Epilogue to Orations Against Marcus Antonius by Marcus Tullius Cicero
Gaius Julius Cæsar
Chronology of 44 B.C.
January 1: Consuls C. Julius Caesar and M. Antonius take office. P. Cornelius Dolabella is designated as successor consul following Caesar's planned departure for the East in the Spring. February 15: Antony offers Caesar a diadem at the Lupercalia. March 15: Assassination of Caesar by M. Junius Brutus, C. Cassius Longinus, Dec. Junius Brutus, and a large coterie of other senators. The conspirators make their way to the Capitoline Hill to give thanks. Brutus and Cassius hold a contio in the Forum in the afternoon but are met with silence from the People. Cicero urges the conspirators to summon the Senate and have Caesar declared a tyrant; they decide instead to negotiate with Antony. Dolabella assumes the office of consul. The other consul Antony quickly secures Caesar's private papers and treasury from his widow Calpurnia and consults with the leaders of the Caesarian faction (Balbus, Hirtius and Lepidus). March 16: Lepidus, Master of the Horse (and thus the only official with troops in the immediate area) occupies the Forum with his soldiers. Lepidus and Balbus are eager for vengeance, but Antony, urging caution, summons the Senate for the following day. The conspirators remain on the Capitol. March 17: Brutus holds another contio (this time on the Capitol), but his speech to the People is not well received. The Senate meets in Temple of Tellus, surrounded by Dolabella's troops. The Conspirators remain on the Capitol. Antony deflects Tiberius Nero's motion to honor the conspirators as tyrannicides, but makes no motion to condemn them. carries a motion that Caesar's Acta should have the force of law. Cicero speaks in favor of amnesty and reconciliation. The results of the Senate meeting are announced to the People and enthusiastically received. Brutus and Cassius descend from the Capitol after having received the sons of Antony and Lepidus as pledges. That night the conspirators Brutus and Cassius dine with the Caesarian leaders Antony and Lepidus. March 18: Caesar's will is opened and read. The mood of the People swings against the Conspirators as they learn that Caesar had bequeathed them his suburban property and 300 sesterces each. Antony is abashed to learn that Caesar had adopted Octavius as his son and named him his principal heir. On the proposal of L. Calpurnius Piso (cos. 58 and Caesar's father-in-law), the Senate votes to recognize Caesar's will and to grant him a public funeral in the Forum. The provinces for the current magistrates may have been allotted at this time, in accordance with Caesar's Acta. March 20: Antony speaks at Caesar's funeral, rousing the crowd against the conspirators. Riots follow and the conspirators, unable to appear in public, barricade themselves in their homes. April 5: Cicero becomes increasingly dissatisfied with the state of affairs in Rome. The conspirators, having failed to heed his advice to move forcefully to consolidate their position, become progressively isolated from political power. Although Antony appeared somewhat moderate, Cicero ultimately had no faith in him or the more radical Caesarians. Disgusted with developments in Rome, Cicero leaves for his villas in Campania, where he spends the next three months. Early April: A certain Herophilus (or Amatius), claiming to be a grandson of the great Marius, erects an altar and column in the Forum in honor of Caesar. He accuses Antony of abandoning the Caesarian cause. Antony has him arrested and executed. But the altar and column remain as a public center of Caesarian devotion. Early April: The conspirators flee Rome and take refuge in the surrounding towns. Antony secures a dispensation to allow Brutus and Cassius (who were praetors) to remain away from Rome. Antony assumes the leadership of the Caesarian faction, but continues to act with moderation, recalling only one person from exile (Sex. Cloelius) and asking Cicero's permission before doing so. Antony continues to regard Brutus with respect, to speak kindly of them, and to urge conciliation and concord. About this time Antony carries a motion to abolish the office of Dictator. Antony, using Caesar's Acta (real or invented) spreads patronage throughout Italy and the provinces. Early April: The Senate allots the consular provinces for the following year (probably in accordance with Caesar's Acta). Antony receives Macedonia (with 6 legions) and Syria goes to Dolabella. In the meantime, the conspirators begin to depart for their provinces: Trebonius to Asia, Cimber to Bithynia, and Decimus Brutus to Cisalpine Gaul. About this time Lepidus (having been appointed Pontifex Maximus in place of Caesar) departs to take up his two provinces of Gallia Narbonensis and Hispania Citerior. Early April: Caesar Octavianus lands in Italy from Macedonia. He begins to reach out to various Caesarian leaders, including Balbus (Caesar's personal secretary and confidant) and Hirtius and Pansa (the consuls-designate for 43). Late April: It becomes known that Antony intends to propose to the Senate on June 1 that he switch his province of Macedonia for Cisalpine Gaul (held now by the conspirator Decimus Brutus) and to transfer the Macedonian legions there. ca. April 21: Antony departs Rome for Campania, where he supervises land distribution to Caesar's veterans. At about the same time, Octavian visits Cicero at his villa in Cumae. Late in April: Dolabella, now consul in place of Caesar, razes the altar and column in the Forum. Cicero