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<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>==Plutarch's Life of Cicero==</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background: #eee; color:black; font-size: smaller;"><div>==Plutarch's Life of Cicero==</div></td></tr>
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</table>Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulushttp://www.novaroma.org/vici/index.php?title=Life_of_Cicero_(Plutarch)&diff=3517&oldid=prevM. Lucretius Agricola: incorporate p.d. text of Dreyden's Plutach: CIcero2006-05-11T03:07:49Z<p>incorporate p.d. text of Dreyden's Plutach: CIcero</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>==Plutarch's Life of Cicero==<br />
<br />
Translated by John Dreyden<br />
<br />
<br />
It is generally said, that Helvia, the mother of Cicero, was<br />
both well born and lived a fair life; but of his father nothing<br />
is reported but in extremes. For whilst some would have him the<br />
son of a fuller, and educated in that trade, others carry back<br />
the origin of his family to Tullus Attius, an illustrious king<br />
of the Volscians, who waged war not without honor against the<br />
Romans. However, he who first of that house was surnamed Cicero<br />
seems to have been a person worthy to be remembered; since those<br />
who succeeded him not only did not reject, but were fond of that<br />
name, though vulgarly made a matter of reproach. For the Latins<br />
call a vetch Cicer, and a nick or dent at the tip of his nose,<br />
which resembled the opening in a vetch, gave him the surname of<br />
Cicero.<br />
<br />
Cicero, whose story I am writing, is said to have replied with<br />
spirit to some of his friends, who recommended him to lay aside<br />
or change the name when he first stood for office and engaged in<br />
politics, that he would make it his endeavor to render the name<br />
of Cicero more glorious than that of the Scauri and Catuli. And<br />
when he was quaestor in Sicily, and was making an offering of<br />
silver plate to the gods, and had inscribed his two names,<br />
Marcus and Tullius, instead of the third he jestingly told the<br />
artificer to engrave the figure of a vetch by them. Thus much<br />
is told us about his name.<br />
<br />
Of his birth it is reported, that his mother was delivered<br />
without pain or labor, on the third of the new Calends, the<br />
same day on which now the magistrates of Rome pray and sacrifice<br />
for the emperor. It is said, also, that a vision appeared to<br />
his nurse, and foretold the child she then suckled should<br />
afterwards become a great benefit to the Roman States. To such<br />
presages, which might in general be thought mere fancies and<br />
idle talk, he himself erelong gave the credit of true<br />
prophecies. For as soon as he was of an age to begin to have<br />
lessons, he became so distinguished for his talent, and got such<br />
a name and reputation amongst the boys, that their fathers would<br />
often visit the school, that they might see young Cicero, and<br />
might be able to say that they themselves had witnessed the<br />
quickness and readiness in learning for which he was renowned.<br />
And the more rude among them used to be angry with their<br />
children, to see them, as they walked together, receiving Cicero<br />
with respect into the middle place. And being, as Plato would<br />
have, the scholar-like and philosophical temper, eager for every<br />
kind of learning, and indisposed to no description of knowledge<br />
or instruction, he showed, however, a more peculiar propensity<br />
to poetry; and there is a poem now extant, made by him when a<br />
boy, in tetrameter verse, called Pontius Glaucus. And<br />
afterwards, when he applied himself more curiously to these<br />
accomplishments, he had the name of being not only the best<br />
orator, but also the best poet of Rome. And the glory of his<br />
rhetoric still remains, notwithstanding the many new modes in<br />
speaking since his time; but his verses are forgotten and out of<br />
all repute, so many ingenious poets having followed him.<br />
<br />
Leaving his juvenile studies, he became an auditor of Philo the<br />
Academic, whom the Romans, above all the other scholars of<br />
Clitomachus, admired for his eloquence and loved for his<br />
character. He also sought the company of the Mucii, who were<br />
eminent statesmen and leaders in the senate, and acquired from<br />
them a knowledge of the laws. For some short time he served in<br />
arms under Sylla, in the Marsian war. But perceiving the<br />
commonwealth running into factions, and from faction all things<br />
tending to an absolute monarchy, he betook himself to a retired<br />
and contemplative life, and conversing with the learned Greeks,<br />
devoted himself to study, till Sylla had obtained the<br />
