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The Life of Cicero Volume One
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141 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1880
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122 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Trollope
2,294 books1,763 followersAnthony Trollope became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of Trollope's best-loved works, known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire; he also wrote penetrating novels on political, social, and gender issues and conflicts of his day.
Trollope has always been a popular novelist. Noted fans have included Sir Alec Guinness (who never travelled without a Trollope novel), former British Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan and Sir John Major, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, American novelists Sue Grafton and Dominick Dunne and soap opera writer Harding Lemay. Trollope's literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he regained the esteem of critics by the mid-twentieth century.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_...
Trollope has always been a popular novelist. Noted fans have included Sir Alec Guinness (who never travelled without a Trollope novel), former British Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan and Sir John Major, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, American novelists Sue Grafton and Dominick Dunne and soap opera writer Harding Lemay. Trollope's literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he regained the esteem of critics by the mid-twentieth century.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_...
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 11, 2018
Written during Victorian times by a British, so he makes comparisons to the British system of the time. Cicero was a great orator and philosopher, added to Latin new words. This book is about his life, not the letters that he is famous. Influenced by Greeks, educated in Greece, showed his intellect at a young age by translating Greek philosophy. As a barrister was very clever and interesting approaches to winning. Creator of humanistic movement? Erasmus loved him a lot. He did, however, go against his believes, in my opinion, when he executed Roman citizens. That led him to exile and the future "debate" with Antony cost his life. Cessar and Antony anyway they got dumped by the Greek Cleopatra so for me the bottom line is that if oration does not do the work, woman's legs might do it. :)
May 30, 2017
The Life of Cicero by Anthony Trollope
Thursday, April 27, 2017
10:56 PM
"It is a good thing to be honest when honesty is in vogue but to be honest when honesty is out of fashion is magnificent."- Anthony Trollope
I was especially impressed and sort of mentally sat up when I heard Trollope's account of Cicero's defense of a poor man plundered by the favorites of the dictator Sulla who were also accusing the son of killing his father in order to avoid claims of restitution. Cicero made his prosecution great by his full powers of rhetoric in the face of biased judges and the power of the dictator. It takes courage to take on the henchmen of a dictator in so public a manner as this. Cicero has the courage to take a stance for justice which risks making him odious to the dictator. As Trollope wrote, "It is a good thing to be honest when honesty is in vogue but to be honest when honesty is out of fashion is magnificent." But Cicero's virtuous stance is far reaching, eventually effecting, it seems, the whole of the Roman empire, raising it some perhaps.
Cicero has seemed formidable at a distance and hence I have been wont to postpone engagement with him indefinitely. However, I have come to view Anthony Trollope as a wise, warm-hearted observer, so I have found an access to Cicero through his reflections on the life of the man. I find a lot to admire and after listening to his biography, there is a lot more directly of interest to me and I hope to read some works by Cicero this year or next.
I read this book, frankly, because I have grown an affection for the works of Trollope after working my way through the Chronicles of Barsetshire novels by him, and I wanted to throw another log on the fire. That, and I have wanted to learn more about Cicero as one of the towering figures of antiquity I had little knowledge of. I think I was drawn into reading Trollope in a perverse, contrary reaction to Lionel Trilling's frank dislike for aspects of the novels and the circumstances of their crafting: very much in an orderly manner, for pay.
There is a lot I like about Trollope's approach to Cicero. My instinct was right, I think, in turning to him as a guide.
Trollope writes a somewhat passionate Christian defense of the pagan Cicero's virtues against his contemporary detractors, especially those who were criticizing Cicero for lacking democratic virtue. Trollope acknowledges that Cicero was not a democrat and never claimed to be, but was more of an oligarch. There is something pleasing and sweet in seeing Trollope's deep affection and esteem for the pagan Cicero. He is frankly angered by those who impute cowardice to Cicero because of his Roman manners, and he argues that what are taken as abject and cowardly words on Cicero's part are not exceptional when placed in their cultural context. He upholds a high view of Cicero's character: pretty good for a pagan! To read his book is to witness a Christian defending a pagan with assiduity and passion and a thorough acquaintance of the original Latin against those who impugn his character. Trollope's focus on character and its formation is a Christian focus.
