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SPQR (series)

SPQR (series)

The SPQR series is a collection of detective stories by John Maddox Roberts set in the time of the Roman Republic. SPQR (the original title of the first book, until the sequels came out) is a Latin acronym for "Senatus Populusque Romanus" ("the Roman Senate and People"), the official name of the Republic. The stories are told in first-person form by Senator Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger (born 95 BC, "the same year as Cato"), nephew of Metellus Pius and member of an important family of the Roman Senate. The stories are told in flashback-form by the old Decius, writing during the reign of Augustus Caesar. The stories range from 70 BC (The King's Gambit) to 22 BC ("The King of Sacrifices"). Decius' companions include his slaves Cato, Cassandra, and Hermes; his friends, the Greek gladiator physician Asklepiodes and the gangster Titus Annius Milo; and his staunch enemies, the siblings Clodia and Clodius. Along the way, he is often helped by his father, as well as by Cicero and a young Julius Caesar. In later books, Decius is betrothed to the (fictional) niece of Caesar, Julia Caesaris. The dates are all listed at the end of each book in the ab urbe condita calendar system. The series includes (in chronological order):
- I: The King's Gambit (70 BC) - Decius uncovers a plot to subvert Lucullus' army in the war against Mithridates
- II: The Catiline Conspiracy (63-62 BC) - Decius uncovers Catiline's plot to overthrow the Republic
- III: The Sacrilige (62 BC) - Decius investigates Clodius' desecration of the Bona Dea rites
- IV: The Temple of the Muses (60 BC) - Decius investigates the murder of a philosopher at the Library of Alexandria
- "The Statuette of Rhodes" (60 BC) (short story in Classical Whodunnits 1996 edited by Mike Ashley)- Decius finds a corpse on the base of the Colossus of Rhodes
- V: Saturnalia (59 BC) - Decius investigates the murder of his kinsman Metellus Celer
- VI: Nobody Loves a Centurion (58 BC) - Decius investigates the murder of a centurion of the 10th Legion at the start of the Gallic Wars
- VII: The Tribune's Curse (55 BC) - Decius investigates the murder of a tribune who curses Crassus on his way to Parthia
- VIII: The River God's Vengeance (52 BC) Decius investigates a collapsed insula, uncovering systematic fraud in the construction trade.
- IX: The Princess and the Pirates (50 BC) Decius investigates the murder of his host, the Roman governor of Cyprus, while on the island to deal with an upsurge in piracy.
- "Mightier Than the Sword" (short story in The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits 1993 edited by Mike Ashley) - Newly-elected Aedile Decius Caecilius Metellus finds himself diverted from duty when he stumbles across a corpse.
- "The Etruscan House" (short story in Crime Through Time II 1998 collected by Miriam Grace Monfredo & Sharan Newman) - Decius' investigates a senator's murder
- X: A Point of Law - currently unpublished in English, published in German translation in 2000 as Im Namen Caesars ISBN: 3-442-44517-5
- XI: Under Vesuvius - currently unpublished in English, published in 2001 in German translation as Mord am Vesuv ISBN: 3-442-44773-9
- XII: Oracle of Death - currently unpublished in English, published in October 2005 in German translation as Das Orakel des Todes.
- XIII: The Year of Confusion - currently unpublished.
- "Venus in Pearls" (45 BC) (short story Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine July/August 2001 p36)- Caesar hires Decius to locate his stolen breastplate before his Pompeian triumph
- "The Will" (44 BC) - Decius investigates Caesar's will following his assassination
- "The King of Sacrifices" (22 BC) (short story in The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives 1995 edited by Mike Ashley) - Livia hires Decius to investigate the murder of Julia's lover
- "An Academic Question" (short story in Past Poisons 1998 edited by Maxim Jakubowski)
- "The Mountain Wolves" (short story in Classical Stories: Heroic Tales from Ancient Greece and Rome 1996 edited by Mike Ashley) Category:Historical novels Category:Roman novels Category:Series of books Category:Detective fiction

SPQR

See also the SPQR series of murder mystery novels and the SPQR board game. SPQR board game SPQR is an initialism for the Latin phrase Senatus Populusque Romani. The translation is "The Senate and the People of Rome," Senatus meaning "Senate", Populus meaning "people", the suffix que meaning "and", and Romani meaning "of Rome". It was emblazoned on the standards of the Roman legions and was the official name of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. It also appears in the coat of arms of the present-day city of Rome, and appears on most civic buildings as well as many manhole covers in the city. These manhole covers were placed in Rome on order of Mussolini, who apart from this use, started using SPQR on many other occasions as a way to make propaganda for his regime. Mussolini Several versions are suggested about the correct meaning of the initialism, depending on the presumed declination of "R"; Romanus ("Roman People") and Romæ ("People of Rome") are the most common. Senatus Populusque Romanus is the version given on Trajan's Column.

Parodies

A more humorous meaning of the initialism is the Italian phrase "Sono pazzi questi Romani", which translates into "These Romans are crazy". It is often used by the Italian translations of the comic book character Obelix. Another humorous, yet puerile, meaning is "Small Profits, Quick Returns." The initials SPQA can be found at one of the major theatres of Amsterdam.

See also


- Roman infantry tactics, strategy and battle formations Category:Ancient Rome ko:SPQR ja:SPQR



Caecilius Metellus

The Caecilii Metellii was one of the most important and wealthiest families in the Roman Republic. Although plebeians (meaning not of patrician stock — the Caecilii Metelli were nobles) the Caecilii Metellii remained a political power within the state, from 3rd century BC to the end of the Republic, holding every office in the cursus honorum as well as several important military commands. Important members of the Caecilius Metellus clan include:
- Lucius Caecilius Metellus, consul 251 BC and 247 BC, died 221 BC, pontifex maximus
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus, consul 206 BC
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus - eldest son of Quintus Caecilius Metellus, consul in 206 BC. He was a brilliant general that fought in the Third Macedonic War, securing, in 146 BC the annexation of Macedonia as a Roman province, hence the cognomen Macedonicus. He was elected consul in 143 BC and censor in 131 BC. During his censorship, Macedonicus legislated to make marriage compulsory for Romans, a law that was never put into practice. He died in 115 BC
- Lucius Caecilius Metellus Calvus, consul 142 BC
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Balearicus, consul 123 BC, censor 120 BC
- Lucius Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus, consul 119 BC, pontifex maximus in 115 BC, father of Dalmatica
- Lucius Caecilius Metellus Diadematus, consul 117 BC, censor 115 BC
- Marcus Caecilius Metellus, consul 115 BC
- Gaius Caecilius Metellus Caprarius, consul 113 BC, censor 102 BC
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus - second son of Calvus, he was the leader of the conservative faction of the senate and a bitter enemy of Gaius Marius. Elected consul in 109 BC, he was sent to Numidia to wage war against king Jugurtha. After winning the battle of the Muthul, he returned to Rome to celebrate a triumph and acquired the cognomen Numidicus. Numidicus was elected censor 102 BC in partnership with his cousin Caprarius. During the censorship, he tried to expel Lucius Appuleius Saturninus from the senate, without success. Afterwards, Saturninus had his revenge and forced him to swear the acceptance of the agrarian law that entitled Marius' veterans to farmlands. Numidicus refused and was sent into exile. He died in 91 BC.
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos - son of Balearicus, he was elected consul in 98 BC. One of the few known aspects of his life are the circumstances that surrounded his marriage to Licinia Crassa, the mother of his sons. Licinia was already married to another man, Quintus Mucius Scaevola, when they started an affair. Being discovered, Licinia was outcast and branded as an adulteress but Nepos, rather than lose her, divorced his wife and married her less than a week after. This was such a scandalous procedure that the wedding deserved several references in the ancient sources.
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius - only son of Numidicus, started his military career as a legate to Lucius Cornelius Sulla in the Social War. After the outlawing of Sulla, he remained faithful to him and fled to Africa. In 83 BC he returned to Sulla and helped him win the civil war that eventually made Sulla dictator. To reward him for his services, Sulla nominated him pontifex maximus. He was elected consul 80 BC and afterwards, sent as a proconsul to the Hispania provinces. For the next eight years, he remained in Iberia fighting against the rebellious Sertorius, the last five with the help of Pompey. He eventually returned to Rome, where he celebrated a triumph for his victories in Hispania. He died around 63 BC. For his campaign against Sertorius, Pius earned the respect of Roman military historians, particularly Frontinus who often refers his deeds on the book Stratagemata.
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus, consul 69 BC
- Lucius Caecilius Metellus, consul 68 BC
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, consul 60 BC, died 59 BC, perhaps poisoned by his wife Clodia
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos, consul 57 BC
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Cornelianus Scipio Nasica - AKA Metellus Scipio, consul 52 BC, adopted son of Metellus Pius, with whom he campaigned against Sertorius. He was a member of Cato the Younger's boni faction of the Roman Senate, and became father-in-law of Pompey the Great. He commanded the "Republican" army at Thapsus, and was killed in battle against Julius Caesar's legions.
- Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger, fictional star of the SPQR series of books Women of the Caecili Metelli family were always named Caecilia Metella, according to the Roman naming convention. To distinguish them, the Caecilias often carried their father's cognomen, declined in a female form. Famous Caecilias include:
- Caecilia Metella Dalmatica, wife of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, successively
- Caecilia Metella Calva, mother of Lucius Licinius Lucullus
- Caecilia Metella Balearica Minor, mother of Publius Clodius Pulcher
- Caecilia Metella Celer See also: Caecilius Metellus family tree Category:Families of Rome

