Marcus Tullius Cicero (Cicero) is one of the most talked about, and cited, figures from the Roman Republic. Professor of Latin, Department of Greek & Latin, University College London, Dr Gesine Manuwald, joins the show to discuss what’s known about his life.
Some topics explored
- The extent of his writing (i.e., corpus)
- When and where he was born
- His early life, including his education and type of family he was born into
- What areas of life he wrote about
- The Latin concept of homo novus (in English, translated to “new man”)
- Why being a lawyer or politician was important in Rome
- The political area of his life
- His practice of law
- His marital status and number of children
- Friendships during his career, including Titus Pomponius Atticus
- His influence on the Latin language, in particular Classical Latin
- His writings on political theory
- A conspiracy against him, and his choice to go into exile for about eighteen months
- His death
- The influences his writing has had on posterity
Listen to the episode
The episode can be streamed below and is also available on major podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.
Show Notes
- Professor Gesine Manuwald is the author of numerous publications including the monographs: Cicero (Bloomsbury), and Reviving Cicero in Drama: From the Ancient World to the Modern Stage (Bloomsbury)
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.