Whatever Happened to Cicero

Eloquence itself was just a beast
Who dithered and alternated sides,
Who wanted to conserve old systems,

Who popularized philosophy,
Made a career of prosecution
And defense of questionable men,

Who gloried in purchasing the home
Of the most fabulously wealthy
Man in all inequitable Rome,

Who fled and returned, fled and returned,
Playing the games of the powerful
Prone to turns murdering each other,

Accusing each other of murder,
Finally caught fleeing yet again
And eloquently baring its neck.