1-157-637 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman lawyer, orator and statesman. Portrait bust. Cicero (106-43 BC) is remembered as the greatest of Roman orators. He upheld the Republican principles of Rome during the civil wars which brought Julius Caesar to power. After Caesar's murder he delivered a famous series of fourteen orations against Mark Anthony, and after the triumvirate of Mark Anthony, Octavian and Marcus Lepidus was formed, Cicero was executed. He was a prolific writer, producing poems, books and treatises on politics, philosophy and rhetoric, and a book on public speaking, De Oratore.