LIFE OF
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
CICERO.
FROM A BRONZE MEDAL STRUCK BY THE TOWN OF MAGNESIA IN LYDIA.
LIFE
OF
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
BY WILLIAM FORSYTH, M.A. Q.C.
LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
AUTHOR OF ' HORTENSIUS,' 'NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA AND SIR HUDSON LOWE,'
WITH 20 ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1869
Ttie right of Translation is reserved.
C5T7
MY DEAR LORD BROUGHAM,
I DEDICATE this work to you as a token of our
friendship, and because a Life of Cicero cannot be
more appropriately inscribed than with the name of
one whose eloquence and other splendid intellectual
gifts, so conspicuously displayed and uniformly em-
ployed for the welfare of mankind, vividly recal to the
minds of his countrymen the great Orator, Statesman,
and Philosopher of ancient Rome. " Superest adhuc
et exornat aetatis nostrse gloriam Vir saeculorum me-
moria dignus, qui olim nominabitur nunc intelligitur."
Believe me,
Very sincerely yours,
W. FORSYTH.
THE FIRS, MORTIMER,
Dec. 1863.
PREFACE.
MORE than a century has elapsed since Middleton
first published his History of the Life of Marcus
Tnllius Cicero, which has during that period ex-
clusively occupied the field in this country as the
Biography of Cicero. It occurred to me that the time
had come when another Life might be acceptable to
the public. The advanced state of scholarship, which
has made the history and literature of Rome so much
better understood than when Middleton wrote to say
nothing of his defects as a biographer justifies the
appearance of a new account of the great Roman.
The faults of his work are not inconsiderable. It is
disfigured by a blind and indiscriminating tone of
panegyric, which is the language of flattery rather than
of truth. It is almost entirely occupied with Cicero
as a politician and an orator, and does not sufficiently
enter into the details of his private and domestic life,
which, in my opinion, form the chief charm of a bio-
graphy. For as Madame Swetchine, in one of her
letters alluding to the subject in the case of deceased
friends happily remarks : " Tant que nous ne con-
naissons rien de leur caractere, de leur vocation, des
actions de leur vie, ils demeurent pour nous a 1'etat
d'abstraction ; or, vous savez si ce sont les abstractions
x PREFACE.
qui parlent au cceur." Middleton's work is also over-
laid and encumbered with too much of the history of
the time, so that the character of individuality is often
lost. It is, in fact, as the title seems to imply, an
historical composition in which Cicero is the principal
figure, but it is not the portrait of the man himself,
with details properly subordinated as accessories so as
to form the background of the picture. Besides, the
style is heavy and tedious, and I think that De Quincey
is not far from the truth when he says that " by weed-
ing away from it all that is colloquial, you would strip
it of all that is characteristic ; and if you should remove
its slang vulgarisms, you would remove its whole prin-
ciple of vitality."
My object has been to exhibit Cicero not only as an
orator and a politician, but as he was in private life
surrounded by his family and friends speaking and
acting like other men in the ordinary affairs of home.
And the more we accustom ourselves to regard the
ancients as persons of like passions as ourselves, and
familiarise ourselves with the idea of them as fathers,
husbands, friends, and gentlemen, the better we shall
understand them.
It would be ungrateful in me not to acknowledge
how much I am indebted to Abeken's most interesting
and able work, Cicero in Seinen Brief en an invaluable
contribution to our right knowledge of his history and
to the Onomasticon Tullianum of Orelli and Baiter.
I have also made much use of Drumann's Geschichte
ROMS nach GescMechtern, although I differ greatly from
the estimate he has formed of the character of Cicero,
and think him both prejudiced and unfair. I have
PREFACE. xi
derived most material assistance from the admirable
edition of Cicero's letters by Schiitz, where the corre-
spondence is arranged in chronological order, and the
difficulties are explained by clear and excellent notes.
But for the convenience of reference I have always
quoted the letters as they are given most unmethodi-
cally it is true in the popular edition of Ernesti. I
have also referred to BrUckner's Leben Cicero, which
has the merit of fulness and accuracy, but is a dull and
unattractive book. It would, however, be mere pe-
dantry in me to mention all the authorities of which I
have made use. I believe that there is no author who
has written on the subject whose work I have neglected.
But after all, the great authority for the life of Cicero is
Cicero himself, of whose works I have been, during a
great period of my life, an assiduous student, attracted
to them by the irresistible fascination of their contents
and their style.
I had written much more than is printed in the fol-
lowing work, but as it would have swelled the volume
to an inconvenient size, I have been obliged very con-
siderably to reduce my manuscript. For this reason
I have omitted many details and translations of many
parts of the speeches which I had prepared, and which
I should have been glad to insert in the text. For
the same reason also I have omitted a number of refer-
ences in support of the opinions I have advanced, but
if necessary they can be readily produced. I mention
this merely lest it should be supposed that I have
shunned pains and labour in the completion of my task.
I can truly say that it has been with me a labour of
love, and the most agreeable relaxation I cared to find
xii PREFACE.
from the toils of my profession. It is, no doubt,
perilous to the interests of lawyers to be supposed to
occupy even their horcz subsecivtz with anything like
literature. But although their profession has the first
and foremost claims upon their attention, it need not
monopolise the whole, and it can hardly be thought
that they are less likely to be qualified for the discharge
of its duties if they make themselves familiar with the
models of ancient eloquence and the law of ancient
times, than if they confine themselves wholly to the
study of technical precedents and seek for inspiration
only in the volumes of Reports.
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
I. THE BOYHOOD
II. THE STUDENT
III. CICERO AT THE BAR .
IV. QlL<ESTOR AND CURULE
V. CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE
VI. THE PR^ETORSHIP ......
VII. CANVASS FOR THE CONSULSHIP, AND ELECTION
VIII. THE CONSULSHIP
IX. VlR CONSULARIS
X. MYSTERIES OF THE BONA DEA AND TRIAL OF
CLODIUS
XL THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE
XII. THE EXILE . . ....
XIII. THE RETURN
XIV. CONFUSION AT ROME CICERO SUPPORTS CAESAR
- His SPEECHES IN SEVERAL IMPORTANT
TRIALS DEFENCE OF CCELIUS
XV. LETTERS FROM THE COUNTRY ATTACK ON Piso
GOSSIP DEFENCE OF PLANCIUS POLITICAL.
APOLOGY DISTRACTED STATE OF ROME
XVI. CLODIUS AND MILO
XVII. THE PROCONSULATE
PAGES
W3
14 22
23-35
36-52
53-68
6979
80-95
96-126
127-135
136-152
J53-I79
180-196
197-217
218-244
245-286
287-307
308-339
xiv CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGES
XVIII. CIVIL WAR .... . . 340-378
XIX. DOMESTIC TROUBLES DIVORCE FROM TERENTIA
DEATH OF TULLIA SECOND MARRIAGE . 379-408
i
XX. DEATH OF CAESAR . . 409-430
XXI. VACILLATION DEPARTURE FROM ITALY AND SUD-
DEN RETURN TO ROME . .431-450
XXII. QUARREL WITH ANTONY THE SECOND PHILIPPIC
MOVEMENTS OF ANTONY AND OCTAVIAN . 451-475
XXIII. THE EMBASSY TO ANTONY . . 476-499
XXIV. THE SIEGE AND BATTLE OF MUTINA, AND TREA-
CHERY OF OCTAVIAN 500-529
XXV. THE PROSCRIPTION AND DEATH OF CICERO His
CHARACTER 53'547
APPENDIX.
CICERO'S ORATIONS . . 549-55
ROMAN CONSULS DURING CICERO'S LIFE . 550-552
INDEX 553-557
ILLUSTRATIONS.
CICERO ; FROM A BRONZE MEDAL STRUCK BY THE TOWN OF
MAGNESIA IN LYDIA . . to face Title-page
ARPINO, NEAR WHICH CICERO WAS BORN ... i
THE ROMAN FORUM (from a Photograph) . . . . 19
SITE OF LILYB^EUM, NOW MARSALA 36
THEATRE AT TUSCULUM .... ..62
CICERO'S VILLA, FORMIC 65
TEMPLE OF JUPITER CAPITOLINUS : RESTORED BY CAV.
CANINA 80
MAUSOLEUM OF AUGUSTUS . . . . . . 92
TEMPLE OF CONCORD : RESTORED BY CAV. CANINA . . 112
THE PORT OF BRUNDUSIUM t 88
POMPEY'S THEATRE : RESTORED BY CAV. CANINA . . 245
APPIAN ROAD TOWARDS LANUVIUM . . . . .287
THE APPIAN WAY REGINA VIARUM . . . .294
TIBUR THE MODERN TIVOLI . . . . .340
POMPEY THE GREAT 379
JULIUS CESAR 4 o 9
THE CAPITOLINE WOLF 45 x
RUINS ON THE ESQUILINE 500
FORMLE, WHERE ClCERO WAS MURDERED . . . -53
TOMB OF CICERO .... ... 547
ICRRO WAS BOKr
CHAPTER I.
THE BOYHOOD.
.Kt. 1-16. B.C. 106-91.
Library
ON the steep side of one of the Volscian hills, below which
the river Liris, now the Garigliano, flowed in a winding channel
to the sea, and on the northern frontier of what has since been
known as the Terra di Lavoro in the kingdom of Naples, lay
the ancient town of Arpinum. The banks of the river were
thickly wooded with lofty poplars, and a grove of oaks ex-
tended to the east, where, not far off, the little river Fibrenus,
now the Fibreno, in the midst of one of the loveliest of Italian
landscapes, mingled its ice-cold waters with the waters of the
Liris. Before its confluence with the larger stream it divided
into two channels and rushed rapidly past a small and beauti-
ful island, now called the Isola di Carnello ; and lower down,
at the point where the two rivers met, another island was
B
2 THE BOYHOOD. CHAP. i.
formed, since known as the Isola San Paolo, or San Domenico,
from a Dominican monastery which in later times was erected
there and still remains.
In this pleasant spot, at the point where the Liris and the
Fibrenus met, amidst hills and rocks and woods, on the third
of January, B.C. 106, Cicero was born. 1
His family was old and respectable, but was of the ple-
beian and not of the patrician order. It was not ennobled
that is, none of its members had filled any curule office ;
not even an aedileship, which was the lowest step in the lad-
der of rank that entitled a citizen to the honour of the ivory
chair, and which, like all the other magistracies at Rome,
was, at all events in the later centuries of the republic, open
to plebeian and patrician families alike. It belonged to the
equestrian class, and had long been settled in the neighbour-
hood of Arpinum. There was indeed a tradition at Rome
that the Tullian gens was of royal descent ; and Flutarch
alludes to it, saying, that some persons carried back the
origin of the family to Tullus Attius, a king of the Volscians,
who waged war not without honour against the Romans.
Cicero himself, like Napoleon, smiled at the efforts to
make out for him an illustrious pedigree ; and, alluding to
the funeral orations at Rome as a fertile source of the falsi-
fication o'f family history, said, that an instance of it would
be an assertion by him that he was descended from Manius
Tullius, the patrician who was consul with Servius Sulpicius
ten years after the expulsion of the Tarquins. 2
Arpinum had received the Roman franchise some time
before, so that the inhabitants enjoyed the full rights of
citizens, of the Great Republic. The family name of Cicero
was most probably derived, like those of the Lentuli, Fabii,
Pisones, and others, from the fact that some ancestor had
been known as a successful cultivator of the humble vege-
table called cicer ; but another less complimentary theory
is that it was given in consequence of a personal defect in
the face of one of his progenitors in fact a wart or car-
1 The consuls for the year were C. 2 The word Tullius seems originally
Atilius Serranus and Q. Servilius Crcpio. to have meant "spring" or "rivulet."
According to the Julian reformed calen- Tullios alii dixerunt esse silanos, alii
clar the date of Cicero's birth would be rivos, alii vehementes projectiones san-
October, B.C. 107. guinis arcuatim fluentis.- Fcstns.
^T. 1-16. DERIVATION OF THE FA MIL Y NAME. 3
buncle on the nose. 1 His paternal grandfather Marcus, who
was still alive when Cicero was born, was no friend of inno-
vation, and when his brother-in-law Gracidius, whose sister
Gratidia he had married, proposed to introduce vote by bal-
lot into Arpinum, he strongly opposed it. Cicero mentions
this story of his grandfather, and adds that Gratidius was
trying to raise a tempest in a cup (excitabat fluctus in sim-
pulo\ When Scaurus the consul heard of old Marcus's
firmness, he much applauded it, and said, " I wish, with such
courage and virtue as you have shown, you had preferred
the arena of a great metropolis to a provincial town." The
old gentleman hated the Greeks, and used to say that his
countrymen were like Syrian slaves the more Greek they
knew, the greater rascals they were.
Marcus the grandfather and Gratidia had another son
named Lucius, besides Cicero's father; and, according to
most genealogists, a daughter Tullia, married to Caius
Aculeo, a Roman knight. But Drumann asserts that he had
no daughter, and that Aculeo, who was a learned lawyer
and distinguished orator, was married to Cicero's maternal
aunt, the sister of his mother. 2 He was also the intimate
friend of L. Licinius Crassus, who contested the palm of
eloquence with Antonius, the grandfather of the Triumvir,
and Antonius himself was connected by marriage with Lucius,
the paternal uncle of Cicero. 3
1 When Cicero, as qurcstor in Sicily, to enter into public life he was advised
was about to make" an offering in a to change his name of Cicero, but he
temple of some silver vessels which he proudly answered that he would make
had inscribed with his names Marcus it more glorious than the names of the
Tullius, he told the silversmith to en- Scauri and the Catuli : and surely he
grave the figure of a vetch (deer] for the kept his word.
the third name. Had he lived in the 2 See Drumann, Gcschichte Roms
days of heraldry, his canting arms would nach Geschlechtern, v. 213.
probably have had a vetch for the crest. 3 The following genealogical table
Plutarch says that when he was about will be useful for reference :
Marcus Tullius Cicero m. Gratidia.
M. T. Cicero m. Helvia. Lucius T. Cicero.
M. T. CICKRO m. (i) Terentia. Quintus T. Cicero m. Pomponia. Lucius T. Cicero.
2) Publilia.
I I
Tullia, m. (i) Piso. M. T. Cicero. Q. T. Cicero.
(2) Crassipes.
,-(3)Dolabella.
Lentulus.
4 THE BOYHOOD. CHAP. i.
His father, who was also called Marcus, had weak health,
and he preferred to reside on his property and lead the quiet
life of a country gentleman, instead of engaging in the strug-
gles of ambition and mingling in the society and bustle of
Rome. But he had also literary tastes, and seems to have
been a man of cultivated mind according to the measure of
his opportunities. He had enlarged the old dwelling of the
family, which appears previously to have been little better
than an ordinary farm-house. The name of Cicero's mother
was Helvia, of whose family nothing more is known than
what Plutarch tells us, and this is comprised in the short
sentence that she was a lady well born. Cicero himself
makes no allusion whatever to his mother in all his numer-
ous works. One is curious to know whether she was a
woman of strong intellect, and an instance amongst the
many that could be quoted of mothers to whom their sons
have owed the mental powers which have made them
famous ; and in such cases it will generally be found that it
has not been so much any brilliancy of imagination or
accomplishment, as native shrewdness and good sense in
fact, what we call mother wit which has distinguished the
mothers of celebrated men. An anecdote has been pre-
served of her as told by her son Quintus in one of his letters,
which shows that she was a careful housewife and looked
well after her domestic concerns, He says that she used
to seal up all the wine-jars in the house, even when they
were empty, to prevent mistakes and discourage clandestine
visits to the cellar.
Cicero, as for the sake of convenience we shall call the
subject of this biography, although that was properly his
surname, had one younger brother, named Quintus, but no
sister. At the usual time, that is on the ninth day after his
birth, he received what we should call the baptismal name
of Marcus, 1 which, as it was afterwards given to his own son,
1 This was called the dies lustricus. Mark, of the Cornelian Tribe. In order
The full name, according to Roman to enjoy the rights of Roman citizenship
style, would be written thus it was necessary to be enrolled in one of
M.TuLLiusM. F.M.N. COR. CICERO, the thirty-five tribes; and when the
franchise was bestowed on Arpinum, its
Marcus Tullms, Marti Films, Marci inhabitants were included in the Cor-
Nepos, Cornelia, Cicero ; that is, Mark ne ]i an tribe
Tully Cicero, son of Mark, grandson of
B.C. 106-91. HIS SCHOOL-DAYS. 5
was thus kept in the family for at least four generations.
Of his childish years at the family residence near Arpinum
no anecdote has been preserved. Plutarch indeed says that
when he began to learn he was so distinguished by his
abilities, that the fathers of his schoolfellows used to visit
the school that they might see the young prodigy, and some
of them were foolish enough to be annoyed because the boys
when they walked together put Cicero in the middle as the
place of honour. 1 But this, if true, no doubt refers to the
period when he had left Arpinum for Rome, as we shall see
was the case during his boyhood, although the exact period
is not known. He always had throughout life the greatest
attachment to his birthplace, which he calls his cradle and
ancestral home, and he seems to have loved its wild scenery
with no ordinary fondness. ^Marius was a native of Arpinum,
and just four years before the birth of Cicero had gained his
brilliant victory over the savage hordes of Teutones and
Ambones at Aquae Sextiae (the modern Aix) in the south-
east of Gaul. This was followed next year by the complete
and utter destruction of the Cimbri in a great battle fought
near Verona, when Marius came to the rescue of the pro-
consul Catulus, hard pressed by the barbarians, and by their
overthrow saved Rome from an attack which would have
been more terrible than that of the Gauls three centuries
before. We may well imagine when the fame of these vic-
tories reached Arpinum how proud the citizens were of the
hero who had won them, and how they loved to talk in the
forum and the market-place of his exploits, telling the tale
to which the young Cicero must often, as he grew older,
have lent a listening ear, and perhaps awakening in his mind
that eager desire for distinction and applause which became
the ruling passion of his life. 2 ) No memorial remains at Ar-
pinum, to mark the birthplace of the great Roman orator ;
1 A similar story is related of Dr. thus he was borne triumphant." Bos-
Johnson. "Such was the submission well's Life, of Johnson.
and deference with which he was treated,
such the desire to obtain his regard, that 2 There was a distant connection be-
three of the boys used to come in the tween the families of Cicero and Marius
morning, as his humble attendants, and in the following manner : A brother of
carry him to school. One in the middle Marius had adopted Gratidianus, the son
stooped while he sat upon his back, and of Gratidius, who was the brother-in-law
one on each side supported him, and of Cicero's grandfather.
6 THE BOYHOOD. CHAP. i.
but the fragment of an ancient altar built into the wall of a
house, on which are still seen the letters COS. VII., requires
no name to show that it was erected in honour of Marius, for
of him alone could it be said that he was seven times consul.
His parents must have soon observed that the young
Cicero was a child of no ordinary promise, and this no doubt
determined his father to take him and his brother Quintus
to Rome, in order that they might there have the benefit of
an education which it was impossible to procure at a pro-
vincial town. He therefore placed them both with their
uncle Aculeo, who had a house in the street called Carince?-
that they might join their cousins in the usual course of edu-
cation pursued by Roman youths of good family.
There is a curious remark by Niebuhr that Cicero in his
youth was without friends. 2 But for this he certainly had no
authority. I should be inclined to believe that the direct
contrary is the truth, and to say that few young men are
likely to have had more. His amiable disposition and lov-
able nature, in which there was no coldness or reserve, to
say nothing of his splendid talents and genial wit, must have
made him one of the most companionable of men. Quick,
warm, and impulsive in feeling, he was singularly fitted to
form early friendships, and we need not doubt that he did
so. But alas ! how often are our early friendships buried
prematurely in the grave ! Who of us cannot from his owi
sad experience verify the mournful lines of the poet ?
" He, the young and strong, who cherished
Noble longings for the strife,
By the roadside fell and perished,
Weary with the march of life ! "
We do not know with any certainty whether Marcus the
father left his sons under the care of their uncle and returned
to his retreat in the neighbourhood of Arpinum, or whether
he stayed at Rome to superintend their education. I think
1 Drumann {Gesch. Roms, v. 213), sn. viii. 361, speaks of lautce Carincc.
assuming that Cicero's father had a resi- 2 Hist, of Rome, v. 30 (Ed. Schmitz).
dence in Rome, says that he lived in the He in another passage qualifies this by
Carinae. It was one of the principal saying, " He seems to have passed his
streets or perhaps " regions" of Rome. youth without any intimate friend ; and
It lay between the Ccelian and Esquiline it was only in his maturer age that a
mounts, and was then a fashionable quar- true friendship was formed between him
ter. Pompey had a house there. Virgil, and Atticus."
^T. 1-16. CRASSUS cV ANTONIUS. 7
it is very probable that he sacrificed his inclination for a rural
life to a sense of duty, and took up his residence, for a time
at least, in the great metropolis, for Cicero speaks affection-
ately of the pains he took in instructing his sons or in giving
them the means of instruction (in nobis erudiendis) and calls
him a most wise and excellent man. 1
(The two brothers, stimulated by the reputation of Crassus,
and^perhaps at his recommendation, attended the lectures of
the same professors or teachers whom he had used for the
purposes of his own education./) These seem to have been
Greeks, and the object was not only to learn the language,
with which Crassus was so familiar that it seemed to be his
native tongue, but to acquire those branches of instruction-
such as rhetoric, grammar, and composition which Greek
teachers were alone at that period competent to impart at
Rome. Cicero became very intimate, notwithstanding his
extreme youth, not only with him, but with Antojiius, the
grandfather of the Triumvir, who divided with Crassus the
palm of Roman eloquence in those days ; and he expressly
mentions that he used to apply for information from time to
time to Antonius, and put questions to him as far as his
boyish modesty allowed him to venture with so distinguished
a man. We can well believe that both Crassus and Antonius
took delight in gratifying the eager curiosity of so intelli-
gent an inquirer, and must have felt respecting him what
Lady Holland said to her husband, the first Lord Holland,
of " little William Pitt," that he was really the cleverest
child she ever saw.' 2 In alluding to these two eminent
men at an advanced period of his life, Cicero says that with
regard to Greek literature the difference between them was
this : Crassus wished to have the reputation of knowing it,
but affected to despise it, giving the preference in all things,
including literature, in which the Latin language was up to
that time miserably deficient, to the native productions of
Rome over those of Greece ; while Antonius, in compliance
with that narrow-minded bigotry which the Romans mistook
for patriotism, pretended complete ignorance of both the
language and literature of Greece. But the object of both
^Optimi ac pnuicntiss'uni virt- J )<_ 2 Lord Stanhope's /./A' 1 <//'///, vol. i.
Oral. ii. I. p. 4.
8 THE BOYHOOD, CHAP. i.
was the same. They thought that the effect of their oratory
would be lessened before a Roman audience if they were
supposed to be admirers of a nation whom their countrymen
so thoroughly despised. Crassus therefore took care to vaunt
his preference for everything Roman, while Antonius thought
the safer plan would be to have it supposed that he was
wholly ignorant of the exotic article.
There were two schools we may almost call them parties
of education at Rome in those days. The one was the
Latin, the other the Greek school. 1 The first who opened a
school for instruction in Latin literature there was Lucius
Plautius, about the time when young Cicero removed from
Arpinum to the capital, and he wished to become a student
at his lectures, which were well attended. But he reluctantly
yielded to the advice of friends, who thought that he had
better devote himself exclusively to Greek. Perhaps the
wiser plan would have been to allow a boy of such industry
and aptitude to study both ; but if the choice lay between the
two, beyond all doubt they acted rightly in giving preference
to Greek, for Latin literature was then still in its infancy, and
the language had not been enriched by the prose of Cicero,
Sallust, Varro, and Livy, and by the poetry of Lucretius,
Virgil, Catullus, and Horace. The only Latin poets who
had then written were Pacuvius, Nsevius, and Ennius, and
the only Latin histories were the dry and meagre annals of
Fabius Pictor, Calpurnius Piso, and others.
Greek, however, had become at this time the fashionable
study at Rome, and occupied something of the same posi-
tion in a course of education that French does amongst
ourselves.! And Cicero tells us that the language was culti-
vated in Latium, or, as we should say, in the provinces, even
more zealously than in the capital. It was considered the
accomplishment of a gentleman, and Greek phrases and
1 About half-a- century before Cicero who idled away their time there for whole
was boi n the Senate passed a resolution days together (ibi homines adolescentnlos
banishing philosophers and rhetoricians dies tolas desidere). They declared that
from Rome. The then censors brought they did not like the novelty, and called
the subject again under the notice of the on the Senate to mark its displeasure
Senate, saying that men who called them- against both teachers and pupils. They
selves "Latin rhetoricians" had intro- were ordered to shut up their "schools
duced a new kind of learning, and their of impudence" (Indiim
schools were frequented by young men DC Orat. iii. 24.
B.C. 106-91. INTIMACY WITH ARCHIAS. 9
Greek quotations were everywhere current in good society.
vEven the sturdy Cato the Censor, who despised the nation
and their effeminate character, and who had deemed their
literature beneath the attention of a Roman, at last gave
way to the prevailing Graeco-mania, and, according to a well-
known story, applied himself in extreme old age to the
study of the language.^ Cicero, as might be expected from
his exquisite taste, was passionately fonxLofLGreek literature ;
and his letters abound m expressions and quotations which
prove his intimate familiarity with the rich treasures it
contains. One practical reason for learning that language
thoroughly was, that he might be able to converse with his
Greek teachers, who seem to have been able to speak Latin
only imperfectly, and in some cases perhaps not at all.
Phsedrus, the Epicurean, was one of his instructors, and he
speaks~of him in terms of peculiar regard.
He became also a pupil of the. poet Archias. He was a
Greek who had come to Rome from Antioch when Cicero
was five years old, and, according to the usual custom of
those days, resided in the house of a Roman patron, the
wealthy Lucullus. His reputation as a poet depends exclu-
sively on the speech which Cicero in later years delivered
in defence of his former teacher and friend, for not a line
of his verses has been preserved ; but we know that he
composed laudatory poems in honour of some of the noble
families of Rome.
His intimacy with Archias may have awakened in Cicero
the desire to be himself also a poet. We are told by
Plutarch that when very young he composed a poem called
Pontius Glaucus, the hero of which was a fisherman of
Boeotia, who, having eaten a certain plant, went mad and
sprang into the sea, where he was changed into a sea-god,
the place from which he made the fatal spring being after-
wards known as the Glaucus-leap. He translated also into
Latin verse two Greek poems on astronomy or subjects
connected with that science the Phaenomena and Prog-
nostica, or Diosemeia of Aratus, whose works were very
popular at Rome. Although he had not the poetic faculty
in the proper sense of the word, and frankly acknowledged
this himself, he had great facility in the composition of
TO THE BOYHOOD. CHAP. i.
verses, and amused himself with it at different periods of his
life. Some of his productions were long poems, such as the
Marius, which seems to have been written during the life
of that hero, 1 and was an epic celebration of his life and
exploits; and the poems on his Consulship (de suo Consulatu)
and his own Times (de suis Temporibus). It was in one of
these, most probably the Consulship, that the unfortunate
lines occurred,
Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea laudi, 2
and,
O fortunatum natam me consule Romam !
the jingle of which provoked the ridicule of Juvenal, Quin-
tilian, and Seneca, as well as of the wits of his own day,
who were never tired of laughing at him for them, and his
enemies took care that nobody should forget them. He
however clung to them with true parental fondness for a
deformed offspring ; and in his treatise De Officiis calls the
verse beginning Cedant arma togce " a capital line which I
hear is attacked by the wicked and the envious." He must
have heard of it often enough. Of his poem on Marius
Quintus Mucius Scsevola the Augur had such a favourable
opinion, that in some complimentary lines he declared that
it would endure for endless ages, saying, " Canescet saeclis
innumerabilibus." But the old lawyer was neither a poet
nor a prophet.
When Rousseau once sent to Voltaire a copy of an ode
addressed to Posterity, the sneering critic wittily remarked,
Void ime lettre qui riarrivera jamais a son adresse, and
Cicero's epic has met with a similar fate. Both Plutarch
and Pliny the younger lavish panegyrics upon his poetry,
and Middleton goes so far as to declare that the fragments
that time has spared us " are sufficient to convince us that
his poetical genius, if it had been cultivated with the same
care, would not have been inferior to his oratorical." He
adds that " the world always judges of things by compari-
1 Drumann (Gesch. Roms, v. 221) so that probably one version of the line
ingeniously fixes the date of this poem was concedat laurea lingua, which ex-
as B.C. 87, when Cicero therefore was presses more distinctly the meaning that
nineteen years old. military is inferior to civil glory. But
there is more of alliterative jingle in the
2 Plutarch renders laudi by TTJ yXwrrr;, laurea laudi.
JOT. 1-16. REPUTATION AS A POET. n
son, and because he was not so great a poet as Virgil and
Horace, he was decried as none at all." But Middleton is
as extravagant in his praise as Cicero's detractors were unjust
in their censure. He never could have been a great poet,
for he had not the divinns afflatus, so finely expressed by
Ovid in the line
Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo !
without which there is no real poetry ; and he knew it,
frankly confessing that his brother Ouintus would have made
a much better poet than himself. But he had a decided
talent for vigorous versification, and the specimens that we
find scattered amongst his writings show that he was far
superior in point of style and harmony, in choice of diction
and facility of expression, to the poets who had hitherto
written in the Latin language. Their compositions are full
of the most uncouth barbarisms, from which Cicero's poetical
works appear to have been \vholly free, and I do not doubt
that Roman poetry was indebted to him in no slight degree
for the advance it made in the hands of Catullus, Virgil,
Horace, and Ovid. It was no small service to weed away
such monstrous words and expressions as deface the writings
of Pacuvius, Naevius, Attius, and Ennius, who were the
authors most in vogue when Cicero first exercised his
youthful genius in the art of poetical composition. 1
At the age of sixteen, according to the custom of the
Roman youth, Cicero was with the usual ceremonies brought
before the Praetor in the Forum ; and there, in his presence,
he formally laid aside the toga prcetexta, his boyish dress, and
assumed the toga pura or virilis, which indicated that he
had arrived at the age of adolescence, and was introduced
1 One of the lines of Pacuvius was nothing is now known but the names.
XT . 7- Limon apparently a series of epi-
11 ' ' mCUrV1Cer ~ grams on distinguished men, in hexa-
meter verse. Four lines are quoted by
The following is a list of the poetical Suetonius in his Vita Terentii. 8. Ma-
works of Cicero, so far as they are rius. 9. De suo Consulatu. 10. De
known: i. Translations of passages suis Temporibus, in three books. n.
from Homer into Latin verse, scattered Elegia Tamelastis, mentioned by Strvius
throughout his works. 2. The Phaeno- in Virg. Eclog. i. 58. 12. Libellus
mena of Aratus. 3. The Prognostica Jocularis, quoted by Quint, viii. 6.
(AtotrT^em) of Aratus. 4-6. The Al- 13. Pontius Glaucus.
cyones, Uxorius, Nilus, poems of which
i2 THE BOYHOOD. CHAP. i.
into public life. This, however, did not imply that his edu-
cation was finished, any more than in the case of the change
of dress so dear to an English boy when he assumes the
dignity of a coat instead of a jacket ; and Ovid expressly
tells us, with reference to such an occasion
Et studium nobis, quod fuit ante manet.
The change, however, in the case of a Roman boy was much
more serious and important. It showed that he had -reached
an age when he might engage in the active business of life
the precise period when he began to do so of course
varying according to his temperament and abilities. The
toga prcetexta which he had hitherto worn was a white robe
with a coloured border, which was also the dress of the
Roman magistrates, as distinguished from the plain robe
which was worn by unofficial persons, and called the toga
pura. And it is impossible not to notice the significance of
the costume. The embroidered robe was symbolical of
success in the struggle of life, and of the attainment of rank
and station in the republic. We may well believe that the
boy was clothed in it as a sort of uniform to awaken in his
mind the stirrings of ambition, and point out the path to
future eminence.
The custom was for the young man to be conducted by
his father or other near relation to the Forum, when he was
presented to the Praetor, whose tribunal or court was there,
and the ceremony of change of dress was performed. He
then received the congratulations of his relatives and friends
who accompanied him, amidst the applause of the surround-
ing crowd ; for there never was any lack of idlers in the
Forum, and, indeed, so numerous were they, that old Cato
the Censor once proposed that the ground should be paved
with sharp stones to make it a less agreeable lounge. After
this the youth was conducted along the Via Sacra, which
ran through the Forum up to the Capitol, and a sacrifice was
offered at the altar of Jupiter, whose magnificent temple
crowned the hill. The rest of the day was spent in festivi-
ties at home ; and the hero of the hour, now no longer a
boy but a man, received presents as on a birthday amongst
ourselves.
B.C. 106-91.
THE BOYHOOD.
We have good reason to believe that, whether Cicero's
father had returned to Arpinum or not after bringing his
sons to Rome, he was present on this interesting occasion,
for his son expressly tells us that immediately afterwards he
introduced Cicero to Ouintus Mucius Scaevola the Augur
the most profound lawyer of his day in Rome that he
might have the benefit of his instruction in the science of
which that accomplished jurist was so great a master.
CHAPTER II.
THE STUDENT.
TEL 17-25. B.C. 90-82.
THE contrast between ancient and modern manners is so
great that it is very difficult to realise it, and bring clearly
before the mind's eye the usages of social life that belong to
a remote antiquity. Law was taught in a very different
manner in republican Rome from that to which we are
accustomed in England. There were no chambers of
pleaders or conveyancers, to which the young student might
resort to copy precedents and answer cases, having first
obtained admission there by the payment of an honorarium.
Nor were there, so far as we know, public lectures on law
like those of our inns of court, open to those who might
choose to attend them. And yet there was a practice at
Rome which bore a certain analogy to both these methods
of instruction, and to a certain extent combined the advan-
tages of both. It was this : those who aspired to fill the
great offices of state knew that they could only climb the
ladder of ambition by the suffrages of their fellow-citizens.
The object, therefore, of every public man was to cultivate
popularity, and there were two modes of cultivating it with
success, both of which, however, might be, and sometimes
were, combined. The one was by undertaking gratuitously
the defence of the accused, and advocating causes in courts
of justice; the other, by giving gratuitous advice on points
of law to those who required their assistance. For this
purpose the house of a Roman jurisconsult was always open,
not only to suitors but to students, who came there to listen
to the responsa prudentum or legal opinions, which were
delivered not in the stiff formal manner of a modern consulta-
tion, but in the easy mode of familiar conversation, some-
JET. 17-25. ATTENDANCE ON ORATORS. 15
times during a walk in the peristylium of the house, and
sometimes during a saunter in the Forum. It was thus that
Cicero attached himself to Scaevola the Augur as a kind of
pupil ; and that so assiduously, that in his own emphatic
language he declares that he hardly ever quitted his side.
He used to take notes of his lectures, and commit his
maxims and sayings to memory ; following him to the courts
when he pleaded as an advocate, and to the Rostra when
he harangued the people. He thus received practical lessons
in eloquence and law, and formed himself for the career
which he had marked out for himself, and in which he was
destined to acquire such deathless fame. After the death
of this great lawyer he transferred himself to another of the
same family and name for he, too, was called Ouintus
Mucius Scaevola, and was the cousin of the Augur who
had filled the office of Consul, and was Pontifex Maximus.
He was the first who attempted to give a scientific form to
the Jus Civile, by writing a systematic treatise upon it ; and
Cicero with grateful enthusiasm calls him the most eloquent
of lawyers, and the most learned of orators. His time was
now incessantly occupied. He lost no opportunity of at-
tending the speeches of the different orators and pleaders in
the Forum and the courts ; he watched the gestures of the
best actors, like yEsop and Roscius ; and every day was
spent in reading, writing, and practising declamation. Philo-
sophy and oratory seem to have been the two chief objects
of his study ; but if of any man before Bacon appeared that
might be said, which the great master of modern philosophy
claimed for himself, that he " had taken all knowledge for his
province," it might be truly declared of the youthful Cicero.
His appetite for knowledge was insatiable, and his desire for
distinction boundless. No one ever lived to whom the hope
of future distinction furnished a stronger motive for exertion.
Perhaps at no other place and at no other time, except at
Athens in the palmy days of her great orators, have such
opportunities been afforded for the study of eloquence as
existed then at Rome. The constitution of the republic
imperatively required that those who looked to high office in
the state should be practised speakers. The two great
avenues of distinction were the Army and the Bar. And by
16 THE STUDENT. CHAP. n.
the Bar I do not mean the profession of an advocate in the
narrow and limited sense which it bears amongst ourselves ;
but every kind of display of eloquence in the Forum, whether
in a speech in the courts of law before the Praetor, or in a
concio or harangue addressed to the people. Even the suc-
cessful soldier had to cultivate oratory to give him a fair
chance of civic honours. Each of the successive steps in the
ascending hierarchy of office, from the qusestorship to the
consulship, could only be attained by securing the votes of
the people under a system which amounted almost to uni-
versal suffrage ; and to be able to speak well was then, as
in all ages and times, the surest passport to popular favour.
Pompey and Caesar were both orators ; and Caesar indeed
was considered one of the very best speakers of his day.
Cicero therefore devoted himself to the study of that art,
of success in which he was soon to show himself the most
splendid example. He diligently declaimed at home, and
there noted down the passages which had most struck him
in the Greek orators, or the speeches he had heard delivered ;
taking care at the same time to cultivate his style by written
composition, and the perusal of works of rhetoric. But every
kind of literature engaged his attention. I have spoken of
his attempts in poetry ; and rhetoric, dialectics, philosophy,
and law, by turns attracted him, and occupied his busy hours.
Nodes et dies, he says, in omnium doctrinarum meditatione
versabar}
But he did not confine himself to the pursuit of studies
fitted to qualify him for success in the Forurn and the Senate.
In his nineteenth year he quitted them for the active life of
the camp, and became for a time a soldier. This was a most
valuable part of the education of a Roman gentleman ; and
it was almost necessary in the case of those who looked for-
ward to high office. As one of the great magistrates of the
republic, and especially as Consul, he might have to com-
mand the Roman legions and conduct a campaign ; when,
if he failed, and victory deserted his standard, he was liable
to be called to a severe account by the sovereign people.
It was therefore essential to know something of the art of
war, which can only be taught by active service in the field ;
1 Brutus, c. 90.
B.C. 90-82. MILITAR Y ED UCA TION. 1 7
and the constant quarrels in which the republic was engaged
both in Italy and abroad gave ample opportunity for this.
Rome was rapidly accomplishing her destiny as the future
mistress of the world. The whole of Italy was subject to
her sway ; but the relation of the different towns and com-
munities there to herself was anomalous and undefined. The
inhabitants had not the rights of Roman citizens, except in
some special cases, as in that of Arpinum ; and they were
looked upon rather as the dependants and tributaries of the
Republic than part of the Republic itself. This state of
things was of course galling to their pride, and they chafed
under a sense of injustice. They had to furnish soldiers for
the Roman armies, but could not vote in the election of a
Roman magistrate. The discontent at last broke out into
open war, which has been variously called the Marsian, the
Italian, or the Social War. It was during this war that
Cicero, then in his nineteenth year, served in his first and
only campaign, under the Consul Cneius Pompeius Strabo,
the father of Pompey the Great ; and in one of his speeches
he mentions an incident that occurred in his presence to show
how courtesy may be shown even to an enemy in the field.
A conference of the two generals took place midway be-
tween the hostile camps, when Scato the leader of the
Marsians asked the brother of the Consul who attended the
meeting how he should address him, upon which Sextus
Pompeius replied " as a friend by inclination : as an enemy
from necessity."
About this time Philo, the philosopher of the school of
the Academy, came from Athens to Rome accompanied by
several distinguished Athenians, who had quitted their
country owing to the troubles occasioned by the war with
the Mithridates. On his return from the Italian campaign,
Cicero attached himself to him as a pupil, embracing the
study of philosophy all the more warmly, inasmuch as the
confusion that prevailed at Rome at this period during the
deadly struggle between Marius and Sylla seemed to have
annihilated the ordinary business of the courts of law. But
there was another mode of study of a practical kind to
which he did not fail to devote himself with a prescient
knowledge of its importance to his own future career. The
c
i8
THE STUDENT.
CHAP. II.
Forum resounded with the speeches of orators who inflamed
the passions of the people ; and amongst these Sulpicius the
Tribune was pre-eminent as a popular demagogue. Amidst
the crowd who listened to them as they thundered from the
Rostra, stood a tall thin youth with outstretched neck and
eager eyes, gazing with rapt attention on the speakers, and
learning from them the art how to sway by the charm of
eloquence the fierce democracy of Rome. This is no fancy
portrait, but one which Cicero has drawn of himself in a
most interesting passage where he describes his own personal
appearance, and mentions how constant an attendant he was
at the harangues that were then daily delivered in the Forum. 1
It may be interesting to attempt a description of this
celebrated spot as it appeared in the days of Cicero ; but
we must take care not to be
misled by the ruins of build-
ings which now meet the eye
of the spectator as he gazes
down upon it from the heights
of the Capitol. The Arch of
Titus was not there then,
nor "the Colosseum, two of
the most conspicuous objects
in view.
The Forum was oblong in
shape, and on the northern side
at the eastern corner stood the
Temple of Concord, of which
(or of a temple bearing the
same name, but built at a later
period) some columns still re-
main. Close to this, but a little
in front, stood the Rostra, fac-
ing the Forum, the base of
which has within the last few
years been discovered and laid
bare. In front of this, again,
stood the Duilian column a
pillar ornamented with the brazen beaks of ships taken by
1 Brut. 91.
20 THE STUDENT. . CHAP, n
Caius Duilius in the first naval victory gained by the Romans
over the Carthaginians. Along the whole length of the Forum,
and almost in the middle, dividing it into two parts, run the
Via Sacra (the Sacred Way), which led from the southern
extremity to the Capitol, along which the Roman generals
marched in solemn procession to the temple of Jupiter Capi-
tolinus when they enjoyed the honour of a triumph. The
pavement consisted of large flat polygonal blocks of stone,
like slabs of slate irregularly placed, which look as fresh
now, after the lapse of twenty-five centuries, as if they had
been laid down yesterday. By the side of this, and between
it and the Palatine Hill, at a distance from the Capitol of
about two-thirds of its whole length, stood the temple of
Jupiter Stator, or Jupiter the Stayer of Flight, to which, as
some antiquarians think, belonged those two graceful
pillars which rivet the gaze of every beholder, and which
have long been the admiration and the despair of the archi-
tect. There were long rows of shops or booths, called
tabern(z y which formed colonnades at the sides of the Forum ;
and it was from one of these that Virginius snatched the
butcher's knife which he plunged into the bosom of his
daughter to save her from dishonour.
During the reign of terror that ensued when Marius and
Cinna formed a coalition, and, amidst the horrors of a pro-
scription, slaked their sanguinary rage with the noblest blood
of Rome, it was as dangerous to have been a public speaker
as it was at Athens when Antipater demanded that the
people should give up their orators, and Demosthenes fled
to ^Egina to perish there by his own hand rather than be
dragged to execution. Antonius, Catulus, and Julius were
put to death, and not long afterwards Scaevola, Carbo, and
Antistius met a similar fate. Crassus would no doubt have
fallen by the hand of the executioner or assassin if he had
been still alive, but he had died four years before. In this
terrible time Cicero, who was still too young to attract
the notice of the bloodthirsty tyrants of Rome, quietly pur-
sued his studies. He attended the lectures in rhetoric of
Molo the Rhodian, whom he praises as a consummate advo-
cate and teacher ; and diligently laboured to improve his
style by translations from the works of Greek writers,
B.C. 90-82. ATTENDS LECTURES IN RHETORIC. 21
amongst which he makes special mention of the (Economics
of Xenophon. Nor does it seem possible for him to have
adopted a better method for the purpose he had in view. It
was that which was recommended by one of the most illus-
trious of English orators to his still greater son.
Pitt told the late Lord Stanhope that he owed greatly
whatever readiness of speech he possessed, and aptness in
finding the right word, to a practice which his father had
impressed upon him. " Lord Chatham had bid him take
up any book in some foreign language with which he was
well acquainted, in Latin or Greek especially. Lord Chat-
ham then enjoined him to read out of this work a passage in
English, stopping when he was not sure of the word to be
used in English, until the right word came to his mind, and
then proceed."
Cicero also practised declamation at home, sometimes in
Latin but more frequently in Greek, in order, as he tells us,
to enrich his mind with the copious wealth of that language ;
and also to have the benefit of instruction and correction
from Greek masters, who were present at these exercises.
The Stoic teacher Diodotus became an inmate of his house,
with whom he studied the rules of dialectics, and who after-
wards at a later period died under his roof. And he now
began to attempt prose composition, in which his earliest
work seems to have been the treatise De Inventione, but he
spoke of it afterwards in disparaging terms as a mere school-
boy performance.
He read and appreciated the letters of Cornelia^ the mother
of the Gracchi, lost, alas ! to us, which showed how much of
their education her sons owed to her ; and he found an
agreeable relaxation in the charm of female society. He
mentions especially the ladies of one accomplished family
Lelia, the wife of Scaevola the Augur, and her daughters
and grand -daughters, whose conversation contributed to refine
and improve his taste. As Goethe says in his Tasso :
Willst du genau erfahren was sich zieml,
So frage nur bei edlen Frauen an !
By degrees quieter times succeeded. The fury of the
1 Lord Stanhope's Life of Pitt, i. 8.
22
THE STUDENT.
CHAP. II.
proscription had exhausted itself. Men like Curio, Cotta,
and the Lentuli, and others who had been banished or fled
from Rome, returned ; and in the emphatic words of Cicero,
the course of law and the courts was reconstituted, and the
Republic was restored.
CHAPTER
CICERO AT THE BAR.
. Kt. 26-30. B.C. 81-77.
IT was at this juncture that Cicero undertook his first cause;
or, as we should say of an advocate, held his first brief.
What this case was we cannot now ascertain. It is
certain that it was not the case of Publius Ouintius, for in
his speech on that occasion he expressly tells us that he had
been retained, and had spoken in several causes previously.
But we may perhaps safely assume that it is the first of his
speeches that have come down to us. It \vas delivered
when he was twenty-five years old. The case is rather a
complicated one, and affords us a curious insight into the.
mysteries of Roman law, of which some knowledge is re-
quired to be able to understand it. The argument of Cicero
is clear and logical, showing that he was well versed in the
technicalities of his profession, and fully able even at that
early age to cope with such an antagonist as Hortensius,
who was " retained" on the other side. But the facts are
not of sufficient interest to make it worth while to detail
them in this biography.
When he was in his twenty-seventh year, about the same
age as that at which Demosthenes first came forwaix as a
public prosecutor and delivered his speech against Androtion,
Cicero made his first appearance in the Forum in a criminal
trial for life and death, and defended Sextus Roscius of
Ameria, who was accused of parricide, the prosecutor being
Chrysogonus. He acquitted himself so well on this occasion
that he tells us that business began to flow rapidly in upon
24 CICERO AT THE BAR. CHAP. in.
him ; and there was no cause too important to be entrusted
to his care. In fact his speech for Roscius although his
first in a public or state trial was the turning-point of his
forensic career. We are reminded by it of what is told of
Thurlow's appearance in the great Douglas case ; and
Erskine's defence in the Greenwich Hospital case, when,
hastening home from the court, he exclaimed in triumph to
his wife, " Voila ! the nonsuit of cow-beef!" Pasquier also,
the great French advocate of the sixteenth century, dated
all his success from a speech he made in defence of the
University of Paris, after he had toiled in thankless obscurity
for fourteen years at the bar. As we have now arrived at
the period when Cicero was fairly launched on his brilliant
career as an advocate, it may be interesting and useful to
attempt to give in a note a clear idea of the courts and mode
of procedure in ancient Rome. The points of contrast with
our own are sufficiently striking ; but yet there are points of
resemblance which serve like stepping-stones to bridge over
the distance which separates us from the times of Cicero,
and enable us to understand them better. 1
1 The following account I have bor- the uses that were made of it. Splen-
rowed from a work I wrote some years did basilicas or halls, which were used
ago, called Hortensius, or the Advocate, both as courts of law and marts of
London, Murray, 1849: commerce, occupied the site of the old
" In early times the distinction be- shops, and were distinguished by differ-
tween that part of the oblong space ent names such as Porcia, Fulvia,
where the cornitia ciiriata, or assemblies Opimia, and Julia. They were sur-
of the patrician burghers, were held, rounded by colonnades or porticoes for
and what was properly the Forum or the convenience of walking up and
market-place, was well known and re- down, and of taking shelter when a
cognised ; but afterwards the whole of shower of rain interrupted proceedings
the open ground embraced in the above in the Forum. At a still later period
description \vas called generally the they became the models of, or were
Forum, and chiefly used for proceedings converted into, Christian churches. In
of a judicial nature. Formerly the these basilicas were tried civil actions,
speakers, when they ascended the rostra, such as came under the cognisance of
turned towards the comitium, close to the centumvirs ; but public or state
which stood the curia or senate-house, trials took place in the open air, either
in order to deliver their harangues ; but in the comitium or other part of the
Caius Licinius, as Cicero and Varro Forum in the former if the matter
inform us, or Caius Gracchus, accord- was referred to the burghers at large as
ing to Plutarch, introduced the custom judges, in the latter if it was made the
effacing the Forum, and thereby doing subject of an inquiry before the judiccs
homage to the power of the sovereign dtxuriati.
people. " In the basilica were four courts,
" But many other changes took place called tribunalia, in which the different
before the age of Cicero, both as to members of the centumviral body sat
the physical aspect of the Forum and at the same time for the despatch of
B.C. 81-77. DEFENDS SEXTUS ROSCIUS.
2 5
To return, however, to the trial of Roscius. Sextus
Roscius the elder was an inhabitant of the municipal town
of Ameria, where he had considerable property and was
much respected. While making a short stay at Rome he
was murdered one night near the Palatine baths as he was
business, as is the case in our own
courts at Westminster and Lincoln's
Inn, or perhaps still more like the
Parliament House in Edinburgh ; and
Quintilian tells us of an advocate named
Trachallus who had such a stentorian
voice that it overpowered every other
sound, and was heard in all the courts
at once, to the great annoyance of the
other pleaders. It seems that on some
occasions all the judges of these four
different courts sat together /';/ bane for
the purpose of hearing the same cause ;
a practice which we may compare to
the sitting of the fifteen English judges
in the Exchequer Chamber when
crown cases reserved were argued be-
fore them.
"These tribunalia consisted of semi-
circular spaces, separated from the rest
of the building and appropriated to the
business of the court, in order that the
legal proceedings might not be inter-
rupted by the crowd of persons who
thronged the hall to transact their mer-
cantile and other affairs. The curule
chair of the prsetor or other presiding
magistrate was in the centre of a raised
dais or tribune, on which sat the judges ;
and in front of this were the benches for
the counsel and witnesses, and those
whom business or curiosity attracted to
the courts. The basilica had a kind of
gallery running round it, with interven-
ing pillars, where people of both sexes
used to resort to hear interesting trials,
just as in the Court of Queen's Bench
at present. *
"For the purpose of holding the public
trials a temporary stage seems to have
been erected, consisting of subsellia or
seats for the counsel and parties, and a
tribunal or raised seat for the judges.
At least we may, I think, infer this from
a passage in Quintilian, who says that
when a teacher of rhetoric, named Por-
tius Latro, had to conduct a cause in the
Forum, he was so discomposed by having
to plead in the open air, that he begged
* Plin. /!/. ii. 6.
that the benches might be removed into
one of the basilica, and that the court
would adjourn there.* The accuser
selected any part of the Forum he pleased
for holding the trial, and hence Cicero
complained, when he defended Flaccus,
that Laelius, the prosecutor, had chosen
a spot near the Aurelian stairs, where a
noisy and disorderly rabble could be
collected and clamour for a conviction.
' ' That the public trials took place in
the open air is abundantly proved by many
passages in the ancient authors, but it will
be sufficient to mention an anecdote re-
lated by Valerius Maximus of Lucius
Piso, during whose trial a sudden shower
of rain came on while the judges were
deliberating upon their sentence. In
order to move their compassion, he threw
himself upon the ground, and his face and
clothes became all covered with mud.
His miserable plight so affected the court
that they pronounced a verdict of acquit-
tal. At a later period Marcellus, the
nephew of Augustus, furnished part of
the Forum with an awning for the express
purpose of protecting the courts which
were held there from the sun and rain.
In like manner the judges at Athens,
called HeliasUe, who had cognisance of
murder and other capital crimes, sat in
the open air ; for which Antiphon, in one
of his speeches, assigns as a reason the
superstitious dread which the Greeks
entertained of being under the same roof
with those whose hands were defiled
with blood.
" Having thus briefly noticed the
courts, let us consider who were the
judges before whom the trials were held.
The most general division of jurispru-
dence in every country must, of course, be
into civil and criminal. In the former
were embraced, amongst the Romans,
all the judicia privata in the latter the
* fast. Orat. x. 5. The Tribunal, strictly
speaking, was the seat of the presiding magis-
trate, who was quite distinct from the judices,
whose duty it was to pronounce the verdict.
The seats on which the latter sat, as well as
thi 'so of the counsel, were called siibsellia.
26
CICERO AT THE BAR.
CHAP. III.
returning from a party of friends. The news of his death
was brought by a freedman of Titus Roscius, at daybreak
next morning, to Ameria, a distance of fifty-six miles. This
T. Roscius, surnamed Magnus, as well as another member
of the same family surnamed Capito, were both natives of
times even in the Court he did not
ascend the tribunal, but let the parties
speak to him on the subject of their dis-
pute, which he determined on the spot.*
In all these cases he was said cognoscere
de piano. The thing most analogous
to this amongst ourselves is the practice
before a judge at chambers, where a vast
amount of most important business con-
nected with litigation is transacted ; but
it is very certain that no such scene
would be acted there as we are told by
Suetonius sometimes occurred, even
when the imperial Caesar himself dis-
posed of causes in this manner. Me
says that the barristers ventured to pre-
sume so much upon the good nature of
Claudius, that when he descended from
the tribunal they used to call out to him
to stop, and pull him by his robe, or
even catch hold of his leg, and impor-
tune him to attend to the motions which
they had to make.
" When the praetor held his court de
tribiuiali, he summoned to his aid a
number of assessors, called judices, who
sat on each side of him a little behind
his seat. These were selected on ordi-
nary occasions out of the centumviral
body, who formed a kind of judicial
college at Rome ; but very little is
known of their constitution or peculiar
functions. According to Festus, three
were chosen out of each tribe, and as
there were thirty-five tribes, these would
amount to one hundred and five, which
may have been the origin of their name,
as being in round numbers a hundred
men. We know that in the courts of
the centumviri were tried causes in-
volving the most dry and technical
points of law. Questions were thus
discussed relating to adverse possession,
guardian and ward, pedigree, the law of
juclicia publica. And first as to the
former. In the earliest times of which
we have any account the kings of Rome
themselves presided at the trials, just as
was the case sometimes in France in the
middle ages ; for we are told that the good
king St. Louis, in the thirteenth century,
used, after hearing mass in the summer
season, to lay himself at the foot of an
oak in the wood of Vincennes, and make
his courtiers sit round him, when all who
wished were allowed to approach him ;
and he would ask aloud if there were any '
present who had suits. When the parties
appeared he used to bid two of his bailiffs
determine their cause in his presence
upon the spot.
'* But after the expulsion of the kings,
this jurisdiction was exercised by the
consuls, and subsequently, and down to
a very late period in Roman history, by
the praetors. It is to the authority and
forms of procedure under the latter that
we must chiefly pay attention. Their
number was originally two- and they
were called Praetor urbanus and Prae-
tor peregrinus but afterwards they
were increased, and the number varied
at different periods. In the time
of Cicero there appear to have been
twelve. They did not, however, per-
sonally attend the hearing of all causes,
and give judgment themselves, but were
empowered, and indeed in many cases
were obliged by law, to appoint judges
for the purpose. When the praetor tried
causes, he was said cognoscere either de
tribunali or de piano. The former term
was used when he sat upon a raised seat
or tribunal, and heard the case formally
argued before him ; the latter, when,
as was frequently the case, he adminis-
tered the law in a more familiar manner
conversing with the parties and
standing on the same level with them.
Strange as this may appear, it was un-
doubtedly the custom at Rome. Suitors
frequently addressed the praetor even in
the street, or at his own house, for a
redress of their grievances ; and some-
* Heinecc. Syntag. lib. iv. tit. 6. ; Polleti
Hist. F~ori. Rom. lib. i. c. 5. Heineccius says
that this mode of hearing causes must not be
confounded with summary jurisdiction ; for
many cases'which were to be disposed of sum-
marily were obliged to be determined e/c trilni-
nali. It is impossible, however, not to consider
it as a very summary mode of settling disputes.
/ET. 26-30. DEFENDS SEXTUS JtOSCIUS.
27
Ameria, and enemies of Sextus. The latter left a son, also
named Sextus, whose life had hitherto been passed in the
country, where he attended to the cultivation of his father's
estate, to which he was entitled to succeed at the death of
the latter. But the Roscii were determined to deprive him
it, if necessary, by an ex post facto law,
and had no idea that a criminal should
escape because there did not happen to
be a law specifically applicable to his
offence. The judicia publica. on the
contrary, were trials for the violation of
some established and particular law, as,
for instance, the Julian against treasons,
the Cornelian against stabbing and
poisoning, the Pompeian against parri-
cide, and a variety of laws against bri-
bery and corruption in canvassing for
' public offices. And the judicia populi
of the earlier times, where the burghers
at large tried and judged the accused,
were, when these special laws were
enacted, supplanted by the judicia pub-
lica, and the number of judges was
limited and chosen out of a particular
class.
" But there was another mode of trying
offences anciently at Rome, by the ap-
pointment of commissioners, called Quae-
sitores parricidii or Quaesitores rerum
capitalium. The tribunes of the com-
mons used, in the first instance, to put
the question to the people in one of
the popular assemblies, and ask them
whether they willed and ordained that
an inquiry should take place, and that
one of the praetors should refer it to the
senate to determine who should conduct
the trial. If the people voted for the
accusation, the senate gave authority to
some magistrates immediately to investi-
gate the matter, and put the culprit
upon his trial.* But during the last cen-
tury of the Republic this form was dis-
continued, and by various laws it be-
came the province of the praetors to
hold these trials themselves, without
any special authority being delegated to
them on each occasion, f On entering
their year of office, it was determined
by lot what particular class of offences
each of them should take cognisance of
* Liv. iv. 5, ix. 26 : xxxviii. 64. See Heinecc.
iv. 8 ii.
t Hence they were ca.\\ed/>er/>t/M' qttestiones,
or ordinary trials, as distinguished from the
special commissions of former times.
debtor and creditor, party walls, ancient
lights, easements, the validity of wills,
and in short almost everything con-
nected with the rights and liabilities
of parties.
" But let us now turn to the more im-
portant and interesting class of trials,
those of a criminal nature. Although
they are often confounded together under
the name of judicia pnblica, this term
in strictness applied only to a particular
division of them. They consisted in
fact of four different kinds : I. Actiones
popularis ; 2. Actiones extraordinarioe ;
3. Judicia publica ; 4. Judicia populi.
The ' actiones populares' were trials
appointed at the instance of the praetor
for the punishment of a lesser kind of
misdemeanour, and chiefly such as were
offences against municipal and sanitary
regulations; as for instance sacrilegious
disturbance of graves, impeding the
streets or sewers, or doing anything
whereby the public convenience was im-
paired. Any person might be the prose-
cutor in these cases, and the penalty of
a fine was generally imposed. So far,
we may compare them to qui tain actions
amongst ourselves, but I am not aware
that any portion of the fines went, in
these actions at Rome, as in this coun-
try, to the informer. There has been
much controversy as to the exact differ-
ence between the * actiones extraordin-
ariae' (called sometimes judicia extra-
ordinaria) and the 'judicia publica;'
but the better opinion seems to be that
the former embraced such crimes as
were not specially provided against by
any particular law, or to which no par-
ticular punishment was affixed ; but it
was left to the discretion of the tribunal.
And the tribunal was of itself of a special
nature and appointed for the occasion,
consisting sometimes of the whole senate,
sometimes of the consuls or other magis-
trates as the case might be. * For when
crime occurred the Romans dealt with
* Heinecc. Synttig. iv. 18 ; Polleti, Hist.
/'/>i'i. Rom. iv. i.
28
CICERO AT THE BAR.
CHAP. III.
of his inheritance, and they induced Chrysogonus, one of
Sylla's freedmen and high in his favour, to assert that Sextus
had died in debt to him. Under pretence of liquidating this
the property was seized and sold at a price miserably below
its value, and Capito and Chrysogonus became the pur-
chasers. The former bought for himself three of the most
flourishing farms, and took possession of the rest of the
estate and effects, under pretence of holding them for
Chrysogonus. Not content with this, the two Roscii insti-
gated Erucius to accuse the destitute son of having been the
assassin of his father, and Cicero had to defend him against
the charge.
The trial is a proof of the corrupt state of society at Rome.
There is no doubt that young Roscius was in the most
imminent danger of a conviction, and that Cicero trembled
during the ensuing twelve months. Thus Jndiciun, which is supposed to have
Cicero assigns as one of the reasons why
Sulpicius was beaten by Murena in the
contest for the consulship, that the former
had, as praetor, obtained the unpopular
office of qucestor pcculatiis, or ' commis-
sioner of embezzlement,' which he calls
' stern and odious, threatening on the one
hand tears and misery, and on the other
trials and imprisonment.'*
" But the prretor did not sit as a judge
in our sense of the word at these trials.
He acted as the president of the court,
under whose auspices and authority the
proceedings were conducted ; but he
seems to have had no voice in the sen-
tence pronounced. He had the im-
peritim but not the jurisdictio. This
belonged to the Judices who were sum-
moned by him to sit upon the trial, and
of whom we find such constant mention
made in the speeches and other writings
of Cicero. It was their province to de-
termine the question of guilt or innocence,
and they were taken out of a particu-
lar class of citizens, which varied at dif-
ferent times. The importance of the
functions which they had to discharge
made it a matter of vital interest that
they should be men of pure and upright
character ; but nothing was more com-
mon at Rome than to hear them charged
with every kind of corruption and
venality. Their names were inscribed
on a list or jury-panel called Album
* Pro Murena, 20.
been first brought into use by the Cal-
purnian law. There is much doubt as
to their number, which, however, varied
at different times. Some imagine that
ten were originally chosen from each
tribe, which would make them amount
to about 300, and hence they explain
the term Decuria Judicum. At first they
seem to have been confined exclusively
to the senatorian body ; but by the
Sempronian law, B.C. 123, of which
Tiberius Gracchus was the author, this
right or privilege was transferred from
the senators to the equestrian order ;
and the latter enjoyed it for nearly fifty
years, until Sylla, B.C. 80, deprived
them of it, and restored it to the sena-
tors. By a later law, the Aurelia Lex,
passed B.C. 70, it was enacted that the
judices should be chosen from the sena-
tors, the knights, and the tribuni zerarii ;
the last of whom were taken from the
body of the people. These form the
three decuriDe of judges which existed,
until Julius Caesar reduced them to
two, by removing the decurise of the
tribuni aerarii. The number that sat
at a trial is uncertain ; but it seems to
have varied from fifty to seventy. After
the reign of Augustus, the Album Jndi-
ctnn contained the names of all who
were qualified to serve either on civil or
criminal trials, and these amounted to
not less than 4000."
B.C. 81-77. DEFENDS SEXTUS ROSCIUS. 29
for the result. And yet no charge was ever more ground-
less, or supported in a court of justice by more feeble evi-
dence. This consisted almost entirely in an attempt to show
that the father disliked his son, of which the only proof was
that he kept him in the country, and that he once had the
intention of disinheriting him. That such a case, so bare of
even a presumption against the accused, should have occu-
pied a criminal tribunal for a considerable time with a
doubtful result, was an outrage against common-sense, and
can only be explained by considering the deplorable condi-
tion of the Republic, when causes were decided, not accord-
ing to their merits, but under the influence of bribery or
fear. Sylla was all-powerful in the state Chrysogonus was
his favourite ; and Cicero knew that these were arguments
against his client which would go far to supply the want of
facts. He made a masterly and conclusive speech ; but
much more elaborate than, according to our notions of
criminal jurisprudence, the case seemed to require, for not a
tittle of evidence was adduced to connect the son with the
murder. He was at Ameria at the time ; he had neither
friends nor influence at Rome ; not a shadow of proof was
given that he had ever seen or communicated with the
assassins ; nay ; it was unknown who the actual assassins
were. All the presumptions of guilt pointed towards the
Roscii, Capito and Magnus, especially the latter, whose
freedman had brought the first intelligence so rapidly to
Ameria, and whose previous character and conduct sub-
sequently to the murder justified the darkest suspicions.
Under these circumstances we should imagine that the duty
of the counsel for the accused would be simply to stand on
the defensive, and challenge the other side to the proof of
the indictment. Unless it could be shown that young
Roscius was present at or privy to the murder, there was
an end of the case, and he might at once demand an ac-
quittal. But Cicero did not venture upon such a course
before the tribunal which he was addressing. He enters
most minutely into the whole case ; examines every pos-
sible view in which it can be presented ; carefully balances
the presumptions of guilt as they apply to the one party or
the other ; deprecates the idea of giving offence to Erucius
30 CICERO AT THE BAR.
CHAP. HI.
or Chrysogonus ; and artfully appeals to the compassion,
and fears, and justice of the court.
Niebuhr says of his conduct on this occasion : " His de-
fence of Roscius of Ameria, whom Chrysoganus wanted to
get rid of, excited the greatest admiration of his talents,
together with the highest esteem for his own personal char-
acter. It was an act of true heroism for a young man like
Cicero, and still more so if we consider his family connec-
tion with Marius." 1 About the same time Cicero seems to
have defended Varenus, who was charged with the crime of
murder, and convicted ; but we possess only a few fragments
of the speech. Although he was now fairly launched in
his profession, and notwithstanding the reputation which he
had gained by his efforts as an advocate, he still did not
consider his education for his profession as complete. And
when his former preceptor Molo came, in the year B.C. 80,
as ambassador from Rhodes to Rome, he placed himself
again under his care, and took lessons from the accomplished
rhetorician. It is an interesting fact, and shows how
familiar had become the knowledge of Greek amongst the
educated classes at Rome, that Molo addressed the Senate
in that language to thank them for the friendship they had
shown to his native state.
The next cause in which Cicero was engaged, at least the
next of which we have any notice, although his speech is
lost, was one in which he was opposed to Cotta, one of the
most celebrated advocates of his day. He appeared against
him on behalf of a lady of Arretium, whose right to main-
tain her suit was contested on the ground that she was not
a Roman citizen. And the trial had something of a poli-
tical character in it, and exposed Cicero to the risk of
offending the all-powerful dictator. For Sylla had deprived
the citizens of Arretium of the Roman franchise, which was
so much coveted by the Italian towns ; and the refusal to
recognise their right to it had led to the deplorable conflict
of the Social War.
1 Cicero says himself, De Off. ii. 14 : potentis alicujus opibus circumveniri ur-
" Maxime autem et gloria paritur et gerique videtur : ut nos et saepe alias et
gratia defensionibus ; eoque major, si adolescente? contra L. Sullae tlominantis
quando accidit ut et subveniatur, qui opes pro Sex. Roscio Amerino fecimus.
JET. 26-30. FAILURE OF HIS HEALTH. 31
But the incessant labours of the young advocate had now
begun to tell seriously upon his health. He had inherited a
feeble constitution, and symptoms of consumption began to
show themselves. We have described his personal appear-
ance, and his thin frame was hardly equal to the wear and
tear of his profession, which demanded much more bodily
exertion than we, with our colder and less impassioned
manners, can easily form an idea of. With us a speaker,
whether in parliament or at the bar, knows little or nothing
of the action and delivery of a Roman orator. The only
motion we make is with the hand, and too often that is con-
fined to a see-saw monotony of perpendicular action which
justifies the satirical comparison by Moore of the speaker to
a pump
" That up and down its awkward arm doth sway,
And coolly spout, and spout, and spout away."
Very different, however, was it with the orator of Rome^v
His whole body was instinct with the fire that burned upon /
his lips, and the accents that trembled upon his tongue )
found a corresponding expression in the movement of his /
limbs. Cicero's gestures partook of the excitement of his/
mind, and the meaning of his words was enforced by the\
sympathetic action of his frame. He tells us that he threw \
himself, heart and soul, into action when he spoke, and 1
spared no exertion of his limbs, while he strained his voice J
to the utmost of its pitch in the open air.
Can we then wonder at the consequences which followed ?
and that, as Dryden says of Shaftesbury,
" A fiery soul, which worketh out its way,
Fretted the pigmy body to decay,
And o'er-informed the tenement of clay." 1
He was obliged for a time to retire from the Forum and the
Courts, and quitted Rome for Athens, not, as Plutarch says,
through fear of Sylla whose displeasure he had, as we have
seen, not shrunk from braving in the discharge of his duty
but to seek, by change of air and scene, and cessation
from work, the restoration of his health. A visit to Athens
1 Old Fuller had anticipated Dryden if his eager soul, biting for anger at the
in these lines ; for in his Profane State clog of his body, desired to fret a pas-
he thus describes the Duke of Alva : sage through it."
' ' He was of a lean body and visage, as
32 CICERO AT THE BAR. CHAP. in.
" mother of arts and eloquence" must have had peculiar
charms for Cicero. He was quite at home in the language,
and passionately fond of philosophy, which still lingered in
the groves of Academus, although oratory had for ever fled
from a city which was now nothing more than the chief
town of a Roman province, and filled with busy idlers, as
was the case a century later, when, as they are described by
St. Paul, " all the Athenians and strangers which were there
spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear
some new thing."
The pleasure of Cicero's residence at Athens was enhanced
by the society of relatives and friends. His brother Quintus,
his cousin Lucius, and his dear friend and life-long corre-
spondent, Titus Pomponius Atticus, were with him there ;
and for six months they studied together and enjoyed the
recreations of the place. 1 Antiochus of Ascalon instructed
them in the philosophy of the Academy, while from Zeno
and Phaedrus they learnt the tenets of the school of Epicurus,
to which Atticus, whose habits were those of a refined and
self-indulgent man, especially attached himself. Nor did
Cicero, even at Athens, neglect his darling pursuit the art
of oratory which, like every other acquisition and accom-
plishment, he knew could only be obtained by pains and
labour, although in his case it was the labour of love, and
eloquence seemed to have settled on his lips in the cradle,
as the bees were said to have swarmed on the lips of the
infant Pericles. As formerly he had studied under Molo, so
now he took lessons in rhetoric and elocution from Demetrius,
a native of Syria.
Leaving Athens, Cicero travelled in Asia Minor, and
sought every opportunity of improving himself as a speaker
by soliciting instruction from the most celebrated masters of
rhetoric whom he met with on his journey. ' He mentions the
names of Menippus of Stratonice, Dionysius of Magnesia,
^Eschylus of Cnidus, and Xenocles of Adramyttium, who
contributed to the formation of his style. And as he passed
through Rhodes, on his return to Rome, M6lo had the plea-
sure of welcoming his old pupil, who did not disdain for the
1 Drumann thinks it is probable that into the Eleusinian mysteries. See the
Cicero while at Athens was initiated subject alluded to dc Legg. ii. 14.
B.C. 8i-77- RESIDENCE AT ATHENS. 33
third time to place himself under his tuition, and receive
from him some kindly corrections of what he himself de-
scribed as the too redundant and florid oratory of his youthful
years. The metaphor by which he characterised it was that
of a river that overflowed its banks ; and to this his elo-
quence may be compared to the latest period of his life.
It arose, no doubt, from his astonishing command of lan-
guage, which came pouring forth from his lips in a full and
inexhaustible torrent, and spread over his subject like an
inundation of the Nile.
At the end of two years Cicero returned to Rome. He
was now thirty years old. His health was completely re-
established, and, as he himself expresses it, he came back
almost a changed man. Sylla had died the year before,
and the leading advocates at this time in Rome were
Cotta and Hortensius, the latter of whom was eight years
Cicero's senior. He was par excellence an advocate ; confining
himself chiefly to the courts of law and public trials, and
taking little part in the politics of the day. But he rose
through the usual gradation of offices to the consulship, to
obtain which it was almost essential to be a popular orator,
and to address the multitude from the Rostra ; unless, indeed,
the candidate were wealthy enough to bribe the suffrages of
the people on an enormous scale, and trust to the influence
of gold rather than the influence of eloquence. Corruption
was now fast eating its way into the heart of Roman institu-
tions. . Bribery was shamelessly resorted to, not only for
political objects, but to secure verdicts in the courts, where
the judiccs, or, as we may almost without inaccuracy call
them, jurymen, prostituted their consciences and sold them-
selves to the highest bidder. I am not now speaking of the
praetorian or centumviral courts, where civil causes were tried,
but the public or state trials before judices, who at this time
were taken exclusively from the class of senators. It was a
long struggle between them and the knights as to which body
should have this important jurisdiction. Each accused the
other of corruption, and of selling verdicts for a bribe, and
each was, beyond all doubt, right in the charge it made.
It was probably about this time that Cicero appeared as
the advocate of Roscius, the comic actor, in a civil suit, and
T)
34 CICERO AT THE BAR. CHAP. in.
delivered a speech which, although it has come down to us
in an imperfect state, enables us to understand the subject-
matter of the action and the argument.
Fannius Chserea had given up one of his slaves, named
Panurgus, to Roscius, on the terms that the latter was to
instruct him in acting, and they were afterwards to share
between them whatever he gained by his art. Panurgus
received the requisite instruction and went upon the stage,
but was not long afterwards killed how, does not appear
by a man named O. Flavius. Roscius brought an action
for this against the latter, and the management of the case
was committed to Fannius. Before, however, it was tried,
Roscius compromised the matter, but only so far as regarded
his own moiety, as he alleged, and Flavius gave up a farm
to him in satisfaction of damages. Several years had elapsed,
when Fannius applied to the Praetor for an order that the
accounts between him and Roscius might be settled by arbi-
tration. Calpurnius Piso was appointed arbitrator. He did
not make a formal award, but recommended that Roscius
should pay to Fannius 10,000 sesterces (about 90) for the
trouble and expense which the latter had incurred in
conducting the action against Flavius, and that Fannius
should enter into an engagement to pay over to Roscius the
half of whatever he recovered from Flavius. Fannius agreed
to this, and then brought an action on his own account
against Flavius for the loss he had sustained by the death of
Panurgus, and got a verdict for 100,000 sesterces ^(about
900). Half of this, according to agreement, ought to have
been paid over to Roscius, but Fannius not only retained it,
but commenced an action against Roscius for a moiety of
the value of the farm which the latter had obtained from
Flavius, on the pretext that Roscius had settled the former
action and obtained the farm on the partnership account.
Cicero maintained that his client owed Fannius nothing.
So confident was he of the strength of his case that he
offered to consent to a verdict against him, provided the
plaintiff could show that the debt now claimed was entered
in his ledger. He was willing to allow the entries of the
plaintiff to be evidence in his own favour ; and in tendering
such an issue we may be very sure that he had good infor-
JET. 26-30. ADVOCATE FOR ROSCIUS, COMEDIAN. 35
mation that he might do so with safety. But he made a
distinction between the ledger (tabula or codex) and the day-
book, or mere memorandum of account (adversaria). Fan-
nius wished to put the latter in evidence, but Cicero objected,
and said that he could not admit loose papers, full of erasures
and interlineations, in which, no doubt, Fannius had inserted
the debt when he determined to make his unjust claim. He
seized the opportunity of praising the skill and virtue of his
client, whose name as an actor has become so famous.
" Has Roscius defrauded his partner? Can such an imputation rest upon one
who has in him I say it boldly more honesty than he has art ; more truth than
accomplishments ; whom the Roman people consider to be a better man than he
is an actor ; who, though admirably fitted for the stage on account of his skill in
his profession, yet is most worthy of being a senator on account of his modesty
and decorum ?"
The exact date of Cicero's marriage is not known, but it
is generally supposed to have taken place when he was in
his thirty-first year. 1 His wife was Terentia, a lady of re-
spectable family, whose sister Fabia was a Vestal virgin.
With her he lived many years happily, and, apparently, with
warm affection on both sides, until he quarrelled with her for
some mysterious reason, and the marriage was terminated
by a divorce.
Plutarch asserts that Terentia was a woman of violent
temper ; and Niebuhr goes so far as to say that, " in his
marriage Cicero was not happy. His wife was a domineer-
ing and disagreeable woman ; and as, owing to his great sen-
sibility, he allowed himself to be very much influenced by
those who surrounded him, his wife also exercised great
power over him, which is the more remarkable because he
had no real love for her. It was she who, unfortunately for
him, led him to do things which drew upon him the enmity
of others." 2 I believe the description here given of Terentia
to be most unjust, and, unless I deceive myself, the sequel of
the biography will show that she was an amiable woman and
a most loving devoted wife,
1 Drumann places the marriage ear- text, it would follow that Cicero's
lier, and thinks it took place before daughter was betrothed at the age of
Cicero went to Greece. He is in- nine and married at the age of thirteen,
fluenced chiefly by the consideration
that if it was the year assumed in the 2 Hist, oj Rome, \. 20.
SITE OF LILYB^iUM, NOW MARSALA.
CHAPTER IV.
QU/ESTOR AND CURULE
JEi. 31-38. B.C. 76-69.
ClCERO had now attained the age of thirty-one years ; when,
according to the Roman law, he was eligible for the first and
lowest of the public employments of the state the office of
Quaestor. The ascending steps in the ladder of advancement
were those of Quaestor, ^Edile, Praetor until they culminated
in the Consulship, the highest object of ambition to a Roman
citizen. Cicero was elected one of the quaestors, and Horten-
sius one of the aediles, for the following year; and the province
of Sicily was allotted to him, his immediate superior in the
government of it being the praetor, Sextus Peducseus. He
left Rome at the age of thirty-two, and spent a year in Sicily.
That island was then, and continued for many years to
be, one of the most fertile of the dominions subject to the
Republic. It was, in fact, called the granary of Rome, and
B.C. 76-69. OFFICIAL RESIDENCE IN SICILY. 37
the greatest part of the corn consumed in the metropolis was
imported from Sicily and Egypt. It was divided into two
provincial governments ; one called Lilybaeum, from the chief
town in the district of that name the modern Marsala and
the other Syracuse. The Romans were accustomed to de-
termine the choice of almost all public employments by lot,
and the chance of fortune gave Cicero Lilybaeum as his
province.
We possess few details of his quaestorship, but we know
that he discharged the duties of his office with scrupulous
honesty and disinterestedness, and conciliated in a remarkable
degree the good-will and attachment of the Sicilians. During
his year of office there was a severe scarcity at Rome, but
Cicero, whose especial duty it was to attend to the exporta-
tion of grain from the island, was able, by the measures he
took, to alleviate the distress in the capital without inflicting
any serious burden on the inhabitants. And he had an op-
portunity of exercising his profession as an advocate, for he
successfully defended before his praetor some young Romans
of good family who were accused of breach of military dis-
cipline, if not desertion from the service. During a visit to
Syracuse he had the good fortune, while exploring the anti-
quities, to discover, near the gate that led to Agrigentum, the
tomb of Archimedes. It had been half-buried amidst rubbish,
and overgrown with brambles, so that the fellow-citizens of
the great mathematician had forgotten its existence -
" When Tully paused amidst the wreck of time
On the rude stone to trace the truth sublime ;
Where at his feet, in honoured dust disclosed,
The immortal sage of Syracuse reposed."
He knew that on the stone which marked the grave were
sculptured the figures of a sphere and a cylinder, and ob-
serving these on a small pillar, the top of which peered out
amongst the bushes with which the spot was overgrown, he
at once discovered the tomb of which he was in search.
On leaving the island every mark of respect which it was
in the power of the inhabitants to bestow was shown him by
the grateful Sicilians. He tells us that extraordinary and
unheard-of honours were invented for him, but he does not
specify their nature. He quitted the shores of Sicily, leaving
behind him the reputation of a disinterested and upright
38 QUAESTOR AND CURULE ^EDILE. CHAP, iv
public servant, and carrying with him the good-will and con-
fidence of the inhabitants, of which a striking proof was soon
to be afforded. l
It was characteristic of Cicero's mind to dwell with self-
complacency on his own merits. His foible was vanity, and
he seldom lost an opportunity of praising himself where he
thought that praise had been deserved. He' was pleased with
his own conduct as quaestor, and was in hopes that the fame
of his administration had extended to Italy, and even gained
him a reputation at Rome. But he good-humouredly tells
us an anecdote to show how fallacious his expectations were,
and how, like many others since his time, he mistook the
small pipe of praise in a limited sphere for the trumpet of
fame in the great world. In order to understand the point
of the story we must bear in mind that there were two pro-
vinces in Sicily, the province of Lilybseum and the province
of Syracuse, and the quaestor of the one was a distinct person
from the quaestor of the other.
On landing at Puteoli, near Baiae, which was then a fashion-
able watering-place, and crowded with visitors, he met a person,
apparently an acquaintance, who asked him on what day he
had left Rome, and what the news there was. " I have just
come from my province," replied Cicero. " Oh ! to be sure,"
said the other, " from Africa, I believe?" This was too much,
and Cicero answered angrily, " No ; from Sicily." Upon
which a bystander interposed, and turning to the questioner,
said, " What ! don't you know that this gentleman has been
quaestor in Syracuse ?"
This little incident opened Cicero's eyes to the true state
of the case. It was no use to be angry ; and so, putting
his dignity in his pocket not that the Romans really wore
pockets, which is an invention of modern civilisation he
mingled quietly with the crowd. But he also derived a
1 In his Last Two Pleadings of Cicero " Questi, signor" said the honest Sici-
against Verres (London 1812), Kelsall lian, ll fu lacasadove dimoravail Signor
mentions that when he visited Marsala Cicerone quand il fu in Marsala" It
(the ancient Lilybaeum) he was told by turned out that this was the house where
his guide that he could show him the the guide's father had lived, who, like
house in which Cicero lived when he his son, was cicerone of Marsala. It is
was at Lilybseum. On arriving there curious that Cicero's name should have
he found it a white-washed house of a come to signify "lioniser."
date not earlier than the sixteenth century.
*r. 31-38. HIS VANITY MORTIFIED. 39
useful lesson from the affront to his vanity. He saw the
danger of absence if he wished for popularity, and deter-
mined from henceforth to keep himself before the people by
actual presence amongst them ; and from that time, to use
his own words, he stuck close to the Forum never allow-
ing his hall-porter {janitor} to deny him to a visitor, even
when he had retired to rest.
On his return to Rome he betook himself afresh to the
duties of an advocate, and was busily engaged in the Forum
while the Servile War raged in Italy the insurrection being
headed by the bold and desperate leader Spartacus. He
\vas killed in battle B.C. 71, and the revolt was finally ex-
tinguished by Pompey when he came back from Spain.
Five years must now elapse before Cicero would be of
the requisite age thirty-eight to hold the office of sedile,
the next public dignity open to his ambition. But having
been quaestor, and possessing a sufficient qualification in
point of fortune, he was eligible for admission into the
Senate, and was accordingly placed by the censors on the
list or roll of senators.
That during the next three or four years he was busily
engaged in forensic labours we know from his own account
of himself, but we do not possess a single speech, or even
fragment of a speech, until B.C.- 70, when, at the age of
thirty-seven, he became a candidate for the aedileship.
I know not to what cause to attribute this blank in the
records of his life. The very names of nearly all the
speeches he delivered during this period have perished ; but
one of them, Pro M. Ttillio, is mentioned by Quintilian as
extant in his time. Drumann thinks it belongs to the year
B.C. 71. It seems that there was a quarrel between Tullius
and Fabius as to the right to a certain house in Lucania ;
and the slaves of Fabius had attacked the slaves of Tullius,
killed some of them, and pulled down the house.
It was Cicero's proud boast in after years that he had
filled every public office at the earliest age at which it could
legally be held (anno sud). His splendid reputation as an
advocate made him at this time one of the most popular
men at Rome, and he was unanimously elected Curule ^Edile
for the following year, coming in first of all the competitors,
40 QU^STOR AND CURULE ,DILE. CHAP. iv.
or, as we should say, at the head of the poll. But he did
not rely merely upon reputation. He took care not to
neglect any of the means whereby the favour of his fellow-
citizens might be conciliated and their votes secured at
future elections. At no time, and in no part of the world,
not even in the United States, has canvassing been reduced
to such a system, and carried on with 'such persevering
assiduity, as at Rome in the days of Cicero. The aspirant
to office had to practise on a large scale, and for a long
period beforehand, all the arts which are resorted to in this
country by the candidate for a borough or county on the eve
of a contested election ; and as the number of electors at
Rome and in the provinces was enormous, and yet each
elector expected some personal attention to himself, the
neglect of which he could punish by refusing to vote, or by
giving his vote to a rival, the candidates endeavoured, as far
as possible, to become acquainted with the names and faces
of the electors, and flattered them by civilities when they
met them in the streets, the Forum, or the markets. For
this purpose it was usual to employ intelligent slaves, whose
duty it was to become familiar with the persons of the voters,
ferret out information respecting them, and act in some
respects like the ear-flappers in Swift's Laputa by directing
the candidate's attention, as he walked along, to the different
electors, and telling him their names. These useful attend-
ants were called nomenclatores, and many amusing passages
occur in the Latin writers about them. Of course one of
the first acts of courtesy on the part of a candidate is to
shake hands with the voter, and this was so universally the
custom at Rome on such occasions that the expression " to
shake hands " (manu prensare] came to be synonymous with
beginning to canvass. But, as may well be supposed, all the
arts employed were not so innocent as this. Bribery and
corruption were resorted to on an enormous scale, and the
venal voters found the exercise of their franchise a profitable
trade, notwithstanding that law after law was passed to for-
bid and punish bribery. It was so sytematically practised
that particular names, such as divisores and sequestres, were
given to the agents who distributed the money. 1
1 When Julius Caesar was dictator, he used to furnish the candidates whom
B.C. 76-69. CHARACTER OF VERRES. 41
It was during this year and as aedile elect that Cicero
undertook one of the most celebrated cases in which he ever
was engaged, and one of the very few in which he appeared
as public prosecutor. This was the great Verres cause,
which of all the trials of antiquity bears in many of its
circumstances the nearest resemblance to the impeachment
of Warren Hastings at the latter end of the eighteenth
century.
Caius Verres, whose name has become a byeword for
oppression and misrule, had, at the expiration of his year of
office as praetor, B.C. 73, the island of Sicily allotted to him
as his province, and he held the government for three years.
Sicily at that time was a flourishing and prosperous country.
The soil was fertile and well cultivated, and as we have seen,
large quantities of corn were exported yearly from the island
to Rome. The cities were adorned with splendid palaces
and temples, the monuments of Grecian taste and magnifi-
cence ; and costly treasures of art in the shape of statues,
pictures, and ornamental furniture, attested the wealth and
luxury of the inhabitants. The government of such a pro-
vince afforded a tempting opportunity for plunder, and Verres
was not the man to neglect the opportunity which fortune
had thrown in his way. It is difficult to credit the tales
that are told of his rapacity, and we must search the dark
annals of Oriental iniquity to find satraps like him. We
might admire his passion for works of art, which amounted
almost to insanity, were it not for the means he took to
gratify it. But these were a series of cruel robberies.
He held the government for three years, and seems to
have combined every quality of a bad man and unjust ruler.
During that long period the wretched inhabitants were the
victims of his rapacity, cruelty, and lust. He imposed heavy
and unheard-of duties upon the produce of land and exports
of commerce, and put the money into his own pocket. By
violent interference with their contracts he reduced to beg-
gary the farmers of the revenue. He plundered the towns
of their works of art, sparing neither the temples of the gods
nor the private dwellings of men. Statues and pictures and
he favoured with tickets on which was recommend to you such a one, and hope
written " Caesar to such a tribe. I you will vote for him." See Sueton.
Ccesar.
42 QUAESTOR AND CURULE &DILE. CHAP. iv.
jewelled cups were torn from their owners and appropriated
to himself. To take one instance alone : he robbed the
oratory of Heius, the Messanian, of a marble Cupid by
Praxiteles, two basket-bearers (Canephori) by Polycletus,
and a Hercules by Myron, and then pretended that he had
bought them. It was not safe to seal a letter with a ring on
which there was a well-cut engraving, for if Verres saw the
impression he made the owner give him the ring.
But he was as cruel as he was rapacious. There was a
deep and dreadful dungeon at Syracuse, called Latomiae,
formed out of a stone quarry by the tyrant Dionysius, and
used as a prison for malefactors. Into this Roman citizens
were thrown by Verres, and kept in chains until they were
strangled by his orders. One unhappy man amongst them,
named Gavius, contrived to escape from the horrible place
and fled to Messana. Here he made no secret of his inten-
tion to embark for Rome and impeach Verres there. But he
was seized by the magistrates, who at Messana were the obse-
quious creatures of the governor, and Verres, happening to
arrive the same day, condemned him to be first stripped and
flogged naked in the market-place and then crucified. While
the poor wretch was being scourged no sound escaped his
lips except the oft-repeated cry, Civis Romanus stern ! as if,
says Cicero, he thought those magic words would have power
to save him. But in vain. Verres ordered a cross to be
erected on a headland that commanded a view of Italy
across the strait, saying in savage mockery, that as Gavius
called himself a Roman citizen, he might have the oppor-
tunity of looking towards his land. And there he was
crucified and died.
This may serve as a specimen of the terrible charges which
Verres had to meet ; but to go through the long list would
be to transcribe whole pages of the orations which Cicero
had prepared, but which, owing to the sudden and unexpected
collapse of the defence, he had no occasion to deliver. A
modern writer has indeed said that he will " venture to raise
a doubt whether Verres ought really to be considered that
exorbitant criminal whose guilt has been so profoundly im-
pressed upon us by the forensic artifices of Cicero;" 1 but
1 De Quincey. See his collected works, article ''Cicero."
^ET. 3 i-3 8 - CONTEST WITH C^ECILIUS. 43
making every allowance for rhetorical exaggeration as to the
mode in which the charges were " impressed " by the orator,
there can be no doubt that they were substantially true.
An attempt has been made of late years to vindicate the
character of Robespierre, and when that has been successful
but not till then we may expect to see the memory of
Verres rescued from the execration of mankind.
To drag this great criminal to justice, a deputation from
all the principal cities of Sicily, except Syracuse, was sent to
Rome, and to whom would they so naturally turn for help
as to the man who lived in their memories as the first quaestor
of Sicily, and who was then in the zenith of his fame as the
most eloquent advocate of his day ? By the Calpurnian law
so called from the name of its author, Lucius Calpurnius
Piso, a tribune of the people a tribunal, consisting of a body
of jurors presided over by a praetor, had been appointed some
years before to try offences committed by ex-governors ; and
the necessity for this shows how profoundly convinced the
Romans were of the corrupt administration of the provinces
of the republic. The Sicilians availed themselves of this law,
and they applied to Cicero to come forward as the accuser of
Verres. He readily consented to conduct the prosecution ; but
there was a preliminary difficulty to be got over. Verres had
influential friends and connections, and was backed by the sup-
port of the powerful families of the Scipios and Metelli. As
it was impossible for him altogether to avoid a trial, the best
plan for averting the danger seemed to be to make the prose-
cution a sham, by employing a friend to conduct it, or at all
events some one who would betray the cause he undertook.
This was a practice well known at Rome, and called prcevari-
catio that is, collusion with an adversary at a trial. A crea-
ture of Verres, named Quintus Caecilius Niger, who had been
his quaestor in Sicily, was put forward to assert the right to
be prosecutor, and Cicero had to contest this all-important
point with him at the first stage of the proceedings, when he
delivered his famous speech In Cacilium or De Divinatione,
and triumphantly vindicated his claim.
The preliminary question was called divinatio, because the
court decided it on argument alone without any evidence.
The speech of Cicero on this occasion is a masterpiece of
44 QUAESTOR AND CURULE .&DILE. CHAP. iv.
art. For cutting sarcasm and irony it has never been sur-
passed. It suited his purpose to exaggerate the merits of
Hortensius as an advocate, in order to contrast them with
the deficiencies of Caecilius. It would, he said, be an impar
congressus ; and what more ludicrous effect of the disparity
between two opposing counsel can be imagined than an un-
easy suspicion produced in the mind of the prosecuting
counsel by the speech of his antagonist that the client
whom that antagonist defends is innocent ? Yet this is what
Cicero suggests.
Addressing Csecilius he said :
" You yourself would begin to be afraid that you were prosecuting an innocent
man." He showed that the pretended enmity of Csecilius towards Verres was a
sham. If they had quarrelled, they had been reconciled. Besides, he had been
mixed up with the frauds and oppressions of Verres, and how could he accuse
another of that of which he had been guilty himself? The character of his intel-
lect unfitted him to conduct so great and difficult a case. It required a man who
could not only speak but attract the attention of his audience. If he had learnt
Greek at Athens and not at Lilybseum, and Latin at Rome and not in Sicily, it
would still be difficult for him to undertake such an important cause. He had
neither the industry, nor the memory, nor the eloquence which it required. And
then, with well-affected modesty, he alluded to himself. "You will say perhaps,
' Do you then possess all these qualifications?' I wish indeed I did ! but at
all events it has been my constant study from my earliest youth to endeavour to
possess them. . . . Even I, who, as everybody knows, have had such practice
in the Forum and the courts, that none or few even of the same age have undertaken
more causes and who have devoted all the time I could spare from the cases of
friends committed to my care to make myself more apt and ready for forensic business
I, I say, so help me Heaven ! when the day approaches on which I shall be called
upon to defend a client, am not only disturbed in mind, but tremble in every limb."
He went on to say that he was not afraid of Hortensius as
an opponent. He knew all his arts and style of speaking,
for he had often encountered him as an antagonist. But
what would become of Caecilius ? Hortensius would so
puzzle him and perplex him with dilemmas, that whichever
way he turned he would be caught. His mind would get
into a pitiable state of confusion, and the very gestures and
action of the great orator, to say nothing of his eloquence,
would so confound him that his wits would desert him. But
there was an easy mode of testing his capacity :
" If you, Caecilius, to-day," said Cicero, " can answer me ; if you can venture
to change a word of that written speech which some schoolmaster has composed
for you, made up of scraps of other men's orations, I shall think you not unfit for
the conduct of the prosecution, and able to do your duty in the cause. But if in
this rehearsal you cannot cope with me, what must we think will become of you
in the real combat with your fierce and eager adversary ?"
B.C. 76-69. TRIAL OF VERRES. 45
But Csecilius, conscious of his own incompetency, would
rely upon the counsel who were with him in the case.
Apuleius, said Cicero, was old enough indeed, but a mere
tyro as regarded practice at the bar ; and then there was
Allienus in the back rows. " I never paid sufficient attention
to him," Cicero contemptuously added, " to know what sort of
a speaker he is ; but I see that he is strong, and an adept
in the art of making a noise." But there was another reason,
he added, for rejecting Caecilius : he had been the quaestor
of Verres, and it was an unseemly and ungracious thing for
a quaestor to prosecute his praetor.
Addressing the court in conclusion he said :
" You must determine which of us two you think is most fitted to undertake a
case of this magnitude with good faith, with industry, with skill, and with author-
ity. If you prefer Caecilius to me, I shall not deem myself lowered in estimation ;
but take care that the people of Rome do not suspect that so honest, sincere, and
thorough a prosecution as I should conduct, was not to your liking nor agreeable
to your order."
The point being settled in his favour, Cicero was allowed
one hundred and ten days to collect the evidence and pre-
pare the case. Accompanied by his cousin Lucius, who
afterwards assisted him at the trial, he went to Sicily, and
worked so assiduously, that in fifty days he was ready to
open the impeachment. At Syracuse and Messana alone
did he meet with any difficulty in procuring evidence. But
he soon overcame the opposition of the Syracusans, and was
able to induce them to erase from the city records a compli-
mentary decree which Verres had extorted from their fears.
He was invited to meet the Senate in the town-hall, and
addressed them in Greek. They asked him why he had
been shy in coming to Syracuse to prosecute his inquiries,
and he told them that he had expected little assistance from
a city which had sent a deputation to Rome to support
Verres, and which had a gilt statue of him in its public hall.
At Messana he was thwarted by the new praetor Metellus, the
successor and friend perhaps relative of Verres, and the
inhabitants were forbidden to afford him any assistance.
But Cicero had evidence enough, and armed with a mass of
documents, and attended by a crowd of witnesses, he crossed
over to Velia, on the Bruttian coast, and there, to avoid the
brigands who then as now infested that part of Italy, took
46 QUAESTOR AND CURULE ^EDILE. CHAP. iv.
ship for Rome, where he arrived nearly two months before he
was expected.
The great object of Verres and his friends now was delay.
If the trial could be put off, or rather spun out, until the fol-
lowing year, the chances were that he would escape. Hor-
tensius was already consul-elect. He would enter upon office
in January. The Metelli were fast friends of Verres, and
instead of Glabrio Marcus, Metellus would be praetor at Rome,
and Lucius Metellus praetorian governor of Sicily. Many of
the members of the court (judices\ as now constituted, would
be disqualified from sitting by becoming tribunes or holding
other offices ; and by repeated challenges Cicero had at last
obtained a jury on whose honesty he thought he could rely.
The witnesses would be tampered with by bribes or terrified
by threats. The impeachment would drag its slow length
along, and men would begin to get tired of it, as was the case
with the trial of Warren Hastings. The business days during
the remainder of the present year were few, owing to the
frequent interruptions caused by festivals and games. If
then the prosecution were conducted in the usual manner,
with long speeches continued from day to day, it would be
easy for Hortensius to prevent the case from being finished
within the year. But Cicero was determined not to be so
baffled. He was thoroughly in earnest, and cared less to
distinguish himself as an orator than to convict the criminal.
He therefore abandoned the idea of opening the case in the
usual manner, and resolved to bring forward his witnesses at
once and let the evidence tell its own tale.
The judices were at this period taken exclusively from the
senators. This jurisdiction had been restored to them after
a cessation of fifty years, during which it had been transferred
to the knights. The court met in the temple of Castor, and
Glabrio, the city praetor, a just and honest man, was president.
It was an exciting and memorable scene. " From the foot
of Mount Taurus, from the shores of the Black Sea, from
many cities of the Grecian mainland, from many islands of
the ^Egean, from every city or market-town of Sicily, depu-
tations thronged to Rome. In the porticoes and on the
steps of the temple, in the area of the forum, in the colon-
nades that surrounded it, on the house-tops and on the over-
;ET. 31-38. TRIAL OF VERRES. 47
looking declivities, were stationed dense and eager crowds
of impoverished heirs and their guardians, bankrupt publicans
and corn-merchants, fathers bewailing their children carried
off to the praetor's harem, children mourning for their parents
dead in the praetor's dungeons, Greek nobles whose descent
was traced to Cecrops or Eurysthenes, or to the great Ionian
and Minyan houses, and Phoenicians whose ancestors had
been priests of the Tyrian Melcarth, or claimed kindred with
the Zidonian lah ; ' all these and more came flocking,' and
the casual multitude was swelled by thousands of spectators
from Italy, partly attracted by the approaching games, and
partly by curiosity to behold a criminal who had scourged
and crucified Roman citizens, who had respected neither
local nor national shrines, and who boasted that wealth v/ould
yet rescue the murderer, the violater, and the temple-robber
from the hand of man and from the Nemesis of the Gods." 1
The trial began on the 7th of August, and the speech
with which Cicero opened the case is known by the name of
Interrogatio Testium, because it was in fact merely a short
introduction to the appearance of the witnesses on whose
evidence he relied. 2
In it he complained bitterly of the attempts made by
Verres to compel the jury to stifle the prosecution. He
hinted intelligibly enough that a bribe had been offered to
himself. He spoke boldly and openly of the shameful ex-
tent to which judicial bribery was carried, mentioning cases
that were notorious, and amongst others that of a senator
who had taken money from the accused to be distributed
amongst his fellow-jurors for a verdict of acquittal, and
money from the prosecutor to give, himself, a verdict of
guilty. Well then might he exclaim, Nulla in judiciis
severitas, nulla religio, nulla jam existimantiir esse judicia.
He warned the court that on the issue depended whether the
senators should retain their judicial jurisdiction, and con-
trasted the state of things when the knights had that juris-
diction with what it was now, declaring that then for fifty
years there was not even a suspicion of a bribed verdict.
1 Art. "Verres" in Smith's Gr. and delivered by Cicero. They were pub-
Rom. Biography. lished after the condemnation, and re-
2 The other five Verrine orations main an imperishable monument of his
which we possess were written but not industry, ability, and eloquence.
48 QUAESTOR AND CURULE ^.DILE. CHAP. iv.
He told them that so confident were Verres's friends that he
would get off if the trial could only be procrastinated until
the following year, that when Hortensius was declared consul -
elect, and was returning from the Campus Martius escorted
by his supporters, Curio ran up to Verres and embraced him,
crying out, " I congratulate you, fear nothing ; to-day's
election has secured you an acquittal." There never was,
he said, a tribunal since courts existed in Rome composed of
such august and illustrious members as the present. If it
failed in its duty, as it would be impossible to find in the
whole body of senators men more fit for the office, the con-
clusion would be that the jurisdiction must be transferred to
some other class. The usual course in a prosecution was, he
admitted, to have all the speeches first, and hear the witnesses
afterwards, but he intended now to produce the evidence on
each article of charge separately, and he concluded by for-
mally stating that which he brought forward first.
" We say that Caius Verres, whilst he has in many things
acted rapaciously and cruelly towards Roman citizens and cm-
allies, and nefariously towards gods and men, has besides car-
ried off from Sicily forty millions of sesterces contrary to law."
The examination of the witnesses lasted nine days, but
the defence broke down at once. Hortensius seems to have
been a bad hand at cross-examination, and lost his temper.
He put only a few questions and then abandoned the case.
It was during the contest that Cicero made one of his sar-
castic jokes. Hortensius (in violation of the Cincian law
which required the services of advocates at Rome to be gratui-
tous) accepted as a present from Verres a valuable image of the
Sphinx, one of the spoils he had brought from Sicily, and while
cross-examining a witness he said, " You speak in riddles ;
I cannot understand you!" "Well!" interrupted Cicero,
" that's odd, for you have a Sphinx at home to solve them."
Verres soon saw that the evidence was too strong for him
to get over, and he slunk away from Rome on the third day
after the trial began. He was condemned to banishment,
and a heavy fine was also imposed upon him. He retired
to Marseilles with a large portion of his ill-gotten wealth,
and the works of art he had carried off from Sicily ; and we
are told that Antony afterwards placed his name in the pro-
B.C. 76-69. DUTIES OF CURULE ^EDILE. 49
scription list because he would not part with some Corinthian
vases which the Triumvir coveted.
In the following year Cicero entered on the office of Curule
^Edile, which gave him the right to the curule chair (sella
curulis 1 ), a seat of ivory like the Lord Chancellor's marble
chair in Westminster Hall in former times ; and also to the
jus imaginum, or privilege of placing his waxen mask in his
hall, which was the heraldic emblazonment of ancient Rome,
and in fact ennobled the family of the magistrate who was
entitled to the honour. A Roman family was as proud of
the number of masks of ancestors some of them blackened
by age which it could show in the atrium or hall of the
house, as in modern days an English family is of the quarter-
ings on its shield. These portraits were painted masks of
wax, enclosed generally in wooden cases, and on the occasion
of funerals of members of the same family they were worn
by persons who represented the deceased ancestors, and
were decorated with all the ornaments and insignia of the
proper offices. They sat in curule chairs round the rostra
when the funeral oration was delivered. Both Polybius and
Pliny mention the striking resemblance of these masks to
the originals ; but we cannot but think that they must have
presented a hideous show, and seemed like a set of gibbering
ghosts summoned from the shades to witness in silent
solemnity the obsequies of their descendants. In Pliny's
time the masks appear to have been discontinued, and were
replaced by busts and statues of more durable and costly
materials. 2
The duties of Curule ^Edile are detailed by Cicero in one
of his orations against Verres. The nearest equivalent to
such an office in this country is that of First Commissioner
of Public Works, and in some points the functions are analo-
gous. They were two in number, besides two " plebeian"
sediles, whose duties were so nearly the same that it is hardly
worth while to point out the difference. They had the care
of the public buildings (cedes) and especially the temples, also
1 Aulus Gell. (Noct. Att. iii.) derives senate-house in a carriage (curnis] in
the word curiilis from currus, because, which was a seat called curulis.
as he says, certain magistrates in the 2 See Sir G. Cornewall Lewis's Credi-
early times of the republic used as a bility of Early Roman History, vol. i.
mark of honour to be carried to the 183.
50 QUAESTOR AND CURULE AEDILE. CHAP. iv.
of the streets and markets, and superintended the police of
the city. They also provided for the celebration of the
great religious festivals at Rome, and exhibited the annual
games in honour of different deities of which the Romans
were so passionately fond. This of course entailed consider-
able expense, and it does not appear that there was any
salary attached to the office, or any fund upon which the
aedile could draw except his own resources. But just as
mayors in corporate towns in England differ in the frequency
and cost of their entertainments during their year of office,
so the aediles of Rome differed in the outlay they lavished
upon the public shows. It gave those who were ambitious
an admirable opportunity of buying popular favour, with a
view to the higher honours of the state. Many men ruined
themselves by the profusion and extravagance of the spec-
tacles and games they exhibited, incurring an expense of
which it is hardly possible in these times to form an ade-
quate conception. Amongst those whose names have been
handed down to us as conspicuous for the magnificence of
their shows while filling the office of aedile are Atticus, 1
Julius Caesar, Lentulus Spinther, and yEmilius Scaurus. It
was customary, during the festivals of the year, for the aediles
to adorn the Forum with all possible splendour, and for this
purpose they borrowed from friends and others works of art,
such as pictures and statues. Thus Cicero mentions that
Caius Claudius borrowed a famous Cupid in marble by
Praxiteles, from Heius, a wealthy native of Messina in Sicily,
and contrasts his conduct in borrowing and restoring it with
the conduct of Verres, who plundered Heius's sacristy or
chapel of the same Cupid. Verres lent to Hortensius and
Metellus, when they filled the office of aedile, the statues
which he had carried off from Sicily, and a magnificent dis-
play they must have made. Plutareh tells us that the
Sicilians assisted Cicero in many ways during his sedileship,
out of gratitude for his services, and in memory of his con-
duct as their quaestor at Rome.
He exhibited the usual shows and games, but could rely
upon other sources of popularity, and avoided unnecessary
1 Cicero says that Atticus ransacked works of art to give eclat to his sedile-
aU Greece and the Greek islands for ship. Pro Domo, 43.
,ET. 31-38. DEFENDS FONTEIUS. 5 1
expense. He says himself that his aedileship did not cost
him much. At the same time it was necessary to do the
thing on a liberal scale. 1 The people did not like to be
balked of their spectacles, and a stingy aedile would have a
poor chance of the consulship.
In the meantime Cicero did not neglect his profession as
an advocate. He defended Fonteius in a criminal case, and
Caecina in a civil action, and we possess both the speeches
he delivered, but the former only in an imperfect shape.
Fonteius had held the praetorian government of Gaul for
three years, and was accused of extortion and corruption by
the inhabitants of the province. Cicero challenged the other
side to produce a single trustworthy witness or piece of evi-
dence to substantiate the charge. Gallic witnesses were not
to be believed upon their oaths. Could they give credit to
the testimony of men who belonged to a nation which re-
tained to that day the horrid and barbarous custom of human
sacrifices ? Were they to be frightened by the threats of
those " cloaked and trousered-" (sagatos et braccatos) foreigners
who swaggered in the Forum, declaring that there would be
a fresh Gallic war if Fonteius were acquitted ? These were
the men whose ancestors had pillaged the Oracle of Delphi,
and besieged the Capitol of Rome. It would be a disgrace
and shame if the news reached Gaul that Roman senators
and knights gave their verdict, not because they believed the
evidence of Gallic witnesses, but because they were terrified
by their threats. One of the charges against Fonteius was,
that he had accepted bribes to relieve some of the provincials
from the burden of making roads, or to take no notice if they
were badly made ; but this Cicero disposed of by showing
the orders which Fonteius had given to his lieutenants on
the subject, and the way in which those orders had been
obeyed. Another charge was, that he had exacted illegal
duties upon wine ; but that part of the speech in which his
advocate dealt with this is lost. He quoted numerous in-
stances in which the testimony of Roman nobles of the
highest character had been discredited, because they were
supposed to be influenced by personal enmity against the
1 Quanquam intelligo in nostra civi- ut splendor seclilitatum ab optimis viris
tate inveterasse et jam bonis temporibus postuletur. De Off, ii. 16.
5 2
AND CURULE ALDILE. CHAP. iv.
accused, and argued that, a fortiori, the evidence of men such
as the Gauls, who hated Fonteius, ought to be disbelieved.
These were not times when Rome could afford to lose a man
like him. He pointed to him as he stood before them, with
his mother and vestal sister clinging to his embrace. Other
women might become wives and mothers, but to Fonteia, a
vestal virgin, her brother was the only being on whom she
could lavish her affections. Let them take care that the
everlasting fire that burnt upon the altar, kept up by her
nightly vigils, was not extinguished by her tears. It con-
cerned the honour of the Roman people that it should not
be said that the threats of Gauls had more influence with
them than a Vestal's prayers.
It would be impossible to make the next case, in which
he appeared for Caecina, interesting. The question turned
upon the point, whether illegal force had been used in ejecting
Caecina from some landed property which he claimed in right
of his deceased wife, who had left him her heir. 1
During Cicero's year of office as curule aedile the newly-
built temple of Jupiter Maximus on the Capitol was solemnly
consecrated. The old one had been struck by lightning,
and burnt in the time of Sylla, B.C. 83, fourteen years before.
The new one was also destined to be consumed by fire, not,
however, from the lightning of heaven, but the hand of
man, in the rage of civil war. It was set on fire and de-
stroyed in the struggle for empire between Vitellius and
Vespasian.
1 To this period most probably may
be referred the speeches Pro Matridio
and Pro Oppio. The latter is chiefly
known from a few fragments found in
Quintilian. Oppius was quaestor of
Aurelius Cotta, governor of Asia Minor,
and seems to have drawn his sword upon
the proconsul.
CHAPTER V.
CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE.
JET. 39. B.C. 68.
THE year following his aedileship, B.C. 68, is that in which
Cicero's extant correspondence first begins. It is a rich
mine of information, and furnishes the best materials, not
only for his own biography, but a great part of the history
of the time. Nowhere else do we find such a vivid picture
of contemporary events. We seem to be present at the
shifting scenes of the drama, as the plot unfolds itself which
involves the destinies of Rome. We hear the groans of the
expiring Republic, which had been mortally wounded during
the long civil wars of Marius and Sylla, and was fast sinking
under the flood of social and political corruption which is sure
to follow in the train of civil war. At one time we watch
with eager impatience the arrival of a courier at Tusculum,
with a letter from Atticus telling his friend the news of the
day, and in Cicero's reply we read all the fluctuations of
hope and fear which agitated him during the momentous
crisis of his country's fate. At another we contemplate the
great orator and statesman in the seclusion of his villa, as a
plain country gentleman, busying himself with improvements
on his estate, building farm-houses, laying out and planting
shrubberies, and turning watercourses, or amusing himself
with pictures and statues, and the various objects which inter-
est a man of refined and cultivated taste. At another we
find him at Rome sick, weary, and disgusted with the din of
strife, mistrusting everybody where no one seems worthy of
trust, and happing ever on the vanity of ambition and the worth-
lessness of popular applause. We see him at one moment
exalted to the summit of human glory when saluted in the
54 CORRESPONDENCE 6- DOMESTIC LIFE. CHAP. v.
Senate by the proud title of Pater Patrice, and at another
sunk in the lowest depths of despair when he is a wandering
fugitive exile from Rome, and tells his wife that while he
writes he is blinded by his tears.
There is a charm in these letters to which we have nothing
comparable in all that antiquity has spared us. To say
nothing of their exquisite latinity, and not unfrequently their
playful wit, they have a freshness and reality which no nar-
rative of bygone events can ever hope to attain. We see in
them Cicero as he was. We behold him in his strength and
in his weakness the bold advocate, and yet timid and vacil-
lating statesman the fond husband the affectionate father
the kind master the warm-hearted friend. I speak not
now of his political correspondence, written with an object
in view, and with a consciousness that it might one day be
made public, but his private letters to his relatives and
friends, in which he poured out the whole secret of his soul,
and laid bare his innermost thoughts, yearning for sympathy
and clinging for support. To quote the words of De Quin-
cey: 1 "In them we come suddenly into deep lulls of angry
passion here upon a scheme for the extension of literature
by a domestic history, or by a comparison of Greek with
Roman jurisprudence; there again upon some ancient prob-
lem from the quiet fields of philosophy." They show that
he was a man of genial soul, and of a most kind and amiable
disposition what Dr. Johnson would have called a thoroughly
" clubable" person. He is never more at home than when
he is indulging in a little pleasant banter and irony, as when
he makes fun of Trebatius the lawyer, who had left the
atmosphere of the courts, to turn soldier and serve under
Caesar in Gaul. But he is always the scholar and the gentle-
man ; and no one had more of that refined polish which the
Romans described by the expressive word urbanitas. I do
not think that in the whole of his correspondence a single
coarse word or vulgar idea occurs. It is not so in his speeches.
There he often indulged in language which is, according to
modern notions, offensive to good taste and even decency, as
when he attacked Piso and Gabinius and Antony. But that
was the fault of the plain-speaking time in which he lived,
1 Collected Works, article " Cicero."
,*:T. 39. CHARACTER OF HIS LETTERS. 55
rather than of the man ; just as the occasional coarseness of
Shakespeare must be attributed to the age in which he was
born, and not to his own gentle nature.
How pleasant" it is to hear him giving his friend Atticus a
message from the little Tullia, or Tulliola, as he often calls
her making use of the endearing diminutive so significant
in the ancient Latin and modern Italian to remind him of
his promise to make her a present, and afterwards telling
him that Tullia had brought an action against him for breach
of contract ; or to find him speaking of his* only son, " the
honey-sweet Cicero," that " most aristocratic child," as he
playfully styles him, who was with his sister in his youthful
days the pride and delight of his life. We see him lounging
on the shore at his villa near Antium, and there penning a
letter to confess that he is in no humour to work, and amuses
himself with counting the waves as they roll upon the beach.
We would not willingly exchange that letter to Atticus, in
which he says of himself that he knows he has acted like a
"genuine donkey" (me asinum germanum fuisse), for the
stiffest and most elaborate of his political epistles.
From his villa at Formiae he writes to complain of the
visits of troublesome country neighbours, and says he is so
bored by them that he is tempted to sell the place ; and
therefore, while they annoy him, there is a capital oppor-
tunity for a purchaser.
His fondness for books amounted to a passion. He tells
Atticus, that when his librarian Tyrannic had arranged his
books it seemed as if his house had got a soul ; and he is in
raptures with a book-case when ornamented with the gay
colours of the parchment-covers (sittyba?) in which the precious
rolls were kept. We find him at one time begging his friend
to send him two of his assistant librarians to help Tyrannic
to glue the parchments, and to bring with them a thin skin
of parchment to make indexes. He tells Atticus on no
account to part with his library, as he is putting by his sav-
ings (vindemiolas) to be able to purchase it as a resource in
his old age. By " library" Cicero means the copies of manu-
scripts which Atticus was having made at Athens by some
of his clever slaves ; and what would we not now give to
possess one such set of manuscripts as were put on board a
56 CORRESPONDENCE & DOMESTIC LIFE. CHAP. v.
trireme at the Piraeus and consigned to Cicero in his Tus-
culan villa . ?1 In the midst of all his anxiety and disgust at
the state of public affairs, when it was evident that the old
Republic was tottering to ruin, he says that he supports and
refreshes himself with literature, and would rather sit in a
well-known seat at his friend's country house, with the bust
of Aristotle over his head, than in a curule chair. At another
time he says that he does not envy Crassus his wealth, and
can despise the broad acres (vices et prata) of others, if he
has it only in his power to purchase books.
In one of his letters he playfully finds fault with his freed-
man Tiro for an inaccurate use of a Latin adverb fideliter.
In another he defends himself against criticism of Atticus,
and maintains that he was right in putting the preposition in
before Pir<za, but admits that Pirceum, as the accusative
case, would have been more correct. Now and then he
indulges in a pun, as when he tells Atticus, who thought
some of the windows of his house on the Palatine Hill,
which had been made by his architect Cyrus, too narrow,
that he was perhaps not aware that he had been finding
fault with the Qwpaedia. How true is the picture he draws
of the contrast between the hollow friendship of the world
and the calm and sober happiness of domestic life. Amidst
the crowd that thronged his hall, and attended him, as was
the custom, to the courts, begirt as he was with " troops of
1 An interesting controversy has re- the Credibility of Early Roman history,
cently been carried on as to the extent vol. i. 197, " It may be doubted whether
to which copies of books were multiplied there were a hundred copies of Virgil
in ancient Rome, A German writer, in or Horace in existence at any one time
a work entitled Geschichte der Denk- before the invention of printing." He
und-Glaubcns-Freiheit im crsten Jahr- supported this view in a learned article
hunderi der Kaiserherrschaft (Berlin, which appeared in Eraser's Magazine,
1847), had maintained that the number April 1862. See also Merivale's Hist.
of literary productions was greater in Rom. vi. 233. The probability is, that
ancient than in modern times, and that neither side is altogether right. It is
thousands of copies of the classics must extravagant to suppose that the efforts
have been in existence to enable any of of copyists could rival the power of
them to come down to us. He relied the printing-press, but the idea of ex-
also on the statement that 700,000 treme scarcity of books is refuted by
books existed in the library at Alex- the prices at which they were sold,
andria, and such incidental facts as that Martial says that his bookseller would
mentioned by Pliny, who says that Re- sell a well-bound copy of his Epigrams
gulus caused a thousand copies to be (perhaps he means only the first book)
made of a memoir of his son. The late for about five denarii, or 35. 6d. of
Sir George Cornewall Lewis combated English money.
this view, and says, in his Inquiry into
B.C. 68. MODE OF SENDING LETTERS. 57
friends," he complains that there is not one with whom he can
joke freely, or to whom he can unburden his soul in sorrow.
In other words, he expresses the same sentiment as Bacon,
that " a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery
of pictures, and talk is but a tinkling cymbal, where there is
no love."
How were these letters sent . ?1 There was no post-office
in ancient Rome : and the only mode of conveying them
was either by couriers called tabellarii, who were despatched
express for the purpose ; or by friends who happened to be
going to or near the residence of the person to whom they
were addressed. We find Cicero frequently complaining
that he had no trustworthy person at hand to whom he
could confide an important letter without danger of its being
opened and its contents read ; and he mentions one instance
where he lost a letter from Atticus owing to the friend who
had charge of it being attacked and robbed near the burial-
ground (bustuvi} of Basilius.
I propose to notice a few of these early letters to Atticus
somewhat in detail, for they will give us a good idea of
Cicero's style and habits of thought, and also show the
cordial friendship that existed between these two eminent
men a friendship as frank ,as it was sincere, which never
varied during all the vicissitudes of their lives, and was
terminated only by death.
In the first letter written in the latter part of the year
to Atticus in Epirus on the western coast of the Adriatic,
where, in the neighbourhood of Buthrotus, he had recently
purchased an estate, Cicero begins by alluding in feeling
language of affectionate sorrow to the death of his cousin,
or, as he calls him, brother Lucius the only son of his
uncle Lucius who had, as we have seen, been associated
with him in the prosecution of Verres. Cicero greatly
deplored his loss, and speaks of him as a man endowed
with every excellence, and distinguished by great sweetness
1 Before a letter was despatched five elevated rim or border. These when
things were requisite, four of which are written upon /. e. scratched with the
enumerated in a line of Plautus (Bacch. stylus were bound together by a pack-
iv. 4, 64), " Stilum, ceram, et tabellas thread, and the knot of the string was
et linum." To these must be added the sealed with wax and stamped with the
seal. The tabellce were thin tablets of signet-ring,
wood smeared with wax, and with an
58 CORRESPONDENCE & DOMESTIC LIFE. CHAP. v.
of disposition. He next refers to a subject which was a
fertile source of domestic annoyance for many years the
unhappy disagreement between Quintus and his wife Pom-
ponia, who was a sister of Atticus. Quintus was a man of
hasty temper, easily vexed, but soon appeased, and Pom-
ponia seems to have been a lady rather apt to take offence,
and jealous of her imagined rights what we may call touchy,
and inclined to stand on her dignity. A little anecdote
which Cicero relates of her in one of his letters, and which
will be afterwards mentioned, exhibits her in a sulky and
unamiable mood. Terentia also and Pomponia did not get
on very well together. The frequent quarrels of the ill-
matched pair, Quintus and Pomponia, caused great dis-
tress both to Cicero and Atticus : Atticus naturally took his
sister's part, and his displeasure at his brother-in-law's con-
duct was most probably the reason why, at a later period, he
abandoned the idea he once entertained of accompanying
Quintus, in the capacity of qusestor, to his praetorian govern-
ment in Asia Minor. Cicero was not at all blind to his
brother's faults, but he also knew the many good points of
his character ; and it is pleasant to read the kind and affec-
tionate terms in which he always speaks of him, until
unhappily they quarrelled many years after, as I shall have
occasion to relate in a subsequent part of this work. In the
letter to which I am now alluding he tells Atticus that he
might appeal to Pomponia herself to say how earnestly he
had endeavoured to induce her husband to treat her with
proper affection. Quintus was displeased at this interfer-
ence, and Cicero says that he had written to him to appease
him as a brother, to admonish him as a junior, and to re-
prove him as an offender.
Other topics in the same letter are two matters of busi-
ness in which Atticus was interested, but about which
nothing certain is now known. Cicero takes occasion also
to correct his friend in a point of law, and tells him that the
doctrine of adverse possession has no application in a case
of trust or question of guardianship, which is very much
what an English lawyer would say at the present day.
Atticus had asked him to employ his good offices in recon-
ciling Lucceius to him, for they had had a quarrel ; and
^:T. 39- QUINTUS AND POMP ONI A. 59
Cicero assures him that he had done so, but to little purpose.
He next congratulates Atticus on his recent purchase in
Epirus, and begs him to remember to get anything which
may be suitable for his own Tusculan villa ; " for there," he
says, " in that place alone do I find rest and repose from all
my troubles and toil." This is the first mention that occurs
in Cicero's writings of his favourite villa at Tusculurn, which
he seems to have bought only a short time before. He
concludes the letter by telling Atticus that Terentia is suffer-
ing a good deal from rheumatism in the limbs ; and that
she and his darling Tulliola send their best compliments to
him, and his sister and mother. The last words are " Be
assured that I love you like a brother."
In the next letter, which is short, Cicero promises that
Atticus shall not again have to complain of him as a negli-
gent correspondent, and begs his friend, who has plenty of
leisure, to copy a good example. He mentions that Fonteius
has purchased the house of Rabirius at Naples, which Atti-
cus had had some thoughts of buying ; and says that his
brother Ouintus now seemed to be on good terms with Pom-
ponia, and that they were both staying at their country
residence near Arpinum.
The manner in which he communicates the next piece of
intelligence is disappointing, if we accept the usual reading.
It is the death of his own father, and all he says on the
subject is this : " My father died on the 25th of November." 1
He then turns off to ask Atticus to look out for appropriate
ornaments for his Tusculan villa. This looks, to say the
least, cold and unfeeling ; and yet Cicero was the very re-
verse of being either cold and unfeeling. We have seen
that he deplored in the language of genuine sorrow the loss
of his cousin Lucius, and we learn that his grief for the death
of his daughter Tullia was so excessive that he was derided
for it by his enemies. We are therefore surprised to find
him noticing so shortly and dismissing so summarily the
death of his excellent father. 2 But the truth is, that what we
1 Pater nobis decessit a. d. viii. Cal. left me," probably to return to Arpinum.
Dtcembris. Ad. Att. i. 6. This is the conjecture of Madvig, De
2 I strongly suspect that the true Ascon. Comm. p. 71, quoted by Dru-
reading of the sentence is Pater nobis mann, Gesch. Roms, v. 213, who ap-
ty not decessit, that is, " My father proves of it.
60 CORRESPONDENCE &* DOMESTIC LIFE. CHAP. v.
call sentiment was almost wholly unknown to the ancient
Romans, in whose writings it would be as vain to look
for it as to look for traces of Gothic architecture amongst
classic ruins. And this is something more than a mere
illustration. It suggests a reason for the absence. Ro-
mance and sentiment came from the dark forests of
the North, when Scandinavia and Germany poured forth
their hordes to subdue and people the Roman Empire.
The life of a citizen of the Republic of Rome was essentially
a public life, The love of country was there carried to an
extravagant length, and was paramount to and almost
swallowed up the private and social affections. The state
was everything ; the individual comparatively nothing ; In
one of the letters of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius to Fronto,
there is a passage in which he says that the Roman language
had no \vord corresponding with the Greek <pi\o<sro^ia ) the
affectionate love for parents and children. Upon this Nie-
buhr remarks that the feeling was " not a Roman one ; but
Cicero possessed it in a degree which few Romans could
comprehend, and hence he was laughed at for the grief
which he felt at the death of his daughter Tullia." 1 His
divorce from Terentia appears to be a violent exception to
the general rule of his character ; and we shall have to con-
sider hereafter whether he can or cannot be justified for his
conduct on that occasion.
In these first letters we get a few glimpses of his domestic
life. He tells Atticus that his daughter Tulliola, his darling
(delicice nostrce), is betrothed to Calpurnius Piso Frugi. This
event, which we should have thought full of interest to him,
he mentions in the most laconic manner Tulliolam C. Pisoni
L. F. Frugi despondimus? The young lady was then only
1 Hist, of Rome, iii. 30. Niebuhr Verres, who had swept Sicily clean of
translates faXoffTopyia, ' ' the tender love its works of art, with the abstinence of
for one's friends and parents." But I Frugi, who, when praetorian governor
doubt whether <rTopyr) is ever applied to of Spain, having broken one of his gold
any other than family affection. It is rings, ordered a goldsmith of Corduba
especially used to denote the love of (Cordova) to attend him in the market-
one's offspring. place, where he publicly weighed out
gold and had a new ring made in the pre-
2 Frugi means abstinent (frugal), and sence of bystanders, to prevent the pos-
Cicero, in Verr. de Signis, puns upon sibility of its being said that he had
the name and that of Verres (brush or plundered it. This certainly looks like
besom), contrasting the conduct of a caricature of caution.
B.C. 68. THE TUSCULAN VILLA. 61
nine, or at the most eleven, years old. Atticus had promised
her a present, and Cicero tells him that she looked upon her
father as bail for the performance, but he intended rather to
forswear the obligation than make it good. In another
letter he says that Tulliola has brought her action (diem daf),
and summoned bail.
I have noticed the first mention in Cicero's letters of his
Tusculan villa, in the furnishing and adorning of which he
was at this time so much engrossed, and it may be interesting
to describe it so far as we are able after the lapse of twenty
centuries.
About twelve miles across the Campagna to the east of
Rome, on the slope of the Latin hills, which form as it were
the framework of the landscape, and which now sparkle with
the villas of the Roman nobility, who resort there during the
heats of the summer and autumn months, stands the modern
town of Frascati. The terminus of the railway which con-
nects it with Rome is in the plain, a mile below the town.
About two miles beyond Frascati, and almost at the summit
of the hill that rises above it, is the site of the ancient city
of Tusculum, the arx or fortress of which crowned the top.
A lovelier walk than that which leads to this spot can hardly
be imagined. The path winds with a continuous ascent
through woods, and past villas and convents, " bosomed high
in tufted trees," until it strikes into a narrow road, or rather
lane, paved with ancient polygonal, blocks of flat stone. This
is the identical road which led up in ancient times to Tuscu-
lum from the plain below, and along which Cicero must often
have walked or been carried in his lectica on his way from
Rome to his country seat. Following this lane, the traveller
reaches a romantic spot, where are the remains of a small
amphitheatre ; and a little farther on to the right, on a grassy
platform jutting out on the south-west side of the hill, and
commanding a glorious view, is the site of Cicero's villa.
In the distance, across the Campagna, and right opposite,
glittered the walls and roofs and towers of Rome ; beyond
were the blue waters of the Mediterranean ; on the right lay
Tivoli ; and on the left the Alban lake, embosomed, however,
and hidden from sight by its surrounding hills. Anti-
quaries, who throw doubt upon everything, tell us that there
62 CORRESPONDENCE 6- DOMESTIC LIFE. CHAP. v.
is no certainty that this is the real site of Cicero's villa, and
some call it the villa of Tiberius. But very possibly the
Emperor may have become the owner of the villa, just as
Sylla was before Cicero bought it. 1 Some writers place the
villa in quite a different locality. After describing the walks
round the Alban lake, Eustace mentions a shady alley in
the woods which led to the town of Marino ; and says :' 2
"The same alley continues to Grotta Ferrata, once the
THEATRE AT TUSCUI.UM.
favourite villa of Cicero, and now an abbey of Greek monks.
It stands on one of the Tumuli, or beautiful hills grouped
together on the Alban mount. It is bounded on the south
by a deep dell, with a streamlet that falls from the rock, and
having turned a mill, meanders through the recess and dis-
appears in its windings. This stream, now the Marana, was
anciently called Aqua Crabra, and is alluded to by Cicero.
1 When I visited the spot in the as they were disinterred from their sleep
autumn of 1859 a solitary workman was of ages.
employed by the Aldobrandini family,
to whom it belongs, in excavating cham- " Classical Tour through Italy, \\.
bers and pavements, which I saw just 258.
^ET. 39. THE TUSCULAN VILLA. 63
Eastward rises a lofty eminence once crowned with.Tusculum ;
westward the view descends, and, passing over the Campagna,
fixes on Rome and the distant mountains beyond it ; on the
south a gentle swell presents a succession of vineyards and
orchards, and behind it towers the summit of the Alban
Mount, once crowned with the temple of Jupiter Latiaris.
Thus Cicero from his portico enjoyed the noblest and most
interesting view that could be imagined to a Roman and a
consul ; the temple of the tutelary divinity of the empire ;
the seat of victory and of triumph ; and the theatre of his
glorious labours the capital of the world
' Rerum pulcherrima Roma ! ' "
But it is surely an insuperable objection to this theory that
Grotta Ferrata is fully three miles from the ancient Tuscu-
lum ; and if Cicero's villa really occupied the site where it is
supposed by Middleton, Melmoth, Eustace, and other writers
to have been, it never would have borne the name of Tuscu-
lanum. 1
The villa itself was arranged as closely as possible on the
model of the Academy at Athens, so as to resemble it in
miniature. In fact, Cicero used playfully to call it his aca-
demy, and he added to it a palcestra or exercise-ground, a
gymnasium (which perhaps was the same as the academia\
and a xystus, a colonnade or corridor with open pillars, like
that which may still be seen on the south side of the Capitol
at Rome, by the side of the modern road which leads up
from the Campo Vaccino (the Forum) to the Campidoglio.
It was here that Cicero and Atticus passed many delightful
hours together away from the noise and bustle of Rome,
communing together on lofty themes, and enjoyed those
conversations in retrospect of which each might say to the
other
" I've spent, them not on toys, or lusts, or wine,
But search of deep Philosophy,
Wit, Eloquence, and Poetiy
Arts which I loved, for they, my friend, were thine ! "
The neighbourhood of Tusculum was a favourite resort of
1 After all, we must be content to reruin standum est, ubi certain rebus
guess in such matters where certainty is derogat antiquitas ficlem."
impossible, and say with Livy, " Fama
64 CORRESPONDENCE 6- DOMESTIC LIFE. CHAP. v.
the old Roman nobility. 1 On the declivity of the hill were
scattered the villas of Balbus, Brutus, Catulus, Metellus,
Crassus, Pompey, Caesar, Gabinius, Lucullus, Lentulus, and
Varro ; so that Cicero was in the midst of his acquaintances
and friends, but he thought his own villa lay a little out of
the road, as it certainly did. 2
Above all things, Cicero's passion was a library. To add
this to a house was, as he expressively termed it, to give
the house a soul ; and in nothing was he more urgent with
Atticus than in entreating him to send him books, which of
course in those days meant manuscripts. He begged him
never to lose an opportunity of picking up for him works
of art to ornament his villa and grounds ; and great is the
joy he expresses at the arrival of a Hermathena a double-
headed bust of Mercury and Minerva on a square pedestal ;
and he mentions statues or pictures from Megara, and figures
of Mercury in Pentelic marble with bronze heads, some of
which may perhaps yet be discovered and add to the trea-
sures that are contained in the Museum of the Vatican. He
tells Atticus not to be afraid of the expense it was his
hobby (genus hoc est voluptatis mece] and he would take
take care and repay him.
Besides his house at Rome and residence at Tusculum,
Cicero had many other villas, of which the principal were
situated on the west coast of Italy. Following the direction
from north to south, they lay respectively near the following
towns : Tusculum, Antium, Asturia, Sinuessa, Arpinum,
Formige, Cumae, Puteoli, and Pompeii. Besides his villa
near Antium, he had a house in the town, which he pur-
chased in the year 45 B.C., from M. Lepidus, only a short
time before his death. Antium (now Porto d'Anzo) was
situated on a headland looking down upon the blue waters
of the Mediterranean, and Cicero enjoyed the cool breezes
and quiet retirement of the spot. He had here a good
library, and many of the manuscripts which were saved
when his villas at Tusculum and Formise were plundered by
1 " Hie Brutus sociique aderant ; hie Attice, Tulli
Gaudebas sermone tui ; ingentesque procellae
Conticuere fori, et raucse fragor abfuit urbis."
Cicero cum Familiaribus. Oxford Prize Poem, 1829, by Sir Eardley Wilmot.
2 Devium aTravTucri et habet alia dv<rxp'no'Ta. Ad. Aft. vii. 5-
B.C. 68.
.HIS NUMEROUS KESIDEA T CES.
the satellites of Clodius at the time of his exile were brought
to his country seat at Antium. His Asturian villa lay in an
island which was formed by a river that here emptied itself
into the sea. It was surrounded by a thick wood of shady
trees, in the solitude of which he used to pass whole days
alone while mourning for the death of his daughter. Formiae
CICERO S VILLA, FOKMI.K.
was not far from Cajeta (Gacta) and the modern town or
village of Castiglione. His villa there was laid in ruins by
Clodius, but afterwards restored by Cicero, and it was in
the adjacent park that he was murdered by the emissaries
of Antony. He purchased his country residence near Cumse,
on the hill above the town, after his return from banishment
It was not far from Baiae, the favourite watering-place of the
F
66 CORRESPONDENCE & DOMESTIC LIFE. CHAP, v
fashionable world of Rome ; and amongst his neighbours he
mentions the names of Pompey, Varro, and Marcus Brutus.
At no great distance from this was Puteoli (Puzsuolo) on
the seaside, where he had a villa of considerable size.
Annexed to it was a building to which, as at his Tusculanum,
he gave the name of Academy ; and here he once enter-
tained Julius Caesar on his way to Rome after his return
from the East. He was much attached to this residence, but
it had one drawback. The neighbourhood was populous,
and he complained that he had too many visitors. After
his death the villa became the property of C. Antistius
Vetus, and it was here that the Emperor Hadrian was
buried.
His Pompeian villa lay a few miles from Naples, close to
Pompeii, and was so called, of course, from the city which has
been disinterred after the lapse of twenty centuries.
The question naturally occurs, from what sources did
Cicero derive the wealth which the possession of so many
residences implies, and how was he able to bear the cost of
keeping up so many establishments ? He inherited the
Arpinum villa, but all the rest were purchased by him. We
know from Plutarch that all the fortune he got by his wife
Terentia was a myriad of denarii, equal to about ^3500,
which was by no means sufficient to support such an
expense. And he made it his boast that he took nothing
for his services as an advocate. How, then, did he become
so rich as to be the proprietor of fourteen or fifteen different
villas, all furnished with exquisite taste and adorned in
many instances with masterpieces of Grecian sculpture and
Roman art ?
ere were no cotton lords at Rome, and commerce
rished to only a limited extent. But Cicero could have
derived no benefit from either commerce or manufactures.
