Cicero, Leader of the Republic

Livy famously stated that Cicero bore none of his misfortunes with dignity except his death. Modern scholarship usually adopts the ancient view that the Roman orator was a tremendously successful orator, but a failed political leader. This book re-evaluates the meaning of ancient descriptions of Cicero’s public career in the context of the Roman discourse about exemplary statesmanship. This analysis shows that for Roman historiographers from Sallust to Cassius Dio, Cicero was in fact one of the most exemplary politicians of his time. The stories about Cicero’s public words and deeds became an intrinsic part of the historical reconstruction of the collapse of the Roman Republic.