The general historical consensus points towards a resounding "no." While Cicero was a staunch opponent of Caesar and no doubt had sympathy for the plot of Brutus, Cassius, and the others, he had been taken completely aback by the assassination. During the act, Brutus raised his bloodstained dagger and called for Cicero by name to restore the republic of Rome. Many historians, in fact, argue that the Liberatores would have had a far better outcome in the aftermath of the assassination if they had indeed included Cicero in their plot. Cicero himself would have been amenable—he even later would write a letter to Trebonius saying that he would have loved to have been invited to "that banquet." Cicero was very popular and a master of rhetoric that detested Marc Antony, and he could have very likely restored the republic had the original support for Antony been quelled.
The prevailing opinion among scholars of the period is that, although Cicero was certainly a political opponent of Caesar's and wrote a number of speeches (the Philippicae) attacking Marc Antony after Caesar's murder, he was not actively involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar. Various sources indicate that he was certainly present during the murder of Caesar, but there is nothing to suggest that he actually took up arms himself.
Following the murder, Brutus and some of the other conspirators met with Cicero to attempt to gain his endorsement; we can interpret from this that he had not endorsed them, or openly supported them, before the murder, although this is not to say that he had no idea of what was being planned. So, while Cicero was an opponent of Caesar's, a trusted voice in the Senate, and believed that to remove Caesar would be to the benefit of the Republic, he cannot be considered part of the conspiracy to murder Caesar.
http://sdsu-dspace.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.3/118417/Swain_sdsu_0220N_10230.pdf;sequence=1
No comments:
Post a Comment