More generally, I shall be happy if I have succeeded in showing, first, how unrecognizably different a world the Roman Republic was from ours and, second, that the motives of human behavior do not change. Concepts such as honor and dignitas, the dependence on slavery, the fact that the Romans ran a sophisticated and complex state with practically none of the public institutions we take for granted (a civil service, a police force and so forth) and the impact of religious ritual on the conduct of public affairs make ancient Rome a very strange place to modern eyes. But, as we feel the texture of their daily lives, we can see that its inhabitants are not alien beings but our neighbors.
CHRONOLOGY
BC
109
Birth of Titus Pomponius Atticus
106
Birth of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Birth of Cnaeus Pompeius
ca. 103
Birth of Quintus Tullius Cicero
100
Birth of Caius Julius Caesar
91–89
War of the Allies
89–85
First War against Mithridates, King of Pontus
88–82
Civil war
82–79
Sulla’s Dictatorship
before 81
Cicero writes
Topics for Speeches (De inventione)
81
Cicero opens his career as an advocate
79
Defense of Sextus Roscius Amerinus
ca. 79
Cicero marries Terentia
79–77
Cicero tours Greece and Asia Minor
ca. 76–75
Birth of Cicero’s daughter, Tullia
75
Cicero Quaestor in Sicily. He joins the Senate
70
Consulship of Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus. Cicero prosecutes Verres
ca. 70
Quintus marries Pomponia
69
Cicero Aedile
67
Pompey’s campaign against Mediterranean pirates. Birth of Cicero’s nephew, Quintus Tullius Cicero. Tullia engaged to Caius Calpurnius Piso Frugi
66
Cicero Praetor
66–62
Pompey campaigns against Mithridates
65
Birth of Cicero’s son, Marcus Tullius Cicero
63
Cicero Consul. He puts down the conspiracy of Catilina. Birth of Caius Octavius, later Caius Julius Caesar Octavius (Octavian)
62
Quintus Praetor. Tullia marries Calpurnius Piso
61–59
Quintus governor of Asia
60
Alliance among Caesar, Pompey and Crassus (the First Triumvirate)
59
Julius Caesar Consul
58
Publius Clodius Pulcher Tribune
58–49
Caesar governor of Gaul. The Gallic War
58–57
Cicero in exile in Greece
57
Death of Calpurnius Piso
56
Caesar meets Pompey in Luca and renews the First Triumvirate
55
Second Consulship of Pompey and Crassus. Tullia marries Furius Crassipes. Cicero writes
The Ideal Orator (De oratore)
54–52
Quintus with Caesar in Gaul
54
Cicero starts writing
On the State (De re publica;
published 51)
53
Crassus campaigns against the Parthians. Death of Crassus at Carrhae. Cicero frees his slave Tiro
52
Murder of Publius Clodius Pulcher. Pompey sole Consul
52/51
Tullia and Crassipes are divorced
52–43
Cicero writes
On Law (De legibus)
51–50
Cicero governor of Cilicia
50
Tullia marries Publius Cornelius Dolabella
49–45
Civil war
49–48
Cicero at Pompey’s headquarters in Greece
48
Defeat of Pompey at the battle of Pharsalus. Murder of Pompey. Cicero returns to Italy. Death of Marcus Caelius Rufus
48–44
Dictatorship of Julius Caesar
47
Cicero pardoned by Caesar
46
Suicide of Marcus Porcius Cato. Cicero divorces Terentia. He marries Publilia
45
Death of Tullia. Cicero divorces Publilia. Divorce of Quintus and Pomponia. Cicero writes
Hortensius; Academic Treatises (Academica); On Supreme Good and Evil (De finibus bonorum et malorum); Conversations at Tusculum (Tusculanae disputationes); The Nature of the Gods (De natura deorum)
44
Assassination of Julius Caesar. Cicero writes
Foretelling the Future (De divinatione); Destiny (De fato); Duties (De officiis)
44–43
Siege of Mutina
44/43
Suicide of Dolabella
43
Battles at Mutina. Alliance among Mark Antony, Octavian (Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus, later the Emperor Augustus) and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Quintus and his son put to death. Cicero put to death
42
Suicides of Caius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus at Philippi
32
Death of Atticus
31
Octavian’s victory over Antony at Actium
30
Suicides of Mark Antony and Cleopatra
27
Title of Augustus conferred on Octavian
AD
14
Death of Augustus
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Preface
Chronology
Maps
1. Fault Lines
2. “Always Be the Best, My Boy, the Bravest”
3. The Forum and the Fray
4. Politics and Foreign Postings
5. Against Catilina
6. Pretty-Boy’s Revenge
7. Exile
8. The Ideal Constitution
9. The Drift to Civil War
10. “A Strange Madness”
11. Pacifying Caesar
12. Philosophical Investigations
13. “Why, This IS Violence!”
14. The Heir
15. Cicero’s Civil War
16. Death at the Seaside
17. Postmortems
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Sources
A Reader’s Guide
Questions for Discussion
About the Author
The spring weather was unsettled in Rome. The fifteenth of March was a public holiday, marking the end of winter. From the early morning, crowds of people had been streaming out of the city. It was almost as if Rome were being evacuated. Families abandoned the busy streets and huddled houses and crossed the River Tiber. In the countryside, in huts made of branches or makeshift tents, they would set up picnics and consume large amounts of alcohol. It was said that the drinkers would live for as many years as they downed cups (in that case, as one wit had it, everyone ought to live for as long as Nestor, the classical equivalent of Methuselah).
The Senate, however, had more serious business at hand—its last meeting under the Dictator before he departed from Rome on a military expedition to Parthia. It was due to be held not as usual in the Senate House in the Forum but in one of Rome’s most spectacular buildings, the 340-meter-long Theater of Pompeius just outside the city on the Field of Mars. During the first half of the morning, the Senators gathered in a ceremonial hall in the center of the complex.