Episode 393: Lawless Republic

Historically Thinking

Marcus Tullius Cicero lived from 106 BC to his murder in 43 BC. He was a writer, a philosopher, a traveller, a consul of the Roman Republic, and perhaps one of the last people to take the Roman Republic seriously–even when it was long past its shelf date. But most importantly, Cicero was a lawyer—and it was his practice of the law that was at the heart of his philosophy, politics, and devotion to the republic. Josiah Osgood has written a biography of Cicero that is a biography of some of his most famous legal cases. Through this narrative, we see a gifted young lawyer literally take the stage in Rome, and over a career make impassioned speeches that will in time would undermine that same republic which he held so dear. Josiah Osgood is professor of classics at Georgetown University. A winner of the Rome Prize, he is the author of six books on Roman history, the most recent of which is Lawless Republic: The Rise of Cicero and the Decline of Rome.