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Cicero and the Plot to Kill Caesar

Marcus Tullius Cicero was born in January 106 B.C.E. After an excellent education, he settled in Rome to practice law. He held a series of ever-higher public offices, ending with the consulship in 63 B.C.E. By the time of Caesar’s return to Rome in 49 B.C.E., Cicero was a senior statesman with great importance as a lawyer and thinker and powerful influence through his skills at oratory. Caesar wrote Cicero a flattering letter stating, “[Y]our approval of my actions elates me beyond words. . . . As for yourself, I hope I shall see you at Rome so that I can avail myself as usual of your advice and resources in all things.”* Cicero tended to favor Pompey, however, thinking that Caesar was a greater danger to traditional republican institutions. He was not involved in the plot to assassinate Caesar, perhaps because the conspirators did not trust him to keep the matter quiet. He was involved in the jockeying for power that followed, however, as evidenced by the following letters and speeches.

Trebonius, one of the assassins, wrote to Cicero describing the murder, and on February 2, 43 B.C.E., Cicero gave this frank opinion of the events:

Would to heaven you had invited me to that noble feast that you made on the ides of March: no remnants, most assuredly, should have been left behind. Whereas the part you unluckily spared gives us so much perplexity that we find something to regret, even in the godlike service that you and your illustrious associates have lately rendered to the republic. To say the truth, when I reflect that it was owing to the favor of so worthy a man as yourself that Antony now lives to be our general bane, I am sometimes inclined to be a little angry with you for taking him aside when Caesar fell as by this means you have occasioned more trouble to myself in particular than to all the rest of the whole community.†

By the “part you unluckily spared” he meant Mark Antony, Caesar’s firm supporter and a fierce enemy of the assassins, whom Cicero feared. Still undecided about what to do after the assassination, Cassius, one of the leaders of the plot, wrote to Cicero asking for advice. Cicero responded, again emphasizing that the conspirators should have killed Antony as well, and clearly miffed that he was not consulted:

Where to advise you to begin to restore order I must acknowledge myself at a loss. To say the truth, it is the tyrant alone, and not the tyranny, from which we seem to be delivered: for although the man [Caesar] is destroyed, we still servilely maintain all his despotic ordinances. We do more: and under the pretence of carrying his designs into execution, we approve of measures which even he himself would never have pursued. . . . This outrageous man [Antony] represents me as the principal advisor and promoter of your glorious efforts. Would to heaven the charge were true! For had I been a party in your councils, I should have put it out of his power thus to bother and embarrass our plans. But this was a point that depended on yourselves to decide; and since the opportunity is now over, I can only wish that I were capable of giving you any effective advice. But the truth is that I am utterly at a loss in how to act myself. For what is the purpose of resisting where one cannot oppose force by force?‡

At this stage the young Octavian, Caesar’s designated heir, sought Cicero’s advice. In a series of letters to his close friend Atticus, Cicero discussed the situation, upset that Decimus Brutus, a general who was one of the conspirators, was not taking charge of the situation:

On the second or third of November 44 B.C.E. a letter arrived from Octavian. He has great schemes afoot. He has won the veterans at Casilinum and Calatia over to his views, and no wonder since he gives them 500 denarii apiece. He plans to make a round of the other colonies. His object is plain: war with Antony and himself as commander-in-chief. So it looks to me as though in a few days’ time we shall be in arms. But whom are we to follow? Consider his name; consider his age. . . . In short, he proffers himself as our leader and expects me to back him up. For my part I have recommended him to go to Rome. I imagine he will have the city rabble behind him, and the honest men too if he convinces them of his sincerity. Ah Brutus, where are you? What a golden opportunity you are losing! I could not foretell this, but I thought something of the kind would happen.§

Four days later Cicero records news of the following developments:

Two letters for me from Octavian in one day! Now he wants me to return to Rome at once, says he wants to work through the Senate. . . . In short, he presses and I play for time. I don’t trust his age and I don’t know what he’s after. . . . I’m nervous of Antony’s power and don’t want to leave the coast. But I’m afraid of some star performance during my absence. Varro [an enemy of Antony] doesn’t think much of the boy’s plan, I take a different view. He has a strong force at his back and can have Brutus. And he’s going to work quite openly, forming companies at Capua and paying out bounties. War is evidently coming any minute now.**

Even though he contemptuously called him a “boy,” Cicero decided to openly side with Octavian. On April 21, 43 B.C.E., he denounced Antony in a speech to the Senate. He reminded his fellow senators how they had earlier opposed Antony:

Do you not remember, in the name of the immortal gods, what resolutions you have made against these men [Antony and his supporters]? You have repealed the acts of Antony. You have taken down his law. You have voted that they were carried by violence and with a disregard of the auspices. You have called out the troops throughout all Italy. You have pronounced that colleague and ally of all wickedness [Antony] a public enemy. What peace can there be with this man? Even if he were a foreign enemy, still, after such actions as have taken place, it would be scarcely possible by any means whatever to have peace. Though seas and mountains and vast regions lay between you, still you would hate such a man without seeing him. But these men will stick to your eyes, and when they can to your very throats; for what fences will be strong enough for us to restrain savage beasts? Oh, but the result of war is uncertain. It is at all events in the power of brave men such as you ought to be to display your valor, for certainly brave men can do that, and not to fear the caprice of fortune.††

Antony and Octavian briefly reconciled and formed the Third Triumvirate. An ill and aging Cicero was declared an enemy of the state and sought to leave Italy, but was intercepted by Antony’s men. When Cicero stretched his head out of the window of the litter in which he was being carried, indicating he would surrender, a centurion slit his throat. His head and hands were cut off on Antony’s orders and displayed in the Roman Forum. Octavian’s opinion about all this as it happened is disputed, but years later he said of Cicero: “A learned man, learned and a lover of his country.”‡‡

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