Cicero
106–43 BCE · Roman · Late Roman Republic
Known for: Rome's greatest orator and the philosopher who transmitted Greek thought to the Western world
Marcus Tullius Cicero was Rome's most famous orator, a prolific philosopher, and a key political figure in the final years of the Roman Republic. His philosophical works — On the Republic, On Duties, On the Nature of the Gods — made Greek philosophy accessible to Latin readers and shaped Western political and ethical thought.
He was proscribed and murdered during the Second Triumvirate. His head and hands were displayed in the Forum — the hands that wrote some of the finest Latin prose.
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