His career was that of an advocate and statesman, and in
neither capacity was he directly paid. The most certain
mode of acquiring wealth to a public man at Rome was a
provincial government. 1 This followed, as a matter of course,
1 De Quincey says :" Almost the only ways allowing for a large means of
open channels through which a Roman marrying to advantage since a man
nobleman could create a fortune (al- might shoot a whole series of divorces,
JET. 39- SOURCES OF HIS WEALTH. 67
the possession of the office of Piaetor or Consul, and the
frequent instances of accusation of ex-governors charged
with oppression and extortion, show with what unscrupulous
avarice the pro-praetorian and pro-consular powers were too
often exercised. Cicero, however, declined a pro-praetorian
government, and he declined also to take either of the pro-
vinces allotted to him and his colleague Antonius when he
laid down the office of Consul. He did not assume a pro-
consular government until after his return from exile, some
years after his consulship. It could not therefore have been
from this source that he derived that wealth which enabled
him to be the possessor of so many estates, and to live in
such affluence and luxury at a much earlier period. But
there were two other modes of becoming rich, and Cicero
participated largely in both. Rome was rapidly advancing
to the position of mistress of the world, and her leading men
were the masters of Rome. It therefore was the policy of
distant kings and commonwealths to conciliate their favour
and support, and for this purpose presents of enormous value
were transmitted to them. We can hardly call them bribes,
for in many cases the relation of patron and client was
avowedly established between a foreign state and some
influential Roman ; and it became his duty, as of course it
was his interest, to defend it in the senate and before the
people. For instance, Cicero mentions Dyrrachium as a
place of which he was patron, and whose interests he had
always defended. Such a custom opened no doubt the door
to corruption, for money was lavished to buy the votes of
the senators, and agents were employed at Rome to distri-
bute it. The purity and disinterestedness of Cicero's
character makes me believe that he never accepted such
presents as a bribe, nor allowed his public conduct to be
influenced by any regard for money ; but he undoubtedly
did receive presents from foreign suitors, and we can easily
imagine that they were large in amount, for they must have
been most anxious to secure the goodwill and propitiate the
still refunding the last dowry, but still the gain of twenty, thirty, or even forty
replacing it by a better) were these per cent ; and secondly, the grand
two lending money on sea risks, or to resource of a provincial government."
embarrassed municipal corporations on Collected Works, ''Cicero."
good landed or personal security, with
68 CORRESPONDENCE & DOMESTIC LIFE. CHAP. v.
favour of the matchless orator and foremost man of Rome.
The other and unobjectionable mode of acquiring wealth
was by legacies, which in ancient, as in modern times,
has always been deemed an honourable source of riches,
provided no unworthy acts are resorted to for the purpose of
influencing the testator. In the second Philippic he makes
it a matter of boast that he had received upwards of twenty
million sesterces (about ^178,000) from legacies left him by
his friends. 1
But he also borrowed without scruple, and after his return
from exile was almost constantly in debt. Before he went
to Cilicia as proconsul, Caesar had lent him a sum of
800,000 sesterces, equal to about ^7000. The purse of
Atticus seems to have been generally open to him, and he
freely availed himself of it. The money, however, was sup-
plied not as a gift but a loan, and in some cases his friend
became security for him when his credit was low and he
wished to borrow from others. But on the other hand, he
lent ttioney largely to his friends, the repayment of which
was often in arrear, and his embarrassments were thereby
increased. Drumann says that he did this for the sake of
the interest, and to lay men whose services might be useful
under obligations to him. But this writer, throughout his
elaborate work, does all he can to produce an unfavourable
impression of the character of Cicero. He never gives him
credit for a single disinterested action, and attributes the
most selfish and unworthy motives to his conduct He is
as much prejudiced against him as Mtddleton was in his
favour, and neither of them can be trusted as a biographer,
when the subject in question is not a matter of fact, but of
opinion affecting Cicero's character. It is not clear that he
lent money at interest at all ; and at all events we may well
believe that his object was to do a kind action, and not to
put money in his pocket, or make use of the services of his
debtors. Political motives may have perhaps had weight
with him in inducing him to advance a very large sum to
Pompey at the outbreak of the Civil War, but he was pro-
bably quite as much influenced by the exaggerated feeling
of gratitude which, as we shall see, he entertained towards
him for conduct which little deserved it.
1 Ego enim amplius sestertium ducenties acceptum hcereditatibus retuli.
Philipp. ii. 40.
CHAPTER VI.
THE PR^TORSHIP.
/Et. 40-41. B.C. 67-66.
ClCERO became Praetor-elect at the age of forty B.C. 67
and under circumstances which prove that his popularity at
that time was very great. The times were stormy, and the
assembly of the people in their centuries for the election of
praetors was twice interrupted by tumults before the legal
formalities were completed, so that it became necessary to
hold a third meeting to choose those officers. The occasion
of these tumults was the attempt to pass several obnoxious
laws. The first was a bill brought forward by the tribune
Aulus Gabinius, and known as the Gabinia Lex, to invest
Pompey with an extraordinary commission and supreme
command in the Mediterranean to extirpate the pirates
whose vessels swarmed in that sea, and ravaged the coasts
almost with impunity. Their audacity struck terror into the
heart of Rome. They had captured ambassadors on the
high seas, and actually seized and destroyed a Roman fleet
in the port of Ostia. The bill, however, was strongly op-
posed by Hortensius, Catulus, and other leading senators, on
the ground that it conferred unconstitutional powers on
Pompey ; and they pointed to the example of Marius and
Sylla, as showing the danger of bestowing such extraordi-
nary commands on the generals of Rome. The friends of
Lucullus, who had the conduct of the war against Mithri-
dates, took an active part in the opposition to the bill, which
they alleged was an encroachment on his authority, because
the chief haunts of the pirates were in the Levant, which
might be considered as part of his province. To counteract
70 THE PR^ETORSHIP. CHAP. vi.
this, and render him popular with the mob, Gabinius had a
picture made of the magnificent palace which Lucullus was
then building, and displayed it in the Forum, while he ad-
dressed the people to make them believe that Lucullus was
enriching himself at their expense.
The second bill was proposed by Lucius Otho, and though
of much less importance, excited still more clamour and vio-
lence. Its object was to assign separate rows of seats in the
theatres to the equestrian order next to the senators, for the
knights had hitherto sat indiscriminately with the rest of the
spectators. This was, as might be expected, a most un-
popular measure in a republic like that of Rome, and gave
rise to tumults which may be compared to the O. P. riots at
Covent Garden in the early part of the present century. It
was, however, with some difficulty carried, and Otho became,
as we shall see, extremely unpopular in consequence.
Caius Cornelius, another of the tribunes, was the author
of the third bill, and the opposition to it reveals the extent
and depth of political corruption in high places at Rome. It
was a bill for punishing with the severest penalties bribery
at elections, and enacted that those who were guilty of the
offence should be incapable of public office or a seat in the
senate. It was strongly opposed by the senators, but was
extremely popular with the masses. The excitement was
so great that the consuls were obliged to protect themselves
by a military guard ; business was suspended, and the elec-
tion of magistrates was put off. The result was, that the
bill was withdrawn, and another, less stringent in its nature,
was brought forward by the Consul C. Calpurnius Piso, and
ultimately became law.
In one of the earliest of his extant letters to Atticus,
written about this time, Cicero gives a lively idea of what a
candidate for public office had to go through at Rome, telling
I him that there was nothing like a canvass to bring a man
into contact with every kind of rascality. 1 In the same
letter he expresses his disgust at the state of affairs in the
city, which, he says, were growing worse with incredible
rapidity ; and he turns with delight to the thought of his
Scito nihil tarn exercitatum esse nunc Romoe quam candidates omnibus
iniquitatibus. Ad Alt. i. n.
JKT. 40-41. ELECTED PRAETOR URBANUS. 71
Tusculan villa, and the library he had formed there, begging
his friend to keep carefully for him some books which Atticus
had purchased for him at Athens.
Although, owing to the confusion that prevailed, the
comitia for the election of praetors was twice adjourned with-
out any definite result, Cicero, who had seven competitors
against him, was on both occasions chosen Praetor Urbanus
by the unanimous votes of all the centuries. And when at
last, on the third attempt, a valid election did take place,
the same result followed, and he was still at the head of the
poll.
Next year, B.C. 66, at the age of forty-one, Cicero assumed
the office of Praetor Urbanus, or City Praetor. The most
important part of his duties was of a judicial nature ; and it
was usual to determine by lot what particular jurisdiction,
civil or criminal, each praetor should exercise during his year
of office. Cicero happened to get as his division of labour
the criminal courts ; or, at all events, had to preside at trials
of magistrates accused of extortion, embezzlement, and other
offences in their provincial governments. 1 This formed no
inconsiderable part of the criminal business at Rome, and
required in the judge both firmness and honesty, for the cul-
prits were generally men of powerful influence and great
wealth. He had soon an opportunity of displaying both
these qualities in an important case. Caius Licinius Macer y
had, while holding the praetorian government of Asia Minor,
been guilty of great oppression and extortion, and, being
accused by the provinces which had suffered under his mis-
rule, he was put upon his trial before a body of judices, over
whom Cicero presided. Macer was a relation of Crassus,
and, relying upon his support, he so confidently expected an
acquittal that he did not even assume the mourning dress
(toga sordida) which it was usual for persons under prosecu-
tion to wear in order to excite sympathy and compassion.
He was, however, convicted, and was so overwhelmed with
shame at the result that he either destroyed himself or died
of grief. 2 Writing to Atticus, Cicero tells him that his own
1 Postulatur apud me, prsetorem pri- bed and died ; but, according to Valerius
mum, de pecuniis repetundis. Pro Maximus, he watched the close of the
Cornelia Fragin, trial from a balcony, and when he knew
2 Plutarch savs that he took to his that he was convicted, and saw Cicero,
72 THE PR^TORSHIP. CHAP. vi.
conduct on the occasion had won him golden opinions from
the people ; and he adds what would startle us to hear said
of an English judge that the credit he gained by Macer's
conviction was of more value to him with the populace than
any benefit that could have flowed from the offender's gra-
titude if he had been acquitted. This shows how much the
N^ result of the trial was thought to be in the power of the pre-
siding praetor, although the judices, or jurymen, alone had the
right to pronounce the verdict.
It is never right, nor in good taste, to make a jest on a
personal infirmity, but Plutarch mentions a sarcasm which
fell from Cicero on the bench on an occasion that almost
justified an exception to the rule. To understand the point
we must remember that a short thick neck, like that of a
bull, was thought by the Romans the sign of an impudent
unscrupulous character. Vatinius, a rude and insolent man,
whose neck was swollen with tumours, came before him when
sitting as praetor, with some petition or request, which Cicero
said he would take time to consider. Vatinius replied that
if he were praetor he would make no question about it. Upon
which Cicero retorted, " Yes ; but you see I have not got so
much neck," we should say clieck, " as you have."
Although filling the office of a criminal judge, Cicero was
not debarred from the exercise of his profession as an advo-
cate. He defended M. Fundanius in a speech now lost ; and
also Aulus Cluentius Habitus, who was accused of murder,
and tried before O. Naso, Cicero's own colleague in the
praetorship. The indictment seems also to have comprised
the charge of conspiracy to procure the condemnation of a
man named Oppianicus.
The case discloses a melancholy tale of wickedness ; and
Sassia, the mother of Cluentius, might almost contest the
palm of pre-eminence in guilt with Lucrece di Borgia. Not
long after her husband's death her daughter married her first
the presiding judge, take off his robe us of the peine forte et dure, the punish -
[pnstexta), or, as we should say, put ment formerly in this country for stand-
on the black cap, he sent a messenger ing mute, which was sometimes endured
to tell him that he died accused but not by prisoners when they dreaded a con-
condemned, and therefore his property viction to be followed by forfeiture of
would not be confiscated. He then lands and goods, if they pleaded to the
instantly suffocated himself by forcing indictment and were found guilty,
a napkin into his mouth. This reminds
B.C. 67-66. DEFENDS CLUENTIUS. 73
cousin, Aurius Melinus, for whom the mother soon conceived
an adulterous passion. She employed all her arts to alienate
his affections from his wife, and at last succeeded in inducing
him to divorce her. She then flew to the arms of her son-
in-law and openly married him. By and by, however, Melinus,
having incurred the enmity of Oppianicus against whom
there was the strongest suspicion that he had poisoned his
own wife and brother, and procured the murder of a near
relative of Melinus was, through the interest of Oppianicus
with the tyrant Sylla, included in one of his lists of proscrip-
tion, and put to death. This murder of her husband attracted
the love of Sassia ; and Oppianicus, being equally smitten,
paid his addresses to her, and offered her marriage. She at
first refused, on the ground that he had three sons alive, and
she did not wish to be encumbered with such a family.
Oppianicus understood the hint, and in the course of a few
days caused two of them to be murdered. The scruples of
Sassia were now removed, and she married Oppianicus
wooed and won, as Cicero says, not by nuptial presents,
but the deaths of murdered children.
The career of Oppianicus was one of the most abandoned
villany ; and having unsuccessfully attempted to take off
Cluentius by poison, he was put upon his trial for this crime,
and being convicted, was sentenced to banishment. He had
endeavoured to bribe his judges, and for that purpose had
distributed amongst some of them a large sum of money,
which they took, but, notwithstanding, pronounced a verdict
of guilty. For this offence they were afterwards put upon
their trial and convicted. Oppianicus died in exile five
years after his condemnation ; and three years after his
death, Sassia bestowed her daughter in marriage upon his
son by a former wife, and urged him to accuse her own son
Cluentius of having caused her deceased husband, Oppi-
anicus, to 'be poisoned. It was on this occasion that Cicero
defended Cluentius, and delivered one of the longest of all
his speeches, but it is also one which least admits of abridge-
ment. It revealed a shocking history of crime, murder,
incest, and subornation of perjury. But as it consisted
chiefly in an elaborate examination of the facts, it would,
after the narrative already given, be merely repetition to
74 THE PRJETORSHIP. CHAP. vr.
attempt to condense the argument. With respect to part of
the accusation, which charged Cluentius with having entered
into a conspiracy to get Oppianicus convicted, it seems,
strange to say, that the law made this a criminal offence
only in the case of a senator, which Cluentius was not.
When, therefore, he applied to Cicero to defend him, he told
him he was safe, as the law did not touch him, and he would
at once take the objection which would secure his acquittal
on that charge. But Cluentius entreated him, with tears,
not to do so, declaring that he was more anxious about his
character than his safety ; and Cicero says that he complied
with his wishes and abandoned the point of law in his favour,
but for this reason he saw that on the merits the case
admitted of a complete defence.
The advocate on the other side was Attius, and he had
quoted a passage from one of Cicero's speeches in a case
where he was prosecuting counsel, and in which he had
urged the jury to give an honest verdict, and had cited
instances of perverse acquittals which had brought justice
into contempt. But Cicero refused to be bound by the
opinions which he merely expressed as an advocate. It was,
he said, a great mistake to look for his real sentiments in
his forensic speeches. They were adapted to the exigency
of the occasion ; and he mentioned, apparently with approval
certainly without censure the startling saying of An-
tonius, that he never liked to have any of his speeches
written down in order that he might, when an inconvenient
passage from them was quoted against him, be able to deny
that he had uttered the words. Clearly he would have been
no friend to Hansard. Cicero seems to have been more
struck with the folly than the immorality of the remark, for
he adds, "just as if men did not remember what we have
said or done unless we have committed it to writing."
The language in which the orator described the incestuous
marriage of Sassia with her son-in-law is worth quoting.
" That nuptial couch, which two years before she had spread
for her daughter on her marriage, she bids them adorn and
prepare in the same house for herself, while her daughter
is turned away an outcast. The mother-in-law weds her
son-in-law with no religious ceremonies, with no one to give
JET. 40-41. TRIAL OF CLUENTIUS. 75
the bride away, amidst the dark and gloomy forebodings of
all." l
Cicero this year delivered one of his finest speeches in
support of a bill brought in by the tribune Manilius for
superseding Lucullus in the conduct of the war against
Mithridates and conferring the supreme command upon
Pompey, then in the zenith of his fame. The campaigns of
Lucullus in the East had at first been brilliantly successful,
but of late the tide of fortune had turned, and his soldiers
had mutinied in the field. It appears, at first sight, strange
to find Julius Caesar also giving his support to this measure,
the obvious effect of which would be to increase the power
and exalt the reputation of the only man at Rome who was
likely to stand in the way of his ambition. Various reasons
may be assigned for this. Pompey was a favourite with the
people, and the proposal was so popular that Caesar may not
have liked to oppose it. Some writers think that his object
was to see a precedent set for the grant of such ample
powers as he hoped one day to have conferred upon himself.
But this, perhaps, is too refined a view, and gives Caesar
credit for too long-sighted a policy. A more Macchiavellian
theory, but not the less probable, is, that he may have
wished Pompey to be exposed to the chances of failure, or
the obloquy and envy which follow the possession of power.
The measure was at first strongly opposed by Catulus and
Hortensius. Catulus asked the people, in a speech he
addressed to them from the Rostra, upon whom they could
rest their hopes if they persisted in trusting everything to
Pompey, and he was carried off by a mischance ? The
people, with a loud shout, exclaimed, "Upon you!" and
this so pleased him that he ceased to struggle against the
bill.
The speech is interesting, independently of its merits, as
the first concio, or political harangue, which Cicero delivered
from the Rostra. He says in it that hitherto his modesty
had deterred him, and his incessant occupations as an advo-
cate had prevented him, from addressing the people there,
1 The result seems to have been, that dust" in the eyes of the jury (tenebras
Cluentius was acquitted, as Cicero after- offudisse jndicilnis] at the trial.
wards boasted that he had "thrown Fragmm. See Onom. Tull. ii. 165.
76 THE PR^ETORSHIP. CHAP. vr.
but he was now emboldened by the unmistakeable evidence
of their favour, as shown by their unanimous election of him,
three times repeated, as praetor. He showed how necessary
it was that Rome should put forth all her strength to protect
her possessions in Asia against the attacks of two such
powerful kings as Mithridates and Tigranes ; for not only
did their allies implore their help, but their own revenues
were in the utmost danger. Their arms had suffered a re-
verse, on which, he said, he would not dwell, but rather pass
on to the question, Who was the commander most fit to carry
on the campaign ? There ought to be four qualifications to
make up the character of a distinguished general military
genius, virtue, authority, success. He showed that all these
qualities were united in Pompey. He drew a splendid por-
trait of him as a warrior, and praised to the skies his disin-
terested self-denial :
" No feeling of avarice ever turned him aside from his destined course to think
of booty ; no licentiousness attracted him to pleasure ; no delights to self-
indulgence ; curiosity never tempted him to explore cities, however famous, and
in the midst of toil he shunned repose. The works of Grecian art in the Asiatic
towns, which other generals thought they might carry off, he did not even allow
himself to look at ! "
His nature was gentle ; he was affable and accessible to
all. His exploits in war had been so remarkable that no
one even ventured to ask of Heaven in his prayers such
success as had been bestowed on Pompey. They must not
be misled by the authority of Hortensius, who opposed the
bill, but remember that he had also opposed the bill of
Gabinius for appointing Pompey to the supreme command
in the Mediterranean against the pirates, and what would
have become of the Roman empire if his authority had then
prevailed ? As to the bugbear with which Catulus tried to
frighten them, of the danger of concentrating so much power
in the hands of one man, his answer was, that this had been
often done before in the case of Scipio Africanus, of Marius,
nay, of Pompey with the full approbation of Catulus him-
self. The honour of Rome required that the commander in
Asia should be not merely a good soldier but a good man.
" For," said Cicero, " it is difficult to express the odium in
which we are held by foreign nations on account of the op-
pression and rapacity of the governors who have gone out
n.c. 67 66. CASE OF MANILIUS. 77
from us of late years." He declared that they respected
nothing, either sacred or profane ; not even the sanctity of a
private dwelling. They should choose, therefore, a general
who would not plunder their allies, nor attack the virtue of
wives and daughters, nor pillage the towns of their works of
art and the treasuries of their gold. Such was the picture
which a Roman orator drew of the conduct of those who
were invested with command in the distant provinces of the
empire, and he appealed to the opponents of the present
measure whether he did not speak the truth. He concluded
by calling Heaven to witness that he supported the bill, not
to curry favour with Pompey, or obtain any advantage for
himself on the contrary, he knew well that he exposed
himself to enmity, alike open and concealed but because,
out of gratitude for all the honours the people had conferred
upon him, he was determined to prefer their wishes, the
honour of the commonwealth, and the safety of the provinces
and their allies, to any private interests of his own.
Even now, amidst all the bustle of active life, and dis-
tinguished as the leading orator of Rome, he found time for,
and did not disdain to profit by, if we may believe Suetonius, 1
the lessons of a rhetorician named Gnipho. At the mature
age of forty-one he was still content to be a learner in the
art of which he was considered by all other men to be the
greatest living master.
During this year his brother Quintus became a candidate
for the aedileship of the ensuing year, and was successful.
Two or three days before the expiration of Cicero's office,
Manilius, whose measure in the senate he had so vigorously
supported, was brought before him and charged with pecula-
tion. It was the usual custom to allow ten days at least
before the trial took place, in order to give the accused time
to prepare his defence, but Cicero appointed the following
day. This was considered harsh, and incensed the people,
with whom Manilius was a favourite, and who thought that
he was prosecuted because he was the friend of Pompey.
The tribunes summoned Cicero to give an account of his
conduct before the people, when he explained that he had
always shown humanity towards the accused, so far as the
1 De Illustr. Gramm. 7-
78 THE PRMTORSHIP. CHAP. vi.
law allowed, and as he did not wish to act otherwise towards
Manilius, he had purposely appointed the only day on which
he would sit as praetor to try him ; adding significantly, that
those who wished to help Manilius were not likely to do so
by getting him tried before another judge. The people
loudly applauded him, and called on him to undertake him-
self the defence of Manilius. This he consented to do ; and
accordingly, says Plutarch, " taking his place before the
people again, he delivered a bold invective against the
oligarchical party and those who were jealous of Pompey."
At the close of his praetorship Cicero was entitled to claim
a provincial government, which was looked forward to at
Rome as one of the best prizes in the lottery of ambition. It
afforded the most certain means of rapidly accumulating
wealth ; and even if a man were virtuous or cautious enough
not to go the length of a Verres or an Antonius, and provoke
an impeachment by his avarice, there were numerous modes by
which he might enrich himself in the command of a province
and yet keep himself within the pale of the law.
Cicero, however, at the close of his praetorship, declined
the glittering temptation, and refused to accept a provincial
government. He is entitled to the praise of disinterested-
ness in this so far as the love of money is concerned, for, had
he been an avaricious man, he would have taken care not to
let slip such a golden opportunity of amassing wealth ; but
it would be a mistake to suppose that contempt of riches
was the cause of his refusal. He was covetous indeed, but
covetous of honour, and he might truly say,
" And if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending man alive."
He candidly tells us that, with the consulship in view, he did
not dare to leave Rome. Two years must elapse before he
was qualified by law to attain that supreme dignity, but in
the meantime he must actively prosecute a canvass amongst
the immense body of electors, both at Rome and in the rest
of Italy, and he could not afford to hazard a year's absence
and incur the risk of verifying the proverb, " Out of sight
out of mind." He did not belong to one of the old aristo-
cratic families whose ancestors had been senators, and who
JET. 40-41
ANARCHY OF ROME.
79
seemed to think themselves entitled to a monoply of office
looking upon it as a kind of hereditary right. 1 He had no
statues or pictures in his hall to show that his forefathers
had been seated in the curule chair. He was, in fact, a par-
venu or, to use his own term, a novns homo and he had
all the difficulty to contend against in struggling upwards
which is felt in England by those who have to make a
position for themselves, and run the race of ambition against
competitors who start with the enormous advantage on their
side of an historic name and family influence.
Perhaps, also, there was a nobler feeling than mere am-
bition which influenced his resolution not to leave Rome.
The state of affairs was eminently critical. He saw, and
feelingly deplored, the tremendous evils to which his country
was a prey. Let me quote what Niebuhr says on this sub-
ject : " To comprehend the occurrences of this time it is
essential to form a clear notion of the immensely disordered
condition of Rome. There never was a country in such a
state of complete anarchy : the condition of Athens during
its anarchy bears no comparison with that of Rome. The
anarchy of Athens assumed a definite form ; it occurred in
a small republic, and was quite a different thing altogether.
Rome, on the other hand, or rather some hundreds, say even
a few thousands, of her citizens, who recognised no law and
no order, had the sway over nearly the whole world, and pur-
sued only their personal objects in all directions. The ' Re-
public ' was a mere name, and the laws had lost their power."^
1 Namque antea pleraque nobilitas
invidia sestuabat, et quasi pollui con-
sulatum credebat, si eum, quamvis egre-
gius, novus homo adeptus foret.
Sallust, Bell. Cat. c. 23.
2 Hist, of Rome, v. 15.
TEMPLE OF JUPITER CAPITOLINl'S. RESTORED BY CAV. CANINA.
CHAPTER VII.
CANVASS FOR THE CONSULSHIP AND ELECTION.
.Ml. 42. B.CytfJ.
To obtain the consulship was the next great object of Cicero's
ambition, and although he could not be elected until the
following year, he announced himself as a candidate at the
comitia tribtita, or assembly of the people in their tribes, held
in the Campus Martins for the election of tribunes, on the
i /th of July, B.C. 65.
This was done not in the form of an address to the " free
and independent electors," according to modern usage, but in
an equally plain and intelligible manner. He tells Atticus
that he intends on the day mentioned to begin shaking hands
with the voters (initium PRENSANDI facerc), which was as
well understood at Rome as it is in an English borough or
county on the eve of an impending dissolution of Parliament.
It was during his canvass that his brother Ouintus ad-
dressed to him that interesting letter or essay known as De
B.C. 65. ELECTIONEERING TACTICS. 81
Petitione Consulates* It may be called a Manual of Elec-
tioneering Tactics for Ancient Rome, and proves that he was
a man of much shrewdness and ability. It gives a curious
insight into the state of society and customs of the time ;
and is as if at the present day an account were given of the
best mode by which an aspirant to Parliament could secure
a seat in the House of Commons. It may, therefore, be
worth while to give a short abstract of its contents, to show
the points of resemblance and contrast between ancient and
modern times. And I am much mistaken if it will not
appear that much of the advice is quite as applicable now as
then ; for human nature is the same everywhere, and who-
ever seeks to gain " the most sweet voices " of the people,
must flatter and cajole in England as candidates flattered and
cajoled at Rome nineteen centuries ago.
" Never forget," says Quintus, " when you descend into the
Forum (it lay, as we all know, on low ground beneath the
Capitol), to say to yourself I am a parvenu (novus homo) ;
I am a candidate for the consulship ; the place is Rome.
Rely upon your powers of eloquence, and improve them to
the utmost of your power. Think of what Demetrius has
told us of the pains Demosthenes took with himself. Take
care to display the number and variety of your friends. You
have on your side all the farmers of the taxes (publicani).
almost the whole equestrian class, many of the municipal
boroughs, many of every order in the state whom you have
defended as an advocate, and some of the colleges and clubs.
Numbers of young men flock around you to get lessons in
oratory when they hear you speak, and you are attended by
troops of admirers. Impress upon them all that this is the
time to show their zeal and gratitude. Show that you have
the goodwill of men of consular rank, and that they wish for
your success. You must canvass them assiduously, and make
them believe that your political opinions agree with those of
the aristocracy, and that you are by no means a radical
(minime popular em fuisse}. Let them know that if you have
ever seemed to be one, it was only with the view of attaching
Pompey to you and gaining his support. Antonius and
Catiline are both cut-throats profligate and needy men."
Quintus draws the portraits of these t\vo in the blackest
G
82 ELECTION TO THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vn.
colours. Amongst other enormities of Catiline, he mentions
that he had caused M. Harms, an especial favourite of the
people, to be flogged through the streets of Rome. He
forced him to a spot where dead bodies were burnt, and then
put him to frightful torture. He then seized him by his hair
and struck off his head, which he held up in his hand, with
the blood streaming through his fingers.
Quintus goes on : "The pride of consular families may
perhaps make them oppose your elevation, and envy may
make those of praetorian rank, who have not yet attained
the honour of the consulship, your enemies. You must there-
fore use every exertion to succeed. Success depends on two
things the zeal of your friends and your own popularity.
As to your friends, remember that the word has a wider
meaning with reference to a canvass than to daily life. You
must then consider all who show you goodwill or court
you in the number of your friends. Take care to enlist in
your favour your fellow-wardsmen, your neighbours, your
clients, your freedmen, your slaves, for public report about a
man has generally its origin in domestic gossip. Remember
that gratitude is a lively sense of future favours, and attach
to yourself those who hope to get anything from you. Let
those who are under obligations to you know that by now
serving you they make you their debtor. A contest is not
the occasion to be scrupulous about friendships, however
careful we should be in forming them at other times. You
cannot have too many for your purpose, and it will be good
policy to make men believe that they will be your friends not
merely during the contest but for life. Secure active and
popular agents -to canvass for you. Get off by heart the
names of all the towns and colonies in Italy that possess the
franchise, and induce men to assist you in their different
neighbourhoods with as much zeal as if they were candidates
themselves. Try and make the acquaintance of as many of
the electors as possible. Provincials and rustics will, if you
know them personally, fancy that they have the honour of
your friendship. Young men are also most useful and active
in soliciting votes. The next point is the art of popularity.
This requires flattery, graciousness of manner, assiduity, and
personal application. Take care to make the acquaintance
JET. 42. ELECTIONEERING TACTICS. 83
of the electors, and show that you know them. Force your-
self against your habit while you are assuming an appearance
to make it appear natural. Flattery is essential. It is base
and blameable in daily life/but in an election contest it is
necessary. You must adapt your looks and conversation to
please those you canvass. It is not enough to stay in Rome
and frequent the Forum you must accost the same persons
over and over again. Attend banquets and give them, and
get your friends to do the same everywhere. Be accessible
night and day to all comers, and show that not only your
door is open, but also your heart ; for if the countenance
repels it is of little use to throw your house open.
" Take care to have plenty of people about you some to
attend your levees at home, and others to act as your agents
out of doors canvassing. Show that you are pleased with
the attention of those that visit you. Let them see that you
notice them, and speak of their civilities to others. If you
have reason to believe that any one who makes you a pro-
mise is deceiving you, pretend not to know it. When a
man, who thinks you suspect him, tries to put himself right
with you, assure him that you never doubted him. Go into
the Forum daily with a train of canvassers. It is essential
for you to have always a crowd about you. It gives you
consequence and importance, and especially if you have in
your train clients whom you have defended and got ofF at .x
trials. But at the same time be on your guard. Rome
is full of trickery and treachery. Your conspicuous merit
has made men pretend to be your friends while they are full
of envy in their hearts. Bear in mind the saying of Epi-
charmus, that the very essence of prudence is not to be
credulous. Tell the friends of the other candidates that
you entertain nothing but good-will towards your com-
petitors.
" As to the electors, you must use flattering and coaxing
in every shape. Your first business must be to know them,
and let them see that you do know them. A candidate must
become all things to all men, and he must show attention
and civility to everybody. If you can oblige a voter, show
a readiness and alacrity to do so. Men like to have liberal
promises made to them by a candidate. If you are asked
84 ELECTION TO THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vir.
to promise something which you cannot perform (as for in-
stance to undertake a cause against a friend), you must
excuse yourself civilly, pointing out the obligation you are
under which prevents you, and protesting how sorry you
are to be compelled to refuse.
" I have heard it said of some advocates, that when they
declined a case their manner was more gracious than that of
those who accepted the retainer. Men are more taken by
looks and v/ords than by actual benefits received. If you
decline on the plea of some previous connection with the
opposite party, you will probably give no offence ; but if on
the plea that you are occupied with more important business,
you will make an enemy.
" C. Cotta, a perfect adept at canvassing (in ambition*
artifcx\ used to say that he was in the habit of promising
his services (we should say, ' accepting a retainer') in every
case where he was applied to, except cases where duty pre-
vented him ; and of giving his services where he could em-
ploy them to the best advantage. And he justified this on
the ground that it often happened that his services were not
required by the person who had retained him, or he found
that he had more leisure than he had imagined, and it would
be impossible to have plenty of clients if he only took
retainers in cases so far as he felt sure that he could pay
attention to them.
" Take care that people talk about you, and make much
of your popularity. Let everybody know that Pompey is
heartily on your side, and thinks his own interest is bound
up with your success. Give all the eclat possible to your
canvass. Remember that you are in Rome, a state made
up of an assembly of nations, and full of intrigue, trickery,
and vice. You will have to bear with much arrogance,
much malevolence, much pride, much hatred, and much
annoyance. As you have to contend against bribery, let
your competitors feel what a risk they run if they have you
for their prosecutor. Make them see that you are watching
them closely and narrowly. With the prospect of a criminal
trial before them, they will perhaps not attempt bribery at
all. Or if they do, you may be so supported by the enthusi-
\ asm of the electors that bribery will be of no avail."
B.C. 65. DEFENCE OF CORNELIUS. 85
A nobler mode of winning the favour of the electors than a
resort to such arts as Ouintus recommends, was the display
of eloquence in the Forum, and Cicero gained great reputa-
tion this year by a splendid defence of the ex-tribune Caius
Cornelius, who was accused before the praetor, Q. Gallus, of
having violated the constitution (crimen majestatis). Cor-
nelius had been tribune, and the offence with which he was
charged consisted in his having proposed a law which we
should think in the highest degree equitable, but which gave
great offence to the Senate. This was that no one should
be absolved from the obligation of obeying the law except
with the consent of the supreme power in the state that is
the people at a meeting duly assembled. The Senate had
taken upon itself to exercise a dispensing power ; thereby
reminding us of the conduct of James II., so bitterly resented
by Parliament in his reign and treating therefore the
measure as unconstitutional, they waited until Cornelius
had laid down his office, during the tenure of which he was
sacrosanctus and could not be impeached, and then put him
upon his trial. The prosecution was conducted by the
leading men of the Senate, such as Catulus, Lucullus, Hor-
tensius, Metellus, and Lepidus ; a formidable array but
Cicero defended him, and he was acquitted. The speech
is unfortunately lost. It lasted four days, and is mentioned
by Ouintilian in glowing terms of praise. He says that
Cicero defended Cornelius, not only with powerful but bril-
liant weapons.
As may well be supposed, the people in whose interest
the measure had been framed were on the side of Cornelius,
and they loudly applauded the successful advocate. In a
subsequent speech against Vatinius, Cicero declared that his
defence of Cornelius was of great use to him in his canvass
for the consulship ; and he needed every aid that eloquence
and ability could supply. For practically all Roman citizens
not belonging to the hereditary aristocracy had been ex-
cluded from the two highest magistracies the consulship
and the censorship. " After the case," says Mommsen, 1 " of
1 Gesch. Rom. Bk. iii. c. 1 1. He from which it appears that 16 houses
gives a list of the gentes which furnished supplied 140 consuls and 32 curule
patrician consuls and curule aediles for agdiles : of these the lion's share fell to
about 200 years clown to B.C. 173, the Cornelian and Valerian gentes.
86 ELECTION TO THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. VH.
Manius Curius, no instance can be pointed out of a consul
who did not belong to the social aristocracy, and probably
no instance of the kind occurred at all." The great curule
houses kept the appointment to themselves, and looked with
the utmost jealousy upon the attempt of any "new man" to
force his way to that proud pre-eminence. The time had
gone by, as Mommsen truly remarks, when it was any longer
possible to take a small farmer from the plough and place
him at the head of the community ; for Rome was not now
merely the capital of a limited territory, or the chief power
of an Italian confederacy, but was rapidly becoming the mis-
tress of the civilised world. She held the east and west in
fee : Africa, Egypt, Syria, Greece, Spain, Gaul, Sicily/ and
Sardinia were her tributaries, and she governed them by
her officers as completely as any part of Italy.
In a letter written this year, the date of which apparently
is some time in June, and addressed to Atticus, who was then
at Athens, Cicero tells him the names of those who, he ex-
pected, would be his competitors. One indeed, P. Galba,
was already in the field, but Cicero calls his a premature
canvass (prcepropera prensatio), and says that he met with flat
downright refusals from the electors in old Roman style, 1
who told him without ceremony that they did not intend to
vote for him, but for Cicero. The others, who were certain
to be candidates, were Antonius and Cornificius ; and pos-
sibly Caesonius and Aquillius might stand. But besides
these there was Catiline, over whose head there was then
impending a trial for pecuniary corruption in his provincial
government of Africa. He had held that command for two
years, and was now impeached by the provincials. Clodius
was the prosecutor ; and Catiline was disqualified to become
a candidate unless and until he was acquitted. But Cicero
was so confident of his guilt and of his conviction, that he
uses the strong expression : " Catiline will be a competitor,
provided that the jury decide that the sun does not shine
at noon." 2 In other words, " Catiline can only be declared
not guilty by a jury which is ready to declare that the
1 Sine fuco ac fallaciis more majorum lucere, certus erit competitor. Ad. Att.
negatur. Ad. Att. i. I. i. i. It is extraordinary how this pas
sage has been misunderstood by several
2 Si judicatum erit, meridie non writers.
JET. 42. PROSECUTION OF CATILINE, 87
sun does not shine at mid-day." In point of fact, however,
Catiline was acquitted, for Clodius the prosecutor was
tampered with. He took money from Catiline to betray the
cause ; and the jury were also bribed.
But here a difficulty occurs which has puzzled many
learned men. Fenestella, a grammarian who wrote shortly \/
after the death of Augustus, declares that Cicero defended /
Catiline in this impeachment. Asconius Pedianus, who lived
about a quarter of a century later, and is one of the most
useful of all the commentators on Cicero, says that he did
not ; and I think the arguments are convincing to show that
Asconius is right. But in the very next letter of Cicero that
we possess, we find the remarkable passage : " At this
moment I contemplate undertaking the defence of Catiline,
my competitor. We have just such a jury as we wished to
get, and have the best possible understanding with the prose-
cutor. 1 I hope, if he is acquitted, that he will be more dis-
posed to coalesce with me in the canvass ; but if it turns out
differently I shall be able to bear the disappointment." . This
proves beyond all doubt that Cicero at that time meant to
defend him ; and it is on this letter that Fenestella, and those
who follow him, rely to prove that he did defend him in the
case of the impeachment by the Africans. But what is the
date of the letter, and to a defence in what case does it refer ?
The letter begins by informing Atticus of the birth of
Cicero's son " L. Julio Ccesarc, C. Marcio Fignlo consulibus"
But they were not consuls until the year after Catiline had
been tried and acquitted on the African charge. It is clear,
therefore, that the intended defence here spoken of cannot
refer to that charge, unless we adopt the hypothesis that
Cicero, in mentioning the names of the consuls, means
consuls elected but not actually in office. This would get
over the chronological difficulty, for we may then conclude
that the letter was written in the same year as the former
one, and before Catiline's trial for embezzlement had taken
place. I am not, however, aware that any other instance
can be found of a Roman writer dating an event by the
names of consuls elect. The universal custom was to mark
the year by the consuls for the time being ; and, besides,
1 Summa accusatoris voluntate. Ad. Ait. i. 2.
88 ELECTION TO THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vn.
Cicero speaks in this second letter of Catiline as an actual
competitor. But I have already mentioned that he was by
law disqualified from standing while his trial was pending.
Some writers try to get over the difficulty by relying on the
fact that in the course of these two years Catiline was twice
tried under two different prosecutions for different offences.
The first trial was for embezzlement in Africa, the second
was for illegal violence, if not murder, alleged to have been
committed in the time of Sylla j 1 and they assume that it is
to this second trial, as then impending, that Cicero refers when
they say his intention was to appear as Catiline's advo-
cate, although it is all but absolutely certain that he did not.
But there remains a great difficulty, which I have not
seen adverted to by any other writer. In the same letter,
which bears the date of the consulship of Lucius Caesar and
Figulus, Cicero tells Atticus that he is very anxious for him
to come to Rome to exert his influence with his friends
amongst the nobility, who, it was generally believed, adver-
saries honori nostro fore. Now, the obvious meaning of
these words is, " who will be opposed to my election as
consul ;" and it was natural that Cicero should wish to
have the benefit of his friend's assistance during the canvass.
And he goes on to say, " Take care, therefore, and be in
Rome in January, as you originally intended." If then this
letter was written in the year B.C. 64, when Caesar and
Figulus were actually consuls, the January here referred to
must be the January of the following year, B.C. 63. But
the contest would before that time have been decided, as
the election was to take place in the course of the year B.C.
64, and Atticus could be of no use at Rome then as a can-
vasser, or give Cicero any help in an election which was
over. Upon the whole I am inclined to believe that the
hypothesis is right which assumes that the letter was written
in the year B.C. 65, when Lucius Csesar and Figulus were
consuls elect. Atticus appears to have complied with the
request of his friend, and to have resided at Rome for the
next two or three years, for during that period there is a
blank in their correspondence, and it is not renewed until
the second year after Cicero's consulship.
1 Dio Cass. 37. 10. Cic. pro Sulla, 29. 91.
B.C. 65. PROSECUTION OF CATILINE. 89
The chief interest of the question is independent of the
fact whether Cicero did actually defend Catiline or not.
It is enough that we find him seriously contemplating the
intention, and using language with respect to the approach-
ing trial (whatever the charge may have been) which im-
plies that a packed jury had been secured. How could he
think of appearing in defence of such a man as Catiline,
whom, as we shall see, he soon afterwards bitterly attacked ?
If the profession of an advocate in ancient Rome had been
the same as it is in England, there would be no difficulty
in the matter, for the modern advocate does not concern
himself with the guilt or innocence or moral character of his
client. His duty is merely to deal with the legal evidence,
and to show if possible that it fails to bring the charge home
to the accused. And, except in some rare cases, he is by
the very fact of his profession understood to be under an
implied obligation to undertake the defence of the accused
if his assistance is required. But at Rome it was different.
The advocate there was conceived to have a much wider
discretion than we allow, and it was optional with him to
appear or not in any case as he thought fit. His services
were gratuitous, and he generally practised in the courts
with a view to qualify himself to become a successful candi-
date for public office. It is therefore remarkable that we
find Cicero not only ready to defend Catiline at his trial, but
ready to make common cause with him in canvassing for the
consulship. Are we to adopt the explanation at which
Cicero seems to hint in his speech in defence of Caelius at a
much later period of his life ? He there, in order to relieve
Caelius from the odium arising from his former intimacy
with Catiline, declares that he himself had formerly been
deceived in his estimate of that man's character, and had
thought him a good citizen and a firm and faithful friend.
But it is difficult to reconcile this view with the fact, that
not very long after he had told Atticus that he intended to
defend Catiline, and if he was acquitted hoped to have him
as an ally in his canvass, he delivered a speech in the Senate,
known as the oration in Toga Candida, in which he furiously
attacked him and upbraided him with all the infamy of his
past life. The truth is, that we must not look for perfect
90 ELECTION TO THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. VH.
consistency in Cicero, nor be surprised to find that, with a
political end in view, he was not as scrupulous as he ought
to have been about the means. I believe him to have been
one of the purest and most virtuous of the ancients, and in
some , respects to approach nearest to the character of a
Christian gentleman ; but I am far from thinking him fault-
less, and the highest Pagan morality, when " darkness
covered the earth, and gross darkness the people," was some-
thing very different from Christian principle.
In the same letter in which he announced his intention
of becoming a candidate and commencing his canvass for
the consulship in July of this year, he told Atticus that he
should perhaps take the opportunity of what we may call
a legal vacation 1 to go into Cisalpine Gaul (the modern
Piedmont and Lombardy) and stay there from September to
January, under the pretext of being Piso's lieutenant, in
order to canvass electors and secure votes.
The same letter shows how anxious he was at this time
to stand well with every one and offend nobody. Caecilius,
the rich and miserly uncle of Atticus, had, as he alleged,
been cheated by Varius out of a large sum of money. Varius
made a fraudulent assignment of his goods to his brother
Satrius ; and Caecilius brought an action (something like- our
action of trover) against Satrius, and wished Cicero to be his
counsel. But Satrius was on intimate terms with Cicero,
and had been of considerable use to both him and his
brother Quintus at other elections. And, besides, he was a
friend of Domitius Ahenobarbus, a wealthy and influential
nobleman upon whom Cicero says he chiefly depended for
attaining the object of his ambition. He pointed this out
to Csecilius and begged to decline the retainer ; but the old
usurer was much offended, and showed his displeasure by
dropping for a time the acquaintance. Writing to Atticus,
Cicero excuses himself for not appearing against Satrius in
his uncle's case, and puts it on the ground that he did not
like to be counsel against a man who was his friend, and in
distress ; but conscious that Atticus would guess the true
reason, he goes on to say : " If you like to take a harsher
view, you will think that reasons of ambition prevented me.
1 Cum Romse a jucliciis forum refrixerit.
JET. 42. BIRTH OF A SON. 91
Well, even if this be so, I think that I may be pardoned,
since it is no bagatelle that I strive for. For you see what
a race I am running, and how necessary it is for me not
only to retain but to acquire the good-will of everybody. I
certainly am anxious to do so."
Assuming that I am right in the date of the letter which
has reference to Cicero's intended defence of Catiline, it was
during this year that his only son was born. 1 For that
letter commences thus ; L. Julio Ccesare, C. Marcio Figulo
consulibns, filiolo me auctum scito, salua Tcrentid. It is cer-
tainly a stiff mode of announcing such an event to an inti-
mate friend : " Know that in the consulship of Caesar and
Figulus I have had an increase to my family by the birth of
a son, and Terentia is doing well." He then passes on to
talk of Catiline and his own prospects of the consulship.
The consuls for the next year, B.C. 64, were Lucius Julius
Caesar and Caius Marcius Figulus, who had assumed that
name on adoption, according to the Roman custom. His
original name was Thermes, and in a letter to Atticus, written
in the previous year, Cicero had expressed a hope that
Thermes would be Lucius Caesar's colleague ; because, if
not, he foresaw that he would be a formidable competitor to
himself on account of his popularity arising from his com-
pletion of the Flaminian Way, of which work he had the
superintendence. This Flaminian Way is now known as the
Corso, the principal street of modern Rome. It runs north
from the Capitol to the Piazza del Popolo, at the extremity
of which is the Porta del Popolo, the old Flaminian gate,
through which in after years the Via Flaminia passed and
crossed the Tiber over the Milvian bridge, the modern Ponte
Molle. But in the time of Cicero there was no" Flaminian
gate, which did not exist until the Aurelian wall was built,
embracing a much wider circuit than was occupied by the
city in the days of the republic. It is perhaps hardly neces-
sary to mention, that modern Rome is almost wholly con-
fined to what was the Campus Martius, then a green and
grassy plain, with a few monuments and public buildings,
and where some years afterwards M. Agrippa erected the
1 Middleton places the birth in the following year, when Lucius Caesar and
Figulus were actually consuls.
92 ELECTION TO THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vn.
stately Pantheon, and Augustus -placed that beautiful mau-
soleum for the ashes of his family, the first occupant of
which was the young Marcellus, so beloved and so lamented
by the whole of Rome.
Cicero was now actively in the field, and had six com-
petitors. These were Catiline and Galba, both of patrician
rank, and C. Antonius Hybrida (a younger son of the de-
ceased orator), L. Cassius Longinus, O. Cornificius, and C.
Licinius Sacerdos, all of the plebeian class. But both Antonius
and Longinus belonged to the class of nobiles that is, their
MAUSOLEUM OF AUGUSTUS,
families had held offices of state entitling them to the curule
chair ; and Cicero was the only candidate whose family was
of the equestrian order, and could boast of no public dignities.
This placed him at a great disadvantage, owing to the jealousy
felt by the proud nobles against the pretensions of one whom
they looked upon as an upstart, and he well knew the means
they had in their power of defeating his election. For they
were wealthy and influential, and wealth and influence had
all but omnipotent sway amongst the electors. On such oc-
casions unblushing bribery and corruption of all kinds were
B.C. 65. MODE OF ELECTING CONSULS. 93
freely resorted to. And it must be remembered that the
voters were not merely the populace of Rome. The Italian
towns that possessed the franchise contributed large numbers,
all of whom might be practised upon by his opponents.
Julius Caesar and Crassus openly espoused the side of
Catiline and Antonius, who had formed a coalition and
fought a common battle for the consulship. Antonius was
a man of bad character, and his name had been erased from
the list of senators by the censors. 1 So unscrupulous was
the agency at work to influence the election that the Senate
was called upon to interfere. A measure was proposed to
give more stringent effect to the laws against bribery and
corruption, but the tribune Orestinus interposed his veto.
This gave occasion to Cicero to deliver a speech known as y"
" the oration in the white robe," because as a candidate he
wore, according to the usual custom, a white toga (intended
perhaps to be emblematical of purity of election). It is un-
happily lost, and we possess only a few fragments preserved
by. Asconius. In it he attacked his two principal competitors
with unsparing severity, and thus laid the foundation of the
bitter hatred which Catiline felt towards him, and which, as
we shall see, culminated afterwards in an attempt upon his
life. They had, he said, on the previous night, together
with the agents they employed to bribe the electors, met at
the house of a man of rank notorious for the part he took in
that kind of corruption. 2 And he alluded to Catiline's
alleged criminal intercourse with Fabia, a vestal and the
sister of Terentia, contriving at the same time to damage his
opponent and save the honour of his sister-in-law, by saying
that Catiline's conduct was such that his very presence
raised a suspicion of guilt even where there was nothing
wrong.
This speech was delivered only a few days before the
comitia centuriata, or meeting of the centuries, was held in
1 The censors had this power. P. ground of poverty. By a statute passed
Lentulus, after having been consul B.C. in 17 Edw. IV., George Nevil, Duke of
7 1 , was expelled from the senate by the Bedford, was for that reason deprived
censors on account of his dissolute course of his peerage.
of life. There is an instance in English 3 According to Asconius it was
history of a peer being deprived of his either Csesar or Crassus who was here
dignity by Act of Parliament on the pointed at.
94 ELECTION TO THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. VH.
the Campus Martius, to determine the election of consuls,
which was conducted in the following manner :
The people assembled in the Campus Martius were told
off into their centuries, and it was then decided by lot which
century should vote first. A narrow passage fenced off on
each side, and called ponticulus, led into an enclosure called
septum, " barrier," or ovile, from its likeness to a sheep-pen,
and each of the voters passed along it. As he entered it he
was furnished by officers, called diribitores, with tickets, on
which were written the names of the candidates. At the
other end were placed urns or boxes into which he deposited
the name of the candidate or candidates for whom he wished
to vote, and when all the members of the century had voted
the tickets were taken out by scrutineers called custodes, and
the numbers were pricked on a tablet most probably smeared
with wax. The result was then announced, and the majority
of the individual votes determined the vote of the century.
That which came first was called the prcerogativa centuria,
and its vote generally determined the fate of the election.
The vote of the first century chosen by lot was taken as an
indication of the wish of the majority of the people, 1 and the
other centuries generally followed suit. The number of the
centuries was ninety-seven, and the election depended upon
the votes of the majority of the whole.
So great, however, was Cicero's popularity, that the electors,
instead of resorting to ballot, proclaimed him consul by loud
and unanimous shouts. 2 Antonius had the next greater
number of votes, beating Catiline by a small majority, and
the rest of the competitors appear to have been nowhere.
Cicero therefore, and Antonius, became the consuls-elect for
the following year, although they did not actually assume
office until the 1st of January. The triumph of Cicero was
greatly to the credit of the people. His only claims to their
suffrages were his splendid abilities and his unsullied char-
acter. - He was opposed by men of rank, and wealth, and
power, who were ready to buy votes as freely as they bought
merchandise, and against such a temptation he could only
1 Pro signo voluntatis futurse. In me uni versa civitas non prius tabella
Verr'\. 9. quam voce priorem consulem declaravit.
2 Me cuncta Italia, me omnes ordines, In Pisonem.
JET. 42.
ELECTED CONSUL.
95
rely upon popular gratitude for his services as an advocate
and a statesman, and his fame as an orator. Bad as was the
state of society at Rome, utterly bad as was the tone amongst
the upper classes, demoralised by long years of civil strife, it
is impossible not to believe that the heart of the people was
in some degree sound which could thus respond to the call
of genius and virtue, and reject the bribes that were freely
offered.
Most probably Cicero had been too busily occupied with
his canvass and the excitement of his election this year to
find much time for the duties of an advocate. At all events
we know of only one trial in which he was engaged, and that
was when he defended Q. Gallius, the praetor of the preced-
ing year, who was accused of having obtained his office
by illegal means in other words, by bribery and corruption.
The speech is lost, but it was successful, and Gallius was
acquitted.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CONSULSHIP.
JEt. 43- B-c. 63.
ClCERO had attained the summit of ambition. He was
Consul of Rome. As such he was entitled at the expiration
of his year of office to the government of a province, an
honourable and lucrative preferment which was naturally
much coveted ; and it was usual for the two consuls on the
day of their inauguration to draw lots for the provinces which
each was to obtain. Cicero, however, in the first speech that
he made in a crowded Senate on the very day he assumed
office the 1st of January publicly declared that he sought
neither a provincial government, nor honour, nor advantage,
nor anything which it would be in the power of a tribune of
the people to oppose. And he made this noble promise :
" I will, Conscript Fathers, so demean myself in this magis-
tracy as to be able to chastise the tribunes if they are at
enmity with the Republic, and despise them if they are at
enmity with myself." This was, indeed, as he himself de-
clared at the time, the only way in which the office could be
discharged with dignity and freedom ; but it was not the less
praiseworthy in him to commit himself to such an act of self-
denial, and look solely for his reward in the approval of his
own conscience and the regard of his fellow-citizens. Sallust
says that he had already won over his colleague Antonius, by
agreeing to resign to him the province that might fall to his
lot, in case it were better -worth having than the one which
B.C. 63. PROPOSED AGRARIAN LA W. 97
Antonius obtained. Afterwards, when the lots were drawn, N
and Cicero got Macedonia a tempting prize he at once
made it over to Antonius, and contented himself with Cis-
alpine Gaul. This, however, he did not retain, but voluntarily
gave it up and exerted himself to get it assigned to Q. Metellus
Celer.
At the very outset of his new career he distinguished him-
self by three remarkable triumphs as an orator. The first
of them is characterised by Niebuhr as " one of the most
brilliant achievements of eloquence." A bill called a lex
agraria was brought forward by the tribune P. Servilius
Rullus, the object of which was to create ten commissioners,
called Decemvirs, for five years, with power to dispose abso-
lutely, with a few exceptions, of the whole of the public lands
of the state, and out of the proceeds of the sale to purchase
other lands in Italy on which to settle colonies from Rome
They were also to have the entire control over all the prize
or booty taken in war, except such as was already in the
hands of Pompey, and if we may trust the account which
Cicero gives of the measure in his impassioned argument
against it, they would become in fact the uncontrolled
masters of the whole revenues of the Republic. He first
opposed the bill in the Senate in a speech of which a great
part is lost. He challenged Rullus, and those who supported
him, to meet him in the Forum, and let the people decide
between them. They deemed it more prudent not to accept
the challenge, but Cicero harangued the multitude from the
Rostra in two speeches, the first of which is remarkable for
its ability and power. He had a difficult part to play, for
the measure professed to be one of relief for the populace of
Rome, and the multitude that thronged the Forum that day
must at first have listened with unwilling ears to a speaker
whose object was to make them relinquish a proffered boon.
But he succeeded, and by a simple method. He told the
people that the proposed Decemvirate was nothing more nor
less than tyranny in disguise. The ten commissioners would
be ten kings, the name most hateful to Roman ears. From
first to last he impressed this upon his hearers, and drew a
startling and no doubt an exaggerated picture of what would
happen if the bill passed into a law.
H
98 THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vm.
He began by thanking the people for placing him in the
proud position in which he stood, and declared that he was
not opposed to the principle of an agrarian law as such. He
was not one of those, he said, who thought it a crime to praise
the Gracchi, whose measures and wisdom had been of such
service to the State. When, therefore, as consul-elect, he first
heard it mentioned that the tribunes intended to frame an
agrarian law, he was anxious to be admitted into their
counsels and assist at their deliberations. But they declined
his co-operation, and concocted the measure in darkness and
secrecy. At last he heard that it had been published, and
immediately sent to have a copy taken and brought to him.
He declared that he began to read it with a full determina-
tion to support it if it were a bill beneficial to their interests,
and one which a consul who was in the right sense of the
word a liberal (re non oratioue popularis] could readily and
with honour defend.
" But," he continued, "from the beginning of the first chapter to the end I
find that nothing else is intended or done than the creation of ten kings, who,
under the name and pretence of an agrarian law, are made the masters of the
public treasury, the revenues, all the provinces, the whole republic, the kingdoms,
the free nations in short, the whole world. I assure you, men of Rome, that by
this specious and popularity-hunting agrarian law nothing is given to you, but all
things are conferred on a few individuals ; a show is made of granting lands to
the Roman people, but in fact they are deprived of their liberty the wealth of
private persons is increased, but the public wealth is drained ; in short what is
the worst feature in the whole scheme by means of a tribune of the people, whom
our ancestors intended to be the protector and guardian of freedom, kings are es-
tablished in the state."
Having struck this chord, he rang the changes upon it
throughout his whole speech, and to make the proposed ap-
pointment more invidious, described the regal retinue which
the commissioners were to have as " the ministers and satellites
of their power." He drew a ludicrous sketch of Rullus going
to Sinope and sending a summons to Pompey, who was then
pursuing his career of conquest in the East, to attend him
while he put up to sale the lands which the great general
had won by his sword. And with reference to the object of
all this namely, the purchase of lands in Italy to be colonised
by citizens of Rome he showed how contemptuously Rullus
had spoken of them in the Senate, quoting the expression
he had used when he declared that " the populace was too
numerous, and must be drained off," as if forsooth, said Cicero,
JET. 43. SPEECH ON AGRARIAN LA W. 99
he were speaking of a sink or sewer, and not of a class of
excellent citizens. Would the people like to abandon all
the pleasures and delights of Rome, its liberties, its franchise,
its games, and its festivals, and be settled in the arid plains
of Sipontium, or the pestilential marshes of the Salapini ?
It was not safe to trust to these men the power of choosing
sites for colonisation. The policy of their ancestors had been
to plant colonies as a protection against danger, and to regard
them, not as mere towns of Italy, but bulwarks of the empire.
It was part of the plan to settle 5000 colonists in Capua, and
to distribute amongst them the public domains of Campania.
But Cicero warned them of the danger of allowing so im-
portant a city to be occupied by a large body of needy and
desperate men, who might then establish a new republic in
opposition to the old, and levy war against Rome herself,
and of the impolicy of surrendering the rich Campanian lands,
the fertile source of revenue to. the State. Did they forget,
he asked, how, during the Italian war, when all other revenues
were lost, their armies had been maintained by the produce
of the Campanian lands ? Were they ignorant that the
foreign sources of the public revenue were dependent on the
accidents of fortune and the hazards of war ? Of what use
to them were the ports of Asia and the plains of Syria, when
the alarm of war and piracy was abroad ? The revenue
from Campania was a home revenue, safe from the attacks of
enemies, and exposed to no vicissitudes of climate or of soil.
Such is a very brief outline of the argument of the speech
which Cicero delivered.
Rullus and his colleagues did not venture to answer him
on the spot, but they spread abroad the report that the reason
why he attacked the measure was because he wished to secure
the soldiers and partisans of Sylla in possession of the lands
which had been assigned to them by the dictator, and feared
lest they might be deprived of them by the operation of the
proposed law. He was therefore called upon to speak at
another meeting, when he briefly showed the absurdity of
the charge by pointing out that the bill expressly confirmed,
the title of those settlers, and that therefore he could have
no motive on that account for opposing it. He ended with
these words : " They are preparing an army against you,
ioo THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vm.
against your liberties, and against Pompey ; Capua against
Rome ; against you a bsEnd of desperate men ; against
Pompey ten generals. Let them come forward, and since
they have summoned me to address you at a public meeting,
let them now speak themselves." The result was, that the
bill was rejected.
The next measure on which he exerted the marvellous
power of his oratory, was one which was in itself eminently
just, but at the time inexpedient, and he therefore opposed
it. Sylla had not only proscribed individuals and families
who were the objects of his vengeance, but had confiscated
their property, and by a most iniquitous law decreed that
their descendants should be incapable of holding any public
office, and disqualified from becoming candidates. Never
had men a juster title to civic rights, not forfeited by any
crime or fault of their own, but torn from them by the strong
arm of a tyrant. They were numerous and influential, be-
longing, as many of them did, to the first families in Rome.
It seemed to be an act of only common justice to take off
the ban under which they lay, and they were actively prose-
cuting a petition to the Senate, the object of which was to
have their civic status restored. But what is just in politics
is not always expedient, or at all events is not always thought
so. In the present case there was danger, lest if the men
who had suffered under the tyrant's law got power into their
hands, they might use it for purposes of retaliation, and in-
testine strife would be the consequence. Cicero therefore
made a speech in opposition to their claim, and actually by
his eloquence persuaded them to abandon it.
Almost immediately afterwards he succeeded in quelling
a popular tumult in the same way. The people had never
forgiven Otho for the law of which he was the author four
years before, and by which particular seats were reserved for
the equestrian class at the theatres and public shows.
Whether there had been a delay until now in giving effect
to the law, or whether Otho, conscious of its unpopularity,
had hitherto abstained from appearing in the theatre, I know
not ; but it so happened that when he entered it at the be-
ginning of this year he was received with a storm of hisses.
The knights clapped their hands and applauded him. A
B.C. 63. CASE OF THE SENATOR RABIRIUS. 101
serious riot ensued, and Cicero was sent for. He invited the
people to follow him to the neighbouring temple of Bellona,
and there addressed them in an extempore speech known
as that pro L. Roscio Ot/wne, but now unfortunately lost
by which he completely appeased the anger of the crowd,
and restored them to good-humour. The only hint we have
of anything he said is what Macrobius tells us namely, that
he upbraided them for making such a noise and disturbance
while Roscius was acting. 1
History can record few such triumphs of eloquence as
these ; and well might the elder Pliny, in allusion to them,
exclaim with all the fervour of enthusiastic admiration, that
Cicero was the first who had deserved a civil triumph and
the " laurels of the tongue." 2
His next important speech was that in which he defended
the senator Rabirius, who was prosecuted by the tribune
Labienus for the alleged murder of Saturninus in a popular
tumult seven-and-thirty years before. The speech we have
is imperfect, so that it is hardly fair to criticise it ; but it X
seems to have been by no means one of his happiest efforts.
Saturninus was a tribune of the people, and a seditious dema-
gogue. He and others had seized on the Capitol and held
it with an armed band of followers, when the senate author-
ised the consuls to use the whole power of the state and
crush the insurrection. An attack was made on the Capitol-,
and Saturninus was slain in the conflict. A slave named
Scaeva came forward, and, avowing himself the author of the
deed, claimed a reward. Thirty-seven years had passed away
since then, and the affair must have been well-nigh forgotten,
when Attius Labienus accused Rabirius, then an aged
senator, of having killed Saturninus, whose person, as tribune
of the people, was inviolable, and he was put on his trial
1 It has been thought that Virgil had this scene in his eye when he wrote the
well-known lines (&n. i. 148-154)
Ac veluti magno in populo cum soepe coorta est
Seditio, scevitque animis ignobile vulgus ;
Jamque faces et saxa volant, furor arma ministrat ;
Turn pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quern
Conspexere, silent arrectisque auribus adstant ;
Ille regit dictis animos et pectora mulcet.
2 Hist. Nat. vii. 30.
102 THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vm.
before two special judges appointed by the praetor called
Duumviri. These were Julius Caesar and Lucius Caesar.
He was defended by Hortensius, who denied that his client
had killed Saturninus. Rabirius, however, was found guilty.
He was condemned to death, and sentenced to be crucified
in the Campus Martius like the meanest slave. He then
appealed to the people, and Cicero was his advocate before
the multitude assembled in the Campus Martius. By one
of those capricious acts of power which the tribunes pos-
sessed and so often abused, Labienus limited the speech to
half-an-hour, but Cicero adroitly turned this to the advantage
of his client. He said it was a proof that Labienus thought
that so short a time was more than enough for so clear a
defence. So far as we can gather from what remains of his
speech, the argument was simply this : capital punishment
was odious, and death by hanging ought never to be the
sentence against a Roman citizen. He was sorry he could
not assert that Rabirius had slain Saturninus, for Hortensius
had denied it ; but he had armed himself for the purpose,
and that was as bad, if it was a crime at all. But it was no
crime, as Saturninus deserved his fate, and Rabirius did right
in obeying the call of the consuls to assist in putting down
the sedition. When he declared that he wished he could
claim for Rabirius the honour of having killed Saturninus,
the enemy of the Roman people, he was interrupted by
shouts, and stopping suddenly, he exclaimed : " That clamour
does not disturb me ; but it comforts me, since it shows
that there are some ignorant citizens, but not many. The
Roman people who stand here silent would never, believe
me, have made me consul if, they thought I should be dis-
concerted by your clamour. How much less noisy you have
already become! Why do you keep back your voices,
which are a sign that you are foolish and a proof that you
are few ?"
The people, however, were unfavourable, and Rabirius
would have been again condemned had not Metellus Celer,
who was augur this year as well as praetor, bethought him-
self of an expedient to save him. There was almost always
some mode of stopping the business of a public meeting at
Rome, where such reverence was paid to legal formalities
JET. 43. THE CATILINE CONSPIRACY. 103
and superstitious observances. It seems that the comitia
could only go on while a flag waved on the Janiculum hill,
on the other side of the Tiber. 1 Metellus pulled down the
flag, and thus broke up the assembly. Labienus afterwards
abandoned the prosecution : the judgment of the duumvirs
was tacitly allowed to go for nothing, and Rabirius was
saved.
Cicero, also, in the course of the year, defended C. Cal-
purnius Piso, who had held the proconsular government of
Gaul. He was a stern and severe ruler. Cicero praises him,
in a letter to Atticus, as " the pacificator of the Allobroges ;"
but it was pacification much in the same sense as the well-
known saying, " order reigns at Warsaw." He was accused
of extortion, and also of having unjustly punished one of the
Gauls who were subject to his sway. Caesar, who was their
patron at Rome, conducted the prosecution, and Cicero
undertook the defence. The speech is lost ; but we know
that Piso was acquitted.
The crisis of Cicero's destiny was now approaching, for he
had to deal with the great Catiline conspiracy.
Lucius Sergius Catalina was born B.C. 106, in the same
year as Cicero himself. 2 He belonged to one of the oldest
of the patrician families in Rome. The Sergian gens traced
its proud pedigree back to Sergestus, one of the companions
of ^Eneas. His grandfather was M. Sergius, a soldier of
distinguished bravery. In the second Punic war he received
twenty-seven wounds and lost his right hand, but like Gotz
von Berlichingen in Goethe's drama, he supplied its loss with
an iron one. Catiline was - a bold and desperate man. He
was steeped in murder from his earliest youth. In the civil
wars of Syllahe killed with his own hand his brother-in-law;
and tortured to death Marius Gratidianus, a kinsman of
Cicero, and carried his bloody head through the streets of
Rome. He was suspected of an intrigue with Fabia, the
1 The origin of this no doubt was, that The observance of the custom long out-
in early times the flag was hoisted as a lived its necessity.
signal that all was safe on the Etruscan 2 It may be interesting to mention
side. If it was hauled down, it gave that Augustus Cassar was born in the
notice that invaders were approaching, year of Cicero's consulship.
io 4 THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vm.
sister-in-law of Cicero, and a vestal virgin. She was tried on
the capital charge, for the penalty of such an offence in a
vestal was death ; but she was acquitted. He is said to have
murdered his own son in order to marry Aurelia Orestilla,
who objected to having a stepson in her family. Niebuhr
says of him, " he was so completely diabolical, that I know
no one in history that can be compared with him ; and you
may rely upon it that the colours in which his character is
described are not too dark, though we may reject the story
of his slaughtering a child at the time when he administered
an oath to his associates." Cicero declared that there never
before was seen on earth such a monster made of opposite
and contradictory characters, and that he himself at one time
was almost deceived by the better qualities of his nature
Thus with each gift of nature and of art,
And wanting nothing but an honest heart.
As in the case of Verres, so also in the case of Catiline,
some attempts have recently been made to whitewash his
character, and represent him as the victim of calumny. In
his Histoire de Jules Cesar the Emperor Napoleon III. hints
that the accusation against Catiline of being steeped in pri-
vate vices is due to the violence of political party ; and then,
with some inconsistency, he goes on, in an apologetic tone,
to say that such vices were common amongst his contem-
poraries. But if so, the charge is only the more likely to be
true. The Emperor adds, that Catiline could not meditate
anything so senseless as massacre and conflagration : " this
would have been to reign over ruins and tombs." But the
records of history and biography are worth nothing if we
may not accept the unanimous statement of contemporaries
respecting the character of a man who must have been per-
fectly well-known ; and to reason from probabilities eighteen
hundred years afterwards, and attempt to reverse the verdict
which was then pronounced, upon the positive testimony of
those amongst whom he lived, and with whom he associated,
is a hopeless task. Much stress is laid upon the inconsistency
of the portrait which Cicero himself has drawn of Catiline,
and which I shall afterwards have occasion to quote more at
length ; but it will be found that such praise as the orator
y bestowed upon him, in his defence of Ccelius, who had once
7TO
B.C. 63. CHARACTER OF CATILINE. 105
been intimate with Catiline, is praise of his intellectual and
not of his moral qualities. He admits that he was originally
virtuous ; but says that he afterwards simulated virtue to
compass the basest ends. He was in fact a consummate
hypocrite, and seems to have deceived many, until the time
came when he thought that his plans were ripe, and, throw-
ing off the mask, he stood forth in all the odious villany of
his nature. Make what allowance we will for exaggeration,
enough remains to stamp Catiline as one of the worst men
in the worst period of Rome's history. 1 He was of immense
stature and prodigious strength. Like Saul, " from his
shoulders upwards he was higher than any of the people."
Sallust has drawn a picture to the life of the brawny giant,
tortured with the stings of a guilty conscience ; his pallid
cheeks, his bloodshot eyes, and his unsteady step, showed |
how remorse was preying on his soul. He gathered around
him the dissolute youth of Rome, and became the pimp and
pander of their licentious pleasures, exacting from them in
return the use of their daggers whenever he had an enemy
whom he wished to murder. 2 He was elected praetor, and
after the expiration of his office became governor of Africa.
He was then accused by Clodius of extortion and embezzle-
ment, and tried on the charge, but acquitted. Cicero had,
as we have seen, already crossed the path of his ambition ;
and he knew that in him as consul he would find his most
resolute opponent. His plan was to obtain the consulship,
and then by means of armed violence make himself master
of Rome. For this purpose he had been gradually collect-
ing, by means of his emissaries in different parts of Italy, a
band of needy and disaffected men, ready for any desperate
enterprise. The place of rendezvous was Faesulse (the
modern Fiesole), a town that commanded the northern pass
of the Apennines, and looked down from its lofty height
upon the valley of the Arno. On the other side of it, far-
ther towards the north, is still pointed out the site of the
camp of Hannibal, where tradition tells us that the Cartha-
1 It is curious to see the perverted 2 For the character of Catiline see/;
ingenuity with which some men will Ccelio, c. 5, 6 ; in Cat. ii. 4; Sallust,,
maintain a paradox. De Quincey has Bell. Cat. 5 & 15 ; Plut. Sail. c. 32 ;
undertaken the defence of Judas Iscariot, Flor. iv. I ; Veil. Pat. ii. 34 j Liv.
and Coleridge thinks it not improbable Epit. 102.
that Job's wife has been calumniated.
io6 THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vm.
ginian fcader halted on his march to Rome before the battle
of the Thrasymene lake. Faesulae was occupied by one of
his creatures, Caius Manlius, a veteran centurion of the old
army of Sylla, under whose orders the motely groups, as
they arrived, were directed to place themselves, and there
await the signal for revolt.
Catiline's chief chance of success in his canvass for the
consulship lay in the unscrupulous use of bribery ; and to
prevent this, if possible, Cicero brought forward and got the
people to pass a law which punished the offence with banish-
ment for ten years, and enacted that it should not be lawful
for a candidate for public office to exhibit any gladiatorial
shows during the period of two years before the election,
unless he was called upon to do so by the will of a testator
whose property he inherited. The object of this no cloubt
was to deprive candidates like Catiline of the excuse of keep-
ing in their pay bodies of armed men to overawe the election,
and create tumult and disorder. He knew that the new law
was levelled at himself; and, frantic with rage, he hired
assassins, who were to attack and murder Cicero in the
Campus Martius, at the meeting held for the election of
consuls. The day fixed for the comitia was the 26th day
of October, but the consul was warned in time. On the
previous day he discovered in the Senate the plot against
his life, and, getting the comitia put off, challenged Catiline
to appear next day, and answer him to his face. Catiline
came, and, with the reckless audacity of his nature (tit semper
fuit apertissimus, says Cicero), avowed his design, saying that
there were two bodies in the state (meaning the Senate and
the people), one of which was infirm with a weak head, the
other was strong but had no head. He would, however,
take care that while he lived, it a head should not be
wanting. Hearing his bold avowal, the Senate in alarm
immediately armed the consuls with full power to take such
measures as they deemed right, by passing the well-known
resolution ut consules viderent ne quid detrimenti respublica
/ caperet. The comitia were held the next day, and Cicero,
putting on a breastplate of glittering steel that all might see
the reality of his apprehension of the danger that threatened
him, went to the Campus Martius surrounded by a body of
*rr. 43. PLOT TO ASSASSINATE CICERO, 107
armed attendants. Catiline was there with his band of
ruffians, but did not venture to attack the strongly-guarded
consul. The election took place without a riot, and Catiline
was again defeated. Junius Silanus and Licinius Murena
were declared the consuls-elect. This second repulse made
Catiline furious ; and that very night he and his fellow-
conspirators met at the house of Porcius Lseca, and planned
the destruction of the city by fire and sword. The great
obstacle in their way was Cicero, and he must be got rid
of. Two of the party whose names are differently given by
different authors 1 undertook to murder him next morning,
by gaining admission to his house under the pretence of an
early visit to pay their respects according to the Roman
custom. Fulvia, the mistress of one of the conspirators, got
intelligence of the plot just in time to put him on his guard.
When the two assassins reached his house in the gray dawn
of the morning they found it closely barricaded, and were
denied admittance. Cicero summoned the Senate to meet
him next day, the 8th of November, in the temple of Jupiter
Stator, the ruins of which are still seen in the Forum. The
news of the nefarious plot got wind, and when Catiline
showed himself in the hall he was received with an ominous
silence ; not an acquaintance spoke to him, and when he
approached his seat, the senators who were near moved away
and left their places.
It was then that Cicero rose and burst forth with that pas-
sionate appeal : 2
"How long, Catiline, will you abuse our patience? How long will that fury
of yours baffle us ? To what lengths will your unbridled audacity extend ? Do
you stand unmoved at the sight of the guard that garrisons the Palatine at night
the watches that patrol the city the terror of the people the concourse of
well-affected citizens this strongly-defended place of meeting for the Senate the
looks and countenance of all those around you ? Do you not feel conscious that
your plans have been discovered ? Do you not see that your conspiracy is known
to all here ? Which of us, think you, is ignorant of what you did last night and
the night before, where you were, the persons you met in conclave, the plot you
formed ? What times we live in ! What a state of morals is disclosed ! The
1 Sallust mentions C. Cornelius and livered in the Senate on the 8th of
L. Vargunteius ; Plutarch, Marcius November ; the second to the people
and Cethegus ; Cicero (pro Snlld, 6) on the following day ; the third to the
names only Cornelius. people on the 3d of December ; the
2 The dates of the Catiline orations fourth in the Senate on the 5th of
are these : The first speech was de- December.
io8 THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vm.
Senate is aware of all' this the consul sees it, and yet this man lives ! Lives, do
I say ? Aye, even comes to the Senate ; takes part in the council of the nation ;
marks out and designates with his eyes each one of us for slaughter. We, on the
other hand, brave men that we are, fancy that we do our duty to the Republic if
we manage to escape his fury and his weapons. Long ago, Catiline, you ought,
by the consul's order, to have been led forth to execution ; and on your head ought
to have been hurled the destruction which you have long been plotting against us
all."
And so he went on in a strain of indignant eloquence.
He reminded the Senate how the Gracchi and Melius and
Saturninus and Servilius had been put to death for conspiracy
against the state, and said he almost reproached himself for
allowing Catiline to live. But his apology was this : If
Catiline was prematurely dragged to the scaffold, the roots
of the conspiracy would remain. His punishment must
overtake him when, with his accomplices in crime, he joined
the camp of Manlius in open and undisguised rebellion. He
therefore called upon him to rid the city of his and their
detested presence; and if he wished to justify the cry which
sent him away an exile from Rome, he would hasten to the
brigands who were his associates, and levy war against his
country. Face to face he upbraided him with the infamy of
his past career ; and, alluding to the murder of his son by
his own hand, said that he would not be more explicit, lest
it should be known that so terrible a crime had been com-
mitted in Rome, or that the criminal had not been punished.
At the end of this terrible invective Catiline rose and at-
tempted to speak. He began by imploring the Senate not
to judge him hastily or harshly, and reminded them that he
was sprung from a family which had rendered many services
to the state. It was not likely that he, a patrician, should
be the destroyer of the Republic, and a man like Cicero, a
mere provincial, 1 its saviour. Here, however, his voice was
drowned by loud cries of " Traitor ! Parricide 1 " which
assailed him on all sides. He stopped, and glaring furiously
around, exclaimed, " Since then I am driven headlong by my
enemies, I will extinguish the conflagration of which I am
the victim in the common ruin of all." He quitted the
Senate-house, and after conferring at his own house with the
chief leaders of the conspiracy, and assuring them that he
1 Inquilinus, a tenant or occupier of a house, as distinguished from the owner.
Perhaps the meaning is, that Cicero was a mere "lodger" as compared with
Catiline, a patrician "householder" of Rome.
B.C. 63. INVECTIVE AGAINST CATILINE. 109
would soon be at the gates of Rome with an army, he that
night left the city with a few associates and made for the
camp of Manlius. There we will follow him after mention-
ing the events that occurred at Rome.
The next day Cicero addressed the people at a public
meeting in the Forum. He began by congratulating them
on the flight of Catiline, and said he only regretted that so
few had accompanied him. His prayer was, that the rest
would follow him. " I will point out the road," he said : "he
has gone along the Aurelian way ; if they wish to make haste
they will overtake him this evening." He excused himself
on the same grounds as he had alleged in the Senate the day
before for letting Catiline escape. The catastrophe that
would overwhelm the traitors was imminent and certain.
Abroad Rome was at peace with the whole world, and she
had now only to contend with an internal foe. Some said
that he had acted harshly, and pretended to believe that
Catiline would consider himself in banishment and go quietly
to Marseilles. If so, they might say of him what they liked;
he was content to be charged with driving Catiline into
banishment, but he prophesied that in three days they would
hear of him at the head of an army of rebels. He then de-
scribed the character of the partisans of Catiline who were
still left in Rome, and again urged them to go. They would
find no sentries at the gates ; no ambuscades to attack them
on the road. If, however, they chose to stay, let them
beware. If they stirred in their nefarious plot they would
find the consuls and magistrates and Senate prepared ; and
would expiate their guilt in that prison which their ancestors
intended to be the scene of the punishment of open and
notorious crimes. He concluded by calling on the people to
pray to the gods who so visibly preserved them to continue
to protect the city, now that all external enemies were over-
come, against the wicked attempts of abandoned citizens.
Catiline and Manlius were immediately declared public
enemies by the Senate, and a certain time was given to the
rebel forces to lay down their arms or incur the penalties of
treason. The great object was to obtain legal proof to
warrant the arrest of the chief conspirators who remained in
Rome. This was by no means easy, for such was the
1 10 THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP, vm .
fidelity of the conspirators to each other, and so closely was
the plot concealed, that notwithstanding a large reward was
offered for the discovery, not an informer came forward.
But an opportunity soon occurred of which Cicero dexter-
ously availed himself. There happened to be at this time
in Rome some envoys from the Allobroges, 1 a people whose
territory was nearly identical with the limits of modern
Savoy ; and the conspirators thought that if the flames of
war could be kindled in Gaul beyond the Alps, a useful
diversion might be made in their favour. They therefore
sounded the ambassadors through Umbrenus, a Roman
freedman, who had been in their country, and was probably
personally acquainted with them. The result was, that the
whole plot was disclosed to them, and they promised to aid
it to the utmost of their power. But whether they intended
treachery from the first, or were frightened at the idea of
compromising themselves, or wished to curry favour with
the Senate, they, after some little hesitation, revealed the
secret to Q. Fabius Sanga, who was the patron of their
nation at Rome, and he immediately communicated the
information to Cicero. This he afterwards declared, in ad-
dressing the people from the Rostra, was nothing less than
the finger of Providence : " For who could have expected
the ambassadors of a restless and discontented people like
the Gauls to resist the splendid offers made to them by
patrician nobles, and prefer the safety of Rome to their own
advantage ?"
The advice he gave was, that they should pretend to enter
heartily into the plot, and entrap the conspirators by obtain-
ing written evidence of their guilt With this view they, at
the next meeting, asked for papers which they might show
to their countrymen at home, as credentials to vouch for the
truth of the story they would have to tell. Letters were
accordingly written, and amongst them, two which bore the
seals of Lentulus and Cethegus. Furnished with these, the
ambassadors prepared to leave Rome. One of the conspira-
tors, named Vulturcius, was to accompany them and intro-
duce them to Catiline as they passed through Etruria.
Cicero was kept informed by them of all that was going on,
1 Plutarch says there were only two.
AST. 43. CONSPIRATORS ARRESTED. in
and he took his measures accordingly. The envoys were to
set out on their journey at nightfall, and he directed two of
the praetors to take a guard with them and post themselves
in ambush, in two parties, at each end of the Milvian bridge
(now the Ponte Molle), about a couple of miles from the old
city walls, across which the Allobroges would pass. When
they came up to the spot the soldiers rushed forward, and
after a scuffle in which swords were drawn on both sides,
made them prisoners. They were brought to Cicero's house
just as the day was beginning to dawn, and the letters they
carried were taken from them. The news of the event soon
spread, and the consul's house was filled by an eager and
anxious crowd of inquiring friends. They advised him to
open the letters before bringing the matter before the Senate,
lest if their contents turned out to be of no importance he
might be censured for rashness in causing such a commotion
without good grounds. He of course knew that there was
no fear of this, and told them that in a case of public danger
he would lay the matter as it stood before the public council.
He immediately summoned a meeting of the Senate, and
sent messengers to invite four of the principal conspirators
Gabinius, Statilius, Lentulus, and Cethegus to come to
his house. They came, little knowing that he held in his
hands the damning proofs of their treason. At the same
time, on a hint from the ambassadors, he directed the praetor
Sulpicius to go to the house of Cethegus and search for arms
and a great quantity of swords and daggers were found there
all ready for instant use.
The Senate had by this time met in the Temple of Con-
cord, and were impatiently waiting for Cicero's arrival. He
took with him the envoys and the four conspirators, and
passed through the crowded streets attended by a strong
guard of citizens. It is easy to imagine the procession as it
approached the temple : the consul with his lictors and their
fasces in the midst of the throng, his look elate, and his face
flushed with the consciousness of coming victory ; the uncouth
Gauls in their barbarian attire ; the guilty conspirators affect-
ing unconcern, but weighed down by the fear of some terrible
discovery. The temple was guarded by a body of armed
knights, with Atticus at their head, and Cicero entered it
112
THE CONSULSHIP.
CHAP. VIII.
accompanied by Lentulus and Cethegus, who were senators,
but the rest were left in custody outside. He unfolded the
tale he had to tell, and Vulturcius was called in to be ex-
amined. By order of the Senate, Cicero offered him a free
pardon if he would tell the truth and discover all he knew,
and after some little hesitation Vulturcius made a clean
breast of it. He confessed that Lentulus had furnished him
with a letter and instructions to Catiline, urging him to arm
a body of slaves and approach the city, in order to cut off
TEMPLE OF CONCORD. RESTORED BY CAV. CANJNA.
the fugitives while fire and slaughter were raging within the
walls. The ambassadors were next brought in. They told
the Senate that the conspirators had given them the letters
and a written oath which was found upon them ; that they
were instructed to send a body of cavalry into Italy ; that
Lentulus had assured them it was written in the Sibylline
books and foretold by augurs that he was to be king of
Rome ; and that there was a dispute as to the time when the
city should "be set on fire and the massacre begin.
B.C. 63. THE CONSPIRATORS CONFESS. 113
A letter was then shown to Cethegus, with its seal un-
broken and thread uncut He acknowledged the seal to be
his, and the letter was opened in his presence. In it he
promised the Senate and people of the Allobroges that he
would make good what he had told the ambassadors, and
entreated them to perform what those ambassadors had un-
dertaken for them. Up to this time Cethegus had put on
a bold front, and when asked to explain the discovery of
arms in his house, had answered that he was fond of collect-
ing choice weapons. The production of the letter, however,
confounded him, and he sat silent.
Lentulus was next asked whether he recognised his seal.
He said, Yes ! It bore the likeness of his grandfather ; and
Cicero upbraided him for using it for such a purpose. Its
dumb significance ought, he said, to have deterred him from
so great a crime. The letter was to the same effect as that
written by Cethegus ; and he was told he was at liberty to
speak in his own defence. At first he refused to say a
word, but at last he rose and began to cross-examine the
ambassadors and Vulturcius, pretending to be ignorant of
the object of their visits to his house. Suddenly, and to the
surprise of all, instead of denying what they alleged, he
avowed it ; and at that moment another letter was produced
which Vulturcius declared had been given to him by Len-
tulus for Catiline. Lentulus admitted his seal and hand-
writing, but showed visible signs of consternation. The letter
was short and guarded, without any signature. It urged
Catiline to collect forces from all quarters, even of the lowest
rabble. Gabinius was now brought in, and he too at first,
like the others, denied his guilt, but ended by admitting it.
Statilius also made a full confession ; and they were all
separately handed over to different persons, who became
answerable for their safe custody. There was a difficulty
about dealing with Lentulus, who, as praetor, could hardly
be held in arrest, but he relieved them of it by abdicating
his office, and he was assigned to Lentulus Spinther, one of
the aediles and a relative, Cethegus to Q. Cornificius, Stati-
lius to Julius Caesar, and Gabinius to Crassus. Orders were
also given for the arrest of five others ; and Cicero mentions
it as a proof of the clemency of the Senate, that it was con-
I
ii4 THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vm.
tent with the punishment of these nine men out of the num-
bers who were implicated in the wide-spread conspiracy.
According to Sallust, Catulus and Piso tried hard to induce
Cicero to suborn evidence to accuse Caesar of being a party
to the plot, but it is needless to say that he refused to lend
himself to so foul a scheme. Sallust adds, that as Caesar
left the temple, some of the knights approached him and
threatened him with their swords. They were, however, pre-
vented from attacking him ; and Plutarch says that the
consul threw his cloak round him and hurried him away. 1
It was now late in the evening, and from the Temple of
Concord he crossed over to the Rostra, which was only a
few paces distant, and addressed the people. He told them
all that had been done ; and fearing that he might be
reproached for letting Catiline escape, took pains to show,
that if he had remained in Rome things might have had a
very different issue. Catiline would not have been such a
fool as to fall into the trap which had been set for Lentulus,
Cethegus, and the rest He would never have set his seal
to letters which contained such manifest evidence of his guilt.
In what had happened they should recognise the hand of
Jupiter Optimus Maximus, whose statue, by a singular coin-
cidence, was erected in the Capitol on that very morning,
while the conspirators were conducted through the Forum,
and looking down upon the senate-house saw the whole
machinations of the plot unravelled and disclosed. But
while piously attributing his success to the guidance of
heaven, Cicero did not forget himself. And if ever pride or
even vanity was justifiable, this was a moment in which it
might fairly be allowed. He asked however from them no
1 An attempt was made to implicate them did believe it, but there were too
Crassus in the conspiracy, but failed. A many who were under private obliga-
man named Tarquinius, who had been tions to the wealthy noble. They re-
just apprehended on his way to join solved, however, on the motion of
Catiline, was brought before the Senate, Cicero, that the information was false,
and he declared that he had been sent and that Tarquinius should be impris-
by Crassus to tell Catiline not to be dis- oned until he disclosed the name of the
heartened by the arrest of Lentulus and person who had suborned him to give
the rest, but to hasten to Rome and take the evidence. Sallust adds, that he
measures to rescue them. But the sena- heard Crassus afterwards declare, that
tors refused to believe the tale, and with the author of the calumny was Cicero
cries of indignation insisted that it was himself an accusation which we are at
false. Sallust insinuates that some of liberty entirely to disbelieve.
^;T. 43- HONOURS DECREED TO CICERO. 115
mark of honour, no reward, no monument to his glory, but
the everlasting memory of that day. He wished all honours
and rewards to be summed up in their simple gratitude. " In
your memories, men of Rome," he exclaimed, " my fame will
live ; it will be the subject of your private talk ; it will be per-
petuated and endure in the annals of literature ; and I feel
that the same day, which I trust will never be forgotten, is
consecrated to the safety of the city and the recollection of my
consulship." He called on them to be his protection against
the enemies his conduct had provoked, and dismissed them to
their homes, as it was then already dark, with an admonition
to worship Jupiter, the guardian of Rome's safety and their own,
and to relax nothing of the vigilance which they had hitherto
displayed. It would be his care that this should not be long
required, and that they should enjoy lasting tranquillity.
He then retired, escorted on his way by the cheering
crowd to the house of a friend, for his own was occupied by
women who, with Terentia and the vestal virgins, were
celebrating the mysteries of the Bona Dea, of which I will
speak more hereafter, and upon which no man might venture
to intrude. Plutarch says, that soon afterwards Terentia
came to him, and informed him of a portent that had just
happened. As the fire on the altar was dying out, a bright
flame had suddenly leaped forth from the ashes, and the
vestals declared it was a good omen to encourage him to
execute what he had resolved for the good of his country.
He adds that Terentia, " as she was otherwise in her own
nature neither tender-hearted rior timorous, but a woman
eager for distinction," excited her husband against the con-
spirators, as also did his brother Quintus, and Publius Nigi-
dius, one of his intimate and most trusted friends.
Rewards were given to the Allobroges' envoys and to
Vulturcius, and in the Senate Catulus bestowed on Cicero the
glorious appellation of " Father of his country." Lucius
Gellius also declared his opinion that he was entitled to a
civic crown.
A public thanksgiving to the gods was decreed for the
services he had rendered " in preserving," so ran the resolu-
tion, "the city from conflagration the citizens from massacre
Italy from war." An unheard-of honour, which hitherto
1 1 6 THE CONS ULSHIP. CHAP, vn i .
no civilian had enjoyed, it having been reserved exclusively
for military success.
There were no reporters in ancient Rome, although steno-
graphy was well known, and while the accused were under
examination, Cicero directed four of the senators to take
down the questions and answers, and the statements of the
informers. These he had copied by a number of hands, and
distributed to the people. He also sent copies all over Italy,
and to the distant provinces.
The next question was how to deal with the conspirators
under arrest; and on the following day, the 5th of Decem-
ber, the Senate met to determine it. Cicero, as consul,
brought the matter before them, and called on Silanus, one
of the consuls-elect for the following year, to speak first.
Silanus gave it as his opinion that they should be put to
death. Julius Caesar then rose, and in a long speech declared
that he would vote for any punishment short of death. He
proposed that the conspirators should be distributed in dun-
geons amongst certain Italian towns, and there kept in close
imprisonment for life ; that those towns should be respon-
sible for their safe custody under severe penalties ; that their
property should be confiscated ; and that no one should be
allowed to propose hereafter a remission of their sentence.
Cicero seems to have risen next, and in a speech of consum-
mate art, while affecting to hold the balance evenly between
the two opinions, and summing up the arguments on both
sides with almost judicial fairness, he took care to impress
upon his hearers that no punishment was too great for the
crime, and to show that he as consul was quite ready to
execute their sentence, whatever it might be. 1 For what
might happen to himself he cared not ; he believed that he
was safe, and walled round, as it were, by the gratitude of
his countrymen but if he fell a victim to the attacks of his
enemies, he commended his youthful son to their care, who
would find not only safety but honour in their recollection
that he was the child of the man who, with danger only to
himself, had been the saviour of them all. He called upon
1 Mr. Merivale (Plistory of the Ro- The utmost that can be made of his
mans tinder the Empire, i. 137) says, speech is to say that it showed no dis-
that " Cicero himself demanded a sen- inclination to the capital sentence,
tence of death." But this is incorrect.
B.C. 63. THE CONSPIRATORS SENTENCED. 117
them to decide quickly and firmly. The question was one
that concerned the safety of the Senate, of the Roman
people, their wives and children, their altars and their hearths,
their shrines and temples, the salvation of the city and of
Italy, their freedom, their empire, in short the whole com-
monwealth. They had in him a consul who would not
shrink from obeying their decree, and who would defend it
as long as his life lasted. 1
A great number of senators followed, whose names are
given by Cicero in one of his letters to Atticus at a later
period, and they all inclined to the opinion of Caesar,
until Porcius Cato rose and gave a new turn to the debate.
He spoke vehemently in favour of the capital punishment,
and said, that as the conspirators had confessed, they should
be treated as men convicted of capital crimes, and suffer
accordingly.
His speech decided the fate of the criminals. The Senate
voted for death. This sentence seems to have embraced
only five of the conspirators Lentulus, Cethegus, Gabinius,
and Statilius, whose letters had been found on the Allobroges
ambassadors, and also Caeparius. Cicero, as chief magistrate,
lost not a moment in putting it into execution.
On the left hand facing the Forum, at the north-east ex-
tremity or corner, and on the southern face of the Capitol,
are two subterranean chambers or vaults, one below the
other, into which the visitor now descends by stone stairs.
This is the Mamertine prison. It was and still is a terrible
place. Anciently there were no steps leading down to the
lower dungeon, but the unhappy victims were let down into
it through a hole in the roof, which still exists. It is difficult
at first sight to make out whether these dungeons are cut
out of the solid rock, or built of enormous blocks of stone in
the style of Etruscan architecture. At all events there is
no doubt that they are an Etruscan work ; and they are
generally attributed to Ancus Martius. But others think
that Servius Tullius ought to have the credit of being the
builder or rather digger of this horrible gaol. Probably it
was commenced by the first-named king, and finished or
1 Sallust makes no mention of Cicero's voured to detract as much as possible
*peech. He hated him, and endea- from his fame.
>
n8 THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vm.
enlarged by the second, from whom it took the name of
Tullianum, for it was not called the Mamertine until the
middle ages, and for what reason it is difficult to say. It
was in the lowest of the two dungeons that Jugurtha the
Numidian king was starved to death. On being let down
into its gloomy depth he cried out, either in madness or in
irony: "How cold, Romans, is this bath of yours!" The
small church of S. Giuseppe dei Falegnami stands above it,
on the ground which in the lapse of ages has been heaped
up against the declivity of the hill. But formerly stairs
called Gaemoniae used to lead up to the mouth of the prison,
from which criminals were thrown and killed. 1
The house in which Lentulus was confined stood on the
Palatine hill, opposite to the Temple of Concord, and thither
Cicero went (Plutarch says with the Senate) attended by a
guard. He took him from the custody of his relative Len-
tulus Spinther, and returned along the Via Sacra through
the crowded Forum nearly to the foot of the Capitol, when
turning off to the right he crossed over to the Mamertine
prison, and there delivered him to the gaoler. The other
four condemned conspirators were brought by the praetors
to the same place, 2 and all were strangled in the gloomy
vaults. Cicero waited until the executions were over, and
then turning to the multitude, who stood in awe-struck silence
below, he announced the doom of the traitors by crying out
in a loud voice, " Vixernnt /" " for so," says Plutarch, " the
Romans, to void inauspicious language, name those that
are dead."
He descended into the Forum, and returned to his own
house. The people thronged round him with acclaiming
shouts, and it was perhaps then that Cato also, as we are
told by Appian, hailed him father of his country. " A bright
light," says Plutarch, "shone through the streets from the
1 According to Roman Catholic tra- the legend, the spring and its water is
dition St. Peter was confined in the delicious still exists.
lower dungeon in the reign of Nero.
The story is that the apostle here con- 2 Plutarch says that each of the con-
verted the gaoler and several of his spirators was brought separately by
fellow-prisoners, and that in order to Cicero to the prison, but this is not
obtain water to baptize them, he created very likely ; and another account as-
a miraculous spring in the floor of the signs that duty to the proctors, as stated
vault. Whatever may be thought of in the text.
JET. 43. QUESTION OF LEGALITY. 119
lamps and torches set up at the doors, and the vomen showed
lights from the tops of the houses in honour of Cicero, and
to behold him returning with a splendid train of the principal
citizens."
He always looked back to this as the proudest moment of
his life, and yet it was the beginning of infinite sorrow and
trouble to him, for, as we shall see, his exile from Rome and
the ruin of his fortunes may be distinctly traced to his con-
duct on this day. He had put to death Roman citizens
without a trial ; and this was the accusation which was hence-
forth to be the watchword of his enemies, and to overshadow
the rest of his life.
It cannot, I think, be doubted that the Senate in decreeing
instant death as the punishment of the conspirators made a
great mistake. When the National Convention of France
in 1793 voted for the death of Louis XVI., he had already
been tried and convicted (however infamous the trial was),
and the only question left was the nature of the sentence.
Lentulus and his associates had not been tried at all. The
Senate was not a judicial tribunal, and had no power given
it by the constitution to inflict the penalty of death. This
was the sole prerogative of the sovereign people, and was
expressly provided for by law.
I cannot, therefore, understand how Niebuhr is justified
in saying, as he does, " There is no question that the con-
spirators were lost, according to the Roman law, and the
only thing required to make their execution legal was to
prove the identity of their signatures." 1 It is true, indeed,
that the consuls had been invested with supreme authority
and, perhaps, this gave them the absolute power of life and
death but we must remember that by referring the question
to the Senate, they in fact abdicated the power, and threw
upon that body the responsibility of the decision. 2
Let us now turn to Catiline. On quitting the city he
t Hist, of Rome, \. 25. was that this act of the most brutal
tyranny should be consummated by the
2 Mommsen, who depreciates Cicero least self-possessed and most timid of
in every possible way, and hardly ever all Roman statesmen, and that ' the
speaks of him except in a tone of con- first democratic consul ' was raised to
tempt, says ( Gesch. Rom. bk. v. chap. 5), that post to destroy the palladium of
"The humorous feature, which is sel- old Roman freedom the right of appeal
(lorn wanting in an historical tragedy, to the people.''
120 THE CONSULSHIP, CHAP. vm.
joined Manlius in Etruria, and when he heard of the arrest
and execution of the conspirators in Rome he prepared to
march with his rebel forces, not less than twenty thousand
strong, into Gaul, crossing the Apennines by the pass of
Faesulae. But Q. Metellus Celer, who was one of the
praetors this year, lay with a considerable force in the Pice-
nian territory, not far from Rimini; and, crossing rapidly to
Faesulae, he took possession of the heights with his legions,
so as to bar the passage in that direction. The command
of the army that was to advance from Rome' against Catiline
had been entrusted to Antonius, while Cicero remained in
the city. He marched into Etruria on the track of the con-
spirators, and Catiline was thus placed between two fires.
Metellus closed the avenue of escape to the north by Faesulae,
and Antonius was coming up from the south. On his right
lay the Apennines, and in that direction, towards the east,
there could be no hope of safety. He therefore turned to
the left, and marching along the north side of the broad
valley of the Arno, made for Pistoria (the modern Pistoia),
intending to force his way to the west across the Apennines,
whose wooded ranges rise above the town, and so escape
with his companions into Gaul. But the Roman legions
came up with the rebels at the foot of the ascent, close to
Pistoria, and he was compelled to stand at bay. Antonius,
who no doubt did not like the idea of destroying the man
who had been formerly his friend, and was his colleague in
the contest for the consulship, had just then a convenient fit
of the gout, and gave up the command to his lieutenant
Petreius, a brave and veteran officer. A desperate struggle
ensued, in which Catiline and his followers fought like lions,
but were defeated with terrible slaughter on both sides.
When Catiline saw that the day was lost he rushed into the
thickest of the enemy, and fell covered with wounds. His
body was afterwards found far ahead of his own soldiers in
the midst of a heap of slain. He still breathed, and his
countenance wore in his dying moments the same stern and
fierce expression which was habitual to him. He was pro-
bably buried where he lay ; at all events no man knoweth
the tomb of Catiline to this day. 1
1 When I was at Pistoia I saw a street there which bears the name of Toinba
di Catilina.
B.C. 63. CICERO'S ORATION FOR MURENA. 121
It is a striking proof of the elastic energy of Cicero's mind
that, at the very moment of the explosion of the conspiracy,
and in the midst of the most awful danger, he was able to
deliver in defence of one of his friends a speech distinguished $
by its light wit and good-humoured raillery. I allude to his
speech Pro Murena, the tone of which Niebuhr tries to ex-
plain by a curious and rather fanciful theory. He says i 1
" It is very pleasing to read Cicero's oration for Murena, and
to see the quiet inward satisfaction after his consulship, in
which he was happy for a time. This speech has never yet
been fully understood, and no one has recognised in it the
happy state of mind which Cicero enjoyed at the time. If
a man has taken a part in the great events of the world, he
looks upon things which are little as very little ; and he
cannot conceive that people to whom their little is their All
and their Everything should feel offended at a natural ex-
pression of his sentiments. I have myself experienced this
during the great commotions which I have witnessed. Thus
it has happened that the sentiments expressed in the
speech for Murena have for centuries been looked upon as
trifling, and even at the present day they are not understood.
The stoic philosophy and the jurisprudence, of which Cicero
speaks so highly on other occasions, are here treated of as
ridiculous ; but all this is only the innocent expression of
his cheerful state of mind." But the historian forgot that >7
the speech was delivered before the end of Cicero's consul-
ship, and in the very crisis of the conspiracy. Catiline had
just quitted Rome, and his associates were, as Cicero well
knew, left behind in the city to carry out their infamous
scheme. 2
The circumstances of the case were these. Lucius Murena
and Decimus Silanus had this year, after a severe contest,
been elected consuls for the ensuing year. One of the com-
petitors was Servius Sulpicius, the well-known lawyer, who
immediately after his defeat accused Murena of having em-
ployed bribery and corruption to carry his election. This
had been made illegal by the Calpurnian law, which punished
the offence by disqualifying for public office the party who
was guilty of it ; but during this very year Cicero was, as
1 Hist, of Route, v. 29. - Sec Pro Mnreiia, c. 37.
122 THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vm.
we have seen, himself the author of a law which inflicted the
additional punishment of exile for ten years. The pro-
secution was conducted by Sulvius Sulpicius, assisted by
three subscript ores, as they were called, who " were with him
in the case" M. Cato, Cn. Postumius, and a son of Sul-
picius. On the other side for the defence were, Hortensius,
Crassus, and Cicero, three of the most brilliant advocates of
Rome.
We must call to mind the circumstances of the time,
and the position and character of the parties at the trial,
in order to appreciate the admirable speech which Cicero
delivered on this occasion. The copy which we possess
is, unfortunately, imperfect, but enough has been left to jus-
tify the praise of Manutius, who calls it jucimda in primis
oratio,
The trial took place early in December, and in the follow-
ing month the new consuls would enter upon their office.
Sulpicius, the defeated candidate, was a lawyer ; Murena,
the successful one, a soldier ; Cato, who took part in the
prosecution, had recently been elected one of the tribunes
of the commons, and he was a follower of the cold and stern
philosophy of the Stoics. Cicero spoke last, after the charge
against his client had been investigated and repelled by
Hortensius and Crassus, and the following is a brief outline
of his argument.
The plan of attack had been, first to throw aspersions
upon Murena's character ; next to contrast his claims to the
honour of the consulship with those of his opponent ; and",
lastly, to establish the charges of bribery. Cicero, there-
fore, followed the same order, and, in a brief review of his
client's life, showed that he had honourably won laurels in
the campaign against Mithridates, and contributed some
spoils of the enemy to his own father's triumph. But Cato
, pretended that he was corrupted by the effeminate manners
r- of the East, and said that Murena was " a dancer!" " Nay,
but, Cato," said Cicero, " a man of your authority ought
not to pick up names in the street, nor use the scurrilous
language of buffoons. You ought not lightly to call the con-
sul of the Roman people a dancer ; but consider what other
faults such a character must have, to whom that epithet can
JET. 43. OPPOSED TO CATO. 123
be justly applied." Adverting to the personal qualifications
of the two candidates, he playfully rallied Sulpicius upon his
profession as a lawyer, and contrasted its obscure drudgery
with the dashing exploits of Murena as lieutenant of Lu-
ctillus in Asia Minor. He seized the opportunity of point-
ing out the superiority of eloquence over case-law, and
showed how often legal opinions and decisions are upset by
a clever speech from an advocate ; adding, with affected
modesty, " I would say less in its praise if I were a pro-
ficient in the art : as it is, I speak not of myself, but of
those who are or have been eminent orators." He then
alluded to other reasons which accounted for the greater
popularity of his client, his good fortune in having obtained,
as praetor, the office of administering civil justice; whereas,
his rival had to discharge the odious duty of conducting
criminal inquiries against those who embezzled the public
money. Besides this, Sulpicius seems to have made up his
mind from the first that he must be defeated in the contest ;
and while engaged in his canvass to have determined upon
the prosecution of his competitor.
" But this is not the way," cried Cicero, " to succeed. I like a candidate for
office especially such an office as the consulship to go forth to the Forum and
the Campus Martins full of hope, and spirit, and resources. I disapprove of the
getting up of a case against an opponent the sure herald of defeat. I like not
solicitude about evidence rather than about votes ; threats rather than flattery ;
virtuous indignation rather than courteous salutations ; especially since the fashion
now is for the electors generally to call upon the candidates at their houses and
judge by the countenance of each how far he feels confident, and what are his
chances of success. ' Do you see,' says one, ' him there with the downcast and
gloomy look? He is dispirited : he has lost all heart and thrown up the cards.'
Then this rumour begins to be whispered about : ' Are you aware that so and
so meditates a prosecution, is getting up a case, and looking out for evidence
against his rivals ? I'll vote for some one else, since he shows the white feather,
and despairs of success. ' The most intimate friends of candidates of this kind are
disheartened and lose all zeal, and either abandon a cause which seems as good
as lost, or reserve their support and interest for the subsequent trial which is to
take place."
In dealing with the speech of Cato he artfully warned the
court against the danger of being overawed by that illus-
trious name, and quoted examples to show that in former
times the overweening power of the accusers had proved the
safety of the accused. He next attacked the Stoic philo-
sophy, upon which he threw the blame of Cato's severity ;
and this is, perhaps, the cleverest part of the speech. In
124 THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vm.
some portions we might almost fancy we were reading the
defence, amongst ourselves, of a member of parliament whose
seat was contested before an election committee of the
House of Commons on a petition containing allegations of
bribery and treating.
Cato, as a disciple of that rigid school which held all
offences to be equally criminal, and regarded the man who
unnecessarily twisted a cock's neck as equally guilty with
one who strangled his own father, had professed to be
shocked at the idea that Murena had employed solicitation
and the usual electioneering arts in his canvass. Crowds
had gone out to meet him on his return to Rome, while he
was a candidate for the consulship
" Well," said Cicero, " there was nothing extraordinary in this. The wonder
would have been if they had stayed away. ' But a band of partisans followed him
in procession through the streets.' What then? Prove that they were bribed to
do it, and I admit that it was an offence. Without this, what have you to find
fault with? ' What need is there,' he asks, ' of processions?' Do you ask me
what need there is of that which has always been a custom amongst us ? The
lower classes have only this one opportunity of our election contests for earning
gratitude or conferring obligation. Do not, therefore, deprive them, Cato, of the
power to do us this service. Allow those who hope for everything from us to
have something which they can give us in return. They cannot plead for us in
the courts, or give bail for us, or invite us to their houses. All this they ask at
our hands ; and they think that these benefits cannot be repaid by them in any
other way than by displaying their zeal as partisans. ' But shows were publicly
exhibited, and dinner-invitations were promiscuously given.' Now, although in
fact this was not done by Murena at all, but only by his friends according to
usual custom, yet I cannot help recollecting how many votes we lost owing to
inquiries which these things occasioned in the senate.
" Cato, however, joins issue with me like a stern and Stoic philosopher. He
denies the proposition that it is right that good-will should be conciliated by good
dinners. He denies that in the choice of magistrates the judgment should be
seduced by pleasure. Therefore, if any candidate, with a view to his return,
invites an elector to supper, he shall be condemned as a violator of the law.
' Would you, forsooth,' says he, ' aim at power and office, and asph-e to guide
the helm of the state, by fostering the sensual appetites of men and corrupting their
minds ? Are you asking for some vicious indulgence from a band of effeminate
youths, or the empire of the world from the Roman people ?' This a solemn way
of putting it indeed, but such language is opposed to our habits and customs, and
to the very constitution itself."
As he approached the close of his oration Cicero adopted
a more serious tone. He eloquently described the dangers
which threatened the commonwealth from the attacks of
Catiline, and appealed to the compassion of the jury to
save his client from the ruin with which an adverse verdict
would overwhelm him. Murena was acquitted, and Cato
B.C. 63. RETIREMENT FROM OFFICE. 125
y/
good-humouredly remarked, " See what a witty consul we
have!" 1
Besides the law affixing new penalties to bribery, of which
he was the author, Cicero got another measure passed this
year which was directed against the abuse of what were
called liberce legationes. When a senator wished to travel Y
in Italy or the provinces on private business, he used to
apply for, and generally obtain from the Senate, a commis-
sion which entitled him to assume the privileges of an
ambassador. The name given to this was libera legatio,
and it was burdensome and oppressive to the inhabitants of
the towns through which he passed, or in which he stayed ;
for he could claim at their expense provender for his horses
and entertainment for himself and his retinue. And the
period seems to have been of indefinite duration, for the
reform introduced by Cicero merely limited it to a single
year.
The end of his consulship had arrived, and on the last day,
the 3 ist of December, he intended, according to the usual
custom, to address the people from the Rostra on laying
down his office. But he had soon a foretaste of the troubles
that awaited him. One of the newly-elected tribunes, Q. \
Caecilius Metellus Nepos, who had entered upon office on
the loth of December, interposed his veto, on the ground
that a man who had condemned Roman citizens to death
without a trial, or allowing them to speak in their own de-
fence, ought not to be allowed himself to speak to the people.
Cicero says that no such insult was ever offered to a magis-
trate before. According to Plutarch, Metellus acted in >
concert with Julius Caesar, who had just been elected one of
the praetors, with Cicero's brother Quintus as his colleague.
But he turned the interruption to good account. No harangue
that he could have delivered would have served his purpose
better than the few simple words he uttered when for-
bidden by the tribune to speak. Taking advantage of the
moment when the usual oath at the close of a magisterial
office was administered to him, he raised his voice, and in a
1 Cicero says (De. Fin. iv. 27) that to amuse the crowd. " Apud imperi-
he had laughed at the Stoic philosophy tos turn ilia dicta sunt : aliquid etiam
in his speech pro Murend, as he was coronse datum."
then addressing the vulgar, and wished
126
THE CONSULSHIP.
CHAP. VIII.
tone loud enough to be heard by the multitude, he swore
that in his consulship he had saved the Republic from de-
struction. The people, with applauding shouts, cried out,
" You have spoken true !" ] It was a noble tribute of spon-
taneous gratitude to the retiring consul, and one to which,
in after life, he often referred with feelings of pardonable
exultation.
i Dio Cassius, xxxvii. 38, says
that the people would not suffer Cicero
to make a speech. This is simply false,
and need be mentioned only as one in-
stance out of many of Dio's malignant
attempts to injure his memory.
CHAPTER IX.
VIR CONSULARIS.
/Et. 45. B.C. 62.
ClCERO was now a Consular Fz> Consularis. He had filled
the highest dignity which it was in the power of the Republic
to bestow, and henceforth he must live in Rome as a private
senator. He was indeed entitled to the government of a
province, but this, as we have seen, he had at the outset of
his consulship declared he would not accept. He resigned
Macedonia to his colleague Antonius, who proved to be a
most oppressive and extortionate governor, and he contrived
to get the other province of Cisalpine Gaul, which had fallen
to the lot of Antonius, handed over to Metellus Celer, who,
as praetor, did good service against Catiline, by preventing
his escape in the direction of Faesulae.
This Metellus was the brother of Metellus Nepos the
tribune, who had interposed to prevent Cicero from addressing
the people on laying down his consulship. Nepos had
quitted Pompey in Asia Minor, where he was serving under
that general and devoted to his interests, in order to hurry
to Rome and become a candidate for the tribuneship. He
was elected, but the senatorial or conservative party exerted
itself successfully to get Marcus Porcius Cato chosen as his
colleague for the purpose of counteracting any mischief he
might have in view, and the two were installed in office as
wild and tame elephants are yoked together in the East.
The tribune made no secret of his hostility to Cicero, who,
anxious to keep on good terms with him, both for the sake
of his own safety and out of regard for Nepos' brother
128 VIR CONSULARIS. CHAP. ix.
Metellus Celery tried to get Claudia, Celer's wife, and Mucia,
who was Pompey's wife, and sister of the two Metelli, to pur-
suade him to behave more amicably, and give up the design
of attacking him. But this was in vain. Before he interfered,
on the last day of the year to prevent Cicero from addressing
the people, he had at a public meeting declared his intention
to do so, and he lost no opportunity of flinging the charge
against Cicero that he had violated the constitution by con-
demning Roman citizens to death without a trial. The
point he made was that the man who had punished others
without allowing them to speak, ought not to be permitted
to speak himself. " Thus," says Cicero in one of his letters,
" putting on a par and deeming worthy of the same sentence
of punishment those whom the Senate had condemned as
guilty of a conspiracy to burn down the city, put the senators
and magistrates to the sword, and light up the flames of civil
war, and the man who had prevented the senate-house being
turned into a shambles, who had saved Rome from con-
flagration and Italy from war."
On the first of January of the new year (B.C. 62), Cicero
rose in the Senate and made a speech directed against
Metellus, letting him know that he was on his guard, and
would not allow himself to be attacked with impunity. Two
days afterwards Metellus spoke, and openly threatened
Cicero, addressing him by name, and making use of very
violent language. This called up Cicero, who delivered a
speech full of biting invective and sarcasm, which seems to
have produced considerable effect. It is unfortunately lost,
but it is that Oratio Metellina to which he refers in one of
his letters to Atticus, where he says that he will send him a
copy of it with some additions.
Metellus Celer, who was then governor of Cisalpine Gaul,
heard of this, or most probably read a copy of the speech,
and he wrote to Cicero to complain of the attack he had
made upon his brother, declaring that although he com-
manded a province, was at the head of an army, and had
the conduct of a campaign, he felt grieved and humiliated.
The reply of Cicero to this letter is a masterpiece of com-
position, and a model of what such an answer should be to
an irritated friend.
B.C. 62. ENMITY OF METELLUS NEPOS. 129
The tribune's next move was made no doubt in concert
with Pompey, with whom he kept up intelligence ; and it
was perhaps the chief object he had in view when he returned
to Rome and stood for the tribuneship. He brought forward
a bill in the Senate enacting that Pompey should be recalled
from Asia Minor at the head of his army in order to restore
the violated constitution. This effected a double purpose.
It gratified Pompey and aimed a blow at Cicero, for by
violation of the constitution Metellus meant the measures
taken by him in his consulship. It is not certain whether
Cicero spoke on this occasion, but the probability is that he
did not, for he nowhere alludes to such a speech, and seems
rather to imply the contrary.
The Senate, however, was strongly opposed to the bill.
Cato spoke against it, and a sharp altercation took place
between the two tribunes. The bill was rejected in the
Senate, but Metellus, insisting on his right as tribune to bring
it before the people without the preliminary sanction (Sena-
ttis auctoritas) , convoked a meeting for the purpose. He
relied not only on the influence of Pompey's name, but also
on the support of Caesar, who was then praetor, and who,
strange to say, was in favour of a measure, the immediate
effect of which, if carried, would be to make Pompey dictator
and master of Rome.
On the morning of the appointed day Metellus filled the
Forum with his supporters, and blocked up the avenue with
an armed rabble, to prevent the opponents of his bill from
interfering. Cato, however, accompanied by another tribune,
Minucius Thermus, and a few friends, with difficulty made
his way to the tribune's seat, which he found occupied by
Metellus and Caesar, who thus openly abetted Metellus in his
violence. Cato forced himself between them, and when the
clerk or officer put the usual question to the meeting whether
they accepted or rejected the bill, he interposed his veto and
forbade the matter to proceed further. But Metellus was
determined not to be thus baffled. He took the bill out of
the hands of the officer and began to read it aloud ; but Cato
snatched it away from him, and when he began to repeat it
from memory Thermus put his hand over his mouth to pre-
vent him. During this indecent scene the crowd below had
K
130 VIR CONSULARIS. CHAP. ix.
remained quiet and no doubt astonished, but on a signal
from Metellus, his hangers-on made an attack upon the
opposite party, who, notwithstanding the precautions taken to
exclude them, had forced their way into the Forum, and the
wildest uproar immediately ensued. The Senate was at the
moment sitting in the neighbouring Temple of Concord, and
to quell the riot they hastily invested the consuls with sum-
mary authority by the usual formula, Videant Consules ne
quid detrimenti Respublica capiat, which gave them for the
moment despotic and absolute power, and had the same
kind of effect that a proclamation of martial law would have
with us. Murena, one of the consuls, took instantly a body
of soldiers to the Forum and restored order, arriving just in
time to rescue Cato and Thermus from the hands of the
mob. Metellus made another effort to get his bill carried
at the same meeting, but the opposition was too strong, and
he and Caesar withdrew from the place
He lost no opportunity, however, of denouncing Cicero to
the populace, and harped constantly on the string that he
had condemned Roman citizens to death without a trial.
At last he quitted Rome and went back to Pompey, pre-
tending that he required his protection, and that the sacred
office of tribune could not shield him from the attacks of
his enemies. And I am much mistaken if we do not find in
the facts that have just been related a key to the explana-
tion of much of Pompey's conduct when he returned to Rome.
It has been already mentioned that he was by the Ga-
binian law (Lex Gabinia) invested with the command of the
army of the East, with full power to carry on the war against
Mithridates, and that he conducted it with brilliant success.
The last decisive battle was fought during Cicero's consul-
ship, and Pompey sent an account of his victories to the
Senate in a public despatch, which was most probably en-
circled with laurel leaves (litercz laureates), according to the
Roman custom. At the same time he wrote to Cicero, but
in a formal and indifferent tone ; at all events Cicero thought
so. Possibly Pompey was too much occupied with his own
achievements to pay much attention to what was passing at
Rome. Cicero, however, felt hurt, and in his letter in reply
did not scruple to say so, alluding to his own services to the
;
JET. 45. HOUSE ON THE PALATINE. 131
State in a way which, according to modern notions, would
be thought to be in rather bad taste. 1 He told Pompey
that he had expected from him a more explicit acknowledg-
ment of them, and said he wrote openly on the subject as
his own natural disposition and their common friendship
required. He hinted that the warmth of his own regard was
not reciprocated, and expressed a hope and belief that their
friendship would be like that which existed between Scipio
Africanus, to whom he says Pompey was far superior, and
Laelius, to whom he himself was not much inferior. Pompey
was ungenerous enough to take offence at this letter. He
was inflated with the success of his arms, and thought it
almost an insult that Cicero should speak of his own civic
glory in the same breath that he mentioned the exploits of
the conqueror of Mithridates.
We now turn to matters of more private interest. When
Sylla's proscription had driven numbers of families from
Rome, and silence and desolation reigned in their former
abodes, Crassus had become the purchaser, or at all events the
possessor, of many of the houses that were hastily abandoned
by their former inmates. One of these was a noble residence
on the Palatine Hill, overlooking the Forum, which had been
originally built by the tribune M. Livius Drusus, who was
assassinated B.C. 91. It joined a portico which had been
erected by Q. Catulus out of the spoils taken from the Cimbri
in that decisive battle when he and Marius destroyed their
army, and it occupied the site of a house which had belonged
to M. Flacus, put to death by order of the Senate for sedition,
and which had been razed to the ground. 2 Cicero now bought
this house from Crassus for the sum of three and a half millions
of sesterces (about ^30,000), and he was obliged to borrow
money at interest to pay for his purchase. He says jokingly in
one of his letters that he was so much in debt that he was ready
1 It must, however, be remembered you have skill enough, build it so that
that an acknowledgment of his services all the world may see what I am doing."
from a man in Pompey's position would Veil. Pater, ii. 14. Lepidus, who
have been invaluable to Cicero, and he was consul in the year of Sylla's death,
had a right to expect it. ei'ected the most splendid mansion that
had up to that time been seen in Rome ;
2 The architect told Drusus that he but within thirty-five years afterwards
would build the house so that no one it was eclipsed by the superior grandeur
should overlook him and see what he of at least an hundred dwellings.
was doing. "Nay," he replied, "if Plin. Hist. A r at. xxxv. 24.
i 3 2 VI R CONSULARIS. CHAP. ix.
to become a conspirator if he could be taken into a plot
but he found he was too much distrusted to be admitted an
accomplice. Niebuhr thought that he had discovered the
site of Cicero's house on the Palatine " that is to say," he
observes, " I know the place within about fifty feet where the
house must have stood, and I have often visited the spot." 1
The vast ruins which astonish the gaze of the traveller on
the south-east side of the Palatine belong to a later period.
They are the gigantic substructions of Nero's golden palace,
a wilderness of masonry, in which it is impossible to trace
the chambers or decipher the plan :
Cypress and ivy, weed and wallflower, grown
Matted and massed together, hillocks heaped
On what were chambers, arch crushed, column strewn
In fragments, choked-up vaults, and frescoes steeper 1
In subterraneous damps, where the owl peep'd,
Deeming it midnight : Temples, baths, or halls?
Pronounce who can. 2
A scandalous report about this time disturbed Cicero's
equanimity. His former colleague Antonius had, as we have
seen, got as his provincial government Macedonia, and he
continued there the malpractices which had formerly made
him infamous when, as praetorian governor of Achaia, he had
been guilty of oppression and extortion. On the present
occasion a trial was impending over him for his conduct in
Macedonia, and it was expected that Cicero would defend
him. But it appears that Antonius had implicated Cicero
in the matter, and while plundering the province had given
out that he was to have a share of the spoil. Nay, more,
he had declared that a freedman of Cicero, named Hilarus,
who was in the employ of Antonius, and a great rascal, had
been sent by Cicero into Macedonia to take care of the
money to be squeezed out of the province. This rumour
naturally caused much annoyance to Cicero, and we find him
complaining of it in a letter to Atticus in terms of indigna-
tion. I do not believe that any such corrupt bargain existed
between them. It is utterly inconsistent with Cicero's whole
character, and ought not to be believed without strong proof,
of which there is none. The tone in which he speaks of the
rumour to Atticus shows that he was innocent, and I do not
1 Hist, of Rome, v. 41. " Childe Harold, canto 4.
B.C. 62. ACCUSED BY ANTONIUS. 133
doubt that if it was true he would have said so in confidence
to his intimate friend, from whom he really seems to have
concealed nothing. Besides, he alludes to it in a letter to
Antonius himself in a way inconsistent with the idea of
guilt. 1 But at the same time I agree with Wieland and
Abeken that there is evidence, although obscure, of the ex-
istence of some pecuniary transaction between Antonius and
Cicero, and that Antonius owed him money, which he was
very dilatory in paying. 2 As to the origin and nature of
this debt we know nothing whatever, and it is both unfair
and uncharitable to attribute it to so corrupt a cause as a
bargain for a share in the plunder of a province which he
had voluntarily resigned to Antonius. It must, however, be
admitted that his conduct was inconsistent with regard to
this man. An impeachment was hanging over his head, and,
in a letter to Sextius, Cicero says that he had defended him
in the Senate, gravissime ac diligentissitne, although every-
body felt that Antonius had not behaved towards him as he
ought But, writing to Atticus, he told him that he was in-
formed that Pompey was determined on his return to Rome
to get Antonius superseded in his government, and he de-
clared that the case was so bad that he could not in honour
nor without loss of credit defend him. Moreover, he said he
had no inclination to do so, on account of the calumnious
rumours he had set afloat respecting himself. 3
Although Catiline and most of his accomplices were dead,
the ramifications of the wide-spread conspiracy still remained
to be disclosed. Caesar himself was not free from the sus-
picion of having been privy to the plot. Lucius Vettius
accused him before the quaestor Novius Niger, and Q. Curius
impeached him in the Senate, claiming the reward which had
been offered to the first discoverer of the conspiracy. Vettius
avowed himself ready to produce the most damning evidence
of his guilt a letter written to Catiline by his own hand
1 Ad. Div. v. 5. Sextius was written after the one to
2 Ad. Att i. 12. This depends Atticus, quoted in the text, that is, if
upon the assumption that the name Cicero, notwithstanding what he said to
Tatcris, which occurs in several of Atticus, did after all defend Antonius,
Cicero's letters to Atticus, means An- the case would be much worse. I have
tonius. I believe that it does. followed the order in which Schutz and
3 Ad. Att. i. 12. If the letter to Abeken place the correspondence.
134 VIR CONSULARIS. CHAP. ix.
and Curius declared that his information was derived from
Catiline himself. Whether Caesar was guilty or not cannot
now be either affirmed or denied with certainty ; at all events,
he was too crafty or too powerful to be caught. He appealed
to Cicero in the Senate, and proved from his lips that he had
himself at an early period volunteered to give information
about the conspiracy. This was no doubt a strong presump-
tive proof of innocence, and so completely turned the tables
upon Curius that he was held not to be entitled to the re-
ward he claimed as the first informer about the plot. As to
Vettius, he was almost torn to pieces by the mob while
addressing them in the Forum, and Caesar had him thrown into
prison. He also got the quaestor imprisoned for allowing a
superior magistrate (Caesar was then praetor) to be summoned
before him.
Several others of high rank were, however, found guilty
and banished. Amongst them was Autronius. He had been
Cicero's schoolfellow and friend in boyhood ; his colleague
in the quaestorship ; and he now came to him, and over and
over again with tears besought him to defend him ; but
Cicero refused, and appeared as a witness against him. 1
Next came on the trial of P. Sulla. The accusation
against him was that he had been implicated in two separate
conspiracies with Catiline. Against the first of these charges
he was defended by Hortensius, and against the other by
Cicero. The prosecutor was Lucius Torquatus. He twitted
Cicero with inconsistency in appearing as the advocate of a
man who was accused of taking part in the conspiracy which he
had crushed with such severity ; of defending Sulla, and giving
evidence against Autronius, who was one of the conspirators.
But the answer was easy. Autronius he said was guilty, and
Sulla was innocent. Cicero admitted that there were some
crimes, such as that of treason, or, as he called it, parricide
against one's country, of which a man might be so notoriously
guilty that no advocate would be bound or ought to de-
fend him. But he denied that there was a tittle of evidence
affecting Sulla. Apparently all that Torquatus relied upon
1 Two years afterwards, during the consulship of Julius Cresar and Bibulus
(B.C. 59), Autronius was put upon his trial, and Cicero did then defend him,
but without success.
JET. 45. DEFENCE OF P. SULLA. 135
was a statement by the Allobroges ambassadors that they
had asked Cassius when he was trying to engage them in the
plot what Sulla thought of it, and he answered " I don't
know." Torquatus argued that this was a proof of guilt, for
Cassius did not exculpate him ! Of course Cicero had no
difficulty in dealing with logic like this. He said that the
question in a criminal trial was not whether the accused was
exculpated, but whether the charge was proved. He showed
also that during the progress of the conspiracy Sulla was not
at Rome but at Naples, thus establishing what we should
call an alibi ; and he declared that during his consulship he
had never discovered, nor suspected, nor heard anything that
compromised or affected him.
In the course of his speech he defended himself against a
personal attack of Torquatus, who had the hardihood to
charge him with having falsified the public records and
altered the evidence given in the Senate by the informers.
It shows how low was the tone of morality at Rome when so
monstrous an accusation was possible ; and the surprising
thing is, that Cicero does not seem to have manifested any-
thing like the indignation at the charge which we should
have expected. I need not say that he triumphantly vin-
dicated himself, although one would have thought that no
vindication was required.
The rest of the speech consisted chiefly in an appeal to
the past life of his client as evidence of his innocence.
Surely he had had misfortune enough in having the consul-
ship to which he had been elected torn from him, when all
his hopes were dashed to the ground, and his joy was
changed to mourning and tears. But his own sorrow at the
thought of Sulla's misfortunes he declared overpowered him,
and he would say no more. He left, therefore, the case in
the hands of the jury, with an earnest hope that they would,
like him, show compassion on innocence as they had shown
severity towards guilt, and by their verdict that day relieve
both himself and them from the false charge of cruelty.
CHAPTER X.
MYSTERIES OF THE BONA DEA AND TRIAL OF CLODIUS.
ALt. 44-45. B.C. 62-61.
GREAT as had been Cicero's popularity, and glorious his
triumph over the enemies of the state, it was not to be ex-
pected that such measures could be taken, and such a con-
spiracy be crushed, without creating bitter enemies against
himself. The ramifications of the plot were so extensive,
and the social and moral condition of Rome was so corrupt,
that numbers of the young men connected with the aristo-
cracy, against whom there was no positive proof, were
accomplices in the design ; or, if not, were at all events dis-
appointed that Catiline had failed. And of course they
looked upon Cicero as the sole cause of his failure, and
hated him accordingly. But it was not from disappointed
conspirators or jealous rivals that the storm which shattered
his fortunes arose. The blow came from a different and un-
expected quarter, and it was on this wise it happened.
Amongst the numerous rites and solemn festivals of re-
ligion at Rome there was one of a peculiarly sacred and
mysterious character in which women alone took part, and
which had never been profaned by the eye of the other sex.
This was the service in honour of the Bona Dea the goddess
who gave fruitfulness in marriage which was celebrated on
the ist of May, at the house of the first consul or the first
praetor, and at which prayers were offered up for the safety
of the whole Roman people (pro salute populi Romant]. No
lodge of freemasons ever excluded the presence of women
more carefully from its ceremonies than the votaries of the
B.C. 62-6i. INTRUSION OF CLODIUS. 137
Bona Dea excluded the presence of men. Not even a sign
or token of their existence was allowed to be seen. Statues
were covered up, and pictures were veiled which exhibited
the form of the male sex ; and it was sacrilege of the worst
kind in a man to venture to cross the threshold while the
rites were going on.
We may imagine, therefore, the consternation of the Ro-
man citizens in the beginning of May B.C. 62, when the
rumour ran like lightning through the streets that a man had
been discovered disguised as a woman in the house of Caesar
the praetor, during the celebration there of the mysteries of
the Bona Dea. It was too true. One of the most profli-
gate young patricians of that profligate age, Publius Clodius
Pulcher, had introduced himself dressed in woman's clothes
into the house at night, and had dared to profane the sacred
ceremonies by his presence. He contrived to escape by the
help of a maid-servant from the infuriated matrons, 1 and as
his face was muffled up he hoped that his identity would not
be known.
Scandal declared that his object was to carry on an intrigue
with Pompeia, Caesar's wife, but this is almost incredible. No
time or place can be conceived less favourable for such a
purpose, and Clodius must have been mad to choose the
mysteries of the Bona Dea as an opportunity for a love affair.
No doubt he sought only to gratify a prurient curiosity, and
his past life and character were in unison with the exploit.
He had already seduced his own sister Clodia; 2 his intrigue
with Mucia, Pompey's wife, was the cause of her divorce from
her husband ; and he was notorious for every kind of de-
bauchery and vice. Graceful in person, eloquent in speech,
and nearly related to many of the first families in Rome, he
had already made himself infamous by his immoralities. He
was a younger son of Appius Claudius, and a direct descendant
of that Appius Claudius the decemvir, who gained such a bad
1 According to one account, Aurelia, 2 Mr. Merivale (Hist. Rom. i. 167)
the mother of Caesar, permitted him to says : " The odious charge that he had
escape. Aiirelia pro testimonio dixit lived in incest with his sisters can only
sno jnssu eum esse dimissum. Schol. be regarded as a current tale of scandal,
Bobiens. in Orat. in Clod. If so, it the truth of which it would be prepos-
was probably with a view to hush the terous to assume." I fear it is neither
matter up and prevent scandal. preposterous nor incredible. Tt was at
all events firmly believed at Rome.
138 MYSTERIES OF THE BONA DEA. CHAP. x.
notoriety in the case of Virginia, whose father stabbed her to
death in the Forum to save her from dishonour. His elder
brother, whom Niebuhr calls "a good-natured but superstitious
and little-minded person," had obtained the highest honours
in the Republic ; and he had three sisters, one, the infamous
Clodia or Quadrantaria 1 that is "Halfpenny," as she was
nicknamed married to Metellus Celer, another to Marcus
Rex, and the third to Lucullus. He Belonged in fact to one
of the highest patrician families at Rome, and no doubt pre-
sumed upon its wealth and influence to screen him from the
consequences of his crimes.
The matter seems to have been for a time hushed up, and
probably Clodius thought that no further inquiry would be
made, as the year passed away without any steps being taken.
But early in January, at the commencement of the new year,
B.C. 6 1, O. Cornificius, who was then Princeps Senatus, brought
the question before the Senate. By them it was referred, as
a matter affecting religion, to the College of Pontiffs, who
declared it to be an act of sacrilege. Upon this the Senate
resolved that the consuls should propose a bill in an assembly
of the people to bring Clodius to justice, and to authorise a
departure from the ordinary form of trial. The bill enacted
that instead of the judices or jurymen being chosen by lot,
which would give Clodius a chance of escape, as the jury
might happen to be composed of men easily accessible to a
bribe, the praetor should select a certain number of jurymen
for whose character he would of course be responsible. This
led to violent opposition.
In the meantime, after five years' absence from Italy-
five years of unparalleled military renown Pompey had
just landed at Brundusium, with the main body of his army
which he had so often led to victory. If he had possessed
the ambition and the boldness to make himself Dictator of
Rome, he might have marched upon the capital ; and in the
state of parties at the time he would have probably suc-
ceeded almost without a struggle. So general was the
opinion that such was his design, that, according to Plu-
1 The quadrans was a small coin at used to frequent these baths as if she
Rome about the value of a farthing, and were one of the "labouring classes,"
was the price of a public bath. Clodia and hence the nickname.
JET. 45. POMPE Y IN THE SENATE. 139
tarch, Crassus withdrew himself with his children and pro-
perty from the city, which he believed, or affected to believe,
was about to throw open its gates to the conqueror, and
receive him as its master. But Pompey adopted a course
which surprised everybody. He dismissed his soldiers to
their homes, and, attended only by a small escort, travelled
towards Rome with hardly more state than if he had been
a private gentleman. When he reached the walls he stopped,
for as he claimed a triumph he could not enter the city.
Outside the gates he addressed the people in a speech which v
Cicero, who probably heard it, described as distasteful to
the poor, spiritless to the wicked, unpleasing to the rich,
and trifling to the good. It therefore fell flat upon the
audience. 1
Piso the consul then suggested to Fufius, a tribune, and X
a man whom Cicero calls levissimus^ that he should intro-
duce Pompey to the people in the Circus Flaminius, where,
it being market-day, there was a considerable crov/d, and
ask him publicly his opinion whether the praetor should
choose the jurymen for the trial of Clodius, as the Senate
had proposed by the bill. Pompey, however, evaded a direct
reply. He, as he always did, tried to trim between the con-
tending parties. He did not like to oppose the Senate;
but he was also afraid of offending the mob, amongst whom
he knew that Clodius was popular and had many active par-
tisans. He therefore spoke, as Cicero calls it, very " aristo-
cratically," praising the Senate in general terms, and pro-
fessing his respect for its authority ; but he took care not to
commit himself to any distinct opinion on the question that
had been put to him.
Soon afterwards, when his demand for a triumph had
been granted, Pompey entered Rome, and when he took his
seat in the Senate, the consul Massala asked him what
he thought of the alleged sacrilege and the bill then before
the people. He rose and made the same general kind of
speech as before, eulogising the Senate but avoiding a
direct answer to the question. Cicero was close beside
him, and Pompey, when he sat down, told him that he
1 Non jucunda miseris, inanis improbis, beads non grata, bonis non gravis :
ilaque frigebal. Ad. Atl. i. 14.
140 MYSTERIES OF THE BON A DEA. CHAP. x.
thought he had made a sufficient reply. The speech seems
to have been applauded, as was natural it should be by an
assembly which the great man had just flattered by his
praise ; and Crassus then rose. Cicero, who never could
get the merits of his own consulship out of his head, tells
Atticus that Crassus saw that Pompey had been well
received, because the Senate believed that he approved of
the acts of that consulship. This we may be permitted to
doubt. Most probably Pompey was cheered because the
Senate was glad to believe that they had found in him a
champion ; and they gave credit to his professions of respect
and devotion to their order. However, Crassus rose and
delivered a most complimentary panegyric on Cicero, praising
his consulship to the skies, and declaring that he owed it to
Cicero that he was still a senator, a citizen, a freeman ; nay,
that he owed to him his life ; and as often as he regarded
his wife, his home, his country, he felt the force of all his
obligation to him.
While Crassus was speaking, Cicero, who was sitting
next to Pompey, watched him closely, and says his emotion
was visible. Perhaps, he adds, this was because Crassus
had thus seized an opportunity of showing good-will to him
while Pompey had shown indifference ; or because he saw
how favourably the Senate listened to the praise which
Crassus had bestowed.
Cicero rose next, and it is amusing to read his own
account of his speech. He says he was determined to show
off before Pompey, who now heard him for the first time;
and he exhausted every rhetorical artifice, as he descanted
on the well-worn theme of the Catiline conspiracy, and
urged the necessity of concord between the Senate and
the Knights, and the union of Italy in the common cause.
" Quid multa ?" he says, " clamares" He sat down amidst
thunders of applause.
