 Cicero rose to the highest political office in the republic – the consulship – in 63 BCE. His period as consul was both the high-water mark of his political career and a fateful turning-point. While consul, he put down the conspiracy against the republic led by Catiline. But his actions led to his being exiled in 58; and, while he was restored to Rome the following year through the influence of Pompey, he could do little other than contemplate with horror the deterioration of relations between Caesar and Pompey that led to civil war and the ascendancy of Caesar to the dictatorship. Caesar’s assassination in 44 brought only brief respite. Cicero himself was put to death on Mark Antony’s orders in 43.