CICERO, M. TULLIUS, a-Cir-0, r. Born at Arpinum, 3rd of January, zo6 s.c.. was son of a Roman knight and He!via. and lineally descended from the ancient kings of the Sabines ; he was taught philosophy by Philo, and law by M ucius Scmvela ; acquired miaary knowledge under Sulla in the Marsic war, 89, and retired from Rome to indulge his philo sophic tastes : for his health he visited Greece, and on his return soon became one of the most distinguished orators in the forum. As qumstor in Sicily, 75, he behaved with such justice that the Sicilians gratefully remembered pin , and for them he impeached Verres, 70. After being mdile, 69, and prmtor, 66, he was elected con sul, 6a, when Catiline's conspiracy was on foot, and he now joined the aristocratical party. An attempt was made by Martins and Cethegus to murder him, but he escaped and denounced Catiline in the Senate, and seized five of the conspirators ; whereon Catiline left the city, and was defeated in Gaul by C. Antony, the other consul's lieutenant, and Cicero put the imprisoned conspirators to death without trial before the people,—clearly an illegal act, for which he was severely attacked by Julius Cmsar and others, but defended by Lutailus Catalus, Cato, and the whole senate. Cicero received the thanks of the people, and was called the father of his country ()Saler fiettrkr); but the vehemence with which he had attacked P. Clodius proved injurious to him, and when his enemy was made tribune, Cicero was banished from Rome : in his exile he was treated with the greatest respect, and on the fall ,f the Clodian faction he was recalled to Rome, 55, and in 52, as proconsul, he conducted with suc cess the expedition against Cilicia. In the civil war, 49, after much hesitation he joined Porn pey, and, after Pharsalia, 48, went to Brundu slum, became reconciled to Cmsar, and subse quently resided in the country, rarely visiting Rome. On the murder of Cmsar, 44, Cicero advised a general amnesty, and advocated the decreeing of the provinces to Brutus and Cassius. When the assassins' power declined,
he retired to Athens, but soon returned : Octavianus (Augustus) for a time professed friendship for him, but when the triumvirate (Octavianus, Lepidus, Antony) was formed, 43, Cicero was on the list of those proscribed by Antony, and Octavianus made no opposition ; the emissaries of Antony overtook him near Formix, as he fled in a litter towards the coast of Caieta : when the assassins came up, he put his head out of the litter, and it was severed from the body by Herennius, 7th of December, 43: his head and right arm were taken to Rome and hung up in the forum, and Fulvia, Antony's wife, ran a gold bodkin through the tongue. Cicero was of too timid and hesitating a disposition to display the active virtues of a patriot, and his irresolution in the civil war almost brands him as a coward. In his private character he was very amiable, and won the good opinions of all u ho knew him : his fame rests on his literary compositions, philosophical, oratorical, and epistolary, which are the model of pure Latinity his philosophical trea tises did much to make the works of the ancient philosophers known. His attempts at versification were failures ; he translated many of the Greek poets and historians for his own improvement, and once planned a history of Rome, which he did not execute. He was married to Terentla, who bore him a son and a daughter, and whom he repudiated ; he then married one of his young wards, whom he re pudiated on her seeming elated at the death of his daughter Tullia. 2. M., son of (a), was made by Augustus colleague in the consulship, 3o B.c., and avenged his father by throwing public dishonour on the memory of Antony ; but he disgraced himself by his dissipation. 3. Q., the brother of (I), was Cmsar's lieutenant in Gaul, 55 'lc., and proconsul of Asia for three years, and was proscribed by the triumvirs and killed, 43• •