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LIFE
or
MARCUTS TUTLLIITS CICERO.
By
WILLIAM FORSYTH, MV. A., Q. C.,
AmuXO op "HowmrTEus," "NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA AND SIR HUDSONq LOWE,"
" HISTORY OP TRIAL BY JURY,"' ETC.,
AND LATE FELLOW OP TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
TWO VOLUMES IN ONE.
WITH ILL USTRA TIONS.
FIFTH AMERICAN EDITION.
NEW YORK:
SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG, AND CO.
1878.




IIYRSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
BIUBUO19TTPED AND PZIN?3b S"
S. 0. HOUGHTON AND OOMIPAXT.




DEDICATION.


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 employed for the welfare of mankind, vividly
recall to the minds of his countrymen the great
Orator, Statesman, and Philosopher of ancient
Rome. " Superest adhuc et exornat Setatis nostrae
gloriam Vir saeculorum memoria dignus, qui olim
nominabitur nunc intelligitur."
Believe me,
Very sincerely yours,
W. FORSYTH.
THE FIRE, MORTIMER, December, 1863.. I J'    -  I -- -0
I 10    11 _jy  rl e, N.?       jj
I -le, - I '_.
6'.; -.. -  I 4"




I
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PREFACE.


MORE than a century has elapsed since Middletol
first published his "' History of the Life of Marcus
Tullius Cicero," which has during that period exclusively 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 biography. 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 connaissons rien de
leur caractere, de leur vocation, des actions de leur
vie, ils demeurent pour nous a l'6tat d'abstraction;




6


FREFACE.


or, vous savez si ce sont les abstractions qui parlent
au coeur." Middleton's work is also overlaid 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 accessaries 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 weeding 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 principle 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 familiarize 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 Briefen," -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 Geschlechtern," although I differ greatly from the estimate he
has formed of the character of Cicero, and think him




PREFACE.


7


both prejudiced and unfair. I have derived most
material assistance from the admirable edition of
Cicero's letters by Schiitz, where the correspondence
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 unmethodically
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 pedantry 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
following work, but as it would have swelled the
volumes to an inconvenient size, I have been obliged
very considerably 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 references 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
labor in the conmpletion of my task. I can truly say




8                  PREFACE.
that it has been with me a labor of love, and the
most agreeable relaxation I cared to find from the
toils of my profession. It is,.no doubt, perilous to
the interests of lawyers to be supposed to occupy
even their horce subsecivce with anything like literature. But although their profession has the first and
foremost claims upon their attention, it need not
nonopolize 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 OF VOL. I.
CHAP.                                       PAGr
I. THE BOYHOOD...          11-27
II. THE STUDENT......     28-36
III. CICERO AT THE BAR.....   37-49
IV. QU2ESTOR AND CURULE IEDILE..   50-71
V. CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE.   72-91
VL THIE PR2ETORSHIP.....    92-106
VII. CANVASS FOR THE CONSULSHIP, AND ELECTION........  107-121
VIII. THE CONSULSHIP..              122-161
IX. VIR CONSULARIS..... 162-174
X. MYSTERIES OF THE BONA DEA, AND TRIAL
OF CLODIUS...          175-198
XI. THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.             199-233
XII. THE EXILE.......   234-255
XIII. THE RETURN....... 256-283
XIV. CONFUSION AT ROME. -CICERO SUPPORTS
CAESAR. - HIS SPEECHES IN SEVERAL
IMPORTANT TRIALS. -DEFENCE OF C(ELIUS.......     284-314
XV. LETTERS FROM THE COUNTRY. ATTACK ON
PISO. - GOSSIP. - DEFENCE OF PLANCIUS. - POLITICAL  APOLOGY. - DISTRACTED STATE OF ROME... 815-364




CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
---
CHAP.                                       PAGI
XVI. CLODIUS AND MILO..                   5-32
XVII. THE PROCONSULATE....       33-76
XVIII. CIVIL WAR...77-125
XIX. DOMESTIC TROUBLES.   DIVORCE FROM
TERENTIA. - DEATH OF TULLIA.  SECOND MARRIAGE..                  126-164
XX. DEATH OF CAESAR.. 165-192
XXI. VACILLATION. - DEPARTURE FROM ITALY
AND SUDDEN RETURN TO ROME.        193-215
XXII. QUARREL WITH ANTONY. - THE SECOND
PHILIPPIC. - MOVEMENTS OF ANTONY
AND OCTAVIAN.. 216-240
XXIII. THE EMBASSY TO ANTONY...   241-270
XXIV. THE SIEGE AND BATTLES OF MUTINA,
AND TREACHERY OF OCTAVIAN.. 271-308
XXV. THE PROSCRIPTION AND DEATH OF CICERO.  HIS CHARACTER..       309-330
APPENDIX.
CICERO'S ORATIONS....     331, 332
ROMAN CONSULS DURING CICERO'S LIFE   33, 334


INDEX


335-341




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOLUME I.
CICERO: FROM A BRONZE MEDAL STRUCK BY THE TOWN OF
MAGNESIA IN LYDIA                        to face Title-page.
ARPINO, NEAR WHICH CICERO WAS BORN.       to face p. 11
THE ROMAN FORUM: FROM A PHOTOGRAPH."               37
SITE OF LILYBAWM, NOW MARSALA                        "    50
CICERO'S VILLA, FORAIMLH.."                         87
TEMPLE OF CONCORD: RESTORED BY CAY. CANINA           "   141
THE PORT OF BRUNDUSIUM."243
Pomi.EY's THEATRE: RESTORED BY CAY. CANINA.         2


VOLUME IL


TmI TOMB OF CICERO.      I
THE, APPIAN WAY -REGINA VIARUM
POMPEY THE GREAT
JULIUS C~ESAR
TEMPLE OF JUPITER CAPITOLINUS: RESTORED
CANINA
F'oRxI E WHERE CICERO WAS MURDERED


to face Titlepage.
to face p. 13
"6  130
A  165


BY CAY.


283
316




4




*        I
0.  4.. -.: 0  S  -.4




a nEXE


ARP1NO. NEAI WI'ICH11 CICKIO WAS BORNi


%t I p. 11




THE LIFE


OF
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
CHAPTER I.
THE BOYHOOD.
JAT. 1-16. B. c. 106-91.
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 extended 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 icecold 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 formed, now known as the Isola
San Paolo, or San Domenico, from a Dominican
monastery, which in later times was erected there
and still remains.




12


THE BOYHOOD.


[AET. ] -16.


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
plebeian and not of the patrician order. It was not
ennobled - that is, none of its members had filled any
curule office; not even an adileship, which was the
lowest step in the ladder of rank that entitled a citizen to the honor 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
neighborhood of Arpinum. There was indeed a tradition at Rome that the Tullian gens was of royal
descent; and Plutarch alludes to it, saying, that some
persons carried back the origin of the family to Tullus Attius, a king of the Volscians, who waged wai
not without honor 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 falsification of 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
1 The consuls for the year were C. Atilius Serranus and Q. Servilius
Caepio. According to the Julian reformed calendar the date of Cicero's
birth would be October, B. c. 107.
2 The word Tullius seems originally to have meant " spring" or " rivulet." Tullios alii dixerunt esse silanos, alii rivos, alii vehementcs projectiones sanguinis arcuatim fluentis. - Festus.




B. c. 106-91.] DERIVATION OF THE FAMILY NAME.


13


Arpinum had received the Roman franchise some
time before, so that the inhabitants enjoyed the ful.
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 vegetable 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 carbuncle on the nose.1 His paternal grandfather
Marcus, who was still alive when Cicero was born,
was no friend of innovation, and when his brotherin-law Gratidius, whose sister Gratidia he had married, proposed to introduce vote by ballot 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 simpulo). When fcaurus 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
1 When Cicero as quaestor in Sicily was about to make an offering in a
temple of some silver vessels which he had inscribed with his names Marcus
rullius, he told the silversmith'to engrave the figure of a vetch (cicer) for the
third name. Had he lived in the days of heraldry, his canting arms would
probably have had a vetch for the crest. Plutarch says that when he was
about to enter into' puiblic life he was advised to change his name of Cicero,
but he proudly answered that he would make it more glorious than the
names of the Scauri and the Catuli: and surely he kept his word.




14


THE BOYHOOD.


[ET. 1-16


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.1 He was also the intimate friend of
L. Licinius Crassus, who contested the palm of elo.
quence with Antonius, the grandfather of the Triumvir, and Antonius himself was connected by marriage with Lucius, the paternal uncle of Cicero.2
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 struggles 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 noth1 See Drumann, Geschichte Roms nach Geschlechtern, V. 213.
2 The following genealogical table will be useful for reference: —
Marcus Tullius Cicero m. Gratidia.
M. T. Cicero m. Helvia.           Lucius T. Cicero
M. T. CIasRo m. (1) Terentia. Quintus T. Cicero m. Pomponia. Lucius T. Cioer
(2) Publilia.,ullia, m. (1) Piso.  M. T. Cicero.  Q. T. (icero.
(2) Crassipes.
r(3) Dolabella.
LJntulus.




B. c. 106-91.]


HIS MOTHER.


15


ing more is known than what Plutarch tells us, and
this is comprised in the short sentence that she was
a lady well born.   Cicero himtnself makes no allusion
whatever to his mother in all his numerous works.
One is curious to know whether she was a woman
of strong intellect, and an instance amongst the
mnany that could be quoted of mothers to whom their
eons 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 motherwit, which has distinguished the mothers of celebrated men. An anecdote has been preserved 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 This was called the dies lustricus. The full name, according to Roman
style, would be written thus -
M. TULLIUS M. F. M. N. COR. CICERO,
Marcus Tullius, Marci Filius, Marci Nepos, Cornelia, Cicero; that is, Mark
Tully Cicero, son of Mark, grandson of Mark, of the Cornelian Tribe. In
order to enjoy the rights of Roman citizenship it was necessary to be enrolled in one of the thirty-five tribes; and when the franchise was bestowed
au Arpinum, its inhabitants were included in the Cornelian tribe.




16


THE BOYHOOD.


[ET. 1-10.


which, as it was afterwards given to his own son,
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 ther
were foolish enough to be annoyed because the boys
when they walked together put Cicero in the middle
as the place of honor. 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
Aqua Sextim (the modern Aix) in the southeast 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 proconsul 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 victories reached
Arplnum, 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, tell



B. c. 106-91.]


TAKEN TO ROME.


17


ing 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.1 No memorial remains at Arpinur to mark the birthplace of the great Roman orator, 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 honor 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 tc procure at a provincial town. He
therefore placed them both with their uncle Aculeo,
who had a house in the street called Carince,2 that
they might join their cousins in the usual course of
education pursued by Roman youths of good family.
There is a curious remark by Niebuhr that Cicero
in his youth was without friends.3 But for this he
1 There was a distant connection between the families of Cicero and
Marius in the following manner. A brother of Marius had adopted Gratidianus, the son of Gratidius, who was the brother-in-law of Cicero's
grandfather.
2 Drumann, Gesch. Roms, V. 213, assuming that Cicero's father had a
residence in Rome, says that he lived in the Carinse. It was one of the
principal streets or perhaps " regions" of Rome. It lay between the Co&lian and Esquiline mounts, and was then a fashionable quarter. rompey
had a house there. Virgil, -En. VIII. 361, speaks of lautce Carince.
3 Hist. of Rome, V. 30 (Ed. Schmitz). He in another passage qualifies
this by saying, " He seems to have passed his youth without any intimate
friend; and it was only in his maturer age that a true friendship was
formed between him and Atticus."
VOL. I. L




18


THE BOYHOOD.


[AT. 1-16


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 lovable 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. Quiclk,
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 own sad experience verify the mournful lines of the poet,They, the young and strong, who cherished
Noble longings for the strife,
By the wayside fell and perished,
Wearied 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 neighborhood of Arpinum, or whether he stayed at Rome to
superintend their education. I think 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 affectionately 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 teach1 Optimi ac prvdentuimi viri. - De Orat. II. 1.




B. C. 106-91.]    CRASSUS AND ANTONIUS.


19


ers 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 composi
tion, 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 Antonius, 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 intelligent 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."1 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
1 Lord Stanhope's Life of Pitt, Vol. I. p. 4.




20


THE BOYHOOD.


[1,I. 1-16.


complete ignorance of both the language and literature of Greece. But the object of both 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 in1 About half a century before Cicero was born the Senate passed a res&o
lution banishing philosophers and rhetoricians from Rome. The then censors brought the subject again under the notice of the Senate, saying that
men who called themselves "Latin rhetoricians" had introduced a new
kind of learning, and their schools were frequented by young men who
idled away their time there for whole days together (ibi homines adolescentulos dies totos desidere). They declared that they did not like the novelty,
and called on the Senate to mark its displeasure against both teachers and
pupils. They were ordered to shut up their " schools of impudence" (/daum impudentice). - - De Orat. III. 24.




B.C. 106-91.]  STUDY OF GREEK LITERATURE.


21


fancy, 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, Nevius, 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 fashiollable study at Rome, and occupied something of
the same position in a course of education that
French does amongst ourselves. And Cicero tells
us that the language was cultivated 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 Greek quotations were everywhere current in
good society. Even the sturdy Cato, the censo,..  _
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 wellknown story, applied himself in extreme old age to
the study of the language. Cicero, as might be expected from his exquisite taste, was passionately fond
of Greek literature, and his letters abound in 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. Phaedrus, the Epicurean, was one of his
instructors, and he speaks of him in terms of peculiar regard.




22


THE BOYHOOD.


[ET. 1-16.


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 exclusively 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 honor 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 Beotia. who, having eaten a cer___-    ain 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 afterwards known
as the Glaucus-leap. He translated also into Latin
verse two Greek poems on astronomy or subjects
connected with that science -the Phanomena and
Prognostica or Dioserneia 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 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
1 Drumann, Gesch. Roms, V. 221, ingeniously fixes the date of this poem
Is B. C. 87, when Cicero therefore was nineteen years old.




a c. 106-91.]   REPUTATION AS A POET.


23


life and exploits; and the poems on his Consulship
(de suo Consulatu) and his own Times (de suis Tenzporibus). It was in one of these, most probably the
Consulship, that the unfortunate lines occurred,
Cedant arma toge, concedat laurea laudi,1
and,
0 fortunatam natam me consule Roram!
the jingle of which provoked the ridicule of Juvenal, Quintilian, 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 Scaevola the Augur had such a favorable 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, Voici une lettre qui n'arrivera jamais
a son adresse, and Cicero's epic has met with a similar fate. Both Plutarch and Pliny the younger lav1 Plutarch renders laudi by rT y6jrry, so that probably one version of
the line was concedat laurea lingute, which expresses more distinctly the
meaning that military is inferior to civil glory. But there is more of alliterativo jingle in the laurea laudi.




24


THE BOYHOOD.


[JET. 1-16.


ish 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 comparison, 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 cent
sure. He never could have been a great poet, for he
had not the divinus 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 Quintus 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 wholly 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




.a..-106lO.]  ASSUMES ITHE TOGA VIRILIS.


2b


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 Prator 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
into public life. This, however, did not imply that
his education 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 occasionEt 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 prwetexta
1 One of the lines of Pacuvius was
Nerei repandirostrum, incurvicervicum peeus.
The following is a list of the poetical works of Cicero, so far as they are
known. 1. Translations of passages from Homer into Latin verse, scattered throughout his works. 2. The Phenomena of Aratus. 3. The Prognostica (Aitomnuela) of Aratus. 4-6. Alcyones, Uxorius, Nilus, poems of
which nothing is now known but the names. 7. Limon -apparently a
series of epigrams on distinguished men, in hexameter verse. Four lines
are quoted by Suetonius in his Vita Terentii. 8. Marius. 9. De suo Colsulatu. 10. De suis Temporibus, in three Books. 11. Elegia Tamelastis,
mentioned by Servius in Virg. Eclog. I. 58. 12. Libellus Jocularis, quoted
oy Quint. VIII. 6. 18. Pontius Glaucus.




26


THE BOYHOOD.


[Ar. 1-16.


which he hae hitherto worn was a white robe with a
colored 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 Prmator, whose
tribunal or court was there, and the ceremony of the
change of dress was performed. He then received
the congratulations of his relatives and friends who
accompanied him, amidst the applause of the surrounding 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 festivities at home; and the hero of the
hour, now no longer a boy but a man, received presents as on a birthday amongst ourselves.
We have good reason to believe that whether
Cicero's father had returned to Arpinum or not after




B. c. 106-91.]  ASSUMES THE TOGA VIRILIS.  27
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
Quintus Mucius Scmvola 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.
t




28


THE STUDENT


~rT. 174,5


CHAPTER II.
THE STUDENT.
JET. 17-25. B. c. 90-82.
THE contrast between ancient and modern manners is so great that it is very diiult to realize 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 honorariunm. 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 advantages 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
night be, and sometimes were, combined. The one




B.C. 90-82.]  ATTENDANCE ON ORATORS.


29


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 consultation, but in the
easy mode of familiar conversation, sometimes 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 Scevola 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 Quintus Mucius Scmvola,
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
earned of orators. His time was now incessantly




30


THE STUDENT.


[JET. 17-25


occupied. He lost no opportunity of attending the
speeches of the different orators and pleaders in the
Forum and the courts; he watched the gestures of
the best actors, like AEsop and Roscius; and every
day was spent in reading, writing, and practising
declamation. Philosophy 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 man ever lived to whom the hope ot
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 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 Prator, or in a concio or
harangue addressed to the people. Even the successful soldier had to cultivate oratory to give him a fair
chance of civic honors.  Each of the successive
steps in the ascending hierarchy of office, from the




.. c. 90-82.]


MILITARY EDUCATION.


31


quaestorship to the consulship, could only be attained by securing the votes of the people under a
system which amounted almost to universal suffrage; and to be able to speak well was then, as in
all ages and times, the surest passport to popular
favor. 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. Noctes et
dies, he says, in omniium doctrinarum meditatione versabar.1
But he did not confine himself to the pursuit of
studies fitted to qualify him for success in the Forum 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 forward to high office. As one of the
great magistrates of the Republic, and especially as
Consul, he might have to command the Roman
-      l - Brutus, e.-9O,




32


THE STUDENT.


[AT. 17-2.


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 actual service in the field; 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 communities 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 between the hostile camps, when Scato the




. c. 90-82.]    IN THE FORUM.              33
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 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 Forum
resounded with the speeches of orators who inflamed the passions of the people; and amongst
these Sulpicius the Tribune was preeminent 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
VOL. I.         3




34


THE STUDENT.


[ET. 17-25


he was at the harangues that were then daily delivered in the Forum.l
During the reign of terror that ensued when Marius and Cinna formed a coalition, and, amidst the
horrors of a proscription, 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 AEgina 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 Scevola, Carbo, and Antistius met a similar
fate. Crassus would no doubt have fallen by the
hand of the executioner or the 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 pursued his studies. He attended the
lectures in rhetoric of Molo the Rhodian, whom he
praises as a consummate advocate and teacher; and
diligently labored to improve his style by translations from the works of Greek writers, 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 illustrious 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
1 Brut. 91.




B. C. 90-82.1  ATTEMPTS PROSE COMPOSITION.


35


whica 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 Chatham 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
lhis mind and then proceed." 1
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 afterwards 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 schoolboy 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 Scavola the Augur, and her daughters and
granddaughters, whose conversation contributed to
refine and improve his taste.
By degrees quieter times succeeded. The fury of
1 Lord Stanhope's Life of Pitt, I. 8.




36               THE STUDENT.        [BET. 17-25
the 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.




. o. 81-77.]


HIS FIRST CAUSE.


37


CHAPTER III.
CICERO AT THE BAR.
ET. 26-30.  B.. 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 Quintius, 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 was 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 required 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.       o
When he was in his twenty-seventh year, about
the same age as that at which Demosthenes first




CICERO AT THE BAR.


[iT. 26-30.


came forward 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 him; and there was no cause too
important to be intrusted 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, "Voild! 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.
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 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 Ameria, and enemies of Sextus. The latter left a son, also named Sextus, whose




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II



B. c. 81-77.]  DEFENDS SEXTUS ROSCIUS.


39


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 of his inheritance, and they induced Chrysogonus, one of Sylla's freedmen and high in his favor, 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 purchasers.
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 instigated 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 for the result. And yet no
charge was ever more groundless, or supported in a
court of justice by more feeble evidence. 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 occupied 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 condition of
the Republic, when causes were decided not accord



40


CICERO AT THE BAR.


[ET. 26-30.


ing to their merits, but under the influence of bribery
or fear. Sylla was all-powerful in the state - Chrysogonus was his favorite; 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 subsequently 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 acquittal. 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 possible 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 or Chrysogonus; and artfully appeals




. c. 81-77.]   HE RESUMES HIS STUDIES.


41


to the compassion, and fears, and justice of the
court.
Niebuhr says of his conduct on this occasion:
"His defence of Roscius of Ameria, whom Chrysogonus wanted to get rid of, excited the greatest
admiration of his talents, together with the highest
esteem for his own personal character. It was an act
of true heroism for a young man like Cicero, and
still more so if we consider his family connection
with Marius."  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 maintain her suit
was contested on the ground that she was not a




42


CICERO AT THE BAR.


