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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6 December

Luigi Lablache – opera star

19th century giant was Queen Victoria’s singing coach

The singer Luigi Lablache, whose powerful but agile bass-baritone voice and wide-ranging acting skills made him a superstar of 19th century opera, was born in Naples on this day in 1794.  Lablache was considered one of the greatest singers of his generation; for his interpretation of characters such as Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Geronimo in Domenico Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto, Gottardo the Podestà in Gioachino Rossini’s La gazza ladra, Henry VIII in Gaetano Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and Oroveso in Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma he had few peers.  Donizetti created the role of Don Pasquale in his comic opera of the same name specifically for Lablache.  Lablache performed in all of Italy’s major opera houses and was a star too in Vienna, London, St Petersburg and Paris, which he adopted as his home in later life, having acquired a beautiful country house at Maisons-Laffitte, just outside the French capital.  He was approached to give singing lessons to the future Queen Victoria a year before she inherited the English throne, in 1836.  He found the future queen to have a clear soprano voice and a keen interest in music and opera and they developed a close bond.   Read more…

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Baldassare Castiglione – courtier and diplomat

Writer left a definitive account of life at court in Renaissance Italy

Baldassare Castiglione, the author of the Italian classic, The Book of the Courtier, was born on this day in 1478 near Mantua in Lombardy.  His book about etiquette at court and the ideal of the Renaissance gentleman has been widely read over the years and was even a source of material for Shakespeare after it was translated into English.  Castiglione was born into a noble household and was related on his mother’s side to the powerful Gonzaga family of Mantua. After studying in Milan he succeeded his father as head of the family and was soon representing the Gonzaga family diplomatically.  As a result he met Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, and later took up residence in his court, which was regarded as the most refined and elegant in Italy at the time and received many distinguished guests.  The court was presided over by the Duke’s wife, Elisabetta Gonzaga, who impressed Castiglione so much that he wrote platonic sonnets and songs for her.  During this time he also became a friend of the painter, Raphael, who painted a portrait of him.  Castiglione later took part in an expedition against Venice organised by Pope Julius II during the Italian wars.  Read more…

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Piero Piccioni – film music composer and lawyer

Politician’s son gave up legal practice to write movie scores

Pianist, conductor and prolific composer Piero Piccioni was born on this day in 1921 in Turin in the northern region of Piedmont.  A self-taught musician, Piccioni became  a composer of film soundtracks, writing more than 300 scores, themes and songs for top directors such as Francesco Rosi, Luchino Visconti, Bernardo Bertolucci, Roberto Rossellini and Vittoria De Sica.  Piccioni had come into contact with the film industry during the 1950s while practising as a lawyer in Rome and working to secure movie rights for Italian distributors such as Titanus and  De Laurentiis.  His interest in music had started as a result of being taken to concerts by his father, Attillio Piccioni, who was a prominent Christian Democrat politician.  Although Piccioni never studied music formally, he became a talented musician by teaching himself. He had listened to jazz during his childhood  and was a fan of Art Tatum and Charlie Parker. He was also influenced by 20th century classical composers and American cinematography and he started writing songs of his own.  Read more…

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Niccolò Zucchi – astronomer

Jesuit's invention gave him a clear view of the planets

Niccolò Zucchi, who designed one of the earliest reflecting telescopes, was born on this day in 1586 in Parma.  His invention enabled him to be the first to discover the belts on the planet Jupiter and to examine the spots on the planet Mars. This was before the telescopes designed by James Gregory and Sir Isaac Newton, which, it has been claimed, were inspired by Zucchi’s book, Optica philosophia.  Zucchi studied rhetoric in Piacenza and philosophy and theology in Parma before entering the Jesuit order in Padua at the age of 16.  He taught mathematics, rhetoric and theology at the Collegio Romano in Rome and was then appointed rector of a new Jesuit college in Ravenna. He then served as apostolic preacher (the preacher to the Papal household) for about seven years.  Zucchi published several books about mechanics, magnetism, barometers and astronomy.  When he was sent with other papal officials to the court of Ferdinand II, he met the German mathematician and astronomer, Johannes Kepler, who encouraged his interest in studying the planets. They carried on writing to each other after Zucchi returned to Rome.  Read more…