Cato Uticensis

Marcus Porcius Cato Uticencis (95 BC–46 BC), known as Cato the Younger to distinguish him from his great-grandfather Cato the Elder, was a politician and statesman in the late Roman Republic, and a follower of the Stoic philosophy. He is remembered for his legendary stubbornness and tenacity (especially in his lengthy conflict with Julius Caesar), as well as his immunity to bribes and famous distaste for corruption.

Early life

Cato was born in 95 BC in Rome, the son of Marcus Porcius Cato by his wife Livia Drusa. He lost both of his parents very early and moved to live in the house of his maternal uncle Marcus Livius Drusus, who also looked after Quintus Servilius Caepio and Servilia Caepionis from Livia's first marriage, as well as Porcia Catones (Cato's sister), and Drusus Nero (Livius' adopted son). Drusus was assassinated when Cato was four years old. The legend of Cato's stubbornness began in his early years. Sarpedon, his tutor, reports a very obedient and questioning child, although slow in being persuaded of things and sometimes difficult. A story told by Plutarch tells of Popaedius Silo, leader of the Marsii and involved in a highly controversial business in the Roman forum, made a visit to his friend Marcus Livius he met the children of the house. In a playful mood he asked the children's support for his cause. All of them nodded and smiled except Cato, who stared at the guest with most suspicious looks. Silo demanded an answer from him and seeing no response took Cato and hanged him by the feet out of the window. Even then, Cato would not say anything. Being a friend of the family, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the Roman dictator, liked to talk with Cato and his inseparable effeminate half-brother Caepio, and appreciated his company even when the teenager defied his opinions in public.

Political beginnings

After receiving his inheritance, Cato moved from his uncle's house and began to study Stoic philosophy and politics. He began to live in a very modest way, as his great-grandfather Cato the Elder had famously done. Cato subjected himself to violent exercise, and learned to endure cold and rain with a minimum of clothes. He ate only what was necessary and drank the cheapest wine on the market. This was entirely for philosophical reasons, since his inheritance would have permitted him to live comfortably. He remained in private life for a long time, rarely seen in public. But when he did appear in the forum, his speeches and rhetorical skills were most admired. Although Cato was promised Aemilia Lepida, a patrician woman, she married Cornelius Scipio instead. He threatened to sue them both in the courts, but his friends convinced him to step aside and marry a woman called Atilia. By her, he had a son, Marcus Porcius Cato, and a daughter, Porcia Catones, who would become the second wife of Marcus Junius Brutus. As a military tribune, Cato was sent to Macedon in 67 BC at the age of 28 and given command of a legion. He led his men from the front, sharing their work, food and sleeping quarters. He was strict in discipline and punishment but ended being loved by his legionaries. While Cato was in service in Macedon, he received the news that his beloved half-brother was dying in Thrace. He immediately set off to see him and got there in time to watch Caepio die. Cato was overwhelmed by grief and, for once in his life, he spared no expense to organize a lavish funeral for his brother. Caepio left his fortune to be divided between his daughter Servilia and Cato. At the end of his military commission in Macedon, Cato went on a private journey through the Roman provinces of the Middle East.

Cato and the Optimates

On his return to Rome in 65 BC, Cato was elected to the position of quaestor. Like everything else in his life, he took great care to study the background necessary for the post, especially the laws relating to taxes. One of his first moves was to prosecute former quaestors for illegal appropriation of funds and dishonesty. Cato also prosecuted Sulla's informers, who had acted as head-hunters during his tyranny. They were accused first of illegal appropriation of treasury money, and then of homicide. At the end of the year, Cato stepped down from his quaestorship but never ceased to keep an eye on the Treasury, always looking for irregularities. As senator, Cato was scrupulous and determined. He never missed a session of the senate and publicly criticized the ones who did so. From day one he aligned himself with the Optimates, the conservative faction of the senate. He had, though, some strange habits, excused by his supporters as extravagances, such as appearing sometimes in public with no shoes, no underwear or both; or drinking unwatered wine, which, to the Roman mind, was a very distasteful and inelegant thing to do. Optimates In 63 BC, he was elected tribune of the plebs and assisted Marcus Tullius Cicero, the junior consul of the year, in his office, especially in dealing with the Catiline conspiracy. Sergius Catilina, a noble patrician, was leading a rebellion inside Rome, with the purpose of becoming king. Cicero and Cato annihilated the danger and prosecuted all the men involved and sentenced them to death (a very unusual thing for a Roman citizen). In the public discussion on the subject, Julius Caesar advocated a sentence of life exile for the conspirators. Cato's political, and personal, differences with Caesar date from this day. In a meeting of the senate dedicated to the Catilina affair, Cato harshly reproached Caesar for reading personal messages while the senate was in session . Moreover, he accused him of conspiracy and suggested that he was working on Catilina's behalf. Caesar replied that it was only a love letter. Not believing the poor excuse, Cato took the paper from his hands and read it. Unfortunately for him, Caesar was right: it was indeed a love letter from his mistress Servilia Caepionis, Cato's half-sister. This quickly turned into a huge scandal. Servilia was divorced from her husband and the Roman senators started to look out for their households, since Caesar was notorious for liking to sleep with his political enemies' wives. Cato soon discovered he was one of his victims and immediately divorced his wife Atilia. He then married Marcia Philippa, the daughter of Lucius Marcius Philippus. A few years later, however, his friend Quintus Hortensius, an old man known for his rhetorical skills, asked for the hand of Cato's daughter from his previous marriage. But at the time, Porcia Catones was married to Calpurnius Bibulus, who was unwilling to let her go. Instead Cato took the surprising step of divorcing his Marcia and giving her to Quintus Hortensius. After Hortensius' death, Cato married Marcia for the second time, taking possession of part of Hortensius' inheritance.

Cato against the triumvirate

After the Catilina conspiracy and the scandal about his wife, Cato turned all his political skills to sabotaging everything that Caesar and his triumvirate allies (Pompey and Crassus) wanted to do. In 61 BC, Pompey returned from his Mithridatic campaign with two ambitions: to celebrate a triumph, and become consul for the second time. In order to achieve both goals, he asked the senate to postpone consular elections until after his triumph. At first, due to Pompey's enormous popularity, the senate was willing to oblige him. Then Cato intervened and made such a scandal about the issue that the senate forced Pompey to choose. The result was Pompey's third triumph, one of the most magnificent ever seen in Rome. The next year he played the same trick on Caesar, returning from Hispania Ulterior, but Caesar chose to lose the right to the triumph and run for the consulship (which he got). When Caesar became consul, Cato opposed every law he suggested, especially the agrarian laws that established farmlands for the poor Roman citizens and Pompey's veterans. On one occasion, Caesar lost his patience and ordered Cato arrested when he was making another speech against him at the rostra. So many Senators protested this by threatening to go to prison with Cato that Caesar relented. Upon his subsequent release he did not moderate his opposition to the triumvirs, unsuccessfully attempting to prevent Caesar's five-year appointment as governor of Illyria and Cisalpine Gaul.

Cato in Cyprus

Cato made such a nuisance of himself that Caesar and his triumvirate allies resolved that the best course was to get him out of town. The incentive was too good to refuse: the governorship of the new province of Cyprus. Cato accused them of trying to get rid of him, but eventually accepted the honour of being governor above being praetor. This task would show the world how much a Stoic philosopher Cato was. The province was rich both in gold and opportunities for extortion. Against common practice, he took none and prepared immaculate accounts for the senate. According to Plutarch, Cato raised the enormous sum of 7,000 talents of silver for the Roman treasury. He thought about every unexpected event, even to tying ropes to the coffers with a big piece of cork on the other end, so they could be located in the event of a shipwreck. Unfortunately, luck played him a trick. Of his perfect accounting books, none survived: the one he had was burnt, the other were lost at sea with the freedman carrying it. Only Cato's untainted reputation saved him from extortion charges. The senate of Rome recognized the effort made in Cyprus and offered him a reception in the city, an extraordinary praetorship, and other privileges, all of which he stubbornly refused as an unlawful honour.

