Notes on Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician by Anthony Everitt
Few people can boast a career as remarkable as Cicero’s. Starting as an obscure lawyer and relying solely on his talents and abilities, he ended up in charge of the Roman Republic. And he wasn’t even a native. Anthony Everitt’s eponymous book tells the gripping story of how this happened.
Cicero was born in 106 BCE in Arpino, today’s Italy. His family was part of the local aristocracy but by no means wealthy. He received a good education in oratory and literature and fell in love with both. Early on, he became determined to excel, and the Roman Forum was to be his arena. Years later, Julius Caesar would remark that he “had won greater laurels than those worn by a general in his Triumph, for it meant more to have extended the frontiers of Roman genius than of its empire.”
In Cicero’s time, the city of Rome had about one million inhabitants, but the Republic was much bigger. There were shopping malls, bars, and a lively cultural scene in which theater, literature, and sport played prominent roles. There were laws but no official law enforcement agents. The constitution contained so many “checks and balances … [that it] is somewhat surprising that anything was ever decided.” The state lacked public prosecution and penal systems. It sold the rights to collect taxes to the highest bidder. Women were deemed unworthy of first names. And every fourth person was a slave.
Heads of state were two consuls elected for a one-year mandate. Below them were the praetors, aediles, and quaestors. In theory, every male Roman citizen could make it to the top. In practice, however, a handful of wealthy families dominated the best positions. Cicero was an exception, albeit not without precedent.
To compensate for his low birth, he tried to draw as much attention to himself as possible. For the most part, he was a fair ruler and was willing to converse with almost anybody. He even took great pains to learn the names and addresses of important people. But he was also a man of his time: he saw nothing wrong in owning “talking instruments,” i.e., slaves.
Cicero wanted to combine the best of monarchy, democracy, and aristocracy in an improved version of Rome. He “stood for the rule of law and the maintenance of a constitution in which all social groups could play a part, but where the Senate took the lead according to ancestral tradition.” When Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus asked him to help them take over Rome, he refused on moral grounds and suffered the consequences. Later on, he organized a civil war against Mark Antony, whom he considered an enemy of the Republic.
Cicero was an outstanding lawyer, politician, writer, and philosopher. He used the power of oratory to make Rome a better place. And he paid with his life for this. The head that had created fourteen philippics against Mark Antony and the right hand that had written them down were nailed onto the speaker’s platform in the Forum. Thus, the man of words was silenced forever. On the whole, Anthony Everitt has done a good job. His Cicero comes across as a real person with real emotions, dreams, aspirations, beliefs, and faults. Even though the events take place more than two millennia ago, they are relatable to the modern world. Every government can be improved. And every person can learn something from Cicero.
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