[A1ET. 26-.30


Roman citizen. And the trial had something of a
political 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 recognize their right to it
had led to the deplorable conflict of the Social War.
But the incessant labors 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 appearance, 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.
rT'he only rriotion we make is with the hand, and too
often that is confined 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. 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




s. c. 81-77.]


RESIDENCE AT ATHENS.


43


threw himself, heart and soul, into action when he
spoke, and spared no exertion of his limbs, while he
strained his voice to the utmost of its pitch in the
open air.
Can we then wonder at the consequences which
followed? and that he soon suffered from
"His fiery soul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy body to decay,
And o'er informed the tenement of clay."
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" 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 forever 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 correspondent, Titus PomPonius Atticus, were with him there; and for six
months they studied together and enjoyed the recre.




44


CICERO AT THE BAR.


[Eir. 6-80


ations of the place.l Antiochus of Ascalon instructed
them in the philosophy of the Academy, while from
Zeno and Phedrus 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 accomplishment, he knew could only be obtained by
pains and labor, although in his case it was the labor
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 or
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, Molo
had the pleasure of welcoming his old pupil, who
did not disdain, for the third time, to place himself
under his tuition, and receive from him some kindly
corrections of what he himself described as the too
redundant and florid oratory of his youthful years.
The metaphor by which he characterized it was that
1 Drumann thinks it is'probable that Cicero while at Athens was initiated
into the Eeusinian -mysteries. See -esubjetalludd to deLe gg. II.A.




D. c. 81-77.]. 7 RTtURNS TO ROME.


45


of a river that overflowed its banks; and to this his
eloquence may be compared to the latest period of
his life. It arose, no doubt, from his astonishing
command of language, 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 reestablished, 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 institutions.  Bribery was shamelessly
resorted to, not only for political objects, but to secure verdicts in the courts, where the judices, or, as
we may almost without inaccuracy call them, jurymen, prostituted their consciences and sold themselves to the highest bidder. I am not now speaking
of the prmetorian or centumviral courts, where civil
causes were tried, but the public or state trials before




45


CICERO AT THE BAR.


[LETr. 26-3C


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
nade.
It was probably about this time that Cicero ap
peared as the advocate of Roscius, the comic actor,
in a civil suit, and 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 Cherea 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 Q. 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 arbitration. Calpurnius Piso was appointed arbitrator.  He did not make a formal
award, but recommended that Roscius should pay
to Fannius 10,000 sesterces (about 901.) for the




R. c. 81-77.]  ADVOCATE FOR ROSCIUS.


47


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 agree.
rnent, 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 favor; and in tendering such an
issue we may be very sure that he had good information that he might do so with safety. But he made
a distinction between the ledger (tabule or codex)
and the day-book, or mere memorandum of account
(adversaria). Fannius 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.




48


CICERO AT THE BAR.


[JE T. 26-30


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.' His wife was
Terentia, a lady of respectable 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 domineering and disagreeable woman;
and as, owing to his great sensibility, 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, unfortu1 Drumann places the marriage earlier, and thinks it took place before
Cicero went to Greece. He is influenced chiefly by the consideration that
if it was in the year assumed in the text, it would follow that Cicero's
daughter was betrothed at the age of nine and married at the age of thirWen.




a.. 81-77.]  CHARACTER OF HIS WIFE.        49
nately for him, led him to do things which drew
upon him the enmity of others." 1 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 Hist. of Rome, V. 20.
tOL L           4




80


QU^STOR AND CURULE ADILE.


rET. 31-8


CHAPTER IV.
QUIESTOR AND CURULE IEDILE.
ET. 31-38. B. c. 76-69.
CICERO 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, AEdile, Pretor- until they culminated in the Consulship, the highest object of
ambition to a Roman citizen. Cicero was elected
one of the quastors and Hortensius 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 Peduceus. 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 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




SITE OF L,TI,YB.IEUM, NOW MAI1SAIA.


Vol. i p. 59




9a




N


B.. 76-69.]  OFFICIAL RESIDENCE IN SICILY.  61
were accustomed to determine 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 qu6estorship, 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
exportation 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 opportunity 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
discipline, if not desertion from the service. During
a visit to Syracuse he had the good fortune, while
exploring the antiquities, 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 honored 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 observing these on a small pillar, the
top of which peered out amongst the bushes with




/
//        52           QUIESTOR AND CURULE       EDILE.   [,Tr. 3148
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 honors 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 public
servant, and carrying with him the good-will and
confidence of the inhabitants, of which a striking
proof was soon to be afforded.1
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 quastor, and was in hopes that the fame of
his administration had extended to Italy, and even
gained him a reputation at Rome. But he goodhumoredly 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
1 In his " Two Last Pleadings of Cicero against Verres " (London, 1812),
Kelsall mentions that when he visited Marsala (the ancient Lilybaeum) I e
was told by his guide that he could show him the house in which Ciceto.ived when he was at Lilybaeum. On arriving there he found it a whitewashed house of a date not earlier than the 16th century. " Questi, Signor,"
said the honest Sicilian, "fu la casa dove dimorava il Signor Cicerone quand
ii fu in Marsala." It turned out that this was the house where the guide's
father had lived, who, like his son, was Cicerone of Marsala. It is curious
that Cicero's name should have come to signify " lionizer."




B. c. 76-69.]    HIS VANITY MORTIFIED.


two provinces in Sicily, the province of Lilybmum
and the province of Syracuse, and the questor of
the one was a distinct person from the quastor of
the other.
On landing at Puteoli, near Baive, which was then
a fashionable 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 by-stander interposed, and
turning to the questioner said, " What! don't you
know that this gentleman has been questor 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 civilization, - he mingled quietly
with the crowd. But he also derived a useful lesson
from the affront to his vanity. He saw the danger
of absence if he wished for popularity, and determined 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 allowed his hall-porter (janitor)
to deny him to a visitor, not 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
i the Forum while the Servile War raged in Italy,




54


QUAESTOR AND CURULE JEDILE.         [AET. 31-38.


the insurrection being headed by the bold and desperate leader Spartacus. He was killed in battle
B. c. 71, and the revolt was finally extinguished 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 edile, the next public dignity open to his
ambition. But having been quastor, 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 labors 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. Tullio, 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
[ouse.
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 suo). His splendid reputation as an advocate made him at this time




a. C. 76-69.]


CANVASSING IN ROME.


one of the most popular men at Rome, and he was
unanimously elected Curule AEdile for the following
year, coming in first of all the competitors, 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 favor 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 endeavored, 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 attendants were called nomenclatores, and
many amusing passages occur in the Latin writ



56


QUTESTOR AND CURULE EDILE. [JET. 31-3&


ers 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 forbid and punish bribery. It was so systematically practised that particular names, such as divisores and sequestres, were given to the agents who
distributed the money.1
It was during this year and as edile 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 by-word
for oppression and misrule, had, at the expiration of
his year of office as pretor, 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
1 When Julius Caesar was Dictator, he used to furnish the candidates
whom he favored with tickets, on which was written, " Caesar to such a
1ribe. - I recommend to you such a one, and hope you will vote for him.r
See Sueton. Ccsar.




B. c. 76-69.]


CHARACTER OF VERRES.


57


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 magnificence; 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 province afforded a tempting opportunity for plunder,
and Verres was not the mall 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 beggary 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 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 Praxi.




58


QU1ESTOR AND CURULE IEDIIE.   [AT. 31-3&


teles, 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
intention to embark for Rome and impeach Verres
there. But he was seized by the magistrates, who
at Messana were the obsequious 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 Ro.
manus sum! 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
opportunity of looking towards his land. And there
be was crucified and died.
This may serve as a specimen of the terrible
charges which Verres had to meet; but to go through




B. c. 76-69.]    PROSECUTOR OF VERRES.


59


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 impressed upon us by the forensic arti.
fices of Cicero;" 1 but 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? They applied
to Cicero to come forward as the accuser of Verres,
and 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 support of the powerful families
of the Scipios and Metelli. As it was impossible
for him altogether to avoid a trial, the best plan for
iverting the danger seemed to be to make the prose1 De Quincey.. See his collected works, article Cicero.




60


QUAESTOR AND CURULE AEDILE.   rE'r. 31-3&


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 prcevaricatio, that is,
collusion with an adversary at a trial. A creature
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 Cecilium   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 art. For cutting sarcasm and irony it has never been surpassed. 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 uneasy 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 Caecilius, he said: -
" You yourself would begin to be afraid that you were prosecuting an innocent man." He showed that the pretended enmity
of Caecilius 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 intellect unfitted him to conduct so great and difficult




B. c. 76-69.]  SPEECH AGAINST CECILIUS.


61


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 Lilybmeum, 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! lut at all
events it has been my constant study from my earliest youth to
endeavor 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 becalled 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. Bat what would become of Coecilius? Hortensius would so puzzle him and perplex him with dilemnmas, 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, Cecilius, 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 besome of you in the real combat with your fierce and eager adversary?"




62


(QUESTOlR AND CURULE AEDILE.     IST. 31-38


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 authority. If you prefer Cxcilius 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 favor, Cicero was
allowed one hundred and ten days to collect the evidence and prepare 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 complimentary 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




S. c. 76-.69.]


TRIAL OF VERRES.


63


there, to avoid the brigands who then as now infested that part of Italy, took 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 following year, the chances were
that he would escape. Hortensius 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 Cicerc
was determined not to be so baffled. He was thor.
oughly 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




64


QUAESTOR AND CURULE JEDILE.   [ET. 31-38.


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 menorable 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 AEgean, from
every city or market-town of Sicily, deputations
thronged to Rome. In the porticos and on the steps
of the temple, in the area of the Forum, in the colonnades that surrounded it, on the house-tops and
on the overlooking 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 Iah,
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 would yet rescue the




B. c. 76-69.]


TRIAL OF VERRES.


65


murderer, the violator, 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 extent 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  existimantur
esse judicia.  He warned the court that on the issue
depended whether the senators should retain their
judicial jurisdiction, and contrasted the state of
things when the knights had that jurisdiction with
what it was now, declaring that then for fifty years
there was not even a suspicion of a bribed verdict.
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
1 Art. Verres in Smith's Gr. and Rom. Biography.
2 The other five Verrine orations which we possess were written but not
delivered by Cicero. They were published after the condemnation, and
remain an imperishable monument of his industry, ability, and eloquence.
VOL. I.        5




66


QUIESTOR AND CURULE AEDILE.   [ET. 31-8


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 conclusion 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 formally 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 our allies, and nefariously towards gods
and men, has besides carried 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 Cinciau
law which required the services of advocates at
Rome to be gratuitous) accepted as a present from
Verres a valuable image of the Sphinx, one of the
spoils he had brought from Sicily, and while crossexamining a witness he said, " You speak in riddles;




.C. c.6-69.]  DUTIES OF CURULE JEDILE.


67


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
proscription list because he would not part with
some Corinthian vases which the Triumvir coveted.
4{in the following year Cicero entered on the office
of Curule AEdile, which gave him the right to the
curule chair (sella curulis ),-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 bust in wax or marble 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 honor. A
Roman family was as proud of the number of busts
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
quarterings on its shield.
The duties of Curule AEdile are detailed by Cicero
in one of his orations against Verres. The nearest
equivalent to such an office in this country is that
1 Aulus Gell. Noct. Att. III. 18, derives the word curulis from eurrus,
oecause, as lie says, certain magistrates in the early times of the Republic
used as a mark of honor to be carried to the senate-house in a carriag
(cwrrus in which wasrw seat caled-eulRs...




68


QUASTOR AND CURULE AEDILE.     [MET. 31-3&


of First Commissioner of Public Works, and in
some points the functions are analogous.   They
were two in number, besides two " plebeian " Wdi les,
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 (odes) and especially the temples, also 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
honor of different deities of which the Romans were
so passionately fond. This of course entailed considerable expense, and it does not appear that there
was any salary attached to the office, or any fund
upon which the adile 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 ediles
of Rome differed in the outlay they lavished upon the
public shows. It gave those who were ambitious an
admirable opportunity of buying popular favor, with
a view to the higher honors of the state. Many men
ruined themselves by the profusion and extravagance
of the spectacles and games they exhibited, incurring an expense of which it is hardly possible in these
times to form an adequate conception. Amongst
those whose names have been handed down to us as
conspicuous for the magnificence of their shows
while filling the office of redile are Atticus,1 Julius
Caesar, Lentulus Spinther, and Emrnilius Scaurus.
It was customary during the festivals of the year,
1 cicero says that Atticum ransacked all Greece and the Greek islands for
works of art to give clat to his Rdileship. -Pro Domo, 43.




B. c. 76-69.]


DEFENDS FONTEIUS.


for the aediles to adorn the Forum with all possible
splendor, 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 Messana 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 adile, the statues which he had carried off
from Sicily, and a magnificent display they must
have made. Plutarch tells us that the Sicilians assisted Cicero in many ways during his adileship, out
of gratitude for his services, and in memory of his
conduct as their qumestor at Rome.
He exhibited the usual shows and games, but
could rely upon other sources of popularity, and
avoided unnecessary 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.' 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 mean time Cicero did not neglect his profession as an advocate. He defended Fonteius in a
criminal case, and Cmcina 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
1 Quanquam intelligo in nostra civitate inveterasse et jam bonis tempori5us ut splendor medilitatum ab optimis viris postuletur. - De Of: II. 16.




70


QULESTOR AND CURULE EDILE.    'ET. 31-38


and corruption by the inhabitants of the province.
Cicero challenged the other side to produce a single
trustworthy witness or piece of evidence 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 retained to that day the horrid and barbarous
custom of human sacrifices? Were they to be frightened by the threats of those " cloaked and trousered "
(saatos 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 iu.
merous instances 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 accused, and argued that
a fortiori the evidence of men, such as the Gauls




B.c. 76-69.]     DEFENDS FONTEIUS.                71
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 hei
nightly vigils, was not extinguished by her tears. It
concerned the honor 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 Cecina, 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
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.




72     CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE. [JET. 39


CHAPTER V.
CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE.
2ET. 39. B. C. 68.
THE year following his edileship, 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 states-.nan in the seclusion of his villa, as a plain country
gentleman, busying himself with improvements on
his estate, building farm-houses, laying out and




P.;. 68.]


CHARACTER OF HIS LETTERS.


73


planting shrubberies, and turning watercourses, or
amusing himself with pictures and statues, and the
various objects which interest 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 harping ever on the vanity of ambition
and the worthlessness of popular applause. We see
him at one moment exalted to the summit of human
glory when saluted in the 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 narrative 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
vacillating statesman - the fond husband - the
affectionate father - the kind master - the warmhearted 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 Quincey:1 "In them we come
1 CoUte4 Works,, art.icl Cicero-,




74     CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE. [ET. 39.


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 problem 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 gentleman; 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,
rather than of the man; just as the occasional coarseness of Shakspeare 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




B. c. 68.]


CHARACTER OF HIS LETTERS.


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 humor 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
germanumfuisse), for the stiffest and most elaborate
of his political epistles.
From his villa at Formira he writes to complain
of the visits of troublesome country neighbors, 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 opportunity for a purchaser.
His fondness for books amounted to a passion.
He tells Atticus, that when his librarian Tyrannio
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 colors of the
parchment-covers (sittybce) 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 Tyrannio 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 savings (vindemiolas)
to be able to purchase it as a resource in his old age.
By "library" Cicero means the copies of mann



76     CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE. [AET. 39.


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 trireme at the Pirmus and
consigned to Cicero in his Tusculan villa?  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 countryhouse, 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 (vicos 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 freedman Tiro for an inaccurate use of a Latin
adverb, fideliter.  In another he defends himself
against a criticism of Atticus, and maintains that he
was right in putting the preposition in before Pircea,
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 Cyropedia. 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
rf friends," he complains that there is not one with




. C. 68.]


MODE OF SENDING LETTERS.


77


whom he can joke freely, or to whom he can unbur.
den 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 labellarii, 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
(bustum) 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.
I Before a letter was despatched five things were requisite, four of which
are enumerated in a line of Plautus (Bccth. IV. 4, 64), " Stiluni, ceram, et
tabellas et linmmn." To these must be added the seal. The tabelke were
thin tablets of wood smeared with wax, and with an elevated rim or bordler. These, when written upon, i. e. scratched with the stylus, were bound
together by a packthread, and the knot of the string was sealed with wax
and stamped with the signet-ring.




78     CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE. [ET. 39


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 neighborhood 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 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 Porponia, who was a sister of
Atticus. Quintus was a man of hasty temper, easily
vexed, but soon appeased, and Pomponia 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 distress both to Cicero
and Atticus; Atticus naturally took his sister's part,
and his displeasure at his brother-in-law's conduct
was most probably the reason why, at a later period
he abandoned the idea he once entertained of accompanying Quintus, in the capacity of quastor, to his
pratorian government in Asia Minor. Cicero was
not at all blind to his brother's faults, but he also




a. c. 68.]       LETTER TO ATTICUS.


79


knew the many good points of his character; and it
is pleasant to read the kind and affectionate 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 endeavored to induce
her husband to treat her with proper affection. Quintus was displeased at this interference, and Cicero
says that he had written to him to appease him as a
brother, to admonish him as a junior, and to reprove
him as an offender.
Other topics in the same letter are two matters of
business 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 reconciling
Lucceius to him, for they had had a quarrel; and
Cicero assures him that he had done so, but to little
purpose. He next congratulates Atticus on his re.
cent 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 favorite villa at Tusculurn,
which he seems to have bought only a short time
before. He concludes the letter by telling Atticus




80    CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE. [ET. 39.


that Terentia is suffering 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 negligent 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 Atticus had had some
thoughts of buying; and says that his brother Quintus now seemed to be on good terms with Pomponia, and that they were both staying at their country
residence near Arpinurn.
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: "l 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 reverse of being either cold or 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
Aoticing so shortly and dismissing so summarily the
death of his excellent father.2  But the truth is that
1 Pater nobis decessit a. d. VllI. Cal. Decembris. - Ad. Att. I. 6.
21 strongly suspect that the true reading of the sentence is Patr nwbia




B.. 68.]  ABSENCE OF SENTIMENT IN ROMANS.


81


what we call sentiment was almost wholly unknown
to the ancient Rorans, 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. Romance 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 word corresponding with the Greek
(>LXooropyta, the affectionate love for parents and children. Upon this Niebuhr 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 consider hereafter whether he can or cannot be
justified for his conduct on that occasion.
discessit, not decessit, that is, " My father left me," probably to return to Arpinum. This is the conjecture of Madvig, de Ascon. Comm. p. 71, quoted
by Drumann, Gesch. Roms, V. 213, who approves of it
1 Hist. of Rome, lII. 30. Niebuhr translates ~ptvoaropyia, "the tender
love for one's friends and parents.'" But I doubt whether aropy7) is ever
applied to any other than family affection. It is especially used to denote
the love of one's offspring.
VOL. I.             6




82    CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE. [E'r. 39


In these first letters we get a few glimpses of his
domestic life. He tells Atticus that his daughter
Tulliola, his darling (deliciae 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.1 The young lady
was then only 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 dat),
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 connects it with Rome is in the plain a mile
1 Frugi means " abstinent " (frugal), and Cicero, in Verr. de Signis, punt
upon the name and that of Verres (brush or besom), contrasting the conduct of Verres, who had swept Sicily clean of its works of art, with the
abstinence of Frugi, who, when pratorian governor of Spain, having broken
one of his gold rings, ordered a goldsmith of Corduba (Cordova) to attend
him in the market-place, where he publicly weighed out gold and had a
new ring made in the presence of by-standers, to prevent the possibility of
its being said that he had plundered it. This certainly looks like a carics
ture of caution.




B. c. 68.]


1HE TUSCULAN VILLA.


83


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 Tusculum
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
further on to the right, on a grassy platform jutting
out on the southwest 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. Antiquaries who
throw doubt upon everything tell us that there 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
1 When I visited the spot in the autumn of 1859, a solitary workman was
employed by the Aldobrandini fam-ily, to whom it belongs, in excavating
ahamoers and pavements, which I saw just as they were disinterred from
their sleep of ages.....




84     CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE. [fET. 39


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:1
" The same alley continues to Grotta Ferrata, once
the favorite 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 disappears
in its windings. This stream, now the Marana, was
anciently called Aqua Crabra, and is alluded to by
Cicero.  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 labors - 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 Tusculum; and if Cicero's villa really
occupied the site where it is supposed by Middleton,
1 Classical Tour through Italy, II. 258.




H c. 68.j


THE TUSCULAN VILLA.