But to return to the affair of Clodius. Everything de-
pended on the question how the tribunal that was to try him
should be constituted. Clodius and his friends left no stone
unturned to prevent the jury from being selected by the
praetor. Of the two consuls Piso sided with them, and did
his utmost to get the bill rejected ; but Messala on the con-
B.C. 62-61. BILL FOR TRIAL OF CLODIUS. 141
trary was strongly for it. Cicero confesses that he himself,
who had at first been a very Lycurgus in the matter, was
beginning to take a more lenient view ; and yet in the same
breath he avows his fears that the case of Clodius, defended
as it was by the bad and neglected by the good, would be
the cause of great mischief to the state. Csesar seems" to
have taken no active or open part on either side ; but he
divorced his wife Pompeia, using, according to Plutarch, the
memorable words, " Caesar's wife ought to be above sus-
picion." The Senate, however, stood firm ; so much so, that
Cicero calls it a very Areopagus ; and it was determined
that the bill should be submitted to the people, and if pos-
sible carried.
At last the day of the assembly came, and in one of the
letters to Atticus we find a lively description of the scene.
The voting on the question of a law took place in the same
manner as when magistrates were chosen, and has been
already described. Bands of youths, headed by the younger
Curio, whom Cicero contemptuously calls a girl (filiola),
flocked early in the morning to the meeting to support
Clodius ; and went about amongst the crowd urging every
one to vote against the bill. Piso himself, whose duty
as consul it was to propose it, did the same. Slaves and
retainers of Clodius filled the narrow passages (pontes)
through which the voters had to pass to give their tickets.
And the trick was resorted to (not unknown at elections in
France at the present day) of furnishing only voting tickets
in the negative marked with an A (for Antiquo), and none
in the affirmative or Uti Rogas. Cato flew to the platform
and attacked Piso in a well-timed speech. He was followed
by Hortensius, Favonius, and others on the same side, but
Cicero was silent.
The meeting broke up without coming to any decision.
The Senate was then summoned, and notwithstanding the
opposition of Piso and the abject entreaties of Clodius, who
threw himself at the feet of the senators, it was moved that
the consuls should address the people and urge them to
accept the bill. Cicero proposed as an amendment that
there should be no such resolution ; but only fifteen divided
with him, while four hundred voted for the motion.
142 MYSTERIES OF THE BONA DEA. CHAP. x.
The Senate further resolved that they would transact no
public business until the bill was carried. Hortensius, how-
ever, fearing that the tribune Fufius Calenus would interpose
his veto if the bill was passed by the people, and so render
it a dead letter, proposed that Fufius himself should bring
forward a bill declaring, like the other bill, that Clodius's
offence was sacrilege, but providing that the jury should be
chosen by lot out of the decuriae. This was intended as a
compromise, for it limited the number of persons out of
whom the jury could be formed, and so diminished the
chances of having a needy and corruptible set, and yet pre-
served at the same time the principle of fairness in not
selecting the names. But Hortensius felt so confident that
Clodius must be convicted, that he was indifferent as to
what kind of tribunal tried him. His expression was, that
Clodius's throat would be cut by a sword of lead. Cicero,
however, was of a different opinion : he feared that the men
who tried Clodius would be poor and open to a bribe, and
he knew that the other side was rich and unscrupulous.
The event proved that he was right
The proposal of Hortensius was carried, and the day of
the trial at last came. Lentulus, or, according to Valerius
Maximus, three of that family, came forward to prosecute,
Of the jury, several were challenged by the accused and
rejected ; others were challenged by the prosecution amidst
the wildest uproar. The jury were fifty-six in number, and
Cicero describes them as finally empanelled. With few
exceptions he says a' worse set never sat round a gambling-
table : disreputable senators, needy knights, and insolvent
tribunes. 1 The few respectable men amongst them whom
Clodius had not been able to set aside by his challenges sat
sorrowful and ashamed, blushing at the company in which
they found themselves. At , first, however, all seemed to be
going well. The forms of a criminal trial were duly ob-
served : the points as they arose were decided unanimously
in favour of the prosecution with almost stern severity, and
all that the prosecutor asked was granted. Hortensius
1 Maculosi senatores, nudi equites, contrast here between cerati and ararii.
tribuni, non tarn serati, quam, ut appel- Several explanations have been attempt-
lantur, aerarii. Ad. Att. i. 16. It is ed, but I believe I have given the real
difficult to know the precise point of meaning.
MT. 45 . THE JUR Y BRIBED, 1 43
chuckled at the thought of his own sagacity, and the uni-
versal opinion was that Clodius would be found guilty.
For his defence he relied upon an alibi. His case was,
that he could not have been in the house where the mys-
teries of the Bona Dea were going on, for at that time he
was at Interamna, fifty miles distant from Rome. But
Cicero came forward as a witness. Instantly there was a
tremendous clamour. The whole court rose and surrounded
him as if to protect him from assassination. Such a mark
of respect, he says, was more honourable than Xenocrates
received when his oath was dispensed with at Athens, and
he gave evidence unsworn ; or Metellus (surnamed Numidi-
cus), when on his trial the jury refused to look at his accounts
when they were handed to him. 1 Such a reception struck
terror into the hearts of Clodius and his friends. Cicero
deposed that on the very morning in question, in his own
house, he had an interview with Clodius. This, if true, was
decisive, and it was unlikely that the evidence could be dis-
believed. The court adjourned, and the next morning a
crowd attended Cicero at his house, like that which had
attended him when he laid down his consulship. The jury
declared they would not meet again unless they had the
protection of a guard. The question was brought before the
Senate, and a guard was ordered. The magistrates were
directed to see to it, and the jury were complimented on
their behaviour.
But Clodius and his friends were busy in the interval, and
to some purpose. The wise rule of English law which secludes
a jury, when once empanelled in a criminal case, from the
outer world, and isolates it from all the temptations which
might beset it to swerve from the path of duty, was unknown
at Rome. A gladiator slave was employed as an emissary
1 A somewhat parallel case once oc- who was the son of Baron Maitland of
curred in Scotland. A chest containing Thirlstane, Chancellor of Scotland, and
the muniments of title of the Maitland died in 1595, had made long before a
family in Scotland had been buried for calendar or precis of his deeds, and so
safety during the civil war in the seven- high was the opinion entertained of his
teenth century. On the return of more integrity, that the Scotch parliament
peaceful times it was taken up, but the directed that this calendar should be ac-
deeds were found to be illegible from cepted as evidence, and ordered the clerk-
damp and decay. It happened, how- registrar to authenticate it accordingly,
ever, that the first Lord Lauderdale, See Crawford's Peerage of Scotland.
i 4 4 MYSTERIES OF THE BON A DEA. CHAP. x.
to visit the jurymen at their houses, or send for them, and
bribe them. And with what ? Not merely with money, but
the promise of the embraces of abandoned women, and, to
use the words of Lord Macaulay in another case, " abomina-
tions as foul as those which are buried under the waters of
the Dead Sea." 1
At last came the moment of the verdict. The Forum was
crowded with a rabble of slaves. The respectable citizens
kept away. Twenty-five voted for a conviction, thirty-one
for an acquital, and Clodius was declared Not Guilty ! 2
It has been supposed by some, and, indeed, is asserted by
Plutarch, that Cicero's motive in coming forward as a witness
against Clodius was to quiet the suspicions of his wife, Te-
rentia, who was jealous of his attentions to Clodia, Clodius's
sister, the wife of Metellus Celer. And Wieland says that it
would be ridiculous to attribute Cicero's conduct to conscien-
tious motives. But I entirely disagree with him, and also
entirely disbelieve Plutarch's story. There is not a tittle of
evidence in support of it, and it is belied by the whole con-
duct and character of Cicero. Without challenging for him
a higher degree of morality than may be claimed by one of
the most virtuous of the Romans in an age of disgraceful
profligacy, I think we may rely on two facts to show that the
insinuation against him is false. In the first place, there is
not a hint or trace of the faintest kind throughout the whole
of his private correspondence that his wife was jealous of him,
or that he ever gave her cause for jealousy. In the next,
the language in which he always speaks of Clodia, giving her
the nickname of /Sowcr/^, or "ox-eyed" not, however, an un-
complimentary epithet, as witness Homer, who thus charac-
terises the regal Juno and alluding to her abandoned life
in the most offensive terms, is quite inconsistent with the idea
that he had loved her. And why should it be " ridiculous "
to suppose that Cicero, who was conscious that a frightful
scandal had been committed, shocking to all sense of decency
and propriety in the Roman mind, and who knew that the
1 Noctes certarum mulierum atque the jurymen afterwards, " What did you
adolescent ulorum nobilium introduc- want a guard for ? Were you afraid
tiones. Ad. Aft. i. 16. lest you should be robbed of your
2 Catulus sarcastically asked one of bribe?"
B.C. 62-61. CICERO ATTACKS CLODIUS. 145
defence set up by the perpetrator was a lie, should feel him-
self compelled, by a regard for truth, and in the interest of
religion, to which, amidst all the scepticism of that age, the
multitude clung, to come forward, from conscientious motives,
to bear testimony to a fact which, perhaps, he alone could
prove ? Wieland says such an assumption is contradicted by
Cicero's conduct a few years later, when he defended another
young profligate, Ccelius, and certainly then showed that he
took a lenient view of youthful immorality. But the cases
were entirely different ; and it is really idle to suppose that
there was any analogy between them. He was then plead-
ing as an advocate, who was bound to do the best for his
client, and it would be hard indeed to suppose that because
in such a case he extenuated the follies of youth, he was
therefore indifferent to vice. The result of the trial gave
rise to the darkest forebodings in Cicero's mind. He tells
Atticus that the Republic the preservation of which his
friend attributed to his counsels, but he, Cicero, attributed to
divine wisdom was ruined by the verdict, if verdict it could
be called, when thirty men, the meanest and vilest of the
people, were bribed to trample under foot every law, both
human and divine. In another letter he declares that the
constitution was overthrown by a verdict purchased by bribery
and lust. l
He preserved, however, a bold front externally, and ex-
posed with unsparing severity in the Senate the infamy of
the court which had acquitted Clodius. Before the trial took
place he had been roused from the apathy into which he
confesses he was in some danger of falling on the subject, by .
attacks made upon him by Clodius at mob-meetings in the"
Forum ; and thus provoked, Cicero thundered against him,
and Piso, and Curio, and the rest of his followers in the Senate,
in a way which, he tells Atticus, he should have liked him to
behold. On the i 5 th of May, after the trial was over, being
called on by the consul to speak, he rose, and dwelt at some
length on the gravity of the crisis, and the danger which such
an acquittal threatened to the state. Turning then to Clodius,
who, as a senator, was present, he addressed him, and said,
" Clodius, you are mistaken; the jury saved you, not for Rome,
1 Emto constupratoque judicio.
1
i 4 6 TRIAL OF CLOD I US. CHAP. x.
but for a prison. It was not that they wished to retain you
in the state, but to deprive you of the privilege of banishment.
Be then of good courage, Conscript Fathers, and preserve the
dignity of your order." In this strain he proceeded for some
time, and sat down. What followed ? It is a curious illus-
tration of the tone and temper of that august assembly, which
we are apt to regard as the most serious conclave the world
ever saw, and also of the tone of Cicero's mind, to find him
the next moment engaging with Clodius in a quick fire of
repartee and puns, in which each tried to make the sharpest
and wittiest retort upon his adversary, while the Senate voci-
ferously applauded. Some of the jokes are now obscure,
and have lost their point, and some are not fit for explana-
tion. As a specimen, however, of the kind of wit that so de-
lighted the senators of Rome, I will quote one or two of the
passages. " You have bought a house," said Clodius. " One
would think," replied Cicero, " that you said I had bought a
jury." " They did not believe you on your oath," exclaimed
Clodius. "Yes," retorted Cicero, " twenty-five of the jury
did believe me, but thirty-one did not believe you, for they
took care to get their money beforehand." This last blow
seems to have floored Clodius, for Cicero says, although he
is hardly a fair reporter of his own wit, that, overpowered by
the cheers that followed this sally, he became silent and
crestfallen.
During the progress of the Clodian affair Cicero's vanity
had been hurt by a slight put upon him in the Senate by the
consul Piso.
The senators of consular rank had the precedence next to
the consuls in the Senate, and were first called upon to deliver
their opinions. But it was in the option of the consuls to
call upon them in such order as they thought fit, and we can
easily imagine how often personal or party considerations
influenced their choice. Since he had ceased to be consul
Cicero had enjoyed the honour of precedence in speaking ;
but Piso was determined to affront him. When, therefore,
at the beginning of the year, it became his duty, as one of
the new consuls, to put the question in the Senate, he passed
over Cicero, and called upon his own relative, C. Calpurnius
Piso who was afterwards consul to give his opinion first.
MT. 44-45. AFFRONT OFFERED TO CICERO. 147
Cicero came next ; Catulus third, and Hortensius fourth.
Cicero, however, was gratified by hearing murmurs of dis-
approval amongst the senators, and he consoled himself with
the reflection that, by the affront, he was relieved from the
necessity of keeping on terms with Piso, whom he paints in
no flattering colours, and that, after all, the second place in
the Senate was one of almost as much authority as the first.
It was a leading object of Cicero's policy to uphold the
dignity and authority of the equestrian order, and secure, as
far as possible, a good understanding between it and the
Senate. Sometimes he went too far, and in his anxiety to
prevent a rupture and conciliate the Knights, he defended
them in cases where he knew and confessed that they were
wrong. He seems to have acted here on the dangerous
principle that the end justifies the means, and to have advo-
cated or opposed measures, not because they were right or
wrong in themselves, but because he feared that their rejec-
tion or adoption would irritate the equestrian body.
After the scandalous acquittal of Clodius the Senate most
properly resolved that an inquiry should take place as to the ^
alleged corruption of the jury. The judices were composed
of three classes: I. Senators; 2. Knights; and 3. Tribuni
jErari. Such an inquiry, therefore, was directed quite as
much against the Senate as the Knights, and conveyed no
imputation upon the one more than the other ; yet, strange
to say, the Knights took offence at the proposal, and Manu-
tius assigns for this the extraordinary reason that they did
not consider themselves within the purview of the law which
made it punishable for jurymen to take bribes. 1 As if they
could set up the disgraceful privilege of being entitled to
violate the plainest principles of morality and justice ! It
happened that Cicero had not been present in the Senate
when the resolution was passed appointing the inquiry, but
when he observed the discontent of the equestrian class
who, however, did not venture to make any open complaint
he took the Senate to task, and blamed it severely in a
set speech, exerting all the powers of his eloquence in defence
of a claim which he himself characterised as indecent. It is
impossible to justify this. Cicero's conviction as that of
1 Manut. in Orat. pro Cluentio.
148 TRIAL OF CLOD I US. CHAP. x.
every honest man was, and must have been, that the
Knights were flagrantly in the wrong, and no political con-
sideration ought to have induced him to support them in such
a case. In the result the tribunes interposed their veto, and
the inquiry was not proceeded with.
About the same time another cause of dissension between
the two orders arose, owing to a caprice of the Knights, as
Cicero calls it, 1 which he says he not only tolerated, but even
justified and applauded.
The facts were these : The Knights were the farmers of
the public revenue a kind of middlemen between the tax-
payers and the state. They entered into contract for the
payment of certain fixed sums into the exchequer, which they
were of course bound to make good. It happened that some
of them had made what turned out to be a bad bargain, for
the revenues of the province of Asia Minor. In their avari-
cious eagerness, as they themselves confessed, to get the con-
tract, they had made too high a tender, and they now wanted
the terms of their contract to be altered. Cicero says that
the case was full of odium, and the demand shameful, and
yet he supported it. His reason was the danger lest,
if they gained nothing, they might be wholly alienated
from the Senate. He exerted himself to have their claim
heard in a crowded house, and there, at the beginning of
December, he spoke for them on two consecutive days. But
Metellus, the consul, and Cato opposed them, and their peti-
tion was rejected. 2 It is worth while to notice the terms in
which Cicero spoke of these two occurrences afterwards.
" What was more just than that those should be put on their
trial who had received bribes in a case they had to try ?
This was Cato's opinion, and the Senate agreed with him.
The Knights declared war on the house not on me for I
dissented. What was more impudent than the conduct of
the farmers of the revenue in claiming a remission of their
contract ? Yet I had to throw the die in their favour for the
sake of not alienating the whole body."
1 Ecce alioe delicise equitum vix fe- of his first acts was to get the contracts
rendae, quas ego non solum tuli, sed reduced to the extent of one-third. By
etiam ornavi. Ad. Aft. i. 17. this politic concession he of course con-
ciliated the good- will of the Knights.
2 When Julius Caesar was consul one Dio Cass. xxxviii.
B.C. 62-61. CICERO'S LEADING POLICY. 149
Writing, however, at the end of the year which had just
closed the year I mean in which Piso and Messala were
consuls, B.C. 6 1 he says that it had seen the overthrow of
two strong supports of the constitution erected by himself
alone ; it had witnessed the weakening of the authority of
the Senate and the disruption of the union of the two orders.
In the month of September this year Pompey celebrated ^
his third triumph ; and it was such a triumph as had never
before been seen in Rome. For two days the populace gazed
with wonder at the trophies of his victories as the stately
procession wound its slow course along the Sacred Way to
the Capitol. Brazen tablets were carried on which were
engraved the names of the countries he had conquered
Pontus,' Armenia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Media, Colchis,
Iberia, Albania, Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Pales-
tine, Judaea, and Arabia. They proclaimed that he had
captured one thousand fortresses and nine hundred cities,
destroyed eight hundred pirate ships, and founded thirty-nine
towns ; that he had raised the revenue of his country from
fifty millions to eighty-five millions, and that he was now
pouring into the treasury the value of twenty thousand
talents in the shape of money, gold and silver plate, jewels,
and ornaments. A long array of prisoners of war followed
the chariot of the conqueror. There were to be seen Zosime,
the wife of Tigranes, king of Armenia, and his son, with his
wife and daughter; Aristobulus, king of Judaea; the sister
of Mithridates and her five sons, with women from Scythia,
and hostages of the Iberians and Albanians, and of the king
of Commagene.
It is very important to ascertain what was Cicero's real
opinion of Pompey, upon whom, more than upon any man,
next to Caesar, depended the fate of Rome. For this purpose
we must not look to his public speeches, in which it might
be politic to flatter the successful and popular general, but
to his private correspondence, and observe the sentiments he
expressed in all the confidence of friendship. We have seen
what he said of his first appearance on the scene of politics
after his return from the East, and we shall find the true
state of the case to be that Cicero always mistrusted Pompey,
and Pompey disliked Cicero. Cicero soon discovered the
i5o TRIAL OF CLOD I US. CHAP. x.
weakness of his character, and was quite aware that ambition
and not patriotism was the ruling principle of his conduct.
But at the same time he knew that he was the only states-
man at Rome who could make head against the rising repu-
tation of Caesar, and counteract the designs of that dangerous
and unscrupulous man, into which he himself seems to have
had from the first a tolerably clear insight.
To preserve the constitution as it had been handed down
from their forefathers to maintain the authority of the
Senate and keep up the aristocratic element as a breakwater
against the wild sea of democracy which was surging around
them was the leading object of Cicero's policy. For most
of the senators, and especially for the young nobility, he had
a profound contempt Cato, indeed, was an exception, for
he was a man of sturdy honesty, and as true as steel. But
then he was Utopian and impracticable, and, with the best
intentions, sometimes did mischief. At least Cicero, whose
motto certainly was not frangi non flecti, thought so ; and he
said that Cato spoke as if he were in the republic of Plato,
and not amongst the rabble of Romulus. 1 As to the aristo-
cracy generally, they were enervated by luxury and given
up to frivolous amusements. He describes them as men
who thought they were in paradise if they got tame fish to
come to their call and eat out of their hands : " fools enough
to believe," he adds with bitter scorn, " that even if the con-
stitution were destroyed their fish-ponds would be safe."
But his own personal safety required that he should have
some powerful support against the attacks of his enemies,
who had already shown that they were determined, if possible,
to destroy him. He therefore determined to ally himself as
closely as possible with Pompey, and courted his friendship
while he kept himself on his guard. To make this clear I
will quote one or two passages from his letters, which will, I
think, fully bear out the view I take of the relations between
these two eminent men the one, at that time, the greatest
soldier, and the other the greatest orator of the Republic.
Writing to Atticus about the Clodian affair, he says : " But
that friend of yours (though you know whom I mean)," he
meant Pompey ; Atticus took care to be friends with every-
1 Ad. Att. ii. 2.
jer. 44-45. INTIMACY WITH POMPEY. 151
body " about whom you wrote to me, and said that he
began to praise when he found he did not dare to blame,
professes to show great affection for me embraces, loves me
secretly but it is plain enough, he is envious of me. There
is in him nothing of courtesy nothing of sincerity nothing
of political honesty nothing grand or generous and no
steadiness."
Shortly afterwards, when Clodius had been acquitted, he
tells Atticus that, " the mob-speech-loving leech of the public
treasury, the wretched and hungry canaille"^ in such terms
Cicero spoke of the lower orders at Rome " thinks that I
am an especial favourite with him surnamed the Great ; and
faith ! we are on such terms of close intimacy that those
riotous and revelling conspirators of ours those downy-
bearded youths call him in their talk Cnaeus Cicero. There-
fore, in the theatre and at gladiatorial shows, we receive
astonishing applause without a single hiss (sine ulld pasto-
ricid fistula)"
At a later period of the same year he tells his friend : " I
am on the most friendly terms with Pompey. I know what
you say. I will be on my guard where caution is required."
Next year he writes : " I have allied myself so intimately
with Pompey that each of us is thereby strengthened in his
own line of policy, and stands on firmer ground." But very
soon afterwards in fact, in the next letter when he is
replying to some friendly caution which Atticus had given
him, he says that he agrees with him, and does not intend
to put himself in the power of another, " for he to whom
you allude," meaning Pompey, " has nothing in him great
or elevated ; he does nothing but stoop to court popularity."
He defends himself to Atticus for ingratiating himself
with a man whom he so distrusted, on the ground that it
was for the public interest they should be friends, for if they
quarrelled there would be nothing but disorder in the state.
And he flattered himself with the idea that by allying
himself with Pompey he could steer his own course, and
Pompey would follow in his wake, so that no harm but
good would result from their friendship. Fatal delusion !
into which he was the more easily led, because Pompey,
1 Ilia concionalis hirudo rerarii, misera ac jejuna plebecula.
152 TRIAL OF CLOD I US. CHAP. x.
well knowing his weak side, took care to flatter him about
his famous consulship, and declared that he might have
served the Republic well, but that Cicero had saved it.
" That he should do this," says Cicero, " may or may not be
advantageous to me : it certainly is advantageous to the state."
Of Cicero's domestic and private life during the last two
years we have only a few glimpses. He resided chiefly in
Rome, and was busied in politics. But he felt wearied and
disgusted at the state of affairs. He had no confidence in
most of the public men ; and in the midst of the Forum and
the Senate felt himself almost alone.
In one of his letters to Atticus he says : " I am so
abandoned by all, that the only repose I enjoy is in the
society of my wife and daughter, and my honey-sweet
Cicero. For the hollow friendships of ambition have a cer-
tain show and glitter externally ; they give credit in the
Forum, but confer no home-felt happiness ; therefore when
my house is filled with visitors in the morning when I go
down to the Forum attended by troops of friends I cannot
find a soul in all the crowd with whom I can freely joke, or
into whose ear I can breathe a sigh." But his love for
Atticus increased more and more. He draws a beautiful
picture of their friendship in one of his letters j 1 and fre-
quently inquires about his A maltheum a name which
Atticus had given to a room in his house near Buthrotus
(probably a library), wishing to know how it was furnished,
and saying that he had a fancy for making a similar one at
his country seat near Arpinum.
He alludes, in feeling terms, to the death of one of his
slaves, Sositheus, who was an Anagnostes, or reader, for the
Roman gentry used often at their meals to have books read
to them by an attendant, as was the custom in monasteries
in this country, amongst the ruins of which may sometimes
be seen the gallery where the reader was stationed.
He alludes also to some domestic annoyances, about which
he cannot be more explicit, as he does not like to mention
them in a letter confided to the care of an unknown courier.
But to relieve Atticus from anxiety, he expressly adds, that
they are of no great moment.
1 Ad. Alt. i. 17.
CHAPTER XL
THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.
JEt. 46. B.C. 60.
THE consuls of the new year (B.C. 60) were Lucius Afranius
and Q. Metellus Celer. Afranius was one of Pompey's
creatures, who had made every exertion to get him chosen
consul-elect in the preceding year, but, as Cicero says, did
not rely for that purpose upon his influence or popularity,
but on the means to which Philip of Macedon alluded when
he said that any fortress could be taken into which an ass
could enter laden with gold. In other words, Afranius's
election had been carried by wholesale bribery ; and it was
the current report that the consul Piso kept in his house
the agents who worked the machinery of corruption. The
scandal was so great, that on the motion of Cato and his
brother-in-law Domitius Ahenobarbus, the Senate passed
two resolutions, the one authorising a judicial inquiry into
the subject before the ordinary magistrate, and the other
(directed no doubt against Piso the consul) declaring, that
whoever kept in his house agents for the purpose of bribery
(divisor es] was guilty of an offence against the state. Cicero
had a perfect contempt for Afranius. He says that he was
such a noodle that he did not know the value of what he
had bought that is, the consulship : it was a choice which
would make any one who was not a philosopher groan.
154 THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. CHAP. XT.
One of the first measures of the new year was an
agrarian law, brought forward by the tribune Flavius. He
proposed that part of the public lands should be distributed
amongst the disbanded soldiers of Pompey's army. Pompey
of course was the real author of the scheme, which Cicero
says had nothing popular in it but his name. Its principal
feature was, that the lands should be purchased by setting
apart for five years, for that purpose, a portion of the reve-
nues acquired by Pompey's conquests.
The Senate was opposed to the whole plan, looking upon
it as a scheme for the further aggrandisement of Pompey.
Cicero, however, was willing that the law should pass, with
certain modifications. He spoke in its favour, but strongly
insisted that the right of present possessors should be re-
spected ; and proposed that some of the lands which Flavius
had included in his bill should be excepted. He thought
that the measure thus altered might be beneficial, and he
was glad to have an opportunity of gratifying Pompey. The
city would thereby be relieved of a needy crowd, and many
uninhabited tracts in Italy would be peopled.
The question excited a lively interest at Rome, where
faction ran so high that Flavius the tribune actually threw
Metellus the consul into prison. Dio Cassius says that the
Senate followed the consul to the gaol determined to share
/ his imprisonment, but Flavius put his back against the
door and kept them out. What an extraordinary instance
of the audacity of the tribunes ; and what a picture of the
lawlessness of the times ! Pompey, however, interfered, and
<L Metellus was released. But the measure did not become law.
A more serious matter diverted public attention from the
subject, and it was allowed to drop. Ever since the capture
of Rome by the Gauls, the city had dreaded nothing so
much as a Gallic invasion. News reached Rome that the
Gauls were in arms, and that the Helvetii had already
attacked that part of Gallia Narbonensis which was called,
par excellence, the Province, and which so long retained its
ancient title under the name of Provence. It was, therefore,
no time for civic squabbles when such an enemy was bestir-
ring himself. The Senate at once decreed that the two con-
suls should each assume the government of one of the Gallic
JET. 46. INTRIGUES OF CLOD I US. 155
provinces, the one taking Gallia Cisalpina, the other Gallia
Narbonensis ; and they ordered a levy of troops, and can-
celled all furloughs. They also determined to send ambas-
sadors into Gaul to induce the various tribes not to join the
Helvetii in hostilities. As usual the choice of these ambas- ,,
sadors was to be decided by lot, and it happened that
Cicero's name was drawn first out of the urn, but the Senate
unanimously exclaimed that they could not part with him,
and he must stay in Rome. The same thing happened in
the case of Pompey ; so that, says Cicero, they two were
retained as if pledges for the safety of the state.
At this time an incident occurred, trivial enough in itself,
but fraught with important consequences to Cicero. Ever
since he had appeared as a witness against Clodius on his
trial for violating the mysteries of the Bona Dea he had been
the object of that man's bitterest hate ; and he had taken no
pains to propitiate him, attacking him in the Senate, not only
in solemn harangues, but with bitter and offensive jests.
And when he met him in the streets he did not cease to tease
him with his jokes. Some of them are really not fit to quote.
It will be sufficient to say that they allude with grim plea-
santry to Clodius's alleged incest with his own sister! He
seems at this time to have despised Clodius too much to be
afraid of him ; but he did not know the character of the man,
who possessed
' ' the unconquerable will
And study of revenge immortal hate ;"
and it is impossible not to be struck with the ingenuity with
which he conceived and the tenacity with which he pursued
his plan of vengeance. To get Cicero into his power and
strike the blow with effect, it was necessary that he should be
clothed with some great magisterial office ; and no magistrate
at Rome could vie in authority and power with a tribune of
the people. But none but a plebeian could be such a tribune,
and Clodius was a patrician. That difficulty, however, might
be got over by adoption into a .plebeian family or gens, and
to accomplish this object he devoted all his energies. The
legal mode of accomplishing an adoption was by getting a X
special law passed at the Comitia curiata a meeting of the
people voting in their curiae ; but Clodius feared that if the
i S 6 THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. CHAP. xi.
thing were attempted in a legal and regular way he might
not succeed, for in the curise the aristocratic element pre-
ponderated. He therefore got the tribune Herennius to pro-
pose that the question of Clodius's adoption should be decided
by the votes of the whole body of the people in the Campus
Martius. 1 This would of course give an opportunity for
riots and bribery, and all the tricks by which a tumultuous
body may be persuaded to vote. Pompey supported the
proposal, but the other tribunes interposed their veto. The
^ consul Metellus, Clodius's own brother-in-law, opposed it, and
the matter for the present dropped.
In the meantime Cicero pursued the most conciliatory line
of conduct towards the young nobility of Rome, who, deeply
implicated as many of them had been in the Catiline plot,
dissolute in morals, and overwhelmed with debt, long felt in-
censed against him for the part he had taken in crushing the
conspiracy. He so won them over by his affability that he
became quite a favourite with them, and they showed him
the utmost respect. But he knew that he stood on slippery
j^ ground. Catulus, one of the best and noblest of the senators,
died this year; he of whom Cicero said that neither the storm
of danger nor the favouring breeze of honour could ever
divert him from his course, either by hope or fear. 2 Since
his death he hardly put faith in any one at Rome. He said
that the well-affected had no steadiness of principle, and the
disaffected hated him. There was not a statesman amongst
them. Crassus was afraid to say a word that might endanger
his popularity, and Pompey sat silent in his triumphal robe. 3
He therefore remained upon his guard, distrusting his new-
born friendships, and having constantly in his mind a line of
Epicharmus worthy of Machiavelli
&p6pa raura T&V
" Be wary and misti'ustful ; the sinews of the soul are these."
Writing to Atticus shortly afterwards, he for the first time
1 It is curious to notice the way in of your own tribe, and Sextus, his father,
which Cicero introduces the name of used to distribute bribes amongst you /"
Herennius to Atticus. "There is a man Ad. Att. i. 13.
called Herennius, a tribune of the people, 2 Pro Sextio, 48.
whom perhaps you do not even know ; 3 Pompeius togulam illam pictam
and yet you may know him; for he is one silentio tuetur suam. Ad. Att. i. 18.
B.C. 60. LITERAR Y PURSUITS. 157
X^
mentions Julius Caesar's name, and the expression he uses is
remarkable. He had just been defending his policy in ally-
ing himself with Pompey, on the ground that he thereby made
him a better citizen and statesman ; and he added, " What if
I also make Caesar (whose breezes just now are very favour-
able] a better man ? Am I doing much disservice to the
state ?" Caesar had not then returned from Spain, which he ^
held as his praetorian government, and where he had gained
great military reputation, but he was expected in Rome in a
couple of days, and Cicero was then to have an interview
with him.
In the course of this year Cicero defended P. Scipio Nasica,
who was accused of bribery by Favonius, " Pompey's ape,"
as he contemptuously calls him, but the speech is lost.
But in the midst of his public occupations he still found
leisure for literary pursuits. He composed a history of his
consulship in Greek and sent it to Atticus, begging him to
criticise it and point out any mistakes he might have made
in grammar or style. He promised also to send a Latin
history of the same period if he completed it, which he after-
wards did, and told Atticus that he might expect a poem
also on the same subject, that he might not omit any kind
of panegyric upon his own exploits. 1 He added that if others
wrote on the consulship he would send Atticus their works ;
but somehow or other the perusal of his book made them
reluctant to begin. " I have," he says in a tone of triumph
to his friend, " I have confounded the Greek nation ; those
who used to urge me to give them something to polish and
touch up have ceased to trouble me. If my book pleases
you, take care that it circulates in Athens and the other
towns of Greece." His vanity in fact was something won-
derful. He was never tired of speaking or writing about
himself; and it is amusing to see the naivete with which he
confesses his foible. He goes on to tell Atticus that if there
was any subject in the world preferable to his consulship, by
all means let it be applauded, and he would be content to
bear the blame for not choosing that topic for his praise.
But Atticus had himself about the same time written in
Greek an account of the consulship, and sent a copy to Cicero,
1 Ne quid genus a me ipso laudis mese prsetermittatur.
158 THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. CHAP. xi.
so that the books crossed on the way. Cicero thought the
style of his friend's work rather bald, and told him so. It
was probably not florid nor complimentary enough to satisfy
him, but he had the grace to add that it was "when un-
adorned adorned the most;" and in that respect like women
the sweeter that it had no perfume. His own composition
was very different; and he confessed that he had emptied on
it all the "scent-boxes" of Isocrates and his school, and had
given it a touch of the colours of Aristotle. About the same
time he made a collection of the speeches he had delivered
while consul, and called them his " Consular Orations." He
told Atticus that Papirius Paetus (one of his friends and cor-
respondents) had made him a present of a library. Paetus
seems to have been one of his clients, and he said jokingly,
that he had consulted their common friend Cincius whether,
under the terms of the Cincian law, which forbade an advo-
cate from receiving any remuneration for his services, he
might legally accept the books. They were at Athens, and
he begged Atticus to employ his "friends, clients, guests,
freedmen, and slaves," so that not a sheet of the precious
manuscripts, whether Greek or Latin, might be lost, declaring
that he grew daily more and more fond of devoting all the
time he could spare from the labours of the Forum to litera-
ture.
In the course of the year he wrote an admirable letter, or
rather essay, on the duties of a provincial governor, addressed
his brother Quintus, who had obtained the praetorian pro-
vince of Asia Minor. It does credit to his head and heart ;
and we shall see that when he was himself proconsul of
Cilicia he took care to practise the equitable doctrines he
had preached.
Caesar returned from Spain to Rome in June, flushed with
victory and saluted Imperator ! by his soldiers, to demand a
triumph and the consulship. But to obtain the triumph he
must remain without the walls, and to obtain the consulship
his presence was necessary within the city. The Senate
was unwilling to dispense in his favour with the existing
law, and therefore, finding that the two objects were incom-
patible, he gave up the triumph and stood for the con-
sulship. But he wanted money to bribe the electors, and to
JET. 46. CAESAR'S INTRIGUES. 159
get over the difficulty he made common cause with Lucceius, y
who was wealthy and ambitious, on the condition that Luc-
ceius should bribe for both in their joint names. The Senate
was alarmed at the idea of having Caesar consul, with a tool
like Lucceius for his colleague, and they therefore put for-
ward Bibulus as their candidate. But as they well knew x
that without bribery he had no chance, they subscribed
amongst themselves to enable him to bid as high as his com-
petitors. Even Cato, the incorruptible Cato, approved of
this, and contributed money for the purpose, thinking that it
was for the interest of the state, and all fair to fight the
enemy with their own weapons. The plan was successful,
and Bibulus was elected. It will be seen hereafter that the
Senate was not mistaken in their man, and that while he
held office as the colleague, he was the constant antagonist
of Caesar.
When he left Rome to assume the praetorian government
of Spain, Csesar was, in point of fortune, a ruined man. He
had squandered unheard-of sums on his sedileship, determined
to buy popularity at any cost. His creditors, therefore,
threatened to detain him ; but he got some of his friends,
and the wealthy Crassus amongst them, to be his bail, and
went off. On his return he found Pompey the foremost man
at Rome ; between whom and Crassus there was an ill-
concealed antipathy. Each was jealous of the other and
bent on his own aggrandisement. Caesar saw at once that
if he could reconcile the two, and make them join him, he
would be master of the situation. He knew that a " three-
fold cord is not quickly broken," and that he would be more
than a match for them both in the game he resolved to play.
He could use the influence of Pompey and the gold of
Crassus for his own purpose, and with this view he laboured
to form that famous triple alliance which is known in history
by the name of the First Triumvirate.
Not that this implied any organic change in the consti-
tution. The Senate and the People were still the two great
estates of the realm, with the machinery of consuls and
tribunes and the other magistrates still apparently working
as before ; but a new motive-power was applied by the coali-
tion of the three most ambitious and influential men at
160 THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. CHAP. xi.
Rome. 1 The vessel of the state began to drift in a direc-
tion very different from her former course, and no one saw
this more clearly than Cicero. Caesar had some difficulty in
overcoming the mutual repugnance of Pompey and Crassus,
^ and getting them to act together, for they had never been
friends since the time of their joint consulship. Both, how-
ever, assisted him now in his canvass for the consulship
Crassus with his money and Pompey with his influence.
Pompey was anxious to have his actions in Asia ratified by
a senatus consultum a sort of bill of indemnity for the past
and this both Crassus and Lucullus opposed ; but Cicero,
with politic dexterity, supported it. Pompey felt what an
advantage it would be to have on his side a man so popular
,, in the Forum, of such weight -in the Senate, and such in-
fluence with the Knights, as Cicero. And there was much
to tempt him to join the alliance. Caesar professed the
utmost deference to his views, and, by a union with the three,
he had the prospect, to use his own words, of " reconciliation
with his enemies, peace with the multitude, and repose for
his old age." But then what would become of his political
principles ? Was he to abandon the cause of the Republic
and the course he had followed from his youth to make him-
self an instrument in the hands of others, and surrender his
free will to theirs ? He said he was determined to take as
his motto the noble line of Homer
'Eis ot'covos &PKTTOS a/mijveo'dai irepl
And in this mood he addressed to Atticus, in the month of
December of the closing year, a letter in which, after ex-
pressing his views on politics, he tells his friend that he
expects him at Rome on the day before the festival of
Compitalia, and will have a warm bath ready for him. Ter-
entia invites Pomponia, and he will ask Atticus's mother to
join the party. And Atticus is not to forget to bring with
him Theophrastus on Ambition !
Such then was the state of affairs at the opening of the
new year. Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus, had formed a coali-
tion, and every effort was made to induce Cicero to join
1 Societatem cum utroque (Caesar) displicuisset ulli e tribus. Sueton. C(?s.
iniit, ne quid ageretur in republica quod 23.
B.C. 60. GENERAL DEMORALISATION. 161
them. But he held aloof, determined to temporise, and not
commit himself to an alliance which, it was his firm convic-
tion, threatened ruin to the Republic. He did not, however,
wish to break altogether with three such powerful men, whose
hostility he would have to encounter almost alone, for he
could count on no effective support in his own that is, the
conservative party. This gave his conduct the appearance
of vacillation ; but it may well be doubted whether he could
at this juncture have acted more wisely than he did. Had
the aristocracy of Rome cared less for their fish-ponds and
more for the interests of the state had they numbered
amongst them many such men as Catulus, and Cato, and
Cicero a party might have been formed which would have
been strong enough to resist, and perhaps counteract, the
policy of the Triumvirate. But whether, even then, the Re-
public could have been preserved, is another question, which
is not so easily answered. I believe that, without great modifi-
cations, it must have been overthrown, but with them it might
have been preserved. We must remember that at Rome the
whole effective power was in the hands of the people. Not
through the medium of representative institutions that great
secret for reconciling liberty with order which was never dis-
covered by antiquity but the people in the most direct and
primary sense. The Senate could not pass a single law binding
on the whole community. It might pass a consultum or an
auctoritas, which, within certain limits, had authority, but
neither was equivalent to what we should call an Act of
Parliament. And in what state was the people that reliance
could be placed on it to maintain the constitution ? The wars
of Marius and Sylla, and the intestine disorders which had
so long preyed upon the commonwealth, had demoralised the
masses, and also the aristocracy. The result of the Social
War had added enormously to the constituency by throwing
open the franchise to the Italian towns ; and the increase of
numbers, by diminishing the sense of responsibility, had made
the electors more accessible to corruption. The wealth of
conquered provinces had given ambitious and successful
generals and governors the means of wholesale corruption,
which they unsparingly exercised, and it was in vain that
law after law was passed, each more stringent against bribery.
M
1 62 THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. CHAP. xi.
We have seen that even Cato thought it right to secure the
election of Bibulus by bribery, because in no other way would
he have a chance of making head against Lucceius, who was
patronised by Caesar. The simplicity and virtue of old times
had passed away. The people demanded the most profuse
expenditure on shows, and games, and festivals, as the pass-
port to their favour and their votes. The immorality of
private life was frightfully on the increase. There was hardly
a public man in Rome, except Catulus, and Cicero, and Cato,
of those whose names still float on the stream of time, whose
youth was not branded with the deep stain of profligacy :
Catiline, Clodius, Curio, Dolabella, Antonius, Pompey, and
Caesar, were all guilty of vices which in our day would have
incapacitated them from playing leading parts as statesmen
or at all events would, by the mere force of public opinion,
have deprived them of all public influence. Was it not then
a chimera to suppose that the Republic as it existed in other
days could be preserved ? And yet this was the dream to
which Cicero clung, even to the last. Blinded by his attach-
ment to ancient forms an ardent lover of temperate liberty
conservative in all his views he could not bring himself
to believe that the old constitution was worn out, and that
while the form remained, the spirit and the life were gone.
Those who move with the tide are hardly conscious of the
rate at which the tide is flowing, and come upon the rocks
before they are aware.
Are we then, with some modern writers, to suppose that
Caesar was actuated by patriotic motives in overthrowing
the Republic and, making himself master of Rome? That
he saw that a change was necessary, and made himself the
instrument of that change out of pure love for his father-
land ?
That he was one of the greatest of soldiers and all but
one of the greatest of orators a consummate statesman a
wise ruler when he had attained the summit of his power
magnanimous and humane towards his enemies when he
could afford to despise them, though pitilessly cruel when he
had an object to gain all this we may freely admit ; but it
ought not to alter our opinion as to his nefarious violence
against the constitution and liberties of Rome, nor blind our
JET. 46. WAS CAESAR A PATRIOT! 163
eyes to the fact that he was unscrupulously and selfishly
ambitious.
It is the view of some writers that the Republic was
doomed utterly to perish, for corruption had eaten into its
heart's core, and that the only choice lay between anarchy
and despotism. For my own part I do not believe it. If
Cicero, Pompey, Catulus, and Cato, and men like them,
had been equal to the occasion, there is no reason why the
old institutions might not have been reformed, and the
liberties of Rome maintained. But the whole conduct of
Caesar shows, that it was not to save his country from
ruin, but to gratify his ambition, that he destroyed the
constitution. Rather than be less than Pompey, and because
he imagined himself affronted by the conduct of the Se-
nate, he lighted up the flames of civil war, and made him-
self the master because he disdained to be the servant of
the state
" partiri non potes orbem,
Solus habere potes."
In his History of Julius Ccesar the Emperor Napoleon III.
makes the extraordinary statement, that from the time of
the Gracchi all who had raised the standard of reform at
Rome had sullied it with blood and compromised it by
insurrections (emeutes\ but Caesar elevated and purified it.
Is this true ? No one practised corruption on a larger scale.
He ruined himself by largesses to the mob. He was more
than suspected of being implicated in the two conspiracies of
Catiline ; and he bathed his standard in blood when he
crossed the Rubicon. The emperor tells us, that " to con-
struct his party Caesar, it is true, had recourse sometimes to
agents little to be esteemed (Catiline, for instance, and Clo-
dius), but the best architect can only build with the materials
to his hand ; and the constant idea (preoccupation} of his
mind was, to associate himself with men of the best character.
He spared no effort to gain to his side in turn, Pompey,
Crassus, Cicero, Servilius Csepio, Q. Fufius Calenus, Ser-
vius, Sulfinus, and many others." No doubt he wished to
have the support of these respectable names although that
term can hardly be applied to Calenus but it was because
1 64 THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. CHAP. XT.
he felt how much his own character, and the suspicions ex-
cited by his conduct, made such support necessary.
In one important point, however, I venture to differ
> from most writers who have discussed the policy of Caesar.
I do not believe that, until he crossed the Rubicon, he had
any settled plan or idea of overthrowing the constitution, or,
if the phrase is preferred, remodelling it. He never would
have remained so long absent in Gaul, if his object then had
been sole supremacy at Rome. I doubt whether, when he
left the capital to assume the command of his province, he
expected to return the master of his countrymen, any more
than Napoleon I. expected to be emperor when he left
France for Egypt. He could not have possibly foreseen that
the course of events would be such as would pave his way
to a perpetual dictatorship, for obtaining which the chances
were greatly in favour of his chief antagonist, whom he left
for ten years in undisturbed possession of the field. When
the supreme moment arrived, and the choice lay between
submission to what he affected to consider the unjust com-
mands of the Senate and civil war, he preferred the latter,
and was then wafted by victory to the throne.
He was indeed fortunate in having such an antagonist as
Pompey, who was a weak and vainglorious man, utterly
unfit to stand against his giant competitor, or confront the
dangers which overwhelmed the sinking state. No one
could do this who was not gifted by nature with a genius
for military command for the sword had ultimately to
decide the struggle and in the hour of trial it was found
that whatever reputation he might have gained against the
barbarians of Spain, the half-civilised forces of Mithridates,
or the pirate-hordes of the Mediterranean he was deficient
in the great qualities of a soldier, and was as feeble in the
conduct of a campaign as he was infirm of purpose in the
Senate.
In January or February Cicero defended Antonius, who
\ was tried for malversation in his provincial government of
Macedonia, and condemned. Having in the course of his
speech made some remarks on the state of the times, his
words were immediately /^reported to the triumvirs. This
so enraged them that, with indecent haste, they that very
B.C. 6o. CICERO IN RETIREMENT. 165
day hurried on Clodius's adoption ; and Potnpey, who was
then augur, took the auspices w r hile the meeting of the
people was held, and so sanctioned the ceremony. In this
act of adoption there were several irregularities, owing to ^
which, as we shall see, Cicero afterwards contended that it
was illegal. Amongst other objections P. Fonteius, the
adopting party, was a minor.
Disgusted with late events, Cicero left Rome early in the v
year, and passed several months at some of his villa resi-
dences in the country. The first letter we have was written
to Atticus from Tusculum. His friend had been urging him
to undertake a work on geography, and had sent him a book
on the subject by Serapio of Antioch, of which Cicero can-
didly confesses he did not understand the thousandth part.
Very probably Wieland is right in his conjecture that
Serapio's work was full of mathematics or physics, a branch
of study to which Cicero had never applied himself. He
thanked Atticus, however, for the book, and said that he had
given an order for the payment, as he did not wish to put
him to the expense of it as a present. He seriously thought
of writing a geographical work, and collected materials for
the purpose, but he seems to have been deterred by its diffi-
culty (inagnum opus est, he says) and never to have carried
out the idea. He was at this time weary of politics, and
glad to exchange the bustle of Rome and strife of the Forum
and Senate for his villas and his books. And yet it is
amusing to observe his inconsistency. In the same breath
that he asks who are to be the new consuls, he declares that
he has little curiosity to know, for he has determined no
longer to trouble himself with politics. But all his letters
show how anxious he was for public news, and how little he
could content himself with the idea of retirement. Charles V.
in his convent of Yuste took, as we now know, a lively
interest in the politics of Europe, and Cicero in the country
was never satisfied unless he heard constantly from Atticus
the gossip of Rome. In his next letter, written from his
villa near Antium (Porto d'Anzo), he says that he either
amuses himself with his books, of which he had there a pretty
good collection, or with counting the waves on the beach, for
the weather was not fine enough for fishing. As to writing,
1 66 THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE, CHAP. xi.
he was in no mood for it at all. He tells Atticus he would
rather have been a decemvir (a sort of mayor) in the petty
provincial town of Antium than consul at Rome. " Only
think/' he exclaims, " of there being a place so near Rome
where there are numbers who have never seen Vatinius!"
(a noisy and troublesome tribune of the people devoted to
Caesar) " where nobody except myself cares whether any of
their Twenty Commissioners are alive and well where no
one catechises me and all love me."
This allusion to the commissioners refers to a measure
which, to ingratiate himself with the people, Caesar had pro-
posed for making a distribution of the public lands in Cam-
/ pania. To execute the scheme, twenty commissioners
( Vigintiviri) were to be appointed, and two who accepted
the office were no less persons than Pompey and Crassus.
Cato strongly opposed the measure, and so also did Bibulus
the other consul, saying, " It is not the bill that I fear, but
the recompense that is expected for it." When, however, it
came before the people, he was so roughly handled and
pelted by the mob that his life was in danger ; and Caesar,
enraged at his conduct, had the audacity to throw his col-
league into prison from which, however, he almost imme-
diately released him. Owing to the opposition the bill en-
countered it did not pass for several months, and after it
became law a place in the commission was offered to Cicero
\( in July, but he peremptorily refused it. Nothing, he says,
could have disgraced him more in the eyes of his countrymen,
nor would it have been a prudent step on his part to take,
for the whole body of commissioners was unpopular, at least
amongst men of the right stamp.
A more tempting opportunity of employment soon engaged
his attention. As Caesar and Pompey found they could not
i secure his active support, they seem to have wished to remove
V- him from Rome on the honourable pretext of an embassy.
Alexander III., king of Egypt, had been dethroned by his
subjects, and Ptolemy Auletes made king in his stead. He
was befriended by Pompey, whom he largely bribed ; but he
was an oppressive ruler, and the Egyptians soon became dis-
contented with him. Pompey wished to gain for him the
title of friend and ally of the Roman people, and Cnesar
JET. 46. CICERO IN RETIREMENT. 167
backed the attempt, which was opposed by the other consul
Bibulus, who advocated the cause of the Egyptians. In the
meantime there was a talk of proposing to Cicero that he
should go to Egypt and endeavour to effect a reconciliation
between the king and his subjects, and his own personal in-
clination would have led him to accept the employment. He
had long desired to visit Egypt, where his intelligent mind,
thirsting for knowledge, would have found so much to interest
him ; and he hoped that his countrymen might learn to value
him more by his absence, and that he might thus recover his
popularity, which he felt was on the wane. But he was de-
terred by the reflection that he could not consistently, or
without loss of self-respect, accept the mission from men to
whose policy he was so strongly opposed, and he feared that
he might stand lower in public opinion if he consented to go.
In a letter to Atticus, alluding to the subject, he said, " What -x~
will history say of me six hundred years hence ? That is a
judgment which I reverence much more than the small talk
(rumuseuli) of such men as are now alive. But let me wait
and see. If the offer is made it will be in my power to de-
cline it, and then I can deliberate and decide. There will be
even some glory in not accepting it. Therefore if you are
sounded on the subject, do not peremptorily refuse it for me."
But it was not necessary to come to a decision. The
tyrannical rule of Ptolemy drove his subjects into revolt.
He quitted Egypt and took refuge in Rome.
Another object which Cicero had rather at heart was to
succeed to a vacancy in the College of Augurs, caused at this
juncture by the death of his friend Q. Metellus Celer. He
confesses to Atticus that this was the only prize by which it
was in the power of the Triumvirate to tempt him, and with
candour adds, " Vide levitatem meam ! See my weakness !"
While he thus wrote, his mind was struggling between the
desire for action and the love of the calm pleasures of litera-
ture and philosophy. " To these," he exclaims, " I purpose
to devote myself : would that I had done so from the first !
Now, however, that I know by experience the vanity of those
things I once thought so brilliant, I intend to pay court to
all the Muses."
But in the same letter he eagerly inquires after all the
i
1 68 THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. CHAP. xi.
news and gossip of Rome. "Who are to be the new consuls?
Pompey and Crassus ? or Servius Sulpicius and Gabinius ?
Is there anything new in the way of legislation ? Is there
any news at all? Who has the office of the augurship?"
It was not offered to him at all events, for it did not suit the
policy of Caesar and Pompey to confer the honour upon him,
and he had to put up with the disappointment for the present.
His next letter is in the same strain. He asks for news,
but declares that he has no practical object in the inquiry, as
if he wished to meddle in state affairs ; and he compares
himself to a pilot compelled to disembark from a ship, the
helm of which has been snatched from his hand. " I wish,"
he exclaims, "to see the shipwreck of those men from the
shore. I wish, as your friend Sophocles says,
" ' To hear beneath the roof with slumbrous mind
The rain-lashed window beaten by the wind.' "
So far, however, from being in a state of slumber, he was full of
feverish anxiety. Whenever a messenger came from Rome
his first question was, " Have you brought a letter from
Atticus ?" Once, while at his villa near Antium, when the
answer was " No !" he so frightened the couriers by his cross-
examination that they confessed they had received a letter
for him, but lost it on the road. Here was a disappointment.
All he could do was to write to his friend and beg him to
repeat the contents of his missing letter. " If it contained
matter worthy of history, let me know it ; if only jokes, let
me have them."
In April he left Antium and went to his country residence
at Formiae, intending to return to Antium in May, as his
daughter Tullia wished to see some games that would be
celebrated there. But he afterwards changed his mind and
determined not to take her to the show, as he thought it
would not look well for him to be amusing himself at a time
when he did not wish to appear to be travelling for pleasure.
From his Formian villa he wrote frequently to Atticus, and
his letters show the deep disquiet with which he contemplated
the state of things at Rome. Pompey had assured him that
Clodius had promised in the strongest manner that he would
B.C. 60. COUNTRY NEIGHBOURS. 169
do him no injury ; and Cicero told his friend that if the pro-
mise was not kept he would take a fine revenge on that
" Jerusalemite," as he contemptuously called Pompey. 1 " He
shall feel/' he says, " the ingratitude he has shown for all my
complimentary speeches ; look out, therefore, for a divine
palinode !" He then goes on: " Merrily and with less noise
than I had expected has the revolution been accomplished ;
more quickly than it was possible had it not been for Cato's
blunders and the perversity of those who allowed the existing
laws against tribunician abuse and electoral corruption to be
violated, and threw away all the safeguards of the state."
But he was determined to defend himself, and if attacked
return blow for blow. " Let my country support me : she
has had from me I will not say more than was due, but cer-
tainly more than was demanded from me. I would rather
have a bad voyage with another at the helm than steer the
ship prosperously with such thankless passengers." The
letter concludes with a few words in Greek, most likely
scrawled by his youthful son, " Little Cicero sends greeting
to Titus the Athenian" a salutation which is varied in
another letter, thus : " Young Cicero the philosopher sends
greeting to Titus the statesman." These little home touches
are pleasant and refreshing to meet with in the midst of the
discontent and sorrow that were preying on the mind of the
father.
Formiae was so far away from Rome that he felt himself \^
quite out of the world. He complains that in his villa there
the remains of which are still pointed out at the Villa
Marsana near Castiglione except from a chance traveller
he never hears anything from Rome, whereas at Antium he
had a letter daily from Atticus. But if he pined for news
from the metropolis, he was in danger of being bored to death
by country neighbours. They so crowded his house in the
morning that he says it was more like a public building
(basilica} than a villa. There was Arrius who would talk
philosophy with him, and obligingly told him that he stayed
there for the purpose. And then there was that Sebosus ! He
gives such a graphic account of a visit from these gentlemen
1 Pompey had taken Jerusalem, and most probably vaunted a good deal of the
exploit.
i yo THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE, CHAP. xi.
that it is worth quoting : " Just as I was writing post haste
to you, in walks Sebosus ! I had hardly got over a groan
when, ' How do you do ?' says Arrius. Is this to get away
from Rome ? What was the use of my escaping from those
men there when I have stumbled upon these men here ? I
declare I will be off
" To my old ascestral hills, the cradle of my race. 1
In short, if I cannot be alone I would rather have the com-
pany of peasants than these town gentlemen."
And there were others equally tedious and tiresome, so
that he says in joke this was now a capital opportunity for
any one who wished to buy his Formian property meaning
that to get away from such company he would sell it cheap.
And yet in the. same letter in which he says this he declares
that he has become so enervated, that he would rather live
under a despotism in the repose in which he was then stag-
nating, than engage in the struggle of active life with the
best hopes of success. 2
It would be tedious to quote at much greater length from
Cicero's correspondence at this period. It is all in the same
strain : full of intense dissatisfaction at the state of public
j affairs. In April, Pompey married Julia, Caesar's only child,
>~ twenty-three years younger than himself, and previously be-
trothed to Servilius Scipio. He had divorced his" former
wife Mucia, for adultery with Caesar ; and now, for the sake
of ambition, he actually married the daughter of the man
who was the author of his dishonour! 3 Such an alliance is
without a precedent or a parallel. No wonder that Cicero
should fear lest, stung and maddened by the reproaches
which his conduct brought down upon him, Pompey, or
Sampsiceramus, as he nicknamed him, should grow utterly
desperate. 4 Caesar, in the meantime, pursued his old course
^s of reckless extravagance, and lavished enormous sums on
spectacles and games to keep the people in good humour.
1 In montes patrios et ad incunabula coming odious along with that of Crassus
nostra. "the Rich."
3 Sueton. Cces. 50.
2 He describes the feelings of the pro- 4 Ad. Att. ii. 14. Sampsiceramus
vincials as greatly irritated against " our was the name of a pretty chieftain in
friend Magnus," whose name was be- Asia Minor conquered by Pompey.
JET. 46. CICERO RETURNS TO ROME. 171
He was as unscrupulous about the means of getting money
as he was profligate in spending it. He contrived to abstract
(Suetonius says he stole] from the temple of Jupiter in the
Capitol three thousand pounds weight of gold, and replaced
it with the same quantity of gilt bronze. The triumvirate,
or rather Caesar in its name, was already master of Rome, ^><
and Cicero declared, with prescient foresight, that a despotism
was at hand, " For what," he writes to Atticus in May, " is
the meaning of this sudden alliance this distribution of
lands in Campania this profuse expenditure of money ?
And if this were the extremity of the mischief it would be
too much. But in the nature of things it cannot be the ex-
tremity. For what pleasure can they take in these things in
themselves ? They would never have gone so far except to
open a path to further pestilent designs. Good heavens!"
So far as personal feelings were concerned, he said he was
not without a consolation. He used to fear that Pompey's
services to his country would, some six hundred years later,
be thought to eclipse his own ; but now he had no appre-
hension on that score, so lost and fallen had "Sampsiceramus"
become. ^K^
With such feelings he returned to Rome in June. Atticus,
about this time, went to stay at his country-seat in Epirus,
so that their correspondence was still kept up ; but Cicero
told him that he would, for the sake of caution, sometimes
write under a feigned name.
He found the triumvirate very unpopular, and men gave
vent to their opinions at dinner-tables and in society more
freely than formerly. Grief and indignation began, he says,
to get the better of fear ; but yet the case seemed to be well
nigh desperate. Never was there, according to him, so in-
famous a state of things at Rome and so detested by all
classes as now. When the- triumvirs appeared abroad they /
were hissed. Pompey especially seemed the -object of dis-
like. 1 When Diphilus, an actor, recited in the theatre a line
which was applicable to him, " Nostrd miserid tu es Magnus?
he was rapturously encored ; and when he went on with
the allusion, signifying that a day of reckoning would come,
the audience vociferously applauded. Caesar came at the
1 Even now Cicero called him nostri a mores. Ad. Att. ii. 29.
i
1 7 2 THE FIRST TRIUMVIR A TE. c HAP. xi.
moment to the theatre, and was so coldly received that he
could not conceal his displeasure ; while Curio, a young
senator, then looked upon as a leader of the Opposition, and
as conspicuous for his hostility to Caesar as he was afterwards
distinguished by servile devotion to him, was loudly cheered.
Pompey happened to be absent from Rome at Capua, and
letters were immediately sent off to tell him of the disagree-
able occurrence. As to Bibulus, he was in immense favour.
After the gross insult and outrage offered to him by his col-
league, he refused to enter the Senate or appear in public,
and in no very dignified manner shut himself up in his own
house, where the Senate, or at all events some of the senators,
used to meet, and from which he issued edicts and public
notices addressed to the people. These were posted on pla-
caqis, and the crowds that collected to read them were so
great that the thoroughfares were blocked up. He declared
all the remaining days of the year, after the passing of the
Campanian law, nefasti, or what, in Scotland, would be called
not " lawful " days ; that is, days in which no public business
could be done. But this was virtually to abdicate his autho-
rity and make Caesar in effect sole consul, so that the wits
of Rome used to date their letters and other documents, by
way of joke, with the words, " Julio et C&sare Coss. ;" and
the following epigram was long current amongst them :
" Non Bibulo quicquam nuper sed Csesare factum est,
Nam Bibulo fieri consule nil memini."
" Pooh ! Bibulus did nought of late, but Caesar did it all ; ,
For the consulship of Bibulus I can't to mind recal."
The people, however, were with Bibulus, and hissed and
hooted the Triumvirs. Cicero gives a piteous description of
the appearance of Pompey when he mounted the Rostra in
July to speak to the multitude. He declares that he could
not refrain from tears when he looked at him and saw how
he was changed. He was no longer the proud and popular
orator, confident in himself and challenging applause, but
cringing humbly to the mob, and almost ashamed to utter a
word. He compares him to a star that had glided from its
sphere. " O Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou
fallen !" is the sentiment, if not the expression ; and he says
his grief was like that which Apelles or Protogenes might
B.C. 60. DEFENCE OF FLACCUS. 173
be imagined to feel if the one had seen his Venus, or the
other his lalysus, daubed and covered with mud. And yet
he declares that, although after Pompey's conduct in the
Clodian business he had forfeited all claim to his friendship,
his love for him had been such that no injury could de-
stroy it.
He took no part in public business at this time. He was
profoundly disgusted with the state of affairs a state in
which, he said, resistance could only lead to civil war, and
the struggle would end in ruin ; and as he found he could do
no good in politics, he turned to his old and congenial pro- ^
fession of an advocate. He defended A. Themius twice, and
successfully ; and afterwards, with Hortensius, defended L.
Valerius Flaccus, who was accused of extortion in his prae-
torian government of the province of Asia Minor. Horten-
sius availed himself of the occasion to speak in the hand-
somest manner of Cicero's services as consul, for which he
had a good opportunity, as Flaccus had been praetor during
Cicero's consulship. His own speech is still extant.
The charges against Flaccus were supported by witnesses
who were sent over from Lydia, Mysia, Caria, and Phrygia,
which constituted the province of Asia Minor. They were
all Greeks, the descendants of the settlers from Greece who
had colonised those countries. The line of defence which he
principally adopted was to throw discredit on their testi-
mony ; and the speech is curious, as showing the low esti- \
mate in which Greek veracity was held at Rome. The
argument may be summed up in a single sentence : " Do
not believe a Greek upon his oath." Passionately fond as
he was of the literature of Greece, he had the utmost con-
tempt for the character of the nation ; and here was a case
in which his duty to his client called upon him to express it.
Whether he was as well justified in praising the truthfulness
of his own countrymen as he was in denouncing the men-
dacity of the Greeks, is another question ; but an advocate
may be allowed to flatter the vanity of the court he is
addressing :
" I say," exclaimed Cicero, " this generally of the Greeks. I concede to them
literature ; I grant them accomplishments in many arts ; I do not deny them
graceful wit, acute intellect, and ready speech ; and if they claim even more than
this, I make no objection ; but that nation has never cultivated any regard for the
174 THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. CHAP. XL
sanctity of truth in giving evidence, and they are wholly ignorant of the force and
authority and serious importance of the matter. Whence comes that saying,
* Accommodate me with your testimony?' Is it supposed to be the formula of
Spaniards or of Gauls ? It is entirely the formula of the Greeks ; so that even
those who do not know Greek know the words which the Greeks use in utter-
ing it."
Another passage is worth quoting to show what was
Cicero's opinion of the evils of democracy. After describing
the checks which the constitution of Rome, in theory at
least, imposed upon party legislation, and the care with which
the wise men of old had guarded the state against the
effects of mob tyranny, he contrasted this with the history of
Greece :
" All the Greek republics," he said, " are governed by the rash and sudden
impulses of public meetings. Not to speak of the Greece of the present, which
has long been the victim of its own policy, ancient Greece, which once flourished
in wealth, empire, and renown, was ruined by this one evil the unchecked
liberty and licentiousness of its public meetings and popular harangues. When
uninstructed men, uneducated and ignorant, were assembled in a theatre, they
voted for useless wars, they placed turbulent demagogues at the head of the
government, and banished the best citizens from the state."
But besides attacking the character of the witnesses, he
showed that their evidence was utterly untrustworthy in its
nature. It was made up of resolutions passed by excited
mobs, and was unsupported by documentary proofs. In
some cases the witnesses pretended that they had lost the
documents with which they were entrusted ; in others, the
documents were forged at Rome. For instance, one of them
was sealed with wax, according to the Roman custom, and
not with chalk or Cretan earth, as was the custom in Asia. 1
The orator concluded as usual with a passionate appeal to
the pity of the jury, calling upon them, to acquit the young
man who was accused before them, for the sake of himself,
his father, and his family, and to preserve from ruin and for
the service of the state the heir of a glorious name.
In the meantime Caesar had been invested by a law
, (lex Vatinid] brought forward and carried by Vatinius, a
tribune of the people, and one of his creatures with the
command, for five years, of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum,
with three legions. This was an extraordinary appointment,
and had been conferred by a special enactment. But the
1 For the use of clay seals amongst the ancient Assyrians, see Rawlinson's
Ancient Monarchies, vol. i. p. 331.
JET. 46. CLODIUS ELECTED TRIBUNE. 175
Senate, fearing that the people would go farther and ignore
them altogether, made a merit of necessity, and themselves
conferred on him, in addition, the command of Gaul beyond
the Alps, with another legion. They little thought that by
so doing they were signing the death-warrant of the liberties
of Rome. Caesar, still anxious to conciliate Cicero, offered X
to make him one of his lieutenants, and pressed the office
upon him, as he himself expresses it, in a very handsome
manner. At the same time he had a libera legatio given
him by the Senate ; that is, as previously explained, permis-
sion to travel with the privileges of an ambassador : and he
hesitated between the two. He seems, however, to have y
accepted the former at least nominally; but he had no
intention at that time of leaving Rome. " I do not like to
fly," he writes to Atticus ; " I wish to fight. I have zealous
friends on my side : but I say nothing positively. This to
you in confidence."
But a much more important event had just happened.
Clodius, now qualified as a plebeian, had, at the beginning
of April, announced himself a candidate for the tribune-
ship, and was chosen in July one of the tribunes for the fol-
lowing year. Plutarch and Dio Cassius both say that he
owed his election to the influence of Caesar, which is ex-
tremely probable. And yet at first it seemed as if he was
going to turn against his patron. He saw how unpopular ^
the triumvirs had become, and threatened to attack them.
But more prudent counsels prevailed. He knew that they
were rich and powerful, and backed by military force, so
that, abandoning the thought of opposing them, he resolved
to spring upon a weaker prey, and gratify his long-cherished
hatred of Cicero. Clodius had indeed protested with an ^
oath to Pompey that, if made tribune, he would do Cicero
no harm. This promise Pompey had exacted from him, for
he declared that he should be covered with eternal disgrace
o
if Cicero was injured by the man in whose hands a weapon
had been placed by himself in permitting him to become a
plebeian. Pompey, therefore, gave Cicero the most fervent
assurances that he was safe. He told him that if Clodius
broke his word and attacked him, then the world should see
that nothing was dearer to himself than Cicero's friendship.
1 76 THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. CHAP. XT.
And did Cicero believe this ? He did, and he did not.
" Pompey loves me," so he writes to Atticus, " and treats
me with affection. ' Do you believe it?' you will ask. I
do believe it : he makes me to believe it. But we are warned
by precepts both in prose and verse to be on our guard and
avoid credulity. Well ! I take care to be on my guard ; but
incredulous of his professions I cannot be."
But whatever might be Pompey's sincerity, Clodius had
X no intention of keeping his promise. He spoke to others in
the bitterest terms of Cicero, who no longer disguised from
himself the fact that either by open violence or under colour
of the forms of law his enemy would attack him. But this
gave him at first little uneasiness, and he treated the matter
lightly. He never fully realised the weight of the impending
blow until it fell, and for a time crushed him. Indeed he
almost courted the attack ; for abstaining as he had done
from politics of late, and confining himself to the duties of an
advocate, in which he still shone with unrivalled splendour,
^ he had recovered much of his old popularity. His house was
thronged with clients and visitors ; he was greeted cordially
in the street ; men professed zealous attachment to his per-
son ; and the memory of his consulship seemed to be revived.
Let Clodius now do his worst : Cicero thought himself more
than a match for him. He had not, with all his experience,
realised the truth that
" An habitation giddy and unsure
Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart ; "
and he did not estimate aright the strength and resources of
his adversary.
But he soon changed his tone. Not long after he had ex-
x/ pressed himself thus confidently, almost defiantly, we find him
writing to Atticus in real alarm at Clodius's threats, and con-
juring him to come to Rome : "If you love me as much as
you certainly do love me if you are sleeping, awake; if you
are standing, walk ; if you are walking, run ; if you are run-
ning, fly. You can hardly believe how much I rely upon
your advice and sagacity, and more than all upon your love
and fidelity. The importance of the subject requires perhaps
a long detail ; but the intimacy of our souls makes us con-
tent with brevity."
TREA CHER Y OF VETTIUS. 1 7 7
In August Rome was agitated by the news of a plot which
appears to have been as unreal, and to have been concocted
with as much baseness, as the famous Titus Gates plot in our
own history. We have seen that Curio was at this time an
active leader of Opposition, and, according to Cicero's account,
Caesar resolved to destroy him. Vettius, a Roman knight
who had been useful to Cicero in Catiline's conspiracy, took
upon himself the disreputable office of a common informer.
He promised Caesar that he would involve Curio in the meshes
of a conspiracy, or would at all events accuse him of it. For
this purpose he affected his society, and when sufficiently in-
timate with him, made him the confidant of a plan which he
said he had formed to kill Pompey. Some writers say that
he professed his intention to kill Caesar also, and other lead-
ing senators. Curio immediately told this to his father, and
his father informed Pompey. The matter was brought before
the Senate, and Vettius was introduced to the assembly. At
first he denied that he had had any communication with Curio;
but almost directly afterwards retracted this statement, and
offered to reveal the truth if his safety was publicly guaran-
teed. This was promised; and he then declared that a band
of young men, amongst whom he named Paulus ^Emilius,
Brutus, 1 Lentulus, and others, with Curio as their leader, had
formed a conspiracy. He added that C. Septimius, a secre-
tary of Bibulus, had brought him a dagger from Bibulus, to
enable him to assassinate Pompey. This was rather too
much; and the Senate laughed at the idea of Vettius getting
his dagger from the consul, as if he had no other weapon for
his purpose. Besides, it was proved that some time before
Bibulus had himself warned Pompey to be on his guard, for
which Pompey had thanked him. Curio was brought in, and
totally denied the charge. A further proof of its falsity was
shown by the fact, that at the time when, according to Vettius,
a meeting of the young men was held to settle a plan for at-
tacking Pompey with a band of gladiators in the Forum, at
which he alleged that Paulus ^Emilius took a leading part,
^Emilius was absent in Macedonia. The Senate therefore
1 Cicero calls him Q. Caepio Brutus. Servilius Coepio, and for some time, ac-
This was M. Junius Brutus, the future cording to Roman usage, was known by
assassin of Cresar. He had recently his uncle's name in addition to his own
been adopted by his maternal uncle Q. surname.
N
1 78 THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. CHAP, xi
ordered that Vettius, since upon his confession he had carried
a dagger with a murderous intent, should be thrown into
prison ; and they significantly added a resolution, that who-
ever let him out would act as an enemy of the state. The
resolution and order of the Senate were brought before a
meeting of the people, at which Caesar, in spite of what the
Senate had ordered, had the hardihood to introduce Vettius
from gaol, and permit him to address the multitude from the
honourable post of the Rostra a place from which, Cicero
tells us, Caesar, when he was praetor, had not allowed Catulus
to speak, but compelled him to stand on a lower platform.
Vettius put a bold face on the matter, and now accused some
of the noblest of the senators whom he had not previously
named, such as Lucullus, Fannius, Domitius Ahenobarbus,
and others ; but he made no allusion to Brutus, whom in the
senate-house he had specially denounced as privy to the con-
spiracy. He did not mention the name of Cicero, but said
that an eloquent ex-consul, who lived near the consul, 1 had
told him that the times required a Servilius Ahala or a Brutus.
This, of course, sufficiently pointed at Cicero. He afterwards
added that Piso, Cicero's son-in-law, and M. Laterensis, were
privy to the plot. Vettius was immediately sent back to
prison ; and notwithstanding the public assurance that had
been given him of personal safety, he was to have been
arraigned before Crassus, as praetor, on an indictment for
attempt to murder ; and Cicero says that he intended, if con-
demned, to earn a pardon by making a fuller confession, and
implicate more parties in the conspiracy. But in the mean-
time it was given out that he had destroyed himself in prison.
Perhaps he had : but his death was as mysterious as were
those of Wright and Pichegru in the Temple when Bonaparte
was First Consul. Cicero afterwards charged Vatinius the
tribune with having caused him to be strangled ; and if this
was true, there is little doubt that Vatinius acted on instruc-
tions from a higher quarter.
In giving to Atticus the substance of the above narrative
(except as to the death of Vettius, which had not then hap-
1 Caesar was not only consul but by the side of the Via Sacra, apparently
pontifex maximus, and as such inhabited just under the Palatine Hill, where
the house of the Collegium Pontificum, Cicero's house stood.
JET. 46.
DESPONDENCY.
179
pened), Cicero declared that he had no fears for himself. The
greatest good-will was shown to him ; but he was utterly
weary of life. No one was more unfortunate than himself,
no one more fortunate than Catulus, both in the glory of his
life and the happiness of his death before this evil time.
However, he kept, he said, his mind firm and undisturbed,
and w r as determined to preserve his reputation with honour.
Pompey told him to be under no apprehension from Clodius,
and in the most marked manner assured him of his friend-
ship.
While he was at his Antian villa this year he chiefly
studied history, though he declared that nobody was lazier
than himself. He wrote to Atticus that he intended to make
a collection of anecdotes of his contemporaries in the style
of Theopompus ; but he does not appear to have completed,
or, at all events, published the work, which w r ould have been
a most welcome help to our knowledge of the men of his
day. He promised his friend a rustic welcome at his villa
near Arpinum, and said that, in the controversy, Which is
the best kind of life the life of action or the life of contem-
plation ? the former of which was maintained by Dicaearchus,
and the latter by Theophrastus he thought that he practi-
cally sided with both. Certainly, he says, he had abundantly
satisfied Dicaearchus, and would in future seek happiness more
in the bosom of his family, which not only offered him repose,
but blamed him for not having always sought it.
v
CHAPTER XII.
THE EXILE.
.Et. 49. B.C. 58.
WE now come to the most melancholy period of Cicero's life
melancholy, not so much from the nature and extent of
the misfortune that overtook him, as from the abject pros-
tration of mind into which he was thrown.
We fail to recognise the orator and statesman the man
who braved the fury of Catiline, and in the evening of his
life hurled defiance at Antony in the weeping and moaning
exile. He was not deficient in physical courage ; he met a
violent death with calmness and fortitude ; but he wanted
jtrength of character and moral firmness to support adversity.
The consuls of the new year (B.C. 58) were Piso and Gabi-
nius, two men whose character Cicero has painted in the
blackest colours. Piso was a near relative of Cicero's own
son-in-law, Calpurnius Piso Frugi, and his daughter Calpurnia
was the wife of Caesar. He was of morose aspect, and rough
unpolished manners, but dissolute to the last degree. If we
may credit the picture drawn of him and his colleague Gabi-
nius by Cicero, two such infamous men never disgraced the
office of consul. They were sunk in the lowest and most
monstrous debauchery. He calls Gabinius in scorn, amongst
other opprobrious epithets, a " curled dancer," and says that
Piso might be taken for one of a gang of Cappadocian slaves.
Both had been strongly supported by Caesar and Pompey in
their canvass for the consulship. They lent themselves readily
B.C. 58. BLOW AIMED AT CICERO. 181
to Clodius's wishes, who, having entered upon the office of
tribune in December, proceeded with consummate skill to
execute his design of crushing Cicero. His first care was to
ingratiate himself with the three orders the Senate, the
Knights, and the People. With this view he proposed several
laws in the interest of each respectively, and, in order to
secure the two consuls, he bribed them with the offer of pro-
posing a special law to the people to confer upon them select
provincial governments, instead of letting them take their
chance as usual by lot. Piso thus got Achaia, Thessaly,
Peloponnesus, Macedonia, and Bceotia ; and Gabinius, Syria,
Babylon, and Persia. We can well imagine the visions of
plunder that rose before their eyes at such a prospect.
Everything was now ripe for the final blow. At a meeting
of the people in their comitia, Clodius came forward and pro-
posed the following law : " Be it enacted, that whoever has put
to death a Roman citizen uncondemned in due form of trial,
shall be interdicted from fire and water." Cicero's name was not
mentioned ; but it was a bill of pains and penalties against
him ; and he called it therefore a privilegium that is, a law
not of general but special application. He saw at once the
imminent peril in which he stood. If it passed, he was un-
done : for there was doubt that Clodius would see it executed
to the letter. His only chance of safety lay in exciting the
sympathy of the sovereign people, and enlisting their com-
passion on his side. For this purpose he dressed himself in
mourning and went about the streets beseeching the pity of
the populace, as if he were canvassing for their votes at an
election. The whole equestrian class put on mourning also.
All Italy seemed moved at the thought of Cicero's danger.
Deputations of burghers came up from distant towns to Rome
to implore the consuls to protect him. When he appeared
as a suppliant in the Forum or the streets, he was accompanied
by large bodies of friends in mourning, for twenty thousand
of the noblest youths in Rome testified their attachment and
their sorrow by changing their dress. 1 As the procession
moved along it was insulted and mobbed by Clodius and a
gang of ruffians who pelted Cicero with stones and mud. It
is difficult for us to realise the scenes of lawless riot of
1 Cicero says viginti mille, but it is probably an exaggeration.
1 82 THE EXILE. CHAP. XH.
which the streets and Forum of Rome were the witness in
those days. They were not unlike the bloody feuds that
raged in the streets of Genoa and Venice and Verona in the
middle ages.
The Senate met and passed a resolution that the whole
house should go into mourning. But Gabinius (Piso being
absent on the plea of ill health) interfered, and, by virtue of
his executive power as consul, prohibited such a mark of
respect. Knights and senators flung themselves at his feet
in vain ; and Clodius was at the door with an armed rabble
ready to enforce the consul's orders. Upon this numbers of
the senators tore open their robes, and with cries of indig-
nation rushed out of the senate-house. Cicero attempted to
gain Piso on his side. He went to his house, accompanied
by his son-in-law, Piso Frugi, the consul's relative, and there
had an interview with him. But it led to nothing. Piso said
that Gabinius could not do without Clodius, and as for him-
self, he must stand by his colleague, as Cicero had stood by
Antonius when he was consul : every one must take care of
his own safety.
In the meantime, what was Pompey doing ? Where was
the friendship he had so often professed for Cicero ? where
were the promises he had made when he swore that he would
defend him against Clodius with his life ? Whether it was
from fear or treachery, or both, he abandoned him to his fate.
He had retired to his villa called Albanum, near the modern
town of Albano, about twenty miles from Rome, not, we may
well believe, because he credited the reports which Clodius
and his partisans spread, that his life was threatened by
Cicero's friends, but because he wished to take no active part
in the disgraceful proceedings that were going on, and to avoid
the importunities of the most distinguished men at Rome,
praying him to exert his influence to put a stop to them.
But Lucullus and Torquatus and Lentulus, who was then
praetor, and other noblemen, hastened to him, and urgently
entreated him not to abandon his friend, with whose safety
the welfare of the state was bound up. Pompey coldly re-
ferred them to the consuls, saying that he, as a private indi-
vidual, would not enter on a contest with an armed tribune
of the people ; but if the consuls and the Senate were willing
JET. 49. APPEAL TO POMPEY. 183
to do so and called upon him to assist, he was ready to draw
the sword.
In the extremity of his despair, Cicero made a last effort
to save himself. He went to Albanum, and humiliated him-
self so far as to throw himself on the ground at Pompey's
feet, who did not even ask him to rise, but told him as he lay
there that he could do nothing against the will of Caesar.
Plutarch indeed gives a different account, and says that Pom-
pey avoided the interview by slipping out at a back-door.
But we have Cicero's positive statement that the scene oc-
curred as I have related it, and this is, of course, conclusive.
What, then, was he to do ? Four courses were open to him,
and they were all deliberately discussed by himself and his
friends. Either he might meet Clodius in an armed contest
in the streets, or in a criminal trial in the courts of law ; or
he might seek safety in flight ; or he might commit suicide.
Lucullus counselled him to stay, and, if necessary, fight for
his life. His friends were numerous, and would stand by him
if it came to blows ; nor was there any reason to fear that
they and their followers would not be more than a match for
the armed rabble of Clodius. This, no doubt, was the bold
and manly course, and Cicero bitterly regretted afterwards
that he did not adopt it. But he had a horror of violence
and bloodshed ; and it was not in his nature to act as Caesar,
or Cromwell, or Napoleon, would have acted at such a crisis.
Cato, Hortenstus, and Atticus, and his own family, advised
him to quit Rome, assuring him that in a very few days he
would be brought back in triumph. As to suicide, all his
friends, and especially Atticus, appear to have dissuaded him
from it. From a Roman point of view, such an act would
have been justifiable, for, according to heathen ethics, suicide
was preferable to disgrace.
Caesar was still at Rome, but outside the walls, having as-
sumed the command of his army; and Clodius assembled the
people in the Circus Flaminius beyond the gates, where Caesar
could be present, it not being lawful for him to remain inside
the city now that he was at the head of his legions. Clodius
there publicly asked Caesar what he thought of Cicero's con-
duct in his consulship. He replied that the proceedings
against the associates of Catiline were contrary to law, as he
1 84 THE EXILE. CHAP. xn.
had repeatedly asserted ; but that in a matter so long gone
by and ended, he thought they ought not to judge severely
he himself always preferred mild measures. This was all
that the most powerful of the Romans would say on Cicero's
behalf, and he was left to his fate. He had long kept in his
house a small statue of Minerva, who was regarded as the
tutelary deity of Rome, as well as of Athens. This he took
to the Temple of Jupiter in the Capitol, and there dedicated
it with the inscription MINERVA CuSTODl URBIS. He then
quitted the city, accompanied outside the walls by a large
body of friends in tears. But he left his family behind, not
wishing to involve them in the discomforts of a journey of
which he hardly then knew the direction or the limit. He
buoyed himself up, however, with the hope which was in-
creased by the assurances of his too sanguine friends that
in a few days he would be recalled back to Rome.
It was about the 2Oth of March when he turned his back
upon the city, and the same day Clodius brought before the
people a bill interdicting Cicero (naming him) from fire and
water, and enacting that no one should receive him in his
house within five hundred miles of Italy. This was the pur-
port of the bill, but the untechnical way in which it was
worded gave Cicero the opportunity, after his return, of ridi-
culing the blundering draftsman who had framed it. The
language of the first section or paragraph ran thus : " Is it
your pleasure, and do you enact, that M. Tullius has been
interdicted from fire and water ?" instead of enacting that M.
Tullius " be interdicted'' Now, as the interdiction was the
consequence of, and could not precede, the law that created
it, it was manifestly nonsense to enact that something had
happened which had not yet taken place. But Clodius cared
little for technical accuracy provided he could pass the mea-
sure which would outlaw his hated enemy, and make him a
homeless and houseless fugitive. It was further enacted that
if Cicero was seen within the forbidden limits, both he and
all who gave him shelter might be killed with impunity.
But, to the honour of Italy be it said, this barbarous clause
was treated as a dead letter, and disregarded by everybody. 1
An alteration was made in the bill before it was finally
1 Poena est, qui receperit : quam omnes neglexerunt. Pro Domo, c. 20.
B.C. 58. DEPARTURE FROM ROME. 185
submitted to the vote, and four .hundred miles were substi-
tuted for five hundred. The Forum was filled with slaves
and partisans of Clodius, many of whom were armed ; and
in the midst of noise, and tumult, and confusion, the bill
passed and became law.
Without a moment's delay it was put in force in all its
terrible severity. Cicero was at once treated as beyond the
pale of the law, and his property was confiscated. Before
nightfall his house on the Palatine Hill was in flames and
reduced to ashes. His Tusculan and Formian villas were
afterwards plundered and laid waste. On part of the site
where the Palatine house had stood Clodius erected a temple,
which he dedicated to Liberty ; and he pulled down the ad-
joining portico of Catulus, and built another, to which he gave
his own name.
Let us follow the footsteps of the exile. He seems to have
travelled slowly, hoping for a time to hear that he was re-
called. He left Rome no doubt by the Capuan Gate (Porta
Capcna], and followed the Via Appia, which runs towards
the south, as it may still be seen, paved with its large irre-
gular slabs of stone, just as when Cicero passed along it on
his melancholy journey. On the 8th of April he was some-
where in Lucania (part of the modern kingdom of Naples),
on the road to Vibo, a small town on the coast, now Monte
Leone. Here he wrote to Atticus, and begged him to come
to him, saying, " I know that the journey is a troublesome
one, but my calamity is full of all kinds of trouble." He
told his friend that, unless he accompanied him, he should
not venture to cross over to Epirus, in case it should be ne-
cessary to leave Italy, because Autronius, a fellow-conspirator
with Catiline, was then living in exile in the neighbourhood,
and he was bitterly hostile to Cicero, as one of the authors
of his banishment. He concluded his letter with the words,
" More I cannot write, I am so distressed and cast down."
His intention was to go to Sicily, of which Virgilius was
governor, or to Malta; and he proceeded as far as Vibo, close
to which a friend of his named Sica had a farm, in which he
generously received him. It seems to have been about this
time that he had the dream to which he alludes in his treatise
De Divinatione. A vision of Marius, with his laurelled fasces,
1 86 THE EXILE. CHAP. XH.
appeared to him, and asked him why he was so sad. He
answered that he had been expelled from his country, upon
which Marius took him by the hand, bade him be of good
cheer, and ordered one of his lictors to conduct him to his
own monument or temple, where he would find safety. His
faithful freedman, Sallust, who was with him, declared that
this betokened a speedy and happy return. 1
While he was staying with Sica, a letter was sent to him
from Virgilius forbidding him to cross over to Sicily. At
the same time, he got a copy of Clodius's bill, as amended
and passed, which limited the distance within which he was
not to reside to four hundred miles. This, however, made
it unsafe for him to stay at Vibo, and he was also obliged to
abandon the idea he had formed of going to Malta. He
therefore turned his steps in the direction of Brundusium,
the most convenient port for reaching the opposite coast of
Greece. On the I oth of April he was at Thurii, and wrote
to Atticus, telling him how grateful Terentia was for all his
kindness to her, and describing his own wretchedness. His
family had great need just then of friendship and protection,
and if we may believe what he says in one of his speeches,
and it is not an oratorical exaggeration, even the lives of his
children were threatened. 2
On the 1 8th of April he arrived at Brundusium, where he
got letters from Atticus earnestly begging him to cross over
to Epirus, and stay at his country seat there, in the neigh-
bourhood of Buthrotus. The house was a fortified one, which
Cicero admitted would be an advantage if he took up his
abode in it, and he could there enjoy the solitude he sought.
But it was out of the way if he adhered to his intention of
going into Asia Minor, and was too near the residence of
Autronius, who had an armed band of desperadoes with him.
He wished to make Athens his place of sojourn ; but was
afraid that it would be considered to be within the prohibited
distance from Italy. In fact, he was sorely puzzled and
1 This dream was regarded by Cicero and called on that account Monumentum
as prophetic, and was supposed to have Marii. We may remember that some-
its fulfilment in the fact that the decree thing of the same kind is said to have
of the Senate recalling him was made occurred in the prophecy of the death of
in the temple constructed by Marius out Henry IV.
of the spoils taken in the Cimbrian Wars, i n that Jerusalem shall Harry die."
2 Pro Sext. 24.
;ET. 49. LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 187
perplexed what to do. He wrote to Atticus, and told him
that his advice and remonstrance prevented him from laying
violent hands on himself; but could not make him cease to
regret that he had adopted the plan of flight instead of com-
mitting suicide.
He did not stay in the town of Brundusium, fearing to
compromise the safety of the friendly inhabitants, but occu-
pied for a fortnight a building in the garden of a Roman
knight, M. Laenius Flaccus, who, braving all danger of the
Clodian law, afforded to the unhappy exile the shelter of
which he stood so much in need. His first letter to Terentia,
during his banishment, that we possess is dated from this place,
and gives a most melancholy picture of his state of mind.
He says that he would send letters oftener to her, but when-
ever he writes to her or receives letters from her, he is so
blinded by tears that he cannot bear it.
" Ah ! " he exclaims, " that I had been less desirous of life ! assuredly I should
have seen nothing, or at all events not much, of misery in life. But if fortune
preserves me to the hope of recovering any of the blessings I have lost, I have
been less guilty of error ; but if these evils admit of no change, still I wish to see
you, my life, as soon as possible, and die in your embrace, since neither the gods
whom you have most religiously worshipped, nor men whom / have served, have
shown us any gratitude."
The language of his grief is almost incoherent, and is pain-
ful to read. He bursts out :
" O ! lost and afflicted as I am, why should I ask you to come to me? You,
a woman, weak in health, worn out both in body and mind ! Yet must I not ask
you ? Can I then exist without you ? ... Be assured of this, if I have you I shall
not think myself wholly lost. But what will become of my darling Tullia ? Do you
both see to it. I can give no advice. . . . And my Cicero, what will he do ? I
cannot write more my grief prevents me. I know not what has become of you
whether you still keep anything, or, as I fear, have been utterly mined. I hope
that Piso (his son-in-law) will, as you write, always remain true to us."
He then alludes to the emancipation of their slaves, and
tells her not to trouble herself about them. His wife seems
throughout to have acted with firmness and courage, and to
have done her best to rouse the drooping spirits of her hus-
band, who had abandoned all hope. He goes on
' ' As for what remains, my Terentia, support yourself as you best can. I have
lived with honour. I have enjoyed prosperity. It is not my crimes, but my
virtue, that has crushed me. I have committed no fault except that of not having
lost my life when I lost all that adorns life. But if it was my children's wish that
I should live, let me bear the rest, although it is intolerable. And I who con-
sole you cannot console myself. . . . Take all the care possible of your health,
i88
THE EXILE.
CHAP. XII.
and remember that I am more disturbed by your sorrow than my own. Farewell,
my Terentia, my most faithful and best of wives ! my dearest daughter ; and Cicero,
our only remaining hope ! "
Is it possible to believe that the wife to whom he thus
wrote was a jealous, imperious, and bad-tempered woman ?
and yet this is what Plutarch, and those who follow Plutarch,
would wish us to suppose.
THE POUT OF BRUNDUSIUM,
At the end of April, Flaccus accompanied him on board
a vessel which left the port of Brundusium, and after a stormy
passage, they reached Dyrrachium, on the opposite coast.
Here he met with a kind and hospitable reception, for there
were old ties of friendship between himself and the Dyr-
rachians, whose patron he had been at Rome ; but he did
not dare to remain. He dreaded the neighbourhood of
Autronius and other banished or fugitive conspirators, and
he was anxious to reach Macedonia, of which, at that time,
his friend Cnaeus Plancius was quaestor. When Plancius
heard of his arrival at Dyrrachium, he hastened to meet him,
not only without any of the pomp of office, but dressed in
mourning. Cicero took the most northerly route to the pro-
vince, and the two friends met on the way. They embraced
each other silently in tears, their hearts being too full for
words, and then Plancius turned and accompanied him to
Thessalonica, where they arrived on the 23d of May, and
B.C. 58. ANXIETY ABOUT QUINTUS. 189
where Cicero took up his abode for seven months in the
house of his friend. He was at this time full of anxiety
about his brother Quintus, for whom he felt the warmest and
most sincere affection. Quintus was on his way home from
his provincial government, and Cicero wished exceedingly to
see him. At Dyrrachium he heard that he had embarked
at Ephesus for Athens, but another account informed him
that he would travel through Macedonia. He therefore
despatched a messenger to Athens, begging that he would
come to him at Thessalonica. He was afraid that if Quintus
went to Rome he might be impeached by his enemies, who,
having struck himself down, would try to complete their
Avork by destroying his brother also.
He wrote to Atticus from Thessalonica, and told him that
he intended to follow his advice, and wait until the journals
of the Senate for May (A eta mensis Maice) reached him, that
he might know what was done. 1 He bitterly reproaches him-
self for the blindness of his folly in having trusted a man
who had betrayed him, and from subsequent letters he ap-
pears to have here alluded to Hortensius : but, at the same
time, he throws blame upon Atticus for not having been
more sharp-sighted than himself. There seems to have been
no real ground for Cicero's suspicions that Hortensius had
played him false ; but it is abundantly clear that for some
time he was under this painful impression. We know, how-
ever, how completely the feeling passed away, and in what
touching language he spoke of his glorious rival when he died.
Eagerly as he longed to see his brother, he now changed
his mind. He wrote to him at Athens, and begged him not
to come to him, but hasten on to Rome. One reason for
this was a fear lest the machinations of his enemies might
injure Quintus when he was not there to defend himself.
But another reason, as he himself confesses to Atticus, was,
that he could not bear that his brother, who was made of
less stern stuff than even himself (mollissimo animo, as he
describes him) should be a witness of his utter misery and
prostration, and a sharer in his broken fortunes, for he was
1 This is a sufficiently correct render- was kept, and it is the nearest approxi-
ing of the word Ada. A diary or mation to a gazette that existed in an-
journal of the proceedings of the Senate cient Rome.
190 THE EXILE. CHAP. xn.
certain that if they ever met he would never abandon
him.
In a letter to Quintus, written on the 5th of June, he
gave vent to his feelings in a burst of passionate grief :
" My brother! my brother ! my brother!" he begins. " To think that you
feared that out of anger I sent a messenger to you without a letter, or that I even
did not wish to see you ! That I should be angry with you ! Could I be angry
with you ? . . . That I was unwilling to see you ! Yes ! I was unwilling
to be seen by you. For you would not have seen your brother not him whom
you had quitted ; not him whom you had known ; not him whom you left in tears
at your departure, when you were yourself in tears not even a trace of him not
a shadow, but the image of a breathing corpse. And would that you had before
this seen me dead or heard that I was dead. Would that I had left you the sur-
vivor and heir, not only of my life but of my rank and reputation. But I call to
witness all the gods, that I was deterred from death by this sole consideration
that all declared that with my life some part of yours was bound up. Therefore
I erred and acted wickedly. For if I had died, death itself would have asserted
my affection and love towards you. Now I have brought it to pass that though I
live you cannot be with me and I have lost others and in the perils of my home
and family my voice was powerless, which had often been a protection to those
who were utter strangers to me."
Enough has been given to show the tenor of Cicero's
letters at this period, and to make us grieve for the weak-
ness of so eminent a man. Like the roll of Ezekiel, there
is written therein lamentation, and mourning, and woe.
Seldom has misfortune so crushed a noble spirit, and never
perhaps has the " bitter bread of banishment " seemed more
bitter to any one than to him. We must remember that the
love of country was a passion with the ancients to a degree
which it is now difficult to realise ; and exile from it, even
for a time, was felt to be an intolerable evil. The nearest
approach to such a feeling was perhaps that of some favourite
under an European monarchy, when, frowned upon by his
sovereign, he was hurled from place and power, and banished
from the court. The change to Cicero was indeed tremen-
dous. Not only was he an exile from Rome, the scene of
all his hopes, his glories, and his triumphs, but he was under
the ban of an outlaw. If found within a certain distance
from the Capitol, he must die ; and it was death to any one
to give him food or shelter. His property was destroyed,
his family was penniless, and the people whom he had so
faithfully served were the authors of his ruin. All this may
be urged in his behalf; but still, it would have been only
consistent with Roman fortitude to have shown that he pos-
JET. 49. EXTRAVAGANT GRIEF. 191
sessed something of the spirit of the fallen archangel, who
exclaimed
' ' The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
What matter where, if I be still the same ?"
Wieland was so impressed with this painful exhibition of
Cicero's weakness, that he says that good service would have
been done to his reputation if his freedman Tiro, or whoever
it was that collected and published his letters, had taken the
whole of those he wrote to his wife, to his brother, and to
Atticus during his exile, and thrown them into the fire.
Middleton mourns over the weakness of his idol, but, deter-
mined if possible to excuse him, says, that " to have been
as great in affliction as he was in prosperity would have been
a perfection not given to man." But we cannot accept this
view. In prosperity Cicero was far from being faultless,
although in moral and social qualities he shone like a star
amidst his contemporaries. But what we complain of is,
not that he was not equal to himself in misfortune, but that
he fell so far below himself, and showed a pusillanimity
which it is humiliating to contemplate. And yet it is better
that this should be known, in order that we may appreciate
his real character, than that we should have been imposed
upon by the destruction of his letters, and led to believe that
he was something different from what he was. For if they
had been destroyed, and we had to depend for our know-
ledge of his demeanour during his banishment solely upon
his speeches and letters after his return, we should form a
most erroneous estimate of the facts. There he speaks
bravely enough of himself, and would have the world suppose
that he quitted Rome, not because he was afraid for himself,
but solely out of regard to the public interest ; and that he
bore his calamity with the same courage he had displayed
when he faced the conspiracy of Catiline.
During all this trying period Atticus acted the part of a
true friend. He assisted Terentia with money, and devoted
himself in every way to the interests of Cicero. He tried to
cheer the fainting heart of the exile with hope, and to force
him to take a more manly view of his position, but in vain.
So extravagant was his grief, that people began to believe
192 THE EXILE. CHAP. XH.
that his mind was affected by insanity. To all the reproaches
of Atticus, who strove by that means to shame him into for-
titude, he opposed the magnitude of his ruin, and perpetually
contrasted the height to which he had once risen with the
depth to which he had now fallen. He entreated his friend
to spare him, but he was not so ready to spare his friend.
In a remarkable letter written to him in August he accuses
Atticus of having allowed his affection to blind his judgment,
and with the wayward injustice of a man who is determined
to find fault, throws upon him part of the blame that such a
calamity had overtaken him. But at the same time he
expressed in the strongest terms his sense of his friend's ser-
vices, and the deep obligation he was under to him. Indeed,
nothing can show more clearly the sincerity of the friendship
between these two eminent men than the liberty, so to speak,
which they took with each other in telling home truths.
Cicero did not hesitate to reproach Atticus, and Atticus
Cicero, when each thought the other in the wrong, with a
plainness and frankness which it is more easy to admire than
it would be generally safe to imitate. But he wronged his
friend when he complained of his conduct with reference to
his exile. Never did man find in misfortune more devotion
than he found in Atticus and Quintus, and he fully experi-
enced then the truth of the divine and touching aphorism,
" a friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for
adversity."
In one of his letters about this time there is a curious
passage, which is not very creditable to him. It appears
that some speech which he had written against Curio, but
nt>t delivered, had, contrary to his intention, got into circula-
tion without his knowledge, and was doing him harm. The
composition, however, was careless, and so far it was unlike
his style. It occurred to him, therefore, that he might deny
the authorship, Puto, he writes to Atticus, posse probari non
esse meum,3,nd he begs him to take steps to that effect. So
that in fact he was ready to tell a falsehood and disavow his
own handwriting, in order to escape the responsibility in
which it might involve him !
During his stay at Thessalonica, L. Tubero, one of Quin-
tus's legates, came there and earnestly advised Cicero to go
B.C. 58., QUINTUS CICERO IMPEACHED. 193
into Asia Minor, as he did not think him safe so near
Achaia, where his enemies were active and powerful. But
Plancius persuaded him to remain, although he hesitated
long, and was in as much perplexity and distress as ever.
The letters he received from his friends at Rome urged him
not to go further away, and held out cheering assurances
that better times were at hand. Sextius, one of the new
tribunes-elect, his son-in-law Piso, and Atticus, all advised
him to stay at Thessalonica, as the aspect of affairs at Rome
looked more favourable. Atticus and Varro tried to restore
his confidence in Pompey, who had so meanly deserted him
in the hour of danger, and they hinted that even Caesar
might be depended upon to assist him. Quintus also did
his utmost to encourage and console his brother. But Cicero
was like Rachel, weeping and mourning, and would not be
comforted. He again and again reproached Atticus with
want of foresight and judgment, and it must have been most
painful to that faithful friend to receive his letters, although
they did not in the slightest degree make him take offence
or relax in his exertions. He continued to supply not only
Cicero but his family with money, which he was now able
to do more easily, as his rich uncle Csecilius had died and
left him his heir. 1 To add to Cicero's troubles, he heard that
his brother Quintus had met with the usual fate of Roman
governors, and was impeached for illegal administration of
his province. His accuser was a nephew of Clodius, and in
the ordinary course of things his trial would come on before
Appius Clodius, the elder brother of his enemy, who was then
praetor-elect.
In September Cicero declared his intention of going to
Epirus, to the residence of Atticus, and in the bitterness of
despair he begged his friend to let him have as much land
as would suffice for a burial-ground for his body. The
soldiers of Piso, to whom had been assigned the proconsular
government of Macedonia, now entered that province, and
Cicero in terror quitted the hospitable dwelling of Plancius,
and on the 26th of November arrived at Dyrrachium, where
he was sure of a respectful welcome.
1 From this time Atticus assumed the name of Q. Caecilius Q. Fil. Pomponi-
anus Atticus.
194 THE EXILE. CHAP. XH.
Let us cast a rapid glance at the events that had happened
in the interval at Rome. Much against his will, Cato had
had an appointment forced upon him by Clodius, which it
appears he either could not or did not think it prudent to
decline. In June the tribune Ninnius, at whose instance the
Senate had gone into mourning when Clodius introduced his
bill of pains and penalties against Cicero, brought before the
Senate, with Pompey's approval, a motion for his recall. The
Senate unanimously resolved that the proposal should be re-
commended to the people in order that a law might be passed.
But the tribune ^Elius Ligur, acting under the influence of
Clodius, interposed his veto. The Senate, however, adopted
their usual expedient when they were in earnest. They re-
solved that they would transact no public business until the
consuls introduced a new motion to the same effect. But
the consuls refused to do this, and matters came to a dead
lock. Pompey communicated through Varro to Cicero his
willingness to serve him, but still insisted that he could do
nothing without Caesar's consent. On the nth of August a
plot was discovered of Clodius to murder Pompey, who, in
real or affected alarm, shut himself up in his house and de-
clared that he would not go out until the period of Clodius's
tribuneship had expired. Of the two consuls Gabinius ranged
himself on the side of Pompey, but Piso still acted under the
influence of Clodius. So violent and lawless were the times
that even the two consuls found themselves engaged on op-
posite sides in a street affray. The fasces of Piso were
broken, and he himself was wounded by a stone. But a
change of an important kind was approaching. The new
consuls for the following year had been elected in July, and
these were P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther and Q. Metellus
Nepos. Lentulus had been aedile when Cicero was consul,
and was a warm friend of both him and Pompey. Metellus
had been, as we have seen, the declared enemy of Cicero
when he was tribune, but his brother Metellus Celer was
Cicero's friend, and he did not wish to act in opposition to
Pompey. Atticus also urgently appealed to his compassion
on behalf of the exile, and, as the result proved, with success.
The new tribunes-elect, amongst whom was Titus Annius
Milo, were almost all favourable to Cicero, and when on the
AST. 49. BILL IN CICERO'S FA VOUR. 195
29th of October a fresh motion was made by Ninnius in the
Senate for his recall eight of them voted for it. These eight
then brought forward a bill before the people founded on the x
resolution of the Senate, but it did not pass. Cicero himself
did not approve of this bill, which did not go far enough to
satisfy him. It provided only for the restitution of his civic
rights and former rank, but made no mention of the restora-
tion of his property, especially of his house on the Palatine,
the destruction of which had much affected him.
Soon after he had taken up his residence at Dyrrachium
the year of office of the existing tribunes expired, and Clodius,
no longer armed with that terrible power, became once more
a private citizen, although of course he still remained a
senator ; and before the close of the year both the consuls
Piso and Gabinius left Rome to assume the government
of their respective provinces. The period had all but arrived
which even Cicero had admitted would allow him to enter-
tain hope. And yet even now he felt almost as much dis-
couraged as ever. He was disappointed that Pompey and
Caesar did not declare themselves more openly in his favour,
and on the last day of November he wrote to his wife in a
fit of the deepest dejection :
" I have received," he says, " three of your letters, which I have almost blotted
out with my tears. For, my Terentia, I am worn out with sorrow ; nor do my
own miseries cause me more torture than those of yourself and yours. But in this
I am more wretched than you, who are most wretched, because the calamity itself
is common to us both, but the fault is my own. It was my duty either to avoid
the danger by accepting an embassy, or resist with prudence and sufficient resources,
or fall bravely. Nothing was ever more wretched, base, or more unworthy of
myself than my conduct in this.. Therefore while I am crushed by grief I am also
crushed by shames For I am ashamed that I was wanting in manliness (virtutem}
and resolution to you, the best of wives, and my dearest children. For day and
night I am haunted by the thoughts of your misery and sorrow, and the weakness
of your health. But very slight hopes of safety are held out to me. My enemies
are numerous, and almost all are envious of me. It was a great triumph to expel
me ; it is easy to keep me in banishment. ... That our Piso devotes himself
with extraordinary zeal in your behalf, I both myself perceive and everybody tells
me the same. 1 May the gods grant that I may be permitted to enjoy the society
of such a son-in-law, along with you and our children ! . . . Pray be cai-eful of
your health, and be assured that nothing is, or ever was, dearer to me than
you. Farewell, my Terentia, whom I fancy I see, and therefore I am weakened
by my tears. Farewell ! "
It is a great pity that none of the letters of this affectionate
1 Piso was this year quaestor of Pontus and Bithynia, but instead of going to
his province he remained in Rome, to do what he could for the cause of his
father-in-law.
196 THE EXILE. CHAP. xn.
and true-hearted woman have been preserved, that we might
have read the outpourings of her heart and seen the way in
which she sought to cheer and sustain the broken spirit of
her husband. Time, however, has been a ruthless destroyer
of female correspondence, and I am not aware that we possess
a single letter written by a Greek or Roman lady before the
Christian era. The comparatively low estimation in which
the sex was held in ancient times made the copyists disre-
gard them, and female authors were unknown at Rome. But
gladly would we exchange many a literary relic of antiquity
for a collection of the letters of Terentia written to Cicero
during his banishment. On the same day he wrote to Atticus
and said :
" But if there is no hope (as I perceive both by your conjecture and my own)
I pray and adjure you to cherish with affection my brother Quintus, miserable as
he is, whom I have miserably ruined. Protect, as well as you can, my Cicero,
to whom, poor child, I leave nothing but the odium and ignominy of my name ;
and support by your good offices Terentia, of all women the most destitute and
afflicted."
Atticus left Rome in December, and on his way to his
country-seat in Epirus paid Cicero a visit at Dyrrachium.
And so the first year of his banishment passed away.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE RETURN.
yt. 50. B.C. 57.
THE new year opened auspiciously for Cicero. From all
parts of Italy deputations had come up to Rome to inter-
cede on his behalf. On the first of January, the very
moment after the sacred rites were over with which the con-
suls inaugurated their office, Lentulus brought forward, in a
crowded Senate, a motion for his recall. His colleague Me-
tellus supported him, and L. Cotta, who had been consul a
few years previously, insisted that as the proceedings against
Cicero had been wholly illegal and contrary to usage, no
fresh law was required to enable him to return. He pro-
posed that he should not only be recalled, but recalled with
distinguished marks of honour. Pompey, however, was of
opinion, and he seems to have been right, that an edict of
the people (lex) was necessary to give validity to a resolution
of the Senate. For the banishment of Cicero had been
ordained by a law passed by an assembly of the people
legally convoked ; the enactment was still in force, and
would remain so until repealed by the same authority that
passed it. The Senate agreed in this view, and a resolution
to that effect would have been carried forthwith had not
Serranus, one of the tribunes, who had been quaestor during
Cicero's consulship, and, as he says, loaded by him with bene-
fits, not venturing to interpose his veto, forced on an adjourn-
ment on the pretext that a night was required for delibera-
tion. He was entreated by the Senate to give way, and his
father-in-law Cnaeus Oppius flung himself in tears at his feet
in vain. The deliberation that Serranus wanted was soon
198 THE RETURN. CHAP. xm.
explained. It was to increase the amount of the bribe he
received from Clodius, and the night was spent in adjusting
the terms of the bargain. This adjournment led to further
delay, and it was not until the 25th of January that a bill
for Cicero's recall, notwithstanding the continued opposition
of Serranus, was brought before an assembly of the people.
But Clodius was as desperate as ever, and attended by an
armed band of gladiators, whom he had got from his brother,
who was going to exhibit them at a show on the occasion of
the funeral of a relative, he rushed into the Forum, and a
riot ensued in which blows were struck and several lives
were lost. The tribune Serranus was severely wounded, and
Ouintus Cicero narrowly escaped with his life ; indeed he
was left for dead on the ground. The consequence was,
that the bill did not pass, and Clodius enjoyed a temporary
triumph.
This affords a strong illustration of the evils of the con-
stitution of Rome. All Italy, the Senate, the two consuls,
all the tribunes with one exception, Pompey and Caesar
(who was, however, absent), the two foremost men of Rome,
an overwhelming number of the nobility and respectable
class of citizens, wished for Cicero's return, and yet the
wishes of all were frustrated and their action paralysed by
the violence of one bad man. But the explanation is easy.
Every Roman burgher had the franchise, and his vote was
as good as that of the wealthiest and most powerful citizen.
But the lower class of the Roman population was needy and
corrupt, and in the tumultuous throng that crowded the
Forum or the Circus when the people assembled to vote,
there were always numbers ready for a riot or a revolt.
There was no true balance of power in the constitution. No
law could be passed without an appeal to universal suffrage ;
and what the sovereign people chose to ordain, even where
legal formalities were not observed, had generally the force
of law.
When Cicero heard of what had happened on the 25th of
January he was in despair. Before that, when the news of
the Senate's resolution reached him, he had determined, come
what might, to go to Rome, even though the law for his
restoration were rejected by the people. But his resolution
JET. 50. CLODIUS IMPEACHED. 199
failed him when he found that Clodius was still master of
the field.
Clodius was impeached by Milo for his illegal violence at
the comitia, but his brother, who was praetor, with the aid
of Metellus the consul, and Serranus the tribune, threw
over him the protection of an extraordinary edict, and he
laughed at the courts of law. He relied on his gladiators,
and Milo took into his pay a band of the same kind of
ruffians to protect himself in case of attack. The Senate
again passed a resolution that they would entertain no busi-
ness until Cicero was recalled. Public letters were despatched
in the name of the consuls to the Italian towns, inviting them
to send to Rome those who wished well to the republic
and were anxious for his return. Orders were given to all
legates and quaestors in any province where he might happen
to be, to treat him with respect and afford him assistance ;
and Pompey also at last strenuously exerted himself in his
behalf. To keep the people in good humour, Lentulus gave
them their favourite amusement of shows and games ; and
while they were thus occupied the Senate met in Marius's
Temple of Honour and Virtue, and resolved that a bill
should be introduced for Cicero's restoration. On the same
day a scene occurred in the theatre, which showed how
anxious the people were to have him back. The favourite
tragedian JEsop was acting in the Andromache of Ennius,
when several passages of the play were caught up by the
audience as allusive to the fate of Cicero, and they testified
their wishes by their applause.
But Clodius was able still to baffle the Senate, and in
some unexplained manner prevented the bill from coming
before the people. It was now the month of May, and the
Senate assembled in the Temple of Jupiter in the Capitol, to
make another effort for the great object they had in view.
Pompey addressed them, and in the course of his speech
called Cicero the saviour of his country. A resolution in
his favour was again passed in a senate consisting of more
than four hundred members, and as the senators afterwards
in the course of the day entered the theatre to see the games
that the consuls were exhibiting, they were tumultuously
cheered by the spectators. On the next day Lentulus, and
200 THE RETURN. CHAP. XHI.
Pompey, and Servilius, and other distinguished men, har-
angued the people in the Forum, and, as we may well
believe, reminded them how long one eloquent tongue had
been silent which had so often charmed them in that place.
Stringent measures were taken to prevent the interposition
of a tribune's veto or any further postponement of the
measure. The Senate resolved that whoever attempted de
coelo servare, " to watch the heavens," or create obstacles,
was an enemy of the republic, and would be so treated.
They moreover resolved, that unless the bill passed in five
days, Cicero might return with a full restitution of all his
rights and honours.
But difficulties still stood in the way. Three of the
magistrates Appius Claudius the praetor, and Rufus and
Serranus, two of the tribunes continued their opposition
notwithstanding the resolution of the Senate, and two more
weary months elapsed before the bill was brought before the
people. At last, on the 4th of August, the good cause
triumphed. At an immense assembly of the people voting
in their centuries in the Campus Martius, where from the
highest to the lowest they flocked in incredible numbers, and
where men of the noblest rank acted as distributors of the
voting-tickets and scrutineers (diribitores et custodes) the bill
passed with hardly a dissentient voice, although Clodius ad-
dressed the multitude, and strove, in a last effort, to induce
them to reject it. They paid no heed to the demagogue,
and Cicero was recalled.
He had been kept well informed of what was going on at
Rome, and felt so confident that the end of his exile was at
hand, that he ventured to leave Dyrrachium for Brundusium
on the very day on which the bill passed for his return. The
next day he landed in Italy. It was the 5th of August
the birthday of Tullia, his beloved daughter, and she was at
Brundusium eagerly waiting to fling herself into his arms.
She had just become a widow, her husband, Piso Frugi, who
had so nobly stood by his father-in-law in his misfortune,
having died a short time before. It was also the anniversary
of the founding of Brundusium, the jour de fete of the town,
and by a curious coincidence it was the anniversary of the
dedication of the Temple of Safety there. The good citizens
B.C. 57. CICERO LANDS IN ITAL Y. 201
were jubilant with joy, and welcomed the wanderer back with
the liveliest sympathy.
Soon afterwards he set out on his return to Rome, which
he reached in twenty-four days. The time seems long, but
he travelled slowly, detained by the demonstrations of respect
and honour with which he was everywhere greeted. His
journey was in fact one continued ovation. In the route he
took he passed through Naples, Capua, Sinuessa, Minturnae,
Formiae, where no doubt he cast a lingering and sorrowful
look towards his dismantled villa, Terracina, and Aricia.
From every town on the road the magistrates came out to
offer their congratulations. The inhabitants crowded round
the man in whose safety they had shown such a warm inter-
est The peasants abandoned their rustic labours in the
fields, and brought their wives and families to see him as he
passed. And from distant places deputations were sent to
meet him, so that the roads were crowded by the throng. It
was the gala week of all Italy, and his entry into every town
and village on his route was the signal for a festive holiday. 1
But his greatest triumph was yet to come. As he approached
the Capitol by the Via Appia in September, the Senate came
forth in a body beyond the walls to welcome him. A gilded
chariot was waiting to receive him, and on this he mounted
outside the gate. The whole population of Rome seemed to
have deserted the city, and choked the road and adjoining
fields. Well might Cicero say that that one day was equiva-
lent to immortality (immortalitatis instar fuit}. When he
reached the Capuan gate he saw the steps of the temples of
Mars and the Muses, which were inside the walls, filled by a
dense crowd who rent the air with their shouts ; and as he
slowly proceeded through the Forum along the Via Sacra to
the Capitol,
" You would have thought the very windows spake,
So many greedy looks of young and old
Through casements darted their desiring eyes
Upon his visage ; and that all the walls
With painted imagery had said at once,
'The Gods preserve thee ! welcome, Cicero!' "
1 Plutarch declares that it was no exaggeration, and less than the truth,
when Cicero declared that he was carried back to Rome on the shoulders of
Italy, Cic. c. 33.
202 THE RETURN. CHAP. xm.
From the Capitol he went, as he says, home ; but certainly
not to his former home on the Palatine, which, as we know,
no longer existed, but either to some temporary residence,
provided for him, or perhaps to the house of a friend. Next
day he entered the Senate-house and took his accustomed
seat.
He rose and addressed the Senate in a speech which is
too florid for modern taste, and too full of compliments to
everybody, including himself. 1 But we must remember the
audience around him, and the character of the man. The
intensity of his past sorrow was the measure of his present
joy. His sensitive and impressionable mind, so easily elated
and so soon depressed, bounded at the thought of his glorious
return ; and we must not measure with a cold and carping
criticism the impassioned language in which the orator poured
forth his thanks to the authors of his safety. The limits of
this work will not allow me to do more than quote one or
two short passages.
After lauding the Senate to the skies, and speaking in
complimentary terms of the two consuls, he passed on to the
delicate topic of his own conduct on the occasion of his
flight from Rome. We may pardon him for giving this a
complexion not quite warranted by fact. He had retired
in terror at the violence of Clodius, and because he wanted
nerve to follow the advice of those friends who counselled
him to stay and fight his enemy with his own weapons ;
and also because he had believed that in a few days he
would be called back in triumph. Now, however, he sought
to justify himself by the plea that his only object was to
spare the effusion of blood, and declared that he might have
defended himself by force of arms.
1 Both this, however, and the con- Cassius, was written in this year. Orelli
secutive orations ad Quirites, pro Domo gives no sound reason for this opinion ;
sud, and de Haruspiciim Responsis, are and, judging from internal evidence, I
pronounced by Orelli and others to be see no sufficient ground for discrediting
spurious and made up of tesselated pas- them. There is indeed a suspicious
sages from the speeches in Pisonem and similarity, or rather identity, in many
pro Sextio. Orelli thinks they were passages between them and the Pisonian
composed ab inepto declamatore, in the and Sextian orations, but the same ob-
early part of the reign of Augustus, and jection may be made to the genuineness
that much use was made of Cicero's of those two if they are closely corn-
genuine work de Exposition* suorum pared with each other.
Conciliorum, which, according to Dio
JET. 50. ADDRESS TO THE SENATE. 203
"Nor was I," he says, "wanting in that same courage, which is to you not
unknown ! But I saw that if I had vanquished my present adversaiy, there were
too many others whom I must vanquish also. If I had been vanquished many
good men must have perished, both for me and with me, and even after me. I saw
that the avengers of a tribune's blood were ready on the instant, but that punish-
ment for my death was reserved for the courts of law and for posterity. I was
unwilling when, as consul, I had defended the common safety without having
recourse to the sword, to defend by arms my own safety as a private individual, and
I preferred that good men should mourn over my misfortunes rather than despair
in their own ; and, besides, I thought that if I alone were slain it would be igno-
minious for me, but if I perished with many others it would be calamitous for the
state."
He bitterly attacked Piso and Gabinius, the consuls of
the preceding year.
" I had heard," he said, " from one of the wisest of men and the best of citi-
zens, Quintus Catulus, that not often had there been one wicked consul, but two
never, since the foundation of Rome, except in the time of Cinna. . . . But there
were two consuls whose narrow, low, poor, petty minds, filled with darkness and
meanness, could not bear the light of the splendour of that honour, nor sustain
nor comprehend the magnitude of so great an office ; not consuls, I will not
call them so, but brokers of provinces and men who made merchandise of your
dignity. Of whom one, in the hearing of many, demanded back from me Catiline
his admirer, and the other, Cethegus his cousin two men, the greatest villains
since the memory of man ; not consuls, but robbers, who not only abandoned me,
and in a cause too that was public and consular, but betrayed and opposed me,
and wished me to be bereft of every assistance, not only from them, but from you
and all other classes of whom one, however, deceived and disappointed neither
me nor any one else."
He here alluded to Gabinius, upon whom he next poured
out all the vials of his wrath, describing his character and
morals in language to which a Roman Senate might listen,
but which is hardly fit for Englishmen to read. I can only
glance at some of the charges which the infuriated orator
enforced with all the power of his eloquence.
He accused him of ineffable sensuality, and declared that
he prostituted his person to repair his shattered fortunes :
" Had he not taken refuge at the altar of the tribuneship he must have been
thrown into prison by the number of his creditors, and his property would have
been confiscated. When a countless multitude had gone to him from the Capitol
and implored him as suppliants and mourners, when the noblest of the Roman
youths, and the body of knights, had thrown themselves at the feet of that most
filthy panderer, with what a look did the frizzled debauchee (cincinnatus ganeo)
cast from him not only the tears of the citizens but the prayers of his country !
When the Senate had resolved to change their dress and put on the garb of mourn-
ing, he, smeared with greasy ointments, in his magisterial robe of office, which all
the praetors and aediles had then thrown off, laughed at their misery and mocked
their sorrow. . . . When, however, in the Circus Flaminius, he was introduced
as consul to the meeting to deliver an harangue, not by a tribune of the people,
but by a robber and arch-pirate (of course Clodius was meant), he came forward
and with what a dignified appearance ! full of wine, sleep, and lust, with
moistened curls and dressed hair, heavy eyes, flabby cheeks, a squeaking and
204 THE RETURN. CHAP. xm.
drunken voice, he a grave authority ! declared that he was extremely displeased
that citizens had been punished without a trial. Where has the great authority
so long hidden himself from us ? Why has the distinguished virtue of this dancer
with the curling-tongs so long been absent from his scenes of licentiousness and
riot ?"
He then turned upon Piso, and drew his portrait in colours
quite as black. Piso had, he said, early in life practised as
an advocate in the Forum, although he had nothing to re-
commend him except an affected solemnity of countenance.
He had never studied law; he possessed no gift of oratory-
no acquaintance with military affairs, no knowledge of man-
kind, no generosity of mind. As you passed by him, you
might notice that he was rough, unpolished, and morose ; but
would not suppose that he was a sensualist and a villain.
He was of a dark and swarthy complexion, and Cicero pro-
ceeded
" Between this man and an Ethiopian block, if you had placed it in the Forum,
you would think there was no difference a thing without feeling or taste ; a
tongueless, sluggish, scarcely human piece of matter. You would say that he had
just been carried off from a gang of Cappadocian slaves. At home, too, how licen-
tious ! how impure ! how intemperate ! with his voluptuous pleasures, admitted,
not through the front door, but a secret postern."
He did not forget to thank his faithful friend Plancius, to
whom he owed so much for his hospitable reception at Thes-
salonica, and who now had his reward in listening in the
Senate once more to the voice of Rome's greatest orator.
He spoke of his brother Quintus with the warmest affection
and gratitude, and praised the conduct of his son-in-law Piso
Frugi, but made no allusion to his recent death. He con-
cluded his oration by drawing a contrast between the circum-
stances attending his own return and the return of distin-
guished Romans who had been recalled or who had come
back from banishment, such as Papillius, Metellus, and Marius,
and said :
" In their case there was no unanimous agreement of the magistrates, no sum-
moning of the Roman people to defend the Republic, no movement in Italy
there were no decrees of municipal towns and colonies. Wherefore, since your
authority has invited me back, the Roman people has recalled me, the Republic
has implored me to return, and the whole of Italy has carried me back almost on
its shoulders, I will take care, Conscript Fathers, that as those things have been
restored to me which were not in my power, I shall make good what does lie in
my power to guarantee, especially since I have recovered that which I had lost ;
and I never lost my virtue and fidelity."
Afterwards, on the same day, he addressed the people in
the Forum in an harangue, which is known as the oration ad
B.C. 57- RIOT IN THE STREETS, 205
Quirites. He went over much the same ground as in his
speech to the Senate, praising the people as he had praised
the senators ; and it is curious to observe how he clothed the
same idea in different words. Often, however, the passages
are identical, and prove, if they are genuine, that both the
speeches were carefully prepared aud written beforehand, as
was the case with most of his orations. And, indeed, it may
be remarked in passing, that the Greeks and Romans had no
idea that it detracted in the least from the merit of an orator
that he had composed his speech. The great masters of the
art of eloquence were too conscious of its difficulty, and too
anxious to succeed, to be ashamed to confess that upon this,
as upon all other arts, labour and pains and trouble must be
bestowed.
It happened that about this time, when Cicero was pane-
gyrising the people, they, or at all events a considerable part
of them, were engaged in a serious riot. A severe scarcity
had occurred at Rome, and the price of provisions rose to an
exorbitant height. There had been a deficiency in the pro-
vinces, chiefly Sicily, that supplied Rome with grain; and the
corn-factors kept the grain in their warehouses to take advan-
tage of famine prices. In fact, a famine had begun, and the
usual consequences followed. The mob rushed first to the
theatre, where the shows and games of the Apollinarian fes-
tival were going on, and by tumult and disturbance drove
the spectators out of the building. They then proceeded to
the Capitol, where the Senate was sitting, and, headed by
Clodius, with an armed band of desperadoes whom he had
taken into his pay, and drilled in companies almost like
regular soldiers, they attacked the senators with stones.
Quintus Metellus, the consul, his own brother-in-law, was
struck, and he afterwards named in the Senate two of the
men who had thrown the stones. These were Lollius and
Sergius, whom Cicero thus describes in his speech pro Domo>
in his fiercest style of virulent invective. Addressing Clodius,
he asked :
" Who is this Lollius ? who not even now is without a sword by your side who
demanded of you when you were a tribune of the people the life, I say nothing of
myself, but the life of Pompey. Who is Sergius ? the squire (armiger) of Catiline
one of his bodyguard the standard-bearer of sedition the getter-up of tavern
brawls convicted of violence a stabber, a stoner the terror of the Forum the
besieger of the senate-house."
206 THE RETURN. CHAP. xm.
The mob was so violent, threatening to burn down the
temple of Jupiter, that many of the senators were afraid to
enter the building, and declared that they did not dare to
deliver their opinions on the subject of the scarcity which
was the question then before the house. Clodius made use
of the famine to calumniate Cicero, and strove to make the
ignorant rabble believe that he was the author of their dis-
tress. In one sense, indeed, he may be said to have been
the innocent cause of it, for there is little doubt that the price
of provisions at Rome was affected by the prodigious number
of persons who had flocked to the city from all parts of Italy,
to evince their interest in his safety and witness his return.
But this was not the sense in which Clodius made the charge,
although in any other there was and could be as little con-
nection between Cicero and the scarcity as between Tenderden
steeple and Goodwin Sands. He says himself: "As if I had
any control over the supply of grain, or kept corn hoarded
up, or had any power or authority in the matter." But it
was believed by the starving populace, and they shouted his
name as they rushed along the streets, demanding bread
from Cicero, as the Parisian mob demanded it from Marie
Antoinette. Both the consuls summoned him to the senate-
house, from which he had kept away while Clodius and his
ruffians occupied the immediate vicinity. Means were taken
to disperse the mob, and Cicero did not shrink from his duty
like many of the senators, but attended at his post, and, see-
ing that the measure would be popular, proposed a resolution
that a law should be submitted to the people, conferring upon
Pompey for five years the absolute power of regulating the
import of grain from all parts of the world. The resolution
was carried ; and when it was communicated to the people
they loudly cheered the mention of Cicero's name a mode
of applause which he says was both foolish and novel. 1 He
then made them a speech out of doors ; and as the price of
provisions had already begun to fall indeed it fell on the
very day when the Senate first passed a resolution for his
recall, but afterwards rose again they were kept in good
humour, and there was no further disturbance. 2
1 More hoc insulso et novo plausum. cheapness and plenty that followed his
Ad. Att. iv. i. return, and interpreted it as a special
2 Cicero frequently alluded to the mark of the favour of Providence.
^T. 50. POWER CONFERRED ON POMPEY. 207
Next day, in a crowded Senate, everything was granted
that Pompey required. He asked for fifteen lieutenants, and
put Cicero's name at the head of the list, declaring that he
looked upon him as a second self. The consuls drew up a
bill in the terms of the former resolution ; but Messius, one
of the senators, proposed another, which gave Pompey extra-
vagant power. It conferred upon him a fleet and an army,
and such command over the provinces as would have super-
seded the authority of their respective governors. One con-
sequence of this move of Messius was, that Cicero's resolution,
which had before been thought by some to go too far, now
appeared moderate enough, and it was ultimately passed into
a law.
It has been mentioned that Atticus left Rome before the
end of the preceding year. He had not yet returned, and
therefore was not an eye-witness of the triumph of his friend's
recall. One advantage we gain by this is, that a correspond-
ence between them was kept up ; and Cicero's letters are
amongst our best sources of information as to the events of
the period. In his first letter, giving a short account of his
return and the subsequent incidents, he thus describes his
position : " For a state of prosperity, slippery ; for a state of
adversity, good." He admits that he had recovered beyond
his expectation his brilliant reputation in the Forum, his
authority in the Senate, and his popularity with good men ;
but his private affairs were in great disorder, and he adds
that there were, besides, some troubles of a domestic nature
which he did not like to trust to a letter. We have no
means of learning to what he here alludes ; but it is pro-
bable that it is a hint at some disagreement with his wife,
who had behaved so nobly to him in his adversity. He
entreated Atticus to come to him, and assist him with his
advice, saying : " I begin, as it were, a new kind of life.
Already some who defended me when I was absent, begin to
cherish secret anger and open envy towards me now that I
am present. I want you here exceedingly."
His chief anxiety was about the restoration of his pro-
perty. His house on the Palatine had been destroyed, and
on part of its site had been built a temple, dedicated by
Clodius, with bitter irony, to Liberty. Clodius had also
2o8 THE RETURN. CHAP. xm.
levelled the adjoining portico of Catulus 1 a monument of
his victory over the Cimbrians and appropriated the ground,
hoping that by the device of consecrating part he might keep
possession of the whole. The question was, whether the
land could be restored to its former owner ? Having been
consecrated ad pios usus, must it not, according to the same
theory that has been advocated in later times, remain for
ever inalienable ? The matter was referred to the College of
Pontiffs, whose business it was to determine questions affect-
ing religion. On the 3Oth of September Cicero pleaded his
cause before them in a speech known as the oration pro
Domo sud y of which he says himself, that if ever he spoke
with effect it was then, when grief at his own wrongs and
the importance of the object he had in view, gave point and
vigour to his eloquence. 2 It consisted in great part of a nar-
rative of events which have been already narrated, and need
not detain us now.
The pontiffs considered the case, and gave their formal
opinion as follows : " If neither by command of the free
burghers in a lawful assembly (populi jusszi), nor by a ple-
biscite, he who avers that he dedicated the site to religious
uses had specific authority given him to do so, and has done
it without such authority, we are of opinion that that part
of the site which has been so dedicated may, without any
violation of religion, be restored to Cicero/' This, of course,
was thought conclusive in his favour, and he received the
congratulations of his friends. But Clodius still crossed his
path. That indefatigable enemy stopped at nothing to
gratify his hatred. He got his brother Appius, the praetor,
to summon a public meeting, where he harangued the people
and declared that the pontiffs had decided in his favour,
but that Cicero was coming to take possession by force. He
1 The portico stood on the site of a that the existing speech, pro Domo sud,
house which had belonged to M. Ful- is considered by some scholars not to be
vius Flaccus, formerly consul, who was genuine. Wolf is of opinion that it by
put to death as an accomplice of Caius no means comes up to what we might
Gracchus. The house was pulled down, expect from Cicero's praise of it, and
and on its foundations Catulus after- Markland agrees with him. My own
wards erected his portico. It stood next opinion is that si non 2 vero, e ben tro-
to Cicero's house. vato. At all events, we need not doubt
that it is in many passages a close copy
2 I have in a former note mentioned of the original.
B.C. 57. THE TRIBUNE'S VETO. 209
therefore called upon them to follow him and Appius to
defend their own temple of Liberty. 1 In the meantime
the Senate, having received the opinion of the pontiffs, many
of whom were present, proceeded to discuss it, and were
quite ready to pass a resolution in accordance with it. This
was proposed by Marcellinus, the consul-elect for the follow-
ing year ; and Lucullus, on behalf of the College of Pontiffs,
of which he was a member, spoke in favour of it. He said
that the pontiffs w r ere the judges on the question of religion,
but the Senate on the question of law, and that both his col-
leagues had decided the religious question, and the Senate
would now determine whether a law should be passed to
give effect to their decision. Each of the other pontiffs who
were senators was then asked his opinion, and each spoke in
favour of restoring the ground to Cicero. Clodius, however,
as might be expected, opposed the motion. He got up, and
made a speech three hours long, evidently determined to
speak against time, and consume the rest of the day, to pre-
vent any resolution being passed. But the Senate would
not stand this. They at last clamoured him down, and he
was compelled to stop. The resolution of Marcellinus was
on the point of being carried, when Serranus the tribune inter-
posed his veto. What was now to be done ? Here, as in so
many instances, legislation was brought to a standstill by
the action of the tribunician power. Serranus had the un-
doubted right to exercise his veto, and, if exercised, it was
fatal to the measure. The Senate, therefore, resorted to the
expedient they had adopted to overcome the same resistance
in the case of the bill for Cicero's recall. They could not
prevent the veto, but they could give it the go-by, and make
the tribune responsible for the consequences. They there-
fore resolved that it was the opinion of the Senate that
Cicero's house should be restored ; the portico of Catulus let
out to contractors to rebuild ; and the authority of their
order defended by all the magistrates. If any violence oc-
curred, the Senate would consider that person the author of
1 In relating this to Atticus, Cicero Clodius called on the crowd to follow him
puts into Clodius's mouth a pun which is and "defend their Liberty" ut suam
most probably his own. He says that Libertatem defendant. Ad. Att. iv.
210 THE RETURN. CHAP. xm.
it who had interposed his veto. This had the desired effect,
for Serranus was frightened. His father-in-law flung off his
robe, and, throwing himself at his feet, as he had before done
on the occasion of the bill for Cicero's recall, entreated him
to give way. He asked for an adjournment to the following
day, and talked of the necessity of a night for reflection.
But the Senate remembered that this trick had been played
before, on the 1st of January, and refused to grant it. At
last, however, at Cicero's own suggestion, they agreed to the
adjournment.
During the night Serranus thought better of the danger
to which he subjected himself if he persisted in his veto ;
and next day, when the Senate assembled, he withdrew his
opposition, and the resolution was passed, The consuls im-
mediately employed contractors to rebuild the portico of
Catulus, and, with the assistance of assessors, they put a
value upon the property of Cicero which had been de-
stroyed, including Jiis house on the Palatine and his villas
at Tusculum and Formise, and for which he was to receive
compensation.
He was not at all satisfied with the sums that were
awarded for his houses, and declared that even the populace
thought them too low. Some, he said, attributed the small-
ness of the compensation to his own modesty in not making
a pressing demand for more ; but he wrote to Atticus that
the real reason was, that those persons he knew of (he does
not mention their names) who had clipped his wings, did not
wish them to grow again. " But," he adds, " they are grow-
ing again, as I hope."
He complained grievously in his letter of the state of his
private affairs, and of the cost and trouble of refurnishing his
Formian villa, which he could not bring himself to part with
nor bear to see. He had already advertised his villa at
Tusculum for sale, although he says he could not well do
without a suburban residence. He admitted that he had
exhausted the liberality of his friends, who had generously
assisted him with money during his banishment, and that he
was now in difficulties, He added that he had other anxie-
ties of a more secret, or, to use his own word, mysterious
^T. so. VIOLENCE OF CLOD I US. .211
kind, evidently alluding to the same cause of trouble to which
he alluded in his previous letter. 1
On the 3d of November Clodius went with a band of his
creatures to the Palatine, and drove off the workmen who
were rebuilding Cicero's house. They also pulled down the
portico of Catulus, which had been already raised as far as
the roof, and after doing as much damage as they could to
Ouintus's adjoining house, by throwing volleys of stones at
it, they, by "command of Clodius, set it on fire. He had now
become utterly desperate ; and knowing that if he was to be
tried for his crimes he could hardly make his case worse by
further violence, he attempted to murder Cicero in open day.
On the 1 1 th of November, as he was going down from the
Capitol along the Via Sacra, which ran through the Forum
in the direction of the Capuan Gate, past the spot where, in
after-years, the Arch of Titus was erected, and where it still
stands, Clodius attacked him with his cut-throats. Cicero
had a body of attendants with him indeed, it was not safe
for him to go into the streets alone while Clodius was at
large and a combat ensued, in which swords, clubs, and
stones were used as weapons, and in the melee Cicero escaped
to the vestibule of a neighbouring house, which his assailants
tried to force, but were driven off. The next day Clodius
made a regular onslaught on Milo's house on the Germalus,
a small hill or mount within the city, with a band of men
armed with shields and swords, and carrying lighted torches.
He established himself without the leave of the owner in a
neighbouring house belonging to P. Sylla, making it, as Cicero
says, his head-quarters or camp, for carrying on the siege.
Milo, however, was prepared for him. A body of resolute
men, headed by O. Flaccus, occupied the house, who rushed
out and killed many of Clodius's followers on the spot. He
himself had a narrow escape, and fled for refuge into the in-
terior of Sylla's house.
