CHAPTER FOUR CICERO'S EARLY SPEECHES Ann Vasaly The political and oratorical career- the two cannot and should not be separated- of Marcus Tullius Cicero began in a world of civic chaos and bloodshed. Born in 106 B.C., I educated after the age of lOin Rome, he would have received the toga virilis, the 'toga of manhood,' in about 90, the beginning of a decade in Rome marked by appalling political violence. The election to the consulship of L. Cornelius Sulla in 88 was soon followed by the unprecedented spectacle of a Roman general unleashing a Roman army against his fellow citizens, the aftermath of the attempt by the tribune P. Sulpicius Rufus to transfer Sulla's military command against Mithradates of Pontus to the aging Gaius Marius. After Sulla's first march on Rome, his elimination of many of his enemies, and his subsequent depar­ ture for the East, he was simultaneously outlawed and allowed to wage war against Rome's enemies in Greece and Asia Minor. During his absence, Rome endured the domination of L. Cornelius Cinna and his allies, whose return to the city with Marius after Sulla's departure was accompanied by the slaughter of their political ene­ mies, including one of the greatest orators of the day, Marcus Antonius. A new spasm of violence began with the death of Cinna in 84, at which Sulla declared himself in rebellion against the government and prepared to return to Italy to wage war against his domestic opponents. Among those murdered in Rome in the months before the outbreak of that conflict was Q Mucius Scaevola, the aged law I All dates are B.C. For Ciceronian biography, ancient sources include the ora­ tor's own works- especially the epistles and the Brutus- and Plutarch's life of the orator, which draws on many sources no longer extant. Among more recent mod­ ern treatments are: M. Gelzer, Cicero, ein biographischer Versuch (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner 1969); D. L. Stockton, Cicero: A Political Biography (New York: Oxford University Press 1971 ); E. Rawson, Cicero, a Portrait (London: Allen Lane 1975); T . N. Mitchell, Cicero, the Ascending Years (New Haven: Yale University Press 1979); C. Habicht, Cicero the Politician (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press 1990). 72 ANN VASALY expert and pontiftx maximus, who had for several years served as the young Cicero's teacher and mentor. Despite Scaevola's previous will­ ingness to work with the Cinnan government and despite his posi­ tion as head of the state religion, his death was ordered by the praetor of 82. The victory of Sulla at the Colline Gate began another bloodletting, a reign of terror given a semblance of legality by the publication of lists of the proscribed, i.e., those citizens who could be killed with impunity. If large-scale purges and civic violence came to a temporary end during the years of Sullan dominance (82- 79), it was in large part because many citizens with strong political sen­ timents and the courage to fight for them had been killed or driven off by one side or the other. Thus, in 81, still mourning the violent deaths of many of the men he had admired and learned from, and exquisitely aware not only of the dangers of opposing a leader such as Sulla but even of remaining neutral under the domination of a military dynast, Cicero embarked on his public career. 1. The Pro Quinctio Cicero's first published speech, the Pro OJ1inctio, was delivered in 81 under Sulla dictator. At the beginning of this oration Cicero speaks of other cases he had undertaken; we may assume, therefore, that he had appeared in earlier civil actions during the same year. The speech for Quinctius was probably the most noteworthy of these­ in part because opposing him in the case had been Q Hortensius Hortalus, the foremost orator in Rome at that time. In this speech and in the Pro Roscio Amerino of the following year, Cicero alludes often to his youth and inexperience.2 It would be a mistake, how­ ever, to make too much of the orator's claimed lack of sophistica­ tion and maturity at this time. His preparation for his debut had been a thorough one under the guidance of some of the most emi­ nent orators and legal minds of the day, and-according to Plutarch (Cic. 2.2)- Cicero's brilliance as a student had been such that the fathers of those he studied with had come to listen to him declaim. Furthermore, his period of preparation had been unusually long, no doubt a result of the political troubles of the 80s. Other ambitious 2 See O!finet. 2- 4, 34, 77; Rose. Am. ]- 5, 9, 31, 34, 60. .