85


Melmoth, Eustace, and other writers to have been,
it never would have borne the name of Tusculanum.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 academy, and he added to it a
palcestra or exercise ground, agymnasium (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"a I've spent them not on toys, or lusts, or wine,
But search of deep Philosophy,
Wit, Eloquence, and Poetry -
Arts which I loved, for they, my Friend, were thine!"
The neighborhood of Tusculum was a favorite
resort of the old Roman nobility.2 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;
1 After all we must be content to guess in such matters where certainty
13 impossible, and say with Livy, "Fama rerum standum est, ubi certain
rebus derogat antiquitas fidem."
2; Iic Brutus sociique aderant; hic Attice, Tulli
Gaudebas sermone tui; ingentesque procellse
Conticuere fori, et raucae fragor abfuit urbis."
Cicero cum Familiaribus. - Oxford Prize Poem, 1829, by Sir Eardley Wilmot




86     CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE. [ET. 38


but he thought his own villa lay a little out of the
road, as it certainly did.1
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 treasures
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 mee),- and
he would 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, Formie, Cumae, Puteoli, and Pompeii. Besides his villa near
Antium, he had a house in the town, which he purchased in the year 45 B. c., from M. Lepidus, only a
short time before his death. Antium (now Porto
l'Anzo) was situated on a headland looking down
upon the blue waters of the Mediterranean, and
1 Devium caravrSal et habet alia 6bvaXpara. - Ad Att. VII. 5.




I
4




CICERO'S VILLA, FORMILE


Vol i. P. 87




B. c. 68.]


HIS NUMEROUS RESIDENCES.


87


Cioero 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 Formire were plundered by 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. Formire was not far from Cajeta (Gaeta) 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 Cumme on the hill
above the town after his return from banishment. It
was not far from Baie, the favorite watering-place
of the fashionable world of Rome, and amongst his
neighbors he mentions the names of Pompey, Varro,
and Marcus Brutus. At no great distance from this
was Puteoli (Puzzuolo) on the sea-side, 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 entertained
Julius Caesar on his way to Rome after his return
from the east. He was much attached to this resilence, but it had one drawback. The neighborhood
was populous, and he complained that he had too
many visitors. After his death the villa became the
oroperty of C. Antistius Vetus, and it was here that
the Emperor Hadrian was buried.




88     CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE. [AT. 39


His Pompeian villa lay a few miles from Naples,
ciose 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 35001.,
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?
There were no cotton lords at Rome, and commerce flourished 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
wvealth 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 open channels through which a
Roman nobleman could create a fortune (always allowing for a large means
of marrying to advantage-since a man might shoot a whole series of divorces, still refunding the last dowry, but still replacing it by a better)
were these two: lending money on sea risks, or to embarrassed municipal.Corporations on good landed or personal security with the gain of twenty,
thirty, or even forty per cent.; and secondly, the grand resource of a pro
'ilucial government."-Collected Works, Cicero.




B. c. 68.]


SOURCES OF HIS WEALTH.


89


the possession of the office of Praetor or Consul; and
the frequent instances of accusation of ex-governors
charged with oppression and extortion show with
what unscrupulous avarice the propratorian and proconsular powers were too often exercised. Cicero,
however, declined a proprmtorian government, and
he declined also to take either of the provinces allotted to him and his colleague Antonius when he
laid down the office of Consul. He did not assume
a proconsular 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 favor 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 dis



90      CORRESPONDENCE AND DOMESTIC LIFE. [KET. 39


tribute it. The purity and disinterestedness of Cicero's character makes me believe that he never accepted such presents as a bribe, nor allowed his pub(ic 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
-;lrge in amount, for they must have been most anxious to secure the good-will and propitiate the favor
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 mod.
ern times has always been deemed an honorable
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 mill.
ion sesterces (about 178,0001.) 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, Cmsar had
lent him a sum of 800,000 sesterces, equal to about
70001. The purse of Atticus seems to have been
generally open to him, and he freely availed himself
of it. The money, however, was supplied 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 money largely to his friends, the repayment of which was often in arrear, and his embarrassments were thereby increased. Drumann says
1 Ego enim amplius sestertitum  ducenties acceptumn haereditatibus retuli.
-Philipp. II 40.


A




B. c. 68.] - SOURCES OF HIS WEALTH.


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 unfavorable 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 Middleton was in his favor, 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.hat he lent money at interest at all, and at all eventsave may well believe that his object was to do a kind
\ction, and not to put money in his pocket, or make,se of the services of his debtors. Political motives
daay 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 probably 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.




92


THE PRLETORSHIP.


rjET. 40-41


CHAPTER VI.
THE PRAETORSHIP.
AEr. 40-41. B. c. 67-66.
CICERO became Praetor elect at the age of fortyB. 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 prretors 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 opposed 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,




s. c. 67-66.]  THE ELECTION INTERRUPTED.


93


as showing the danger of bestowing suen extraor.
dinary commands on the generals of Rome. The
friends of Lucullus, who had the conduct of the war
against Mithridates, 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 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 addressed 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
clamor and violence.  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
unpopular measure in a republic like that of Rome,
and gave rise to tumults which may be compared to
the 0. 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 ii 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




94              THE PRETORSHIP.         [MET. 40-41
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 election 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 him that there was nothing
like a canvass to bring a man into contact with every
kind of rascality.' 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 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 without any definite result, Cicero, who had
seven competitors against him, was on both occasions chosen Prator 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
he poll.
1 Scito nihil tamn exercitatum esse nunc-Roma quam candidatos omnibu
iniquitatibus. - Ad Att. 1. 11.




B. C. 67-66.]  OFFICE OF PRAITOR URBANUS.


95


Next year, B. C. 66, at the age of forty-one, Cicero
assumed the office of Prator Urbanus, or City Prator
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 labor 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 culprits 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 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 misrule, 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 prosecution 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
1 Postulatur apud me, praetorem primum, de pecuniis repetundis. - Pro
CW'nelio IFrngm.
' Plutarch says that he took to his bed and died; but accordingto




96


THE PRIETORSHIP.


r[ET   0-4.1.


own 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 judgethat 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
gratitude if he had been acquitted. This shows how
much the result of the trial was thought to be in the
power of the presiding prator, 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       tumors, came before him,
when sitting as prator, with some petition or request
which Cicero said he would take time to consider.
Vatinius replied that if he were prator 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 cheek, " as you have."
Valerius Maximus, he watched the close of the trial fiom a balcony, and
when he knew that he was convicted, and saw Cicero, the presiding judge,
take off his robe (prcetexta), or as we should say, put on the black cap, he
sent a messenger to tell him that he died accused but not condemned, and
therefore his property would not be confiscated. HIT then instantly suffocated himself by forcing a napkin into his mouth. This reminds us of the
peine forte et dulie, the punishment formerly in this country fior standing
mute, which;was sometimes endured by prisoners when they drIea(ledu a
conviction to be followed by frfeitture of lands and g(i.d:  if tv' ip'eaded
to the indictment and were found gu!iSy.




S. a. 67-66.]


DEFENDS CLUENTIUS.


97


Although filling the office of a criminal judge,
Cicero was not debarred from the exercise of his
profession as an advocate. He defended M. Fundanius in a speech now lost; and also Aulus Cluentius Habitus, who was accused of murder and tried
before Q. Naso, Cicero's own colleague in the pratorship. 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 preeminence in guilt with
Lucrece di Borgia. Not long after her husband's
death her daughter married her first 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 proscription, 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 murVOL. I.     7




98


THE PRIETORSHIP.


[AT. 40-41


dered. 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 endeavored
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, Oppianicus, 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 abridgment. 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 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 ap



B. c. 67-66.]


TRIAL OF CLUENTIUS.


99


plied 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 favor, 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 ir
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 Xntonius, 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
ivriting."
The language in which the orator described tht
a,'v-~




100


rHE PRAETORSHIP.


[AiT. 40-41


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 sonin-law with no religious ceremonies, with no one to
give the bride away, amidst the dark and gloomy
forebodings of all." 1
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 favorite 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
1 The result semns to have been that Cluentius was acquitted, as Cicero
afterwards boasted that he had " thrown dust" in the eyes of the jury
'.teeb 'as offudissejudicibus) at the trial. - Fragmm. See Onom. 'ull. IL
J..1 '.
I




a. u. 67-d6.]  SPEECH IN FAVOR OF POMPEY.


101


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 ad
dressed 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 advocate had prevented him,
from addressing the people there, but he was now
emboldened by the unmistakable evidence of their
favor, as shown by their unanimous election of him,
three times repeated, as prator. 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 reverse,
on which, he said, he would not dwell, but rathe
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




102


THE PRETORSHIP.


[:ET. 40-41,


were united ill Pompey. He drew a splendid portrait
of him as a warrior, and praised to the skies his disinterested 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
himself.  The honor 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 oppression and rapacity of
the governors who have gone out from us of late
years." He declared that they respected nothing,




as. c. 67-66.]


CASE OF MANILIUS.


103


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 favor 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 honors the people had conferred upon him, he
was determined to prefer their wishes, the honor 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
distinguished as the leading orator of Rome, he
found time for, and did not disdain to profit by, if
we may believe Suetonius,l the lessons of a rhetorician named Gnipho. At the mature age of fortyone 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 wdileship of the ensuing year, and
was successful.
Two or three days before the expiration of Cicero's
qffice, Manilius, whose measure in the senate he had
1 De Illustr. Gramm. 7.




104


THE PRAETORSHIP.


[E5T. 40-41.


so vigorously supported, was brought before him and
charged with peculation. 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 favorite, 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 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 himself the de*ence
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




i. c. 67-G6.] DECINES A PRtOVLNCIAL GOVERNMENT.


10DA


in the command of a province, and yet keep himself
within the pale of the law.
Cicero, however, at the close of his prsetorship
declined the glittering temptation, and refused to
accept a provincial government. He is entitled to
the praise of disinterestedness 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 honor, and he
might truly say,
"And if it be a sin to covet honor,
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 mean time 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 aristocratic families whose ancestors
hiad been senators, and who seemed to think themselves entitled to a monopoly of office, looking upon
it as a kiaid of hereditary right.' 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
1 Namque antea pleraque nobilitas invidia aestuabat, et quasi pollui consudatum credebat, si eum quamvis egregius, novus homo adeptus foret. -- Salrlst, Bell. Cat. c. 23.




106


r6lIE PRHL O()NS1111'.


[ l.-r~. 40 -41,


parvenu, - or, to use his own term, a novus homno,
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
ambition 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 subject. " 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 recognized no law
and no order, had the sway over nearly the whole
world, and pursued only their personal objects in all
directions. The ' Republic was a mere name, and
the laws had lost their power.'" 1
l Hist. of Rome, V. 15.




B. c. b5. IELECTIONEERING IN ANCIENT ROME.


107


CHAPTER VII.
CANVASS FOR THE CONSULSHIP AND ELECTION.
ET. 42.  B.C. 65.
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 tributa or assembly of the people in their tribes, held in the
Campus Martius for the election of Tribunes, on the
17th 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 PRENSANDIfacere), 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 Quintus
addressed to him that interesting letter or essay
known as De Petitione Consulatus. It may be called
a Manual of Electioneering Tactics for Ancient
Rome, and proves that he was a man of much
shrewdness and ability.  It throws some insight
into the state of society and customs of the time;




108


CANVASS AND ELECTION.


\1ET. 40


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.
But the limits of the present work will not allow me
to do more than refer the reader to it. A nobler
mode of winning the favor of the electors than a
resort to such arts as Quintus recommends was the
display of eloquence in the Forum, and Cicero
gained great reputation 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). Cornelius 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, Hortensius, 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 Quintilian




B. c. 65.1


DEFENCE OF CORNELIUS.


109


in glowing terms of praise. He says that Cicero
defended Cornelius not only with powerful but brilliant 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 elo.
quence and ability could supply. For practically all
Roman citizens not belonging to the hereditary aristocracy had been excluded from the two highest
magistracies-the consulship and the censorship.
" After the case," says Mommsen,' "of 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 preeminence. 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 comnmunity; 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 mistress
of the civilized world. She held the east and west
in fee: Africa, Egypt, Syria, Greece, Spain, Gaul,
1 Gesch. Rom. Bk. III. c. 11. He gives a list of the gentes which furnished
patrician consuls and curule sediles for about 200 years down to B. c. 173,
from which it appears that 16 houses supplied 140 consuls and 32 curule
ediles: of these the lion's share fell to the Cornelian and Valerian gentes.




110


ELECTION TO THE CONSULSHIP.


[CET. 42


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 expected 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, possibly, 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 sun does not shine at
mid-day." In point of fact, however, Catiline was
1 Sine fuco ac fallaciis more majorun negatur. - Ad At. I. 1.
2 Si judicatum  erit, meridie non lucere, certus erit competitor. -Ad Att.
[.1. It is extraordinary how this passage has been misunderstood by
e;-eral writers.




B. c. 65.]


PROSECUTION OF CATILINE.


111


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 wilo
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 prosecutor.1
I hope, if he is acquitted, that he will be more disposed 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 Cesare, C. iMarcio
Figiulo consulibus."  But they were not consuls until
the year after Catiline had been tried and acquitted
)n the African charge. It is clear, therefore, that the
1 Sumnm  accusatoris voluntate. - Ad Att. I. 2.




112


ELECTION TO THE CONSULSHIP.


[AET. 42


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,
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; 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 advocate, 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
1 Dio Cass. 37. 10.  Cic. pro Sulla, 29. 91.




8. c. 65.]


PROSECUTION OF CATILINE.


113


exert his influence with his friends amongst the nobil
ity, who it was generally believed adversarios 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 or his friend's assistance during
the canvass. And he goes on to say," Take care,
tlerefore, and be in Rome in January, as you originally intended." If then this letter was written in
the year B. c. 64, when Casar 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 canvasser, 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 Cesar 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.
The chief interest in the question is independenit
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 approaching trial (whatever the charge
may have been) which implies that a packed jury
had been secured. How could he think of appear

VOL. 1.


8




114


ELECTION TO THE CONSULSHIP.,t.T. 42


ing 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 candidate 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 consul-.ship. 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 Calius from the odium
arising from his former intimacy with Catiline, declares that hie 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 lie




B.C. 65.]


ACTION AGAINST SATRIUS.


115


intended to defend Catiline, and if he was acquitted
hoped to have him as an ally in his canvass, he de
livered a speech in the Senate, known as the oration
in Toga candidd, in which lie furiously attacked
him, and upbraided him with all the imfimy of his
past life. The truth is, that we must i,  "oQk for
perfect consistency in Cicero, nor be sur  \ to
find that with a political end in view he was
scrupulous as he ought to have been aboL
means. I believe him to have been one of the p
and most virtuous of the ancients, and in s
respects to approach nearest to the character c
Christian gentleman; but I am far from think.
him faultless, and the highest Pagan morality, wh
"' darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness t
people," was something very different from Christi;
principle.
In the same letter in which he announced his ii
tention of becoming a candidate and commencin
his canvass for the consulship in July of this yeai
he told Atticus that he should perhaps take the op
portunity of what we may call a legal vacation 1 t(
go into Cisalpine Gaul (the modern Piedmont anc
Lombardy) and stay there from September to Janu.
ary 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. Cecilius, the rich and miserly uncle of Atticus, had, as he alleged, been cheated by Varius
Dut of a large sum of money. Varius made a fraud.
ulent assignment of his goods to his brother Satrius \
1 Cum Romie a judiciis forum refrixerit.




116


ELECTION TO THE CONSULSHIP.


L  T. a',


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 noblemanupon whom Cicero says he chiefly depended for attaining the object of his ambition. He pointed this
out to Caecilius 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. 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
Ccsare, C. Marcio Figulo consulibus filiolo me auctum
scito, salvd Terentid. It is certainly a stiff' mode of
1 Middleton places the birth in the following year when Lucius Caesar
and Figulus were actually consuls.




v. c. 65.]


SITE OF MODERN ROME.


117


announcing such an event to an intimate 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 Casar's colleague; because, if not,
he foresaw that he would be a formidable competitor
to himself on account of his popularity arising from
his completion 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 MlIvian bridge, the modern
Ponte di Molo. 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 necessary to
mention that modern Rome is almost wholly confined 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 stately Pantheon, and Augustus




118


ELECTTION TO THE CONSULSIIP.


[YE'r 42


placed that beautiful Mausoleum 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
competitors  These were Catiline and Galba, both
of patrician rank, and C. Antonius Hybrida (a
younger son of the deceased orator), L. Cassius
Longinus, Q. Cornificius, and C. Licinius Sacerdos,
all of the plebeian class. But both Antonius and
Longinus belonged to the class of nobiles, that is,
their 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 occasions unblushing bribery and corruption of all kinds were
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
nad been erased from the list of senators by the cen



B. c. 65.] '" THE ORATION IN THE WHITE ROBE."


119


sors.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 " 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 unhappily
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, culb
minated   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 honor 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.
1 The censors had this power. P. Lentulus, after having leen consul
B. C. 71, was expelled from the senate by the censors on account of his
dissolute course of life. There is an instance in English history of a peer
being deprived of his dignity by act of Parliament on the ground of poverty. By a statute passed in 17 Edw. IV., George Nevil, Duke of Bedford,
was for that reason deprived of his peerage.
2 According to Asconius it was either Caesar or Crassuls who was here
rointed at.




120


ELECTION TO THE CONSULSHIP.


[:!Er. 42


This speech was delivered only a few days before
the comitia centuriata, or meeting of the centuries,
was held in 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, pro(]aitled
1 Pro signo voluntatis fiiture. -  In VTerr. I. 9.




R. C. 65.1


ELECTED CONSUL.


121


him consul by loud and unanimous shouts.' 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 first 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 character. 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 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, demoralized 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 preceding 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.
1 Me cuncta Italia, me omnes ordines, me universa civitas non priua
tabella quam voce priorem consulem declaravit. - In Pisonem.




122


THE CONSULSHIP.


f^T. 4a


CHAPTER VIII.
THE CONSULSHIP.
JET. 43.  B. c. 63.
CICERc 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 honorable 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 first of January, - publicly
declared that he sought neither a provincial government, nor honor, 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 magistracy 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 declared 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




B. c. 63.]


PROPOSED AGRARIAN LAW.


123


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 Antonius
obtained.  Afterwards, when the lots were drawn
and Cicero got Macedonia, a tempting prize, he at
once made it over to Antonius, and contented himself with Cisalpine Gaul. This, however, he did not
retain, but voluntarily gave it up and exerted himself
to get it assigned to (4. Metellus Celer.
At the very outset of his new career he distinguished himself by three remarkable triumphs as an
orator. The first of them is characterized 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 absolutely, 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 Reoublic. 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,be Forum, and let the people decide between them.




124


THE CONSULSHIP.


[rT. 43


They deemed it more prudent not to accept the chal.
lenge, 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.
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 cooperation, and concocted the
neasure 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 determination to
support it if it were a bill beneficial to their interests,




B. c. 63.]


SPEECH ON AGRARIAN LAW.


125


and one which a consul who was in the right sense
of the word a liberal (re non oratione popularis) could
readily and with honor 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
'ree 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 established in the
state."
Having struck this chord he rang the changes upon
it throughout his whole speech, and to make the
proposed appointment 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 colonized 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 it




l26


fHE CONSULSHIP.


r[ET. 43


forsooth, said Cicero, 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 colonization. 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.
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, against
your liberties, and against Pompey; Capua against
Rome; against you a band 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 themr
selves." The result was that the bill was rejected.




a. c 63.]


RIOT IN THE THEATRE.


127


The next measure on which he exerted the marvellous power of ils 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, belonging, 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 prosecuting 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 intestine
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




128


THE CONSULSHIP.


[ET. 43L


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 beginning of this year he was received with
a storm of hisses. The knights clapped their hands
and applauded him. A serious riot ensued, and
Cicero was sent for. He invited the people to follow
him to the neighboring temple of Bellona, and there
addressed them in an extempore speech - known as
that pro L. Roscio Otlone, but now unfortunately
lost- by which he completely appeased the anger
of the crowd, and restored them to good humor.
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.
History can record few such triumphs of eloquence
as these; and well might the elder Pliny in allusion
to them exclaim with all the fervor of enthusiastic admiration, that Cicero was the first who had
deserved a civil triumph and the " laurels of the
tongue." 1
His next important speech was that in which lihe
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 criticize it; but it seems to have
been by no means one of his happiest efforts. Saturninus was a tribune of the people, and a seditious
iemagogue. He and others had seized on the Capitol
1 Hist. Nat. VII. 30.




a. c. 63.]  CASE OF THE SENATOR RABIRIUS.


129


and held it with an armed band of followers, when
the Senate authorized 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 wellnigh 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 before two
special judges appointed by the praetor called Duumviri. These were Julius Cesar and Lucius Cesar.
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
possessed 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
VOL. I.         9




130


THE CONSULSHIP.


[ZET. 43.


had armed himself for the purpose, and that was
just 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 honor
of having killed Saturninus the enemy of the Roman
people, he was interrupted by shouts, and stopping
suddenly, he exclaimed, -" That clamor 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 1
should be disconcerted by your clamor. 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 unfavorable, and Rabirius would have been again condemned had not
Metellus Celer, who was augur this year as well as
praetor, bethought himself 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
and superstitious observances. It seems that the
conmitia could only go on while a flag waved on the
Janiculum hill on the other side of the Tiber.1  Me.
tellus pulled down the flag, and this broke up the
assembly.  Labienus afterwards   abandoned  the
prosecution; the judgment of the duumvirs was
1 The origin of this no doubt was that in early times the flag was hoisted
as a signal that all was safe on the Etruscan side. If it was hauled down
it gave notice that invaders were approaching. The observance of the
tustom long outlived its necessity.




R. c. 63.]


CHARACTER OF CATILINE.


