Marcus Tullius Cicero – statesman, scholar and writer

The brutal beheading of a great Roman politician and orator

A late 19th century book illustration showing the
imagined scene of the murder of Cicero

Cicero, the last defender of the Roman Republic, was assassinated on this day in 43BC in Formia in southern Italy.

Marcus Tullius Cicero had been a lawyer, philosopher and orator who had written extensively during the turbulent political times that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire.

In the months following Julius Caesar's assassination in 44BC, Cicero had delivered several speeches urging the Roman Senate to support Octavian, Caesar’s adopted son, in his struggle against Mark Antony.

Cicero attacked Antony in a series of powerful addresses and urged the Roman senate to name Antony as an enemy of the state. Antony responded by issuing an order for Cicero to be hunted down and killed.

He was the most doggedly pursued of all the enemies of Antony whose deaths had been ordered. Cicero was finally caught on 7 December 43BC leaving his villa in Formia in a litter - a kind of Sedan chair - heading to the seaside.

The portrait bust of Cicero at
Rome's Capitoline Museum

Cicero is reported to have said: “I can go no further: approach, veteran soldier, and, if you can do at least do so much properly, sever this neck.” 

He leaned his head out of the litter and bowed to his captors who cut off his head. On Antony’s instructions, Cicero’s hands, which had written so much against Antony, were cut off as well and they were later nailed along with his head on the Rostra in the Forum Romanum.

Cicero has gone down in history as one of Rome’s greatest orators and writers. He also had immense influence on the development of the Latin language.

Born in 106BC into a wealthy family in what is now Arpino in Lazio, Cicero served briefly in the military before turning to a career in law, where he developed a reputation as a formidable advocate.

As a politician, he went on to be elected to each of Rome’s principal offices, in 63BC becoming the youngest citizen to attain the highest rank of consul without coming from a political family.

He is perceived to have been one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome, introducing Romans to Greek philosophy and distinguishing himself as a linguist, translator, and philosopher.

A fresco showing Cicero denouncing Catiline
in a speech to the Roman senate

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. Expert analysts believe his indecision could be attributed to a sensitive and impressionable personality. 

Nonetheless, he is remembered as a staunch defender in his speeches and writings of the Roman Republic and its values, which he believed was the best form of government and worth defending at all costs. He was a strong advocate of the rule of law, which he felt was essential for maintaining a stable and just society.

One of his great successes was to expose a plot by the senator Catiline to overthrow the Roman Republic and establish himself as dictator. He convinced the Senate to take action against Catiline, and the plot was foiled.

The Cisternone Romano is
one of Formia's attractions

Travel tip:

The Formia of today is a bustling coastal town on the coast of Lazio, about 150km (93 miles) south of Rome and roughly 90km (56 miles) north of Naples. During the age of the Roman Empire it was a popular resort, renowned for a favourable climate, and many other prominent Romans had villas there in addition to Cicero. His burial place - the Tomba di Cicerone, a Roman mausoleum just outside the town - remains a tourist destination. The city was also the scene of the martyrdom of Saint Erasmus during the persecutions of Diocletian.  Heavily damaged during World War Two, the town was rebuilt and now serves as a commercial centre for the region. Tourists tend to favour the picturesque resort of Gaeta, which sits at the head of a promontory a few kilometres away, but Formia has pleasant beaches of its own and plenty of shops and restaurants. The Cisternone Romano, an enormous underground reservoir in which the Romans collected water to supply the area, is another visitor attraction. 

The dramatic hilltop setting of Arpino, the town
in Lazio that was Cicero's birthplace

Travel tip:

Arpino, the birthplace of Cicero, is a charming hilltop town situated some 130km (81 miles) southeast of Rome often overlooked by tourists despite its mix of Roman ruins, narrow mediaeval streets and picturesque squares. Attractions include the church of Santa Maria di Civita, perched on top of a rocky hill offering breathtaking views of the surrounding countryside, and the Arpino Museum, in the Palazzo del Popolo, which has a collection of archaeological artefacts and mediaeval art.  Arpino has a tradition of simple but delicious food, such as porchetta (roast pork stuffed with herbs) and pecorino cheese, a hard cheese matured for many months that is the area’s equivalent of parmigiano.  Outside Arpino, in the Liri valley, a little north of the Isola del Liri, lies the church of San. Domenico, which marks the site of the villa in which Cicero was born.

