Marcus Tullius Cicero, Classical Latin]; January 3, 106 BC -
December 7, 43 BC; sometimes anglicized as Tully), was a Roman
philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman
constitutionalists. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the
equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest
orators and prose stylists. He introduced the Romans to the chief
schools of Greek philosophy and created a Latin philosophical
vocabulary (with neologisms such as humanitas, qualitas, quantitas,
and essentia) distinguishing himself as a linguist, translator, and
philosopher. An impressive orator and successful lawyer, Cicero
thought that his political career was 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 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. Cicero's speeches and letters remain some of the most
important primary sources that survive on the last days of the
Roman Republic. During the chaotic latter half of the 1st 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. Cicero became
an enemy of Mark Antony, attacking him in a series of speeches. He
was proscribed as an enemy of the state by the Second Triumvirate
and subsequently murdered in 43 BC.
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