Setting the Scene

The Orator and the General:

Marcus Tullius Cicero championed the Republic in its inherited constitutional form, comprising a balanced combination of kingship, aristocracy, and democracy. It had been that way since the last king, the tyrannical Tarquinius Superbus ‘the Proud,’ was exiled in 509 BC.

It was declared that Rome would never again be ruled by a king.

Julius Caesar had little time for the aristocratic elites who sought comfort and prestige from within an oligarchic system of privilege, once remarking: ‘The Republic is nothing – just a name, without substance or form; Sulla was a fool when he gave up the dictatorship; men should now have more consideration in speaking with me and regard what I say as law.’

So, we arrive at a situation where two leading men of Rome are on opposite sides of the fight to save her yet retain mutual admiration and respect for one another’s abilities.

CHAPTER ONE

An Ideal Statesman - Pharsalus 47 - 46 BC

‘For just as the aim of the pilot is a successful voyage, of the physician, health, and of the general, victory; so this director of the commonwealth has as his aim for his fellow citizens a happy life, fortified by wealth, rich in material resources, great in glory and honoured for virtue. I want him to bring to perfection this achievement, which is the greatest and best possible among men.’

-       Cicero, De Re Publica, 54 BC

The outbreak of Civil War in 49 BC between the Pompeians (Optimates) and Caesarians (Populares) was the turning point which would lead to Caesar’s sole rule over Rome, but it would also seal his fate five years down that road. The Optimates were never going to accept his pursuit of what they considered a revival of kingship.

The Battle of Pharsalus in August 48 BC secured Caesar’s dominance while Cicero spent the aftermath of the campaign languishing in the political wilderness because of indecision and procrastination on whose cause was the more worthy to follow - his intense loyalty to Pompey pitted him on the losing side. He was aware that even Pompey sought absolute power but considered his the more honourable cause of the two.

Cicero advocated peace and sought compromises where there were none. It was his inability to decisively choose a side that led to the urging of his peers to remain in Rome and act as an intermediary. Cato’s advice was that Cicero ‘would be more useful to his country and to his friends if he stayed at home without taking sides and adapted himself to events when he knew what the result would be; now, however, unnecessarily and for no good reason, he has made himself an enemy of Caesar.’

His refusal, or inability to do so on principle, left him out in the cold.

He told his good friend, Atticus, that he wished Caesar could show himself an honest man, because there was nothing more precious in his mind ‘than the Republic herself.’ Alas, that would never be the case. Plutarch writes of Caesar: ‘His main efforts were directed towards becoming the first power in the state and the greatest soldier.’

With Pompey now dead and Caesar victorious, it would put Cicero in the position of having to bury his pride and acquiesce to Caesar’s dominance and vanity. What worked in his favour was Caesar’s magnanimity. The dictator himself had sought Cicero’s support early in the civil war, writing to him: ‘First I beg you, since I trust that I shall quickly reach Rome, to let me see you there, and employ your advice, favour, position and help of all kinds.’

Cicero retreated to Brundisium where he spent the best part of 47 BC waiting in a state of emotional agony for Caesar’s pardon. The year rang out with chimes of signature Ciceronian self-pity. On the day of his birthday, January 3, he told Atticus that he was ruined through his own fault and not even fortune had played a part. ‘Would that I had been left to die on the day of my birth, or that my mother had never had another child.’ He was plagued by pathological worry of what others were writing to Caesar about him.

He is much criticised for his character traits, but his present despair had more to do with having had to choose between two men of great skill and stature who both could, in Cicero’s ideal world, assume the role of Director for his Res Publica if only they were loyal to the founding principles of the Roman constitution.

Despite his personal shortcomings, he remained committed to the cause of the Republic. Following Caesar’s pardon in September 47 BC, and in the lead up to the Battle of Thapsus in 46 BC, which would see Caesar’s power absolute, Cicero spent his time writing letters to friends and colleagues seeking pardon for siding with Pompey.

He would continue his quest to urge Caesar to return to Republican values through adopting a more conciliatory approach as he emerges from the shadows of discontent and apathy to speak through veiled words to a now empowered dictator.

…End

Chapter Two next week…