Cato in the Civil War

The triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus was broken in 54 BC at the same time as Cato's election as praetor. Feeling his enemy in trouble, Cato and the conservative faction of the senate spent the coming years trying to force the recall of Caesar from Gaul. It was a time of political turmoil, when demagogues like Publius Clodius Pulcher tried to make their political careers by wooing the crowds and resorting to violence. Cato fought them all and ended as Pompey's ally and political advisor. In 49 BC, Caesar crossed the Rubicon accompanied by his thirteenth legion to fight for his right to run for a second consulship. The conservators, now led by Pompey, abandoned the city and ran to Greece, with Cato, an utter enemy of Caesar, among them. The Optimates army was defeated by Caesar in the battle of Pharsalus (48 BC) and Pompey himself was killed shortly afterwards when he fled to Egypt. Cato and Metellus Scipio did not yet concede defeat and escaped to the province of Africa to continue resistance from Utica. Due to his presence in this city, Cato is sometimes referred to as Cato Uticensis (from Utica). Caesar went after them and, in February 46 BC, defeated their army at the Battle of Thapsus. Being in Utica, Cato did not participate in the battle and, unwilling to live in a world led by Caesar, and refusing even implicitly to grant Caesar the power to pardon him, he committed suicide. Legend has it that Cato attempted to commit suicide by falling on his own sword. His servants found him on the ground and stitched up and bandaged his wound. Cato waited till they left him and then tore off the bandages and the stitches with his fingers and pulled out his own intestines, thereby completing his suicide attempt.

After Cato

Cato is remembered as a Stoic philosopher and one of the most active paladins of the decaying Republic. His high moral standards and incorruptible virtue gained him praise even from his political enemies. After Cato's death, Cicero wrote a manifest eulogizing these qualities, to which Caesar (who never forgave him for all the obstructions) answered with his Anticato speech. Republicans under the empire remembered him fondly, and the poet Lucan, writing under Nero, made Cato the hero of Book IX of his unfinished epic, the Pharsalia. In Dante's The Divine Comedy, Cato is portrayed as the guardian of the seaward approach to the island of purgatory. In Canto I, Dante writes of Cato: :: I saw close by me a solitary old man, worthy, by :his appearance, of so much reverence that never :son owed father more. :: Long was his beard and mixed with white hair, :similar to the hairs of his head, which fell to his :breast in two strands. :: The rays of the four holy lights so adorned his :face with brightness that I saw him as if the sun :had been before him. Cato's life is immortalized in Joseph Addison's play, Cato, A Tragedy, which George Washington often quoted.

Cato's descendants and marriages


- First wife, Atilia (divorced for adultery)
  - Porcia Catones, married first to Calpurnius Bibulus, then to Brutus
  - Marcus Porcius Cato, later killed in the Second Battle of Philippi
- Second (and third) wife, Marcia Phillipa

Chronology


- 95 BC – Birth in Rome
- 67 BC – Military tribune in Macedon
- 65 BC – Quaestor in Rome
- 63 BC – Tribune of the Plebs, Catilina's conspiracy
- 60 BC – Forces Caesar to choose between consulship and triumph
- 59 BC – Opposes Caesar's laws
- 58 BC – Governorship of Cyprus
- 54 BC – Praetor
- 49 BC – Caesar crosses the Rubicon and invades Italy; Cato goes with Pompey to Greece
- 48 BC – Battle of Pharsalus, Pompey defeated; Cato goes to Africa
- 46 BC –
  - Defeated in the Battle of Thapsus
  - Commits suicide

Fictional portrayals

In the television series Rome, the character Cato, loosely based on the historical Cato, is played by actor Karl Johnson. In the 2002 miniseries Julius Caesar, Cato is played by Christopher Walken.

References


- Hughes-Hallett, Lucy. Heroes: A History of Hero Worship. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, New York, 2004. ISBN 1-4000-4399-9.
- Plutarch. Cato the Younger. Category:Ancient Romans Category:95 BC births Category:46 BC deaths Category:Suicides ja:小カトー

Metellus Pius

The Caecilii Metellii was one of the most important and wealthiest families in the Roman Republic. Although plebeians (meaning not of patrician stock — the Caecilii Metelli were nobles) the Caecilii Metellii remained a political power within the state, from 3rd century BC to the end of the Republic, holding every office in the cursus honorum as well as several important military commands. Important members of the Caecilius Metellus clan include:
- Lucius Caecilius Metellus, consul 251 BC and 247 BC, died 221 BC, pontifex maximus
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus, consul 206 BC
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus - eldest son of Quintus Caecilius Metellus, consul in 206 BC. He was a brilliant general that fought in the Third Macedonic War, securing, in 146 BC the annexation of Macedonia as a Roman province, hence the cognomen Macedonicus. He was elected consul in 143 BC and censor in 131 BC. During his censorship, Macedonicus legislated to make marriage compulsory for Romans, a law that was never put into practice. He died in 115 BC
- Lucius Caecilius Metellus Calvus, consul 142 BC
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Balearicus, consul 123 BC, censor 120 BC
- Lucius Caecilius Metellus Dalmaticus, consul 119 BC, pontifex maximus in 115 BC, father of Dalmatica
- Lucius Caecilius Metellus Diadematus, consul 117 BC, censor 115 BC
- Marcus Caecilius Metellus, consul 115 BC
- Gaius Caecilius Metellus Caprarius, consul 113 BC, censor 102 BC
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus - second son of Calvus, he was the leader of the conservative faction of the senate and a bitter enemy of Gaius Marius. Elected consul in 109 BC, he was sent to Numidia to wage war against king Jugurtha. After winning the battle of the Muthul, he returned to Rome to celebrate a triumph and acquired the cognomen Numidicus. Numidicus was elected censor 102 BC in partnership with his cousin Caprarius. During the censorship, he tried to expel Lucius Appuleius Saturninus from the senate, without success. Afterwards, Saturninus had his revenge and forced him to swear the acceptance of the agrarian law that entitled Marius' veterans to farmlands. Numidicus refused and was sent into exile. He died in 91 BC.
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos - son of Balearicus, he was elected consul in 98 BC. One of the few known aspects of his life are the circumstances that surrounded his marriage to Licinia Crassa, the mother of his sons. Licinia was already married to another man, Quintus Mucius Scaevola, when they started an affair. Being discovered, Licinia was outcast and branded as an adulteress but Nepos, rather than lose her, divorced his wife and married her less than a week after. This was such a scandalous procedure that the wedding deserved several references in the ancient sources.
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius - only son of Numidicus, started his military career as a legate to Lucius Cornelius Sulla in the Social War. After the outlawing of Sulla, he remained faithful to him and fled to Africa. In 83 BC he returned to Sulla and helped him win the civil war that eventually made Sulla dictator. To reward him for his services, Sulla nominated him pontifex maximus. He was elected consul 80 BC and afterwards, sent as a proconsul to the Hispania provinces. For the next eight years, he remained in Iberia fighting against the rebellious Sertorius, the last five with the help of Pompey. He eventually returned to Rome, where he celebrated a triumph for his victories in Hispania. He died around 63 BC. For his campaign against Sertorius, Pius earned the respect of Roman military historians, particularly Frontinus who often refers his deeds on the book Stratagemata.
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus, consul 69 BC
- Lucius Caecilius Metellus, consul 68 BC
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, consul 60 BC, died 59 BC, perhaps poisoned by his wife Clodia
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos, consul 57 BC
- Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Cornelianus Scipio Nasica - AKA Metellus Scipio, consul 52 BC, adopted son of Metellus Pius, with whom he campaigned against Sertorius. He was a member of Cato the Younger's boni faction of the Roman Senate, and became father-in-law of Pompey the Great. He commanded the "Republican" army at Thapsus, and was killed in battle against Julius Caesar's legions.
- Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger, fictional star of the SPQR series of books Women of the Caecili Metelli family were always named Caecilia Metella, according to the Roman naming convention. To distinguish them, the Caecilias often carried their father's cognomen, declined in a female form. Famous Caecilias include:
- Caecilia Metella Dalmatica, wife of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, successively
- Caecilia Metella Calva, mother of Lucius Licinius Lucullus
- Caecilia Metella Balearica Minor, mother of Publius Clodius Pulcher
- Caecilia Metella Celer See also: Caecilius Metellus family tree Category:Families of Rome

Augustus Caesar

:"Augustus" redirects here. For the honorific title see Augustus (honorific) Caesar Augustus (Latin:IMP·CAESAR·DIVI·F·AVGVSTVS) ¹ (23 September 63 BC; 19 August AD 14), known to modern historians as Octavian for the period of his life prior to 27 BC, is considered the first and one of the most important Roman Emperors, though he downplayed his own position by preferring the traditional Republic title of princeps, usually translated as "first citizen". Although he preserved the outward form of the Roman Republic, he ruled as an autocrat for more than 40 years. He ended a century of civil wars and gave Rome an era of peace, prosperity, and imperial greatness.