131


tacitly allowed to go for nothing, and Rabirius was
saved.
Cicero also in the course of the year defended C.
Calpurnius 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 Catilina was born B. c. 106, in the
same year as Cicero himself.1 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 IEneas.    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 Gitz 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 mur1 It may be interesting to mention that Augustus Caesar was born in the
fear of Cicero's consulship.




132


THE CONSULSHIP.              4


[,ET. 43


jer from his earliest youth. In the civil wars of
Sylla he killed with owa 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 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 step-son 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 colors 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.
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 his 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,




B. c. 63.]


CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE.


133


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.' He was elected praetor, and
after the expiration of his office became governor of
Africa. He was then accused by Clodius of extortion and embezzlement, 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 collecting, 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 Fesule (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
farther towards the north is still pointed out the
site of the camp of Hannibal, where tradition tells
us that the Carthaginian leader halted on his march
to Rome before the battle of the Thrasymene lake.
Faesulae was occupied by one of his creatures, Caius
MarliLs, a veteran centurion of the old army of
Sylla, under whose orders the motley 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
1 For the character of Catiline see pro Cselio, c. 5, 6; in Cat. II. 4; Salhist, Bell. Cat. 5 & 15; Plut. Sail. c. 32; Flor. IV. 1; Veil. Pat. II. 34
Liv. Epit. 102.




134


THE CONSULSHIP.


L[ET. 4


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 banishment 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 doubt was to deprive candidates
like Catiline of the excuse of keeping 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 cornitia put off, challenged Catiline to
appear next day, and answer him to his face. Catiline came, and, with the reckless audacity of his
nature (ut 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




B. c. 63.1  PLOT TO ASSASSINATE CICLRO1).


viderent ne quid detrimenti respublica caperet. The
comitia was 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 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 Laeca, 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' 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 eighth 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
'jimself in the hall he was received with an ominous


1 Sallust mentions C. Cornelius and L. Vargunteius; Plutarch, Marcius
and Cethegus; Cicero (pro Sulld, 6) names only Cornelius.




136


'THE CONSULSHIP.


[zET. 43


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 passionate appeal:1
"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 livein! What
a state of morals is disclosed! The 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 as 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 whlich you ha e
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 Cati1 The dates of the Catiline orations are these:- The first speech was
Ielivered in the Senate on the 8th of November; the second to the people
on the following day; the third to the people on the 3d of December; the
bourth in the Senate on the 5th of December.




B. c. 63.]  INVECTIVE AGAINST CATILINE.


13`


line 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 committed in Rome, or
that the criminal had not been punished.
At the end of this terrible invective Catiline rose
and attempted 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 savior.  Here, however, his
voice was drowned by loud cries of " Traitor! Parri.
cide!" 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
nouse, and after conferring at his own house with
1 Iaquilinus, a tenant or occupier of a house es distinguished from the
owner.




138


THE CONSULSHIP.


[EAT. 43.


the chief leaders of the conspiracy, and assuring them
that he 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 mentioning 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 described
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




B. c. 63.1


CATILINE'S PILOT BETIIAYEl).


139


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 overcome,
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
Zhief conspirators who remained in Rome. This was
by no means easy, for such was the 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 dexterously 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 favor. 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 ol
their power. But whether they intended treachery
1 Plutarch says they were only two.




140


TIHE CONSULSHIP.


[,ET. 43


from the first, or were frightened at the idea of conlpromising themselves, or wished to curry favor 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 addressing 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 obtaining 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 conspirators named Vulturcius was to accompany them and introduce them to Catiline as they
passed through Etruria. Cicero was kept informed
by them of all that was going on, and he took his
measures accordingly. The envoys were to set out
on their journey at nightfall, and he directed two of
the prators to take a guard with theIn and post
themselves in ambush, in two parties, at each end of
the Milvian bridge (now the Ponte di Molo), about
a couple of miles from the old city walls, across




. 0
0: "..




TEMPLE OF CONCORD.


IikI'U'RE1) 819 UAV. CANINA.
Vol i. p. 1411.




B. C. 63.]


CONSPIRATORS ARRESTED.


141


which the Allobroges would pass. When they came
up to the spot the soldiers rushed forward, and, aftei
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 prator 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
Concord, and were impatiently waiting for Cicero's
arrival. He took with him the envoys and tie 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




142


THE CONSULSHIP.


[1T. 43


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 affecting 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
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 examined. 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 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.
A letter was then shown to Cethegus, with its seal
unbroken 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




B. c. 63.]


'rHE CONSPIRATORS CONFESS.


14?


had told the ambassadors, and entreated them to
perform what those ambassadors had undertaken 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
collecting choice weapons. The production of the
letter, however, confounded him, and he sat silent.
Lentulus was next asked whether he recognized
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 Lentulus for
Catiline. Lentulus admitted his seal and handwriting, 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




144                    THE CONSULSHIP.                   [:Er. 4a
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             ediles and
a relative, Cethegus to Q. Cornificius, Statilius to
Julius Cesar, 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 content with          the  punishment of these
tine   men out of the       numbers who were implicated
inl 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 hin with their swords.
They were, however, prevented 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
1 An attempt was made to implicate Crassus in the conspiracy, but failed.
A man named Tarquinius, who had been just apprehended on his way to
join Catiline, was brought before the senate, and he declared that he had
been sent by Crassus to tell Catiline not to be disheartened by the arrest of
Lentulus and the rest, but to hasten to Rome and take measures to rescue
them. But the senators refused to believe the tale, and with cries of indignation insisted that it was false. Sallust insinuates that some of themii did
believe it, but there were too many who were under private obligntions to
the wealthy noble. They resolved, however, on the motion of Cicero, that
the information was false, and that 'Tarquinius should be ilmprisoned until
lie disclosed the name of the person who hlad subornled himil to i ve thie
evidence. Sallust adds tlat lie heard Crassus aftcrwv;irds declare t iat the
author of the calumny was Cicero himselft- an accusation swhiiclh we are at
liberty entirely to disbelieve.




B. C. 63.]


ADDRESS FROM THE ROSTRA.


145


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 recognize the hand of Jupiter Optimus
Maximus, whose statue, by a singular coincidence,
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 mark
of honor, no reward, no monument to his glory, but
the everlasting memory of that day. He wished all
honors 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 perpetuated 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
urotection against the enemies his conduct had provoked, and dismissed them to their homes, as it was
then already dark, with an admonition to worship
VOL. I.       10




146


1HE CONSULSHIP.


[LET. 43.


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 bv the cheering crowd to the house of a fiiend, 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, t" as
she was otherwise in her own nature neither tenderhearted nor timorous, but a woman eager for distinction," excited her husband against the conspirators, as also did his brother Quintus, and Publius
Nigidius, 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 resolution, " the city from conflagration - the
citizens from massacre  Italy from war."  An un



B. c. 63.]


PUNISHMENTS PROPOSED.


147


heard-of honor, which hitherto no civilian had enjoyed, it having been reserved exclusively for military success.
There were no reporters in ancient Rome, although
stenography 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 December, 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
Csesar 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 dungeons amongst certain Italian towns,
and there kept in close imprisonment for life; that
those towns should be responsible 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 consummate art, while affecting to hold the
balance evenly between the two opinions, and sumtning up the arguments on both sides with almost
udicial fairness, he took care to impress upon his
hearers that no punishment was too great for the




148


THE CONSUL SHIP.


[LET. 43.


crime, and to show that he as consul was quite ready
to execute their sentence, whatever it might be.l
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 colmmended his youthful son to their care, who would
find not only safety but honor in their recollection
that he was the child of the man who, with danger
only to himself, had been the savior of them all. He
called upon 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 commonwealth.   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.2
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 favor 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
1 Mr. Merivale (History of the Romans under the Empire, I. 137) says
tlat " Cicero himself demanded a sentence of death." But this is incorrect. The utmost that can be made of his speech is to say that it showed
uo disinclination to the capital sentence.
2 Sallust makes no mention of Cicero's speech. He hated him, and en,
teavored to detract as much as possible from his fame.




-: —  - — 1 - — ___.__.__1111111111I1IL. — 1 ----- T -I ~ -- d

B. c. 63.]  TIlE COXS 'IIATOJTS SENTENCED.


149


Senate voted for death. This sentence seems to
have embraced only five of the conspirators, Leniulus, Cethegus, Gabinins, and Statilius, whose letters
had been found on the Allobroges ambassadors, and
also Ctaparius. Cicero, as chief magistrate, lost not
a moment in putting it into execution.
On the left hand facing the Forum, at the northcast extremity 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
througl 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 jail. Probably it was commenced by the first-named king, and
finished or enlarged by the second, from whom it
took the name of Ttlllianum, 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 Falegnaini




1
ii
I
i'i
i
1
i
i
I


M"MM     -_~...  L._~.   --- -11,1 1  -~1~_  11


150


THE CONSULSHIP.


[rET. 48.
L


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 Gaemonim 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 Lentulus 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 jailer.   The
other four condemned conspirators were brought by
the prators 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
"Vixerunt!" " for so," says Plutarch, " the Romans,
to avoid inauspicious language, name those that are
dead."
le 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,
1 According to Roman Catholic tradition, St. Peter was confined in the
lower dungeon in the reign of Nero. The story is that the apostle here
converted the jailer and several of his fellow-prisoners, and tiat in order to
obtain water to baptize them lie created a miraculous spring in the floor of
the vault. Whatever mav be thotught of the legend, the spring -and its
water is delicious-still exists.
2 i'lutarch says that each of the conspirators was brought separately by
Cicero to the prison, but this is not very likely; and another account
rssigns that duty to the priTtors, as stated in the text.




Misin
IPageR




Misin
IPageR




B. c. 63.]


I)EATH OF CATILINE.


153


and in thai 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. An.
tonius, 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 probably buried where he lay; at all events no
man knoweth the tomb of Catiline to this day.1
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 de.
1 When I was at Pistoia I saw a street there which bears the name of
Tomba di Catilina.




154


THE CONSULSHIP.


[,ET i. 13


fence of one of his friends a speech distinguished
chiefly by its light wit and good-humored raillery.
I allude to his speech pro Murend, the tone of which
Niebuhr tries to explain by a curious and rather
fanciful theory. He says:1 I 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
recognized 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 expression of his sentiments. I have myself
experienced this during the great commotions which
[ 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 the speech was delivered before the end of Cicero's consulship, 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


I Hist. of Rome, V. 29.


2 See pro Murendi, e. "7.




Mis
IPageR




Mis
IPageR




B. c. 63.]


DEFENCE OF M URENA.


157


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 in.
quiries 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.
L "But this is not the way," cried Cicero, " to succeed  I like
t candidate for office - especially such an office as the consulship - to go forth to the Forum and the Campus Martius 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 rumor oegins
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'l1 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 illustrious name, and quoted examples




158


THE CONSULSHIP.


[SET. 43.


to show that in former times the overweening power
of the accusers had proved the safety of the accused.
He next a;tacked the Stoic philosophy, upon which
he threw the blame of Cato's severity; and this is,
perhaps, the cleverest part of the speech. In 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, i" 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 (ldo 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
thetr zeal as partisans. ' But shows were publicly exhibited, and




B. c. 63.1


OPPOSED TO CATO.


linner-invitations were promiscuously given.' Now although ir
fact this was not done by Murena at all, but only by his fiiends
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. IIe 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
aspire 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 fiom the Roman people?' This is 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.  VMurena was acquitted, and Cato goodhumoredly 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  libere legationes.
When a senator wished to travel in           Italy  or the
1 Cicero says (de Fin. IV. 27) that he had laughed at the Stoic philosophy.n his speech pro Mlurend, as he was then addressing the vulgar, and wished
to amuse the crowd. " Apud imperitos turn illa dicta sunt: aliquid etiam
toronae datum."




160


THEI' CONSUL SHIP.


[LET. 43


provinces on private business, he used to apply for,
and generally obtain from the senate, a commission
which entitled him to assume the privileges of an
ambassador. The name given to this was libera
legratio, 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 seens
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 31st of December, he intended, according to the usual custom, to address the people fiom
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 10th
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 defence, ought not to be allowed himself to
speak to the people. Cicero says that no such insult
was ever offered to a magistrate before. According
to Plutarch, Mletellus acted in concert with Julius
Caesar, who had just been elected one of the pritors,
vith 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 forbidden by the tribune to speak.
Taking advantage of the moment when the usual




7    _


B. c. 63.J     RETIREMENT FROM OFFICE.                1(jl
oath at the close of a magisterial office was admin.
istered to him, he raised his voice, and in a tone loud
enough to be heard by the multitude, he swore that
in his consulship he had saved the Republic from
destruction. The people, with applauding shouts,
cried out, " You     have spoken    true!"1   It was a
noble tribute of spontaneous gratitude to the retiring
consul, and one to which, in after-life, he often re
ferred with feelings of pardonable exultation.
1 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 instance out of many of Dio's malignant attempts to injure hit
memory.
Vo. I                11




-                                - ".,.......  _   _....... '' ~.   A....   -,   _   - 1 - - _ -


162


VIR CONSULARIS.


r^XT. 45


CHAPTER IX.
VIR CONSULARIS.
AEr..5.  B. c. 62.
CICERcO wvas now a Consular-Vir Consularts. 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 Fasulae.
'his Metellus was the brother of Metellus Nepos
til tribune, who had interposed to prevent Cicero
from addressing the people on laying down his consuiship. Nepos had quitted Pompey in Asia Minor,
where he was serving under that general and devoted
to his ir:ftrests, in order to hurry to Rome and become
a candidate for the tribuneship. He was elected,
bti the senatorial or conservative party exerted itself
successfully to get Marcus Porcius Cato chosen as




B. c. 62.]


ENMITY OF METELLUS NEPOS.


his colleague for the purpose of counteracting any
mischief he might have in view, and fhe 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's brother Metellus Celer, tried to get Claudia, Celer's wife, and
Mucia, who was Pompey's wife and sister of the two
Metelli, to persuade 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 condemning 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 conflagration 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




164


VIR CONSULARIS.


[.Ei. 45


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 Cis.
alpine 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 commanded 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 composition, and a model of what such an answer should
be to an irritated friend.
The tribune's next move was made no doubt in
concert with Pompey, with whoin 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




a. c. 62.]


BILL TO RECALL POMPEY.


-i6a


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 (Senatus 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 favor 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, Therrnus put his hand over his mouth to prevent him.
During this indecent scene the crowd below had re



J66


VIR CONSULARIS.


[ EET 15


mained 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 neighboring Temple of Concord, anu
to quell the riot they hastily invested the consuls
with summary authority by the usual formula, Videant Consules ne quid detrimenzti 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, pretending 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
)een related a key to the explanation of much of
Pompey's conduct when he returned to Rome.
It has been already mentioned that he was by the
Gabinian law (Lex Gabinia) invested with the com



B.C. 62.]  CORRESPONDENCE WITH POMPEY.


16'


mand 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 consulship,
and Pompey sent an account of his victories to the
Senate in a public despatch, which was most probably encircled with laurel leaves (litere laureatce),
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 State in a way which,
according to modern notions, would be thought to
be in rather bad taste.l He told Pompey that he
had expected from him a more explicit acknowledgment 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 Lelius, 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
1 It must, nowever, be remembered that an acknowledgment of his services from a man in Pompey's position would have been invaluable to
Oicero, and he had a right to expect it.




168


VIR CONSULARIS.


[L2ET. 45.


breath that he mentioned the exploits of the con4ueror of Mithridates.
WVe 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. Iivius
Drusus, who was assassinated B. c. 91.      It joined a
portico which had been erected by Q. Catulus out
of the spoils taken fiom 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. Flaccus, put to death by order of the
Senate for sedition, and which had been razed to the
ground.1 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 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
1 The architect told Drusus that he would build the house so that no one
should overlook him and see what he was doing. " Nay," lie replied(, if
you have skill enough, build it so that all the world may see wliat I amn
doing. -Veil. Pater. II. 14.  Iepiduls. who was consul in tlie \ear of Svlla's
death, erected  the most splendidl mansion that liad  lup to that tine  [bele
seen in Rome; but withinr thirty-five years afterwarls it was\ eiipstd by
the superior grandeur of at least an lhuntdred dwellings.  llin. llist. Nut,
XXXV. 24.




B.c. G. 6". j


ACCUSED BY ANTONIUS.


169


Cicero's house on the Palatine, "that is to say," he
observes, " I know the place within about fifty feet
where the house mutt have stood, and I have often
visited the spot." 1 The vast ruins which astonish
the gaze of the traveller on the southeast 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 strown
In fragments, choked-up vaults, and fiescoes steeped
In subterraneous (lamps, 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 Macedo.


I Hist. of Rome, V. 41.


2 Childe Harold, canto 4.




170


VIR CONSULARIS.


[ST. 45


nia to take care of the money to be squeezed out of
the province. This rumor naturally caused much
annoyance to Cicero, and we find him complaining
of it in a letter to Atticus in terms of indignation. 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 rumor to Atticus shows
that he was innocent, and I do not 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 existence 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 diligentissime, although everybody felt
1 Ad Div. V. 5.
2 Ad Att. I. 12. This depends upon the assumption that the name Teucrs, which occurs in several of Cicero's letters to Atticus, means Antolus.
I believe that it does.




a. c. 62.]


CHARGE AGAINST CAESAR.


171


that Antonius had not behaved towards him as he
ought. But, writing to Atticus, he told him that he
was informed that Pompey was determined on his
return to Rome to get Antonius superseded in his
government, and he declared that the case was so
bad that he could not in honor nor without loss of
credit defend him. Moreover, he said he had no
inclination to do so, on account of the calumnious
rumors he had set afloat respecting himself.1
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 suspicion of having been privy
to the plot. Lucius Vettius accused him before the
questor 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, - 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 presumptive proof of innocence, and so completely turned the tables upon
1 Ad Att. I. 12. If the letter to Sextius was written after the cne to At-:icus, quoted in the text, that is if Cicero, notwithstanding what he said tc
Atticus, did after all defend Antonius, the case would be much worse. I
Jave followed the order in which Schutz and Abeken place the correspond
ance.




172


VIR CONSULARIS.


[,Er. 4~


Curius that he was held not to be entitled to the reward 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 Caear
had him thrown into prison. He also got the quaestor
imprisoned for allowing a superior magistrate (Coesar
was then pretor) 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 quastorship; 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.alled it, parricide against one's country, of which a
man might be so notoriously guilty that no advocate
1 Two years afterwards, during the consulship of Julius Caesar and Bibulus (B. c. 59), Autronius was put upon his trial, and Cicero did then deend him, but without success.




B. C. 62.]


DEFENCE OF P. SULLA.


l17k


would be bound or ought to defend him. But he
denied that there was a tittle of evidence affecting
Sulla. Apparently all that Torquatus relied upon
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
com promised 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 anything like the indignation at the charge which we
should have expected. I need not say that he triumphantly vindicated himself, although one would
have thought that no vindication was required.
The rest of the speech consisted chiefly in all appeal to the past life of his client as evidence of his
innocence. Surely he had had misfortune enough in




174             VIR CONSULARIS.         [ET. 45.
having the consulship 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.




is c. 62-61.1


CICERO'S ENEMIES.


174


CHAPTER X.
MYSTERIES OF THE BONA DEA, AND TRIAL OF CLODIUS
IET. 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 expected that such measures could be taken,
and such a conspiracy 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 aristocracy,
against whom there was no positive proof, were accomplices in the design; or, if not, were at all events
disappointed 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 unexpected quarter,
and it was on this wise it happened.
Amongst the numerous rites and solemn festivals
of religion 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
honor of the Bona Dea - the goddess who gave




176


MYSTERIES OF THE BONA DEA.  [2ET. 4445.


truitfulness in marriage - which was celebrated on
the first of May, at the house of the first consul or
the first prator, and at which prayers were offered up
for the safety of the whole Roman people (pro salute
populi Romani). No lodge of freemasons ever excluded the presence of women more carefully from
its ceremonies than the votaries of the 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 tie rites were going on.
We may imagine therefore the consternation of the
Roman citizens in the beginning of May, B. c. 62,
when the rumor ran like lightning through the streets
that a man had been discovered disguised as a
woman in the house of Caesar the prator, during the
celebration there of the mysteries of the Bona Dea.
It was too true.  One of the most profligate 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
1 According to one account Aurelia, the mother of Cxesar, permitted him
to escape. Aurelia pro testimonio dixit suo jussu eumn esse dimissun. Schol.
Bobiens. in Orat. in Clod. If so, it was probably with a view to hush the
matter up and prevent scandal.




