Philippicae

The Philippicae or Philippics are a series of 14 speeches Cicero gave condemning Mark Antony in 44 BC and 43 BC. The corpus of speeches were named and modeled after Demosthenes' Philippic, which he had delivered against Philip of Macedon, and were styled in a similar manner.

Cicero was taken by surprise when Gaius Julius Caesar, the effective dictator of the Roman Republic, was assassinated on the fifteenth day of March, 44 BC, (known as the ides of March) by a group of Roman senators who called themselves Liberatores. Cicero was not included in the conspiracy, even though the conspirators were sure of his sympathy. When Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the killers, lifted his bloodstained dagger after the assassination, he called out Cicero's name, beseeching him to "restore the Republic!". A letter Cicero wrote in February 43 BC to Trebonius, one of the conspirators, began, "How I wish that you had invited me to that most glorious banquet on the Ides of March!"

Cicero became a popular leader during the period of instability after the assassination. He had no respect for Mark Antony, who was scheming to take revenge upon Caesar's murderers. In fact, Cicero privately expressed his regret that the murderers of Caesar had not included Antony in their plot, and he bent his efforts to the discrediting of the latter.

In exchange for amnesty for the assassins, he arranged for the Senate to agree that it would not proclaim Caesar to be a tyrant, an action that allowed Caesar's supporters, known as the Caesarian faction, to remain a lawful force. Cicero and Antony then became the two leading politicians in Rome, Cicero as spokesman for the Senate and Antony as consul, leader of the Caesarian faction and unofficial executor of Caesar's will. The two men had never been on friendly terms, and their relationship worsened after Cicero made it clear that he felt Antony was taking unfair liberties in interpreting Caesar's wishes and intentions.

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