Caesar and Cicero’s War of Words

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) is our most important witness to the turbulent times through which he lived. Many of his speeches from the law courts and Senate survive and he is remembered as Rome’s most talented orator, at a time when robust public debate was still the hallmark of Roman politics. A prominent statesman, he served as consul – one of Rome’s two chief executive officers – in the year 63 BC. But his career had its ups and downs, including a period in exile in 58-57 BC. His astonishingly vivid letters, which survive in large numbers, document his struggles to navigate a political world in which money and military might were becoming ever more important, while traditional political institutions teetered on the brink of collapse.