Born in 106 BCE, Cicero reached political maturity during the reign of Sulla (82–79 BCE), who first introduced proscriptions (the drafting of
‘kill lists’) into Rome’s political repertory, and lost his life in 43 BCE when the triumvirs resorted once more to the same measure (or, in the words of Seneca the Elder, Suasoria 6.3, when ‘Sulla’s thirst for citizen blood returned to the state’ (civilis sanguinis Sullana sitis in civitatem redit). The autobiography that emerges from Cicero’s oratorical self-fashioning throughout his career as a public speaker reflects the tumultuous historical context in which he was operating. The following six stages can be distinguished:
(i) c. 81–66 BCE: in his early defence speeches Cicero adopts the stance of the inexperienced novice, who, in the name of justice, dares to speak truth to power and gradually rises to the top.
This early period culminates in the speeches against Verres, who stood accused of imperial exploitation, through which he dethroned Hortensius (a part of Verres’ defence team) as ‘king of the courts’.
(ii) In his first political speech the De Imperio Gnaei Pompei or Pro Lege Manilia delivered in 66 BCE, the year he held the praetorship (the second highest political office after the consulship), Cicero promotes himself as the ‘new man made good’, who puts himself at the service of the commonwealth.
(iii) He follows up on this with the consular ethos (optimate or popularis, as the occasion demanded) he projects in the orations he gave during and shortly after his consulship (63–59 BCE) — the apex of his political ambitions, which tragically also resulted in his first devastating career break: in 58 BCE, Cicero
was driven into exile for his illegal execution of the Catilinarians without trial.
(iv) Upon his return in 57 BCE, he tries to regain lost political prestige by adopting a ‘L’État, c’est moi’ [‘The state am I’]
posture, starting with his two speeches of thanks-giving to the senate and the people for his recall and culminating in the pro Milone (52 BCE).
(v) Soon after the pro Milone, Cicero left Rome on a pro-consular appointment in the Near East and returned just shortly before the outbreak of civil war. With a dictator in charge, Cicero turns himself into a principled republican, who struggles to find, but manages to assert, a meaningful voice in the presence of autocratic omnipotence: all three speeches he delivered before Caesar — the pro Marcello and pro Ligario in 46; and the pro Rege Deiotaro in 45 — testify to his republican convictions (but also his willingness to enter into dialogue with the dictator), though the mood of the orations progressively darkens.
(vi) After Caesar’s assassination, Cicero, in his Philippics (1–14, dating to 44–43 BCE), casts himself in the role of an ardent patriot, who tries to rally the senate and the people under the slogan ‘give me liberty or give me death’. Philippic 2 thus belongs to the last phase of Cicero’s career, leading up to — indeed helping to bring about — his murder.8
Born in 83 or 82 BCE, Antony, unlike Cicero, was not a homo novus:9 the gens Antonia belonged to the nobility (though was not of patrician origins). The most illustrious representative of the family clan was Antony’s grandfather, the eponymous Marcus Antonius (I), one of the consuls of 99 BCE and immortalized by Cicero as one of the two principal interlocutors in his dialogue On the Ideal Orator (de Oratore).
8 Writing in the early imperial period, Seneca the Elder (54 BCE–39 CE) put together collections of materials for declamatory exercises. Two of his Suasoriae deal with the circumstances of Cicero’s death: Suasoria 6 debates whether Cicero should have begged Antony’s pardon if the opportunity had presented itself (and concludes with a collection of accounts of his actual death, including Livy’s); Suasoria 7 explores the (again fictional) scenario: ‘Antony Promises To Spare Cicero’s Life If He Burns His Writings: Cicero Deliberates Whether To Do So’. Debate Away!
9 For his date of birth (disputed), see Denniston (1926: 100).
13 Introduction
The next generation failed to live up to his lofty standards: Marcus Antonius (II), son of Marcus Antonius (I) and father of our Mark Antony did reach the praetorship in 74, but soon after suffered a fatal career break because of military failure followed by bankruptcy. His brother Gaius Antonius Hybrida got chucked out of the senate in 70, though managed a comeback as Cicero’s colleague in the consulship in 63. Cicero quite literally bought his support against Catiline, not least by agreeing to swap pro-consular provincial assignments. But upon his return from Macedonia in 59, Hybrida was dragged into court for his approach to provincial government and went into exile. If Hybrida harboured significant sympathies for Catiline, Antony’s stepfather P.
Cornelius Lentulus Sura, one of the consuls of 71, but (just like Antonius Hybrida) stricken off the senatorial register the following year, was one of Catiline’s ringleaders and among those whom Cicero had executed without trial.
