Cicero: On the Commonwealth and On the Laws

Описание

supporter of moderate reform within the traditional social order based on
landed wealth and hierarchical deference; his early speeches attack corruption and abuse of power within the system rather than the system
itself. His success was based in part on his rhetorical and political skills,
in part on his reassuring conservatism at a time of extraordinary military
and social upheaval. Elected as a safe alternative to Catiline, the bankrupt
and unsavory aristocrat whose electoral failure drove him to conspiracy
and revolution, he managed very briefly to unite the discordant elements
of Roman society in the face of the genuine danger posed by Catiline: the
honors and acclaim that he received were well earned.
The actions that deserved honor, however, were the source of a
downfall even more rapid than his rise. Legitimate fear of armed insurrection led Cicero to execute citizens in  on the basis of a resolution of
the senate, without a formal trial. In the violent factional politics of the
late s and early s, his actions in  left Cicero vulnerable to his
enemies; the coalition which he had created against Catiline dissolved in
the face of mob violence and rampant corruption; and he was sent into
exile in  at the instigation of the tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher – only
to be recalled eighteen months later when political circumstances
changed. Cicero relied on his own abilities at a time when the possession
of money and armed troops had far more political effect than eloquence,
decency, or parliamentary skill; although honored for his eloquence and
expertise, he remained without real influence through the turbulence
that preceded the civil war between Pompey and Caesar; and having
half-heartedly chosen to support Pompey, he had virtually no place in
public life under Caesar’s dictatorship in the s. Only at the end of his
life, after the assassination of Caesar on  March , did Cicero regain
some measure of power, leading the senate in its support of Brutus and
Cassius against Antonius. But in the bewildering military and political
circumstances of –, Cicero’s mistaken judgment that he could control and use the young heir of Caesar (then Gaius Iulius Caesar Octavianus, eventually to become Augustus) had fatal consequences: at the
formation of the Second Triumvirate (Antonius, the young Caesar, and
Marcus Lepidus) in November , he was proscribed. After he was killed
on  December, his head and hands were cut off and placed on the
Rostrum in Rome, a sign of the ruthlessness of the triumvirs and a
symbol of the end of traditional republican politics.
Introduction

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