A rumbling that was heard in Latium led the senate to consult the haruspices, Etruscan seers, for their opinion. They declared this a portent, listing the offended deities and possible dangers. Meanwhile, P. Clodius claimed that the destruction of the temple of Libertas had prompted the divine anger. In the senate, Cicero countered Clodius’ claims and put his own “spin” on the diviners’ opinion. Another senate speech deals with the allocation of consular provinces, with Cicero arguing that Caesar should retain his Gallic provinces. Continuing his forensic work, Cicero defended Cornelius Balbus, Cn. Plancius, and M. Aemilius Scaurus. In the senate, he exchanged invectives with L. Calpurnius Piso. He also wrote On the Orator and drew closer to Caesar, receiving a sizable loan of 800,000 sesterces. Toward the end of 54, he penned a letter to his political patron Lentulus Spinther defending his changed policies.

The third marriage of Cicero’s beloved daughter Tullia ended in divorce in 46, though she was pregnant with Dolabella’s child. She gave birth in February 45 but died of complications soon afterward (and the child also died). Cicero was devastated. Trying to write his way out of depression, he wrote a Consolation, which included, at the end, the vow to create a shrine for his daughter as a divinity. Cicero set about to find a property suitable to contain the shrine, but the project was still pending at his death. At the same time, he resumed philosophical writing, first on epistemology, on which he produced two dialogues, Catulus and Lucullus, later changed to four Academic Books with new characters and dedication to Varro. Then he went on to ethics, with On Ends, consisting of three dialogues in five books and setting out the views of the Epicureans, Stoics, and Peripatetics.

Cicero was elected consul together with Antonius, whose cooperation he won by conceding him the lucrative province of Macedonia, which had been allotted to him for the year after his consulate. Cicero began his term of office by delivering a series of speeches in opposition to an agrarian reform bill proposed by the plebeian tribune Servilius Rullus. He also defended C. Rabirius in court on a charge of treason. In general, he followed optimate policies, opposing restoration of political rights to the children of those who had been proscribed by Sulla. In addition, he quieted an angry mob at the games of Apollo and enabled the noble L. Lucullus to celebrate a triumph for his command against Mithridates. He also presided over the election for next year’s consuls, in which Catiline, once again, was defeated.

Toward the end of 62, P. Clodius, dressed as a woman, invaded the annual rites of the Bona Dea, which were for women only. A board of priests and Vestal Virgins declared that the ceremony had been polluted, and the senate voted that Clodius should be put on trial. Cicero had been visited by Clodius the day before and so could destroy his alibi. Clodius attacked Cicero in public meetings, whipping up sentiment against him for the execution of the Catilinarian conspirators without a trial. Cicero counterattacked in his own speeches and testified against Clodius at trial. A feud resulted, with Clodius seeking and obtaining transfer to plebeian status and election as plebeian tribune for 58. Meanwhile, Cicero was trying to shore up his position with the publication of his speeches as consul, as well as an epic poem about his consulship and an account of it in Greek.

Cicero was born in Arpinum, a town some sixty miles southeast of Rome, on January 3, 106 bce. His family was well-to-do (of equestrian status) but previously involved only in local politics. His brother, Quintus, was one to four years younger. Their father took care to see that they received the best education available, first in grammar and rhetoric, later in philosophy, supplemented by observing the activities of a leading jurist. Cicero was a keen student and began writing, with poetry, a book on rhetoric, and a translated book on philosophy to his credit by the mid-80s. At the end of the decade, he began pleading in the courts and publishing his speeches. He won Terentia, an upper-class woman, as his wife and started a household.