December 7, -43: 2067 Years Ago Roman Politics Had a Very Sharp Edge Indeed
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Second Triumvirate
15 min read
The article mentions the Second Triumvirate of Marcus Antonius, Lepidus, and Octavianus as the power that ordered Cicero's death, but doesn't explain this political alliance's formation, its proscriptions that killed thousands, or how it differed from the First Triumvirate
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Proscription
13 min read
Cicero's murder was part of the systematic Roman practice of proscription—the public posting of names of citizens declared outlaws who could be killed for reward. Understanding this institution explains why his death was 'legal' violence rather than simple assassination
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Philippicae
10 min read
The article discusses Cicero's relationship with Caesar Octavianus but doesn't mention the Philippics—Cicero's fourteen orations attacking Mark Antony that directly led to his proscription and death, making them essential context for understanding why Antony wanted him killed
“Adolescentem: Laudandum, Ornandum, Tollendum”: “The Boy: Praise, Honor, Remove”: Cicero, Octavian, & the Politics of Necessary & Unnecessary Violence: gerundives & grim actions…
2067 years ago today the Roman Senator Marcus Tullius Cicero M. f. M. n. (hereafter “Cicero”), age 63, was murdered. On December 7, -43, 21 months after the assassination of the Dictator Gaius Julius Caesar G. f. G. n. (hereafter “Julius Caesar”), Cicero was killed by the soldiers commanded by the troop of Centurion Herennius and Military Tribune Gaius Popilius Laenas, acting on the orders of the Second Triumvirate of Marcus Antonius, Marcus Amelius Lepidus, and Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus G. f. G. f. (hereafter “Caesar Octavianus”)—the future Emperor Augustus.
That was six and a half months after he had received this letter from Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, Propraeter for Cisalpine Gaul:
D. Brutus: To M. Cicero, Eporedia, 24 May -43 <https://www.loebclassics.com/view/marcus_tullius_cicero-letters_friends/2001/pb_LCL230.307.xml>: ‘Greetings.
My affection for you and your services to me make me feel on your account what I do not feel on my own: fear.
Here is something I have often been told and have not thought negligible—my latest informant is Labeo Segulius (he never acts out of character), who tells me that he has been with Caesar [Octavianus} and that a good deal of talk about you took place. Caesar [Octavianus}, he says, made no complaints about you to be sure, except for a remark which he attributed to you: ‘the young man must be praised, honoured, and—removed.’
He added that he had no intention of letting himself get removed.
I believe that the remark was repeated to him (or invented) by Labeo, not produced by the young man. As for the veterans, Labeo would have me believe that they are grumbling viciously, and that you are in danger from them. He says they are particularly indignant that neither Caesar nor I have been put on the Commission of Ten,2 and that everything has been placed in the hands of you gentlemen.
When I heard all this, though I was already on the march, I thought it would be wrong for me to cross the Alps yet, before I knew what was going on in Rome. As for the danger to yourself, believe me, they are hoping to gain larger gratuities by talking at large and threatening trouble. They mean to terrorize you and instigate the young man. This whole
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