B. c. 62-61.]     tLTRUSION OF CLODIUS.


177


almost incredible. No time or place can be conceived
less favorable 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;
his intrigue with    Mucia, Pompey's wife, was the
cause of her divorce from her husband; and he was
notorious for every kind of debauchery 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 notoriety in the case
of Virginia, whose father stabbed her to death in the
Forum to save her from dishonor. His elder brother,
whom Niebuhr calls " a good-natured but superstitious and little-minded person," had obtained the
highest honors in the Republic; and he had three
sisters, one, the infamous Clodia or Quadrantaria,2
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
M1 r. Merivale (Hist. Rom. I. 167) says, " the odious charge that he had
lived in incest with his sisters can only be regarded as a current tale of
scandal, the truth of which it would be preposterous to assume." I fear it
s neither preposterous nor incredible. It wa! at all events firmly believed
at Rome.
2 The quadrans was a small coin at Rome about the value of a farthing,
and was the price of a public bath. Clodia used to frequent these baths as
if she were one of the " laboring classes," and he -e the nickname.
VOL. I.         12




178       MYSTERIES OF THE BONA DEA.  '.Er. 44-45
presumed 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. 61, Q.
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 authorize 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 mean time, 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 succeeded almost without a struggle. So general was the
opinion that such was his design, that, according to
Plutarch, Crassus withdrew himself with his children




B. c. 62-61.]


RETURN OF POMPEY.


17S


and property 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. Hie 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 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 a man whom Cicero calls levissimus, that he
should introduce Pompey to the people in the Circus
Flaminius, where, it being market-day, there was
a considerable crowd, 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
contending 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 partisans. He therefore spoke,
as Cicero calls it, very " aristocratically," praising the
Senate in general terms, and professing 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.
1 Non jucunda miseris, inanis improbis, beatis non grata, bonis nor
gravis: itaque frigebat. -  Ad At. I. 14.




180


MYSTERIES OF THE BONA DEA.  [E'r 44-45


Soon afterwards, when his demand for a triumph
nad been granted, Pompey entered Rome; and, when
he took his seat in the Senate, the consul Messala
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,
eulogizing 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 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 rmay 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. Perhapshe adds, this
was because Crassus had thus seized an opportunity




B. C. 62-61.]    POMPEY IN THE SENATE.


181


of showing good-will to him while Pompey had
shown indifference; or, because he saw how favora
bly the Senate listened to the praise which Crassus
had bestowed.
Cicero rose next, and it is amusing to read his
own account of Jbis 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, " clamores."  He sat down
amidst thunders of applause.
But to return to the affair of Clodius. Everything depended 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 prator.  Of the two
consuls Piso sided with them, and did his utmost to
get the bill rejected; but Messala, on the contrary,
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. Cssar 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, " Cesar's wife ought tc
be above suspicion."  The Senate, however, stood
firm, so much so that Cicero calls it a very Areopa.




1.82


TRIAL OF CIODIUS.


[AT. 44-45


gus; and it was determined that the bill should be
srbmitted to the people, and if possible 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.vhen 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.




B.C. 62-61.]  BILL FOR TRIAL OF CLODIUS.


183


The Senate further resolved that they would transact no public business until the bill was carried
Hortensius, however, 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 preserved at the
same time the principle of fairness in not selecting
the names. But Hortensins 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 exseptions he says a worse set ne;er sat round a gambling-table: disreputable senators, needy knights,




184


TRIAL OF CIODIUS.


rGET. 44-45


and insolvent tribunes.1 The few respectable mep
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 observed; the points as they arose were decided unanimously in favor of the prosecution with almost stern
severity, and all that the prosecutor asked was
granted.    Hortensius chuckled at the       thought of
his own sagacity, and the universal opinion was that
Clodius would be found guilty.
For his defence he relied on an alibi. His case was
that he could not have been in the house where the
mysteries 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.
Instantlythere was a tremendous clamor. The whole
court rose and surrounded him as if to protect him
from   assassination.    Such   a  mark of respect, he
says, was more honorable than Xenocrates received
when his oath was dispensed with at Athens, and
he gave evidence unsworn; or Metellus (surnamed
Numidicus), when on his trial the jury refused to
look  at his accounts when       they were    handed   to
them.2 Such a reception struck terror into the hearts
1 Mactlosi senatores, nudi equites, tribuni, non tain Trrati, quani, ut appellantur,,erarii. -Ad At/. I. 16. It is difficult to know the precise point
of contrast here between cernti and cerarii. Several explanations have been
sttempted, but I believe I have given the real meaning.
2 A somewhat parallel case once occurred in Scotland. A chest containing
tiie muniments of title of the Maitlind family in Scotland had been buried
for safety (luring the civil war in the 17th century. On the return of more
ptaceful times it was taken up, but the deeds were found to be illegible
from damp and decay-. It happened, however, that the first Lord Lando,




B.. 62-61.]


THE JURY BRIBED.


18t


of Clodius and his friends.     Cicero deposed that
on the very morning in question in his own houl:
he had an interview with Clodius. This if true was
decisive, and it was unlikely that the evidence could
be disbelieved. 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
behavior.
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 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, " abominations as foul as those which
are buried under the waters of the Dead Sea." I
At last came the moment of the verdict. The
dale, who was the son of Baron Maitland of Thirlestane, Chancellor of
Scotland, and died in 1595, had made long before a calendar orprecis of
his deeds, and so high was the opinion entertained of his integrity, that the
Scotch parliament directed that this calendar should be accepted as evilence, and ordered the clerk-registrar to authenticate it accordingly. See
Crawford's Peerage of Scotland.
1 Noctes certarumn muliernun atque adolescentulorum nobilium introduc
tiones. -- Ad Att. 1. 16.




186


TRIAL OF CLODIUS.


[ET. 44-45


Forum was crowded with a rabble of slaves. The
respectable citizens kept away. Twenty-five voted
for a conviction, thirty-one for an acquittal, and
Clodius was.declared Not Guilty! 1
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, Terentia, 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 conscientious 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 conduct 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 3o&mtc, or i" ox-eyed," - not, however, an
uncomplimentary epithet, as witness Homer, who
thus characterizes 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 sup1 at,-la.s sarcastically asked one of the jurymen afterwards, " What did
jon want a guard for? Were you afraid lest you should be robbed ofyoui
oribe? "




B. c. 62-61.]


CONDUCT OF CICERO.


187


pose 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 defence set up by the perpetrator
was a lie, should feel himself 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, Celius,
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
pleading 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 underfoot every law, both human and divine.
In another letter he declares that tile constitution
was overthrown by a verdict purchased by bribery
and lust.1
He preserved, however, a bold front externally, and
1 Emto constupratoque judicio




188


TRIAL OF CLODIUS.


[MET. 44-45


exposed 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 sorne
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 15th 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, 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 illustration 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 vociferously applauded.
Some of the jokes are now obscure, and have lost
their point, and some are not fit for explanation. As
a specimen, however, of the kind of wit that so




B. C. 62-61.]  AFFRONT OFFERED TO CICERO.


189


delighted 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 honor 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. Cicero
came next; Catulus third; and Hortensius fourth.
Ciceto, however, was gratified by hearing murmurs
of disapproval amongst the senators, and he consoled
himself with the reflection that, by the affront, he




190


TRIAL OF CLODIUS.


[ET. 44-48


was relieved from the necessity of keeping )n terms
with Piso, whom he paints in no flattering colors,
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 advocated or opposed measures, not because they were
right or wrong in themselves, but because he feared
that their rejection 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:-1. Senators;
2. Knights; and 3. Tribuni IErarii. 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
Manutius 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
1 Manut. in Orat.pro Cluentio.




u. c. 62-61.]  DISCONTENT OF THE KNIGHTS.


191


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 characterized as indecent.
It is impossible to justify this. Cicero's convictionas that of every honest man -was, and must have
been, that the Knights were flagrantly in the wrong,
and no political consideration 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
b:etween the two orders arose, owing to a caprice of
the Knights, as Cicero calls it,' 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 contracts 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
avaricious eagerness, as they themselves confessed,
to get the contract, 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
1 Ecce aliie delicim equitum vix ferentle, quas ego non solum  tuli, sed
qtiain ornavi. -Ad AU. I. 17.




192


TRIAL OF CLODIUS.


[.ET. 44-45


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 petition was rejected.1 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 favor for the sake
of not alienating the whole body."
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. 61,- 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
1 When Julius Cesar was consul, one of his first acts was to get tle con
ltacts reduced to the extent of one third.  By this politic concession he of
course conciliated the good-will of tlhe Knights.  Dio Cass. XXXVIII. 7.




. C. 62-61.]  CICERO'S OPINION OF POMPEY.


193


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, Palestine, Judea, 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 exoressed 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
VOL. I.       13




194


TRIAL OF CLODIUS.


[JET. 44-41


Cicero always mistrusted Pompey, and Pompey disliked Cicero. Cicero soon discovered the 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 statesman at Rome who could make
head against the rising reputation of Cesar, and
counteract the designs of that dangerous and unl
scrupulous 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 frang'i 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 aristocracy 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
constitution were destroyed, their fish-ponds would
1 Ad Att. II. 1.




B.c. 62-61.] CICERO'S INTIMACY WITH POMPEY.


195


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 Pomney; Atticus took
care to be friends with everybody, -" about whom
you wrote to me, and said that ht 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," 1-in such terms Cicero spoke of the
lower orders at Rome, — "thinks that I am an especial favorite 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
1 Ilia voncionalis hirudo ararii, misera ac jejuna plebecula.




196


TRIAL OF CLODIUS.


[ET. 44-45


talk Cnaeus Cicero. Therefore, in the theatre and
at gladiatorial shows, we receive astonishing applause without a single hiss (sine ulld pastoricid
fistuld)."
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  ly
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 tie 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, well knowing his weak side, took care to flatter
him about his famous consulship, and declared that
ke might have served the Republic well, but that
Cicero had saved it. " That he should do this," says




B. C. 62-61.]  HIS DOMESTIC AND PRIVATE LIFE.


197


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 certain show and glitter externally;
they give credit in the Forum, but confer no homefelt 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;1 and frequently inquires about his
Amraltheum,-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.
Ie 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,
l Ad Att. I. 17.




198            TRIAL OF CLODIUS.      [AET. 44-45,
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
-are of an unknown courier. But to relieve Atticus
T'om anxiety, he expressly adds, that they are of no
great moment.




R. 0. 60.1


AFRANIUS CONSUL.


199


CHAPTER XI.
THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.
LET. 16. 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
authorizing 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 bri.
bery (divisores) 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




200


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[ET. 46


consulship: it was a choice which would make any
one who was not a philosopher groan.
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 Ponmpey'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 revenues acquired by Pompey's conquests.
The Senate was opposed to the whole plan, looking upon it as a scheme for the further aggrandizement of Pompey. Cicero, however, was willing that
the law should pass, with certain modifications. He
spoke in its favor, but strongly insisted that the right
of present possessors should be respected; 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 jail 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 lawless.




B. c. 60.]   RUMORS OF GALLIC INVASION.


201


ness of the times! Ponpey however interfered, and
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 bestirring himself. The Senate at
once decreed that the two consuls should each assume
the government of one of the Gallic provinces, the
one taking Gallia Cisalpina, the other Gallia Narbonensis; and they ordered a levy of troops, and cancelled all furloughs. They also determined to send
ambassadors into Gaul to induce the various tribes
not to join the Helvetii in hostilities. As usual, the
choice of these ambassadors 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




202


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[AET. 46.


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 pleasantry 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 fanily or gens, and to accomplish
this object he devoted all his energies. The legal
mode of accomplishing an adoption was by getting
a special law passed at the Comitia curiata, a meeting of the people voting in their curike, but Clodius
feared that if the thing were attempted in a legal and
regular way he might not succeed, for in the curia
the aristocratic element preponderated. He therefore
got the tribune Herennius to propose that the question




B. c. 60.]  CICERO CONCILIATES THE NOBIIITY.


203


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 mean time Cicero pursued the most con3iliatory 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 incensed 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 favorite with them, and they showed
him the utmost respect.  But he knew that he stood
on slippery 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
favoring breeze of honor 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
1 It is curious to notice the way in which Cicero introduces the name of
Herennius to Atticus. " There is a man called Herennius, a tribune of the
veople, whom perhaps you do not even know; and yet you may know
him; for he is one of your own tribe. and Sextus, his father, used to distribute bribes amongst you! "- Ad Att. I. 13
I Pro Sextio, 48.




204


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[ET. 46


Pornpey sat silent in his triumphal robe.' te there
fore remained upon his guard, distrusting his new
born friendships, and having constantly in his mind
a line of Epicharmus worthy of Macchiavelli —
NI'o  Kat Ii~vr/a' umrtrelv iuppa rarVa Trv fpevSJv.
Be wary and mistrustful: the sinews of the soul are these."
Writing to Atticus shortly afterwards, he for the first
time mentions Julius Caesar's name, and the expression he uses is remarkable. He had just been defending his policy in allying 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 favorable) a better man? Am I doing much disservice to
the state?"  Casar had not then returned from
Spain, which he held as his pretorian 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 criticize 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 afterwards did,
and told Atticus that he might expect a poem also
1 Pompeius togulam illam pictam silentio tuetur suam. - Ad Alt. I. 18.




B. C. 60.]  HISTORY OF CICERO'S CONSULSHIP.


203


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 Ihe
other towns of Greece." His vanity in fact was
something wonderful. 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 sub..
ject 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, 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 unadorned 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 colors of Aristotle. About the same time he
made a collection of the speeches he had delivered
1 Ne quid genus a me ipso laudis mese pretermittatur.




206


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[ ET.46


while consul, and called them his "Consular Orations." He told Atticus that Papirius Pmtus (one of
his friends and correspondents) had made him a
present of a library. Petus 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 advocate
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 labors of the Forum to literature.
In the course of the year he wrote an admirable
letter, or rather essay, on the duties of a provincial
governor, addressed to his brother Quintus, who had
obtained the praetorian province 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.
Cesar 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 favor with the existing law,
and therefore, finding that the two objects were incompatible, he gave up the triumph and stood for
the consulship. But he wanted money to bribe the




B. c. 60.J


RETURN OF CAESAR.


207


electors; and to get over the difficulty, he made corn
mon cause with Lucceius, who was wealthy and
ambitious, on the condition that Lucceius should
bribe for both in their joint names. The Senate was
alarmed at the idea of having Casar consul, with
a tool like Lucceius for his colleague, and they therefore put forward Bibulus as their candidate. But
as they well knew that without bribery he had no
chance, they subscribed amongst themselves to enable
him to bid as high as his competitors. 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 Casar.
When he left Rome to assume the praetorian government of Spain, Casar was, in point of fortune, a
ruined man. He had squandered unheard-of sums
on his adileship, 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 aggrandizement. Caesai
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 " threefold cord is not
quickly broken," and that he would be more than a




208


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[2ET. 46


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 labored 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
constitution. 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 coalition of the three most
ambitious and influential men at Rome.1 The vessel of the State began to drift in a direction 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, however, 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
\nfluence with the Knights, as Cicero. And there
was much to tempt him to join the alliance. Caesar
1 Societatem  cum  utroque (Cesar) iniit, ne quid agerctur in republics
quod displicuisset ulli e tribus. - Sueton. Cces 23.




B. c. 60.]


CAESAR'S INTRIGUES.


209


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 himself 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'Et olwvb  uJptaro  aivveal9a wrepi i Urp7S.
And in this mood he addressed to Atticus, in the
month of December of the closing year, a letter in
which, after expressing 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. Terentia 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. Cesar, Pompey, and Crassus had
formed a coalition, and every effort was made to
induce Cicero to join them.  But he held aloof,
determined to temporize, and not commit himself
to an alliance which, it was his firm conviction,
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 vacillaV0t            14




210


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


r,LET. 4&


tion; 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 fishponds 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 Republic
could have been preserved is another question, which
is not so easily answered. I believe that its knell
of dissolution had been struck, and that nothing
could have prevented its final overthrow. 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 discovered 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 demoralized 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 Inore




B. C. 60. '


GENERAL DEMORALIZATION.


21.


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. 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 patronized 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 passport
to their favor 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 of other days could be
preserved? And yet this was the dream to which
Cicero clung, even to the last. Blinded by his attachment 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




212


TIlE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[   iEr 46


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 fatherland?
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 plot
against the constitution and liberties of Rome, nor
blind our eyes to the fact that he was unscrupulously and selfishly ambitious.
Pompey was weak and vainglorious; utterly unfit
to stand against his giant competitor or confront the
dangers which overwhelmed the sinking State. No
man could do this who was not gifted by nature
with a genius for military command, - for the sword
must ultimately 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-civilized 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.


f




B. c. 60.]


CICERO AT HIS VILLAS.


213


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 misreported to the triumvirs. This so enraged them
that, with indecent haste, they that very day hurried
on Clodius's adoption; and Pompey, who was then
augur, took the auspices while the meeting of the
people was held, and so sanctioned the ceremony. In
this act of adoption there were several irregularities,
owing to which, ads 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 year, and passed several months at some of
his villa residences 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 candidly 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 geograpl)ical work, and collected materials for the purpose,
but he seems to have been deterred by its difficulty
(magnuzm ojus est, he says), and never to have carried
qut the idea. He was at this time weary of politics,




211


TIlE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[JA T. le


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 St. Yust 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, 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 even seen Vatinius!"
(a noisy and troublesome tribune of the people
devoted to Cesar) -" 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 proposed for making a distribution of the
public lands in Campania. To execute the scheme,




B.     60.]


PUBLIC LAND COMMISSION.


215


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
Janger; and Caesar, enraged at his conduct, had the
audacity to throw his colleague into prison, from
which however he almost immediately released hirn.
Owing to the opposition the bill encountered, 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 secure his active support, they seem
to have wished to remove him from Rome on the
honorable 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 discontented with him. Pompey wished
to gain for him the title of friend and ally of the
Roman people, and Cesar backed the attempt, which
was opposed by the other consul Bibulus, who advo



216


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[ET. 46.


cated the cause of the Egyptians. In the mean time
there was a talk of proposing to Cicero that he should
go to Egypt and endeavor to effect a reconciliation
between the king and his subjects, and his own
personal inclination 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 deterred 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 will history say of me six hundred years
hence? That is a judgment which I reverence much
more than the small talk (rumusculi) 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 decline 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
w7as 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




D. c. 60.]


CICERI IN RETIREMENT.


217


was the only prize by which it was in the power of
the Triumvirate to tempt him, and with candor adds,
"LVide levitatem meanm! See my weakness!" While
he thus wrote, his mind was struggling between the
desire for action and the love of the calm pleasures
of literature 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 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 Cesar and Pompey to confer the honor 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, -
' T hear beneath the roof with tranquil mind
The rain-lashed window beaten by the wind.' "
1               vi rb arey,
wKva.iio (KOeVlV pEKIcd6aS voWcad ppfvi.




218


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[EAT. 46


So far however from being tranqtil, he was in a state
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 "l 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 Formie, 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 do him no injury;
and Cicero told his friend that if the promise was not
kept, he would take a fine revenge on that " Jerusalemite," as he contemptuously called Pompey.l " 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:
1 Pompey had taken Jerusalem, and most probably vaunted a good deal
of the exploit.




B. c. 60.]


COUNTRY NEIGHBORS.


219


* Merrily an 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 certainly 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 neighbors. 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




220


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[BET. 46


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 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, I 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
I To my old ancestral hills, the cradle of my race.' l
In short, if I cannot be alone, I would rather have the
company 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 stagnating, 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 affairs. In April, Pompey married Julia, Caesar's only child, twenty-three
years younger than himself, and previously betrothed
1 In montes patrios et ad incunabula nostra.
2 He describes the feelinigs of the provincials as greatly irritated against
' our friend Magnus," whose name was becoming odious along with that
of Crassits " the Rich.".g_-  -  0




B. C. 60 ] THE TRIUMVIRATE MASTER OF ROME.


221


to Servilius Caepio. 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 dishonor!
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.2
Caesar, in the mean time, pursued his old course of
reckless extravagance, and lavished enormous sums
on spectacles and games to keep the people in good
humor. 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 Casar 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 extremity. For what pleasure can they take in
these things in themselves? They would never have
gone so far except to open a path to farther pestilent
designs. Good heavens!"   So far as personal feel1 Sueton. Cces. 50.
2 Ad Att. II. 14. Sampsiceramus was the name of a petty chieftain in
Asia Minor conquered by Pompey.




222


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[JET. i4.


ings were concerned, he said that 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 apprehension on that score, so lost and fallen had
' Sampsiceramus " become.
With such feelings he returned to Rome in June.
Atticus, about this time, went to stay at his countryseat 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 wellnigh desperate.
Never was there, according to him, so infamous 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 dislike.' When Diphilus, an actor, recited in the
theatre a line which was applicable to him, "'Nostrd
miserid t   Mu es ilagnus," 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 moment
to the theatre, and was so coldly received, that he
could iiot conceal his displeasure; while Curio, a
young senator, then looked upon as a leader of the
Opposition, and as conspicuous for his hostility to
Casar as he was afterwards distinguished by servile
1 Even now Cicero called him nos/ri z'Cares. - Ad AltL. II. 19.




B. C. 60 ]


THE TRIUMVIRS UNPOPULAR.


223


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
disagreeable occurrence. As to Bibulus, he was in
immense favor. After the gross insult and outrage
offered to him by his colleague, 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 placards, 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 authority and make Cesar 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 Cscsare Coss.;" and the following epigram was long current amongst them:"Non Bibulo quicquam nuper sed Caesare 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 recall."
'.he 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




224


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[AT. 4&


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. " 0,
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 be imagined to feel if the one had seen his
Venus, or the other his Ialysus, 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 destroy 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 profession
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 pretorian government of the province
of Asia Minor. Ilortensius availed himself of the
occasion to speak in the handsomest manner of
Cicero's services as Consul, for which he had a
good opportunity, as Flaccus had been prator 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




s. c. 60.]