Also on this day:

1302: The birth of Azzone Visconti, ruler of Milan

1598: The birth of architect and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini

1643: The birth of engraver and printmaker Giovanni Battista Falda

Feast of St Ambrose, patron saint of Milan

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Caesar crosses the Rubicon

Act of defiance that started a civil war and coined a phrase

Caesar's ambitious designs on power were behind his
programme of conquests in Europe

The Roman general Julius Caesar led his army across the Rubicon river in northern Italy in an act of military defiance that would plunge the Roman Republic into civil war on this day in 49BC.

The course of the Rubicon, which can still be found on maps of Italy today, entering the Adriatic between Ravenna and Rimini in northeast Italy, represented the border between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul, over which Caesar had command, and what was by then known as Italia, the area of the peninsula south of the Alps directly governed by Rome.

One of the most powerful politicians in the Roman Republic after forming an alliance with Pompey and Crassus known as the First Triumvirate, Caesar had spent much of the previous decade expanding his territory through the Gallic Wars, taking control of much of modern-day France and northern Italy and extending the borders of the Republic as far as the Rhine.  He was the first Roman general to invade Britain.

The troops under his command - the 13th Legion - numbered more than 20,000 men who had seen Caesar’s military skills develop and were fiercely loyal.

Caesar had an army of  soldiers who were
fiercely loyal to him

Caesar was hugely ambitious and made sure news of his exploits was regularly conveyed to Rome, where he had growing support.  None of the wars he waged to conquer the Gauls had been sanctioned or even authorised by the Senate, but such was the delicate balance of power in the Republic that he had been allowed to continue.

Matters came to a head, however, in 50BC when Caesar’s former ally Pompey, who had allied himself with Rome following the death of Crassus and the break-up of the Triumvirate, decided that the threat to his own power posed by Caesar had become too much.  As the most powerful figure in the Senate, he ordered Caesar to stand his army down and return to Rome to answer charges of waging illegal wars.

Unwilling to risk being found guilty of treason, Caesar had no intention of returning to Rome under such conditions. He also knew he could not lose face in front of his loyal troops or his supporters in Rome.

He drew up a plan of campaign and on January 9, 49BC, while Caesar was in Ravenna to examine plans for a gladiator school, his army was assembling at the border with Italy, on the banks of the Rubicon river.

According to the Roman historian Suetonius, Caesar arranged for a chariot to collect him after he had taken dinner in Ravenna and took him to join up with his troops by the Rubicon, knowing that to cross it would be in violation of Republican law, which forbade any general in the provinces to lead an army into the territory of Italia, and would inevitably provoke a civil war.

Caesar won power after a war
spanning four years

Suetonius claimed Caesar hesitated, in two minds about whether he should set off a chain of events from which there would be no turning back, but was persuaded by an apparition sent by the gods.  The following day, he led his army across the river and the march on Rome began.

The conflict that followed took four years to reach a conclusion and involved battles in the Balkans, Greece, Egypt, Africa and Spain but the fall one by one of Pompey and his allies.  Pompey himself fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated.  Caesar became the dictator of Rome in 45BC, presiding over changes that would lead to the collapse of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Roman Empire.

The phrase ‘crossing the Rubicon’ has since entered the English language as an idiom used to describe taking irrevocable action or taking a decision to precipitate a situation that cannot be reversed.

The Fiume Rubicone is little more than a stream in places
on its 80km journey from the mountains to the Adriatic

Travel tip:

When the main E55 highway between the cities of Cesena and Rimini in Emilia-Romagna reaches Savignano, it crosses a narrow stretch of water that has since been accepted as the Rubicon, the dividing line between Cisalpine Gaul and what was then considered Italy, which Julius Caesar crossed with his army to take over the Roman state. The modern-day Fiume Rubicone flows for around 80km (50 miles) from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea through the southern part of the Emilia-Romagna region, entering the sea at San Mauro Mare. The river's name is thought to derive from the Latin word rubeus, meaning "red" - the colour the water frequently assumes due to mud deposits.

The Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna contains some of
the finest examples of Byzantine art in Europe

Travel tip:

Ravenna, about 40km (25 miles) north of the Rubicon, became the capital city of the western Roman empire in the fifth century. It is known for its well preserved late Roman and Byzantine architecture and has eight UNESCO world heritage sites. The Basilica of San Vitale is one of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture in Europe, famous for its superb Byzantine mosaics.  The poet Dante died while living in exile in Ravenna in about 1321. He was buried at the Church of San Pier Maggiore in Ravenna and a tomb was erected there for him in 1483.


Also on this day:

987: The death of former Doge of Venice San Pietro Orseolo

1890: The birth of silent movie star Pina Menichelli

1903: The birth of car designer Flaminio Bertoni

1959: The birth of football coach Maurizio Sarri


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Augustus - the first Emperor of Rome

Great nephew of Julius Caesar became powerful leader

A statue of Augustus by an unknown
sculptor, in the Vatican Museum in Rome

Augustus, who history recognises as the first Emperor of Rome, was born Gaius Octavius on this day in 63 BC in Rome.

He was to lead Rome’s transformation from republic to empire during the stormy years following the assassination of his great-uncle and adoptive father Julius Caesar, the dictator of the Roman Republic.

The son of a senator and governor in the Roman Republic, Octavius was related to Caesar through his mother, Atai, who was Caesar’s niece. The young Octavius was raised in part by his grandmother Julia Caesaris - Caesar’s sister - in what is now Velletri, about 40km (25 miles) southeast of Rome.

Octavius was only 17 when he learned of his great uncle’s death, although he had begun to wear the toga - a symbol of manhood - at 16 and fought alongside Caesar in Hispania (Spain), where his bravery prompted Caesar to name him in his will as his heir and successor.

When Caesar died, his allies rallied around Octavius - now known as Octavian - against Mark Antony, his rival for power, and troops loyal to Octavian defeated Antony’s army in northern Italy. However, the future emperor stepped back from seeking to eliminate Mark Antony, preferring that they formed an alliance.

In 43 BC, Octavian, Antony and Marcus Aemilus Lepidus established the Second Triumvirate. They divided Rome’s territories between them, with Antony given the East, Lepidus Africa and Octavian the West. In 41 BC, Antony began his famous romantic and political alliance with Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt.

The Battle of Actium, as depicted by the 17th century
Flemish painter Laureys a Castro

A decree of the Senate forced Antony to marry Octavian’s sister Octavia Minor, but his affair with Cleopatra continued. In 32 BC he divorced Octavia, at which Octavian declared war on Cleopatra.

The conflict culminated the following year in the naval Battle of Actium, in which Octavian’s fleet, under his admiral Agrippa, defeated Antony’s ships. Cleopatra sent her navy in support of her lover before the two fled, returning to Egypt, where both in turn committed suicide.

With Lepidus already ousted from the Triumvirate some years earlier, Octavian was now Rome’s undisputed ruler.

It was expected he would follow Caesar's example and make himself dictator, but instead, in 27 BC, Octavian founded the Roman Principate, a monarchy-type system of government, the head of which held power for life. He took the name Augustus, meaning 'lofty' or 'serene'.

He controlled all aspects of the Roman state, with the army under his direct command.  The victory at Actium had enabled him to seize Cleopatra’s assets, which he used to pay his soldiers handsomely, securing their loyalty.  To keep the Senate and ruling classes onside, he kept some of the laws of the Roman Republic intact, while he won over the people by embarking on a large programme of reconstruction and social reform, which saw the city of Rome transformed with impressive new buildings.

Frescoes adorning the walls of what is accepted to have been the villa
Augustus built for himself on Rome's Palatine Hill

By creating a standing army, Augustus initiated an era of relative peace known as the Pax Romana, during which Rome avoided large-scale conflict for more than 200 years, although there were numerous smaller wars on the Empire's frontiers in a campaign of expansion designed to push back ‘barbarian’ enemies.

At home, Augustus reformed taxation, developed networks of roads, created official police and fire-fighting services for Rome and established the Praetorian Guard.

Augustus died in 14 AD. He had been married three times, first to Mark Antony’s stepdaughter Clodia Pulchra, then to Scribonia, who bore his only child, Julia the Elder. He divorced in 39 BC to marry Livia Drusilla, who had two sons, Tiberius and Drusus.

He had Tiberius briefly marry his daughter, after which, in the absence of a male blood heir, he adopted Tiberius as son and successor, his nephew Marcellus and his grandsons Gaius and Lucius having pre-deceased him.