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Andrea Agnelli - Juventus chairman

Fourth member of famous dynasty to run Turin club

The businessman Andrea Agnelli, who from 2010 until 2022 was chairman and president of Italy’s leading football club, Juventus, was born on this day in 1975 in Turin.  He was the fourth Agnelli to take the helm of the famous club since 1923, when his grandfather, Edoardo, took over as president and presided over the club’s run of five consecutive Serie A titles in the 1930s.  Andrea’s father, Umberto, and his uncle, the flamboyant entrepreneur Gianni Agnelli, also had spells running the club, which has been controlled by the Agnelli family for 88 years, with the exception of a four-year period between 1943 and 1947. The family still owns 64% of the club.  As well as being chief operating officer of Fiat, which was founded by Andrea’s great-grandfather, Giovanni, Umberto was a Senator of the Italian Republic.  On his mother’s side, Andrea has noble blood.  Donna Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto is the first cousin of Marella Agnelli - Gianni’s widow - who was born Donna Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto and is the daughter of Filippo Caracciolo, 8th Prince di Castagneto, 3rd Duke di Melito, and a hereditary Patrician of Naples.  Andrea had a private education at St Clare's, an independent college in Oxford, England, and at Bocconi University in Milan.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Great Lablache: Nineteenth Century Operatic Superstar: His Life and His Times, by Clarissa Lablache Cheer

During the Golden Age of Italian opera, Luigi Lablache triumphed as one of the most admired and accomplished international superstars. Born in Naples in 1795, his unprecedented forty-five year singing career dominated the glorious bel canto period when opera flourished as the principal form of entertainment. In the first biography to be written in English, Lablache’s extraordinary story unfolds as the author guides the reader through the hectic and glamorous era of Italian opera and European high society. We follow Lablache as he conquers the dazzling nineteenth century opera world, singing Rossini roles from Napoleon’s time, through the Romantic Age, to become the special favorite of the Victorians in hundreds of Donizetti and Bellini’s bel canto productions. A vocal Hercules, everything about him is larger-than-life: his huge size, powerful voice, good looks, dramatic flare, and irresistible humour and charm. The foremost bass of his time, he rules the stage from London to Vienna, from Paris to St. Petersburg. Notably, Britain’s Queen Victoria singles out Lablache to be her beloved singing teacher for 20 years.   As a fascinating family saga, The Great Lablache does not end with Lablache. Herein the author also recounts how Lablache’s well-known descendents of opera singers and actors carve out their brilliant careers on the stages of Europe, New York and Hollywood.

Clarissa Lablache Cheer, a direct descendent of Luigi Lablache, gathered together rare unpublished family memorabilia as well as primary source material from Europe and America as the basis for an informed biography. Sadly, she died in May 2023.

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5 December

Armando Diaz - First World War general

Neapolitan commander led decisive victory over Austria

Armando Diaz, the general who masterminded Italy's victory over Austrian forces at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto in 1918, was born on this day in 1861 in Naples.  The battle, which ended the First World War on the Italian front, also precipitated the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ending more than 200 years of Austrian control of substantial parts of Italy.  The general's announcement of the total defeat of the Austrian Army at Vittorio Veneto sparked one of the greatest moments of celebration in the history of Italy, with some Italians seeing it as the final culmination of the Risorgimento movement and the unification of Italy.  Diaz was born to a Neapolitan father of Spanish heritage and an Italian mother. He decided to pursue his ambitions of a military career despite the preference for soldiers of Piedmontese background in the newly-formed Royal Italian Army.  After attending military colleges in Naples and Turin, Diaz served with distinction in the Italo-Turkish War.  Read more…