DEFENCE OF FLACCUS.


225


of Asia Minor. They were all Greeks, the descendants of the settlers from Greece who had colonized
those countries. The line of defence which he principally adopted was to throw discredit on their testimony; and the speech is curious, as showing the low
estimate 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 contempt 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 mendacity 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
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 uttering 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
VOL. I.          15




226


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[LET. 46,


of old had guarded the State against the effects of
mob tyranny, he contrasted this with the history ol
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 cwn
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 intrusted; 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 mean time Caesar had been invested by a
law  (lex Vatinia) -brought forward and carried by
1 For the use of clay seals amongst the ancient Assyrians, see Rawlin3on's Ancient Monarchies, Vol. I. p. 331.




B. c. 60.]


CLODIUS CHOSEN TRIBUNE.


227


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
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. Casar, still anxious to conciliate Cicero
offered 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, permission to travel with
the privileges of an ambassador; and he hesitated
between the two. He seems, however, to have 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 tribuneship, and was chosen in July
one of the tribunes for the following year. Plutarch
and Dio Cassius both say that he owed his election
to the influence of Caesar, which is extremely probable.  And yet at first it seemed as if he was
going to turn against his patron. He saw how un




228


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[]ET. 48


popular 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 witli
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 if Cicero was injured
by the mal 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.  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 maiies me 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 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 color of the forms of law his
enemy would attack him. But this gave him at first
little uneasiness, and he treated the matter lightly.




R. C. 60.]


APPREHENSIONS OF CICERO.


229


He never fully realized 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 splendor, he had recovered much of
his old popularity. His house was thronged with
clients and visitors; he was greeted cordially in the
streets; men professed zealous attachment to his
person; 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, realized 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 expressed himself thus confidently, almost defiantly, we find him writing to Atticus in real alarm
at Clodius's threats, and conjuring 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
running, 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 content with brevity."
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




230


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[lET. 46


famous Titus Oates 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, Casar 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 intimate 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 leading
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
guaranteed. 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 secretary
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
1 Cicero calls him Q. Coepio Brutus. This was M. Junius Brutus, the
'uture assassin of Cesar. He had recently been adopted by his maternal
uncle Q. Servilius Csepio, and for some time, according to Roman usage,
was known by his uncle's name in addition to his own surname.




a. c. 60.]


TREACHERY OF VETTIUS.


231


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 attacking Pompey with
a band of gladiators in the Forum, at which he
alleged that Paulus iEmilius took a leading part,
rEmilius was absent in Macedonia.  The Senate,
therefore, 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 whoever 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 jail, and permit him to
address the multitude from the honorable 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 whorn he had not previously named, such
as Llicullus, 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 conspiracy. He did not mention the
name of Cicero. but said that an eloquent ex-consul.




232


THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE.


[ET. 46.


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 condemned, 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 Yatinius
the tribune with having caused him to be strangled;
and, if this was true, there is little doubt that Vatinius acted on instructions 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 happened), 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 nore
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 was determined to preserve his reputa1 Csesar was not only consul but pontifex maximus, and as such inhabited the house of the Collegium Pontificum by the side of the Via Sacra,
apparently just under the Palatine Hill, where Cicero's house stood.




B. C. 60.]


CICERO AT ANTIUM.


233


don with honor. Pompey told him to be under no
apprehension from Clodius, and in the most marked
manner assured him of his friendship.
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 would 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 contemplation? the former
of which was maintained by Dicmarchus, and the
latter by Theophrastus,- he thought that he practically 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.




234


THE EXILE.


[inT. 49.


CHAPTER XII.
THE EXILE.
ET. 49.  B.. 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 prostration of mind into
which he was thrown.
We fail to recognize 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 strength
of character and moral firmness to support adversity.
The consuls of the new year (B. c. 58) were Piso
and Gabinius, two men whose character Cicero has
painted in the blackest colors.  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 Gabinius by Cicero, two such infamCos
mneni never disgraced the office of consul. They were
sunk in the lowest and most monstrous debauchery.




B c. 58.]


BLOW AIMED AT CICERO.


235


He calls Gabinius in scorn, amongst other opprobri
ous 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 Cesar
and Pompey in their canvass for the consulship.
They lent themselves readily 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 proposing 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 proposed 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 undone; for
there was no doubt that Clodius would see it exe



236


THE EXIIE.


[M'r. 49


cuted to the letter. His only chance of safety lay in
exciting the sympathy of the sovereign people, and
enlisting their compassion on his side. For this purpose he dressed himself in mourning and went about
the streets beseeching the pity of the populace, as if
lie 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 of Rome testified their attachment and their sorrow by changing their dress. 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 realize the scenes of lawless riot, of which the
streets and Forum of Rome \ere 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 order. Upon this numbers of the senators tore open their robes, and with cries of indignation rushed out of the senate-house. Cicero at



B. c. 58.]


APPEAL TO POMPEY.


237


tempted 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 himself, he
must stand by his colleague, as Cicero had stood by
Antonius when he was consul: every one must talke
care of his own safety.
In the mean time, what was Pornpey 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 prator, 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 referred
them to the consuls, saying that he, as a private individual, would not enter on a contest with an armed
tribune of the people; but, if the consuls and the
Senate were willing to do so and called upon him to
assist, he was ready to draw the sword.




238


THIE EXILE.


[ET. 49,


In the extremity of his despair, Cicero made a last
effort to save hinself. He went to Albanum  and
humiliated himself so far as to throw himself on the
ground at Pompey's feet, who did not even ask him
to rise, lut 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 Pompey
avoided the interview by slipping out at a back-door.
But we have Cicero's positive statement that the
scene occurred 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 Ciodius. 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,
Hortensius, 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 justiiable, for,




B. c. 58.]


DEPARTURE FROM ROME.


239


according to heathen ethics, suicide was preferable to
disgrace.
Cresar was still at Rome, but outside the walls,
having assumed the command of his army; and
Clodins 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 conduct in his consulship. He replied that
the proceedings against the associates of Catiline
were contrary to law, as he 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 MINERVG CUSTODI 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 increased by the
assurances of his too sanguine friends-that in a
few days he would be recalled back to Rome.
It was about the twentieth of March when he
turned his back upon the city, and the same day
Clodius brought before the people a bill interdicting




240


THE EXILE.


[JET. 49.


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 he
purport of the bill, but the untechnical way in which
it was worded gave Cicero the opportunity, after his
return, of ridiculing 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 measure 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 honor of Italy be it said, this
barbarous clause was treated as a dead letter, and
disregarded by everybody.'
An alteration was made in the bill before it was
finally submitted to the vote, and four hundred miles
were substituted 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
I Poena cst, qui receperit: quam omlines ncglexerunt. - Pro Dour, c. 20




a. C. 58.1


WANDERINGS OF CICERO.


241


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
Tuscnlan 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 adjoining portico of Catulus, and built another,
to whicl 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 recalled. He left Rome no doubt by the
Capuan Gate (Porta Capena), and followed the Via
Appia, which runs towards the south, as it may still
be seen, paved with its large irregular slabs of stone,
just as when Cicero passed along it on his melancholy
journey.  On the eighth of April he was somewhere
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 necessary to leave
Italy, because Autronius, a fellow-conspirator with
Catiline, was then living in exile in the neighborhood,
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
voL. I.      16




242


THE EXILE.


[aET. 49


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, 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 temnple, 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 S ca, 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 tenth 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
1 This dream was regarded by Cicero as prophetic, and was supposed to
have its fulfilment in the fact that the decree of the Senate recalling him
was madi; in the temple constructed by Marius out of the spoils taken in the
Cimbrian Wars, and called on that account Jlonumentuin Marii. We may
remember that something of the same kind is said to have occurred in the
prophecy of the death of Henry IV. -
" In that Jerusalem shall Harry die."




"lcid
mirOI OF BIRUNDUSIIAd
Vol i. p 2/




I




s. c. 58.]      AT BRUNDUSIUM.            243
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.1
On the eighteenth of April he arrived at Brundusiur, where he got letters from Atticus earnestly
begging him to cross over to Epirus, and stay at his
country seat there, in the neighborhood of Buthrotus.
The house was a fortified one, which Cicero adinitted 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
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 committing suicide.
He did not stay in the town of Brundusium, fearing to compromise the safety of the friendly inhabitants, but occupied for a fortnight a building in the
gardens of a Roman knight, M. Lmnius Flaccus,
w ho, 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
olace, and gives a most melancholy picture of his
1 Pro Sext., 24.




244


THE EXILE.


[AET. 49.


state of mind.    He says that he would send letters
oftener to   her, but whenever 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
I have served, have shown us any gratitude."
The language of his grief is almost incoherent,
and is painful 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 ruined. 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 husband,
who had abandoned all hope. He goes on" As for what remains, my Terentia, support yourself as you best
can. I have lived with honor. 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




B. c. 58.]


ARRIVES AT DYRRACHIUM.


24b


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
console you cannot console myself.... Take all the care possible
of your health, and remiember that I am more disturbed by your
sorrow than my own. Farewell, my Terentia, my most faithful
and best of wives! and my dearest dlaughter, and Cicero, our
only remaining hope!"
Is it possible to believe that the wife to whom
lie thus wrote was a jealous, imperious, and badtemplered woman? and yet this is what Plutarch,
and those who follow Plutarch, would wish us to
suppose.
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 Dyrrachiumn,
on the opposite coast. Here he met with a kind and
hospitable reception, for there were old ties of friendship between hinlself and the Dyrrachians, whose
patron he had been at Rome; but he did not dare
to remain.  He dreaded the neighborhood 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 province, 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 twenty-third
of May, and where Cicero took up his abode for
seven months in the house of his friend.
He wrote to Atticus from Thessalonica, and told




t46


THE EXILE.


[GT. 49.


him that he iiltended to iollow his advice, and wait
until the journals of the     Senate for May      (Acta
mensis   klaie) reached   him, that he might know
what was done.1       He bitterly reproaches himself
for the blindness of his folly in having trusted a mran
who had betrayed him, and from       subsequent letters
he appears 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, however,
how completely the feeling passed away, and in what
touching language he spake of his glorious rival
when he died.
In a letter to his brother, written on the fifth 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
lead or heard that I was dead. Would that I had left you the
survivor and heir, not only of my life but of my rank and reputa1 This is a sufficiently correct rendering of the word Acta. A diary or
journal of the proceedings of the Senate was kept, and it is the nearest
mpproximation to a gazette that existed in ancient Rome.




B. c. 58.]


HIS EXTRAVAGANT GRIEF.


247


tion. 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 as
serted 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 weakness 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 realize; 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 favorite 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, tremendous. 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,
ais family was penniless, and the people whom he
lad so faithfully served were the authors of his ruin.
U11 this may be urged in his behalf; but, still, it




248


THE EXILE.


LET. 4B.


would have been only consistent with Roman forti.
tude to have shown that he possessed something of
the spirit of the fallen archangel, who exclaimed"What matter where if I be still the same?
The mind is its own place, and of itself
Can make of Heaven a Hell, of Hell a Heaven."
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 themn into the
fire. Middleton mourns over the weakness of his
idol, but, determined 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
lbe 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 knowledge of his demeanor
luring his banishment solely upon his speeches and




S. c. 58."


HIS EXTRAVAGANT GRIEF.


249


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
i nterest; 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 that his mind was affected by insanity. To all
the reproaches of Atticus, who strove by that means
to shame him into fortitude, 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 services, and the deep obligation he was
under to him.  Indeed, nothing can show more
-learly the sincerity of the friendship between these
two eminent men than the liberty, so to speak, which




250


THE EXILE.


LAET. 49


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 experienced 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 not delivered, had, contrary to
his intention, got into circulation 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, and 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 Quintus's legates, came there and earnestly advised Cicero to go 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
Ln as much perplexity and distress as ever. The
\




S. c. 58.]


QUINTUS CICERO IMPEACHED.


251


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 favorable. 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 CGesar
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
Crecilius 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 I ' p
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
1 From this time Atticus assumed the name of Q. Caecilius Q. Fil. Pomponianus Atticus.




252


THE EXILE.


[L1ET. 19


him have as much land as would suffice for a burialground 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.
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
'he Senate, with Pornmpey's approval, a motion for his
recall. The Senate unanimously resolved that the
proposal should be recommended to the people in
order that a law might be passed. But the tribune
Alius Ligur, acting under the influence of Clodius,
interposed his veto. The Senate, however, adopted
their usual expedient when they were in earnest.
They resolved 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 Casar's consent. On the eleventh
of August a plot was discovered of Clodius to murder 'Pornpey, who, in real or affected alarm, shut himself up in his house and declared that he would not
go out until the period of Clodius's tribuneship had




B. c. 58.]


BILL IN CICERO'S FAVOR.


expired. Of the two consuls Gabinius ranged himself on the side of Pompey, but Piso still acted undei
the influence of Clodius. So violent and lawless
were the times that even the two consuls found themselves engaged on opposite 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 favorable
to Cicero, and when on the twenty-ninth 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 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 restoration of his property, especially of his house on the Palatine, the
destruction of wxhich had much affected him.
Soon after he had taken up his residence at Dyrrachium the year of office of the existing tribunes ex




254


THE EXILE.


[AET. 49


pired, 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 entertain hope. And yet even now he felt almost as
much discouraged as ever. He was disappointed
that Pompey and Casar did not declare themselves
more openly in his favor, 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 shame. 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
I 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 tne
mause of his father-in-law.




B. c. 58.


CICERO'S CORRESPODEN CE.


society of such a son-in-law, along with you and our children!.. Pray be careful of your health, and be assured that nothing
is, nor ever was, dearer to me than you. Farewell, my Terentia,
whoml  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 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; 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 disregard 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.




TIlE RETURN.


[rET. 50.


CHAPTER XIII.
THE RETURN.
AET. 50.  B. c. 57.
THE new year opened auspiciously for Cicero.
From all parts of Italy deputations had come up to
Rome to intercede on his behalf. On the first of
January, the very moment after the sacred rites were
over with which the consuls inaugurated their office,
Lentulus brought forward, in a crowded Senate, a
motion for his recall. His colleague Metellus 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 proposed that he should be not only recalled, but recalled with distinguished marks of honor.
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
egally 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 trib



n. c. 57.]


MOTION FOR HIS RECALL.


257


unes, who had been quaestor during Cicero's consulship, and as he says loaded by him with benefits,
not venturing to interpose his veto, forced on an adjournment on the pretext that a night was required
for deliberation. 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 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 Quintus 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
constitution 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 paralyzed by the violence of
VOL. I.         17




258


THE RETURN.


[ET. 50


one bold 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 twenty-fifth 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
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
prator, 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 public business until Cicero was recalled. Public letters were dispatched in the name
of the consuls to the Italian towns, inviting them




B. c. 57.] POMPEY ADVOCATES CICERO'S RECALL.


259


to send to Rome those who wished well to the Republic and were anxious for his return. Orders were
given to all legates and quastors 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 humor, Lentulus gave them
their favorite amusement of shows and games; and
while they were thus occupied, the Senate met in
Marius's Temple of Honor 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 favorite tragedian, AEsop,
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
coiing 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 savior of his country.  A resolution in
his favor 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 Pompey
and Servilius, and other distinguished men, ha




260


THE RETURN.


[AT. 50.


rangued 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 therr
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 celo 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 honors.
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, or
the fourth 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 addressed 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
Dyrracbium for Brundusium on the very day on




R. c. 57.]


CICERO LANDS IN ITALY.


261


which the bill passed for his return. The next day
he landed in Italy. It was the fifth of Augustthe 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 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 honor 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, Minturne,
Formia,- where no doubt he cast a lingering and
sorrowful look towards his disnantled villa,- Terra.
cina, 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 interest. The
peasants abandoned their rustic labors 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




262


THE RETURN.


[IET 50.


was tle 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 equivalent
to immortality (immortalitatis instar fait).  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!'"
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
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
Df Italy.- Cic. c. 33.




B. c. 57.]


ADDRESS TO THE SENATE.


263


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
1 Both this however and the consecutive orations ad Quirites, pro Domo
sud, and de Haruspicunz Responsis, are pronounced by Orelli and others to
be spurious and made up of tesselated passages from the speeches in Pisonei
and pro Sextio. Orelli thinks they were composed ab inepto declamnatore, in
the early part of the reign of Augustus, and that much use was made of
Cicero's genuine work de Eapositione suorum Conciliorum, which, according
to Dio Cassius, was written in this year. Orelli gives no sound reason fil
this opinion; and, judging from internal evidence, I see no sufficient greund
for discrediting them. There is indeed a suspicious sim larity, or rather
identity, in many passages between them and the Pisonian and Sextian
orations, but the same objection may be made to the genuineness of those
two if they are closely compared with each other.




264


ilHE RETURN.


[~ET. 5G.


only object was to spare the effusion of blood - and
declared that he might have defended himself by
force of arms.
"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 adversary, 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 punishment for my death was reserved for the courts of law
and for posterity. I was unwilling when as consul I had detended 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 ignominious 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 citizens, 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 splendor of that honor, 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
bearing 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 fromn them, but fiom 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




6. c. 57.]


ADDRESS rO THE SENATE.


265


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 mourning, 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 drunken voice, he, a grave authoritv! 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 colors quite as black. Piso had, he said, early in
life practised as an advocate in the Forum, although




866


THE RETURN.


[ET. 50.


he had nothing to recommend him except an affectea
solemnity of countenance.   He had never studied
law; he possessed no gift of oratory - no acquaintance with military affairs, no knowledge of mankind,
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 proceeded,"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
licentious! how impure! how intemperate! with his voluptuous
pleasures, admitted, not through the front door, but a secret
postern."
Afterwards, on the same day, he addressed the
people in the Forum in an harangue which is known
as the oration ad 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 and 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




S.. 57.]


FAMINE RIOTS.


267


other arts, labor and pains and trouble must be bestowed.
It happened that about this time, when Cicero was
panegyrizing 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 provinces, chiefly
Sicily, that supplied Rome with grain; and the cornfactors kept the grain in their warehouses to take advantage 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 festival 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 body-guard - 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."




268


THE RETURN.


[BT. 60.


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 distress. 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 connection between Cicero and the scarcity as between
Tenterden 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 oi
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, seeing 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




B.C. 57.]  CORRESPONDENCE WITH ATTICUS.


269


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 humor, and there
was no further disturbance.2
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 extravagant
power. It conferred upon him a fleet and an army,
and such command over the provinces as would have
superseded the authority of their respective governors.
One consequence 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 correspondence between them
1 More hoc insulso et novo plausum. - Ad Aft. IV. 1.
2 Cicero frequently alluded to the cheapness and plenty that followed
pis return, and interpreted it as a special mark of the favor of Providence




270


THE RETURN.


[Esr. 50


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 expectalion his brilliant reputation in the Forum, his aulh}orityin the Senate, and his popularity with good
mlen; but his private affairs were in great disorder,:nid 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 probable that it is a hint at
some disagreement with his wife, who had behaved
so nobly to him in his adversity. He entreated Atti-;us to come to him, and assist him with his advice,
Raying: ' 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
mre now that I am    present.  I want you here ex-,eedingly."
His chief anxiety was about the restoration of his
property. 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 levelled the adjoining portico of
CJ 1tulus — a monument of his victory over the
-Uillmbrians - and appropriated the ground, hoping
ihat by the device of consecrating part he might
1 The portico stood on the site of a house which had belonged to M.
Viuvius Flaccus, formerly consul, who was put to death as an accomplice
i)f Caius Gracchus. The house was pulled down, and on its foundations
Catulus afterwards erected his portico. It stood next to Cicero's house.




O. c. 67.]  RESTORATION OF HIS PROPERTY.


271


keep possession of the whole. The question was,
whether the land could be restored to its former
owner? Having been consecrated adpios usus, must
it not, according to the same theory that has been
advocated in later times, remain forever inalienable?
The matter was referred to the College of Pontiffs,
whose business it was to determine questions affecting religion. On the thirtieth of September, Cicero
pleaded his cause before them in a speech known as
the oration pro Domo sud, 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 vigor to his
eloquence.1 It consisted in great part of a narrative
of events which have been already related, and need
not detain us now.
The pontiffs considered the case, and gave their
formal opinion as follows:" If neither by a command of the free burghers in a lawful assembly
(populijussu), nor by a plebiscite, 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 pait
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 favor,
and he received the congratulations of his friends.
But Clodius still crossed his path.     That indefati1 I have in a former note mentioned that the existing speech, pro Domnc
ud, is considered by some scholars not to be genuine. Wolf is of opinion
that it by no means comes up to what we might expect from Cicero's praise
of it, and Markland agrees with him. My own opinion is that si non
V ero, B ben trovato. At all events, we need not doubt that it is in many
passages a close copy of the original.




272


THE RETURN.


