Formia

A coastal town on the Tyrrhenian Sea where Roman senators kept seaside villas, Cicero among them. It was here, fleeing the proscriptions of the Second Triumvirate in 43 BCE, that Mark Antony's soldiers caught his litter on the way to the shore. He put out his head and told them to make a proper job of it; his severed hands and head were nailed to the speaker's rostrum in Rome.

Formia was a resort town on the coast of Latium, where wealthy Romans kept villas above a bay that caught the afternoon light. Cicero had a house there he loved. When the Second Triumvirate came to power in 43 BCE, his name appeared on the proscription lists, death warrants signed by men he had opposed. He tried to flee by sea. He changed his mind, turned back, and his litter-bearers were carrying him along the road when soldiers arrived. He put his head out and told them to proceed. He was sixty-three years old. His head and hands were cut off and displayed in Rome, on the Rostra where he had delivered his most famous speeches. Formia remembers the villa and the road. The sea is still very blue.