Cicero

Born 3 January 106 BC to a wealthy equestrian family, Marcus Tullius Cicero studied in Rome and Greece before building a career as lawyer and orator. He served as consul in 63 BC, suppressing the Catilinarian conspiracy by executing five plotters without trial - a move that earned him exile in 58 BC, though he returned the next year. Through the turbulent 50s he watched the Republic fracture, took a governorship in Cilicia, then backed Pompey in Caesar's civil war and survived by Caesar's pardon. After Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, Cicero led the Senate against Mark Antony, delivering the blistering Philippicae and elevating Octavian as counterweight. When Octavian and Antony reconciled to form the Second Triumvirate, Cicero was marked for death: he was caught fleeing Italy and executed on 7 December 43 BC, his severed hands and head mounted on the Rostra as payment for the words he'd written and spoken. Petrarch's rediscovery of his letters six centuries later ignited the Renaissance; the Enlightenment claimed him as its own.