[ET. 50(


gable 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
favor, but that Cicero was coming to take possession by force.  He therefore called upon them  to
follow him and Appius to defend their own temple
of Liberty.1 In the mean time 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 following year, and his motion was on the
point of being carried, when Serranus the tribune
interposed 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 undoubted 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, therefore, 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 occurred, the Senate would consider that person
1 In relating this to Atticus, Cicero puts into Clodius's mouth a pun
which is most probably his own. lie says that Clodius called on the
erowd to follow him and "defend their Liberty," ut suam Libertatem de'endant.- Ad Att. IV.




B. c. 57.]  RESTORATION OF HIS PROPERTY.


273


the author of 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 first 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 immediately 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
destroyed, including his house on the Palatine and
his villas at Tusculum and Formiae, 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 smallness 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 growing again, as I hope."
He complained grievously in his letter of the state
VOL. I.       18




274


THE RETURN.


[rET. 50


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. IIe added
that he had other anxieties of a more secret, or, to
use his own word, mysterious kind, evidently referring
to the same cause of trouble to which he alluded in
his previous letter.1
On the third 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 Quintus'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 eleventh 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
1 Wieland says it undoubtedly refers to some difference between himself
and " his Juno or Xantippe," adopting the unfavorable view of Terentia's:haracter. Plutarch has much to answer for in the case of this calumniated
4ady.




B. c. 57.]


VIOLENCE OF CLODIUS.


275


his cutthroats. 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 neighboring 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 neighboring house belonging to P. Sylla,
making it, as Cicero says, his headquarters, or camp,
for carrying on the siege. Milo, however, was prepared for him. A body of resolute men, headed by
Q. 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 interior 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 determination 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




276


THE RETURN.


[/ET. 50


a German commentator; ' why, that briclk-;i.t 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 Continent
hitherto even to those nations of the Continent
which boast 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. IHe




B. c. 57, ]


VIOLENCE OF CLODIUS.


277


took into his pay a body of ruffians, whom he drilled
like soldiers; and any one who thought of attacking
him knew that he was likely to forfeit his life in
the attempt. But it is inconceivable that the consuls, or, at all 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 Casar, 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 edileship, 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
wediles. On the day after the attack on his house,
the Senate met, but Cludius did not appear. Marcellinus, the consul-elect, spoke strongly against him;
but Metellus, Oppius, and another senator whom
Cicero, writing to  Atticus, describes as "your
friend" l 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
1 Cicero adds ironically, "de culjus constantia et virtute ture verissimae
litersa." -  Ad Att. IV. 3.  It is generally thought that he here alludes to
Hortensius.




278


THE RETURN.


[AET. 50


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 Canpus Martius, and     in the middle of the previous
night Milo proceeded to the plain with a strong
force. Clodius did not venture to show himself,
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, however, got there before him, and, as Metellus was sneaking along by-streets to the Campus
Martius, he came up with him       at the place called
Inter Lucos,l and, using the proper formula of alio
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 twenty-third 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 neighbor, 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
1 This was the hollow space between the Capitoline and Palatine hills,
so named from an ancient grove that formerly stood there. The natural
Matures of the ground still remain as in Cicero's time.




B.c. c. 7.


MEETING OF THE SENATE.


279


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 reduced in fortune. It
appears, however, that he was generously 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.
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 tribunes to convoke the Senate, propose
uiotions, 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
ey                 dze




280


THE RETURN.


[AET. 50.


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 principal 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 attendance 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
'he scheme, and that, as Pompey was absent, it was
better not to discuss the question then. Lupus said
that he had no wish to detain the Senate any longer.




B. c. 57.]


MEETING OF THE SENATE.


281


But Racilius, another of the new tribunes, rose and
made a motion about the necessity 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
prator, 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 clamored 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 declared that he was for the trial preceding the comitia. The Senate was on the point of
dividing in favor 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 Con



282


THE RETURN.


rST. 50.


vention, when the galleries were filled with the
Parisian mob, who interrupted the speakers by their
clamor. He had posted a body of slaves at the
neighboring 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 conmissioned 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 was adjourned until the following morning.
At the close of his letter Cicero affectionately
warns his 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 inclement 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
Cesar'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




B. c. 57.]


ATTACK OF DYSENTERY.


283


down upon Epicurus (of whose school Galus 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 attributed 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 appetizing 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 honor of the consecration of his son
as augur, that he was seized with diarrhcea. " 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.




284


CONFUSION AT ROME.


[.ET. 51


CHAPTER XIV.
CONFUSION AT ROME. — CICERO SUPPORTS CAESAR.HIS SPEECHES IN SEVERAL IMPORTANT TRIALS. —
DEFENCE OF CCELIUS.
_ET. 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 deposed
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 murdered;
and of the rest, when they reached Rome, he assassinated 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 honor of conducting back the king
would be conferred upon him; but he had a formidable competitor in Pompey, who was very anxious
1 Dio Cass. XXXIX. 13.




B. c. 56.]


CLODIUS ELECTED iEDILE.


283


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 contrary, 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 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 question was, whether Pompey or Lentulus should have the appointment; 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 enterprise on
his own responsibility, being well paid by Ptolemy
for his services.
On the twenty-second of January the comitia for
the election of aediles was at last held, and Clodius
came in. Without losing time, he immediately inlicted Milo for illegal violence, thus retaliating upon
1 7rRtei Trii. - Dio Cass. XXXIX. 15. Cum multitudine. - Ad Quint
I. 2.,
t




286


CONFUSION AT ROME.


[,ET. 51


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 favorable. The case was then adjourned, and
when it came on again Pompey spoke, or rather tried
to speak, for him,l for the hirelings and slaves of Clodius made such a clamor 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 net with such a storm of derisive shouts
from Milo's party that he was completely staggered.
The hooting and clamor 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 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 supported 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
1 Dixit Pompeius, sive voluit. -  Ad Quint. II. 3




B. c. 56.]


IMPEACHMENT OF MILO.


287


place. The Senate was immediately summoned,
but Pompey, instead of attending, went home. He
had given offence by his disingenuous conduct 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 discussion,
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 temporize,
and, in fact, to trim, which more than anything else
has injured his reputation with posterity.
Clodius fixed the seventeenth of February for
going on with the impeachment of Milo, and on
the sixth 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




288


CONFUSION AT ROME.


[ 'r. 51.


was listened to in silence. It was beyond doubt so
far true that Pompey had not made the least exertion to save him from Clodius's law of proscription
but we have no proof that he took any active part
against him. Pompey defended himsel' 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 between 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 confessed that
his position was precarious; the fickle populace was
almost alienated from him by the mob-harangues
continually addressed to them;1 the aristocracy was
hostile; the Senate unfavorable; the Roman youth
depraved. He therefore began to take active measures for his own protection, and brought into the city
men on whom he could depend. But Clodius also
was marshalling his forces and increasing the numbel
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 ex.
pected 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 govern1 Concionario illo populo a.e prope alienato. — Ad Quint. -  if. 3.




S. C. 56.]


CICERO'S LIBRARY.


289


ment at Rome was at this period, and how law and
order were beginning to succumb to armed violence,
when we find a rna  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 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 let 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 Tyrannio, 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 Ty1 Pilia bore Atticus a daughter named Attica, who became the wife cf
kgrippa and mother of Vipsania Agrippina, the first wife of Tiberius and
mother of Drusus; so that Atticus was the grandfather of a Roman
empress.
VOL. 1.          19




290


DEFENCE OF BESTIA.


[ET. 51.


rannio in gluing 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 thcm out to the magistrates,
or others who exhibited public games. Cicero congratulates him on having purchased a capital training-ground, and says he hears they fight admirably.
He now resumed his more congenial duties as an
advocate, 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
eleventh of February he defended L. Bestia, who
was accused of electoral corruption when he was
a candidate for the office of praetor. The trial took
place in the pretor's court in the middle of the
Forum, and was attended by an immense crowd.
His speech, which is lost, was unsuccessful, 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 favorably, with
a view to his defence in a more important trial which
was then impending, and in which he was counsel
for the accused.
This was the case of Publius Sextius, who was
one.of the 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




B. c. 56.]


DEFENCE OF SEXTIUS.


291


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 support. By every tie, therefore, of duty and gratitude, the orator was bound tc
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 in considerable peril;
for he was arraigned on two indictments: 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. iEmilius
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 thirteenth 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 services by
exerting himself to the utmost, he said that he had
most amply satisfied him on that point, and that
tie had cut up Vati.:ius, who was supposed to be at
the bottom of the prosecution, to his own heart's




292


LETTERS TO HIS BROTHER.


[A r. 51


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
approaching trials of Bestia and Sextius, and gave
a flourishing account of himself. He said that his
reputation and popularity were reistablished, 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 indebted 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 first
of July he would get into his own on the Palatine,
which was being rebuilt. Quintus's other house, in
the Carniae, 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 nextdoor neighbors 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 vwidow
was, in April, betrothed to Furius Crassipes, of whom




B.c. 56.]


MARRIAGE OF TULLIA.


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 husband, 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, 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 indifferent terms, and she complained to
Cicero of his conduct.  I will quote one or two passages from the letter in which he mentions 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.
"T 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
[ 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 met with Lucceius,




294


CICERO'S EXPENSES.


[.ET. 51


as lie was absent. I wished however to see him because I intend
to leave Rome to-morrow, and lie is going to Sardinia...  1 am
building in three places at once,1 repairing and furnishing up whlat
is left; and I live rather more liberally than I used to (lo."
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 and
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 that he borrowed
largely; for we know that he was henceforward almost constantly in debt.
In the same letter he mentions an incident which
was considered 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
1 His house at Rome, and his Tusculan and Formian villas.




B. c. 56.]


POEM IN PRAISE OF CAESAR.


295


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 adversary's disposal.  Milo, however, employed a third party to
purchase the lot1 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 preconcerted 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.
Cicero left Rome in April, and spent a few weeks
in visiting 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 supposed to have been a poem in praise of Caesar,
and in which he had recanted some of his former
opinions. He apologizes for not having sent it to
his friend, and confesses that he was rather ashamed
)f letting him see the change that had taken place
in his views.


1 Familiam. This is the word invariably used to denote the domestic
(laves of a Roman family, and is never applied in any other sense




296


LETTER TO LUCCEIUS.


[ET. 51.


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 Caesar
and his party. He goes on: " You will say, 'I
wish you had done 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."
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 ol
flamens, or priests of Mars, and a great friend o'
Cicero, had just died. When he heard the news h,
wrote to Atticus, and told him that Lentulus was
such a true lover of his country, that he seemed to




B. c. 56.]


ILETTER TO ATTICUS.


297


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 statesmen. What grief, however,
must I feel? I, who if I say what 1 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 prison." 1
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
1 Philoxenus was a poet of Syracuse, who had the temerity to find fault
w.th some verses of Dionysius the tyrant, and was thrown into a prison
lahled the Latomice (stone-quarries). Soon afterwards he was released and
summoned to court to listen to a new poem of the tyrant. But the infliction was too great: he ran off. "Where are you going to?" cried
Dionysius. " Back to the Latonice," answered the disgusted poet. This
reminds us of Voltaire at the court of Frederick the Great. Once when the
king sent him some royal verses to revise, he said, " See his Majesty has
sent me his dirty linen to wash."




298


CASE OF BALBUS.


[AT. 51


would not promise to write the work, but said he
would think of it.
During his absence in the country several portents
had occurred which filled the superstitious minds of
the Romans with terror. 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 opportunity for Clodius to lose.  He
assembled a meeting and harangued the people,
pointing out the real culprit. What 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 mean time 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 Haruspicum 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 Cesar, 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 Pompey under the Lex Gellia. Pompey and Crassus
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.his is not criticism.




B.C. 56.] ORATION DE PROVINCILS CONSULARIBUS.  299


assisted Cicero in the defence, and his speech is still
extant.
Shortly afterwards he had an opportunity of grati
fying 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, Macedonia and Syria, and that these should
be declared to be praetorian, in order that they might
be placed in the hands of prators. 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 consuls 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 Consularibus, 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 Casar exposed him 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 Casar would make of
the prolongation of his command, 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, chain




300    SPEECH AGAINST PISO AND GABINIUS.  [rET. 51


ing 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, and after describing it in detail in the darkest colors, 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 mean time declaring them prastorian, 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
Casar. It had been objected by a previous speaker,
or rather he himself 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 Cesar he said: -




a. c. 56.]


CICERO SUPPORTS CASAR.


301


UA most inmortant 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. Therefore 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? Es.
pecially since I have ever thought that I ought to shape my conduct
on the model set by the 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 favor. 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 civilization
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 honors? Does length of
time increase regret at his absence, and do his laurels, which have
oeen 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 summon him to glory, to triumph, to congratulations, to the
nighest honors in the senate - the favor of the equestrian orderthe affection of the people."




302


CICERO SUPPORTS CAESAR.


[AEr. 51.


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, " had given to Italy the Alps as a bulwark,
not without a divine providence. For if that access had lain open
to tie fury and multitude of the Gauls, this city would never have
given a seat and home to the mightiest empire. 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, honor, 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 honors 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.
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 hostility 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




B. C. 56.]


DEFENCE OF CCELIUS.


30:)


any honors upon him, consult the harmony of the senate, - if the
authority of your decrees is at stake, I will keep up your authority
by honoring 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 opposition to your
authority, or by those who will blame my reconciliation with my
enemy, although they (lid not hesitate to be reconciled with one
who was both my enemy and their own."
It has been doubted whether Cicero delivered his
speech in defence of M. Coelius Rufus this year or
not.  The difficulty has arisen from the fact that we
find Ccelius put upon his trial during the consulship
of Dornitius 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 Colio.
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 notorious, 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
eadiest way at Rome to get into notice was to single
out some person of mark and accuse him of a criminal




304


I iSEFENCE OF C(XELIUS.


[JET. 51


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 possessed 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 Alexandrian 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. Middleton says: " In this speech Cicero
treats the character and gallantries of Clodia, her
commerce with Ccelius, and the gayeties and licentiousness of youth with such a vivacity of wit and
humor 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




B.. 56.]


DEFENCE OF CCELIUS.


305


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 irrelevant facts
from the consideration of the jury. On the contrary, 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 proportion 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.
Alluding to the delicate subject of Ccelius's immoralities, he said that the charge could not make
his client regret that he was born with the advantage
of beauty. Such accusations were scattered against
all whose person was prepossessing. 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 devolved 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. Cmlius had been brought up virtuously by
his father, and when he assumed his manly gown
he was placed under the immediate care of Cicero
himself. " And of myself," he added, with graceful
VOL. 1.     20




306


DEFENCE OF CGELLUS.


[ETr. 51.


modesty, " I here say nothing. Let me be just what
you think me." Coelius, in the flower of his age,
was always under the eye of himself, or of his own
father, or pursuing an honorable 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 admitted that he managed his defence with
consummate art.      If he 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?
Aliat citizen was once of greater virtues? Who a more dreadful
enemy to the state? Who wallowed more in pleasure? Who
was more patient of labor and fatigue?  Who was more greedy
and rapacious? Who more profuse 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: -- e 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 - hold in villany with the wicked, and
efeimlinate with the licentious. With a disposition so complex and


— 1 -- -— c --- — -—, 1 —-~-L ---.




a. c. 56.]


DEFENCE OF C(EIIUS.


307


various, he had not only collected 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, 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 excused 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: 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




308                DEFENCE OF C(ELIUS.               [~E.. 51.
purpose of repelling the charge. But," he continued, apostrophizing the praetor, "you understand, Cnaeus Domitius, with your
superior sagacity, that we have to do with her alone; and if she
does not say that she lent money to Cmelius, 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 (lo 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 this 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." 1
Then follows a long passage in apology of youthful immoralities, 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 " forswear 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. One sentence I will
quote as showing the line of argument, and it is not
1 It is impossible not to be struck with the art as well as the terrible
severity of the whole of this allusion to Clodia. Cicero hoped to induce
her to give up the prosecution by the threat of exposing her if she went on
with it; and yet he could not resist the temptation to sarcasm at the mention of her name. What exposure could in fact be worse than the charge
of incest implied by calling her brother her husband, and of licentiousness
masked under the appellation of amica omnium?




. c. 56.]


DEFENCE OF CCLLIUS.


309


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 Coelius's
understanding, to say nothing of his character, should




310


DEFENCE OF CCELIUS.


[2ET. 51


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 Caelius 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 unimpeachable witness in Lucceius, who you well know respects the
sanctity of an 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 language 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 Coelius
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
Coelius, according to our notions, and they are those




B. c. 56.]


DEFINCE OF CIELIUS.


31.1


of common sense, consists 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 unknown 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.... They say




312


DEFENCE OF C(ELIUS.


[ErT. 51


chat the poison was given to Licinius, a modest and excellent young
man, and friend of Ccelius, - that an appointment was made with
the slaves to come to the Xenian baths, -that Licinius was to (so
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 Coclius 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 lacryozce, 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 Coelius'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 concealed; but if they
wished to retire into the interior, they would find it very inconvenient to do so with their clothes and sandals on. And perhaps,hey would not be admitted - unless indeed this influential woman




a. C. 56.]


DEFENCE OF CCELIUS.


313


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 depended on witnesses, the presumptive
evidence being the other way. In a tone of bantering ridicule he said: -
" 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 concealed
so many invincible heroes carrying on a woman's war."
He concluded by a sketch of Coelius'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.
1 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
1 Aulea tolluntur - literally " the curtain rises," but, as is well known,
Mn the stage of the ancient theatres the curtain was pulled up, not down.




314               DEFENCE OF CCELIUS.             rET. 51.
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 yourselves, 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 afterwards a distinguished man.




a. c. 52.1  LETTERS FROM THE COUNTRY.


315


CHAPTER XV.
LETTERS FROM THE COUNTRY. - ATTACK ON PISO. —
GOSSIP. - DEFENCE OF PLANCIUS. — POLITICAL APOLOGY. -DISTRACTED STATE OF ROME.
ET. 55.  B. C. 52.
CICERO passed a considerable part of the next year
in the country at one or other of his favorite villas,
amusing himself with his books, or employing his
leisure time in literary composition. We will follow
him there, and see him occupied 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 freedman, Dionysius, who assisted him in
his studies.1 We next 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
1 It was a pleasant memento of their friendship that Dionysius, on his
manumission, assumed a name from each of them, and was called in future
Marcus Pomponius Dionysius. - See Ad Att. iv. 15.




316


CICERO'S LEANING TO POMPEY.


[AET. 55.


thought he was devouring the good things of Puteoli
and Lucrinumn, 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 vapor-bath, and
all that his architect, Cyrus, had engaged to do, and
press the contractor to use dispatch with the building of his house at Rome.    He then mentions that
Pompey had come to his villa at Cumim 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 hirr, which we look for
in vain in the fulsome compliments 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
1 Sed de illa ambulatione fors viderit, aut si qui est qui curet Deus. -
Ad Att. IV. 10. This might seem as if Cicero were a convert to the Epicurean philosophy of his friend. But most probably he said it only in jest;
for there can be no doubt that he believed in the existence of Providence
and a future state. See, amongst other proofs, ad Ait. VII. 1; lde Divin. I.
51; de Legg. II. 7; de Senect. 23.




9. c. 52.]


AFFECt ION FOR IIIS BROTHER.


317


of the aristocratic or conservative party, to which
he was himself so strongly attached. He struggled
hard to believe that Pompey was the man for the
time, but he constantly disappointed him. And yet
there was no one else of sufficient mark to be the
leader whom Cicero was prepared to follow.
It was a sign of the times that Porcius Cato was
this year defeated in a contest for the pretorship,
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 thirteenth of May, on the motion of Afranius,
enacting that it should not be punishable to have
carried a praetorian election by bribery! 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, Pompey and Crassus, supported
Afranius, and threw Cato overboard altogether.
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 musestricken 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 the country or the town. Apropos
1 Ne qui praeturam per anbillum cepisset, ei propterea fraudi esset



318


GOSSIP.


[ET. 55b


to the question of bringing their friend Marius to his
villa, he mentions a practical joke he once played
him. IHe was taking him with him to Baire, 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 says it showed little genius
but much art, a judgment in which we can hardly
coincide. Genius alone could have made him successful in dealing with so unpromising a subject for
poetry as Natura _Rernum. It is one of the grandest
remains of Roman literature.
To Atticus he wrote in May, and told him he was
devouring literature with Dionysius, whom he calls
a wonderful man. Nothing he said was more delightful than universal knowledge.' 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 afterwards, giving the go-by to the order of
the Senate, which required the senators at Rome to
attend its meetings, equivalent 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 Tuscula1 Ov6l V yAvlc-0 o   7rj TVT' ei&vat. -  Ad Alt. IV. 11.




B c. 52.]  ORNAMENTS 2'OR CICERO'S VILLA.


319


nutn. He had given a commission to Fadius Gallus
to make some purchases for him, which his friend
seems to have misunderstood. He bought four oi
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
I 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 mypalcestra in the manner of gynnasia.
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 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 pseudo Damasippus to whom I can sell them even at a loss."
The Damasippus here alluded to is the virtuoso
and antiquary so pleasantly described by Horace in




320


HIS EPISTOLARY STYLES.


[ET. 55.


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
Quintus, or Terentia, or Tiro, the sentences 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 genius 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
smnall 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
nclination, 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 splendor.
The excuse was the dedication of a magnificent










I


POMPEY'S THEATRE
RESTORED BY AVA CANINA


V ol. i p 321




B. C. 52.]


POMPEY'S THEATRE.