This lawless condition of Rome had lasted, with more or
less degree of violence, for more than a year. And yet it is
of such a state of things that De Quincey, in his determina-
1 Wieland says it undoubtedly refers unfavourable view of Terentia's char-
to some difference between himself and acter. Plutarch has much to answer
" his Juno or Xantippe," adopting the for in the case of this calumniated lady.
2i2 THE RETURN. CHAP. xm.
tion to say little good of Cicero, and to think no ill of Caesar,
thus writes :
" Recluse scholars are seldom politicians ; and in the timid
horror of German literati, at this day, when they read of real
brick-bats, or of paving-stones not metaphorical, used as
figures of speech by a Clodian mob, we British understand
the little comprehension of that rough horse-play proper to the
hustings, which can as yet be available for the rectification
of any continental judgment. 'Play, do you call it?" says
a German commentator ; ' why, that brick-bat might break
a man's leg, and this paving-stone would be sufficient to
fracture a skull.' Too true: they certainly might do so.
But, for all that, our British experience of electioneering
' rough and tumbling ' has long blunted the edge of our
moral anger. Contested elections are unknown to the Conti-
nent, which boasts of representative governments. And with
no experience of their inconveniences, they have as yet none
of the popular forces in which such contests originate. We,
on the other hand, are familiar with such scenes. What
Rome saw upon one sole hustings we see repeated upon
hundreds. And we all know that the bark of electioneering
mobs is worse than their bite. Their fury is without malice,
and their insurrectionary violence is without system. Most
undoubtedly the mobs and seditions of Clodius are entitled
to the same benefits of construction."
I say most undoubtedly no ! What Clodius meant was
murder and revolution, and nothing less, and it is an insult
to common-sense to compare his insurrectionary violence to
the " rough horse-play " of an English electioneering mob.
He had been baffled by his enemies in his attempt to gain
the consulship, and he seems to have resolved to become
master of Rome by pursuing a system of terror, which it was
disgraceful to the magistrates not to have put down. He had
been protected by Caesar and Pompey, for their own purposes,
until his fury grew intolerable ; and then, finding himself
deserted by every respectable citizen, he relied solely upon
armed force. He took into his pay a body of ruffians, whom
he drilled like soldiers ; and any one who thought of attack-
ing him knew that he was likely to forfeit his life in the
attempt. But it is inconceivable that the consuls, or, at all
B.C. 57. VIOLENCE OF CLODIUS. 213
events, Lentulus for Metellus perhaps was deterred by the
consideration that Clodius was his brother-in-law should
not have exercised the power they undoubtedly possessed,
and, denouncing him as a public enemy, have employed
against him a military force. Did they believe that he was
still secretly supported by Caesar, and were they afraid of
offending that formidable man, who was giving proofs in
Belgium and Gaul of his incomparable qualities as a
soldier ?
Clodius was at this time a candidate for the aedileship,
and hoped, if he gained that office, to escape with impunity.
Milo, however, as tribune, was determined to oppose this,
and exerted all his energies to put off indefinitely the comitia
for electing the aediles. On the day after the attack on his
house the Senate met, but Clodius did not appear. Mar-
cellinus, the consul-elect, spoke strongly against him ; but
Metellus, Oppius, and another senator whom Cicero, writing
to Atticus, describes as "your friend," 1 came to the rescue,
and tried to waste time by making long speeches, and so
prevent any resolution from being passed.
Clodius afterwards threatened that, if the comitia were not
held, he would attempt a revolution. Marcellinus, however,
announced his determination to put a stop to them if they
were held, by " watching the sky." Upon this, Metellus,
Appius Claudius, and Clodius addressed the people in furious
harangues. Everything betokened that a crisis was at hand.
The comitia were to be held in the Campus Martius, and in
the middle of the previous night Milo proceeded to the plain
with a strong force. Clodius did not venture to show him-
self, and Milo remained until mid-day master of the field.
Metellus, as consul, challenged Milo to put a stop to the
comitia if he dared by giving him public notice next day in
the Forum that he was watching the sky, and told him there
was no reason why he should go to the Campus Martius at
night, promising to be at the meeting at six o'clock in the
morning. He intended to play Milo a trick, and get the
comitia over before he had time to stop them. Milo, how-
1 Cicero adds ironically, " De cujus constantia et virtute tugeverissimse li-
terge." Ad Att. iv. 3. It is generally thought that he here alludes to Hor-
tensius.
2i4 THE RETURN. CHAP. XIH.
ever, got there before him, and, as Metellus was sneaking
along bye-streets to the Campus Martius, he came up with
him at the place called Inter Lucos^ and, using the proper
formula of allo die "at another day" prevented the
meeting. The consul retired, and so, for the present, Clodius
was baffled. In giving an account of these events to Atticus,
Cicero says :
" I am writing this on the 23d of November, at three o'clock in the morning.
Milo is still in possession of the Campus Martius. Marcellus, who is one of the
candidates, is snoring so loud that I, who am his neighbour, can hear him ! The
vestibule of Clodius's house is reported to be empty, or at all events there are only
a few ragged wretches there without a lantern. "
Milo now openly declared that he would kill Clodius if he
met with him if not, he would drag him to trial. It is right
to remember this, as it throws light upon the nature of the
encounter afterwards between these two men, when Clodius
was killed. In telling Atticus of Milo's threat, Cicero uses
a remarkable expression, which shows how sore he still felt
on the subject of his banishment. He says " Milo has no
fear of my mischance, for he has never relied on the advice
of an envious and perfidious friend ; nor is he likely to trust
a do-nothing nobleman." Here, no doubt, Pompey is alluded
to, for he was the iners nobilis to whom, more than any other,
Cicero attributed his misfortune. He spoke cheerfully at this
time of himself, and said that his spirits were greater than
even when he was in prosperity, but that he was much re-
duced in fortune. It appears, however, that he was gene-
rously assisted with money by his friends, for he tells Atticus
that by their aid he had been able, in some degree, to repay
his brother Quintus for his liberality towards himself, which
had seriously affected his means.
A new set of tribunes entered upon office in December,
one of whom was Plancius, who had entertained Cicero so
hospitably at Thessalonica ; and he relied also on the good-
will and friendship of two others, L. Racilius 2 and Antistius
Vetus.
1 This was the hollow space between 2 Cicero is said to have written a
the Capitoline and Palatine hills, so lampoon on Clodius, under the title
named from an ancient grove that for- Edictum L. Racilii Trib^m^ Plebis, as
merly stood there. The natural features though Racilius had really published
of the ground still remain as in Cicero's such an edict. Schol. Bob. pro Plancio.
time.
JET. 50. MEETING OF THE SENATE. 215
During the month there was a meeting of the Senate,
which Cicero describes in a letter to his brother Quintus, and
which it is worth while to quote, as it gives us a good idea
of the mode in which the Roman Parliament conducted its
business.
The two consuls were absent, having left Rome for their
respective provinces. It was therefore the duty of the tri-
bunes to convoke the Senate, propose motions, and ask each
of the senators his opinion in such order as they thought fit.
The case would be analogous in the House of Commons if
the Speaker, instead of " catching in his eye" one of a dozen
members who start up at the same time, and calling upon
him to speak, were to address each member in turn, and ask
him to deliver his opinion. Certainly the Roman method
was more decorous, but the practical difficulty of carrying it
out in the House of Commons would be insuperable. Unless
all were called upon in turn, it would be unfair to those who
would be excluded, and the idea of inviting six hundred and
fifty speeches on any question is too dreadful to think of.
It appears that the consuls confined themselves to the prin-
cipal senators, and always began with those who had filled
the office of consul the consulars, as they were called. But
how the rest were dealt with, and whether any senator might
get up and speak without being called upon, is not sufficiently
clear.
On the occasion in question the number that met was two
hundred, which Cicero calls a more than usually good attend-
ance for the December holidays. They were attracted by a
motion, of which Lupus, one of the new tribunes, had given
notice, on the subject of an apportionment of public lands in
Campania. He spoke well, but was listened to in silence.
He did not finish till late, and then said that he would not
ask for the opinions of the senators, or, as we should say,
would not give the house the trouble of dividing, as he did
not wish to expose any one to odium or annoyance ; but he
understood the feeling of the Senate from its silence. Upon
this Marcellinus started up, and said that Lupus must not
infer from their silence either approval or disapproval of the
scheme, and that, as Pompey was absent, it was better not
to discuss the question then. Lupus said that he had no
216 THE RETURN. CHAP. xm.
wish to detain the Senate any longer. But Racilius, another
of the new tribunes, rose and made a motion about the neces-
sity of calling Clodius and his associates to account in a
criminal court for the late outrages. He then called upon
Marcellinus, the consul-elect, to deliver his opinion first.
Marcellinus inveighed strongly in his speech against Clodius,
and asserted that he would, when he entered upon office,
have a list of jurors chosen by lot by the praetor, in the usual
manner, and that, when this was ready, and not till then, the
comitia for electing aediles should be held. He also declared
that whoever threw obstacles in the way of the trial would
be a public enemy. The Senate applauded, but Caius Cato
and Cassius, two of the new tribunes, rose and spoke on the
other side. Cassius proposed that the comitia should take
place before the trial, but he was almost clamoured down.
Racilius then, having gone through the magistrates present,
asked Cicero first of those who were not in office his opinion.
Cicero took care to avail himself of so good an opportunity
for attacking his bitterest enemy. He treated him as if he
were a criminal arraigned at the bar, and in his presence
went through the long catalogue of his crimes amidst murmurs
of applause. Severus Antistius afterwards spoke, and de-
clared that he was for the trial preceding the comitia. The
Senate was on the point of dividing in favour of that view,
when Clodius rose and tried his old trick of speaking against
time. He delivered a furious harangue, and complained that
he had been treated by Racilius with incivility. He relied
upon the same kind of support that the Jacobins of the
French Revolution made use of in the Convention, when the
galleries were filled with the Parisian mob, who interrupted
the speakers by their clamour. He had posted a body of
slaves at the neighbouring grcecostasis an elevated platform
or place on the right hand, close to the Curia Hostilia, where
the ambassadors and other deputies from foreign countries
used to wait when they were commissioned to the Senate at
Rome. These raised a tremendous shout, which so frightened
the timid senators that in disgust and alarm they hastily
quitted the senate-house, and the business in hand w r as ad-
journed until the following morning.
At the close of his letter Cicero affectionately warns his
B.C. 57. ATTACK OF DYSENTERY. 217
brother, who was going to Sardinia as one of Pompey's
fifteen commissioners or lieutenants in the grain business, to
be careful to choose fine weather for his voyage in the in-
clement month of December.
His next letter is to Fadius Gallus, a great friend of both
Cicero and Atticus, and an excellent and well-educated man,
who was afterwards one of Caesar's lieutenants. The letter
is curious, as affording us a glimpse of Cicero at home in his
Tusculan villa, suffering from an attack of dysentery.
He says that, feeling very unwell, and yet, because he had
no fever, being unable to persuade friends and clients who
wished to make use of his services that anything was the
matter with him, he had fled to Tusculum, and there kept
himself so rigidly fasting, that for two days he did not even
drink a drop of water. He had been quite worn out by
weakness and hunger. Of all kinds of illness he dreaded
dysentery most a disease which, he says, had brought down
upon Epicurus (of whose school Gallus was a disciple) the
contempt of the Stoics because he had confessed that he was
troubled with it and strangury, the latter of which they attri-
buted to licentiousness and the former to gluttony. Change
of air and relaxation from business had, however, improved
his health. He jokingly attributes his attack to the sumptuary
law, for, as vegetables of all kinds were excepted from it, the
Roman epicures used to dress these in such a dainty and
appetising way as to form rich and luxurious dishes ; and
Cicero had partaken of these so freely at a dinner given by
Lentulus, the consul-elect, in honour of the consecration of
his son as augur, that he was seized with diarrhoea. " So,"
he adds, " I, who had no difficulty in abstaining from oysters
and lampreys, was betrayed by beet-root and mallows ! In
future I shall be more cautious ;" and he hints that, as Gallus
knew he had been so unwell, he might not only have sent to
inquire after him, but have paid him a visit.
CHAPTER XIV.
CONFUSION AT ROME CICERO SUPPORTS C^SAR HIS
SPEECHES IN SEVERAL IMPORTANT TRIALS DEFENCE OF
COZLIUS.
yEt. 51. B.C. 56.
THE consuls of the new year were Lentulus Marcellinus and
Marcius Philippus. The first business on which the Senate
was engaged, and which occupied a considerable time, was
the question of the restoration of King Ptolemy Auletes to
his throne. He had, as I have before mentioned, been de-
posed by his subjects for his tyrannical misrule, and had
taken refuge in Rome, where he implored the assistance of
the Senate. An embassy was sent from Egypt to Rome to
plead the cause of the people against the king. It consisted
of a hundred persons, the greater number of whom Ptolemy,
according to Dio Cassius, caused to be waylaid and mur-
dered ; and of the rest, when they reached Rome, he assas-
sinated some and bribed others. 1 Lentulus Spinther, the
consul of the preceding year, who now held the proconsular
government of Cilicia, had reason to expect that the honour
of conducting back the king would be conferred upon him ;
but he had a formidable competitor in Pompey, who was
very anxious to possess a military command, and who knew
that, if the king was restored, it must be by means of a
Roman army forcing him upon his unwilling subjects. He
did not avow his desire for the appointment ; on the con-
trary, he professed to support the pretensions of Lentulus ;
but his friends worked for him. The Senate, however, was
by no means disposed to increase the authority he already
possessed. He was, by their own act, the absolute master
1 Dio Cass. xxxix. 13.
JET. 5 1. IMPEA CHMENT OF MIL O. 219
in a matter of vital consequence the import of grain and
they were afraid of making him too powerful if they gave
him also the command of an army. And yet they were
unwilling to offend him. The way in which they got out of
the dilemma is curious. They persuaded the guardians of
the Sibylline books conveniently to declare that it was
therein written, that if a king of Egypt solicited their help
they were not to refuse, but must not assist him with any
great number of men, 1 or they would get into trouble. This
settled the matter as regards an army. The only real ques-
tion was, whether Pompey or Lentulus should have the ap-
pointment, but in the result neither of them restored the
king. The Senate would have nothing to do with it, and
Aulus Gabinius, the proconsul of Syria, undertook the enter-
prise on his own responsibility, being well paid by Ptolemy
for his services.
On the 22d of January the comitia for the election of
sediles was at last held, and Clodius came in. Without losing
time, he immediately indicted Milo for illegal violence, thus
retaliating upon him with the same accusation which Milo
had preferred against him in the previous year. In February
Milo appeared to the charge, and was supported by Cicero
and Pompey. At Cicero's request, Marcellus spoke for him,
and the impression made was favourable. The case was
then adjourned, and when it came on again Pompey spoke,
or rather tried to speak, for him, 2 for the hirelings and slaves
of Clodius made such a clamour and uproar when he rose
that it was almost impossible for him to go on. But he
stood his ground, and, in spite of the continued interruption,
delivered a long and courageous speech. When he had
finished, Clodius started up, but was instantly met with such
a storm of derisive shouts from Milo's party that he was com-
pletely staggered.
The hooting and clamour lasted for two or three hours,
and every kind of abuse was hurled at Clodius. The crowd
sang scurrilous and filthy doggerel, which was current at
Rome, against him and his sister Clodia. Pale and mad
with rage, he turned to his followers in the midst of the
. Dio Cass. xxxix. 15. Cum multitudine. Ad Quint, ii. 2.
2 Dixit Pompeius, sive voluit. Ad Quint, ii. 3.
220 CONFUSION A T ROME. CHAP. xiv.
uproar and asked them who it was that killed the people
with famine ? The mob shouted " Pompey !" " Who wanted
to go to Alexandria ?" " Pompey !" " Whom do you wish
to go ?" " Crassus !" Crassus was present with no friendly
feelings towards Milo. At last the low wretches who sup-
ported Clodius began to spit upon their opponents. This
made Milo's party furious ; and when the Clodians began to
press forward, they were attacked and put to flight. Clodius
was driven off the Rostra, and Cicero, seeing that he himself
was in danger, hastily quitted the place. The Senate was
immediately summoned, but Pompey, instead of attending,
went home. He had given offence by his disingenuous con-
duct in the Ptolemy business, and the Senate by no means
approved of his covert attempt to get the appointment for
himself. He was now in his absence assailed in the Senate
by Bibulus, Curio, and Favonius ; and Cicero, knowing that
this would be the case, with more prudence than manliness,
kept away ; for, as he says himself, he felt that if he was
present he could not with decency be silent during the dis-
cussion, and feared that if he defended Pompey, he might
displease the party of those whom he calls " good men." All
this he tells in confidence to his brother, and it is in such
letters that we get the real key to his character. He was
always anxious to do what was right, but was deficient in
moral courage, and too afraid of compromising himself to
adopt a bold and decided policy. This caused him to tem-
porise, and, in fact, to trim, which more than anything else
has injured his reputation with posterity.
Clodius fixed the 1 7th of February for going on with the
impeachment of Milo, and on the 6th the Senate met in the
Temple of Apollo for Pompey's convenience, as it was close
to his house. He was present, and made an impressive
speech ; but the Senate came to no resolution. Next day it
resolved that what had occurred was an offence against the
republic. Cato, the tribune, attacked Pompey in a set
speech, and, no doubt with the view of sowing dissension
between them, took care to praise Cicero to the skies. He
accused Pompey of perfidy towards his friend, and the charge
was listened to in silence. It was beyond doubt so far true
that Pompey had not made the least exertion to save him
B.C. 5 6. IMPEA CHMENT OF MIL O. 221
from Clodius's law of prescription ; but we have no proof
that he took any active part against him. Pompey de-
fended himself with warmth, and, without naming Crassus,
who, he believed, had instigated Cato to assail him, and was
assiduously aiming at his life, he so designated him as to
leave no doubt to whom he alluded, when he declared that
he would be more on his guard than Scipio Africanus, who
was murdered by Carbo. So entirely was the alliance be-
tween Pompey and Crassus at an end that he told Cicero
pointedly that Crassus, whose wealth was enormous, supplied
Clodius with money, and supported him in his attacks upon
himself, which were now open and undisguised. He con-
fessed that his position was precarious ; the fickle populace
was almost alienated from him by the mob-harangues con-
tinually addressed to them; 1 the aristocracy was hostile;
the Senate unfavourable ; the Roman youth depraved. He
therefore began to take active measures for his own protec-
tion, and brought into the city men on whom he could de-
pend. But Clodius also was marshalling his forces, and
increasing the number of slaves and gladiators in his pay.
He collected a band of ruffians to be ready when Milo's trial
came on. Cicero says that his and Pompey's party had
much the advantage in point of strength, and expected a
considerable reinforcement of soldiers from Picenum and
from Gaul, where Caesar was all-powerful, and as yet ready
to stand by his son-in-law.
It shows how completely dislocated the government at
Rome was at this period, and how law and order were
beginning to succumb to armed violence, when we find a
man like Cicero, who shrank with something like womanish
repugnance from the use of physical force, telling his brother
that one use that would be made by him and his party of
the troops they expected would be to defeat Cato's two
bills, the one for the impeachment of Milo, and the other for
the recall of Lentulus. It is clear that he was ready to
reverse his famous maxim of cedant arma togce, and let arms
turn the scale. The times were indeed deplorable, and the
forms of the constitution were abused to the most factious
purposes ; but it was very dangerous to attempt to defeat a
Concionario illo populo a se prope alienate. Ad Quint, ii. 3.
2 2 2 CICER O IN HIS LIBRAR Y. CHAP. xiv.
bill by an imposing military force, although it would have
been quite right to arrest Clodius, and, if he resisted, to fight
the battle out in the streets.
But^us turn for a moment from the politician to the man
of letters and the advocate. Atticus had arrived in Italy
from Athens or Epirus, and was on his way to Rome. He
had just married a lady named Pilia, 1 and Cicero wrote to
him in February, and begged him to come and stay with
him, and bring his wife, whom Tullia was anxious to see.
He told him that Tyrannic, a distinguished grammarian and
friend of Cicero, had made an admirable arrangement of his
library, the remains of which, after the injury it had suffered
during his banishment, were in a much better state than he
had expected. He begged Atticus to send him two of his
librarians to assist Tyrannio in glueing the leaves, and to
bring with them a skin of parchment to make indexes,
" which," he says, " you Grecians, I think, call syllabuses."
Atticus had bought some gladiators, whom it was not unusual
for wealthy Romans to keep and train, for the purpose of
hiring them out to the magistrates, or others who exhibited
public games. Cicero congratulates him on having pur-
chased a capital training-ground, and says he hears they
fight admirably.
He now resumed his more congenial duties as an advo-
cate, apparently for the first time since his return from exile :
at least I am not aware of any earlier case in which he was
engaged. On the iith of February he defended L. Bestia,
who was accused of electoral corruption when we was a can-
didate for the office of praetor. The trial took place in the
praetor's court, in the middle of the Forum, and \vas attended
by an immense crowd. His speech, which is lost, was un-
successful, and Bestia was convicted. All we know of it is
what he tells us namely, that he seized the opportunity to
preoccupy the minds of his hearers favourably, with a view
to his defence in a more important trial which was then im-
pending, and in which he was counsel for the accused.
This was the case of Publius Sextius, who was one of the
1 Pilia bore Atticus a daughter named first wife of Tiberius and mother of
Attica, who became the wife of Agrippa Drusus ; so that Atticus was the grand-
and mother of Vipsania Agrippina, the father of a Roman empress.
JET. si- DEFENCE OF SEXTIUS. 223
tribunes of the people in the year when Cicero was recalled,
and who perhaps more than any other man, except Quintus
and Atticus, had exerted himself on his behalf. He had
been severely wounded by the followers of Clodius in one of
the numerous street conflicts that disgraced the city, and had
owed his life to the interposition of Bestia. He had also
been one of the first to propose a law for Cicero's recall, and
had always in the Senate given him the most zealous sup-
port. By every tie, therefore, of duty and gratitude, the
orator was bound to put forth all his powers to defend him
when he was in danger. He seems to have been a man of
sullen and unpopular manners, for, in a private letter to
Quintus, Cicero calls him morosus homo, and hints that he
had himself cause to complain of the perversity of his temper.
He was, at the time when his trial came on, confined to his
house by sickness, and Cicero went to him, and offered to
devote all his energies to his defence, which, he says, was
more than was expected of him, as it was thought that he
had good grounds for being displeased with him. 1 He was
in considerable peril, for he was arraigned on two indict-
ments : one, in which he was charged, under the Papinian
law, with bribery ; and the other, a more serious affair, in
which he was charged, under the Lutatian law, with illegal
violence.
The first step in the trial was the arraignment, which took
place before the praetor, M. ^Emilius Scaurus, in February.
Sextius was well defended. He had the advantage of having
not only Cicero as his advocate, but also Hortensius. The
speech which he delivered has been preserved, and it is one
of the most valuable of all his orations ; for in it we have a
narrative of the events connected with his banishment and
return.
The trial lasted, with interruptions, until the I3th of
March, when Sextius was unanimously acquitted. In a letter
announcing the result to Quintus, who had been anxious
that his brother should show his gratitude for Sextius's ser-
vices by exerting himself to the utmost, he said that he had
most amply satisfied him on that point, and that he had cut
up Vatinius, who was supposed to be at the bottom of the
1 Ad Quint, ii. 3.
224 DOMESTIC GOSSIP. CHAP. xiv.
prosecution, to his own heart's content, amidst the applause
of gods and men. And yet two years afterwards he defended
this very Vatinius, and was then as complimentary towards
him as he was now abusive.
In a previous letter to Quintus he told him of the ap-
proaching trials of Bestia and Sextius, and gave a flourishing
account of himself. He said that his reputation and
popularity were re-established, and he thankfully attributed
this to his brother's kindness and affection, to whom,
more than to any one else, he seems always to have felt in-
debted for his recall from banishment. Quintus was on the
point of returning from Sardinia to Rome, and Cicero tells
him that Licinius's house at Piso's Grove had been hired for
him, but he hoped that in a few months after the 1st of July
he would get into his own on the Palatine, which was being
rebuilt. Quintus's other house, in the Carinae, had been
taken on lease by a family of the name of Lamia.
In his next letter to his brother, after mentioning the
acquittal of Sextius and his satisfaction at his own speech,
he gives him some domestic news. Tyrannio was acting as
tutor in Cicero's house to the two young cousins, and he
assures Quintus that his son is making good progress in his
studies. Both their houses were getting on fast, and he had
paid his brother's contractor half of the stipulated sum. He
hoped, therefore, that they would be next-door neighbours
before winter. He then mentions that he was on the point
of concluding a marriage engagement for his daughter Tullia.
A year had elapsed since Piso's death ; and the young widow
was in April betrothed to Furius Crassipes, of whom very
little is known, except that he was an adherent of Caesar,
quaestor of Bithynia, and afterwards, according to Livy,
praetor. The marriage was not a happy one, and her hus-
band, a few years afterwards, divorced her. From the way
in which Cicero speaks, it seems that he brought about the
match, and very likely, as too often happens when third
parties interfere, there was little affection on either side.
He gave the wedding banquet (we should say breakfast),
and mentions that his nephew, young Quintus, could not be
there, owing to a slight illness. He tells his brother that he
visited him two days afterwards, and found him recovered,
B.C. 56. CICERO'S EXPENSES. 225
and that he had a long conversation with him on the subject
of the disagreement between his aunt and mother Terentia
and Pomponia in which his nephew expressed himself very
kindly. Quintus and his wife, who had remained at Rome
while her husband was absent in Sardinia, were still on in-
different terms, and she complained to Cicero of his conduct.
As to which of the two was right in these matrimonial
squabbles it is of course impossible to say ; but the proba-
bility is, that both were to some extent in the wrong. I will
quote one or two passages from the letter in which he men-
tions this to his brother, not because they relate to any
matters of importance, but because it is interesting to see the
old Romans, so to speak, in deshabille, and find them engaged
twenty centuries ago in much the same daily routine of
business and amusement as ourselves.
" When I left the boy," he says, " I went to look at your new house that is
building. There were numbers of workmen very busy. I spoke to Longilius the
contractor, and urged him to lose no time. He assured me that he wished to give
us every satisfaction. It will be a capital house ; for I can judge better now than
I could from the mere plan. Mine also will be soon finished. On the same day
I supped with Crassipes, and afterwards was carried in a litter to Pompey's gardens.
I could not meet with Lucceius, as he was absent. I wished, however, to see him
because I intend to leave Rome to-morrow, and he is going to Sardinia. ... I
am building in three places at once, 1 repairing and furbishing up what is left ; and
I live rather more liberally than I used to do."
This last remark suggests the inquiry how Cicero was able
so soon after his return to launch out into all this expense.
He constantly complained of being ruined during his exile,
and we know from his letters to Terentia that this was no
exaggeration. He was obliged to resort to the purse of his
friends, who, and especially Atticus, came liberally forward
to assist him and his family. And yet we find him, in the
year following his return, living in comfort arid luxury, and,
as we have just seen, rebuilding his town and country houses,
which were on an expensive scale. He had, no doubt,
received some compensation, but he was much dissatisfied
with the amount ; and it seems to have been quite inadequate
to enable him to rebuild his house at Rome and repair
the damage done to his villas. Where, then, did the money
come from ? At this distance of time it is impossible to say,
as we have absolutely no information, and can only guess
1 His house at Rome, and his Tusculan and Formian villas.
Q
226 PRACTICAL JOKE AT ROME. CHAP. xiv.
that he borrowed largely; for we know that he was hence-
forward almost constantly in debt.
In the same letter he mentions an incident which was con-
sidered a good practical joke at Rome. The tribune Cato,
who was a man of the Clodius stamp, had bought a body of
gladiators and wild-beast fighters some of the latter from
Atticus and he employed them as a body-guard, without
which he never appeared in public. But he found that the
keep of these cost him more than he could afford, and he
wished to sell them. He was naturally anxious that Milo
should not buy them, for they were declared enemies of each
other ; and he had no wish to increase the force at his adver-
sary's disposal. Milo, however, employed a third party to
purchase the lot 1 from Cato as if for himself, and take them
away. Cato sold them without the least suspicion who was
the real purchaser. Racilius, then, according to a precon-
certed plan, declared that the men had been bought for
himself, and issued a placard advertising that he was ready
to 'sell Cato's family of slaves. This placard caused great
merriment at Rome. The point of the joke was, that such
a gang of prize-fighters should be styled as if they were Cato's
domestic establishment.
To go on with the letter. Cicero told his brother that
Pompey was blamed for his conduct to Lentulus Spinther,
the proconsul of Cilicia, and that he certainly was not the
same man as formerly. He had made himself unpopular
with the rabble by appearing for Milo at his trial, for they
of course sided with Clodius, and the respectable class of
citizens were dissatisfied with his shortcomings, and also
blamed many of his actions. Marcellinus the consul treated
him with too great asperity, in the opinion of Cicero ; but
the Senate did not disapprove of it, and he says on that
account he was glad to withdraw from attendance in the
senate-house, and in fact from politics altogether. He was
annoyed at the acquittal of Sextius Clodius a relative of the
notorious Clodius who was tried on some charge, most pro-
bably seditious violence, and got off by a majority of votes.
Cicero says that he ought not to have been tried at that par-
1 Familiam. This is the word invari- of a Roman family, and is never applied
ably used to denote the domestic slaves in any other sense.
MT. 51. POEM IN PRAISE OF C^SAR. 227
ticular time, nor to have had such imbecile prosecutors. He
himself had nothing to do with the case. He calls him a
man without honour, position, or fortune ; utterly vile and
polluted, and for two whole years the minister or leader of sedi-
tion. Although the verdict was taken by ballot, it was per-
fectly well known how the separate classes of the jury voted.
It was composed as usual of senators, knights, and tribuni
(zrariL There was a large majority of tickets in the senators'
urn for an acquittal those of the knights were evenly
balanced, but the tribuni cerarii voted for a conviction. He
was, however, to be tried again, as the feeling of the people
was very adverse to him, but what the result was is not
known. At a later period he was convicted on some other
charge.
Cicero left Rome in April, and spent a few weeks in visit-
ing his country seats. He was growing more and more
dissatisfied with the state of parties, and found, or fancied
himself, an object of envy and dislike. He had felt much
disappointment since his return from exile to his beloved
Rome, away from which he then thought he could hardly
exist; and we find him corresponding with Atticus in a very
splenetic mood. He had been writing a work, which is sup-
posed to have been a poem in praise of Csesar, and in which
he had recanted some of his former opinions. He apologises
for not having sent it to his friend, and confesses that he was
rather ashamed of letting him see the change that had taken
place in his views.
His detractors found fault with him for buying a villa that
had belonged to Catulus meaning, I suppose, to insinuate
that he was not worthy to succeed so excellent a man but
they forgot, he said, that he bought it from such a rascal as
Vettius. They abused him for rebuilding his house, and said
it would have been better if he had sold the land, and so put
money in his pocket
He uses, in one of his letters, these significant words, which
are the key to much of his political conduct during the next
few years. " Since," he says, " those who have no power will
not be my friends, let me try to be friends with those who
have the power." This, of course, alluded to Csesar and his
party. He goes on : " You will say, ' I wish you had done
228 LETTER TO LUCCEIUS. CHAP. xiv.
so long ago.' I know that you wished it, and that I have
been a regular ass. But it is now time for me to take care
of myself, since I cannot in the least rely on their friendship."
His next letter is to Quintus, written, or rather dictated,
before daybreak on his way to his Arpinum villa, and I only
mention it to show how many country houses he still pos-
sessed. He says he intends to spend a few days at his seat
near Arpinum, then go to one at Pompeii, and on his way
back have a look at his villa near Cumse, so as to be at Rome
on the 5th of May for Milo's trial had been adjourned to the
day following. But he had also a house at Antium, and from
it he wrote his next letter to his brother, telling him that he
had only received one from him lately, which a sailor had
brought from Sardinia.
He sent a long letter to Lucceius the historian, of whose
works not a vestige now remains, and urgently pressed him
to write a history of his consulship. He told Atticus that it
was a very pretty letter (valde bella est) ; but to us it seems
in the worst possible taste. He distinctly asked Lucceius
not to confine himself to the strict limits of fact, but to give
a latitude to his panegyric beyond even what he might think
Cicero's actions deserved.
Lentulus Niger, a member of the college of flamens, or
priests of Mars, and a great friend of Cicero, had just died.
When he heard the news he wrote to Atticus, and told him
that Lentulus was such a true lover of his country, that he
seemed to have been snatched away by the kindness of the
gods from the conflagration that was destroying it.
" For what," he exclaims, "is worse than our life ? especially mine ! For you,
indeed, although you are by nature ' political,' are tied to no party nor bound
to public servitude. You enjoy merely the general name of statesman. What
grief, however, must I feel ? I who, if I say what I ought about politics, am
thought mad : if what is expedient, servile ; if I keep silence, utterly done for and
laid on the shelf. And the worst of it is, that I dare not express my grief lest I
should appear ungrateful.
" What if I wished to give up and fly to a haven of rest? Never ! I must rush
to the battle. Shall I then be a camp-follower where I refused to be a general ?
Well ! so it must be ; for I see that this is your opinion, and I wish I had always
listened to you.
" ' Well ! ' you will say, < Sparta is your lot ; do your best in Sparta.' I' faith
I cannot ; and I am inclined to excuse Philoxenus, who preferred going back to
1 Philoxenus was a poet of Syracuse, some verses of Dionysius the Tyrant,
who had the temerity to find fault with and was thrown into a prison called the
B. c. 5 6. FOR TENTS IN R OME. 2 2 9
Cicero had proposed to write a little work to be called
" Hortensiana/' the exact nature of which is unknown, but it
seems to have been intended as a collection of anecdotes or
sketch of the life of his great rival in the Forum. Atticus
urged him to go on with it, but it was a delicate subject to
handle, and he was afraid that he might have to show up
Hortensius's faults and make public the umbrage he felt at
his conduct towards himself. We have seen that for some
cause or other he thought that Hortensius had not behaved
well to him. He therefore would not promise to write the
work, but said he would think of it.
Writing from Antium, he tells Atticus, who seems to have
wished to buy a house in the neighbourhood, that he can
find nothing likely to suit him in the country, but that there
is a house in the town close to his own, although he is not
sure whether it is for sale. Antium, he says, is to Rome
what his friend's Buthrotus (in the neighbourhood of which
was Atticus's favourite villa) is to Corcyra nothing quieter,
prettier, or pleasanter.
During his absence in the country several portents had
occurred which filled the superstitious minds of the Romans
with terror. They were things to which we may apply the
expression of Tacitus, as being visa sive ex metu credita. A
little shrine of Juno on the Alban Mount, which had been
placed on a table facing the east was found turned to the
north ; a lighted torch there sent forth its stream of flame in
the same direction ; a wolf crept into the city from the Cam-
pagna; the shock of an earthquake was felt; and a rumbling
subterranean noise was heard in the open country in Latium
and also in the streets of the metropolis. The college of
soothsayers was consulted, and they declared that some deity
was offended because consecrated places had been built upon
and turned to profane uses. This was too good an oppor-
tunity for Clodius to lose. He assembled a meeting and
harangued the people, pointing out the real culprit. What
Latomia: (stone-quarries). Soon after- mia" answered the disgusted poet.
wards he was released and summoned This reminds us of Voltaire at the court
to court to listen to a new poem of the of Frederick the Great. Once when
tyrant. But the infliction was too great : the king sent him some royal verses to
he ran off. " Where are you going to?" revise, he said, " See, his Majesty has
cried Dionysius. "Back to the I. a to- sent me his dirty linen to wash."
230 CASE OF B ALB US. CHAP. xiv.
could be clearer than the meaning of the prodigies ? The
Temple of Liberty had been pulled down, and on its site
Cicero was then erecting his new house. The Senate also
resolved that the consuls should bring forward a bill on the
subject of sacred places.
Cicero in the meantime had returned to Rome, and the
day after the resolution was passed he was in the Senate and
delivered the speech known as the oration de Hanispicum
Responsis, although, as we have seen, some scholars are of
opinion that the one we possess under that title is not
genuine. 1
About this time he was counsel for L. Cornelius Balbus, a
trusted and intimate friend of Caesar, and then serving under
him in Gaul. It was not a criminal case, but involved the
question of his right to be considered a Roman citizen. For
Balbus was a native of Spain, born at Gades (the modern
Cadiz), and he had been made a burgher of Rome by Pom-
pey under the Lex Gellia. Pompey and Crassus assisted
Cicero in the defence, and his speech is still extant.
Shortly afterwards he had an opportunity of gratifying
his dislike of Piso and Gabinius, and showing his good-will
towards Caesar.
It was proposed in the Senate that Piso and Gabinius
should be recalled from their proconsular provinces, Mace-
donia and Syria, and that these should be declared to be
praetorian, in order that they might be placed in the hands
of praetors. It was also proposed that Caesar should be
deprived of his government of the two Gauls, Transalpine
and Cisalpine, which were to be assigned to the new con-
suls-elect. Some of the senators wished to make a different
arrangement, and give Macedonia or Syria and one of the
two Gallic provinces to the consuls-elect. When Cicero
was called upon to declare his opinion, he rose and made
a noble speech, known as the oration de Provinciis Con-
sularibtis, and one of the finest he ever delivered, whether
we regard its sentiments or its style. He had a difficult
part to play. His long opposition to Caesar exposed him
1 Wolf says that the speech we possess is nothing but an old woman's twaddle
expressed in a tasteless, childish style which is hardly Latin. But this is not
criticism.
JET. 51. SPEECH AGAINST PISO 6- GAB INI US. 231
to the charge of inconsistency if he now supported him ; but
he vindicated himself with admirable tact, and his reasoning
is, I think, conclusive. If, indeed, he could have known
what use Csesar would make of the prolongation of his com-
mand ; if he could have foreseen that, flushed with victory,
he would come back to Rome not as the servant but the
master of the republic, not as imperator but dictator, he
would have spoken very differently. But who could then
lift the veil of futurity and see Pharsalia in the distance ?
Caesar was now a glorious soldier, chaining victory to his
eagles, and adding new dominions to the state, and it seemed
to be in the highest degree impolitic to stop him in the
career of conquest, and hand over the turbulent and warlike
nations of Gaul to some incompetent successor, who might
lose all that had been gained by the greatest military genius,
with the exception perhaps of Hannibal, that the world had
yet seen.
He began by assuring the Senate that he would not allow
his private enmity against the ex-consuls Piso and Gabinius
to influence his public conduct, and would rest the case for
their recall upon their own notorious misgovernment of the
provinces they held. He then drew a melancholy picture of
their misrule, describing it in detail in the darkest colours.
As to Macedonia, of which Piso was the governor, where so
many trophies of former victories had once stood, and which
had been reduced into complete subjection, it was now,
since Piso had been there, so overrun by barbarian enemies,
that the inhabitants of Thessalonica were obliged to desert
the town and take refuge in their fortified citadel, and the
military road, which ran through Macedonia to the Helles-
pont, was so infested by foes that the Thracian camps were
seen at intervals along it. A whole army, consisting of the
very flower of Roman troops, had there been annihilated
wasted by disease, and famine, and neglect. The rapacity
of Piso knew no bounds. Immense sums of money were
paid him by Achaeans. He confiscated to his own use
the custom-dues of Dyrrachium. After extorting from By-
zantium all that the wretched inhabitants could give, he
quartered his cohorts upon them in the winter, taking care
to appoint officers who were the most willing instruments of
2 3 2 SPEECH AGAINST PI SO 6- GAB INI US. CHAP. xiv.
his crimes. Such was the terror which his and their licen-
tiousness inspired, that maidens of the noblest rank threw
themselves into wells to escape dishonour. Byzantium itself,
which had been distinguished for its statues and works of
art, and had preserved them through the fury of the Mithri-
datic war, was now stripped of them all, and even the sacred
fane in Achaia, than which there was none holier in Greece,
was plundered of its images and ornaments.
In Syria, the government of Gabinius was equally infamous
for rapine and extortion. Here also some of the best of the
Roman soldiery had been cut to pieces. The farmers of the
revenue had to endure every kind of contumely and wrong.
They had been handed over to the Jews and Syrians, " na-
tions born to slavery." Their agreements were torn up, and
the taxes on which they calculated were repealed. None
of them were even permitted to stay in any town to which
Gabinius came, and no enemy was ever more cruelly treated
than were these Roman citizens. He asked :
" Shall we retain these men as governors of our provinces ? No ! I vote" for
assigning Macedonia and Syria to the consuls-elect but in the meantime declar-
ing them praetorian, so that the praetors may administer them for a year, and Piso
and Gabinius may be at once recalled otherwise a whole year will elapse, and in
the interval there will be nothing but calamity, oppression, and impunity of
crime."
He then came to the question of superseding Caesar. It
had been objected by a previous speaker, or rather he him-
self had been interrupted while speaking, with the remark
that he ought not to be more hostile to Gabinius than to
Caesar, for the storm to which he had been forced to bow
was raised by Caesar. But he asked whether he might not
first reply that he regarded the public welfare rather than
his own wrongs, and if he did so he might justify himself by
the example of many illustrious citizens. Speaking of Caesar,
he said :
" A most important war has been carried on in Gaul the mightiest nations
have been vanquished by Caesar ; but they have not yet been subdued to the laws.
We cannot yet rely upon a firm peace. We have seen a war begun, and, to say
the truth, almost finished ; but we can only hope to see it brought to a successful
termination if he who commenced it continues it to the end. If he is superseded,
we run the hazard of hearing that a mighty war has broken out afresh. There-
fore it is my duty as a senator to be the enemy, if ye will so have it, of the man,
but the friend of the republic. But what if I lay aside my private enmity for the
sake of the republic ? Who would have the right to blame me ? Especially since
I have ever thought that I ought to shape my conduct on the model set by the
B.C. 56. EULOGY OF CAESAR, 233
example of the most illustrious men. . . . Can I, then, be the enemy of a man
by whose letters, messengers, and fame, my ears are daily greeted with the names
of new nations, tribes, and places ? I burn, Conscript Fathers, believe me (as
you give me credit for it and as you act yourselves), with an incredible love for
my country. . . . Thus my old and constant affection for the republic reconciles
me with Caius Caesar, and restores him to my favour. Let men think what they
like, I cannot be the enemy of any one who deserves well of the state."
" Why," he asked, " should Caesar wish to stay in his province except that he
might be able to complete for the benefit of the state what he had begun ? You
say, forsooth, that the pleasant nature of the country the beauty of the cities
the civilisation and polish of the people the desire of victory the extension of
the bounds of our empire retain him there ! What is more savage than that land ?
What wilder than those towns ? What more barbarian than those nations ? What
greater glory can be desired than so many victories ? What can be found more
remote than the ocean ? Has he any cause to dread a return to his country, either
from the people by whom he was appointed, or the senate by whom he has been
decorated with honours ? Does length of time increase regret at his absence, and
do his laurels, which have been won in so many dangers, lose by the long interval
any of their freshness ? Therefore, if there are any men who do not love him,
there is no reason why they should summon him from his province. They sum-
mon him to glory, to triumph, to congratulations, to the highest honours in the
senate the favour of the equestrian order the affection of the people."
The orator then burst forth into a magnificent eulogy of
Caesar's victorious career. His argument is, that Gaul was
the most terrible enemy that Rome had to dread, and Caesar
alone was the conqueror of Gaul. Formerly it had been
thought enough to repel her attacks, but now she was
attacked and vanquished herself.
" Nature," he said, " u had given to Italy the Alps as a bulwark, not without a
divine providence. For if that access had lain open to the fury and multitude of
the Gauls, this city would never have given a seat and home to the mightiest em-
pire. It may now rest secure for there is nothing beyond those lofty mountains,
even as far as the ocean, which Italy need fear. . . . Therefore let Gaul remain
under his guardianship to whose virtue, honour, and good fortune it has been
committed."
Nay, if Caesar himself desired to return to Rome, if he
wished to be borne in triumph to the Capitol with all his
laurels thick upon him, Cicero argued that it would be the
duty of the Senate to keep him there where he might finish
what he had so gloriously begun. He then alluded to the
honours which the Senate had heaped upon Caesar, and said
that it was wise and politic to bestow them, for thereby they
attached him to their order instead of throwing him into
the arms of the populace to become an agitator and a
demagogue.
" I know not," he said, " what will be the opinion of others, but I know what I
hope. As a senator I ought, as far as I can, to secure that no powerful or illus-
trious man shall have a just cause of anger against our order. And this I should
feel for the sake of the republic, even if I were the greatest enemy of Caesar."
234 CICERO'S RELATIONS WITH C^ESAR. CHAP. xiv.
To prevent misconstruction, however, he said that he would
briefly explain his position towards and relations with Caesar.
He would pass over their youthful intimacy; but their friend-
ship remained, when, entering upon public life, they took dif-
ferent views of politics. As consul, he adopted measures in
which he wished Cicero to bear a part ; and even although
he could not agree with him, he ought to feel grateful for
his good opinion. He pressed him to be one of his Cam-
panian commissioners he wished him to join the Triumvir-
ate he offered him any embassy he might choose to accept,
with all the honour he could desire.
" All this," said Cicero, " I declined, not with ingratitude, but with a settled
obstinacy of purpose how far wisely I will not contend for there are many who
will not approve of it but certainly with consistency and firmness ... I did
not think that the honours which he wished to bestow upon me were becoming
for me to receive, or suitable to the actions I had performed. I felt that he, in
his friendship, esteemed me as highly as his own son-in-law, the foremost of
citizens. . . . There is therefore more cause to fear lest I should be blamed for
returning his generosity with pride, than that he should be blamed for repaying
my friendship with injury. ... In that time of tempest and terror, when sudden
darkness fell upon the state, and good men were panic-stricken with the fear of
murder, and we had to contend against consular wickedness and cupidity, and
want and audacity if I was not supported by him, I ought to have been ; if I was
deserted by him, perhaps he took care of himself; if I was even attacked by him
(as some think or wish), friendship was violated : I received an injury ; I ought to
have been his enemy, i do not deny it."
But he said that Caesar had made atonement afterwards
by the good-will he showed in the crisis of his recall, and he
declared that he was a man of gratitude, and was affected
not merely by great benefits but even by moderate kindness
shown to him by others.
The peroration of the speech was as follows :
" This, then, is my conclusion. If I felt enmity against Caius Caesar, I ought
at this juncture to consult the interests of the republic, and reserve my enmity to
another time. I might, after the example of distinguished men, lay aside my hos-
tility for the sake of the republic : but since there never was hostility, and the idea
of injury has been extinguished by kindness in delivering my opinion, Conscript
Fathers, I will, if it is a question of bestowing any honours upon him, consult the
harmony of the senate if the authority of your decrees is at stake, I will keep up
your authority by honouring the commander whom you appointed ; if regard is
to be had to the Gallic war, I will look to the welfare of the state if I may take
into account any private obligation, I will show that I am not ungrateful. And I
should wish by so doing to satisfy all ; but I shall care very little if perchance
my conduct is not approved by those who protected my enemy (Clodius) in oppo-
sition to your authority, or by those who will blame my reconciliation with my
enemy, although they did not hesitate to be reconciled with one who was both my
enemy and their own."
/ET. 51. DEFENCE OF C (ELI US. 235
It has been doubted whether Cicero delivered his speech
in defence of M. Ccelius Rufus this year or not. The diffi-
culty has arisen from the fact that we find Ccelius put upon
his trial during the consulship of Domitius Ahenobarbus and
Appius Claudius two years later. But this is got rid of
by supposing that he was twice tried on different charges,
and it may, I think, be assumed with certainty that it was
about this time that Cicero delivered his well-known oration
pro Ccelio.
The case was this : Marcus Ccelius Rufus was a young
Roman knight, a native of Puteoli, who had been one of
Catiline's friends, and in his early years made himself noto-
rious, even in that licentious age, for his immoralities. He
had an intrigue with the infamous Clodia, the wife of Metellus
Celer, but quarrelled with her, and she vowed revenge. He
grew tired of a life of idleness and pleasure, and determined
to follow the path of ambition, in which he was well qualified
to succeed ; for he was a man of considerable ability and a
good speaker. The readiest way at Rome to get into notice
was to single out some person of mark and accuse him of a
criminal offence. This, of course, was followed by a trial,
in which the accuser conducted the prosecution, and had an
opportunity of displaying whatever powers of oratory he pos-
sessed before the people in the Forum. Ccelius, therefore,
impeached Antonius, Cicero's colleague in the consulship, of
some state offence, and afterwards prosecuted Atratinus for
electoral corruption. In revenge for this Atratinus's son
came forward and accused him of suborning assassins to
commit two separate murders, and it was then that he was
defended by Cicero.
The charges were, that he had borrowed money from
Clodia to bribe some slaves to murder Dio, one of the Alex-
andrian ambassadors, who had come to Italy to oppose the
restoration of King Ptolemy, and that when Clodia pressed
him for payment he had employed a person named Licinius
to hand over a box of poison to one of her slaves for the
purpose of destroying her. The nature of the indictment of
course shows that Clodia was the real prosecutrix, and as
such she is throughout treated and addressed by Cicero.
236 DEFENCE OF CCELIUS. CHAP. xiv.
Middleton says : " In this speech Cicero treats the character
and gallantries of Clodia, her commerce with Ccelius, and
the gaieties and licentiousness of youth, with such a vivacity
of wit and humour that makes it one of the most entertaining
which he has left to us." This is rather singular praise from an
English divine, and I confess I think that the defence is one
of the least satisfactory amongst all the speeches of Cicero.
If delivered at the present day in answer to a criminal charge,
it would be thought extremely weak. Great allowance must,
however, be made for the difference between a Roman and
an English trial. Anything like logical severity of proof
or argument seems to have been unknown in the ancient
courts of justice. There were no rules of evidence, nor
specific issues, nor was there any attempt to exclude irre-
levant facts from the consideration of the jury. On the con-
trary, it was thought legitimate to urge every conceivable
topic which could prejudice them either against or for the
accused ; and of course the latitude of defence was in pro-
portion to the latitude of attack.
I will give one or two passages from the speech, and only
regret that space will not allow me to quote more. It will
well repay an attentive perusal.
The trial took place in the holidays, when public games
were going on and the ordinary law courts were closed.
Cicero began by alluding to this, and said that a stranger
coming to Rome would naturally imagine that a crime of no
ordinary magnitude was under inquiry, which could not be de-
layed without danger to the state. But if he were told that
no crime, no act of audacity or violence, was the subject of
investigation, but that a young man of distinguished ability,
industry, and popularity, was accused by the son of the man
whom he had prosecuted and was still prosecuting, and
that he was opposed by all the resources which a harlot
could supply, he would not blame the filial conduct of
Atratinus the prosecutor, but he would think that a licentious
woman's revenge ought not to be gratified, and he would pity
and admire the labours of the jury who, during days of
festival, were not allowed to enjoy a holiday. He forgave
Atratinus, a kind and excellent young man, who had the
B.C. 56. DEFENCE OF CCELIUS. 237
excuse of filial duty and youthful age. " If," he said, " he
volunteered to be the prosecutor, I attribute it to filial affec-
tion if he obeyed the commands of others, to a sense of
duty if he had any ambitious hopes, to the inexperience of
youth. As to the others who are in the background, I will
not only not forgive them, but resist them vigorously."
The accuser of Coelius had endeavoured to prejudice the
jury against him by blackening the character of his father,
and Cicero therefore replied that he had always maintained
unsullied the reputation of a Roman knight, and was esteemed
by all who knew him. As to the son, they would hear from
sworn witnesses what was thought of him, and they would
judge of his character at home from the tears of his mother
and the miserable sorrow of his father. It had been alleged
that his fellow-citizens at Puteoli turned their backs upon
him ; the answer was, that they had elected him in their
absence to the highest municipal dignity which it was in
their power to bestow, and sent a select deputation of Roman
knights to attend the trial and speak strongly in his praise.
This, said Cicero, was a fact of no small importance, for he should
be sorry if Ccelius's conduct in his earlier years had not been
approved by his townsmen as well as by his father. " For
I," he exclaimed, " to speak of myself, channelled out a course
which first flowed from my native town, and I owed the be-
ginning of whatever reputation I possess as an advocate to
the commendation and good opinion of my fellow-townsmen."
Alluding to the delicate subject of Ccelius's immoralities,
he said that the charge could not make his client forget that
he was born with the advantage of beauty. Such accusa-
tions were scattered against all whose person was prepossess-
ing. But it was one thing to abuse a man, another to bring
a formal charge against him. A charge implied a specific
crime to be proved by argument and evidence, but abuse had
no defined object except calumny ; if it was coarse it was
called low, if it was witty it was called clever. He expressed
his regret that this part of the accusation should have ^de-
volved upon Atratinus, and that a young man of his age
should have been chosen to bring forward general charges of
youthful irregularities. But he denied them altogether.
Coelius had been brought up virtuously by his father, and
238 DEFENCE OF CCELIUS. CHAP. xiv.
when he assumed his manly gown he was placed under
the immediate care of Cicero himself. "And of myself," he
added, with graceful modesty, " I here say nothing. Let me
be just what you think me." Ccelius, in the flower of his
age, was always under the eye of himself, or of his own
father, or pursuing an honourable course of study in the
virtuous family of Crassus.
But his intimacy with Catiline was alleged against him.
To this his advocate addressed himself, and it must be ad-
mitted that he managed his defence with consummate art.
If Ccelius became a partisan of Catiline he only followed the
example of many others of all ages and ranks who were led
away and deceived by the extraordinary character of the
man. Cicero described that character with masterly power.
" Catiline," said the orator, "had, as I think you all remember, many of the
signs, not indeed stamped on his character, but shadowed forth, of the greatest
virtues. He employed many bad men as his tools, and yet pretended to be
devoted to the society of the best. He was licentious but laborious. He gave
the reins to his appetites, and yet zealously conformed to the discipline of the
camp. Never, I believe, was there another such a monster upon earth, so made up
of contrary inclinations and desires mutually in conflict with each other. Who
for a time was more liked by more illustrious men ? Who more intimate with baser
companions ? What citizen was once of greater virtues ? Who a more dreadful
enemy to the state ? Who wallowed more in pleasure ? Who was more patient
of labour and fatigue ? Who was more greedy and rapacious ? Who more pro-
fuse in his bounty ? This excites our wonder in him, gentlemen, that he made so
many his friends and kept them his friends by his attentions : he shared with all
of them whatever he possessed he was ready to assist them with his money and
his influence, and spared no toil nor crime, if crime was necessary, in their
behalf: he changed his nature and adapted it to the occasion. With the steady
he was serious, with the loose jovial grave in the company of the old, merry in
the company of the young bold in villany with the wicked, and effeminate with
the licentious. With a disposition so complex and various, he had not only col-
lected round him bold bad men out of every country on earth, but attracted to
him by his simulated virtues many good men also. For he never could have made
his nefarious attempt to destroy this empire if the wild growth of so many vices
had not rested on the roots of a nature in some respects gentle and long-suffering.
This article, therefore, may be rejected, and you may dismiss from your minds the
charge of intimacy with Catiline ; for it applies equally to many, and some even
excellent men. I myself, I say, was once nearly deceived by him when he
seemed to me to be a good citizen, affecting the society of the virtuous, and a
firm and faithful friend.
In answer to the charge of luxurious indulgence, he ex-
cused it on the plea of youth, and pointed out how many
who had been devoted to pleasure when they were young
became afterwards grave and distinguished citizens. The
defence, in fact, in this part of the case was virtually this :
JET. 51. DEFENCE OF CCELIUS. 239
that it was natural and venial that men should sow their
wild oats, provided they kept within certain reasonable
bounds.
At last Cicero came to the real charge with which he
had to grapple, the borrowing money from Clodia to effect
the murder of the Egyptian ambassador, and the procuring
poison to murder her. All the rest, he said, were not matters
for judicial investigation, but were mere calumnious abuse.
Let us see how he deals with the case.
"Of these two charges, I see what is the fountain-head and who is the author
of them. He had need of money; he borrowed it from Clodia; and he borrowed
it without a witness ; he had the use of it as long as he liked. I see in this the
proof of a remarkable intimacy. Again, he wished to kill her; he procured poison ;
he suborned murderers, and made all his preparations for the deed. In this I see
a deadly hatred following a fierce quarrel. The whole controversy in this case
is with Clodia, a lady not only noble but even famous, of whom I will say
nothing except for the purpose of repelling the charge. But," he continued,
apostrophising the pnetor, "you understand, Cmeus Domitius, with your supe-
rior sagacity, that we have to do with her alone ; and if she does not say that
she lent money to Coelius, if she offers no proof that poison was procured by him
to take her off, I should act wantonly if I were to speak of the mother of a
family otherwise than is due to the sanctity of the name of matron. But if, setting
her aside, the prosecutors have neither charge to make nor funds to draw upon,
what else can I, as an advocate, do but meet our assailants with a counter-attack ?
And this I would do more vehemently if I were not checked by remembering the
enmity that exists between me and that woman's husband brother I meant to say
I am always committing that mistake. Now I will restrain myself and not
go farther than my duty to my client and the case itself compel me. For I never
thought that I ought to carry on a quarrel with a woman, and especially with one
who has been always considered the general friend of all rather than the enemy
of any. " x
Then follows a long passage in apology of youthful im-
moralities, which Middleton no doubt had in his eye when he
speaks of the " wit and humour" with which Cicero treats
" the gaieties and licentiousness of youth." It comes to this
that it was Utopian to expect the virtuousness of past
times in the present age ; that to " scorn delights and live
laborious days" was not to be expected from the young, and
they might be allowed to transgress in the path of pleasure,
provided they did not go too far and ultimately reformed.
1 It is impossible not to be struck tion to sarcasm at the mention of her
with the art as well as the terrible se- name. What exposure could in fact be
verity of the whole of this allusion to worse than the charge of incest implied
Clodia. Cicero hoped to induce her to by calling her brother her husband, and
give up the prosecution by the threat of of licentiousness, masked under the ap-
exposing her if she went on with it ; pellation of arnica omnium ?
and yet he could not resist the tempta-
240 DEFENCE O* CCELIUS. CHAP. xiv.
One sentence I will quote as showing the line of argument,
and it is not exactly that which we should have expected to
find approved of by an English doctor of divinity :
"But if there is any one who thinks that youth should be interdicted from
indulging in amours, he is indeed a stern moralist, I cannot deny it, but he
is widely at variance not only with the licentious maxims of this age, but also
the customs of our forefathers and what was conceded by them. For when was'
this not done ? When was it blamed ? When was it not allowed ? When was
that which is lawful declared unlawful ?"
Still we ask what has all this to do with the charge of
intent to murder for which Ccelius was tried ? Two-thirds
of the speech are over, and not a word has yet been said in
refutation of it. Cicero, however, perhaps wisely, assumed
that his only difficulty was to get rid of the prejudice against
his client which his opponents had created, and he had then
an easy task. He said, using a nautical metaphor, " now
that my speech has emerged from the shoals and got past
the rocks, it is all plain sailing before me." He argued that
Ccelius could not have got the money from Clodia without
telling her the purpose for which he wanted it ; and if she
knew this she was privy to his design and as bad as himself.
But to insinuate that Clodia was privy to the crime was to
admit that Ccelius was guilty, and to argue that Ccelius could
not have procured the money from her without telling her his
object, if he was on such terms of intimacy with her as the
counsel for the prosecution alleged, was a fallacy that will
not bear scrutiny for a moment.
He passed on, however, to a better point. It was, he said,
impossible to believe that a man of Ccelius's understanding,
to say nothing of his character, should be so bereft of his
senses as to trust his guilty secret to unknown slaves. And
then he asks, almost with hesitation and apology, although
we should think it was the all-important question in the
case,
"I might, in accordance with the custom of advocates and my own, demand
from the accuser what evidence there is of a meeting between Ccelius and Lucceius's
slaves what access he had to them? If he went himself, what rashness ! If he
employed another, who was he ? I might penetrate all the lurking-places of
suspicion: you will find no motive no opportunity no means no hope of
accomplishing or concealing the crime no reason no trace of this atrocious
crime. But all these topics, which are proper to the orator, and which, if I
elaborated them, might be of some avail in my hands, with my ability and my
practice in speaking, for the sake of brevity I pass over : for I have a most un-
impeachable witness in Lucceius, who you well know respects the sanctity of an
B.C. 56. DEFENCE OF C (ELI US. 241
oath, and who would certainly have heard of such a crime attempted to the ruin
of his reputation and his fortunes, and would not have allowed it to pass with
impunity."
The deposition of Lucceius was then read, and Cicero
proceeded :
" What more do you expect? Can you believe it possible for truth itself to
speak differently ? This is the defence which innocence makes. This is the lan-
guage of the cause itself. This is only the voice of truth."
But posterity will judge otherwise. We do not know, and
cannot now ascertain, whether Ccelius was innocent or guilty,
but assuredly the testimony of Lucceius could prove little or
nothing to the point. All he could say would be that he
had never heard of the attempted crime, and did not believe
it possible. He was called to prove a negative, which is
simply an impossibility. The real defence of Ccelius, accord-
ing to our notions, and they are those of common-sense, con-
sists in the few words that follow, of the force of which Cicero,
however, seems to have been unconscious. It does not appear
to have occurred to him that the onus probandi lay wholly
on the prosecution ; they were bound to make out their case
by evidence, and if that failed his client must be pronounced
not guilty. But, as I before said, logical strictness was un-
known in the Roman courts of justice. Rhetorical flourishes
were accepted instead of proof, and the most rambling charges,
if enforced by eloquence, were sufficient to place a man's life
and liberty in jeopardy. In the next passage we find the
point on which an English advocate would have triumphantly
relied, or rather, if what Cicero says is true, he would not
have been called upon to address the jury at all; for the case
for the prosecution would have broken down.
' ' In the facts which are said to have happened there is not a trace of words
spoken, or place or time : no one is called as a witness to prove them ; no one was
privy to the crime. But that family where so nefarious a deed is said to have been
committed is distinguished for its uprightness, its virtue, and its piety from that
family you have heard an authoritative voice speaking under the obligation of an
oath so that you have to balance in a matter, which really admits of no doubt,
which of the two things is most likely whether that an enraged woman has
trumped up the charge, or that a grave, wise, and respectable man has given his
evidence with due regard to the sanctity of an oath."
There remained the charge of attempting the life of Clodia
by poison. Cicero asked,
"But as to the poison Where was it procured? how prepared? to whom
given, and where ? They say that he kept it at home, and made an experiment of
its effects upon a slave, by whose speedy death he was assured of its fatal strength.
R
242 DEFENCE OF CCELIUS. CHAP. xiv.
. . . They say that the poison was given to Licinius, a modest and excellent young
man, and friend of Coelius that an appointment was made with the slaves to come
to the Xenian baths that Licinius was to go there and hand over to them the
box of poison. Now here I first ask with what object the poison was carried to
that place ? Why did the slaves not come to Ccelius at his own house ? If such
intimacy still existed between Coelius and Clodia, what cause of suspicion could
there have been if one of the woman's slaves were seen at his house ? But if ill
feeling had arisen between them, if their familiarity was at an end, and a quarrel
had taken place then I say, hinc illce lachrymal, and this is the cause of all these
criminal charges. She says, forsooth cunning woman that she is that when
her slaves informed her of Ccelius's nefarious design, she told them to promise him
everything ; but that the poison might be openly seized when it was in the act of
being given to Licinius, she ordered them to appoint as the place of meeting the
Xenian baths, where she would send friends to remain concealed, who would, when
Licinius came, rush forward and take him in the act."
Of course all this was capable of proof. If witnesses had
come forward who swore that they were at the baths, as
Clodia averred, and had seized Licinius with the poison in
his hand, it would have gone a long way to establish the
charge. But it appears that up to the time when Cicero
addressed the jury no witnesses had been named who could
speak to these facts, and he resorts, as usual, to presumptive
evidence to disprove that of which the prosecution had given
no evidence.
" Why," he asked, " did she appoint public baths, of all places in the world, for
the meeting? I know of no lurking-place there where grown-up men can hide
themselves. For if they were in the vestibule of the baths they would not be con-
cealed ; but if they wished to retire into the interior, they would find it very incon-
venient to do so with their clothes and sandals on. And perhaps they would not
be admitted unless indeed this influential woman, from her habit of using the
halfpenny public baths, had become friends with the bathman." As to the
witnesses he ironically said, " They must, no doubt, be respectable men who were
intimate with such a woman, and consented to lie in ambuscade in a public bath
for such a purpose."
It was further alleged that they had rushed forward too
soon, and that Licinius escaped with the poison in his hand;
but Cicero treated this as an absurd and improbable story,
for it was not likely that men who had been posted there for
the very purpose of seizing him would have let him slip.
The whole thing looked, he said, like a stage plot, where the
hero escapes and at the same moment the curtain falls. 1
He then urged, what to us seems the most obvious remark
to have been made at the outset, that the whole case de-
pended on witnesses, the presumptive evidence being the
other way. In a tone of bantering ridicule he said :
1 Attlaa tolhinlur literally "the the stage of the ancient theatres the
curtain rises," but, as is well known, on curtain was pulled ///, not down.
^T. 51. DEFENCE OF C (ELI US. 243
" I am anxious to see first the fashionable youths who are the friends of this
rich and noble lady ; and next the brave men who were posted by their female
commander in the ambuscade and garrison of the baths. I will ask them in what
manner and where they lay hid whether it was in a Trojan horse which con-
cealed so many invincible heroes carrying on a woman's war. But I will compel
them to answer how it was that so many and such kind of men did not either seize as
he stood, or catch as he fled, this one individual who was alone, and defenceless as
you now see him. They will assuredly never be able to make good their story
if they get into that witness-box (si istum in locum processerinl), however witty
and talkative they may be at feasts, and sometimes even eloquent over their
wine. The forum is one thing, the dining-room another ; the benches of a court
of justice are not the couches of a saloon ; the presence of jurymen is not the
same as the presence of boon companions ; the light of the sun is very different
from the light of torches or of lamps. If, therefore, they come forward I will
sift them to the uttermost.
" Their weaved-up follies
I will unravel."
But if they will listen to me I advise them to take to another trade, win favour in
another way, and display themselves in another fashion. Let them be cherished
by that woman for their good looks, let them command her purse, let them cling
to her lie at her feet and be her slaves ; but let them spare the life and fortunes
of an innocent man." He appealed to the jury not to suffer a law of which
Catulus was the author at a time when the state was in imminent danger, and
which was directed against state offences, to be perverted to gratify a woman's
lust and feminine revenge.
He concluded by a sketch of Ccelius's past life, showing
how unlikely it was that he should be guilty of so great a
crime. He had faults, but they were the faults of youth,
and such as time would cure.
"Preserve therefore," he exclaimed, appealing to the jury, " preserve to the
republic a citizen of virtuous pursuits and good qualities, and the friend of good
men. This I promise you and guarantee to the state, that his mode of life will
not differ from mine if I may speak of myself as having done good service to the
state. . . . When you think upon his youth, think also on the age of his unhappy
father who is before you, and who leans for support upon this his only son. . . .
Consent not that the one, whose sun is already setting in the course of nature,
shall be crushed by a blow from you sooner than by his own destiny ; or that the
other, now for the first time blossoming with the leaves of hope, and when the
stem of virtue is growing strong, shall be overthrown as it were by a whirlwind
or a tempest. Preserve the son to the parent, the parent to the son, lest it should
be thought that you despised old age in its despair, or crushed instead of saving
youth when it was full of the greatest promise. If you do preserve him for your-
selves, his friends, and the republic, you will have him devoted to you and to
your children, and you, above all others, will reap the rich and lasting fruits of
his industry and exertions."
Whatever we may think of the argument of this speech,
it had the merit of success. Ccelius was acquitted, and the
prediction of his advocate was fulfilled. He became after-
wards a distinguished man.
Domitius Ahenobarbus was one of the candidates for the
consulships of the ensuing year, and he made no secret of
244
POMPEY & CRASS US CONSULS. CHAP. xiv.
his intention, if he succeeded, to use all the influence of his
office to deprive Caesar of his command in Gaul. Caesar
therefore took measures to prevent his election. After
gaining the series of victories which are related by him in
the third book of his Commentaries, he came to Italy and sent
for Pompey and Crassus to have an interview with him at
Lucca. We may feel surprise at finding these two men, who
had lately been so hostile to each other, again acting together;
but they both seem to have been overawed by the genius of
Caesar, whose energy and strength of will they were unable
to resist. He persuaded them to become candidates for the
consulship, each for the second time, in order to baffle Do-
mitius. But the difficulty was, that they had not declared
themselves sufficiently soon to be elected this year. It was,
however, adroitly got over by employing the tribune Cato
and others to prevent any consular comitia from being held,
so that no consuls could be elected within the required
period. This led to what was called an interregnum, during
which candidates might come forward and be elected at once.
Pompey and Crassus were thus able to obtain the office, and
the new year opened with their consulship.
POMPHYS THEATRE. RKSTORKO BV CAV. CAMNA.
CHAPTER XV.
LETTERS FROM THE COUNTRY-
DEFENCE OF PLANCIUS-
TRACTED STATE OF ROME.
-ATTACK ON PISO GOSSIP
-POLITICAL APOLOGY DIS-
^t. 55. B.C. 52.
ClCERO passed a considerable part of the next year in the
country, at one or other of his favourite villas, amusing him-
self with his books, or employing his leisure time in literary
composition. We will follow him there, and see him occu-
pied in more congenial pursuits than politics, of which he
was weary, and in which he met with little but vexation and
disappointment.
His first letter to Atticus is dated from Antium, where he
was attended by his friend's faithful and intelligent freed -
man, Dionysius, who assisted him in his studies. 1 We next
1 It was a pleasant memento of their them, and was called in future Marcus
friendship that Dionysius, on his manu- Pomponius Dionysius. See ad Atl.
mission, assumed a name from each of iv. 15.
246 CICERO AT HOME. CHAP. xv.
find him at his villa near Puteoli (Pozzuolo), in the Bay of
Naples. He describes himself as devouring the library of
Faustus, a son of Sylla the dictator, and son-in-law of
Pompey, who inherited an immense collection of books
which his father had got together when he plundered
Athens, and these he kept at his country-seat near Puteoli.
Cicero jokingly adds, that perhaps Atticus thought he was
devouring the good things of Puteoli and Lucrinum, which
was famous for its oysters.
But in the present state of public affairs, he said he had
lost all taste for other enjoyments except his books, which
refreshed and delighted him ; and he says he would rather
sit with Atticus on the seat in his library beneath the bust
of Aristotle than in their curule chair (meaning of course the
triumvirate, although he is too cautious to name them), and
would rather walk with him than with the man (Pompey) with
whom he saw he must walk. But as to that walk chance must
determine, or Providence, if there was such a Being who
cared about it. 1 He begs Atticus to look after his gallery
and vapour-bath, and all that his architect, Cyrus, had en-
gaged to do, and press the contractor to use despatch with
the building of his house at Rome. He then mentions that
Pompey had come to his villa at Cumae to pay him a visit,
and had immediately sent to inquire after him. He was
going to see him next morning.
The interview took place, and they discussed the state of
public affairs. Pompey was dissatisfied with himself; and
the private correspondence of Cicero reveals his real opinion
of him, which we look for in vain in the fulsome compli-
ments he paid him in the senate-house. He, as I have before
said, never really trusted Pompey, although he undoubtedly
liked him, and looked upon him as the chief stay of the
aristocratic or conservative party, to which he was himself so
strongly attached. He struggled hard to believe that Pom-
pey was the man for the time, but he constantly disap-
1 Sed de ilia ambulatione fors viderit, no doubt that he believed in the exist -
aut si qui est qui curet Deus. Ad Att. ence of Providence and a future state,
iv. 10. This might seem as if Cicero See, amongst other proofs, ad Att. vii.
were a convert to the Epicurean philo- I ; de Divin. i. 51 ; de Legg. \\. 7 ; de
sophy of his friend. But most probably Senect. 23.
he said it only in jest ; for there can be
JET. 55. AFFECTION FOR HIS BROTHER. 247
pointed him. And yet there was no one else of sufficient
mark to be the leader whom Cicero was prepared to follow.
In a letter to Atticus on the 28th of April, on his way to
his villa near Pompeii, he writes that Pompey was dissatisfied
with himself, " as he said (for so we must speak of the man),
professing to despise the idea of having Syria for a province,
and vaunting the advantages of Spain. Here also I must
put in 'as he said:' and whenever we speak of him we
must always add, as was said by the Greek poet of his verses
' and this too is by Phocylides.' "
It was a sign of the times that Porcius Cato was this year
defeated in a contest for the praetorship, and Vatinius, the
worthless creature of Caesar, whom Cicero had severely
handled in his defence of Sextius, was elected in his stead.
But a still more painful circumstance was, that a law was
actually passed on the I3th of May, on the motion of
Afranius, enacting that it should not be punishable to have
carried a prsetorian election by bribery I 1 Cicero alludes to
this in a letter to Quintus, and says that the law caused
great grief to the Senate. He adds that the consuls, Pom-
pey and Crassus, supported Afranius, and threw Cato over-
board altogether.
In the present disheartening state of affairs Quintus had
called his brother's attention to his poem on his own consul-
ship, and begged him to remember the speech he had put
into the mouth of Jupiter in the book called Urania. Cicero
promised to do this, and said that he had written the passage
more for his own sake than the sake of others.
It is pleasant to notice the terms of affectionate intimacy
on which the two brothers were. Cicero seems to have
loved Quintus with a love passing the love of woman. His
letters to him form some of the most charming portions of
his correspondence, full of playful allusions, the point of
which is, however, dimmed, and in many cases lost, by the
lapse of nearly two thousand years.
In his next letter to him he tells him that no muse-
stricken poet takes more delight in hearing his own verses
read, than he does in reading his brother's letters on every
subject, public or private, and whether full of the gossip of
Ne qui proeturam per ambitum cepisset, ei propterea fraudi esset.
248 CICERO'S OPINION OF LUCRETIUS. CHAP. xv.
the country or the town. Apropos to the question of bring-
ing their friend Marius to his villa, he mentions a practical
joke he once played him. He was taking him with him to
Baiae, and he dressed up a hundred men as soldiers with
swords, to follow the palanquin (lectica) that conveyed him.
Marius, who had no idea that he was accompanied by so
warlike a retinue, happened to open the window of his litter,
and when he saw the armed attendants nearly fainted with
terror, to the great amusement of Cicero.
In another letter he expresses his opinion of the poem of
Lucretius, and, according to the usual reading, is represented
as saying that it showed little genius but much art a judg-
ment in which we can hardly coincide. But I think there is
the strongest reason for believing that what Cicero wrote
was the direct contrary, and all the ancient manuscripts
concur in this. According to them, what Cicero really said
was, that Lucretius's verses had much of the splendour of
genius, and yet betrayed considerable art which is surely a
just and sound criticism. I have discussed the question in
a note. 1 Genius alone could have made Lucretius successful
in dealing with so unpromising a subject for poetry as
Nattira Rerum. It is one of the grandest remains of Roman
literature ; and yet there is in it much of the skilfulness of
art which genius too often disdains and this is shown by
the admirable manner in which the tenets of the Epicurean
philosophy as regards matter and void, and the images of
external objects, are interwoven with exquisite descriptions
of nature and illustrations by which the difficulties of the
subject are made clear to the apprehension.
1 All the MSS. read Lucretii foe- " Lucretius has much of the splendour
mata, rit scribis, ita stint ; multis lumini- of genius, and genius we know often
bus ingenii, multce tamen artis which disdains the labour of art ; but Lucre-
makes Cicero, as we should hope and tins has genius, and yet considerable art
expect, attribute genius to Lucretius, also" a criticism which would be per-
But in consequence of the adversative fectly sound and just. The question is
conjunction tamen, almost all the editors ably discussed in Mr. Monroe's recent
of Cicero's works agree that non ought admirable edition of Lucretitts, vol. ii.
to be inserted before multis; and then 1 08. He suggests that etiam may be read
they represent Cicero as denying genius instead of tamen, or inserted after it. In
to Lucretius, notwithstanding that all the former edition I had adopted the
the MSS. assert the contrary. This common reading, but I am glad to think
seems hard, and I am unwilling to be- that the critics, who are answerable for
lieve that the interpolation of non is it, have been mistaken,
right. May not the meaning.be this ?
B.C. 52. ORNAMENTS FOR CICERO'S VILLAS. 249
To Atticus he wrote in May, and told him he was devour-
ing literature with Dionysius, whom he calls a wonderful
man. Nothing, he said, was more delightful than universal
knowledge. 1 He was soon afterwards on his way back to
Rome, and begged Atticus to come and dine with him, and
bring his wife, Pilia, on the second of the following month,
saying that he intended to dine on the first with his son-in-
law Crassipes, like a traveller at an inn, and go home after-
wards, giving the go-by to the order of the Senate, which
required the senators at Rome to attend its meetings, equiva-
lent to what we should term a call of the house.
In few things he took greater delight than in ornamenting
his villas, and especially his Tusculanum. He had given a
commission to Fadius Gallus to make some purchases for
him, which his friend seems to have misunderstood. He
bought four or five statues, consisting of figures of Bacchanals,
one of Mars, and another sculptured as a support for a
table. But Cicero did not much care for statues ; his passion
was pictures and books ; and he wrote and told Gallus that
he had given more for them than all the statues in the
world in his opinion were worth. Gallus had written to him
that the Bacchanals might vie with the group of the Muses
which Cicero had previously purchased from Metellus ; but
he replied
' ' What resemblance is there ? In the first place, I should have never thought
the Muses worth as much as you have given and 1 am sure all the Muses would
agree with me but they suited my library and were appropriate to my studies.
But what place have I for Bacchanals ? You say they are pretty I know them
well, and have often seen them ; but if I had approved of them I would have
given you a distinct commission to purchase statues so well known to me. For I
am in the habit of buying only those statues which do for ornamenting my palcestra
in the manner of gymnasia. But what have I, a man of peace, to do with Mars ?
I am glad that there was no figure of Saturn amongst them ; for I should have
feared that those two statues would have got me into debt. I would rather there
had been a Mercury, for I think I could then have made a better bargain with
Avianus. The figure that you intended as a support for a table you can have if
you like it ; but if you have changed your mind I will take it. I would rather
have spent the money you gave for the statues in the purchase of a resting-place
at Terracina, that I may not always be troublesome to my host there. ... I have
been putting up some seats with niches against the wall (exhedria) in the portico
of my Tusculan villa, and I wish to adorn them with pictures. If anything of
that kind delights me it is paintings. If, however, I must have the statues, I wish
you would tell me where they are, when they are to be sent for, and by what kind
of conveyance. For if Damasippus (who talked of buying them) changes his mind,
I will find some psendo Damasippus to whom I can sell them even at a loss."
1 Ov5ev y\vKUTcpov ?) travT 1 eUevai. Ad Att. iv. 1 1."
250 HIS EPISTOLARY STYLES. CHAP. xv.
The Damasippus here alluded to is the virtuoso and anti-
quary so pleasantly described by Horace in one of his satires,
who ruined himself by his dilettante tastes.
If we turn from Cicero's familiar correspondence with his
intimate friends to his letters addressed to politicians and
statesmen, we are struck by the change of style. When he
writes to Atticus, or Ouintus, or Terentia, or Tiro, the sen-
tences are short and often elliptical. He hints frequently
his opinion by a word. In fact, the letters are just what we
might expect from a man who knows that his meaning will
be understood by the friend to whom he writes, however
brief and playful or ironical his expressions may be. But
when he addresses a political friend or acquaintance, his
style is stately and elaborate with long-winded sentences
full of profuse compliment. The genus of the Latin language
is peculiarly suited for this pompous kind of composition, and
hence it is the language above all others adapted to lapidary
inscriptions. In a letter to Lentulus, the proconsul of Cilicia,
written about this time, Cicero says, with an exaggeration
which carries insincerity on the face of it, " I wish you to
be perfectly assured, that there is nothing, however small it
may be, in which you are interested, which I do not hold
dearer than all my own concerns !" But I mention the letter
chiefly to show how he still clung to Pompey. He declares
that so great is his inclination nay, love towards him, that
whatever is advantageous to him, and whatever he wishes,
seems to him right and true.
Pompey celebrated his second consulship by exhibiting
shows and games of extraordinary splendour. The excuse
was the dedication of a magnificent theatre he had built
upon the model of one he had seen at Mitylene on his return
from the war against Mithridates. It is said to have been
large enough to hold eighty thousand spectators. Some frag-
ments of the immense building still remain. On this occasion
every kind of amusement of which the Romans were fond
was lavished upon the populace. Stage plays were acted,
in which the mise en scdne was got up with unusual attention
to effect. Broad farces and pantomimes kept the audience
in a roar. Athletes struggled, and gladiators fought day
y " Butchered to make a Roman holiday."
JET. 55- POMPEY'S THEATRE. 251
Africa sent her wild beasts into the arena and five hundred
lions and eighteen elephants were slaughtered in what were
called " hunts/' that lasted for five days. We can hardly
form an idea of the gigantic scale on which these cruel sports
were conducted at Rome, which have no parallel in modern
times, not even in the bull-fights of Spain. Cicero gives an
account of the whole show in a letter to his friend Marius,
written in a very splenetic mood. He took little pleasure in
anything that was addressed rather to the eye than the
mind, and his taste was too severe to appreciate as we do
the accessories of stage scenery. He asks what enjoyment
there can be in seeing six hundred mules on the stage in
Clytemnaestra, or three thousand soldiers in the play of the
Trojan horse, or a crowd of infantry and cavalry in a sham-
fight, which so delighted the populace. He certainly would
not have appreciated the way in which we have of late years
seen the plays of Shakspeare brought upon the stage.
Besides, the actors displeased him. vEsop, the famous tragic
actor, the Garrick of his day, from whom Cicero had taken
lessons in elocution and delivery was growing old. He
broke down in one of his parts, and his voice failed him.
Then as to the " hunts," what pleasure was there, he asks,
in seeing a poor fellow torn to pieces by a powerful brute,
or a noble animal stricken by a spear ? What would he
have thought of a modern fox-hunt ? He says the elephants
excited the pity of the crowd, who could not help feeling
that they had something human about them. Dio Cassius,
indeed, tells us quite gravely, and with all the simplicity of
Herodotus, that when the creatures lifted their trunks aloft,
uttering cries of pain, the spectators thought that they were
appealing to heaven against perjury for it was believed that to
induce them to embark on the coast of Africa their conductors
had sworn to them that they should meet with no harm !
But Cicero had not been wholly occupied with the shows.
In the midst of them he pleaded the cause of Caninius Gallus,
who had been a tribune of the people, and was impeached
when he laid down his office. The speech is lost, but it
seems to have been successful. In the letter to Marius, in
which he mentions this defence, he complains of weariness
of a pleader's task, and says that if the people were as com-
2 5 2 OR A TION A GAINST PISO. CHAP. xv.
plaisant to him as to ^Esop the actor, he would gladly give
it up. Formerly he might decline any cause he pleased, and
yet even then, though youth and ambition spurred him on,
he grew tired of the work. Now, however, he was plagued
to death by it ; for he looked forward to no benefit from his
labours, and was sometimes compelled to defend men who
deserved very little at his hands, at the request of others to
whom he was under obligations.
He had delivered in the Senate a more important speech
a few days before. It is that which is known as in Pisonem,
the most savage of all his orations. Piso had been recalled
from his government of Macedonia, and he complained in the
Senate of the way in which he had been attacked by Cicero,
who proposed that he should be superseded. This gave the
orator the opportunity, which he eagerly seized, of pouring
out on the head of the devoted ex-consul all the vials of his
wrath. The language he made use of was quite unworthy
of his lips, and we can only wonder that it was tolerated by
the senators of Rome.
He calls Piso a beast, a butcher, a lump of mud, a gallows
bird, a carcase, a monster, filth, and other names with which
it really would not be decent to pollute these pages. As a
specimen of the style, it will be sufficient to quote the pas-
sage with which the speech as it has come down to us opens ;
for the original commencement is lost :
" Do you now see, you beast, or do you feel, what sort of complaint men
make of your appearance ? Nobody complains that some Syrian from a gang of
slaves was made consul. It was not your slave-like complexion, not your shaggy
cheeks, nor your decaying teeth, that deceived us. Your eyes, your eyebrows,
your forehead, in short your whole countenance, which is a sort of silent language
of the mind, betrayed men into their mistake. This it was that deceived, cheated,
and imposed upon those to whom you were unknown. Few of us had known your
grovelling vices few, your sluggishness of intellect, your stupidity, and the imbe-
cility of your tongue. Your voice had never been heard in the Forum. " No one
had made the experiment of consulting you. No action of yours, either military
or civil, was, I do not say illustrious, but even known. You stole in upon public
honours by a mistake, by the recommendation given you by the smoke-stained
busts of your ancestors, with which you have nothing in common but your colour."
He describes an interview which, accompanied by his son-
in-law, Piso's relative, he had with him during his consulship,
in terms which it is hardly possible to quote. They found
him in the morning reeking from a debauch, and were almost
stifled with the fumes that he exhaled, while he pretended
B.C. 52. ORATION AGAINST PJSO. 253
that he was obliged to take wine medicinally, and drove
them away with the most discourteous reply and the most
vulgar and offensive manners. We may remember that
when Clodius asked the consuls at a public meeting what
they thought of Cicero's conduct in the Catiline conspiracy,
Piso mildly replied that he did not approve of cruelty. This
was not forgotten by the orator, and he burst out in a fine
passage of indignant eloquence, which may be compared with
the withering sarcasm of Brougham in that part of his speech
in defence of Williams on a criminal information for a libel
against the clergy of Durham, where he retorts the charge of
hypocrisy upon the reverend prosecutors. The point con-
sisted in the contrast which Cicero drew between his own
alleged cruelty in proposing that the conspirators should be
put to death, which the Senate, and not he, determined, and
the cruelty of Piso in forbidding the Senate to go into
mourning when Clodius threatened Cicero with proscription.
" What Scythian tyrant," he asked, "did this? refuse to allow those to mourn
whom he was plunging in sorrow ! You leave the grief you deprive them of its
emblems you snatch from them their tears, not by consolations, but by threats.
But if any of the Conscript Fathers had changed their dress, not in obedience to
a public resolution, but from feelings of private duty or compassion, it was an act
of intolerable tyranny, by the interdict of your cruelty, not to permit them to do
so. When, however, the crowded Senate had voted for it, and the other orders
in the state had already done it, you dragged out of a murky stew to be consul,
with that frizzled ballet-dancer of yours forbade the Senate of the Roman people
to mourn the sunset and destruction of the republic."
In the autumn Cicero went into the country, and in the
middle of December was at his Tusculan villa, where he was
glad to escape being present at the debate that took place
in the Senate about Pompey's and Caesar's provinces. Pom-
pey had the proconsular government of Spain and Africa
bestowed upon him for five years ; and Csesar demanded a
prolongation of his command in Gaul for the same period, to
enable him to complete and consolidate his conquests. This
led to some sharp debates ; but ultimately Caesar carried his
point, supported as he was by Pompey, who little knew what
a power he was building up for his own destruction. In the
letter which alludes to this, Cicero mentions the departure of
Crassus from the city to take possession of his ill-omened
government of Syria, from which Gabinius had been recalled,
like Piso from Macedonia. Ill-omened, indeed, it was, in
254 COMPLETION OF THE " DE ORATORE." CHAP. xv.
every sense. Ateius Capito, a tribune of the people, at first
forbade him to go, and attempted to throw him into prison.
Some of the other tribunes, however, interfered, and Ateius
then solemnly cursed him, which seems to have had such an
effect that no one of note except Pompey ventured to ac-
company him outside the walls. Under these gloomy
auspices he set out 1
Before he finally left, Cicero, yielding to the earnest desire
of Pompey and of Caesar, who urged him strongly by letter
to lay aside his enmity to Crassus, had been reconciled to
him, and at his express request, dined with him in the gar-
dens, or park, of Crassipes, which were outside the city,
where Crassus, as clothed with a military command, could
not now remain.
The great literary work on which he was engaged this
year was his De Oratore, in three books, which he tells Atti-
cus in December he had finished, after long and careful
labour, and his friend might have a copy of it. It is one of
the most finished and most interesting of all his compositions,
and happily has come down to us in a perfect state.
The election of consuls for the new year, B.C. 54, had
been put off from time to time until the close of the last,
chiefly, no doubt, owing to the intrigues of the triumvirate
party, .who wished, if possible, to exclude Domitius from the
office. But he succeeded at last, and Appius Claudius
Pulcher, the brother of Clodius, was his colleague.
We shall see Cicero this year drawing more and more
closely to Caesar, the fame of whose victories kept up his
reputation and influence at Rome. Quintus had accepted
the office of one of his lieutenants, and left Rome for Gaul.
The first letter of the new year that we possess was ad-
dressed to Crassus, about whose recall, even at this early
period, there seems to have been an animated debate in the
Senate. Cicero tells him how warmly he had defended him,
and is profuse in his assurances that he may always depend
upon his friendship and support. Their alienation had been
1 While the army was assembling at the superstitious minds of the hearers
Brundusium to embark for the East, a interpreted as a prophetic warning
seller of figs was heard calling out his Cave ne eas! "Beware of going!"
fruit in the street Cauneas ! Cauneas ! Cic. ' de Div. ii. 40.
pronounced probably Cafncas which
^T. 55. RECONCILEMENT WITH CRASSUS. 255
owing, he says, to pestilent men envious of another's reputa-
tion. He was now, he adds, entirely at the service of
Crassus's wife and sons, who remained at Rome, and the
Senate and the people understood how devoted he was to
the interests of his absent friend. In this strain the whole
letter is written, and it will be sufficient to quote the conclud-
ing passage as a sample of the rest : " I wish you would
write to me, as one of your dearest friends, about everything,
whether small or great or indifferent, and impress it on your
family, friends, and clients, to use my aid, advice, authority,
and influence, in all matters, public and private, domestic
and legal, whether they relate to them or to yourself, in order
that as far as possible their regret at your absence may be
alleviated by my labours."
The next letter is to Quintus, and in it he mentions that
Appius the consul had summoned the Senate to meet on the
1 2th of February, but the cold was so severe that he was
compelled by the clamour of the populace to dismiss the
meeting. We may remember how, on one occasion, Clodius's
mob thronged the Gr&costasis and steps of the building, and
frightened the senators by their shouts. It would startle us
to hear that the two houses of Parliament had adjourned
because the crowd in Palace Yard thought the weather too
cold!
When Caesar was consul he had granted to Antiochus,
king of the petty principality of Commagene, the honour of
wearing a pr&texta, or robe of office worn by the magistrates
at Rome, which was something equivalent to the gift of the
insignia of the order of the Garter or the Bath by our own
sovereign to a foreign prince ; but the privilege seems to have
been limited to a year; and perhaps the consul had no power
to grant it for a longer period. Antiochus wished to have it
renewed, but Cicero laughed at his pretensions, and, address-
ing the senators, asked them, " Will you, noblemen as you
are, who refused faz pratexta to a Bostrenian chief, permit a
Commagenean to wear it ?"
In the letter mentioning this, Cicero says that Balbus had
heard from Caesar that a packet of letters addressed to him,
including one from Cicero, had got so saturated with water
that the letter was wholly unrecognisable. He had, however,
256 C^ESAR ANXIOUS TO GAIN CICERO. CHAP. xv.
been able to decipher part of a letter from Balbus sufficiently
to make out that it contained an allusion to Cicero, which
seemed to promise something which was more to be wished
than hoped for. There can be no doubt of Caesar's anxiety
to gain Cicero on his side. He was the man above all others
whose support would have been invaluable to him. It would
have gone a long way to disarm suspicion of his ultimate
designs if he could have secured the man who was par excel-
lence the champion of the authority of the Senate, and had a
horror of violence. And no one can blame Cicero for wish-
ing to stand well with Caesar, and agreeing with him so far
as was possible without a compromise of principle.
As his first letter was thus practically lost, he sent Caesar
a copy of it ; and as the proconsul of Gaul had jokingly
alluded to his own poverty, he added, in the same strain,
that he had better not become bankrupt by relying upon his
(Cicero's) purse. He told Quintus that he heard from all
quarters of Caesar's kindly feeling towards them both.
He took the opportunity afforded by a letter of introduc-
tion, which he gave to his friend Trebatius, an eminent
lawyer, 1 in February, to write to the proconsul of Gaul in
a friendly and familiar tone, telling Caesar that he considered
him a second self. He wrote also to Quintus, and said : " I
agree with you about Pompey, or rather you agree with me.
For, as you know, I have for a long time past been singing
the praises oj Caesar. He is, believe me, a bosom friend,
and I do not intend to let him slip."
His next two letters are to Trebatius, who had joined
Caesar in Britain ; and are worth noticing merely from the
passing allusions to the barbarous country of our ancestors.
He tells him to beware of the charioteers (essedarii) of Bri-
tain ; 2 and says he hears there is neither gold nor silver there.
He therefore advises his friend, if this is so, to get one of
their chariots, and come back to Rome as quickly as possible.
1 This is the same Trebatius whom to cross the Straits with Caesar into
Horace introduces in his Satires, ii. I, Britain. Ad Div. vii. 10.
as recommending a swim across the 2 In his Tale of a Tub, Swift says
Tiber to secure a good night's sleep, that Cicero wrote to a friend in England
In another letter Cicero jokes him for " with a caution to beware of being
being very fond of swimming studio- cheated by our hackney coachmen (who,
sissimus natandi and yet unwilling it seems, were as arrant rascals as now)."
B.C. 52. LITERARY LABOURS. 257
In May Cicero went into the country, and spent a couple
of months at his Cuman and Pompeian villas. He wrote to
Quintus, and told him he was engaged upon his work De
Rcpublica, which he calls a tough and troublesome task ; but
if it turned out according to his expectation, the labour
would be well bestowed. If not, he would throw it into the
sea which he looked down upon as he was writing, and would
try something else, as he could not be idle. He said he
would look carefully after his nephew, Quintus's son ; and if
the boy did not despise him, would act as his tutor, for which
he was qualified by attending to the education of his own
son. In a letter to Atticus, who had just left Rome, he
begs him to give directions that he may be allowed free
access to his library in his absence, as he wished to consult
some books, and especially the works of Varro, with reference
to what he was then engaged upon.
On his return to Rome in June he wrote to his brother,
and told him he had received two letters from him, together
with one from Caesar, full of civility and kindness. He
speaks of Caesar's affection as a thing which he preferred to
all the honours which the proconsul assured him he might
expect from him ; and then goes on
" I am ardently desirous now to devote myself to him alone, and perhaps I shall
do what often happens to travellers who are in a hurry. If they rise later than
they intended they make up for lost time, and so arrive at their journey's end
sooner than if they had awakened before daybreak. Thus I, since I have so long
slumbered in cultivating that person, although you often urged me to do so, will,
as you tell me that my poem is approved by him, 1 by my future speed make up
for past slowness with my poetic steeds and chariot. Only give me Britain to
paint with your colours and my own pencil."
What a pity it is that such a book was never written. A
description of Britain by Cicero, from information supplied
by his brother, would have been a most interesting work.
He proceeds : " But what am I about ? What spare time
have I at home ? But I will see for perhaps your affection,
as usual, will overcome all difficulties.
" He (Caesar) thanks me also with some wit and politeness
too for sending Trebatius to him. For he declares that in
the whole multitude of persons who were with him there
1 Pei
connect
1 Perhaps this was the poem De Temporibus Suis, which embraced the events
ed with his exile ; or it may have been some panegyric on Caesar's exploits,
vS
258 RELATIONS WITH C^SAR. CHAP. xv.
was not one who could draw up a bond. I asked him to make
M. Curtius a military tribune next year ; for Domitius (the
consul) would have thought I was laughing at him if I had
asked him for it is his daily complaint that he cannot ap-
point even an officer and he even made fun in the Senate
of Appius his colleague because he had made a journey to
Caesar to get a military tribuneship." 1 I may mention in
passing that Caesar at once complied with Cicero's request,
and blamed him for his modesty in the way he asked for
so trifling a favour.
As to politics, he adds that there was at Rome some sus-
picion of a dictatorship ; and everything was quiet in the
forum the usual focus of disorder at Rome ; but this was
a sign of the Republic getting into jts dotage, rather than of
tranquillity.
Quintus had hardly been able to make out his brother's
last letter on account of the badness of the handwriting, and
fancied that he must have been either too busy or too excited
by some cause or other to write legibly. Cicero now assured
him that this was not the case, and laid the blame upon his
pen ; for he always took up the first that came to hand, and
scribbled away with it whether it was good or bad. But he
promised that he would in future use a good pen, well-mixed
ink, and smoothed paper. 2 He urged Quintus to stay in
Gaul, where he had a good opportunity of making money
and getting out of debt. His advice, in short, was that of
lago to Roderigo : " Put money in thy purse ; follow these
wars ; I say, put money in thy purse." He said there was
1 Tribunum milititm. Wieland trans- miles gregarius. " And he adds, in his
lates these words "brigadier ;" but this usual semi-serious tone, " Does not this
is carrying too far the application of go far to prove that there were block-
modern terms to ancient titles, and re- heads in those days?" But I think
minds us of the Dutch commentator who that the explanation of this, which De
always rendered consul " burgomaster." Quincey calls " unaccountable," is to be
It is an acute remark of De Quincey, in found in the fact to which I have before
his amusing and admirable essay on alluded, that the army at Rome was
Secret Societies, that the Romans had not, as with us, a distinct profession for
no term expressing the distinct idea of gentlemen. Civilians went through a
an " officer." " If you were a captain military apprenticeship when young, and
they called you a centurion ; if a colonel, then returned to their usual avocations
tribtmus ; and if a private i.e. a com- in the forum and elsewhere.
mon soldier, or soldier in the ranks, 2 Calamo et atramento temperate,
which logically stands in contradistinc- charta etiam dentata, res agetur. Ad
tion to the term officer they called you Quint, ii. 15.
JET. 55. CORRUPTION AT ROME. 259
no reason why Quintus should return to Rome, as he had
generously offered to do if he could be of use to his brother,
or danger threatened him. He gave a cheering account of
himself at this period. His morning levees were crowded,
and he was received with popular applause in the Forum and
the theatre ; while, with Caesar and Pompey on his side, he
felt secure against any attack from Clodius. He would soon,
he said, be free from debt, if life and health were spared.
He drew a melancholy picture of the corruption that was
going on at Rome. Four candidates for the consulship were
in the field ; and the bribery was enormous. He declared
that there never was anything like it. The interest of money
actually rose in consequence from four to eight per cent. 1
He gave the same account to Atticus ; and as his friend
was a capitalist, and, like his deceased uncle Caecilius, lent
money at usury, he added that he was not likely to take to
heart the rise in the rate of interest.
At this time (June and July) he was busily engaged in the
duties of an advocate. He had just defended Messius, who
had been recalled to take his trial from an embassy on
which he had been sent by Appius Claudius, the consul, to
Caesar in Gaul, and was preparing to defend Drusus on a
charge of corruptly betraying a case he had undertaken ;
and Scaurus, who was accused of embezzlement in Sardinia ;
and Plancius, who had behaved so kindly to him in his exile,
and who was in Sardinia, now accused of bribery. He told
Atticus that he had before him a list of glorious titles for
his speeches, with so many defences on his hands. But he
was annoyed at the acquittal of Sufenas and the demagogue
tribune Cato, who were both brought to trial for bribery and
corruption. At the same time, Procilius, who was tried for
an attempt to murder, was convicted ; and Cicero sarcasti-
cally remarks : " From this we may see that our stern
Areopagites do not care a straw for bribery, comitia, inter-
regnum, treason, or, in short, the republic altogether. To
be sure, we ought not to try and murder the head of a family
1 Idib. Quint, foenus fuit bessibus so that it amounted to four per cent per
triente. Ad Quint, ii. 15. The annum. The bes was two-thirds of an
usual rate of interest at Rome was triens, as, and therefore foenus bessibus was
or a third of an as, and this was reckoned eight per cent.
by the month (as is the case in India),
260 COUNSEL FOR THE REATIANS. CHAP. xv.
at his own house, and even that point is not altogether clear ;
for twenty-two were for an acquittal, and twenty-eight for a
conviction." Hortensius defended Procilius, and Cicero was
with him, but did not speak. The reason he gives is, that
his daughter Tullia, who was then unwell, was afraid lest he
might come into collision with Clodius, who conducted the
prosecution. After this, he went on what we should call a
special retainer into the country.
The inhabitants of Reate (Rieti) had a quarrel with their
neighbours who lived at Interamna, near the confluence of
the rivers Velinus and Nar (the Velino and Nerd], and were
hence called Interamnates about draining the lake Velinus.
For a tunnel had been cut through the mountains, and the
waters carried off into the Nar, the consequence of which
was, that the territory of the Reatians, which was called
Rosea, and was one of the loveliest spots in Italy, was
left dry ; and they now sought to obtain compensation from
the Interamnates. A commission was appointed, consisting
of one of the consuls and ten assessors, to try the cause, and
the Reatians had the good fortune to be able to engage
Cicero as their counsel. We do not know the result ; but
he tells us that, while there, he resided with Accius, a Roman
senator, who had a villa in the pleasant Rosea, which he calls
Tempe for its beauty.
On the 8th of July he returned to Rome, and wrote to
Atticus, with an affectation of modesty, that when he ap-
peared in the theatre, he was received with loud applause. 1
As to the actors, Antiphon, who had been once a slave, was
far the best, but his voice was weak. He also mentions an
actress named Arbuscula as having been very successful,
although we know from Horace that she was at least once
hissed in the theatre. 2
Writing to Trebatius in Gaul, he tells him that a friend
of his, whose name he pretends he cannot recollect, has fre-
quently asked him to dinner ; but, although he is much
1 Sed hoc ne curares ; ego ineptus content with the applause of a Roman
qui scripserim. Ad Att. iv. 15. knight
Nam satis est equitem mihi plaudere, ut
2 Horace says that Arbuscula, when . au ax >
. > ,. Contemptis alns,' explosa Arbuscula dixit.
hissed by the audience, said she was Sat. i. 10.
B.C. 52. FORENSIC OCCUPATIONS. 261
obliged to him, he has not accepted the invitation. 1 He con-
gratulates Trebatius on being thought by Caesar an excellent
lawyer, and says that, if he had crossed over to Britain, he
would certainly have found no one there more learned in the
law than himself. Those were not the days of Cokes and
Hardwickes and Mansfields in our island. He jokes him
about the cold of the approaching winter, and advises him,
as he was not very well off in military cloaks, to keep up a
good fire, which he might do on the authority of grave juris-
consults, such as Mucius Scsevola and Manilius, if he wanted
chapter and verse for it.
The next letter to Quintus was written by an amanuensis,
which Cicero said was a sure sign that he was busily
employed. He had never, in fact, according to his own
account, been more occupied with cases than now, and at the
most unhealthy season of the year, when the heat was
intense. The climate of Rome in August was never good,
and at the present day is positively dangerous. All who can
get away leave the city to take refuge in the hills, returning
not sooner than October. The wonder is, that Cicero was
able to labour in the courts at all in such an atmosphere ;
for he declares that he never remembered the heat greater.
He said that in the afternoon he was going to defend Vati-
nius, accused of bribery and corruption in his canvass for the
prsetorship, and the same man whom he had before so bitterly
attacked when he was counsel for Sextius. But Vatinius, as
the reader will remember, was a fast friend of Caesar, and
Cicero's policy was to oblige Caesar as much as possible.
His speech on this occasion is lost, and it is perhaps better
for his reputation that it is so. But he not only defended
him as an advocate ; he gave evidence for him as a witness
to character. This was called laudare. People must have
stared when they heard Cicero praising Vatinius. 2
Quintus just then was full of a plan he had in his head
to write a poetical account of Britain, and his brother told
1 His real name was Cn. Octavius 2 Licinius Calvus was the prosecutor;
(see ad Div. vii. 16). He obviously and Vatinius felt his sarcasm so keenly,
bored Cicero, who did not behave very that while Calvus was speaking he
civilly to him ; for when he pestered sprang from his seat and exclaimed,
him with invitations, he asked him, " Must / be condemned because he is
point-blank, " Who are you ?" Ib. eloquent?"
262 CO UNTR Y LIFE. CHAP. xv.
him he had a capital subject. He promised to help him
with some verses, as he had asked for them ; but it was
like sending owls to Athens. 1 He was pleased that Caesar
approved of his poem (either the one de Consulatu, or de
Temporibzts), and the great soldier seems to have criticised it
attentively, declaring that he had never read better verses even
in Greek he could hardly have been as fond of Homer as
Alexander was but finding fault with some passages as
written too carelessly. 2
The extreme heat at last drove Cicero away from Rome,
and in the beginning of September he went to the cool and
pleasant shades of his villa at Arpinum, from which he began
a long gossiping letter to his brother, which he did not finish
until his return to the city before the end of the month. It
is full of amusing details, and we there see the orator and
statesman changed into the plain country gentleman, planning
improvements, suggesting alterations, and giving his opinion
about roads, water-courses, and buildings. On his way he
paid a visit to Quintus's villas, called Arcanum and Laterium,
with their neighbouring farms, and gave him an account of
the progress of the works that were going on. He had bought
a farm for his brother at Arpinum, and says he never saw a
shadier or better-watered spot for summer. It was to be con-
verted into a villa, and ornamented with a fish-pond, foun-
tains, shrubberies, and a palcestra, or place for gymnastic
exercises.
When we consider that both Cicero and his brother were
still in debt, and that one of the chief reasons for Quintus's
stay in Gaul was to get money and pay off what they owed
for they seem to have made common cause in this respect
we may well wonder at the scale of expenditure at which
they were both living. In addition to all their country places,
Ouintus as well as Cicero had a new house on his hands, not
yet finished, on the Palatine, where the mansions were more
like palaces than anything else; and besides he was thinking
ets 'Afl^as. A phrase ex- on record is that which he sent in Greek
actly equivalent to ours of " sending to Quintus, when he was besieged by
coals to Newcastle. " the Gauls, and almost in extremity :
2 Caesar knew the Greek language Kcu<rap Kt/ce/sww. Oappelv. IlpoffSexov
thoroughly, as did most educated Romans f3or)8eia.J>. " Caesar to Cicero. Keep up
at this period. One of the shortest letters your spirits. Expect help. "
ALT. 55. DISGRACE OF GABINIUS. 263
of buying a suburban villa in the neighbourhood of Rome.
We are introduced in the same letter to two of his bailiffs,
Coesius and Nicephorus, and are told that the latter had
undertaken to build an outhouse for his employer at Laterium
for a certain sum ; but as Ouintus required several extras, and
would not increase the contract-price, the work was stopped.
Cicero said that the house itself had so modest an appearance
that it seemed like a philosopher to upbraid the extravagance
of other villas.
These are trifling details, and may seem hardly worth
mentioning after the lapse of nineteen centuries. But I con-
fess I think differently. It is pleasant to make acquaintance
with the ancients at home, and find them engaged in occu-
pations and pursuits similar to our own. It does not lessen
our admiration of Cicero as an orator to see him amusing
himself as a farmer or country squire, and it increases our
interest in him, and makes us feel better acquainted with
him.
Piso had published an attack on him in the form of a
speech, and Quintus had advised him to reply to it. But he
declined to do this, on the ground that no one was likely to
read Piso's libel, and every schoolboy got by heart his own
former oration against him. This is a little bit of vanity, as
is also what he says about Milo. Some one had written and
told Caesar that Milo had been loudly applauded by the
people, owing, no doubt, to some splendid shows he had ex-
hibited as aedile ; and Cicero adds that he is quite willing
that Caesar should believe that the applause was great, as
was certainly the fact ; but he could not help thinking that
some part of it was intended for himself ! But if he was a
vain, he was also a kind-hearted man. He mentions at the
beginning of his letter that he had left Rome when the
autumn games were going on ; but he had given directions
to his freedman Philotimus to secure places at the theatre for
his fellow-townsmen from Arpinum, many of whom came up
to Rome to witness the spectacle.
Gabinius, who, as I have before mentioned, had been re-
called from his province of Syria in disgrace, reached Rome
on the 2Oth of September, and after lingering outside the
gates for more than a week, pretending that he had claims
264 DEATH OF CAESAR'S DAUGHTER. CHAP. xv.
to a triumph, slunk into the city at night. He was imme-
diately assailed by a prosecution for having quitted his pro-
vince without leave, in order to restore Ptolemy to the throne
of Egypt by force, and four more were awaiting him three
for embezzlement and one for bribery ; so that he was in a
very unenviable position indeed, a miserable and forlorn
one, as Cicero calls it. He told his brother that Pompey
was very pressing to induce him to be reconciled, with Gabi-
nius, but in vain ; and he declared that, if he retained his
liberty at all, he never would be. But very soon afterwards
he surrendered his liberty, and defended in a speech no longer
extant this very Gabinius, the object of his loathing and
contempt.
In a letter to Quintus he says that he thinks of adding a
passage fEfcj8o'X*o) to his poem either the one on his own
Times or the one on his Consulship in which he will intro-
duce Apollo in the council of the gods narrating to them the
kind of entry into Rome made by the two imperators, Piso
and Gabinius, of whom the one had lost and the other had
sold his army.
Just about this time Pompey lost his wife Julia, who was
Caesar's daughter. She died in childbed ; and thus, although
the rupture did not immediately appear, the last link was
snapped which held the two ambitious rivals together. Caesar
bore the sad bereavement with manly fortitude. Writing to
his brother, Cicero alluded feelingly to his loss, and said that
he would not send Caesar a letter of congratulation on his
late victories in Britain, out of respect for his sorrow. 1
It seems to have been immediately after his return to Rome
that he defended Scaurus and Plancius. Scaurus was accused
of extortion in Sardinia, of having murdered by poison one of
the natives, and driven the wife of another to save herself
from dishonour by suicide. The speech is lost, except a few
fragments; but we know that Scaurus got off by a verdict of
Not Proven, 2 for the jury were largely bribed. In his defence
1 We find that it took in those times bantur. Ad Att. iv. 16. This was
about twenty days to send a letter from the technical expression for that form of
Britain to Rome "a despatch," says acquittal. He was again prosecuted by
Middleton, " equal to that of our pre- Triarius for bribery two years later, and
sent couriers by post." The distance Cicero again defended him, but with a
can now be travelled in four days. different result ; for he was then con-
2 Drusus, Scaurus, NON FECISSE vide- victed.
B.C. 52. DEFENCE OF PLANCIUS. 265
of Plancius Cicero put forth all his strength. He was bound
by every tie of honour and gratitude to try and save the man
who had shown him such kindness in Thessalonica during his
exile, and his advocacy of him now was a labour of love.
Plancius had been a competitor of Junius Laterensis for the
aedileship, and was successful. The defeated candidate of
course accused him of illegal practices at the election, and
Cicero was retained to defend him. The speech is more
than usually interesting from the vivid picture he draws of
the nature of a popular election, and much that he says is as
applicable in England now as it was at Rome twenty cen-
turies ago. If space permitted, I would gladly quote several
passages in which he admirably paints its various vicissitudes,
and the capricious fickleness of the voice of the people, whom
the candidate, he said, " tossed as he was by the tempest and
the waves of democracy," must court if he wished to win, and
bear its humours cheerfully if he lost. His description of the
ballot is true to the letter, and exactly agrees with what
Sydney Smith said of it, that it would bring to pass that
which David said only in his haste, and make all men liars :
" The ballot is dear to the people ; for it uncovers men's faces and conceals
their thoughts. It gives them the opportunity of doing what they like, and of
promising all that they are asked."
Of course Cicero took care to allude to Plancius's services
towards himself. He drew an affecting picture of a night
they passed in Thessalonica, when they mingled their tears
together, and when he promised that, if he were recalled from
banishment, he would show his gratitude ; but if he died in
exile, his countrymen would take care to pay the debt he
owed him. At the close of his speech he wept, and so ap-
parently did the jurymen and the accused before them; for
Cicero declared that their tears prevented him from saying
more, and he hailed it as a good omen that they wished to
save Plancius for their tears reminded him of those which
they had so often shed abundantly for himself.
Plancius was acquitted. He afterwards joined the side of
Pompey in the Civil War, and during the supremacy of Caesar
he lived in exile at Corcyra.
We now come to the long and celebrated letter which
Cicero wrote to Lentulus, the proconsul of Cilicia, and which
266 POLITICAL APOLOGY. CHAP. xv.
may be called his apology for his political conduct. It
deserves an attentive examination, in order to appreciate the
motives that, according to his own account, influenced him.
The case stood thus. He had always opposed not so much
actively as in spirit and opinion the union of parties effected
by Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus, and known by the name of
the first Triumvirate. He saw that this powerful coalition,
in fact, over-rode the constitution, and went far to establish
a dictatorship at Rome resting upon popular violence, ever
ready to side with the strongest, so long as the mob was
amused by spectacles and kept in pay by corruption. But
he clung to Pompey even then, although always mistrusting
him. He really had an affection for him as a man, and he
was dazzled by his brilliant reputation as a successful soldier.
And, besides, he seems to have believed that he was the only
person to whom the state could look to make head against
the ambitious designs of Caesar, and that he would be found
on the side of the constitution if Caesar or any other enemy
openly attacked it. From Caesar he stood aloof, and could
not be persuaded to accept any office or honour at his hands.
He peremptorily refused to be one of his commissioners for
dividing the Campanian lands, and he declined, though with
hesitation, the offer to be one of his lieutenants a post
which Quintus afterwards accepted. He did not, however,
openly oppose Caesar's bill for dividing the Campanian lands,
and indeed took credit for supporting it with an amend-
ment, which he carried, for respecting the rights of private
individuals.
But Caesar was too long-sighted and politic a man to
break with Cicero. He continued to flatter him, and lost no
opportunity of showing kindness and good-will to his friends.
In the unhappy affair of his exile Cicero had more reason
to complain of Pompey than of Caesar. Caesar was at that
moment at the head of his legions outside the walls of Rome,
and could not by law enter the city. Pompey, however,
voluntarily retired to his Albanian villa, and when Cicero
went there and threw himself at his feet to implore his aid,
did not even ask him to rise, and coldly said he could do
nothing without Caesar's approval. And he did nothing.
Cicero passed twelve miserable months in banishment ; and
JET. 55. SUPPORT GIVEN TO C^SAR. 267
when at last he was restored he had to thank Caesar as well
as Pompey for the influence they had exerted in his favour.
Caesar, indeed, was absent in Gaul, but he had an active
party in Rome ; and we may feel certain that if he had
been averse to Cicero's return, there would have been enor-
mous difficulty in effecting it. Clodius also had now declared
himself the open enemy of Caesar as well as of Pompey, so
that the ill-feeling engendered in Cicero's mind by the con-
viction that his most inveterate foe was secretly supported by
Caesar no longer existed. When, therefore, an opportunity
occurred for testifying his good-will towards Caesar, without
compromising his own principles, he gladly availed himself
of it. This opportunity arose on the question of prolonging
Caesar's command in Gaul, and he made that admirable
speech, in which he nobly vindicated to himself the right to
lay aside private enmity on account of wrongs inflicted on
himself for the sake of the republic, whose interests, he be-
lieved, required that the proconsul's career of victory in Gaul
should not be checked before he had completed and consoli-
dated his conquests. Moreover, he clearly saw how little he
could in future rely upon Pompey in a struggle, and the
instinct of self-preservation led him no longer to repel the
advances of the powerful general, who did not cease to court
him, and whose name was a tower of strength at Rome from
his popularity with the masses and his fame as a soldier.
Nor must it be forgotten that, as yet, there was nothing in
Caesar's conduct to- make it criminal in a patriot to join him.
Some writers, indeed, like De Quincey, assert, that even in
the agony of civil war his was the patriotic side ; but, with-
out stopping to examine that question, this plea cannot pos-
sibly avail Cicero, for he was unalterably convinced then of
the contrary. Now, however, the future lay dark before
him ; and not the most sagacious politician at Rome could
have divined the series of events blundering weakness on
the one side, and unscrupulous ambition on the other which
led to the dictatorship of Caesar and the overthrow of the
constitution.
I have thus briefly recapitulated the facts of the case, as
it is necessary to bear them in mind while reading Cicero's
own defence. His reasoning is often weak and inconclusive,
268 LETTER TO LENTULUS. CHAP. xv.
and disfigured by his intolerable vanity ; indeed he seems to
have felt half-ashamed of himself whilst writing, and there-
fore to have taken more than ordinary pains to glorify his
achievements ; but his defence may be summed up in two
words : it was necessary to look out for better support than
he had hitherto received, and that support was only to be
found in Caesar. The times were changed, and he must
swim with the tide.
I shall not attempt to quote the letter at length, but I
will give an epitome of the argument, which will be sufficient
for the purpose. Cicero begins by expressing his disappoint-
ment at what occurred after his return from exile. He felt
himself under more than ordinary obligation to devote him-
self to the service of the state, on account of the kindness
shown him on his recall. And yet, even then, he thought
that hardly enough was done to recompense him for the
losses he had sustained, and saw that he was still an object
of dislike to many, But he was too grateful for what had
been done to take offence at any shortcomings, and resolved
to adhere to his old line of policy, which he believed to be
right, careless whether it was agreeable to Pompey's wishes
or not. As a proof of his independence, he mentioned that
when Pompey had come forward as a witness on behalf of
Sextius, and Vatinius had said in his presence that Caesar's
success and good fortune had made Cicero a convert, he,
Cicero, replied, that he preferred the fate of Bibulus, crushed
as he might think him, to the triumphs and victories of any
one ; and that those who kept Bibulus a prisoner in his
house were the same as those who had driven himself away
from his own. This of course pointed directly at Caesar.
He then gave an account of his conduct on the question of
the Campanian lands bill, and particularly insisted on an
interview which Pompey had with Quintus in Sardinia, when
he went there on his way to Africa in his capacity of supreme
corn-law commissioner, after the meeting with Csesar at
Lucca. Quintus seems, in his anxiety to secure his brother's
recall from banishment, to have made large promises as to
his future conduct, and to have almost guaranteed that he
would show his gratitude to Caesar and Pompey by joining
their side. Pompey reminded Quintus of this, and strongly
B.C. 52. CICERO'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF. 269
urged him to use all his influence with Cicero, and induce
him not to oppose Caesar, even if he could not or would not
actively support him. Cicero laid great stress on his brother's
promise, and tried hard to make himself believe, or at all
events make Lentulus believe, that he was under an obliga-
tion to fulfil it. The expression he uses is remarkable. He
says, " I seriously reflected with myself, and mentally, as it
were, addressed the republic, begging her to allow me, who
had suffered and done so much for her, to show my duty
and gratitude towards those who had deserved well of me,
and preserve my brother's honour. I begged her also to
permit me, whom she had always esteemed a good citizen,
to show myself an honest man in keeping private engage-
ments." In other words, he gave up his opposition to the
Campanian scheme out of deference to the wishes of Pompey
and Caesar.
It is hardly necessary to point out the fallacy of this
reasoning. As Melmoth says, with not less truth than
severity, in commenting on the passage : " Had Caesar and
Pompey, indeed, been ever so much his real friends, no con-
siderations of amity ought ever to have prevailed with him
to have acquiesced in a scheme which was contrary to the
sentiments of all the real patriots of the republic, and con-
trary likewise to his own ; a scheme which he himself tells
Atticus was formed for the destruction of the commonwealth.
. But the truth of it is, private friendship was not con-
cerned in the case, for he well knew that neither Caesar nor
Pompey had any attachments to him of that kind. It was
fear alone that determined his resolution ; and having suf-
fered already once in the cause of liberty, he did not find
himself disposed to be twice its martyr." It was idle to pre-
tend that his brother's honour was engaged, and that there-
fore he himself was no longer free to take an independent
course. No man can bind another by a promise that he
will act in a manner contrary to his conscience either in
politics or anything else. Another plea that Cicero put for-
ward was, that many of his own party had been reconciled
to, and were now closely allied with, a man who was not only
his own enemy, but the enemy of their country and its laws.
He does not mention him by name, but no doubt Clodius
2 7 o CICERO'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF. CHAP. xv.
was meant Here, however, the excuse fails him. Those
who like Bibulus, Domitius, Ahenobarbus, and others, now
supported Clodius, did not act inconsistently. He had
changed in an important particular not they. He was for-
merly the creature and tool of Caesar. He was now his
declared enemy, and they therefore, as opponents of Caesar's
policy, naturally availed themselves of Clodius's hostility
towards him, however much they might despise and hate the
individual. Cicero, however, intimates, that they went much
farther than this. He charges them with abject servility
towards him using the expression, " they kissed him in my
presence." If so, he would naturally feel indignant at such
degrading condescension, and might well accuse them of
political tergiversation, and moral complicity with the worst
man in Rome.
But he had a better argument than this. If, he said, the
chief men in the state had been men of bad character,
neither hope of reward nor fear of danger would have in-
duced him to join them. But the foremost man was Pompey,
whose public services had gained him a brilliant reputation,
to whom he had been attached from his earliest years, and
who had stood by and assisted him by his authority and his
counsels. If Cicero really felt this, he must have been the
most forgiving of men for anything more heartless than
Pompey's conduct towards him, in the hour of adversity, can-
not well be imagined. He said, however, that under these
circumstances, he did not think he ought to fear the charge
of inconsistency, if he changed in some respects his opinions,
and ranged himself on the side of so illustrious a man. But
Caesar also must be comprehended in the same policy. There
was old friendship between them, and his kindness and
generosity towards himself and -his brother were well known
to Lentulus. Nay, the republic herself seemed strongly to
wish that he should not set himself in opposition to two
such men, and especially after the glorious exploits of
Caesar. And he again insisted that his brother had engaged
his promise to Pompey, and Pompey had ratified that pro-
mise to Caesar, that he would in future support them.
He next urged his disappointment at what had occurred
after his return from exile. Clodius, " that thief of female
JET. 55. CICERO'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF. 271
mysteries, who had respected the sanctity of the Bona Dea as
little as he had respected the honour of his three sisters/' had
been let off with impunity by the Senate, and they allowed his
name still to disgrace the monument which they had themselves
erected as a memorial of the suppression of Catiline's conspiracy.
When Lentulus came back, he would find the sentiments of
men much changed from what he knew them when he left,
and it was the duty, therefore, of wise citizens, such as he
hoped both himself and Lentulus were, to change their views
and opinions also. And for this he had the authority of
Plato, who laid it down that a man ought in politics only to
contend for so much as he can persuade his fellow-citizens
to adopt, and ought to put compulsion upon his country as
little as he ought to put compulsion upon his parents. 1 It
would be a waste of time to confute such reasoning as this.
In the first place, the question was not whether Cicero should
continue to contend for impracticable measures, but whether he
was right in forming an alliance with those whose measures he
ex hypotJiesi disapproved. And in the next, there was no ques-
tion of compulsion, but simply whether he should persevere
in endeavouring to persuade his fellow-citizens to follow his
advice. He gives as a further and final reason, which perhaps
was the most cogent of any, the remarkable, or, as he calls
it, " divine," liberality of Caesar towards his brother and him-
self, which made it a duty to support him, whatever his for-
tunes might have been ; but his glorious career of conquest
now made it a duty to honour him even if he had behaved
differently towards them. And he might have added that
he was afraid to stand alone, and that fear as well as grati-
tude was one of the motives that influenced his conduct.
Appius Claudius, the consul, was also included in his am-
nesty for the past, and he did not think it necessary to vindi-
cate his conduct in being reconciled to the brother of his
bitterest enemy Clodius.
Alluding to his appearing as a witness for Vatinius, he
said that, as some of the most distinguished men at Rome
had chosen to patronise and caress his own enemy if they
1 The passage in Plato to which Cicero refers occurs in his Crito, c. 12 ; and
its meaning is fairly rendered by him, but it has really no application to his own
case of political casuistry.
272 CICERO'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF. CHAP. xv.
had their Clodius, he had a right to have his Vatinius. And
he quoted some lines from the Eunuch of Terence, where the
Parasite advises the Captain to play off Pamphila against
Phaedria, which may be thus rendered :
' ' If she names Phsedria, do you forthwith
Begin to speak of Pamphila ; and if she says
' Let us invite fair Phsedria to supper,'
Do you rejoin, ' Let us have Pamphila
To sing to us.' If she breaks out
In praise of Phoedria's beauty, you extol
The face of Pamphila. In short, my friend,
Take care to pay her back in her own coin,
And I will warrant that you tease and fret her."
" Aye !" said Cicero, " and gods and men approve my
policy."
As to Crassus, although he had great reason to complain
of his conduct, he was not going to gratify the malignity of
others by continuing his enmity with him, as though they
could never be friends ; and both Pompey and Caesar had
urgently entreated him to make up the quarrel. He sums
up, as it were, the main points of his defence in the follow-
ing words :
" Pray be assured that if I had been at liberty, and things had remained as they
were, I would have pursued the same course. For I should not have thought it
right to contend against such powerful influence, not even if it had been possible
to destroy the supremacy of the most distinguished men in the state. Nor do I
think I ought to adhere obstinately to one opinion when things are altered and the
wishes of good men are changed, but we must go with the times. For an inflex-
ible adherence to one opinion has never been approved of by leading politicians ;
but, as in navigation it is a proof of skill to trim according to the weather, even
if you cannot make the port (although when you can make it by shifting the sails
it is folly to hold on your course with danger rather than by changing it to arrive
at the point you wish), so although all of us who are engaged in the government
of the state ought to aim, as I have often said, at dignified repose we ought
always to aim at the same object, but not always say the same thing. Therefore,
as I have just observed, if I had been as free as air, I would not have acted other-
wise as a politician than I have done. But when to take this course I am both
induced by the kindnesses of some and forced by the injuries of others, I find
no difficulty in both thinking and saying on public questions what I conceive
to be most for my interests as well as the interests of the state."
The rest of the letter to Lentulus refers principally to the
more pleasing subject of Cicero's studies. He promised to
send a copy of his speeches, which Lentulus had asked for,
and told him that they were not so numerous that they need
frighten him at the thought of perusing them. He would
send also his Dialogue de Oratore, and his poem in three
books on his Own Times, which would be an eternal memorial
B.C. 52. POSITION AS AN AD VOCATE. 273
of Lentulus's good offices towards him, and his own grateful
acknowledgment. He assured his friend in language which
has proved prophetic although it is not often that a man,
ventures to speak so confidently of his own name and actions
reaching the distant future that not only Lentulus, but the
whole world and posterity, should know that no one was
ever dearer or a greater favourite with him than himself.
The canvass for the consulships of the following year was
still going on, and the competitors trusted as usual to bribery
for success. They were all therefore threatened with pro-
secutions ; and Cicero wrote privately to Quintus, that the
question at issue was, whether they or the laws should perish. 1
Three of them, however Domitius Calvinus, Messala, and
Scaurus, seem to have applied to him to defend them, or, at
all events, he expected to be called upon ; for in a letter to
Atticus on the ist of October he says : "You will ask me,
' What will you be able to say for them ? ' May I die, if I know.
I find nothing to guide me in those three books (de Oratore)
on which you compliment me." The position of Cicero as an
advocate at this time was something like that of Erskine at
the English bar. Every one who was in legal jeopardy was
anxious to be defended by the most eloquent orator of Rome ;
and this was, according to his own account, one of the busiest
periods of his forensic career. Not a day passed in which he
had not to speak for somebody or other in the courts. His
time was so occupied with cases that he had hardly a spare
moment to write a letter, and he composed and dictated
while he walked.
I have mentioned how Gabinius had been recalled from
Syria, and how he crept into the city alone and in the silence
of night As he journeyed towards Rome he pretended that
he was going to demand a triumph, and to keep up the farce
he stayed for a few days outside the walls, as all were obliged
to do who sought the honour until the Senate had decided
1 Aut hominum aut legum inter it-us pressed by Cicero of their guilt, we find
ostendittir. Ad Quint, iii. 2. This him a few months afterwards rejoicing
does not mean that their lives were in that they were, for the present at all
jeopardy. The punishment for the events, out of jeopardy, as the courts
offence of bribery and corruption was could not sit during the days of thanks-
not death, but banishment. Notwith- giving decreed in honour of Cresar's
standing the strong conviction here ex- victories.
f
274 PROSECUTION OF GABINIUS. CHAP. xv.
on their claim. For more than a week he did not venture to
show himself in the senate-house; but by law he was obliged
to give an account of the military state of his province within
ten days after his return; and on the tenth day, therefore, he
appeared, and made the required report. He was then about
to retire, but the consuls stopped him ; and the publicani> or
contractors, who farmed the Syrian revenues, and whose
treatment by Gabinius has been already alluded to, were in-
troduced into the house to state their grievances. This gave
rise to a debate, in which Gabinius was bitterly attacked,
and by none more bitterly than Cicero. Exasperated by his
taunts, he called him, with a voice trembling with passion,
" Exile !" Upon this the Senate rose as one man, and with
indignant shouts gathered round Gabinius, as if about to
inflict summary chastisement upon him ; even the strangers,
the publicani, who were present, joined in the clamour and
the rush.
Gabinius was brought to trial on the charge of abandoning
his province and employing his army to restore Ptolemy
without leave from the Senate. This amounted to the crime
of majestas. Lentulus was the prosecutor, and, according to
Cicero, was utterly unfit for the task. Indeed, he did his
work so badly that he was accused of betraying the cause.
Cicero himself was strongly tempted to undertake the prose-
cution ; but, as he told his brothers, he was deterred because
he did not wish to come into collision with Pompey, who
strained every nerve to procure Gabinius's acquittal and he
had lost all confidence in the tribunals. His own expression
is, "We have no juries now; I dread a failure." 1 Besides,
he was afraid that the ill-will which he was conscious too
many bore towards himself might tell in favour of the ac-
cused if he became the prosecutor. The result was, that
Gabinius was acquitted by thirty-eight votes out of seventy.
Cicero congratulated himself that he had taken no part in the
trial beyond that of appearing as a witness against the accused.
If he had been the prosecutor, Pompey would have made it,
he said, a personal matter, and it would have led to a quarrel
1 Judices nullos habemus diro- language of an English Attorney -
rev^naformido. Ad Quint, ii. 2. We General advising against a state pro-
might almost fancy that this was the sedition.
/ET. 55. HIS ACQUITTAL. 275
between them. Besides, he added, considering Pompey's
influence and zeal, he himself would have been likely to come
off second-best, and he would have been like the gladiator
Pacidianus when matched with Aserninus, and might (like
him) have had the tip of his ear bitten off. The interest
which Pompey took in the issue of the trial was notorious to
all, and he spared no solicitation nor entreaty to procure an
acquittal. When the ballot-box, into which the votes of the
jurymen were thrown, was opened, and the result was known,
one of them rushed away from the court to carry the news
to him. Cicero mourned over the verdict. Writing to Atticus,
he declared that the constitution was utterly ruined, and he
could take no pleasure in public affairs. The Senate was a
nullity, and so were the courts of law. But as regarded him-
self, he affected a philosophic indifference which he by no
means felt. He told Atticus that he had grown too callous
to be angry, and sought refuge in his villas, his studies, and
his books, the kind of life most congenial to him. If he had
only his friend and his brother with him, politics might go
to the dogs. 1 He could take pleasure only in private and
domestic affairs. As to the impending trials of the consular
candidates, he said they would all be acquitted, and added
bitterly, that no one in future would be found guilty for a less
crime than murder. But this was punished with severity,
and there was no lack of cases. Some persons, amongst
whom were Pompey and Vibius Pansa, afterwards consul with
Hirtius in the year after Caesar's assassination, had tried to
induce Cicero to undertake the defence of Gabinius ; but he
says that, if he had consented, he would have been undone,
and have brought upon himself the general odium felt towards
the accused. Sallust told him that he ought either to have
prosecuted or defended, on which he remarks, " A pretty
friend is Sallust, who thinks I ought to incur dangerous
enmities or everlasting infamy." Besides, all his wishes now
tended to quiet and repose. He was heartily sick of the
state of things at Rome, and not without reason. The
Senate was fast falling into contempt : the legal tribunals
were infamously corrupt ; and the venal populace sold their
votes to the highest bidder. At the time of Gabinius's
1 Per me ista pedibus trahantnr. -. I,/ . lit. \\. 16.
276 DEFENCE OF.GABINIUS. CHAP. xv.
acquittal there was a terrible inundation of the Tiber. The
Appian Way was flooded as far as the temple of Mars,
which stood by the side of the road ; the gardens of Crasippes,
which lay along the banks of the river, were swept away, and
the streets were laid under water. Men thought it was a
judgment of Providence on account of the wicked verdict.
It is painful to see how Cicero's want of resolution made
him do things which he knew to be wrong. Gabinius, though
acquitted on the grave charge of treason, had another prose-
cution hanging over his head, and his advocate was Cicero.
The accusation now was that of improperly receiving money
from Ptolemy to restore him to his kingdom, and a criminal
proceeding was instituted against him to recover back the
amount. There was a struggle who should be the prosecutor,
before Porcius Cato, who, as praetor, had cognisance of the
case, and was not likely to show him any mercy. Memmius,
Nero, and two brothers of Mark Antony (nephews of the
celebrated orator), all put themselves forward, and, according
to the usual custom, the point was settled by a divinatio.
It was decided in favour of Memmius. In mentioning this
to his brother, Cicero adds, that Gabinius was hard pressed,
and intimates that he would be convicted, unless " our friend
Pompey, against the will of gods and men, upsets the whole
affair." And yet, notwithstanding this, he defended him.
He could not resist the urgent solicitation of Pompey ; but
his efforts were unsuccessful, and Gabinius was convicted and
sentenced to banishment. 1 If we possessed Cicero's speech,
we should no doubt find him complimenting the man whom
he had so often fiercely assailed, and we can well believe that
praise from his lips must have had little effect with the jury,
who could not have forgotten his former bitter denunciation
of the accused.
I have already pointed out the capital distinction between
his position at Rome, and the position of an advocate in
modern times. He was at perfect liberty to decline any
cause of which he did not approve, and he did not undertake
the defence of Gabinius as an advocate, but as a friend.
1 I do not understand how this hap- ment of exile on a conviction de pecuniis
pened, for the Lex Julia^ which was repetundis. Gabinius was afterwards
then in force, had repealed the punish- recalled from banishment by Caesar.
:
B.C. 52. REASON FOR DEFENDING GAB INI US. 277
And he was under no obligation to come forward as a witness
to the character of a man like Vatinius, whom he had branded
with every term of opprobrium and contempt. Even Middle-
ton admits that his conduct in these two instances is inde-
fensible ; and where Middleton gives him up, we may feel
tolerably sure that there is little or nothing to be urged on
his behalf. He says : " Whatever Cicero himself might say
in the flourishing style of an oration, it is certain that he
knew and felt it to be an indignity and dishonour to him,
which he was forced to submit to by the iniquity of the
times and his engagements to Pompey and Caesar, as he
often laments to his friends in a very passionate strain."
The " flourishing style of an oration" to which Middleton
here alludes, refers to what Cicero said in his speech for
Rabirius Postumus, when Memmius the prosecutor had
asserted that the Alexandrian deputies had as good a right
to give testimony in favour of Gabinius as Cicero had to de-
fend him.
" No, Memmius !" he replied, " the reason of my defending Gabinius was my
reconciliation with him. Nor am I ashamed to own that my quarrels are mortal,
my friendships eternal. For if you imagine that I undertook that defence against
my own will from fear of offending Pompey, you are greatly mistaken both in him
and me. For neither would Pompey have wished me to do anything for his sake
against my own will, nor would I, who have always held most dear the liberty of
my fellow- citizens, have surrendered my own."
These are brave words ; but after all we know of the cir-
cumstances they cannot be accepted as true.
The next cause in which Cicero was engaged arose out of
the case of Gabinius. His client, having been convicted, had
restore the money which he was accused of improperly
receiving from Ptolemy. This amounted to ten thousand
talents (about two millions and a half sterling), and as
Gabinius could not pay the sum, his property was sold.
But this was insufficient to realise the fine, and Rabirius
Postumus, a Roman knight, was accused of having re-
ceived a portion of the money that had been paid to Gabi-
nius. He was put upon his trial, and defended by Cicero.
He insisted that the law against pecuniary extortion (de
repetundis) did not apply to the knights, being intended only
to check the rapacity of provincial governors ; and, more-
over, asserted that not a farthing of the spoil had come into
278 CESAR'S ARCHITECTURAL WORKS. CHAP. xv.
the hands of Rabirius, who, on the contrary, had lent money
to Ptolemy, which had not been repaid to him, and he would
have become bankrupt in consequence if he had not been
assisted by the generosity of Caesar. The result of the trial
is not known ; but Drumann thinks it probable that Rabirius
was convicted and sentenced to banishment, from which he
was afterwards recalled by Caesar when he was dictator.
It is refreshing to turn from the distracted politics of Rome
to matters of more pleasing interest. Caesar, always grand and
magnificent in his views, had undertaken two great works
the enlargement of the Forum, and the erection of a splendid
hall in the Campus Martius for public meetings. He seems
to have commissioned Cicero to assist Oppius, his agent at
Rome, in the superintendence of the plans. In mentioning
this to Atticus, Cicero speaks of the expense in a tone which
it is easy to see is ironical. He says, " On the enlargement
of the Forum as far as the Hall of Liberty, an idea which
used to have your warm approval, Caesar's friends (I mean
myself and Oppius you may burst if you like at my calling
myself so) have thought the outlay of sixty millions of ses-
terces a mere bagatelle." It was necessary to pull down a
great many private houses, and of course the owners received
compensation. The building in the Campus Martius was to
be substituted for the old Septa or Barriers, a wooden en-
closure open to the sky, in which the people used to meet to
give their votes. Caesar was now erecting an edifice of
marble covered with a roof and surrounded by a portico a
thousand paces long. To this was to be added a sort of
town-hall (villa public a). The general object of these under-
takings was no doubt to ingratiate himself with the populace ;
but a special motive was his desire to eclipse ^Emilius Paul-
lus, who had just restored an ancient basilica in the centre
of the Forum, and was then engaged in building a new one,
which Cicero calls a most glorious, and at the same time
most popular work. The one or other of these is most
probably that of which the foundations have within the last
few years been laid bare by the excavation of the Forum.