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Pope Julius II

Patron of the arts who commissioned Michelangelo's greatest works

Giuliano della Rovere, who was to become Pope Julius II, was born on this day in 1443 at Albisola near Genoa.  He is remembered for granting a dispensation to Henry VIII of England to allow him to marry Catherine of Aragon, the widow of his older brother, Arthur, and for commissioning Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.  Giuliano was born into an ecclesiastical family. His uncle, Franceso della Rovere, later became Pope Sixtus IV and it was the future pope Francesco who arranged for his nephew to be educated at a Franciscan friary in Perugia. Giuliano became a bishop in 1471 and then a cardinal before being himself elected Pope in 1503.  Giuliano was Pope for nine years until he died of fever in 1513. When Henry VIII later asked for his marriage to Catherine of Aragon to be annulled so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, he claimed that Pope Julius II should never have issued the dispensation to allow him to marry his sister in law. But the Pope at the time, Clement VII, refused to annul the marriage so Henry VIII divorced the Catholic Church instead, leading to the English Reformation.  Read more…

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Maria De Filippi - television presenter

One of the most popular faces on Italian TV

The television presenter Maria De Filippi, who has hosted numerous talk and talent shows in a career spanning almost 30 years, was born on this day in 1961 in Milan.  De Filippi is best known as the presenter of the long-running talent show Amici de Maria De Filippi, which launched in 2001.  The show’s predecessor, called simply Amici, was hosted by De Filippi from 1993 onwards.  One of the most popular faces on Italian television, De Filippi was married in 1995 to the talk show host and journalist Maurizio Costanzo, who died in February, 2023.  The daughter of a drugs company representative and a Greek teacher, De Filippi was born in Milan before moving at age 10 to Mornico Losana, a village in the province of Pavia, where her parents owned a vineyard.  A graduate in law, she had ambitions of a career as a magistrate but in 1989, while she was working in the legal department of a video cassette company, she had a chance meeting with Costanzo at a conference in Venice to discuss ways of combating musical piracy.  Costanzo soon invited her to move to Rome to work for his communication and image company.  Read more…

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Francesco Gemianini - composer and violinist

Tuscan played alongside Handel in court of George I

The violinist, composer and music theorist Francesco Saverio Geminiani, who worked alongside George Frideric Handel in the English royal court in the early 18th century and became closely associated with the music of the Italian Baroque composer Arcangelo Corelli, was baptised on this day in 1687 in Lucca, Tuscany.  Although he composed many works and at his peak was renowned as a virtuoso violinist, he is regarded as a significant figure in the history of music more for his writings, in particular his 1751 treatise Art of Playing on the Violin, which explained the 18th-century Italian method of violin playing and is still acknowledged as an invaluable source for the study of performance practice in the late Baroque period.  Geminiani himself was taught to play the violin by his father, and after showing considerable talent at an early age he went to study the violin under Carlo Ambrogio Lonati in Milan, later moving to Rome to be tutored by the aforementioned Corelli.  Returning to Lucca, he played the violin in the orchestra at the Cappella Palatina for three years, after which he moved to Naples to take up a position as Leader of the Opera Orchestra and concertmaster.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Balkans, Italy & Africa 1914–1918: From Sarajevo to the Piave and Lake Tanganyika