His remains were buried in a mausoleum, the ruins of which are in the Piazza Augusto Imperatore in the Campo Marzio district of Rome, near the Tiber river.

The Corso della Repubblica in the centre of Velletri, the
town outside Rome where Augustus's family lived

Travel tip:

Velletri, from which Augustus’s family originated, is a town of around 50,000 inhabitants outside Rome in the Alban Hills. It has a fourth century cathedral, the Cathedral of San Clemente, which was originally built over the ruins of a pagan temple, but was rebuilt in the 17th century and given a Renaissance-style portal.  Once a popular place for Rome's wealthiest to build their country villas, the town suffered extensive damage during bombing raids in the Second World War, although the cathedral survived.  In the 15th century, Velletri had the dubious claim to fame of being the host to what is believed to have been the world's first pawnshop.

Roman remains at Largo di Torre Argentina in the heart of
Rome, where Julius Caesar is said to have been slain

Travel tip:

The place where Julius Caesar was killed is in a square in Rome called Largo di Torre Argentina in the Campo de’ Fiori area of the city and there are still remains from the period there. During demolition work in 1927, a marble statue was found and excavations brought to light a holy area with four temples and part of a theatre, next to which was the Curia Pompeia where Caesar was stabbed.

More reading:

The murder of Julius Caesar

The assassination of Caligula by the Praetorian Guard

The death of Nero

Also on this day:

1597: The birth of Francesco Barberini, the inquistor who refused to condemn Galileo

1943: Mussolini proclaims his Italian Social Republic

1956: The birth of World Cup hero Paolo Rossi


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Assassination of Caligula

Controversial emperor killed by Praetorian Guard

A line engraving depicting Caligula
from the Wellcome Collection gallery

Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus, the Roman emperor usually referred to by his childhood nickname, Caligula, was assassinated at the imperial palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome on this day in 41AD.

His killers were officers of the Praetorian Guard who confronted him in an underground corridor at the imperial palace, where he had been hosting the Palatine Games, an entertainment event comprising sport and dramatic plays.

According to one account, Caligula was stabbed 30 times in a deliberate act of symbolism, that being the number of knife wounds some believe were inflicted on Julius Caesar, his great-great-grandfather after whom he was named, when he was murdered in 44BC, although the number of blows Caesar suffered is disputed.

Most accounts agree that the chief plotter in Caligula’s murder, and the first to draw blood, was Cassius Chaerea, an officer Caligula was said to have frequently taunted for his weak, effeminate voice.

The motives behind the assassination were much more than one aggrieved officer wishing to avenge a personal slight.

This bronze bust of Caligula is displayed in the
Metropolitan Museum of New York

A descendent of Rome's most distinguished family, the Julio Claudiens, Caligula had initially been popular when he succeeded Tiberius to become the third emperor. His great-grandfather was Augustus, the first emperor, while his father, Germanicus, was a much-loved leader in his own right.

The young Gaius adored his father, who would take him on military campaigns from the age of three, fitting him out with a uniform and a small pair of boots - caligula in Latin - the name Germanicus’s soldiers adopted as a nickname for the little boy, which was to stick with him for life.

Tiberius, who killed or imprisoned most of Caligula’s family and whom Caligula blamed for the death of his father during a mission to Rome’s eastern provinces, was deeply disliked by the Roman public, with whom Caligula won favour immediately by releasing citizens unjustly imprisoned by Tiberius and scrapping a number of unpopular taxes.

He also staged chariot races, boxing matches, plays and gladiator shows for the amusement of himself and his citizens.

This bust can be found in the Ny Carlsberg
Glypotek museum in Copenhagen

But then a severe mystery illness that struck him down barely six months into his rule seemed to change his character.

Tormented by crippling headaches, Caligula distracted himself by brazenly indulged his sexual proclivities, committing incest with his sisters and sleeping with other men's wives, bragging about it to them afterwards. He began to flaunt his power in the most cruel ways, eliminating his political rivals and forcing parents to watch the executions of their sons.

He is said to have killed for mere amusement. Once, at a games event over which he was presiding, it is alleged that he ordered his guards to throw an entire section of the audience into the arena to be eaten by lions because there were no prisoners left and he was bored.

Caligula caused more outrage with his declaration that he was a living God, spending a fortune on a bridge between his palace and the Temple of Jupiter and demanded that a statue of himself be erected in the Temple of Jerusalem for his worship.

