In May last year, I published a blog about the question “Is philosophy dangerous?” I wrote there that it often happened that philosophers were banned or went voluntarily into exile, because they were prosecuted for their ideas. Some were even killed for their ideas. Later I realized that I forgot to mention Cicero, whose death was violent and cruel. I decided to leave it as it was and to ignore this omission. However, recently I was reminded again of Cicero’s death, when I read about it on my history day calendar. Although actually Cicero was not murdered for his philosophical ideas but for his political affiliations, I want to make up for my negligence now, for in the end Cicero was one of the most important Roman philosophers and he is still widely read.
Today Cicero is best known for his letters and for his treatise on rhetoric. And for his speeches, of course, and then we come to the heart of why he was murdered. But let me begin from the start.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (3 January 106 BC - 7 December 43 BC) was born in the town of Arpinum (now Arpino), halfway Naples and Rome, in a rich family. He always wanted to become a politician and was supported in this by his family and his family-in-law. However, he started his career as a lawyer and became very successful and well-known, also because of his rhetorical talents. He won a case against the corrupt governor Verres of Sicily, which brought him in the centre of politics. Moreover, Cicero was very ambitious. All this stimulated his career a lot. He became a member of the Senate and in 63 BC Cicero was the first Roman consul since 30 years who had not a consul among his ancestors (every year two consuls were elected). After his consulate, Cicero got involved in all kinds of political affairs and because he was also a big spender, he got into debt. The debt was paid by the Triumvirate – one of them was Julius Caesar – that tried to overthrow the existing political structure. Caesar asked Cicero to join the Triumvirate, but he refused, since it would undermine the Senate and the existing Republic. In 60 BC Cicero fled Rome, but he returned three years later, when the political situation had changed. Cicero became again a successful lawyer and returned to the Senate, but he became again involved in political and private affairs. After Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC – Cicero was present when it happened but wasn’t involved in it – a new Triumvirate – called the Second Triumvirate – tried to seize control of the state. This Triumvirate existed of Octavianus (the adopted son of Caesar and the later Emperor Augustus), Marcus Antonius and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Again Cicero took the side of the Senate against the Triumvirate but also advised the Senate to support the still young Octavianus, thinking that the Senate could easily bend Octavianus to their will. He was wrong. One of the agreements between the members of the Triumvirate was that each of them could freely execute their enemies and the others would not interfere. Cicero became on Marcus Antonius’s kill list. He tried to flee but was caught by Antonius’s soldiers. For what happened now, I can best quote Plutarchus, who described Cicero’s death:
Cicero had fled to his villa in Astura, when he had heard that he would be executed, and from there he left again in a litter, accompanied by some servants, not knowing where to go. Not long after he had left home “his assassins came to his villa, Herennius a centurion, and Popillius a tribune, who had once been prosecuted for parricide and defended by Cicero; and they had helpers. After they had broken in the door, which they found closed, Cicero was not to be seen, and the inmates said they knew not where he was. Then, we are told, a youth who had been liberally educated by Cicero …, Philologus by name, told the tribune that the litter was being carried through the wooded and shady walks towards the sea. The tribune, accordingly, taking a few helpers with him, ran round towards the exit, but Herennius hastened on the run through the walks, and Cicero, perceiving him, ordered the servants to set the litter down where they were. Then he himself, clasping his chin with his left hand, as was his wont, looked steadfastly at his slayers, his head all squalid and unkempt, and his face wasted with anxiety, so that most of those that stood by covered their faces while Herennius was slaying him. For he stretched his neck forth from the litter and was slain, being then in his sixty-fourth year. Herennius cut off his head, by Antony's command, and his hands — the hands with which he wrote the Philippics. For Cicero himself entitled his speeches against Antony ‘Philippics,’ and to this day the documents are called Philippics.”
Cicero’s remains were brought to Rome. and there Antonius ordered his head and hands to be placed on the rostrum on the Forum in order to scare the Roman population.
That’s how one of the most outstanding philosophers in history came to his end, though not for what he said as a philosopher but for what did as a politician. But does it make any difference, if a death is so cruel? A human is a human, and cruel is cruel.
Source: Information about Cicero’s death can be found in the Wikipedia and on many other websites.
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