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Cicero, : A turbulent Life
Anthony Everitt

Cicero, : A turbulent Life

The biography of a brilliant orator and writer, and a politician who twice held the reins of power; it is also the spectacular story of the fall of the Roman Republic

Cicero’s speeches and ideas have influenced European civilized values for two thousand years. Personally he is accessible to us in his hundreds of letters, many of them to his dear friend Atticus. We can follow his busy life from day to day (sometimes from hour to hour).

            The figure that emerges is intensely human, often dithering and uncertain, boastful from inner insecurity, emotional enough to wander through the woods weeping when his daughter dies. He met his own tragic end with firmness and fortitude.

Book Details:

  • Author: Anthony Everitt
  • Published Year: 2001
  • Rights Sold
    • UK: John Murray
    • US: Random House
    • Holland: Ambo
    • Spain: Edhasa,
    • Germany: Dumont
Anthony Everitt

Anthony Everitt

Anthony Everitt was Deputy Secretary-General of the Arts Council of Great Britain from 1985 to 1990 and Secretary-General from 1990 to 1994. Formerly he was Visiting professor of the Visual and Performing Arts at Nottingham Trent University. His fascination with ancient Rome began when he studied classics at school. He is the author of Cicero, a Turbulent Life; Augustus, The Life of Rome’s First Emperor; Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome; The Rise of Rome; The Rise of Athens; Alexander the Great and, with his co-author Roddy Ashworth, SPQR, A Roman Miscellany and Nero, Matricide, Music ...
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Book Reviews

  • "Not just an excellent biography but also a fine history of Rome in the first century BC."
    Andrew Roberts, Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year
  • "An engrossing book … Everitt brings [Cicero] alive, making a credible as well as a remarkable figure."
    Allan Massie Literary Review
  • "[Anthony Everitt’s] achievement is to have replaced the austere classroom effigy with an altogether rounder, more awkward and human person."
    Financial Times.
  • "Everitt] makes his subject – brilliant, vain, principled, opportunistic – come to life after two millennia."
    The Washington Post.
  • "Gripping … Everitt combines a classical education with practical expertise … He writes fluidly."
    The New York Times.
  • "An excellent introduction to a critical period in the history of Rome. Cicero comes across much as he must have lived."
    The Wall Street Journal.
  • "Riveting … a clear-eyed biography. "
    Chicago Tribune.