The writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero constitute one of the most famous bodies of historical and philosophical work in all of classical antiquity. Cicero, a Roman statesman, lawyer, political theorist, philosopher, and Roman constitutionalist, lived from 106 to 43 BC. He was a Roman senator and consul (chief-magistrate) who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. A contemporary of Julius Caesar, Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.
Cicero is generally held to be one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome. He introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary, distinguishing himself as a linguist, translator, and philosopher. An impressive orator and successful lawyer, Cicero probably thought his political career his most important achievement. Today, he is appreciated primarily for his humanism and philosophical and political writings. 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 1st-century BC biographer of Atticus, remarked that Cicero's letters to Atticus 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.
During the chaotic latter half of the first century BC, marked by civil wars and the dictatorship of Gaius Julius Caesar, Cicero championed a return to the traditional republican government. However, his 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. "Would that he had been able to endure prosperity with greater self-control and adversity with more fortitude!" wrote C. Asinius Pollio, a contemporary Roman statesman and historian.
Cicero was declared a "righteous pagan" by the early Catholic Church, and therefore many of his works were deemed worthy of preservation. Saint Augustine and others quoted liberally from his works "On the Commonwealth" and "On the Laws," and it is due to this that we are able to recreate much of the work from the surviving fragments. Cicero also articulated an early, abstract conceptualisation of rights, based on ancient law and custom.
Of Cicero's books, six on rhetoric have survived, as well as parts of eight on philosophy.
Of his speeches, eighty-eight were recorded, fifty-two of which survive today. Some of the items below include more than one speech.
Judicial speeches
(81 BC) Pro Quinctio (On behalf of Publius Quinctius)
(80 BC) Pro Roscio Amerino (In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria)
(77 BC) Pro Q. Roscio Comoedo (In Defense of Quintus Roscius Gallus the Comic actor)
(70 BC) Divinatio in Caecilium (Against Quintus Caecilius in the process for selecting a prosecutor of Gaius Verres)
(70 BC) In Verrem (Against Gaius Verres, or The Verrines)
(71 BC) Pro Tullio (On behalf of Tullius)
(69 BC) Pro Fonteio (On behalf of Marcus Fonteius)
(69 BC) Pro Caecina (On behalf of Aulus Caecina Severus)
(66 BC) Pro Cluentio (On behalf of Aulus Cluentius)
(63 BC) Pro Rabirio Perduellionis Reo (On behalf of Gaius Rabirius on a Charge of Treason)
(63 BC) Pro Murena (In Defense of Lucius Licinius Murena, in the court for electoral bribery)
(62 BC) Pro Sulla (In Defense of Publius Cornelius Sulla)
(62 BC) Pro Archia Poeta (In Defense of Aulus Licinius Archias the poet)
(59 BC) Pro Antonio (In Defense of Gaius Antonius) [lost entire, or never written]
(59 BC) Pro Flacco (In Defense of Lucius Valerius Flaccus, in the court for extortion)
(56 BC) Pro Sestio (In Defense of Publius Sestius)
(56 BC) In Vatinium testem (Against the witness Publius Vatinius at the trial of Sestius)
(56 BC) Pro Caelio (In Defense of Marcus Caelius Rufus): English translation
(56 BC) Pro Balbo (In Defense of Lucius Cornelius Balbus)
(54 BC) Pro Plancio (In Defense of Gnaeus Plancius)
(54 BC) Pro Rabirio Postumo (In Defense of Gaius Rabirius Postumus)
(54 BC) Pro Scauro (In Defense of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus)
Several of Cicero's speeches are printed, in English translation, in the Penguin Classics edition Murder Trials. These speeches are included:
In defence of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (This is the basis for Steven Saylor's novel Roman Blood.)
In defence of Aulus Cluentius Habitus
In defence of Gaius Rabirius"
Note on the speeches in defence of Caelius and Milo
In defence of King Deiotarus
Political speeches
(66 BC) Pro Lege Manilia or De Imperio Cn. Pompei (in favor of the Lex Manilia on the command of Pompey)
(64 BC) In Toga Candida (Denouncing candidates for the consulship of 63 BC)
(63 BC) De Lege Agraria contra Rullum (Opposing the Agrarian Law proposed by Rullus)
(63 BC) In Catilinam I-IV (Catiline Orations or Against Catiline) Archived March 2, 2005, at the Wayback Machine.
(59 BC) Pro Flacco (In Defense of Flaccus)
(57 BC) Post Reditum in Quirites (To the Citizens after his recall from exile)
(57 BC) Post Reditum in Senatu (To the Senate after his recall from exile)
(57 BC) De Domo Sua (On his House)
(57 BC) De Haruspicum Responsis (On the Responses of the Haruspices)
(56 BC) De Provinciis Consularibus (On the Consular Provinces)
(55 BC) In Pisonem (Against Piso)
(52 BC) Pro Milone (In Defence of Titus Annius Milo)
(46 BC) Pro Marcello (On behalf of Marcellus)
(46 BC) Pro Ligario (On behalf of Ligarius before Caesar)
(46 BC) Pro Rege Deiotaro (On behalf of King Deiotarus before Caesar)
(44 BC) Philippicae (consisting of the 14 philippics, Philippica I–XIV, against Marcus Antonius)
(The Pro Marcello, Pro Ligario, and Pro Rege Deiotaro are collectively known as "The Caesarian speeches").
