The political career of Marcus Tullius Cicero began in 76 BC with his election to the office of quaestor (he entered the Senate in 74 BC after finishing his quaestorship in Lilybaeum, 75 BC), and ended in 43 BC, when he was assassinated upon the orders of Mark Antony. Cicero, a Roman statesman, lawyer, political theorist, philosopher, and Roman constitutionalist, reached the height of Roman power, the Consulship, and 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.Rawson, E.: Cicero, a portrait (1975) p. 303Haskell, H.J.: This was Cicero (1964) pp. 300–01
Cicero is generally perceived 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.Cornelius Nepos, Atticus 16, trans. John Selby Watson.
During the chaotic middle period 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.Haskell, H.J.:"This was Cicero" (1964) p. 296Castren and Pietilä-Castren: "Antiikin käsikirja" /"Handbook of antiquity" (2000) p. 237
Early career Cicero's childhood dream was "Ever to Excel" (αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν), a line taken from Homer's Iliad.Everitt, A.: "Cicero, a turbulent life" (2001) p. 43 He pursued dignitas (position) and auctoritas (authority), symbolized by the purple-bordered toga praetexta and the Roman lictors' rod. There was just one path to these: public civil service along the steps of cursus honorum. However, in 90 BC he was too young to apply to any of the offices of cursus honorum except to acquire the preliminary experience in warfare that a career in civil service demanded. In 90–88 BC, Cicero served both Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo and Lucius Cornelius Sulla as they campaigned in the Social War, though he had no taste for military life. Cicero was first and foremost an intellectual. Several years later he would write to his friend, Titus Pomponius Atticus who was collecting marble statues for Cicero's villas: "Why do you send me a statue of Mars? You know I am a pacifist!"Cicero: Samtliga brev (Collected letters) in Swedish translation by G.Sjögren 1963
Cicero started his career as a lawyer around 83–81 BC. The earliest known case is the Pro Quinctio, a private dispute from 81 BC delivered when Cicero was 26. However, the first major public case of which a written record is still existent was his 80 BC defense of Sextus Roscius on the charge of parricide.Rawson, E.: "Cicero, a portrait" (1975) p. 22 Taking this case was a courageous move for Cicero; parricide and matricide were considered appalling crimes, and the people whom Cicero accused of the murder—the most notorious being Chrysogonus—were favorites of Sulla. At this time it would have been easy for Sulla to have Cicero murdered, as Cicero was barely known in the Roman courts. His arguments were divided into three parts: in the first, he defended Roscius and attempted to prove he did not commit the murder; in the second, he attacked those who likely committed the crime—Titus Roscius Capito and Titus Roscius Magnus relatives of the defendant—and stated how the crime benefited them more than Sextus; in the third, he attacked Chrysogonus, stating Roscius' father was murdered to obtain his estate at a cheap price. On the strength of this case, Roscius was acquitted.
Cicero's successful defense was an indirect challenge to the dictator Sulla, whom he again challenged in a lost speech defending the disenfranchised citizens of Arretium.Cicero, Pro Caecina 97 According to Plutarch, Cicero was so fearful of Sulla's anger after Roscius' acquittal that he left for Greece, Asia Minor and Rhodes in 79 BC.Plutarch, Cicero 3.2–5 However, the delay of around a year, in which time Cicero also married, hardly points to a panicked flight, and Cicero's own explicit explanation of poor health appears much more likely.Cicero, Brutus 316 Accompanying him on his journey were his brother Quintus, his cousin Lucius, and probably Servius Sulpicius Rufus.Haskell, H.J.: "This was Cicero" (1940) p. 83
Cicero travelled to Athens, where he again met Atticus, who had fled war-torn Italy to Athens in the 80s. Atticus had become an honorary citizen of Athens and introduced Cicero to some significant Athenians. In Athens, Cicero visited the sacred sites of the philosophers. The most important of them was the Academy of Plato, where he conversed with the present head of the Academy, Antiochus of Ascalon. Because Cicero's philosophical stance was very similar to that of the New Academy as represented by Philo of Larissa, he felt that Antiochus had moved too far away from his predecessor.Rawson, E.: "Cicero, a portrait" (1975) p. 27. He was also initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, which made a strong impression on him, and consulted the Oracle of Delphi. But first and foremost he consulted different rhetoricians in order to learn a less exhausting style of speaking. His chief instructor was Apollonius Molon of Rhodes. He instructed Cicero in a more expansive and less intense (and less strenuous on the throat) form of oratory that would define Cicero's individual style in years to come.
