Cicero can be viewed either as a historical actor or as a figure of Latin culture. The former, inevitably, dominates the historical narratives of the period. Over time, a law of diminishing returns sets in as the earliest assessments by writers who were personally familiar with Cicero and/or the institutions and politics of the republic give way to an imperial mindset that focuses on the role models of the “good emperor” on the one hand and the “good courtier” on the other. These categories, retrojected not without distortion to the late republic, then become the basis of interpretation.