The assassination in Sarajevo of the Austro-Hungarian heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, lit an explosive mixture of ethnic tensions, nationalism, political opportunism, and the quest for power within the Balkans to plunge Europe into a conflict that would cost millions of lives. Austro-Hungary faced both Serbia and Russia during the opening phase of the war, but Bulgaria's decision to join the Central Powers in October 1915 led to the opening of the Salonika front in Greece, where 150,000 British and French troops saw little fighting until the disastrous 1918 Doiran campaign.  At the war's outbreak, the British authorities in Africa were totally unprepared, with few forces available to attack the German colonies, who themselves were effectively left isolated from help. The German commander in East Africa, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, launched a brilliant guerrilla campaign with scant resources, conducting lightning attacks on Allied targets, particularly the Uganda Railway. He was opposed by the South African General Jan Smuts and his mixture of Boer, British, Rhodesian, Indian, African, Belgian and Portuguese soldiers: fighting continued until November 1918.  Italy entered the war against the Central Powers in April 1915. For two years, Austro-Hungarian forces were kept at bay on Italy's northern borders, until a combined German and Austro-Hungarian defeated the Italian forces at the Battle of Caporetto in October 1917. Revenge came with the Allied victory at Vittorio Veneto in November 1918, which led to Austro-Hungary's collapse.  With the aid of over 300 photographs, complemented by full-colour maps, The Balkans, Italy & Africa 1914-1918 - one of a six-volume Amber Books series on the History of World War One - provides a detailed guide to the background and conduct of the war in the Balkan, Italian and African theatres from the assassination in Sarajevo to the surrender of the Central Powers.

David Jordan is Senior Lecturer at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, Shrivenham. He joined the Defence Studies Department of King's College London in June 2000 from the University of Birmingham. He is the author of several books, including The Timeline of World War II, Wolfpack and the History of the French Foreign Legion.

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4 December

Costantino Rocca - golfer

Italian whose success inspired Open champion

Costantino Rocca, who until recently was the most successful Italian in the history of international golf, was born on this day in 1956 in Almenno San Bartolomeo, near Bergamo in northern Italy.  Rocca, who turned professional at the age of 24 in 1981, enjoyed his best years in the mid-1990s, peaking with second place in the Open Championship at St Andrews in 1995.  He was beaten by the American John Daly in a four-hole play-off but was perhaps as popular a runner-up as there has been in the history of the tournament after the incredible putt he sank on the final green to deny Daly victory inside the regulation 72 holes.  Needing a birdie to be level with Daly at the top of the leaderboard after the American finished six under par, Rocca appeared to have blown his chance when his poorly executed second shot - a chipped approach that was meant to leave him in easy putting distance of the hole - did not even make it safely on to the green, coming to rest in an area known colloquially as ‘the Valley of Sin’.  It left him 65ft - almost 20m - short of the hole, needing somehow to hole a putt that had first to go uphill and then break sharply to the right.  Read more…

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Luigi Galvani - physicist and biologist

Scientist who seemed to give dead frog new life

Luigi Galvani, the first scientist to discover bioelectricity, died on this day in 1798 in Bologna.  Galvani discovered that the muscles in the leg of a dead frog twitched when struck by an electrical spark. This was the beginning of bioelectricity, the study of the electrical patterns and signals of the nervous system.  The word ‘galvanise’, to stimulate by electricity, or rouse by shock and excitement, comes from the surname of the scientist.  Galvani studied medicine at Bologna University and, after graduating in 1759, became an honorary lecturer of surgery and then subsequently of theoretical anatomy.  He became the first scientist to appreciate the relationship between electricity and animation when he was dissecting a frog one day. His assistant touched an exposed nerve in the leg of the frog with a metal scalpel that had picked up an electrical charge. They both saw sparks and the frog’s leg kicked. The phenomenon was dubbed ‘galvanism’.  In 1797 Galvani refused to swear loyalty to the French, who were then occupying northern Italy, and lost his academic position at the university and also his income.  Read more…

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Gae Aulenti – architect

Designer who made mark in Italy and abroad

The architect Gae Aulenti, who blazed a trail for women in the design world in post-War Italy and went on to enjoy a career lasting more than half a century, was born on this day in 1927 in Palazzolo dello Stella, a small town midway between Venice and Trieste.  In a broad and varied career, among a long list of clients Aulenti designed showrooms for Fiat and Olivetti, furniture for Zanotta, department stores for La Rinascente, a railway station in Milan, stage sets for theatre and opera director Luca Ronconi and villas for wealthy private clients.  She lectured at the Venice and Milan Schools of Architecture and was on the editorial staff of the design magazine, Casabella.  Yet she is best remembered for her part in transforming redundant buildings facing possible demolition into museums and galleries, her most memorable project being the interior of the Beaux Arts-style Gare d'Orsay railway station in Paris, where she turned the cavernous central hall, a magnificent shed lit by arching rooflights, into a minimalist exhibition space for impressionist art.  Aulenti also created galleries at the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Palau Nacional in Barcelona.  Read more…