is delighted and writes to encourage him in his support of the Republican cause. Early May: Octavian arrives in Rome, where he accepts his adoption by Caesar's will. Mid-May: Antony returns to Rome with an escort of veterans. Many Republicans (including Cicero) conclude that the rule of force had returned to Rome. Antony meets with Octavian, Caesar's heir. Octavian's demand for ready money from the will is met with delays (Antony claimed that the Lex Curiata formalizing the adoption had not yet been adopted). Octavian begins to raise money on his own to pay Caesar's legacies and to hold games in his honor. Mid-May: At the Ludi Ceriales Octavian attempts to display the golden chair voted to Caesar by the Senate and the diadem offered by Antony. The People and veterans applaud him, but an Antony Tribune prevents the display. Late May: Cicero decides to absent himself at the June 1 meeting of the Senate. No longer believing he can safely appear in the City, he requests a legateship from both consuls by which he could conveniently go East to visit his son in Athens. June 1: Antony convenes the Senate in the Temple of Concord (surrounded by soldiers) and announces a number of fictitious Acta of Caesar. The Republican senators stay away, intimidated by the veterans. Antony proposes to give up Macedonia in exchange for Gallia Cisalpina and Gallia Comata, while retaining the Macedonian army. June 2: Antony convenes the assembly and passes the Lex de Permutatione Provinciarum, exchanging Macedonia for the two Gallic provinces and retaining the Macedonian army. The command was to extend 5 years. Dolabella's command in Syria is similarly extended. Both moderate and extreme Republicans are alarmed. Early June: Antony has two further laws passed consolidating his position: 1) a new agrarian law for the distribution of land, administered by a board of seven headed by Antony's brother Lucius; and 2) a law authorizing the consuls to examine and determine the validity of Caesar's Acta. June 3: Dolabella appoints Cicero to his staff as legate. June 5: Antony has the Senate appoint Brutus and Cassius to an extraordinary command for the remainder of the year to superintend the collection of grain in Sicily Asia - a pretext for honorable exile. The conspirators are undecided on the proposal and remain in Italy for the present. July 17: Cicero sets out for Greece. July 20-30: Octavian spends lavishly on the Ludi Victoriae Caesaris in honor of Caesar and of Venus Genetrix. When Antony attempts to prevent the exhibition of Caesarian emblems, the populace and veterans object. At the 8th hour a comet suddenly appeared in the northern sky, immediately hailed by the crowd as the soul of deified Caesar. Octavian arranges to have a star placed on the head of Caesar's statutes. Late July: Antony delivers a speech to the People in terms very favorable and friendly towards the conspirators. Cicero learns of the speech by August 6 at Leucopetra near Rhegium. Late July: Brutus and Cassius issue an Edict, the terms of which are uncertain but which probably justified their actions and offered their resignations as praetors in the public interest. A frequens senatus is scheduled for August 1. Brutus and Cassius write to former consuls and praetors urging their attendance. Hopes are high that Antony was ready for reconciliation with the conspirators. Late July: The military officers address an appeal to Antony to repair the breach in the Caesarian party, urging him to treat Caesar's heir with loyalty and respect. Antony agrees to a public reconciliation, which is held on the Capitol. August 1: L. Calpurnius Piso (cos. in 58 and father-in-law of Caesar) attacks Antony in the Senate, though the content of his proposals is unknown. He garners no support. August 1-6: Cicero reaches Syracuse. He departs for Greece the next day, but adverse winds blow him back to Rhegium where he learns of the proposed meeting of the Senate August 1. Hearing optimistic reports that Antony might reconcile with the conspirators and surrender his provincial command and that Brutus and Cassius might return to political life, Cicero decides to return to Rome. August: Antony replies to the Edict of Brutus and Cassius with a public proclamation and a private remonstrance. Brutus and Cassius reply on August 4, justifying their principles and honor and reminding Antony of Caesar's fate. August: Antony induces the Senate to grant Brutus and Cassius the harmless provinces of Crete and Cyrene. Late August: Brutus leaves Italy for the East, publishing a last Edict affirming the loyalty of the conspirators to the Republic and proclaiming a reluctance to be the cause of civil war. Cassius remains in Italy for some time. August 31: Cicero arrives in Rome and is triumphantly welcomed by the Populace. Since it was known that Antony intended to propose divine honors for Caesar at the Senate meeting of September 1, Cicero pleads exhaustion as an excuse for absenting himself. September 1: Antony proposes in the Senate that a day in honor of Caesar be added to the thanksgivings to the gods. He had already proposed a law providing for an appeal to the Populace in cases of breach of peace or high treason. Antony is furious that Cicero is absent from the Senate meeting. September 2: In Antony's absence, Cicero delivers the First Philippic in the Senate (his first public appearance since March 17). September 19: Antony retorts against Cicero in the Senate with a bitter personal attack. He repudiates amicitia with Cicero and denounces his entire career.
