When the great Roman orator Cicero was murdered in the Autumn of 43 BCE, Fulvia, the wife of Marc Antony, had his tongue cut out and pierced with pins, so great a weapon it was. But Cicero was more than a brilliant orator - his life almost perfectly mirrors the decline and fall of the Roman Republic, and his actions and reactions to the rising tyranny of the world around him continue to fascinate and inspire today. In this gripping new biography, historian Catharine Edwards will breathe new life into one the ancient world''s most notable figures, and offer a fresh take on the end of the Roman Republic. The book examines Cicero''s life for what it can tell us about a turbulent society, in which longstanding tensions and inequalities were exacerbated by the wealth of empire, and ambitious generals battled to seize control and remake Rome.

Autorentext

Catharine Edwards

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'Orator gives us a Cicero for our times... **Compelling and beautifully written'**
Eve MacDonald, author of Carthage

**'Superb... an exemplary historical biography'**
Peter Wiseman, Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of Exeter

When the Roman statesman Cicero was murdered in 43 BCE, his head was cut off and his tongue pierced with pins - a final, brutal act of revenge against a man whose words had shaped a generation and made him many enemies. Rising from provincial obscurity to the highest elected office in Rome, Cicero became the greatest orator of his age, a figure who believed that speech itself could defend a republic.

Yet Cicero was far more than a master of rhetoric. His long and turbulent life unfolded alongside the collapse of the Roman Republic, and often at its very centre. He moved among Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great, crushed a conspiracy that threatened the foundations of Rome and cast himself as the republic's last hope. His writings on politics, philosophy and society would prove enormously influential, while his uneasy response to the rise of autocratic power continues to provoke admiration and debate.

In this gripping new biography, the distinguished classicist Catharine Edwards brings Cicero vividly to life, revealing both the brilliance and the contradictions of a man caught between principle and ambition. At a moment when democratic institutions feel fragile, and the power of persuasion is once again under scrutiny, Cicero's life speaks to us with renewed urgency.