MDS1TRW The Roman World: Myth and Empire

Lecture 7 The Republic: Polics as War Why is Cicero so important?

• The bulk of textual evidence for the late republic, which is sll extant, comes from Cicero • So much so that you might see the late republic being referred to by some scholars as the Ciceronian period hp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/ thumb/4/4e/Marcus_Tullius_Cicero- Vacan_Museums.jpg/450px-Marcus_Tullius_Cicero- Vacan_Museums.jpg

Who was Cicero?

• Marcus Tullius Cicero • 3 January 106 BCE – 7 December 53 BCE • Born in Arpinum

hp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cicero_-_Musei_Capitolini.JPG

Arpinum, Italty

hp://www.skidmore.edu/classics/caesarandcicero.html

Who was Cicero?

• Marcus Tullius Cicero – Usually just referred to by his cognomen Cicero – Tullius is his nomen, or family name – Marcus is his praenomen, similar to a given name today • 3 January 106 BCE – 7 December 53 BCE hp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cicero_-_Musei_Capitolini.JPG • Born in Arpinum Roman naming pracces

• Praenomen: equivalent to a given name today • Nomen: the gens (family or clan name) • Cognomen: this began as a nickname but by the late republic were passed from father to son • Agnomen: aer the cognomen was passed from father to son, agnomina were somemes associated with people Gaius Julius Caesar – Publius Cornelius Scipio hp://www.denomine.com/category/historical/ Africanus Who was Cicero?

• Marcus Tullius Cicero – Usually just referred to by his cognomen Cicero – Tullius is his nomen, or family name – Marcus is his praenomen, similar to a given name today • 3 January 106 BCE – 7 December 53 BCE • Born in Arpinum • Roman philosopher, polician, lawyer, orator

and consul hp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cicero_-_Musei_Capitolini.JPG • From a wealthy equestrian family The Roman Equestrian Order

• The lower of two aristocrac classes of ancient Rome • The equites (equestrians) were outranked by

patricii (patricians) A c. 2nd-century Roman coin • Equestrians could own depicng Mars on side and an equestrian on the other land and were just as hp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sg0542.jpg

wealthy as patricians, but had less polical power Who was Cicero?

• Marcus Tullius Cicero – Usually just referred to by his cognomen Cicero – Tullius is his nomen, or family name – Marcus is his praenomen, similar to a given name today • 3 January 106 BCE – 7 December 53 BCE • Born in Arpinum • From a wealthy equestrian family • Roman philosopher, polician,

lawyer, orator and consul hp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cicero_-_Musei_Capitolini.JPG • He was a novus homo What is meant by the term novus homo? • Novus homo = a new man – The opposite of a nobilis or a ‘known man’ who had a network of family and client relaonships which had been built up over generaons • They were the children of senators • A novus homo was first person in their family to be in the senate or to be elected consul – In some rare cases (M. Porcius Cato, C. Marius and Cicero) they Marcus Porcius Cato were not only the first person in hp://kvanasscheasia.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/persistence.html their family to be both a senator and a consul • In the republic, novi homines were usually of equestrian rank – Used oratorical and military skill to reach the senate as well as good Gaius Marius connecons hp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marius_Glyptothek_Munich_319.jpg

Novus homo, nobiles, patricii and plebeii • Novi homines: new men • Nobiles: a group of wealthy plebeians, who had become an oligarchy in the 3rd century BCE – Nobilitas: by Cicero’s life me, the term was used to refer to a descendent of a consul or equivalent magistrate • Patricii (‘patricians’): Rome’s privileged class; status gained through birth • Plebeii (‘plebians’): the mass of Roman cizens Why it maers that Cicero was a new man • Personal merit and not ancestry should be the criterion of a person’s success • Being a novus homo doesn’t mean that Cicero was socially progressive – he advocated a return to the mos maiorum (‘ways of our ancestors’) • Many of Cicero’s polical decisions reflect his uncertain social status

hp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:M-T-Cicero.jpg

The cursus honorum: The Roman career path • Cursus honorum = course of honours • Successful elecon depended on skills and connecons • Success was achieved in holding magistracies, military command or civil and military posions in Rome, Italy or the provinces

hp://www.mmdtkw.org/AU0301CursusHonorum.jpg

Geng started in a polical career

• Prosecuons – Slightly risky because you could gain a reputaon for cruelty and, if you lost, could cause residual hoslity between you and the accused • Prosecuons led to requests to defend, which was a much more effecve way to gain polical support • Through a reputaon as a good orator, you could garner connecons that would help shore up votes in elecons • Gaining polical offices led to more opportunies to speak and thus more opportunies for power and higher office • Oratory, alongside a military career, was THE way to climb the cursus st honorum 1 -century-BCE statue of a Roman orator hp://www.the-romans.co.uk/educaon.htm#Oratory

Cicero’s career • Received an educaon in philosophy and rhetoric in both Rome and later Greece • 90/89: Military service under Gn. Pompeius Strabo (Pompey’s father) • 75: Quaestor in Sicily • 66: Praetor • 63: Consul (Caline Conspiracy) • 58: Exiled • 57: Returns from exile • 43: Civil Wars break out again. Cicero’s delivers Philippics against Antony. Cicero proscribed and killed

