Cicero isn’t a model for saving the state, but a symbol of what destroyed it

by JACLYN NEEL

When writer Caitlin Flanagan announced the opening of the University of Austin — a proposed private liberal arts college that is “anti-cancel culture” and welcomes academics treated like “thought criminals” — in November, she made a strange claim: that Cicero defended the dying Republic (apparently against Julius Caesar).

Cicero, had Twitter existed during his time, would be immensely pleased to see this — he had often said he “saved the state,” from the Catilinarian Conspiracy — an abortive attempt to overthrow the economic and political power of the Roman state.

Cicero was Rome’s leading public speaker and one of its two consuls. Although his political powers were diminished in later years, his public and private correspondence provides a detailed look at political life in Rome.

Conservative writers often use him as an example of someone who defended the Republic by standing up to Caesar or stood up for Rome’s constitution in the face of executive overreach. Some even believe that Cicero “nobly held the Republic together” during the last decades of the Republic, or even that “he serves as the republic itself.”

Cicero himself promoted this view, but modern historians see it differently. Although he privately disapproved of Caesar’s power, Cicero publicly supported him and directly contributed to the end of the Roman Republic — the reign of Caesar’s nephew Augustus.

Cicero and Caesar

Many people have heard of Caesar’s dictatorship. But they might be less aware that Caesar became dictator after a civil war between himself and his friend and rival, Pompey the Great, or that “dictator” was a legal office in the Roman Republic.

The unusual thing about Caesar’s dictatorship didn’t come until a month before his death, when Caesar was named “dictator perpetuo” or “dictator in perpetuity.” This event arguably triggered his assassination.

Once Caesar had been installed as the head of the Roman state, Cicero quickly became a member of the dictator’s “court.” This was humiliating and alienating for him.

Cicero tried to spin his position as useful: he could use his close contact with Caesar to win extra pardons. But he wasn’t successful in convincing everyone. Those who eventually assassinated Caesar didn’t trust him enough to join their plot.

Cicero however believed that the assassination hadn’t gone far enough, and more murders were necessary to save the state.

Although he had been happy to learn of Julius Caesar’s assassination, Cicero supported Caesar’s young nephew, who would later become Rome’s first emperor, Augustus.

Cicero promoted Augustus’ interests until Augustus turned on him. Augustus found a better ally in Antony — Caesar’s former right-hand man who had replaced him as Rome’s quasi-legal leader.

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