Cicero, M

TULLIUS, 106-43, B.C. Roman author and statesman; b. at Arpinum, and educated at Rome, Athens and Rhodes. Though not of noble birth, he rose rapidly by his oratory, and was made consul for the year 63, during which he crushed the conspiracy of Cat a line and had some of the conspirators executed. Politics were unsettled and Clodius in 58 procured his banishment. On his return he was Gov. of Cilicia 51-50, took sides with Pompey; devoted much to literary labors; reentered the political arena to oppose Antony.against whom he delivered his celebrated Philippic; and on the formation of the second triumvirate was proscribed and a a inated. He was the greatest of Latin prose writers and the most powerful of Roman orators. His writings cover a wide range of subjects. Some 60 orations exist in whole or in part, and a series of works upon rhetoric and the philosophy of taste. Politics are represented in his Republic and books De Legibus , Moral Philosophy by De Officiis , Cato Major , and Laelius , with minor treatises. The De Finibus and the Tusculan Disputations are the most important of his metaphysical works; and the De Natura Deorum and the De Div in at i one the principal ones in theology. He has exerted more influence upon Latin thought and literature than any other Roman writer; his character was far above the standard of his time. IMG:content-0879.png:[graphic] IMG:content-0880.jpg:[graphic]