Cicero

In Our Time: Philosophy

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2018

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas developed by Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) to support and reinvigorate the Roman Republic when, as it transpired, it was in its final years, threatened by civil wars, the rule of Julius Caesar and the triumvirates that followed. As Consul he had suppressed a revolt by Catiline, putting the conspirators to death summarily as he believed the Republic was in danger and that this danger trumped the right to a fair trial, a decision that rebounded on him. While in exile he began works on duty, laws, the orator and the republic. Although left out of the conspiracy to kill Caesar, he later defended that murder in the interests of the Republic, only to be murdered himself soon after. With Melissa Lane The Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University and 2018 Carlyle Lecturer at the University of Oxford Catherine Steel Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow And Valentina Arena Reader in Roman History at University College London Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

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0:45.0	Hello in 63 BC Marcus Tullius Cicero was elected as one of the two consuls in Rome,
0:52.0	the highest political position, a remarkable
0:54.7	rise for someone born outside the establishment.
0:58.0	One of his goals was to stabilise the Republic, which was under threat from armed conspirators, aristocrats who claimed to be men of the people,
1:05.0	and generals who would be tyrants.
1:07.0	He suppressed a revolt to great acclaim, executing the ringleaders without trial,
1:11.0	only to be exiled for this act once their supporters were in power.
1:14.8	Exiled gave him time to develop his ideas about the form the republic should take
1:19.2	if it were to survive, how the powers would be balanced within it, how to reconcile duty with self-interest,
	...

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