government, and the commonwealth was in some kind of settlement.<br />
<br />
At this time, Chrysogonus, Sylla's emancipated slave, having<br />
laid an information about an estate belonging to one who was<br />
said to have been put to death by proscription, had bought it<br />
himself for two thousand drachmas. And when Roscius, the son<br />
and heir of the dead, complained, and demonstrated the estate to<br />
be worth two hundred and fifty talents, Sylla took it angrily to<br />
have his actions questioned, and preferred a process against<br />
Roscius for the murder of his father, Chrysogonus managing the<br />
evidence. None of the advocates durst assist him, but fearing<br />
the cruelty of Sylla, avoided the cause. The young man, being<br />
thus deserted, came for refuge to Cicero. Cicero's friends<br />
encouraged him, saying he was not likely ever to have a fairer<br />
and more honorable introduction to public life; he therefore<br />
undertook the defense, carried the cause, and got much renown<br />
for it.<br />
<br />
But fearing Sylla, he traveled into Greece, and gave it out that<br />
he did so for the benefit of his health. And indeed he was lean<br />
and meager, and had such a weakness in his stomach, that he<br />
could take nothing but a spare and thin diet, and that not till<br />
late in the evening. His voice was loud and good, but so harsh<br />
and unmanaged that in vehemence and heat of speaking he always<br />
raised it to so high a tone, that there seemed to be reason to<br />
fear about his health.<br />
<br />
When he came to Athens, he was a hearer of Antiochus of Ascalon,<br />
with whose fluency and elegance of diction he was much taken,<br />
although he did not approve of his innovations in doctrine. For<br />
Antiochus had now fallen off from the New Academy, as they call<br />
it, and forsaken the sect of Carneades, whether that he was<br />
moved by the argument of manifestness and the senses, or, as<br />
some say, had been led by feelings of rivalry and opposition to<br />
the followers of Clitomachus and Philo to change his opinions,<br />
and in most things to embrace the doctrine of the Stoics. But<br />
Cicero rather affected and adhered to the doctrines of the New<br />
Academy; and purposed with himself, if he should be disappointed<br />
of any employment in the commonwealth, to retire hither from<br />
pleading and political affairs, and to pass his life with quiet<br />
in the study of philosophy.<br />
<br />
But after he had received the news of Sylla's death, and his<br />
body, strengthened again by exercise, was come to a vigorous<br />
habit, his voice managed and rendered sweet and full to the ear<br />
and pretty well brought into keeping with his general<br />
constitution, his friends at Rome earnestly soliciting him by<br />
letters, and Antiochus also urging him to return to public<br />
affairs, he again prepared for use his orator's instrument of<br />
rhetoric, and summoned into action his political faculties,<br />
diligently exercising himself in declamations, and attending the<br />
most celebrated rhetoricians of the time. He sailed from Athens<br />
for Asia and Rhodes. Amongst the Asian masters, he conversed<br />
with Xenocles of Adramyttium, Dionysius of Magnesia, and<br />
Menippus of Caria; at Rhodes, he studied oratory with<br />
Apollonius, the son of Molon, and philosophy with Posidonius.<br />
Apollonius, we are told, not understanding Latin, requested<br />
Cicero to declaim in Greek. He complied willingly, thinking<br />
that his faults would thus be better pointed out to him. And<br />
after he finished, all his other hearers were astonished, and<br />
contended who should praise him most, but Apollonius, who had<br />
shown no signs of excitement whilst he was hearing him, so also<br />
now, when it was over, sat musing for some considerable time,<br />
without any remark. And when Cicero was discomposed at this, he<br />
said, "You have my praise and admiration, Cicero, and Greece my<br />
pity and commiseration, since those arts and that eloquence<br />
which are the only glories that remain to her, will now be<br />
transferred by you to Rome."<br />
<br />
And now when Cicero, full of expectation, was again bent upon<br />
political affairs, a certain oracle blunted the edge of his<br />
inclination; for consulting the god of Delphi how he should<br />
attain most glory, the Pythoness answered, by making his own<br />
genius and not the opinion of the people the guide of his life;<br />
and therefore at first he passed his time in Rome cautiously,<br />
and was very backward in pretending to public offices, so that<br />
he was at that time in little esteem, and had got the names, so<br />
readily given by low and ignorant people in Rome, of Greek and<br />
Scholar. But when his own desire of fame and the eagerness of<br />