The Death of Cicero
"All honest men killed Caesar....some lacked design, some courage, some opportunity: none lacked the will."
Cicero, The Philippics
In despair over the state of affairs, Cicero set out for Greece on July 14, four months after Caesar's assassination, but, criticized by his friend Atticus, abandoned his journey and returned to Rome on August 31. A meeting of the Senate was called by Antony for the next day to propose a new honor to the slain dictator. Pleading exhaustion, Cicero did not attend and was assailed for his absence. When Cicero did appear the day after (in Antony's absence), he delivered the first of what would be fourteen Philippics. Named after the speeches given by Demosthenes against Philip II of Macedonia, they argued against tyranny and for the restoration of the Republic.
That did not happen. Cicero was killed in 43 BC as part of the Proscription. Brutus and Cassius were defeated the next year at Philippi and committed suicide, as did Antony and Cleopatra after their defeat at Actium. Rome would be ruled by an emperor.
Fulvia, Antony's wife, who had been married to Clodius, Cicero's implacable enemy, vented her hatred on the dead orator as well. Cassius Dio (XLVII.8.4) writes that, before the head and right hand of Cicero were exposed on the Rostra, she took the head in her hands and spat on it. Then, setting it on her knees, opened the mouth and, with pins from her hair, pierced the tongue that had argued so eloquently against her husband.
Proud of his role in the murder, Popilius, the military tribune who had been sent to kill the man who once had defended him in court, set up a statue of himself wearing a wreath, sitting beside the severed head of Cicero, a gesture that so pleased Antony that he added a bonus to his award (Dio, XLVII.11.2). Perversely, Antony then handed over the man who had betrayed Cicero to the tribune. Philologus had been educated by Cicero and was a freedman of Quintus, Cicero's brother. He was given up to Pomponia, who, even though she and Quintus were divorced, forced the man to cut off his own flesh bit by bit, roast the pieces, and eat them (Plutarch, Life of Cicero, XLIX).
The enmity of Publius Clodius Pulcher for Cicero stemmed from an incident that had occurred almost twenty years before, in 62 BC, when Clodius, who was enamored of Caesar's wife, Pompeia, had disguised himself as a woman in an attempt to see her at Caesar's residence, where the mysteries of Bona Dea were being celebrated. He was discovered there and a scandal ensued. As Pontifex Maximus, Caesar divorced Pompeia, who had to be above even the suspicion of adultery. Clodius was charged with sacrilege but insisted that he was not in Rome at the time, an alibi that Cicero contradicted when he testified that he, himself, had spoken with the intruder that day. Intriguingly, it was thought that the testimony had been at the insistence of Terentia, Cicero's wife, to allay her suspicious that Clodius' sister Clodia wanted to marry her husband (Plutarch, Life of Cicero, XXVIII-XXIX; also Life of Caesar, IX-X). As to the beautiful Clodia, she was supposed to have slept with her own brother, poisoned her husband and was a lover, as well, of Catullus, who famously wrote of her as the "Lesbia" of his poems. Replaced in her affections by Marcus Caelius Rufus, the scorned lover lashed out in a poem to him.
"O, Caelius, my Lesbia, that Lesbia, Lesbia whom alone Catullus loved more than himself and all his own, now in the cross-roads and alleys serves (glubit) the filthy lusts of the descendants of lordly-minded Remus" (LVIII).