Antony therefore had to overcome the failings of the previous generation of Antonii, but he could rely on the distinction of his grandfather and some family resources, which ‘included the large Antonian clientela and access to wealth, arising both from the family’s business interests in the East and from a possibly lucrative first marriage to Fadia, the daughter of a freedman’.10 His talents in the military sphere served as catalyst for a remarkable career. Antony first distinguished himself in service under Gabinius in the Near East (57–55), before joining Caesar in Gaul and becoming one of his most trusted lieutenants.11 With the help of Caesar’s patronage, he started on his cursus honorum in Rome, holding the quaestorship in 52 and the tribuneship in 49. The outbreak of civil war then turbo-charged his rise to the top: ‘In the first two years of the Civil War, Caesar twice deputed Antony to serve as his chief representative in Italy during prolonged periods of absence.
10 Welch (1995: 184), with further bibliography. She proceeds to offer the following character sketch of Mark Antony: ‘Bluff good humour, moderate intelligence, at least a passing interest in literature, and an ability to be the life and soul of a social gathering all contributed to make him a charming companion and to bind many important people to him. He had a lieutenant’s ability to follow orders and a willingness to listen to advice, even (one might say especially) from intelligent women. These attributes made Antony able to handle some situations very well.
There was a more important side to his personality, however, which contributed to his political survival. Antony was ruthless in his quest for pre-eminence’.
11 Cicero covers these chapters of Antony’s career in Phil. 2.48: see below.
Caesar did so first in April 49 when he set out for Spain to do battle with Pompey’s legions. From April until Caesar’s return in December, Mark Antony was granted pro-praetorian power by Caesar and entrusted with administering the whole of Italy, although at the time Antony was only a tribune of the plebs… A year later, in 48–47 Antony’s powers were even more sweeping. As Caesar’s magister equitum during Caesar’s extended absence in Egypt and Asia Minor, Mark Antony exercised control over all of Italy and Rome until Caesar returned in September 47’.12 In the following years, he was busy raising much needed cash for Caesar by ‘liquidating Pompey’s assets by resale’ — a ‘complex financial enterprise’ which he managed to carry off with aplomb and handsome rewards from Caesar in the form of further political offices and advancement.13
In the year of Caesar’s death, Antony was consul — but the assassination of his patron left him very much exposed: while he initially tried to reach a compromise with the conspirators and work towards a peaceful resolution of the simmering tensions between Caesarians and republicans, he soon came under pressure from Caesarian hard-liners, and in particular Caesar’s adopted heir Octavianus, who eroded his support among the veterans and other loyalists by adopting a strident stance towards the conspirators. To rally support, shore up his base, and increase his influence, Antony began to pursue a much more confrontational approach that included pronounced pro-Caesarian measures of his own — which brought him into open conflict with Cicero and set the stage for the Philippics.
Cicero did manage to forge an alliance against Antony, consisting of a reluctant senate (under his leadership), the two (Caesarian) consuls of 43 (Aulus Hirtius and Gaius Vibius Pansa) and their armies, and Caesar’s heir Octavianus (and his private army of Caesarian veterans); but his success was short-lived. By the summer of 43, Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus had formed their triumvirate and taken control of Italy. Cicero was one of the first — and certainly the most prominent — victim of their kill list. Despite their successful squashing of the republican opposition, the alliance between Antony and Octavian remained uneasy — and it ultimately broke down entirely in the late 30s BCE. In preparation for
12 Ramsey (2004: 162).
13 Ramsey (2004), with citations from 172.
15 Introduction
the final showdown, Octavian picked up where Cicero left off: with a wholesale propaganda war against the character and (its failings) of his adversary.14 At the centre of the effort stood the contention that Antony had lost his Roman ways and had fallen under the evil influence of the queen of Egypt, Cleopatra.15 After Antony and Cleopatra lost the battle of Actium against Octavian (and his general Agrippa), they fled to Egypt and ended their lives. Here is Shakespeare’s take (Antony and Cleopatra 4.15.52–70):
Mark Antony
The miserable change now at my end
Lament nor sorrow at, but please your thoughts In feeding them with those my former fortunes, Wherein I lived, the greatest prince o’ th’ world, The noblest, and do now not basely die, Not cowardly put off my helmet to My countryman — a Roman by a Roman Valiantly vanquished. Now my spirit is going.
I can no more.
Cleopatra
Noblest of men, woo’t die?
Hast thou no care of me? Shall I abide In this dull world, which in thy absence is No better than a sty? O see, my women, The crown o’ th’ earth doth melt. My lord!
[Antony dies]
O, withered is the garland of the war,
The soldier’s pole is fall’n: young boys and girls Are level now with men. The odds is gone, And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon.
For Shakespeare’s Cleopatra, at least, Mark Antony was the world. As we stride into the Billingsgate that is Philippic 2, it is worth bearing in mind that hardly any politician in history has otherwise been treated more unfairly…
14 Scott (1933).
15 http://theconversation.com/the-fake-news-that-sealed-the-fate-of-antony-and-cleopatra-71287