(December 7, 43) hp://8170.pbworks.com/w/page/52174811/Decorum

The Caline Conspiracy

• A supposed aempt by Lucius Sergius Calina to overthrow the republic and in parcular the power of the senate • Cicero discovers the plot and argues in the senate that Caline must leave Rome • Caline leaves Rome, but connues to plot while away • 5 other conspirators remain in Rome but are found out • Cicero presents the evidence Cicero Denounces Caline of their conspiracy to the Cesare Maccari, 1889 hp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maccari-Cicero.jpg senate, and they are condemned to death without a trial – because of Cicero’s role in this he is exiled in 58 Cicero and other key republican figures • Caesar – Cicero was oen in awe of Caesar but also distrusted him • Mark Antony – Cicero wanted the Senate to declare Antony an enemy of the state, because of this Cicero was eventually proscribed (i.e. condemned to death) by the Second Triumvirate (Mark Antony, Lepidus and Octavian) • Pompey – Cicero was at core a supporter of Pompey and during the Civil War he overtly supported him • Octavian – Cicero made sure that the terms of Caesar’s will, which declared Octavian his adopted son, were carried out Cicero: opmates and populares

• Cicero was mainly aligned with Pompey (as opposed to Caesar) • Opmates: wished to limit the power of the popular assembly and the tribune and were against land reforms that would give the plebs beer polical representaon • Populares: members of the elite who relied on the support of the people, the popular assembly and the tribunate to acquire polical power – The Gracchi – Marius – Caesar – Clodius – Caline • The terms don’t refer to co-ordinated pares as much as two different means for achieving polical aims Cicero’s works

Poems hp://www.bloomsbury.com/(X(1)S(afgec5yjppnvoa55ayuu2m45))/us/the-poems-of-cicero-9781853995293/

Speeches hp://careers.theguardian.com/university-clearing-2012-perspecve

Rhetorical Theory hp://openlibrary.org/works/OL15733516W/De_oratore

Philosophy hp://www.library.usyd.edu.au/libraries/rare/philosophy/cicero.html

Literature and Polics: Cicero’s speeches • 48 speeches survive either in full or parally • Speeches either in support of or against fellow policians • Person’s ability as an orator ed to character: a bonus vir (a good man) was thus bound to be a good speaker Cicero’s choice of who to • In Verrem (70 BCE) defend and who to – Prosecuted Verres who was prosecute is a catalogue of defended by Q. Hortensius his polical alliances/ Hortalus enemies – The prosecuon of Verres enabled Cicero to defeat Hortalus, whom he replaced as a leading figure at the bar • Pro Caelio (56 BCE) – Although it is defence speech of Marcus Caelius Rufus, Cicero uses the case to get back at Publius Clodius Pulcher who had been instrumental in his exile • In Pisonem (55 BCE) – Consul at the me of Cicero’s exile – Cicero felt that Piso hadn’t done Lucius Calpurnius Piso enough to stop his exile hp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ File:L_Calpurnius_Piso_Ponfex_MAN_Napoli_Inv5601.jpg Literature and Polics: Cicero’s Leers • Collecons – Ad familiares – Ad Acum – Ad Quintum fratrem – Ad Brutum • Content – Some include official dispatches and are semi-public outlining maers of polical importance – Others are more personal, such as those in which he talks about the grief he feels at the death of his daughter Major philosophical schools in the 1st century BCE

• Academic Skepcism – An ancient variant of Platonism that claimed knowledge of truth was impossible • Stoics – They thought that a happy life would come by being virtuous – They renounced all passions and aimed for a state of apathy • Epicureans – They argued that ataraxia could be achieved by following 4 basic precepts • Don’t fear the gods • Don’t fear death • What is good is easy to obtain • What is painful is easy to endure • Peripatecism – Followers of Aristotle • Neopythagoreanism – The concept of the soul and communion central to this school of philosophy – Derived from the doctrines of Pythagoras • Cynics – They regarded poverty as the best way of achieving happiness – They eschewed convenonal social es hp://www.sacred-desnaons.com/france/autun-musee-rolin

Literature and Polics: Cicero and Philosophy • He was the first Roman to aempt to find Lan words to convey Greek philosophical thought • He did more than just copy Greek philosophy, and he interpreted it through the lens of Roman culture • He followed the Academy and Stoicism, although his works reflect ecleccism and he oen picked and chose from different creeds • Cicero regarded philosophy as subordinate to polics – His works on philosophy had a polical purpose: to help defend and improve the Roman republic Literature and Polics: Sallust, Catullus, Lucreus • Gaius Sallusus Crispus (86 BC – c. 35 BC) – Historian who felt that he could best contribute to republic by wring history rather than through military deeds – He wrote the Bellum Calinae and Bellum Iugurthinum • Gaius Valerius Catullus (ca. 84–54 BC) – A poet who uses polical and military language to talk about love – (Cicer really didn’t like Catullus) • Titus Lucreus Carus (c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC) – He is concerned with showing how Epicurean doctrine will help Romans cure their social and polical problems Polics as a way of life

• Choosing not to parcipate in polics is itself polical – it is an act of polical dissidence • For the Roman elite, everything came back to polics – Probably the result of such a small group of people being in charge – It is also an accident of history, that all remaining literary sources (with the excepon of some poems by the female The Roman Forum hp://www.history.com/photos/roman-architecture-and-engineering/photo5 poet Sulpicia and some leers found near Hadrian’s wall) from Rome are wrien by men for a male audience