Cicero

Cicero married Terentia probably at the age of 27, in 79 BC, a marriage of convenience, which was harmonious for some 30 years, but ended in divorce.

In 46 BC, he married his young ward Publilia. When Cicero's daughter, Tullia, died, Publilia who had been jealous of her, was so unsympathetic over her death that Cicero divorced her.

He was killed on Mark Antony's instructions on 7 December 43 BC , when he was trying to flee Italy.

Cicero was born in Arpinum, a hill town 100 km southeast of Rome. His father belonged to the equestrian order and possessed good connections in Rome. Little is known about his mother, Helvia.

According to Greek historian Plutarch, his fame as an extremely talented student enabled him to study Roman law under Quintus Mucius Scaevola while Servius Sulpicius Rufus and Titus Pomponius were his fellow-students.

In 90 BC–88 BC, he served the Roman generals, Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, as they campaigned in the Social War, though he had no taste for military life.

In his first major case in 80 BC, he successfully defended Sextus Roscius who was charged of patricide, a courageous move because patricide was a serious crime and the people whom Cicero accused of the murder were dictator Sulla’s favorites.

In 79 BC, he left for Greece, Asia Minor and Rhodes, perhaps fearing Sulla’s wrath. In Athens he met Atticus, who had become its honorary citizen and he introduced him to some important Athenians.

He wanted to learn a less physically exhausting style of speech and sought the help of the rhetorician Apollonius Molon of Rhodes who instructed Cicero in a less intense form of oratory.

Cicero served as quaestor in western Sicily in 75 BC and demonstrated honesty and integrity in his dealings with the inhabitants. He successfully prosecuted Gaius Verres, a corrupt governor of Sicily.

‘On the Orator’ written by Cicero in 55 BC, is a lengthy treatise in the form of a dialogue and it places rhetoric above law and philosophy. It argues that the ideal orator would have mastered them and would possess eloquence too.