In 43 BC the severed head and hands of Marcus Tullius Cicero were nailed to the Rostra in the Roman Forum on Mark Antony's orders, punishment for what he had spoken and written. This episode traces how a new man from Arpinum with a name meaning chickpea used only his voice and intellect to reach the consulship. We cover his coining of roughly 150 Latin terms to translate Greek philosophy, his dangerous defense of Sextus Roscius against the dictator Sulla's ally, his study abroad in Greece and Rhodes, and the evidence-driven prosecution of Gaius Verres that routed the champion advocate Hortensius.

We then examine the Catilinarian conspiracy of 63 BC, the Senate debate between Caesar and Cato, and the execution of citizens without trial that earned Cicero the title father of the fatherland but handed his enemies a weapon. From there: his refu ...