his father and relations had made him take in earnest to<br />
pleading, he made no slow or gentle advance to the first place,<br />
but shone out in full luster at once, and far surpassed all the<br />
advocates of the bar. At first, it is said, he, as well as<br />
Demosthenes, was defective in his delivery, and on that account<br />
paid much attention to the instructions, sometimes of Roscius<br />
the comedian, and sometimes of Aesop the tragedian. They tell<br />
of this Aesop, that whilst he was representing on the theater<br />
Atreus deliberating the revenge of Thyestes, he was so<br />
transported beyond himself in the heat of action, that he struck<br />
with his scepter one of the servants, who was running across the<br />
stage, so violently, that he laid him dead upon the place. And<br />
such afterwards was Cicero's delivery, that it did not a little<br />
contribute to render his eloquence persuasive. He used to<br />
ridicule loud speakers, saying that they shouted because they<br />
could not speak, like lame men who get on horseback because they<br />
cannot walk. And his readiness and address in sarcasm, and<br />
generally in witty sayings, was thought to suit a pleader very<br />
well, and to be highly attractive, but his using it to excess<br />
offended many, and gave him the repute of ill nature.<br />
<br />
He was appointed quaestor in a great scarcity of corn, and had<br />
Sicily for his province, where, though at first he displeased<br />
many, by compelling them to send in their provisions to Rome,<br />
yet after they had had experience of his care, justice, and<br />
clemency, they honored him more than ever they did any of their<br />
governors before. It happened, also, that some young Romans of<br />
good and noble families, charged with neglect of discipline and<br />
misconduct in military service, were brought before the praetor<br />
in Sicily. Cicero undertook their defense, which he conducted<br />
admirably, and got them acquitted. So returning to Rome with a<br />
great opinion of himself for these things, a ludicrous incident<br />
befell him, as he tells us himself. Meeting an eminent citizen<br />
in Campania, whom he accounted his friend, he asked him what the<br />
Romans said and thought of his actions, as if the whole city had<br />
been filled with the glory of what he had done. His friend<br />
asked him in reply, "Where is it you have been, Cicero?" This<br />
for the time utterly mortified and cast him down, to perceive<br />
that the report of his actions had sunk into the city of Rome as<br />
into an immense ocean, without any visible effect or result in<br />
reputation. And afterwards considering with himself that the<br />
glory he contended for was an infinite thing, and that there was<br />
no fixed end nor measure in its pursuit, he abated much of his<br />
ambitious thoughts. Nevertheless, he was always excessively<br />
pleased with his own praise, and continued to the very last to<br />
be passionately fond of glory; which often interfered with the<br />
prosecution of his wisest resolutions.<br />
<br />
On beginning to apply himself more resolutely to public<br />
business, he remarked it as an unreasonable and absurd thing<br />
that artificers, using vessels and instruments inanimate, should<br />
know the name, place, and use of every one of them, and yet the<br />
statesman, whose instruments for carrying out public measures<br />
are men, should be negligent and careless in the knowledge of<br />
persons. And so he not only acquainted himself with the names,<br />
but also knew the particular place where every one of the more<br />
eminent citizens dwelt, what lands he possessed, the friends he<br />
made use of, and those that were of his neighborhood, and when<br />
he traveled on any road in Italy, he could readily name and show<br />
the estates and seats of his friends and acquaintance. Having<br />
so small an estate, though a sufficient competency for his own<br />
expenses, it was much wondered at that he took neither fees nor<br />
gifts from his clients, and more especially, that he did not do<br />
so when he undertook the prosecution of Verres. This Verres,<br />
who had been praetor of Sicily, and stood charged by the<br />
Sicilians of many evil practices during his government there,<br />
Cicero succeeded in getting condemned, not by speaking, but in a<br />
manner by holding his tongue. For the praetors, favoring<br />
Verres, had deferred the trial by several adjournments to the<br />
last day, in which it was evident there could not be sufficient<br />
time for the advocates to be heard, and the cause brought to an<br />
issue. Cicero, therefore, came forward, and said there was no<br />
need of speeches; and after producing and examining witnesses,<br />
he required the judges to proceed to sentence. However, many<br />
witty sayings are on record, as having been used by Cicero on<br />