Trollope's arguments in defense of Cicero against detractors reminds me of the criticisms of the press in the Barsetshire Chronicles, and the current acute displeasure with the distorting biases of the media. Trollope I think saw and hailed what is best in incoming modern democracies while he had the advantage of being able to look back and understand what had come before. Modern liberal-democrats have no such vantage point. They would not be able to defend the virtues of Cicero, it seems to me, unless they made him out to be a nascent liberal-democrat, or something like that. (When is the last time you heard of a film being made about Cicero?)
Trollope remarks that it is a very Roman trait to be boastful of one's own exploits and he says Cicero's self-boasting was very Roman. This trait runs contrary to the following ethic: "Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth--a stranger, not your own lips." Proverbs 27:2. Alasdair MacIntyre remarked in one place that Aristotle did not list humility among the virtues and was more inclined to regard it as a vice. Nietzsche I think was for reviving a Roman crucifying vigor, for "blonde beasts" to go out marauding and come back blood bespattered and free of any pangs of conscience. But I digress.
Near the beginning of the biography, Trollope describes Cicero's energetic approach to life. He always had to have his hand engaged in something. He was not an idle man.
As I happened to be reading Augustine's Confessions at the same time that I was finishing this biography, I noted with particular interest passages bearing on Cicero, and his influence on Augustine.
"For what comes nearer to Your ears than a confessing heart and a life of faith? Who did not praise my father for the fact that he went beyond his ability and means to furnish his son with all the necessities for a long journey for the sake of his education? Many far abler citizens did no such thing for their children. But yet this same father had no concern as to how I grew towards You, or how chaste I was, as long as I was skillful in speech, however fruitless I might have been in Your cultivation of my heart, which is Your field, O God, the only true and good Lord." -St. Augustine, Confessions, Book II, Section 3.
This passage makes me think of Cicero and the emulation of Cicero, and of Augustine, for their eloquent rhetoric. However worthy of praise they were, as indeed there is no doubt, there is a limit to how good that is in the whole, an ontological, hierarchical subordination to matters far more sublime, far more weighty, far more important that Augustine contrasts to the cultural and family appreciation of that virtue. It is interesting how Augustine, the accomplished rhetorician, was stirred more by the virtuous search for truth in Cicero, to seek for something higher, which eventually led to his conversion to Christianity.
"In the ordinary course of study, I fell upon a certain book of Cicero, whose language almost everyone admires, though not his heart. This book of his contains an exhortation to philosophy, and is called Hortensius. But this book, in truth, changed my affections and turned my prayers to You, O Lord. It made me have other purposes and other desires. Every vain hope suddenly became worthless to me, and I yearned with an incredible warmth of heart for immortality of wisdom, and began to arise, that I might return to You. For it was not to sharpen my tongue that I studied that book (which was what I seemed to be buying with my mother's allowances in my nineteenth year, my father having died two years earlier), nor did it persuade me by its style, but by its very subject matter." -St. Augustine, Confessions, Book III, Section 4.
I think it safe to say that Anthony Trollope admired Cicero for what he saw in his heart, as well as in his style, and Augustine seems to indicate the same here.
Thursday, April 27, 2017
10:56 PM
"It is a good thing to be honest when honesty is in vogue but to be honest when honesty is out of fashion is magnificent."- Anthony Trollope
I was especially impressed and sort of mentally sat up when I heard Trollope's account of Cicero's defense of a poor man plundered by the favorites of the dictator Sulla who were also accusing the son of killing his father in order to avoid claims of restitution. Cicero made his prosecution great by his full powers of rhetoric in the face of biased judges and the power of the dictator. It takes courage to take on the henchmen of a dictator in so public a manner as this. Cicero has the courage to take a stance for justice which risks making him odious to the dictator. As Trollope wrote, "It is a good thing to be honest when honesty is in vogue but to be honest when honesty is out of fashion is magnificent." But Cicero's virtuous stance is far reaching, eventually effecting, it seems, the whole of the Roman empire, raising it some perhaps.