Early life

Augustus was born in Rome with the name Gaius Octavius Thurinus. His father, also Gaius Octavius, came from a respectable but undistinguished family of the equestrian order and was governor of Macedonia. More importantly, his mother, Atia Balba Caesonia, was the niece of Rome's greatest general and de facto ruler, Julius Caesar. He spent his early years in his grandfather's house near Veletrae (modern Velletri). In 58 BC, when he was four, his father died. He spent most of his childhood in the house of his stepfather, Lucius Marcius Philippus. In 51 BC, aged eleven, he delivered the funeral oration for his great-aunt Julia Caesaris. He put on the toga virilis at fifteen, and was elected to the College of Pontiffs. Caesar requested that Octavius join his staff for his campaign in Africa, but Atia protested that he was too young. The following year, 46 BC, she consented for him to join Caesar in Hispania, but he fell ill and was unable to travel. When he had recovered, he sailed to the front, but was shipwrecked; after coming ashore with a handful of companions, he made it across hostile territory to Caesar's camp, which impressed his great-uncle considerably. Caesar and Octavius returned home in the same carriage, and Caesar secretly changed his will.

Rise to power

When Caesar was assassinated in March 44 BC, Octavius was with the army at Apollonia, in what is now Albania. When Caesar's will was read it revealed that, having no legitimate children, he had adopted his great-nephew as his son and main heir. By virtue of his adoption, Octavius assumed the name Gaius Julius Caesar. Roman tradition dictated that he also append the surname Octavianus to indicate his biological family, from which historians derive the name Octavian; however, no evidence exists that he ever used the name Octavianus. Mark Antony later charged that he had earned his adoption by Caesar through sexual favors, though Suetonius describes Antony's accusation as political slander. Octavian, as he is now conventionally called, crossed over to Italy and recruited an army from among Caesar's veterans, gathering support by emphasizing his status as heir to Caesar. Only eighteen years old, he was consistently underestimated by his rivals for power. In Rome, he found Caesar's republican assassins, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius, in control. After a tense standoff, he formed an uneasy alliance with Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Caesar's principal colleagues. The three formed a junta called the Second Triumvirate, an explicit grant of special powers lasting five years and supported by law, unlike the unofficial First Triumvirate of Pompey, Caesar and Crassus. The triumvirs then set in motion proscriptions in which three hundred senators and two thousand equites were deprived of their property and, for those who failed to escape, their lives, going beyond a simple purge of those allied with the assassins, and probably motivated by a need to raise money to pay their troops. Antony and Octavian then marched against Brutus and Cassius, who had fled to the east. At Philippi in Macedonia, the Caesarian army was victorious and Brutus and Cassius committed suicide (42 BC). While Octavian returned to Rome, Antony went to Egypt where he allied himself with Queen Cleopatra, the ex-lover of Julius Caesar and mother of Caesar's infant son, Caesarion. While in Egypt, Antony had an affair with Cleopatra that resulted in the birth of three children, Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene, and Ptolemy Philadelphus. Antony later left Cleopatra to make a strategic marriage with Octavian's sister Octavia in 40 BC. During their marriage Octavia gave birth to two daughters, both named Antonia. In 37 BC Antony deserted Octavia and went back to Egypt to be with Cleopatra. The Roman dominions were then divided between Octavian in the west and Antony in the east. Antony occupied himself with military campaigns in the east and a romantic affair with Cleopatra; Octavian built a network of allies in Rome, consolidated his power, and spread propaganda implying that Antony was becoming less than Roman because of his preoccupation with Egyptian affairs and traditions. The situation grew more and more tense, and finally, in 32 BC, Octavian declared war. It was quickly decided: in the bay of Actium on the western coast of Greece, after Antony's men began deserting, the fleets met in a great battle in which many ships burned and thousands on both sides lost their lives. Octavian defeated his rivals who then fled to Egypt. He pursued them, and after another defeat, Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra also committed suicide after her upcoming role in Octavian's triumph was "carefully explained to her" and Caesarion, the supposed son of Julius Caesar by Cleopatra, was "butchered without compunction". (It is said that Cleopatra possibly used a snake to kill herself.) Caesarion

Octavian becomes Augustus: the creation of the Principate

The Western half of the Empire had sworn allegiance to Octavian prior to Actium in 30 BC, and after Actium and the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, the Eastern half of the Empire followed suit, placing Octavian in the position of ruler of the entire Empire. Years of civil war had left Rome in a state of near-lawlessness, but Rome was not prepared to accept the control of Octavian as a despot; however, Octavian could not simply give up his authority without risking further civil wars amoungst the Roman generals, and even if he desired no position of authority whatsoever, his position demanded that he look to the well-being of the provinces. Disbanding his personal forces, Octavian held elections and took up the position of consul; as such, though he had given up his personal armies, he was now legally in command of the legions of Rome.

The First Settlement

In 27 BC he officially returned power to the Senate of Rome, and offered to relinquish his own military supremacy over Egypt. Reportedly, the suggestion of Octavian stepping down as consul lead to rioting amongst the Plebeians in Rome. A compromise was reached between the Senate and Octavian's supporters, known as the First Settlement. Octavian was given proconsular authority over the Western half of the empire and Syria — the provinces that, combined, contained almost 70% of the Roman legions. The Senate also gave him the titles Augustus and Princeps. Augustus was a title of religious rather than political authority. In the mindset of contemporary religious beliefs, it would have cleverly symbolized a stamp of authority over humanity that went beyond any constitutional definition of his status. Additionally, after the harsh methods employed in consolidating his control, that the change in name would also serve to separate his benign reign as Augustus from his reign of terror as Octavian. Princeps translates to "first-citizen" or "first-leader". It had been a title under the Republic for those who had served the state well; for example, Gnaeus Pompey had held the title. Additionally, and perhaps the most dangerous innovation, Augustus was granted the right to wear the Civic Crown of laurel and oak. This crown was usually held above the head of a Roman general during a Triumph, with the individual holding the crown charged to continually repeat, "Remember, thou art mortal," to the triumphant general. The fact that not only was Augustus awarded this crown but awarded the right to actually wear it upon his head is perhaps the clearest indication of the creation of a monarchy. However, it must be noted that none of these titles, or the Civic Crown, granted Octavian any additional powers or authority; for all intents and purposes the new Augustus was simply a highly-honored Roman citizen, holding the consulship. These actions were highly abnormal from the Roman Senate, but this was not the same body of patricians that had murdered Caesar. Both Antony and Octavian had purged the Senate of suspect elements and planted it with their loyal partisans. How free a hand the Senate had in these transactions, and what backroom deals were made, remain unknown.

