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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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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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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