the occasion. When a man named Caecilius, one of the freed<br />
slaves, who was said to be given to Jewish practices, would have<br />
put by the Sicilians, and undertaken the prosecution of Verres<br />
himself, Cicero asked, "What has a Jew to do with swine?"<br />
verres being the Roman word for a boar. And when Verres began<br />
to reproach Cicero with effeminate living, "You ought," replied<br />
he, "to use this language at home, to your sons;" Verres having<br />
a son who had fallen into disgraceful courses. Hortensius the<br />
orator, not daring directly to undertake the defense of Verres,<br />
was yet persuaded to appear for him at the laying on of the<br />
fine, and received an ivory sphinx for his reward; and when<br />
Cicero, in some passage of his speech, obliquely reflected on<br />
him, and Hortensius told him he was not skillful in solving<br />
riddles, "No," said Cicero, "and yet you have the Sphinx in your<br />
house!"<br />
<br />
Verres was thus convicted; though Cicero, who set the fine at<br />
seventy-five myriads, lay under the suspicion of being<br />
corrupted by bribery to lessen the sum. But the Sicilians, in<br />
testimony of their gratitude, came and brought him all sorts of<br />
presents from the island, when he was aedile; of which he made<br />
no private profit himself, but used their generosity only to<br />
reduce the public price of provisions.<br />
<br />
He had a very pleasant seat at Arpi, he had also a farm near<br />
Naples, and another about Pompeii, but neither of any great<br />
value. The portion of his wife, Terentia, amounted to ten<br />
myriads, and he had a bequest valued at nine myriads of denarii;<br />
upon these he lived in a liberal but temperate style, with the<br />
learned Greeks and Romans that were his familiars. He rarely,<br />
if at any time, sat down to meat till sunset, and that not so<br />
much on account of business, as for his health and the weakness<br />
of his stomach. He was otherwise in the care of his body nice<br />
and delicate, appointing himself, for example, a set number of<br />
walks and rubbings. And after this manner managing the habit<br />
of his body, he brought it in time to be healthful, and capable<br />
of supporting many great fatigues and trials. His father's<br />
house he made over to his brother, living himself near the<br />
Palatine hill, that he might not give the trouble of long<br />
journeys to those that made suit to him. And, indeed, there<br />
were not fewer daily appearing at his door, to do their court to<br />
him, than there were that came to Crassus for his riches, or to<br />
Pompey for his power amongst the soldiers, these being at that<br />
time the two men of the greatest repute and influence in Rome.<br />
Nay, even Pompey himself used to pay court to Cicero, and<br />
Cicero's public actions did much to establish Pompey's authority<br />
and reputation in the state.<br />
<br />
Numerous distinguished competitors stood with him for the<br />
praetor's office; but he was chosen before them all, and managed<br />
the decision of causes with justice and integrity. It is<br />
related that Licinius Macer, a man himself of great power in the<br />
city, and supported also by the assistance of Crassus, was<br />
accused before him of extortion, and that, in confidence on his<br />
own interest and the diligence of his friends, whilst the judges<br />
were debating about the sentence, he went to his house, where<br />
hastily trimming his hair and putting on a clean gown, as<br />
already acquitted, he was setting off again to go to the Forum;<br />
but at his hall door meeting Crassus, who told him that he was<br />
condemned by all the votes, he went in again, threw himself upon<br />
his bed, and died immediately. This verdict was considered very<br />
creditable to Cicero, as showing his careful management of the<br />
courts of justice. On another occasion, Vatinius, a man of rude<br />
manners and often insolent in court to the magistrates, who had<br />
large swellings on his neck, came before his tribunal and made<br />
some request, and on Cicero's desiring further time to consider<br />
it, told him that he himself would have made no question about<br />
it, had he been praetor. Cicero, turning quickly upon him,<br />
answered, "But I, you see, have not the neck that you have."<br />
<br />
When there were but two or three days remaining in his office,<br />
Manilius was brought before him, and charged with peculation.<br />
Manilius had the good opinion and favor of the common people,<br />
and was thought to be prosecuted only for Pompey's sake, whose<br />
particular friend he was. And therefore, when he asked a space<br />
of time before his trial, and Cicero allowed him but one day,<br />
and that the next only, the common people grew highly offended,<br />
