This is CBS I on the World. I'm John Batson with Professor Josiah Osgood. The new book is Lawless Republic.

It's a wail of a story. And so far, all is prologue for what happens next. Cicero is exiled because he

crossed a very powerful man who found a way to condemn him for the mistake that he made by executing five Roman citizens without a trial when he was counsel.

He eventually returns from exile, however. The year is now 56 BCE. This is important because Caesar and Pompey and Krasis until his death against the

Parthians have formed a very powerful triumvirate. And Cicero is not ignorant of these matters,

but he's been in exile, and now he's's back and Caesar's in Gaul and eventually from

mid-50s until Caesar returns in triumph by crossing the elbow. You all know this story.

We're looking at the civil war, the predicate for the civil war in Rome, in the Roman Republic.

However, we're following Cicero, so we have to be very careful about Cicero's part in all this.

Professor, you report that there's no evidence ever discovered that Cicero knew about the rising against Caesar.

Is that correct?

That's right.

So Cicero didn't want to get involved in the Civil War.

He did what he could to try to stop it, but he didn't have enough political power really to matter.

So half-heartedly, he joined the side of Pompey,

so he fought against Julius Caesar.

But as everybody knows, Caesar would win the civil war.

So at that point, Caesar lets Cicero go back to Italy.

And Cicero kind of needs to put his life back together.

It's not a great time for him.

Of course, he's been on the losing side.

The courts really have ceased to function, so he doesn't have that anymore. He divorced, he and his wife divorce, probably because they sort of fell apart during the Civil War, their marriage did. His beloved daughter dies. So a lot of terrible things happen. And he's really not so involved in politics. So meanwhile, this

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