Cicero-early Life Flashcards
His family’s social and political status
Father was well connected member of equestrian order
Plebeian but not trade
Born
03/01/106
Arpinum
Educated where
Rome- rhetoric/philosophy
Rhodes more advanced courses of these
First achievement as lawyer
80bc Trial of Roscio Defending against a friend of Sulla's Danger of being put on Sulla's proscription list Won the case
Educated in what
Rhetoric/Latin/Greek law/rhetoric/ philosophy
First achievement as politician
76Bc
Quaestor at youngest legal age(30)
-had no patronage or money
First wife
Terentia
77BC-47Bc
Second wife
Publilia
Marries and divorces in 46Bc
How did he get the money to become a senator
Married Terentia
Why (apart from social class and money) was Cicero’s senatorial accept ion impressive
He was a “new man” -first from his family
Why did Cicero go to Sicily
Obligatory year of government service
why was it especially impressive that Cicero become successfull
The politics of the late republic did not allow success to come easily to men who were excluded by birth and resources from the cliques of great and rich families which, in shifting combinations, traditionally dominated the senate and the state.
Cicero’s switching of sides (late on)
When he was young the danger to the republic came from the right: the dictatorship of Sulla had favored the aristocracy against the middle classes. Cicero therefore stood on the left. Later ow however the threat came from Caesar who aimed to stop the free operations of consuls, senate and other republic institutions.
Cicero’s view on the gods and man
“It is by helping others that man approaches closest to divinity”
languages he spoke
latin and Greek
considered cultured