Marcus Tullius Cicero was the most famous Roman orator and one of the most recognized names in history. He died today, in a pretty bad way, in the year 43 a. C. He highlighted 3 fragments of his most famous works of his as the speeches of the Catilinarias , On rhetoric and On the republic. By the way, more than one contemporary national politician should read Cicero from time to time.
Cicero and me
My love-hate relationship with Cicero goes back almost to his time in the Roman Republic when I was studying Latin in high school and college. My life then was a continuous text commentary and translations of The Gallic Wars of his contemporary and nothing friend Julius Caesar . And at the university it was his turn and his famous Catilinarias of him with the most rogue Latin professor who ever set foot in a classroom.
But regardless of my concerns with the ablative absolute, Cicero’s life and work is among the most fascinating of that time. To take a look at one of the latest revisions of his figure of him, although under the protection of current narrative and television fiction , I always recommend Roma , the excellent HBO series .
3 fragments of his work
Chosen from the most famous as a politician, rhetorician and philosopher.
Catilinaria I
Until when, Catilina, will you abuse our patience? How long must we still be a toy of your fury? Where will the outbursts of your unbridled daring stop? What! Have not the guard that watches all night on the Palatine hill, nor those who protect the city, nor the terror of the people, nor the concurrence of all good citizens, nor the fortified temple in which the Senate sits, restrained your audacity? meets today, nor the august and indignant countenances of the senators?
Have you not understood, are you not seeing that the conjuration has been discovered? Can’t you see that your conspiracy is no secret to anyone and that everyone already thinks it’s chained? What you have done last night, the men you have gathered, the measures you have arranged with them, do you think they are things ignored by even one of us? O times! O customs! 
About the republic
«Given my situation, I have been able to enjoy leisure and obtain greater fruits from it than others, because of the variety of studies that have been my delight since childhood (…) But with everything, I did not hesitate for a moment in expose myself to the harshest storms , and I would say even lightning, to save my fellow citizens and assure everyone else, without sparing any danger, a quiet life .
Because this country has not engendered and educated us without counting on the fact that, in turn, we contribute to its subsistence ; not merely by serving our interests does it offer us a safe haven for our leisure and a quiet place for our rest; on the contrary, she must retain for her use the greater part of our soul, of our ingenuity, of our wisdom, leaving for our private use what remains after taking her share.’
Of rhetoric – Sober la rhetoric
« The intermediate orator , whom I call moderate and temperate, by only equipping his forces sufficiently, will not fear the ambiguous and uncertain chances of eloquence ; even if he ever does not succeed, as he often does, he will not be in great danger, however; for he cannot fall from very high.
But this orator of ours, to whom we accord the primacy, who is serious, impetuous, ardent, if he was born for this alone, or has only been trained in this, or has only applied himself to this, without tempering his abundance with the other two styles , deserves the greatest contempt. Well , the simple speaker , because he speaks with precision and experience, he is already sensible, the average speaker, pleasant ; but this other most abundant, if he is nothing more than that, he usually seems hardly sane ».
