Atticus: Cicero’s Bestie

For Cicero (or anyone for that matter), navigating through the political labyrinth reeked as it is with treacherous opponents, two-faced hypocrites, deadly and venomous intrigues and faction-shifting must seem an insurmountable task, especially when you are a ‘new man’. In this toxic yet exhilarating world, it was of course a precious thing to have found for yourself a true, trustworthy and dependable companion. Atticus is one such companion who had always stood by Cicero's side.

Titus Pomponius Atticus was born in 109 BC to a non-political equestrian family and spent his early life at Rome. However, the civil war between Marius and Sulla drove him to seek a refuge in Athens in 86 BC where he immersed himself in his study and where Cicero became his acquaintance in 79 BC. He did not participate in politics, but was incredibly wealthy due to the fortune he inherited from his father and uncle who left him 2,000,000 sesterces and 10,000,000 sesterces respectively. This sum he cleverly expanded through judicious investments in real estate, so that he could fund his love of books and letters. He also maintained a team of slaves trained as copyists to copy ancient books and scrolls, and published many works including that of Cicero. In addition, Atticus also managed the business affairs of several distinguished political figures such as Cato and Hortensius, made loans to individuals and towns, and even had his own band of gladiators. Cicero’s brother, Quintus Cicero, was married to Atticus’ sister, Pomponia.

Upon his return to Rome in 65 BC, he abstained from all overt participation in politics in the adherence of his epicurean principle. Nonetheless, he was on intimate terms with members of all political parties. “As for you, although you are a born politician, you don’t owe anybody anything”, wrote an envious Cicero to Atticus in 55 BC when Cicero’s political career was thrown into confusion by the arrival of the first triumvirate of Pompey, Caesar and Crassus. Cicero was at that time in great debt to many personages, whereas Atticus was a politician not tied to anyone. Indeed, it is this lack of ideological concerns or obligations which serves to assist Atticus in his many political endeavors behind the scene. No man could have been more clever to avoid the treachery of politics while attempting to exert influence on it.

One of the great legacies this intimate relationship between Cicero and Atticus has passed down to us is their vast amount of correspondences.  During ups and downs of Cicero’s career, Atticus, who was away in Greece, was always kept abreast of what went on in Rome, from the intrigues of powerful men like Caesar, Pompey or Crassus, to the everyday turmoil and crises like gang wars between Clodius and Milo, and lastly the fall of the Republic. Moreover, Cicero often expressed his cares, concerns and wants in his letters, and even sought domestic, literary, financial and even political advice from his prudent friend, who was not even involved in politics!  These correspondences thus provide a priceless primary source of information of the events occurring at that time and allow historians to piece together and put the entire historical occurrence into its context. It is also through these correspondences that we are able to get a glimpse into the nature of friendship between these two figures. Indeed, there is no doubt both men valued this friendship highly and were always ready to afford each other assistance when the other was in dire situation, for instance, when Cicero was forced to flee Italy in 49 BC, Atticus generously granted him 250,000 sesterces. Another instance is when Atticus gave Cicero loans when he faced financial difficulties. This is recorded in Cicero’s letter to Atticus in 57 BC which I look upon as my own), as of your advice for collecting and restoring to a sound state the fragments that remain.” In turn, Atticus found it beneficial to act as Cicero’s financial agent, as Cicero’s letters of recommendation written for Atticus to the governors of provinces assisted the latter greatly.

Thus, it can be said that this is one of the most well-known and well recorded friendship of the ancient world. The amount of correspondences going on between Atticus and Cicero basically gave us a highly valuable insight into not just the nature of their friendship, but also into the nature of the Roman society in general.  

My Best Sidekick is a Slave! – Tiro, the Man who Made Cicero Famous

A mosaic of a Roman slave pouring wine

In our last blog, we gave a brief introduction of our remarkable Roman lawyer and academic, Cicero, his ambitions, his feats, and his success despite all the odds stacked against him. Now, it’s time to talk about his secretary. Why? Who is this secretary anyway? Why is he so important? Well, the fact that he is also a slave might hardly serve to add any glamourous tint to Cicero’s achievement, if not tarnish it. But no! This slave is not like any other slaves the Roman world had known. And it is this slave’s extraordinary talent which will later earn him immortality alongside his master, Cicero. In fact, it is because of this slave that Cicero’s legacy along with that of the Roman Republic was passed down to posterity and made known to the whole world.