As the spectator stands on the top of the Senator's palace
on the Capitol, he looks down upon it on the right of the
Via Sacra, and sees the paved area with portions of columns,
JET. 55- TREBATIUS THE SOLDIER-LAWYER. 279
and broken fragments of masonry lying on the surface. The
best example of an ancient basilica is at Treves. It is now
converted into an Evangelische Kirche. But it wants the
rows of columns which were usually found in these buildings,
and which became the side aisles when they were converted
into Christian churches.
Trebatius, to whom we have already more than once
alluded, was a good lawyer, but a bad soldier. He was
clearly out of his element in Caesar's camp, and was always
hankering after the polished society of Rome, which he had
left, as was usual with civilians at that time, to serve for a
short period in the army. He was also impatient at not
making so much money as he had expected in that fruitful
field for rapacity, a Roman province. Cicero took him to
task for this, and told him that he seemed to think he had
carried to the proconsul a bond for the payment of a debt,
instead of a mere letter of introduction from himself. He
frankly let him know that he thought him too indolent, and
too disposed to shirk his military duties ; nay, went so far
as to say, that in his expectations from Caesar he often
seemed to be rather impudent. He strongly urged him to
stay where he was, and make the most of his opportunities,
serving as he did under an illustrious and liberal commander,
and in a wealthy province. He warned him also not to take
offence if Caesar did not pay him all the attention he desired,
or seemed slow in satisfying his wishes ; for he must remem-
ber how much occupied the proconsul was, and the difficul-
ties he had to contend against. And this advice he said he
could, in lawyer-like fashion, fortify by quoting the authority
of Cornelius Maximus (whose pupil in civil law Trebatius
had been), for he was of the same opinion. He ends with
rather a stinging joke. " I am glad," he says, " that you
did not cross over into Britain, because you thus escaped
hardships, and I shall be spared a narrative of your exploits
there!"
Cicero paid great attention to the education of his son
and his nephew, who in Quintus's absence was entrusted to
his care. He spoke in a cheerful tone of the progress they
were making, and rejoiced in the affection the two cousins
felt towards each other. They were studying rhetoric under
2 So DEJECTION. CHAP. xv.
Paeonius, whom he describes as a good and experienced
teacher ; but he reminds his brother that his own method of
instruction was more searching and scientific, and he pro-
mised that if he took his young nephew with him into the
country he would teach him according to his own plan. In
the meantime, however, the boy, as was natural, liked better
the declamatory style of Paeonius; and his uncle said that
that was his own early practice, and he had good hopes that
young Cicero would be as successful as himself.
Quintus had been urging his brother to write poetry
probably that he might use the verses in his own projected
poem on Britain, but Cicero said that he had neither leisure
nor a mind sufficiently free from anxiety. Besides, he wanted
inspiration j 1 and in all sincerity he declared that Quintus
was a better poet than himself. His brother's library wanted
a supply of books, and Cicero was doing his best to get
them ; but those that were suitable were not for sale, and
to make copies a dexterous and careful hand was required,
which just then he did not possess amongst his slaves. He
promised, however, to speak to Tyrannic, his son's tutor, and
give his freedman Chrysippus instructions about it. The
letter in which he mentions this was written in October, just
as he was leaving Rome for his Tusculan villa, where he was
taking his son with him to go on. with his lessons. 2 In his
next letter to his brother, at the end of November, he spoke
in a tone of deep dejection. He repeated that he had
neither time nor spirits for poetry, being far too much dis-
tressed at the state of public affairs.
" I withdraw myself," he said, " altogether from politics, and devote myself to
literature ; but I will confess to you what I had especially wished to conceal from
you. I am distracted, my dearest brother, I am distracted, to think that we have
no longer a republic or courts of justice ; and that this period of my life, when I
ought to have been in a flourishing position, and in the full enjoyment of a sena-
tor's authority, is either tormented by the labours of the Forum, or soothed only
by literature at home to think that all in vain have I followed the advice in my
favourite line of Homer
' Strive always to excel ; be ever foremost in the race ' 3
1 Abest etiam ivdovaiavfJibs. Ad lusionis. The Latins used the same
Quint, iii. 4. word for "school" and play; but surely
2 Cicero plays here upon the word the boys at Rome must have thought it
hidus, and makes a pun which is un- a misnomer.
translatable. He says ducensque rnectim * Mtv apiffTeteiv KO! virdpoxov
Ciceronem meum in ludum discendi, 11011
*>
B.C. 52. QUINTUS A POET. 281
that my enemies have paitly been not opposed, and partly defended by me that
my inclinations are not free, and I am not allowed even to hate as I like and
that Caesar has proved to be the only one who loved me as I wished to be loved ;
or the only one (as others think) who really wished to love me. However, there
is nothing in all this to prevent me from finding daily consolation ; but my greatest
consolation will be your society."
He then, after alluding to the trial of Gabinius, turned to
the more congenial subject of books. Tyrannio was too
dilatory in executing the commission he had given him to
make copies for Quintus's library ; but it was a troublesome
business. As to Latin books he hardly knew where to apply,
the editions for sale were so carelessly copied. He joked
Quintus for asking him to send him some poetry.
" What ! when you tell me that you have finished four tragedies in sixteen
days, can you think of borrowing from another? 1 And are you ready to incur a
literary debt when you have written the Electra and the Troas ? Don't be an
idler, nor suppose that the precept ' Know thyself was intended only to take
down arrogance, and not also to make us sensible of our own gifts. But pray
exert yourself, and send me your tragedy of Erigone."
Cicero must have been, as I have already remarked, a very
early riser, for he constantly mentions that he is writing his
letters before daybreak ; and in the next to his brother,
dated from his Tusculan villa, he tells him that he is using
a little wooden lamp which Quintus had got made when he
was at Samos, which was part of his pro-prsetorian govern-
ment in Asia Minor.
The insecurity of what we should call the post is a frequent
subject of complaint with Cicero. Of course there was no
post in the modern sense of the word, and it was not every
messenger whom he dared to trust, especially when he
alluded to politics. In a letter to Atticus, written at the end
of November, he says that he is under some anxiety whether
it will reach him ; for his correspondence touched on so many
delicate topics that he did not like to employ even his
amanuensis. And certainly the next piece of news he com-
municated to his friend was of such a nature that, if it had
not become notorious, and was unhappily too true, he might
well be afraid of mentioning it, lest it should prove to be a
andalous libel. I have already alluded to a compact en-
1 These were most probably transla- a fortnight. Abeken treats them as
ions from the Greek. It is hardly pos- original works, and calls Quintus, in
sible that Quintus could have composed consequence, ironically, tin gewaltigtr
four original dramas in little more than Poet " a powerful poet."
2 8 2 DISGRA CEFUL COMPA CT. CHAP. xv.
tered into between two of the consular candidates, Domitius
and Memmius, with the actual consuls, which Cicero hinted
at in a former letter, but said it was so disgraceful that he
did not venture to be more explicit. But Memmius himself
had now brought the whole matter before th,e Senate, and
Cicero communicated it to Atticus. It is well nigh in-
credible, but is too well attested to admit of doubt. In
order to understand the case it is necessary to bear in mind
that, although the Roman consuls, almost as a matter of
right, held provincial governments at the expiration of their
year of office, which they looked forward to as a certain
means of amassing money, their position as proconsuls de-
pended upon a special vote of the people assembled in the
comitia curiata. They could not by possibility expect the
honour of a triumph, the highest object of Roman ambition,
unless they had previously been invested with the imperium
or military authority, and the number of troops they might
command, together with the whole of what we may call their
outfit, depended upon the same vote. This was styled
ornare provinciam. Now, the existing consuls had got their
provinces, but had not got the imperium nor equipments.
They made, therefore, an agreement with Domitius Calvinus
and Memmius that they would support them in their canvass
for the consulships of the next year, provided that they
would, if they were elected, produce three augurs and two
ex-consuls who would solemnly declare that they were pre-
sent when a bill for bestowing the imperium and outfit was
brought forward in the Senate and passed in the comitia
curiata of the people, although the whole was a fiction and
the Senate had never even entertained the question ! And
the two candidates agreed to forfeit a large sum of money
to each of the two consuls unless they fulfilled their part of
the bargain. This compact was formally reduced to writing
and signed by the parties. Memmius, however, felt, as time
went on, that he had no chance of being elected. He there-
fore, at the instigation of Pompey, made a clean breast of it,
and brought the whole affair before the Senate, tp the con-
fusion and disgrace of the then consuls Domitius Ahenobar-
bus and Appius Claudius. It is difficult to understand, not
that the parties should have been wicked enough to enter
JET. 55. DISGRACEFUL COMPACT. 283
into such an agreement, but that they should have thought
the success of such a scheme possible. We cannot even
imagine a parallel case in this country with the publicity that
attends all the proceedings of Parliament ; but it was as if a
French minister were to try to get three archbishops and two
senators to come forward and swear that they were present
when a particular bill was passed, which in fact had never
come before the Corps Legislatif or Senate at all. The
thing is too extravagantly absurd to be supposed possible in
France, but it actually happened at Rome, and shows that
there must have been some glaring defect in the method of
keeping the records of public acts. 1 As may well be be-
lieved, the revelation of this iniquitous bargain between the
two men who held the highest office in the state, and two of
those who aspired to the same dignity, caused great scandal
even in the corrupt society of Rome. Middleton says that
the Senate was highly incensed, and passed a decree, " that
the conduct of the parties should be inquired into by what
they called a private or silent judgment (taciturn judicium),
where the sentence was not to be declared till after the elec-
tion (of the new consuls), yet so as to make void the elec-
tion of those who should be found guilty." But this is a
mistake. The resolution as to a silent inquiry was come to
by the Senate in September, before Memmius made the
disclosure in November, and it had reference to the whole-
sale bribery that was going on. But it was doubtful whether
the Senate could of its own authority order an inquiry of
that kind to take place ; at all events, the tribunes inter-
fered, and instead of acting on the resolution, a bill to the
same effect was brought before the people. Terentius,
however, one of the tribunes, interposed his veto, and the
measure was stopped. The Senate acted in the matter with
inconsistency and weakness. It had originally resolved that
the consular comitia should not be held until the bill passed,
1 In old times, in this country, all it was found that clauses were thus sur-
bills were in the form of petitions from reptitiously introduced which Parliament
the Commons, which were entered on had not assented to, and at length, in
the Rolls of Parliament, with the king's the 2d year of Henry V., the Commons
answer subjoined. At the end of each prayed that no additions or diminutions
Parliament the judges drew up these should in future be made. See May's
records into the form of a statute, which Part. Practice, p. 36 (3d edit.)
was entered on the Statute Rolls. But
284 REPROOF OF QUINTUS. CHAP. xv.
and that if a veto was interposed the bill should be brought
in afresh. It now immediately resolved, notwithstanding
that the bill had not passed, that the comitia should be held
forthwith. Cicero calls the house an Abdera (equivalent to
our Bedlam), and intimates that he spoke his mind freely on
the subject. But the comitia were not held nevertheless.
On each day that the attempt was made, Scaevola, another
of the tribunes, prevented the meeting by " watching the
sky" that strange device which put it in the power of any
magistrate at Rome to stop the machinery of government
according to his mere caprice. And, in fact, no consular
comitia at all took place this year.
In the midst of all this confusion Cicero clung more and
more to Caesar's friendship. He called it the only plank in
the general shipwreck, and much pleased at the attentions
which were lavished upon his brother by the politic proconsul
of Gaul. Quintus was allowed to choose the winter quarters
he liked best for his troops, and Cicero says that if he him-
self were the commander, his brother could not be better
treated. At the same time that he mentioned this, he told
Atticus that he was now one of Pompey 's lieutenants, and
would leave Rome for the province of Spain, which was
Pompey's proconsular government, in the following January.
But for some reason he abandoned the intention, and it is
certain that he never went to Spain. Quintus, like Treba-
tius, had become rather sick of campaigning, and wrote from
Gaul in a very grumbling tone. Cicero took him to task for
this, and begged him to remember the object they had in
view when he accepted a military command in Caesar's army.
It was to secure for them both his powerful protection, well
disposed as he was to support them. He spoke of him as " a
most excellent and distinguished man," and as he wrote to
his brother in unreserved confidence, we cannot doubt that
at the time these were his genuine sentiments. Indeed there
is generally a remarkable difference between the way in which
he writes privately of Caesar and the way in which he writes
of Pompey. He thought he could rely upon the one much
more than upon the other ; and with all his personal regard
for Pompey, he felt how weak and contemptible his character
was in comparison with that of Caesar. The ivy grows more
B.C. 52. DISGUST WITH PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 285
naturally round the oak than the poplar, and it is, I think,
one of the most convincing proofs of Cicero's patriotism that
at the first outbreak of the great Civil War he joined the
side of Pompey instead of the side of Caesar, because he
believed that, however feeble as a statesman and incapable
as a general, he was fighting in defence of his country against
an enemy and a rebel.
He promised to finish a poem he had begun on Caesar's
exploits, and in allusion to a report that a dictator would be
appointed, told Quintus that Pompey now professed to repu-
diate the idea, but had previously told him that he should
not dislike the office. " Good heavens !" he exclaimed, " how
silly he is, how eaten up by self-love, and impatient of a
rival!" His disgust at the state of things in Rome had
nearly reached its climax ; but he declared that it produced
in him an almost reckless indifference. " I am now," he
said, " not even affected by public evils, and the licence of
bold, bad men, by which I was formerly heart-broken. There
is nothing more abandoned than these men and the times
they live in. Since, therefore, no pleasure can be found in
public affairs, I really do not see why I should fret myself,
I indulge in repose, and take delight in study, my books,
and my villas, and especially in the society and education of
our two boys." It seems that young Quintus, his nephew,
was something of a glutton ; for his uncle says that he would
keep his eye upon him now that his mother Pomponia was
away, for he was afraid he would do himself harm by his
voracious appetite. He thanked his brother for promising
to send him some slaves, no doubt prisoners taken in Britain
and Gaul, as he had very few either at Rome or in the
country; and begged him to be extremely cautious in writ-
ing, as he himself was, not venturing to mention things
that were publicly done in the state of confusion that pre-
vailed at Rome, lest his letters might be intercepted and he
might give offence. He had finished his little epic poem on
Caesar, and said he was only waiting to find a trustworthy
courier, lest it should be lost on the road as Quintus's tragedy
of Erigone was ; which, he added, was the only thing that
had not had a safe journey from Gaul while Caesar had com-
manded there. Quintus had begged him to look after the
2 86
OSS OF INFLUENCE.
CHAP. XV.
works going on at his Arcanum villa, and Cicero told him that
it was more like one of Caesar's buildings than anything else,
fitted up as it was with statues, a palcestra, a fish-pond, and
a canal. It is quite clear that his brother was making good
use of his opportunities in Gaul and getting rich. But both
he and Cicero had a little disappointment just then, as a
friend of theirs, named Felix, from whom they had expecta-
tions, had died, after having by mistake signed a wrong will,
so that they got no legacies.
In the same letter in which he mentioned this he summed
up the state of public affairs at the close of the year in the
following words :
" Nothing has yet been done about a dictator : Pompey is absent : Appius
makes confusion : Hirrus is preparing to propose a dictatorship ; many are ready
to interpose their veto ; the people care nothing about it ; the leaders don't like
it. I keep myself quiet. "
, So ended the year, a year which had seen a great change
in the policy of Cicero, and in which he had felt dissatisfied
with almost every public man but Caesar. To him he had
now transferred his political allegiance, and to secure his
favour had sacrificed his previous enmities, and I fear we
must add his principles. He could look back with little
complacency upon his hollow reconciliation with such men
as Vatinius and Gabinius, and must have felt how much he
had lowered himself by appearing as their apologist to gratify
the wishes of Pompey and Caesar. And he gained nothing
by giving up his independence. He lost his own self-respect,
and his influence in the Senate and the rostra declined.
Stormy times were fast approaching, and his was not the
hand that could guide the helm of the vessel of the state
through the rocks and shoals with which it was surrounded.
APPIAN ROAD TOWARDS LANUVIUM.
CHAPTER XVI.
CLODIUS AND MILO.
yt. 54-55. B.C. 53-52.
THE new year opened with no consuls. And this state of
interregnum lasted for six months, during which a succession
of officers was appointed, called interreges, who, according
to a law or custom as old as the time of the monarchy, each
held office for a period of five days, so that this year there
were at least thirty-six inter reges. They were chosen by the
Senate out of their own body, and must by law be patricians,
which explains the reason why the tribunes, who of course
were always plebeians, were generally opposed to their crea-
tion. In the meantime, however, the city was in a state of
turbulent confusion. All attempts to hold the comitia for
the election of consuls failed. They were stopped by the
usual device of " watching the sky," or interrupted by riots
which broke up the meeting. At last one of the tribunes,
Q. Pompeius Rufus, a grandson of Sylla, was thrown into
prison by the Senate, which summoned courage to perform
288 CLODIUS AND MILO. CHAP. xvi.
this one act of firmness. And when Lucceius Hirrus pro-
posed that a dictator should be appointed, they, with Cato
at their head, steadily opposed it until Pompey himself re-
turned. Dio Cassius says that the dictatorship was then
actually offered to him, but seeing how unpopular the office
was, he declined it, and exerted his influence to get consuls
elected. The result was, that Domitius Calvinus and Valerius
Messala were chosen in the month of July, as Cicero had
prophesied would be the case six months before ; for they
secured the votes of the electors by the most profligate
bribery.
During this and the following year we have very few of
Cicero's letters, which is explained by the fact that Atticus,
his chief correspondent, was then at Rome. Atticus had
made a journey into Greece and Asia Minor in the previous
summer, but returned in November, and the friends were
together for the next two years. And as this work is not a
history of Rome, but a biography of Cicero, and he took
during the period little part in public affairs, we may pass
rapidly over events with which he was not immediately con-
cerned.
He kept up an amusing correspondence with his " learned
friend " Trebatius in Gaul, and seems to have liked nothing
better than to fire off legal jokes at this soldier-lawyer. But
unfortunately they will not bear translation. Even the legal
wit of Westminster Hall is " caviare to the general ;" and it
is hopeless to attempt to make intelligible all the technical
puns in which Cicero ran riot when he wrote to Trebatius.
The fun would evaporate in an explanation. He advised
him to remain with Caesar if he was doing well, but if not, to
return to Rome ; for if he stayed much longer away he would
run the risk of figuring in one of Laberius's farces, who would
desire no better character for the stage than that of a British
lawyer. He joked him for becoming an Epicurean ; and
asked him how, as the disciple of such a selfish philosophy,
he could defend the common law which was for the common
good of all ? T He was afraid, however, that the learned
1 It seems clear, therefore, that Tre- provoked merriment at Rome. It has
batius, after all, had crossed over into proved a kindly soil for the growth of
Britain. It is amusing to see how the the race since Cicero's time,
idea of a lawyer imported into England
B.C. 53-52. AMUSING CORRESPONDENCE. 289
civilian had carried his goods to the wrong market ; for the
mode of settling disputes there was by drawing the sword
instead of drawing a plea. He expressed his surprise at re-
ceiving from him two copies of the same letter, and written
on palimpsest too ! " However," he said, " as to the palimp-
sest, I applaud your economy. But I wonder what there was
written on the paper which you preferred to efface and use
the sheet for another letter rather than take a fresh piece :
was it some of your legal formulae ? For I cannot believe
that you rub out my writing to put your oivn over it." In
another letter which he wrote while passing the night at the
villa of a friend in the Pomptine Marshes, he told Trebatius
that he heard the noisy welcome of the frogs which were
croaking loudly at Ulubrse, a small miserable town in the
marshes of which Trebatius was prefect ; and he called them
the clients to whom he had been recommended by the absent
lawyer.
He began this year a correspondence with Curio, who was
then quaestor in Asia Minor the " girl" Curio as he had con-
temptuously called him, when he headed the band of young
nobles who did their utmost to induce the people to reject the
bill for putting Clodius upon his trial before a select jury on
account of his violation of the mysteries of the Bona Dea. 1
And the word "girl" had a terrible significance. To under-
stand its full meaning it is necessary to read the second
Philippic, where Cicero charges Antony, the triumvir, with
having been married to Curio. He had run a career of
profligacy and extravagance, and on account of Antony had
become security for a debt of enormous amount, which his
father, at Cicero's earnest intercession, had undertaken to pay.
Since then he had attached himself to Cicero, and become
in many respects a changed character. He was gifted with
remarkable talents, and had a natural genius for oratory.
During the first triumvirate he had distinguished himself as
one of the chiefs of the opposition ; and as we may remem-
ber was accused by Vettius of being the ringleader of the
plot to assassinate Pompey an accusation which recoiled so
fatally upon the head of Vettius himself. Cicero wrote to
rndole with him on his father's death ; who, he says in his
1 Ad Att. i. 14.
"
2 9 o CLODIUS AND MILO. CHAP. xvi.
usual style of exaggerated compliment, would with such a
son have surpassed all men in good fortune, if he could have
only seen him at his death-bed. He advised him not to
incur needless expense in the funeral games and shows which
it was usual to give on such occasions, adding that everybody
had had enough of these displays, and he ought to trust
rather to his talents and other advantages to gain the popu-
larity necessary for political success. This well-meant advice,
however, was thrown away. Curio exhibited funeral shows
of almost unexampled grandeur ; and two immense theatres
built of wood close together which swung on hinges, carrying
the whole body of spectators round, as Pliny describes them,
in terms of almost stupified amazement. 1 The consequence
was, that he became overwhelmed with debt ; and soon after-
wards, deserting his old party, became one of Caesar's most
devoted adherents. Cicero's letters to him are very few, and
not interesting ; as indeed we could hardly expect them to
be when we find him saying that he should not write on
matters of personal interest to Curio, for he had plenty of
correspondents who would do that ; and the times were too
full of trouble to make it decent to indulge in jocularity.
Nothing then was left but to write on serious topics. " But
on what topic could Cicero write seriously to Curio except
politics ?" And as to politics "he did not like to write what
he thought ; and certainly not what he did not think." A
correspondence on such a basis could not fail to be insipid.
At the same time that the new consuls were elected there
came news from the East which fell like a thunderbolt on
Rome. Crassus and a great part of his army had perished
on the banks of the Euphrates in a conflict with the Par-
thians. That greedy and incompetent commander, not find-
ing in the government of Syria enough for his rapacity, had
without any pretext for war, and without any authority from
the Senate, marched his troops into Mesopotamia, and in-
vaded the territory of Orodes, the Parthian king. At first
he was successful, and ravaged the country almost without
opposition. Orodes sent ambassadors to him to ask him
what was the cause of war. Crassus answered that he would
give his reply in Seleucia. "Hair will grow on this palm,"
1 Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 15.
ALI\ 54-55. DEATH OF CRASSUS. 291
cried one of the Parthian officers, striking his left hand with the
fingers of his right, "sooner than you will be in Seleucia." He
crossed the Euphrates amidst the most discouraging omens, and
his son Publius having made a rash attack on the enemy, was
surrounded and with all his cavalry cut to pieces. The Parthian
general afterwards treacherously invited Crassus to a confer-
ence, and then fell upon him and killed him, with his attendants.
The rest of the army took to flight ; and Dio says the greater
part escaped. In bitter mockery of his avarice the Parthians
poured molten gold down the throat of the unfortunate pro-
consul, whose wealth and profusion had been such that he
used to express pity for those who were too poor to maintain
the cost of an army out of their own private means. By the
death of young Crassus there was a vacancy in the College
of Augurs, and Cicero was chosen to succeed him. We may
remember that he had long coveted this office ; and at the
beginning of the triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus,
had said it was the only bait they could offer which would
be likely to tempt him.
Appius Claudius was at this time proconsul of Cilicia.
He was one of the parties to the infamous bargain with
Domitius and Memmius, and his character was such that
Cicero then said it was made no worse by the disclosure :
he had in fact no character to lose. 1 As praetor he had given
his active support to Clodius during the disastrous year of
his brother's tribuneship, of which Cicero was the victim, and
it was only to please Pompey, whose son had married
Appius's daughter, that he had agreed to a reconciliation
with him. And yet we now find him writing to Appius in
the most friendly and complimentary terms. He wished to
recommend Valerius, a lawyer of very moderate abilities, but
an intimate friend of his own, to his notice, and said, " You
may be assured that you are most dear to me, both on ac-
count of the great sweetness of your disposition and your
kindness, and also because I learn from your letters, and hear
from many, that you are pleased and grateful for all I have
done for you."
The same game that had been played with regard to the
consular comitia in the preceding year and first half of the
Hie Appius erat idem. Nihil sane jacturce. Ad Att. iv. iS.
292 CLOD I US AND MTLO. CHAP. xvr.
present, was still continued ; and there seemed little prospect
of an election taking place for the following year. There
were three candidates in the field P. Cornelius Scipio (who,
having been adopted by Metellus Pius, took the name of
Q. Cecilius Metellus Pius) ; P. Plautus Hypsaeus, who had
been Pompey's quaestor in the Mithridatic war, and was now
supported by him in his canvass ; and T. Annius Milo.
Cicero was for many reasons extremely desirous that Milo
should succeed. He was a bold determined man, ready and
able to cope with Clodius with his own weapons. We have
seen that he took a gang of gladiators into his pay, and
with such a body-guard set his enemy at defiance. Clodius
was a candidate for the prsetorship ; and it was impossible to
say what mischief he might do if elected to that high office,
unless he were held in check by some paramount authority.
Cicero well knew that he had everything to fear from him,
and he was therefore almost anxiously nervous that one at
least of the consuls should be a man on whom he could rely.
Besides, he owed him a deep debt of gratitude for his active
exertions as tribune in procuring his recall from banishment.
We find him for these reasons writing to Curio, who was
then on his way back from Asia Minor, in the most urgent
terms, and entreating him to come and throw all his influ-
ence into the scale in favour of Milo. All they wanted, he
said, was a leader; and there was no one who could be com-
pared as a leader with Curio. " I have," he added, " set my
whole heart, and fixed all my thoughts, zeal, and energies,
in short my whole soul, on Milo's consulship." There is
perhaps no letter in the whole of Cicero's correspondence
which bears the stamp of genuine earnestness more strongly
than this. Milo had made himself popular by the usual
expedient of entertaining the people with costly shows ; and
bribery was resorted to by all the candidates on an enor-
mous scale. But the rival parties frequently came to blows,
and the streets of Rome were the scene of disgraceful riots.
In one of these, where the followers of Milo and Hypsaeus
were fighting in the Via Sacra, Calvinus the consul, who had
hastened up with his lictors to put a stop to the affray, was
wounded.
The year ended in the midst of anarchy, and Rome was
B.C. 53-S 2 - THE CONFLICT. 293
again without consuls. An interregnum would again have
been declared, but the tribune Manutius Plancus Bursa inter-
posed his veto. This brought the confusion to a climax, and
the capital of the world was literally without a government,
when an event happened which gave a new turn to affairs,
and altered materially the state of parties.
Four years previously Cicero told Atticus that Milo had
declared he would kill Clodius if he met him, and the threat
was at last fulfilled. Whether this was done with wilful pre-
meditation, or in the excitement of an accidental conflict, it
is impossible to decide positively ; for the accounts vary. If
we believe the statement which Cicero, as Milo's advocate,
made at his trial, Clodius was the aggressor, and Milo's fol-
lowers slew him in self-defence. But the more probable story
is that which Asconius gives, and it is as follows :
On the 2Oth of January Milo was travelling along the
Appian road towards Lanuvium, of which he was chief
magistrate or dictator, in a carriage in which were his wife
Fausta (a daughter of Sylla) and his friend M. Fusius. He
was attended by a body of slaves and gladiators, amongst
whom were the well-known fighters Endamus and Birria.
About three o'clock in the afternoon, as they were approach-
ing the little town of Bovillae, close to the spot where stood
a chapel of the Bona Dea, 1 they met Clodius on horseback
returning from Aricia accompanied by three friends, one of
whom was Cassinius Scola, a Roman knight, and about
thirty armed slaves. The two parties had almost passed
each other without coming into collision, when the two
gladiators I have named, eager, no doubt, not to lose so
good an opportunity for coming to blows, got into a scuffle
with the slaves of Clodius ; and when he turned round and,
riding up, demanded in a threatening tone the cause of the
disturbance, Birria stabbed him through the shoulder. This
brought on a general fight ; and the wounded Clodius was
carried to a neighbouring tavern, from which, by Milds
orders, he was soon dragged out arid murdered. The slaves
of Clodius were outnumbered by their opponents, and many
* The Romans might look upon it as nation of the mysteries of the Bona Dea
a judgment from heaven that the man should be killed at her chapel. And
whose most notorious act was the profa- Cicero alludes to this coincidence.
294
CLOD I US AND MILO.
CHAP. XVI.
of them were killed and others severely wounded. The rest
fled ; and the corpse of their master was left lying in the
road until Sextius Tedius, a senator who happened to be
returning from the country to Rome, came up, and seeing
the body, directed his attendants to place it in his litter and
bring it into the city; but he himself, apparently in alarm,
went back. It was carried to the hall of Clodius's house on
the Palatine, and there laid down. It was then just night-
fall, and as the news spread like wildfire, mobs of the lowest
rabble rushed to the spot to see the murdered body of their
K Al'I'IAN WAY. REGINA VIAKl'M.
favourite leader. His widow Fulvia threw herself on the
corpse, and with cries of passionate grief pointed out the
bloody wounds to the populace. Next morning the crowd
increased, and in the confusion several men of rank were
injured. The two tribunes, Minutius Plancus and Pompeius
Rufus (who it seems had been released from prison) called
out to the people to carry the body to the Forum just as
it was ; and it was immediately borne off and laid on
the rostra. The tribunes then mounted the platform and
harangued the multitude on the atrocity of the crime which
*T- 54-55- DEATH OF CLOD! US. 205
Milo had committed. The corpse was carried to the temple
of Curia Hostilia, where a funeral pile was hastily constructed
of tables and benches, and set on fire. The flames rose and
soon caught the rest of the building, which was burnt down,
as well as an adjoining basilica. The mob then rushed to
attack the house of Lepidus and of Milo, who had concealed
himself, but they were driven off by volleys of arrows. In
the abeyance of the consular office, the fasces had been
placed for safe custody in the temple of Libitina ; and these
were seized by the people and carried first to the houses of
Scipio and Hypsaeus, the competitors of Milo, and after-
wards to the gardens of Pompey, where, with shouts, they
proclaimed him at one moment consul and at another
dictator.
These turbulent proceedings frightened the Senate. A
meeting was hastily convoked on the Palatine Hill in the
evening after Clodius's body had been burnt, and /Emilius
Lepidus was appointed interrex, to whom, with the tribunes
and Pompey, the care of public order was committed. Pom-
pey was also authorised to collect troops from all parts of
Italy. Scipio and Hypsseus were anxious to avail them-
selves of the sudden unpopularity of Milo, and to force on
the comitia for the election of consuls. But it was contrary
to all usage for the first interrex to hold them, and Lepidus
therefore refused. The mob then regularly besieged his
house, and kept him a close prisoner for two or three days,
until at last they burst open the doors, and were proceeding
to destroy the furniture when a body of the partisans of
Milo came up, and after a violent struggle drove them away.
Another interrex succeeded, but still no comitia were held.
At last Pompey got together a body of soldiers, and under
their guard the Senate met at the theatre outside the pomce-
rium, or precincts of the city properly so called ; but the
only resolutions they came to were, that the bones of Clo-
dius should be collected and buried, and the Curia Hostilia
rebuilt. It was indeed time that authority should pass into
hands capable of exerting it ; and anything seemed better
than the state of wild anarchy that prevailed. Men began
to talk of Caesar as dictator ; and it seemed not improbable
that if the comitia were assembled both he and Pompey
296 CLODIUS AND MILO. CHAP. xv.
would be at once elected consuls by the people. Under
these circumstances the Senate thought it was the safest
plan to trust Pompey alone with the reins of power, not as
dictator, the name of which was generally unpopular, but as
sole consul ; and on the motion of Bibulus, which was sup-
ported even by Cato, the proposal was carried. The question
was not submitted to the people ; but Servius Sulpicius,
who was then interrex, by virtue of his authority, made
the appointment in conformity with the resolution of the
Senate.
This happened on the 25th of February. Pompey had
now reached the highest point of honour in the state which
it was possible to attain short of an actual dictatorship. He
held, by his lieutenants Afranius and Petreius, the govern-
ments of Africa and Spain, conferred upon him originally for
five years, with a considerable army ; he was still supreme
master of the whole supply of grain to the metropolis ; and
he was sole consul. He acted with vigour and firmness.
He proposed and carried two bills, one of which had refer-
ence to the murder of Clodius and the other to bribery at
elections. By the first it was enacted that a special inqui-
sitor should be chosen by the people out of the whole
number of ex-consuls to try those who were accused of the
murder, and also the rioters who set the Curia Hostilia on
fire and attacked the houses of Lepidus and Milo. By the
second, bribery was made punishable by severer penalties.
But both bills provided a more expeditious form of trial than
was usual. Three days were allowed for the examination of
witnesses on both sides, and a fourth for the speeches ; the
prosecutor being limited to two hours, and the defendant or
his counsel to three.
The first of these bills was ineffectually opposed by the
tribune Ccelius, who objected that it was a privilegium
specially directed against Milo, and he attacked the measure
with such vehemence that Pompey declared that if he
were driven to it he would defend the republic by force
of arms.
In the meantime two nephews of Clodius applied to
Pompey to have the whole body of Milo's slaves, and also
those of his wife Fausta for at Rome husband and wife
B.C. 53-52. TRIAL OF MILO. 297
had separate establishments of these domestics examined,
and no doubt put to the torture, as this was the usual mode
of taking the evidence of that unfortunate class of men.
And the right of examining them was also claimed by three
others, the two Valerii and Herennius Balbus. Ccelius, on
the other hand, summoned for the same purpose the slaves
of Clodius and of the three friends who had accompanied
him on his fatal journey ; and one of his colleagues sum-
moned the slaves of Hypsaeus and Metellus Scipio, the two
candidates for the consulship. This of course was to make
it appear that Clodius was the aggressor, and that Hypsaeus
and Scipio had been parties to a conspiracy to take away
the life of Milo. A formidable array of counsel appeared
for him : Cicero, Hortensius, Marcellus, Calidius, and Faus-
tus Sylla. Hortensius took the objection that the persons
summoned by the prosecution were no longer slaves but
freemen as Milo had manumitted them for avenging the
attempt on his life and that consequently they could not
be put to the question.
He himself, seeing how strong the feeling was against the
Clodian party, owing to the excesses they had recently com-
mitted, ventured now to appear in public, and he pursued
his canvass for the consulship, distributing large sums of
money amongst the people in the most barefaced manner.
At one of the meetings of the Senate, Cornificius accused
him of carrying a sword concealed under his robe, and went
so far as to call upon him to lift it up that they might see it.
Milo immediately pulled up his dress and showed that he
had none ; upon which Cicero, who was present, exclaimed
that all the charges against him had no better foundation
than that which they had just heard. But it was currently
reported that, in order to conciliate Pompey, who was known
to favour the election of Hypsaeus, Milo sent a message to
him offering to abandon his own canvass, if he wished. Pom-
pey, however, loftily replied, that he would have nothing to
do with the retirement or standing of any candidate, and
would not interfere with the free choice of the people.
Three of the tribunes Pompeius, Sallust, and Plancus did
all in their power to influence the populace against Milo by
violent harangues in the Forum, and at the same time
298 CLOD I US AND MILO. CHAP. xvi.
attacked Cicero, who had undertaken his defence, so that he
became almost as unpopular with the mob as his client.
Plancus was the most bitter of the three, and he so constantly
asserted that a plot was going on to take away Pompey's
life, that the consul either really did or affected to believe it,
and increased the number of his guards. Plancus also
threatened to bring Cicero himself to trial ; and there is no
doubt that the advocate of Milo was at such a period of ex-
citement in considerable danger. But he stood firm, and
never for a moment thought of shrinking from the task.
Often as we have had occasion to deplore his want of moral
courage, it is impossible not to admire his conduct now. He
might have easily declined the defence. He knew that
Pompey was at heart no friend of Milo, and that the populace
hated him for killing their favourite leader. He would have
ingratiated himself with both if he had simply abstained from
taking any part in the proceedings. But he felt that he
owed a deep debt of gratitude to Milo for the part he had
taken when tribune in procuring his recall from banishment,
and no consideration could induce him now to desert his
friend. Perhaps also there was mingled with this motive
another which might well be pardoned. Milo was accused
of slaying his own bitterest enemy, and the temptation was
irresistible to vindicate such a deed with the whole force of
his eloquence.
His client was indeed in imminent peril. Not only was
he prosecuted for murder and illegal violence (de vi\ but
two other indictments were preferred against him one for
bribery and the other for getting up or being a member of
unlawful clubs (de sodalitiis). The special commissioners
chosen under Pompey's new law to try severally the cases of
murder and bribery were Domitius Ahenobarbus and Tor-
quatus. Domitius seems to have been elected by the people
on the recommendation of Pompey himself. 1 Milo was
summoned to appear before them both on the same day in
April. He appeared personally before Domitius, and sent
to represent him before Torquatus friends who applied to
1 It is thus I reconcile Asconius with says : Quod vero te L. Domiti huic
Cicero. Asconius calls Domitius Quoe- question! praeesse voluit . . . ex con-
sitor suffragio populi ; and Cicero (pro sularibus te creavit potissimum.
Mtlone, c. 8), speaking of Pompey,
JET. 54-55. TRIAL OF MILO. 299
have the trial for bribery postponed until the charge of
murder was disposed of. This was granted, and the inquiry
began before Domitius.
He made an order for the examination of Milo's slaves ;
and Cassinius Scola, the Roman knight who, as I have men-
tioned, was with Clodius when he was killed, gave strong
evidence incriminating the accused. When Marcellus, one
of the counsel for the defence, began to cross-examine him,
the mob that filled and surrounded the court made such an
uproar that he was frightened and took refuge on the bench
beside Domitius. Pompey was at the moment at the Trea-
sury, within sight of the court, and heard the tumult. Do-
mitius applied to him for a body of soldiers to keep order,
and he promised to come himself next day with a guard.
He did so, and remained throughout the rest of the trial close
enough to be frequently apostrophised by Cicero in the course
of his speech. The next two days were, according to the
new law, occupied with the depositions of witnesses, who were
cross-examined by Cicero, Marcellus, and Milo himself. Some
vestal virgins were produced, who swore that an unknown
female had come to them, saying that she was directed by
Milo to discharge a vow he had made, now that Clodius was
slain. Such testimony would of course have been inadmis-
sible in an English court of justice. The last witnesses called
for the prosecution were Fulvia and Sempronia, the widow
and daughter-in-law of Clodius, who, by their tears and la-
mentations, produced a visible effect on the bystanders. The
tribune Manutius Plancus, a bitter enemy of Milo and Cicero,
then mounted the rostra and made a violent speech to the
people, calling upon them to attend next day in crowds, and
not allow the criminal to escape.
It is remarkable that during all this time the jury had not
yet been chosen. The new law provided that the whole body,
or what we should call the panel of persons qualified as jury-
men, should be present and hear the evidence. They were
three hundred in number, selected by Pompey himself. It
also provided that afterwards eighty-one should be chosen by
lot to try the case, but that after they had heard the speeches
for the prosecution and the defence, which together were not
to occupy more than five hours, the prosecutor and defendant
3oo CLODIUS AND MILO. CHAP. xvi.
were each to challenge fifteen (five of each class), so as to
leave fifty-one to deliver the verdict. 1 The reason of these
special regulations is not apparent; but there can be no doubt
of the impolicy of allowing the witnesses to give their evi-
dence before the actual jury was empanelled.
The evidence being closed, the important day arrived when
the jury were to be chosen, the speeches delivered, and the
verdict given. It was a memorable day, and a memorable
sight for Rome. Domitius sat on the judgment-seat as
special commissioner. An immense multitude thronged the
Forum, crowding the steps of the temples and other public
buildings from which a view could be obtained, and in addi-
tion a strong body of soldiers surrounded the court and
occupied all the avenues to the Forum. Pompey himself sat
in front of the Treasury, where he could both see and hear
the proceedings, and was attended by a select body-guard.
All the shops in the city were closed, and every one was
intent on the important issue at stake. It was a scene that
might well try the nerves of the boldest advocate ; for the
mob were to a man against Milo, and fatal experience had
shown that they might vent their rage not merely in noise
and clamour, but in deeds of violence on the spot.
At eight o'clock in the morning the prosecutors com-
menced their speeches. They were Appius Claudius, one of
the nephews of Clodius ; Marc Antony, fatal name, that
now for the first time appeared on Cicero's path, and Vale-
rius Nepos. They spoke for two hours, the time limited by
the new law, and then Cicero rose to defend his client. He
heard the murmurs of the crowd, and saw the glittering
spears of the soldiers, placed there to secure order a strange
and unwonted sight in a criminal court. He lost his self-
possession, and made a very ineffective speech. It would be
perhaps nearer the truth to say that he completely broke
down. The speech we possess, which is one of the finest
forensic orations ever written, was of course not that which
he spoke. He composed it afterwards ; and, according to a
well-known anecdote, Milo, when he read it in exile after his
conviction, said in bitter irony : " It is fortunate for me that
1 These fifty-one would consist of eighteen senators, seventeen knights, and six-
teen tribuni ararii.
B.C. 53 52- CICERO'S SPEECH. 301
this is not the speech that was delivered at my trial : for in
that case I should not have been eating such capital things
as these Marseilles mullets."
Brutus had himself composed a speech for the defence,
which he showed to Cicero, who, however did not approve of
it. The line he took was a perilous one, and Cicero showed
good judgment in declining to adopt it. It was shortly this
that as it would have been a public benefit to sentence
Clodius to death, Milo ought not to be condemned for killing
him. No court of justice could tolerate such an argument
as the sole ground of defence, and it must have been fatal to
his client He therefore took the more prudent course of
denying altogether that there was any premeditation on the
part of Milo, and contended that Clodius was the aggressor,
and that all the probabilities of the case showed that he had
intended to murder Milo, whose slaves killed him to avenge
the supposed death of their master.
He asserted, and I suppose the fact had been proved in
evidence, that Clodius had declared in his public speeches
that Milo must be killed, and that he could not be deprived
of the consulship if he lived, but he could be deprived of life.
Nay, he had told Favonius that within three days, or four at
most, Milo would perish, which Favonius immediately reported
to Cato, who was now sitting on the jury before them. Clo-
dius, he said, knew that Milo was obliged to go to Lanuvium
on the 2Oth of January to appoint a.flamen t as he was " dic-
tator " of that town, and he left Rome suddenly the day before
to make preparation for the attack. He had brought down
from the wilds of the Apennines his gang of savage slaves,
whom they had all seen in Rome. Next day Milo attended
the Senate, then went home and changed his dress, had to
wait for his wife, who " as is usually the case with women,"
said Cicero was slow in getting ready, and set out in a
carriage enveloped in a long cloak, and followed by a train
of his wife's maid-servants and singing-boys. When they
reached that part of the Appian Way where Clodius had a
country-house or farm, the cellars and vaults of which were
large enough to hold a thousand men, a sudden attack was
made upon them from some high ground. Milo's carriage
was surrounded, but he sprang to the ground and vigorously
302 CLODIUS AND MILO. CHAP. xvr.
defended himself. In the meantime his slaves thought that
he was murdered, and to avenge his death they, without his
orders or even knowledge, killed Clodius.
Such was Cicero's statement, and of course, if proved,
it was a complete defence ; and he tried to strengthen
it by probabilities, applying the test of cui bono which
of the two would profit most by the death of the other ?
He showed that Clodius had far more interest in the death
of Milo than Milo in the death of Clodius. Besides, the
different characters of the two men rendered it much more
likely that Clodius was the first aggressor. He then appealed
to Cato and Pepillius, who were both on the jury by what he
calls " a providential accident," and asserted that they had
both heard from Favonius, while Clodius was alive, that
Clodius had declared that in three days Milo would be dead.
Alluding to the evidence of Clodius's slaves, he showed how
worthless it was by describing the mode in which it was
taken.
" Come now," he said, " let us see what sort of an examination it was. ' Here,
you Ruscio' (let us take him by way of example), 'be careful you tell no lies.
Did Clodius lay an ambuscade for Milo ?' ' Yes.' If he said so, the fellow would
be assuredly crucified. If he said ' No,' he hoped to get his freedom. What,
forsooth, can be more trustworthy than this kind of examination ? They are sud-
denly seized, separated from each other, thrown into cells that they may not con-
verse together, and when they have been for a hundred days in the power of the
prosecutor they are produced by him to give evidence."
After appealing to Pompey, and declaring that he raised
his voice in order that he might hear, he told him the time
might come, in the vicissitudes of human affairs, when he
would wish to have by his side a friend so faithful and a man
so brave as Milo. He then dexterously made use of the
argument which Brutus had suggested, having paved the way
for its favourable reception by his previous denial that Milo
was guilty of homicide at all. He put hypothetically the
case that Milo had done what the prosecution alleged. Let
them suppose that Clodius was killed by Milo. Who and
what was the man whose death was the subject of inquiry ?
Not a Spurius Melius, slain on suspicion of aiming at a throne
not a Tiberius Gracchus, who lost his life for sedition-
but a vile adulterer a man who committed incest with his
own sister who had scattered death in the Forum, and
*:T. 54-55- CICERO'S SPEECH. 303
forced Pompey to take refuge in his own house from his
armed violence an incendiary who had burned down the
Temple of the Nymphs to destroy the record of his disgrace
in having been branded by the censors a man who regarded
no law, and respected no rights of property, not stooping to
claim the estates of others by perjury and chicane in the
courts of law, but seizing them by open force and with the
red hand who, when Pacuvius, a distinguished Roman knight,
refused to sell him an island in a certain lake, filled a fleet
of boats with lime and bricks, and in the face of the owner,
who was looking on, had them carried across to the island,
and there built a house for himself who told Titus Furfanus,
then present, that if he did not give him the money he
demanded he would carry him home a corpse who expelled
his brother Appius, " a man," said Cicero, " now firmly re-
conciled to me," from his country seat and walled up the
vestibule of his sister's house so as to prevent all entrance
into it If he had lived and succeeded in gaining power,
nothing would have been safe from his rapacity. He would
have seized on their possessions their homes their money.
"Your money, do I say?" he exclaimed; ''your wives and your children
would have been a prey to his unbridled lust. ... If, therefore, Titus Annius,
holding up his bloody sword, cried out, ' Come hither, citizens, and hear me ; I
have slain Clodius ; with this weapon and this right hand I have saved your
lives from his fury, which no law or court of justice could restrain ; it is through
my deed alone that law, justice, and liberty that modesty and chastity -have
been preserved to the commonwealth ;' could there be any fear how the country
would receive the avowal ? For is there any one who would not approve and
praise the deed ? who would not say and feel that Titus Annius of all men since
the memory of man had most benefited the state, and filled with the greatest joy
the Roman people Italy the world ? . . . NOAV, attend to me. This is an in-
quest on the death of Clodius. Imagine to yourselves for our thoughts are free,
and we can see with the mind's eye as well as with our bodily senses imagine to
yourselves, then, I say, that I could induce you to acquit Milo on condition that
Clodius were brought to life again Why do you show terror by your looks?
How would he affect you if alive, when now that he is dead the mere idea of him
makes you tremble."
The speech ended by a passionate appeal to the jury not
to drive away from Rome a citizen like Milo, whom every
other country would open its arms to receive. The last
words were
" But I must stop ; for I cannot speak for tears and by tears he will not allow
himself to be defended. I pray and beseech you, in delivering your verdict, to
304 CLOD I US AND MILO. CHAP. xvi.
declare boldly your real sentiments. Your virtue, your justice, your honour will,
believe me, be most approved by him who, in selecting the jury, chose those who
were most distinguished for virtue, intelligence, and courage."
The above is a meagre outline of the oration as it was
written. That which Cicero really spoke was not successful,
and Milo was convicted. The jury who gave the verdict,
after they had been reduced by the challenges allowed by
the new law, were, as I have said, fifty-one in number. Of
these, thirteen voted for his acquittal, but thirty-eight de-
clared him guilty ; and it is hardly possible to believe that
the majority were wrong. It was composed of men who
were not likely to have any bias against the accused ; and
no doubt the evidence satisfied them, that however the affray
might have commenced, Clodius had been killed by the
deliberate command of Milo. It would be a nice question
under the English law, supposing that the first attack were
made by the followers of Clodius, whether Milo was guilty
of murder or manslaughter, or whether it was a case of justi-
fiable homicide. If the deed was done in self-defence, to
protect his life or the lives of his attendants, he ought to
have been acquitted ; but if it was true that Clodius, by
Milo's orders, was dragged from the tavern where he was
laid after he had received his wound, and then put to death,
* it was murder, or perhaps a merciful jury might have brought
in a verdict of manslaughter. But if the defence set up by
Cicero had been proved, there must have been a verdict of
acquittal ; for, according to him, Milo's slaves killed Clodius
without even the knowledge of their master, under the erro-
neous idea that they were avenging his death.
The sentence was banishment, and Milo immediately
quitted Rome. He retired to Marseilles, where he passed
the remainder of his life in poverty and exile. In his
absence the other charges against him were proceeded with,
and he was again convicted. His property was put up to
auction, but it was so burdened by enormous debts that it
sold for a mere trifle. And thus ended the public career
of a man who bade fair to be a rival of Pompey and of Caesar,
and who, if he had gained the consulship, might possibly
have given a different direction to the destinies of Rome.
But it is vain to speculate how history would have to be
B.C. 53-52. OTHER CRIMINAL TRIALS. 305
rewritten if a particular event had happened which in fact
did not happen.
M. Saufeius, who had headed Mile's slaves in the affray,
was next put upon his trial, and was defended by Cicero
and Ccelius. He was more fortunate than his master, for
he was acquitted by a majority of one. He was again in-
dicted for a breach of the peace (de vt), and was again
defended by Cicero : he was a second time acquitted. But
Sextius Clodius, the ringleader in the late tumult, who was
tried for arson in setting fire to the Curia Hostilia, when
the body of Clodius was burnt, was convicted by a majority
of forty-six to fifteen, and sentenced to banishment. Both
the candidates for the consulship, Hypsaeus and Metellus
Scipio, were now accused of bribery, and tried under the
new law. But Pompey had just married Scipio's daughter
Cornelia, the widow of young Crassus, who was killed in the
East, and he was determined to save his father-in-law. He
implored the jury to acquit him, as a personal favour to him-
self. Hypsaeus thought that he might obtain the same
indulgence, and threw himself at Pompey's feet as he came
out of the bath, to implore his help ; but the great man
spurned him from him, and told him he was only spoiling
his own dinner by detaining him, 1 Such was the justice
and humanity of the man to whom Cicero had always so
strangely clung. He next raised his father-in-law Scipio to
the consulship, and during the last five months of the year
they were colleagues together. In order to lessen, if possible,
the indecent eagerness with which the consulship was sought
by men whose chief object was to enrich themselves by the
provincial governments that followed as a matter of course,
a law had- been passed the year before which enacted that
no consul or praetor should obtain the government of a pro-
vince until five years had elapsed after the expiration of his
year of office. This law Pompey enforced, but at the same
time took care to have his own command in Spain, which he
had never yet visited as proconsul, prolonged for five years
more. He also got the law revived which prevented candi-
dates for the consulship from being elected in their absence,
but with the addition of a clause which rendered it practically
1 Val. Max. ix. 5.
X
306 CLODIUS AND MILO. CHAP. xvi.
a dead letter ; for it was provided that in special cases the
restriction might be dispensed with. It was when powerful
and intriguing men were candidates that it might be most
necessary to enforce it, but they were just the persons most
likely to have influence enough to get a dispensation in their
favour. And so it happened now. To conciliate Caesar, he
was allowed to stand next year for the consulship without
leaving his command in Gaul.
At the end of the year Cicero had the satisfaction of
seeing both the tribunes, Pompeius Rufus and Plancus Bursa,
the implacable enemies of Milo and himself, convicted and
punished. As soon as they had laid down their office
they were accused of exciting, by their harangues, the mob
to acts of violence and incendiarism, when it burned down the
senate-house at Clodius's funeral. Cicero undertook the pro-
secution of Plancus, the second time in his life when he had
appeared against instead of for a defendant. Pompey in-
terested himself warmly for Plancus ; and, to save him, did
not scruple to violate his own law ; for in order to check the
shameless practice of " giving characters " to parties on their
trial which, as has been previously mentioned, was called
laudare, and had become the means whereby powerful men
obtained the acquittal of their friends he had a law passed
which prohibited it in future ; but notwithstanding this, he
sent to the court a written declaration in Plancus's favour,
against which Cato, who was on the jury, protested, exclaim-
ing that the author of a law ought not to be allowed to set
it at defiance. As may be imagined, this sufficiently showed
which way Cato was likely to vote ; and Plancus, availing
himself of the provision to that effect, challenged him, and
had him removed before the verdict was delivered. But this
did him no good : he was unanimously declared guilty, and
sentenced to banishment.
Cicero did not disguise his exultation at this event. In
a letter to his friend Marius he said : " Believe me I rejoiced
more at this verdict than at the death of my enemy. . . This
foolish ape, out of mere wantonness, had singled me out as
the object of his invective, and had persuaded some of my
enemies that he would be always ready to serve them against
me. You may therefore warmly congratulate me. A great
triumph has been gained."
JET. 54-55. CICERO APPOINTED PROCONSUL. 307
In the same letter there is matter of a lighter kind. Some
property was going to be sold of a deceased person who had
made Cicero one of his heirs, and Marius had begged him
to bid for him at the sale. Cicero laughs at him for giving
such a commission to a person whose interest it was that the
highest price possible should be got ; and says, in joke, that
as Marius had named the sum he was willing to give, he
would take care to employ a puffer, and thus prevent the
property from going for less.
The revival by Pompey of the law as to proconsular
governments had an important effect on Cicero's interests ;
for as no ex-consul could now assume a provincial command
until five years elapsed from the expiration of his consulship,
one of its provisions enacted that in the meantime the pro-
vinces should be administered by those who had not yet
held any such government ; and this was imposed as an ob-
ligation, not granted as a privilege, so that there was no
escape. But the number of such persons was limited, and
Cicero was one of them. He and Bibulus drew lots for their
appointments, and he got Cilicia and its dependencies. The
office was one which he would gladly have declined if he.
could. So far from desiring what most ex-consuls coveted,
he looked upon it as a burden ; and we shall see him con-
stantly urging his friends, as the greatest favour they could
do him, to get him superseded as soon as possible.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE PROCONSULATE.
JEt. 56-57. B.C. 51-50.
WE have now to regard Cicero in a new character that of
governor of a province and in this he deserves our almost
unqualified praise. It would be little at the present day to
say of the governor of an English colony that his hands were
clean, his administration was just, and his integrity unim-
peached ; but at Rome the case was very different. The
proconsuls and propraetors set out for their respective pro-
vinces like rapacious vultures, swooping down upon their
prey. A province was the El Dorado by which ruined for-
tunes were to be restored, and from which the ex-governor
returned to live in luxurious magnificence at home.' The
case of Verres was only an exaggerated example of what
constantly occurred. He sinned in degree, but hardly in
kind, more than many others. No impeachment was so fre-
quent at Rome as an impeachment de repetundis, to make
the ex-proconsul disgorge the plunder of his province, and
punish him for the malversation of the funds entrusted to his
care. No doubt the accusation was often used as a mere
engine of -attack to damage a political opponent; but the
numerous convictions show how wide-spread the corruption
was. De Quincey says : l " The prolongation of these lieu-
tenancies beyond the legitimate year was one source of
enormous evil ; and it was the more rooted an abuse because
1 Collected Works Cicero.
B.C. 51-50- CICERO'S CHARACTER AS GOVERNOR. 309
very often it was undeniable that other evils arose in the
opposite scale from a succession of governors, upon which
principle no consistency of local improvements could be
secured, nor any harmony even in the administration of justice,
since each successive governor brought his own system of
legal rules. As to the other and more frequent abuses in
extortions from the province, in garbling the accounts, and
defeating all scrutiny at Rome, in embezzlement of military
pay, and in selling every kind of private advantage for bribes,
these have been made notorious by the very circumstantial
exposure of Verres ; but some of the worst evils are still un-
published, and must be looked for in the indirect revelations
of Cicero when himself a governor, as well as the incidental
relations by special facts and cases." It is no light merit in
Cicero to have been in advance of the morality of his age, and
amidst the darkness of paganism to have exhibited the equity
and self-denial of a Christian statesman. But a government
was just the sphere in which he was fitted to shine. His love
of justice, his kindness, his humanity, his disinterestedness,
were qualities which all there came into play, without the
disturbing causes which at Rome misled him more than once
" To know the best, and yet the worse pursue."
The exhibition of a little harmless vanity seems really, with
two exceptions to be noticed hereafter, the only charge which
can fairly be brought against him as a proconsul of Cilicia ;
and if there is not much to interest us in the period of his
government, there is happily hardly anything to condemn.
One advantage that we gain from his absence abroad is
the renewal of his correspondence with Atticus, which had
been interrupted for upwards of two years and a half while
they had both been resident in Rome ; but after he had set
out on his journey, and until he quitted Italy, he wrote almost
daily to his friend.
Ouintus had returned from Gaul, and gone to Arcanum,
one ol his country seats, where, having accepted the office of
lieutenant to his brother, he was only waiting to join him on
the road. The old bickering between him and his wife
Pomponia still continued; and the lady's temper had cer-
tainly not improved by age. Cicero mentions an anecdote
of her at this time which shows that she could make herself
310 THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. xvn.
very unamiable. As he travelled south to embark for his
province, Quintus came to meet him at Arpinum, and they
proceeded together to Arcanum, where Pomponia was. Un-
fortunately Quintus sent one of his servants on before to
order dinner, which gave offence to the mistress of the house
as interfering with her arrangements. When they arrived,
her husband, in the kindest tone (so Cicero thought), said,
" Pomponia, do you invite the ladies amongst our neighbours,
and I will ask the gentlemen." "Oh !" she replied sharply,
and looking as cross as possible, " I am only a stranger here."
Poor Quintus turned to his brother and said, " You see what
I have to endure daily." The company sat, or, as Cicero
expresses it, lay down to dinner, but Pomponia declined to
join them; and when her husband sent her something from
the table she declared she would not touch it. The sulky fit
lasted for some time ; and she refused to sleep that night with
her husband the last before his departure for Asia. Cicero
mentioned all this in his letter to Atticus, and advised him
to give his sister a hint, saying that he might tell her from
him that Quintus was certainly this time not to blame.
His son and nephew both accompanied him to his seat of
government, and were under the immediate care of the faith-
ful Dionysius, who acted as their preceptor. At his Cuman
villa he had a visit from Hortensius, whose country seat was
at Bauli, some distance off. He asked if Cicero had any
commands, to which the newly-appointed proconsul answered
that the only special favour he begged of him was to do his
best to prevent the period of his government from being pro-
longed. He called it a "tremendous bore " (ingens molestia),
and told Atticus his only consolation was that it would not
last more than a year. He already felt that he could not
be happy away from his beloved Rome ; but he might have
remembered the advice he gave to Trebatius and to Quintus,
when they in Gaul pined after the society of the capital. But
it is one thing to preach and another to practise. So many
persons came to bid him farewell that he called his Cuman
villa quite a little Rome ; and it is a proof how sensitive he
was to a slight, that, notwithstanding this, he noticed the
absence of an acquaintance named Rufius, who had a house
in the neighbourhood, but who did not come to say good-bye.
JET. 56-57. VISIT TO POMPE Y. 311
Pompey was at his villa near Tarentum, recruiting his health,
which had suffered from the fatigues of the consulship ; and
Cicero spent three days with him on his way to Brundusium,
the port at which he was to embark. He gives no particulars
of the conversations they had together indeed he says ex-
pressly that they were such as he did not like to trust to a
letter but the way in which he speaks of him deserves
notice. " I left him," he says, " in an excellent frame of
mind, and thoroughly prepared to ward off the danger that
is feared." And writing to Ccelius a few weeks later, he used
nearly the same language, recommending him to attach him-
self closely to Pompey, whose estimate of persons was now
very much the same as his own.
There can be little doubt that these expressions had re-
ference to Caesar and his apprehended designs. We must
remember that more than two years had elapsed since those
letters were written in which Cicero expressed himself in such
friendly terms about the absent proconsul of Gaul, and most
probably in the interval he had seen reason to change his
tone. The approach of the coming storm seems to have
been felt both by himself and Pompey, although the exact
time and direction of its outburst were still uncertain ; but
the sky was sufficiently overcast to make the pilots of the
commonwealth keep a good look-out ahead. An incident
had occurred lately which must have caused an unpleasant
impression in Cicero's mind. When Plancus, whom he had
prosecuted, was convicted, he took refuge with Caesar at
Ravenna, and was by him received with open arms and
loaded with presents. And it is a noticeable fact that Cicero
was just now extremely anxious to pay off a debt which he
owed to Caesar. He had some time previously borrowed
from him a considerable sum (800,000 sesterces, equal to
about 7000), at interest, and he wrote in the most pressing
manner to Atticus to pay this for him, out of funds which
apparently he had left in the hands of his friend, or on which
he had given him a credit. It is very probable that, looking
at 'the signs of the times and the chances that he might have
to come into collision with Caesar, he did not wish to remain
under any pecuniary obligation to him. He had found
Pompey bent upon going to his Spanish province, of which
312 THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. xvn.
he had not yet assumed the government personally, but
Cicero strongly dissuaded him, and pressed upon him the
expediency of not leaving Italy. He wrote from Brun-
dusium, which he reached on the 22d of May, to Appius
Claudius, whom he was about to succeed, and earnestly
begged him on no account to disband any of his soldiers,
who were already too few, and to make arrangements for
leaving the province to him in the best state of equipment
and defence possible. The two were now on excellent terms,
and as a proof of his friendship, Appius had dedicated to him
a work he had written on the College of Augurs, the first
volume of which had just appeared.
Cicero stayed at Brundusium for nearly a fortnight waiting
for Pomptinus one of his lieutenants. While there he wrote
Atticus a letter, which has exposed him to the suspicion of
acting with duplicity, if not dishonesty, towards his unfortunate
friend Milo, who was then in exile at Marseilles. The ma-
terial part of the letter is the following :
" I hear from Rome that my friend Milo complains that I have done him an
injury in allowing Philotiinus (a freedman of Cicero's wife Terentia, and a much-
trusted agent of his own) to be a partner in the purchase of his property. I so
acted on the advice of Duronius, whom I know to be an intimate friend of Milo,
and the kind of man you take him for. His object, and mine too, was this :
First, that the property might come under my own control, lest an ill-disposed
and hostile purchaser might deprive Milo of his slaves, of whom he has a con-
siderable number with him ; and next, that his wife Fausta might have her dowry
secured, as he wished. Besides, I could thus most easily save something from
the wreck, if anything was to be saved at all. But I want you to look carefully
into the matter ; for I often hear exaggerated reports. If Milo really complains,
and writes to his friend about it, and it is also Fausta's wish, do not allow Philo-
tiinus to remain in possession of the property against Milo's consent ; for so I told
him in person, and he engaged to do. It was not an object of any great moment
to me. But if the thing is unimportant you will judge what is best to be done."
On the strength of this letter Cicero has been accused of
dealing in an underhand manner with Milo's effects, and
buying them from some improper motive. But I confess I
can see nothing of the kind. His explanation is simple and
satisfactory, and I agree with Middleton ^nd Manutius (a
much safer authority) that it is rather a proof of his zeal
and care for the interests of his friend. 1 But Middleton goes
on to say that " Philotimus was suspected of playing the
1 Abeken (Cicero in scinen Brhfen, bring myself to condemn him in a case
p. 221) says: " I am not so enamoured which is so little clear to us."
of Cicero as Middleton ; but I gannot
B.C. 51-50. COMPLAINTS OF MILO. 313
knave and secreting part of the effects to his own use, which
gave Cicero great uneasiness." And Melmoth asserts that
Philotimus bought the property at an undervalue, and adds
that it is not easy entirely to vindicate Cicero ; " for though
he pleaded in his justification an intent of serving Milo, yet
it appears very evidently from his letters to Atticus upon
this subject that he shared with Philotimus in the advan-
tages of the purchase." In a case like this, affecting the
purity of Cicero's conduct in a money transaction, it is right
to examine closely the evidence on which the charge is
founded. Now I can find none that Philotimus bought
under the value, or that Cicero attempted to get for himself
any advantage in the purchase. The only other letter in
which he alludes to the matter is one to Atticus, in which
the following passage occurs, written in Greek, for the sake,
as he says himself, of secrecy : " My wife's freedman (you
know whom I mean) seemed to me lately, from some expres-
sions he inadvertently let fall, to have confused the accounts
relative to the sale of the effects of the tyrannicide of Cro-
tona. 1 I am afraid you do not understand me. When you
have yourself looked carefully into this, make the rest secure."
As Cicero feared Atticus might not be able to read his
enigma, it can hardly be expected that we should be able
to explain it. But so much is plain, that Philotimus ap-
peared to have made up wrong accounts of the sale, which
Cicero now heard of for the first time. There is another
passage relating to the same subject which occurs in a letter
of Ccelius, who says : " As regards the duty of your freedman
Philotimus with reference to Milo's effects, I have taken
pains to ensure that he shall satisfy in the most honourable
manner Milo in his absence and also his connections and
that through his fidelity and zeal your reputation shall not
be compromised." The upshot then is this : Philotimus, as
Cicero's agent, and on his behalf, became part purchaser of
Milo's property, and his accounts got wrong, whether wilfully
or not we cannot tell. But there is really not a pretence for
saying that Cicero himself was to blame in the matter.
From Brundusium he crossed over to Corcyra (the modern
Corfu), where he was hospitably entertained by one of
1 By this expression of course Milo is meant.
314 THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. xvn.
Atticus's freedmen, who was settled in the island, and he
then sailed to Actium, on the opposite coast. He here
determined to continue his journey as far as Athens by
land, having had a disagreeable voyage from Brundusium,
and not liking to double the promontory of Leucate. With
our modern habits it seems ludicrous to find a great officer
of state, on his way to his government, afraid of a coasting
voyage from Actium to Athens in the calm waters of the
Mediterranean.
He reached Athens on the 25th of June, and immediately
wrote to Atticus, expressing his delight at finding himself
again in that famous city, full of noble monuments and works
of art. But he was eager for news from Rome. Before
leaving the metropolis he had made Coelius promise to keep
him au courant as to all the political gossip of the day ; and
accordingly he received a letter from him which mentioned,
amongst other things, that an absurd rumour had got abroad
in the Forum that he had been assassinated on his journey
by Pompeius Rufus. Coelius was anxious to know what
had passed at the interview with Pompey, and what were
Pompey's real sentiments ; " for," he said, " he is in the habit
of saying one thing and meaning another, and yet has not
tact enough to conceal his thoughts." He added that
Cicero's dialogue de Republic^ was then in great vogue at
Rome. In another letter, as no public news was stirring,
Coelius tried to amuse him with ordinary gossip, but Cicero
was half-angry at this, and wrote back : " Do you think that
I asked you to send me an account of what gladiator matches
have been made, what recognisances have been enlarged,
what theft Crestus has committed, 1 and such things as no
one would venture to tell me about at Rome, if I were
there ?" He preferred having Ccelius's opinion as to the pro-
babilities of the future, although he admitted that after his
conference with Pompey he was likely to be as much en-
lightened as any one. Writing to Atticus, he took credit to
1 Chresti compilationem. Ad Div. theft. Wieland commits the same
ii. 8. Middleton makes the extraordi- blunder by rendering it Zusammen ges-
nary mistake of translating this " Chres- topfel, " budget of news." They might
tus's newsletter" as if compilatio meant have remembered the line of Horace:
a ' compilation." True it is, however, Ne me Crlspinl scrinia lippi
that many a compilation amounts to a Compilasse putes.
JET. 56-57. THE EPICUREANS IN TROUBLE. 315
himself for the inexpensive way in which he had travelled.
By the Julian law he was entitled, as proconsul, to be enter-
tained at the public cost in the various towns at which he
stopped, but he had refused to accept any such hospitality,
and had defrayed all charges out of his own pocket, and he
said that hitherto he had no reason to complain of the con-
duct of his suite, except that they gave themselves airs and
talked foolishly. But, upon the whole, they were careful not
to compromise his reputation, and kept to the terms on
which he had engaged them to accompany him, which were,
that they were to be as little burdensome as possible to the
public.
While staying at Athens he had an opportunity of obliging
his friend Patro, the head or president of the school of Epi-
curus. That philosopher had by his will devised his house
and gardens, in trust, for the successive leaders of his sect.
The house had fallen into ruins, and the court of Areopagus,
which had dwindled down to a sort of municipal council of
Athens, had granted the site to Memmius, who, having ap-
parently been convicted of corruption after the disgraceful
revelation he had made of his iniquitous bargain with the
consuls two years before, was now living in banishment or
retirement at Athens. He had intended to build in Epicu-
rus's gardens a house for himself ; but the Epicureans looked
upon it as an act of profanation, independently of its being
a violation of trust. Patro had earnestly begged Cicero to
interfere ; and as Memmius quitted Athens for Mitylene the
day before his arrival, he wrote to him, and asked him as a
favour to give up the site to the Epicureans. He rather
laughed at Patro's antiquarian reverence for the spot, and
treated the matter as one of very slight importance to Mem-
mius, who we may hope gratified the philosophers by letting
them enjoy their founder's bounty undisturbed.
A curious little trait of character peeps out in one of the
letters to Atticus at this time, which shows that Cicero did
not scruple to open a letter not addressed to himself. His
packet of letters from Rome contained one from PilU,
Atticus's wife, to Quintus, on the subject of the matrimonial
quarrel between him and Pomponia, who was left behind in
Italy. This letter he privately abstracted, and opened and
316 THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. xvn.
read, telling Atticus, without a word of excuse or apology,
what he had done, and begging him to make Pilia easy about
his brother's conduct, but not to let her know that he had
been prying into her correspondence. Her letter, he said,
was full of sympathy. 1
He stayed ten days at Athens, and then, as his missing
lieutenant Pomptinus had joined him, left for Asia Minor,
embarking on board an open-decked Rhodian vessel, which
he found too lively a sea-boat to be comfortable. He was,
in fact, a wretched sailor, and would have entirely agreed
with Dr. Johnson in his definition of a ship as a prison with
the chance of being drowned. He wrote to Atticus from
Delos, and told him a voyage was a bad business in the
month of July. But he escaped sea-sickness in crossing over
to Ephesus, which he reached on the 22d of July, or, as he
chose to date it, on the 56oth day after the battle of Bovillae
that is, the affray in which Clodius was killed. The new
proconsul was received on landing with much empressement
by deputations of all kinds, and a crowd of persons was
waiting to welcome him, expectant no doubt of patronage
and pay. He confessed that his philosophy was likely to
be put to trial by the prospect before him ; but he wrote to
Atticus that he hoped to remember the lessons he had learnt
from him, and to be able to give general satisfaction. One
fertile source of discord and discontent was happily removed,
as the contracts for farming the revenues of the province had
been concluded before his arrival. One of his next letters
was, as he described it, " full of hurry and dust," written at
Tralles, on his way to Laodicea, the first town in his province
at which he would arrive.
This, although called Cilicia, comprised considerably more
than what was usually known by that name. Besides Cilicia
proper it embraced the island of Cyprus opposite, and certain
districts, or what would now be there called pashalics, in
Phrygia and Pamphylia.
Coelius in the meantime, as well as Atticus, kept up a cor-
re\>pondence with him, and told him what was passing at
1 In one of his letters, ad Att. vi. patri suo. Solet enim aperire, idgue
3, he says : Q. Cicero puer legit, ut meo consilio ; si quid forte sit, quod
opinor, et certe, epistolam inscriptam opus sit sciri.
B.C. 51-50- LETTER OF CCELIUS. 317
Rome. The letters of Atticus are unfortunately all lost, but
a few of Ccelius's still remain, and some parts of them are
interesting. He was just then a candidate for the sedileship,
and he begged Cicero, as soon as ever he heard that he was
sedile-elect, not to forget to send him a number of panthers
for the wild-beast fights he intended to exhibit. He told
him that Valerius Messala, the former consul, had been tried
(most probably for bribery) and acquitted, contrary to general
expectation, and very much to the disgust of the public.
He was defended by his uncle Hortensius, who paid the
penalty of his success by being loudly hissed by the people
next day when he appeared in the theatre. This was the
first time that such a thing had happened to him in the
whole course of his career, but now, said Ccelius he had
enough of it for a lifetime.
Coelius was anxious that Cicero should dedicate some new
work to him, as a monument to posterity of their friendship.
But he begged it might be something suited to his own
tastes, and of a learned yet popular kind. Wieland is rather
hard upon Ccelius for this, and asks, " How could the vain
light-headed man expect that the governor of so large a pro-
vince as Cilicia, with all its dependencies, could have leisure
to gratify so barefaced a request ?" The fact is, that Cicero
thought very little of his provincial labours, and told Atticus
that he had not a sufficient field for his industry ; so that,
with his immense intellectual activity and energy, he could
easily have written what Ccelius desired if he had been so
disposed. And surely it was not unnatural to wish to have
a dedication from a man like Cicero. It was a better pass-
port to fame than a consulship.
Coelius concluded his letter by an urgent request for the
panthers. He afterwards communicated the important news
that Pompey had openly declared himself against the pro-
posal to allow Caesar to be consul and at the same time
retain his province with a military command. This was the
rock on which at last the republic suffered shipwreck.
Cicero arrived at Laodicea on the 3 1st of July, and dated
from that day the commencement of his government, which
he was nervously anxious not to have prolonged beyond a
year. His letters are full of the most pressing entreaties to his
3i8 THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. xvn.
friends to exert themselves to prevent this. He told Atticus that
he longed for the city, the Forum, his home, and his friends,
and that " the saddle had been placed upon the wrong horse/' 1
If the term of his government was extended, he was, he said,
undone (si prorogatur, acttim est\ He had expected Appius
Claudius to meet him at Laodicea, or at all events in the
neighbourhood, but instead of this Appius went off to the
eastern extremity of the province, and although his jurisdic-
tion had properly ceased when Cicero arrived, he was holding
courts and administering justice at Tarsus. 2 This gave
Cicero great offence, and as he travelled through Cappadocia
he wrote him a letter of grave and dignified remonstrance,
saying that what he had done had all the appearance of a
studied slight, and was little in accordance with the profes-
sions of friendship he had made. Another cause of griev-
ance was, that out of the scanty military force for the defence
of the province three cohorts were missing, and Cicero did
not know where they were, nor what had become of them.
Probably from prudential reasons he made no allusion in his
letter to a more serious ground of complaint against the
retiring governor. Appius had been a most oppressive and
rapacious ruler. The Roman eagle had set its claws deep
into the vitals of the province, which was nearly ruined. So
bad had been his conduct that Cicero told Atticus that it
was monstrous, and more like that of a savage wild beast
than a man. He saw on all sides the misery to which the
wretched provincials had been reduced, and this made him
the more scrupulously determined not to impose upon them
any burden or expense for the maintenance of himself and
his suite. He would not take even his legal perquisites,
such as provender for his horses ; and instead of quartering
his followers in the houses of the inhabitants, made them
generally live in tents. The consequence was, as might be
expected, that he enjoyed an unbounded popularity, and
crowds flocked to see the prodigy as bitter experience had
made them regard it of a Roman proconsul travelling
through the country, and not only not plundering it as he
1 Clitellse bovi sunt impositae. days to vacate the province ; but he was
2 After the arrival of a new governor not to exercise any jurisdiction or au-
the retiring proconsul was allowed thirty thority.
JET. 56-57. CICERO'S POPULARITY. 319
passed, but actually not levying a single contribution. We
might wish, indeed, that in his letters he had said less about
his own merits in this respect. But he would not have been
Cicero if he had been silent on such a theme, and we can
forgive the egotism of the man for the sake of the equity of
the governor.
At the end of August he heard the alarming news that
the Parthians had crossed the Euphrates in great force under
the command of Pacorus, a son of the king Orodes, and that
serious disturbances had broken out in Syria. There
were also marauding bands in Cilicia itself on the south-
eastern frontier. But the chief danger was from the Par-
thians ; and as the mountain-chain called Amanus, which
divided Cilicia from Syria, was traversed by only two difficult
passes, and offered a strong barrier against attack in that
quarter, Cicero thought it more prudent to march through
Cappadocia, which had an exposed eastern frontier, and he
pitched his camp at Cybistra, a little to the north of the
Taurus range. While staying there he had an interview with
Ariobarzanes, the king of Cappadocia, and a much-favoured
ally of Rome. He wrote a public letter to the authorities at
home, giving an account of the visit of the king, and the
address is worth copying, to show the style of the state
missives that were sent to the sovereign republic :
M. TULLIUS M. F. CICERO PROCOS. S.P.D. Coss. PR^TT.
TRIBE. PL. SENAT.
Which fully expanded means : " Marc Tully Cicero, the son
of Marc, Proconsul, sends health and greeting to the Consuls,
Praetors, Tribunes of the People, and Senate;" and it
begins in the following cabalistic form : S. V. V. B. E. E.
Q. V. that is, Si Vos Valetis, Bene Est ; Ego Quoque Valeo
" If you are well, it is well ; I also am well." The letter
does not contain a syllable of allusion to the state in which
he found the province owing to the misgovernment of Appius.
The apprehended danger from the Parthians passed away,
but Cicero marched with his little army through a defile of
the Taurus into Cilicia, and passed through Tarsus to the
foot of the Amanus range, intending to occupy the passes in
case the enemy should attempt to invade his province in that
3 20 THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. xvn.
quarter. He thought that this would be a good opportunity
to extirpate the independent tribes who in their mountain
fastnesses had hitherto defied all attempts to conquer
them, and whom he called the eternal enemies of Rome.
They had kept up on a smaller scale a war something like
that which was so long waged in the Caucasus against
Russia.
It must be borne in mind that, with the exception of the
short campaign under Pompeius Strabo in the Marsian war,
upwards of thirty years before, Cicero had seen no military
service, and was most probably never in an action in his
life. He was one
That never set a squadron in the field,
; Nor the division of a battle knew
More than a spinster ;
but he conducted this his first military manoeuvre with spirit
and success. In order to deceive the enemy he pretended
to have other objects in view, and withdrew to the neighbour-
hood of Epiphania, a day's march from the Amanus range.
Suddenly, during the night of the I2th of October, he
advanced to the foot of the mountains, which he began to
ascend at daybreak, and falling on the inhabitants, who were
scattered and quite off their guard, he put great numbers to
the sword and took many captives. The fortresses, however,
held out for some time bravely, but were all taken and many
of them burnt, and the whole region was laid waste with fire
and sword.
In consequence of this successful raid (he calls it a
" victory") Cicero was hailed by his soldiers IMPERATOR in
the field. This happened at Issus, which he did not forget
was memorable as the scene of Alexander's victory over
Darius ; and indeed the name of the spot where his army
halted must have forcibly reminded him of Alexander's ex-
pedition in the East. It was called Arae Alexandri. He
stayed here four days, and then determined to try and sub-
jugate a hardy race of highlanders who called themselves
Free Cilicians, 1 and had never yielded allegiance even to the
native princes in the days when Cilicia was independent.
Their citadel was Pindenissus, strongly fortified and on a
1 Eleuthero-cilices.
B.C. 5 1-50- MILITAR Y SUCCESS. 3 2 1
lofty hill which was difficult of access. Cicero regularly in-
vested the place, surrounding it with a trench and rampart
and redoubts, and then assaulted it with all the engines of
war in use at that period. It held out for forty-seven days, 1
and did not yield until a great part of it was burnt and in
ruins. The booty was given up to the troops, except the
horses, and the inhabitants seem to have been sold as slaves.
After this the neighbouring tribe of the Tibarani sent host-
ages in token of submission, and the whole country being
now quiet, Cicero allowed his troops to retire into winter-
quarters under the command of Quintus, and went himself
to Laodicea.
What he had done was not very much, but he had done it
well, and he was proud of his military honours. Writing to
Atticus, he told him he had occupied the same encampment
at Issus as Alexander "a general," he added with mock
gravity, " not a little superior to you or me."
In giving an account to Coelius, who was now asdile-elect,
of his campaign, Cicero told him that his reputation had
served him in good stead, for even in the furthest corner of
Cilicia people asked, " Is this the man who saved the city,
whom the Senate ?" And this gave him authority with
the army. But he pined more than ever for Rome ; and
writing to congratulate Curio on being elected a tribune, he
urged him with almost passionate entreaty not to allow his
absence to be prolonged beyond a year. But he was in
reality in high spirits and very well satisfied with himself just
then. It was impossible for him not to be conscious of the
benefits which his just and equitable rule had conferred upon
the province ; and he confessed to Atticus, with much naivete,
that he really had never before known the extent of his own
self-denial and integrity ! He had received a letter from his
friend Volumnius, surnamed Eutrapelus or the Witty, telling
him that since he had been away from Rome all the jokes in
the capital were fathered upon him; and he wrote, in a jesting
1 It is curious that Cicero gives two it yf/jy-seven days septimo quinqna-
different accounts of the length of the gesimo die. This is instructive when
siege. In a letter to Atticus he says, we consider the use made of some of the
septimo et quadragesimo die, as I have discrepancies in Scripture. Are we
stated it in the text ; but writing only therefore to suppose that the siege of
a few days afterwards to Cato, he calls Pindenissus was a fiction ?
322 THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. xvn.
strain, to complain that his property of Attic salt was not
taken better care of by Volumnius, whom he had left to
manage it in his absence. He begged that in future every
joke might be disclaimed as his which was not of the wittiest
and cleverest kind. To use a modern phrase, he did not wish
to be considered an utterer of base coin. All metal passed
off as his must have the genuine ring. 1
He was very anxious that honourable notice should be
taken at Rome of his exploits, and the usual mode of doing
this was for the Senate to appoint a certain number of days
for public thanksgiving, called supplicatio. But he was afraid
of Cato's opposition. He remembered that on a former
occasion the stubborn senator had said "No!" when the
question was, whether such a mark of honour should be con-
ferred upon Lentulus Spinther when he was proconsul of
Cilicia. He therefore addressed to him a long letter at the
beginning of the year, full of the most artful flattery and
compliment. He gave a narrative of his own services since
he had assumed the government of the province, and then
earnestly begged him to support a motion in the Senate for
a public thanksgiving, attributing the greatest possible weight
to Cato's good opinion. One word of praise from him was
worth everything.
" As to myself," he said, " if ever there was a man by nature, and still more as
I believe by force of reason and education, indifferent to empty applause and vulgar
admiration, I certainly am he. I appeal to my consulship, in which, as in the
other periods of my life, I confess that I pursued that conduct from which real
glory might be gained, but I never thought that glory in itself and by itself was a
proper object of ambition. And on this principle I abandoned (when consul) the
choice of a well-equipped province and the very probable chance of a triumph."
He went on to state that his present desire for a public
thanksgiving was because he regarded it as some reparation
for the wrong done him by his banishment, and a proof of
his country's approbation. He concluded his letter thus :
"Let me, in the last place, and as in diffidence of my own solicitations, call in
Philosophy as my advocate, than which nothing has ever been dearer to me in my
life. The truth is, she is one of the noblest blessings that the gods have bestowed
on man. At her shrine we have both of us from our earliest years paid our
adorations ; and while she has been thought by some the companion only of in-
dolent and secluded theorists, we, and we alone I had almost said, have intro-
1 In his speech pro Plancio he says : Stomachor, cum aliorum, non me digna, in
me conferuntur.
JET. 56-57. ATTEMPT TO CONCILIATE CATO. 323
duced her into the world of business, and familiarised her with the actual realities
of daily life. She therefore it is that now solicits you in my behalf, and when
Philosophy is the suppliant Cato surely cannot refuse." 1
And what was Gate's answer to this appeal ? He did not
write for nearly six months, and his letter then must have
been very disappointing. It was a stiff and formal epistle,
and the purport of it was, that Cicero ought to have felt that
virtue is its own reward, and been content with the praise
bestowed upon him, instead of asking for a more substantial
proof of approval. Part of the letter seems almost to ignore
the idea of a Providence, but the meaning I think is, that it
was more creditable to keep the province by good govern-
ment than to owe its preservation, under bad government, to
the special interposition of Heaven a doctrine to which no
exception can be taken.
Although it is rather anticipating, it will be convenient to
mention here that Cicero at first took this reply in good part,
and wrote to Cato saying that he rejoiced laudari a laudato,
and that he preferred his praise to the laurel garland and
triumphal car ; and in a letter to Atticus he declared that
although Cato had not voted for the decree, yet the language
he used was worth all the triumphs in the world ; but he
soon changed his tone when he found that Cato had granted
to Bibulus what he refused to himself, and had voted for a
thanksgiving in honour of the proconsul of Syria for successes
in that province. He then wrote to Atticus in a very dif-
ferent strain, and said, with strange and startling inconsistency,
" Cato's behaviour towards me has been meanly malevolent.
He gave me a testimonial, which I did not want, of my in-
tegrity, justice, clemency, and honour ; but refused what I
asked for." And he called him most ungrateful. Such were
the contradictions into which his vanity betrayed him.
Tullia had for some time been divorced from Crassipes,
and her father was on the look-out for another match for her,
obscure allusions to which occur now and then in his corre-
spondence with Atticus. We are therefore surprised to find
him writing in friendly terms to his quondam son-in-law, who
was then qaestor of Bithynia, and asking him as a special
1 I have in this instance availed myself, with only a slight change, of Melmoth's
translation of the passage, for I think it is spirited and sufficiently correct.
324 THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. xvn.
favour to be civil and attentive to some persons in whom he
took an interest. It is one of the many proofs we constantly
meet with how much less sensitive on such points the ancients
were than ourselves.
/ He quitted Tarsus on the 5th of January, B.C. 50, and
/ crossed the Taurus range to make a progress through the
/ other parts of his province. He says it would be impossible
/to describe the wonder and admiration of the inhabitants of
/ Cilicia, and especially of Tarsus, at the mildness and equity
I of his government; and we need not doubt that this feeling
/was sincere. He was such a ruler as they had never known
before. For six months not a single requisition had been
made upon the provincials, unless indeed we except a few
trifling necessaries allowed by law, which one of his lieuten-
ants had exacted as he passed through the towns. Formerly
wealthy towns and districts used to bribe the governor with
large sums not to quarter troops upon them during winter.
The island of Cyprus had paid as much as two hundred
a* Attic talents a little less than fifty thousand pounds at
jf one time to purchase the exemption. Now not a farthing
( was taken from them. The provincials would have gladly
shown their gratitude by erecting statues and temples in
; honour of their governor, but he positively forbade it. 1 There
; was a severe scarcity felt owing to a failure of the harvest,
and the dealers in grain had been keeping it back to get
famine prices ; but as he passed along on his way to Laodicea
' he persuaded them to open their stores, and thus alleviate
r , the sufferings of the people. All this made him extremely
\( . popular; and it is pleasant to find him, when he mentions it
, \ to Atticus, telling him that he was only following his counsel
and advice. It speaks well for the hearts of both.
Now that military operations were suspended, Cicero
addressed himself to his civil duties. He chalked out for
himself a course of occupation which would bring justice to
1 On another occasion Cicero was upon them, but they are not considered
angry with his freedman Pelops for not genuine. Dmmann (Gesck. Roms, vi.
exerting himself to get a statue of him 1 1 1 ) observes that it was never the cus-
erected by the Byzantines. See ad torn to put the head of an existing
Att, xiv. 8 ; Plut. Cic. 24. Some governor upon the provincial currency.
coins were discovered at Sipylus in The form of the letters also betrayed a
Lydia with Cicero's name and head later origin.
B.C. 51-50. THE CASE OF SALAMIS. 325
the door of the inhabitants of the whole of his extensive
province. This was to hold at Laodicea, for the first three
or four months of the year, successive courts to try causes
arising in the different districts north of the Taurus, allotting
a certain time to each district ; and afterwards to go into
Cilicia and pursue the same course there. But np miser ever
kept a more accurate account of his treasure than Cicero did
of the days which he must spend away from Rome. He had
arrived in his province on the last day of July, and on the
30th of July this year he was resolved to depart, unless the
Senate prolonged his stay.
To show the kind of cases with which he had in his
judicial capacity to deal, I will mention one which strongly
illustrates the way in which the law of debtor and creditor
might be abused in a distant province of the empire, and it
is one in which Cicero seems to have made a compromise
between equity and friendship, to the detriment of the former.
If his provincial decisions had been " reported," and the
volume had come down to us, the case to which I allude
would have been known as that of Scaptius v. Inhabitants
of Salamis. It is curious and instructive in several respects.
Some time before, the town of Salamis in Cyprus had bor-
rowed a sum of money on a bond which secured repayment,
with interest at 48 per cent. Being pressed for payment, a
deputation was sent to Rome to try and borrow the amount,
giving an assignment of the bond as security. The money-
lenders of the capital, however, declined to advance the
required sum, for the law did not allow them to put such a
bond in suit, the legal interest being only 12 per cent. 1 At
last Scaptius and Matinius, two friends of Brutus, came for-
ward and offered to lend the money, provided that 48 per
cent were secured to them by a decree of the Senate ; but
in this they acted merely as agents of Brutus, who was the
real but undisclosed principal. By his influence two decrees
were passed : one that the governor of the province was to
enforce payment of interest as secured by the bond, and the
1 This is the reason given by Cicero : Salaminian deputies execute a fresh
Quod e syngrapha jus did lex Gabinia bond securing 1 2 per cent, the legal
velabat. But one would have thought rate of interest, instead of assigning the
there was an obvious mode of getting old one ? Perhaps 12 per cent would
over the difficulty. Why did not the not satisfy the Roman usurers.
326 THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. xvn.
other that the lenders were to suffer no loss on account of
the stipulation it contained. The money was accordingly
advanced. But a decree of the Senate could not abrogate a
positive law, and by the lex Gabinia no more than 12 per
cent could be recovered. Upon reflection, therefore, a third
decree was passed, that the bond in question should have
no special privilege, so that in effect the former decrees were
set aside. Time passed on, and Scaptius went to Cyprus,
where Appius Claudius, who was Brutus's father-in-law, and
governor of Cilicia, made him one of his prefects. Armed
with this authority, he harassed the inhabitants of Salamis
for payment of the bond ; and on one occasion shut up the
city councillors in their town-hall, which he surrounded with
cavalry, and kept them there imprisoned until five of them
actually died of starvation. This was going on when Cicero
arrived in Asia Minor, and one of the deputations that met
him on landing at Ephesus was from Salamis to implore his
protection. He immediately despatched letters to Scaptius,
ordering him to send his cavalry out of the island. Brutus
had already written to him about the debt due from the
Salaminians " to his friends Scaptius and Matinius," but gave
no hint then that he himself was the real party interested.
Scaptius came to him while he was in camp, and begged him
to renew his office of prefect, which he had held under Appius;
but Cicero had laid down a wise rule, that he would appoint
no one who was engaged in trade, and Scaptius was a mer-
chant. Scaptius therefore was told that he could not be a
prefect, but that he should recover his money. Afterwards
the parties came before Cicero at Tarsus, and he heard the
case. By this time he knew that Brutus was in reality the
creditor. The Salaminians complained bitterly of the in-
juries they had received from Scaptius ; but Cicero said he
had nothing to do with that, and told them they must pay
the money. They made no demur, and, with adroit flattery,
said that the money they had for the purpose was in fact
his own, for they had been accustomed to give the proconsul
a larger sum than they owed on the bond, and as he had
refused to take a farthing from them, it lay at his credit,
and they were ready to pay to his order. " All right," said
Scaptius ; " we have only now to settle the amount." But
JET. 56-57. THE CASE OF SAL AM IS. 327
in the edict or proclamation which Cicero had published in
the usual manner when he assumed his government, announc-
ing the principles on which he would administer law, he
had declared that he would allow only 12 per cent, with
compound interest, on loans. Scaptius, however, claimed
48 per cent, and produced the first decree of the Senate in
support of his claim. Cicero, giving an account of this to
Atticus, says that he was horrified, for to enforce payment of
the debt at that rate would have been the ruin of the town.
But the subsequent decrees were then referred to, and the
last of them, which has been already quoted, relieved him of
all difficulty, for it in effect repealed the others. He pointed
out this to Scaptius, who then took him aside, and admitting
that it was so, and that he had not a word to allege against
it, said privately that the town in reality owed him less than
it thought that it supposed the amount was two hundred
talents, and he begged Cicero to make them pay him that
sum. " Very well," replied Cicero. He then called in the
deputies from Salamis, and asked them how much their debt
was. They said 106 talents. Scaptius protested it was
more, but an account was taken on the spot, and it was
found they were right. They immediately offered to pay
the money, but Scaptius again took Cicero aside, and entreated
him to let the matter stand over, and not force him to take
the money. The cunning scoundrel wished to wait for the
chance of a new governor coming, who might be persuaded
to enforce payment of the 48 per cent. Cicero says that
the request was an impudent one, but he yielded to it. The
poor Cyprians then prayed to be allowed to deposit the
money in a temple, which was equivalent to paying money
into a court with us, and thus prevent further interest from
accruing ; but this Cicero refused, and he admits he did so
out of complaisance to Brutus (sed totum hoc Bruto dedi\
It is extraordinary that Middleton should allow his admira-
tion of his idol so completely to blind his judgment that he
can see nothing blameworthy in Cicero's conduct relative to
this affair. He gives only a short and confused account of
the transaction, and suppressing all mention of the injustice
of which Cicero was guilty to oblige Brutus, fixes the reader's
attention wholly upon his refusal to allow the " extortion "
328 THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. XVH.
of Scaptius. 1 He says : " Though he had a warm inclination
to oblige Brutus, yet he could not consent to so flagrant
an injustice, but makes frequent and heavy complaints of it
in his letters to Atticus." Who would suppose from this that
Cicero himself told Atticus, totum hoc Bruto dedi ? The
truth is, that under all the circumstances of the case there
would have been no "injustice" in enforcing the bond;
but it was injustice not. to allow the debtors to pay when
they were willing, and to prevent them from depositing the
money where interest would "have ceased to run, as their
creditor refused to receive the principal. Cicero, however,
rather prided himself on the way he had dealt with the case. 2
If one of the most upright of Roman governors could allow
himself thus to trifle with equity, what may we not believe
of the conduct of others ? " For if they do these things in
a green tree, what shall be done in a dry?"
But this was not the only case in which he abused his pro-
consular authority in favour of Brutus. Ariobarzanes, the
petty king of Cappadocia, was hopelessly involved in debt.
He owed an enormous sum to Pompey for principal and
interest : he also owed money to Brutus, and had no means
of paying off either of these debts. He was poor almost to
a proverb, 8 and had neither revenue nor treasury. He could
not wring from his subjects enough to pay even the monthly
interest to Pompey. Brutus had commissioned Cicero to
procure payment of his debt ; and Ariobarzanes, on being
applied to, promised to send the money ; but Pompey's
agents then began to put on the screw, and his name was
all-powerful, especially as it was generally believed that he
was coming to Asia Minor to take the command against the
Parthians. Payment, therefore, of interest to him absorbed
all the available means of the hapless prince whom the
Roman Senate had placed under the special protection of
Cicero, as a ward under the protection of a guardian ; but
1 There are few things more difficult correct. Abeken admits the difficulty,
to explain thoroughly than the old Ro- Cicero in seinen Brief en, p. 214.
man law of contracts; and it is by no 2 He wrote to Atticus : " Itaque
means easy to understand the Scaptius irascatur qui volet : patiar. TO yap e5
<:ase. Middleton clearly did not. I /xer' e/*ou. Ad Att. vi. I.
think that the narrative I have given is 3 Mancipiis locuples eget seris Cap-
padocum Rex. Hor. Epist. i. 6.
B.C. 5i-5- CICERO'S POPULAR POLICY. 329
notwithstanding this, and although Cicero declared that no
one was more destitute than the king, and nothing more
ruined than his kingdom, he, to gratify Brutus, persecuted
him with applications and reproaches, to try and force him
to pay the debt. What the result was does not appear, but
he was so satisfied of the king's inability that he says he
thought of making for him, as his guardian, a public declara-
tion of insolvency.
But that he was a most popular governor admits of no
doubt. Instead of imposing the Roman law upon the people,
he allowed them to try their causes in their own courts
according to their own local customs, and with native jury-
men. A good effect of this was, that the provincials flattered
themselves with the idea of independence. Anticipating that
Atticus would hold Greek jurymen in great contempt, he
said ironically, " Yours at Rome, I suppose, are all men of
respectability ; for instance, Turpio the cobbler, and Vet-
tius the contractor" .
One most fertile source of oppression had been the collec-
tion of the revenue by the publicani or contractors of the
revenue, who occupied the position of middlemen between
the state and the people, like the Zemindars of India, who
under the Mogul government fleeced the ryots in the most
iniquitous manner. The publicani used to agree to pay a
certain sum yearly into the exchequer, and then levied the
taxes themselves. To secure payment of these, they took
bonds from the different towns and districts, with a condition
to pay a heavy rate of interest if the taxes fell into arrear.
The consequence was, that enormous sums became due from
the tax-payers, and Cicero gave them relief in the following
way. He enlarged the time for payment of the principal
secured by the bonds, and decreed that only twelve per cent
\ interest should be taken if the bonds were then discharged.
If not, then the larger rate of interest conditioned in the
bond might be recovered. This satisfied all parties. It was
a great boon to the debtors, and the creditors got their
money easily, instead of having to resort to lawsuits or
violence.
He also made himself personally popular by his affability
and courtesy. A Roman governor was a very great person-
330 THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. xvn.
age in the eyes of the provincials. With his lictors, his fasces,
and his pomp, he dazzled and frightened them. It was not
easy to approach him, except through secretaries and at for-
mal interviews ; and many a complaint must have remained
unheard, and many a wrong unredressed, from the difficulty
of conveying a knowledge of it to his ear. But Cicero was
accessible to all. If a petitioner wanted to see him he had
j not to address himself to a groom of the chambers (cubicu-
1 larius)y but might go straight to the proconsul himself. He
rose before daybreak, and was ready to receive applicants as
he walked up and down his hall, just as, he says, he used to
do when he was a candidate for office at Rome ; and his old
habits made this easy to him. He gives an amusing account
of a Roman grandee named Vedius who came to see him,
and who travelled en grand seigneur, with a couple of foreign
chariots, a litter, and a long train of slaves, for which, he
says jokingly, if Curio's turnpike bill were passed, Vedius
would have to pay a considerable toll. 1 He had with him,
besides, an ape and some wild asses. He put up at Laodicea
at the house of Vindullus, where he left his equipage and
baggage while he went to pay his respects to the governor,
who was some distance off. During his absence Vindullus
died, and as they were sealing up his effects they had to
examine Vedius's things to separate them from the rest.
Amongst these they found five little statuettes or pictures of
Roman married ladies, with whom it was inferred he had
carried on intrigues. Cicero told this bit of scandal to Atti-
cus with great glee, " for we are both," he said, " pretty
curious" (sumus enim ambo belle curiosi).
We find in his correspondence at this period a few allu-
sions to domestic matters. The two young Ciceros were
pursuing their studies with their tutor Dionysius, whom he
calls thoroughly trustworthy, but the boys thought him very
passionate. In distinguishing the characters of the cousins,
he says that his nephew required the rein and his son the
spur. Young Ouintus had now reached the proper age for
assuming the toga pura, or dress of manhood ; and in the
1 Curio as tribune had brought in a those who used them. But I am not
bill for a lex viaria, to repair and main- aware that there were any turnpikes, in
tain the public roads by levying a toll on our sense of the word, on the Roman via.
JET. 56-57. TULLIA' S SUITORS. 331
month of April his uncle invested him with it with the usual
formalities. Tullia was free to marry again, and the advan-
tages of several matches had been considered by her father.
Different suitors sought her hand, and amongst others
Tiberius Nero, who either went or wrote to Cicero in Cilicia
to obtain his consent. He appears to have been willing to
give it, and sent messengers to his wife and daughter to
sound them on the subject ; but in the meantime Tullia
had made another engagement for herself, and one which her
father had himself for some time contemplated as probable,
so that Tiberius was disappointed. He afterwards married
Livia, and by her became the father of Tiberius the emperor.
Augustus fell in love with her, and, compelling her husband
to divorce her, married her himself. If Tullia had accepted
the proposal of the elder Tiberius, the world might possibly
have been spared one monster. It seems strange to us that
the person whom Cicero had chiefly in his eye as a husband
for his daughter was at the time he first thought of him a
married man. He was Lucius Cornelius Dolabella, a profli-
gate young nobleman, one of the worst men in that bad age ;
but Cicero knew that a divorce between him and his wife
Fabia was very probable, and Ccelius wrote to him in January,
and told him that it had just taken place. In the same
letter he mentioned that everything just then was very flat
at Rome, and no news was stirring. He begged Cicero to
remember the panthers, and said, " It will be a shame if I
do not have some." Cicero, in his answer, told him that he
had given orders to the hunters to get the panthers, but
there were only a few ; and he wittily added that the poor
beasts complained that they were the only creatures in his
whole province that suffered from treachery and violence.
Dolabella afterwards did marry Tullia, and the engagement
placed Cicero in rather an awkward predicament with refer-
ence to Appius, as I will now explain.
The letter has been mentioned which Cicero wrote to
Appius, complaining of his want of attention in not meeting
him on his arrival in the province. This led to a not very
amicable correspondence between them, in which Appius
retorted upon Cicero that he had been guilty of discourtesy
in not going to visit him. But there were more serious
332 THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. xvn.
grounds of offence. Some creatures of Appius wished to
erect a temple or monument to his honour at a town in
Phrygia called Appia, apparently after him, and Cicero had
thrown obstacles in the way, on the ground that a heavy
expense would be caused to the inhabitants, who were to be
taxed to raise the money for the purpose. Also a deputa-
tion had been got up to go on a complimentary mission to
Rome, and sing the praises of the ex-governor ; but this too,
as Appius believed, had been stopped by Cicero. 1 He, on
the other hand, brought under Appius's notice the complaints
made of his intolerable exactions ; and while this kind of
recrimination was going on it was not likely that their feel-
ings towards each other could be cordial, notwithstanding the
tone of compliment in which Cicero expressed himself, de-
claring that he desired Appius to believe that he was not
only one of his friends, but one of his dearest friends. The
result was, that Appius returned to Rome much dissatisfied
with his successor ; but when he arrived there he found an
impeachment awaiting him. Dolabella, the very man whom
Cicero expected to be his future son-in-law, came forward
and accused him of malversation in his government. It was
of course everything to Appius to have Cicero on his side,
for if he were hostile he could most materially assist the
prosecution in getting evidence for a conviction. But Appius
relied upon him notwithstanding their late difference. He
therefore, immediately on his arrival, wrote to him in a very
different strain. His letter is lost, but it is described by
Cicero as full of courtesy and kindness. He seems, however,
to have made no allusion to the cause of his sudden change
of tone namely, Dolabella's accusation ; and Cicero, in his
answer, attributed his civility to the effect of his return home
to the more polished society of the capital. With a mixture
of good nature and hypocrisy he readily grasped the hand
of reconciliation held out to him, and availed himself of the
opportunity to entreat Appius, " out of regard to their old
friendship, to exert himself, as he promised, to get a public
thanksgiving decreed in his (Cicero's) honour as soon as
1 This, however, was distinctly denied by Cicero, who said that he merely
wished to limit the expense of the embasay, and at last gave way even on that
point. See ad Div. iii. 10.
B.C. 51-50. CORRESPONDENCE WITH APPIUS. 333
possible." We may well be surprised that he should stoop
to ask a favour of a man of whose misgovernment he had
such convincing proofs constantly before his eyes, or wish to
owe in any degree to him a public recognition of his own
services.
To show what he really thought of Appius's conduct as a
governor, I will quote a few passages from a letter which he
wrote to Atticus in March :
" Appius sent me on his journey two or three grumbling letters because I had
rescinded some of his ordinances. Just as if a doctor, when his patient called in
other advice, were to be angry with the new medical attendant for making a
change in the treatment ; so Appius, who put the province on a reducing system,
bled it, took all he could from it, and handed it over to me in a dying state, does
not like to see me give it a nourishing diet, but at one moment is angry and
another thanks me. For I do nothing to his disparagement : only the difference
of my system displeases him. For what can be so different as that under his rule
the province should have been exhausted by expense and extravagance, while
during my government not a farthing has been exacted from individuals or the
public ? What shall I say of his prefects his retinue his lieutenants aye ! his
robberies his licentiousness his insults ? Now, however, there is not a family
which is under such management and discipline as the whole of my province."
With this expression of opinion before us, it is with
astonishment we read the letter which he wrote to Appius
when he heard that Dolabella was his accuser. He was
anxious no doubt to clear himself from all suspicion of being
party or privy to the prosecution, as Dolabella's engagement
to Tullia had become known ; and Ccelius had cautioned
him not to express any sanction or approval of it while the
trial was pending, lest he might be compromised with Appius.
But the language he uses is that of extravagant praise. If
he had really thought Appius a paragon of excellence he
could not have written in more complimentary terms. He
expressed his surprise at the temerity of the young man,
without naming him, whom he had himself twice defended
on serious charges, and who now came forward as the accuser
of Appius. Dolabella seems to have said either that he was
or would be backed by Cicero, and Appius complained of
this. Cicero now declared that Dolabella's assertion was
silly and childish, and that he himself would have been more
ready to break off an old connection than form a new one
with a man who gave such a proof of his hostility to the ex-
proconsul. In the rest of the letter he insists on the simi-
larity of their tastes, the intimacy of their lives, the eclat of
334 THE PR CONS ULA TE. CHAP. xvn.
their reconciliation, as grounds to show that Appius might
rely upon him; and he appeals to his own character in proof
that the friendship he professes is sincere. He insists also
on the fact that they both belonged to the Augural College,
in which not only was a violation of friendship deemed by
their ancestors a sin, but into which no one could ever be
elected who was the enemy of any member of the body.
The trial took place, and Appius was acquitted ; but
another indictment was preferred against him for acts of
bribery and corruption charged to have been committed
when he stood for the consulship five years previously.
Before it was tried he became a candidate for the censorship.
Cicero wrote to congratulate him on the result of the first
prosecution, and addressed his letter " To Appius Pulcher
(as I hope), Censor." He told him that he had kissed the
letter in which Appius had mentioned his acquittal, and had
congratulated even himself; " for the tribute/' he said, " that
is paid by the whole people, the Senate, and the body of
jurymen, to intellect, industry, and virtue I perhaps flatter
myself in fancying that these qualities are mine I consider
as paid also to myself." He added that he was not so much
surprised at the glorious issue of the trial as at the perversity
of Appius's enemies. This could only refer to Dolabella, his
son-in-law in prospect. " How unfortunate," he exclaimed,
" for me that I was not present ! What roars of laughter I
would have excited !" He rejoiced to hear that owing to the
unanimous feeling in his favour, Appius might be said to have
been defended by the republic herself, whose duty it was,
even when the good and brave abounded, to protect men of
that stamp, but who now, when there were so few left, ought
in her bereavement to cherish them as her protectors. He
said he would take care to brand with opprobrium the mer-
cenary witnesses from the Asiatic towns who had appeared
against Appius at the trial.
Now when we remember what those witnesses came to
prove namely those very misdeeds of the ex-governor of
which Cicero himself, in his letters to Atticus, had so strongly
complained it is difficult to understand how he had the face
to pen such a passage as this. If he had put his threat in
execution he would have been guilty of gross injustice, unless
AT. 56-57. TRIAL OF APPIUS. 335
indeed the whole story of Appius's misrule was a fiction, and
in that case no one had libelled him more disgracefully than
Cicero himself. 1
The prosecution for bribery failed as signally as the other,
and Appius was unanimously acquitted. Cicero again wrote
to congratulate him, and entered upon the delicate question
of his own connection with Dolabella, the accuser. He begged
Appius to put himself in his place, and if he then found it
easy to know what to say he would not ask him to excuse
his present embarrassment. But it is better here to quote
Cicero's own words. His language is curious and charac-
teristic:
"I wish indeed," he said, "that what has been done without my knowledge
(that is, his daughter's engagement) may turn out, as you most kindly desire, pros-
perously both for me and my Tullia. But I also hope that it may have happened
at that particular time (when Dolabella came forward as prosecutor), not without
some good luck attending it. However, in entertaining this hope, I rely more on
your good sense and kindness than on any arguments drawn from coincidence of
time (that is, his own absence concurring with Tullia's engagement). To say the
truth, I don't know how to go on with my vindication. For I ought not to say
anything in disparagement of an event (the proposed marriage) which you yourself
congratulate me upon ; and yet I am annoyed at the possibility of your not
perceiving that what has been done was done not by me, but by others to
whom I had given authority to act according as they thought best without re-
ferring to me, inasmuch as I was so far off. But it occurs to me that you may
ask, " What would you have done if you had been at home ?" I answer, I would
have approved of the marriage. But as to the time of its taking place, I would
have done nothing against your consent nor without your advice. You see what
pains I take to defend what has been done, and yet not offend you. Relieve
me, then, of this burden, for I think I never handled a more difficult case."
By this long, obscure, and laboured apology, Cicero meant
to say simply this : " I am sorry that it so happened that
my son-in-law was your accuser. I knew nothing about it,
and therefore do not blame me. I think he acted very
wrongly in prosecuting so excellent a man as yourself. I
approve of the engagement, but I heartily wish it had not
coincided in point of time with your own impeachment."
No wonder that, when he wrote thus, he should feel that
Ccelius, who knew his real sentiments as to what Appius de-
served, would be surprised at the contrast. In a letter to
him he said, " What if you were to read my letter to Appius,
which I sent to him after receiving yours ! But what would
1 Cicero seems to have sent his tes- negotium autem et temeritatem nostri
timony, or, as we should say, deposition, Dolabellge, deprecatorem me pro illius
to Rome in favour of Appius. Post hoc periculo praebeo. Ad Div. ii. 13.
336 l THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. xvn.
you do? Such is the way of the world (sic vivitur)? The
truth is, that he was afraid of breaking with Appius, who had
powerful connections and numerous friends for Pompey's
son Cnaeus had married one of his daughters and Brutus
another and he professed to be personally very fond of him.
In a letter to Coelius, written at the end of April this year,
and which I strongly suspect he thought Appius was likely
to see, he says : " I very much like Appius, as I have often
told you in conversation, and I felt that I began to be liked
by him as soon as ever we laid aside our mutual grudge at
each other ; for when he was consul he showed me respect.
He is a pleasant friend, and our literary tastes and pursuits
correspond." 1 But to Atticus, to whom he unbosomed his
thoughts without reserve, he expressed himself much more
coldly about him. " I am doing," he says, " all I can for
Appius ; all, I mean, that I can with honour and with good-
will too, for I have no hatred to him himself, and I love
Brutus ; and Pompey, to whom I feel attached more and
more every day, is extremely urgent with me about him." 2
We should notice what he here says about Pompey ; and
in other letters he declares that he is wholly devoted to him
and is ready to die for him. He had a prescient feeling of
the coming storm, and had already made his election. Writ-
ing to his friend Thermus, who was then propraetor in Asia
Minor, he said, "Who knows what sort of times are before
the republic ? To me they seem likely to be turbulent
ones." He was very impatient to get back to Rome, from
which, as time rolled on, he became more than ever desirous
of news. Writing to Ccelius in June he said :
" Cling to the city, my friend, and live in her light. Every foreign employ-
ment, as I thought from my earliest manhood, is obscure and petty for those
whose abilities can make them famous at Rome. And as I well knew this, I wish
I had acted on that opinion. I do not consider all the profits of a provincial
government as comparable with a single walk and conversation with you."
He was now anxious, as no successor had yet been ap-
pointed, to find a proper person to whom he might entrust
1 It is a terrible proof of the im- et effeminates qui nefandd venere ute-
morality of the times, that when Appius rentur.
was censor and Ccelius was sedile, each 2 The ending of this letter shows the
preferred an indictment against the other active habits of Cicero : Sed lucet; urget
under the lex Scatinia; a law, in molles turba " The day is breaking; my levee
is getting crowded."
B.C. 51-50. THANKSGIVING POSTPONED. 337
the care of the province when he left it He would have pre-
ferred Quintus, but he was by no means sure that his brother
would consent ; and as there seemed to be a prospect of a
Parthian war, he did not like to ask him to accept so trouble-
some a post, especially as the province was ill-provided with
means of defence. Besides, he feared his enemies might say
that he had not really resigned his post at the end of the
twelvemonth, if he appointed a second self like his brother to
take the command. He says that he had performed exploits
which were worthy of a triumph, for which, however, he
would show no undue eagerness. We may think, indeed,
that his claim to a triumph rested on rather slender grounds,
but there seems to be little doubt that if civil war had not
broken out he would have gained this great object of Roman
ambition, which was the only honour in his brilliant career
that he had not yet enjoyed.
Young Hortensius, whose profligate character gave great
uneasiness to his father, came to Laodicea, and conducted
himself there disgracefully. For the father's sake Cicero
invited him to dinner, but beyond this showed him no atten-
tion, as he knew how much Hortensius was displeased with
his conduct. At this very moment the great advocate was
dying. Cicero heard the news just as he was on the point
of embarking to return home, and alluded to it in a letter to
Atticus in these words : " I am sure you grieve for Hor-
tensius ; I am distracted, for I had resolved to live on very
intimate terms with him."
In the meantime the supplicatio, or thanksgiving in honour
of Cicero's successes against the enemy, upon which he had
set his heart, and which, as we have seen, had actually been
decreed by the Senate, was postponed, owing to a quarrel
between Curio and the consuls. They prevented him from
bringing measures before the people, and in revenge al-
though he professed all the while the greatest friendship and
respect for Cicero he interposed his veto, and would not
allow the thanksgiving to take place. The matter ended in
a compromise, and the consuls agreed that the supplicatio
should be put off until the following year.
Cicero was counting the days which yet remained before
he could be released from his government He went to
z
338 THE PROCONSULATE. CHAP. xvn.
Tarsus on the I 3th of June, and collected a military force
there, to be ready to assist Bibulus, who, as proconsul of Syria,
had to repel the attacks of the Parthians, and was afraid he
might be hard pressed. He was preparing what we may
call his financial statement, or accounts of the moneys re-
ceived and spent during his year of office, two copies of
which he was by the Julian law required to deposit in two
separate towns of his province, rendering a third to the
Senate at Rome. It was the special duty of the quaestor to
see that these were correct, for he was the provincial chan-
cellor of the exchequer. Volusius had gone, and Caelius
Caldus, his successor, had only just arrived. It devolved,
therefore, upon Mescinius to attend to the business. Owing
to the frugal manner in which he had carried on the adminis-
tration, Cicero had a surplus beyond the sum voted by the
Senate for his expenses. 1 He invested 2,200,000 sesterces
(about ; 1 9,500), part of this surplus, in cistophori, an Asi-
atic silver coin, and afterwards lent the whole sum to Pompey,
who seems never to have repaid him. There is some doubt
as to what was the amount of the money he deposited in
the treasury to the credit of the state, but none at all that
Middleton is absurdly wrong in saying that it was above
eight hundred thousand pounds ! De Quincey calls this an
" extravagant, almost maniacal assertion," and regards it as
fatal evidence against his trustworthiness as a biographer.
" The man," he says, " who could believe that a sum not far
from a million sterling had arisen in the course of twelve months
from a province sown chiefly with paving-stones, as a little
bagatelle of office, z.pot de vin, mere customary fees payable
to the discretional appropriation of one who held the most
fleeting relation with the province, is not entitled to an
opinion upon any question of doubtful tenor." 'The truth is,
that the copies differ as to the figures, but I believe none
1 Drumann says (Gesch. Roms. vi. And (ad Div. ii. 17) De praeda mea,
144) that he received his share of the praeter quaestores urbanos, id est, popu-
booty taken in the Amanus campaign, lum Romanum, teruncium nee attigit
and he quotes as his authority ad Att. nee tacturus est quisquam. . . . Omnis
v. 20 ; ad Div. ii. 1 7. But I infer the enim pecunia ita tractatur, ut praeda, a
direct contrary from those passages. praefectis ; qua autem mihi attributa est,
Cicero says (ad Att. v. 20) : Militibus a qncestore c^lratur. This shows that
quoque, equis exceptis, reliquam pras- Cicero did not pocket any portion of the
dam concessimus. Mancipia venibant. spoil.
JET. 56-57. SURPLUS REVENUE. 339
support the mistake of Middleton. Whatever the amount
was, his suite regarded it, most probably according to prece-
dent, as their perquisite, and grumbled at Cicero for paying
it into the treasury, after deducting a sum sufficient for a
year's expenditure of his quaestor Caelius. 1 : ^.|
After some hesitation he appointed this Cselius deputy-
governor of the province until a proconsul was sent out from
Rome. Mentioning this to Atticus, he said jokingly : " You
are under the necessity of approving my determination, for
it cannot be changed." But in the next letter he showed
that he was by no means satisfied with his choice, although
he could not help it. He said : " I have handed over the
province to Caelius ' a mere youth,' you will say, ' and per-
haps silly, wanting in steadiness and self-control.' I agree,
but it could not be otherwise." 2 It is to Cicero's credit that
he had determined, if a Parthian war broke out or seemed
imminent, either to leave his brother in the command, as the
most competent person he could find, or stay himself beyond
the time limited by his commission, and thus stretch the autho-
rity committed to him by the Senate rather than leave the
province in peril ; but happily the enemy retired from the
frontier, and he was able to get away on the day he originally
intended.
His year of office ended on the 3 1st of July, and on the
3d of August we find him at Sida, a port on the coast of
Pamphylia, on the point of embarking for Italy. But before
we follow him on his voyage let us cast a rapid glance at
the events that had happened in the interval of his absence,
and explain how it came about that when he arrived in Rome
he found himself, as he expressed it, in the midst of the
flames of civil discord. 3
1 Ad Att. vii. i. mihi qusestor optatior te obtingere
2 It is curious to contrast this with nemo potuit. Ad Div. ii. 19.
what Cicero wrote to Cselius himself a .
short time before, when he said that he 3 Incidi in ipsam flammam civilis dis-
could not have .desired a better quaestor cordise. Ad Div. xvi. 1 1.
TIBUR THE MODERN TIVOLI.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CIVIL WAR.
&* 57-58- B.C. 50-49.
THE death in childbed of Julia, who was Caesar's daughter
and Pompey's wife, followed by the death of the son to whom
she had given birth, completely rent the tie between the two
rivals for power-
Nam pignora juncti
Sanguinis, et diro ferales omine tedas
Abstulit ad manes, Parcarum Julia soeva
Intercepta manu.
Niebuhr says : " Caesar's affection as a father was so great
that he would have brooked anything if his daughter had re-
mained alive;" but this we may be allowed to doubt. Two
years afterwards Pompey allied himself to the noble family
of the Metelli by marrying the daughter of Caecilius Metellus
Pius, whom he made his colleague in the consulship, after
enjoying that high dignity for six months alone. There is
no doubt that by his third consulship he strengthened his
position and recovered lost ground. His measures were
energetic, and his influence was great. When a dictator was
talked of to put a stop to the anarchy which prevented the
election of the ordinary magistrates of the republic, men in-
B.C. 50-49- EVENTS AT ROME, 341
stinctively turned to him. He was still proconsul of Spain,
and as such the commander of a considerable military force ;
but he had never once set foot in his province, and its govern-
ment was carried on by his lieutenants Petreius and Afranius.
During all this time Csesar was absent from Rome. It is
a striking proof of the self-reliant character of the man that
for ten long years he kept away from the scene where the
great game of ambition was to be played out, and left the
stage apparently undisturbed to his rival. But he took care
that in the meantime he should not be forgotten. The fame
of Wellington's victories in the Peninsula was not more pre-
sent to the minds of his countrymen in England than the
fame of Caesar's victories in Gaul and Britain was present to
the minds of his fellow-citizens at Rome. He kept up also
constant relations with the capital, and had a numerous and
active party there devoted to his interests. I do not think
we have evidence that he had formed any plan to subvert
the constitution, or indeed any plan at all, further than this,
that he was determined that if there was to be a master of
the republic, he, and not Pompey, should be the man. When
he wintered at Ravenna, the nearest point at which he could
by law approach Rome while invested with his military com-
mand, his head-quarters were the resort of the disaffected,
who represented themselves as the victims of aristocratic op-
pression. Munatius Plancus Bursa, after his condemnation
for seditious violence, found an asylum there, and was osten-
tatiously supplied with money by Caesar. The discontented
at Rome looked to him as their protector, and the populace
remembered his largesses and his shows. While the Senate
was powerless, and the magistrates could do nothing but
mutually paralyse each other, he was filling the world with
the glory of his exploits, and securing the enthusiastic devo-
tion of his legions. Cicero himself had spoken and voted
for the prolongation of his command for another period of
five years, and it was during this time that the state of Rome
became such that a dictatorship of some kind was almost
inevitable. When tribunes were preventing the comitia for
electing consuls from being held, and consuls were preventing
tribunes from bringing measures before the people when
the resolutions of the Senate were rendered impotent by vetos,
342 CIVIL WAR. CHAP. xvm.
and the executive was carried on by the provisional expedient
of an interregnum it was plain that some strong arm was
required to restore order, and enable the machinery of
government to play. It is, however, one question whether
the exigency of the crisis required a change in the consti-
tution, and another whether a subject of the state was justified
in overthrowing it. I do not believe that Caesar deliberately
intended to do this, but he was resolved at all hazards not
to allow Pompey to be master of the situation : and it was
the obstinacy with which each of these two men refused to
give way to the other that led to the fatal rupture.
The extended period of his proconsular government would
expire B.C. 50. In the previous year M. Claudius Marcellus
was consul, and he was a determined opponent of the Julian
party. In May he brought forward a motion in the Senate
for the recall of Caesar, and a resolution to that effect was
passed, which, however, was not carried into execution, owing
to the interference of the tribunes. Further to show his dis-
like in the most contemptuous way, he caused an inhabitant
of Como a colony which Caesar had founded in Cisalpine
Gaul to be flogged at Rome, although, as having filled a
magisterial office in the town, he was entitled to the rights
of a Roman citizen ; and we know from the memorable pro-
test of St. Paul that it was not " lawful to scourge a man
that was a Roman." But Marcellus wished by this insult to
show that he did not recognise any legal authority in the
proconsul of Gaul to found a colony and confer the civic
franchise. He persisted in his endeavours to get him recalled
from his province ; but at the end of September the Senate
resolved that the discussion of the question should be put off
until the following year, and that on the 1st of March the
then existing consuls should bring the matter formally before
the house. Pompey himself admitted that it was not fair
to agitate the question sooner ; and when he was asked what
would happen if any of the tribunes then interposed their
veto, said that there was no difference whether Caesar refused
to obey the Senate's decree, or got some one to prevent the
Senate from making any decree at all. " But," asked an-
other, " what, if he wishes to be consul, and at the same time
retain his military command ?" To which Pompey replied,
JET. 57-58. OPPOSITION TO CsESAR. 343
" You might as well say, what if my son wishes to strike me
with a stick?" By this he meant to imply that such a
demand on the part of Caesar was impossible ; but he forgot,
or did not choose to allow, that he himself had set an exact
precedent in point, for during his third consulship he was
still proconsul of Spain, and as such had the command of a
considerable army. And Caesar was determined not to place
himself in an inferior position. If Pompey laid aside his
military command he was ready to do the same, or if he
were elected consul he seems to have been willing to yield
the point ; but he was not willing to imperil himself by
going to Rome to canvass for the consulship as a private
individual, and run the risk of impeachment, with which his
enemies would be sure to attack him on his arrival. He
therefore, for the present, resolved to retain his command ;
and he well knew that the master of the legions which had
conquered Gaul might laugh at any attempt to deprive him
of it by force.
So matters stood at the end of the year. The two new
consuls were Caius Claudius Marcellus and L. ^Emilius
Paullus. Caesar bought Paullus by an enormous bribe. 1
Curio, the tribune whom Cicero had so flattered in hopes of
securing him on the side of the Senate, and whom Niebuhr
calls " a man of great talent, but of the most decided profli-
gacy and immorality," was overwhelmed with debts, which
amounted to nearly half-a-million sterling. These debts
Caesar paid off, and Curio became his devoted partisan.
The Senate decreed that two legions should be sent to
the East for the Parthian war, and that one of these should
be taken from the army of Caesar and the other from the
army- of Pompey. Pompey had previously lent a legion to
Caesar, which fought for some time under his standard, and
was looked upon by him as part of his own troops. In com-
plying with the Senate's order Pompey adroitly gave up that
legion, which, though nominally his, was in fact Caesar's, so
that Caesar had to surrender two legions instead of one. And
1 With part of this money Paullus longed to this basilica. The church has
built the Basilica Paulli in the Forum. recently been restored, and is in the in-
Niebuhr says that the splendid columns terior one of the most magnificent in
of the church of St. Paul, which perished Rome. It is called San Paolo fuori le
by fire A.D. 1833, undoubtedly once be- Mttra.
344 CIVIL WAR. CHAP, xvm.
these were not sent to the East after all, but retained by the
consul Marcellus in Italy, at Capua, ready for Pompey in
case it became necessary to draw the sword.
Curio now proposed that both Pompey and Caesar should
lay down their military commands, disband their armies, and
appear in Rome in the character of private citizens. " This,"
says Niebuhr, " was the fairest proposal that could have been
made ; but Pompey's party replied that his imperium had
yet to last for a longer period than that of Caesar. It was
a misfortune for Rome that Pompey, who was then severely
ill (at Naples), did not die as his friends apprehended. He
was so popular, or perhaps so much feared, that all Italy
offered up prayers for his recovery. 1 Pompey assumed the
appearance of being ready to yield, but lamented the manner
in which he was treated -by Curio. When Curio put the
question to the vote as to whether both were to lay down
their imperiiim, an immense majority of three hundred and
seventy senators answered in the affirmative, while only
twenty-two voted against it. But the consul Marcellus re-
jected the decree : the state was in perfect anarchy and dis-
solution. Marcellus was a champion for the authority of
the Senate, and in this instance he nevertheless refused to
acknowledge that authority."
But by thus acting Marcellus sealed the fate of the Senate.
It was their last chance, and in his folly he deliberately
threw it away. If they had not become contemptible in
their weakness they would have compelled the consul to
allow their decree to be executed, and whatever might have
been the ultimate issue, there seems no reason to doubt that
civil war would have been averted. A false report was
spread that Caesar was marching upon Rome, and the Senate
in haste and terror declared him a public enemy. Marcellus
the consul put a sword into Pompey's hand, telling him to
defend the republic, and made over to him the command of
the two legions at Capua and the rest of the military forces
in Italy. In vain Curio protested against these measures,
and at last, under the pretext that his life was in danger, he
1 The general sympathy deceived Caesar marched against him, he an-
Pompey as to his real position. When swered, "I have only to stamp on the
he was asked what he would do if ground, and soldiers will rise."
B.C. 50-49. DEATH OF HORTENSIUS. 345
quitted Rome at the end of December, and fled to Caesar at
Ravenna. ,
But let us return to Cicero, whom we left at the port of
Sida embarking at the beginning of August on board a
vessel for his homeward voyage.
He first stopped at Rhodes, which he wished to show to
his son and nephew, who accompanied him, and there the
news reached him that Hortensius was dead. In his
dialogue de Claris Oratoribus he mentions the circum-
stance, and pays an affectionate tribute to the memory of
this great advocate in language which betrays the deep
melancholy that was preying upon his health at the thought
of his country's ruin. " When," he says, " after quitting
Cilicia, I had come to Rhodes, and received there the news
of the death of Hortensius, it was obvious to all how deeply
I was affected. . . . My sorrow was increased by the
reflection that, at a time when so few wise and good citizens
were left, we had to mourn the loss of the authority and
good sense of so distinguished a man, who had been inti-
mately associated with me through life, and who died at a
period when the state most needed him ; and I grieved
because there was taken away from me, not, as many
thought, a rival who stood in the way of my reputation, but
a partner and companion in a glorious calling. For if we
are told that in a higher species of art noble-minded poets
have mourned for the death of poets who were their con--
temporaries, with what feelings ought I to have borne his loss
with whom it was more honourable to contend than to be
without a competitor at all, especially as his career was
never embarrassed by me, nor mine by him, but, on the
contrary, each was assisted by the other with mutual help,
advice, and encouragement ? But since he, with that good
fortune which he always enjoyed, has departed from us at a
time more favourable for himself than his countrymen, and
has died when it were easier if he still lived to deplore the
condition of the republic than to render it any service ;
and since life was spared to him so long as it was permitted
to dwell with virtue and happiness in the state ; let us
bewail, if so it must be, our own misfortune and loss,
and consider his death an occasion rather for congratulating
346 CIVIL WAR.
CHAP. XVIII.
him than condoling with ourselves ; so that, whenever our
thoughts turn to the memory of a man so illustrious and
blest, we may show that we have more regard for him than
for ourselves. For if we grieve because we can no longer
enjoy his society, that is our calamity, which we ought to
bear without giving way to excessive sorrow ; but we should
seem to regard his death, not as the bereavement of a friend,
but the loss of some private advantage of our own. But if we
mourn as though some evil had happened to himself, we show
that we are not sufficiently thankful for hi good fortune."
From Rhodes Cicero went to Ephesus, and thence pro-
ceeded to Athens, which he reached on the 1 4th of October,
after a tedious and uncomfortable voyage. Here he found
letters awaiting him from his wife, and Atticus, and many
other friends. He immediately wrote to Terentia, and his
letter is short but affectionate. He calls her his "sweetest
and dearest," and begs her to come and meet him as far as
the state of her health will allow. Atticus had written
while suffering under an attack of fever, and Cicero, in
replying to his letter, said that when he opened it he was at
once struck by the confused character of the writing, so
different from the clear and neat handwriting of his friend.
He confessed the embarrassment he felt at having to make
up his mind as to which of the two contending leaders he
would join, from both of whom he had received letters
couched in the most flattering terms. If, however, the
sword were appealed to, he said it would be better to be
vanquished with Pompey than to vanquish with Caesar.
But upon the question of whether Caesar should not be
allowed to become a candidate for the consulship in his
absence, and forced to disband his army, which might be
under discussion when he arrived in Rome, he felt a diffi-
culty, and he imagined himself called upon to deliver his
opinion in the Senate.
"'Speak, Marc Tully.' 'Wait, I pray, until I consult Atticus.' 'Let us
have" no shuffling speak.' If I declare against Caesar, what becomes of those
pledges I have given him? for at his request I aided him in getting permission to
be a candidate though absent. At his request do I say ? Ay ! and at the
request of our friend Pompey, too, in that divine third consulship of his. Shall I
now take a different line from him ? I respect the opinion not only of Pompey,
but, as Homer says, ' the men and women of Troy.' "
JET. 57-58. CICERO CLAIMS A TRIUMPH. 347
He thought, therefore, that it would be a good expedient
to claim the honour of a triumph, as in that case he must,
according to law, remain outside the walls of Rome, and
would thus escape the dilemma in which he would find him-
self the moment he took his seat in the Senate. But he
added with a comic consciousness of what would happen,
"They will, however, take pretty good care to elicit my
opinion." As to the reason here given for demanding a
triumph, it seems to have been nothing more than an excuse
to conceal the eagerness with which he sought it, and of
which he felt half-ashamed. " Many writers," says De
Quincey, " have amused themselves with the idle vanity of
Cicero in standing upon a claim so windy under circumstances
so awful. But on the one hand it should be remembered
how eloquent a monument it was of civil grandeur, for a novus
homo to have established his own amongst the few triumphal
families of Rome, and on the other hand he could have effected
nothing by his presence in the Senate."
On his way from Athens to Italy he was obliged to leave
his favourite freedman Tiro at Patrae, a port of Achaia, as he
was too ill to proceed on the voyage. Several letters to him
from Cicero are extant, and nothing can exceed the affec-
tionate kindness of their tone. . No father ever displayed
more solicitude for the recovery of a beloved son than he did
for the recovery of his freedman. Tiro seems to have been
a very intelligent man, and possessed of considerable literary
attainments. In one of his letters Cicero tells him that
without him he can write nothing, and Quintus in another
addressed to him quotes in the original a line of Euripides,
and says : " I don't know what value you attach to the poet's
opinions, but I think that each of his verses is like a deposi-
tion upon oath." It is uncertain at what period he received
his freedom, as it is impossible to fix the date of the letter,
which Quintus wrote to his brother congratulating him on the
act of manumission, the news of which he said had made him
leap for joy. Tiro assumed the names of Marcus Tullius,
according to the usual custom in such cases, and he published
a collection of Cicero's letters after the death of his friend
and benefactor. He also wrote his Life in several books, the
348 CIVIL WAR. CHAP. xvm.
fourth of which is quoted by Asconius, and he gave to the
world an edition of his speeches. 1
Cicero sailed from Patrae on the 2d of November, but was
detained by stormy weather and contrary winds at Actium
and Corcyra, so that he did not make the coast of Italy until
the 24th of that month, on which day he reached Hydruntum
(Otranto), and proceeded next day to Brundusium. He
entered the harbour at the same moment as his wife entered
the town by one of the gates, through which the Appian Way
passed, so that they both met in the Forum.
From Brundusium he proceeded to Herculaneum, which he
reached on the I oth of December, and then went to spend a
day or two at the house of his friend Pontius Aquila at Tri-
bulanum. At Lavernum he met Pompey, and they went to-
gether to Formiae, and had a long conversation on the state
of public affairs. Pompey thought that war was inevitable,
and, so far as Cicero could judge, did not even wish for
peace. For he said that if Caesar were consul, even although
he dismissed his army, there would be a revolution. But he
professed great contempt for him as an opponent in the field,
and was full of confidence in the force he could bring against
him. He had in his hand the copy of a mob speech which
Marc Antony, the newly -elected tribune, had just made, full
of abuse of Pompey, and threats of an appeal to arms.
Turning to Cicero, he asked, " What do you think Caesar
himself would do if he were master of the republic, when a
weak and needy fellow like his quaestor dares to say such
things?" So little indeed did Pompey understand the real
position of his rival, that, thinking he could easily crush
him, he did not like the idea of peace. He was soon terribly
undeceived.
From Formiae Cicero travelled to Terracina, where he
arrived at the end of December, intending to reach Rome on
his birthday, the 3d of January.
His own opinion at this time was, that the best solution
of the difficulty would be to concede what Caesar demanded
that is, allow him. to stand for the consulship and yet retain
1 Two treatises have been written by which it would be an insult to the me-
modern scholars on the subject of this mory of both to notice. See Plin. Ep.
Tiro. His relations with Cicero became vii. 4.
the subject of an infamous calumny,
B.C. 50-49- POLITICAL PERPLEXITY. 349
his military command. And events proved that this would
have been the wisest policy. Caesar might indeed in that
case have become too powerful for the citizen of a free state,
and virtually, if not in name, dictator. But the shock of
war would have been avoided, and the constitution, with
certain modifications, might have been preserved. If the
sword was to decide the strife and he was victorious, he
would then have the rights of a conqueror, and might re-
model the government as he pleased. Nor was there much
reason to doubt that if Pompey were successful in the con-
flict Rome must receive him as her master instead of Caesar,
and the only question would be, whether he was likely to
use his victory with more moderation than Caesar. As Cicero
said with prophetic truth, " Victory will produce many evils ;
and the result will certainly be a despotism (certe tyrannus
existei)? Looking at the state of the times, I see no reason
to believe that Pompey, if successful, would have stopped
short of a revolution ; so that in either event the doom of
the constitution was sealed. Whether it was worth preserv-
ing is another question, upon which opinions may differ;
but at all events Cicero thought so, and with that view he
was right in considering it the most politic course to yield to
Caesar on the point of the consulship. For, clothed with that
venerable authority, and acting, not as conqueror, but as first
minister of the republic, he would hardly have ventured,
perhaps not even have wished, to change the organic frame
of the constitution. But although Cicero was in favour of
concession, he had made up his mind to stand by Pompey,
and support him, whatever he determined.
His letters to Atticus, written on his journey from Brun-
dusium, give a lively picture of the anxiety of his mind.
