Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106–43 BCE)

AbstractRoman advocate, statesman, and philosopher. Cicero, who lived during the tumultuous period that marked the end of republican government at Rome, was the most accomplished orator of his day, held Rome's highest office, and ranks among her most prolific philosophers. His 20 or so surviving philosophical and theoretical works, voluminous personal correspondence, and numerous extant speeches emphasize a number of concepts central to classical republican political thought: civic virtue, the mixed constitution, the rule of law, the dangers of corruption, history as a wellspring for moral exempla and political guidance, natural law, and rhetoric. His writings were of fundamental importance for education and political thought in the west for over 1500 years, from the time of the Latin church fathers to the American Enlightenment of the eighteenth century.