46 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019
ccording to Roman statesman and historian
Dio Cassius, Fulvia loathed Cicero—and
with good reason. Cicero had wronged not
just one, but two of her three husbands. Clodius, Ful-
via’s first husband, was a political rival of Cicero, and
was accused by Cicero of licentiousness and sexual
infidelities. After Clodius was killed in 52 B.C. by Milo,
a political rival, Cicero defended the accused mur-
derer. Cicero’s defense became famous, despite Milo
being sent into exile for his crime. After the death of
Fulvia’s second husband in 49 B.C., she married Mark
Antony several years later. Cicero was openly hostile
toward Antony, depicting him as an ambitious tyrant
while earning more of Fulvia’s wrath. After Cicero’s
death, Dio Cassius reported that Fulvia seized Ci-
cero’s head, which had been removed from his body,
and “after abusing it spitefully and spitting upon it,
set it on her knees, opened the mouth, and pulled
out the tongue, which she pierced with the pins that
she used for her hair, at the same time uttering many
brutal jests.” Ancient historians were often prone
to colorful exaggeration, and Dio Cassius’ account
may have been no exception. The one thing that rings
true is Fulvia’s removal of Cicero’s tongue, his most
powerful weapon of all.FULVIA’S
FURY
“THE RAGE OF FULVIA,” A 1692 PAINTING BY GREGORIO LAZZARINI,
DEPICTS FULVIA WITH CICERO’S SEVERED HEAD. OLD MASTERS PICTURE
GALLERY, KASSEL, GERMANY
BPK/SCALA, FLORENCE