There is no historical record confirming Marcus Tullius Tiro’s birth date or place, but it has been estimated that he was born sometimes around 103 BC. However, considering that Cicero often referred to his companion as an “adulescentum probum” (excellent young man), it is far more likely that Tiro was born much later than that. Despite obscurity surrounding his origin, it was commonly assumed that Tiro was born a slave who came from Arpinum to Rome with Cicero’s family. Little is known also about his education, but it is most certain that he was schooled in reading and writing, and that he was literate, a rare attribute for slaves in those days who were often regarded as dispensable and replaceable assets. It is this attribute which would earn Tiro an extraordinary place among his servile peers and eventually a notable place in history. With this skill of his, Tiro was able to perform the various tasks for the great orator that ordinary slaves or even Cicero’s family members wouldn’t be able to perform. Indeed, his daily tasks ranged from taking dictation, writing and composing letters and transcribing. However, these secretarial works do not define or limit the scope of Tiro’s duties. He was still an active participant and witness to Cicero’s political career and his ascension to the top of cursus honorum. At the height of Cicero’s career, Tiro would be expected to conduct research, take notes in various meetings attended by Cicero and his political fellows, copy out important materials from the library, and record his master’s speeches and other oratory works.

A Roman scribe

Tiro’s daily tasks would have required him to receive Cicero’s visitors to his master’s villa. As you know, important Roman public figures were expected to act as patrons for the people from various classes and background. In turn, they would support him in election or lend him their hands in times of need. Tiro’s task would have involved performing a ‘triage’ i.e. determining whom Cicero might or might want to meet that day and then prioritising his master’s schedule accordingly. As his master is always a well sought-after lawyer, Tiro was also expected to help gather evidence for Cicero’s clients and conduct interview. He was thus indispensable at any meeting as Cicero mostly relied on his notes to keep himself on track and up-to-date. In a way, Tiro’s job was actually akin to a modern-day paralegal!

To facilitate his daily secretarial tasks, Tiro even developed his own system of shorthand for Latin called “Tironian Shorthand”, consisting of around 4,000 signs and where words were truncated and combined with Greek symbols to form phases and sentences. This does not permit every crucial bit of information to be recorded efficiently, but also ensure the secrecy of the information such that the information would not be destroyed by Cicero’s opponents. This system later permitted Tiro and Cicero to produce multiple copies of oratory works and form their own library, the existence of which was confirmed in Cicero’s letter to his life-long friend Atticus in the spring of 56 BC. Tiro no doubt would have had access to this library containing all the documents and oratory works compiled throughout his master’s life.

Cicero’s affection for his secretary is strongly evident from many of their correspondences, where the former would often inquire about and express concern for Tiro’s health. Cicero, in expressing his gratitude and affection, even went so far as to set Tiro free. Being a freedman, Tiro took Cicero’s first two names and became Marcus Tullius. Nonetheless, he continued to serve Cicero up till the time of his master’s death in 43 BC, after which he continued to publish his former master’s works and even wrote some books of his own including the four volume bibliography of Cicero.

From this, there is absolutely no doubt why in an October, 2012 blog entry, Ben Rawlins of Life Well Lived, Tiro was named as the “Most Kick-Ass Sidekick in History”. He lived at a crucial watershed of Roman history where one witnessed the transformation of the Republic to an Empire. More importantly, he allowed later generations to have an insightful glimpse into the life of Rome’s most famous lawyer by, in a way, becoming his very voice. By being by always being Cicero’s side and witnessing his ups and downs, his best and worst, and his glory and downfall, Tiro had certainly helped echo Cicero’s precious voice to posterity and ensured the immortality of his name!!

  

Meet the Roman Lawyer: Cicero

This topic is something which I have always wanted to write about since there are 3 lawyers in my family, my dad, my sister and, lastly, I. Thus, the topic is something we can easily relate to, offers us a extraordinary glimpse into this profoundly interesting and alluring profession since ages past, how legal techniques and prowess changed and developed over times, as well as providing us with a remarkable account of a life and ambition of an ancient lawyer of humble origin who then made his way to become a consul of the Roman Republic! In this, it can be seen that law and politics are indeed intricately entwined.   