In his insanity, he was said to have promised to make his horse, Incitatus, a consul, and actually did appoint him a priest.

The remains of Caligula's Bridge on the Palatine Hill in Rome

Rome soon grew to hate its leader, and Chaerea’s plot was one of many conspiracies aimed at removing him from power, which gathered momentum when Caligula announced to the Senate that he planned to leave Rome permanently and to move to Alexandria in Egypt, which would have drastically reduced Rome’s political power.

Caligula’s wife and daughter were also killed and for a while the military were divided between those who sought the reinstatement of the Roman Republic and those who favoured a continuing imperial monarchy. Eventually, the latter faction prevailed, with Caligula’s uncle, Claudius, who is said to have hidden behind a curtain while his nephew was being murdered, announced as Caligula’s successor.

The ruins of the Palace of Augustus on the Palatine Hill,
seen from the Roman Forum

Travel tip:

From the time of Augustus, who ruled from 27 BC to 14 AD, Roman emperors traditionally lived in an imperial palace atop the Palatine Hill, the central hill among the seven hills of ancient Rome.  There are remains visible today of at least three palaces, built next to one another over the years, in which Augustus, Tiberius and Domitian lived.  The word ‘palace’ – palazzo in Italian – derives from the name of the hill, which looks down upon the Roman Forum on one side, and the Circus Maximus on the other.

Hotels in Rome by Booking.com

The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the
Capitoline Hill, as it would have looked

Travel tip:

The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, which was the most important temple in ancient Rome, was located on the Capitoline Hill. It was the equivalent to a basilica in status in the official religion of Rome, presiding over the Area Capitolina, a square used for certain assemblies and where numerous shrines, altars and statues were displayed. The remains of the temple podium and foundations can be seen today behind the Palazzo dei Conservatori, in an exhibition area built in the Caffarelli Garden, and within the Musei Capitolini.

More reading:

The assassination of Julius Caesar

The suspicious death of Claudius, the emperor who conquered Britian

Titus - the 'good' emperor who helped the victims of Vesuvius

Also on this day:

1444: The birth of Galeazzo Maria Sforza - Duke of Milan

1705: The birth of Farinelli, music's first superstar

1916: The birth of actor Arnoldo Foà

1947: The birth of footballer Giorgio Chinaglia

(Picture credits: Line engraving from Wellcome Images; second bust by Louis le Grand; Palace of Augustus by Lalupa; Model of temple by Hiro-o; all via Wikimedia Commons)

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Guglielmo Ferrero - journalist and historian

Nobel prize nominee who opposed Fascism

Guglielmo Ferrero is best known for his five-volume
history of power and collapse of the Roman Empire

The historian, journalist and novelist Guglielmo Ferrero, who was most famous for his five-volume opus The Greatness and Decline of Rome, was born on this day in 1871.

The son of a railway engineer, he was born just outside Naples at Portici but his family were from Piedmont and while not travelling he lived much of his adult life in Turin and Florence.

A liberal politically, he was vehemently opposed to any form of dictatorship and his opposition to Mussolini’s Fascists naturally landed him in trouble. He was a signatory to the writer Benedetto Croce's Anti-Fascist Manifesto and when all liberal intellectuals were told to leave Italy in 1925, he refused. Consequently he was placed under house arrest.

It was only after four years, following appeals by officials from the League of Nations and the personal intervention of the King of Belgium, that he was allowed to leave Italy to take up a professorship at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.

Ferrero’s earliest works were in the field of sociology and criminology, inspired by his friendship with Cesare Lombroso, sometimes called the ‘father of modern criminology’, who he met during his studies. Ferrero attended the universities of Pisa, Bologna and Turin. They collaborated on a book called The Female Offender about crime among women.

Cesare Lombroso, the criminologist who
inspired Ferrero's early work

In the course of his work with Lombroso, Ferrero was introduced to Gina Lombroso, Cesare’s daughter, and they subsequently married.

From 1891 to 1894 Ferrero traveled extensively in Europe, working in the libraries of London, Berlin, and Paris on a planned history of justice. As a result of his travels he produced a sociological study entitled Young Europe, in which he noted the differences in societal structure developing in the industrial north compared with the agricultural south of the continent.

