It is impossible to be certain of the identity of Cicero's villa; however, the villa above, Villa Rubino (now in private ownership) has historically been identified as belonging to Cicero. While it is likely no more than wishful thinking – several opulent villas have been discovered in the area, any one (or none) of which might have been his – it is tantalising to say the least to imagine the Roman orator departing from this 1st century BC nymphaeum (shrine to the nymphs, pictured above) and setting out to try to escape his death.
As we approach the end of the Republic, it is impossible not to mention Cicero, the great statesman and orator whose speeches and letters provide one of the most detailed accounts of this turbulent historical period. Cicero was born in 106 BCE in Arpinum, and rose through the ranks of the Roman political system against the odds to become consul in 63 BCE. During his consulship, he discovered and made public a plot against the Republic by the aristocrat, Catiline, and delivered a series of brilliant speeches later known as the Catilinarians, which would ultimately see the conspirators condemned to death. When Cicero's opponents claimed, however, that his sentencing of the conspirators without trial was illegal, Cicero was exiled in 58 BCE. He returned to Italy in 57 BCE and became one of the leading figures in the later years of the Republic, supporting first the general Pompey against Julius Caesar, and then Caesar's great-nephew Octavian against Caesar's former general, Mark Antony. When Octavian and Antony joined together to form an alliance in 43 BCE, however, Antony and Octavian together issued Cicero's name on a list of brutal proscriptions of enemies of the state; and Cicero was caught and killed as he left his villa in Formiae in December 43 BCE.
It is impossible to be certain of the identity of Cicero's villa; however, the villa above, Villa Rubino (now in private ownership) has historically been identified as belonging to Cicero. While it is likely no more than wishful thinking – several opulent villas have been discovered in the area, any one (or none) of which might have been his – it is tantalising to say the least to imagine the Roman orator departing from this 1st century BC nymphaeum (shrine to the nymphs, pictured above) and setting out to try to escape his death.
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AuthorEmily Hauser is a classicist and researcher at Harvard and author of historical fiction recovering the lost women of the ancient world, including FOR THE MOST BEAUTIFUL and FOR THE WINNER. Archives
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