The Second Settlement

In 23 BC Augustus renounced the consulship, but retained his consular imperium, leading to a second compromise between Augustus and the Senate known as the Second Settlement. Augustus was granted the power of a tribune (tribunicia potestas), though not the title, which allowed him to convene the Senate and people at will and lay business before it, veto the actions of either the Assembly or the Senate, preside over elections, and the right to speak first at any meeting. Also included in Augustus' tribunician authority were powers usually reserved for the Roman censor; these included the right to supervise public morals and scrutinize laws to ensure they were in the public interest, as well as the ability to hold a census and determine the membership of the Senate. No Tribune of Rome ever had these powers, and there was no precedent within the Roman system for combining the powers of the Tribune and the Censor into a single position, nor was Augustus ever elected to the office of Censor. Whether censorial powers were granted to Augustus as part of his tribunician authority, or he simply assumed these responsibilities, is still a matter of debate. In addition to tribunician authority, Augustus was granted sole imperium within the city of Rome itself: all armed forces in the city, formerly under the control of the Praefects, were now under the sole authority of Augustus. Additionally, Augustus was granted imperium proconsulare maius, or "imperium over all the proconsuls", which translated to the right to interfere in any province in the Roman Empire and override the decisions of any governor. With maius imperium, Augustus was the only individual able to receive a triumph as he was obstensibly the head of every Roman army. Many of the political subtleties of the Second Settlement seem to have evaded the comprehension of the Plebeian class. When in 22 BC Augustus failed to stand for election as consul, fears arose once again that Augustus, seen as the great "defender of the people", was being forced from power by the aristocratic Senate. In 22, 21, and 20 BC the people rioted in response, and only allowed a single consul to be elected for each of those years, obstensibly to leave the other position open for Augustus. Finally in 19 BC the Senate voted to allow Augustus to wear the consul's insignia in public and before the Senate. This seems to have assuaged the populace; regardless of whether or not Augustus was actually a consul, the importance was that he appeared as one before the people. With these powers in mind, it must be understood that all forms of permanent and legal power within Rome officially lay with the Senate and the people; Augustus was given extraordinary powers, but only as a pronconsul and magistrate under the authority of the Senate. Augustus never presented himself as a king or autocrat, once again only allowing himself to be addressed by the title Princeps. After the death of Lepidus in 13 BC he additionally took up the position of pontifex maximus. Later Roman Emperors would generally be limited to the powers and titles originally granted to Augustus, though often, in order to display humility, newly appointed Emperors would often decline one or more of the honorifics given to Augustus. Just as often, as their reign progressed, Emperors would appropriate all of the titles, regardless of whether they had actually been granted by the Senate. The Civic Crown, consular insignia, and later the purple robes of a Triumphant general (toga picta) became the imperial insignia well into the Byzantine era, and were even adopted by many Germanic tribes invading the former Western empire as insignia of their right to rule.

Reign

Having gained power by means of great audacity, Augustus ruled with great prudence. In exchange for near absolute power, he gave Rome 40 years of civic peace and increasing prosperity, celebrated in history as the Pax Romana, or Roman Peace. He created Rome's first permanent army and navy and stationed the legions along the Empire's borders, where they could not meddle in politics. A special unit, the Praetorian Guard, garrisoned Rome and protected the Emperor's person. He also reformed Rome's finance and tax systems. Augustus waged no major wars. A war in the mountains of northern Hispania from 26 BC to 19 BC finally resulted in that territory's conquest. After Gallic raids, the Alpine territories were conquered. Rome's borders were advanced to the natural frontier of the Danube, and the province of Galatia was occupied. Further west, an attempt to advance into Germany ended with the defeat at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9. Thereafter Augustus and his successors accepted the Rhine as the Empire's permanent border. In the east, he satisfied himself with establishing Roman control over Armenia and the Transcaucasus. He left the Parthian Empire alone maintaining generally good relations with them. In domestic matters, Augustus channeled the enormous wealth brought in from the Empire to keeping the army happy with generous payments, and keeping the citizens of Rome happy by beautifying the capital and staging magnificent games. He famously boasted that he "found Rome brick and left it marble". He built the Senate a new home, the Curia, and built temples to Apollo and the Divine Julius. He also built a shrine near the Circus Maximus. The Capitoline Temple and the Theater of Pompey are recorded as projects of Augustus, whose name was deliberately uncredited. He founded a ministry of transport that built an extensive network of roads — enabling improved communication, trade, and mail. Augustus also founded the world's first fire brigade, and created a regular police force for Rome. police Roman rulers understood little about economics, and Augustus was no exception. Like all the Emperors, he overtaxed agriculture and spent the revenue on armies, temples, and games. Once the Empire stopped expanding, and had no more loot coming in from conquests, its economy began to stagnate and eventually decline. The reign of Augustus is thus seen in some ways as the high point of Rome's power and prosperity. Augustus settled retired soldiers on the land in an effort to revive agriculture, but the capital remained dependent on grain imports from Egypt. Augustus also strongly supported worship of Roman gods, especially Apollo, and depicted Roman defeat of Egypt as Roman gods defeating Egypt's. He sponsored Virgil's Aeneid in the hopes that it would increase pride in Roman heritage. Augustus also launched a morality crusade, promoting marriage, family, and childbirth while discouraging luxury, unrestrained sex (including prostitution and homosexuality), and adultery. It was largely unsuccessful (indeed, his own daughter was banished due to it.) As a patron of the arts, Augustus showered favors on poets, artists, sculptors, and architects. His reign is considered the Golden Age of Roman literature. Horace, Livy, Ovid, and Virgil flourished under his protection, but in return, they had to pay tribute to his genius and adhere to his standards. (Ovid was banished from Rome for violating Augustus's morality codes.) He eventually won over most of the Roman intellectual class, although many still pined in private for the Republic. His use of games and special events to celebrate himself and his family cemented his popularity. By the time Augustus died, a return to the old system was unimaginable. The only question was who would succeed him as sole ruler.

Succession

Augustus' control of power throughout the Empire was so absolute that it allowed him to name his successor, a custom that had been abandoned and derided in Rome since the foundation of the Republic. At first, indications pointed toward his sister's son Marcellus, who had been married to Augustus' daughter Julia Caesaris. However, Marcellus died of food poisoning in 23 BC. Reports of later historians that this poisoning, and other later deaths, were caused by Augustus' wife Livia Drusilla are inconclusive at best. After the death of Marcellus, Augustus married his daughter to his right hand man, Marcus Agrippa. This union produced five children, three sons and two daughters: Gaius Caesar, Lucius Caesar, Vipsania Julia, Agrippina the Elder, and Postumus Agrippa, so named because he was born after Marcus Agrippa died. Augustus' intent to make the first two children his heirs was apparent when he adopted them as his own children. Augustus also showed favor to his stepsons, Livia's children from her first marriage, Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus and Tiberius Claudius, after they had conquered a large portion of Germany. After Agrippa died in 12 BC, Livia's son Tiberius divorced his own wife and married Agrippa's widow. Tiberius shared in Augustus' tribune powers, but shortly thereafter went into retirement. After the early deaths of both Gaius and Lucius in AD 4 and AD 2 respectively, and the earlier death of his brother Drusus (9 BC), Tiberius was recalled to Rome, where he was adopted by Augustus. On August 19, AD 14, Augustus died. Postumus Agrippa and Tiberius had been named co-heirs. However, Postumus had been banished, and was put to death around the same time. Who ordered his death is unknown, but the way was clear for Tiberius to assume the same powers that his stepfather had.

Augustus's legacy

AD 14 Augustus was deified soon after his death, and both his borrowed surname, Caesar, and his title Augustus became the permanent titles of the rulers of Rome for the next 400 years, and were still in use at Constantinople fourteen centuries after his death. The derived titles Kaiser and Tsar would be used until the early part of the 20th century. The cult of the Divine Augustus continued until the State Religion of the Empire was changed to Christianity in the 4th century. Consequently, we have many excellent statues and busts of the first, and in some ways the greatest, of the Emperors. Augustus' mausoleum also originally contained bronze pillars inscribed with a record of his life, the Res Gestae Divi Augusti. Many consider Augustus to be Rome's greatest emperor; his policies certainly extended the empire's life span and initiated the celebrated Pax Romana or Pax Augusta. He was handsome, intelligent, decisive, and a shrewd politician, but he was not perhaps as charismatic as Julius Caesar or Marc Antony; as a result, Augustus is not as renowned as either man, and is often confused with Julius Caesar. Nevertheless, his legacy proved more enduring. The month of August (Latin Augustus) is named after Augustus; until his time it was called Sextilis (the sixth month of the Roman calendar). In looking back on the reign of Augustus and its legacy to the Roman world, its longevity should not be overlooked as a key factor in its success. People were born and reached middle age without knowing any form of government other than the Principate. Had Augustus died earlier (in 23 BC, for instance), matters may have turned out differently. The attrition of the civil wars on the old Republican oligarchy and the longevity of Augustus, therefore, must be seen as major contributing factors in the transformation of the Roman state into a monarchy in these years. Augustus' own experience, his patience, his tact, and his political acumen also played their parts. He directed the future of the empire down many lasting paths, from the existence of a standing professional army stationed at or near the frontiers, to the dynastic principle so often employed in the imperial succession, to the embellishment of the capital at the emperor's expense. Augustus' ultimate legacy was the peace and prosperity the empire enjoyed for the next two centuries under the system he initiated. His memory was enshrined in the political ethos of the Imperial age as a paradigm of the good emperor, and although every emperor adopted his name, Caesar Augustus, only a handful earned genuine comparison with him (Trajan). His reign laid the foundations of a regime that lasted for 250 years. Augustus was ranked #18 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history.