Marcus Tullius Cicero was born in 106 BC. A philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, theorist, consul and constitutionalist, he came from a wealthy equestrian family and was considered one of Rome’s greatest orators and prose stylists, who had enormous influence on the Latin language and the European languages up to the 19^th century. His hometown is a hill town of Arpinum, 100 km southeast of Rome. His father is a member of the equestrian order who had good connections in Rome. However, he was a semi-invalid and could not enter public life as a result. Cicero’s surname comes from the Latin, cicer, meaning chickpea since his ancestors prospered through the cultivation and sale of chickpea. This is in accordance with the practice of the time where famous families often adopted down-to-earth surnames such as Fabius, Lentulus, and Piso. Being born in 106 BC and lived up till 43 BC, he has witnessed throughout his life the gradual decline and eventual fall of the Roman Republic, the event of which he had been one of the key and significant participants.

The Roman Law Court where Cicero would have argued
his famous cases

Cicero’s political career was filled with remarkable feats. At that time, political offices were effectively controlled by a few wealthy aristocratic families (the optimates), who selfishly manipulated the regime to satiate their own greed and jealously guarded their privileges against any would-be upstart. Cicero’s family was not one of these wealthy aristocratic families, having descended from a mere provincial town. Thus, he was never really accepted by the optimates, being a novus homo or a new man he was, whose family member had never before held a public office. Nonetheless, Cicero’s political ambition was great. At a very young age he chose Achilles’ motto as his motto: to always be the best and overtop the rest. Lacking the advantages of a proper ancestry, there were essentially only two career options open to him: military and law. Cicero was no soldier, Gawky and skinny, with a long thin neck as he was. He hated war, and served in the military only very briefly as a young man. Therefore, he naturally opted for law.

Cornelius Sulla

At the time of his birth, Rome was experiencing civil unrest and war between Sulla (later Dictator) and Marius (uncle of the famous Julius Caesar). Sulla’s victory in the first of a series of civil wars led to a revolutionary transformation that seriously undermined libertas (liberty), the fundamental value of the Roman Republic. At the same time, Sulla’s reforms greatly strengthened the position of the equestrian class, enhancing its political power. Cicero was thus a beneficiary of Sulla’s new regime. This and his loyalty to the Republic ensured he would enjoy the support and confidence of the people as well as Italian middle classes.     

To prepare for his legal career, he studied jurisprudence, rhetoric and philosophy. Sent to the capital as a boy in the nineties, his aptitude for rhetoric was such that the fathers of his fellow students would come to his school just to hear his speech. After several years of extensive preparation, he began taking part on legal cases. This legal career could lead to political success for several reasons. First, a lawyer would attain a high level of skill in oratory, which is crucial in politics. Second, he would gain popularity and attention from high-profile cases. Third, a successful lawyer would have built up a network of connections over the years which is crucial at the time when success in politics depended on the shifting networks of friendships and commitments. In this Cicero succeeded remarkably, attaining each of the main offices at the earliest age at which he was legally allowed to run for them until he finally became consul in 63 BC.

Gaius Marius

Personality-wise, Cicero was regarded as a man of vanity, which was normal at that time when modesty was never regarded as a virtue. He was also a deeply sensitive man, often torn between a consciousness of his own great talents and fear that his snobbery might work against him. In fact, his talents were so evident that they were spotted early by an influential figure by the name of Marcus Antonius, whose power of oratory had elevated him to the positions of both consul and censor. An extreme conservative, he often spoke aggressively against Marius and was subsequently murdered in 87 BC. Cicero has always regarded Antonius as a role model that had instilled in him a further passion for the Republic’s ancient order. It was not at all surprising that the collapse of the Republic a few decades later would cause him immeasurable grief.

However, Cicero’s story does not end here. Please keep an eye for the next blog when we delve deeper into Cicero’s private life, family, friendship, personal ambition, conspiracy and ultimately the fall of the Roman Republic…

Continue in the next blog