A coastal town on the Tyrrhenian shore of Latium, prized by wealthy Romans for its seaside villas, where the orator and philosopher Cicero kept a beloved estate—and met his death.
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Formiae through the eras
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Roman Era
Under the late Roman Republic, Formiae was a fashionable resort along the Appian Way where Rome's elite built luxurious villas. Cicero owned one of his favorite retreats here and wrote from it amid his philosophical and political labors. It was at this Formian villa that he was overtaken and killed in December 43 BCE by soldiers of the Second Triumvirate—his proscription engineered by Mark Antony in revenge for the Philippic orations—a death that came to symbolize the fall of Republican liberty.