Quintus Tullius Cicero

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Quintus Tullius Cicero was the younger brother of Marcus Tullius Cicero. He was born in 102 BC into a family of the equestrian order, in Arpinum, some 90 kilometres south-east of Rome. He was a man of ability, but a minor figure compared with his famous older brother.

Contents 1 Career 2 Personality and relationship with brother Marcus 3 Authorship 4 References

[edit] Career

His well-to-do father arranged for him to be educated with his brother in Rome, Athens and probably Rhodes. He married about 70 BC Pomponia (sister of his brother's friend Atticus), a dominant woman of strong personality^[1]. He divorced her after a long disharmonious marriage with much bickering between the spouses in late 45 BC.^[2] His brother, Marcus, tried several times to reconcile the spouses, but to no avail.^[3]. The couple had a son, named Quintus after his father.

He was an aedile in 66 BC and praetor in 62 BC, propraetor of the province of Asia for three years 61-59 BC, ^[4] legatus under Caesar during the Gallic Wars from 54 BC to 52 BC (and accompanied Caesar on his second expedition to Britain in 54 BC), and under his brother in Cilicia in 51 BC. During the civil wars he supported the Pompeian faction, obtaining the pardon of Caesar later. During the period, when the Second Triumvirate made The Roman Empire again a scene of Civil War, his name, his brother´s name and also his son´s, Quintus Minor´s, name were put on the proscription list. He fled from Tusculum together with his brother, Marcus. He went back home in order to fetch some money for traveling expenses. His son, Quintus minor, hid his father, and did not reveal the hiding place although he was tortured. When Quintus heard this, he gave himself up to save his son, but to no avail. They were both killed simultaneously by the assassins of the Second Triumvirate in 43 BC.^{[5] [6]}

[edit] Personality and relationship with brother Marcus

Quintus had an impulsive temperament and he had fits of cruelty during military operations, a thing frowned at by Romans of that time. The Roman, and Stoic, ideal was to control one’s emotions even in battle. Quintus Cicero also liked old-fashioned and harsh punishments, like putting a person convicted of parricide into a sack and throwing him out in the sea. This punishment he meted out during his propraetorship of Asia.^[7]. (For the Romans, both parricide and matricide were one of the worst crimes). His brother confesses in one of his letters to his friend Titus Pomponius Atticus, written in 51 BC while he was proconsul of Cilicia and had taken Quintus as legatus with him, that he dares not leave Quintus alone as he is afraid of what kind of sudden ideas he might have.^[8]. But on the positive side, Quintus was utterly honest, even as a governor of a province, in which situation many Romans shamelessly amassed private property for themselves. He was also a well-educated man, reading Greek tragedies, - and writing some tragedies himself.

The relationship between the brothers was mostly affectionate, except for a period of serious disagreement during Caesar’s dictatorship 49-44 BC. ^[9]. The many letters from Marcus ad Quintum fratrem show how deep and affectionate the brothers’ relationship was, though Marcus Cicero often played the role of the "older and more experienced" lecturing to his brother what was the right thing to do. Quintus might also feel at times, that the self-centered Marcus thought only how his brother might hinder or help Marcus’ own career on the Cursus Honorum.^[10].

[edit] Authorship

As an author he wrote during the Gallic wars of Caesar four tragedies in Greek style. Three of them had as titles Tiroas, Erigones, and Electra; all of them are lost. He also wrote several poems on the second expedition of Caesar to Britannia, three epistles to Tiro (extant) and a fourth one to his brother. The long letter: Commentariolum Petitionis (Little handbook on electioneering) has also survived; although its validity has been much questioned. It is in any case a valuable guide to political behaviour in Cicero’s time.

For more detail, see Cicero.

[edit] References

1. ^ Everitt, Anthony: Cicero, A Turbulent Life p.xv (2001)
2. ^ Haskell,H.J.:"This was Cicero"(1964) p.83
3. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero:Samtliga brev/Collected letters
4. ^ Rawson, E.: Cicero (1975) p.338
5. ^ Rawson: "Cicero" (1975) p. 294
6. ^ Everitt, A.: "Cicero, a turbulent life"(2001) p. 306-307
7. ^ Rawson, E. "Cicero" (1975) ( p.99
8. ^ Marcus Tullius Cicero: "Samtliga brev"/Collected letters
9. ^ :Everitt, Anthony: "Cicero, A Turbulent life" (2001) p.213
10. ^ Rawson, E.:"Cicero" (1975) p.100