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Philosopher  Image Courtesy Philosopher Image Gallery  Born Marcus Tullius Cicero in 106 BC in the Roman town of Arpinum, Cicero was a writer, statesman, and orator. (For the sake of completeness, he was also called Tully.) He studied law, literature, philosophy and oratory (speaking) in Rome. He travelled to Greece and Asia, before settling in Rome in 77 BC and beginning his political career in 76 BC. By 66 BC he had been elected a praetor of Rome. He was exiled for one year in 58 BC, and in 51 BC he was given the position of proconsul (governor) of the Roman province of Cilicia. He then dropped out of politics, returning in 44 BC following Julius Caesar's assassination, supporting Octavian against Marc Antony. When Octavian and Antony reconciled, they decided that Cicero was not to be trusted and executed him in 43 BC, the rotten bastards. Cicero wrote many works, and could have written more if he hadn't been killed (obviously). He also published many of his speeches, and wrote lots of letters. Some of his speeches are collected in On Government. In one speech, he said (in part): "... I do not intend to suggest to the Assembly that the place granted to a candidate for one office should, contractually, be guaranteed to him over and over again in all his candidatures for subsequent posts!" This certainly sounds very clever. I did not know Cicero personally and this should not be seen as a personal endorsement of the guy. Don't rush out and buy "I LOVE CICERO" t-shirts or anything or even hats, and don't buy balloons with "CICERO RULES" on them because I don't think that's appropriate. After all, in his day, good old Cicero lived in a world without balloons or t-shirts and perhaps he'd rather not have his name plastered on things that he didn't even know would exist. |