I wonder, Heraklia, whether Cicero ALWAYS had the propensity for misjudging to a degree. It's hard to look at someone with such different cultural overrides and make viable assumptions; certainly the detritus flung at political opponents makes today's mudslinging seem infantile, and that practice was seemingly acceptable. But it seems to me and my sensibilities that he was ALWAYS going on and on about himself in one way or t'other- Look at me, I saved the world! Surely, as a New Man, it was in his best interest to do well- he had further to go, as it were- but does anyone find it endearing to listen to someone brag so blatantly, so completely, and so often?

I would never dispute his skills as a rhetorician or orator; no one could ever dispute his wit, nor the quickness of his brain. I just question his judgement.

It seems to me that he was hydra-brained about Caesar. JC clearly made him uneasy, but I get the feeling that there was something about Caesar that pre-empted his despising the man. Cicero had no trouble despising, after all. One is reminded of that visit, shortly before Caesar's murder, when Caesar visited Cicero. To paraphrase great Marcus, his report to Atticus went something along the lines of we had a very good time, but we're not ever going to be bosom buddies.

Cicero, to me, was one of those great characters who had deep sensibility in juxtapostion with vitriolic wit; a need to be accepted vs a need to set himself above. He was a man whose loyalty was doled out in equal proportions with self-preservation.

And Cimon, don't you think, apropos your post about Cicero and Augustus, that Augustus mayhap felt guilty about sacrificing Cicero so readily? That's how it seems to me...