Notes

# Suetonius, Augustus [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus
- .html#68 68], [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus
- .html#71 71] # From the Gracchi to Nero: HH Scullard p163 # From the Gracchi to Nero: HH Scullard p164 # Alexander to Actium: Peter Green pp 697

External links

Primary sources


- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Augustus/Res_Gestae/home.html The Res Gestae Divi Augusti] (The Deeds of Augustus, his own account: complete Latin and Greek texts with facing English translation)
- [http://www.usask.ca/antharch/cnea/DeptTransls/ResGest.html Selections from the Res Gestae] (in a different English translation)
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus
- .html Suetonius' biography of Augustus, Latin text with English translation]
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/home.html#45 Cassius Dio's Roman History: Books 45‑56, English translation]
- [http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/nicolaus.html Life of Augustus] by Nicolaus of Damascus

Secondary material


- [http://www.roman-emperors.org/auggie.htm De Imperatoribus Romanis] (A good detailed biography)
- [http://janusquirinus.org/Octavian/OctavianHome.html Octavian / Augustus]
- [http://www.jerryfielden.com/essays/augustus.htm Augustus and the Roman army – Mutual Loyalty and Rewards] Augustus, Caesar Augustus, Caesar Augustus, Caesar Augustus, Caesar Augustus, Caesar Augustus, Caesar Augustus, Caesar Augustus, Caesar ko:아우구스투스 ja:アウグストゥス simple:Caesar Augustus

70 BC

Events


- August - In Rome, Cicero prosecutes former governor Verres; Verres exiles himself to Marseille before the trial is over.
- Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus become consul.
- The office of censor is reinstated in the Roman Republic.
- Lucullus captures Sinop, then invades Armenia.
- Phraates III becomes the King of Parthia

Births


- October 15 - Virgil, Roman poet (d. 19 BC)
- December - Cleopatra VII of Egypt (or January 69 BC)
- Publius Cornelius Dolabella, Roman general
- Maecenas, Roman politician and patron

Deaths

Category:70 BC

22 BC

Events


- Lucius Arruntius and Marcus Claudius Marcellus Aeserninus are Roman Consuls.
- Aemilius Lepidus Paullus and Lucius Munatius Plancus are Censors.
- The Roman governor of Egypt, Gaius Petronius Pontius Nigrinus, marchs the Nile with legions XXII Deiotariana and III Cyrenaica, and destroys the Nubian capital of Napata.

Births


-

Deaths


- Category:22 BC ko:기원전 22년

Titus Annius Milo

Titus Annius Milo Papianus was a Roman political agitator, the son of Gaius Papius Celsus, but adopted by his mother's father, Titus Annius Luscus. He joined the Pompeian party, and organized bands of mercenaries and gladiators to support the cause by public violence in opposition to Publius Clodius Pulcher, who gave similar support to the democratic cause. Milo was tribune of the plebs in 57 BC. He took a prominent part in bringing about the recall of Cicero from exile, in spite of the opposition of Clodius. Milo became praetor in 54, and in that year married Fausta, daughter of the dictator Sulla and ex-wife of Gaius Memmius. In 53, when Milo was candidate for the consulship and Clodius for the praetorship, the two leaders met by accident on the Via Appia at Bovillae and Clodius was murdered (January 18, 52). Milo was impeached; his guilt was clear, and his enemies took every means of intimidating his supporters and his judges. Cicero was afraid to speak, and the extant Pro Milone is an expanded form of the unspoken defence. Milo went into exile at Massilia (today Marseille), and his property was sold by auction. He joined Marcus Caelius Rufus in 48 in his rising against Caesar, but was captured and executed at Cosa, near Thurii in Lucania. ---- Initial text from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. Please update as needed. Category:Ancient Romans

Clodia

Clodia, born Claudia Pulchra Tertulla circa 95 BC, was the third daughter of the patrician Appius Claudius Pulcher and Caecilia Metella Balearica. Despite being a woman, Clodia was very well educated in Greek and Philosophy, with a special talent for writing poetry. But she shared the recklessness of her younger brother, the political agitator Publius Clodius Pulcher. Her life, immortalized in the poems of Catullus and the writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero, was lived in perpetual scandal. Clodia was married as a young girl to Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer, her first cousin. Along with Publius, she changed her patrician name to Clodia, with a plebeian connotation. The marriage was not a happy one. Clodia engaged in several affairs with married men and slaves, becoming at the same time a notorious gambler and drinker. Discussions with Celer were constant, often in public situations. When Celer died in strange circumstances in 59 BC, Clodia was suspected of poisoning her husband. As a widow, Clodia became known as a merry one. Around 60 BC, her favourite lover was the poet Gaius Valerius Catullus. Madly in love with her, Catullus wrote several poems about his feelings towards Lesbia, the name he gave her. (Lesbia is widely believed to refer to Clodia, but there has been some debate on this point.) From the poems, the reader can understand that the relationship was not an exclusive one. Clodia maintained several other lovers, including Marcus Caelius Rufus, Catullus' friend. This particular affair would cause an immense scandal. After the relationship with Caelius was over in 56 BC, Clodia publicly accused him of attempted poisoning. The accusation led to a murder charge and trial. Caelius' defence lawyer was Cicero, who took a harsh approach against her, recorded in his speech Pro Caelio. Cicero had a personal interest in the case, as Publius Clodius was his bitterest political enemy. Among other things, Clodia was accused of being a seducer and a drunkard in Rome and in Baiae, as well as committing incest with her brother Publius. He declared her a disgrace to her family and nicknamed Clodia the Medea of the Palatine. After the trial of Caelius, in which he was found not guilty, Clodia disappears from the sources. Presumably, this scandal was too much for her family to digest, removing her from Roman public life. The date of her death is unknown.

See also


- Women in Rome

Further reading


- [http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/search.php?q=Lesbia&l=e&a=Search English translations of Catullus' "Lesbia" poems]
- Cicero's defence speeches: Pro Caelio Category:1st century BC births Category:Ancient Roman women

Cicero

: For other uses see Cicero (disambiguation) Marcus Tullius Cicero (standard English pronunciation ; Classical Latin pronunciation ) (January 3, 106 BC – December 7, 43 BC) was an orator and statesman of Ancient Rome, and is generally considered the greatest Latin orator and prose stylist. prose

Biography

Cicero was born in Arpinum and killed at Formia, fleeing from political enemies. "It is no exaggeration", wrote Taylor (as cited in "References"), "to say that the most brilliant era of Roman public life was ushered in by Cicero and closed by his death—he stood at its cradle and he followed its hearse." His family, the Tullii, were one of the landed gentry in Arpinum and resented the fame and fortunes of the other great Arpinate families, the Marii. Throughout his life, the conservative Cicero loathed being compared to the then more famous Marius. The name "Cicero" is derived from cicer, the Latin word for "chickpea." Plutarch explains that the name was originally applied to one of Cicero's ancestors who had a cleft in the tip of his nose, which resembled that of a chickpea. In fact (Plutarch continues), Cicero was urged to change the theretofore-ignoble name when he entered politics, but he refused.

Early life

According to Plutarch, he was an extremely adept student, learning so well and rapidly that he attracted attention from all over Rome. He was especially fond of poetry, although he shied away from no scholarly field. In 89 BC-88 BC, Cicero served on the staffs of Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo and Lucius Cornelius Sulla as they campaigned in the Social War, though he had no taste for war. Cicero also had a love for almost everything Greek, and even stated in his will that he wanted to be buried in Greece. He found the ancient philosophers such as Plato very thought provoking. Cicero served as quaestor in western Sicily in 75 BC. He wrote that in Sicily he saw the gravestone of Archimedes of Syracuse, on which was carved Archimedes' favorite discovery in geometry, that the ratio of the volume of a sphere to that of the smallest right circular cylinder in which it fits is 2:3. He built an extremely successful career as an advocate, and first attained prominence for his successful prosecution in August 70 BC of Gaius Verres, the former governor of Sicily. Despite his great successes as an advocate, Cicero suffered from his lack of reputable ancestry; as no Tullius had been consul before him, he was neither noble nor patrician, and his family was considered unimportant. He was further hindered by the fact that the last man to have been elected to the consulate without consular ancestors (i.e., the last "New Man", or Novus Homo) had been the political radical and militarily innovative Marius.

