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Life in the Roman Army and the Realities of Rome

Khalid Elhassan November 19, 2021 37 min

Octavian and Mark Antony oversee the proscription of the optimates in 43 BC. Alamy

First-century AD bust of Cicero in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. String Fixer

4. The Roman Republic’s Great Orator

The Roman statesman, scholar, lawyer, and writer Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 – 43 BC), who served as consul in 63 BC, is widely deemed to have been Ancient Rome’s greatest orator. Throughout his career, Cicero tried in vain to uphold republican principles as the Roman Republic tore itself apart in civil wars in its final years. He had much greater impact and success with the influence he exerted upon Western thought for centuries. The rediscovery of his writings more than a millennium after his death helped spark the Renaissance.

Cicero was born into a wealthy equestrian family in Arpinum and was sent to study law in Rome as a youth. His brilliant defense of a Sextus Roscius in 79 BC against trumped-up charges of parricide established his reputation as a lawyer and began his rise in Rome. He became a supporter of Pompey the Great, and as a member of the conservative and pro-aristocratic optimates faction, and was elected consul in 63 BC. That year, he suppressed what came to be known as the Catiline Conspiracy to overthrow the government, and arrested and ordered the summary execution of its ringleaders.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.