<![CDATA[Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician]]>

false <![CDATA[Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171056385m/84593.jpg 84593 2 “All ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher combined.” —John Adams He squared off against Caesar and was friends with young Brutus. He advised the legendary Pompey on his somewhat botched transition from military hero to politician. He lambasted Mark Antony and was master of the smear campaign, as feared for his wit as he was for exposing his opponents’ sexual peccadilloes. Brilliant, voluble, cranky, a genius of political manipulation but also a true patriot and idealist, Cicero was Rome’s most feared politician, one of the greatest lawyers and statesmen of all times. Machiavelli, Queen Elizabeth, John Adams and Winston Churchill all studied his example. No man has loomed larger in the political history of mankind. In this dynamic and engaging biography, Anthony Everitt plunges us into the fascinating, scandal-ridden world of ancient Rome in its most glorious heyday. Accessible to us through his legendary speeches but also through an unrivaled collection of unguarded letters to his close friend Atticus, Cicero comes to life in these pages as a witty and cunning political operator. Cicero leapt onto the public stage at twenty-six, came of age during Spartacus’ famous revolt of the gladiators and presided over Roman law and politics for almost half a century. He foiled the legendary Catiline conspiracy, advised Pompey, the victorious general who brought the Middle East under Roman rule, and fought to mobilize the Senate against Caesar. He witnessed the conquest of Gaul, the civil war that followed and Caesar’s dictatorship and assassination. Cicero was a legendary defender of freedom and a model, later, to French and American revolutionaries who saw themselves as following in his footsteps in their resistance to tyranny. Anthony Everitt’s biography paints a caustic picture of Roman politics—where Senators were endlessly filibustering legislation, walking out, rigging the calendar and exposing one another’s sexual escapades, real or imagined, to discredit their opponents. This was a time before slander and libel laws, and the stories—about dubious pardons, campaign finance scandals, widespread corruption, buying and rigging votes, wife-swapping, and so on—make the Lewinsky affair and the U.S. Congress seem chaste. Cicero was a wily political operator. As a lawyer, he knew no equal. Boastful, often incapable of making up his mind, emotional enough to wander through the woods weeping when his beloved daughter died in childbirth, he emerges in these pages as intensely human, yet he was also the most eloquent and astute witness to the last days of Republican Rome. On Cicero: “He taught us how to think." —Voltaire “I tasted the beauties of language, I breathed the spirit of freedom, and I imbibed from his precepts and examples the public and private sense of a man.” —Edward Gibbon “Who was Cicero: a great speaker or a demagogue?” —Fidel Castro From the Hardcover edition. 81654 2002 Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician total:411|5:76|4:188|3:131|2:15|1:1| 411 1556 653 56 4 2 false false Wed Dec 26 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Feb 13 00:19:38 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 13 00:25:26 -0800 2008 The funny thing is, I was glad enough to have been exposed to Cicero through Everitt's fine prose and superb scholarship but I don't care a bit to read more about the man.

What Everitt does better than anything else is illuminate the earthy, visceral mayhem that was Rome. Ceasar, C...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Aug 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 13 14:34:09 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 11 18:59:05 -0700 2008
Overall, this was quite engaging, a readable and informative but not dull biography. There are many pages with no mention of Cicero, as the author strays into ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Jan 16 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 15:03:27 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 15:17:11 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jun 11 20:40:04 -0700 2009 Mon Nov 24 20:26:27 -0800 2008 Thu Jun 11 20:40:04 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Aug 03 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 17 08:31:41 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 04 09:07:27 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jun 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 15 19:58:58 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 20 21:03:06 -0700 2008
What Everitt do...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jul 02 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 12 08:02:22 -0800 2008 Wed Jul 02 08:23:26 -0700 2008
Much of this book is more roman history than Cicero biography, ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Feb 20 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Oct 21 19:51:39 -0700 2007 Wed Feb 20 11:45:54 -0800 2008
Cicero's one true desire was...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jun 02 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 27 20:14:52 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 07 19:19:18 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Nov 11 13:41:32 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 11 13:44:18 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 true false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 12 10:06:25 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 12 10:10:13 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Apr 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 11:10:40 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 11:15:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Feb 23 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 16:09:17 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 16:12:51 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 09:39:53 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 19:46:47 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Aug 03 20:43:24 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 20:45:02 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Feb 27 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 18 08:55:03 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 18 09:02:54 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 25 10:36:38 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 25 10:39:03 -0800 2008 3 0 true false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 09 08:06:43 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 19 15:54:31 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jun 04 00:20:27 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 16:32:00 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Feb 23 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 24 08:35:05 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 17:46:52 -0800 2009 made history, as opposed to writing ...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=84593