Consul

In 63 BC, Cicero became the first novus homo in more than thirty years by being elected consul. His only significant historical accomplishment during his year in office was the suppression of the Catiline conspiracy, a plot to overthrow the Roman Republic led by Lucius Sergius Catilina, a disaffected patrician. Cicero procured a senatus consultum de re publica defendenda (a declaration of martial law, also called the senatus consultum ultimum) and drove Catiline out of the city by a philippic in which he described the debauchery of Rome and especially Catiline. Catiline fled but left behind his 'deputies' who would start the revolution from within whilst Catiline assaulted it from without with an army recruited among Sulla's veterans in Etruria. Cicero managed to have these 'deputies' of Catiline confess their crime in front of the entire Senate, after ambushing an embassy they had sent to a Gaulish tribe. The Senate then deliberated upon the punishment to be given to the conspirators. As it was a legislative rather than a judicial body, there were limits on its power to do so; however, martial law was in effect, and it was feared that simple house arrest or exile - the standard options - would not remove the threat to the State. At first most in the Senate spoke for the 'extreme penalty'; many were then swayed by Julius Caesar who spoke decrying the precedent it would set and argued in favor of the punishment being confined to a mode of banishment. Cato then rose in defense of the death penalty and all the Senate finally agreed on the matter. Cicero had the conspirators taken to the Tullianum, the notorious Roman prison, where they were hanged. He received the honorific "Pater Patriae" for his actions in suppressing the conspiracy, but thereafter lived in fear of trial or exile for having put Roman citizens to death without trial. He also received the first public thanksgiving for a civic accomplishment; heretofore it had been a purely military honor. Cicero's Pro Flacco oration provides a uniquely early and clear example of anti-Semitism; in this speech, Cicero plays upon several stereotypical themes which have been echoed throughout the last two millennia. The case involved the defense of Lucius Valerius Flaccus, a Roman aristocrat, who was accused of (among other things) unlawfully confiscating Jewish funds which had been collected for the maintenance of the Temple at Jerusalem. In defense of Flaccus, Cicero made arguments regarding the public site which had been selected for the open-air tribunal: "Now let us take a look at the Jews and their mania for gold. You chose this site, [chief prosecutor] Laelius, and the crowd which frequents it, with an eye to this particular accusation, knowing very well that Jews with their large numbers and tendency to act as a clique are valuable supporters to have at any kind of public meeting."

Exile and return

In 58 BC, the populist Publius Clodius Pulcher introduced a law exiling any man who had put Roman citizens to death without trial. Although Cicero maintained that the sweeping senatus consultum ultimum granted him in 63 BC had indemnified him against legal penalty, he nevertheless appeared ragged in public and began to beg for support from the people. Seeing that he could not go out in public without being lambasted by Clodius's heavies, he dedicated a statue to Minerva in the Forum and left Italy for a year and spent his quasi-exile setting his speeches to paper. In letters to his friend Atticus, Cicero maintained that the Senate was jealous of his accomplishments which was why they did not save him from exile. Cicero returned after over a dozen months from his exile to a cheering crowd, much in the manner of Demosthenes, which the historian Appian pointed out. During the 50s, Cicero supported the populist Milo to use as a spear head against Clodius, who continued to use his popular support to establish terror in the streets. During the mid-50s, Clodius was killed by Milo's gladiators on the Via Appia. Cicero defended Milo on counts of murder from the relatives of Clodius, yet failed. Despite this failure, Cicero's Pro Milone was considered by some as his ultimate masterpiece. Cicero argued that Milo had no reason to kill Clodius and had all to gain from his living, pointing out that Milo had no idea that he would encounter Clodius on the Via Appia. The prosecution, however, pointed out that Milo had freed his slaves who were with him during the bout with Clodius so that they could not testify against him in court on charges that he had ordered the killing of Clodius. Cicero rejected this, saying that Milo's slaves had defended him honorably and deserved to be free, seeing as how they had saved their master from an attack by Clodius. Milo fled into exile and continued to live in Massilia until he returned to stir up further trouble during the Civil War. As the struggle between Pompey and Julius Caesar grew more intense in 50 BC, Cicero favored Pompey but tried to avoid turning Caesar into a permanent enemy. When Caesar invaded Italy in 49 BC, Cicero fled Rome. Caesar attempted vainly to convince him to return, and in June of that year Cicero slipped out of Italy and traveled to Dyrrachium (Epidamnos) .In 48 BC, Cicero was with the Pompeians at the camp of Pharsalus and quarreled with many of the Republican commanders, including a son of Pompey. They in turn disgusted him by their bloody attitudes. He returned to Rome, however, after Caesar's victory at Pharsalus. In a letter to Varro on April 20 46 BC, Cicero indicated what he saw as his role under the dictatorship of Caesar: "I advise you to do what I am advising myself – avoid being seen, even if we cannot avoid being talked about... If our voices are no longer heard in the Senate and in the Forum, let us follow the example of the ancient sages and serve our country through our writings, concentrating on questions of ethics and constitutional law." In February 45 BC, Cicero's daughter Tullia died. He never entirely recovered from this shock.

Opposition to Mark Antony, and death

Cicero was taken completely by surprise when Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March 44 BC. In a letter to the conspirator Trebonius, Cicero expressed a wish of having been "...invited to that superb banquet" Cicero became a popular leader during the instability and was disgusted with Mark Antony, Caesar's former Master of the Horse who was hoping to take revenge upon the murderers of Caesar by first having him not outlawed a tyrant so that the Caesarians could have lawful support, in exchange for amnesty for the assassins which the Senate agreed to. Cicero and Antony, Caesar's subordinate, became the leading men in Rome; Cicero as spokesman for the Senate, and Antony as consul and as executor of Caesar's will. But the two men had never been on friendly terms, and their relationship worsened after Cicero made it clear he felt Antony to be taking unfair liberties in interpreting Caesar's wishes and intentions. When Octavian, Caesar's heir, arrived in Italy in April, Cicero formed a plan to play him against Antony. In September he began attacking Antony in a series of speeches he called the Philippics. Praising Octavian to the skies, he labeled him a "God-Sent Child" and said he only desired honor and that he would not make the same mistake as his Uncle. Meanwhile, his attacks on Antony, whom he called a "sheep," rallied the Senate in firm opposition to Antony. During this time, Cicero became an unrivaled popular leader and, according to the historian Appian, "had the power any popular leader could possibly have." He was at the height of his fame. As popular leader, Cicero heavily fined the supporters of Antony for petty charges and had volunteers forge arms for the Republicans. It turned out to be so insulting that a right hand man of Antony was preparing to march on Rome to arrest Cicero. Cicero fled the city and the plan was abandoned. Appian is the only one to give this tale of a march on Rome for the arrest of Cicero. Cicero supported Marcus Junius Brutus as governor of Cisalpine Gaul (Gallia Cisalpina) and urged the Senate to name Antony an enemy of the state. One tribune, a certain Salvius, delayed these proceedings and was "reviled," as Appian put it, by Cicero and his party. The speech of Lucius Piso, Caesar's father-in-law, delayed proceedings against Antony. Antony was later declared an enemy of the state when he refused to lift the siege of Mutina, which was in the hands of one of Caesar's assassins, Decimus Brutus, who also was named a second son in Caesar's will. Cicero described his position in a letter to Cassius, one of Caesar's assassins, that same September: "I am pleased that you like my motion in the Senate and the speech accompanying it... Antony is a madman, corrupt and much worse than Caesar - whom you declared the worst of evil men when you killed him. Antony wants to start a bloodbath..." Cicero's plan to drive out Octavian and Antony failed, however. The two reconciled and allied with Lepidus to form the Second Triumvirate after the successive battles of Mutina. Immediately after legislating their alliance into official existence for a five-year term with consular imperium, the Triumviri began proscribing their enemies and potential rivals. Cicero and his younger brother Quintus Tullius Cicero, formerly one of Caesar's legates, and all of their contacts and support were numbered among the enemies of the state. Antony hunted for Cicero most viciously among the proscribed. Many men fell bravely, with many stories of bravery and virtue according to historical accounts. One victim turned out to be the tribune Salvius, who, after siding with Antony, moved his support directly and fully to Cicero. Salvius held a dinner party for his friends because he knew he would not be around for long and wished to have one last gathering to say goodbye. The legionaries burst into the party and beheaded Salvius in front of his friends. Cicero was viewed with pity by many, and many claimed not to have seen him. He fled, but was caught at one of his villas after going to retrieve money. He fled by the coast of the nearby villa. When the executioners arrived, his slaves said they did not see him, yet a dependent of Clodius said otherwise. His last words were said to have been "there is nothing proper about what you are doing, soldier, but do try to kill me properly." He was decapitated by his pursuers on December 7, 43 BC; his head and hands were displayed on the Rostra in the Forum Romanum according to the tradition of Marius and Sulla, both of whom had displayed the heads of their enemies in the Forum. He was the only victim of the Triumvirate's proscriptions to have been so displayed after death. According to Plutarch, Antony's wife Fulvia took Cicero's head, pulled out his tongue, and jabbed the tongue repeatedly with her hatpin, taking a final revenge against Cicero's power of speech.

