Personal Life of Marcus Tullius Cicero

The Personal life of Marcus Tullius Cicero provided the underpinnings of one of the most significant politicians of the Roman Republic. Cicero, a Roman statesman, lawyer, political theorist, philosopher, and Roman constitutionalist, 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.

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.

During the chaotic latter half 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.

Read more about Personal Life Of Marcus Tullius Cicero:  Childhood and Family, Studies, Marriages, Tullia and Marcus Minor, Political and Social Thought, Death, Legacy, See Also

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    Rather leave the crime of the guilty unpunished than condemn the innocent.
    Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)

    These studies which stimulate the young, divert the old, are an ornament in prosperity and a refuge and comfort in adversity; they delight us at home, are no impediment in public life, keep us company at night, in our travels, and whenever we retire to the country.
    —Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)

    I esteem it the happiness of this country that its settlers, whilst they were exploring their granted and natural rights and determining the power of the magistrate, were united by personal affection. Members of a church before whose searching covenant all rank was abolished, they stood in awe of each other, as religious men.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
    Bible: New Testament, Matthew 10:39.

    Jesus.

    It is a sure sign that a culture has reached a dead end when it is no longer intrigued by its myths.
    —Greil Marcus (b. 1945)

    The nobler a man is, the harder for him to suspect baseness in others.
    —Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)

    No one is so old as to think he cannot live one more year.
    —Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC)