Cicero by Everitt- Very Readable Even If You Aren't Into Roman History!

Cicero by Everitt is a very readable book even if you are not into Roman history like I am!  It starts out with a brilliant description of Rome in the first century BC.  Political, economic and social conditions that shaped the time.  You can go to Amazon.com - and go to Look Inside to see preview the first chapter:  Fault Lines.  It just blew me away.

Anyhow, I will continue.  You've seen the post (possibly) on Terentia, Cicero's first wife.  The interest in Cicero came from Freeman's book on Caesar where Cicero and Terentia were mentioned.  

Cicero

Terentia

 Cicero was from Arpinum (now Arpino), 70 south of Rome, a rural town on the Liris River.  He was born in January 3, 106 BC to a rural gentry/equites family.  Cicero meant "chick pea" in Latin.  Cicero's mother's name was Helvia.  Not much is known about her.  He also had a younger brother named Quintus.  The family business was laundry or fullers.  Since soap was not yet invented, clothes were bleached with animal urine and carbonate of soda, before being rinsed, laundered in water and put out to dry.  (I saw this on an episode of HBO's Rome and could not believe it, but I guess it was true.  Thank You Tide!)

Aprino, Italy

Location of Arpino

The family were populares/left-wing, but believed in education.  Cicero was sent to school to study in the traditional Roman way.  (See Caesar/Education section)  As Cicero got older he had an educational patron in Rome, "the celebrated orator Licius Lucinius Crassus, who was also a conservative and understood the need for reform." p31  Quintus also studied with the elder Crassus.  This is where he decided he wanted to become an advocate or lawyer.  (He also studied with Crassus' father-in-law, Quintus Mucius Scaevola, who was in his 80s.)  While studying with Scaevola, Cicero met Caius Julius Caesar, who was 6 years younger, and Titus Pomponius (later called Atticus.)

Atticus

Cicero was a traditionalist and an academic.  He liked old Roman values and believed in the constitution.  He felt there were too many foreigners in Rome.  The discussion in the book turns to Sulla, optimate or traditional, and his return to traditional values when he took over as dictator.  Soon after Sulla left office, many of his reforms were over turned by the populares or more liberal views. 

• Increasing the power/size of Senate
• 300 - 400 members
• Note:  Caesar also increased the number of Senators due to the increase in the territory of the Republic after his conquests of Spain, Gaul, Egypt
• Increased the number of Quaestors
• Set age requirements for various gov positions
• Tribunes lost much authority that he gave back to the Senate
• Introduced new rules for elected officials
• Put proscription lists up in the Forum to kill many aristocrats
• Property taken and sold cheaply
• Sulla made some money this way and rid himself of his enemies
• Crassus's father and brother killed during this time
• Crassus jr. fled to Spain where the family had some friends and hid in a cave to escape the same fate

After this digression or foray into history, the author tells us Cicero marries Terentia in 79 BC at the age of 27.  Her dowry was substantial 400,000 - 480,000 sesterces, enough to buy Cicero entry into the equestrian order in Rome.  Terentia came from a very wealthy family and she was the heir to her father's fortune.  (Terentia's half-sister, Fabia, was a Vestal Virgin.)  Terentia managed her money/land holdings, whereas the dowry became Cicero's.  She had a family supported guardian to help her in these endeavors, but she was a smart girl.


Interesting Facts re. Rome in 1st century BC:

• 400,000 Roman citizens
• 1/5 children died in infancy & 1/3 died by maturity - 16 I am assuming
• Roman Social Strata
• Patrician
• Equites/Knights/Rural Gentry
• Shop Keepers/Artisans/Small Holders
• Landless peasantry/farm workers/free-born men in cities 
• High unemployment among free-born men in the Rome 
• Added to cost of grain dole for state
• Slaves 
• 1/4 of Roman population
• Represented security concern
• Women/Girls could wed as young as 12 years old, but consummation was usually put off for a few years (according to the book)
• Older men married, late 20s & early 30s, married much younger women
• Roman Legal System - various courts specializing in different kinds of crime (eg. treason, murder, extortion) 
• In General:
• Praetor resided
• 30-60 Jurors 
• Prosecutor would open the case with a speech and supporting council would follow up.  A water clock would keep equal time for both sides.
• Witness were questioned and cross-examined
• Advocates would debate between themselves
• Voted in secret on wax tablets
• A - absolvo
• C - Dondemno
• Bribery rampant
• Civil Cases - were heard in two parts
• Part I - before a Praetor who defined the issues in question
• Part II - before a judge or jury for a decision.  Praetor would give his opinion to the judge or jury.
• War of the Allies (Social War) 89 - 91 BC - Mithrades, King of Pontus, invades Rome.
• Roman Life - Roman Forum center of activity - social, economic and political
• Lived during the day when it was light out
• Needed torches to see at night as there were no street lights
• Dangerous to go around at night
• Rome was over crowde
• Town planning had not occurred at this point in Roman history  
• No wide thoroughfares or avenues at this time
• Apartments or insulae were quickly constructed to house the people
• High rise buildings 5 or 6 stories tall
• Shops on ground floor
• Frequently collapsed as they were not well build and hastily constructed
• Periodic floods also destroyed these building
• Cicero was a landlord/developer of these building
• Traditional Roman Marriage - Early Republic - by the Late Republic this ritual had lost it's appeal and was replaced by a simpler ceremony.  eg. like marriage in a registry office.  (I like the Early Repbulic - Big Italian wedding better!!!)
• Bride wore a white tunic and a special belt for the husband to untie ;) and a flame colored veil
• Hair done up with braids and extra hair if needed for the hair do with ribbons
• An animal was sacrificed and an Augur would examine it's entrails and declare the auspices favorable
• What if they weren't???
• Vows were exchanged
• Wedding feast concluded by ritual attempt to pull bride from mother's arms in an attempted abduction
• Procession to husbands house
• Bride would smear husbands door with oil and lard and decorate it with strands of wool
• She was lifted over the threshold & now you know where that one comes from!
• Fade to black...
• Religion - polytheistic, but interesting take on Roman religion of the late republic by the author, "Religion was not so much a set of personal beliefs as precisely laid-down ways of living in harmony with he expectations of the gods.  In fact, by the end of the Republic educated men believed less in the literal truth of the apparatus of religious doctrine than in the vaguer notion of the validity of tradition."  ~ Everitt p55.
• This also goes along with the optimate trend to return to traditional roman values and the belief in the Roman constitution that many Senators were touting at the end of the republic
• College of Augurs - had the sole right of interpreting the auspices. 
• An Augur would mark off a rectangular space, called a templum (the origin of the  word temple,) from which he would conduct his observations.
• Augur's would determine if the site was favorable or un-favorable for a temple
• Roman Calendar divided into 12 columns marked by:
• F - Fastus - Lucky - Lawful - business could be conducted
• Law Courts could sit
• Farmers to plow or harvest crops
• C - Comitialis - Especially Fortunate/Lucky Days
• Popular Assemblies could mee
• N - Nefastus - Unlucky - Unlawful - business could not be conducted
• Kalends - First of the month - super lucky
• Could hold religious ceremonies
• Nones - the 9th day before the Ides
• Ides - the 13th or 15th day of the month
• Anniversaries of national disasters - Caesar's [upcoming] murder
• Roman Festivals and Holiday - numerous throughout the year
• Public Holiday dates not fixed until the last minute by priests and officials who managed the calendar ~ Everitt p 56