He said :
"Since, however, things have come to such a pass, I will not ask, as you
write, quoting the words of Homer, ' Where is the ship of the Atridse ? ' That
shall be my ship where Pompey holds the helm. As to what will happen when,
as you say, I am called upon, ' Speak, Marc Tully ! ' I will answer shortly, ' I
agree with Cnoeus Pompey.' Privately, however, I will urge him to peaceful
counsels. For my opinion is, that we run the greatest hazard. You who are in the
city know more than I do. However, I see this plainly, that we have to do Avith
a man full of audacity and thoroughly prepared that on his side are all who have
been convicted of crimes or branded with infamy and all who deserve conviction
and infamy nearly all the youth of Rome all the low rabble of the city the
35 CIVIL WAR. CHAP. xvm.
powerful tribunes, with the addition of Quintus Cassius all who are oppressed
with debt, who I understand are more numerous than I had imagined. All that
his cause wants is a just cause : it abounds in everything else."
It is characteristic of the man that in the letter full of
these gloomy forebodings Cicero is tempted to discuss a
point of literary criticism. He had, in writing to Atticus,
used the expression, in PirceK, when he mentioned his arrival
at Athens. Atticus found fault with this, and said it ought
to be PtraUM., without the preposition " in." Cicero ad-
mitted that PircBum was more correct than Pircea, but
defended himself for using the preposition on the ground
that Piraeus was not a town but a place ; and he quoted Ter-
ence as an authority in his favour, whose plays, he said, on
account of the elegance of their Latinity, were ascribed to
Laelius. In another letter he made unconsciously a good
hexameter verse -flavit ab Epiw lenissimus Onchesmites -
which he said, jokingly, Atticus might palm off, if he liked>
as his own upon the juveniles. At this critical juncture we
find that he was still under pecuniary obligations to Caesar,
from which it appears that the debt which he was anxious
,to pay off when he left Italy to assume the government of
Cilicia had not yet been discharged. He felt how awkward,
or, to use his own expression, anomalous it was to be the
debtor of a political opponent ; and yet it was very incon-
venient to him to pay the money just then, as he wanted it
for the expenses of his triumph, upon which he was more
than ever bent, as he had just heard that the Senate ha4
decreed a public thanksgiving in honour of Bibulus, whose
military exploits he held in great contempt. He told At-
ticus that he would borrow enough from Ccelius to discharge
the debt, for it would not do to remain under the obligation;
and he put the imaginary case of his making a grand
speech against Caesar in the Senate, and then finding some-
body whispering in his ear, as he went out of the house,
" Pray take care to pay your debt."
In another letter, after reviewing, in a spirit of bitterness,
the events of the last few years, which had led to the pre-
sent difficulty, he said : " ' What,' you ask me, ' do you pro-
pose to do ? ' The same as different kinds of cattle, which,
when driven away, keep together in their own herds. As
^T. 57-58. CAESAR'S OFFER. 351
the ox follows the herd, so will I follow honest men, or at
all events who are reputed such, even if they rush on to
destruction." In one respect, however, he mistook the
character of Caesar, and the event completely falsified his
prediction ; for he said : " All know perfectly well that if the
good cause is beaten, he that is, Caesar will, in putting to
death the leaders of the aristocracy, not be more merciful
than Cinna, nor in plundering the wealthy more moderate
than Sylla. I am giving you a long diatribe on politics,
and would make it longer, only my lamp is going out. The
upshot is this : ' Speak, Marc Tully.' ' I agree with Cnaeus
Pompey that is,' he added, half in jest, 'with Titus Pom-
ponius.' " In another passage he said it was uncertain
whether Caesar would play the part of Phalaris or Pisistratus.
In the last letter he wrote before reaching Rome he ended it
with the words, " I am tormented night and day ; " and this
in fact is the best description of his state of mind during the
whole of the conflict that might now be said to have actually
begun.
The consuls of the new year, B.C. 49, were another -of the
family of Marcelli, Caius Claudius Marcellus, a brother of
Marcus who -was consul the year but one previously, and L.
Cornelius Lentulus. The first business they had to bring
before the Senate was the important question whether a letter
should be read which Curio had just brought to Rome from
Caesar, and which he had placed in the hands of the consuls.
After a warm debate, the tribunes, who insisted that it should
be read, carried their point, and the Senate listened to the
terms that the great soldier proposed. They were briefly
these : he offered to lay down his military command, if
Pompey would do tho same ; but added the ominous threat
that if this condition were not complied with he would not
be wanting to himself and his country. An animated dis-
cussion followed. Lentulus the consul advocated bold
measures, and said that in that case the state might rely
upon him ; but if they truckled to Caesar, as they had done
before, he would take care of himself and disregard the
authority of the Senate! Strange language this from the
first magistrate of the republic. Metellus Scipio, Pompey's
father-in-law, spoke to the same effect, and declared that
352 CIVIL WAR. CHAP. xvm.
Pompey would defend the republic if the Senate would follow
him ; but that if they hesitated now, and did not show firm-
ness, they would implore his aid in vain when they wanted
it. He concluded by proposing that Caesar should be ordered
to disband his army by a certain day, and if he refused
to comply, that he should be declared an enemy of the re-
public. Marcus Marcellus had the sense to see that if they
set Caesar at defiance they ought to be prepared beforehand ;
and he advised the Senate to come to no decision until they
had raised an army by a levy en masse in Italy. The newly-
elected tribunes, Marc Antony and Q. Cassius, interposed
their veto to prevent Scipio's motion from being carried ;
and the question was adjourned. The Senate met again out-
side the walls, and Pompey there joined them. There was
another violent debate, and in the result a resolution was
passed equivalent to what we should call a proclamation of
martial law. The consuls, praetors, and tribunes of the people
were to see that the republic suffered no harm. The tribunes,
Antony and Cassius, immediately quitted Rome and fled to
Caesar. This happened on the 6th of January.
Cicero calls Caesar's letter " threatening and bitter." He
himself, in his Be Hum Civile, describes it as a " very gentle
demand." There can be no doubt that the demand was
illegal and unconstitutional. Pompey held his province and
his army under the authority of law, and Caesar had no right
to dictate the terms on which alone he would obey the order
of the Senate. In doing so he was as much guilty of an act
of usurpation as Napoleon Bonaparte when he returned from
Egypt, and forcibly dissolved the Council of Five Hundred
in the orangery of St. Cloud.
Such was the state of affairs when Cicero reached the
gates of Rome on the 4th of January. He was met outside
the walls with every mark of honour and respect. He would
not enter the city then, for even at that awful moment his
heart was set upon a triumph ; and the Senate was ready to
grant it, but Lentulus the consul put it off on the plea that
he would bring forward the question when he had despatched
the urgent business he had on hand. Italy was divided into
districts, and the coast of Campania was assigned to Cicero,
that he might superintend the levies there, and see to its
B.C. 50-49. THE RUBICON. 353
safety. The provinces were allotted as in ordinary times, and
L. Domitius Ahenobarbus was declared proconsul of Gaul.
Caesar no longer hesitated. He addressed his soldiers in a
spirited speech, and called upon them to protect their
general against the designs of his enemies. They answered
with a loud acclaiming shout that they were ready to follow
him. 1
Between Ravenna and Rimini, the ancient Ariminum,
there are several small rivers, or rather streams, each of
which has been claimed as the famous Rubicon. This was
the boundary that separated, at that extremity, the province
of Cisalpine Gaul from Italy; and no commander might
cross it in arms without being guilty of treason to the re-
public. The story, as told by Suetonius, is, that Caesar sent
on the thirteenth legion, which was all the force he had at
Ravenna, without declaring the object of their march ; and
then, the better to mask his purpose, himself attended a
public entertainment, inspected the plan of a school of
gladiators which he had intended to build, and in the evening
appeared as usual at a crowded banquet. But after sunset
he quietly went away in a carriage drawn by mules, and
attended by a small escort, choosing the most private road
he could find. He lost his way, and wandered about in the
darkness on foot, until at daybreak he met with a guide,
and at last came up with his soldiers, who were standing on
the left or northern bank of the Rubicon. Here he stopped,
and, awe-struck for the moment at the magnitude of the
step he was about to take, he turned to his followers and
said, " We can even yet draw back, but if we cross that little
bridge everything must be decided by the sword." A por-
tent reassured him. An apparition of gigantic size and
superhuman beauty was suddenly seen seated not far distant
from him, and playing on a flute, from which issued streams
of aerial melody. Some shepherds who were there, and the
picquets in advance, approached to listen to the music.
Amongst them were some trumpeters, from one of whom
the phantom snatched a bugle, and, blowing a loud blast,
According to Suetonius (Casar, 30), Caesar quoted the lines of Euripides
(Phcenissee, 534-5) :
" If I must be unjust, 'tis best to be so
Playing for empire : just in all things else."
2 A
354 CIVIL WAR. CHAP. xvm.
plunged into the river, which it crossed and disappeared.
Then Caesar exclaimed, "Let us go where the portents of
heaven and the injustice of the enemy summon us. The
die is cast." He pressed forward to the opposite bank, and
stood on the sacred soil of Italy a traitor and a rebel. 1
Ariminum, which was a short distance beyond, and entirely
defenceless, was immediately occupied by his troops, and
there he paused.
All was consternation at Rome. There was a general
rush to leave it; and the consuls, the Senate, and Pompey
set the example. He declared he would hold whoever
stayed at Rome his enemy. Favonius tauntingly told him,
" Now is the time to stamp on the ground for your legions."
So hasty was their flight that no care was taken to remove
the money in the public treasury, and thus the sinews of
war were abandoned to fall a prey to Csesar. Lentulus the
consul did indeed attempt to carry .off some of the money,
but was alarmed by a report that the cavalry of Caesar was
at the gates, and hastily decamped without securing the
prize. Bitter was the complaint at Rome that the city
should be left without magistrates or Senate, and history
records no more disgraceful a flight. Pompey talked of the
example of Themistocles, who, when Xerxes was marching
upon Athens, made the inhabitants quit the city, and crushed
the invader afterwards at Salamis. But Cicero contrasted
this with the conduct of Pericles in the Peloponnesian war,
who brought the population of Attica within the walls, and,
victoriously defending them, saved the state ; and he quoted
the precedent set by their own ancestors, who held the
Capitol while the Gauls were masters of the rest of Rome.
He was aghast at the audacity of Caesar ; and visions of
confiscation and ruin floated across his brain. Was it Hanni-
bal or a Roman general who had crossed the frontier, and
made himself master of the towns of Italy ? Rather would
1 A curious anecdote is told by Sue- ing the action to the word, he drew the
tonius relative to what happened when ring off his ringer, and the rude soldiery,
Caesar had crossed the river. He who saw the gesture, but imperfectly
harangued his troops, and declared that, heard what he said, were firmly con-
sooner than not satisfy the claims of vinced that he had promised to give
those who stood by him, he would part each of them the rank and estate of a
with the gold ring which as a Roman Roman knight,
knight he wore on his left hand. Suit-
JET. 57-58.. CONSTERNATION AT ROME. 355
he die a thousand times than even meditate such a crime.
Caesar had, he cried, no longer a pretence for saying that he
was acting constitutionally. 1 Everybody was puzzled to
know what were Pompey's plans. He had in fact no plan,
and never showed himself so weak and irresolute as now,
when his only chance lay in energy and decision. Cicero
did not venture to stay in the neighbourhood of Rome. He
slipped away one morning before daybreak, to escape, as he
says, observation and comment, especially as since his return
he was attended in public by lictors with laurelled fasces,
which made him conspicuous. He went first to Formiae,
where he had an interview, on the 23d of January, with the
consul Lentulus a man overwhelmed with debt, who had
boasted that he would be dictator, and prove another Sylla.
Cicero says he found nothing but terror and confusion. He
wrote constantly to Atticus, who remained in Rome, and in
a pitiable state of perplexity asked his advice as to what he
ought to do. His wife and daughter were left behind, and
he was anxious whether they ought to come away or stay in
the city. But he was comforted on their account by the
recollection that his son-in-law Dolabella had joined Caesar ;
so that, as was often the case in the wars of the Roses, the
family interest was divided, and he need not fear for their
personal safety unless indeed Caesar gave the city up to
plunder, which, in one of the letters he wrote to them, he
hinted was possible. He advised them to be guided in their
decision whether to go or stay according as other ladies of
their own rank acted. They soon afterwards joined him at
his Formian villa ; and the politics of his son-in-law Dolabella
exposed him to some suspicion with his own party.
He saw from the first how utterly unequal Pompey was
to the crisis, and he described their position as that of men
who put to sea in a storm without a rudder. Their whole
hope, he said, rested on a man who was an invalid. Every-
thing was done at haphazard, and contrary to his own judg-
ment. " Shall I," he asked, " hesitate and go over to the
other side, which has success with it ? atb^ai Tgaas" The
defection of Labienus, one of Caesar's ablest lieutenants, from
the cause of his general, and his junction with Pompey, put
1 See ad Att. vii. n, 13.
356 CIVIL WAR. CHAP. xvm.
him for the time in spirits. It was like Moreau joining the
camp of the Allies in 1813. But his whole correspondence
at this period shows that he despaired of success on his own
side, owing to the inconceivable folly and irresolution of Pom-
pey, and the distracted counsels of the leaders of the party.
According to Caesar's own account, Pompey wished to open
a negotiation with him, and employed for that purpose a young
man named Lucius Caesar (the son of one of his lieutenants)
and the praetor Roscius, to urge him to agree to an amicable
settlement of the quarrel. To these two, therefore, he de-
livered his ultimatum, and they brought it to Pompey and
the consuls, who were at Theanum, on the 25th of January.
It was briefly this : Let both disband their armies, and
Pompey go to his province in Spain. Throughout Italy let
arms be laid down ; and let the Senate and people, in their
free and lawful assembly, assume the government as usual.
Fairer terms than these cannot be imagined, if they meant
all that they expressed ;. and at all events it was madness in
Pompey and his friends not to close with them. The ac-
counts given by Cicero and Caesar slightly differ as to the
purport of the answer. According to Cicero the terms were
accepted ; but it was made a condition that Caesar should
withdraw his troops from any towns he had occupied beyond
the limits of his province. If he would do this they would
all return to Rome, and leave it to the Senate to adjust the
dispute. 1 Caesar, however, says that it was also made a con-
dition that he should return to Gaul, in which case only
Pompey would go to Spain ; and he was told that until they
had security that he would fulfil his engagements the levy of
troops would be pressed on. At all events, the negotiation
led to nothing, and Caesar at once advanced. His troops
rapidly occupied the towns of Arretium, Pisaurum, Fanum,
Ancona, and other places ; and overran the Picenum (a
territory corresponding to the modern Marches) and part
of the Abruzzi. Cicero in the meantime had proceeded to
Capua, where there were some fears least a number of gladi-
1 Cicero complained of the folly of an incompetent person named Sestius,
Pompey in entrusting the drawing up instead of writing it himself cum scrip-
of this important despatch, on which tor luciilcn-tus cssct. Accordingly, he
hinged the question of peace or war, and says he never read anything more Ses-
which was sure to be much criticised, to tius-like. Ad Att. vii. 17.
B.C. 50-49. DESIRE FOR PEACE. 357
ators belonging to Caesar might disturb order; but Pompey
judiciously billeted them in pairs amongst the householders,
and they were kept quiet.
At Capua a council of war was held, at which Cicero and
the consuls were present. All, with one exception, Favo-
nius, were anxious that Caesar should accept their terms,
which in fact were his own, with the addition of the clause
about withdrawing his garrisons. Even Cato agreed with
the rest ; and, to use Cicero's expression, he preferred servi-
tude to war. He himself was a strong advocate for concilia-
tion, declaring that he preferred an unjust peace to the most
just war. His voice, like that of Falkland in our own civil
war, was continually crying "Peace! peace !" But he spoke
to men who were blinded by passion and deaf to reason ; l
and as long as there was any chance of averting war he took
care not to do any act which might compromise him with
Caesar. Trebatius wrote to him and begged him to return
to Rome, telling him that he did so at Caesar's request, and
that nothing would gratify Caesar more. To this Cicero,
who was then at his Formian villa, replied that he was
merely staying at his country seat, and not engaged in levy-
ing soldiers, nor indeed in any public business at all. In
mentioning this to Atticus he added, " But if war breaks
out I will not be wanting to my duty or my honour, when I
have placed the boys (his son and nephew) in safety in Greece."
Leaving his family at the villa, he returned to Capua in
a violent storm of rain. He there wrote to Atticus, and
expressed himself in terms of the warmest indignation at
the conduct of Caesar in continuing hostile operations while
negotiations were pending. He called him an abandoned
robber; but at the same time he bitterly complained of the
inertness of Pompey, who seemed quite prostrated, and was
allowing them all to drift into war without chart or compass.
He still cherished the hope that Caesar would accede to the
terms they proposed, and intended in that case to go with
Pompey into Spain. He was annoyed at the conduct of
Dionysius, the tutor of the two young Ciceros, for he ex-
pected that he would have followed them ; but instead of
that he remained in Rome. But, said Cicero, it was useless
1 Unice cavente Cicerone concordiae publics. Veil. Pat. ii. 48.
35 8 CIVIL WAR.
CHAP. XVIII.
to expect much from a Greek. 1 He seems to have wished
to borrow some money from him, for he tells Atticus that
Dionysius did at last come to him when he was at his For-
mian villa, and made excuses that he did not know where
his cash was, and could not get others to pay their debts.
He also intimated his desire not to continue in Cicero's
family, who thereupon dismissed him sorry, he says, to lose
him as a tutor, but glad to part with him on account of his
ingratitude. It is curious to see how he allowed his feelings
to overpower his judgment and betray him into inconsistency.
He had always formerly spoken of Dionysius in high terms,
and praised him as a tutor. He now called him a chatterer
and a scamp, and declared that he was by no means a good
instructor, although he admitted that he possessed a capital
memory. In fact, he was excessively angry with him, and said
that when he asked him to come to him he sent him a flat
and rude refusal. 2 Cicero then undertook the education of
his son and nephew himself. He left Capua on the 7th of
February, and went to Cales (the modern Calvi), a town in
Campana through which the Via Latina passed, from which
place he wrote to Atticus, giving a deplorable account of
Pompey's weakness and the melancholy state of affairs. The
recruiting officers were so frightened at the idea of Caesar's
approach that they did not dare to show their faces, and the
levy was in fact stopped, Pompey ordered the consuls to
go to Rome, and take the money out of the treasury. It
is not easy to see what authority he had to impose com-
mands on these high magistrates, except that he was looked
upon as a kind of dictator ; but at all events Lentulus wrote
back a sarcastic answer, and told him to go first into the
Picenum. He knew that this was more easily said than
done, for Caesar was already there. Cicero was distracted.
He predicted that Caesar would soon be in Apulia, and Pom-
pey would take to shipboard ; and so it happened. In the
1 Intone respect these old Romans just then it was impossible to borrow or
had not much to pride themselves upon raise the money, and he had none with
by way of contrast. They were per- him.
petually getting into debt. In the same 2 He must not be confounded with a
letter in which Cicero complains of slave of Cicero named Dionysius, who
Dionysius he mentions that Quintus a year or two afterwards pilfered some
was annoyed at being asked by Atticus books from his library, and fled from
to discharge a debt he owed him, for Italy into Greece.
JET. 57-58. CAESAR INVESTS CORFINIUM. 359
meantime he went back to his Formian villa, and there
received letters from Rome which gave rather a cheering
account of the prospects of his party. But he was not to
be deceived. He said, " I fear they are all dreams ;" although
Lepidus, Torquatus, and Cassius, who were with him, took a
less gloomy view. The idea that Pompey was flying, and
Caesar in pursuit, was intolerable to him. "Why don't we,"
he cried, in the agony of despair, " place our bodies before
him and save his life ? But what can we do ? We are van-
quished, crushed, captured." Even now he clung to Pompey
with a fidelity which is only explicable on the theory that
he thoroughly believed his cause was just ; and he still loved
the man, notwithstanding the painful conviction that was
forced upon him that he was imbecile as a leader. At this
very time he declared that he would willingly die for him j 1
and he repeated this in another letter, in which, notwith-
standing, he said that no baser act was ever done by a
statesman than that by Pompey in abandoning Rome. He
was, however, not sorry to hear that Caesar, so far from being
displeased, was gratified at his conduct, " an impression,"
he said, " which I gladly allow him to entertain, provided
that I keep my honour untarnished as heretofore."
It does not fall within the scope of this work to describe
the events of the war farther than as they affected the fortunes
of Cicero, and I will therefore give only a rapid summary of
them. Domitius, the newly-appointed proconsul of Gaul,
had thrown himself into Corfinium, in the territory now called
the Abruzzi, and held it with a considerable force of hastily-
collected levies. We can well imagine that Caesar was not
sorry to have an opportunity of punishing the presumption
of the man who ventured to assume a government which he
himself had not vacated. He marched upon the town and
invested it. The soldiers who were in the neighbourhood
deserted to his standard and swelled the ranks of his army.
Domitius sent pressing letters to Pompey for assistance, but
received from him the cold-hearted reply that it was not by
his advice or wish that Corfinium had been occupied, and
that the best thing Domitius could do was to join him with
his whole force. One reason he assigned for this was, that
1 Pro quo emori cum pie possum, turn lubenter. Ad Att. vii. 23 ; Ib. viii. 2, ,
360 CIVIL WAR. CHAP. xvin.
he could not trust his own troops, so as to hazard everything
on the chances of a battle, and Caesar's army was larger than
his own ; and in fairness we must remember that the only
regular forces which Pompey had were the two legions de-
tached from Caesar's army, and well might he distrust them.
It was like employing the veterans of Marengo and Austerlitz
to oppose the march of Napoleon from Frejus to Paris in
1815. The result was, that Domitius tried privately to
escape, but was stopped by his soldiers, and they surrendered
the place to Caesar. This was fatal to Pompey, and virtually
decided the campaign in Italy. More than thirty cohorts
that garrisoned the place fell into the hands of the conqueror,
who gained still more by the generous use he made of his
success. A great number of senators and knights, and magis-
trates of the Italian towns, had taken refuge in Corfmium,
and these were his prisoners ; but he treated them kindly,
protected them from insult, and allowed them to depart un-
harmed, declaring that he had marched out of Cisalpine Gaul
to defend himself against his enemies, to restore the tribunes
to their authority, and to give freedom to the Roman people
who were oppressed by factions.
Pompey now hurried to Brundusium, the port from which
he could most easily escape, and Caesar followed close upon
him. Cicero called him a prodigy of vigilance and rapidity,
and this was one great cause of his success. He fairly con-
founded his adversaries by the lightning celerity of his move-
ments. Before this Pompey had written to Cicero to come
to Luceria, a town in Apulia, telling him he could be nowhere
more safe. Cicero wrote to Atticus, and informed him that
he had sent back the spirited answer that he did not care
about his safety, but that he would go there if it was in the
interest of Pompey or the Republic. We possess, however,
the letter which he wrote to Pompey, and we do not find
these words there. Atticus advised him not to abandon the
seaboard of Campania, if he wished to secure supplies for his
troops. Cicero saw plainly that the intention was flight
disgraceful and calamitous flight, as he did not scruple
to call it. His mind was in a painful state of perplexity.
At one moment he was resolved to sacrifice everything for
Pompey, whom he thought it base to desert in his adversity;
B.C. 50-49- CICERO'S INDECISION. 361
at another he wavered, and contemplated the idea of going
back to Rome. But a strange obstacle deterred him. Even
now he had not given up his hopes of a triumph, and he was
still attended by his lictors, whom, however, he calls, as he
well might, most troublesome companions; and he describes
the fasces as laurel fetters. He could not enter the city with
them unless a triumph was accorded to him ; and he could
not bear to dismiss them, and thus abandon his long-cherished
dream, idle and silly as it was at such a moment. If it were
not the duty of a biographer to state the truth, and in the
portrait he draws endeavour to give a faithful copy of the
original, it would be far more agreeable not to unveil the
weakness which Cicero displayed in this great emergency of
his life. The one thing lacking in his character was decision.
If there had been more of iron in his nature he would have
been not only, as he was, the first orator, but the first states-
man of his time. At this crisis no one saw more clearly than
he did that there were only two courses to pursue. Either
Caesar's terms must be complied with and he was ready to
make the concession to avoid a civil war or the most
energetic resistance must be offered, and every sinew strained
to meet him on equal terms in the field of battle. But never
was a great cause so miserably lost as now. There is only
one word to express our opinion, ay, and Cicero's opinion,
of Pompey's conduct. It was simply contemptible. But
this much must be said for Cicero. He believed the cause
to be right, and he clung to it. If he had consulted only
his own ease and safety, he would not have hesitated a
moment between the camp of Caesar and the camp of Pom-
pey. He foresaw that victory would be chained to the
eagles of the one, and forsake the standard of the other ; but
he deliberately chose the losing side, because he believed it
to be the side of his country. We may think that he
struggled for an object which was not worth preserving, but
we cannot impugn his patriotism or the purity of his motives.
If he had been a less conscientious, he would have been a
bolder, or at all events a more consistent man.
He set out to join Pompey at Luceria, but hearing that
Caesar was in the neighbourhood, turned back and retired
to his Formian villa, where he stayed some time, uncertain
362 CIVIL WAR. CHAP. XVIIL
where to go or what to do. He had a vessel ready for him
at Caieta, on the west coast, and another at Brundusium, on
the east, in case he wished to embark at either port. In the
meantime he kept up an active correspondence with Atticus,
but it would only weary the reader to pursue it in detail.
It reflected all the hopes and fears and passing rumours of
the moment, and it will be sufficient to notice a few points
of interest. By far the most important service conferred
by these letters on history is the insight we gain into the
designs of Pompey, and the estimate we are thereby able
to form of his pretensions to patriotism. Cicero distinctly
charges him with a longing desire to imitate the tyranny
of Sylla. The words, he says, were constantly on his lips,
" Sylla could do it ; why cannot I ?" He says, moreover,
that his plan was to expose Rome and Italy to the torments
of famine; and declares that he himself was present at a
discussion where it was proposed to starve the country into
submission by cutting off all the supplies from abroad. He
enumerates fifteen naval stations Alexandria, Colchis, Tyre,
Sidon, Aradus, Cyprus, Pamphylia, Lycia, Rhodes, Chios,
Byzantium, Lesbos, Smyrna, Miletus, and Coos where
ships were to be collected for the purpose of closing the
ports of the corn-producing provinces, and preventing the
export of provisions into Italy. Besides this he intended,
when he landed there on his return, if victorious, to lay
waste the country with fire and sword, and confiscate the
property of the rich. He promised to his soldiers that his
largess to them should be more bountiful than Caesar's, and
pointed to plunder as the means of fulfilling that promise. 1
This, then, to use the indignant language of De Quincey, was
" the horrid retaliation which he meditated upon all Italy,
by coming back with barbarous troops to make a wilderness
of the opulent land, and upon Rome in particular, by so
posting his blockading fleets and his cruisers as to intercept
all supplies of corn from Sicily, from the province of Africa,
and from Egypt." Cicero was horror-struck at the thought.
"What!" he cried, in an agony of shame, "could I, whom
some have called the saviour the father of Rome bear to
lead against her the barbarian hordes of Getae, Armenians
1 For proof of these facts see ad Att. viii. u, 16; ix. 7, 9.
JET. 57-58. INTENTIONS OF POMPEY. 363
and Colchians, and bring destruction upon Italy ?" He
called to mind the examples of antiquity : the impious acts
of Tarquinius, who brought Porsena and Octavius Mamilius
against his country of Coriolanus, who invoked the aid of
the Volscians of Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, who fell at
Marathon fighting against his fatherland ; and he contrasted
these with the noble conduct of Themistocles, who preferred
to die rather than be a traitor. Sylla, Marius, and Cinna,
might, perhaps, he said, have had right and law on their
side ; but what was more cruel, more fatal, than their vic-
tory ? How then was it possible for Cicero to continue to
follow the fortunes of a man of whose real character he had
just had such a revelation ? He confessed that the object
of Pompey and of Caesar was the same the possession of
power and neither cared for the happiness of his country. 1
He found that the idol of his affections was not merely
deficient in all the qualities of a statesman, but had not
even military capacity. The astounding truth was forced
upon him that Pompey was no general
Vergentibus annis
In senium, longoque togre tranquillio usu
Dedidicit jam pace dueem.
He had been victorious formerly in Spain, he had swept the
Mediterranean of pirates, he had conquered Mithridates, and
upon the fame of these achievements his reputation as a soldier
had become colossal. But now he was flying from Csesar like
a frightened hare. He had left Rome to its fate, made^no
attempt to relieve Corfinium, abandoned Picenum and Cam-
pania, and was bent only upon a successful escape by sea
from Brundusium. The disenchantment was complete ; and
Cicero, in the most explicit manner, admits this in his confi-
dential correspondence with Atticus. Take one passage as
a sample. He says
"You remind me, with approval, that I once said I would rather be
vanquished with Pompey than victorious with the other side. Well, I would
rather ; but with that Pompey as he then was, or as he seemed to me to be :
not with this, who flies before he knows whom he is flying from, or whither
who has betrayed our cause, has abandoned his country, and is now abandoning
Italy." 2
1 Dominatio quassita ab utroque est : ut nos beati simus : uterque regnare
non id actum, beata et honesta civitas vult. Ad Att. viii. n.
ut esset . . . sed neutri <nco7r6s est ille, 2 Ad Att. viii. 7.
364 CIVIL WAR. CHAP, xviir.
The question therefore irresistibly occurs, Why did he
still cling to a man whose success he saw would be fraught
with such unspeakable calamity to his country 2 1 It is
useless to speculate on reasons when we have that which he
himself assigns, and thought sufficient. " I think," he said,
" that he has deserved so well of me that I dare not incur
the crime of ingratitude." ' And in another passage : " I
call to mind his kindnesses, I call to mind also his position.
I think his services to me deserve the price of my
life." 3 This was all. Cicero felt himself so bound by the
ties of gratitude to Pompey that he was ready to follow
him to the death ; and he meant this literally, for he was no
coward in the vulgar sense of the term. He quoted that
fine line of Euripides,
T/s 8' &rrt SoOXos TOV Oaveiv &<f>povTLs &v
No slave is he whom Death doth not affright.
And the closing scene of his life showed that this was no idle
boast. But he enormously exaggerated the obligations he
was under to Pompey. When he spoke of his services to
himself he referred to his exertions in recalling him from
banishment. It is one of the most amiable traits in his
character that he was more sensible of a kindness than a
wrong. 4 He forgot the injury, and remembered only the
reparation ; otherwise he might have resented the coldness
with which Pompey had treated him in his hour of adversity,
and his abandonment by the man for whom he was now
ready to sacrifice everything. Atticus reminded him of this,
and he admitted it himself. " True it is," he said, " that
Pompey gave me no assistance when it was in his power to
do so, although afterwards he showed me great friendship
why I know not." But he purposely exaggerated the obli-
gation that he might not appear to remember the injury. It
was now not the cause, but the individual that attracted him.
The point of view from which he had at first regarded the
1 Conjungoque me cum homine magis etiam dignitatem. . . . Ego vero hsec
ad vastandam. Italiam quam ad vincen- officia mercanda vita puto. Ad Att.
dum parato. Ad Alt. viii. 16. xi. 5.
2 Sed ita meruisse ilium de me puto,
ut axapiffTias crimen subire non audeam. 4 Plus apud me valere beneficii gra-
Ad Att. ix. 7; see also ix. 2. tiam, quam injuriae dolorem, volo.
3 Beneficia ejusdem cogito ; cogito Ad Att. ix. 9.
B.C. 50-49- FEELING IN ITAL Y. 365
contest was changing. He hardly deluded himself any longer
with the idea that the side of Pompey was the side of the
constitution ; and he declared that he would not, if he could,
assist him in the pestilent war he intended to carry on.
When he was told that the optimates found fault with him,
he asked with scorn, "What optimates? Just Heaven!"
There was not a leading man amongst them, except perhaps
Cato, whom he respected scarcely one whom he did not
speak of with contempt. The consuls he compared to a leaf
or a feather : Domitius was a fool ; and Appius Claudius
fickleness itself.
But what in the meantime was the feeling of the popula-
tion of Italy on the question at issue, while the tramp of
contending legions was heavy on the soil? We know, on
the authority of Cicero, that it was apathy and indifference.
He conversed with numbers of the townspeople and peasantry,
and found that they cared for nothing but the safety of their
property ; but as regarded the rival leaders, the contrast in
their actions had produced a complete revulsion in the minds
of the people. They had formerly had confidence in Pompey;
they now feared him : they had formerly feared Caesar ; they
now liked him. And this, he says, was brought about by
the blunders and faults of his own party. They reverenced
Caesar as a god : and that too, he adds, without the hypo-
crisy which made them offer up vows for Pompey's recovery
when he was ill ; and if it was said, " Ay, they are afraid,"
his answer was, "Yes, afraid of Pompey." They feared
his passionate resentment, and were won by the politic
(Cicero calls it insidious) clemency of Caesar.
In one of his letters Cicero argues the case on both sides
as to what his conduct ought to be, and it is curious to ob-
serve how he balances the reasons for and against joining
either side. It is worth while to quote them to show the
perplexity of his mind, and this explains his irresolution and
inconsistency, which are so painfully apparent at this period.
In favour of Pompey he urged his services to himself and
the " cause of the republic," for at times he still tried to
persuade himself that that sacred name was for him
" A tower of strength
Which they upon the adverse faction want."
366 CIVIL WAR. CHAP. xvur.
Besides if he stayed he must fall into Caesar's power, and he
was not satisfied how far he might trust his professions of
friendship. Again he had to consider whether, as a brave
man and a good citizen, he could with honour remain in a
city where he had held the highest honours, both civil and
religious, and acted so conspicuous a part, but where now he
would no longer be his own master ; and where also he
might incur some peril, and perhaps disgrace, if Pompey
were restored. This was one side of the picture : now for
the other. Since the beginning of the struggle Pompey had
not done a single wise or courageous action not one which
was not contrary to Cicero's advice and wish. He reviewed
his conduct previously, and went through the catalogue of
his political mistakes. He it was who gave Caesar power,
and put arms into his hands to be turned against the State.
He was the author of laws which passed by violence and in
defiance of the auspices. He added Transalpine to Cisalpine
Gaul as the proconsulate of Caesar. He sought his alliance
and became his son-in-law. He sanctioned, by his presence
as augur, the adoption of Clodius. He showed more zeal in
restoring than in retaining Cicero when exile was his lot.
He prolonged the period of Caesar's government, and was his
thick-and-thin supporter in his absence. During his third
consulship, when he really began to defend the interests of
the republic, it was at his instance that the tribunes brought
forward a motion for allowing Caesar to be a candidate for
the consulship in his absence, and he carried the law which
was passed to that effect. When Marcus Marcellus the con-
sul wished the Senate to fix the I st of March as the day
on which Caesar's proconsulate should cease, he it was who
resisted the proposal. To turn to later acts, what could be
more disgraceful than his departure, or rather his cowardly
flight, from Rome ? What terms ought he not to have accepted
rather than abandon his country ? The terms offered were
not good as Cicero allowed but was anything worse than
this ? As to the plea that he would recover his lost ground
and restore the republic, he asked, when ? What prepara-
tions were made to justify such a hope ? Was not the
whole of the Picenum lost ? Was not the road open to the
city ? Had not all the public treasure and private wealth
JET. 57-58. MENTAL CONFLICT. 367
in Rome been abandoned to the enemy ? To sum up all,
there was no cause round which to rally, no strength, no
ground to stand upon for those who wished the republic to
be defended. Apulia was chosen as the strategical position
Apulia, the weakest part of Italy, and the most remote
from the actual scene of war ; and it looked very much as
if it was because its sea-coast and ports afforded the most con-
venient opportunity for flight.
Such was the dark catalogue of charges which Cicero
brought against Pompey. It is impossible not to see that
in the bitterness of his soul he was far more angry with him
than with Caesar, and puts the case most strongly against
his side. He next proceeds to discuss the question whether
he ought to follow Pompey across the sea or remain in
Italy.
At this juncture his state of mind was exactly that of the
man described by the poet,
* ' Whose bauldest thought was but a hankering swither
Whither to rin or stay."
Pompey had fled to Brundusium at the end of February, and
was rapidly followed by Caesar, who invested the place so
closely by land as to cut off all communication on that side.
Cicero's distraction in the meantime assumed almost the
form of insanity. His inconsistency amounted to incoher-
ence. In one and the same breath he upbraided Pompey
in language of passionate reproach, and upbraided himself
for appearing to desert him.
" I have been," he cried, " a fool from the beginning, and I am con-
stantly tormented because I have not followed Pompey like a private in the ranks,
failing as he is in everything, or rather rushing on destruction. I saw him on
the i Qth of January terror-stricken. On that very day I saw what he was about.
He has never pleased me since, and he has never ceased to commit blunder after
blunder. In the meantime he never wrote to me never meditated anything but
flight. As in love affairs, women who are dirty, stupid, and ugly, revolt us, so
the baseness of his flight and his neglect turned me away from love. For he has
done nothing which justified me in becoming the companion of his flight. Now
my love for him arises now I cannot resist the longing I feel after him now
books, literature, and studies avail me nothing. Day and night, like a sea-bird
gazing on the ocean, I wish to flee away."
If the object of all this idolatry had been more worthy of
his affection, we might pity but yet admire him. We can
sympathise with the feelings of the man
" Who dotes, yet doubts ; suspects, yet strongly loves; "
368 CIVIL WAR. CHAP. xvm.
and even as it is, the desperate fidelity with which Cicero
clung to Pompey in his fallen fortunes deserves our respect.
We have seen what was his own statement of the case. His
judgment and his feelings were at war ; his heart was at
variance with his head. The conflict was too much for him,
and he candidly admits his inconsistency. To Atticus, the
friend of his soul, he did not scruple to confess that he often
veered and changed in his views. Battling with himself, and
torn with doubt, he was unable to see clearly what was the
right course to take. But what do we say that he ought to
have done ? I think that when he discovered the iniquity
of Pompey's plans when he had satisfied himself that
vengeance had triumphed over patriotism, and that to lay
waste fair Italy with fire and sword was the object which
Pompey had in view it was his clear duty to leave him to
his fate. The dignified course then would have been to
observe a strict neutrality while the war raged and he did
seriously contemplate the idea of retiring to Malta ; but at
its close to have come forward and endeavoured to obtain
for his country the best terms she could make with the
conqueror.
And all that Caesar asked from him was neutrality. Dis-
sembling his real feelings, he professed to be gratified at
Cicero's conduct, and on his way to Brundusium wrote a few
hasty lines to thank him. He begged him to meet him at
Rome, where he hoped soon to be, and where he wished to
avail himself of Cicero's advice and influence. Balbus and
Oppius, who were at Rome, both wrote to him urging him to
remain neutral. They told him that Caesar felt that he
could not ask him to bear arms against Pompey, to whom
he was, or at all events imagined he was, under so much obli-
gation ; and that he would be abundantly satisfied if he took
no part in the war, and did not side with his enemies. Caesar
declared himself anxious to be reconciled with Pompey, and
in a letter he wrote to Balbus and Oppius expressed his de-
termination to make a gentle use of victory. " Let me
thus," he said, " endeavour, if I can, to win back the hearts
of all, and enjoy a lasting victory ; for other conquerors have,
by their cruelties, been unable to escape odium and keep
success long, with the single exception of Sylla, whom I do
not intend to imitate."
B.C. 50-49- LETTER TO C^SAR. 369
These were noble words, and the subsequent conduct of
Caesar showed that he was sincere. The galling part of the
letter was the determination it showed that he would be
master, and this Poinpey could not brook. In his reply to
the letter addressed to himself, Cicero said that he hoped
Caesar's meaning was, he wished to employ him as a peace-
maker ; and, if so, he was ready to undertake the office, for
which he thought no one was better qualified, as he had
always been the advocate of peace, and had taken no part
in the war ; and he made the important admission that he
considered the war against Caesar unjust, because it was an
attempt to deprive him of a command conferred upon him
by the Roman people. We must not, however, suppose that
this was his real opinion. Over and over again, in his confi-
dential correspondence with Atticus, he had said the direct
contrary : but his object was to ingratiate himself as much
as possible with Caesar ; and he little thought that his letters,
written in all the privacy of friendship, would be published,
and the inmost workings of his soul laid bare to the prying
curiosity of the world. His urgent request was, that Caesar
would take into account his relations with Pompey, and allow
him, without offence, to acquit himself towards him as grati-
tude demanded. He had, he said, for some years past,
courted the friendship of them both, and towards both had
still the same kindly feeling.
To while away the time and distract his thoughts, he
amused himself with the discussion of certain political pro-
blems, or theses, as he calls them, such, for instance, as
Ought we to stay in our native country when oppressed by
a despot ? May we resort to any means to get rid of a
tyranny ? Should the conspirator against it regard his own
safety ? and so forth ; a dozen of which may be seen
stated by him in Greek in one of his letters to Atticus. It
was a sad reverse of fortune for him to be reduced to the
occupation of writing themes like a schoolboy at his country-
house, instead of pouring forth the thunders of his eloquence
at Rome in the Forum or the Senate. Atticus had steadily
advised him not to leave Italy, and the advice of this saga-
cious friend had always great influence with him. In the
mental struggle which almost drove him frantic, it is con-
2B
370 CIVIL WAR. CHAP. xvm.
solatory to find that his chief anxiety still was to do what was
right The only thing he really feared was dishonour. The
phantom that scared him was the dread of disgrace, the a/V^oD
pavraff/a, as he calls it. For the sake of this we may forgive
him much.
To say that in some points his moral sense was not suffi-
ciently alive to what was wrong as, for instance, his inability
to see that Pompey's plan of carrying on the war, by its
wickedness, absolved him from all obligation to follow rum-
is only to say that pagan morality at the best was something
that fell short of Christian principle. Half-a-century had
yet to elapse before the great Teacher came to supply new
motives of action, and kindle the light of nature into a purer
and holier flame.
On the 1 7th of March Pompey embarked on board a
vessel, and abandoned Brundusium and Italy for ever. Caesar
entered the town on the following day, but was not able to
follow the fugitive even if he had wished, as he had no means
of transport. He therefore soon left the place to march upon
Rome, which was waiting in trembling submission to receive
her master. On the 2/th he was at Sinuessa (Rocca di
Mandragone], and the day before sent Cicero a short letter
in answer to one from him in which he had praised his
clemency at Corfinium. Caesar said that he did not repent
of the mercy he had shown, although he heard that those
whom he had released had gone abroad to engage in war
against him. In almost the identical terms of his former letter
he begged Cicero to meet him at Rome, and expressed the
satisfaction he felt at the conduct of his son-in-law Dolabella.
On the 28th he reached Formiae, and there he and Cicero met.
We have an account of this dreaded interview in a letter to
Atticus, the style of which is more than usually abrupt. It
is clear that the bearing of the formidable soldier offended
him, and he found him much less yielding and courteous
than he expected. We may give the conversation in the
form of a dialogue, keeping strictly to Cicero's own words.
He declared that he would not go to Rome.
Ccesar. This will be regarded as a censure on myself, and others will be more
reluctant to come in if you stay away.
Cicero. Their case is different from mine.
xx. 5 7 -5 8. INTER VIE W WITH C^SAR. 3 7 1
Caesar. Well then, come to treat of peace.
Cicero. At my discretion, do you mean ?
Ccesar. You don't think that I am going to dictate to you ?
Cicero. If I undertake the task I shall propose that the Senate disapprove of
your going into Spain, and carrying your army into Greece ; and I shall express
much sympathy for Pompey.
Ca:sar. I want nothing of the kind to be said.
Cicero. So I thought ; and on that veiy account I do not wish to go, because I
either must say this, and much more that I cannot be silent about, or not go
at all.
Caesar then said that if he could not have the benefit of
Cicero's counsel in the Senate he would resort to others, and
advised him to think the matter over. " Certainly," answered
Cicero ; and so they parted.
He told Atticus that he was quite satisfied with his own
conduct at this interview, which was more than he had been
able to say for a long time. But we may be permitted to
doubt whether the account he gives of the conversation, which
I have carefully translated, is quite correct. From the
character of the man it is probable that he was much more
obsequious than he would have Atticus suppose ; and it
would be curious to read Caesar's own version of what passed
if it had come down to us. There is, however, no doubt that
he was firm in his determination not to go to Rome. " How
could I," he asked in a subsequent letter, " sit in the Senate
alongside of Gabinius P" 1 And the retinue of Caesar disgusted
him. He felt towards them much as the courtiers of the
old French monarchy felt towards the upstarts of the Re-
volution. He saw amongst them faces known to him indeed,
but which he never expected to see encircling Caesar ; and
he said that there was not a rascal in Italy who had not
joined his standard.
The conduct of young Ouintus, his nephew, caused Cicero
just then much grief. It will be remembered that his uncle
said that he required the bridle and his cousin the spur ; but
he had been spoiled by his father's indulgence, which undid
all the good effect of Cicero's stricter discipline. His char-
acter wanted straightforwardness and sincerity, and there was
great difficulty in managing him ; but he had behaved kindly
and affectionately in the quarrels of his parents, and it was
through his interference chiefly that a divorce between them
1 Gabinius was recalled from banishment by Caesar.
372 CIVIL WAR. CHAP. xvm.
had not taken place ; and perhaps the act which now gave
so much offence to his uncle proceeded from a good motive.
He wrote to Caesar and told him that his father and uncle
intended to leave Italy ; and having, on some pretext or
other, gone to Rome, he had an interview with Caesar on the
same subject. Cicero and his father regarded this as an act
of base treachery, but really it may have been done out of
affection for them both, as the only means the young man
had of keeping them at home, which he may have thought
was the best thing for them. Cicero at first supposed that
he wished to endanger the safety of them both by exciting
Caesar's anger; but he afterwards acquitted him of this
wickedness, and said that avarice was at the bottom of his
conduct : he was in hopes of getting a reward for his infor-
mation. Cicero begged Atticus to believe that this was not
from any fault in his education, but his own natural propen-
sity to evil.
From his villa at Arpinum he went to stay a few days
with his brother in the country, and then betook himself to
his own Cuman villa, where he remained nearly a month.
He continued his correspondence with Atticus, but it is the
same old story. Curio had been appointed by Caesar pro-
praetor of Sicily, and on his way thither paid Cicero a flying
visit, attended, to his surprise, by six lictors with laurelled
fasces, which was quite unusual, as these implied that he had
gained some victory and claimed a triumph. Curio, however,
soon explained it by saying that Caesar had given them by
his own authority ; for he was angry with the Senate, and
considered himself now the fountain of honour. This was
significant of what was coming. Ccelius, who was on the
point of setting off to follow Caesar into Spain, wrote to
Cicero an affectionate letter, entreating him in the most
pressing terms to consult his own safety by joining Caesar,
or at all events take no rash step in following Pompey's
ruined fortunes until they returned from Spain. He warned
him that by-and-by Caesar would not show the same gentle-
ness to his enemies as he had shown hitherto ; for he was
angry, and his language was threatening. He advised him,
if he would not join them now, to go and stay in some quiet
town until the war was over, and he assured him that if he
B.C. 50-49. ADVICE OF CCELIUS. 373
did so Caesar would not be offended. Caesar himself also
wrote to him, and told him that he excused his not coming
to Rome, but that others complained that they did not re-
ceive the same indulgence from him as Cicero. They, how-
ever, were men whose sons were with Caesar's army that in-
vested Brundusium, and Cicero ridiculed the idea of their
having any scruples about taking their seats in the Senate.
He repeated to Atticus his conviction that both the leaders
were fighting for sole power, and that if Pompey conquered
he would use his victory like Sylla. Still he insisted that he
must avoid the charge of ingratitude towards him, and talked
of retiring to Malta, or some other similar place. He wrote
to Ccelius, in answer to a letter from him, that he would
gladly hide his head in any corner of Italy were it not for
the troublesome pomp of his lictors and the name of Impera-
tor which he bore. As to the designs imputed to him of
being about to go across the sea, he expressed himself with
caution, but emphatically protested that he would take no
part in civil war. He was not, he said, alarmed by the dark
hints which Ccelius threw out of possible injury to himself,
for he must bear his part in the general calamity. If the
republic continued to exist at all, he would leave his son a
sufficient patrimony in the inheritance of his name, and if it
was destroyed the young man would only share the common
lot of all.
As time went on he became more and more resolved to
leave Italy and follow Pompey. As long as there was a hope
of an accommodation he said he had been unwilling to do so,
for Caesar would have been offended with him even if recon-
ciled with Pompey ; and he confessed to Atticus that he had
no faith in the stability of Caesar's power, if he were victorious.
He had already made himself very unpopular at Rome, where
the people seem to have hissed him in the theatre, 1 and his
plunder of the treasury had disabused men's minds of the idea
of his wealth. Cicero said he did not believe his "reign"
would last six months. He must fall either by the hand of
his enemies (how true was this prophecy !) or by himself, for
he was his own worst enemy ; "and this," he added, "/ hope
I shall live to see, although it is time for me now to turn my
1 See ad Att. x. 12.
374 CIVIL WAR. CHAP. xvm.
thoughts to that eternal life of the hereafter, and not to the
short life of the present."
Caesar, who was on his way to Spain, wrote to him not
to commit himself on the losing side, and to observe a strict
neutrality between the contending parties. Antony, who was
now one of the tribunes, had been appointed propraetor of
Italy in his absence, and was making a sort of progress
through the country with his mistress, a ballet-dancer named
Cytheris, carried in a litter by his side, while his wife accom-
panied him. He wrote to him that he could not credit the
rumour that he was about to cross the sea, against the wishes
of his family and friends. " I assure you," he said, " that no
one is dearer to me than you, Caesar alone excepted ; and I
am certain that Caesar ranks Cicero amongst his dearest
friends." To this he replied that he was not unmindful of
his family and friends; but as he did not like to go about in
Italy attended by his lictors, he thought of embarking : he
had, however, not made up his mind. This brought an
answer from Antony in a very different tone. Cicero calls
it a laconic despatch, 1 written under the influence of wine.
Antony told him that it was his duty to see that no one
quitted Italy, and he could not allow him to go. Those who
were neutral stayed, and those who went took a side. If,
therefore, he -wished to leave, he must send and get leave
from Caesar, who he did not doubt would grant it. Cicero
expected a visit from the great man, but he passed on to
Capua without stopping to see him, and then sent him a mes-
sage to say that he had not called on him because he feared
Cicero was angry with him.
He had now quite made up his mind to cross the sea,
but being a miserable sailor, was afraid of the voyage, as he
would be obliged to embark in a small vessel or boat ; and
although it was the month of May, declared it was a bad
time of the year for sailing. He had a most unpleasant
recollection of his passage in the Rhodian ship when he
went from Athens to Asia Minor. Besides, the sea was
closely guarded, by Caesar's orders, to intercept fugitives,
1 <7Ki>TaX?7 Aa/cwptK^. This properly ligible. It was used as a sort of cipher.
was a stick or roller round which the The correspondent had a similar stick.
letter was wrapped to make it intel-
JET. 57-58. LEAVES ITALY. 375
none of whom were allowed to sail without a passport or
diploma, as it was called ; and Cicero thought that he would
have to hide himself on board some merchantman to escape
the vigilance of the cruisers. His strong desire was, that
Caesar should fail in Spain, but it was hoping against hope.
Cato held Sicily, but Curio was on his way to drive him
out of the island, and he left it at the end of April. In
money matters Cicero was in some difficulty. He fre-
quently alludes to the subject, both as regards himself and
Quintus, both of whom seem to have been always too ready
to resort to the expedient of borrowing, which was by no
means easy in such troubled times. He left his Cuman
villa before the middle of May, and went to his country seat
near Pompeii, in order the better to conceal his purpose of
leaving Italy, while a ship was getting ready. Here
Dionysius came to him, and excused himself from accom-
panying him to Greece on the ground of private affairs.
This pained Cicero, for he thought that Dionysius was
deserting him in adversity ; and yet, after what had already
passed between them, he could have expected nothing else.
He had here an opportunity, if he pleased, of making a
small diversion in favour of Pompey ; for the centurions of
three cohorts which were in Pompeii asked to have an inter-
view with him, offering to give up the town to him and
make him their captain. This, however, would have been a
mad enterprise, even if Cicero had been the kind of man to
undertake it. As it was, he suspected that it was a plan to
entrap him, and he declined to see them or have anything
to do with the scheme. For a long time he had suffered
from an affection of the eyes, which often prevented him
from writing, and obliged him to employ an amanuensis.
Atticus also was lying ill of fever and ague, which was of
rather an obstinate character; but the two friends constantly
corresponded, and hardly a day passed in which letters were
not interchanged between them.
On the i Qth of May his daughter Tullia gave birth, at
his Pompeian villa, to a seven months' son, a very weakly
child, which soon afterwards died. From this date until the
iith of June there is a blank in his correspondence. On
that day he embarked at Caieta, with his brother, his son,
376 CIVIL WAR. CHAP, xvm
and his nephew, on board a vessel to sail to the opposite
coast, and join Pompey. The last letter we have from him
this year is one he wrote on that day, as soon as he got on
board, to his wife and daughter, whom he left behind. He
had been for some time previously more than usually
dejected, but was now in better spirits, which he attributed
to the fact of his having thrown up a quantity of bile the
night before ; and perhaps also the fact of taking the
decisive step at last brought him some relief. Torn as his
mind had been by doubt and perplexity, " letting ' I dare
not' wait upon ' I would/ " he must have felt it better to
decide wrong than not to decide at all. His letter is kind
and affectionate. He says he would exhort them to forti-
tude if he did not know that they showed more of that,
quality than any of his own sex. He advised them to stay
at such of his villas as were farthest away from the soldiers,
and recommended them to remove their establishment of
slaves to his farm near Arpinum. He hoped himself to be
still able to defend the republic.
Caesar made himself master of Spain, and was declared
dictator by a law proposed by the praetor Lepidus. He
hastened back to Rome, where he stayed only eleven days ;
and after passing several measures one of which provided
that property should be valued by arbitrators as it stood
before the outbreak of the civil war, and that debts should
be paid according to that valuation- he laid down the
office of dictator, and hastened to Brundusium, where he
had ordered his army to assemble. This was in December.
He had means of transport for only seven legions, and with
these he crossed over to the opposite coast, leaving the rest
of his army to follow afterwards. He landed at a place
called Palaeste (Palasd) in Epirus, and stood face to face
with his enemy, who had so long been preparing for the
final struggle. It seems astonishing that Pompey did not
take advantage of Caesar's absence in Spain to try and
recover Italy. So far as we can see there was nothing to
have prevented him from marching upon Rome and occupy-
ing the capital, which would have placed Caesar at a great
disadvantage. There is no reason to suppose that he would
not have been welcomed by the people, with whom, as we
B.C. 50-49. IN POMPEY' S CAMP. 377
have seen, Caesar had already become unpopular. Is it
possible that he could have been afraid to measure swords
with Antony, who governed Italy as propraetor ? We are
so entirely in the dark as to what passed in the councils of
Pompey at this period, that we are driven to conjecture to
suggest motives for the faint-hearted policy he pursued.
He may have rested his hopes on his legions in Spain, and
waited to see the issue of the contest there ; but we can
imagine no better diversion in his favour than for him to
have crossed over from Epirus with all the troops he could
muster, and, crushing the feeble force of Antony, seized
possession of the defenceless capital.
Of the particulars of Cicero's arrival and reception in his
camp we know almost nothing. We are told indeed by
Plutarch that Cato upbraided him for his folly in coming to
them. He perhaps felt that their cause was desperate, and
did not wish to involve in its ruin a man like Cicero, whose
ability and eloquence would give him influence when peace
was restored, but who could be of no use in a struggle of
which the sole arbiter was the sword. According to the
same authority, he was slighted by Pompey, and little atten-
tion was paid to his suggestions. That this is true we can
readily believe. We know that, while they were both in
Italy, Cicero complained that he was not admitted to Pom-
pey's confidence, and that everything was done contrary to
his wishes and advice. He revenged himself by indulging
his sarcastic humour at the expense of his associates, which
irritated Pompey, and must have made him many enemies
in the army. 1 When he was reproached for coming late to
the camp, he answered, " By no means late, for I find nothing
ready here." On Pompey asking him, " Where is your son-
in-law?" he retorted, "With your father-in-law." When
Pompey promised the rights of citizenship to a Gaul who
1 There is no doubt that his caustic says became known to him by a book
wit often gave offence, and Macrobius of jests collected by one Furiiis Biba-
tells us that his enemies used to call him culus. See Saturn, ii. c. i. ii. His
"the consular buffoon" "consular- son-in-law Dolabella was of" short sta-
em scurram." He adds, that when he ture, and once, when Cicero saw him
defended men who were notoriously with a long sword at his side, he asked,
guilty he sometimes got them off by his " Who has tied that little fellow to his
jests ; and he mentions particularly the sword ?"
case of L. Flaccus, which Macrobius
378
CIVIL WAR.
CHAP. XVIII.
had deserted from Caesar, Cicero said, " This is a pretty
fellow to bestow the citizenship of a foreign country upon
Gauls, when he cannot restore us to our own." On some
one remarking after a defeat that they might cheer up, for
there were still seven eagles left in Pompey's camp, he re-
plied, " That would be good reason for encouragement if we
were going to fight against jackdaws." No wonder then,
that, as Macrobius tells us, Pompey exclaimed, " I wish
Cicero would go over to Caesar, in order to become afraid
of us."
POMPEY THE GREAT.
CHAPTER XIX.
DOMESTIC TROUBLES DIVORCE FROM TERENTIA DEATH
OF TULLIA SECOND MARRIAGE.
yt. 59-62. B.C. 48-45.
THE renewal of Cicero's correspondence, as it has come
down to us, begins with a letter to Atticus, dated from
Epirus, in February B.C. 48. It relates entirely to the
embarrassment of his affairs, caused in a great measure by
the mismanagement or misconduct of his steward Philotimus;
but almost immediately afterwards some property was left
him by will, which tended to relieve his anxiety on that
account. Another cause of disquiet just now was the dis-
tressed condition of his daughter Tullia, owing to the extra-
vagance of her husband Dolabella, who had spent the portion
of her dowry which had already been paid, and Cicero was
afraid that the rest would go in the same manner. Ccelius,
who was praetor, wrote to him from Rome in a tone of great
dissatisfaction with the state of things there. Indeed, he
380 LOAN TO POMPEY. CHAP. xix.
used language which would have been treason if there had
been a settled government at Rome, and which at all events
was treachery. " You are all asleep. You do not seem to
understand our weak points, nor how weak we are. What
are you about yonder ? Are you waiting for a pitched
battle, which is our best chance ? I don't know what your
forces are. Ours are accustomed to fight stubbornly, and
bear cold and hunger easily." He heard also from his son-
in-law Dolabella, who addressed him as "my dearest Cicero"
(mi jucundissime Cicero\ although a divorce between him-
self and Tullia was then imminent, and he pointed out the
hopelessness of the cause he had embraced. He advised him,
if Pompey was driven out of Epirus, and attempted to carry
on the war elsewhere, to abandon him to his fate and retire
to Athens, or some other quiet town, where he would join
him if possible. We find three letters from Cicero to his
wife at this period, inquiring kindly after her health, and in
his usual tone towards her. This would not be worth men-
tioning, were it not for the divorce which before very long
took place between them, the cause of which is so obscure ;
and it is important to notice, that up to this time they
appear to have been on the best possible terms. We do not
find the slightest trace of any quarrel between them, nor the
faintest hint that Cicero had any cause to complain of her
temper, which, on the sole authority of Plutarch, has been so
generally assumed to be bad.
Although his affairs were by no means in a flourishing
position, it appears that he was able at this time to lend a
large sum of money to Pompey, chiefly, as he candidly con-
fesses to Atticus, because he thought that if his side was
successful such an act would redound to his credit. One of
the most puzzling things to understand clearly is how, in the
midst of apparent distress and difficulty, both he and Quintus
were always able to find money. They had no scruple in
borrowing, but we do not know what security they had to
offer. A short time before this Cicero had received from
the agents of Atticus in Epirus a sum of money and a
supply of clothes ; and he wrote and told him to borrow
money in his name from his friends. He said they would
probably require his seal or handwriting as a security,
B.C. 48-45- RETURN TO ITALY. 381
but Atticus was to tell them that for safety's sake he ab-
stained from sending either.
His next letter to Atticus this year was written in July,
just after a battle had been fought near Dyrrachium, in
which Pompey was victorious. It was the last gleam of
success that shone upon his standard. He had conducted
the campaign in Epirus with vigour and ability, and more
than once Caesar was on the point of being crushed. A
break now occurs in Cicero's correspondence until November.
In the meantime the decisive battle of Pharsalia was fought,
and Pompey fled to Egypt, to perish there by the sword of
an assassin. Plutarch tells us that when the news of Pom-
pey 's defeat at Pharsalia reached Dyrrachium, where Cato
and Cicero both were with fifteen cohorts, besides a con-
siderable fleet, Cato wished Cicero to take the office of com-
mander-in-chief ; and that on his refusal to assume a post
for which he was so little fitted, young Pompey and his
friends called him "traitor!" and drew their swords upon
him. Cato, however, interposed, and with some difficulty
rescued him and brought him out of the camp.
In November he returned to Italy, and landed at Brun-
dusium. His wife immediately wrote to him, expressing her
joy at his arrival, and offering to go and meet him. He,
however, dissuaded her from this, on the ground that the
journey was long and unsafe ; and added coldly, as we
should think that he did not see what good she could do
if she did come. Atticus advised him to approach nearer
Rome, and travel by night to avoid observation ; but Cicero
objected on account of the inconvenience of the inns or
stopping-places in which, in that case, he would have to pass
the day-time ; and he gave what really seems a laughable
reason for not going nearer to Rome. He was still attended
by those unlucky lictors an incubus which clung to him like
the Old Man of the Sea on the neck of Sinbad the Sailor,
and which he could not bring himself to shake off". The
people, he said, had given them to him, and he could not
part with them. When he entered Brundusium, however,
being afraid that he might be attacked by the soldiers, he
made them slip into the crowd that they might pass unob-
served. He was ill both in body and mind. He was afraid
382 SELF-REPROACH. CHAP. xix.
that Caesar might be angry at his coming to Italy without
his permission ; and, to increase his perplexity, Antony sent
him a copy of a letter from Caesar, forbidding any of Pom-
pey's late adherents to return without his express sanction,
and added that he had no option, but must obey the orders
he had received. But Cicero, through the medium of a friend,
informed Antony that Caesar had directed Dolabella to
write to him, and tell him he might come to Italy as soon
as he pleased. Upon this Antony offered to except him
and Ccelius by name under a special edict, but this Cicero
declined. He was afraid that it would point him out too
prominently as a deserter from the side of Pompey ; and he
was not without an uneasy apprehension that possibly that
side might prove victorious, in which case any special ex-
ception by Caesar in his favour would expose him to the
vengeance of his late associates. It seems, however, that the
edict was promulgated contrary to his wish. 1 With his usual
indecision, he repented the step he had taken in coming to
Italy, and wished he had stayed away until he was formally
summoned to return. He did not, however, at all repent that
he had ceased to have anything to do with the war. His spirit
revolted at the cruelties he had witnessed, and still more at
the atrocious plans which Pompey had formed in case he was
successful. He told Atticus that a proscription had been
determined on not only against individuals, but whole classes,
and the property of all Caesar's adherents was to be confis-
cated. Atticus himself was included by name as one of the
intended victims. He also could not bear the idea of having
barbarous hordes as allies to fight against the legions of
Rome. Still, he feared lest by possibility the issue of the
contest in Africa might be in favour of the side of Pompey.
"And then," he cried despairingly to Atticus, "you see what
will become of me. Ay ! but you will say, ' What will be-
come of them if they are beaten ? ' Their fate will be more
honourable than mine." By this he meant that the other
leaders would at all events fall fighting bravely to the last,
whereas he would be branded as a deserter and an apostate.
Such was the unhappy view he took of his own position, and
he was constantly tormented by self-reproach.
1 See ad Att. xi. 9.
/ET. 59-62. QUARREL WITH QUINTUS. 383
At the end of November he heard of the death of Pompey.
He alludes to it in terms of less feeling than we should have
expected, considering his devoted attachment to him. Per-
haps the closer contact into which he had been brought with
him in the camp, and his knowledge of the pitiless revenge
he intended to take if victorious, had cooled the warmth of
his friendship. He told Atticus that he had never doubted,
after the battle of Pharsalia, what Pompey's end would be ;
for in the desperate state of his fortunes he had not a king
nor a people on his side. " I cannot," he said, " but deplore
his fate ; for I knew him to be an upright, pure, and earnest
man."
The health of his beloved daughter Tullia at this time
caused him great uneasiness, and he wrote to his wife saying
that he well knew she was as much distressed as himself.
Poor Tullia had a worthless husband, and was reduced almost
to penury by his extravagance. Cicero earnestly besought
Atticus to take care of her, and told him that he wrote
with tears bursting from his eyes. To add to his sorrow,
his brother Quintus had now quarrelled with him. They
had parted at Patrae on bad terms, the exact cause of which
is by no means clear ; but it seems probable, from several
passages in Cicero's correspondence, that Quintus imagined
that his brother had tried to make his peace with Caesar by
throwing upon him the blame of the step he had taken in
following Pompey to Epirus. Very likely Quintus had
strongly advised him to leave Italy. At all events Quintus,
who had sent his son to Caesar to entreat his forgiveness,
declared that he was opposed by Cicero's influence, and
retorted by making him the scapegoat of their joint offence.
With the hasty and impulsive vehemence of his nature, he
spoke in the harshest terms of his brother. The charge,
however, was utterly untrue, and Caesar himself refuted it.
Nothing afflicted Cicero more than the alienation of a
brother whom he had loved so warmly, and who had
hitherto shown such affection towards himself
" Alas ! they had been friends in youth;
But whispering tongues can poison truth;
And constancy dwells in realms above ;
And life is thorny, and youth is vain ;
And to be wroth with one we love
Doth work like madness in the brain."
384 FRIENDSHIP WITH ATTIC US. CHAP. xix.
It so affected his health that for a time he took to his" bed.
It was, he said, incredible that it should have happened.
Amidst all this imhappiness the year ended.
The new year, B.C. 47, opened without any consuls.
Csesar had been again created dictator, and Antony was his
master of horse. This state of things lasted until Coesar's
return to Rome from Egypt, when he allowed Q. Fufius
Calenus and P. Vatinius, whom he had recalled from banish-
ment, to be elected consuls for the short remaining period
of the year, but took care to have himself and M. ^Emilius
Lepidus nominated for the following year.
It is painful to read the letters in which Cicero gives vent
to his feelings of self-reproach. As Abeken justly remarks,
few men have exposed themselves so fully to hostile criti-
cism, for few have had such a friend as Atticus to whom
they have unburdened their hearts with such absolute unre-
serve. It was like thinking aloud. Every transient phase
of feeling is reflected in his letters as in a mirror. The half-
formed plan, the sudden impulse, the hasty change, are all
recorded "graven in a rock for ever;" and by the publi-
cation of his private correspondence, which he could never
have anticipated, the most secret thoughts of his soul have
become known. In the whole history of literature I know
no case where friend has communicated with friend for a
long series of years nay, for a whole life on terms of
such absolute confidence as these two distinguished men.
They realised the blessings of friendship in its most compre-
hensive sense ; but Cicero pays the penalty of his frankness
by having the whole world taken into his secrets. It is
unfortunate that all the letters of Atticus are lost. So far
as we can see, his judgment was sound; and Cicero hardly
ever neglected his advice without seeing reason afterwards
to repent his mistake. Atticus was a man of a cold and
calm temperament, with a keen eye to his own interest; but
he was just the kind of counsellor to guide in the path of
prudence a man of such a warm and excitable disposition
as Cicero. We may be very sure that not even Atticus
would have had influence with him sufficient to make him
do anything which he believed to be incompatible with his
honour; but if he had listened to him more attentively he
B.C. 48-45- LETTER-OPENING. 385
would have steered a steadier course amidst the whirlpools
and billows in which the ship of the republic at last went
down.
In the first letter written from Brundusium in January
he had said, " I am lost by my own fault. I owe no mis-
fortune to chance. I have to blame myself for all the
sorrows which have been brought upon me." But he now
declared that in following Pompey to Epirus he had yielded
to the persuasion of his family, or rather obeyed their direc-
tions ; and he specially named his brother Quintus as having
instigated him to take that step. But it is due to him to
mention, that he was of too generous a nature to injure his
brother by saying anything of the kind to Caesar. He wrote
to Caesar, and earnestly absolved Quintus from having given
any advice which could offend him, declaring that his brother
had been rather the companion than the instigator of his
flight; and he entreated him not to allow his own conduct
to operate in any way to the disadvantage of his brother.
This was before he had discovered the extent to which
Quintus had wronged him ; but when he did discover it, he
declared that this should make no difference in his endeavour
to reconcile Caesar to his brother. 1
A despatch was brought to Cicero at Brundusium contain-
ing letters from his brother to Vatinius, Ligurius, and others.
He sent on those addressed to Vatinius and Ligurius, who
seem to have been in the neighbourhood of the town. They
immediately came to him and showed him their letters,
which were full of bitter reproaches against himself. Upon
this Cicero determined to see what the contents of the others
were, excusing the act on the ground that it was for Quintus's
interest not to allow such discreditable proceedings to spread
further. He opened the letters, and having read them, sent
them to Atticus, that he might exercise his discretion whether
he \vould forward them to their destination or not. He told
him that as Pomponia had her husband's seal, they could be
resealed by her, and then sent to their respective addresses.
I have already noticed a previous instance of letter-opening
by Cicero, and in neither case can the act be justified. What
he ought to have done was to decline to forward the letters
1 Ego tamen is ero qui semper fui. Ad Att. xi.
2 C
386 PECUNIARY DIFFICULTIES. CHAP. xix.
if he suspected that they contained false accusations against
himself, and he might have apprised Quintus of this ; but
on no account should he have read them. His nephew also
behaved with great animosity towards him ; and the young
man showed a friend of Cicero at Ephesus a written speech
which he had prepared, and intended to deliver in accusation
of his uncle when he obtained an interview with Caesar. So
afraid was he of the effect which these calumnies might have
on Caesar's mind, that he looked forward to the possibility of
a confiscation of his own and Terentia's property, and darkly
hinted at suicide. The thought that Tullia would be left an
orphan and in want was agonising to him. In the language
of passionate despair he exclaimed, " I write this on my
birthday a day on which would to God that I had never
been born, or at all events that my mother had not after-
wards borne another son !" These last words were wrung
from him by the recollection of the conduct of his brother.
But he felt by no means sure that Caesar would ultimately
become master of the Roman world. He heard that the
republican party was strong in Africa, that Italy was dis-
affected, and Rome alienated from the conqueror. He even
credited the rumour that his legions had begun to waver in
their attachment to him. All this increased his perplexity,
for he was placed between two fires, and the success of either
side might be fatal to himself.
He was, as might be expected, in pecuniary difficulties.
He had sold or mortgaged a farm near Frusinum (Frussi*
lone), retaining a right of redemption ; but he was afraid
that he would be unable to purchase it back again. He
attributed his present embarrassment to the large sum he had
lent to Pompey, and he had borrowed money from Atticus's
bailiff in Epirus, and from other quarters, partly to supply
the necessities of his brother. At this time another legacy,
or " inheritance" in the Roman sense, was left to him by a
person named Galeo ; but the amount is not stated, only it
appears to have been the whole of Galeo's property, or, as it
was called, a cretio simplex} He was anxious that his wife
1 The word cretio meant the act of The form of acceptance was this :
election by which the person who was " Quum me Mcevius hseredem consti-
constituted "heir" determined to ac- tuerit, earn hereditatem adeo cenio-
cept the property with all its liabilities. que."
ALT. 59-62. ANIMOSITY OF QUINTUS. 387
should make her will, and provide for the payment of the
debts she owed ; for it must be remembered that the Roman
law differed from our own, and did not give the husband
the absolute ownership of the wife's personal property. And
here for the first time we have a hint that Cicero was dis-
satisfied with his wife's conduct in the management of her
affairs, and perhaps of his own. He uses the strong ex-
pression, that he had heard from Philotimus, his steward,
that she was acting " wickedly" a thing, he adds, which
was scarcely credible..
Quintus wrote to him to vindicate himself; but in a tone
of such animosity that Cicero declared it was worse than
when he accused him to his face. He says that Quintus
took advantage of his crushed fortunes to display all his ill-
will towards him. It is melancholy to find such waters of
bitterness flowing between two brothers who hitherto had
been united by the bonds of closest affection ; but, so far as
appears from his correspondence, Cicero was not to blame.
Misfortune had made Quintus unjust, and his son seems to
have behaved with the grossest ingratitude towards his uncle.
To all this was added the sting of self-reproach. He was
now convinced that he had done wrong in returning to Italy,
and the pang was increased by the consideration that, with
the exception of Laelius, he was the only one of Pompey's
adherents who was in that predicament. The chief leaders
of the party were in Africa, prepared to carry on the war
there, and others, who wavered, remained in Greece, intend-
ing to sue for pardon from Caesar.
Tullia came to him at Brundusium in June, but even her
affection could not console his sinking spirit. It rather
added to his sorrow to see his beloved daughter in such
distress. A divorce between her and her husband was
openly talked of, and the only question seemed to be from
which side the proposal should first come. A second in-
stalment of her dowry had been paid, and as usual spent by
Dolabella. His conduct, in every way, was most disgraceful.
He had caused himself to be adopted, like Clodius, into a
plebeian family, in order to be elected a tribune of the
people, and then proposed a measure for the confiscation of
debts. Cicero wrote to Atticus to sell some of his plate and
388 DOMESTIC TROUBLES. CHAP. xix.
furniture, in order to raise funds. Atticus generously replied
that his purse was open to Tullia, and informed him that he
had some money (mentioning the amount) at his disposal
out of property belonging to Cicero. Terentia, however,
sent him less than the amount which Atticus had named,
and wrote and told him that this was all that was left. He
therefore concluded that his wife was defrauding him of the
difference ; and when he mentioned it to Atticus, said it was
only one of innumerable causes of complaint he had against
her. But several letters from him to her at this time are
still extant, all written in his usual tone, and in none of them
does he allude to the subject. They are not what we should
consider affectionate as addressed by a husband to a wife in
the midst of misfortunes common to them- both ; but it was
not his habit, nor the habit of the Roman mind, to write in
such a strain. The only indication of tenderness is, that he
always begs her to take care of her health.
Caesar landed in Italy at Tarentum in September. The
moment had arrived to which Cicero had looked forward
with so much doubt and apprehension the moment of
being brought face to face with the conqueror of Pharsalia.
It is very unfortunate that we have no account from his own
pen of the interview ; but Plutarch has described the meet-
ing with a few graphic touches. When he heard that Caesar
was on his way from Tarentum to Brundusium, he did not
wait, but hastened towards him, " not altogether without
hope, and yet in some fear of making experiment of the
temper of an enemy and a conqueror in the presence of so
many witnesses." But there was no need of alarm. Plu-
tarch's narrative reminds us of the story of the meeting
between Jacob and Esau : " For Caesar, as soon as he saw
him coming a good way before the rest of the company,
came down to meet him, saluted him, and leading the way,
conversed with him alone for some furlongs."
At the end of September he quitted Brundusium, the air
of which he had found injurious to his health, and proceeded
to his Tusculan villa, where he intended to remain for a few
weeks. Terentia was there, and he wrote her a short letter
telling her to have the bath-room ready and a supply of pro-
visions, as he expected to have friends with him. He stayed
.c. 48-45. RETURN TO ROME. 389
there until December, when we find him at last in Rome,
having, I suppose, at last given up all hopes of a triumph
and dismissed his lictors. From here he wrote to Trebonius,
to thank him for a book he had sent him containing a col-
lection of Cicero's witticisms, which Trebonius had just
published, and which seems to have appeared at no very
opportune moment.
Cicero was now sixty-one years old a grey-headed man.
What changes had happened since he had last quitted the
walls of Rome ! He had not, indeed, been within those
walls since the time when he left the city to assume the
proconsular government of Cilicia. The old republic was
gone for ever; his party was scattered to the winds, and
most of his friends had either fallen in battle or were carry-
ing on a hopeless struggle in Africa and Spain. Bibulus,
Domitius Ahenobarbus, the two Lentuli, Cato, and Curio,
had already passed away from the scene. M. Marcellus was.
in voluntary exile at Mitylene, not venturing to return to
Rome. Brutus and Sulpicius were both absent, the one
being prefect of Cisalpine Gaul, and the other prefect of
Greece.
Caesar had sailed from Utica on the I3th of June, and
after stopping on his way at Sardinia which, as one of the
provinces of the republic, Cicero now called one of its
master's " farms" he arrived in Rome at the end of July.
Before his return the obsequious and trembling Senate had
heaped every kind of honour and office upon him. He was
made censor for three years and dictator for ten. He cele-
brated a gorgeous triumph, which lasted four days. The
populace was entertained at public tables, and money was
scattered amongst them with a lavish hand. A temple to
Venus Genitrix, the fabled founder of his race, was dedicated
by him with great splendour, and made the excuse for ex-
hibiting magnificent shows and games. But he did not neglect
more serious matters, and he applied himself so vigorously
to the task of reform as to prove that his government was
likely to be a real blessing to Rome.
As Napoleon said that he would go down to posterity with
his Code in his hand, so Caesar might hope to be remembered
as a benefactor to the human race by the Julian Calendar.
390 RETURN TO ROME. CHAP. xix.
The old calendar had fallen into almost hopeless confusion.
The civil and the solar year no longer corresponded with each
other, and the silent march of the seasons seemed to defy the
efforts of human computation. The earth and the sky were
both in contradiction with the conventional arrangement of
the months. Fruits and flowers made their appearance when,
according to the calendar, they were not due, and the sun
rose and set in constellations which did not synchronise with
the periods there assigned to them. .At this rate what was
called summer would before long change places with winter,
and the operations of husbandry could no longer be guided
by the almanac. The civil year was sixty days in advance
of the solar, and it was necessary, therefore, to intercalate
that number of days to bring them into accord. The task
was happily accomplished, and the Julian Calendar will sub-
sist to the end of time, requiring only a slight rectification
once in four centuries to bring it into entire accordance with
the economy of the planetary system.
At last, then, his wanderings over, Cicero took up his abode
quietly in the city. He returned and made his peace, as he
wrote to Varro, with his old friends, his books, the use of
which he had discontinued, not because he had quarrelled
with them, but because they had made him feel rather
ashamed of himself. For by plunging into turbulent strife
with associates whom he had found most faithless, he said he
had paid too little attention to their precepts. But they
pardoned him, and invited him to resume his former intimacy
with them, telling him that Varro, who had never abandoned
them, was wiser than himself. He was anxious above all
things to stand well with Caesar. In a letter to Munatius
Plancus, who was then with the army in Africa, he begged
him to believe that whatever part of his conduct during the
war might have caused offence to Caesar was owing to the
advice and persuasion of others, and that his counsels had
been more moderate than those of any one else on Pompey's
side. In another letter to his former quaestor, Mescinius
Rufus, he admits that while the issue of the struggle was still
uncertain he might have exhibited weakness, but now that
the cause he had espoused was desperate, he felt more con-
fidence. This, paradoxical as it may seem, we can easily
JET. 59-62. PANEGYRIC ON CATO. 391
believe. He was relieved from the miserable necessity of
constantly balancing the claims of prudence and duty, and
having submitted himself to Caesar, and taking no further
part in the conflict, he 'had no fears for his personal safety,
and looked on at the course of events with a kind of sullen
resignation. In this spirit he declared that good had come
out of evil, for in the ruin of the republic the approach of
death was a thing rather to be desired than dreaded. He
would devote himself to study, and if he was in future to take
no active part in politics he could at least write upon them,
and so, copying the example of some of the wisest of the
ancients, do the state good service. He would gladly have
left Rome, where everything offended him, and retired to the
quiet of the country, but he was afraid of showing the ap-
pearance of fear. The tongues of the malevolent might
whisper that he was meditating flight. So he said in April;
but in May he did quit the city for a short time to pay a visit
to some of his villas, from one of which he wrote to Atticus,
with whom he had made an appointment to meet somewhere,
and it seems that Tullia and little Attica were to be at the
rendezvous, for he says : " How gladly shall I run and em-
brace Tullia and give a kiss to Attica. Pray write and tell
me all her prattle, or if she is in the country, tell me what
she writes to you."
We find him at Tusculum in June, and from this, his
favourite residence, he wrote to Atticus with all the warmth
of his strong friendship, and declared that even the Islands
of the Blessed would have no charms if he were absent. The
news had arrived of Cato's death by his own hand at Utica,
and Cicero had been asked by Atticus and others to compose
a panegyric upon their illustrious countryman, but he felt a
difficulty in undertaking the task. He did not like to con-
fine himself merely to praise of his moral qualities and omit
all mention of his political opinions and public career. But
how could he handle that part of the subject without giving
offence to the men who were now in power ? However, he
mustered courage to compose the work, and it had the curious
effect of drawing from Caesar himself a reply, which he en-
titled Anticato. This he wrote while absent from Rome
and occupied with the Spanish campaign. When Madame
392 SWIMMING WITH THE TIDE. CHAP. xix.
de Stael offended Napoleon by her writings he banished her
from France ; but Caesar took a nobler course. He con-
descended to enter the lists of controversy with his pen, and
had the generosity to praise the author while he endeavoured
to refute the work.
Caesar was now on his way back from Africa, and Cicero
at Rome did his best to ingratiate himself with the leaders
of the victorious party. He frequented their dinner-tables,
excusing himself with the plea that he must march with the
times, 1 and that it was a mark of good sense not to offend
those who were in power. He could not altogether resist
his fondness for a joke, and his wit got the better of his dis-
cretion. But Caesar relished these bons mots, and desired
his friends at Rome to send them to him as additions to his
stock of faceticz, which he had taken some pains to collect. 2
Cicero was in better spirits than he had been for some time,
and wrote cheerfully to his old friend Paetus about the capital
suppers he enjoyed, and the amusement he found in giving
lessons in declamation to Hirtius and Dolabella, whom he
called his pupils in the art of speaking, but his teachers in the
art of entertaining. Considering the character of Dolabella
and his divorce from Tullia, which had either already taken
place or was then imminent, we are astonished to find Cicero
on such intimate terms with his worthless son-in-law. It is
one of the many proofs how different the state of society at
Rome was from that of modern times, and how much less
sensitive it was on subjects affecting family happiness. He
told Paetus in jest that he had joined Epicurus's camp, and
rallied him for supposing that plain dishes and simple fare
would any longer satisfy such an epicure as himself. Paetus had
an attack of gout which confined him to bed, but Cicero told
him he would come up and sup with him nevertheless, for
he did not suppose his cook had the gout also. He begged
another friend to put off an appointment with the gout for
two or three days until he had paid him a visit. He de-
scribes his mode of life at this time as follows : He received
visitors early in the morning, and when the leve'e, which was
always well attended, was over, he betook himself to his
1 Tempori serviendum est. Ad Div. ix. 7.
2 See Suet. Cccs. c. 56.
B.C. 4 8-45- MODE OF LIFE. 393
studies, and either wrote or read for some time, after which
he devoted the rest of the day to bodily exercise, not for-
getting the good dinners given by his luxurious friends. He
seems to have thought he might now go out of mourning for
the republic, for he says : " I have already mourned for my
country more heavily and longer than a mother for her only
son." But this was not his habitual state of mind. When
writing in a more serious strain he did not disguise his grief,
which he said scarcely admitted of consolation ; and his only
refuge was the study of philosophy, since both the Senate-
house and the Forum were closed to the efforts of eloquence.
He poured forth his sorrows in a letter to Nigidius Figulus,
one of his most learned and accomplished friends, and de-
clared that he had more cause to complain of life than to
rejoice that he still lived.
In August he left Rome, and spent a few weeks at one
or other of his villas. In the hot months of autumn none
was pleasanter than his seat near Antium by the seaside,
and he speaks of it with delight. But he returned to Rome
in September ; the Septembribus horis, which Horace de-
scribed as so unhealthy in the city in his time, and which
are little better at the present day. He here wrote to M.
Marcellus, who since the battle of Pharsalia had been living
in retirement at Mitylene, to urge him to return and submit
himself to Caesar. His argument was, that if Pompey had
been victorious matters would not be much better, and if the
republic could be considered still to exist, a man of the mark
of Marcellus ought not to withdraw from it. If it was
wholly lost, Rome was notwithstanding the best place to stay
in ; for as to the idea that liberty was to be found elsewhere,
this was a mistake. Caesar was now lord of all, and his arm
stretched over the whole world ; but he was the friend of
genius, and disposed to protect men of eminence and renown.
And these were not idle words, for although Marcellus had
been one of Caesar's most persevering opponents, and by his
hostility might be thought to have almost forced on the civil
war, he received the pardon of the conqueror, and was on his
way back to Rome when he was murdered, as will be after-
wards related. Cicero says that he had resolved to keep
perpetual silence in the Senate, but was so overcome by a
394 INTERCESSION FOR LIGARIUS. CHAP. xix.
sense of Caesar's magnanimity that he could not refrain from
giving vent to his feelings. He rose and delivered a short
oration when Caesar gave his consent to Marcellus's return. 1
It is, as might be expected, full of compliments to Caesar, or
perhaps, a truer description of it would be to call it a speci-
men of abject flattery.
To Ligarius, who was one of those who had carried on
the war in Africa and had continued therefore in arms longer
than Marcellus, Cicero wrote in praise of Cassar's generosity,
saying that public opinion, and time, and his own nature, dis-
posed him more and more to clemency. He himself had an
interview with Caesar to supplicate the pardon of Ligarius,
and afterwards defended him in his absence, when he was
impeached by Tubero for having borne arms against Cassar
in the African campaign. When Caesar heard that Cicero
had undertaken the case, he said to his friends, " Why might
we not as well once more hear a speech from Cicero ? There
is no doubt that Ligarius is a bad man and an enemy." He
meant to imply that it would be an amusement to hear the
famous orator, and there was no fear that his eloquence
would alter the opinion of Ligarius's guilt. But as Cicero
proceeded, Caesar, who sat as judge in the tribunal, was
observed to change colour, and his emotion became visible
to all. " At length," to quote the words of Plutarch, " the
orator touching upon the battle of Pharsalia, he was so
affected that his body trembled, and some of the papers he
held dropped from his hands, and thus he was overpowered,
and acquitted Ligarius."
There is no doubt that the speech was a masterpiece of art.
We must remember that he too had espoused the side of Pom-
pey, and it was therefore a matter of no little delicacy to have to
advocate the cause of a person upon a charge which applied
equally to himself; but he cited his own pardon as a proof
of the native goodness and mercy of Caesar, and he over-
whelmed the accuser with shame for attempting to intercept
that bounty towards another which had been bestowed so
largely upon himself. Never was flattery more dexterously
1 Wolf and Spalding have tried to scholars are of a different opinion,
prove that the speech pro Marcello, as There is an essay by Passow in defence
we have it, is spurious. But most of its genuineness.
JET. 59-62. DEFENCE OF LIGARIUS. 395
applied to conciliate a judge. How artfully he appeals to
the mercy of the dictator in the following passage :
" All that I have said I have addressed to your humanity, your clemency, your
compassion. I have pleaded many causes, Caesar, and some even with you as
my coadjutor, whilst you paved the way to your future honours by practice in the
Forum ; but never did I adopt this tone for my client : ' Pardon him, judges ; he
has erred ; he is guilty ; he did it unwittingly ; if ever again ' - That is the
language to be addressed to a parent, but to a court of justice this : ' He did not
do it ; he never contemplated the act ; the witnesses are forsworn ; the charge is
false.' Tell me, Caesar, that you are sitting as a judge to try Ligarius on the
question of fact, and ask me in whose garrisons he was found I am at once
silent. I care not to plead in excuse that which might perhaps avail, even with
a judge. ' He went there as a lieutenant before the war. He was left in the
province during the continuance of peace. He was taken by surprise when the
war broke out ; he showed no animosity while it lasted even then he was in his
heart, and in his wishes, on your side. ' Such would be the line of defence before
a judge ; but I am speaking to a parent : ' I have sinned ; I acted unadvisedly ; I
am sorry for my fault ; I throw myself upon your mercy ; I ask pardon for my
offence ; I pray you to forgive me. ' If no one has obtained forgiveness from you,
it is presumption in me to ask it ; but if very many have, then do you, who have
encouraged hope, likewise bestow favour."
Conscious as Cicero was of his desire to do all he could
for his friends in their misfortunes, he could not bear to be
accused of backwardness in their cause, and when he received
a letter from Fadius Gallus, who had been quaestor during
his consulship, and was now in exile, reproaching him
apparently for not assisting him, and upbraiding him with
forgetfulness of former services, he wrote to him a sharp and
stern reply. It is almost the only letter in the whole of his
voluminous correspondence dictated by angry feeling, and
we may be sure that the provocation was great, or he would
not have adopted a tone and style so unusual with him. It
is, I confess, refreshing to find that he could be so angry, for
one is almost tired of the language of stately compliment
and encomium which characterises his epistles. But they
are proofs of his kindness of heart and of the indefatigable
zeal with which he devoted himself to console and assist his
friends in misfortune. A noble testimony to this was borne
by Caecina, who was one of the exiles, and for whom Cicero
had, during Caesar's absence in Spain, by urgent entreaty, ob-
tained from Balbus and Oppius, two of Caesar's most trusted
agents at Rome, permission to reside in Sicily. Caecina said
that Cicero's friends knew so well his inclination to serve
them, that they felt they might command his exertions, and
not merely hope to have the benefit of them. This was in
396 CESAR'S GENEROSITY. CHAP. xix.
answer to a letter from Cicero, which is worth noticing for
the purpose of showing the terms in which he spoke of Caesar.
He described him as mild and merciful by nature, and one
who was especially attracted by superior intellect. He never,
he said, mentioned Pompey's name except in the most
honourable terms, and he had given sufficient proofs of his
generosity by the manner in which he had treated his late
opponents. He made Cassius one of his legates, Brutus
governor of Cisalpine Gaul, Sulpicius governor of Greece, 1
and restored Marcellus to all his former honours. To Cicero
himself he gave daily proofs of his friendship. No conqueror
indeed ever made a more magnanimous use of his power ;
and if he had not fallen by the hand of assassins, it is impos-
sible to doubt that Rome would have been largely benefited
by his rule. He was a large-hearted man, and not only the
most brilliant soldier, but the most sagacious statesman of his
time. His conduct to his adversaries is above all praise, and
contrasts strongly with the bitter malevolence of Pompey, who,
if victorious, would have slaked his thirst for vengeance in the
tears and blood of Rome. This may not alter our opinion
as to the justice of Caesar's quarrel in the commencement,
but it must materially influence our judgment as to whether
we ought to regret or rejoice at the issue of the struggle.
It is pleasant to turn from Cicero's political letters to
those he addressed to his lively friend Paetus, the last, as he
called him, of those who possessed a sparkle of indigenous
Roman wit. He gives him an amusing account of a supper
at the house of Volumnius Eutrapelus when he was one of
the guests. On the same couch with him were Atticus and
Verrius, and below Eutrapelus reclined the fair and frail
Cytheris the courtesan.
" ' What?' you will say, ' Cicero at such a banquet? he, the observed of all
observers ? ' In sooth I did not suspect that she would be there. But, however,
not even Aristippus, the disciple of Socrates, blushed when he was reproached
with keeping Lais. 'I keep her,' he said, 'but I am not kept by her.' But
none of that class attracted me when I was a young man. I need say nothing
now that I am an old one. I like a banquet. I say there whatever comes
uppermost, and turn mourning into mirth. Did you do better when you made
1 Cicero mentions Sulpicius amongst it ; for he had opposed the hostile at-
the number of those who had experi- tempts of his colleague Marcellus, and
enced Caesar's clemency. But I do not during the Civil War had not joined
understand how he came to require Pompey.
B.C. 48-45- LITERARY WORKS. 397
fun of a philosopher who asked you if man wanted anything, and you replied that
you wanted a morning supper ? The pedant thought you would say you wanted
to know whether there was only one sky or an infinite number of them
When I pay you a visit you will find me a guest not much addicted to eating,
but a good deal addicted to joking."
He half-apologised for writing in this strain, and asked :
"Are you surprised that we enliven our loss of liberty by merriment ? But
what must I do ? I ask you, who have a philosopher for your teacher, should I
afflict and torment myself? To what purpose ? ' Devote yourself,' you say, ' to
literature.' But what else do you think I do ? Do you imagine I could exist if
it were not for literature ? But there are limits to study, although I will not say I
feel satiety in it."
And he was well entitled to some relaxation. His intel-
lectual activity this year had been immense, and he had
written a great variety of works. Amongst these were his
" History of Roman Eloquence," under the form of a dia-
logue, De claris Oratoribus ; his "Inquiry into the Highest
Good and Evil," or De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum ; his
" Analyses of Oratory," or Partitioned Oratories ; his Cato ;
and his Orator, dedicated to Brutus. In addition also to his
literary labours may be mentioned the great number of letters
of introduction and recommendation he wrote at the request
of friends to provincial governors and others. There are
nearly forty of these, and although of no interest now, they
are worth reading as specimens of exquisite Latinity. They
show also his good nature, and his readiness to help those
who sought his assistance.
The most important event in his life this year was his
divorce from his wife Terentia. It appears to have taken
place in the autumn, or perhaps later, but the exact time is
not known. Plutarch's account of the matter is as follows :
After mentioning that Cicero intended to write a history
of his country, but his purpose was interfered with by various
public and private misfortunes, he goes on to say " For
first of all he put away his wife Terentia, by whom he had
been neglected at the time of the war, and sent away desti-
tute of necessaries for his journey ; neither did he find her
kind when he returned to Italy, for she did not join him at
Brundusimn, where he stayed a long time, nor would allow
her young daughter, who undertook so long a journey, decent
attendance or the requisite expenses ; besides, she left him a
naked and empty house, and yet had involved him in many
398 DIVORCE FROM TERENTIA. CHAP, xix
and great debts. These were alleged as the fairest reasons
for the divorce." Now we may confidently affirm that some
of these reasons are untrue. I have shown that Terentia
did offer to join her husband at Brundusium, but he would
not allow her, and there is not the slightest hint in his cor-
respondence that she had neglected him during the wars or
" sent him away destitute of necessaries," nor is there any
trace of a complaint as to her neglect of Tullia. It is clear
that Cicero brought no such charges against her in any of
his letters. Middleton, whose only authority is Plutarch,
has assigned reasons which are at least apocryphal. He
says that Cicero " at last parted with his wife Terentia, whose
honour and conduct had long been uneasy to him ; this drew
upon him some censure for putting away a wife who had
lived with him above thirty years, the faithful partner of his
bed and fortunes, and the mother of two children extremely
dear to him. But she was a woman of an inferior and tur-
bulent spirit, expensive and negligent in her private affairs,
busy and intriguing in the public, and in the height of her
husband's power seems to have had the chief hand in the
distribution of all his favours. He had easily borne her per-
verseness in the vigour of health and the flourishing state of
his fortunes ; but in a declining life, soured by a continual
succession of misfortunes from abroad, the want of ease and
quiet at home was no longer tolerable to him." To justify
this portrait of Terentia, except in one particular, there is
no evidence at all in the only place where we should expect
to find it I mean in the letters of Cicero. The exception
is her negligence, or perhaps misconduct, in money matters.
We naturally turn to see what account Cicero himself gives
of a matter so deeply affecting his happiness, but unfortu-
nately we find in his correspondence no explicit information
on the subject. In a letter to his friend Plancius he alludes
to it, but hints at the cause rather than explains it.
" I would not," he says, " have resolved on a divorce, if I had not, on my
return from abroad, found my domestic affairs in as bad a plight as the republic
itself. For when I saw that, owing to the wicked conduct of those to whom, in
consideration of my never-to-be-forgotten benefits, my safety and interests ought
to have been dear, there was nothing safe nor free from treachery within my own
walls, I thought that I ought to be protected by the fidelity of new connections
against the perfidy of the old."
JET. 59-62. DIVORCE FROM TERENTIA. 399
Now what was the wickedness and what the treachery of
which he here complains ? There can, I think, be no doubt
that the charges had some reference to Terentia's conduct in
money matters ; for he had previously, as we have seen,
accused her of abstracting part of the money which ought
to have been remitted to him, and of falsifying the account.
This is really all we know of the matter, and the rest is
utterly obscure. It must not be lost sight of that, in the
passage I have just quoted, Cicero complains of more persons
than one. It is not " her," but " those" of whom he speaks.
I cannot help thinking that he had his brother and his
nephew also in his eye when he alluded to domestic treachery,
for that was the specific kind of injury of which they had
been guilty in calumniating him to Caesar. We know from
Plutarch that Terentia steadily denied that her husband had
any good grounds for the divorce. And as I have under-
taken to defend her, I will quote one or two passages from
Cicero's correspondence, which are, I think, conclusive to
show that she was an amiable woman, and that Cicero loved
her with passionate fondness. One of his letters is thus
addressed : " Tully to Terentia, and the Father to Tulliola,
his two souls ; and Cicero (the son) to the best of mothers
and his darling sister." In another he calls her " Light
of my eyes my longed-for darling ! from whom all used to
seek for help. To think that you should be so harassed
so steeped in tears and misery, and that this should be
caused by my fault !" In another he says, " Attend to
your health, and be assured that no one is nor ever was
dearer to me than you." Again " Of this be sure, that if I
have you I shall not think myself wholly ruined." She was
ready to sell her property to assist him in his difficulties,
but he dissuaded her for fear of leaving their son penniless.
Surely all the evidence we have is in her favour ; and for
my own part I disbelieve the malevolent gossip of Plutarch
about her. She lived to an extreme old age, dying in her
hundred and fourth year ; and, if we may believe Dio Cas-
sius, was thrice married after her divorce from Cicero. But
as she was fifty years old when Cicero divorced her, this is
most probably an untrue story.
He lost no time in looking out for another wife, and his
400 DEATH OF TULLIA. CHAP. xix.
friends appear to have suggested a daughter of Pompey
as a suitable partie, but he did not like the idea. As to
another lady whom Atticus had mentioned to him, he gave,
as a reason for not proposing to her that he had never seen
an uglier person. His choice at last fell upon a young lady
named Publilia, who had a considerable fortune, and of
whom, according to Plutarch, he was guardian at the time.
She was almost a girl, and he was now sixty-one. It was
the union of January and May, 1 and, like most such mar-
riages, it turned out unhappily.
At the beginning of the new year, B.C. 45, Caesar was
absent from Italy engaged in carrying on the war in Spain
against the sons of Pompey.
Cicero was at Rome during January, where he tells us he
was detained by the confinement of Tullia, who gave birth
to a son after her divorce from Dolabella. 2 She seems to
have been at that time still living in her late husband's house,
and at first she was thought to be in a fair way of recovery,
but soon afterwards she sank under the effects of her confine-
ment and died. This sad event happened in February, at
her father's Tusculan villa, where she was probably removed
before alarming symptoms showed themselves. But there is
a good deal of obscurity attending her last illness, and we
have no account of the particulars from Cicero himself. The
first intimation we have from him of the calamity which over-
whelmed him is in a letter written to Atticus in March from
Astura. So far as we can gather from incidental expressions
in his correspondence, he seems to have left his Tusculan villa
after his daughter's death, and gone to the house of Atticus
at Rome, He tells us that he spent thirty days in some
gardens, which probably belonged to a suburban villa of
Atticus, and we next find him at his country residence near
1 The late Sir Cresswell Cresswell 2 The child seems to have lived, and
told me, that having once in court to have been called Lentulus, if we are
alluded to a case before him as one of right in supposing that the passage in
the numerous instances of unfortunate the letter ad Att. xii. 28, " velim
marriages "between January and May," aliquando . . . Lentulum puerum
a Scotch gentleman wrote to him, and visas," refers to him. But we know
asked him, as he was collecting statisti- nothing of his subsequent history. Veiy
cal information, whether he could ex- probably he died young, and thus the
plain why marriages that took place in line of Cicero in that generation became
the period between January and May extinct,
turned out so badly !
B.C. 48-45- DEATH OF TULLIA. 401
Astura, writing to his friend on the subject of a monument
or shrine which he was anxious to erect to the memory of
Tullia. His wish was to place it in some gardens at Rome,
where it would be more conspicuous than in the little island
near Arpinum, his own birthplace, which at first suggested
itself to his mind. His words are " The Arpinian island
is suitable for a genuine apotheosis, but I am afraid it might
seem to confer less honour, as it lies out of the way. My
inclination, therefore, is for the gardens, which I will look at
when I come." 1
He was terribly stunned by the blow. In Tullia he had
garnered up his heart, and her death left a dreary blank in
his existence. His affection for her shines like a gleam of
light through his letters, and he had clung to her as the prop
and stay of his declining years. He tried to occupy himself
with study to distract his thoughts, and read such books as
heathen philosophy could supply to soothe a mourner's sor-
row, but in vain. He composed a work on Consolation, in
hopes that in the attempt to minister to the afflictions of
others he might assuage his own, but it only increased his
pang. His grief, he said, admitted of no consolation. In
the morning he wandered into the woods, and buried himself
in their solitude all the day long, striving to occupy himself
with literature, but overcome with floods of tears. He took
a melancholy pleasure in the idea of dedicating a monument
to his daughter, and again and again consulted Atticus on
its form and the locality where it should be placed. 2 It is
not known whether the design was ever carried into execu-
tion most probably not ; but if it was, the day may yet
come when some fragment of it may be discovered a pre-
cious relic of the memorial which a father's love consecrated
to his child. 3
Although overwhelmed with grief, Cicero battled manfully
against it, and adopted the wisest course that could be taken
1 There is an Essay in the Memoires of tombs, and a fine was imposed equal
de P Academic des Inscriptions, vol. i. p. to the excess beyond the legal limit.
370, by the Abbe Montgault, " sur le z His idea also was to purchase
Fanum de Tullia,' 1 in which he investi- enough ground to enable him to have
gates the subject, and learnedly illus- a residence there himself as a retreat
trates the practice of ApotJieosis amongst for his old age, or fyyr]pafj,a as he called
the ancients. There was a kind of it.
sumptuary law regulating the expense 3 There is a wild story told by Bap-
2 D
402 DIVORCE FROM PUBLILIA. CHAP. xix.
by one to whom the consolation that revealed religion can
supply was unknown. He occupied himself in the quiet of
the country and with his books, and wrote incessantly.
When he heard that he was blamed at Rome for giving way
too much to sorrow and secluding himself in private, he de-
fended himself by showing that in the midst of all his suf-
fering he had been busily employed, and added, with some
bitterness, that he had written more than those who censured
him were ever likely to read. He told Atticus that he
would find when they met that his firmness had not de-
serted him, but his old cheerfulness and gaiety were wholly
gone.
It will naturally be asked where during all this time was
his lately-married wife ? Was Publilia by his side, the
sharer and soother of his affliction ? That she was absent is
certain, but this was by Cicero's express desire. The union
was not a happy one ; and if we may believe Plutarch, he
was so disgusted by her want of feeling at the death of
Tullia, that he very soon afterwards divorced her. If the
real motive for the marriage was her money, his aversion to
her, from whatever cause, must have been indeed unconquer-
able, for, of course, he would have to refund the whole of
her dowry. We find him writing to Atticus in March in a
fright lest his wife, with her mother and brother, should come
to Astura to pay him an unwelcome visit. He says that he
had received a letter purporting to come from her, in which
she prayed to be allowed to accompany her relatives. He
suspected, however, that her mother had really written in
her daughter's name, and at all events he peremptorily for-
bade any of them to come, as he wished to be alone. He
begged Atticus to give him timely notice if they left Rome,
that he might be out of the way when they arrived and
avoid them. Such were the terms on which he stood with
his new relations !
It was during his stay at Astura that the celebrated and
tista Pius in a note to one of Cicero's urns of the Tullian gens. In his Malta
letters, ad Ait. xi. 17, that in making Illustrata Abela mentions an inscrip-
an excavation amongst the Alban hills tion found at Malta in the following
an embalmed body was discovered, form
which was believed to be that of Tullia, TULLIOLA. M. TULLII. F.
as it was found amongst the sepulchral
JET. 59-62. LETTERS OF SULPICIUS & LUCCEIUS. 403
beautiful letter was. addressed to him from Athens by Ser-
vius Sulpicius
" The Roman friend of Rome's least mortal mind,"
in which he strove to comfort the mourner by arguments
drawn from the vicissitudes and decay of all earthly things.
It has been so often quoted that the reader is doubtless
familiar with it. Lucceius the historian also wrote him a
letter of consolation, which he acknowledged with grateful
thanks. Lucceius tried to make him take a more hopeful
view of public affairs, but Cicero confessed that he thought
them desperate. He was pleased by the allusion in the
letter to his own services, and said that he had given to his
country not more than his duty required, but certainly more
than others had a right to demand from him. " You will
pardon me," he added, "for being in some degree my own
trumpeter." In another letter to Lucceius he said he was
ashamed of life, and the books he studied seemed to upbraid
him for enduring it, for it was nothing but a prolongation
of misery.
In one of his letters to Atticus written in March Cicero
alludes to his will, and says that Terentia ought, like him-
self, to make some provision by hers for her little grandson,
to whom Tullia had given birth. His words are, " Let her
do like me. I will allow my will to be perused by any one she
pleases to name ; she will find that I could not have acted
more liberally towards my grandson than I have done."
There can be no doubt that he greatly distrusted Terentia's
good faith in money matters, and he speaks of her as wanting
in sincerity and steadiness of purpose.
His son Marcus wished to go to Spain and serve under
Caesar in the campaign against Pompey's sons. Cicero tried
to dissuade him, pointing out how inconsistent it would be
for him to bear arms against a cause for which he had lately
fought, and also how annoyed he would feel on finding his
cousin a greater favourite with Caesar than himself. The
young man gave up the idea of Spain and went to Athens.
His father consulted Atticus upon the sum he should allow
him for his expenses, and proposed to set apart for the pur-
pose the rents of some property he had on the Aventine
404 MURDER OF MARCELLUS. CHAP. xix.
Mount and in the district of Rome called Argiletum. He
mentioned the names of several young men of good family
who were going to Athens, and said he was sure they would
not spend more. He added that it was not at all necessary
to keep a horse at Athens, and for the journey there were
more than enough horses at home.
He composed a letter to Caesar in the form of a political
essay, taking as his model Aristotle's work vegl BaovXg/a$, which
was addressed to Alexander, but he was far from feeling
satisfied with his own performance, and he begged Atticus
to submit it to Caesar's friends at Rome before it was sent
to him. They suggested so many alterations that if they
were adopted the letter must be re-written, and rather than
do this Cicero abandoned the idea of sending it at all.
His friend Sulpicius wrote to him from Athens to give an
account of a tragic event which had just happened there.
Marcellus had, as we have seen, been recalled by a vote of
the Senate with the assent of Caesar, and on his way to
Rome from Mitylene put in at Piraeus, where he was assassi-
nated in the evening after supper by one of his acquaint-
ances named Magius Chilo, who suddenly stabbed him, and
then killed himself. When the news reached Sulpicius, who
had met him at Piraeus and spent a day with him, and who
was at the moment in Athens, he hurried down, and found
the body lying in the place where the murder had been
committed, with two or three slaves and freedmen of Mar-
cellus in attendance, the rest of the suite having fled in
terror. He had the corpse placed in his litter and conveyed
to the city, where he wished to have it buried within the
walls, but the authorities at Athens would not assent, as they
had religious scruples against intramural burials, which had
never been allowed there. They, however, offered him the
choice of any of the gymnasiums outside the city as a place
of interment, and Sulpicius says he chose a spot in the
noblest gymnasium in the world that of the Academy
where the body was reduced to ashes, and a monument erected
to the memory of Marcellus. A most unjust suspicion at first
attached itself to Caesar, as though he had been privy to
this murder. The real motive seems to have been private
revenge on the part of Magius, because Marcellus refused to
B.C. 48-45. THE PSEUD O MARIUS. 405
lend him money to pay his debts. But in the excited state of
the public mind just then we can well understand the alarm
which such an event occasioned, and how difficult it must
have been to satisfy the former adherents of Pompey that
politics had nothing to do with the murder of such a man as
Marcellus.
A curious case of imposture occurred about this time. A
man whose real name was Herophilus or Amasius, and who
was by trade a farrier or veterinary surgeon, gave himself
out as the grandson of the great Marius, and applied to
Cicero to undertake his case and assist him in establishing
his relationship. He appealed to him as a connection, and
as one whose poem on Marius showed the interest he took
in that illustrious name. Cicero, however, declined the task,
and, with a touch of sarcasm in his answer, told him that
he did not want an advocate, as all power was now in the
hands of Caesar, " a most excellent and generous man," and
his own relation besides ! For as Marius had married Julia,
who was Caesar's aunt, if the story of the claimant was true,
he and Csesar were of course relatives. The result was, that
the impostor was banished from Italy, and afterwards, on
his return to Rome, was killed in a city tumult.
Cicero spent the summer and autumn in the country at
one or other of his villas at Antium, Arpinum, or Tusculum.
He shunned society, and occupied himself incessantly in
writing and study. He cared for literature now much more
than for politics, and we find him keenly arguing a point of
criticism with Atticus as to the right use of the word inhi-
bere, and declaring that this interested him far more than
public affairs. In the same letter he half-apologises for
occupying himself with apparent trifles, but adds that such
things were of chief importance to him. He felt indeed that
his occupation as a statesman was gone, and endeavoured to
forget the ruin of all his hopes for his country in literary
pursuits. He made Atticus, as usual, his confidant, and
used to send his compositions to him to be copied by some
of his clever clerks, with strict injunctions, however, not to
allow them to be published or get abroad without his own
permission.
He recast the form of his Academic Dialogues, which
46 LITERAR Y LABO URS. CHAP. xix.
originally consisted of two books, called Catulus and Lucul-
lus, and turned them into four. He changed also the
speakers, who had been Catulus, Lucullus, and Hortensius,
and introduced instead Cato, Brutus, and Varro, as persons
the character of whose minds would better suit the argu-
ments assigned to them. He dedicated the whole work to
Varro, one of the most learned of the Romans, and for those
times really a monster of erudition.
He also completed his work De Finibus, an inquiry into
the chief objects or ends at which men ought to aim to
secure happiness : making Torquatus represent the Epicurean
school, Cato the Stoic, and Piso the Peripatetic. Another
composition that belongs to the same period is his Horten-
sius, a dialogue in which he upheld the claims of philosophy
and literature as contrasted with the study of eloquence. It
was the book, now unhappily lost, which attracted the atten-
tion of St. Augustine in his early years, and made him
devote himself to philosophy. In the month of August we
find him at his Tusculan villa, busy before daybreak with
the second part of his Tusculan Essays, in which he combats
the doctrine of the Epicureans that pain is the chief evil.
In the course of the summer he had divorced himself
from Publilia, and employed the good offices of Atticus to
arrange with her brother Publilius about the repayment of
her dowry. Not a syllable occurs in his letters to throw
light on the cause of the separation, and it is remarkable
with what absolute reserve on all domestic topics his letters
at this period are written. Although allusion is frequently
made to the loss of Tullia, and he constantly expresses his
earnest desire to erect a shrine to her memory, her name is
never once mentioned ; and with regard to Terentia and
Publilia, the tone of his correspondence is almost as enig-
matical as if he had writen in cipher. Atticus, of course,
understood it all, and Cicero was writing to him with no idea
that a distant posterity would be anxious to discover the
minute details of his domestic life. Very probably the cir-
cumstances were so painful that he could not bear to dwell
upon them. But whatever may have been the reason, the
fact is certain, that we can only guess at many things which
we might have expected to find fully explained in his confi-
JET. 59-62. SCANDAL ABOUT CAERELLIA. 407
dential correspondence with his most intimate friend. Even
the style of his letters at this period is more difficult and
abrupt than usual, and it may be safely said that the least
interesting portion of them is that which embraces the year
of his life on which we are now engaged.
In one or two of them a lady called Caerellia is mentioned,
about whom it is right to say a few words, on account of an
absurd scandal against Cicero connected with her name.
She seems to have been a blue-stocking dame, who admired
his writings, and took the trouble to copy or get copied
some of his philosophical works. In the first letter where
her name occurs he says to Atticus :
" I forgot to mention that Caerellia, who has a wonderful passion for philo-
sophy, is copying some of my works from those in your possession. She has the
treatise De Fiuibns. But I can assure you (although I may be mistaken, for to
err is human) that she has not any of my copies, for they have never been out of
my sight. So far from my having two copies made, hardly one was completed.
However, I do not think that it was from any fault of your copyists, and I wish
you to understand this. For I omitted to mention to you that I did not wish
them to be published yet."
According to Dio Cassius, the tribune Fufius Calenus, in
an abusive speech against Cicero, to which I shall hereafter
more particularly allude, charged him with putting away his
second wife Publilia in order that he might carry on undis-
turbed an intrigue with Caerellia, and he mentioned some
letters of an amatory nature which had appeared written by
Cicero to her, and which contained expressions offensive to
delicacy. The best answer to this scandal is to state the
ages of the respective parties at the time when the alleged
intrigue was going on. Cicero was sixty-two and the seduc-
tive dame was seventy ! If Fufius made the speech he must
have been laughed at by his audience, for he mentioned the
age of the frail lady. There can, I think, be little doubt
that the letters were spurious. Very probably there was a
correspondence, just as there was between Chateaubriand
and Madame Recamier ; but it is ridiculous to suppose that
it was of the nature that malevolence attributed to it. We
must never forget the unbridled licence of invective in which
the ancients indulged when they wished to damage an oppo-
nent ; and this applies to many of the attacks made upon
others by Cicero himself. The good offices of Caerellia were
employed by Publilia's family, if not by Publilia herself, to
408 DISLIKE OF C^SAR. CHAP. xix.
induce him to take that lady back again after their divorce,
but he would not listen to the proposal.
In one of his letters about this time he declares that his
property gave him much more trouble than pleasure, for he
felt more distress at having no one to whom he could leave
it than gratification in the enjoyment of it. He alludes here
to the twice-widowed state to which he was reduced by his
two divorces, and to the loss of his daughter. But the ex-
pression is remarkable, considering that his son was still
living. Perhaps he meant that he had little satisfaction in
looking upon him as his heir, as he felt uncertain how the
young man would turn out, for his conduct at Athens at first
caused his father some uneasiness. Cicero was still on indif-
ferent terms with his brother, and his nephew, young Quintus,
continued as hostile as ever, spreading all kinds of calumnious
reports as, for instance, that his cousin Marcus was harshly
treated by his father, and that his uncle was utterly estranged
from Caesar, who ought to be on his guard against him.
Upon which Cicero remarks, with some bitterness, that this
might be a formidable charge if he was not assured that King
Caesar knew very well that he had nothing to fear from a
man of such little determination as himself. That he was
thoroughly discontented with Caesar, however much prudent
policy made him conceal his real sentiments, is plain from
many passages in his letters. In one of them written in
September, when he was at his Tusculan villa, he expresses
his joy that the people had refused to applaud the statue
of Victory when it was carried in a procession with an image
of Caesar close beside it. The reason was, he said, because
Victory had a bad neighbour.
At the end of August or beginning of September he wrote
and sent a letter to Caesar, which is not extant ; but he
describes it as written without flattery, and in a tone which
one equal might address to another, but yet such as Caesar
would read with pleasure. No one could do this with more
skill and adroitness than himself.
JULIUS C^SAR.
CHAPTER XX.
DEATH OF C^SAR.
yEt. 63. B.C. 44. '
C^SAR returned to Rome in October from his victorious
campaign in Spain. There Cneius and Sextus, the sons of
Pompey, had, amongst the mountain fastnesses of what was
afterwards called Granada, taxed his resources as a general
to the utmost, and fought with a courage and determination
such as had not elsewhere been displayed during the contest.
The battle of Munda on the 1 7th of March terminated the
war, but Caesar gained it with great difficulty. Cneius fell
in the engagement, but Sextus escaped. Caesar returned to
Rome, and celebrated his last triumph with great pomp and
magnificence, amusing the people with gladiatorial combats
and sham fights, and entertaining them at public tables for
several days. He brought home enormous treasures. We
are told that they amounted to more than six hundred mil-
410 DEATH OF C^SAR. CHAP. xx.
lion sesterces that is, upwards of five millions sterling and
he gave each of the soldiers a donation of about a hundred
and seventy pounds. He proclaimed an amnesty for the
past, and laying down the consulship which he had assumed
without a colleague when he gave up the dictatorship, he
appointed as consuls for the remainder of the year Q. Fabius
and C. Trebonius. Fabius died on the last day of the year,
and Caninius Rabilius was nominated in his place for the few
remaining hours, which gave rise to one of Cicero's jokes, who
said that he was a consul of such surprising vigilance that he
never slept once during his consulship. For it terminated at
midnight, and next day, on the 1st of January, Caesar and
Antony succeeded to the office.
Cicero now undertook the last cause which he ever pleaded.
The occasion was this. We may remember that when he
was proconsul of Cilicia he sent his son and nephew with
their tutor Dionysius to pursue their studies at the court of
Deiotarus, who was originally tetrarch of Galatia, and had
been created by the Senate king of Armenia. During the
civil war he had espoused the side of Pompey, and Caesar,
after his victory over Pharnaces, had deposed him and
deprived him of his kingdom of Armenia, but allowed him
to retain the royal title conferred upon him by the Senate.
The conqueror was hospitably entertained by Deiotarus,
and received from him, notwithstanding the loss of his
dominions in Armenia, some magnificent presents. After
Caesar's departure, Castor, a grandson of Deiotarus, con-
ceived the idea of supplanting his grandfather, and suborned
Philippus, a medical attendant of the court, to accuse Deio-
tarus of having practised against the life of his guest during
his stay in Armenia. Castor sent Philippus to Rome to
prosecute the charge against Deiotarus, who was there
represented by ambassadors, and they entreated Cicero to
undertake their master's defence. He consented, and the
cause was heard before Caesar himself sitting at his own
house.
When the case was over, the Dictator postponed judgment,
intimating his intention, when he undertook the Parthian
campaign, to pursue the inquiry on the spot. But before
that the dagger of Brutus struck him down.
JET. 63. CAESAR CICERO'S GUEST. 411
On the 20th of December Cassar became Cicero's guest
at his villa near Puteoli, and a letter to Atticus gives an
interesting account of the visit. It is worth quoting at
length :
" What a troublesome guest," he says, " I have had ! But I have no cause
to regret what happened, for all passed off pleasantly enough. But when he had
arrived at the house of Philippus in the evening of the second day of the
Saturnalia the villa was so filled with soldiers that there was scarcely room at a
dining-table for Caesar himself to sup. There were a thousand men. I was
truly puzzled to know what I could do the next day, but Barba Cassius came to
my rescue, and he gave me a body of guards. A camp was pitched in the fields,
and the villa was protected. Caesar stayed with Philippus on the third day of
the Saturnalia until nearly one o'clock in the afternoon, and admitted no one to
his presence. I imagine he was going over accounts with Balbus. He after-
wards took a walk on the shore, and at two o'clock had a bath. He then
listened to an epigram on Mamurra without changing a muscle of his countenance,
and next was rubbed with oil, and took his place reclining at the banquet,
intending to have an emetic afterwards. 1 He therefore both ate and drank
without scruple, and enjoyed himself. It was a capital dinner, and well served,
and not only that, but
' Seasoned with well-digested good discourse.'
Besides, his. retinue was liberally entertained at three tables. His inferior
freedmen and slaves had all they could want. The better class were treated
sumptuously. Not to make a long story, I acquitted myself like a man. How-
ever he is not the kind of guest to whom you would say, ' Pray, my good friend,
pay me another visit on your return.' One was enough. There was no conver-
sation on serious topics, but a good deal of literary talk. Why are you so
anxious ? He was delighted, and showed that he enjoyed himself. He said he
would spend one day at Baite and the next at Puteoli. I have now given you an
account of the visit ; or shall I call it billeting ? But it was, as I have said,
not disagreeable to me. I shall stay here a little while, and then go to my
Tusculanum. As he was passing by Dolabella's villa the whole body of his
guards closed up on the right and left of his horse, and this they did nowhere else.
So I heard from Nicias."
On the first day of the new year Caesar assumed the
consulship, with Antony as his colleague. He intended to
leave Rome in a few weeks in order to carry on a campaign
against the Parthians, the constant and troublesome enemies
of Rome on her eastern frontier. Like Napoleon, he felt
that a succession of victories was necessary to his position ;
and having vanquished every opponent at home, he wished
agebat.
412 DEATH OF CAESAR. CHAP. xx.
to gain fresh laurels by carrying his victorious eagles to the
banks of the Euphrates. The Senate met as usual on the
1st of January, and Cicero, with the rest, was present when
Caesar announced his intention of nominating Dolabella to
succeed him as consul when he himself set out on his Par-
thian expedition. This was strongly opposed by Antony,
and he went so far as to declare that when the time came,
he would use his power and influence as augur to invalidate
the election. I use the word election, for it appears that
the form of voting by the people in their centuries was still
kept up, although, in point of fact, Caesar's wish was law,
and whoever was nominated by him was certain to be chosen
by the people. It shows some spirit in Antony that he
ventured to oppose the declared intention of Rome's mighty
master, and it shows also magnanimity in Caesar that he was
not offended at the opposition. But he took upon himself
to dispose absolutely of the praetorships. Amongst these the
highest office indeed the only one of any real importance
was that of prcetor nrbamis, the rest being subordinate
both in dignity and power, and both Marcus Brutus and
Cassius, who were brothers-in-law (Cassius having married
Junia, the sister of Brutus), were anxious to hold it. The
decision rested with Caesar, who, according to Plutarch, after
deliberating with his friends, determined in favour of Brutus,
saying, " Cassius has the stronger claim, but we must let
Brutus be first praetor." And he gave Cassius one of the
other praetorships, in hopes that it would satisfy him ; but
his pride was wounded, and it is supposed that it was in
consequence of this slight that he determined to engage in
the conspiracy against Caesar's life. Caesar was not without
suspicions of him, and had also misgivings about Brutus
himself if the story is true that when he was told that
Antony and Dolabella were meditating mischief he said,
" It is not the fat and long-haired men that I fear, but the
pale and the lean," alluding to the spare figures of Brutus
and Cassius
Let me have men about me that are fat ;
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights :
Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look :
He thinks too much : such men are dangerous.
B.C. 44. CROWN OFFERED TO CAESAR. 413
But his generous nature showed itself in the answer he
gave when some one, who perhaps had a vague idea of
approaching danger, advised him to be on his guard. The
reply of the lion-hearted man was, " I had rather die than be
the subject of fear."
He had reached the highest pinnacle of power, and in all
but the name was king of the Roman world. Rome was
now changing from the position of an imperial city domi-
nating over Italy and the world, to that of a capital in which
Italy and the world had part. But Caesar's ambition was
not satisfied unless he could gain the title which for so
many centuries had been dormant at Rome. He wished to
be Rex not only in reality but in name ; and an ingenious
mode was hit upon to feel the pulse of the people and see
how far they were disposed to bear it. There was a wild
festival at Rome called Lupercalia, which was celebrated in
the month of February, when young men of good family
used to run more than half-naked through the streets, and
strike with thongs of leather every one they met. While
this carnival was going on Caesar took his seat above the
rostra in the Forum, and, dressed in his triumphal robes,
amused himself with looking on at the sport. Antony,
though consul, was not ashamed to appear amongst the run-
ners, and twisting a garland of bay-leaves round a diadem
or coronet, he approached the rostra, where, being lifted up
by his riotous companions, he tried to place it on Caesar's
head. He drew back to prevent it, but the spectators were
shrewd enough to observe that the action was rather that of
a coy than indignant refusal. The people thundered applause
when they saw Cassar put away the crown. Again Antony
made the attempt, and again it was unsuccessful. The
shouts became louder, and Caesar saw that there could be no
mistake as to the real feelings of the populace. The offer
of the crown was at least premature. He rose hastily from
his seat, and pretending to misconstrue the clamour, laid
bare his neck, crying out that he was ready to receive the
blow if any one there desired to strike. He showed, how-
ever, how little he was pleased that the ruse had failed, for
when the garland was afterwards placed upon the head of
414 DEATH OF CAESAR. CHAP. xx.
one of his statues, and removed by order of some of the
tribunes, he deprived them of their offices on the pretence
that they were trying to stir up sedition against him.
The next plan resorted to by his friends was to make the
Sibylline books play a part subservient to their purpose. It
was only necessary to bribe the guardians, and they could
make their oracles speak as they pleased. They spread a
report that in their mystic leaves was contained a prophecy
that the Parthians could only be conquered by a king.
With a people so superstitious as the Romans, it is impos-
sible to say what effect this stratagem might have had, if a
few bold men had not been thereby warned that the time for
them was come to put in execution a design which they had
for some weeks harboured of taking Caesar's life.
Of the particular details of the great conspiracy we know
little. It was of course formed in secret and shrouded in
mystery. Cassius seems to have been the first who con-
ceived the plan of assassination, and he was extremely
anxious to engage Marcus Brutus in the plot, whose char-
acter stood perhaps higher than that of any man at Rome,
and whose name would be a tower of strength on which to
rely in the attempt to carry out so desperate an enterprise.
Several, we are told, to whom Cassius ventured to communi-
cate his design made it a condition that Brutus should join
them. He was cautiously sounded, and at last consented to
take part in the conspiracy. The act of heroism by which his
wife Porcia, a daughter of Cato and his own cousin, forced
him to confide the secret to her is well known. No less than
sixty persons are said to have been privy to the plot, of whom
the best known, besides Marcus Brutus and Cassius, are
Decimus Brutus, Trebonius, Casca, Tullius Cimber, Cnasus
Domitius, and Servilius.
That Cicero was not in the number is certain. Antony
afterwards, when the tide of popular feeling had turned
against the murderers, accused him of being one of the con-
spirators, but Cicero strongly denied it. And this we may
well believe, not because he would have shrunk from the
deed as wrong, for, as we shall hereafter see, he extolled it to
the skies, but because he was not the kind of man who would
JET. 63. MEETING OF THE SENATE. 415
be likely to be taken into the counsels of those who were
engaged in an enterprise that was full of danger, and which
required nothing so much as nerve and resolution. Plutarch
tells us expressly that the plot was concealed from Cicero,
" lest to his own disposition, which was naturally timorous,
adding now the wariness and caution of old age, and by his
weighing as he would every particular that he might not
make one step without the greatest security, he should blunt
the edge of their forwardness and resolution in a business
which required all the despatch possible." 1
A meeting of the Senate was summoned for the I 5th
the Ides of March, and it was currently believed that on
that day a proposal would be made to declare Caesar king,
in conformity with what was said to be contained in the
Sibylline books. The conspirators saw that there was no
time for delay, and the blow must be struck at once. The
place where the Senate was to meet was the Curia Pompeii,
a building adjoining the portico which formed part of the
splendid theatre erected by Pompey on the west of the
Capitol, not far from the southern extremity of the Campus
Martius. Plutarch seems to confound the curia with the
portico. His words are " The very place, too, where the
Senate was to meet seemed to be by divine appointment
favourable to their purpose. It was a portico, one of those
joining the theatre, with a large exhedra or recess, in which
there stood a statue of Pompey, erected to him by the com-
monwealth when he adorned that part of the city with the
porticoes and the theatre." But there certainly was a building
called Curia Pompeii distinct from the portico, and it was in
this that the deed of violence was done.
When the fatal morning came the great body of the con-
spirators assembled at the house of Cassius, and accompanied
his son, who was on that day to assume the toga virilis,
to the Forum, from which they afterwards hastened to the
Senate-house with daggers concealed between their robes.
Decimus Brutus was about to exhibit some games, and,
availing himself of this pretext, he assembled a large body
of gladiators, and had them in readiness in case a rescue was
1 Plutarch in Brut.
4i .6 DEATH OF CAESAR. CHAP. xx.
attempted. In order to disarm suspicion, Brutus, and some
of the other conspirators who were praetors, seated them-
selves early on their tribunals in the Forum, and proceeded
to dispose of cases, as if nothing unusual was going to
happen. We are told that when Marcus Brutus decided one
of the causes that came that morning before him, the party
against whom he had given judgment declared with some
violence that he would appeal to Caesar, upon which Brutus
calmly said, " Caesar does not hinder me, nor shall he hinder
me, from deciding according to law." He then left and went
to the Senate-house.
At the last moment the secret was on the point of being
betrayed, and Caesar might have been warned in time. A
person came up to Casca, as he stood in the group waiting
for the arrival of their victim, and, taking him by the hand,
whispered into his ear " You concealed the secret from us,
but Brutus has told me all." Casca naturally supposed that
the stranger was privy to the plot, and his countenance
showed how much he was surprised. A word might have
escaped him which would have been fatal to the plan, when
the other relieved him from his anxiety by saying, in a
laughing tone, " How came you to be so rich of a sudden
that you could stand an election for the aedileship ?" It was
obvious that the secret to which the man alluded was not
the terrible one of which all their minds were full, and we
can imagine how Casca must have rejoiced that he had not
betrayed himself by an imprudent answer. Another incident
occurred, which showed that the plot was known more widely
than the conspirators imagined. A senator named Popilius
Lasnas came up to Brutus and Cassius, and, saluting them
with more than usual earnestness, whispered to them " My
wishes are with you, and I hope you may accomplish your
design. But I advise you to make haste, for the thing is
now no secret !" It was evident that not a moment was to
be lost.
But where in the meantime was Caesar ? The day was
wearing on, and he had not appeared. What was the cause
of the unusual delay ?
If we may believe the concurrent testimony of many
B.C. 44- SINISTER OMENS. 417
ancient writers, several omens of sinister import happened in
the night and morning before his assassination, which seemed
sent by Providence to warn him of his impending doom.
We need not too curiously inquire whether the account is
true, or whether they owed their origin to the superstitious
imagination of the Romans, excited to the utmost as it would
be by dwelling upon the circumstances of the terrible event
after it had taken place. It is a fact established beyond the
possibility of doubt, that in some mysterious way a presenti-
ment does often exist of approaching evil, and the very
reverse often happens of that which Shakespear declares to
be the rule, when he says
Against ill chances men are ever merry ;
But heaviness' foreruns the good event.
His wife Calpurnia dreamed that the house in which they
slept had fallen, and that her husband was wounded and fled
to her arms for refuge. The armour dedicated to Mars,
which as Pontifex Maximus .he kept in his dwelling, rattled
during the night, and the door of his bed-chamber opened of
its own accord. In the morning when he attempted a divina-
tion, by feeding poultry according to the old Roman custom,
the omens were unfavourable ; and it is said that he deter-
mined not to leave his house that day. The impatient con-
spirators sent a message to tell him that the Senate was
assembled, but still he did not come ; and at last Decimus
Brutus went off to see him personally and say that his pre-
sence was urgently required. After such a summons his
lofty soul disdained to be deterred by the paltry omens that
might have frightened a weaker mind, and, accompanied by
Brutus, he left his home and got into a litter to be carried
to the Senate-house. As he passed the threshold his statue,
which stood there, fell to the ground and was broken to
pieces. Even yet he might have been saved if he had taken
the trouble to read a paper which as he passed along was
thrust into his hand by some one in the street. It contained
a revelation of the plot ; but Caesar, thinking probably that
it was merely a petition such as he was constantly in the
habit of receiving, and which was of no pressing importance,
2 E
4i 8 DEATH OF CsESAR. CHAP. xx.
thrust it unopened into the folds of his robe. And we are
told that he said gaily to a soothsayer whom he met, and
who had warned him to beware of the Ides of March, " You
see the day you feared has come, and I am still alive."
" Yes," answered the other, " it has come, but it has not yet
passed." If this story is true we must suppose that the man
had some inkling of the design of the conspirators, or perhaps
was actually in the plot, and hoped to get credit for the gift
of prophecy, and so enhance the reputation of the science in
which he was an adept.
It had been seriously debated amongst the conspirators
whether Antony should not be murdered at the same time
as Caesar, and the majority wished to kill him. But Brutus
would not consent, thinking that it would give an unfavour-
able complexion to the character of their design, which ought
to be limited solely to the removal of the one man who had
destroyed the liberties of Rome. Plutarch says that he in-
sisted that an action undertaken in defence of right and law
must be kept unsullied and pure from injustice. There can
be no doubt that in this he made in point of policy a capital
mistake, and no one was more fully impressed with the con-
viction afterwards than Cicero himself. It was, however,
thought advisable to keep Antony away from the Senate-
house while the deed was being done, for, armed as he was
with consular authority, his presence might in some way have
embarrassed the execution of the plan, or at all events have
endangered the safety of the conspirators. Trebonius there-
fore went out to meet him on his way and engage him in
conversation before he entered the chamber where the Senate
was assembled. In his second Philippic Cicero distinctly
declares that Antony was an accomplice, and that Trebonius
and he met by a preconcerted arrangement. By this time
Caesar had reached the door, and it is affecting to read in the
ancient writers the way in which the last moments of the
doomed dictator were spent. The senators seem to have
been lounging in the portico when his litter came up ; and
as he got out of it Popilius Laenas approached him, and
kept him for some time engaged outside the door in close
conversation, in a low tone. This alarmed the conspirators,
JET. 63. THE ASSASSINATION. 4*9
for they knew from what Popilius had said to Brutus and
Cassius a short time before that he was in the secret, but
were by no means sure how far they might trust him. We
are told that they were ready to destroy themselves if they
were prematurely discovered, and had their daggers in readi-
ness for the purpose while Popilius was talking to Caesar.
It is strange that they did not rather rush upon their victim
and make sure work at once. But Popilius kissed Caesar's
hand the kiss of Judas and left him, and as Caesar turned
to enter the Senate-house they felt that so far they were safe.
In the meantime the great body of the senators had gone
in and taken their seats. As Caesar entered they all rose in
a body to receive him, and the conspirators kept close to him
as he walked up to his chair, talking familiarly with him as
was usual, for he was the most affable of men. As he sat
down some say just under the statue of Pompey which
now stands in the Palazzo Spada at Rome Tullius Cimber
began to petition him to recall his banished brother, and the
others joined in the entreaty, pressing close upon him as if
for the purpose of urging more eagerly their request. Their
importunity at last became disagreeable, and Caesar, to get
rid of it, rose rather abruptly from his seat. As he did so
Tullius snatched at his robe, and pulled it from his shoulders.
In an instant a dagger glittered in the air, and Casca stabbed
him in the shoulder. The wound was slight, for Casca was
too nervous to send the blow home, and Caesar, seizing the
handle of the weapon, cried out, " Casca, you villain, what
are you about ?" But dagger after dagger was now plunged
into his body, and when he saw the hand of Brutus, whom
he had loved with a warm affection, uplifted to strike, he let
go Casca's arm, which he had grasped, and folding his robe
around him submitted without a struggle to his inevitable
fate. 1 So eager were the assassins to kill him, that in the
blind confusion of the moment some of them were themselves
wounded, and Brutus was cut in the hand, while the clothes
of most of them were besmeared with blood.
1 According to Dio Cassius he cried tion, for scandal declared that Brutus
out, " You, too, Brutus, my son ?" If was his son the fruit of an amour be-
he did use the expression it may have tween his mother Servilia and Caesar,
meant more than a mere term of affec-
420 DEATH OF C^SAR. CHAP. xx.
It is certain that Cicero was present at the murder. In
one of his letters to Atticus he expresses the joy he felt at
witnessing the deed of blood. In his eyes regicide was no
crime, and he exulted in the act as one of the most glorious
in the annals of fame. The terms in which he speaks of it
show that all pity for the man was lost in detestation of
the tyrant. He believed that the interests of his country
required the sacrifice, and he felt no more for the victim
than Charlotte Corday did when she plunged her dagger in
the breast of Marat.
We can imagine the stupified horror with which the great
body of the senators who were not in the secret gazed upon
the scene. They rushed out of the building when it was
over, and fled in wild alarm along the streets. When Antony
heard what had happened, he threw off his consular robe in
fear of being recognised, and putting on the dress of a slave,
who was in attendance or happened to be near, he hurried
home and hid himself in a place of concealment. Plutarch
says that at first all places were filled with cries and shouts,
and the wild running to and fro occasioned by the sudden
surprise and passion that everybody was in, increased the
tumult in the city. The assassins placed a cap, as the
symbol of liberty, on the point of a sword, and carrying it
aloft, marched up to the Capitol followed by the gladiators
of Decimus, upon whom they relied for protection in case
they were attacked. But at first they had no fears of the
populace turning against them, and expected that there
would be a general rising in their favour when it became
known that the tyrant, as they called Caesar, was no more.
As Brutus went along, with his bloody dagger in his hand,
he shouted the name of Cicero, calling upon him, as the
representative of the cause of the republic, and congratu-
lating him on the restoration of liberty. 1 Several of the
senators, amongst whom were Cicero himself, and Le/itulus
1 In the second Philippic Cicero cause, when he had performed an ex-
assumes that this was done because ploit similar to mine, he called on me
Brutus thought that the only parallel to bear witness that he had become a
achievement was his own glorious con- rival of my renown." That consulship
sulship. " Perhaps," he says, " the was never out of his thoughts for a
cause of his appealing to me was be- moment.