Cicero has seemed formidable at a distance and hence I have been wont to postpone engagement with him indefinitely. However, I have come to view Anthony Trollope as a wise, warm-hearted observer, so I have found an access to Cicero through his reflections on the life of the man. I find a lot to admire and after listening to his biography, there is a lot more directly of interest to me and I hope to read some works by Cicero this year or next.
I read this book, frankly, because I have grown an affection for the works of Trollope after working my way through the Chronicles of Barsetshire novels by him, and I wanted to throw another log on the fire. That, and I have wanted to learn more about Cicero as one of the towering figures of antiquity I had little knowledge of. I think I was drawn into reading Trollope in a perverse, contrary reaction to Lionel Trilling's frank dislike for aspects of the novels and the circumstances of their crafting: very much in an orderly manner, for pay.
There is a lot I like about Trollope's approach to Cicero. My instinct was right, I think, in turning to him as a guide.
Trollope writes a somewhat passionate Christian defense of the pagan Cicero's virtues against his contemporary detractors, especially those who were criticizing Cicero for lacking democratic virtue. Trollope acknowledges that Cicero was not a democrat and never claimed to be, but was more of an oligarch. There is something pleasing and sweet in seeing Trollope's deep affection and esteem for the pagan Cicero. He is frankly angered by those who impute cowardice to Cicero because of his Roman manners, and he argues that what are taken as abject and cowardly words on Cicero's part are not exceptional when placed in their cultural context. He upholds a high view of Cicero's character: pretty good for a pagan! To read his book is to witness a Christian defending a pagan with assiduity and passion and a thorough acquaintance of the original Latin against those who impugn his character. Trollope's focus on character and its formation is a Christian focus.
Trollope's arguments in defense of Cicero against detractors reminds me of the criticisms of the press in the Barsetshire Chronicles, and the current acute displeasure with the distorting biases of the media. Trollope I think saw and hailed what is best in incoming modern democracies while he had the advantage of being able to look back and understand what had come before. Modern liberal-democrats have no such vantage point. They would not be able to defend the virtues of Cicero, it seems to me, unless they made him out to be a nascent liberal-democrat, or something like that. (When is the last time you heard of a film being made about Cicero?)
Trollope remarks that it is a very Roman trait to be boastful of one's own exploits and he says Cicero's self-boasting was very Roman. This trait runs contrary to the following ethic: "Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth--a stranger, not your own lips." Proverbs 27:2. Alasdair MacIntyre remarked in one place that Aristotle did not list humility among the virtues and was more inclined to regard it as a vice. Nietzsche I think was for reviving a Roman crucifying vigor, for "blonde beasts" to go out marauding and come back blood bespattered and free of any pangs of conscience. But I digress.
Near the beginning of the biography, Trollope describes Cicero's energetic approach to life. He always had to have his hand engaged in something. He was not an idle man.
As I happened to be reading Augustine's Confessions at the same time that I was finishing this biography, I noted with particular interest passages bearing on Cicero, and his influence on Augustine.
"For what comes nearer to Your ears than a confessing heart and a life of faith? Who did not praise my father for the fact that he went beyond his ability and means to furnish his son with all the necessities for a long journey for the sake of his education? Many far abler citizens did no such thing for their children. But yet this same father had no concern as to how I grew towards You, or how chaste I was, as long as I was skillful in speech, however fruitless I might have been in Your cultivation of my heart, which is Your field, O God, the only true and good Lord." -St. Augustine, Confessions, Book II, Section 3.
This passage makes me think of Cicero and the emulation of Cicero, and of Augustine, for their eloquent rhetoric. However worthy of praise they were, as indeed there is no doubt, there is a limit to how good that is in the whole, an ontological, hierarchical subordination to matters far more sublime, far more weighty, far more important that Augustine contrasts to the cultural and family appreciation of that virtue. It is interesting how Augustine, the accomplished rhetorician, was stirred more by the virtuous search for truth in Cicero, to seek for something higher, which eventually led to his conversion to Christianity.
