At a glance
- From
- Arpino
- Nationality
- Ancient Rome
Biography
The lines that circulate under his name today usually come from a working politician's toolkit rather than a scholar's study. He argued cases as a lawyer, spoke in public as a matter of professional survival, and wrote about how persuasion actually functions — enough that the method he developed still carries his name, Ciceronian rhetoric. He is counted among Rome's finest orators and among its best prose stylists.
He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, from Arpino, and was educated both in Rome and in Greece. The public career reached the consulship in 63 BC. That placed him at the centre of Roman government during the crises that broke the Republic and ended in the Empire, and through them he held to optimate principles.
The written output ranged widely: treatises on rhetoric, on philosophy, and on politics. It is the reason a statesman, lawyer and orator is still read as a philosopher and writer rather than remembered only as an officeholder.
He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, from Arpino, and was educated both in Rome and in Greece. The public career reached the consulship in 63 BC. That placed him at the centre of Roman government during the crises that broke the Republic and ended in the Empire, and through them he held to optimate principles.
The written output ranged widely: treatises on rhetoric, on philosophy, and on politics. It is the reason a statesman, lawyer and orator is still read as a philosopher and writer rather than remembered only as an officeholder.
Quotes 5
“Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.”
“Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.”
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
“The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.”
“Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.”