B.C. 44. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASSASSINS. 421
Spinther, Favonius, Aquinus, Dolabella, and Pasticus, fol-
lowed them up to the Capitol, where a crowd of people,
attracted by curiosity, soon assembled, and Brutus addressed
them in a speech which was loudly applauded. The chief
cause of anxiety to the conspirators at this moment was the
presence of a large body of Caesar's veteran troops in the
island of the Tiber, not far from the spot where the murder
was committed, who were under the command of Lepidus,
the master of horse ; and it was impossible not to fear that
they might, in a sudden impulse of fury, rush forward to
avenge the death of their former general. No movement,
however, of the kind appeared ; and, reassured by the accla-
mations of the crowd on the Capitol, the assassins ventured
down into the Forum, where Brutus ascended the rostra and
again addressed the multitude. He was well received, and
all seemed to be going on favourably until Cinna, who was
one of the praetors, rose to speak. He attacked the memory
of Caesar in language which so exasperated the mob that
the whole body of conspirators, afraid of some violent out-
break, thought it prudent to retire and take up again their
quarters in the Capitol.
Cicero advised that Brutus and Cassius should, as praetors,
take upon themselves to summon a meeting of the Senate in
the Capitol for the following day. The proper officers to
convoke the Senate were the consuls ; but one was lying a
corpse on the floor, and the other, Antony, had fled, and was
nowhere to be found. This was no time to stand on strict
legal formalities, and the praetors had sufficient authority to
act in such an emergency. Cicero's idea was, that if the
Senate could be got together, measures might be taken to
establish a strong government, and prevent the deplorable
consequences which were likely to ensue by allowing the
vessel of the state to drift in so stormy a sea without chart
or pilot. He always afterwards regretted that his advice
had not been followed, and it seems to have been the wisest
course which under the circumstances could have been
adopted. It was of the last importance to get the machinery
of regular government into play before a reaction should
take place, and time be given to the partisans of Caesar to
422 DEATH OF C^SAR. CHAP. xx.
recover from the terror into which they were thrown by his
destruction. He was, however, overruled. Perhaps it was
feared that the Senate might show itself hostile, or perhaps
there was an unwillingness to take any step which might
show distrust of Antony, whom they yet hoped to win over
to their side. It is said, indeed, by Plutarch, that he had
been sounded by Trebonius to see whether he would join in
the conspiracy, and " very well understood him, but did not
encourage it ; however, he said nothing of it to Caesar, but
kept the secret faithfully." Perhaps so ambitious a man
was not sorry to have Caesar removed, well knowing that
when the stage was left clear no one had so good a chance
of climbing into the vacant seat as himself. He played his
part with admirable skill, and by his profound dissimulation
he for some time deceived everybody but Cicero, who, what-
ever he might think it politic to say in public, always dis-
trusted him, and felt from the first that as long as Antony
lived all that would be gained by Caesar's murder was a
change of masters.
Antony soon recovered his presence of mind when he
found that his life was safe, and the first step he took was to
secure Lepidus, who, in the night that followed the assassi-
nation, had occupied the Forum with his troops. For this
purpose he hastily concluded an engagement, by which he
promised to give his daughter in marriage to Lepidus's son,
and to confer upon Lepidus himself the high office of Pontifex
Maximus, which was vacant by Caesar's death. It had been
proposed by the conspirators, when they took refuge in the
Capitol, that Cicero should go to Antony and endeavour to
persuade him to come forward and defend the republic.
But Cicero declined the errand, saying that he knew Antony
too well, and that he would promise everything while under
the influence of fear, but when the danger was over would
show himself in his true colours. Next day Antony left his
house, and negotiations took place between him and the
party in the Capitol, but without any immediate result. In
the meantime three of Caesar's slaves had removed the dead
body of their master from the spot where it lay, and carried
it to his usual residence.
JET. 63. PROCEEDINGS OF ANTONY. 423
Antony next took an important step. He seized the
whole of Caesar's papers, and made himself master of his
treasure, which had been deposited for safe custody in the
temple of Ops, and amounted to the sum of seven hundred
million sesterces, about six millions sterling. He summoned
the Senate to meet him in the temple of Tellus on the fol-
lowing day, the I /th of March, and took care to guard all
the avenues of approach by a strong body of soldiers : but
none of the actual conspirators ventured to attend. Cicero
was there, and made a long speech, pleading earnestly for a
general amnesty, and advising that all the appointments made
and directions given by the deceased Dictator should be rati-
fied and carried into execution, as the best mode of preserving
peace. Piso, Caesar's father-in-law, proposed that the contents
of his will, which was in the custody of the Vestal Virgins,
should be made known, and that he should have a public
funeral. To both these resolutions the Senate agreed.
On the same day Brutus and Cassius invited the people
to meet them on the Capitol, and declared to the assembled
crowd that they would hold sacred the promise made by
Caesar to his soldiers that he would make a distribution of
lands amongst them.
In the meantime Dolabella, who, as I have mentioned, had
previously been nominated consul by Caesar, to succeed him
when he left Italy to conduct the war against the Parthians,
assumed, much to the disgust of Antony, the consular office ;
and the two consuls summoned a meeting of the people in
the Forum for the following morning, the 1 8th of March.
Cicero, attended and spoke again in favour of an amnesty,
for which the Senate had voted on the previous day. The
conspirators were invited to come down from their stronghold
on the Capitol, but declined to do so until both Antony and
Lepidus each sent a son to them, to be kept there as hostages
for their safety. They then ventured to descend into the
streets, and in token that a reconciliation was affected and
the past buried in oblivion, Brutus supped that evening with
Lepidus at his house, and Cassius with Antony. A meeting
of the Senate was next held, and the allotment of provinces,
as they had been already designated, was formally confirmed.
424 DEATH OF C^SAR. CHAP. xx.
Macedonia was given to Brutus, and Syria to Cassius. The
will of Caesar was read out publicly in the Forum, and its
liberality to the populace produced a marked effect. This
feeling was increased to a state of uncontrollable excitement
when the funeral procession set out along the streets. The
dead body was carried on a bier covered with a pall, 1 and
when it reached the Forum Antony mounted the rostra,
and, throwing off the cloak, showed the blood-smeared corpse
to the people, with its gaping wounds all exposed to view.
He then addressed the horror-stricken crowd in that memor-
able speech which has been embalmed for us by Shakespear
in lines in which, as in the whole of his drama of Julius
Caesar, the imagination of the poet has observed faithfully
the accuracy of the historian. It had been intended to burn
the corpse on a funeral pile in the Campus Martius, but the
people in a transport of fury collected hastily a heap of wood
in the Forum by pulling down some of the neighbouring
shops, and placing the body upon it set it on fire. 2 They
then snatched the burning brands in their hands, and rushed
along the streets to set fire to the building where the murder
was committed, and also the houses of the principal conspi-
rators. On their way they happened to meet an unhappy
man, Helvius Cinna, one of the tribunes, and, mistaking him
for his namesake Cinna the praetor, who had distinguished
himself by his intemperate speech against the memory of
Caesar, they tore him to pieces on the spot.
This was the turning-point of the crisis. Hitherto it had
been uncertain which side the populace would take. Even
Lepidus, at the head of a body of veteran troops who were
attached by every tie to Caesar, had maintained a cautious
neutrality, and declared that he would abide by the decision
of the Senate. It was, however, now clear that the current
of public opinion was setting in strongly against the con-
spirators, and their position became critical in the extreme.
But Antony proceeded with wary caution. His great object
was not to commit himself decidedly on either side, but as
1 According to one account a wax 2 Augustus afterwards built a temple
effigy of the murdered Dictator was on the spot dedicated to the memory
carried on the bier. of Julius Caesar. See App. Bell. Civ.
ii. 148.
B.C. 44. APPROVAL OF CAESAR'S MURDER. 425
far as possible keep well with the partisans of Brutus and
Cassius, until the time came when he could safely throw off
the mask and act as he pleased. For some time he affected to
desire nothing so much as moderate and conciliatory mea-
sures, and gained some popularity by voluntarily proposing
in the Senate that the office of Dictator should be for ever
abolished.
It does not fall within the scope of this biography to give
anything like a minute detail of events with which Cicero
was not immediately concerned ; and our business is to
follow his fortunes, and to see how they were affected by
the sudden catastrophe which had changed the destinies of
the Roman world. That there may be no mistake as to
his hearty approbation of Caesar's murder, I will quote a
few passages from his subsequent letters, to show the terms
in which he spoke of it. In one of them he says :
" Though everything goes wrong, the Ides of March con-
sole me. But our heroes have done gloriously and nobly
what depended on themselves to do. What remains re-
quires money and resources, of both of which we are desti-
tute." In another " Hitherto nothing pleases me except
the Ides of March." In another " Whatever perils they
may endure, our heroes have one great consolation the
consciousness of their grand and glorious deed." In an-
other " Our saviours will always be illustrious, blessed in
the consciousness of their act." Writing to Cassius, he
exclaims " O that you had invited me to the feast of the
Ides of March : there wotild have been no remains T^ In
other words, he would have advised that Antony should be
killed. And he uses precisely the same expression in a
letter to Trebonius.
But he deeply deplored the want of plan and foresight
shown by the leaders of the enterprise. They trusted very
much to the chapter of accidents, and thought that it was
enough to kill Caesar to establish the republic on its old
foundations. They forgot that the body politic was corrupt
to its heart's core, and that a century of struggles and
1 Vellem Idibus Martiis me ad ccenam invitasses ; reliquiarum nihil fuisset.
Ad Div. xii. 4.
426 DEATH OF C^ESAR. CHAP. xx.
disorder had made the people careless as to the fate of the
constitution, provided they were fed and amused. Accus-
tomed to largesses and bribes on a gigantic scale, they
regarded political power chiefly as the means of securing
benefits to themselves in the shape of corn, money, and
theatrical shows, and the highest bidder was the man who
generally obtained their votes. To Caesar's rule they bowed
their necks without a murmur so long as the old names were
kept, under which they fancied that Roman freedom was
preserved ; and Plutarch remarks, with reference to the
attempt of Antony to place the kingly diadem on Caesar's
brow, that it was " a curious thing enough that they should
submit with patience to the fact, and yet at the same time
dread the name as the destruction of their liberty." Not so
curious, however, as the Greek imagined, for men cling to
shadows long after the substance has departed, and adhere
obstinately to the forms of effete institutions, though no
longer instinct with energy and life. It is impossible not to
wonder that men like Brutus and Cassius should have shown
themselves so incapable of guiding the enterprise on which
they had staked their lives. Their hope was that the people
would rise en masse, and hail them as the saviours of Rome.
But when they heard the execrations of the mob, and saw
from the Capitol their houses in flames, they became as it
were paralysed with fear, and thought of nothing" but pro-
viding for their personal safety. They hastily quitted Rome,
and retired to the neighbourhood of Antium to wait the
course of events, intending to leave Italy if the news from
the city continued to be unfavourable. It was contrary to
law for them, as praetors, to absent themselves from the city
for more than ten days, and they therefore obtained a dis-
pensation from the Senate for that purpose. So careful
were they to observe legal forms even at such a crisis of
terror and confusion.
Cicero was not the man for an emergency like this. He
hastened away from Rome, where he felt that he was power-
less, and for the next few months wandered from one villa
to another, at Tusculum, Formiae, Sinuessa, Puteoli, Pompeii,
and Naples, pouring out his complaints in letters to Atticus,
JET. 63. ANXIETY OF CICERO. 427
and seeking distraction from politics in philosophy and
literature. In April we find him in the neighbourhood of
Rome, where he paid a visit to Matius, an intimate friend of
Caesar, who was a shrewd observer of passing events, and
saw clearly that the game which the conspirators had played
was lost. He told Cicero that nothing could be worse than
the present state of things, and there was no getting out of
the difficulty. " For if Caesar," he said, " who was gifted
with so powerful an intellect, could not extricate the state
from its perils, who can do so ? All is ruined." Upon
which Cicero remarks, " Perhaps he is right." Matius told
him that Caesar had said of Brutus, " It is of great import-
ance what he wishes : whatever he wishes he wills strongly ;"
and he mentioned that once, when Cicero called on Caesar
at his house, and sat down to wait until he was summoned
to his presence, Caesar had observed, " How can I doubt
that I am unpopular ? how can I be such a fool as to be-
lieve that this man is my friend, when he sits so long to wait
my convenience ? I do not doubt that he hates me heartily ;"
meaning that so much ceremony would not be used by his
visitor if they had been on terms of friendly intimacy together.
Cicero was pleased to hear that the populace had applauded
in the theatre at the Megalesian Games when the actor Pub-
lius had repeated some lines which were caught at as com-
plimentary to Brutus and Cassius. After staying only a
day at his Tusculan villa, he proceeded to Lanuvium, from
which place he wrote to Atticus, regretting that he had not
applied to the Senate for an honorary legation (legatio libera],
which would have given him an excuse for leaving Italy, but
he had been deterred, from an unwillingness to appear afraid
at the unsettled aspect of affairs. He saw that everything
looked gloomy. The satellites of the tyrant were, he said,
in power in command of armies, and attended by Caesar's
veteran soldiers as body-guards ; while the conspirators, who
ought to have been protected by the whole world, and not
only applauded, but exalted to high office, were compelled
to shut themselves for safety in their houses. The towns-
people in the provinces were, he said, enthusiastic in their
joy at the death of Caesar, and flocked to him in numbers,
428 DEATH OF CAESAR. CHAP. xx.
anxious to hear all he had to tell them on that thrilling
theme.
On the 1 6th of April he reached Puteoli, and stayed
several days at his villa in the neighbourhood. He was
here gratified by receiving satisfactory letters from his son
at Athens, written in a style which showed learning and
scholarship. This, Cicero remarked, was a proof that he
was making progress in his studies, whether the sentiments
he expressed were genuine or not. Most probably they were
written in Greek. He begged Atticus, who generally managed
his pecuniary affairs during his absence from Rome, to see
that the young man was liberally provided with money. Just
about this time a friend named Cluvitis left him some pro-
perty at Puteoli, part of which consisted of shops. Two of
these, he said, had tumbled down, and the rest showed
ominous cracks in the walls, " therefore not only the tenants
but the mice have emigrated." " Others," he continued,
" call this a misfortune ; I do not call it even an inconveni-
ence. Good Heavens ! Now I care nothing for such things.
It were better to have died a thousand times than
endure this state of things, which seems likely to be perma-
nent." It was here that a copy was sent him of Antony's
speech at Caesar's funeral, and he declared that he had hardly
patience to read it. Here also he met Balbus, Lentulus,
Hirtius, and Pansa, the last two of whom had, as we may
remember, taken lessons in declamation under him, and he
sometimes in jest calls them his pupils. Their position as
consuls-elect for the next year gave them some importance,
and made Cicero anxious to ascertain what were their political
views, and how far they might be relied upon. But another
person, w r ho was destined to play a far more conspicuous
part in the coming contest, was in the immediate neighbour-
hood, and had frequent interviews with Cicero. This was
the young Octavius, then only eighteen years of age, who
was staying at the residence of his step-father, Philippus,
near Puteoli, and treated the veteran statesman with the
most deferential attention and respect. He had been sent
by Caesar, who was his great-uncle, to Apollonia in Epirus,
to finish his education there, and was to have accompanied
B.C. 44. MEETING WITH OCTA VIAN. 429
him to the East when he set out on the Parthian campaign.
He there heard the news of the murder, and also that his
uncle had adopted him by will as his heir, and bequeathed
to him three-fourths of his property. He immediately quitted
Apollonia, and reached Naples on the i8th of April, declar-
ing that he came to take possession of his inheritance. His
immediate retainers already saluted him with the name of
Caesar, but Cicero observed that his step-father, Philippus,
did not, and he therefore himself abstained from giving him
the title, although he was pleased with his demeanour, and
considered him quite devoted to himself. Many of Caesar's
veterans who were in the neighbourhood rallied round Octa-
vius, and called upon him to avenge his uncle's death. He
hastened on to Rome, and reached the city at the end of
April, declaring that he came only to receive his inheritance.
Antony was at this juncture in Campania, where he had
gone to gain over to his side the legionary soldiers, who
were quartered there in considerable numbers, many of them
being settled as colonists on lands bestowed upon them by
the liberality of Caesar. He did not return to Rome until
the middle of May, when Octavius reproached him with his
delay in punishing the assassins of Caesar, and demanded
that his own adoption should be ratified with the usual legal
forms. This, perhaps, was not so easy, even if Antony had
been disposed to comply, for it was the first instance known
at Rome of an adoption by will. Hitherto such an act had
only taken place inter vivos, but it was no time to stand
upon technicalities. Octavius, however, did not carry his
point as to the adoption until the following year ; but in the
meantime he assumed the names of Caius Julius Caesar
Octavianus exchanged afterwards for the well-known title
of Augustus. In future we shall speak of him as Octavian.
He also demanded that the property bequeathed to him by
Caesar should be made over to him ; but Antony replied
that the treasure belonged to the state. He had already
made free use of it for his own purposes, and paid off an
enormous load of his own and Dolabella's debts, hoping
thereby to secure the friendship and support of his profli-
gate colleague. His unwillingness to accede to Octavian's
43
DEATH OF
CHAP. XX.
wishes was the foundation of the hostility which sprang up
between these two competitors for power, and the contest
was carried on under various phases, until, after a short
interval of apparent but hollow reconciliation, it ended, as
everybody knows, in the destruction of Antony, and the
elevation of Octavian to an imperial throne.
CHAPTER XXI.
VACILLATION. DEPARTURE FROM ITALY AND SUDDEN
RETURN TO ROME.
JEt. 63. B.C. 44.
IN the meantime Cicero remained quietly in the country,
and kept up an active correspondence with Atticus at Rome.
His friend wrote and asked him whether he preferred the
hilly scenery of Arpinum or the prospect of the sea at
Puteoli. Cicero replied that both were so pleasant that it was
difficult to say which he liked best. He foresaw that a civil
war was at hand, but expected it in a different quarter from
that in which it actually broke out. Sextus, the only sur-
viving son of Pompey, was in arms in Spain, and Cicero's
idea was, that the first blow would be struck by him. He
was, as usual, terribly perplexed as to what course he should
adopt. He felt that he could not now remain neuter in the
contest, as he had done in the closing scenes of the struggle
between Pompey and Caesar ; for, as he told Atticus, he was
sure all that had shown joy at the death of Caesar, in which
number he included himself, would be regarded by the other
side as enemies, and proscribed. The result, he said, was
that he must join either the camp of Sextus or of Brutus ;
but either was an odious alternative, and ill-suited to his
years, especially when he reflected on the uncertainty of war.
432 CORRESPONDENCE WITH ANTONY, CHAP. xxi.
He added, in a loftier tone, " Let me consider what is my
duty, and, whatever happens, let me bear it with fortitude
and wisdom, remembering that it is one of the accidents of
mortality ; and let me console myself chiefly with literature,
and not a little with the recollection of the Ides of March."
But he continued to halt between two opinions, and was in
a state of painful irresolution as to the line of conduct he
should adopt, taking Atticus into his counsels, and confiding
to that tried and trusted friend all his anxieties and fears.
It was about this time, or perhaps earlier, that Quintus
and Pomponia, who must have been long heartily sick of
each other, put an end to their matrimonial squabbles by a
divorce. Quintus, who seems to have been generally in
money difficulties, was hard pressed to find the means of
restoring his wife's dowry the inevitable consequence of a
divorce under the Roman law. A rumour got abroad that
he intended to marry another lady named Aquillia, but
Cicero said that his brother was utterly averse to the thought
of a second marriage, and, in the joy of his newly-acquired
freedom, declared that nothing was more delightful than a
bed all to himself.
Knowing, as we do, the rooted dislike of Cicero toward
Antony, we might be surprised at the tone of a letter which
he wrote to him from Puteoli, if we had not frequent examples
of the dissimulation which he allowed himself to practise
from political motives, and which, if we did not possess his
confidential correspondence, would have given us an entirely
erroneous impression of many of his opinions of the men and
events of his time. Antony wished to recall from exile
Sextus Clodius, who had been, as we may recollect, banished
from Rome for the part he took in the riotous proceedings
that occurred at the funeral of his relative, Publius Clodius.
Antony pretended that he had obtained from Caesar a promise
that Sextus should be restored ; but as no one was more
interested in the question than Cicero, of whom the whole
Clodian family was the implacable enemy, he wrote to him
a complimentary letter, to try and obtain his consent, saying
that without it he would not take upon himself to recall
Sextus, however much he desired to do so. Cicero sent this
letter and a copy of his answer to Atticus, and, by way of
p.c. 44- CORRESPONDENCE WITH ANTONY. 433
comment, told him that the request on the part of Antony
showed such disgraceful baseness that he sometimes almost
wished to have Caesar back for, by forging documents, he
pretended that Caesar had expressed wishes utterly irrecon-
cilable with the whole tenor of his acts and policy. " But,"
he added, " I have shown myself perfectly ready to humour
Antony. For, as he had made up his mind that he could
do as he liked, he would have done it whether I liked it or
not." This may be so, and we might therefore have expected
to find a civil compliance with Antony's request and no more.
But this was not Cicero's way of doing things. He wrote a
letter full of the warmest expressions of friendship for Antony,
declaring that he had always loved him, but now his conduct
at the present crisis had so endeared him that he esteemed
no one more ! He at once granted Antony's wish, and
assured him that he would always comply with his requests
and promote his interests without hesitation and with the
utmost zeal. 1 This letter was afterwards produced by Antony
in the Senate, and read by him when he replied to the speech
of Cicero known as the first Philippic. His object was to
show the contrast between the expressions of respect and
friendship for himself which it contained and the very dif-
ferent language of the public attack. In his second Philippic
Cicero animadverted severely upon this as a betrayal of con-
fidence, and as taking an advantage of which no man of
honour would avail himself.
" For who," he asked, "that was ever so little conversant of the usages of
gentlemen, when some cause of quarrel had arisen, ever brought forward and read
in public letters which had been sent him by a friend ? To render impossible the
confidential intercourse of absent friends, what else is it than to deprive life of all
fellowship and communion ? How many things are there in letters said in jest
which, if they were published, would seem silly ! how many things said seriously
which yet on no account ought to be divulged !"
There is a good deal of truth in the last two sentences,
and it would be well, perhaps, if biographers would bear it
in mind oftener than they are disposed to do. But as to
the assertion that, when a man is attacked as having been
1 It is fair to remember that up to about this date he expresses his wish to
this time there had been no rupture be- retain ' ' Antonii inveteratam sine ulla
tween Cicero and Antony, and they had offensione amicitiam." See ad Div.
lived on terms of apparent, if not very xvi. 23.
sincere, friendship. In a letter to Tiro
2 F
434 CORRESPONDENCE WITH ANTONY. CHAP. xxi.
infamous all his life by one who professed to be his friend,
he may not use former letters to show the opinion which that
person then expressed of his character or conduct, it is carry-
ing the rule too far which forbids confidential communications
to be divulged.
It is worth noticing, as an illustration of the difference
between ancient and modern ideas on the point of honour,
that in the same speech, immediately after accusing Antony
of a breach of good manners in reading his letter, in order
to show that he was guilty not only of an indecorum but a
folly, Cicero made use of an argument which would cer-
tainly not have occurred to an orator at the present day.
He said
" But what would you have to urge in reply if I were to deny that I ever sent
you that letter at all ? By what evidence would you convict me ? Is it by the
handwriting ? a thing in which you have an expertness which you know how to
turn to good account. (This was a bitter allusion to the forgeries of Caesar's
handwriting with which Antony was charged.) How could you do so since it is
in the hand of a secretary ? I really envy your master in rhetoric, who got such
a large salary to teach you nothing. For what is more stupid, I do not say in an
orator, but an ordinary man, than to allege that against an adversary which, if
the adversary denies, the assailant cannot advance a step farther ? But I do not
deny it. "
We may well believe that it never flashed across Antony's
mind that Cicero, a senator and ex-consul, would get up in
his place and deny the genuineness of his own letter. The
idea of such a defence being set up could only occur where
the party attacked was supposed to be base enough to
resort to a lie, and in that case the assailant would generally
take care to be furnished with some evidence to confute
him.
He wrote at the same time to his quondam son-in-law
Dolabella in terms of extravagant praise, because he had
just put down with stern vigour a tumult at Rome and
punished some of the ringleaders with death. Caesar was a
favourite with the lower classes, who remembered with regret
the shows and feasts with which he had entertained them,
and the money he had more than once distributed amongst
them. Some persons had erected a stone pillar twenty feet
high in the Forum to his memory, on the spot where his
body was burnt, with an inscription upon it, C^ESARI PARENT!
, and sacrifices had been actually offered there as if
JET. 63. PRAISE OF DOLABELLA. 435
it were an altar. This was going rather too far, and Dola-
bella, as consul, ordered the pillar to be thrown down. A
riot ensued, which was soon quelled, and the most active of
the leaders were seized and executed. It was this act that
drew forth such extraordinary encomiums from Cicero that
Atticus felt obliged to remonstrate with him. It is not
worth while to quote the letter to Dolabella, which may be
described as one long panegyric in Cicero's most compli-
mentary style. And yet immediately afterwards we find
him writing to Atticus, and saying that it would be a much
greater action on the part of Dolabella if he would only pay
the money he owed him meaning Tullia's dowry, which
had never yet been restored by her worthless husband.
Cicero frequently harped on this subject, and was obviously
much annoyed at the delay and poor prospect of recovering
the money.
He left Puteoli, and went to his villa near Pompeii, but
first did an act of kindness to Pilia, the wife of Atticus.
For some reason probably on account of health she wished
to reside for a short period in the country ; and Cicero gave
up to her his Cuman villa on the shore of the Lucrine lake,
where he took care that she should have every comfort, and
left her the key of the cellar. 1 He wished himself to travel
as far as Athens, and pay a visit to his son, for he rather dis-
trusted the accounts he had of him. He was not satisfied
with a letter he received from a distinguished Athenian
named Leonidas, who, although he spoke favourably of the
young man, used the expression "so far as at present," and
Cicero thought that this betrayed some misgivings as to the
future. But he was glad to have any excuse for leaving
Italy just then, and only lingered because he was uncertain
of the plans of Brutus and Cassius. All his hopes were
fixed on them, and especially on Brutus, whom he regarded
as the last stay of the cause of the republic. Atticus
advised him to give up politics, but, with all his disgust at
the turn things were taking, he could not bring himself to
change the whole habit of his life. He was more than ever
convinced of the want of foresight shown by the conspirators.
Their deed, he said, was the deed of men their counsels
1 Cui quidem ego totam villain cellamque tradidi. Ad Att. xiv. 9.
436 fi.RUTUS'8 SPEECH IN THE CAPITOL. CHAP. xxi.
were the counsels of children. " Old age/' he added, " has
made me bitter I am dissatisfied with everything. But my
life is over ; let the young see to it." He was determined,
at all events, to have nothing to do with war. He had seen
enough of it in the last contest, and had a lively recollection
of the miseries of a campaign when he joined the standard
of Pompey in Epirus. " Anything," he now exclaimed,
" rather than a camp ! It would be better to die a thousand
deaths, especially at my time of life." A meeting of the
Senate had been summoned for the 1st of June, and he
wished to be present, but his friends advised him to stay
away, for they heard that secret preparations were being
made to have in readiness a body of troops, and it was
feared that an attack would be made upon those who had
shown themselves the enemies of Caesar. He was distressed
at hearing of the sudden death of his friend and medical
attendant Alexio, and thus wrote to Atticus :
" What a sad event is this of Alexio ! It is incredible how much sorrow it has
caused me, and, believe me, by no means chiefly for the reason which people assign
when they say to me, ' Whom will you get for a physician ? ' What have I now
to do with a doctor ? or, if I require one, is there such a dearth of them ? What
I regret is his affection for me his kindness his agreeable disposition. Besides,
I cannot help thinking what cause there may not be for alarm when such a disease
has so suddenly carried off a man so temperate in his habits, and a physician of
such eminent skill. But in all this I console myself by reflecting that we are born
to bear all accidents which can happen to mortal man."
It seems that about this time some lady had fancied that
Cicero was in love with her, because he had paid her a few
compliments. The passage in which he alludes to it is ob-
scure, as almost all the passages are in which he hints at his
domestic affairs, but the purport of it apparently is, that
either he or the lady herself was too old for him to think of
marrying her.
Brutus sent him a copy of the speech he had delivered
when he addressed the people in the Capitol immediately
after Caesar's death, and, intending to publish it, wished Cicero
first to peruse it, and make such corrections as he thought
advisable. As the speech must have been extempore, it was
either taken down by some one on the spot, or Brutus wrote
it out afterwards from memory. But Cicero said he could
not correct it. His style was so different from that of Brutus
that the two would not amalgamate. Atticus wished him
B.C. 44. ANTONY'S FORGERIES. 437
to compose an oration himself, and pass it off for the one
which Brutus had spoken in the Capitol, but he naturally re-
fused, as Brutus was publishing his own. He said that the
time would come when he would say and write a good deal
against the tyrant who was so justly put to death but not
then, nor in that way. He sometimes spoke of the murder
with a levity which is disgusting ; as, for instance, when in
one of his letters he describes the victim as " the man whom
our friend Brutus wounded." Sometimes his expressions
were quite savage. Thus, alluding to the ruinous course
public affairs were taking, he said :
" If things go on in the way that seems likely, the Ides of March give me no
pleasure. For either he (Caesar) would never have come back (from the Parthian
war), or at all events I was in such favour with him, whom I wish the gods may
damn ncnv that he is dead ! (quern dii mortuum perdnint /) that at my time of life I
need not have shrunk from him as a master, since though our master is killed we
are not free."
Antony "had contrived an ingenious mode of doing very
much as he liked under the pretence that he was only carrying
out the directions left by Caesar, which, as has been men-
tioned, the Senate agreed to ratify. His plan was neither
more nor less than one of wholesale forgery. Having possessed
himself of Caesar's papers and secured the co-operation of his
late secretary Faberius, he forged a great variety of edicts
and orders, and declared that he had found them amongst
the documents left by the Dictator. We do not know the
exact means by which the fraud was perpetrated : whether
he got Faberius to imitate the handwriting, or made use of
Caesar's seal and attached it to papers which Faberius filled
up under his directions. Neither is it easy to understand
why edicts, v which had never been published while Caesar was
alive, should have a posthumous validity given to them after
he was dead. It may be that the whole were considered
by the Senate to be in the nature of testamentary papers ;
and they were willing to carry into execution all the wishes
expressed in them, as if they were giving effect to an ordinary
will. And Antony made an unsparing and profitable use
of the opportunity. He sold appointments, franchises, and
titles, all of which he pretended to draw out of the Fortu-
natus's bag which he had found in Caesar's strong-box.
People were astonished to see edicts appear, of which no
438 DOLABELLA' S LIEUTENANT. CHAP. xxi.
one had ever heard ; they were engraved on brass tablets
in the usual manner, and hung up on the Capitol ; and even
resolutions of the Senate were quoted of which that body
was entirely ignorant. Thus Antony, as Cicero remarked,
was able to do more in the name of Caesar after he was dead
than Caesar himself could or would have done if he had been
alive. " Though the king," he said, " is slain, we pay defer-
ence to every nod of his majesty."
He got back to his Tusculan villa before the end of May,
and wrote to Atticus declaring that he was resolved as at
present advised to keep away from Rome. He wrote also
to Antony to request that he might have a legation given
him, which would enable him to leave Italy without injury
to his reputation. But his anxiety on this point was soon
afterwards relieved by Dolabella, to whom the Senate had
given the government of Syria with a military command, in
order that he might conduct the campaign against the Par-
thians ; and on the 2d of June he made Cicero one of his
lieutenants, giving him a general permission to employ his
time as he pleased and travel where he liked. He could
thus go away from Italy without seeming to fly, and might
escape from the difficulty of his position under the pretext
that he was obeying the orders of Dolabella. He determined,
therefore, to visit Athens, and stay there until the end of the
year, when he hoped that a new and better era would dawn
for Rome under the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa.
He turned his steps southwards and travelled slowly along
the western coast, stopping at one or other of his various
country houses, and keeping up a correspondence with Rome.
He was in hopes that he might be able to accompany Brutus
to Greece, for the sea was infested by pirates, and Brutus
and Cassius had a small fleet of ships lying in the neighbour-
hood of Naples ready to convey them away at a moment's
notice. The provinces which Caesar had assigned to them
namely, Macedonia to Brutus and Syria to Cassius had been
taken from them through the influence of Antony, who knew
that it was dangerous to allow them to assume such important
commands ; and in their place the Senate had given Brutus
Crete and Cassius Africa. Trebonius got Asia Minor,
Tullius Cimber Bithynia, and Decimus Brutus Cisalpine
JET. 63. INTERVIEW WITH BRUTUS 6- CASSIUS. 439
Gaul, the modern Lombardy. But Brutus and Cassius were
determined not to be thus put off; and, as is well known,
Brutus ultimately landed in Macedonia, and there at Philippi
fought and lost the decisive battle which made Antony and
Octavian for the time joint masters of the Roman empire.
Just now, however, an attempt was made to remove quietly
the two arch-conspirators from Italy by conferring upon them
an insignificant appointment, the idea of which was ridiculed
by Cicero. The Senate passed a resolution that Brutus
should go to Asia Minor and Crassus to Sicily, to buy up
corn for the public use. Cicero wrote to Atticus about this
in a strain of bitter irony, and said he might be excused for
indulging in a laugh, as he was weary of weeping. He had
an interview with Brutus at Antium in June, at which his
mother Servilia, his sister Tertulla, the wife of Cassius, and
his own wife Porcia, together with Favonius, were present.
The question was debated what course it was best to adopt.
Cicero's advice was, that Brutus should undertake a commis-
sion to purchase grain in Asia for Rome, which the Senate
had imposed upon him, or at all events make use of it as a
pretext for leaving Italy. While they were discussing the
matter Cassius arrived. He had a similar commission for
Sicily, but declared in a fierce tone that he would not go
there on such a contemptible errand, but would cross over to
Achaea. " What will you do, Brutus ?" asked Cicero ; "you
will not be safe at Rome ?" " I will go to Rome/' he replied,
" if you think I ought" " Nay," answered Cicero, " by no
means ; for you will not be safe there." " But," rejoined
Brutus, " if I could go there with safety, would you advise
it?" Cicero pointed out all the danger of such a step,
and the result was, that Brutus gave up the idea. His
mother Servilia undertook to use all her influence to get the
grain commission cancelled, so that there might be no appear-
ance of disobedience to the order of the Senate, and after
many vain regrets for lost opportunities, the meeting separated.
The utter want of purpose and plan betrayed in the conver-
sation greatly disappointed Cicero, 1 and made him more than
ever resolved to avail himself of the appointment given him
by Dolabella and leave Italy. He said that the kind of free
1 Nihil consilio, nihil ratione, nihil ordine. Ad Att. xv. II.
440 PECUNIARY EMBARRASSMENTS, CHAP. xxi.
legation he had received, with permission to come and go as
he pleased for five years, exactly suited him. Then suddenly
recollecting the time of life he had reached, he added " But
why should I extend my thoughts to a period of five years ?
My span seems likely to be a contracted one ; but let me
avoid words of ill-omen." Whether ominous or not, the
words were prophetic, for before the end of the next year
Cicero was no more.
He was not without hopes that they might rely on
Octavian, who was, he thought, animated by feelings of
good-will towards his " heroes," as he was fond of calling
Cassius and Brutus. But natural misgivings came over him
when he remembered his youth, his adoption of Caesar's
name, the inheritance he had received, and the training in
which he had been brought up. As had been frequently the
case ever since his return from exile, Cicero was now, owing
to the bad management of his steward, hampered in money
matters, and was obliged to have recourse to borrowing. He
had been laying aside some of his rents to pay the cost of
the shrine which he still intended to erect to the memory of
Tullia, and had lent money to others, which he could not
always call in when he wanted it. He found that his son
Marcus had not had for a full quarter any remittance ; he
therefore applied to Atticus, and begged him to give the
young man credit at Athens for a year's allowance, referring
him to his steward for payment, and he sent his trusty
factotum Tiro to Rome to see to all these matters. He was
the more anxious to supply his son's wants liberally, as he
heard excellent accounts of him, and the letters he received
from him were of the most satisfactory character. Atticus
was already out of pocket by advancing him money at
Athens, which surprised Cicero, who begged him to inquire
of his steward what had been done with the rents of the houses
which we may remember he appropriated for his son's use
while abroad, and thought it an ample allowance.
The ranks of what we may call the opposition that is, the
party of Brutus and Cassius were now joined from an unex-
pected quarter. Young Quintus, who had made himself so
useful to Antony, and stood so steadily by him that he was
called his right hand, quarrelled with him for some reason or
B.C. 44. YOUNG QUINTUS CHANGES SIDES. 441
other, and went over to the other side, to the great joy of his
father, and also of his uncle, who was very glad to get him
away from Rome, where he had been doing them both mis-
chief. He came to Cicero at Puteoli, and was introduced by
his uncle to Brutus in the little island of Nesis, opposite, where
Brutus was staying. Quintus was going back to Rome, and
wished to have a letter to Atticus from his uncle, as a kind
of guarantee that he might be trusted by the party. Cicero
therefore wrote one full of the highest praises of his nephew,
and emphatic assurances of his sincerity. This he delivered
open to his nephew, that he might see what he had said of
him, but took care to write at the same time privately to
Atticus, and put him on his guard ; cautioning him not to
give much credence to the complimentary terms in which
he had spoken of Quintus in the other letter. In point of
fact, however, the young man showed that he might be
depended upon. He adhered faithfully to the side he now
adopted, and fell a victim to the proscription before the end
of the following year.
Brutus wished Cicero to go to Rome and be present at
the games of Apollo, which were about to be celebrated in
his name as praetor. But he declined, on the ground that
it would be very unbecoming for him to visit the city for the
sake of amusement at such a time, to say nothing of the
danger to which he might be exposed. The games were
advertised to take place in the month of July, which name
had been substituted for Quintilis, in honour of Csesar ; and
Brutus was much annoyed at this, thinking naturally that it
was very inconsistent that games exhibited by him who had
been the assassin of Jidius should be announced to take
place in July, as if he meant to pay posthumous honour to
the memory of his victim. He therefore wrote to Rome,
and gave directions that a hunting-match, which was to
follow the Apollinarian games, should be advertised to take
place III. ID. QUINT. He was not without hopes that the
people would be ingratiated by the splendour of the spec-
tacles he gave them ; but in bidding thus for popular favour
he was outdone by Octavian, who distributed largely money
amongst the lower classes, and thus gained for himself the
voices of the mob.
442 LITER AR Y LABOURS. CHAP. xxi.
During all this time, since he had left Rome, Cicero had
been actively engaged in literary composition, and we owe
to a period so full of anxiety and alarm some of his most
celebrated works. His intellectual activity was never greater
than in the last two years of his life, and his chief consola-
tion was the study of philosophy, and devotion to what we
may call the belles lettres. He wrote or finished his three
books De Naturd Deorum, and dedicated them to Brutus ;
also the work De Divinatione ; and he occupied himself in
giving the last touches to a History of his own times, upon
which he had been for some time engaged. His son pub-
lished it after his father's death, but it is entirely lost. He
wrote also treatises on Glory (De Gloria) and Destiny (De
Fato], the latter of which only exists in a mutilated form. 1
He sent the De Gloria to Atticus just before he embarked
for Athens, with strict injunctions not to publish it, but only
allow it to be read aloud in the presence of a few friends
" audience fit though few " (bonos auditores nactus] at a
supper-table, according to a custom which was one of the
intellectual recreations at Rome. He also composed two of
his most delightful essays, those on Friendship (De A micitia)
and Old Age (De Senectute). There is one passage in the
latter, put into the mouth of Cato, which so beautifully ex-
presses a " hope full of immortality/' that I cannot resist the
desire to quote it. It is this
" But if any deity were to offer me as a boon that I might grow young again,
and lie a wailing infant in the cradle, I would strenuously refuse it ; and I should
have no wish, now that the race of life has been run, to be brought back to the
starting-post from the goal.
" For what advantage has life? nay rather, what troubles has it not? But
granting the advantages, they at all events bring satiety or have an end ; for I do
not like to mourn over life as an evil, which many ay, and philosophers too have
often done. Nor do I regret that I have lived, since I have so lived as not to
suppose that I was born in vain ; and I take rny leave of life as though it were
an inn, and not my home. For nature has given us a halting-place for a while,
but not a permanent habitation. O bright and glorious day, when I shall go to
that divine assembly and concourse of souls, and quit this rabble crowd on earth.
For I shall go, not only to those of whom I have before spoken, but to my Cato,
than whom there never was born a better man, nor one more full of filial affection
whose body Was burnt by me on the funeral pyre, whereas mine should have
been burnt by him. But his soul not deserting me, but casting back a lingering
look upon me, flitted to those regions where it was conscious that I should myself
1 The essay De Glorid disappeared within the last five centuries. It was in
existence in the time of Petrarch.
JET. 63. LITERAR Y LABO URS. 443
one day arrive. I seemed to bear my calamity with fortitude, not because I
really possessed equanimity ; but I consoled myself with the thought that the
separation between us would not be long."
He commenced, besides, his work De Officiis, the best
manual of ethics which has been bequeathed to us by
heathen antiquity ; and prepared for publication a collection
of his letters ; telling Atticus that he must supply some of
them, and that Tiro had about seventy which he would look
over and correct. Most probably the edition did not appear
until after his death.
We cannot but admire the industry and genius which
enabled him, when his mind was depressed by sorrow, and
he saw the institutions of his country crumbling to ruin, and
her liberties the prize of the most successful adventurer, to
distract his thoughts from the chaos of politics, and employ
them on such lofty themes. It seemed like the sun bursting
through the clouds, and while all was dark and, dreary for
him in the stormy world of action, he expatiated with more
delight than ever in the calm regions of contemplation and
philosophy.
He was still anxious to sail from Italy in company with
Brutus, having given up the idea of embarking at Brundu-
sium, the usual port for Greece, as he heard that some of
the legions which were quartered in Macedonia, waiting to
march to the East for the Parthian campaign, and which
Antony had sent for, were expected there ; and he did not
think it safe to trust himself in close contact with Caesar's
soldiers. But Brutus was dilatory, and at last Cicero would
wait no longer. He had several interviews with him in
the island of Nesis, where also he met Cassius, who lay off
Naples with a squadron of ships. News had come from
Rome that when Attius's play of Tereus was acted during
the games, the spectators had loudly applauded some pas-
sages which expressed hatred of tyranny ; but Cicero re-
marked that it gave him more sorrow than joy that the
people employed their hands in clapping at a theatre, instead
of defending the republic.
All was at last ready for his departure, and before he set
out on his voyage he wrote a parting letter to Atticus,
telling him that, amidst the conflicting emotions he felt at
444 CICERO'S DEPARTURE. CHAP. xxi.
leaving Italy, he was chiefly affected by the thought that he
was separating from him. The two friends had taken an
affectionate leave of each other at Tusculum some time
before, and Atticus had written and told him how he had
wept after the adieu. Cicero replied that if he had done so
in his presence it would perhaps have made him abandon his
journey. Their attachment seemed to increase as time wore
on, and few things in Cicero's correspondence are more
pleasing than the warm interest he took in his friend's happi-
ness. He was especially fond of Attica, the daughter of
Atticus, whom he describes as a girl of a merry disposition
"the best a child can have;" 1 and he often sent her
kisses and affectionate messages when he wrote to her
father, sometimes playfully styling her his love. In the last
letter before he sailed he said " Pray, give a kiss for me to
my absent Attica. She deserves this for the kind compli-
ments she sent me in your letter." He was hardly satisfied
that he did right in going away ; and, wretched sailor as he
was, shrank from the idea of even the short sea-passage to
Athens. He said :
" I leave behind me peace, that I may return and find war; and I shall spend
in travelling the time that I might have passed at my country seats, where I have
good houses and pleasant scenery. But my consolation is this : I shall either
be of some use to my son, or shall be able to ascertain how far progress is
possible with him. Besides, you will come as you promise, and as I hope;
and if this be so everything will go on better with me."
He sailed from Pompeii on the 1 6th of July with three
small vessels and some open-decked boats, 2 and coasted
towards Rhegium (Reggio), opposite to Messina. On his
way he landed at the town of Velia, where his friend Treba-
tius had a villa, but only stopped there a day, as the pro-
prietor was absent, and then proceeded on his voyage. He
amused himself on board ship by writing his Topica, a
sort of compendium of a work of Aristotle of that name.
Before he reached Rhegium he paid a flying visit to Sica at
Vibo, remembering the kindness he had received from him
when he was in former days an exile from Rome ; and he
1 Atticse, quoniam (quod optimum liciis atque amoribus meis. Ib. xvi.
in pueris est) hilarula est, meis verbis 6.
suavium des. Ad Att. xvi. n. 2 Tribus actuariolis, decem scalmis
Piliae salutem dices, et Atticae, de- Ad Att. xvi. 3.
B.C. 44- CHANGE OF PLAN. 445
was again entertained by him so hospitably that he almost
fancied himself at home. Here he wrote to Atticus, and,
amongst other things, told him that he had discovered a
mistake he had made in prefixing a preface to his essay on
Glory, which he had already used as a preface to his Aca-
demics. He had therefore composed a new one, which he
sent him, and begged him to " glue" it into the book, and
cut out the other. With his habitual irresolution he had
already begun to repent the step he had taken, and longed
to be back at his beautiful villas those " eyes of Italy," as
he called them. It was the old story ; having decided on a
course of action, he conjured up all kinds of difficulties
against it. The thought of the debts he had left behind
pressed heavily upon him, and he begged Atticus in Heaven's
name to liquidate them for him. 1 He had not yet paid
back the dowries of his two successive wives : at all events,
Publilia's was due, and he had to settle a balance still owing
to Terentia.
He crossed from Rhegium to Syracuse, which he reached
on the 1st "of August ; and although most warmly welcomed
by the inhabitants, who had not forgotten his quaestorship in
Sicily and his conduct of the impeachment of Verres, he
stayed there only one night. Next day he embarked and
made for the open sea, but adverse weather drove him back
to Leucopetra, a promontory near Rhegium. He again set
sail, but was again forced back by a southerly wind. It
seemed as if the elements had conspired to prevent the pro-
secution of his voyage, and he afterwards told Atticus that
he owed hearty thanks to the winds for doing so, and thus
relieving him from the obloquy to which his journey exposed
him. He landed, to wait for a favourable breeze, at the
villa of his friend Valerius, and here he received intelligence
which entirely changed his plans, and made him abandon all
idea of quitting Italy.
Some of the principal citizens of Rhegium, who had just
come from Rome, paid him a visit at Valerius's villa, and
brought important news. Antony had convoked a meeting
of the Senate for the 1st of September, and it appeared as
if he were anxious to effect a reconciliation with Brutus and
1 Nomina mea, per deos, expedi, exsolve. Ad-Att. xvi. 6.
446 LAST INTER VIE W WITH BR UTUS. CHAP. xxi.
Cassius. The Rhegians showed Cicero a copy of a speech
which the consul had addressed to the people, and the tone
of it so pleased him that he determined at once to return to
Rome, too happy to abandon a voyage of which he was
already heartily sick. He embarked on board his vessel and
retraced his course to Velia, which he reached on the i/th
of August Here he found a letter from Atticus, the tone of
which slightly annoyed him ; for it seemed to blame his de-
parture, and to assume that it required some satisfactory
explanation, although Atticus himself had previously ap-
proved of it. But Cicero did his friend the justice to believe
that he had some good reason for changing his opinion.
Brutus, whose ships lay a short distance off at the mouth of
the river Hales, hastened to meet him, and they had their
last interview. Brutus expressed great joy that Cicero had
given up the idea of leaving Italy, and told him there was a
calumnious report that he had gone to Greece to amuse
himself at the Olympian games, which, for some reason not
very intelligible to us, Cicero declares would have been dis-
graceful at any period, and at the present crisis utterly
indefensible. Why would it have been disgraceful for him
at any time to have been a spectator of the Olympian festival,
at which Alexander had declared that he would enter the
lists if he could have kings for competitors ? It may be that
those once-famous games had sunk so low in repute that it
would have been as derogatory to the dignity of a Roman
senator to go and see them as for a grave English states-
man to take part in the merriment of Bartholomew fair.
But we must remember how strong was the contempt felt by
the proud Romans for the whole Greek nation a contempt
which constantly appears in the tone in which it is spoken
of by the Latin writers ; and perhaps they thought the best
games of Greece little better than a raree show when com-
pared with their own gigantic exhibitions in the theatre,
their sham sea-fights, and combats of wild beasts and bloody
gladiatorial matches.
Cicero travelled in all haste, and reached Rome on the last
day of August. He met with a most enthusiastic reception
at the gates. Plutarch says such multitudes flocked out to
meet him that the compliments and civilities which were paid
JET. 63. RECEPTION A T ROME. 447
him there and at his entrance into the city took up almost
the whole day. He must have been vividly reminded of his
return from exile, thirteen years before, when similar honours
were bestowed on him, and he was welcomed back by his
fellow-countrymen, who, as is so often the case, appear to
have valued him most when his absence had made them
appreciate his worth. And, with all his faults and weak-
nesses, who was there then in Rome who could compare with
him in reputation ? The greatness of his intellect dwarfed
that of every other man alive ; and, indeed, there were none
left who were more than ordinary men. Antony and Dola-
bella were distinguished chiefly by profligate ambition and
licentious morals. Octavian was not yet known to fame, or
was known only as the inheritor of a lofty name. The great
actors had left the stage : Cato, Pompey, Curio, and Caesar
slept in bloody graves. Brutus, who had something of the
old Roman stamp of fortitude and virtue, was a fugitive
abroad. Not an orator existed in Rome. The vessel of the
state was adrift, and no one knew who would seize the helm
and make himself master of the liberties of his country.
There was a gloomy foreboding that the appeal must be
once more to the sword, and that the republic would again
have to bow her proud neck beneath the domination of a
ruler. Between the Senate and the consuls there was a state
of sullen hostility. Dolabella was odious for his vices ; and
his conduct as a politician in the lifetime of Caesar, when,
presuming upon the support of the Dictator, he had proposed
the nefarious measure of a national bankruptcy by relieving
debtors from the obligation of paying their debts, was neither
forgotten nor forgiven. Antony was not merely mistrusted,
but hated by the senators, who saw in him another Caesar,
without his nobleness of nature or commanding intellect, and
who, in silent amazement, had witnessed the impudent for-
geries he had passed off as edicts and decrees which they
themselves had agreed to ratify.
It may be not uninteresting to give a slight sketch of the
previous career of this unprincipled man, who was destined to
exercise such a fatal influence over the fortunes of Cicero.
He was the grandson of the celebrated orator of the same
name, who was put to death by Marius and Cinna B.C. 87.
448 CAREER OF ANTONY. CHAP. xxi.
His father received, as propraetor, B.C. 74, the command
against the pirates of the Mediterranean, who then swarmed
in that sea, and he abused his powers to plunder the pro-
vinces whose coasts he was charged to protect. He received
the nickname of Creticus.
After his death his widow married P. Lentulus, the ac-
complice of Catiline, who was put to death by order of the
Senate in the consulship of Cicero, and as he was looked
upon as the real author of the act, we are told by Plutarch
that the seeds of Antony's hatred against Cicero were sown
in his heart by the execution of his stepfather. But, as we
shall see hereafter, there was abundant reason for this hatred
even if no such cause had ever existed. From his earliest
youth he gave himself up to licentiousness of the most re-
volting kind. His intimacy with Curio was the scandal of
Rome. He was not ashamed to be called the wife of that
young profligate, and received enormous sums from him to
enable him to pursue his dissolute career. The small fortune
left him by his father had been rapidly spent, and we are
told by Cicero, with rhetorical exaggeration, that he actually
became bankrupt while yet a boy. 1 His noble presence
his broad forehead, flowing beard, and aquiline nose caused
him to be likened to Hercules ; and amongst the dissipated
youth of the Roman aristocracy he was an almost universal
favourite. When Clodius was tribune of the people, B.C. 5 8,
Antony, who was then twenty-five years of age, at first at-
tached himself to him, but a quarrel between them soon took
place. According to Plutarch, he separated from him because
he was frightened at his violence ; but Cicero hints that the
real reason was the discovery of an intrigue he carried on
with Clodius's wife, Fulvia, whom he afterwards married.
He had first married Fadia, the daughter of Q. Fadius,
a freedman of Tusculum, of whom we shall hear some-
thing hereafter ; his second was his first cousin Antonia ;
and his third Fulvia. She had already had two husbands,
the first being Curio, and the second Clodius. After
his breach with the tribune, Antony left Italy for Greece,
where he employed himself in study and training for the
military profession until the year B.C. 5 7, when Gabinius, who
1 Prsetextatum te decoxisse. Phil. ii. 44.
B.C. 44. CICERO'S GREAT POPULARITY. 449
was then on his way to assume the proconsular government
of Syria, invited him to accompany him as commander of
cavalry (pr&fectus eqnitum). He accepted the offer, and
was with Gabinius when he took the unauthorised step of
leaving his province and marching with his army into Egypt
to reinstate Ptolemy Auletes on the throne. It is only fair
to state that, according to Plutarch, Antony's behaviour in
this campaign was such that he left behind him a very high
reputation in Alexandria for humanity, and won the admira-
tion of the Roman troops. When, in the year B.C. 54,
Gabinius returned to Italy, Antony offered his services to
Julius Caesar, who was then in Northern Gaul. He was
readily received, and became thenceforth one of his favourite
officers and a most devoted partisan. He left Gaul for a
short time to stand for the quaestorship, in order that he
might get admission into the Senate, and was furnished by
Caesar with a letter of recommendation to Cicero, who did
what he could to assist him, partly to oblige his powerful
patron and partly because Antony showed himself the deter-
mined opponent of his own enemy Clodius. He obtained
the quaestorship, and then immediately returned to Caesar
without waiting for the allotment of the province to him by
any legal authority.
No wonder, then, that when such men were at the head of
the republic Cicero was welcomed back by the people with
an enthusiastic greeting. The faint-heartedness he betrayed
when pouring out his soul to Atticus was not known to the
public. He had shown a bold front in many great emer-
gencies, and his matchless eloquence in the Senate and on
the Rostra had often decided questions in critical moments of
difficulty and danger. No wonder, then, that both senators
and people longed to hear that voice again, and to listen to
the words of counsel that would flow from those persuasive
lips. And he did not disappoint their expectations. At no
period of his career was he so truly great as in the closing
scenes of his life. Overawed by the genius of Caesar, and
attached to Pompey by personal regard and an exaggerated
feeling of gratitude, but without faith in him as a statesman
or a general, he had hesitated and oscillated in a pitiable
manner throughout the civil war; but now his course was
2 o
45
ATTACKS ON ANTONY.
CHAP. XXI.
clear and his duty manifest. He had cast in his lot with
the regicides, and he was resolved that, come what might,
he would stand the hazard of the die. When he discovered
that the hope which had lured him back to Rome was illusory
the hope, I mean, that Antony was going to act the part
of a patriot, and heal the intestine wounds of the common-
wealth he opposed him with a boldness which reminds us
of the consul in the days of Catiline, and denounced him
with a violence which showed that he took small thought of
his own safety. It may be, and I believe it was, that a
sense of personal affront mingled not a little with the motives
which led him to attack Antony with such unsparing viru-
lence ; but the cause he defended admitted of no compromise
with a man like him, who, if he were not destroyed, would
be the destroyer of the liberties of Rome.
THE CAPITOLINE WOLF.
CHAPTER XXII.
QUARREL WITH ANTONY THE SECOND PHILIPPIC MOVE-
MENTS OF ANTONY AND OCTAVIAN.
yt. 63. B.C. 44.
THERE was to be a full meeting of the Senate on the
morrow, and it was known that Antony intended to propose
a public thanksgiving in honour of Caesar's memory. It was
the duty of every senator to attend, under the penalty of a
fine, just as it is the duty of every member of the British
Parliament to be in his place when there is a call of the
House. But when the morning came, and the Senate assem-
bled, Cicero did not appear. He could not, without the
grossest hypocrisy and inconsistency, support a motion by
452 QUARREL WITH ANTONY. CHAP. xxi.
which Caesar would be almost deified, and he did not wish
to oppose it, for this would have made a breach with Antony,
and frustrated the hopes he cherished of being able to act
with him in the service of the state. He therefore stayed
away, and confined himself to his house on the Palatine, on
the plea that he was unwell from the fatigue of his rapid
journey. It was the business of the consuls to see that the
summons to attend was obeyed by the senators, and Cicero
more out of courtesy, and as a matter of form, than be-
cause he thought any serious notice would be taken of it
sent a messenger to Antony to excuse his absence. The
effect it produced is difficult to explain. It threw Antony
into a paroxysm of rage : he rose from his seat in the Senate,
and declared that if Cicero did not come he would send
workmen to pull down his house about his ears.
When Cicero heard of the outrageous insult, he was
deeply offended. He felt it, he said, the more, because the
house which Antony had threatened to pull down was the
very one which had been rebuilt for him at the public cost
by an order of the Senate. It was the monument of his
triumphant recall to Rome. He did not, however, give way
to the sudden impulse of anger. The provocation was great,
but he restrained himself. He did not wish to break with
Antony, upon whose conduct and policy the welfare of the
state so much depended ; and it is impossible not to admire
the tact with which, while he showed himself sensible of the
affront, he still held out the hand of reconciliation, and
rather expostulated with the consul as a friend then attacked
him as an enemy.
He went next day to the Senate-house, and delivered there
the first of those famous fourteen orations so well known
under the name of the Philippics. 1
It was a masterly speech grave, dignified, and calm
worthy of the man and the occasion. Antony was not pre-
sent. Conscious of the indecent violence of his language the
day before, he probably did not wish to face an opponent so
formidable in debate as Cicero, who sarcastically remarked
1 These speeches were originally called the Antonian Orations, Orationes Anto-
niana, which is the; much more appropriate name. See Aul. Cell. Noct. Att,
xiii. i.
B.C. 44. THE FIRST PHILIPPIC. 453
that it seemed that Antony might have permission to be
ill a permission which yesterday was not accorded to
himself. I will quote a few short passages of the speech, and
I can only regret that space will not allow me to quote
more.
He began rather abruptly by explaining the causes of his
departure and his return. As long as he thought that the
authority of the Senate was restored, he conceived that it
was his duty to remain, keeping watch and ward, as a
senator and an ex-consul. The speech delivered by Antony
in the Temple of Tellus was a noble one his sentiments
were those of a patriot. By giving his son as a hostage, he
seemed pledged to the maintenance of peace. And the rest
of his acts were consistent with the beginning. He sum-
moned to his counsels the leading men of the state ; he pro-
posed excellent measures for the consideration of the Senate ;
his answers to questions were given with dignity and firm-
ness ; and there was nothing discovered in the papers left by
Caesar which was not equally known to all.
He was asked what exiles were recalled ? His reply was
one, and one only. What immunities had been granted ?
He answered none. He even wished the motion of Sul-
picius to be carried, who proposed that no tablet should be
posted up containing any decree or grant of Caesar which
had not been published before the Ides of March. He went
further : he abolished the dictatorship which had usurped a
regal authority, for which he received a vote of thanks by a
solemn resolution of the Senate. Light seemed to be break-
ing through the clouds. All fear of the establishment of a
monarchy was removed : the terror of an impending pro-
scription had passed away. Both the consuls punished with
death the vagabond impostor who had assumed the name of
Marius. And afterwards, in the absence of his colleague,
Dolabella put a stop to the seditious violence of the mob,
which began by burning the body of Caesar in the Forum,
and he punished the ringleaders by condemning them to
summary execution.
But on the 1st of June all was changed. The Senate was
set at nought, and important measures were carried in
assemblies of the people nay, even against the wishes of
454 QUARREL WITH ANTONY. CHAP. xxn.
the people at mock meetings, from which the great body
of them was excluded. The consuls-elect did not dare to
show themselves in the Senate. The saviours of their
country were obliged to abandon Rome, from whose neck
they had torn off the yoke of slavery, although even the con-
suls applauded them in popular harangues, and wherever they
spoke of the deed that they had done. The veteran troops
of Caesar were excited by the hopes of fresh spoil. " There-
fore," said Cicero, " as I preferred to be the auditor rather
than the spectator of these things, and I had the privilege
of a free legation, I left with the intention of returning on
the 1st of January, which would be, as I thought, the first
day for the meeting of the Senate."
He then related the circumstances which led to his return,
but which I need not repeat, as they have already formed
part of the narrative. He expressed his regret that he had
not been present in the Senate on the 1st of August, that
he might have supported the motion of Lucius Piso, and said
he felt surprise and shame that not a single senator of consular
rank had raised his voice to second him, or even by a look
signified that he assented to his proposal.
In declaring his opinion generally on the state of public
affairs, he said :
" First of all I vote for the ratification of the acts of Caesar, not because I ap-
prove of them, for who can do that ? but because I think we ought above all
things to consult the interests of peace. I wish that Antony were present, pro-
vided that he came without his satellites. But he, I suppose, may have permis-
sion to be unwell a liberty which was denied me yesterday. He would be able
to teach me, or rather you, Conscript Fathers, after what fashion he is prepared
to defend the acts of Caesar. Is it that those acts are to be maintained which are
found in memoranda and papers and scraps of writing produced on his sole
authority for their genuineness nay, not even produced, but only said to be in
existence ; and that those which Caesar engraved on tablets of brass the records
of the laws and decrees of the people are to be esteemed of no account ?"
He reviewed the conduct of Antony, pointing out his in-
consistency in procuring the repeal of several salutary laws
of which Caesar was the author, while, at the same time, he
took care to carry into execution with religious scruple the
alleged wishes of Caesar as expressed in the papers he had
left behind him. He commented with sarcastic irony on the
power which the Dictator was thus enabled to exercise in the
grave. " Exiles were brought back from banishment by the
JET. 63. THE FIRST PHILIPPIC. 455
dead : the franchise of the city was given not only to indi-
viduals but to whole nations and provinces by the dead : the
revenues of the State were swept away by innumerable ex-
ceptions from taxation granted by the dead."
He deprecated the idea that he was saying anything
against Antony ont of anger or in an unfriendly spirit ; and
went on to compliment Dolabella on the vigour he displayed
in putting down the seditious tumult in the Forum when he
removed the column erected to the memory of Caesar. He
then turned to Antony, addressing him as if he were present
(absentem appello), and reminded him of his patriotic conduct
when the Senate met in the temple of Tellus, and during the
first few days after the Ides of March. With artful dexterity
he alluded to the abolition of the office of Dictator as a
proof that Antony wished to brand the memory of Caesar
with everlasting infamy. " For as," he said, " by a decree of
the Manlian gens, no patrician may be called Marcus Manlius,
on account of the crime of one Marcus Manlius, so you entirely
abolished the name of Dictator on account of the odium
brought upon it by one Dictator."
To what cause, then, he asked, were they to attribute his
sudden change ? He could not bring himself to suspect that
Antony was bribed :
" Others may say what they like ; it is not necessary to believe it. I have never
known in you anything mean or base, though some of your intimate asso-
ciates sometimes do let drop words of disparagement ; but I know your rectitude
of soul, and would that you had been able to avoid suspicion as well as crime ! "
He implored him to take warning by the fate of Caesar,
and the unmistakable signs of popular applause bestowed
upon those who had assassinated him. He ended his oration
by thanking the Senate for the kindness with which they had
listened to him, and concluded with the words : " The time
that I have lived is nearly enough, both as regards the age I
have reached and the glory I have acquired. If it be pro-
longed, it will be so not so much for any advantage to myself,
as for you and for the State."
We can well imagine how this speech, with all its studied
moderation and affected candour, must have been gall and
wormwood to Antony when he read it. He had retired to a
villa which had belonged to Metellus Scipio at Tibur, the
45<3 QUARREL WITH ANTONY. CHAP. XXH.
modern Tivoli, about fourteen miles from Rome, and for
more than a fortnight in sullen anger he brooded over the
reply he was to make. Cicero says that he hired a rhetorician
to teach him how to declaim, permitting him, as an imaginary
opponent, to say what he pleased against him, that he might
answer it an easy task for the master, Cicero sarcastically
observed, when the materials for attacking his pupil were
so abundant. And he afterwards told the Senate that
Antony declaimed to make himself thirsty, and enable him
to drink.
He summoned another meeting of the Senate for the
1 9th of September, and went to Rome prepared to confront his
antagonist and overwhelm him with the speech which he had
so carefully prepared. But, yielding to the urgent persuasions
of his friends, Cicero stayed away ; and he afterwards declared
that, if he had not done so, he would have been murdered.
And this is by no means improbable ; for Antony took care
to have a guard of soldiers in attendance at the door, and
even within the walls of the Senate-house, under the pretext
of preserving order, but in reality to overawe the senators,
and be in readiness to execute any desperate enterprise he
might suddenly command.
The speech of Antony is lost, but we know the nature of
the attack he made on Cicero from the elaborate reply con-
tained in the second Philippic. He raked together every
charge he could think of to damage his opponent, and dis-
torted every act of his life to hold him up to ridicule and
hatred. He laughed at his verses, taking care to quote that
unfortunate line the standing joke of his enemies
Cedant arma togge, concedat laurea laudi.
He accused him of being the murderer of Publius Clodius ; of
severing the friendship between Caesar and Pompey ; and of
being privy to the conspiracy against Caesar, and an accom-
plice in his assassination. He reproached him with joining
the camp of Pompey, and yet alienating that leader from
him by his language and ill-timed jests ; and finally, to show
how little Cicero was loved or esteemed, he declared that he
had received few, if any, legacies from deceased friends.
Such was the catalogue of charges which Cicero had to
44. THE SECOND PHILIPPIC. 457
meet, 1 and it is easy to see how triumphantly he would have
been able to answer them if he had been present, and had risen
on the instant to reply. But forthe reason I have mentioned
he was not there ; and as it was no longer safe for him to
meet Antony face to face, he took a different course. He
resolved to write a speech which'should be not only a defence
of himself, but a portrait of his adversary such as, to use his
own expression, would make him feel the kindness he had
shown him in abstaining from personal attack on the first
occasion. The oration seems to have been composed at his
villa near Puteoli about the latter end of October. It was
not intended for immediate publication perhaps he was
then afraid or unwilling to provoke Antony to the extremities
which he knew must be the case if the terrible invective got
abroad but he sent it confidentially to Atticus, and said :
" I commit it to your care, and leave the time of publication
to your discretion. But when will the day come when you
will think it right to send it forth?" And again " How I
fear your criticisms ! And yet why should I ? What care
I for a speech which is not likely to see the light unless the
republic is restored ?"
Although the second Philippic was never spoken, it de-
serves to be carefully perused, not merely as a specimen of
invective, which in the annals of oratory is unsurpassed I
might say unrivalled, if I did not recollect the speech of
Demosthenes against Midias but as a valuable record of
facts, throwing much light upon the history of the time. In
order to appreciate the full effect which such a speech must
have produced if it had been delivered, the reader ought to
be well acquainted with the events and characters of the
period, and then he will feel how every sentence tells. Some
allowance must of course be made for exaggeration, but in
its main features, both as a defence of Cicero and an attack
upon Antony, it is, I believe, substantially true. But, accord-
ing to the old dictum, the greater the truth the greater the
libel ; and it is not surprising that when the time came when
Antony had it in his power to gratify his revenge, he should
have made Cicero pay for it the penalty of his life. The
1 His strong expression is " Omnibus est visus, ut ad te antea scripsi, votwe
suo more, non dicere."- Ad Div. xii. 2.
458 QUARREL WITH ANTONY. CHAP. XXH.
consul's character is drawn in the darkest colours, and in
more than one passage is depicted with a coarseness which
would not be tolerated in an oration now.
The following is a brief epitome of the speech, with a
translation of some of the most striking passages : 1
" How comes it, Conscript Fathers, that for the last twenty years there has
been no enemy of the republic who has not at the same time declared war against
me ? They all paid the penalty of their crimes, and my revenge was completer
than I wished. I wonder, Antony, that as you imitate their acts you do not clread
their doom ! Catiline and Clodius would gladly have avoided me ; you dare me
to the encounter, knowing that there is no readier way to win the love of traitors.
For what other motive can he have had ? Not contempt for his antagonist. My
private character, my influence, my public services, my abilities, are scarcely such
as Antony can afford to slight. Nor the prospect of a favourable audience ; the
Senate which hailed me 'saviour of the country' offers no vantage-ground to my
detractors. Nor yet the ambition of trying his strength with me as a speaker ;
else he would not give me such odds : what more can I desire than to speak for
myself and against Antony ? "
Cicero then defended himself against the charges which
Antony had brought against him.
" The first charge is breach of friendship. I once, it seems, appeared in court
against your interest that is, for my friend Sicca against your minion, the young
freedman. Why rake up this story, unless to curiy favour with the freedmen,
who regard you as by marriage one of themselves ? You say that I resorted to
your house for lessons in statesmanship. It is false ; Curio would not have given
you up ; your reputation might have gained if he had. You say that I owed my
election as augur to your withdrawal. No, this is not so ; when I was nominated
by the two leading augurs in the name of the college, Curio, whose cut-throats
afterwards carried your election, was in Asia, and you were bankrupt.
" You say you saved my life at Brundusium. No thanks to you, but to Caesar's
safe conduct ; or if you did spare me, you cannot call me ungrateful without brand-
ing Brutus too and Cassius, whom you are in the habit of styling illustrious men,
as ingrates no less ; for they also were spared by Caesar. However, where have I
shown ingratitude? 'In the first Philippic,' you say. No, truly; I then blamed
your measures, but did not touch your person. To-day you shall learn how much
you owed to my forbearance.
" He also read a letter as from me. Let the ill-breeding pass : mark his folly.
Tiro and Mustela may applaud your eloquence (as I shall if you procure their
acquittal for this day's work of intimidating the Senate) ; but how will all your
eloquence confute me if I disown the letter ? Not by the handwriting ; for it is
that of a clerk. O for a chance like that of your master in rhetoric, who earns
estates by making a blockhead of his scholar ! However, the letter was mine ;
nor will I deny that it addressed you as a man of honour. I shall not retaliate by
publishing that in which you beg me to allow the recall of Sextus Clodius a super-
fluous request, if he were already, as you say, included in a general pardon.
' ' Your second charge is against my consulship. I must apologise for seeming
disrespect to the consul Antony (although he is no true consul, in his manner of
life, his policy, or in the mode of his appointment). You have declared your
principles sufficiently, Antony, in censuring my consulship ; a consulship directed
1 I have availed myself here, with speech given by a German writer, Halm,
some alterations, of the epitome of the and translated by Mayor.
JET. 63. THE SECOND PHILIPPIC. 459
by the Senate, approved by the chief corisulars of that day, and among the rest by
L. Caesar, whose counsels you, his sister's son, then rejected for those of your
stepfather, the traitor Lentulus, as now for those of parasites or pimps whose birth-
days you spend in feasting, careless of the delay of public business. You allege
that your consulship heals the wounds which mine opened ; and this you assert
in that temple of Concord in which I consulted the Senate's every wish, and which
you are besetting with assassins. You say I posted armed slaves on the ascent of
the Capitol. Not slaves, no ! every knight, every high-born youth but you, en-
listed in defence of order. I denied, you add, the body of Lentulus for burial.
This is a falsehood too gross even for P. Clodius ; but why remind us in what
school you were bred a traitor ? You confess the crime for which I arrested Len-
tulus, but complain of his execution that is, you blame the Senate's work, and
praise mine. The next charge is, that I posted an armed force on the ascent to
the Capitol. Yes, a force of citizens to guard that Senate which at this very
moment is overawed by your barbarian archers. You are pleased to crack a joke
upon my verses ' Let arms yield to the gown.' Is it better that freedom should
yield to your arms ? Of my writings, however little they may be to your taste, I
make bold to say that they have been serviceable to our youth and no discredit
to the Roman name.
" The third charge is the murder of P. Clodius. You say that I tutored Milo
to kill Clodius. What if you, Antony, had despatched Clodius, when you chased
him through the Forum with your drawn sword ? I cheered you on, I confess ;
but you will scarcely say that I tutored you. If this charge were true, we should
have heard it on Milo's trial.
' ' The fourth charge is, that I caused Pompey's alienation from Caesar, and so
was the author of the civil war. You make here an error in dates still more than
in fact. In Coesar's consulship I did warn Pompey against him. But when
Pompey had married his daughter further remonstrance was hopeless. Yet twice
did I remonstrate against the prolongation of Caesar's command, and against his
admission as a candidate for the consulship in his absence. But when a rupture
was imminent I never ceased to promote peace.
" The fifth charge is, that I planned Caesar's murder. Now, you are playing
into my hands, and forcing upon me undeserved honours. For how could my
name have been concealed till now ? Did Brutus and Cassius need any other sug-
gestion than the example of their ancestors ? Domitius had private wrongs to
revenge ; others were so bound to Caesar that I could not have dared to sound
them if the plot had been mine. Brutus, you say, raised his dagger, reeking with
Coesar's blood, and wished me joy, singling me out by name. Yes ; because I
too as consul had saved the country. If it is a crime in me to rejoice at our de-
liverance, it is a crime of which no honest man is clear. Me you condemn on a
mere suspicion of complicity ; Brutus, whose hand dealt the blow, you say you wish
to name with all respect. Sleep off the fumes of last night's debauch, and tell us
plainly, I conjure you, are Brutus and the rest assassins or saviours of their country?
" If assassins, why do you always call them honourable men ? Why have you
granted all their requests ? You do not then consider them assassins, if we
may judge by your words and acts. Consequently you must hold them to be
liberators. Good ; I deny the charge no longer ; I will beg the conspirators to
confirm it ; I glory in being shut up, as in the Trojan horse, amidst a company
where the least is a hero, whom to have seen is an epoch in any man's life. Yet
if my stilus (dagger-pen) had indeed written that play, it would not have stopped
at the first act, but would have finished the whole drama. What will you say if
I retort your accusation ? You discussed such a plot with Trebonius at Narbo.
You are the greatest gainer by Caesar's death, for you inherit his power, and have
cleared off your debts. Nay, do not be startled, no one will believe it of you ;
no one will give you credit for patriotism.
" You talk of my conduct in Pompey's camp. I then tried to avert ruin by
peaceful counsels. Pompey thought too much of his dignity. I put the safety of
460 QUARREL WITH ANTONY. CHAP. XXH.
my countrymen before dignity. But these differences never interrupted our
friendship. On his flight from the field of Pharsalus, Pompey confessed that if he
had been the more sanguine I had proved the truer prophet. And are you jealous
for the memory of Pompey against me his friend, you who are living on his spoils ?
I may now and then have enlivened the camp by a jest. Your censure of my
melancholy and my mirth may prove that neither transgressed the proper mean.
You say that no friend ever remembered me in his will. Would that it were true,
for then more of my friends would be still alive. But in fact I have received
legacies to the amount of more than twenty million sesterces (, 178,000). Not
that I can boast your luck, for whom a perfect stranger, Rubrius, disinherited not
only his brother's son, but also his declared heir, young Fufius. By as odd a
whim L. Turselius discarded his brother in your favour. Other cases of spoliation
I omit. Indeed this is the last sarcasm I should have expected from you who
inherited nothing from your own father.
" This, then, is the sum of your impeachment, the fruit of your many rehearsals
in Scipio's villa ! For this you allowed Sextus Clodius, your master in rhetoric,
to attack you as he pleased and he had an easy task ! For this you repaid him
by a grant of public land ! But enough of defence, it is time to say something of
my censor and corrector."
Cicero now changed his position to that of attack, and
assailed Antony with merciless fury.
" While yet a boy you became bankrupt, but still appeared among the knights,
not on the seats assigned to bankrupts by the Roscian law. You disgraced the
gown of manhood by prostituting your body to all comers, till young Curio outbid
his rivals by the offer of a permanent settlement, and persuaded the elder Curio to
discharge a bond which the son had signed on your behalf, on condition that you
never entered the house again. But modesty bids me veil your private life. I will
briefly touch on your public career before the civil war.
" You supported Clodius in his tribuneship. You were with Gabinius when he
illegally reinstated king Ptolemy Auletes. Having no other home than a share of
a villa at Misenum, you joined Caesar in Gaul. You came to Rome as a candidate
for the quaestorship, and I, at Caesar's request, supported you. Then it was that
you attempted the life of P. Clodius. On being elected, instead of waiting for the
legal distribution of provinces, you at once returned to Caesar, in the hope of
sharing his plunder.
"I pass on to the treasons of Antony. On New-year's Day (B.C. 49) the
Senate proscribed you as an enemy for obstructing its decree ; a proscription
brought upon you by your own obstinacy. You saved your life by flying to the
camp of Caesar, and so furnished him with the desired pretext for drawing the
sword. Posterity will hold you guilty of all the ensuing carnage and calamity.
You have been the ruin of the state, as Helen was the ruin of Troy. You restored
illegally many exiles (amongst the rest the notorious gambler Licinius Denticulus),
and yet had no mercy on your banished uncle, C. Antonius. Then came your
progress through Italy during Caesar's absence in Spain. Your mistress Cytheris,
borne in a open litter among your lictors, received the homage of the country towns,
while your neglected mother brought up the rear.
" On your return to Brundusium you did not put me to death. A great kind-
ness truly ! Yet your affronts made, it difficult to show due gratitude. Cytheris
came all the length of the Appian Way to welcome you home. Again you made
a progress through Italy, to the grievous loss of the people. Then, while Caesar
was in Egypt, you were named Master of the Horse. You thought yourself, as
such, entitled to live with Hippias the actor, and to leave to Sergius, another actor,
those appointments of the racecourse which belong of right to senators. All this
time you lived, like a robber, on your plunder. After a surfeit at the marriage-
B.C. 44. THE SECOND PHILIPPIC. 461
feast of Hippias, you, a public magistrate, were forced to vomit before a crowded
meeting of the Roman people. 1
" On Caesar's return from Alexandria, you did not fear to purchase the estate
of Pompey. Then, like a character in a farce, ' yesterday a beggar, to-day a
Croesus,' and verifying the proverb that ill-gotten wealth never prospers, in a few
weeks you wasted all your wealth. Then might be seen one incessant debauch,
without stint or check. How can you cross that threshold, or see those trophies
at the gate, and not be maddened with remorse ? For me, I pity the very walls
and roofs. But you have turned over a new leaf. You have solemnly put away
the actress so far well ; but what must we think of him whose life can boast no
more virtuous act than such a divorce ? What then can you mean by that favourite
phrase of yours, ' Et consid et AntonittsJ ' both consul and Antony' if not
4 both consul and debauchee?' But I return to your peculiar work, the civil
war.
" You hung back while Caesar fought in Africa, and were required, on his
return, to pay for Pompey 's house. In spite of your outciy, Caesar was enforcing
payment, when you advertised for sale the plate, furniture, and slaves all griev-
ously damaged while in your hands. On Rubrius' heirs forbidding the sale, you
tried to rid yourself of Caesar by an assassin's knife. On Caesar's departure for
Spain, you again lingered behind ; so sturdy a gladiator might surely have been
less impatient for discharge. You set out at last, but turned back, ' finding the
roads dangerous.' Dolabella, however, could make his way to the field of Munda,
though he had not the private quarrel which you have with the heirs of Pompey.
" You asked how I returned the other day. Not in the dark, as you did last
year from Narbo ; not in easy undress, but in the full Roman costume. Merely
for the pleasure of giving Fulvia a surprise, you startled the whole of Italy. This
was one of the ' private affairs ' which brought you to Rome ; another was to
save your securities from distraint.
" On Caesar's return you became reconciled to him. He made you consul for
the next year with himself, breaking his word with Dolabella, who thereupon
bitterly denounced you. On Caesar's promising to retire, you threatened, as
augur, to vitiate Dolabella's election, neither knowing that as augur you have less
power of obstruction than as consul, nor scrupling to predict an informality long
before the day of election. Not to dwell on your slavish deference to Caesar, I
come to the day of Dolabella's election. After the votes had been declared, you
pronounced the proceedings null and void, as you had threatened. And yet now
you allow their validity.
" Let us now come to the Lupercalia and not omit to- mention your most
famous performance there. You change colour at the word. Indeed, if your
eloquence can remove that slur, your liberality to your teacher in rhetoric is justi-
fied. When Caesar pushed back the proffered diadem, you fell at his feet, en-
treating him to enslave us. The whole Forum groaned in horror ! You harangued
the Roman people while you were more than half-naked. Your conscience, if not
utterly seared, must bleed as I recall that scene ; my words must stab you to the
quick. You register in the calendar that ' Antony the consul offered, by the
command of the people, a crown to Caesar, and Caesar refused it.' No wonder
you hate law and order, and even the light of day. For you would have destroyed
both law and order, and trampled them under the feet of a monarchy."
1 It is worth giving old North's trans- came to pleade before the people as-
lation of the passage in Plutarch in which sembled in councell, who had sent for
this disgusting anecdote is told : him, he being quesie - stomached with
' ' As for proofe hereof it is reported his surfet he had taken was compelled
that at Hippias' marriage, one of his to lay all before them, and one of his
j casters, he drank wine so lustily all friends held him his gown instead of a
night, that the next morning when he basen."
462 QUARREL WITH ANTONY. CHAP. xxn.
Cicero then dealt with Antony's conduct after Caesar's
death ; but I need not repeat the tale which has been already
told. The orator went on
" Why should I speak of your unnumbered forgeries, which were hawked
about the streets like play-bills announcing gladiatorial shows ? In Caesar's name
you decreed that from and after Brutus' departure Crete should cease to be a
province, forgetting that while Caesar lived Brutus had nothing to do with Crete.
You recalled the exiled convicts, and yet excepted three or four from pardon, as
you had before excepted your uncle. You set up your uncle as a candidate for
the censorship, and exposed him to public ridicule in his canvass. You struck his
name out of the commission for dividing lands. You divorced his daughter, your
own cousin, 1 after blasting her unsullied character for chastity by a charge of
adultery with Dolabella. You neglected to convene the commissioners appointed
to ascertain Caesar's genuine acts. For the Senate had, for the sake of peace,
confirmed those acts, not such as Antony said were his."
He then described Antony's progress through Campania
and his return to Rome :
" You entered Rome at the head of your troops in order of battle. On the
1st of June the senators dared not meet. We fled from the Senate-house in
terror. Our absence did not prevent you from repealing the laws of Caesar
the salutary law, for instance, limiting the duration of proconsulships, and others.
You also robbed the people of the statues and pictures bequeathed to them by
Caesar, along with the park beyond the Tiber, and carried them off, some to
Pompey's gardens, and others to Scipio's villa, which you had made your own.
" Divine honours have been voted to Caesar> and you are his flamen. Why
are you not consecrated? Yesterday was the fourth day of the Roman circus
games ; to-day by your law is a fifth day of festival in honour of Caesar. Why
is the feast not observed? I was for none of these things. But you what
can you say for not observing them ? you who defend all the acts of Caesar
I await your eloquent reply. For even your grandfather, consummate orator
as he was, was not so open as you ; he never harangued the people half-naked
though we saw your breast bare when you spoke. . . . Why is the Senate
hemmed round with soldiers and barbarian archers while I speak ? He says
to protect himself. Better to die a thousand deaths than to be unable to live
in the midst of one's countrymen without a guard. The people will wrest
those arms from your hands. The republic can find noble sons to defend her.
The name of peace is dear, and the thing itself is sweet. But there is a wide
difference between peace and slavery. Our saviours a are absent, but they have left
us their example. Their glory is without parallel, and their conscience is their
own reward. But yet, methinks that a mortal man will not despise immortality
of renown. Remember the day on which you abolished the dictatorship, and
the joy of the whole people. Or if glory cannot, let fear move you. You
cannot trust your own followers ; Caesar was slain by those who owed him most.
Not that you can bear comparison with him, except in ambition. His tyranny
taught us at least whom to trust and whom to fear. Now, too, we know the
glory and profit of tyrannicide."
The last words of the peroration are very fine :
* ' Consider, I beseech you, while there is yet time. Think of your ancestors,
and not of your associates. Be reconciled to me if you choose ; at all events, be
reconciled to your country. But, act as you like for yourself, I will speak for
myself. I defended the republic when I was young ; I will not abandon it now
1 The word is soror, that is, patruelis. Cousins were called sisters and brothers
at Rome.
JET. 63. STATUE TO CAESAR. 463
that I am old. I despised the arms of Catiline ; I will not quail before yours.
Nay, I would gladly offer the sacrifice of my life, if the liberty of my country can
be purchased by my death, so that the indignant grief of the Roman people may
at last give birth to that freedom of which it has so long felt the throes. For if,
now nearly twenty years ago, I declared in this very temple that death could not
come prematurely to a man who had attained the dignity of consul, with how
much more truth can I say it of myself in my old age. To me, Conscript
Fathers, death would be a boon after the honours I. have gained and the actions
I have done. Two things only do I pray for one, that dying I may leave the
Roman people free : no greater blessing can be granted me by Heaven than this ;
the other, that each may receive his reward according as he deserves of the
republic. "
Although Cicero dared not trust himself in the Senate-
house, he stayed in Rome, where we find him writing to
Cassius at the end of September, and deploring the scanti-
ness of the number of good men that was left to defend the
falling fortunes of the republic.
Antony now ventured to take a more decided course. He
had hitherto trimmed between the two parties, the friends
and enemies of Caesar. It was necessary for him to see
which way the wind blew. As long as it was uncertain on
which side the popular sympathy would declare itself, he
affected to observe a kind of neutrality. He held out specious
professions to Brutus and Cassius, and had on one occasion
put down with a high hand a seditious tumult. But as
months rolled away, and the demonstrations in favour of the
conspirators all or most of whom were absent from Rome
became weaker and weaker, he took a bolder line. He
was afraid that Octavian might outbid him in popular favour
by coming forward as the champion of what may be called
the Julian party, and he was therefore anxious to show that
the memory of Caesar was equally dear to him. His col-
league Dolabella had thrown down the pillar erected in
honour of the deceased dictator : he would raise a monu-
ment to his fame. He therefore placed on the rostra in the
Forum a statue of Caesar, with the inscription, PARENTI
OPTIME MERITO. No more artful epitaph could be con-
ceived than this none which reflected more strongly on the
assassins who had deprived their country of its parent. It
was the well-known form to be seen on the tombstones and
sepulchral urns of Rome, by which children expressed their
pious gratitude to a father's memory. Cicero felt the censure
it implied in its full force. He wrote to Cassius and said :
464 CRUELTY OF ANTONY. CHAP. xxn.
" Your friend day by day grows more and more furious. First, in the case of
the statue which he has erected on the Rostra with the inscription PARENTI
OPTIME MERITO ; so that you are branded with the name of not only assassins,
but even parricides. What do I say ? that you are branded ? Nay rather I should
say /. For the madman declares that I had the chief hand in your glorious
deed. Would that I had! he would be giving us no trouble now."
Antony had formed a sagacious plan for making himself
master of the destinies of Rome, and he proceeded to carry
it into execution. I have already mentioned that Decimus
Brutus had been appointed by Caesar governor of Cisalpine
Gaul, and that this appointment was confirmed by the Senate
after Caesar's death. Antony resolved to take possession of
this important command. Backed by a strong military force,
he would then have the capital at his mercy, ready at a
moment's notice to sweep down upon it from the wide plains
of modern Lombardy. He therefore got the people to bestow
the government of Cisalpine Gaul upon himself. This was
an unconstitutional if not an illegal act ; for the appoint-
ments to provincial commands rested with the Senate, and
that body had already conferred the province upon Decimus
Brutus. He treated Antony's appointment as wholly invalid,
and prepared himself to hold by the sword the authority
which had been bestowed upon him by Caesar and confirmed
by the Senate.
Hearing that the four legions which he had sent for from
Macedonia had arrived at Brundusium, Antony left Rome
and reached the port on the Qth of October. He there
harangued the soldiers, and promised them a donation equiva-
lent in English money to about 4 a-head. But the pam-
pered veterans, who remembered the largesses of Caesar,
treated the offer with contempt. The names of the four
legions were the. Martial, the Second, the Fourth, and the
Thirty-fifth. Antony exerted all his oratory to induce them
to join his standard, and succeeded with one of them, either
the Second or the Thirty-fifth. But the others refused to
follow him ; and he took a terrible revenge. Inviting their
centurions, to the number of three hundred, under some pre-
text, to his house, he caused them to be massacred in cold
blood before the eyes of himself and his wife Fulvia, whom
" the dignified general," as Cicero ironically calls him, had
carried with him to the army. Her face was spattered with
the blood of the dying men. What an astounding picture
I5.c. 44- MEASURES OF OCTAVIAN. 465
these brutal murders give of the state of Rome ! They passed
almost unnoticed, and the soldiers made no attempt to avenge
their officers, but, quitting Brundusium, commenced their
march along the eastern coast, leaving it uncertain on which
side they would ultimately declare themselves. Antony
put himself at the head of the remaining legion, which was
the famous one levied by Cassar in Gaul, and called Alaudcs
in addition to its number, 1 and turned his steps towards
Rome by the Appian Road, intending to recruit his forces on
the march.
In the meantime Cicero left the city, and retired to his
villa at Puteoli. In a letter to his friend Cornificius, at that
time proconsul of Africa, written just before his departure,
he deplored the state of the republic, " if a republic could be
said to exist in a camp," and said
" For my own part, amidst all these events, and in every mortal accident, I
owe much to philosophy, which not only withdraws me from distracting care, but
also arms me against all the assaults of fortune. And I advise you to adopt the
same remedy, and consider nothing as an evil which involves no moral blame."
If he had lived at a later and happier period, he would have
been able to substitute the word religion for philosophy.
At Puteoli he composed, as I have mentioned, the second
Philippic, and sent it confidentially to Atticus, who suggested
some alterations, which Cicero adopted. He employed him-
self on his work De Officiis ; for what else could he do, he
asked, but philosophise ? but at the same time he kept an
eager watch upon political events, which were fast hurrying
forward to a crisis. Octavian, who saw that a struggle was
imminent, had quitted Rome to visit the military quarters
and settlements in different parts of Italy, where the veterans
of Caesar's campaigns were to be found, and he spared neither
money nor promises to gain the soldiers to his side. More
liberal than Antony, he offered them five times the amount
he had done, and soon formed the nucleus of a considerable
army. He wrote to Cicero, and proposed an interview at
Capua or the neighbourhood, but this Cicero, with his usual
timidity, declined. I say timidity, for this seems to have
been his real reason, as he says that it was childish to sup-
pose that it could take place unobserved. He did not think
1 Antonium cum legione Alaudarum ad uibem pergere. Ad Alt. xvi. 8.
2 II
466 IRRESOLUTION. CHAP. xxn.
it prudent to commit himself irrevocably in the prospect of
a war. He had but little confidence in Octavian as a leader.
" Look/ 5 he wrote to Atticus, " at the name he bears look
at his age !" and he constantly spoke of him as a boy.
Finding that Cicero would not meet him as he wished, he
sent a friend to consult him as to the course he should adopt.
Cicero advised him to go to Rome, where he was likely to
have not only the rabble, but if he inspired confidence in his
sincerity, the respectable class of citizens on his side. In
telling this to Atticus, he could not help ejaculating, " O
Brutus ! where are you ? What an opportunity you are los-
ing!" Octavian, on the other hand, kept urging him to take
a prominent part himself, and be a second time the saviour
of the state, telling him that he ought to be in Rome. Cicero
found it was easier to give advice than to take it. He
quoted a line of Homer as applicable to himself, which he
might have adopted as a motto to express the whole of his
political career
" Afraid to fight, and yet ashamed to fly." 1
But he suddenly determined to return. He thought it better
to be on the spot in case any opportunity where his services
might be useful should occur, and he was not without appre-
hension lest, if he stayed away much longer, access to the
city might be cut off. If war broke out, and Antony had
the power to exclude him, there was small chance of his
entering the city. He therefore left Puteoli early in Novem-
ber, and a short letter which he wrote to Atticus, while
stopping on his way at his villa near Sinuessa (Rocca di
Mandragone), gives a lively picture of the anxiety his journey
caused him. It was as follows :
" On the 7th of November I reached my country residence at Sinuessa. On
the same day it was currently reported that Antony intended to halt at Casilinum.
I therefore changed my plan. For I had determined to go straight to Rome by
the Appian Road. In that case he would have easily come up with me, for they
say he travels with the rapidity of Caesar. I therefore turned aside from Minturnas
in the direction of Arpinum. I intend to stay to-morrow either at Aquinum or
Arcanum (where Quintus had a villa). Now, my dear Atticus, give your whole
mind to the question, for it is a matter of importance. There are three courses open
to me : to remain at Arpinum, or approach nearer, or go quite to Rome. I will
do what you advise. But let me know as soon as possible. I look eagerly for
your letter."
h avr/vaq-Oai, deTaav 5' virod^xOai. Literally, " they were ashamed
o refuse, and yet feared to accept. "
JET. 63. LAST LETTER TO ATTICUS. 467
He left his Sinuessa villa next morning before daybreak,
and on the road a courier met him with a letter from Atticus.
It was too dark to read it, and his party had no lights. He
had to wait, therefore, until day dawned another proof
amongst many of his habit of early rising and he then
found that Atticus had anticipated his question by advising
him to leave the Appian Road, and make a detotir to his villa
at Arpinum. He immediately went there, and again con-
sulted his friend as to his future movements, begging him to
write daily. He told him he feared that his honour required
him to be at Rome, but he was afraid to go there. It is
curious to find him, at this moment of private perplexity
and public confusion, declaring that he was smitten with a
passion for writing history, and he referred to Atticus to set
him right on a point of chronology. In one of his letters
from Arpinum he expressed himself in a manner which
reminds us of the riddle" If that man's father is my father's
son what relation is he to me ?" for he said, "Your grand-
father's great-grandson writes to my father's grandson " (in
other words, " Your and my nephew Quintus writes to my
son Marcus") that he intends on the nones of December to
demand from Antony, at a public meeting, an account
of the treasure which was in the temple of Ops." He
probably intended this circumlocution as a joke, for there
seems to have been no other reason for using it, unless,
indeed, he was afraid of the letter falling into improper
hands.
He spoke with much bitterness elf Dolabella as a man who
had been bribed by Antony to betray his country, but his
animosity against him was no doubt quickened by the fact
that he had gone off to his government in Syria without
paying the money he owed for Tullia's dowry, the want of
which just then was very inconvenient to Cicero. For he
had several demands to meet, and even Terentia's claim was
,not yet satisfied. He had also promised to pay a debt which
his son had contracted as surety for a friend. For private
reasons, therefore, he determined to go to Rome " into the
very midst of the fire " (in ipsam flammdm), and look after
his affairs. As to politics, he said he bade them adieu ; for,
according to Hippocrates, medicine ought not to be given.
468 CHARACTER OF ATTIC US. CHAP, xxn
when the patient was past hope; and he told Atticus that
he might expect him immediately.
The letter which I have just quoted has a special interest,
as the last which he wrote to Atticus, or at all events the
last which has been preserved. Indeed, as Cicero remained
in Rome until the autumn of the following year, only a short
time before his proscription and death, it is very probable
that the two friends had not again occasion to correspond.
We lose, therefore, the benefit of what is by far the most
trustworthy record of his real sentiments, as well as an
account of many little incidents, which though beneath the
dignity of history are full of interest in a biography. The
possession of such a friend was the crowning happiness of
Cicero's life. It would have perhaps been better for him if
Atticus had had in him more of the sterner stuff of Cato, for
his own character wanted this more than anything else. But
in that case perhaps their intimacy might not have remained
so unbroken. They both seem to have taken in the main
the same view of politics, in the troublous times in which
they lived ; at all events, their mutual attachment never
suffered even a momentary diminution. It is delightful to
contemplate the pure and disinterested course of such a life-
long friendship a calm haven of happiness in the midst of
a stormy sea of anxiety and strife. Parting company as we
here do with Atticus, it will be interesting to know his sub-
sequent fate. His great object throughout life was to stand
well with all parties and compromise himself with none. He
was, indeed, as he has been called, a kind of political Vicar
of Bray, and, like that cautious personage, made friends on
all sides. This was not difficult, for he never entered into
public life, and thus gave offence to none of the ambitious
competitors for power. He passed a luxurious existence as
a wealthy private gentleman devoted to literature and art,
and keeping an ample table round which he assembled men
of the most opposite views in politics. To Cicero he owes
his fame, and he shines with the reflected lustre of that great
luminary. 1 He lived unharmed through the conflict of
1 Nomen Attici perire Ciceronis gener, et Drusus Caesar pronepos : inter
Epistolne non sinunt. Nihil illi pro- tarn magna nomina taceretur, nisi Cicero
fuisset gener Agrippa et Tiberius pro- eum applicuisset. Seneca, Epist. 21.
B.C. 44- ANTONY ENTERS ROME. 469
the Civil War and the terror of the proscription, dying B.C.
32, at the advanced age of seventy-seven, of voluntary star-
vation, which he inflicted on himself when he found that he
was attacked by an incurable complaint.
Before Cicero returned to Rome some important events
had happened in the interval. While Antony was still absent
Octavian had collected a body of about ten thousand troops
from different garrisons and military settlements in Italy,
and advanced upon the capital. He entered the city and
harangued the people, taking care to show that he venerated
his uncle's memory. He pointed with his right hand to the
statue of Caesar on the Rostra, and addressed it in a solemn
adjuration. This gave little hope to the anti-Julian party,
and made Cicero exclaim in Greek when he heard of it, " I
should be sorry to be saved by such a man as that !" But
Caesar's veterans who had followed Octavian to Rome did
not like the idea of righting against Antony. As consul he
was the legitimate commander of the army of Rome, and he
had given ample proof that he identified his own cause with
that of Caesar, their murdered general. A contest between
Octavian and Antony could only, they thought, benefit the
party of Brutus, whom they hated as assassins. They there-
fore began to leave the city in such numbers that Octavian
had only a small force left. His position was highly critical,
for Antony was marching up at the head of the Alaudae
legion and other reinforcements. It was no longer safe to
stay within the walls, and he hastily withdrew to Arretium,
to the north-east of Rome, which he made the place of
rendezvous for his troops.
Almost at the same time, or immediately afterwards,
Antony entered the city, with a large train of followers, but
he left the bulk of his army at Tibur. Cicero describes his
march through the streets amidst the groans of the populace,
and says that, as he passed by the houses of those who were
obnoxious to him on the right and left, he pointed to them
in a threatening manner, and told his followers that he would
give up the city to plunder. He was consul, and, as Dola-
bella was absent in the East, sole-acting consul at Rome.
This gave him an immense advantage, which none of his
opponents enjoyed. He could treat his personal enemies as
470 REVOLT OF TWO LEGIONS. CHAP. xxn.
enemies of the state. To summon legions to his standard
was in him an act of rightful authority ; in them it was an
act of rebellion. 1 He immediately issued proclamations
denouncing the conduct of Octavian. He compared him to
Spartacus, reproached him with being of ignoble birth, and
accused him of all kinds of vice, as if the purity of his own
life entitled him to play the part of a censor. He sum-
moned a meeting of the Senate for the 24th of November,
and declared that whoever did not attend would avow himself
a conspirator against Antony and his country. But when
the day arrived, he did not appear, as, if we may believe
Cicero, he had drunk too hard to be able to come. He
therefore summoned another meeting for the 28th, in the
temple of Jupiter, on the Capitol, and slunk up to it by a
subterranean passage which seems to have been made at the
time when the Gauls captured Rome, and was called Gal-
lorum Cuniculus. By an arbitrary edict he had forbidden,
under pain of death, three of the tribunes to be present,
afraid apparently lest they might exercise their veto. It was
no secret that his object was to get the Senate to pass a
resolution declaring Octavian a public enemy. But when he
rose to speak either his resolution had failed him or he thought
the right moment had not come, for the anxious senators
found that the only business he had to lay before them was
a proposal for a thanksgiving in honour of Lepidus, who had
a military command in Gaul. At the same instant startling
news suddenly arrived which completely disconcerted him.
Of the three legions that had left Brundusium and marched
northwards along the Adriatic coast, two, the Martial and the
Fourth, had just declared for Octavian, and taken up their
position at Alba, within a few miles of Rome. We must
not suppose that this was merely like the loss of a couple of
regiments in a modern army. The strength of a Roman
legion at the time of which we are speaking was about six
thousand men, so that the amount subtracted from the force
on which Antony reckoned would, by the defection of the
two legions, be twelve thousand soldiers, and these, as
veterans in the campaigns of Caesar, the very flower of his
1 To get over this, Cicero afterwards argued that Antony had by his crimes
forfeited the rank of consul. Phil. iii. 6.
JET. 63. TRICKERY WITH THE BALLOT. 471
troops. He was frightened out of his wits, and hurried over
the motion for a thanksgiving by immediately calling for a
division a thing which in such a case, as Cicero says, had
never been done before. 1 He then hastened from the Senate-
house the instant that the resolution was passed, and, changing
his consular robe for the military dress of a general {palu-
datus\ quitted or rather flew from the city to Alba, to try
and bring back the troops to his standard.
The Senate met again in the evening and proceeded to
ballot for the provisional governments of the following year.
This ought to have been done under the presidency of
Antony, and several of the senators, who. were eligible for
the appointments, seem to have availed themselves of the
objection that he was absent, and to have withdrawn their
names. In the ironical account that Cicero gives of the
ballot, he implies that some unfair trick was used to give
Antony's friends the provinces they wanted. Addressing
the Senate soon afterwards in the speech known as the Third
Philippic, he said " Caius Antony got Macedonia. Lucky
man ! for he was always talking of that province. Caius
Calvisius got Africa. Nothing could be more lucky ; for he
had just quitted Africa, and, as if divining that he would
return there, had left two of his legates at Utica." But the
luck was not all on one side. M. Iccius got Sicily, and Q.
Cassius Spain. Cassius was the brother of the conspirator,
and Iccius belonged to the same party. "In their case,"
said Cicero, " I have no cause to suspect foul play. I sup-
pose the ballot for those two provinces was not so provi-
dentially directed !"
Antony did not succeed in shaking the resolution of the
legions at Alba, who had chosen Octavian as their leader.
He therefore hastened to Tibur, to join the troops that had
rallied round his own standard, and distributed money
amongst them to keep them in good humour. A fifth
legion had by this time come back from Macedonia, and
placed itself under his command, so that, including the new
levies he had raised, he found himself at the head of a
1 The reason why Antony resorted suppose it was thought an undignified
to it probably was because it was the mode oi carrying so solemn a measure
shortest mode of passing the resolution, as a supplicatio.
and he was in a desperate hurry. I
472 THE THIRD PHILIPPIC. CHAP. xxn.
respectable force of four legions, or twenty-four thousand
men. Octavian had about the same number ; but, in addi-
tion to these, it must be remembered that he could reckon
upon the co-operation of the army commanded by Decimus
Brutus in Cisalpine Gaul, of which it was the avowed object
of Antony to seize possession. Brutus acted with spirit and
firmness. He issued a proclamation declaring his resolve to
hold the province which had been bestowed on him by the
authority of the Senate, and levied troops to oppose the
approach of Antony.
The newly-elected tribunes, who had just entered into
office, convoked the Senate on the 2Oth of December, to
take into consideration a proposal to allow the consuls to
elect a military guard on the 1st of January, for the protec-
tion of the Senate, which would meet on that day. Cicero,
who had returned to Rome on the Qth, went early ; and,
when it was buzzed abroad that he was there, the senators
flocked in numbers to the House (or more properly the
Temple), in hopes of hearing him once more. And they
were not disappointed. He rose and delivered the oration
known as the Third Philippic.
It was an excellent speech for the objects he had in view,
which were to denounce Antony as a public enemy, and
show the Senate the necessity of energetic and immediate
action. He praised Octavian to the skies for the spirit he
had shown in raising levies of troops at his own expense,
and Decimus Brutus for his firmness in holding Cisalpine
Gaul ; and the inhabitants of the province, which he called
" the flower of Italy," for their zeal and unanimity in rallying
round their governor. He advised that the best military
commanders should be appointed to lead the troops, and
that liberal promises of reward should be made to the sol-
diers. He declared that Antony was worse than Tarquin,
and insisted that he could no longer, with any consistency
on their part, be regarded as consul ; for they applauded the
conduct of Brutus, and yet he was acting contrary to law in
opposing Antony, if Antony was really consul. They ap-
plauded the conduct of the legions that deserted him, and
yet those legions were guilty, and deserved the punishment
of mutiny, if Antony was consul.
B.C. 44. THE THIRD PHILIPPIC. 473
He ridiculed the attempt of Antony to throw discredit
upon Octavian because his mother was a native of a provin-
cial town (Aricia, in Latium, at the foot of the Mons Al-
banus). He said that if that was a stigma, it applied to
nearly the whole body of senators, for almost all were
sprung from a provincial stock ; and he retorted upon Antony
that his wife Fulvia was the daughter of a nobody from
Tusculum, nicknamed Bambalio, because he was a stutterer
and a fool. He ridiculed also the bad Latin of his procla-
mations in a way that reminds us of Cobbett criticising the
bad English of a royal speech. After describing his character
and conduct in the darkest colours, he earnestly adjured the
Senate not to lose the present opportunity afforded by the
kindness of the immortal gods ; for Antony was caught in
front, flank, and rear, if he entered Cisalpine Gaul. If he
was suffered to escape and become victorious, the provinces
had nothing to expect but servitude and disgrace. " But,"
he exclaimed, " if (may Heaven avert the omen !) the last
hour of the republic has arrived, let us, the foremost men
in all the world, do what noble gladiators do, fall with
honour. Let us rather die with dignity than serve with
ignominy." He concluded by declaring his opinion that it
should be resolved that Pansa and Hirtius, the consuls-elect,
should provide for the safety of the Senate at the meeting of
the ist of January; that Decimus Brutus had deserved well
of the state, in upholding the authority of the Senate and
the liberties of the people, and ought to keep his province ;
that the other provincial governors should retain their respec-
tive commands until successors were appointed by a resolu-
tion of the Senate ; that honours should be paid and thanks
given to Octavian (or Caius Caesar, as he designated him),
and the Fourth and Martial legions, and the veteran soldiers
who rallied round him ; and that as soon as the consuls-
elect entered upon office, they should bring all these ques-
tions before the Senate, in the way they deemed best for
the advantage of the republic, and most consistent with
their duty.
A resolution was passed in the terms that Cicero proposed ;
and he then immediately went to the Forum, and on the
same day addressed from the rostra a crowded meeting of
474 DISTRIBUTION OF THE LEGIONS. CHAP. xxn.
the people, telling them that although Antony had not been
formally declared a public enemy by the Senate, he was in
effect treated by them as such. He went over much of the
same ground as in his previous speech, and did his utmost
to inflame the passions of his audience.
It is probable that about this time he put into general
circulation his Second Philippic. He had completely broken
with Antony, and set him at defiance. The temptation
therefore was great to publish that attack which he had so
carefully elaborated in his retirement at Puteoli. Either he
or Antony must fall ; and his safety depended on the success
of his attempt to raise the hatred of his countrymen against
their unworthy consul.
For war was now inevitable. Antony was leading his
troops along the defiles of the Apennines to take forcible
possession of Cisalpine Gaul, and Decimus Brutus had thrown
himself into Mutina, the modern Modena, at the foot of the
northern range of the same mountains. He occupied the
town with a strong garrison, and was resolved to defend it
to the last extremity. He relied of course upon the assist-
ance of Octavian, who was in the field with his hastily-col-
lected levies, strengthened, however, by three of the well-
disciplined legions from Macedonia ; and also upon the forces
which the new consuls would be able to raise whenever they
entered upon office, on the 1st of January. On that day
Antony would cease to have any legal right to command a
Roman army, and all his authority would pass to Hirtius
and Pansa, his successors. And as the Senate had in effect
ratified the act of Octavian in levying troops, the armies
which the republic could call its own, and on which it could
rely to oppose Antony, would be represented by the triple
union of the forces of the Consuls, Octavian, and Brutus. The
other forces of the republic, exclusive of those to the east
of Italy, were thus distributed : Pollio had two legions in
Spain; Lepidus four in the north of Spain and the Narbon-
ensian province of Gaul ; Plancus three in the rest of Gaul.
Cicero was very anxious to secure Plancus on the side of the
Senate against Antony, and wrote to him at the end of the
year. They were on the best of terms with each other, and
Plancus, if we may believe his professions, regarded him
JET. 63.
LETTER TO PLANCUS.
475
with feelings of affectionate respect. He and Decimus Bru-
tus had been designated by Caesar as consuls for the next
year but one, and as all the " acts" of the deceased dictator
were ratified by the Senate, they would then enter upon that
high office, if nothing unforeseen occurred to prevent it At
the end of December Plancus wrote to Cicero in answer to a
letter he had received from him in November. He said his
only wish was to devote all his energies to the service of the
republic. But he had to keep a careful watch upon the
movements of the Gauls, lest they should think the confusion
in Italy a good opportunity for revolt Cicero was delighted
to hear such sentiments from a man who was at the head of
so many disciplined battalions, and he wrote to him in lavish
terms of flattery and compliment. He earnestly exhorted
him to pursue the path of true glory, by supporting the cause
of the republic. " You are," he said, " consul-elect, in the
flower of your age, gifted with the highest order of eloquence,
and this at a time when our fatherland is bereaved of almost
all her children, such as you." But, alas for promises and
professions made by the slippery sons of Rome ! In a few
short months Plancus joined his forces to those of Antony
and Lepidus, and abandoned the side of Cicero and the
Senate.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE EMBASSY TO ANTONY.
JEt. 64. B.C. 43.
WE have reached the last year of Cicero's life. The horizon
was dark and stormy, but yet light seemed to be breaking
through the gloom. Antony was no longer a consul, in law-
ful command of a Roman army, but a private citizen, engaged
in a desperate rebellion. The Senate had all but declared
him a public enemy, even while armed with consular autho-
rity, and the people had applauded when Cicero denounced
him as worse than Spartacus or Catiline. The net in which
he was to be caught was fast closing around him. Octavian,
at the head of an army formidable in numbers and in disci-
pline, was marching rapidly upon him, and in his front was
Decimus Brutus, holding him in check before the walls of
Mutina. If the new consuls acted as Cicero hoped and
believed they would act, it seemed inevitable that he must
fall. But upon them everything depended ; for if they
wavered and refused to employ against him the forces at
their command, it was possible that Octavian might be
defeated, in which case Mutina would fall, and Antony
would become master of Cisalpine Gaul.
Aulus Hirtius and Caius Vibius Pansa, who began their
consulship at this eventful crisis, had both belonged to the
B.C. 43. POLICY OF THE CONSULS. 477
Julian party, and owed everything to Caesar. Hirtius had
been one of his legates in Gaul, and received afterwards from
him the government of .the northern part of that province,
corresponding to the modern Belgium. Pansa had been
appointed by him governor of Cisalpine Gaul, as successor
to Marcus Brutus. Both owed to him their elevation to the
consulship, to which he had nominated them by virtue of his
sovereign power as dictator. Since his death they had
observed a cautious neutrality, and abstained almost entirely
from politics. They both, and especially Hirtius, had kept on
good terms with Cicero ; but, whatever he might think it
politic to say in public, his private correspondence shows
that he had no great confidence in either of them. Their
conduct, however, seems to have been loyal and sincere.
They naturally did not wish to drive Antony to extremities,
and destroy all hope of an accommodation, the failure of
which must result in another civil war, perhaps as bloody
and ruinous as the last. And besides, they could not forget
that his immediate antagonist was Decimus Brutus, one of
the assassins of their friend and benefactor Caesar ; and,
with the exception of Octavian, the party most violently
opposed to him was the party of the conspirators, men who
gloried in the murder of him whose statue yet stood in the
Forum, with the inscription proclaiming him " the father of
his country." They therefore determined to temporise, and
endeavour to bring back Antony to his allegiance.
The Senate met on the 1st of January in the Temple of
Jupiter, on the Capitol ; and, after the inaugural ceremonies
of religion, according to ancient custom, the consuls brought
forward the pressing question of the moment, how they were
to deal with Antony in arms. They both spoke in a tone
that pleased Cicero, who cheered himself with the hope that
they would act with as much vigour and firmness as their
speeches implied. But he was soon undeceived. By an
obviously preconcerted arrangement they called on Fufius
Calenus, Pansa's father-in-law, to rise first and deliver his
opinion. He had in old days, as tribune of the people,
actively assisted Clodius to obtain an acquittal on his trial
for the violation of the mysteries of the Bona Dea. Since
then he had distinguished himself as an ardent partisan of
478 THE EMBASSY TO ANTONY. CHAP. xxm.
Caesar, and was by him substituted consul B.C. 47 (consul
suffectus] for the last three months of that year. In one of
his letters, written in the previous year, Cicero calls him a
personal enemy of himself, and at this very time Antony's
wife, Fulvia, and her children, were staying under the protec-
tion of his roof. It was an ominous circumstance that he
should be chosen to speak first, and as it were lead the de-
bate, at such a momentous crisis ; although his near rela-
tionship to one of the consuls not only gave a pretext for,
but justified the precedence that was thus given him.
His advice was, that an embassy should be sent to Antony,
calling upon him to retire from Mutina and submit himself
to the authority of the Senate. L. Piso and other senators
of consular rank followed on the same side, and at last it
came to Cicero's turn to speak. He rose and delivered the
oration known as the Fifth Philippic. It may be described in
the words put by Milton into the mouth of Moloch, in the
second book of Paradise Lost
* ' My sentence is for open war : of wiles
More unexpert I boast not : them let those
Contrive who need, or when they need ; not now."
He regretted that he had not been called on to speak after
the other ex-consuls had delivered their opinions, for then he
would have been able to reply upon them all ; and he feared
that others would follow him who were prepared to go the
length of proposing that Antony should have the province of
Gaul, of which Plancus was governor.
"What," he exclaimed, " is this, but to put arms in the hands of an enemy
for the purpose of civil war ? . . . The pleas you urge are of no avail. ' He is
my friend,' says one. Let him first show himself the friend of his country.
* He is my relative,' cries another. Can there be any relationship closer than
that of one's countiy, which embraces even one's parents ? ' He owes me money,'
do I hear ? I should like to see the man who would dare to say it."
Again
" Does Antony wish for peace? Let him lay aside his arms. He will find
no one more equitable than myself, of whom, while he throws himself on the
support of impious citizens, he had rather be the enemy than the friend. There
is nothing which can be granted to him while he carries on war : there may
perhaps be something which will be given if he sues as a suppliant. "
He went over his former ground of argument to show the
inconsistency of sending ambassadors to a man whom, by
JET. 64. THE FIFTH PHILIPPIC, 479
their previous acts in honour of the generals and troops who
had marched against him, they had already denounced as his
country's foe. He reviewed the conduct of Antony, and
charged him with all the nefarious acts of which he had been
guilty in forging Caesar's papers and making a market of his
grants for his own private emolument. He amused his audi-
ence with a sarcastic account of what Antony had done to
increase the number of the body of jurymen at Rome.
Csesar, indeed, had placed among them common soldiers,
privates from the ranks, and the men of the Alaudae legion ;
but Antony had added gamblers and exiles, and even Greeks !
He made himself merry with the idea of a member of the
court of Areopagus being summoned to serve on a Roman
trial, and excusing himself on the ground that he could not
serve the same moment at Athens and at Rome. Did
some of them even know the Latin language ? Were they
acquainted with the laws and customs of Rome? Fancy
such a man as Cyda from Crete sitting on a trial a monster
of audacity and crime ! Antony, he said, alone, of all men
since the foundation of the city, kept openly an armed force
within the walls. This the old kings had never done, nor
those who, after their expulsion, had aimed at monarchy.
" I remember Cinna," he cried, " I have seen Sylla, and not long ago Caesar
these three, since the time when freedom was given to the state by Lucius
Brutus, made themselves more powerful than the whole republic. I cannot assert
that they were never attended by armed guards ; but this I do say, that the guards
were few, and kept in the background. But this pestilent fellow was followed
by a whole squadron of armed men. Classitius, Mustella, Tiro, and creatures
like them, brandished their swords, and led their bands through the Forum nay,
barbarian bowmen stood here in battle array."
He denounced in the strongest language the idea of sending
an embassy to Antony, and advised that not war (bellum)
but a "tumult" (tumultus) should be proclaimed 1 that a
levy en masse should be decreed a military uniform (saga)
be generally assumed, and the courts of justice closed. He
then proposed, in much the same form as in his previous
speech, that a public vote of thanks should be decreed by the
Senate to Decimus Brutus and to Lepidus, and that a gilt
* ' The distinction was this : Bellum proximity of Gaul to Italy. In the case
applied to a foreign war, tumultus to a of a tumultus all furloughs were called
domestic insurrection, or the threat of in, but not so in the case of bellum.
a Gallic invasion, owing to the close
480 THE EMBASSY TO ANTONY. CHAP. xxm.
equestrian statue of Lepidus should be placed on the Rostra,
or in any other part of the Forum he preferred. As for
Octavian or Caius Caesar, as he always took care to desig-
nate him he seemed to feel a difficulty in finding language
sufficiently complimentary in praise of him. He proposed
that he should be formally invested with a military command
it must be remembered that up to this time Octavian had
been levying troops, and was at the head of a military force
without any legal authority and that he should have the
rank of a propraetor, sit in the Senate in the place allotted to
the praetors, and be at liberty to become a candidate for any
of the higher state offices. As to the objection that he was
under the legal age, Cicero reminded the Senate that distin-
guished excellence anticipated the march of years. With an
earnestness which was little prescient of futurity, he scouted
the idea that Octavian might become intoxicated with such
honours, and forget the duty he owed to the republic. True
glory consisted in securing the esteem and love of the Senate
and the people, and the man who enjoyed this would think
no other glory comparable to it. " I will venture, Conscript
Fathers," he exclaimed, "to pledge my honour to you and
the Roman people I promise, I undertake, I guarantee
that Caius Caesar will always prove himself such a citizen as
he is to-day, and such as we ought most to wish and desire
him to be." It is very likely that Cicero was quite sincere
in saying this ; for, whatever may have been his former
doubts of Octavian, they were chiefly lest he might make
common cause with Antony. But the young adventurer was
committed to open hostility against the consul, and was
fighting on the side of the Senate and the republic. And
no one could have then dreamed that he would so soon be
guilty of betraying the cause he had adopted, and form a
coalition with Antony at the moment when victory had
crowned his own eagles, and his adversary was a fugitive
from the field of battle he had lost. Cicero concluded by
moving that rewards should be given to the legions that had
joined Octavian.
It is here that Dio Cassius introduces Fufius Calenus on
the scene. He represents him as rising after Cicero, and
making a most bitter and malevolent attack upon him.
B.C. 43- GXOSS ABUSE OF CICERO. 481
There can, in reality, be no doubt that he spoke before him
but this would be a trifling mistake. The important fact
is, that no such speech as Dio puts into the mouth of Fufius
was ever spoken at all. It is certain that he would not have
dared, in the presence of the greatest orator of Rome, to
provoke the tremendous reply which such an invective would
have drawn down upon him. He would rather have put a
blister upon his tongue than allowed it to expose him to the
castigation he was sure to receive. But it is clear, from the
way in which Cicero speaks of Fufius in subsequent orations,
that he had given him no such provocation. That he did
make a speech on this occasion we need not doubt, and that
in it he defended Antony is not improbable ; but we may
safely assert that so much of it as is filled with abuse of
Cicero is the mere invention of Dio Cassius himself. The
old traditions of Cicero's enemies had come down to his
times, and the courtly historian hated the memory of the
last and greatest champion of Roman freedom. He there-
fore seized the opportunity of collecting all the charges
against him which those enemies had ever whispered, and
threw them together in the form of a speech, which he attri-
buted to Calenus. It is a good example of rhetorical skill,
and is well worth reading as an epitome of the accusations
which the blind fury of party hate brought against Cicero.
It shows the impure nature of the atmosphere in which he
lived, and explains the frequent allusions in his correspond-
ence to the envy and malevolence of which he was the object.
It may be considered as a kind of monster indictment which
antiquity drew up to blast the character of one of her greatest
men. The speech is inordinately long, and I pass over a
tedious catalogue of charges in which Cicero's conduct is
contrasted with Antony's, his actions are distorted, and his
motives blackened, in order to quote at length one passage,
which, perhaps better than any other, will give the reader an
idea of the style, and taste, and truthfulness of this abomi-
nable tirade :
" These then, Cicero, or Cicerullus, or Ciceraeus, or Cicerethus, or Greekling,
or whatever other name you rejoice in, are the things which Antony the coarse,
half-naked, anointed Antony, as you call him has done. But you did nothing of
the kind you, who are so clever and so wise, and who make so much more use
of oil than of wine you, who let your dress trail down to your ankles, not like
2 I
482 THE EMBASSY TO ANTONY. CHAP. xxm.
the dancers on the stage, who express their thoughts by pantomime, but in order
to hide the deformity of your legs ; for assuredly you don't do it for the sake of de-
corum, much as you have said about Antony's habits ; for who does not observe the
thin womanish cloaks that you wear ? who does not scent those gray hairs of yours
that you keep so well combed ? who does not know that you divorced your first
wife, who had borne you two children, and married in your old age a young wo-
man in order to be able to pay off your debts by means of her fortune ? And yet
you did not keep even her, in order that you might with impunity carry on your
intrigue with Casrellia, with whom you have committed adultery, although she is
as much older than you as you were than your second wife, and to whom you wrote
such letters as might be expected to come from a man who is a loose-tongued jester,
and makes love to an old woman of seventy. So much I have been led out of my
course to say, that he may in such attacks get as good as he brings. But I must
not forget that he ventured to bring up against Antony the story of some revel, he
himself being, as he says, only a water-drinker, that he may be able to keep awake
at night and compose his speeches, although he makes such a drunkard of his son
that he is never sober either by day or night. And, besides, he tried to calumniate
Antony's morals, although he himself has been all his life so dissolute and impure
that he disregarded the chastity of his nearest relatives ; going so far as to prosti-
tute his own wife and seduce his own daughter ! !" l
On the question of sending an embassy to Antony there
was great difference of opinion. The debate was protracted
to nightfall a very unusual thing in the Roman Senate
and it was then adjourned. Next day and the day after that
the discussion was continued, and the great majority of the
speakers supported the views of Cicero, so that it seemed
certain that his opinions would prevail when the question was
put to the vote. But the consuls were afraid, and took care
not to call for a division, which it was their business to re-
quire at such a period of the debate as they thought fit. At
last Salvius, one of the tribunes, extricated them from the
difficulty by interposing his veto against putting Cicero's
motion to the vote. The result was, that the question was
carried as Fufius Calenus had proposed, and a resolution
was passed for sending the embassy to Antony. Three
senators of consular rank Servius Sulpicius, the first lawyer
in Rome; Lucius Piso, the father-in-law of Csesar; and Lucius
Philippus, the step- father of Octavian were named the com-
missioners, and the task of drawing up the message they
were to deliver was entrusted to Cicero himself. The terms
were briefly these : Antony was to abandon the siege of
Mutina, to cease from hostilities against Decimus Brutus, to
1 His enemies had the ineffable base- Virgil had Cicero in his eye. " Quod
ness to pretend that in the line Donatus dixit, nefas est credi, dictum
Hie thalamum invasit nat* vetitosque 6SSe de Tulli ' ""Servius, ad loc.
hymenaeos " (j3n. vi. 623) k
^ET. 64. CICERO ADDRESSES THE PEOPLE. 483
make no inroad into Cisalpine Gaul, and to submit himself
to the authority of the Senate and people. Failing obedience
to these commands, he was to be treated as a public enemy.
The commissioners were also instructed to have an interview
with Brutus in Mutina itself, and convey to him and the
garrison the sense which the Senate and people of Rome
entertained of the services they had rendered to the state,
and an assurance of the honours and rewards in store for
them.
Vast numbers had in the meantime assembled in the
Forum, anxious to hear the result of the long debate ; and
loud cries were heard for Cicero to come and address them
from the rostra, as he had done on the former occasion.
He obeyed the call, and was introduced to the multitude by
the tribune Apuleius. He did not affect to conceal his
chagrin that the embassy had been voted contrary to his
advice, but he declared his certain conviction that Antony
would not listen to the terms imposed upon him.
" Therefore," said Cicero, "let bygones be bygones. Let the commissioners
make haste, as I see they intend to do ; but do you prepare your uniforms. 1 For
it has been decreed that if he does not obey the authority of the Senate we are all
to assume our military dress. The embassy will go ; he will not obey j and we
shall have to regret the loss of so many days of action."
The speech was short, and it would be hardly worth notic-
ing farther were it not for a curious fact which Cicero men-
tioned. We learn from it that thirty-five of the city tribes
had adopted Antony's brother Lucius, the quondam gladiator,
as their patron, and had erected a gilt statue of him on horse-
back in the Forum, with the inscription, QuiNQUE ET
TRIGINTA TRIBUS PATRONO. Nor was this the only public
statue he had in Rome. Another similar one had been
raised by the knights, and dedicated to him as their patronus.
Cicero asked, " Who ever before was adopted by that order
as its patron ? If any one, it ought to have been myself.
But I pass by myself. What censor or general was so
honoured? But the reason is, that he distributed lands
amongst them. It was sordid baseness in them to accept
the gift, and wickedness in him to bestow it."
1 Vos saga parate. The sagttm was a short military cloak.
484 THE EMBASSY TO ANTONY. CHAP. xxm.
The peroration is fine :
' ' The moment has at length arrived, men of Rome, later indeed than became
the dignity of the Roman people, but yet so opportune that it cannot be put off
for a single hour. Hitherto a kind of fatality has pursued us, and we have borne
it as best we could. Henceforth if we suffer it will be our own fault. It is not
right for the Roman people to be slaves, whom the immortal gods destined to
command all nations. Matters have now come to the last extremity. The struggle
is for freedom. You must either be victorious as surely you will be with so much
piety and concord or suffer anything rather than be slaves. Other nations may
endure slavery ; but freedom is the attribute of the Roman people."
The embassy set out on its mission, and did not return
until the end of January. Hirtius the consul also left Rome
to join the army that was to act against Antony under the
walls of Mutina, although he had been for some time in ill
health, and was hardly fit to bear the fatigues of a campaign.
In the meantime Cicero wrote to his absent friends, Corni-
ficius in Africa, and Plancus in Farther Gaul, to encourage
them to oppose the party of Antony, and remain steadfast
to the cause of the commonwealth. He also wrote to Deci-
rnus Brutus, and told him that a levy of troops was going on
at Rome and in the whole of Italy if that could be called
a levy where everybody volunteered so passionate was the
desire of all for liberty, and so great their detestation of their
long servitude.
He had another opportunity of addressing the Senate
before the return of the ambassadors ; for a meeting was
summoned by Pansa to lay before them some matters not
of a political nature, but more like what we' should call, in
the language of Parliament, private business. They related
to the Appian Way and the Roman Mint. But Cicero
seized the occasion to speak on the subject that was upper-
most in his thoughts the probable result of the embassy
to Antony. His speech is that known as the seventh
Philippic.
We can easily imagine that in the interval before the
return of the ambassadors, their mission was the one absorb-
ing topic of conversation in Rome. Speculation was rife as
to the answer they would bring. Would Antony yield, or
set the Senate at defiance? If he proposed terms, ought
they to be considered ? All sorts of rumours were afloat,
and the newsmongers were busy in inventing stories of the
mode in which the message of the Senate had been received.
B.C. 43. THE SEVENTH PHILIPPIC. 485
Some said (we know this from Cicero himself) that Antony
insisted that all armaments should be disbanded ; others,
that he was willing to resign Cisalpine Gaul, but demanded
Farther Gaul as his province ; others, that he limited his
claim to Macedonia ; and so on.
The object of Cicero in rising to speak was to prepare his
countrymen for the rejection of their demands ; and his
motto was, " No peace with Antony !" He declared that
peace with him was at once disgraceful, hazardous, and im-
possible, and the burden of his speech was to prove each of
these three propositions. It will be sufficient to quote one
or two passages to give an idea of his eloquent appeal. The
following is in style thoroughly Ciceronian. After alluding
to the gravity of the crisis, he said :
"I therefore, who have always been the counsellor of peace, and to whom
peace, especially as distinguished from civil war, has been dear beyond all men
(for my whole career has been passed in the Forum and the Senate, and in defend-
ing my friends as an advocate ; by which I have gained the highest honours and
such moderate means as I possess, and whatever reputation I may enjoy) I there-
fore, I say, who am, so to speak, the disciple of peace who, whatever I may be,
for I do not arrogate anything to myself would assuredly not have been so if we
had not enjoyed peace I speak at a venture, Conscript Fathers, and dread how
you may take it out of regard to your honour, for which I feel a constant solici-
tude, pray and beseech you that you will hear without offence what I shall say,
although it may grate upon your ears, or appear incredible that Marc Cicero should
say it, and that you will not reject it before I have explained it to you I, I again
repeat, who have always been the panegyrist and counsellor of peace, am against
peace with Marc Antony."
In striking contrast to this long and laboured accumula-
tion of words is the noble sentence where he exclaims, " We
have repelled the arms of traitors, but we must wrest them
from their hands ; and if we cannot do this I will speak as
becomes a senator and a Roman let us die ! " This is as
fine as anything in Demosthenes perhaps finer if we
except the adjuration in the speech on the Crown.
Again : .
" What peace can there be with Antony ? First of all, what peace between him
and the Senate ? With what face will he be able to look you in the face ? with
what eyes will you be able to regard him ? Which of you will not hate him ?
which of you will not he hate ? But the question is not one between you and
him only. What ! will those who are besieging Mutina, and levying troops in
Gaul, and threatening our existence, ever be friends of us, or we friends of them ?
Will he court the favour of the Roman knights ? Their wishes and their judg-
ment about Antony are no secret. Do you remember how they crowded the
steps of the Temple of Concord ? how they demanded arms, uniforms, and war?
486 THE EMBASSY TO ANTONY. CHAP. xxm.
and how with the people they called upon me to address them at a public meet-
ing ? Will they love Antony ? will Antony keep peace with them 1 What shall
I say of the whole Roman people, who in thronging multitudes in the Forum,
with one heart and voice, twice clamoured for my presence to hear me speak ? "
After having devoted the whole of his oration to a question
which was not properly before the Senate, he dismissed with
laconic brevity the subject which was the real question, by
turning to the presiding consul, and saying, in conclusion,
" As to the matters which you bring before us, I agree in the
opinion of P. Servilius."
The ambassadors had hardly reached the camp of Antony
when they lost one of their number by the sudden death of
Servius Sulpicius. He was about the same age as Cicero,
and was in ill health when he undertook the journey, which
on that account he at first sought to decline, but yielded to
the strongly-expressed wishes of the Senate, He took
Cicero aside, and told him that he would rather sacrifice his
life than resist their authority. He was not only a great
jurist, but one of the most eloquent orators of Rome, and his
death at such a juncture was a public calamity. It was so
felt and deplored by Cicero, who was besides his intimate
friend. When Piso and Philippus had their interview with
Antony, they found that he too had terms to make and con-
ditions to offer. This shows that Cicero was right in con-
demning the embassy as a capital mistake. By sending
ambassadors the Senate seemed to recognise Antony as a
belligerent, entitled to all the laws of war. He was addressed
as such, and not as a rebel in arms against his country. He
therefore treated with them on a footing of equality, and
made counter-proposals as the conditions of his obedience.
He offered to give up Cisalpine Gaul, but demanded for five
years that portion of Transalpine Gaul called Gallia Comata,
with six legions taken from the army of Decimus Brutus.
He required further that lands and money should be given
to his troops his own previous grants confirmed his
decrees founded on the alleged contents of Caesar's papers
ratified no account demanded of the money taken from
the temple of Ops the Septemviri, or commissioners ap-
pointed by him to divide lands amongst the veterans of
Caesar, held harmless his new jury law not repealed and
the safety of his followers secured by an amnesty. This
JET. 64. THE EIGHTH PHILIPPIC. 487
was the language of a man who was confident in his strength,
and resolved to show it. He absolutely refused to allow the
two ambassadors to enter Mutina and have an interview with
Brutus, pressing forward the siege with unabated vigour while
they were in his camp. They had therefore no option but
to return to Rome with the unpalatable answer, and Pansa
immediately summoned the Senate to receive and consider
their report.
Cicero was in the highest degree indignant. He could
not brook the idea of having to entertain proposals from
Antony, and was very angry with Piso and Philippus for
consenting to bring them. His view was, that they ought
at once to have denounced the arrogant ex-consul when he
refused to obey the peremptory orders of the Senate, and that
to negotiate with such a man was tantamount to dishonour.
When the Senate met there was no thought of admitting
the demands of Antony, and the only question proposed by
the consul was whether war (bellum) should be at once pro-
claimed. Lucius Cfesar, who was an uncle of Antony, spoke
in favour of calling it tumultus rather than bellum, as the
milder term, but in doing so he excused himself on the
ground of his near relationship to the ex-consul. He had made
a similar excuse, as Cicero afterwards reminded the Senate,
when he spoke, at the time of the Catiline conspiracy, in
favour of Caius Antonius, who was married to his sister Julia,
and was the father of Antony. Fufius Calenus and others
followed on the same side, and a resolution was carried to
that effect in accordance with the declared wishes of Pansa
when he put the question to the vote. This was in direct
opposition to the views of Cicero, although it does not appear
that he took any part in that day's debate. But next day
he rose and delivered a speech, in which, although it was
then too late, he strongly expressed a contrary opinion.
This was the eighth Philippic.
He argued that it was absurd not to call things by their
right names. They were now actually at war. In other
struggles, like those in which the actors were Marius, and
Sylla, and Cinna, the contending parties might have the ex-
cuse that they were fighting on the side of the law, but here
Antony could make no such pretence. " As to the last civil
488 THE EMBASSY TO ANTONY. CHAP. xxm.
war," he said, " I do not like to speak of it I know not its
cause I abominate the result."
He showed that Antony had marked out the city for
plunder, and promised their houses, lands, and possessions to
his robber hordes. He had appropriated to himself the lion's
share of the spoil their best houses, their gardens, their
Tusculan and Albanian villas. Rough soldiers, or rather
beasts, as Cicero called them, were promised the luxurious
attractions of Puteoli, and the other fashionable watering-
places frequented by the Roman aristocracy. And what
had they to offer on the other side to the soldiers who were
fighting for the cause of the republic ? Better far better
things liberty, the security of the laws, the empire of the
world, repose and peace. The promises of Antony were
cruel and criminal, hateful to gods and men ; theirs, on the
contrary, were honourable and glorious, consistent with piety
and full of joy.
Cicero asserted, in almost the same language he used in
his previous speech, that he of all men ought to be a lover
of peace, inasmuch as he owed everything to it. We are
surprised to find him calmly expostulating with Fufius
Calenus, and calling him his friend, while he answered in
detail the points that he had urged in favour of Antony.
We know that Calenus hated Cicero, and certainly there was
no love lost between them. But we are not to look for his
real opinions of his contemporaries in his public speeches ;
and beyond all doubt, if he had been writing to Atticus, he
would have repudiated the idea of friendship with such a
man. Now, however, he professed not to be able to differ
from him without pain.
He complained bitterly of the conduct of the other
members of the consular body, who by their cautious
speeches did everything to depress the spirit of the Senate.
" We are deserted, Conscript Fathers," he exclaimed,
" deserted, I say, by our leaders. But, as I have often said
before, all who at such a time of peril entertain right and
courageous sentiments, they shall be our consulars." He
contrasted the conduct of Piso and Philippus, in bringing
back counter-demands from Antony, with the conduct of
Popillius in the time of their ancestors, and mentioned how
B.C. 43- HONOURS DECREED TO SULPICIUS. 489
he had been sent by the Senate to Antiochus to command
him to desist from the siege of Alexandria ; and how, when
Antiochus took refuge in delay, he traced a line round him
with a stick on the ground where he stood, and told him
that he would report his refusal to the Senate, unless he
declared his intentions before he stepped out of the circle
Popillius had drawn. He concluded by moving that an
amnesty should be granted to all who were with Antony, if
before the Ides of March they abandoned him ; and that
if any one hereafter went to him, excepting only Varius
Cotyla, the envoy whom he himself had despatched to Rome,
he should be regarded by the Senate as an enemy of his
country.
A day or two afterwards Pansa brought before the Senate
the question of paying honours to the memory of Sulpicius,
who had died in the public service on his way as ambassador
to Antony. The consul suggested that they should decree
a public funeral and a public statue. But Publius Servilius,
when called upon to deliver his opinion, objected to the
statue, on the ground that there was no precedent for
erecting one in honour of an envoy who had not been
actually killed while employed on his embassy. Cicero fol-
lowed, and, in opposing the view of Servilius, took the op-
portunity of delivering a warm eulogium upon his departed
friend. As to the question of whether a statue should be
voted or not, he said they must not be guided by mere pre-
cedent, but look at the reason of the thing. The object of
their ancestors was to induce men to undertake dangerous
embassies by holding out to them the prospect of such an
honour. Thus, when Lar Tolumnius, king of Veii, put to
death four Roman ambassadors at Fidenae, four statues of
them were raised on the rostra, and stood there within
their own memory. But their case did not really differ
from the case of Sulpicius. Their embassy was not more
fatal to them than his embassy had been to him. The ill-
ness from which he died was not one that first attacked him
on the journey, but one under which he was suffering before
he left. But if he had stayed at home, as he wished, it
might have been cured, while the hurry and fatigue of travel
rendered recovery hopeless. The embassy was the cause of
490 THE EMBASSY TO ANTONl CHAP. xxm.
his death, and Antony was the cause of the embassy. It
followed, therefore, that Antony caused his death as much as
the king of Veii caused the deaths of the four ambassadors
of Rome. Or, to put the case in another point of view ;
they themselves the Senate he was addressing had de-
prived Sulpicius of life ; for they would not admit his illness
as an excuse, but insisted on his undertaking the embassy,
of which he had a presentiment that it would kill him.
