Marcus Tullius Cicero (3 January 106 BC-7 December 43 BC) was Consul of the Roman Republic in 63 BC with Gaius Antonius Hybrida, succeeding Lucius Julius Caesar and Gaius Marcius Figulus and preceding Decimus Junius Silanus and Lucius Licinius Murena. He was known as one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists, and he was executed by Mark Antony for his role in assassinating Julius Caesar.
Biography[]
Marcus Tullius Cicero was born in Arpinum, Roman Republic (now Arpino, Lazio, Italy) on 3 January 106 BC, and he became an accomplished orator and successful lawyer before entering politics. He suppressed the Catiline conspiracy of 63 BC by executing five conspirators without due process, and he championed a return to the traditional republican government as Julius Caesar became a dictator. Following Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, Cicero attacked Caesar's successor and right-hand man Mark Antony in a series of speeches, and he was proscribed as an enemy of the state. Cicero was captured while attempting to flee from Italy, and he was executed at Formia on 7 December 43 BC; his severed head and hands were displayed in the Roman Forum. His letters would later be discovered by Petrarch in the 14th century, leading to the start of the Renaissance, the rebirth of Roman ideals.
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