It was after musing on how ascendant civilisations could become decadent that he turned his attention to Rome.

His defining work, The Greatness and Decline of Rome was translated into all the major European languages and was a popular success, even though it was scorned by classicists, who took exception to his use of contemporary comparisons and on his attempts at sociological analysis of Roman politics. They did not care either for his assessment of Julius Caesar, usually portrayed as a leader who brought order from chaos, as a major catalyst in the collapse of the Roman Republic.

For the next few years, Ferrero wrote political essays and a number of novels, before turning his attention to the French Revolution, which he analysed as an attempt to establish a new liberal order that unintentionally led to the first modern dictatorship.

Once invited by Theodore Roosevelt, the United States president, to visit him at the White House and to give a number of lectures, Ferraro was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature no fewer than 20 times in six years.

He spent a good deal of his time in his declining years at his villa in Strada in Chianti, in the Tuscan countryside, but was in Mont Pèlerin-sur-Vevey in Switzerland when he died in 1942.

The Royal Palace at Portici, near Naples

Travel tip:

Portici, which lies at the foot of Mount Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples, about 8 km (5 miles) southeast of Naples, is a metropolitan suburb these days but essentially evolved as a port, rebuilt after it was destroyed in the eruption of Vesuvius in 1631. Its neighbour is Ercolano, where excavations revealed the city of Herculaneum, which had disappeared at the same time as Pompeii, following the eruption of 79AD.  Portici is famous for its Baroque royal palace, built as a grand residence by Charles III of Spain, King of Naples, between 1738 and 1742.

The church of San Cristoforo in Strada in Chianti

Travel tip:

Situated almost 300m (984ft) above sea level, Strada in Chianti is a small town that is increasingly favoured as a place to stay when visiting Florence, which is only 20km (12 miles) away to the north, barely half an hour by car and bus. Many Florentines escape to such places in the countryside during the summer, because the heat there is a little less oppressive. The town stages its annual fair in late September. The five parishes once competed in a horse race similar to the Palio di Siena, but they now vie for superiority in a series of games, including football and volleyball, over the course of a week.

More reading:

How Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall became the world's most famous history book

Cesare Lombroso, the first to encourage study of the criminal mind

Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, the historian who was both a soldier and a pacifist

Also on this day:

1914: The birth of Suso Cecchi D'Amico, the scriptwriter behind some of Italy's greatest movies

1948: The birth of Beppe Grillo, the comedian and founder of Italy's new political force, the Five Star Movement

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Horace - Roman poet

Writer who ‘seized the day’ and left his vivid account of it

Horace, as imagined by the 19th century
Italian painter Giacomo di Chirico

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, better known as Horace, died on this day in 8 BC in Rome.

He had become a leading poet during the reign of the Emperor Augustus and acquired a farm near Rome which he made famous through his poetry.

His Odes and his more informal Satires and verse Epistles vividly portrayed contemporary Roman society, with the background themes of love, friendship and philosophy.

Horace’s career coincided with Rome’s momentous change from a republic to an empire and he became a spokesman for the new regime.

He is said to have revealed far more about himself and his way of life in his writings than any other poet in antiquity. His most famous two words are ‘carpe diem’ – taken from his first book of Odes – which are usually translated as ‘seize the day’.

Horace was born in 65 BC in Venusia in southern Italy, a town that lay on a trade route between Apulia and Basilicata. Horace’s father had been a slave but had managed to gain his freedom and improve his social position.

He spent money on his son’s education and eventually took him to Rome to find him the best school.

At the age of 19 Horace went to Athens to enrol in the Academy founded by Plato.

The German painter Anton von
Werner's depiction of Horace

After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus came to Athens seeking support for the Republican cause. He recruited Horace as a senior officer and the poet learnt the basics of military life while on the march.

The Republican forces were crushed by Augustus, Caesar’s heir, and Mark Anthony, at the Battle of Philippi. Augustus offered an early amnesty to his opponents and Horace accepted it. Back in Rome he obtained a position as a clerk of the treasury and wrote his poetry.

He was introduced by the poet Virgil to Gaius Maecenas, a principal political advisor to the Emperor Augustus and Horace forged friendships with them both. He went on several journeys with Maecenas, which he described in his poetry.

Horace received the gift of a farm from Maecenas, which included income from five tenants, enabling him to work less and spend more time on his poetry.