" Restore then to him," he exclaimed, " the life you have
taken from him for the life of the dead consists in the
memory of the living. Provide that he whom you uncon
sciously sent to his death may obtain from you immortality."
He proposed that the statue should not be a gilt equestrian
one, but of bronze, and representing Sulpicius on foot. This,
he said, was more consonant to the modest character of the
man, who hated ostentation, and blamed the arrogance of
the age. He concluded, therefore, by moving that a bronze
statue, a public funeral, and a tomb at the public cost,
should be decreed in honour of the deceased. 1 This was
carried in the affirmative ; and Pomponius, who flourished in
the reign of Aurelian, mentions the statue as existing near
the rostra in his time.
It is impossible not to wish that Atticus had been absent
from Rome at this critical period, for then we should no
doubt have had several letters which Cicero would have
written to him, and we should have been admitted, as it
were, behind the scenes. We find him writing to Trebonius
in February in a half-angry tone, because, by taking Antony
aside, at the time of Caesar's assassination, he had been the
means of saving his life. To Cassius he also wrote in
encouraging language, to confirm his resolution to hold his
province of Syria against all attacks. He explained the posi-
tion of the contending armies at that moment, while winter
prevented active operations in the field. Decimus Brutus
was besieged in Mutina, but only by a small force, as Antony
held Bononia (now Bologna), with a strong garrison. Hir-
tius was at Claternae, Octavian at Forum Cornelium (the
1 For the formal terms of the resolu- clear, as standing-room for the children
tion see Phil. ix. 7. One part of it was and descendants of Sulpicius, from
that a space of five Roman feet round which they might be spectators of gladia-
the statue on all sides should be kept torial combats and other shows.
JET. 64. CICERO IN PRIVATE LIFE. 491
modern Imola), and Pansa was marshalling at Rome the
battalions that marched there from all parts of Italy. With
the exception of Bononia, Regium Lepidi (the modern
Reggio), and Parma, the whole of Cisalpine Gaul was with
the Senate, and enthusiastic on their side. The people of
Rome, and indeed of all Italy, were heart and soul with
them, and Cassius must take care that a like spirit was exhi-
bited on the eastern frontier of the empire,
Such was the cheering prospect that Cicero held out to
the proconsul of Syria, and the news that soon reached him
from that quarter was of a favourable kind. Dolabella was
on his way to Syria, to wrest from him that province, which
they both claimed under the authority of the Senate.
Legion after legion had gone over to Cassius's standard,
and he was now at Tarichea, in Palestine, at the head of a
formidable army.
It is pleasant to turn from the din of arms and strife of
politics, and to catch once more a glimpse of Cicero in pri-
vate life ; to regard him, perhaps for the last time, not as
an orator and a politician, but as an agreeable companion
and a facetious friend. We have, alas ! no more letters
to Atticus, but one has been preserved which he wrote at
the end of February to Paetus, in which he good-humouredly
jokes him for having given up dining out. He thought
that public troubles were no reason why there should not
be " cakes and ale." He advised Paetus therefore to take
again to his good old habit, for if not, he would forget how
to give a petit diner? at which he was never much of a profi-
cient. There was, he said, nothing like agreeable company
and social intercourse to make life pass pleasantly, and a
banquet was the place to find them. Therefore, as a philo-
sopher, he advised Paetus to attend to his hint, and dine out.
But, resuming a serious tone, he begged him not to think,
because he wrote jestingly, that he had dismissed political
anxieties from his mind. His whole energies were devoted,
night and day, to the consideration how the safety and
freedom of his countrymen might be secured, and he was
ready to sacrifice his life in their cause.
Spain was divided into two provinces, and just before his
1 Coenulas facere.
492 THE EMBASSY TO ANTONY. CHAP. xxm.
death Caesar had given the command of one of them, which
included also the south-eastern extremity of Gaul, to Lepi-
dus, and the other to Asinius Pollio. Lepidus had already
declared for Antony, but no intelligence had yet arrived of
the course that Pollio would take. At last a letter from
him reached Cicero, which was written at Corduba (Cordova]
on the 1 6th of March. He explained the cause of his
silence, of which it seems that Cicero had complained, by
the extreme difficulty, or rather impossibility, he had expe-
rienced of transmitting despatches from his distant province.
His couriers were robbed by brigands in the gloomy forests
of Castulo, through which they were obliged to pass, and
were stopped and searched by the soldiers of Lepidus, who
were posted for that purpose. He had therefore been unable
to send a letter by land ; and as no one in those days
dreamed of sailing in the Mediterranean in the winter, all
communication of Pollio with Rome was cut off until its
close. Now, however, the sea was open, and the letter that
Cicero received came by that route. More than usual in-
terest attaches to Pollio's name, for he was the friend and
patron of Virgil and Horace, and lived long into the reign
of Augustus. He saved the land of Virgil at Mantua from
confiscation, and in gratitude for this the poet dedicated to
him his eighth eclogue. He was a critic and historian, and
also a distinguished orator and advocate, as we know from
the lines of Horace
Insigne msestis presidium reis
Et consulenti, Pollio, curioe ;
and is spoken of by Virgil as a poet
Pollio et ipse faeit nova carmina.
He wrote to explain his position, and state what his inten-
tions were at the present crisis. He made no scruple in
avowing that he hated Antony, and would rather do any-
thing than engage in a common cause with him. That he
had taken no active step hitherto was not his fault. He
had been cut off from all communication with Rome, and
between him and Italy lay the legions of Lepidus, in whose
hands were the passes of the Alps. Cicero might depend
on his readiness to face any danger for the cause of liberty.
B.C. 43. CONFUSION OF THE ROMAN WORLD. 493
One sentence in the letter should not be omitted, for it
shows what congenial spirits the two men were. They had
a common friend in Cornelius Gallus, and Pollio said, in
alluding to him, " I envy him when I think of his walks
and jokes with you. How much I value them you will find
out if we are ever permitted to enjoy tranquillity, for I shall
attach myself closely to your side."
Such was the letter which Cicero received, and which
must have assured him of the loyalty of his accomplished
friend. And perhaps he was at the time sincere. But
Pollio, like Plancus, Lepidus, and so many others at that
trying period, was a time-server, and as we shall see, when
the moment came for putting his professions to the test, he
deserted the Senate and went over to Antony.
Good news came also from Macedonia and Greece. There
the former proconsul, Q. Hortensius, had acknowledged the
authority of M. Brutus as his successor ; Antony's brother
Caius was shut up in Apollonia, and the place was closely
invested. Legion after legion declared against him, and
one of them went over to Cicero's son, young Marcus, who
was serving with Brutus. The position of parties in the
three important provinces of Cisalpine Gaul, Syria, and
Macedonia (including Greece), was in fact nearly the same.
In each there were rival claimants, each asserting that he
was by law entitled to the command. What a picture of
confusion was the then state of the Roman world ! The
Senate and the consuls were in arms against an ex-consul,
who was himself besieging the governor of a Roman pro-
vince, in one of its chief towns. In Macedonia and the
East viceroy was fighting against viceroy, and in Spain the
army of Lepidus was watching the army of Pollio so closely
that not even a courier could pass to Rome without being
stopped and robbed of his despatches. The veterans of
Caesar were arrayed against each other in opposite camps.
Caesar's adopted son was bent on the destruction of Caesar's
colleague in the consulship of the man who had heaped
honours on the memory of Caesar, and was, more than any
other, feared by the conspirators, lest he should be the
avenger of his death. Octavian was fighting on the same
side as Brutus and Cassius : he who had reproached Antony
494 THE EMBASSY TO ANTONY. CHAP. xxm.
for remissness in allowing the assassins to escape, was now
making common cause with these assassins, and endeavour-
ing to rescue one of them from his grasp. In Rome itself
Antony was not without friends party they could be hardly
called, for his chief supporters had followed him to the
camp. In direct opposition to them were the Ciceronians ;
for so, as Appian tells us, the party that followed Cicero as
their leader was called. Their creed was that Antony was
a far worse despot than Caesar, and that the liberties of
Rome must perish unless he were destroyed.
When the despatch addressed by M. Brutus to the consuls,
to inform them of what was going on across the Adriatic,
reached Rome, Pansa immediately summoned a meeting of
the Senate, and laid the contents before them. The question,
in effect, which he proposed was whether Brutus should be
formally invested with the command of the provinces which
he held by right of the sword ; and he addressed the Senate
in a speech in which he praised his actions in very compli-
mentary terms. But, as usual, he called on Fufius Calenus
to rise first and deliver his opinion. He spoke in the
negative, and advised that Brutus should be deprived of
military command. He was followed by Cicero, in a speech
which is known as the tenth Philippic. It must have touched
Calenus to the quick, and it may be described in the language
applied by David to his enemy : " The words of his mouth
were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart : his
words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords."
He began by expressing his apprehension lest their constant
disagreement in opinion might lessen their friendship, for he
still assumed this to exist, however little we may believe in
its sincerity. He twitted Fufius with having the misfortune
to be almost always in a minority of one, and professed
himself utterly at a loss to understand how so excellent a
man could attack Brutus and stand up as the champion of
Antony. How came he to hate those whom everybody
loved, and to love those whom everybody hated ? Calenus
had done a thing very unusual in the Roman Senate : he
had read either the whole or a part of his speech. All the
praise he had bestowed on Brutus was to say that his letter
to the consuls was well written, and he proposed that the
JET. 64. THE TENTH PHILIPPIC. 495
fact should be so recorded. Cicero ridiculed this idea, which
he said had not even the excuse of being a hasty and ex-
tempore suggestion. He asked who had ever seen a resolu-
tion of the Senate approving of the style of a letter ? Then
turning from Calenus, he pronounced a flowing panegyric
upon Marcus Brutus, giving him credit for rather more than
he deserved ; and he appealed to the republic herself to say
whether she would hand over her legions to Brutus or to
Antony. He knew it might be urged that his appointment
would be distasteful to the veterans of Csesar, but there was
no force in the objection. In a strain of lofty eloquence he
protested against the notion that they were to be terrified
by the bugbear of the displeasure of the veterans. He little
foresaw that the time would come when Praetorian guards
would put up to auction the imperial throne.
"What," he exclaimed, "is meant by always bringing up the name of the
veterans ? I am ready to praise their valour and good couduct, but if they gave
themselves airs I could not endure their arrogance. When we are endeavouring
to break the chains of slavery shall we be stopped because we are told that the
veterans are against us ? I suppose, forsooth, that there are not innumerable
thousands who would take arms to defend the common liberty, and that there is
no one but the veteran soldiers whom a noble indignation impels to cast off the
yoke of slavery ? But be it so let me say what is true, and at the same time
befitting me to speak. If the members of this august body are to be at the beck
of the veteran soldiers, and all our words and actions are to be regulated by what
pleases them, let us rather choose death, which Roman citizens have always pre-
ferred to slavery. . . . Let me concede the point that the issue of war is un-
certain and fortune fickle still we must fight for liberty even at the hazard of our
lives. For life is not mere breath it has no existence in the slave. All other
nations may endure the yoke of servitude, but ours cannot. And this for no
other reason than that they shun toil and hardship, to escape which they are ready
bear everything ; while we have learnt the lesson from our ancestors to make
virtue and self-respect the standard of our actions and our thoughts. So glorious
is the recovery of freedom that even death is not to be dreaded in the attempt.
But even if by declining the danger we could purchase immortality, that would
be a boon to be rejected in proportion as the duration of our servitude would be
longer. Since, however, we are exposed day and night to accidents of all kinds,
it is not becoming to a man, and least of all to a Roman, to hesitate to give to
his country the life which he owes to nature."
He concluded by moving a resolution that the whole
military force had been preserved to the Senate, and Quintus
Csepio Brutus, 1 the proconsul, had done good service to the
state, and acted in a manner befitting the glory of his
ancestors, and had earned the gratitude of the Senate and
the Roman people ; that he should keep and defend those
1 It will be remembered that Brutus had assumed this name on adoption.
496 THE EMBASSY TO ANTONY. CHAP. xxm.
provinces, and command the army he had raised, and be
furnished with money and supplies at the public cost. The
motion was carried as Cicero proposed. 1
Tidings about this time reached Rome that Dolabella
had committed a frightful crime. On his way to Syria to
contest the government with Cassius, he entered Smyrna with
his troops, where Trebonius, the proconsul of Asia Minor,
happened to be staying. He paid him a visit and pretended
to be on the most friendly terms with him, when he suddenly
ordered his soldiers to seize and scourge him in his presence,
while he demanded from him the surrender of the public
treasure of the province. For two days he subjected the
unhappy man to the most cruel tortures, and then had his
head cut off and stuck upon the point of a spear, ordering
the body to be dragged along the ground and thrown into
the sea. This inhurpan murder excited feelings of horror
and indignation at Rome ; all parties joined in execrating it.
A meeting of the Senate was called, and Fufius Calenus
proposed that Dolabella should be declared a public enemy,
and his property confiscated. Cicero followed, and, thanking
Calenus for his proposal, energetically supported it. He
seized the opportunity of drawing the character of his worth-
less son-in-law in the darkest colours.
Before he sat down he again alluded to the objection that
Caesar's veterans might be offended by the appointment of
Cassius, and again boldly declared that even if it were so,
they ought not to be deterred :
" How long," he asked, " are we to deliver our opinions to please the veterans?
Is their arrogance come to such a pitch that we are to choose our generals at their
dictation ? My own view is for I am determined to say what I think that we
1 A voluminous correspondence be- I should like to see them proved to be
tween Cicero and Marcus Brutus is spurious, as I am morally convinced
found in Ernesti's and other editions of that they are." Middleton quotes them
Cicero's works, collected at the end of constantly, and had no suspicion of '
his letters Ad Diversos or Familiares. their doubtfulness until they were at-
The general opinion of the best scholars tacked by Tunstall in his famous Epis-
now is that the letters are not genuine, tola ad Conyers Middleton (Cantab.
Niebuhr says (Hist, of Rome, v. 105), 1741). He then defended them, and
' ' The question about their genuineness the controversy was carried on between
was raised about a hundred years ago the two scholars, not without some
by English critics, and I know that F. bitterness on both sides. A recent
A. Wolf was decidedly of opinion that German writer named Guettingue main-
they are a fabrication ; but I cannot ex- tains the genuineness of the letters,
press myself with the same certainty.
B.C. 43. ENERGY OF CICERO. 497
ought not to regard the opinions of the veterans so much as the opinions of the
young soldiers the flower of Italy the new legions who are eager to give their
country freedom and of the whole of Italy. For nothing flourishes for ever
age succeeds to age the legions of Caesar have had a long spell of glory now
our Pansas and Hirtiuses and sons of Caesar and Plancuses have their turn they
are more numerous they are younger men their authority has greater weight.
For they ai-e carrying on a contest which the whole world applauds. To them
rewards have been promised, to the others rewards have been already paid."
From the Senate Cicero went to the Forum, and there
addressed the people, telling them what he had said. He
was loudly cheered, and in one of his letters he declares that
he never knew them so enthusiastic. Although it is slightly
anticipating, I may state that Dolabella soon ceased to give
any trouble in the war, for having thrown himself into Lao-
dicea, where he was closely besieged by Cassius, in order to
escape capture he put an end to his life by suicide.
It is impossible not to admire the energy of Cicero at this
period. In Rome he was the life and soul of the opposition
to Antony, and he was grander in the last year of his life,
when he was animating the Senate and the people to dare
everything for the sake of their country, than during his con-
sulship. Nobler accents of eloquence were never heard than
those which from time to time burst from his lips, as he
thundered against the traitors who were in arms at Mutina ;
and it is difficult to recognise in the intrepid orator the timid
and vacillating correspondent of Atticus. I believe that the
real reason of the difference was his unhesitating conviction
now that he was right. In the civil war between Caesar and
Pompey he was always haunted with the idea that he might
be deciding wrong. He could never act boldly unless his
conscience was at ease. But he had neither doubts nor mis-
givings now. He loved his country with a passionate affec-
tion, and he saw in Antony her worst enemy. If he was
victorious the liberties of Rome were gone. He would be
an infinitely worse ruler than Caesar, and yet Cicero regarded
Caesar's rule as nothing better than an execrable tyranny.
His own safety also was deeply compromised in the struggle,
and nothing but victory could preserve him from destruction.
Antony had already, as he tells us in one of the Philippics,
given away beforehand his property to one of his creatures,
and death was the least that he could expect at the hands of
the conqueror. He might be said to fight with a halter
2 K
49 8 THE EMBASSY TO ANTONY. CHAP. xxm.
round, his neck against the enemy of his country and his
own.
It was proposed to send a second embassy to Antony,
and Pansa brought the question before the Senate. Calenus
and Piso, the two who were first asked their opinions, were
in favour of it, and they named as the most proper persons
to undertake it P. Servilius, and, of all in the world, Cicero !
It is easy to imagine his feelings of disgust at such a sug-
gestion. It was bad enough to talk of another embassy at
all, but to send him on such an errand was intolerable. He
rose and protested against the motion altogether, in a speech
which forms the twelfth Philippic. I need not dwell upon the
arguments with which he combated the proposal of a second
embassy, but that part of his speech in which he deprecated
the idea that he should be one of the ambassadors is curious,
as illustrating the difference between ancient and modern
manners. With us a man who should be selected for a
public service of danger would hardly like to confess that
the danger alarmed him, or to urge that his life was of too
much value to the state to be sacrificed. And yet Cicero
did this without scruple.
After entreating the Senate to spare him the pain of an
interview with a man who was his bitterest enemy, and with
his profligate associates, he asked them whether they did not
think that some regard should be shown for his life :
" I care little for it," he said, "myself, especially since Dolabella has acted in
a way to make me desire death, so that it be without tortures and torments. But
to you and the Roman people my life ought not to be of no account. For I am
one who, unless I deceive myself, by my vigilance and care, and the dangers I
have braved from the bitter hatred of wicked men, have at least not injured the
republic that I may not seem to arrogate anything to myself and, since this is
so, think ye that I ought to pay no regard to my own danger ?"
He then showed what the danger really was. There
were three roads to Mutina : one along the eastern or upper
coast, called the Flaminian ; another along the western or
lower, called the Aurelian ; and a middle road, called the
Cassian. On each of these Cicero would have had to en-
counter a special peril. If he took the Flaminian road, the
chances were, that he would find Ventidius, one of Antony's
officers, ready to intercept him at Ancona. On the Aurelian
ay the possessions of the Clodian family ; and, as he with
/ET. 64.
THE TWELFTH PHILIPPIC.
499
sarcastic irony remarked, they would all no doubt come out
to welcome him with their hospitality on account of the
notorious friendship they felt towards him ! In the neigh-
bourhood of the Cassian road, which ran through Etruria,
was another of his personal enemies, Lento Caesenius, one of
the commissioners appointed by Antony to distribute public
lands amongst Caesar's soldiers. He asked whether he could
safely trust himself on any of these roads, seeing that lately,
during the holidays of the Terminalia festival, he had not
dared to go into the suburbs even with the intention of re-
turning the same day. Even within the walls of the city
and in his own house he was hardly safe.
If they would permit it, he said, he wished to remain in
Rome.
"This is my station this my watch-tower this, my fortress and my camp.
.... No one is less timid than I am, but at the same time no one is more upon
his guard. Facts speak for themselves. It is now twenty years since the scelerats
of our country have all been directing their attacks against me. They have paid
to the republic (not to say to myself) the penalty of their crimes the republic has
hitherto preserved me for herself."
His arguments had the desired effect, and the idea of a
second embassy was finally abandoned.
RUINS ON THE ESQUILINE.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE SIEGE AND BATTLES OF MUTINA, AND TREACHERY OF
OCTAVIAN.
JEt. 64. B.C. 43.
THE middle of March had arrived, and Pansa left Rome
with the levies he had raised, to join his colleague and the
army in the neighbourhood of Mutina. As spring advanced
Antony had led his legions that wintered in Bononia along
the ^Emilian Road, which skirted the northern base of the
Apennines, and, having effected a junction with the blockad-
ing force, was vigorously pressing forward the siege. It is
one of the most famous in history, and all the resources that
were at that time known to the art of war were exhausted
both in the attack and the defence.
The attitude of Lepidus and Plancus in the west gave
Cicero some uneasiness. They both wrote letters to the
Senate advocating peace. Plancus sought to excuse himself
for his apparent hesitation hitherto in declaring himself on
B.C. 43. ENERGY OF CICERO. 501
the side of the Senate. He said he had to secure the fidelity
of his army, and also of the towns of his province, both of
which had been tempted by large promises from Antony.
Now, however, he was able to speak out He was at the
head of five legions, on all of whom he could thoroughly
rely, and they were animated by the best feelings towards
the cause of the republic. He was willing to bear the whole
brunt of the war himself, if he could only, at his own peril,
secure the safety of his country, or, at least, delay the ap-
proach of danger. Fairer professions than these no man
could make, and he wrote to Cicero privately in the same
strain. He got the letter early in the morning of the 7th
of April, as he was about to leave his house, attended, as
usual, by a crowd of admiring friends. He read it with
delight, and immediately made known the contents to those
around him ; and as the public letter of Plancus was almost
immediately after put into his hands, he went off at once to
show it to Cornutus, the city praetor, upon whom, in the
absence of the consuls, their functions by law devolved. He
immediately convoked the Senate in the Temple of Jupiter,
and, as the news got abroad that an important despatch had
arrived, there was a crowded meeting. But, owing to some
informality in the religious ceremony with which the pro-
ceedings of the Senate always opened, the house was ad-
journed until the following day. When they met, Servilius
was first called on to speak, and it appears that he was not
very complimentary to Plancus. Cicero followed, and pro-
posed a vote of thanks to him in highly eulogistic terms.
This would have been carried at once, but Servilius induced
one of the tribunes to interpose his veto. The consequence
was, that the debate was again adjourned ; and next day
Cicero made a still more energetic appeal in favour of
Plancus, and finally carried his point.
A letter was addressed by Antony at this juncture to
Hirtius and Octavian, which Hirtius immediately trans-
mitted to Cicero, with permission to read it to the Senate, or,
if he thought fit, to the people at a public meeting. We
know its contents from the long and sarcastic comment which
he made upon them. They consisted of a catalogue of all the
grievances of which Antony complained. In it he said :
502 ANTONY'S LETTER. CHAP. xxiv.
" Fortune has hitherto avoided the spectacle of two armies that belong to the
same body politic fighting together, with Cicero, like a master of gladiators, pitting
the two against each other. He is so far lucky that he has deceived you with the
same glozing tongue with which he boasted that he deceived Caesar. I am re-
solved not to bear any insult to myself or my friends, nor to desert the party which
Pompey hated, nor to allow the veterans to be expelled from their settlements,
and put one by one to the torture, nor to break faith with Dolabella, nor violate
my league with Lepidus, a man most scrupulous in the discharge of duty, 1 nor
betray Plancus, the partner of my counsels. . . . Finally, my views may be
summed up thus : I can bear the injuries done by my friends, if either they them-
selves are willing to forget them, or are ready to avenge with me the death of
Caesar. I do not believe that any ambassadors are coming, but when they do
come I shall know the demands they bring."
With this insolent letter in his hand Cicero entered the
Senate-house, for another meeting had been summoned to
take into consideration the public letter of Lepidus. Servilius
proposed that Lepidus should be thanked for his love of
peace, and the interest he took in the welfare of his country,
but, at the same time, be informed that he had better leave
the matter to the Senate, whose opinion was, that there could
be no peace with Antony unless he laid down his arms.
Cicero rose afterwards, and delivered the oration known as
the Thirteenth Philippic. It is, perhaps, with the exception
of that against Piso, the most savage of all his speeches; and
he poured out the full fury of his hatred against Antony in a
torrent of invective which is almost without a parallel.
After insisting that peace with .such men as Antony and
his associates was impossible, he praised Lepidus in his usual
style of lofty compliment, and said that so good a man and
citizen might possibly be mistaken in opinion, but could not
be suspected of any view hostile to the commonwealth. He
declared :
"The struggle is to save Decimus Brutus from .destruction. One infuriated
gladiator, with a band of execrable brigands, is carrying on war against his coun-
try, his household gods, our hearths and altars, and against four consuls. Can
we yield to him ? Can we listen to his terms ? Can we believe peace possible
with html"
He afterwards took Antony's letter, and, reading it sentence
by sentence, kept up a running fire of bitter and sarcastic
remarks. Some of them are worth quoting; although the
constant repetition of violent abuse is tedious. When he
1 Piissimi. Cicero ridiculed Antony present day knows : " Quod verbum
for coining this superlative, which was omnino nullum in lingua Latina est."-
not Latin, as every schoolboy at the Phil. xiii. 19.
JET. 64. THE THIRTEENTH PHILIPPIC. 503
read the passage in which Antony expressed his joy that
Trebonius had fallen a victim as an offering to the manes of
Caesar, he cried out :
"O Spartacus, for what else can I call you? owing to whose nefarious crimes
Catiline appears tolerable ; have you dared to write that we ought to exult that
Trebonius was punished ? Trebonius criminal ! Of what crime was he guilty
except that he saved you by drawing you aside from the death that was your
due ?"
Then, referring to what Antony had said about his surprise
at the conduct of Hirtius, who had been elevated to his high
position by the kindness of Caesar, he went on :
" For my own part I cannot deny that Hirtius had honours conferred on him
by Caesar; but these honours, accompanied as they are by virtue and industry,
are his ornament. You, however, who also cannot deny that you had honours
heaped upon you by Caesar what would you have been if he had not bestowed
so much upon you ? Would your virtue or your birth have given you advance-
ment ? You would have wasted ypur whole life, as in fact you did, in the stews,
at the gaming-table, and in drunkenness, when you gave yourself up, soul and
body, to the embraces of ballet-girls. " 1
Antony had called the Senate " Pompey's camp," and Cicero
seized the opportunity of contrasting the rebel senators in
the camp at Mutina with the senators of Rome. There was
to be found the ruined bankrupt Trebellius, who had cheated
his creditors ; there Bestia, and Annius, and Gallius, and
Ccelius, and Cotyla men whom Antony, by way of amuse-
ment, got whipped by public slaves at one of his feasts.
There were Lento and Nucula, and that pet favourite of the
people, Lucius Antony ; two tribunes-elect, one of them
Tullus Hostilius, who abandoned his commander when he
could not betray him, and the other, Viseius, a stout robber,
and once a common bath-man. There was Tillus Plancus,
who, if he had loved the Senate, would not have set the
senate-house on fire, and who had falsified the prophecy
that he could not perish unless his leg was broken. His leg
was broken, but he still lived. There was Decius, and Saxa
a barbarian who was made a tribune before he was known
as a citizen and Exitius, and the self-constituted senator
Asinius. He saw the senate-house open after Caesar's death,
and, slipping off his sandals and putting on buskins, was
1 Cicero here makes a shockingly bad "Cum in gremio mimarum mentum
pun, which is quite untranslatable : mentemque deponeres."
504 LETTERS TO LEPIDUS & CASSIUS. CHAP. xxiv.
suddenly metamorphosed into a Conscript Father I 1 Albedius
he did not know ; but no one was so calumnious as to deny
that he was a worthy member of Antony's Senate.
" Such then," he exclaimed, " was the Senate on which Antony plumes himself
when he talks in scorn of a Pompeian Senate, in which ten of us have been con-
suls ; and if all now lived this war would not have happened, for audacity would
have yielded to authority. But what power the rest would have exerted may be
inferred from the fact that I, left alone out of many, have singly, with your sup-
port, confounded and crushed the boldness of the exulting brigand."
He then mournfully went over the names of the consular
senators they had lost Sulpicius, and Marcellus, and
Afranius, and Lentulus, and Bibulus, and Domitius, and
Appius Claudius, and Publius Scipio and gave appropriate
praise to the memory of each. Alluding to the epithet of
lanista> which Antony had applied to himself, he said, " I will
brand him with eternal infamy, and my invective shall be
the truth. I a master of gladiators ! Yes, and no novice
in my trade. For I wish the throats of the worst amongst
them to be cut, and the better men to win the day." In
concluding his speech Cicero briefly said that he agreed in
the opinion of Servilius, who had preceded him, and added,
as his own motion, that the thanks of the Senate should be
given to Sextus, or, as he called him, " Magnus Pompeius,
the son of Cnaeus," for promising the assistance of himself
and his followers to the Senate and Roman people.
After he left the Senate-house, at the conclusion of the
debate, Cicero wrote a short and dry letter to Lepidus, the
tone of which showed that he was by no means pleased with
the officious step he had taken in recommending peace. We
know, from the letter of Asinius Pollio before quoted, that
Lepidus had openly declared his adhesion to Antony ; and
this must have been perfectly well known to Cicero, although
he thought it politic, both in his speech and his letter, to
assume that he was still loyal to the republic. But he said
enough to show that he was on his guard, and, with the
Senate and people on his side, was not to be frightened by
the defection of the governor of a province.
1 " Mutavit calceos : pater conscriptus fastened in front with four black strings,
repente factus est." The senators at They were also ornamented with a
Rome wore a distinctive kind of shoes, small crescent.
which were high like buskins, and " Appositam nigrae lunam subtexit alutce."
Juv. vii. 192.
B.C. 43. STRATAGEM OF HIRTIUS. 505
He wrote about this time that is in April to his friend
Cornificius in Africa, in a cheerful tone, and described him-
self as full of hope constantly busied in public affairs, and
the open and determined foe of all the enemies of his country.
He said he thought that success now was not difficult to
attain, and would have been extremely easy if all had done
their duty. To Cassius he wrote that matters had come to
a crisis, and that Decimus Brutus was hardly able to hold
out at Mutina. "If he is saved," he said, " we are victo-
rious ; but if not (may Heaven .avert the -omen !), we shall
all look to you and Marcus Brutus for safety."
It must have been an anxious time at Rome in that
month of April, B.C. 43, when, day after day, men were ex-
pecting to hear of a battle which would decide the fate of
the republic. Protected by a fortified camp before the walls
of Mutina, Antony pressed forward the siege ; but glorious
news arrived in the capital in the middle of the month. A
great battle had been fought, and Antony was defeated.
After he had evacuated Bononia to join the besieging force
before Mutina, the place was occupied without resistance by
the united columns of Hirtius and Octavian. Soon after-
wards they advanced^along the ^Emilian road towards Mutina,
but were checked by the river, which Antony had strongly
guarded. It was of the last importance that they should
communicate their approach to Brutus, and encourage him to
hold out to extremity, for he was hard pressed, and the
garrison was suffering from the want of provisions. Hirtius
therefore employed divers, who were to carry despatches
written on pieces of lead, and swim across the river under
water. He hoped that when they gained the opposite bank
they would be able to get into Mutina unobserved. But
the stratagem was discovered by Antony, and he adopted
an ingenious expedient to baffle it. He caused nets to be
sunk in the river in different places, and in these the luckless
divers were caught, and hauled on shore. We can imagine
the rough merriment in the camp when an unfortunate
swimmer was brought to the surface, struggling like a huge
porpoise in the net. When this plan failed, Hirtius made
use of pigeons as his messengers ; and, as there were no
muskets in those days to arrest their flight, they were able
506 BATTLE OF MUTINA. CHAP. xxiv.
to wing their way safe to the town, and carry the letters that
were attached to their wings. At last Antony heard that
Pansa was near at hand, at the head of the strong reinforce-
ments he had brought from Rome, and he felt how important it
was to strike a decisive blow before the relieving army was
joined by these additional troops. Leaving, therefore, his
brother Lucius in command of the camp, with sufficient
numbers to keep Brutus in check, he advanced with the rest
of his forces to attack Hirtius and Octavian. I do not know
the exact spot they occupied, but it seems to have been at
some little distance off the ^Emilian road, between Mutina
and a place called Forum Gallorum, a few miles from
Bononia. For several days the hostile armies confronted
each other, but no collision took place, except in partial
skirmishes between the cavalry, as foraging parties on both
sides were sent out and came into collision. But Antony
made a strong reconnaisance, and drove Hirtius and Octa-
vian back into their camp. The rest will be found in a
letter of Galba, one of Hirtius's officers, who commanded
the Martial legion, and who sent Cicero an account of
the battle. 1 It is a model of soldierly simplicity, and, in the
abrupt style in which it begins, reminds us of the famous
despatch of the Duke of Wellington written on the day after
the battle of Waterloo, which commences with the words,
" Buonaparte .... advanced on the 1 5 th, and attacked the
Prussian posts .... at daylight in the morning."
Galba himself had a narrow escape. When he gave the
signal of retreat to the twelve cohorts of the Martial legion
of the right wing, he found himself enveloped in a cloud of
the enemy's cavalry, and had to cut his way out to join the
main body of the army. He put his horse to the gallop,
hotly followed by Antony's squadrons. One of Pansa's new
legions was then fast coming up, and as Galba approached
them he threw his shield over his left shoulder lest he should
be mistaken for one of the enemy. But the soldiers seeing
the advancing cavalry, began to fling their javelins, so that
Galba was in imminent danger of being killed by his own
friends. He was, however, soon recognised, and, to use his
own expression, escaped he knew not how.
1 He was the great-grandfather of Galba, the Roman emperor.
JET. 64. BATTLE OF MUTINA. 507
Pansa had reached Bononia with four legions, and march-
ing through the town, had pitched his camp at some little
distance to the west, on the side of the ^Emilian road. But
Hirtius sent Galba to him with a pressing message to bring
on his troops and join him immediately. This was on the
I oth of April. Next morning Antony pushed on from his
quarters to intercept Pansa, and crush him before he could
effect a junction with Hirtius and Octavian. He imagined
that he would have to deal only with the new levies of Pansa,
who were raw and inexperienced troops, and he anticipated
an easy victory. But Hirtius had taken the precaution to
strengthen Pansa by sending on to Bononia the night before,
under the command of Carfulenus, the Martial legion a
body of veterans who were the very flower of his army and
two praetorian cohorts, so that he was prepared to give
Antony a reception he little expected. When Antony
reached Forum Gallorum he halted his heavy infantry there ;
and to deceive the army as to his real strength, sent forward
a body of light-armed troops and cavalry. As soon as the
soldiers of the Martial legion and the praetorian cohorts
caught sight of the advancing squadrons nothing could
restrain their ardour. Without waiting for the signal of
attack, and regardless of the efforts of their officers to re-
strain their impetuosity, they rushed forward to the battle.
Pansa immediately ordered two of his new legions to hasten
on to their support, and as they extended in line they had
to force their way through the thick woods and marshy
ground that lay on both sides of the ^Emilian road. Seeing
how serious matters looked, Antony brought out his whole
force from the town, and a general engagement began. It
was bravely and obstinately contested on both sides, and
Caesar's veterans fought for the first time in opposite ranks.
Eight cohorts of the Martial legion, under Galba, occupied
Pansa's right wing, and the fury of their charge was so great
that they drove back Antony's Thirty-fifth legion, and fol-
lowed in hot pursuit far beyond their own lines. The con-
sequence was, that the enemy's cavalry began to surround
them, and they would have been cut off from the main dody
if a retreat had not been sounded ; but as it was they had
some difficulty in getting back. The centre of both armies
5o8 BATTLE OF MUTINA. CHAP. xxiv.
was on the ^Emilian road, and here the battle raged for some
hours without either side being able to obtain the advantage.
But Pansa's left wing, on the south of the road, where he
himself commanded in person, was not so fortunate. It con-
sisted of only two cohorts of the Martial legion and one
praetorian cohort, and was so hard pressed, especially by the
cavalry, which began to outflank it, that it was compelled
to fall back. This led to a general retreat of the whole line
towards their camp, and Antony followed close upon them,
hoping to be able to capture it at a blow. But he attacked
it in vain. The resistance was so desperate, and his own
loss so great, that he began to retire. But a new enemy now
appeared upon the scene. Hirtius, who seems to have acted
throughout like a brave and skilful general, when he heard
that an engagement was going on, left Octavian to guard his
camp, and, putting himself at the head of twenty veteran
cohorts, hurried forward to the support of Pansa. He came
up with the retiring columns of Antony just as they had
reached Forum Gallorum on their way back, and fell upon
them with such fury that he completely routed them with
great slaughter. During the engagement Octavian, who was
left to guard Hirtius's camp, with only a few cohorts, was
himself attacked, but he succeeded in repulsing the enemy.
It was now dark, for it was nearly nightfall when the second
battle began, and Antony fled, with part of his cavalry, to
his camp before Mutina. The victory was complete, but it
was dearly purchased by the loss of the gallant Pansa. He
received two mortal wounds in the battle, and was carried
into Bononia, where he lingered for some time before he died.
Three or four days before news of the victory arrived at
Rome, gloomy reports of some great reverse had reached the
city. When the rumour spread that Antony was victorious
his partisans assembled in the Curia Hostilia, and began to
talk of taking possession of the Capitol and the gates, to
throw them open to the conqueror, who, they fondly hoped,
was already on his march to Rome. In order to make
Cicero unpopular, they industriously circulated a report that
he was going to proclaim himself dictator ; and, according
to his own statement, intended themselves to offer him the
office, in hopes that he would readily accept it, and so give
B.C. 43- TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION. 509
hired assassins a pretext for despatching him as aiming at
absolute power. So great was the agitation that Apuleius,
one of the tribunes and a friend of Cicero, held a public
meeting, and, haranguing the people, denounced the whole
story as a wicked calumny. The crowd loudly cheered him
while he spoke, and shouted out that Cicero had always been
the best friend of the republic. His enemies were soon con-
founded, for that same day, two or three hours after the
meeting, a messenger arrived in Rome with tidings of An-
tony's defeat. In a moment all was changed. The joy of
the multitude knew no bounds, and to whom should they
turn but to him whose voice had for five long months rung
in the Senate and the Forum like the sound of a trumpet-call
to battle ? They rushed tumultuously to Cicero's house, and
calling upon him to come out, accompanied him in surging
crowds to the Capitol, to return thanks to the gods for
victory. It was a proud moment for Cicero as, in the
midst of that jubilant throng, he slowly walked along the
Via Sacra, up the ascent to the summit of the hill which
was crowned by the glorious Temple of Jupiter. He was
escorted home again in the same manner, like a triumphal
conqueror, and felt indeed, as he afterwards said, that it
was a real and genuine triumph to receive thus the ac-
clamations of his countrymen in gratitude for his services to
the state.
The messenger from the army had brought a public
despatch from Hirtius and Octavian ; and Cornutus, the city
praetor, lost no time in assembling the Senate next day in
the Temple of Jupiter, in order to communicate the contents
to them. After he had read the letter aloud, he as usual
called upon the senators, in turn, to deliver their opinions.
Some of those who preceded Cicero, in the intoxication of
the moment, and as if the war was already at an end, pro-
posed that everybody should at once lay aside the military
dress, which had been universally worn for the last few
weeks, and resume once more the peaceful toga, the ordinary
garb of peace. Servilius moved that a public thanksgiving
should be decreed in gratitude for the victory ; and then
Cicero rose and delivered the last of the long series of his
Philippics the last, in fact, of all his speeches which has
5io THE LAST PHILIPPIC. CHAP. XXTV.
come down to posterity. 1 It possesses, therefore, unusual
interest for us.
His habitual prudence did not forsake him, nor did he
allow himself to be carried away, like many of the senators,
by the transport of the hour. He declared the proposal that
the citizens should put off their saga, or military uniform,
to be at least premature. The great object of the war was
to deliver Decimus Brutus, and he was still beleaguered in
Mutina. If they put on their togas to-day, they might have
to put them off to-morrow, and it would be hardly decent to
do this just after they had in their dress of peace returned
thanks for victory at the altars of the gods. He warned
them not yet to consider their victory complete. It was
presumptuous in them thus to forestall the judgment of
Heaven, and it was folly to be too confident in the uncertain
fortune of war. He earnestly endeavoured to persuade the
Senate to declare Antony a public enemy (kostis), which,
strange as it may seem, had not yet been done.
He next proposed that the number of days for a public
thanksgiving, mentioned in Servilius's motion, should be in-
creased to fifty, on account of the number of the generals
they wished to honour ; and that Hirtius, Pansa, and Octa-
vian should each have the title of hnperator conferred upon
them. He adroitly managed to bring in his own services,
and speak at some length of himself, by alluding to the
proud delight with which the victorious generals would enter
as Impemtors that temple where they were then sitting,
when they recollected, that it was on account of their ex-
ploits that the people had the day before conducted him in
triumph to the Capitol. He then referred to the calumnious
report that he had entertained the idea of being invested
with sole power; but at the same time plainly intimated
that if such an honour had been spontaneously offered to
him by his fellow-citizens, he might perhaps not have de-
clined it. It is indeed curious to see the sort of struggle
that was going on in his mind, as he fancied for the moment
that so great a distinction had been possibly within his
grasp. It betrayed him into an apparent inconsistency, for
1 The grammarian Nonius quotes two passages of another Philippic, which he
calls the sixteenth, but, if it ever existed, it is no longer extant.
*rr. 64. THE LAST PHILIPPIC. 511
after declaring that the rumours of such a design might have
been pardoned if it had referred to a gladiator, a brigand, or
a Catiline, but not to him who had crushed Catiline for
attempting it, and had made its execution impossible for the
future, and after demanding who was wicked enough to
forge the falsehood, or mad enough to believe it, he argued
the question as if great public services might have justified the
people in conferring and himself in accepting the office. The
distinction which he meant to draw in his own favour was no
doubt this. He would have been as bad as Catiline if he
had thought of usurping power by force ; but it was a very
different thing if his merit induced his countrymen to bestow
it. " There is," he exclaimed, " as Cassius used wisely to
say, a wide field open in the service of the state ; and in the
race of honour the course is free to many." Alluding to
Pansa's wounds, the tidings of whose death had not yet
reached Rome, he said, " Carried off from the fight, he has
reserved his life for the republic. In my judgment he is not
only an Imperator, but a most illustrious one, who, when he
had engaged to satisfy his country either by victory or death,
made good one alternative of his promise ; as to the other,
may the immortal gods avert the omen ! " He described
the gallantry of Hirtius, who himself carried the eagle of the
Fourth legion, and scattered the robber-bands of Antony.
" Happy," he cried, " most happy was the sun himself that
day, who, before he hid his rays, saw the ground strewed
with the corpses of parricides, and Antony, with a few fol-
lowers, a fugitive." As to Octavian, who had guarded the
camp, and there fought with and repelled the enemy, his
youthful age was no ground for not giving him the title, for
his merit had outstripped his years. In memory of those
who had fallen in battle, he proposed that a magnificent
monument should be erected. He apostrophised the departed
warriors thus :
" O happy death, which, due to nature, has been paid rather as a debt due to
your country ! But I deem you men who were born for your country : your very
name was derived from Mars, so that the same deity seems to have created this
city for the world, and you for this city. Death in flight from the battlefield is
disgraceful, but glorious in victoiy, for Mars himself usually selects the bravest
from the ranks. Those impious wretches whom ye slew will pay the penalty of
their parricide in the infernal regions : while you who breathed out your latest
breath in victory have gained the dwelling-place and home of the blessed. Brief
512 THE LAST PHILIPPIC. CHAP. xxiv.
is the span of life given us by nature ; but the memory of a life nobly rendered is
immortal. And if indeed it were no longer than this life of ours, who would be
such an idiot as to face the extremity of toil and danger in order to win the
highest glory and renown ?
" It is well, then, soldiers, with you the bravest of the brave while you lived,
but now sanctified by death. For your merit can never lie unsepulchred, either
by the oblivion of those who now exist, or the silence of posterity, when the Senate
and Roman people have raised to you, almost with their own hands, an imperish-
able monument. There have been many great and noble armies in the Punic,
Gallic, and Italian wars, but on none has an honour of such a kind been be-
stowed. And would that we could do even more for you, since we have received
fi'om. you the greatest blessings. You drove away Antony in his fury from the
city. You repelled him when he was attempting to return. There shall therefore
be reared on high a memorial-building of splendid workmanship, and characters
shall be engraved on it the eternal witnesses of your divine excellence. And
never shall the language of gratitude cease respecting you, either from those who
see your monument or those who hear of it."
He then turned to address words of consolation to those
who were mourning the loss of relatives. The passage may
be compared with a similar one in the funeral oration of
Pericles in memory of those who had fallen in the Pelopon-
nesian war, as given by Thucydides. Cicero said :
" But since, Conscript Fathers, the proper meed of glory is bestowed upon
these good and gallant citizens by giving them monumental honours, let us console
their nearest relatives, to whom indeed those honours are the best consolation.
They are so to parents, because they have produced such bulwarks of the state ;
to children, because they will have in their own families examples of virtue ; to
wives, because they are deprived of husbands whom it will be better to eulogise
than mourn ; to brothers, because they will hope to be like them in virtue as they
are in bodily resemblance. And I earnestly wish that I were able, by any words
or advice of mine, to wipe away tears from all their eyes ; or that any oration
could be spoken which would make them lay aside their sorrow, and rejoice
rather, that amongst the many and various kinds of death incident to men, that
which is the most glorious of all has been the lot of their relatives, and that they
have not remained unburied nor abandoned on the field of battle (which yet is
thought no piteous fate when suffered for one's country), nor with their ashes
dispersed in separate and lowly tombs, but covered over by a public monument
which will exist for ever as an altar to virtue. They will find it therefore the
greatest alleviation of their sorrow that by the same monument are proclaimed the
virtues of their kindred, the faith kept by the Senate, and the memory of a most
cruel war, in which, had it not been for the matchless merit of those soldiers,
the name of the Roman people would have perished by the parricidal act of
Antony."
He concluded by moving, in formal terms, the adoption of
what he had proposed.
Such were the closing words of the last speech of the
great Roman orator of which any record has been preserved.
We may be sure that it was not the last, for it is not likely
that he would be silent in the Senate when the news of the
B.C. 43. BEAUTY OF THE PHILIPPICS. 513
next decisive victory arrived ; and besides, we have his own
positive statements in subsequent letters that he spoke more
than once afterwards. But if it had been the last, and his
countrymen had known it, the sound of his voice must have
fallen on their ears like a funeral knell. In reviewing the
long series of orations which he delivered during the second
civil war, it is difficult to express sufficiently the praise
that they deserve. They are, in my opinion, quite equal to
the Philippics of Demosthenes, and in some respects per-
haps superior. But whatever difference there may be on
this point, all must agree that they are astonishing efforts
of eloquence. It is impossible to do justice to them by
a translation at least by any to which I feel myself equal.
Nothing can exceed the beauty of the language, the ryth-
mical flow of the periods, and the harmony of the style.
The structure of the Latin language, which enables the
speaker or writer to collocate his words, not, as in English,
merely according to the order of thought, but in the manner
best calculated to produce effect, too often baffles the powers
of the translator, who seeks to give the force of the passage
without altering the arrangement. Often, again, as is the
case with all attempts to present the thoughts of the ancients
in a modern dress, a periphrasis must be used to explain the
meaning of an idea which was instantly caught by the Greek
or Roman ear. 1 Many allusions which flashed like lightning
upon the minds of the senators must be explained in a
parenthesis, and many a home-thrust and caustic sarcasm
are now deprived of their sting, which pierced sharply at the
moment of their utterance some twenty centuries ago.
But with all such disadvantages I hope that even the
English reader will be able to recognise in these speeches
something of the grandeur of the old Roman eloquence. The
noble passages in which Cicero strove to force his country-
men, for very shame, to emulate the heroic virtues of their
forefathers, and urged them to brave every danger, and
1 We have, for instance, no single the appellation. If we say " consulars "
word to express what was meant by we coin a word which is not English,
Consulares, which had so grand a sound and if " ex-consuls," we run the risk of
in ancient Rome. If we say ' men of conveying the impression that we mean
consular rank" we weaken the force of only the consuls of the preceding year.
2 L
514 ANXIETY AT ROME. CHAP. xxiv.
welcome death rather than slavery in the last struggle for
freedom, are radiant with a glory which not even a transla-
tion can destroy. And it is impossible not to admire the
genius of the orator, whose words did more than armies for
the liberty of Rome. Indeed, it is more than probable that,
if it had not been for him, there would have been no army
but that of Octavian in the field against Antony, and
Octavian alone, without the support of the consuls and the
Senate, would have been no match for his antagonist. It
was Cicero who animated the consuls and Senate to resist-
ance, and secured to them the support of the people in the
appeal to arms. It was he
" Whose powerful eloquence awhile
Restrained the rapid' fate of rushing Rome."
Amidst declared enemies and lukewarm friends, he stood
almost alone in his determined hostility to every proposal for
a dishonourable peace. 1 With the masses he was at this
period the most popular man in Rome. We know it from
the way in which he was received when he appeared in
public. The multitude thronged round him and cheered him
as he walked along the streets. And when the image of
Minerva which, we may remember, he had taken from his
house and placed in the temple of the Capitoline Jupiter
just before his exile, was thrown down by a storm and
broken, the Senate decreed that it should be restored at the
public cost. We have seen how he was escorted to the
Capitol when the news of the first victory arrived. For he
was looked upon as the representative of the cause for which
they fought, and when success came it was to him they paid
the homage of their joy.
But the war was not yet over. Anxiety still prevailed
at Rome, and the thoughts of all were still turned to the
beleaguered walls of Mutina. Decimus Brutus was there
hemmed in by a powerful army. Might he not be forced by
famine to surrender ? Might not Antony, protected from
attack by his fortified camp, be able to take the town by
1 And yet Drumann (Gesch. Roms, would be equally fair and reasonable to
vi. 496) reproaches him with cowardice reproach Pitt or Canning for not leaving
for staying in Rome and not joining England to fight against Napoleon,
the army employed against Antony. It
,ET. 64. STL ANUS JOINS ANTONY. 515
assault, and then, bursting into Cisalpine Gaul, make himself
master of the whole province ? But the suspense did not
continue long. A few hours later in the day when Cicero
had last addressed the Senate the tidings came of another
and a final victory. The camp of Antony had been stormed,
and he himself, with the shattered remnant of his troops, was
in full flight towards the Alps. Such, no doubt, was the
report that spread through the streets of Rome. But it was
in some degree exaggerated, and the real facts were these.
After his defeat by Hirtius on -the I5th of April, Antony
kept himself within his intrenchments, and did not venture to
try the chances of another battle until he received an unex-
pected reinforcement. I have mentioned that Lepidus, at
the head of his legions in Southern Gaul and Northern Spain,
had shown that his sympathies were with his daughter's
father-in-law, although he had made no decisive demonstra-
tion. He was a thoroughly unprincipled man, and was pre-
pared to join the winning side, whichever that might be. So
doubtful was he at this time as to the issue of the contest
that he actually despatched a body of troops, under the
command of Marcus Silanus, one of his officers, with orders
to march to Mutina, and there wait the course of events.
According to Dio Cassius, he gave him no directions into
which of the two hostile camps he was to carry his eagles ;
and the motive for this was most probably the cowardly one
that he might not himself be personally compromised, but be
able to disavow the act of his officer, in case ultimately he
found it convenient to do so. Silanus therefore marched
through Italy, very much in the position of Stanley at Bos-
worth Field, ready to act as circumstances might dictate.
But when he approached Mutina it was necessary to come
to a decision. Antony was still strong, and at any moment
Brutus might be compelled by famine to- surrender, even if
the town were not taken by storm. Silanus knew that in
his heart Lepidus wished Antony to succeed, and, acting on
his own judgment, he led his troops into the camp of the
besiegers. Antony thus found himself strong enough to
resume the offensive. He therefore advanced from his camp
in force, and attacked the relieving army under Hirtius and
Octavian, but was repulsed and driven back after an obsti-
5i6 RETREAT OF ANTONY. CHAP, xxiv-
nate engagement, during which Brutus made a sortie from
the town to assist his friends. The victorious troops pene-
trated quite into the camp, and Hirtius fell close to the
general's tent. But Antony made a desperate rally, and
Octavian was at last compelled to retire, carrying off with
him the dead body of the consul. Night fell on the weary
combatants, and neither side could claim a victory. Antony
called a council of war, and his friends advised him to pro-
secute the siege with renewed vigour, and decline a battle.
But he feared lest Octavian might force his way into Mutina,
or in turn become the besieger of his camp by surrounding
it, and then his own cavalry, the arm in which he was
strongest, would be useless. He therefore determined to
evacuate his camp (or, according to another account, his
camp was stormed), and immediately commenced his march
in the direction of the Maritime Alps, leaving Mutina as the
prize of Octavian. Brutus was not in a condition to pursue
immediately the retreating foe. At the moment he did not
know that Hirtius was killed, and he also mistrusted Octa-
vian. His own troops were few in number and miserably
equipped, and he had no cavalry nor baggage animals. On
the next day Pansa expired in Bononia. It shows what was
thought of the character of Octavian that at the moment
of victory he was suspected of two frightful murders. A
rumour spread that he had bribed Glycon, the surgeon of
Pansa, to poison his wounds, and had hired an assassin to
give Hirtius his death-blow in the struggle at the camp.
Niebuhr believes him to have been quite capable of these
almost incredible crimes. His words are : " Octavian's
reputation was, even as early as that time, such as to occa-
sion a report, which was surely not quite false, that he had
caused the surgeon to poison the wounds of Pansa, and that
he had hired an assassin to murder Hirtius. If we apply
the cui bono of L. Cassius, 1 a strong suspicion indeed hangs
1 Cm bono ? These two words have " To whom is it an advantage ?" And
perhaps been oftener misapplied than the origin of the expression was this :
any in the Latin language. They are When L. Cassius, who is said to have
constantly translated or used in the been a man of stern severity, sat as
sense of "What good is it?" "To quasitor judicii in a trial for murder,
what end dees it serve ?" Their real he used to advise \ho.judices to inquire,
meaning is, " Who gains by it ?" when there was a doubt as to the guilty
B.C. 43- WANT OF A LEADER AT ROME. 517
upon Octavian ; and if, in addition to this, we consider that
he was not a man whose moral character was too good to
commit such acts, we cannot help thinking that the suspicion
was not without foundation?^
The Senate in the meantime was not without an uneasy
fear that whoever proved the victor in the struggle might
become too strong for the liberties of Rome, and they passed
resolutions in order to cripple his power beforehand. They
enacted that no one should hold office. for more than a year;
and, remembering the case of Pompey, that the important
duty of provisioning the city should not be again committed
to any single person. A public thanksgiving of fifty days
was decreed, and it was resolved that the citizens should im-
mediately resume their togas, in token that the war was at
an end ; for it was at first generally believed that Antony
was either killed or taken prisoner, and Cicero was greatly
disappointed when he heard of his escape. In a letter to
Decimus he told him that people grumbled at him for not
being more expert in his movements, as they thought that
Antony might have been overtaken and destroyed. In
another letter he speaks of the prostration of public feeling
that would ensue when men found that the result was so
much less than they had been led to expect.
Rome was just then in a completely widowed state. She
had lost both her consuls on the battle-field, and they were
men whom, at such a crisis, she could ill afford to spare.
There was no one to whom she could look up with confidence
as a leader. Antony was the open enemy of the Senate, and
they could only half-trust Octavian. Marcus Brutus and
Cassius were still engaged in a death-struggle for existence
in distant provinces, and if either had been recalled and
placed at the head of the republic, it would have made an
open breach with Octavian, who would not have tolerated
that those whom he considered the chief agents in the
murder of his father, as Caesar was always called, should get
party, who had a motive for the crime, 137, 146 ; pro Rose. Amer. 85). The
who would gain by the death ; in other great scholar Grovonius protested against
words, cui bono fiierit ? This maxim the mistranslation as a vulgar error two
passed into a proverb, as also the ex- centuries ago.
pression Cassiani judices (in Verr. iii. x Hist, of Rome, v. 107.
5i8 WANT OF A LEADER AT ROME. CHAP. xxiv.
possession of power. If Cicero had been a man of more
nerve and less scruples, if he had inspired as much confidence
as a statesman as he exerted influence as an orator, we can
hardly doubt that at this emergency all eyes would have
turned to him. He was the foremost man at Rome, and
there never was such an opportunity for ambition to seize.
If he had had the slightest reputation as a general, he would
have been the one on whom the conduct of the war against
Antony, if war was still to be, would naturally have devolved.
But he was not equal to an emergency like this. The reins
of power at such a moment would have been seized by a
Caesar, or a Cromwell, or a Napoleon ; but the bare idea of
an illegality was abhorrent to his mind. If he was to com-
mand it must be by the authority of the Senate and the will
of the people, and neither the one nor the other appear to
have thought of him as its leader. Unfortunately we know
little of what was then actually passing at Rome. Our best
guide, the correspondence of Cicero, here almost entirely fails
us, 1 and we can only regret that Atticus had not gone to one
of his country seats instead of staying in the city, that we
might have had a few of Cicero's letters depicting the state
of things and giving his real views of passing events. We
possess, indeed, one of his letters or rather, perhaps, as
Schutz shrewdly suspects, the fragments of three, which by
some accident have got jumbled together in which he
alludes to the confusion that prevailed at Rome, and says
that there was now only one ship on board of which all good
citizens were embarked, and he was doing his best to make
her hold a straight course. " And," he adds, " I wish it may
be prosperous. But whatever winds blow, my skill shall not
be wanting to guide it."
We can imagine the dismay of the vast metropolis when
it was known that the consuls were dead, and it was still
uncertain what course Octavian would take. What would
Lepidus, and Pollio, and Plancus do ? Would they receive
Antony with open arms, or drive him back a fugitive to Italy ?
1 I do not forget the letters in the to be quoted as contemporary records
Brutus correspondence, which, if we except by those who have satisfied
could rely upon them as genuine, would themselves that they are not forgeries,
in part supply the want (see especially I certainly am not one of them.
Epp. 3, 5, 10, 15) ; but they ought not
JET. 64. D. BRUTUS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 519
From Plancus Cicero had received a letter only two days
before the news of the last victory had arrived, and its con-
tents were very satisfactory. He made the strongest pro-
fessions of patriotism, and, better than this, he showed that
his acts corresponded with his promises. He was on his way
to Italy to support the consuls against Antony. He told
Cicero that he had by forced marches reached the Rhone,
and crossed that river on the 26th of April, having sent for-
ward a squadron of cavalry a thousand strong from Vienna
(Vienne) by a shorter route. Cicero was in raptures when
he got this letter. He answered it on the 5th of May, and
expressed his joy at the intelligence. Decimus Brutus also
wrote to him on the 28th of April. He bewailed Pansa's
death as a public calamity, and told Cicero that he must use
all his authority and prudence to prevent the hopes of their
enemies from reviving, now that both the consuls were gone.
He intended to follow Antony in close pursuit, and allow
him no halting-place in Italy. He declared he had no faith
whatever in Lepidus ; but he was in hopes that Plancus would
not fail them, now that Antony was beaten. Cicero must
endeavour to keep him steady. He himself intended to
occupy the passes of the Alps if Antony crossed them, so
that he would be cut off from Italy if he attempted to
return.
The man who wrote this was thoroughly in earnest, and
there can be no doubt of his loyalty to the republic. He
had defended the authority of the Senate at the risk of his
life, and had shown courage and military skill. He was one
of the consuls-elect for the following year. No one else
seemed to combine so many claims to the chief command in
the conduct of the war. The Senate therefore conferred it
upon him, and the whole force of the Commonwealth in
Italy was placed at the disposal of Decimus Brutus, who had
been not the least active among the assassins of Caesar.
This fact was perhaps not sufficiently taken into account
when the appointment was made, and the Senate hardly ap-
preciated the power which even the shadow of that lofty
name still exercised over the minds of their countrymen, and
especially over the veterans who formed the strength of the
legions.
5 2o PURSUIT OF ANTONY. CHAP. xxiv.
Let us revert to Mutina and the day after the battle. The
dying Pansa wished to see Brutus, and he hastened to
Bononia, the day after the siege was raised, to gratify his
wish. But on the way there he was met with the intelli-
gence that the consul had expired, and he immediately re-
traced his steps towards the city which he had so long and
gallantly defended. He had an interview with Octavian,
and strongly urged him to cross the Apennines, and cut off
Antony's retreat. But Octavian would not stir. He was
brooding over schemes which the brave and honest Brutus
little suspected. In a letter to Cicero, mentioning the cir-
cumstance, he merely says, " If Caesar had listened to me
and crossed the Apennines., I would have driven Antony to
such straits that he would have been destroyed by famine
more than by the sword. But neither will Caesar obey me,
nor will his army obey Caesar two things which are most
unfortunate." In the meantime two precious days were lost.
Antony pressed forward his march in the direction of the
modern Genoa, and as he passed through the towns on his
route threw open the prisons, and collected from them and
the neighbourhood all he could press into his service, so that
his force swelled to a considerable number. At a place
called Vada (Vado], on the Gulf of Genoa, a little seaport
through which the Corniche road passes, he received a wel-
come reinforcement from Ventidius, who had made a forced
march across the mountains by a most difficult route, and
he placed his veteran troops under the command of Antony.
But Brutus was then only thirty miles off, having marched
rapidly by way of Rhegium (Reggio) and Dertona (Tortonia),
and getting intelligence of Antony's movements, he pushed
forth instantly five cohorts to Pollentia, which reached the
place just an hour before Trebellius, one of Antony's cap-
tains, arrived there with his cavalry. This seems to have
disconcerted the enemy's plans, who struck into the moun-
tains, to force their way into that part of Gaul where they
expected to find Lepidus. They came up with Lepidus'
encampment, on the western side of the Alps, on the 2Qth
of May. 1 Plutarch gives a dismal account of the sufferings
1 Excluding the coast route, there across the Alps from Italy into Gaul in
were only two practicable passes leading ancient times. The one was the pass of
B.C. 43- ANTONY IN LEPIDUS CAMP. 521
they had to endure on their journey. He says that Antony
" who had quitted so much luxury and sumptuous living,
made no difficulty now in drinking foul water, and feeding
on wild fruits and roots. Nay, it is related that they ate
the very bark of trees, and in passing over the Alps lived
upon creatures that no one before had ever been willing to
touch." Since his flight from Mutina, Antony had never
trimmed his beard. His hair hung in disordered masses on
his neck, and his looks were wild and haggard. He had
good reason for intense anxiety, for his fate depended upon
the reception he might meet with from Lepidus. If he
declared against him he was lost for ever. Halting his
weary and famished troops, and flinging a dark-coloured
cloak over his shoulders, he passed within the trenches of
Lepidus' camp, and began to address the soldiers. His
appeal began to produce an effect when Lepidus ordered
the trumpets to sound, so as to drown his voice. The rest
may be told in Plutarch's words : " This raised in the soldiers
a greater pity, so that they resolved to confer secretly with
him, and dressed Laelius and Claudius in women's clothes,
and sent them to see him. They advised him without delay
to attack Lepidus' trenches, assuring him that a strong party
would receive him, and, if he wished it, would kill Lepidus.
Antony, however, had no wish 'for this, but next morning
marched his army to pass over the river that parted the two
camps. He was himself the first man that stepped in, and
as he went through towards the other bank, he saw Lepidus'
soldiers in great numbers reaching out their hands to help
him, and beating down the works to make him way. Being
entered into the camp, and finding himself absolute master,
he nevertheless treated Lepidus with the greatest civility,
and gave him the title of ' Father.' When he spoke to him,
and though he had everything at his own command, he left
him the honour of being called the general." According to
this statement Lepidus was almost a passive instrument in
the Cottian Alps (Mont Genevre), which Graian Alps (the Little St. Bernard] by
descends into the valley of the Rhone which Hannibal marched on Rome,
near Grenoble. A military road was first The pass of the Mont Cenis did not be-
constructed there by Pompey to furnish come a military road before the middle
a shorter communication between the ages. See Mommsen, Gesch. Rom. bk.
provinces of Cisalpine and Transalpine iii. c. 4.
Gaul. The other was the pass of the
5 2 2 LEPID US JOINS ANTONY. CHAP, xxi v
the hands of his soldiers, and was coerced by them into
defection. But we cannot accept it as entirely true. From
the correspondence of Plancus with Cicero, we know that
Lepidus needed little or no compulsion to act the part of a
traitor.
Thus Lepidus was gained, and, if we had only Plutarch
as our guide, we should believe that Plancus followed his
example without difficulty or delay. He disposes of that
general's conduct in a single line, saying " This fair usage
brought soon to Antony Munatius Plancus, who was not far
off with a considerable force." But this is a very inaccurate
account of what really happened, and shows the necessity of
caution in accepting Plutarch's authority. Plancus was a
man of a different stamp from Lepidus, and his behaviour
was very different. When he heard of Antony's flight from
Mutina he wrote to Cicero, and expressed in the strongest
terms his hostility to the fugitives. He said that he was
in communication with Lepidus, and doing everything in his
power to keep him loyal. He called Antony an outcast and
a brigand, and said that Lepidus had promised to attack
him if he came into his province, and had begged himself to
join him. He had therefore no longer hesitated ; but throwing
a bridge over the Isara (Isere\ had marched his army across
the river. But hearing that Lucius Antony had reached
Forum Julii (Friatil) with a body ef infantry and cavalry,
he sent forward his brother with a squadron of four thousand
horse to stop him, and intended himself to follow immediately
with four legions of light-armed infantry and the rest of his
cavalry. He told Cicero that if the " brigand," getting in-
telligence of his approach, retreated into Italy, it would be
Brutus' duty to intercept him, and he himself would in that
case send on his brother with the cavalry to protect Italy
from plunder.
He wrote again a little later that Lucius was at Forum
Julii, and Ventidius two days' march behind and that
Lepidus' camp was at Forum Voconii ( Vidauban), twenty-
four miles distant from Forum Julii. There Plancus was to
join him by appointment ; and he promised that if Lepidus
was only true he would quickly make a satisfactory end of
the business. As his brother, who held the office of praetor,
JST. 64. CONDUCT OF PLANCUS. 523
was nearly worn out by constant fatigue, he had insisted that he
should leave him to go to Rome where he thought he now could
be of more use than in the field at a moment when the city
was deprived of both its consuls. He said that Lepidus had
sent to him Apella, one of his officers, as a hostage for his
own fidelity. I think that these facts are interesting, as they
show that up to that time apparently Lepidus had not made
up his mind to betray his trust ; and it was quite on the
cards that Antony might be crushed between the armies that
were closing round him. But there can be no doubt that,
however Lepidus may himself have w*avered, he could not
rely upon all his legions to act against Antony ; and one
reason why Plancus marched towards him was to overcome
the disaffected portion of those troops by the pressure of a
superior force. He could thoroughly depend upon his own
soldiers, and was more afraid of Lepidus' men than Antony's,
saying, " If I could only come up first with Antony, he would
not stand an hour, so much confidence do I feel in myself,
and so utterly do I despise his beaten troops." He added
significantly " But I cannot but fear that there is some in-
ternal ulcer which may do mischief before it can be found
out and cured." There was, indeed, a very desperate " ulcer/'
not only in Lepidus' army, but in Lepidus' mind, as Plancus
soon ascertained to his cost. When he wrote thus, he was
eight days' march from Lepidus. He hastened on to join
him, but on the way was met by a courier, who brought a
letter from him, telling him not to come, as he could do
without him, and directing him to wait for him on the banks
of the Isara. Plancus at first did not suspect the truth, but
thought that Lepidus was perhaps jealous that he should
share with him the glory of defeating Antony, and he deter-
mined to press forward. But he got another letter from
Laterculus, a brave and honourable officer of Lepidus, who,
when he found that his general was bent on treason, stabbed
himself to death, in the presence of the whole army. This
letter revealed the extent of the mischief. While Lepidus
\vas haranguing his troops, as has been before mentioned,
the mutiny broke out, and he had taken no steps to punish
the ringleaders or to put a stop to it. Plancus thought it
would be madness to go on and expose his army to the risk
524 CONDUCT OF OCTA VI AN. CHAP. xxiv.
of defeat from the superior forces that would be opposed to
him. He therefore halted. When he was forty miles dis-
tant from Lepidus' camp, on ground where he was protected
by a river in his front, he wrote to Cicero urgently begging
that reinforcements might be sent to him as quickly as pos-
sible, in which case he hoped still to be able to secure victory
and " destroy the villains." There is no reason to doubt that
Plancus was, up to this time, thoroughly loyal ; and if
Lepidus had been as true to his professions as himself,
Antony would have been destroyed, and the destiny of the
world changed.
The united forces of the two allies now marched against
him, and had got within twenty miles of his camp before he
heard of their approach. He retreated rapidly and in good
order, recrossing the Isara in June, and breaking down the
bridge behind him after he had passed it.
But we must revert to a more important personage than
either Lepidus or Plancus, and see what part Octavian was
playing in the great drama at this eventful crisis.
His position was in some respects like that of General
Monk after the death of Cromwell, when he stood between
the Commonwealth and the Crown. On Octavian's decision
depended the question whether there should be at Rome a
republic or an imperial throne. It is perhaps not difficult to
understand, however unable we may be to justify, the motives
that influenced him at this crisis. He was Caesar's adopted
son the heir of his name and fortune, and he could not
bring himself to act cordially with men, some of whom were
the actual murderers of his father. It would be nearer the
truth to say that he hated them. His pride was hurt at the
conduct of the Senate in appointing Decimus Brutus, one of
those murderers, instead of himself, to the supreme command
of the army of Italy. His ambition was inflamed with the
idea that he might occupy the vacant seat of power, if he
could destroy the vital vigour of the constitution, however
he might preserve its form. The question was, how he
might best attain this end. If, while still acting as the
officer, and under the authority of the Senate, he crushed
Antony, he would, by the very victory, be imparting strength
to republican institutions, and would find it more difficult
B.C. 43- DESIRES TO BE ELECTED CONSUL. 525
afterwards to overthrow them. If he joined Antony now,
he might share the chief power, even if he could not enjoy
it alone.
It was better for him to divide the prize than to lose it
altogether. If we may believe Dio, the stupid folly of the
Senate soon furnished him with the pretext of a grievance.
It might be good policy not to make him commander-in-
chief, but it was madness to alienate his troops from their
duty by breaking faith with them. The promises of pay
and rewards, which had been so liberally made, were only
partially kept ; and invidious distinctions were made in the
recipients of the bounty, for the purpose of exciting jealousy
and divisions in the ranks. Cicero himself does not allude
to any such miserable policy on the part of the Senate ;
but in a letter to Cornificius gives a much more probable
reason why their promises had not been kept namely, the
exhausted state of the public treasury. He says that they
were scraping money together from all quarters, " in order
that what was promised to the soldiers who had behaved so
well might be paid," and he did not see how this could be
done without a forced contribution or tax (sine tributo).
But whatever the cause was, there was discontent, and
Octavian took advantage of it to make the Senate unpopular
with the army ; and, according to Dio, entered himself into
secret communications with Antony. He also gained over,
by conciliatory measures, the scattered bodies of Antony's
troops which had fled from the camp during the action. It
was a great object with him to be elected consul, to fill one
of the two vacancies created by the deaths of Hirtius and
Pansa ; and this notwithstanding that he had hardly attained
half the age required by law for that office. We are told by
Dio, Appian, and Plutarch, that he tried to tempt Cicero to
support him, by proposing that he should be his colleague,
and, according to them, the veteran statesman entered readily
into the plan. If so, it reflected no discredit on either his
sagacity or his patriotism. For it certainly was the most
prudent course to conciliate Octavian ; and if he was to be
elevated to the highest executive office in the state, it was
wise and politic to diminish as much as possible the chance
of his abusing his power. And this could hardly be done
526 OCTAVIAN OVERAWES THE SENATE. CHAP. xxiv.
more effectually than by associating with him a man like
Cicero, the determined enemy of anything like domination,
and whose very name was now the watchword of the consti-
tution. But I so entirely mistrust the authority of these
writers for any important fact not corroborated by contem-
porary testimony, that I consider that we are at liberty to
reject the whole story.
Octavian's efforts to persuade the Senate to consent to his
election proved for some time abortive, and he took a more
efficacious method of overcoming the opposition. He first
got his soldiers to swear that they would not fight against
troops that had served with Caesar, and then sent a deputa-
tion of four hundred of his centurions to Rome, as petitioners
on behalf of the army, to claim the donation that had been
promised to the troops, and to ask that the consulship might
be conferred on him.
The Senate had some time before sent to Africa for fresh
legions, and when they saw the turn things were taking, and
that they had only the scanty army of Decimus Brutus on
which they could confidently rely for the defence of the
republic against the rising tide of treason that seemed likely
to engulf it, they despatched couriers to Marcus Brutus and
Cassius, urging them to hasten over with the forces under
their command. The troops came from Africa, and their
arrival emboldened the Senate to continue their resistance to
Octavian's demands. But their resolution was soon shaken
when they saw his centurions in Rome, and heard them
knocking at the door of the Senate-house. This is no mere
figure of speech ; it falls indeed short of the reality. These
rough soldiers came into the chamber where the senators
were sitting, although they had the grace to leave their arms
outside. They demanded the consulship for Octavian, and
when the Senate still hesitated, one of them, named Cor-
nelius, went out, and, seizing his sword, exclaimed, " If you
will not give it to him, this will!" and we are told that
Cicero replied, " If you canvass in this fashion, he will cer-
tainly get it." 1 This was surely a very inoffensive remark,
1 "Kv otfrws 7rapaKo.\rJTe, Xij^erat au. canvassing, then he shall get it," which
ryv. Dio Cass. xlvi. 43. Abeken trans- has certainly more point and sting,
lates it, Wenn dies bitten heisst dann But I do not think the words bear that
soil er es haben " When this is called meaning.
JET. 64. OFFENCE GIVEN HIM BY CICERO. 527
and yet Dio says that it ultimately cost him his life. One
would think that he had never read nor heard of the Philip-
pics. We know, on better authority, that before this a bitter
joke of his, which was much more likely to give mortal
offence, had reached the ears of Octavian. Unfortunately it
is impossible to translate it, for it is in fact a pun. In a
letter to him, dated Eporedia (now Jurea in Piedmont), on
the 25th of May, Decimus Brutus mentioned that Segulius
had told him that he and Octavian had been talking together
a good deal about Cicero, and that Octavian had complained
of his saying, laudandum adolesccntcui, ornandum, tollendnm,
observing that he would take care not to get the kind of
" advancement" that Cicero intended for him. 1 Brutus added
that he believed that Labeo himself had first told Octavian
the story. This made Cicero very angry, and in his reply
he used strong expressions. " May the gods," he said, " con-
found that Segulius for the greatest rascal that is, or was, or
ever will be !" Middleton takes some pains to make us
believe that he never uttered the words, and that they were
an invention of his enemies " to instil a jealousy into Octa-
vius, or to give him a handle at least for breaking with
Cicero," for he thinks it " incredible that a man of his pru-
dence could ever say them." But if so, it is remarkable that,
in his answer to Brutus, he does not deny them nor charge
Segulius with calumny. He is angry with him, not for
inventing but for repeating the story.
When the army heard that the Senate still refused to let
Octavian stand for the consulship, it demanded to be led to
Rome ; and he immediately put his troops in motion to
march on the capital. They were in formidable strength
eight legions, besides cavalry and auxiliaries ; and except
the soldiers that had come from Africa, who were compara-
tively few in number, there was nothing to oppose them.
In the meantime what was happening beyond the Alps ?
1 " Se non commissurum ut tolli the passage might have been translated
possit." Ad Div. xi. 20. See Veil. thus : " Octavian complained of your
Pat. ii. 62 ; Suet, in Aug. 12. The saying, I think that the young man
sting of the words lies of course in the should be praised, honoured, and ele-
double meaning of tollere, which is either vated ;' and remarked that he would
" to raise up, elevate," or "to take take care not to have such an elevation
away, destroy." If hanging had been as you kindly wished for him."
the mode of public execution at Rome,
528 POSITION OF DECIMUS BRUTUS. CHAP. xxiv.
Decimus Brutus, whose army had been increased from seven
to ten legions, but consisted chiefly of young and raw
recruits, had crossed the mountains and joined Plancus.
Asinius Pollio, notwithstanding all his professions of devo-
tion to the Senate, went over to the enemy, 1 and Antony
was now at the head of seventeen legions. Plancus saw
that victory would be on the side of the gros bataillons, and,
careless of honour like the rest, he led his troops to Antony's
camp, and made common cause with the three generals.
The position of Decimus had become critical in the extreme.
He stood alone
" Amongst the faithless faithful only he,"
but with inexperienced troops, badly equipped, to oppose the
veteran legions of Caesar, who greatly outnumbered him.
He would have died a more glorious death if he had struck
the last blow for his country's liberty, and fallen on the
battle-field. But we have no right to blame the course he
took. It was impossible for him to face such tremendous
odds with any chance of success, and his only hope of safety
was in a rapid retreat. But if he recrossed the Alps and
descended into Italy he feared that he would be intercepted
by the superior forces of Octavian, whose understanding with
Antony he could no longer doubt. His object was, if pos-
sible, to effect a junction with Marcus Brutus in Macedonia,
by a circuitous route, and he led his troops towards the
Rhine, intending to cross the river and force his way through
the passes of the Rhaetian Alps. His line of march lay,
in fact, through the modern Switzerland. Although it is
anticipating the order of time, it may be as well to relate
here the catastrophe that overtook him. He found that he
1 There is a long and interesting let- the quaestor Balbus, who had gone off
ter from Pollio to Cicero (ad Div. x. to Africa after embezzling money, and
33), written at the end of May, in which being guilty of many acts of enormity,
he talks of the necessity of all rushing Amongst others, he had ordered a
to extinguish the conflagration and save wretched gladiator to be half-buried in
the empire from destruction. He com- the ground, and then burnt alive as far
plains that, owing to the length and as the flames could get at his body,
difficulties of the journey, news was Balbus enjoyed this as an after-dinner
forty days old before it reached him. amusement, and walked about with his
In another letter, a few days later, he hands behind him mocking the cries and
makes similar professions of fidelity, sufferings of the unhappy man.
But it relates chiefly to the conduct of
B.C. 43-
OCTA VI AN ELECTED CONSUL.
529
could no longer trust his soldiers. Some of them began to
desert his standard ; and at last he left his army, attended
by a body of Gallic cavalry, to make his way, as he best
could, across the Rhine. But these troops seem to have
wavered. At all events, he dismissed them, having first dis-
tributed amongst them all the gold he possessed. Three
hundred horsemen still clung to their leader, and with these
he continued his weary march until all but ten deserted
him. He then changed his dress, and, disguising himself as
a Gaul, reached Aquileia, a town at the head of the
Adriatic. Here he was discovered and seized by a native
chieftain, whose name, Camillus, shows that he had some
connection with Rome. Brutus had in former times been
his benefactor, and he requited the service, whatever it may
have been, by hastening to Antony, and telling him of the
prize within his grasp. It is hardly necessary to say that
Antony insisted on his death. He told Camillus to murder
his captive ; and his head was struck off, the first ghastly
trophy of the new alliance.
As Octavian approached the walls of Rome, the affrighted
Senate sought to retrace their steps and propitiate their
future master. They sent an embassy to him, offering to
make him consul. For a moment their hopes revived when
they heard of the landing of two more legions from Africa.
But these actually deserted on their march, and hastened to
join the advancing army. Soon afterwards it halted outside
the gates, and Octavian entered the city as a conqueror.
The form of an election was rapidly gone through, and in
the twenty-first year of his age he was declared a Roman
consul, with Q. Pedius as his colleague. This happened on
the 22d of September.
2 M
KOR.MI/E WHERE CICEKO WAS MURDERED.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE PROSCRIPTION AND DEATH OF CICERO
HIS CHARACTER.
ALL 64. B.C. 43.
THERE is good reason to believe that Cicero did not stay
in Rome to be an eye-witness of a spectacle which was
the downfall of all his hopes, and sealed the fate of the
republic. 1
Accompanied by his brother Quintus for the greatness
of a common misfortune had completely reconciled them,
and restored all their old affection for each other he
retired to his villa at Tusculum, to wait there the course of
events. There is no doubt that he might have easily escaped
1 The materials for composing a nar- are Plutarch, Cic. 47, 48 ; Appian, iv.
rative of the last four or five months of 4 ; Dio Cassius, xlvii. I o, 1 1 ; Livy,
Cicero's life are unfortunately scanty, Fragm. ; Seneca, Suasor. 7 ; Valerius
and the authorities do not agree. They Maximus, v. 5.
^ET. 64. FIRST ACTS OF OCTA VI AN. 531
to Macedonia, if he could have summoned resolution to
abandon for ever Italy and Rome. But with his usual inde-
cision he hesitated until it was too late, and the bloody
ministers of Antony's vengeance overtook him. Bitter,
indeed, must have been his thoughts as he stood on the
lovely hill of Tusculum, and gazed across the Campagna
upon the city which would soon be occupied by his deadliest
foes. Was this, then, the result of all his untiring efforts
and splendid eloquence during the last six months P 1 Was
it for this that he had lavished praises on Octavian in the
Senate, and pledged his word that he might be trusted as a
faithful servant of the state ? He had declared that no
honours that could be conferred upon him were more than
he deserved, and now he had trampled on both law and
constitution, and made his sword the arbiter of the destinies
of Rome. He must have keenly felt the desertion of Pollio
and Plancus. Their conduct showed that he could put faith
in no one. He and Quintus must go forth as fugitives and
exiles, leaving their native land a prey to tyrants, who,
whether they quarrelled or agreed, would alike work the
ruin of the republic. It was, in fact, already ruined, for the
trembling Senate was the slave of the strongest, and existed
only to register his will. But, in the midst of all his cruel
disappointment, there was one consolation for Cicero. He
might have been mistaken in his estimate of men, and failed
to read aright the signs of the times, but his conscience was
without reproach. He had done all that mortal could do to
preserve the liberties of Rome. In the midst of a faint-
hearted Senate and fickle populace, he had held aloft, with
his single arm, the standard of freedom, sent out armies
to combat the enemies of his country, and, by his ex-
ample, cheered, encouraged, and animated all. It was no
fault of his that treason had eaten into the heart's-core of
the commonwealth, and that men were now willing to be
slaves.
1 Speaking at an earlier period of the contentiones tamquam ovaa/taxt'cu esse
disappointment felt at the escape of videntur." Ad Div. xi. 14. "Shadow
Antony after the battle of Mutina, he fights" indeed they were, for all the good
had said, " Meeeque illse vehementes they did ultimately to the republic.
J
532 HIS TREACHERY. CHAP. xxv.
One of Octavian's first acts was to have his own adoption,
as Caesar's son, confirmed by a law, passed by the people in
their Curies, in a proper form. Then only was he entitled
legally to assume the proud names of Caius Julius Caesar
Octavianus, although for upwards of a year he had been
called Caesar by his friends. His other measures were of a
more ominous kind, and foreboded the change of policy
which he was soon openly to avow. The resolution of the
Senate which had declared Dolabella a public enemy was
repealed, and a law was passed on the proposal of his
colleague, Pedius (hence known as the Lex Pedici], by
which the murderers of Caesar were summoned to take
their trials, and in default of appearance were condemned
to death par contumace. This was tantamount to pro-
claiming open war against the only three generals who were
still in arms for the republic, Decimus and Marcus Brutus,
and Cassius all of whom had imbrued their hands in
Caesar's blood.
Octavian left Rome at the head of his legions, pretending
that his object was to march against Antony and Lepidus,
and carry on the war. A parallel might perhaps be drawn
between him and Ney, who, when Napoleon landed from
Elba, left Paris to intercept him and bring him back, as he
declared, like a wild beast in a cage. But there was this im-
portant difference between them. Ney was no doubt sincere
when he set out, and intended to do his duty, but was unable
to resist the fascination of the sight of his old commander
and companions in arms, and thus became a traitor almost
in spite of himself. But Octavian marched from Rome with
settled treachery in his heart, and the only question with him
was, how he could accomplish his object with the best ad-
vantage to himself. If there could have been a lingering
doubt in Rome as to his intention, it must have been dis-
sipated when his colleague Pedius, who remained behind,
proposed and carried a law taking off from Antony and
Lepidus the ban by which they had both been declared
public enemies.
These two generals, after the death of Decimus Brutus
and dispersion of his army part of which, however, had
B.C. 43. THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE. 533
gone over to their side recrossed the Alps, and, descending
into the great plain of Lombardy, marched in the direction
of Bononia, keeping the Apennines on their right. In the
meantime overtures were made by Octavian to Antony, and
Lepidus exerted himself to reconcile the two competitors for
power. We do not know the details of the negotiation, but
the result was that a meeting was agreed upon, and Octavian
led his troops to Bononia, which was already occupied by
the legions of Antony. The three leaders met on the 2/th
of November, on a little island of the Rhenus now the
Reno a river, or rather mountain-torrent, which rises in the
Apennines and flows close to Bologna. Here the second
Triumvirate was formed, and the world was divided as the
spoil.
This might be all fair, according to the laws of war. The
conquerors had a right to apportion what their swords had
won. But this did not satisfy their minds. Each was to
surrender victims to satiate the vengeance of the other two,
and one of the basest compacts was made that was ever
entered into by men. The terms were that Octavian should
give up to death Cicero ; Lepidus, his own brother Paulus ;
and Antony, his uncle Lucius Caesar. Thus, says Plutarch,
they let their anger and fury take from them the sense of
humanity, and demonstrated that no beast is more savage
than man, when possessed with power answerable to his
rage.
Cicero and his brother were still at Tusculum, when they
heard of the proscription. Not a moment was to be lost,
and they must fly for their lives. They hesitated whether
they should hasten to join Sextus Pompeius in Sicily, or
Cassius in Syria, or Brutus in Macedonia. They decided on
going to Brutus, and proceeded in litters to Astura, on the
coast, intending there to embark for Macedonia. We are
told that on the journey they often halted to embrace each
other, and mingle their tears together. This to modern
notions might argue an unmanly weakness, but we must not
judge them so. The ancients and Cicero and his brother
were not only ancients but Italians put far less restraint upon
their feelings than ourselves, and with them passionate grief
534 MURDER OF QUINTUS d- HIS SON. CHAP. xxv.
found vent in weeping without any reproach to their courage
or fortitude. I do not believe that Cicero was afraid to die,
but calamity had overwhelmed him, and he wept, as he had
often done before in moments of sorrow and despair. An
unforeseen circumstance compelled the brothers to separate.
In the haste of their departure they had forgotten to bring
with them the means of support on their journey. It was
determined that Quintus should return to Rome and procure
the necessary supplies. No doubt his intention was to come
back and overtake his brother, but it was ordered otherwise.
After an affectionate embrace they parted, never to meet
again. Cicero continued his route, and Quintus turned to-
wards the city. It seems that his son had been left behind,
and was still there when his father arrived. Quintus con-
cealed himself in the same house with him, but by some
means or other the bloodhounds of Antony got scent of his
lurking-place. They came, but could not find him ; and,
seizing young Quintus, they tortured him to make him betray
his father. He nobly refused, but, as we may infer from one
of the accounts, the extremity of pain forced from him cries
which his father heard. Unable to endure the thought of
his son's agony, he came forth from his hiding-place, and
delivered himself up to the assassins. A heart-rending scene
followed. Each prayed that he might die before the other,
and, to end the contest, the murderers killed them both at
the same moment.
Cicero reached Astura in safety, and going on board a
vessel, got as far as the promontory of Circeii (Capo Cir-
celld}. There was nothing now to prevent his escape, and
the head of the ship was turned to the open sea, to bear him
away from his pursuers, when a strange fit of irresolution
seized him, and he insisted on being put on shore again. A
sort of fascination, which he was unable to resist, seems to
have attracted him to the fatal coast. In the words of
Ezekiel, " He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not
warning : his blood shall be upon him." He landed, and by
an unconscious impulse, took, on foot, the road to Rome,
as if he were courting his own destruction. But he soon re-
traced his steps, and spent the night at Circeii. He could
JET. 64. MURDER OF CICERO. 535
not sleep, and as he tossed restlessly on his couch, the idea
seized him that he would go to Rome, and, entering the
house of Octavian, seat himself beside the domestic altar,
and there plunge a dagger into his breast, to draw down
the vengeance of heaven upon his betrayer. But with
the morning came wiser counsels. His attendant slaves
whose devotion we can readily understand, for there never
was a kinder master besought him once more to embark,
and he yielded to their prayers. The vessel again set sail,
but the wind was contrary, and the sea was rough. He was
sick and ill, and when he reached the harbour of Cajeta
(Gaeta), near which his own Formian villa lay, he would go
no farther, having made up his mind to die. 1 He was im-
plored to continue the voyage, but in vain. " Let me die,"
he exclaimed, " in my country, which I have saved so often !"
The day was the 7th of December, when, for the last time,
he set foot on Italian ground. He reached his villa, and lay
down tranquilly to rest. But his slaves got -intelligence that
his pursuers were close upon his track. 2 With affectionate
zeal they forced him to get into a litter, and bore him along
a bye-path through the thick, but then leafless, woods
towards the shore. The band of murderers had already
reached the villa. They were headed by a centurion, named
Herennius, and the military tribune Popilius Laenas. Cicero
had once successfully defended Laenas in a criminal trial
against the charge of parricide, and obtained his acquittal,
but gratitude was of small account in comparison of the re-
ward that he would gain by the death of his benefactor.
Some miscreant pointed out the path the fugitive had taken,
and the assassins hurried through the wood, some of them by
a shorter road, so as to meet him as he came out. When
he heard their footsteps approaching he knew that his hour
was come. He ordered his attendants to set down the litter,
1 Appian attributes his landing to tradition represents him as quietly read-
sea-sickness OVK tyepe TT}V ar}8iav TOV ing the Medea of Euripides when the
K\vSuvos. De Bell. Civ. iv. murderers arrived not very likely at
such a moment of agonising terror.
2 According to Appian, crows awoke According to another he destroyed him-
him from his sleep by pulling away the self by poison. Euseb. Chron. p. 183,
clothes that covered his face. One quoted by Drumann.
536 INSULTS TO CICERO'S REMAINS. CHAP. xxv.
and forbade them to defend him. He drew back the
curtain, and stretching forward his head, called out, address-
ing either Herennius or Popilius, " Here, veteran ! if you
think it right strike!" According to Plutarch, "stroking
his chin, as he used to do, with his left hand, he looked
steadfastly upon his murderers, his person covered with dust,
his beard and hair untrimmed, and his face worn with his
troubles." Several of the assassins were moved to pity at
the sight of his grey hairs and ashy countenance, and they
covered their faces with their hands. But Herennius stepped
forward, and with repeated blows of his sword severed his
head from his neck, and it rolled in the dust. 1
Thus fell Cicero the noblest victim of the bloody pro-
scription of the Triumvirate. He was exactly sixty-three
years, eleven months, and five days old, when he died.
The hands were cut off, and the murderers carried them
with the head to Antony. He was seated on a tribunal,
administering justice in the Forum, when they made their
way through the crowd with the ghastly relics in their hands.
His eyes sparkled with joy, and he not only paid the pro-
mised reward, but added to it an enormous sum. What
more precious gift could he present to his wife Fulvia than
the head of their deadliest enemy ? She took it, and placing
it on her Tap, addressed it as if it were alive, in words of
bitter insult. She dragged out the tongue, whose sarcasms
she had so often felt, and with feminine rage pierced it with
her bodkin. It was then taken and nailed to the Rostra, to-
gether with the hands, to moulder there in mockery of the
triumphs of his eloquence, of which that spot had so often
1 It is curious and instructive to no- written." Appian, Dion Cassius, Va-
tice the discrepancies in the different lerius Maximus, and Seneca all say
narratives that have come down to us that it was Popilius Laenas who struck
of the last moments of Cicero. Flu- the blow. Appian's account is that
tarch says that the person who betrayed Laenas pulled his head out of the littei
the path he had taken was a freedman and killed him with three blows, saw-
of his brother Quintus, named Philo- ing rather than cutting off the head,
logus Appian that he was a shoemaker owing to awkwardness. Dio says that
and client of Clodius. Plutarch says Laenas, to secure to himself the credit
that he stretched his neck out of the of the murder, kept the skull close to a
litter, and Herennius cut off his head, little garlanded image of himself, with
" and by Antony's command his hands an inscription upon it mentioning the
also, by which his Philippics were fact.
B.C. 43- CAREER OF HIS SON. 537
been the scene. A sadder sight was never gazed upon in
Rome. 1
It is a saying of Bacon that great men have no continu-
ance ; and this rule if it be a rule was exemplified in the
case of Cicero. His line became rapidly extinct. His only
son the child of so many hopes gave him, in early life,
some uneasiness, owing to the irregularities of youth. There
is, however, a very interesting letter extant, written by him
when he was studying at Athens, to his father's intelligent
freedman, Tiro, which does credit to his heart and head.
The purport of it is, that he has sown his wild oats and
intends to reform. After his father's death he is said to
have taken to drinking perhaps to drown sorrow but cer-
tainly not for the absurd reason assigned by Pliny, probably
in jest, because he wished to deprive Antony of the " glory"
of being the hardest drinker in the Roman world. He fol-
lowed Marcus Brutus to Macedonia, where he acquitted him-
self as a brave and skilful officer, and fought at Philippi. He
afterwards joined the standard of Pompey's son, and, when
peace was concluded with the Triumvirate, returned to
Rome, where honours were lavished upon him by Augustus,
perhaps out of remorse for the part he had himself taken as
an accomplice in the murder of his father. 2 He was made a
member of the College of Augurs, a commissioner of the
Mint, and at last consul, with Augustus as his colleague. 3
It was in that capacity that the public letters were addressed
to him by Augustus announcing his victory at Actium and
conquest of Egypt, and in that capacity also that to him
was intrusted the execution of the decree for destroying the
1 There was a story current in the 2 Plutarch tells us that Augustus once
sixteenth century that the tomb of found his grandson with a book in his
Cicero had been discovered in 1544 in hand, which the boy tried to hide under
digging the foundations of a monastery his robe. The emperor took it from
in the island of Zante, and it was sup- him, and finding that it was a work of
posed that his remains had been carried Cicero returned it to him, saying, " My
there by one of his faithful slaves and child, this was a man of great intellect
secretly buried. Desiderius Lignamineus (\6yios) and a lover of his country."
of Padua declares, in a narrative which 3 Seneca (De Benefic. iv. 30) asks,
he drew up in 1547, that he had seen the " Ciceronem quse res consulem fecit,
tombstone and copied the inscription into nisi pater?" Upon which Lipsius,
his note-book. His theory was that the quoted by Middleton, most unjustly re-
tomb was erected by Cicero's son. marks, " Nam virtutes omnes aberant ;
But the whole account is discredited. stupor et vitia aderant."
538 ESTIMATES OF CICERO'S CHARACTER. CHAP. xxv.
statues and monuments of Antony, the design being that his
very name should perish. He became afterwards proconsul
of Asia Minor, or, according to Appian, of Syria, and his
name thenceforward disappears from the surface of history.
He appears to have died unmarried, or, at all events, he left
no issue.
The reader of the foregoing pages will, I hope, be able to
make a just estimate of the character of Cicero for himself.
We have seen it in its strength and in its weakness, tried by
the two extremes of prosperity and adversity. And it is
better that each should form his own opinion from the
materials which a fair biography affords, than trust to the
opinions of others, on a question where so much depends
upon the idiosyncracy of the writer, and the point of view
from which he regards the subject of his criticism. Few men
have been more praised, and few more vilified, than Cicero.
In his lifetime, and after his death, he had enemies who gave
currency to the most atrocious calumnies respecting him.
But these have died the natural death of a lie, and it would
be an insult to his memory to notice them now. Since the
revival of letters, and until a very recent period, his name
has been worshipped with a kind of idolatry : but at last
there has come a reaction, and he is by some writers as
unduly depreciated as he was before unduly extolled. The
two extremes of opinion may be represented by Middleton
and Niebuhr on the one hand, and by Melmoth, Drumann,
and Mommsen on the other. Middleton goes so far in his
admiration, that De Quincey declares his object was; out of
hatred to Christianity, to paint, in the person of Cicero, a
pure Pagan model of, scrupulous morality; and to show that
in most difficult times he acted with a self-restraint and a
considerate integrity to which Christian ethics could have
added no element of value. Niebuhr says " I love Cicero
as if I had known him, and T judge of him as I would judge
of a near relation who had committed a folly." But Drumann
has painted the portrait of Cicero en noir throughout. In
his exhaustive work he makes a sustained and elaborate
attack upon his character, and hardly gives him credit for a
MT. 64. HIS MORAL CHARACTER. 539
single pure or disinterested motive in the whole course of his
life. He catches at every tale of scandal afloat respecting
him, except those which charge him with licentiousness, of
which even Drumann absolutely acquits him ; and whenever
there is a possibility of imputing something wrong, he imputes
it to him in a spirit of systematic misrepresentation. He
never gives him the benefit of a doubt, and his criticism is
often so unfair, that it is difficult in reading it to avoid feel-
ings of anger and disgust. His erudition is immense, and
I willingly acknowledge the honesty with which he affords
the reader the means of verifying his assertions, by the
copious references that are found at the bottom of every page
of his work. But it would be easy from them to show how
prejudiced and unjust is the view he often takes.
As to Mommsen, he treats Cicero as if he were positively
beneath his notice. When he speaks of him he affects a tone
of supreme contempt, and if all we knew of him depended
upon what the historian has told us, we should regard him
as nothing more than a weak-minded sophist and rhetorician.
Fixing his eyes on the infirmity of his political conduct, in
which there is much to blame and something to pity, this
German writer thinks himself entitled to sneer at him, and is
blind even to the splendour of his intellectual gifts. A far
more just and trustworthy estimate of Cicero will be found
in the admirable work of Abeken. 1 He holds the balance
even, and in his censure and his praise is always a fair and
discriminating judge.
It may be said with truth of Cicero that he was weak,
timid, and irresolute, 2 but it is not the whole truth. These
defects were counterbalanced, and in some respects redeemed,
by the display, at critical periods of his life, of the very
opposite qualities. He was as firm and brave as a man need
be in the contest with Catiline, and the final struggle with
Antony. It would not be fair to judge of Napoleon solely
1 Cicero in Seinen Briefen. berius, a Roman knight, who was look-
ing for a seat in the theatre, ' ' I would
2 His tendency to trim between op- receive you here if I had room : " on
posite parties once exposed him to a which Laberius replied, " I am stir-
stinging sarcasm, as recorded by Mac- prised you have not room, as you usu-
robius (Saturn, ii. 3). He said to La- ally sit on two stools."
540 HIS MORAL CHARACTER. CHAP. xxv.
by his demeanour at St. Helena, and it is not fair to judge
of Cicero solely by his agony during his exile, and his con-
duct during the civil war. In the first he was unmanned by
the magnitude of his misfortunes, and in the second unnerved
by the difficulty of determining which side he ought to follow.
It is utterly untrue to assert, as Drumann asserts, that selfish-
ness and disregard for right and truth were prominent features
of his mind. 1 He was egotistical but not selfish ; and his
anxiety to do what was right was one chief cause of his
irresolution.
He would have been a more consistent if he had been a less
scrupulous man. His lot was cast in times which tried men's
souls to the uttermost, and when boldness was as much
required in a statesman as virtue. His moral instinct was
too strong to allow him to resort to means of which his
conscience disapproved. And if he knew he had acted
wrongly, he instantly felt all the agony of remorse. Although
he lived in the deep shadows of the night which preceded
the dawn of Christianity, his standard of morality was as
high as it was perhaps possible to elevate it by the mere
light of nature. 2 And to fall below that standard made him
feel dissatisfied with himself and ashamed. But his constant
aim was to do right ; and although he sometimes deceived
himself, and made great mistakes, they were the errors of
his judgment rather than of his heart. Let those who, like
De Quincey, Mommsen, and others, speak so disparagingly
of Cicero, and are so lavish in praise of Caesar, recollect that
Caesar was never troubled by a conscience. His end was
power, and to gain it he had no scruple as to the means.
Conspiracy, corruption, and civil war were the instruments of
his guilty ambition, and his private life was darkened by vices
of the worst possible kind. Dazzled by the lustre which
surrounds his name, men are apt to forget all this, and to
confound right and wrong in their hero-worship of his com-
manding genius, his iron will, and his victorious success.
1 Uebrigens erkennt man in seinem 2 Erasmus says, that if he had been
Character Erregbarkeit Selbstsucht, instructed in Christian philosophy, he
Feigheit und Mangel an Achtung vor would, from the purity of his life, have
Recht und Wahrheit, als die hervor- been canonised. Dialog. Ciceron.
stechende Eigenschaften. Gesch. Roms.
B.C. 43. CICERO AS A PHILOSOPHER. 541
The chief fault of Cicero's moral character was a want of
sincerity. In a different sense of the words from that ex-
pressed by St. Paul, he wished to become all things to all
men, if by any means he might win some. His private cor-
respondence and his public speeches were often in direct
contradiction with each other as to the opinions he expressed
of his contemporaries, and he lavished compliments, in the
Senate and the Forum, upon men whose conduct he disliked
and whose characters he abhorred.
His foible was vanity, and he has paid dearly for it, for it
has made him many enemies. A vain man is generally a
weak man, and there was enough of weakness in his character
to cause the sarcasms of ill-nature to appear the language of
truth. Men will forgive worse faults more readily, for they
feel it as a kind of injury to themselves, and they dislike to
have their praise exacted, and to be laid, as it were, under
tribute. He was never tired of speaking of himself, and he
blew his own trumpet with a blast which wearied the ears of
his countrymen. But it was after all a harmless failing, and
would have been sufficiently punished with laughter, instead
of being treated as an offence to be retaliated by slander.
We can well believe that Cicero took a keen and lively
interest in the literature of his time. We learn from the
younger Pliny that he extended his gracious patronage to
the poets, and according to Jerome, in his addition to the
Eusebian Chronicle which seems to be merely a copy of
the lost portion of the work of Suetonius, De Viris I llustribus
he corrected the poem of Lucretius, which was no doubt
published after the suicide of the unhappy author. Catullus
speaks of him in terms which show how much he admired
his eloquence ; he also thanks him for his kindness, and calls
him optimus omnium patronus. But Cicero never men-
tions the name of Catullus in his letters or works, and
the name of Lucretius only occurs once in the passage I
have already quoted. |He seems to have got the poems
of Ennius by heart, and constantly quotes him, calling him
summus poeta noster. But Ennius died long before Cicero
was born. He lived on terms of intimate friendship with
all the celebrated writers of his day, such as Varro, Nigi-
542 CICERO AS A PHILOSOPHER. CHAP. xxv.
dius, Lucceius, and Pollio, and there is not a trace of
jealousy or envy of his literary contemporaries to be found
in any of his writings. On the contrary, he seems to have
taken every opportunity of praising them heartily and un-
grudgingly.
As a philosopher Cicero had no pretensions to originality.
His object was to recommend the study of Greek philosophy
to the attention of his countrymen, who were profoundly
ignorant of it ; and no writer since Plato has ever succeeded
in making it more attractive. It was said of Socrates that
he drew philosophy from the clouds, and made her walk upon
the earth ; and this is equally true of Cicero. She spoke
literally and metaphorically in an almost unknown language
to the Roman mind until he appeared. 1 He had to coin, in
many instances, the very words by which the ideas were to
be expressed, for the unmetaphysical character of the Roman
intellect had never hitherto conceived the existence of the
problems which had so long exercised the subtle speculations
of the Greeks. Though not a philosopher like Pythagoras,
Plato, Zeno, and Epicurus, he had eminently a philosophical
mind as a candid and diligent inquirer after truth. His
capacious intellect embraced the whole field of inquiry, and
his judgment refused to trammel itself in the chains of any
particular sect. The school to which he most attached
himself was the school of the New Academy, of which
Arcesilas (born B.C. 320) was the reputed founder. But it
was precisely for the reason that this school was the most
liberal and least prejudiced of all. Its distinguishing feature
was an enlightened scepticism. It did not dogmatise so
much as doubt. Where other sects peremptorily determined
what was true and what was false, the New Academy was
modestly content with probability. Cicero was too sagacious
and too liberal not to see the weak points of other systems.
He laughed at the absurd paradoxes of the Stoics, and his
moral sense revolted at the selfish and God-denying doctrines
of the Epicureans. But he did not reject all because he
could not approve of all, for he agreed on many points with
1 Philosophia jacuit usque ad hanc oetatem, nee ullum habuit lumen literarum
Latinarum. Tusc. Disp. i. 3.
JET. 64. CICERO AS A PHILOSOPHER. 543
both. Knowing the character of his mind, it would have
been easy to predict, even without knowing the fact, that he
would incline to the school of the New Academy. It was a
doctrine congenial to the spirit of an irresolute man to hold
that doubt is the proper state in which to keep the mind
suspended when dealing with questions of speculative truth.
Moreover, the habit of mind of an advocate is indisposed to
dogmatic assertion. He is constantly employed in consider-
ing what can be said by an opponent, and he is more con-
cerned that the answer he is prepared to make shall be
plausible than that it shall be true. But no man can accustom
himself to weigh objections without learning to doubt whether
his own view is infallibly right. The conflict of argument
has taught him that on almost every question much may be
said on both sides, and the result is, or ought to be, a spirit
of fairness and candour, which is equally opposed to bigotry
in religion and dogmatism in philosophy. For the same
reason, I believe, it was, and not from a servile imitation of
Plato, that Cicero cast most of his philosophical treatises into
the form of dialogues, by which he was enabled to bring out
the strong and weak points of opposing systems, without
committing himself to any decisive and peremptory opinion. 1
But, although on speculative questions, such as the Nature of
Things, the Supreme Good, and similar subjects, he was more
the expounder of the opinions of others than the asserter of
his own, he was a firm believer in the great cardinal truths of
a Providence and a future state. And he was also clear and
decided in his views of moral obligation. In his lofty and
unhesitating choice of right in preference to expediency, as
the rule of conduct, he is a safer guide than Paley ; and his
work, De Officiis, is the best practical treatise on the whole
duty of man which pagan antiquity affords. The ethics of
Aristotle may be compared to the dissection of an anatomist,
but Cicero has given life to the figure of virtue, and clothed
it in warm flesh and blood.
As an orator his faults are coarseness in invective, exag-
1 Id (genus disputandi) potissimum tegeremus, errore alios levaremuS et in
consecuti sumus quo Socratem usum omni disputatione quid esset simillimum
arbitrabamur, ut nostram ipsi sententiam veri quaereremus. Tusc. Disp. v. 4.
544 HIS ORATORY. CHAP. xxv.
geration in matter, and prolixity in style. His habit of
exaggeration is such that it is often difficult to ascertain the
limits within which the truth really lies ; but, as a general
rule, to be on the safe side we must deduct a large percentage
from his statements. I believe that the cause of this was not
any purpose or desire to mislead, but the vehement and
excitable temperament of the man. As he felt warmly, so
he expressed himself strongly. Many of his sentences are
intolerably long, and he dwells upon a topic with an ex-
haustive fulness which leaves nothing to the imagination.
The pure gold of his eloquence is beaten out too thin, and
what is gained in surface is lost in solidity and depth. The
argument often disappears in a cloud of words the course
of the stream is lost in an inundation. This is one great
difference between him and Demosthenes. The declamation
of the Greek orator, like that of Brougham, is always argu-
mentative. Amidst the grandeur of his eloquence, his
speeches are practical and business-like, and he never loses
sight of the aim and end he has in view. Perhaps no orator
has ever kept more closely to the point. And it cannot, I
think, be doubted, that for this reason, amongst others,
Demosthenes would have been listened to with far more
attention than Cicero in the English House of Commons.
Indeed, I am not sure that the speeches of the Roman would
not there have been received, like the speeches of Burke, with
unmistakable signs of impatience. But, on the other hand,
we must remember that Cicero was an Italian speaking to
Italians ; and as the end of all oratory is to persuade, the
true test of its excellence is the impression it produced upon
the audience to which it was addressed. His countryman
Quinctilian can hardly find language strong enough to express
his enthusiastic admiration. He says that his eloquence
combined the power of Demosthenes, the copiousness of
Plato, and the sweetness of Isocrates. We know the magical
effect it had upon the people and the Senate. They took
delight in the flowing periods, the ever-changing forms of
words which disguised the repetition of the idea, as bits of
coloured glass are glorified by the kaleidoscope and the
passionate rhetoric, which took captive their imagination and
B.C. 43. HIS ORATORY. 545
carried away their feelings by storm. Criticise the eloquence
of Cicero as we will, it is impossible to deny that no greater
master of the music of speech has ever yet appeared amongst
mankind. 1
But, however opinions may differ as to his oratory, some
thinking him too florid and diffuse, and, to use a homely
term, long-winded, there can be but one opinion of his merits
as a writer. The benefit he conferred upon his own lan-
guage is incalculable, and the way to measure it is to com-
pare the Latinity of the authors who preceded him of whose
works we possess a few fragments or even his contem-
poraries, with the Latinity of Cicero. He created a style
which has been the model and the despair of succeeding
writers. It is so pure and perfect, with such modulation of
sentences, and wealth and harmony of diction, so free from
roughness or obscurity, that in proportion as the reader is
familiar with it, he acquires a disrelish for the style of any
other Latin author. Livy, in my opinion, comes next in
excellence, but he wants the fulness, and the grace, and the
charm of Cicero.
He was one of the most forgiving of men, and it was in
perfect sincerity that he uttered the noble sentiment that he
was not ashamed to confess that his enmities were mortal,
and his friendships eternal. He was, more than almost any
other of those stern old Romans, what may be called a family
man. He doted on his children, and, until his unhappy
divorce, was loving and affectionate to his wife. - To his
dependants he was a kind-hearted master witness his sorrow
for the death of Sositheus, and his warm regard for the
accomplished Tiro.
Of his personal appearance and habits we know little
more than what Plutarch has told us, and what we can
glean from different passages in his letters and works. He
was thin and meagre in frame, with a long neck, and had
such a weakness of digestion that he accustomed himself to
a spare diet, which he generally took late in the evening.
1 Contrary to what we might have action of a slow - stepping horse,
expected, his delivery was slow and " Cicero quoque noster, a quo Romana
measured at all events in his later eloquentia exstitit, gradarius fuit." -
years and Seneca compares it to the Epist. 40.
2 N
546 HIS APPEARANCE & HA3ITS. CHAP. xxv.
But he was a diner out, and liked merriment at table, a
man full of light pleasantry and wit, for he was naturally of
a joyous temperament, until public and private sorrow cast
a shadow over his existence. Niebuhr says, " The predomi-
nant and most brilliant faculty of his mind was his wit In
what the French call esprit light, unexpected, and inex-
haustible wit he is not excelled by any among the ancients."
But it had a flavour of bitterness in it at times, and left a
sting behind which was neither forgotten nor forgiven. He
would have been a match for Talleyrand at a repartee. It
was only in the later years of his life that he indulged in a
siesta after meals. He was fond of the bath, and had his
body well rubbed and oiled. He also took a sufficient
quantity of exercise daily, and by these means, notwith-
standing a naturally weak constitution, he enjoyed upon the
whole excellent health. We find him complaining of sick-
ness not more than two or three times in the course of his
long and numerous correspondence ; but as he grew older he
was troubled by a weakness of the eyes, which was caused
most probably by excessive study. There is no authentic
bust of Cicero. 1 The emperor Alexander Severus possessed
one, but it is not known to be in existence now. His face
was handsome, and he retained his good looks until his
death. 2 That it was full of beaming intellect we require no
authority to feel assured.
p His activity of mind and industry were astonishing. It
/ has been computed that we possess little more than a tenth
) part of what he wrote ; and this is certainly true, if we in-
clude his lost speeches, most of which were carefully prepared
\ and written out beforehand. 3 We have seen how frequently
\ he was employed in composition before the sun had risen,
I and few men could with less justice say of themselves, like
\Titus, Diemperdidi !
To appreciate his full worth let us consider what a blank
/there would have been in the annals of Rome and the history
1 The head of Cicero, facing the title- tudo. Asin. Pollio apud Senec. Sita-
page of this work, is taken from a sor. 6.
bronze medal sti'uck by the town of 3 For an excellent account and
Magnesia in Lydia. analysis of his various works, see the
2 Et quidem facies decora ad se- admirable article entitled " Cicero" in
nectutem, prosperaque permansit vale- Smith's Biog. Diet.
&T. 64.
PANEGYRIC ON CICERO.
547
of the world if Cicero had never lived. He illumines the
darkness of the past with the light of his glorious intellect,
like some lofty beacon that sheds its rays over the waste of
waters. And the more we think of all we owe him of all
he did, and wrote, and spoke the more shall we be dis-
posed to agree with the prophetic judgment of the historian
who says : l " Vivit vivetque per omnem sseculorum me-
moriam ; . citiusque e mundo genus hominum quam
Ciceronis gloria e memoria hominum unquam cedet."
1 Veil. Paterc. ii. 66.
THE TOMB OF CICERO.
APPENDIX.
ORATIONS OF CICERO. 1
Pro P. Quinctio 81
Pro Sex. Roscio Amerino . . 80
Pro Muliere Arretina (before
his journey to Athens)
*Pro Q. Roscio Comaedo . . 76
Pro Adolescentibus Siculis . . 75
Pro Scamandro 74
**Pro L. Vareno . probably 71
*Pro M. Tullio 71
Pro C. Mustio . . . before 70
In Q. Cascilium 70
In Verrem Actio prima, 5th Aug. 70
In Verrem Actio secunda. Not
delivered.
*Pro M. Fonteio 69
Pro A. Caecina 69
**Pro P. Oppio 67
Pro Lege Manilia 66
**Pro C. Fundanio .... 66
Pro A. Cluentio Avito ... 66
**Pro C Manilio 65
Pro L. Corvino 65
**Pro C. Cornelio. Two ora-
tions 65
Pro C. Calpurnio Pisone . . 64
**Oratio in Toga Candida . . 64
**Pro Q. Gallic
*De Lege Agraria, O ratio pri-
64
De Lege Agraria, Oratio secun-
da, ad populum.
De Lege Agraria, Oratio tertia,
ad populum.
**De L. Roscio Othonc.
*Pro C. Rabirio.
**De Proscriptorum Liberis
In Catilinam, prima Oratio, 8th
Nov.
In Catilinam, secunda, 9th Nov.
In Catilinam, tertia.
In Catilinam, quarta, 5th Dec.
Pro Murena. Towards the end
of 63
**Contra Concionem Q. Metelli,
3d Jan 62
Pro P. Cornelio Sulla ... 62
**In Clodium et Curionem . 61
Pro A. Licinio Archia. Gene-
rally assigned to .... 6 1
Pro Scipione Nasica .... 60
Pro L. Valerio Flacco ...51
Pro A. Minucio Thermo.
Twice defended in .... 59
1 This list is taken, with slight alteration, from the article " Cicero " in Smith's Biog. Dictionary ;
but I have added the Philippics, which are there omitted. The italics denote those speeches
which are wholly lost ; the' two asterisks, those of which only a few mutilated fragments remain ;
the single asterisk denotes those of which, although imperfect, enough remains to give a clear idea
of trie argument, and where considerable passages are complete.
55
APPENDIX.
B.C.
Pro Ascitio .... before 56
Pro M. Cispio . . . after 57
Post Reditum, in Senatu, 5th
Sept 57
Post Reditum, ad Quirites, 6th
or 7th Sept 57
Pro Domo sua, ad Pontifkes,
29th Sept -57
De Haruspicum Responsis . . 56
Pro L. Calpurnio Pisone Bes-
tia, nth Feb 56
Pro P. Sextio. Early in March 56
In Vatinium Interrogatio. Same
date.
Pro M. Cselio Rufo.
Pro L. Cornelio Balbo . .
De Provinciis Consularibus
**De Rege Alexandrino . .
In L. Pisonem
**In A. Gabinium.
Pro Cn. Plancio . . . . * . 55
Pro Caninio Gallo . . . . 55
Pro C. Rabirio Postumo ... 54
56
56
56
55
**Pro Vatinio 54
*Pro M. yEmilio Scauro ... 54
Pro Crasso, in Senatu ... 54
Pro Druso 54
Pro C. Messio 54
De Reatinomm Causa contra
Interamnates.
Pro T. Annio Milone .... 52
Pro M. Saufeio. Two orations 54
Contra T. Munatium Plancum.
In Dec 52
Pro Cornelio Do label la ... 50
Pro M. Marcello 47
Pro Q. Ligario 46
Pro Rege Deiotaro .... 45
De Pace, in Senatu, i8th March 42
Philippica Prima (against An-
tony) . 44
Philippica Secunda (against
Antony ; written but not de-
livered) 44
Philippica Orationes 1 1 1. -XV. 44-43
ROMAN CONSULS DURING CICERO'S LIFE.
Anno setat.
C. Atilius Serranus Q. Servilius Caspio i
P. Rutilius Rufus Cn. Mallius 2
C. Marius II C. Flavius Fimbria 3
C. Marius III L. Aurelius Orestes .... 4
C. Marius IV
C. Marius V
C. Marius VI
M. Antonius (orator) . .
Q. Cselius Metellus Nepos
Cn. Corn. Lentulus
Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus
L. Licinius Crassus .
O. Lutatius Catulus .... 5
M. Aquillius 6
L. Valerius Flaccus ...
A. Postumius Albinus ...
T. Didius
P. Licinius Crassus . . .
C. Cassius Longinus . . .
Q. Mutius Scasvola ....
7
8
9
IO
ii
12
APPENDIX. 551
Anno setat.
C. Caelius Caldus L. Domitius Ahenobarbus . . 13
C. Valerius Flaccus M. Herennius 14
C. Claudius Pulcher M. Perperna 15
L. Marcius Philippus Sext. Julius Caesar 16
L. Julius Caesar P. Rutilius Lupus 17
Cn. Pompeius Strabo L. Porcius Cato . . . .' . . 18
L. Cornelius Sulla Q. Pompeius Rufus 19
Cn. Octavius L. Cornelius Cinna 20
L. Cornelius Cinna II C. Marius VII 21
L. Cornelius Cinna III Cn. Papirius Carbo .... 22
Cn. Papirius Carbo II L. Cornelius Cinna IV. ... 23
L. Cornel. Scipio Asiaticus C. Junius Norbanus .... 24
C. Marius Cn. Papirius Carbo III. . . . 25
M. Tullius Decula Cn. Cornelius Dolabella ... 26
L. Cornelius Sulla II Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius . . 27
P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus . . . App. Claudius Pulcher ... 28
M. ^milius Lepidus Q. Lutatius Catulus .... 29
D. Junius Brutus Mam. /Emilius Lepidus ... 30
Cn- Octavius C. Scribonius Curio .... 31
L. Octavius C. Aurelius Cotta 32
L. Licinius Lucullus M. Aurelius Cotta 33
M. Terentius Varro C. Cassius Varus 34
L. Gellius Poplicola Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Claudianus 35
Cn. Aufidius Orestes P. Cornelius Lentulus Surae . . 36
Cn. Pompeius Magnus M. Licinius Crassus . . . . 37
Q. Hortensius Q. Caecilius Metellus Creticus . 38
L. Caecilius Metellus Q. Marcius Rex 39
C. Calpurnius Piso M. Acilius Glabrio 40
M. ^Emilius Lepidus L. Volcatius Tullus . . . . 41
L. Aurelius Cotta L. Manlius Torquatus .... 42
L. Julius Caesar C. Marcius Figulus .... 43
M. Tullius Cicero C. Antonius 44
D. Junius Silanus L. Lucinius Murena .... 45
M. Pupius Piso Calpurnianus . . M. Valerius Messala Niger . . 46
L. Afranius Q. Caecilius Metellus Celer . . 47
C. Julius Caesar M. Calpurnius Bibulus ... 48
L. Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus . . A. Gabinius 49
P. Cornel. Lentulus Spinther . . Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos . . 50
Cn. Cornel. Lentulus Marcellinus L. Marcius Philippus .... 51
Cn. Pompeius Magnus II. . . . M. Licinius Crassus II. . . . 52
L. Domitius Ahenobarbus . . . App. Claudius Pulcher . . . 53
552
APPENDIX.
Cn. Domitius Calvinus .
Cn Pompeius Magnus III.
(alone until ist August)
Serv. Sulpicius Rufus
L. ^Emilius Paullus
C. Claudius M. F. Marcellus
C. Julius Caesar II
C. Julius Caesar, Dictator .
C. Julius Caesar III
C. Julius Caesar IV., Dictator
C. Julius Caesar V., Dictator
C. Vibius Pansa . ..
M. Valerius Messala ...
Q Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio 5 S
M. Claudius Marcellus ... 56
C. Claudius Marcellus .... 57
L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus . .58
P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus . . 59
M. Antonius, Magister Equitum 60
M. ^Emilius Lepidus . . . . 61
{ M " ^ milius Le P idus ' Ma ^ ister j 62
( Equitum ......
$ Marcus Antonius, P. Cornelius
1 Dolabella, Cons, suffectus
Aulus Hirtius ...... 64
INDEX.
Accius, 260
Actium, 314
./Ediles, lavish outlay of, 50
^Eschylus, of C nidus, 32
^Esop, 15, 251
Afranius, 153
Agraria Lex, speeches against, 97-99
Agrarian provision for disbanded sol-
diers, 154
Alexio, 436
Allobroges, no
Amanus, the (Cilicia), 319
Amasius (or Herophilus), 405
Anticato, Csesar's reply to Cicero's pane-
gyric, 391
Antium, 64, 166, 179, 245, 439
Antonius, 3, 7, 86, 94, 120, 132, 164
Antony, Marc, 300, 348, 374, 423,
437, 464; joins Caesar, 3525 con-
sul, 411 ; after the assassination, 422;
letter to, 432 ; embassy to, 482, 486;
march into Gaul, 520
Appia Via, inundation of, superstitiously
construed, 276
Appius Claudius, 291. 300, 312, 318,
331-36
Apuleius, 509
Aquila, Pontius, 348
Aquillius, 86
Aratus, Phenomena of, translated, 9
Arcanum, 309
Archias, poet, early instructor, 9
Archimedes, tomb of, discovered by
Cicero, 37
Arena, scale of sports in, 250-1
Ariminum, 354
Ariobarzanes, 319, 328
Arpinum, I, 64
Asia Minor, visit to, 32
Astura, 64, 533, 534
Athens, visit to, 31-32, 314, 346
Atticus, Titus Pomponius, 32, 68, 222,
288; letters to, 55-60, 86, 90-
91, 150-152, 156, 160, 165-170,
185-8, 275, 281, 312, 333, 349,
411, 427, 444; friendly devotion of,
191 ; unrestrained confidence with,
384 ; last letter to, 468 ; estimate of,
469
Attius, 74
Augurs, College of, 291
Autronius, 186
BALBUS, L. Cornelius, 230, 368
Bdlum, distinction of, from tumultus,
487
Bestia, L. , defence of, 222
Bibulus, 159, 1 66, 172, 307, 323;
epigram upon, 172
Birth and descent of Cicero, 2
Bona Dea, rites and festival of, 136
Bononia, 533
Books, Cicero's passion for, 55, 64,
249
Bovillae, 293
Brougham, Lord, his speech in defence
of Williams, 253 ; his declamation
argumentative, 544
Brundusium, 1 86-8, 200, 313, 348,
381, 464
Brutus, Decimus, 464, 472, 474, 514 ;
retreat and death of, 528 ; Marcus,
177, 301, 427, 494; proetor, 412;
family council with Cicero, 439 ; last
meeting with, 446 ; correspondence
with, not authentic, 496
Bursa, Munatius Plancus, 293, 306
C^ECILIUS Niger, speech against, 43-4
Csecilius, uncle of Atticus, 90
Coecina, 51, 395
Casrellia, 407
Csesar, Julius, 64, 93, 158, 172, 185,
278, 340, 369, 376 ; (first mention
of, by Cicero), 157 ; his anxiety to
conciliate Cicero, 255 ; a creditor of
Cicero, 311; proposes terms to the
Senate, 351 ; interviews with, 371
554
INDEX.
388 ; a controversialist, 392 ; gene-
rosity of, 396, 413; consul, 411;
conspiracy against, 414-24 ; assassi-
nation of, 418-19 ; emphatically ap-
proved of by Cicero, 420, 425, 337
Caesar, Lucius, 91
Csesonius, 86
Caieta, 375
Calidius, 297
Calvinos, Domitius, 288, 292
Camillas, 529
Capito, Ateius, 254
Capua, council of war at, 357
Carinae, 6
Cassius, 412, 415, 423, 438
Catiline, L. Sergius, 87, 92-3, 103-20;
conjectured defence of, examined, 86 ;
orations against, 107 ; accomplices
of, 110-18
Cato, M., 117, 122, 130, 150, 153,
159, 306, 375 ; letter to, 322 ; death
of, 391
Catulus, 75, 156
Cedant arma togce, etc., ridiculed, II,
456
Celer, Q. Metellus, 120, 127, 153
Cethegus, in
Chrysogonus, 25
Cicer (conjectural derivation), 2
Cicero, Marcus, the elder, death of, 59 ;
the younger, 87, 91, 403, 537; Quin-
tus, 4, 32, 58, 59, 77, 80, 254, 258,
261, 284, 309, 432 ; letters to, 190,
214, 224-5, 247, 255-7, 261, 280-
281 ; quarrel with, 383, 385-7 ; and
his son murdered, 534 ; the younger,
371, 408, 441
Cilicia, proconsulate of, 309-39
Cinna, 20
Circeii, 534
Civil war, 359-81
Clodia, 138, 235 ; infamy of, 239
Clodius, Publius, 155, 181-84, 212-14,
219-20 ; trial and corrupt acquittal
of, 144-7 5 his penal enactment level-
led at Cicero, 181 ; his attempt upon
the life of Cicero, 2 1 1 ; death of,
293-5
Clodius, Sextius, 305
Cluentius, defence of, 72
Ccelius, Rufus, 235-43, 296, 314, 316,
321, 372
Comitia Centuriata, 73
Confiscation of Cicero's property, 185
Consulship unanimously conferred, with-
out ballot, 94
Corcyra, 313
Cornelia (mother of the Gracchi), early
influence of her letters. 2 1
Cornelius, Caius, 70, 85
Cornificius, 86, 92, 138, 297
Cotta, 30, 33, 197
Crassipes, Furius, 224, 323
Crassus, 93, 113, 122, 139, 149, 254
290 ; early friendship with, 7 ; Pub-
lius, 291
Cut Bono, meaning of, 516, note
Cumse, 64, 310, 372
Curia Hostilia, Temple of, 295
Curio, 177, 289, 292, 343, 372, 375
Curios, Q., 133
Curule chair, 49
Cytheris, 374, 396
DEBATE in Senate described, 214-16
Deiotarus (Cicero's last client), 410
Demetrius, tutor in rhetoric, 32
Demoralisation of Rome at the time ot
First Triumvirate, 160-61
De Quincey, quoted, 42, 54, 66, 308,
33 8 > 347, 3 6 2; refuted, 212
De repetundis (impeachment), 308
Dies LustricuS) 4
Dio Cassius refuted, 126 ; his animosity
against Cicero, 481
Diodotus the Stoic, tutor in dialectics,
21
Dionysius (freedman), 245, 249, 310,
357, 375 ; of Magnesia, 32
Dolabella, Cornelius, 334, 355, 379,
392, 412, 423, 434, 496; suicide of,
497
Domitius Ahenobarbus, 90, 153, 298
Drumann, his estimate of Cicero, 538
Drusus, 259
Dyrrachium, 188, 193, 381
ELECTIONEERING at Rome, 39, 70,
80, 123
Ephesus, 316, 346
Equestrian Order, unjustifiably upheld
by Cicero, 147
Erasmus, his opinion of Cicero, 540
Exile, his bitter sense of, 185-93, 195
FABERIUS, 437
Fabia, 103
Fa?sulse, 105, 120
Famine riots, 205-6
Fannius Chaerea, 34
Fausta, 293
Faustus, 246
Favonius, 157
Fibrinus, I
Figulus, C. Marcius, 91 ; Nigidius, 393
INDEX.
555
Flaccus L. Valerius, 173; M. Lsenius,
187
Flaminian Way, origin of, 91
Flavius, Q., 34, 154
Fonteius, 51
Formiae, 55, 64, 169, 348, 361, 534
Fufius Calenus, 139, 142, 384, 477,
480-1, 494
Fulvia, 107, 294, 299, 536
Fundanius, M., 72
Fusius, M., 293
GABINIUS, Aulus, 69, 180, 263, 273,
275
Galba, P., 86, 92
Gallius, Q., 95
Gallorum Cnniculus, 470
Gallus Fadius, 217; Caninius, 251
Gavius, victim of Verres, 42
Genealogy of the Cicero family, 3
Gnipho, rhetorician, 77
HELVETII, threatened invasion of, 155
Helvia, 3
Herennius, 535
Herophilus (or Amasius), 405
Hirtius Aulus, 392, 476, 501
Home-life of Cicero, 262
Hortensius, 23, 33, 76, 122, 134, 142,
173, 297, 310; death of, 345; the
younger, 337
Hybrida, C. Antonius, 92
Hyclruntum, 348
Hypseeus, P. Plantus, 292, 305
INDECISION of Cicero, 360
Interamna, 260
Interreges, 287
Interrogatio Testium, 47
Issus, 320
JULIA, 170
Jus Imagimim, 49
LABIENUS, 355
Lsenas, Popilius, 416, 535
Lanuvium, 293, 427
Laodicea, 317
Latomiae, 42
Laudare, meaning of, 306
Lentulus, L. Cornelius, 110-178, 197,
2 5> 351, 358 ; letter to, in defence
of policy, 265-273
Lepidus, M. yEmilius, 295, 384, 474,
492, 504, 522
Letters of Cicero, characteristics of,
53-61
Leucopetra, 445
Liberce Legationes, 125, 175
Ligarius, 394
Liris, I
Literary labours, 157-8, 397, 405,
442
Lollius, 205
Longinus, L. Cassius, 92
Lucceius, 159, 228, 288, 403
Lucius, cousin of Cicero, 32
Lucretius, Cicero's opinion of, 248
Lucullus superseded, 75
MACER, C. Licinius, trial of, 71
Mamertine prison, 1.17
Manilius defended, 77
Manlius, Caius, io(J, 109
Marcellus, C. Claudius, 343'5> 35 J ;
M. Claudius 342, 393
Marcus, 3
Marms (early poem), 12
Marius, 5, 251
Marsian (or Social War), 17
Massacre of centurions at Brundusium,
464
Memmius, 282, 315
Menippus, of Stratonice, 32
Mescinius, 338
Messala, Valerius, 288
Messius defended, 259
Metellus, Scipio (or Pius), 46, 292,
305, 341
Middleton, 10, 191, 236, 277, 283,
312, 314, 327, 339, 538
Military education, 16 ; exploit of
Cicero, 320
Milo, T. Annius, 199, 213-14, 219-21,
292, 293, 298-304 ; defence of, as
written, 301-4
Molo, tutor in rhetoric, 20, 32
Mommsen, his depreciation of Cicero,
539
Mucia, 137
Munda, 409
Murena, Lucius, 12 1
Mutina, 474; siege of, 500, 505, 514,
520
NASICA, P. Scipio, 157
Naso, Q., 72
Nepos, Q. C. Metellus, 125, 127-30
Nesis, island of, 441, 443
Niebuhr, quoted, 6, 30, 35, 60, 79,
121, 132, 286, 516
Niger, Lentulus, 228
Nomenclatores (and system of canvass-
ing), 40
556
INDEX.
OCTAVIAN, 428, 466, 469 ; foul suspi-
cions of, 516; policy of, 524; of-
fended by Cicero's sarcasm, 527 ;
forced election of, to consulship, 529 ;
overture to Antony, 532
Oppianicus, 73
Oppius, 368
Oration in the white robe, 93
Oratory, Roman, essentially impas-
sioned, 31 ; Cicero's style of, 543-4
Ornare provinciam, meaning of, 282
Otho, Lucius, 70, 100
PACORUS, 319
Psetus, Papirius, 158, 396, 491
Palatine Hill (purchase of villa), 131
Pansa, C. Vibius, 477, 494 ; death of,
508
Patrse, 348, 383
Patro, the Epicurean, 315
Paullus, L. /Emilius, 177, 278, 343
Pecuniary position and resources of
Cicero, 66-8
Pedius, Q., 529, 532
Personal appearance of Cicero, 545
Petreius, 120
Phsedrus, the Epicurean, early instruc-
tor, 9
Pharsalia, 381
Philippics, 452, 457, 472, 478, 484,
487, 494, 497, 509 ; estimate of,
512
Philo, 17
Philippus, Lucius, 482
Philosophic bias of Cicero, 542
Picenum, 356
Pilia, 222, 315, 435
Pindenissus, 320
Piso, C. Calpurnius, 70, 103, 139, 147,
153, 1 80, 194, 263 ; speech against,
252 ; Lucius, 482 ij r\ >
Pistoria, 120
Plancius, 1 88, 193, 264
Plancus, Munatius, 294, 297, 299, 311,
475. 500, 5i8, 524, 528
Plutarch, quoted, 7i,3975 2I >537
Pseonius, 280
Poetical works, estimate and list of, 1 1
Pollio, 474, 492, 528
Pompeia, 137
Pompeii, 66, 375
Pompeius, 17, 297
Pompey, 75, 129, 139, 154, 159, 163,
170, 195, 207, 218, 246, 250, 340;
correspondence with, 130,; magnifi-
cence of his third triumph, 149 ;
policy of Cicero towards, 1 50 ; esti-
mate of, 164 ; his desertion of Cicero,
183 ; sole consul, 296 ; vacillation of,
358 ; Cicero's loan to, 380 ; defeat
and death of, 381 ; Sextus, 431
Pomponia, 58, 59, 432
Pomptinus, 316
Pontiffs, College of, 138
Postumius, 122
Praetor Urbanus, Cicero chosen, 71
PrcevaricatiO) 43
Procilius, 259
Provinciis Consularibus, de (speech in
support of Csesar), 231-9
Publilia, 400, 402, 406
Publius Quintus (Cicero's first recorded
cause), 23
Puteoli, 64, 428
QUADRANTARIA (nickname of Clodia),
138
RABIRIUS (senator), narrow escape of,
101-2 ; Postumus, 277
Ravenna, 311
Reate, Cicero's special retainer for, 260
Reception of Cice"ro at Rome, on the
eve of rupture with Antony, 446
Restitution of Cicero's property, 210
Return to Rome, 200-5
Rhegium, 445
Rhenus, 533
Rhodes, 345
Roscius, the actor, 15, 34; Sextus de-
fended, 23
Rostra, first speech (concio) from, 75
Rubicon crossed, 353
Rufus, Q. Pompeius, 287, 294, 306
Rullus, P. Servilius, 97
SACERDOS, C. Licinius, 92
St. Peter, tradition of, 118
Salamis, 325
Sampsisceramus (nickname of Pompey),
170
Sanga, Q. Fabius, 1 10
Sassia, 7 2
Saturninus, 101
Saufeius, M., 305
Scaptius, 325
Scaavola, Q. M., 10, 15
Scaurus, 264
Schools of education at Rome, 8
Scola, Cassinius, 293, 299
Sebosus, 170
Sempronia, 299
Seneca, on Atticus, 468
Septa (polling barriers), 278
INDEX.
557
Septimius, C., 177
Serapio, of Antioch, 165
Sergius, 205
Serranus, 197
Servilius, Publius, 489
Sica, 1 86, 444
Sicily, under Cicero's quaestorship, 36-38
Sida, 339, 345
Silanus, Decimus, 121 ; Marcus, 515
Sinuessa, 466
Sositheus, 152
Strabo, Cn. Pompeius, 17
Style of Cicero, as orator and writer,
543-5
Sulla, P., 134
Sulpicius, Servius, 403, 482 ; death of,
486 ; funeral honours to, 490
Sulpicius (tribune), early influence of,
18, 121
Sylla, Faustus, 297 ; L. Cornelius, 30,
100
TARENTUM, 311, 388
Tarsus, 334, 388
Tedius, Sextius, 294
Terentia, wife of Cicero, 35, 59, 91,
1 86, 195, 346, 380, 403 ; vindicated,
187, 397-98; divorced, 397-99
Terracina, 348
Theatre, tumult at, quelled, 100
Themius, A., 173
Thermus, 336
Thessalonica, 189
Thurii, 186
Tibei'ius Nero, 331
Tibur, 455
Tiro, 347, 440
Toga virtlis assumed, 1 1
Torquatus, 134, 298
Trebatius, 256, 260, 279, 288, 357
Trebonius, 389, 490, 496
Triumvirate, First, 159; unpopular,
171 ; Second, 533
Tubero, L., 192, 394
Tullia, 55, 59, 200, 331, 375, 379,
383, 387 ; death of, 400
Tullianum (Mamerline dungeon), 118
TumultuS) distinction of, from bellum,
487
Tusculum, 59, 61-3, 165, 249, 388,
438, 530
Tyrannic (tutor and librarian), 55, 222
UMBRENUS, no
VANITY of Cicero, 38, 157, 323, 541
Varius, 90
Varro, 193, 194
Vatinia Lex, 1 74
Vatinius, 72, 247, 261, 384
Vedius, 330
Ventidius, 520
Verres, Caius, 41-9
Vettius, Lucius, 133, 177
Vibo, 1 86, 444
Volumnius, 322
Vulturcius, no
WATCHING the sky, 284, 287
Wit of Cicero, 377, 546
XENOCLES of Adramyttium, 32
Xenophon, (Economics of, translated
by Cicero, 21
THE END.
Printed by R. CLARK, Edinburgh.