Subtitled "The life and times of Rome's greatest politician". Cicero was a great orator and an expert in trial law in the complex Roman court system. His career overlapped those of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus during the first triumvirate, and ended on the accession of Octavian to consul. According to Everitt, Cicero never deviated from a principled dedication to upholding the Roman constitution, although he was egotistical, sometimes vacillating, and overly fond of sharp witticisms that were often politically illjudged. Cicero was also reputed to be a great populizer of philosophy as well, with some of his works the source for much of what is known about the philosophy of the time. The book was very well written, moved along well, and described a fascinating time in Roman history that I have never before studied well ( )

Everitt did an excellent job of making Cicero seem human, instead of an unreachable hero we could never understand. All of his best and worst qualities are displayed, along with in-depth coverage of the political climate and wars Cicero lived in. ( )

Well-crafted, highly readable biography of Marcus Tullius Cicereo (106-43 B.C.): lawyer, orator, prolific and popular writer, and statesman of Ancient Rome. Everitt takes his information from some 900 letters Cicero wrote (most of which were to his friend Atticus); many of his speeches (revised and edited by Cicero himself); and Cicero's books on philosophy and oratory. He wrote about the political events of his day: the rise of Julius Caesar, his assassination, and subsequent maneuvering to power of Mark Anthony and Octavian (later known as Augustus). He also set out to cover "the whole field in detail" of every philosophical system. Cicero had a son, Marcus, and a much-beloved daughter Tullia (who died while giving birth). He divorced his wife Terentia after some 30 years, although it is not clear why to historians. His second marriage lasted only a few months.

Cicero was a life-long devotee to Republican government (and thus an opponent of Caesar, who nevertheless lived to tell his tale for several reasons: Caesar was reknown for his leniency, Caesar enjoyed Cicero's wit, and Cicero himself was a successful manipulator of people in general and alliances in particular). Cicero longed for power, but always played a secondary role in Roman politics. As Everitt observed, "Julius Caesar, with the pitiless insight of genius, understood that the constitution with its endless checks and balanaces prevented effective government... [but] for Cicero [the solution to Rome's crisis of inaction and inefficacy] lay in finding better men to run the government and better laws to keep them in order." How well Eliot's Prufrock unintentionally captures Cicero!

"No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool."

Cicero never understood that he was wrong, nor passed by an opportunity to tout his own insight, influence, and value. Eventually Cicero was put to death after Octavian put Cicero's name on a proscription (a posting of people wanted dead by the leadership. All property was then confiscated and turned over to the state after the killer was rewarded.) Everitt brings Ancient Rome to life as if we were contemporaries of the protagonists. Excellent book that only makes the reader want to know more.

(JAF) ( )

http://kdegelau.blogspot.com/2006/04/... ( )

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), Roman orator, advocate, politician, philosopher, and an introvert who led the most public of lives. Cicero lived through the stormy era of the Republic and testified the rise, the dictatorship and the assassination of Julius Caesar in addition to seditious movements of those who inherited his political legacy.
Drawn from Cicero's letters of correspondence with his friend Atticus and various modern sources, Everitt deftly recreates a vivid chronicle of Cicero's life and restores him to the pantheon of our common past.

To help readers understand the political infrastructure of the Roman Republic, Everitt begins with a chapter that explores the fault lines of the Republic that gave rise to all the seditious movements and military melee and thus inevitably led to the decadence. Cicero and his contemporaries helplessly inherited a self-constraining, self-defeating political system that inculcated the virtues of fortitude, justice, and prudence. Such inwardly unsound gesture was implemented to thwart any overmighty citizen seizing power.

The very same precautionary measure ironically pushed the Republic to the verge of hostilities and wars. The yearlong co-consulship, the lack of a prosecuting service and the continuous class struggle between the Patricians and People manifested venality, bribery, and collusion among officials.

In his portrait of the tenuous political situation, Everitt delineates Cicero as a man who was born and lived at the wrong time, or rather, the cruel times had dragged him along. Not a single day passed did Cicero not to worry about his opponents and those whom he had testified against with his instigation. Cicero thwarted and put down collusion and conspiracies, acted in defense and won acquittal of Roscius convicted of parricide, challenged the dictatorship of Sulla and the decadence of his regime. During his consulship, Cicero pursued the sedition of Catilina and thwarted his attacks on the Senate. Cicero vehemently opposed Julius Caesar and his despotic attempt to form a new Roman government. Even though Caesar took a liking of Cicero and looked up to him, Cicero asserted his preference for Pompey in the First Triumvirate and supported Pompey during Caesar's reign to restore Rome back to republicanism. In the remaining days of Caesar's dictatorship, Cicero remained a thorn to Caesar until his assassination.

Everitt's account also leaves readers in awe of Cicero's merits. Cicero had administrative gifts and oratorical skills of a very high order that none of his contemporaries could deploy. In a society where politicians were also expected to be good soldiers, Cicero was preeminently a civilian, a philosopher, a writer (Cicero admitted his physical weakness and nervousness) and this makes his success all the more remarkable. Cicero ceaselessly advertised and spread anti-war sentiment. He devoted his whole life, through his influence as a statesman; to negotiate a republic made of a mixed constitution. Cicero, when his career ended, must be in searing pain as he no longer entertained hopes that the Republic will be restored. Everitt deftly pointed that for the long years Cicero was a bystander in the working of Rome was not due to his lack of talent but a "surplus of principle." The republic collapsed around his neck as he tried to find more able men to run the government and enacted more efficient laws to keep these men in order.

Behind the political success laid Cicero's internal struggles. From Everitt's account, it seems the only people whom Cicero engaged in an emotional bonding were his daughter Tullia and his best friend Atticus. His divorce of Terentia (on the basis of her thoughtlessness and financial mismanagement) and his failed marriage with Publilia brought him nothing but loneliness. When Tullia died from a miscarriage, Cicero was completely devastated and read every book that the Greek philosophers had to say about grief. Atticus recounted his friend's grief as something of a new intensity too raw and too astonishing to be publicized. His rabid disagreement with Quintus, who heaped all the blame of his ill behavior on Cicero and switched to Caesar, pricked his heart. All the unfulfilled dreams led to Cicero's drastic change in personality that he was willing compromise his beliefs to stay in power and to exercise unscrupulous methods to restore the republic.

Everitt's book astutely captures the success, struggles, uproars and the spirits of truly the greatest politician of Rome. The book is up to the par of Boissier's Cicero and His Friends and Cowell's Cicero and the Roman Republic. Recommended. ( )