Life of Cicero

The Life of Cicero by Plutarch

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3QQ8WDH27ISJ0?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp

I read this for the Online Great Books program.

Cicero has held a conflicted position throughout history. He was a gifted orator, writer, and thinker. His lost text, Hortensius turned St. Augustine towards the direction of philosophy. His philosophical writing have inspired generations. Yet, Mortimer Adler left his writings completely out of the Great Books. Cicero was close, but didn't make the cut.

Cicero's life in Rome was like that. Cicero was another prodigy of the terminal stage of the Roman Republic. He was the advocate people went to when it mattered. Cicero was an outsider - a new man - who made his way up the slippery ladder of Roman offices to the position of consul. Cicero's time as consul coincided with the Catiline conspiracy. The Catiline Conspiracy was like January 6, but real, or maybe it was as real as January 6, according to some takes on the issue. Plutarch does not seem to think that the Catiline Conspiracy was anything other than a real threat to the Roman Republic. Forces within Rome planned on murdering the Consuls and members of the Senate at the same time that Rome was threatened by a Roman-led military force. Cicero used all of his powers of persuasion to protect the Roman Republic for one last moment. For his efforts, at the behest of Cato, Cicero was named “father of his country.”

After that moment of glory, Cicero's quest for glory made him something of a joke. All factions wanted him on their side, but he would give himself to no faction. He would side with Pompey and then Caesar. One side or the other was going to win, but all Cicero got out of the situation was a reputation for being irrelevant and indecisive.

At the end, his fate was determined by the fact that his indecision had made him irrelevant. When Antony and Octavian got around to the serious business of proscription lists, Antony wanted the head and hands of the orator who had so viciously denounced him. Octavian initially defended Cicero, but ultimately gave Cicero up in a petty trade.