The Latin verb glubo is defined by the Oxford Latin Dictionary as "to strip the bark from," although, in this context, the meaning is uncertain, and it is not known exactly how Catullus meant this wood was being peeled (which is why translations of the verb are so varied). In 56 BC, when Caelius Rufus, who lived in an apartment block owned by Clodius, eventually grew distant, Clodia took him to court, charging that he had attempted to poison her. Cicero successfully defended his friend and protégé, using the defense (Pro Caelio) to avenge himself on Clodius as well. Clodia, herself, was attacked as this "Medea of the Palatine" (VIII) or, in a phrase from Caelius himself, a quadrantariam Clytaemestram, a "Clytemnestra who sold her favors for a farthing", from quadrans, the smallest coin denomination (a quarter of an as) and the nominal price of admission to the baths (Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, VIII.6.53; Pro Caelio, LXII; Plutarch, Life of Cicero, XXIX.5). Yet, in spite of this enmity, Cicero writes to Atticus in 45 BC inquiring about buying her house and gardens, although he doubts that Clodia will sell (XII.42.2)!
In 58 BC, Clodius was elected tribune, for which he had made himself eligible by petitioning to change his status from that of patrician to plebeian. He then proposed that any official who had executed a citizen without due process of law was to be exiled. Cicero, who, as consul five years earlier, had executed several participants in the Conspiracy of Catilina (including Lentulus, Antony's step-father) , was obliged to take refuge in Thessalonica. Clodius had Cicero condemned and his property confiscated, burning down his magnificent house on the Palatine (as well as his villas) and erecting in its place a shrine to liberty (Plutarch, Life of Cicero, XXXIII.1; Dio, XXXVIII.14-17, XXXIX.11). Their contents were appropriated by the consuls, marble columns from the house on the Palatine being carted through the street, and the decorations and very trees of the villa at Tusculum transferred to the neighboring consul's property (Cicero, De Domo Sua, LXII). When, sixteen months later, Cicero returned from exile and was able to begin rebuilding on the site, having argued that, since Clodius' adoption into a plebeian family was illegal, his actions as tribune were illegal as well, Clodius' gang drove away the workmen and later attacked Cicero, himself, in the street. The enmity continued when an earth tremor prompted the soothsayers to pronounce that some divinity must be angry because a consecrated site was being used for a residence, and Clodius argued that it must be Cicero's (Dio, XXXIX.20).
Writing to Atticus on July 8, Cicero was amazed to find that the games which Brutus was sponsoring were to be in "July", the new name given to the month of Quinctilis. "Good heavens! 'Nones of July'! Confound their impudence! But one can be losing one's temper all day long. Could anything be more unseemly than 'July' for Brutus? Nothing that I've ever seen" (Letter 409). And, indeed, Brutus was "quite extraordinarily upset," as Cicero writes two days later (Letter 411).
Quoted From: The Death of Cicero - University of Chicago
Death of Cicero
Opinions and scholarly judgments concerning Marcus Tullius Cicero have varied greatly over the years and it is difficult for the layman to form an honest picture of this man. He remains important to the Classicist due to the amount of (extant) Latin - Opera Ciceronis - that still exists today. There are some who will simply ignore him as a self righteous egotist, and I will admit there is evidence that can support that view. However, I believe that is a limited perspective of the importance of this man. When I was teaching, I often compared him to Winston Churchill as defenders of representative government against authoritarianism. They both had faults of their own with an inability to recognize that the world they believed in no longer existed. I think Churchill had an almost 19th Century view of the world. The British Empire as Churchill had known it in his youth no longer existed and World War II showed that a new world order would emerge in the aftermath of that war. Cicero also showed his own naiveté in his belief that the Roman Republic as it was constituted had the ability to govern the Roman State. I find his Philippics interesting in the way he provides us with a history lesson of the basic flaw in Roman Society. Civil War and loyalty to individual generals instead of the Roman Government practically pre-ordained the end of the Roman Oligarchic Republic. Beginning with Marius the Roman Army ceased to be a citizen army where it was the responsibility of the body politic to serve and arm themselves during times of crisis. Marius began a process of transforming the army into a professional volunteer force whose loyalty was ultimately to individual generals. Octavian, later named Augustus, was the culmination of this process in his victory over Marcus Antonius. I also think this still has lessons for us today.
~ Senex Magister
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