliorating the hard pecuniary situation of the province, Cicero was creditably active in the military sphere.

Cicero next defeated some robbers who were based on Mount Amanus and was hailed as imperator by his troops.

Cicero 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.

Cicero favored Pompey, seeing him as a defender of the senate and Republican tradition, but at that time avoided openly alienating Caesar.

Cicero traveled with the Pompeian forces to Pharsalus in 48 BC, though he was quickly losing faith in the competence and righteousness of the Pompeian side.

Cicero returned to Rome, still as a promagistrate with his lictors, in 47 BC, and dismissed them upon his crossing the pomerium and renouncing his command.

Caesar pardoned him and Cicero tried to adjust to the situation and maintain his political work, hoping that Caesar might revive the Republic and its institutions.

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.

Cicero had no respect for Mark Antony, who was scheming to take revenge upon Caesar's murderers.

Relations between the two were never friendly and worsened after Cicero claimed that Antony was taking liberties in interpreting Caesar's wishes and intentions.

Cicero praised Octavian, declaring he would not make the same mistakes as his father.

Cicero supported Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus as governor of Cisalpine Gaul and urged the Senate to name Antony an enemy of the state.

Cicero was one of the most viciously and doggedly hunted among the proscribed.

Cicero was viewed with sympathy by a large segment of the public and many people refused to report that they had seen him.

Cicero bowed to his captors, leaning his head out of the litter in a gladiatorial gesture to ease the task.

Cicero was the only victim of the proscriptions who was displayed in that manner.

However, it was Octavian's acquiescence that had allowed Cicero to be killed, as Cicero was condemned by the new triumvirate.

Cicero is credited with transforming Latin from a modest utilitarian language into a versatile literary medium capable of expressing abstract and complicated thoughts with clarity.

Cicero was an energetic writer with an interest in a wide variety of subjects, in keeping with the Hellenistic philosophical and rhetorical traditions in which he was trained.

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.

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.

Cicero was especially popular with the Philosophes of the 18th century, including Edward Gibbon, Diderot, David Hume, Montesquieu, and Voltaire.

Cicero has faced criticism for exaggerating the democratic qualities of republican Rome, and for defending the Roman oligarchy against the popular reforms of Caesar.

Notably, "Cicero" was the name attributed to size 12 font in typesetting table drawers.

Cicero was declared a righteous pagan by the Early Church, and therefore many of his works were deemed worthy of preservation.

Cicero articulated an early, abstract conceptualization of rights, based on ancient law and custom.

Cicero's supposed tomb is a 24-meter tall tower on an opus quadratum base on the ancient Via Appia outside of Formia.

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.

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.

Cicero appears as a minor character in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar.

Cicero was portrayed on the motion picture screen by British actor Alan Napier in the 1953 film Julius Caesar, based on Shakespeare's play.

Cicero has been played by such noted actors as Michael Hordern, and Andre Morell.

Cicero is portrayed as a hero in the novel A Pillar of Iron by Taylor Caldwell.

Cicero is a major recurring character in the Roma Sub Rosa series of mystery novels by Steven Saylor.

Cicero appears several times as a peripheral character in John Maddox Roberts' SPQR series.