Orator

When the great Roman orator Cicero was murdered in the Autumn of 43 BCE, Fulvia, the wife of Marc Antony, had his tongue cut out and pierced with pins, so great a weapon it was. But Cicero was more than a brilliant orator - his life almost perfectly mirrors the decline and fall of the Roman Republic, and his actions and reactions to the rising tyranny of the world around him continue to fascinate and inspire today.

In this gripping new biography, historian Catharine Edwards will breathe new life into one the ancient world's most notable figures, and offer a fresh take on the end of the Roman Republic. The book examines Cicero's life for what it can tell us about a turbulent society, in which longstanding tensions and inequalities were exacerbated by the wealth of empire, and ambitious generals battled to seize control and remake Rome.