Philippics
Orationes Philippicae
Mark Antony's grab for Caesar's unclaimed power makes him a public enemy, and the republic's remaining defenders are obligated to resist him even at ruinous personal cost.
- oratory as last-ditch republican resistance
- modeled explicitly on Demosthenes against tyranny
- miscalculated alliance with Octavian against Antony
- cost the author his life
Fourteen speeches, named after Demosthenes's orations against Philip of Macedon, that Cicero delivered against Mark Antony in the chaotic months after Caesar's assassination, arguing that Antony was maneuvering to inherit Caesar's autocratic power rather than restore the republic. Escalating from cautious criticism to open denunciation, the speeches helped rally Senate support behind Octavian as a counterweight to Antony, a strategy that backfired when Octavian and Antony reconciled and Cicero's name appeared on the proscription list that led to his execution in 43 BC. The Philippics stand as Cicero's final political act and the last major public defense of republican government before its effective end.
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