321


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 fragments 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
scene was got up with unusual attention to effect.
Broad farces and pantomimes kept the audience in
a roar.  Athletes struggled, and gladiators fought
day after day" Butchered to make a Roman holiday."
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 Marcus, 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
accessaries of stage scenery. He asks what enjoyinent there can be in seeing six hundred mules on
the stage in Clytemnnestra, 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
VOL. I.       21




322


INDIFFERENCE OF AMUSEMENTS.


[ET. 55.


seen the plays of Shakspeare brought upon the stage.
Besides, the actors displeased him. _Esop, 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 waw 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
complaisant to him as to ZEsop 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




B. c. 52.]


ORATION AGAINST PISO.


323


it; for he looked forward to no benefit from his
labors, 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 carcass, 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 passage with which the
speech as it has come down to us opens; for the
original com mencement 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, not 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 vicesfew, your sluggishness of intellect, your stupidity, and the imbe.
tility of your tongue. Your voice had never been heard in the




324


ORATION AGAINST PISO.


[AET. 55


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 honors by a mistake, by the recomnend(ation given you by the smoke-stained busts
of your ancestors, with which you have nothing in common but
your color."
He described 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 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 consisted 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




B. c. 52.] DEPARTURE OF CRASSUS FROM ROME.


325


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 fiom 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.    Pompey had the proconsular government of Spain and Africa bestowed
upon him for five years; and Caesar 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-ornened  indeed it was, in every sense.
Ateius Capito, a tribune of the people, at first foroade him to go, and attempted to throw him into
prison.  Some of the other tribunes, however, interfered, and Ateius then solemnly cursed him, which




326     COMPLETION OF THE "DE ORATORE." [AET. 55.


seems to have had such an effect that no one of
note except Pompey ventured to accompany 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 Cesar, 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 gardens, 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 Atticus in December he had finished, after
long and careful labor, 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 exAlude 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. Quin1 While the army was assembling at Brundusium to embark for the
East, a seller of figs was heard calling out his fruit in the street — Cauneas!
Cauneas! - pronounced probably Cef'neas - which the superstitious minds
of the hearers interpreted as a prophetic warning- Cave ne eas!-" Be.
ware of going!" - Cic. de Div. ii. 40.




B. c. 52.]


CICERO AND CAESAR.


327


tus had accepted the office of one of his lieutenants.
and left Rome for Gaul.
In a letter to him, his brother says that Appius the
consul had summoned the Senate to meet on the
twelfth of February, but the cold was so severe that
he was compelled by the clamor of the populace to
dismiss the meeting. We may remember how, on
one occasion, Clodius's mob thronged the Grcecostasis
and steps of the building, and frightened the senators
by tleir 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 honor of wearing a pretexta, 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, addressing the senators, asked
them, " Will you, noblemen as you are, who refused
the prcetexta to a Bostrenian chief, permit a Commagenean to wear it?"
In the letter mentioning this, Cicero says that Balbus had heard from Cesar that a packet of letters
addressed to him, including one from Cicero, had got
so saturated with water, that the letter was wholly
unrecognizable. He had, however, been able to de.
cipher part of a letter from Balbus, sufficiently to




328


CAESAR ANXIOUS TO GAIN CICERO.   [AET. 5&


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 excellence the champion of the authority of the Senate,
and had a horror of violence.  And no one can blame
Cicero for wishing 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 introduction, which he gave to his friend Trebatius, an
eminent lawyer,' 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 of Caesar.  He is, believe
1 This is the same Trebatius whom Horace introduces in his Satires, ii. 1,
as recommending a swim across the Tiber to secure a good night's sleep.
In another letter Cicero jokes him for being very fond of swimmingstudiosissimus natandi -and yet unwilling to cross the Straits with Caesar
Into Britain. - Ad Div. vii. 10.




B. c. 52.]


LITERARY LABORS.


329


ne, 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 Britain; and says he
hears there is neither gold nor silver there. He there.
fore advises his friend, if this is so, to get one of
their chariots, and come back to Rome as quickly as
possible.
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 Republicd, which he calls a tough
and troublesome task; but if it turned out according
to his expectation, the labor 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 Cesar, full of
civility and kindness. He speaks of Casar's affec



330


RELATION WITH CIESAR.


[fET 65.


tion as a thing which he preferred to all the honors
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 hilm,l by
my future speed make up for past slowness with my poetic steeds
and chariot. Only give me Britain to paint with your colors 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.
As to politics, he adds, that there was at Rome
some suspicion 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 its 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
1 Perhaps this was the poem De Temporibus suis. which embraced the
events connected with his exile; or it may have been some panegyric on
Caesar's exploits.




a. c. 52.1


CORRUPTION AT ROME.


331


a good pen, well-mixed ink, and smoothed paper.1
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 Iago to
Roderigo: "Put money in thy purse; follow these
wars; I say, put money in thy purse." He said
there was 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.2
He gave the same account to Atticus; and, as his
friend was a capitalist, and, like his deceased uncle,
Cscilius, lent money at usury, he added that he was
not likely to take to heart the rise in the rate of
interest.
1 Calamo et atramento temperato, charta etiam dentata, res agetur. -
Ad Quint. ii. 15.
2 Idib. Quint. foenus fuit bessibus ex triente.- Ad Quint. ii. 15. The
usual rate of interest at Rome was triens, or a third of an as, and this was
reckoned by the month (as is the case in India), so that it amounted to four
per cent. per annum. The bes was two thirds of an as, and thereforefenus
bessibus was eight per cent.




332


COUNSEL FOR THE REATIANS.


[gET. 55


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 sarcastically remarks, -" From this we may
see that our stern Areopagites do not care a straw
for bribery, comitia, interregnum, treason, or, in short,
the Republic altogether. To be sure, we ought not
to try and murder the head of a family at his own
house, and even that point is not altogether clear.
For twenty-two were for an acquittal, and twentyeight for a conviction." Hortensius defended Pro.
cilius, 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 neighbors. - who lived at Interamna, near




B. C. 52.]  RECEPTION IN THE THEATRE.


333


the confluence of the rivers Velinus and Nar (the
Velino and Nera), 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 eighth of July he returned to Rome, and
wrote to Atticus, with an affectation of modesty,
that, when he appeared 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 frequently asked him to dinner, but,
although he is much obliged to him, he has not ac1 Sed hoc ne curares; ego ineptus qui scripserim. - Ad Att. IV. 15.
2 Horace says that Arbuscula, when hissed by the audience, said she was
content with the applause of a Roman knight -
-  Nam satis est equitem mihi plaudere, ut audax.
Contemptis aliis, explosa Arbuscula dixit. - Sat. I 10 -



334


DEFENCE OF VATINIUS.


[GET. 55.


cepted the invitation.1 He congratulates Trebatius
on being I hought 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 jurisconsults,
such as Mucius Scevola 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 labor 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 Vatinius,
accused of bribery and corruption in his canvass for
the pratorship, and the same man whom he had
before so bitterly attacked, when he was counsel for
Sextius. But Vatinius, as the reader will remember,
1 His real name was Cn. Octavius (see ad Div. VII. 16). He obviously
bored Cicero, who did not behave very civilly to him; for when he pestered
him with invitations, he asked him, point-blank, " Who are you? "- Ad
Att. IV. 15,




s, c. C2.]


CICERO AT HIS VILLA.


335


was a fast friend of Cesar, 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.1
Quintus just then was full of a plan he had in his
head to write a poetical account of Britain, and his
brother told 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.2
He was pleased that Caesar approved of his poem
(either the one de Consulatu, or de Temporibus), and
the great soldier seems to have criticized 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.3
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
1 Licinius Calvas was the prosecutor; and Vatinius felt his sarcasm so
keenly, that while Calvas was speaking he sprang from his seat and exclaimled, " Must I be condemned because he is eloquent? "
2 raiVK,' elf 'Ainvaf. A phrase exactly equivalent to ours of " sending
coals to Newcastle."
3 CTsar knew the Greek language thoroughly, as did most educated
Romans at this period. One of the shortest letters on record is that which
he sent in Greek to Quintus, when lie was besieged by the Gauls, and
almost in extremity: Kaiaap KItpove,. Ilpoa(JfGov 3ojeav, "( Cesar,) Cicero. Expect help."




336


COUNTRY LIFE.


[ET. 55.


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, watercourses, and
buildings. On his way he paid a visit to Quintus's
villas, called Arcanum and Laterium, with their
neighboring 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 converted into a villa, and
ornamented with a fish-pond, fountains, shrubberies,
and a palestra or place for gymnastic exercises.
These are trilling details, and may seem hardly
worth mentioning after the lapse of nineteen centuries. But, I confess, I think differently. It is pleasant to make acquaintance with the ancients at home,
and find them engaged in occupations 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, owin)g, no doubt, to some splendid




B.. c52.


DISGRACE OF GABINIUS.


337


shows he had exhibited 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
vaii, 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 recalled from his province of Syria in disgrace,
reached Rome on the twentieth of September, and,
after lingering outside the gates for more than a week,
pretending that he had claims to a triumph, slunk
into the city at night.  He was immediately assailed by a prosecution for having quitted his province 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 Gabinius,
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. Just about
this time Pompey lost his wife Julia, who was
Caesar's daughter. She died in childbed; and thus,
VOL..         22




338


DEFENCE OF PLANCIUS.


[ET. 55.


although the rupture did not immediately appear,
the last link was snapped which held the two ambitious rivals together.  Caesar hore 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 Plancins.
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 dishonor 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 of Plancius, Cicero put forth
all his strength.   He was bound by every tie of
honor 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 labor
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
1 We find that it took in those times about twenty days to send a letter
from Britain to Rome, " a despatch," says Middleton, "equal to that of our
present couriers by post." The distance can now be travelled in four days.
2 Drusus, Scaurus, NON FECISSE videbantur. -Ad Aft. IV. U1. This
was the technical expression for that form of acquittal. He was again prosecuted by Triarius for bribery two years later, and Cicero again defended
him, but with a different result; for he was then convicted.




.. C. 52J


DEFENCE OF PLANCIUS.


339


of a popular election, and much that he says is as
applicable in England now as it was at Rome twenty
centuries 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 humors 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 t'- pass that which David said only in his
wrath, and 'lake all men liars.
" The ballo,!ear 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 apparently 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




340


POLITICAL APOLOGY.


[~ET. 55


the supremacy of Caesar he lived in exile at Cor
cyra.
We pow come to the long and celebrated letter
which Cicero wrote to Lentulus, the proconsul of
Cilicia, and which 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 se
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 Tril imivirate.
He saw that this powerful coalition,  fact, overrode the constitution, and went far  'ablish a
Dictatorship at Rome resting upon p.! alar 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 Casar or any other enemy openly attacked it. From Caesar he stood aloof, and could
not be persuaded to accept any office or honor at his
hands. He peremptorily refused to be one of his
commissioners for dividing the Campania lands, and
he declined, though with hesitation, the offer to be
one of his lieutenants, —a post which Quintus after.
vvards accepted. He did not, however, openly op.




B. c. 52.]


SUIPPORT GIVEN TO CLESAR.


341


pose Cesar's bill for dividing the Campanian lands,
and indeed took credit for supporting it with an
amendment, 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, volurtarily retired to his Albanan villa, and,
when Cicero went there and threw himself at his feet
to implore hi, aid, did not even ask him to rise, and
coldly said he could do nothing without Cesar's approval. And he did nothing. Cicero passed twelve
miserable months in banishment, and when at last he
was restored, he had to thank Caesar as well as Pompey for the influence they had exerted in his favor.
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 enormous 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 conviction that
his most inveterate foe was secretly supported by
Csesar no longer existed. When, therefore, an opportunity occurred for testifying his good-will towards
Camsar, without compromising his own principles, he
gladly availed himself of it. This opportunity arose
on the question of prolonging Cesar's command in




342


DEFENCE OF HIS OWN POLICY.


[ET. 55


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 believed, required that the Proconsul's career of
victory in Gaul should not be checked before he had
completed and consolidated his conquests.  Moreover, he clearly saw how little he could in future rely
upon Pompey in a struggle, and the instinct of selfpreservation 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,
without stopping to examine that question, this plea
cannot possibly avail Cicero; for he was unalterably
convinced then of the contrary. Now however the
future lay dark before him; and not the most sag-acious politician at Rome could have divined the
series of events - blundering weakness on the one
side, and unscrupulous ambition on the otherwhich led to the dictatorship of Cassar 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, and disfigured by his
intolerable vanity; indeed, he seems to have felt half
ashamed of himself whilst writing, and therefore to




B. c. 52.1  DEFENCE OF HIS OWN POLICY.


343


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 Cmesar.   The times
were changed, and he must swim with the tide.l
Alluding to his appearing as a witness for Vatinius, he said that, as some of the most distinguished men at Rome had chosen to patronize and
caress his own enemy —if they 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 Phaedria, 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 Phedria'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
1 1 regret that want of space compels me to omit an epitome of the letter
tnd an analysis of the arguments contained in it. I had written both, but
ind they would swell the volume to an inconvenient size.




344


LETTER TO LENTULUS.


[1ET. 55.


him to make up the quarrel. He sums up, as it
were, the main points of his defence in the following words:" Pray be assured that if I had been at liberty, and things hall
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 inflexible 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 otherwise 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   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 of Lentulus's good offices towards him, and




1. c. 52.]


P'OSITION AS AN ADVOCATE.


34t


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 favorite with him
than himself.
The canvass for the. nsulships of the following
year was still going on, and the competitors trusted
as usual to bribery for success.  They were all there.
fore threatened with prosecutions; and Cicero wrote
privately to Quintus, that the question at issue was,
whether they or the laws should perish.'     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 first 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
1 Aut hominumt aut legurn interitus ostenditur. - Ad Quint. iii. 2. This
does not mean that their lives were in jeopardy. The punishment for the
Dflence of bribery and corruption was not death but banishment. Notwithstanding the strong conviction here expressed by Cicero of their guilt,
we find him a few months afterwards rejoicing that they were for the present
at ail events out of jeopardy, as the courts could not sit during the days of
thanksgiving decreed in honor of Caesar's victories.




346


PROSECUTION OF GABINIUS.


[IET. 55


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 honor, until the Senate had decided
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 introduced 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 clamor and the
rush.




B. C. 52.1


HIS ACQUITTAL.


347


Gabinius was brought to trial on the charge oi
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 prosecution, but, as he told his brother, 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 favor of the
accused, 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 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
1 Judices nullos habemus — rrorevyuaformido. -Ad Quint. iii. 2. We
might almost fancy that this was the language of an English AttorneyGeneral advising against a state prosecution.




348


DISG U Si' \V IT I POLITICS.


[ZET. 55.


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 himself,
le 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.l 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 Cesar'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
1 Per me ista pedibus trahantur. - Ad Att. iv. 16.




B. c. 52.]


DEFENCE OF GAIINIUS.


349


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 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 Cra.
sippes, 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 prosecution 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 cognizance of the case, and was not likely to
show him any mercy. Memmius, Nero, and two
brothers of Mark Antony (nephews of th'e celebrated
orator), all put themselves forward, and, according to
the usual custom, the point was settled by a divinatio.
It was decided in favor of Memmius. In mentioning this to his brother, Cicero adds, that Gabinius
wras hard pressed, and intimates that he would be
convicted, unless " our friend Pompey, against the




350     REASON FOR DEFENDING GABINIUS.  [ETr. 55


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. 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
Middleton admits that his conduct in these two instances is indefensible; 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:
L' 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 dishonor to him, which
he was forced to submit to by the iniquity of the
times and his engagements to Pompey and Caesar,
1 I do not understand how this happened, for the Lex Julia, which was
then in force, had repealed the punishment of exile on a conviction de
pecuniis repetundis. Gabinius was afterwards recalled from banishment
by Caesar.




B. c. 52.]


DEFENCE OF RABIRIUS.


35'


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 Mernmins
the prosecutor had asserted that the Alexandriant
deputies had as good a right to give testimony in
favor of Gabinius as Cicero had to defend 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 circumstances, 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 to 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 realize.the fine, and Rabirius
Postumus, a Roman knight, was accused of having
received a portion of the money that had been paid
to Gabinius. He was put upon his trial and defended
oy Cicero.    He insisted that the law against pecuniary extortion (de repetundis) did not apply to
the knights, being intended only to check the rapacity




352


CAESAR'S A I-IlliJ CTLIALI WORKS.


[AST. 55


of provincial governors; and, moreover, asserted that
not a farthing of the spoil had come into 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 sesterces 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 enrlosure 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 sur



B. c. 52.]


ADVICE TO TREBATIUS.


e) 3
oOO


rounded by a portico, a thousand paces long. To
this was to be added a sort of town-hall (villa publica). The general object of these undertakings was
no doubt to ingratiate himself with the populace;
but a special motive was his desire to eclipse
]Emilius Paullus, 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, 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 Cesar's camp,
and was always hankering after the polished society
of Rome, which he had left, as was usual with civil.
ians 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 payVOL. i.       23




354     )UCATION OF HIS SON AND NEPHEW. [AT. 55


ment 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 remember how
much occupied the proconsul was, and the difficulties 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 Pmonius, 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 promised that if he took his young nephew with
liini into the country he would teach him according




B C. 52.]


LETTER TO QUINTUS.


355


to his own plan. In the mean time, however, the
boy, as was natural, liked better the declamatory
style of PReonius; 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
lis own projected poem on Britain, - but Cicero said
that he had neither leisure nor a mind sufficiently
free from anxiety. Besides, he wanted inspiration;
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 Tyrannio, 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 distressed 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
1 Abest etiam IvovotaaF6o. - Ad Quint. iii. 4.
2 Cicero plays here upon the word ludus, and makes a pun which is untranslatable. He says, ducensque mecum Ciceronem neuwn in ludum discendi.
non lusionis. The Latins used the same word for " school " and " play "
out surely the boys at Rome must have thought it a misnomer.




356                  QUINTUS A POET.                [.Er. 5b
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 senator's authority, is either tormented by the labors of
the Forum, or soothed only by literature at home, - to think that
all in vain have I followed the advice in my favorite line of
IHomer,
'Strive always to excel; be ever foremost in the race,' 1
that my enemies have partly 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.
"V What! when you tell me that you have finished four tragedies
in sixteen days, car you think of borrowing from another? 2 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."
1 Aisv iptarevetv CKat v7reipoxov si/levat a2Jov.
2 These were most probably translations from the Greek. It is hardly
possible that Quintus could have composed four original dramas in little
more than a fortnight. Abeken treats them as original works, and calls
Quintus in consequence, ironically, ein gewaltige Poet-" a powerful
Poet."




.. c. 52.]


DISGRACEFUL COMPACT.


357


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,
achich was part of his propraetorian government in
Asia Minor.
The insecurity of what we should call the pos
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 communicated 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 scandalous
libel. I have already alluded to a compact entered
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 the Senate, and Cicero communicated it to Atticus. It is wellnigh incredible,
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




g58


DISGRACEFUL COMPACT.


[AT. 55.


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 depended upon a special
vote of the people assembled in the comitia curiata.
They could not by possibility expect the honor 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 imperiumn 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, pro.
vided that they would, if they were elected, produce
three augurs and two ex-consuls who would solemnly declare that they were present 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
ae had no chance of being elected. He, therefore.
at the instigation of Pompey, made a clean breast
of it, and brought the whole affair before the Senate.
to the confusion and disgrace of the then consuls




B. c. 52.]


DISGRACEFUL COMPACT.


359


Domitius Ahenobarbus and Appius Claudius.           It is
difficult to understand, not that the parties slould
have been wicked enough to enter 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 believed, 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 judiciumt), where the sentence was
not to be declared till after the election (of the new
consuls), yet so as to make void the election of those
1 In old times in this country all bills were in the form of petitions from
the Commons, which were entered on the Rolls of Parliament, with the
King's answer suljoined. At the end of each Parliament the judges drew
np these records into the form of a statute, which was entered on the Statute
uolls. But it was found that clauses vwere thus surreptitiously introduced
which Parliament had not assented to, and at length, in the 2d year of
Henry V., the Commons prayed that no additions or diminutions should in
'uture be made - See May's PA,'l. Practice, pp. 360, 361 (3d edit.).




360


IRRESOLUTION OF THE SENATE.


[.E. 55.


who should be found guilty." But this is a mis.
take.  The resolution as to a silent inquiry was
come to by the Senate in September, before Mem.
mius made the disclosure in November, and it had
reference to the wholesale 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 interfered,
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, 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, Sceavola, 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 Cesar's friendship. He called it
the only plank in the general shipwreck, and "ws
much pleased at the attentions which were lavished




Misin
IPageR




Mis
IPageR




B. c. 52.J ALLEGIANCE TRANSFERRED TO C^ESAR.


363


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 Cesar had
commanded there. Quintus had begged him to look
after the 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 expectations, had died, after having by
mistake signed a wrong will, so that they got no
legacies.
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
Ctesar. To him he had now transferred his political
allegiance, and to secure his favor 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 indepen.
dence. He lost his own self-respect, and his influ




364


LOSS OF INFLUENCE.


[AET. 55


ence 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.
IND OF VOL. L