Cicero, “dimly remembered”

I spend time with the indomitable Hebrew Prophet Jeremiah. I spend hours with Charles Dickens. I’m adding the Roman, Marcus Tullius Cicero to my list of heroes that I want to learn. Anthony Everitt in his CICERO, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ROME’S GREATEST POLITICIAN, states that the middle name was Anglicized to “Tully.” Everitt explains that with the disappearance of Latin from the classroom, Cicero is only a “dimly remembered figure.”

I’m fascinated by the greats who looked to Cicero. I paraphrase Everitt. The early Christian fathers considered Cicero a good pagan. St. Jerome fasted in order to be permitted to study Cicero. Petrarch’s rediscovery of Cicero gave a poweerful steer to the Renaissance. By age 16 Queen Elizabeth I had read all of Cicero. Samuel Johnson and Edward Gibbon had prose styles both influenced by Cicero. The cadences of his oratory can be heard in the speeches of Jefferson, William Pitt, Lincoln and Churchill.

Note: Let us look to Cicero who wanted not a monarchy, an oligharchy or a democracy. Rather he wanted a combination of the three with a balanced constitution.

James Wilson Beaty
Jeremiah 22:16
October 5, 2012