INTRODUCTION CICERO REFUSED TO DIE

Nancy van Deusen

In light of Plutarch’s account of the last moments of Cicero’s life, the title of this volume, “Cicero Refused to Die,” appears to be ironic. In Plutarch’s account, reported by Anthony Everitt,1 Cicero, fleeing from Brutus and Octavian, had put himself in the hands of his servants who then took him to his villa, about sixty miles south of Caeta, near Formiae—a villa that he had used frequently as a retreat from the heat of the summer. In Plutarch’s account as the boat was being rowed to land, a flock of crows approached, cawing loudly. They perched on both ends of the sail, and pecked at the ends of the ropes. Despite the fact that everyone thought this to be a bad omen, Cicero disembarked and went into the house to rest. Then, accord- ingly to Plutarch, “Most of the crows perched around the window, making a tremendous cawing. One of them flew down to the bed where Cicero was lying with his head all covered up, and little by little began to drag the garment away from his face with its beak. When the servants saw this they reproached themselves for standing by as spectators waiting for their master to be murdered, and doing nothing to defend him, while these wild brute creatures were helping him and caring for him in his unde- served ill fortune. So partly by entreaty and partly by force, they took him up and carried him in his litter towards the sea.” Too late. Cicero’s murder- ers were already at the door, which they broke down, whereupon they quickly found Cicero and with three sword strokes cut off his head and hands.2 Details differ in the accounts that have come down to us, but on one there is agreement: Cicero met death with containment, courage, and resolution. At times timid, petulant, even insecure in daily life, Cicero, apparently at his death, refused to be defeated by what seems to us to be

1 Anthony Everitt, Cicero. The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician (New York, 2003), pp. 317–18. 2 Everitt’s account of Cicero’s death is based on Plutarch, Livy (quoted by Seneca the Elder), and Appian: Plutarch, Life of Cicero XLVII 6, Seneca the Elder, Suasoriae VI 19, Plut Cic XLIX 1. 2 nancy van deusen an inconceivable turn of misfortune, a thoroughly ignominious death of one who has been named the greatest Roman politician, one of the greatest Latin writers and philosophers; and surely one of very few great orators in the Latin language. As such, Cicero, in spite, also, of the fact that his life, as his death, was regarded variously, has refused to die. How so? What qualities are responsible for Cicero’s magnetism and influence? Through his letters to his friend Atticus, virtually unknown in antiquity, discovered by Petrarch, the idealized, heroic, portrait of Cicero, the philosopher, lawyer, politician, was combined with a man of conflict- ing, even quite petty, emotions and impulses. Perhaps, however, it is the very human Cicero that has proven to be so arresting, offering encourage- ment, that in spite of his flaws, his occasional quite apparent lack of judgment (in marrying for a brief period of time, for example, his teenage ward), his overwhelming grief at the death of his daughter, Tullia, his spite towards his enemies and petulance shown to his friends, his blistering sarcasm, ribald sense of humor—in spite of character traits that can be seen to balance out his formidable talent, intelligence, and attainment, Cicero’s influence has remained for over two millennia. Quintilian, in his frequent quotation and depiction of Cicero as the ultimate master of the rhetorical discipline, the most effective master of rhetoric and the disci- pline of persuasion, perhaps, who had ever lived, is careful to mention that his presentation of Cicero’s life and work is a mosaic of desirable modular traits, completely and faithfully representing no one. Quintilian’s “Cicero” is constructed for purposes of instruction.3 This volume in the series, “Presenting the Past: Central Issues in Medieval and Early Modern Studies Across the Disciplines,” explores the life, work, tradition, influence, and usefulness, of Cicero’s monumental

3 There is a distinction to be made here between a deliberately constructed figura and legends that have accumulated concerning, for example, Virgil. Jan M. Ziolkowski in his introduction to the reprint of Domenico Comparetti’s Vergil in the Middle Ages, trans. E.F.M. Benecke, originally published 1885 (Princeton, 1997), points out that “The legends which first surfaced around the middle of the twelfth century, converted Vergil into a magician, endowed him with supernatural powers, and attributed to him characteristics that had been ascribed to the other prophet-sages and magicians whom he soon overshad- owed” (p. viii), and further (p. xv), “Although Comparetti may be remembered most often in conjunction with the fantastic legends of the magician Vergil, he expended just as much effort in satisfying the need for ‘an adequate history of the classical studies of the Middle Ages;’” cf. p. 21. Comparisons of, and allusions to, as well as analogies between, Virgil and Cicero abound, also, for example in the constructed “Cicero” of Quintilian, who quotes Cicero much more frequently than Virgil, using the two writers for quite different pur- poses. It is of interest to note the comparative reception of these two analogous, yet quite distinctive, writers that maintained such an influence for such a long period of time.