"In the ordinary course of study, I fell upon a certain book of Cicero, whose language almost everyone admires, though not his heart. This book of his contains an exhortation to philosophy, and is called Hortensius. But this book, in truth, changed my affections and turned my prayers to You, O Lord. It made me have other purposes and other desires. Every vain hope suddenly became worthless to me, and I yearned with an incredible warmth of heart for immortality of wisdom, and began to arise, that I might return to You. For it was not to sharpen my tongue that I studied that book (which was what I seemed to be buying with my mother's allowances in my nineteenth year, my father having died two years earlier), nor did it persuade me by its style, but by its very subject matter." -St. Augustine, Confessions, Book III, Section 4.
I think it safe to say that Anthony Trollope admired Cicero for what he saw in his heart, as well as in his style, and Augustine seems to indicate the same here.
January 21, 2018
Readable, If Repetitive
"It is an uphill task, that of advocating the cause of a man who has failed. The Cæsars of the world are they who make interesting stories."
I learned much from this survey of the writings produced by Cicero during the events of his life, up to the time of his exile from Rome.
I was mostly concerned with the events surrounding the Catilinarian orations, since that is what I am currently studying. Because of this, I am not inclined to proceed to the second volume right away, even though I liked Trollope's informal style. Trollope vigorously defends Cicero against the disdain of other historians who compare this defender of the Republic (really an oligarchy, and a hopelessly corrupt one at this point in history) unfavorably to the power, success and fortitude of Caesar. Trollope reminds the reader that a man of conscience naturally doubts himself from time to time, whereas Caesar was never troubled by a conscience.
I sympathize with Trollope's perspective. As an American I find the unabashed violence, greed and lawlessness of the Romans of Cicero's age to be a shocking contrast to our own. Though we are as subject to corruption as they, the law of our land places many more restraints upon the powerful. I do wonder if he glosses over Cicero's faults at times in his defensiveness. Still, an author who so openly declares and unabashedly argues his point of view always wins my heart, especially when in defense of higher principles. I believe Trollope when he says Cicero kept his hands clean of plunder, and if he acted in his own self-interest at times he was principled enough not to seek it to the detriment of the Republic as so many other power-seekers did. Trollope admits the Republic as it stood was not much worth saving and credits Caesar with having a more forward-looking grasp on the times --- but Caesar himself was thoroughly self-interested.
The four stars reflect my interest in the subject. Trollope does repeat his arguments throughout and other readers may find that tiresome.
"It is an uphill task, that of advocating the cause of a man who has failed. The Cæsars of the world are they who make interesting stories."
I learned much from this survey of the writings produced by Cicero during the events of his life, up to the time of his exile from Rome.
I was mostly concerned with the events surrounding the Catilinarian orations, since that is what I am currently studying. Because of this, I am not inclined to proceed to the second volume right away, even though I liked Trollope's informal style. Trollope vigorously defends Cicero against the disdain of other historians who compare this defender of the Republic (really an oligarchy, and a hopelessly corrupt one at this point in history) unfavorably to the power, success and fortitude of Caesar. Trollope reminds the reader that a man of conscience naturally doubts himself from time to time, whereas Caesar was never troubled by a conscience.
I sympathize with Trollope's perspective. As an American I find the unabashed violence, greed and lawlessness of the Romans of Cicero's age to be a shocking contrast to our own. Though we are as subject to corruption as they, the law of our land places many more restraints upon the powerful. I do wonder if he glosses over Cicero's faults at times in his defensiveness. Still, an author who so openly declares and unabashedly argues his point of view always wins my heart, especially when in defense of higher principles. I believe Trollope when he says Cicero kept his hands clean of plunder, and if he acted in his own self-interest at times he was principled enough not to seek it to the detriment of the Republic as so many other power-seekers did. Trollope admits the Republic as it stood was not much worth saving and credits Caesar with having a more forward-looking grasp on the times --- but Caesar himself was thoroughly self-interested.