Rhetoric and politics
(84 BC) De Inventione (About the composition of arguments)
(55 BC) De Oratore ad Quintum fratrem libri tres (On the Orator, three books for his brother Quintus)
(54 BC) De Partitionibus Oratoriae (About the subdivisions of oratory)
(52 BC) De Optimo Genere Oratorum (About the Best Kind of Orators)
(51 BC) De Re Publica (On the Republic)
(46 BC) Brutus (For Brutus, a short history of Roman rhetoric and orators dedicated to Marcus Junius Brutus)
(46 BC) Orator ad M. Brutum (About the Orator, also dedicated to Brutus)
(44 BC) Topica (Topics of argumentation)
(?? BC) De Legibus (On the Laws)
(?? BC) De Consulatu Suo (On his ((Cicero's)) consulship – epic poem, only parts survive)
(?? BC) De temporibus suis (His Life and Times- epic poem, entirely lost)
Several works extant through having been included in influential collections of Ciceronian texts exhibit such divergent views and styles that they have long been agreed by experts not to be authentic works of Cicero. They are also never mentioned by Cicero himself, nor any of the ancient critics or grammarians who commonly refer to and quote passages from Cicero's authentic works.
(late 80s BC) Rhetorica ad Herennium (authored by a pro-Marian orator of the mid to late 80s BC sympathetic to the tribune Publius Sulpicius Rufus; perhaps Publius Canutius)
(60s BC) Commentariolum Petitionis (Note-book for winning elections) (often attributed to Cicero's brother Quintus)
(46 BC) Paradoxa Stoicorum (Stoic Paradoxes)
(45 BC) Hortensius
(45 BC) Lucullus or Academica Priora – Liber Secundus (Second Book of the Prior Academics)
(45 BC) Varro or Academica Posteriora (Posterior Academics)
(45 BC) Consolatio (Consolation) How to console oneself at the death of a loved person (see Consolatio)
(45 BC) De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (About the Ends of Goods and Evils) – a book on ethics
(45 BC) Tusculanae Quaestiones (Questions debated at Tusculum)
(45 BC) De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods)
(45 BC) De Divinatione (On Divination)
(45 BC) De Fato (On Fate)
(44 BC) Cato Maior de Senectute (Cato the Elder on Old Age)
(44 BC) Laelius de Amicitia (Laelius on Friendship)
(44 BC) De Officiis (On Duties)
Cicero's letters to and from various public and private figures are considered some of the most reliable sources of information for the people and events surrounding the fall of the Roman Republic. While 37 books of his letters have survived into modern times, 35 more books were known to antiquity that have since been lost. These included letters to Caesar, to Pompey, to Octavian, and to his son Marcus.
Epistulae ad Atticum (Letters to Atticus; 68–43 BC)
Epistulae ad Brutum (Letters to Brutus; 43 BC)
Epistulae ad Familiares (Letters to friends; 62–43 BC)
Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem (Letters to his brother Quintus; 60/59–54 BC)
Appearances in modern fiction, listed in order of publication:
Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare
Catiline His Conspiracy, by Ben Jonson
Ides of March, (1948) an epistolary novel by Thornton Wilder
À rebours, by Joris-Karl Huysmans
A Pillar of Iron, a (1965) fictionalized biography, by Taylor Caldwell
Masters of Rome series, by Colleen McCullough; Cicero first appears as a precocious young boy in The Grass Crown
Roma Sub Rosa series, (1991–2015), by Steven Saylor
Robert Olen Butler imagines Cicero's last thoughts as a short monologue in Severance (2006)
Imperium (2006), Lustrum (Conspirata in the US) (2009), and Dictator (2015) are a trilogy of books on the life of Cicero, by Robert Harris.
Film and television
Imperium: Augustus, a British-Italian film (2003), also shown as Augustus The First Emperor in some countries, where Cicero (played by Gottfried John) appears in several vignettes.
In the 2005 ABC miniseries Empire, Cicero (played by Michael Byrne) appears as a supporter of Octavius. This portrayal deviates sharply from history, as Cicero survives the civil war to witness Octavius assume the title of princeps.
The HBO/BBC2 TV series Rome features Marcus Tullius Cicero prominently and is played by David Bamber. The portrayal broadly adheres to the historical record, reflecting Cicero's political indecision and continued switching of allegiances between the various factions in Rome's civil war. A disparity occurs in his assassination, which occurs in an orchard rather than on the road to the sea. The TV series also depicts Cicero's assassination at the hands of the fictionalized Titus Pullo, though the historical Titus Pullo was not Cicero's actual killer.
