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Cicero's Tongue: The Life of Rome's Greatest Orator and the End of the Republic
Author(s): Catharine Edwards (Author)
- Publisher: St. Martin's Press
- Publication Date: September 15, 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 464 pages
- ISBN-10: 1250328462
- ISBN-13: 9781250328465
Book Description
A new biography of Cicero, one of the most influential and fascinating figures in classical history.
When the Roman statesman Cicero was murdered in 43 BCE, his head was cut off, and his tongue pierced with pins – a final, brutal act of revenge against a man whose words had shaped a generation and made him many enemies. Rising from provincial obscurity to the highest elected office in Rome, Cicero became the greatest orator of his age, a figure who believed that speech itself could defend a republic.
Yet Cicero was far more than a master of rhetoric. His long and turbulent life unfolded alongside the collapse of the Roman Republic, and often at its very centre. He moved among Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great, crushed a conspiracy that threatened the foundations of Rome, and cast himself as the republic’s last hope. His writings on politics, philosophy, and society would prove enormously influential, while his uneasy response to the rise of autocratic power continues to provoke admiration and debate.
In this gripping new biography, the distinguished classicist Catharine Edwards brings Cicero vividly to life, revealing both the brilliance and the contradictions of a man caught between principle and ambition. At a moment when democratic institutions feel fragile, and the power of persuasion is once again under scrutiny, Cicero’s life speaks to us with renewed urgency.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“A wonderful book. The complexities and paradoxes of Cicero’s character are as fascinating as those which characterized the Roman Republic in the final decades of its existence – and no biography I have read does richer justice to both.” -Tom Holland, author of Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World
“A man of thought in an age of thugs, a pen amongst swords: every age needs its Cicero, and Edwards has written a resonant Cicero for ours.” -Peter Stothard, author of The Last Assassin: The Hunt for the Killers of Julius Caesar
“Wonderful… Edwards has done a marvellous job of showing us Cicero the man, the scholar and the politician in highly entertaining style.” -Emma Southon, author of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome
“Cicero’s Tongue gives us a Cicero for our times… an intimate and deeply informed portrait of a man struggling to make sense of his world’s slide into civil war and chaos.” -Eve MacDonald, author of Carthage: A New History
About the Author
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