The four stars reflect my interest in the subject. Trollope does repeat his arguments throughout and other readers may find that tiresome.
June 26, 2021
het viel me tijdens het lezen te binnen dat dit niet echt een biografie was maar eerder een oratio, zoals Cicero zelf er een paar schreef. Het gaat minder om feiten dan om karakter. Cicero wordt door het nageslacht aangevallen (hij is te egocentrisch, zelfverheerlijkend, is laf, een klager enz.) Trollope is zijn advocaat en zal even haarfijn uitleggen waarom al deze aantijgingen onterecht zijn. Als je Cicero fan bent (en dat ben ik) dan is dit heel leuk om te lezen. Als je geen Cicero fan bent, of helden met schoonheidsfoutjes niet tolereert, dan zal dit je al snel op de heupen werken. Of je zou een Trollope fan moeten zijn en genieten van de kans die Trollope zichzelf geeft om advocaat te spelen. Het is niet voor niks dat er zoveel rechtszaken in zijn romans voorkomen. Het hele rechtssysteem en het theater van de rechtbank fascineerde hem en dit is zijn ultieme wishfullfillment: hij wordt de pleitbezorger van de grootste pleitbezorger uit de geschiedenis. Op naar deel twee.
January 2, 2018
Anthony Trollope had a pretty huge crush on Cicero.
July 28, 2018
Part 1 ends with his exile. Trollope writes this bio very well. I shall be reading part 2 soon.
May 1, 2025
It is not for beginners wanting to learn about Cicero.
February 19, 2013
This positive review of the life of Cicero, in 2 volumes,by Anthony Trollope, written in the 1880's, presents his life & abundant writings, amazingly preserved for over 2000 yrs- his correspondence, especially with his friend Atticus in Athens, his orations delivered to the Senate & public, his philosophy, and rhetorical discussions-all written & spoken with admirable form & superb style. He is presented as a person who had an acute feeling for ethical problems, and who generally acted out of moral principles-unlike most Romans of his time who acted out of self-interest. His intellectual reversals even on a short time base, perhaps reflect this, but his guiding light was the restoration of the Roman Republic, as he perceived it, at a time when the Republic was doomed, and the Empire was emerging in the form of Julius Caesar & his nephew Octavian(Augustus Caesar). Cicero adheres to the Conservatives in opposition to the new emerging figures, and is ultimately killed by Anthony's minions, with the approval of Octavian.
The book is somewhat tiresome, in being repetitive in regards to Cicero's personality, and too detailed for the average reader, as well as being somewhat archaic in style & wording.
The book is somewhat tiresome, in being repetitive in regards to Cicero's personality, and too detailed for the average reader, as well as being somewhat archaic in style & wording.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 27, 2012
This wasn't a bad book considering when it was written. I found two things at fault with it.
The first is that the writer makes the ridiculous assertion that Cicero was some sort of pre-Christianity Christian and lived according to a Christian code of conduct or had in some way Christian values. That's so preposterous that I honestly don't even feel the need to say more than pointing it out.
The second problem is that large portions of the text are direct quotes in Latin which may have been okay when more people persued a classical education and when this book was written, but today is so near useless as to be a waste of paper. Not even the Italians themselves have enough Latin speakers anymore to make putting anything into Latin of value. Minus the large tracts of the tome in the dead language the book is actually much shorter than it appears.
Worth reading for the historian. Not light reading.
The first is that the writer makes the ridiculous assertion that Cicero was some sort of pre-Christianity Christian and lived according to a Christian code of conduct or had in some way Christian values. That's so preposterous that I honestly don't even feel the need to say more than pointing it out.
The second problem is that large portions of the text are direct quotes in Latin which may have been okay when more people persued a classical education and when this book was written, but today is so near useless as to be a waste of paper. Not even the Italians themselves have enough Latin speakers anymore to make putting anything into Latin of value. Minus the large tracts of the tome in the dead language the book is actually much shorter than it appears.
Worth reading for the historian. Not light reading.
January 8, 2015
Very educational. interesting if you like Roman stuff which I do. Not fast moving though.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews