Editing Cicero (section)

==In archaeology==
Cicero's great repute in Italy has led to numerous ruins being identified as having belonged to him, though none have been substantiated with absolute certainty. In [[Formia]], two Roman-era ruins are popularly believed to be Cicero's mausoleum, the ''Tomba di Cicerone'', and the villa where he was assassinated in 43 BC. The latter building is centered around a central hall with Doric columns and a coffered vault, with a separate [[nymphaeum]], on five acres of land near Formia.<ref>{{Cite news |last=L. Richardson Jr. |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:entry=formiae&highlight=formia |title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=1976 |access-date=20 February 2021 |archive-date=27 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527073336/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:entry=formiae&highlight=formia |url-status=live }}</ref> A modern villa was built on the site after the Rubino family purchased the land from [[Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies]] in 1868. Cicero's supposed tomb is a 24-meter (79 feet) tall tower on an ''[[opus quadratum]]'' base on the ancient Via Appia outside of Formia. Some suggest that it is not in fact Cicero's tomb, but a monument built on the spot where Cicero was intercepted and assassinated while trying to reach the sea.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Redazione ANSA |url=http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2015/07/21/mayor-launches-appeal-to-save-ciceros-villa-from-ruin_55a57cf3-5104-4a1a-8e19-bc4cd3261dbd.html |title=Mayor launches appeal to save Cicero's villa from ruin |date=25 July 2015 |access-date=19 June 2018 |publisher=ANSA English |archive-date=19 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619085928/http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2015/07/21/mayor-launches-appeal-to-save-ciceros-villa-from-ruin_55a57cf3-5104-4a1a-8e19-bc4cd3261dbd.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In [[Pompeii]], a large villa excavated in the mid 18th century just outside the Herculaneum Gate was widely believed to have been Cicero's, who was known to have owned a holiday villa in Pompeii he called his ''Pompeianum''. The villa was stripped of its fine frescoes and mosaics and then re-buried after 1763 – it has yet to be re-excavated.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/RV/Villa%20Cicero.htm |title=Villa Cicero |publisher=pompeiiinpictures.com |access-date=19 June 2018 |archive-date=23 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623121845/http://pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/RV/Villa%20Cicero.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> However, contemporaneous descriptions of the building from the excavators combined with Cicero's own references to his ''Pompeianum'' differ, making it unlikely that it is Cicero's villa.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mary Beard |title=The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |year=2010 |page=45}}</ref>

In Rome, the location of Cicero's house has been roughly identified from excavations of the Republican-era stratum on the northwestern slope of the Palatine Hill.<ref name="rome_alive">{{Cite book |last=Bolchazy-Carducci |title=Rome Alive: A Source Guide to the Ancient City |year=2004 |page=Vol. 1.5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://archive1.village.virginia.edu/spw4s/RomanForum/GoogleEarth/AK_GE/AK_HTML/GF-014.html |title=Palatine Hill |publisher=archive1.village.virginia.edu |access-date=20 June 2018 |archive-date=14 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814134918/http://archive1.village.virginia.edu/spw4s/RomanForum/GoogleEarth/AK_GE/AK_HTML/GF-014.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Cicero's ''domus'' has long been known to have stood in the area, according to his own descriptions and those of later authors, but there is some debate about whether it stood near the base of the hill, very close to the Roman Forum, or nearer to the summit.<ref name="rome_alive" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Filippo Coarelli |title=Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide |year=2014 |page=93}}</ref> During his life the area was the most desirable in Rome, densely occupied with Patrician houses including the ''Domus Publica'' of Julius Caesar and the home of Cicero's mortal enemy Clodius.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Samuel Ball Platner & Thomas Ashby |title=Palatinus Mons, Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1929}}</ref>