Works

Speeches

Of his speeches, eighty-eight were recorded, but only fifty-eight survive. (Some of the items below are more than one speech.)

Quotes


- "What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious."
- "Freedom is participation in power."
- Famously said that Queen Cleopatra of Egypt was a boring woman.
- "A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself."

Judicial speeches


- (81 BC) Pro Quinctio (On behalf of Publius Quinctius)
- (80 BC) Pro Sex. Roscio Amerino (On behalf of Sextus Roscius of Ameria)
- (77 BC) Pro Q. Roscio Comoedo (On behalf of Quintus Roscius the Actor)
- (70 BC) Divinatio in Caecilium (Spoken against Caecilius at the inquiry concerning the prosecution of Verres)
- (70 BC) In Verrem (Against Gaius Verres, or The Verrines)
- (69 BC) Pro Tullio (On behalf of Tullius)
- (69 BC) Pro Fonteio (On behalf of Marcus Fonteius)
- (69 BC) Pro Caecina (On behalf of Aulus Caecina)
- (66 BC) Pro Cluentio (On behalf of Aulus Cluentius)
- (63 BC) Pro Rabirio Perduellionis Reo (On behalf of Rabirius on a Charge of Treason)
- (63 BC) Pro Murena (On behalf of Lucius Murena)
- (62 BC) Pro Sulla (On behalf of Sulla)
- (62 BC) Pro Archia Poeta (On behalf of the poet Archias)
- (59 BC) Pro Flacco (On behalf of Flaccus)
- (56 BC) Pro Sestio (On behalf of Sestius)
- (56 BC) In Vatinium (Against Vatinius at the trial of Sestius)
- (56 BC) Pro Caelio (On behalf of Marcus Caelius Rufus)
- (56 BC) Pro Balbo (On behalf of Cornelius Balbus)
- (54 BC) Pro Plancio (On behalf of Plancius)
- (54 BC) Pro Rabirio Postumo (On behalf of Rabirius Postumus)

Political speeches

Early career (before exile)

- (66 BC) Pro Lege Manilia or De Imperio Cn. Pompei (in favor of the Manilian Law on the command of Pompey)
- (63 BC) De Lege Agraria contra Rullum (Opposing the Agrarian Law proposed by Rullus)
- (63 BC) In Catilinam I-IV (Catiline Orations or Against Catiline) [http://www.uah.edu/student_life/organizations/SAL/claslattexts/cicero/incatilinam.html]
- (59 BC) Pro Flacco (In Defense of Flaccus)
Mid career (after exile)

- (57 BC) Post Reditum in Quirites (To the Citizens after his his recall from exile)
- (57 BC) Post Reditum in Senatu (To the Senate after his his recall from exile)
- (57 BC) De Domo Sua (On his House)
- (57 BC) De Haruspicum Responsis (On the Responses of the Haruspices)
- (56 BC) De Provinciis Consularibus (On the Consular Provinces)
- (55 BC) In Pisonem (Against Piso)
Late career

- (52 BC) Pro Milone (On behalf of Titus Annius Milo)
- (46 BC) Pro Marcello (On behalf of Marcellus)
- (46 BC) Pro Ligario (On behalf of Ligarius before Caesar)
- (46 BC) Pro Rege Deiotaro (On behalf of King Deiotarius before Caesar)
- (44 BC) Philippicae (consisting of the 14 philippics Philippica I-XIV against Marcus Antonius) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0021] (The Pro Marcello, Pro Ligario, and Pro Rege Deiotaro are collectively known as "The Caesarian speeches").

Philosophy

Rhetoric


- (84 BC) De Inventione (The composition of arguments)
- (55 BC) De Oratore (The orator)
- (54 BC) De Partitionibus Oratoriae (The subdivisions of oratory)
- (52 BC) De Optimo Genere Oratorum (The Best Kind of Orators)
- (46 BC) Brutus (The Brutus, a short history of Roman oratory)
- (46 BC) Orator ad M. Brutum (The Orator, also dedicated to Brutus)
- (44 BC) Topica (Topics of argumentation)
- (?? BC) Rhetorica ad Herennium (traditionally attributed to Cicero, but currently disputed)

Other philosophical works


- (51 BC) De Republica (On the Republic)
- (45 BC) Hortensius (Hortensius)
- (45 BC) Lucullus or Academica Priora (The Prior Academics)
- (45 BC) Academica Posteriora (The Later Academics)
- (45 BC) De Finibus, Bonorum et Malorum (About the Ends of Goods and Evils). [http://www.epicurus.info/etexts/De_Finibus.html] Source of Lorem ipsum
- (45 BC) Tusculanae Quaestiones (Questions debated at Tusculum)
- (45 BC) De Natura Deorum (The Nature of the Gods)
- (45 BC) De Divinatione (Divination)
- (45 BC) De Fato (The Fate)
- (44 BC) Cato Maior de Senectute (Cato the Elder On Old Age)
- (44 BC) Laelius de Amicitia (Laelius On Friendship)
- (44 BC) De Officiis (Duties)
- (?? BC) Paradoxa Stoicorum (Stoic Paradoxes)
- (?? BC) De Legibus (The Laws)
- (?? BC) De Consulatu Suo (His Consulship)
- (?? BC) De temporibus suis (His Life and Times)
- (?? BC) Commentariolum Petitionis (Handbook of Candidacy) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0022:text=Pet.:section=1] (attributed to Cicero, but probably written by his brother Quintus)

Letters


- (68 BC-43 BC) Epistulae ad Atticum (Letters to Atticus)
- (59 BC-54 BC) Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem (Letters to his brother Quintus)
- (43 BC) Epistulae ad Brutum (Letters to Brutus)
- (43 BC) Epistulae ad Familiares (Letters to his friends)

See also


- Marcus Tullius Tiro
- Cicero and the Roman Republic

References

# Everitt pp. 215 see sources below

Sources


- Anthony Everitt (2001), Cicero: the life and times of Rome's greatest politician, Random House, hardback, 359 pages, ISBN 0-375-50746-9
- Taylor, H. (1918). Cicero: A sketch of his life and works. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co.

Further reading


- Francis A. Yates (1974). The Art of Memory, University of Chicago Press, 448 pages, Reprint: ISBN 0226950018
- Taylor Caldwell (1965), A Pillar of Iron, Doubleday & Company

External links


- General:
  - [http://gracie.smsu.edu/cicero.htm Links to Cicero resources]
  - [http://www.utexas.edu/depts/classics/documents/Cic.html University of Texas Cicero Homepage]
- Works by Cicero:
  -
  - Perseus Project (Latin and English): [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cache/perscoll_Greco-Roman.html Classics Collection (see: M. Tullius Cicero)]
  - Latin Library (Latin): [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cic.html Works of Cicero]
  - UAH (Latin, with translation notes): [http://www.uah.edu/student_life/organizations/SAL/claslattexts/cicero.html Cicero Page]
  - [http://www.constitution.org/rom/de_officiis.htm De Officiis], translated by Walter Miller
- Biographies and descriptions of Cicero's time:
  - At Project Gutenberg
    - Plutarch's biography of Cicero contained in the [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/674 Parallel Lives]
    - Life of Cicero by Anthony Trollope, [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8945 Volume I] - [Volume II]
    - [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11448 Cicero by Rev. W. Lucas Collins (Ancient Classics for English Readers)]
    - [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13481 Roman life in the days of Cicero by Rev. Alfred J. Church]
    - [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11256 Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero by W. Warde Fowler]
  - [http://www.heraklia.fws1.com/contemporaries/cicero At Heraklia website]
  - [http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/cicero.html Dryden's translation of Cicero from Plutarch's Parallel Lives]
  - [http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/LatinAuthors/Cicero.html At Middlebury College website]
  - [http://freewebs.com/praetorbrutus]

Notes

1- Official full name of Cicero. The meaning in English is "Marcus Tullius Cicero, son (filius) of Marcus, grandson (nepos) of Marcus, great-grandson (pronepos) of Marcus, of the tribe Cornelia". Category:106 BC births Category:43 BC deaths Category:Roman era rhetoricians Category:Roman era philosophers Category:Roman era wr