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Pope Adrian IV

The warlike conduct of England’s one and only pontiff

The only Englishman to have ever sat on the papal throne, Nicholas Breakspear, became Pope on this day in 1154 in Rome.  Breakspear, who was from Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire, had previously been created Cardinal Bishop of Albano by Pope Eugene III.  After his election as Pope, Breakspear took the name of Adrian IV (also known as Hadrian IV) and immediately set about dealing with the anti-papal faction in Rome.  After Frederick Barbarossa, Duke of Swabia, caught and hanged the leader of the faction, a man known as Arnold of Brescia, Adrian crowned Frederick as Holy Roman Emperor in 1155 to reward him.  He then formed an alliance with the Byzantine Emperor, Manuel Comnenus, against the Normans in Sicily.  Adrian raised mercenary troops in Campania to fight alongside the Byzantine forces and the alliance was immediately successful, with many cities giving in, either because of the threat of force or the promise of gold.  But the Normans launched a counter attack by land and sea and many of the mercenaries deserted leaving the Byzantine troops outnumbered and forced to return home.  Read more…

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Saint Giovanni Calabria

Priest offered himself to God to save a Pope

Giovanni Calabria, who dedicated his life to helping the poor and the sick, died on this day in 1954 in Verona.  Roman Catholics throughout the world will celebrate his feast day today as a result of his canonisation by Pope John Paul II in 1999.  When Pope Pius XII became ill in 1954, Calabria offered himself to God to die in the place of the Pope. Pius XII began to get better and went on to live for another four years, but Calabria died the next day. After the Pope recovered he sent a telegram of condolence to Calabria’s congregation.  Giovanni Calabria was born in 1873 in Verona. He was the youngest of the seven sons of Luigi Calabria, a cobbler, and Angela Foschio, a maid servant.  Calabria was only a young child when his father died but he had to drop out of school to become an apprentice.  However, a rector at his local church saw his potential and gave him private tuition to prepare him for an exam that would determine whether he could begin studying for the priesthood.  But first Calabria had to serve in the army where he converted his fellow soldiers and was renowned for the strength of his faith. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Sport Italia: The Italian Love Affair with Sport, by Simon Martin

The Italian love affair with sport is passionate, voracious, all-consuming. It provides a backdrop and a narrative to almost every aspect of daily life in Italy and the distinctively pink-coloured newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport is devoured by almost half a million readers every day. Narrating the history of modern Italy through its national passion for sport, Sport Italia provides a completely new portrayal of one of Europe's most alluring, yet contradictory countries, tracing the highs and lows of Italy's sporting history from its Liberal pioneers through Mussolini and the 1960 Rome Olympics to the Berlusconi era. By interweaving essential themes of Italian history, its politics, society and economy with a history of the passion for sport in the country, Simon Martin tells the story of modern Italy in a fresh and colourful way, illustrating how and why sport is so strongly embedded in both politics and society, and how it is inseparable from the concept of Italian national identity. Showing sport's capacity to both unite and deeply divide, this fascinating book reveals a novel and previously unexplored element of the history of a society and its state.  Winner of the Lord Aberdare Literary Prize for Sports History in 2012.

Simon Martin is the author of Football and Fascism: The National Game under Mussolini, which won the Lord Aberdare Prize in 2004. He holds a PhD from University College, London and has taught there, as well as at the University of Hertfordshire, the University of California, Rome programme, the New York University in Florence and the American University of Rome. 

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