Entry into politics
After his return to Rome, Cicero's reputation rose very quickly, assisting his elevation to office as a quaestor in 75 BC (the next step on the cursus honorum). Quaestors, 20 of whom were elected annually, dealt with the financial administration at Rome or assisted propraetor and proconsul (both governors) in financial matters in one of the provinces of Rome. Cicero served as quaestor in western Sicily in 75 BC and demonstrated honesty and integrity in his dealings with the inhabitants. As a result, the grateful Sicilians became his clients, and he was asked by them to prosecute Gaius Verres, a governor of Sicily, who had badly plundered their homeland.
During his stay in Sicily he discovered, hidden by thick bushes and undergrowth, the tomb of Archimedes of Syracuse, on whose gravestone was carved Archimedes' favourite discovery in geometry: that the ratio of the volume of a sphere to that of the smallest right circular cylinder in which it fits is 2:3.Haskell, J.J.: This was Cicero (1964) p. 108.Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, Book V, Sections 64–66 excerpt
The prosecution of Gaius Verres in 70 BC was a great forensic success for Cicero. Verres' defense counsel was Rome's greatest lawyer and orator in those days, Quintus Hortensius. Verres was convicted, and he fled into exile. Upon the conclusion of this case, Cicero came to be considered the greatest orator in Rome, surpassing Hortensius. Relations between Hortensius and Cicero remained friendly despite this rivalry.
Oratory was considered a great art in ancient Rome, and a crucial medium for disseminating knowledge and promoting oneself in elections, being the only equivalent to modern press at the time (before Caesar started publishing the Acta Diurna).
Despite his great success as an advocate, Cicero lacked reputable ancestry: he was neither noble nor patrician. A further hindrance was that the last memorable novus homo ("new man") to have been elected consul without consular ancestors had been the politically radical and militarily innovative Gaius Marius—a distant relative of Cicero's who also came from Arpinum.
Cicero grew up in a time of civil unrest and war. Sulla’s victory in the first of many civil wars led to a new constitutional framework that undermined libertas (liberty), the fundamental value of the Roman Republic. Nonetheless, Sulla’s reforms strengthened the position of the equestrian class, contributing to that class’s growing political power. Cicero was both an Italian eques and a novus homo, but more importantly he was a constitutionalist, meaning he did not wish to side with the populares faction and embark on a campaign of "seditious" reform. His social class and loyalty to the Republic ensured he would "command the support and confidence of the people as well as the Italian middle classes." This appeal was undercut by his lack of social standing and a reliable and viable power base, as the equites, his primary base of support, did not hold much power. The optimates faction never truly accepted Cicero, despite his outstanding talents and vision for the security of the Republic. This undermined his efforts to reform the Republic while preserving the constitution. Nevertheless, he was able to successfully ascend the Roman cursus honorum, holding each magistracy at or near the youngest possible age: quaestor in 75 (age 31), aedile in 69 (age 37), praetor in 66 (age 40), and finally consul in 63 (age 43).
Praetor Cicero's popularity approached its heights during his aedileship and the subsequent years when he eclipsed Quintus Hortensius as Rome's leading orator. Consequently, he was not only elected to all the chief offices at the first attempt and the minimum permitted age (always a difficult task for a novus homo without noble or even senatorial ancestry), but returned first of all the candidates he stood against every time. That was rarely achieved even by sons of the highest and wealthiest noble families and underlines the genuine depth and breadth of Cicero's popularity among Romans of all but the poorest classes. This unprecedented phenomenon for a "new man" is perhaps best underlined by the elections in 67 BC for the praetors of 66. There were eight annual praetorships and many more candidates than positions as the praetorship was the last and most important qualification to stand for the greatest prize of all, the consulate. In 67 the praetorian elections were suspended twice in mid course before finally being completed, and thus held three times in all in the early voting stages. Cicero was elected in first place on all three occasions, and with the support of every voting unit (centuria).Cicero de lege Manilia 2
This represents a "perfect" electoral record, in the sense that it could not be bettered. This had probably not happened before for a novus homo and is very important in understanding Cicero's political success and rapidly growing self-confidence as well as a simultaneous rising tide of personal jealousy and hostility towards him among the nobility.
Consul