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Cicero is killed on Antony's orders

43 BCE, Italy. An event.

Where and when

43 BCEItaly

2,068 years ago

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, Italy

Put on the list of the proscribed by Antony, Cicero is caught by soldiers on the coast. His head and hands are cut off and shown in Rome.

Herennius cut off his head, by Antony’s command, and his hands—the hands with which he wrote the Philippics.

Plutarch, Life of Cicero 48.4Translated by Bernadotte Perrin (1919)Read the full passage (Plutarch, Life of Cicero 48.4, opens scaife.perseus.org)

Background: Cicero, Wikipedia (opens en.wikipedia.org)

Why it matters

The head and hands were displayed to show what his writing and speaking against Antony had cost him: the hands for the writer, the head for the orator.

Based on Wikipedia: Cicero

Cicero's hands and head were taken by order of Antony and displayed to represent the repercussions of his anti-Antonian actions (notably his Philippicae) as a writer and as an orator respectively.

Wikipedia, Cicero (opens en.wikipedia.org), as of 2026-10-01. Text CC BY-SA 4.0. Our line is checked against these sentences only.

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  4. 44 BCE, written later1 year earlier Cicero on what we owe our country Rests on this event
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  6. 44 BCE1 year earlier Caesar on the best death, as Plutarch tells it Also about death
  7. 44 BCE, written later1 year earlier Cicero on his forced leisure Also in Italy
  8. 43 BCEThis momentCicero is killed on Antony's orders
  9. 43 BCESame year The death of Cicero, as Plutarch tells it Rests on this eventAlso in ItalyAlso about death
  10. 42 BCE1 year later Antony and Octavian defeat Caesar's killers at Philippi Same years

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