Marcus Tullius Cicero
A Roman portrait bust of Cicero, the consul, orator and letter-writer whose speeches remain the fullest record of late Republican politics.
Cicero was a novus homo — the first of his family to reach the consulship — and he made his career with his voice. His speeches were political weapons, his letters an unguarded running commentary on a Republic tearing itself apart, and both survived because Romans kept reading them. He was killed in the proscriptions of 43 BC, and the Republic he had spent his life defending did not outlast him. Read the full story in our article on Rhetoric and Power: Cicero’s Influence on the Roman Senate.
Public domain — source (Wikimedia Commons). Free to reuse under the stated licence.