He died at the age of 56, only a few months after Maecenas. He was laid to rest near his friend on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. Both men bequeathed their property to Augustus, an honour that the emperor expected from his friends.

The Odes written by Horace attracted interest during the Renaissance and went on to have a profound influence on western poetry.

The poet Alfred Lord Tennyson referred to them as ‘jewels that sparkle for ever’. The intricacy of these jewels has challenged many translators over the centuries and although each Ode has now been translated thousands of times, new versions continue to appear.

Venosa has a statue of Horace in its main square

Travel tip:

Venusia, where Horace was born, is now called Venosa and is a town in the province of Potenza in Basilicata. Remains of the ancient city walls and of an amphitheatre can still be seen there and there are fragments of Roman architecture built into the walls of the cathedral.  There is a statue of Horace in the main square and a museum dedicated to him.

Travel tip:

The Esquiline Hill in Rome, where Horace and his friend Maecenas were buried, is one of the celebrated seven hills of Rome. Rising above the Colosseum to the northeast, much of it today is taken up with the Parco del Colle Oppio, a large park covering the southern spur, the Oppian Hill. It was once a fashionable residential district.  Nero built his extravagant, mile-long Golden House there, while Trajan constructed his bath complex, the remains of which are visible today along with the Temple of Minerva Medica. The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore was built on the Esquiline Hill, on the Cispian spur.

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The murder of Julius Caesar

He came, saw, conquered... and was assassinated

A bust of Julius Caesar by the
Italian sculptor Andrea di Pietro di
Marco Ferrucci

Statesman and soldier Gaius Julius Caesar was murdered on this day in 44 BC in Rome.

His death made the Ides of March, the day on the Roman calendar devised by Caesar that corresponds to 15 March, a turning point in Roman history, one of the events that marked the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire.

Caesar had made his mark as a soldier in Asia Minor and Spain and established himself as a politician, making useful allies.

But his invasion of Gaul took several years and was the most costly and destructive campaign ever undertaken by a Roman commander. Afterwards, Caesar crossed the Rubicon - a river that formed a northern border of Italy - with a legion of troops, entered Rome illegally, and established himself as a dictator dressed in royal robes.

On the Ides of March, Caesar was stabbed to death by a group of rebellious senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus.

His adopted heir, Octavian, later known as Augustus, rose to power afterwards and the Roman Empire began.

Far from sealing his reputation as a vainglorious tyrant, his assassins, Brutus, Cassius and the others, succeeded only in clinching Caesar’s historical immortality.

The conspiracy to murder him was the subject of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Julius Caesar, and he became a role model for Napoleon and Mussolini.

His summary of his army’s capture of a city, ‘Veni, vidi, vici’  - ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ - is a phrase that has gone down in history.

The Fiume Rubicone - the Rubicon river - as it looks today
near the point where it enters the sea at San Mauro Mare

Travel tip:

Between Cesena and Rimini at Savignano, the road crosses a stretch of water that has since been accepted as the Rubicon, the dividing line between Gaul and what was then considered Italy, which Julius Caesar crossed with his army to take over the Roman state. The modern-day river flows for around 80km (50 miles) from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea through the southern part of the Emilia-Romagna region, entering the sea at San Mauro Mare. The river's name is thought to derive from the Latin word rubeus, meaning "red" - the colour the water frequently assumes due to mud deposits.

Hotels in Cesena by Booking.com

The remains of the Largo di Torre Argentina as they
are today, in the Campo de' Fiori area of Rome

Travel tip:

The place where Julius Caesar was killed, where the senate was due to meet, is in a square in Rome called Largo di Torre Argentina in the Campo de’ Fiori area of the city and there are still remains from the period there. During demolition work in 1927, a marble statue was found and excavations brought to light a holy area with four temples and part of a theatre, next to which was the Curia Pompeia where Caesar was stabbed. 


More reading:

The death of Hadrian

Trajan - military expansionist with progressive social policies

Gibbon's moment of inspiration

Also on this day:

1673: The death of flamboyant painter Salvator Rosa

1738: The birth of criminal justice philosopher Cesare Beccaria

1849: The death of the hyperpolyglot cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti

(Picture credits: Bust by Ad Meskens; Rubicon by Stefano Bolognini; Largo di Torre Argentina by Wknight94; all via Wikimedia Commons)



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