Dictator

Robert Harris

3 ideas

1. Cicero backs Octavian and is proscribed

   After Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, Cicero championed the nineteen-year-old Octavian against Mark Antony in the Philippics, expecting to use the young heir as an instrument and then discard him. Instead Octavian marched on Rome with his legions, formed the Second Triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus, and consented to Cicero's name on the proscription lists. Cicero was killed by soldiers near Formiae in December 43 BC, and his head and hands were nailed to the Rostra where he had spoken.

2. Rhetorical skill loses to organized force

   Cicero was the most persuasive man in Rome for three decades, yet persuasion only works inside institutions that others choose to respect. Once rivals command personally loyal legions, votes, laws and speeches become advisory, and the man whose power is words can be removed by the men whose power is soldiers.

3. Exile and return as dependence

   Cicero's recall from exile in 57 BC came because Pompey and the triumvirs allowed it, not because the Republic vindicated him. That rescue bound him to them: afterward he had to defend their allies and mute his opposition. A political comeback granted by the strong is a debt, and it reduces a person's independence at the very moment it seems to restore it.

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