Orations: Philippics 7-14

by Marcus Tullius Cicero, John T. Ramsey (Editor), Gesine Manuwald (Editor)

Cicero (Marcus Tullius, 106-43 BCE), Roman advocate, orator, politician, poet, and philosopher, about whom we know more than we do of any other Roman, lived through the stirring era that saw the rise, dictatorship, and death of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic. In Cicero's political speeches and in his correspondence we see the excitement, tension and intrigue of politics and the part he played in the turmoil of the time. Of about 106 speeches, 58 survive (a few incompletely), 29 of which are addressed to the Roman people or Senate, the rest to jurors. In the fourteenth century Petrarch and other Italian humanists discovered manuscripts containing more than 900 letters, of which more than 800 were written by Cicero, and nearly 100 by others to him. This correspondence affords a revelation of the man, all the more striking because most of the letters were not intended for publication. Six works on rhetorical subjects survive intact and another in fragments. Seven major philosophical works are extant in part or in whole, and there are a number of shorter compositions either preserved or known by title or fragments. Of his poetry, some is original, some translated from the Greek.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Cicero is in twenty-nine volumes.

Genres: Classics, Ancient History, Philosophy

384 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2009

About the author

Born 3 January 106 BC, Arpinum, Italy
Died 7 December 43 BC (aged 63), Formia, Italy

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.

Alternate profiles:
Cicéron
Marco Tullio Cicerone
Cicerone

Note: All editions should have Marcus Tullius Cicero as primary author. Editions with another name on the cover should have that name added as secondary author.

Reviews

[Koeneman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume of the philippics from Cicero against Mainly Marcus Antonius and sometimes Dolabella. Very interesting to see, after every chapter, more and more desperation from Cicero once he learned that less of the senate supports him.

[John Cairns · Rating 4 out of 5]

It ends with Cicero's triumph before his fall on the triumvirate's being formed and his proscription. He must've suspected Gaius Julius the younger would be a Caesarian likely to come to some such accommodation with another Caesarian. He certainly suspected Lepidus would. The outcome turned on the deaths of the consuls and of course the ultimate failure of Brutus and Cassius though Cicero would have been killed by then anyway.

[Daniel Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even if not his most polished oratory (although maybe some would argue that they are), the Philippics were Cicero's finest moment, when he stood against tyranny full on, and paid the ultimate price for it.

[Zachary Rudolph · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I, who, I will say so over and over again, have always been a panegyrist, have always been an adviser of peace, do not wish to have peace with Marcus Antonius.”