Pro Marco Marcello
by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Introduction

   "Marcus Claudius Marcellus (consul, B.C. 51) had been an honest but active and bitter partisan of the Senate in the struggle which finally broke out in civil war. It was he who introduced the several decrees which set a limit to Caesar's power and put him in the attitude of a public enemy. Even after the defeat at Pharsalia, and the death of Pompey, he refused to make terms with the victor, and remained in voluntary exile at Mitylene. When, contrary to the general fear, no massacre or proscription followed Caesar's victory, the friends of Marcellus were encouraged to hope for a full pardon; and, in the summer of B.C. 46, at a meeting of the Senate, Caesar was openly entreated in his behalf. In reply, the dictator reminded the senators of the intense and persistent hostility of Marcellus; but added that he would not stand in the way if the Senate desired his restoration. The senators were accordingly called on for the expression of their wishes; and, when it came to Cicero's turn, he expressed the formal thanks of the body in the following body. The oration is remarkable--especially in contrast to the language which Cicero used two years later--for its tone of eulogy in regard to Caesar, and for the hope it expresses of an era of good feeling and a restored republic.
   Marcellus set out for Rome, but never arrived. He was assassinated at the Piraeus, and buried in the academy near Athens."

-- from "Introduction to Pro M. Marcello," Select Orations of Cicero, ed. J.B. Greenough, G.L. Kittredge, Ginn and Company: Boston, 1896.

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