because it had been the custom of the praetors to allow ten days<br />
at least to the accused: and the tribunes of the people having<br />
called him before the people, and accused him, he, desiring to<br />
be heard, said, that as he had always treated the accused with<br />
equity and humanity, as far as the law allowed, so he thought it<br />
hard to deny the same to Manilius, and that he had studiously<br />
appointed that day of which alone, as praetor, he was master,<br />
and that it was not the part of those that were desirous to help<br />
him, to cast the judgment of his cause upon another praetor.<br />
These things being said made a wonderful change in the people,<br />
and, commending him much for it, they desired that he himself<br />
would undertake the defense of Manilius; which he willingly<br />
consented to, and that principally for the sake of Pompey, who<br />
was absent. And, accordingly, taking his place before the<br />
people again, he delivered a bold invective upon the<br />
oligarchical party and on those who were jealous of Pompey.<br />
<br />
Yet he was preferred to the consulship no less by the nobles<br />
than the common people, for the good of the city; and both<br />
parties jointly assisted his promotion, upon the following<br />
reasons. The change of government made by Sylla, which at first<br />
seemed a senseless one, by time and usage had now come to be<br />
considered by the people no unsatisfactory settlement. But<br />
there were some that endeavored to alter and subvert the whole<br />
present state of affairs not from any good motives, but for<br />
their own private gain; and Pompey being at this time employed<br />
in the wars with the kings of Pontus and Armenia, there was no<br />
sufficient force at Rome to suppress any attempts at a<br />
revolution. These people had for their head a man of bold,<br />
daring, and restless character, Lucius Catiline, who was<br />
accused, besides other great offenses, of deflowering his virgin<br />
daughter, and killing his own brother; for which latter crime,<br />
fearing to be prosecuted at law, he persuaded Sylla to set him<br />
down, as though he were yet alive, amongst those that were to be<br />
put to death by proscription. This man the profligate citizens<br />
choosing for their captain, gave faith to one another, amongst<br />
other pledges, by sacrificing a man and eating of his flesh; and<br />
a great part of the young men of the city were corrupted by him,<br />
he providing for everyone pleasures, drink, and women, and<br />
profusely supplying the expense of these debauches. Etruria,<br />
moreover, had all been excited to revolt, as well as a great<br />
part of Gaul within the Alps. But Rome itself was in the most<br />
dangerous inclination to change, on account of the unequal<br />
distribution of wealth and property, those of highest rank and<br />
greatest spirit having impoverished themselves by shows,<br />
entertainments, ambition of offices, and sumptuous buildings,<br />
and the riches of the city having thus fallen into the hands of<br />
mean and low-born persons. So that there wanted but a slight<br />
impetus to set all in motion, it being in the power of every<br />
daring man to overturn a sickly commonwealth.<br />
<br />
Catiline, however, being desirous of procuring a strong position<br />
to carry out his designs, stood for the consulship, and had<br />
great hopes of success, thinking he should be appointed, with<br />
Caius Antonius as his colleague, who was a man fit to lead<br />
neither in a good cause nor in a bad one, but might be a<br />
valuable accession to another's power. These things the<br />
greatest part of the good and honest citizens apprehending, put<br />
Cicero upon standing for the consulship; whom the people readily<br />
receiving, Catiline was put by, so that he and Caius Antonius<br />
were chosen, although amongst the competitors he was the only<br />
man descended from a father of the equestrian, and not of the<br />
senatorial order.<br />
<br />
Though the designs of Catiline were not yet publicly known, yet<br />
considerable preliminary troubles immediately followed upon<br />
Cicero's entrance upon the consulship. For, on the one side,<br />
those who were disqualified by the laws of Sylla from holding<br />
any public offices, being neither inconsiderable in power nor in<br />
number, came forward as candidates and caressed the people for<br />
them; speaking many things truly and justly against the tyranny<br />
of Sylla, only that they disturbed the government at an improper<br />
and unseasonable time; on the other hand, the tribunes of the<br />
people proposed laws to the same purpose, constituting a<br />
commission of ten persons, with unlimited powers, in whom as<br />
supreme governors should be vested the right of selling the<br />
public lands of all Italy and Syria and Pompey's new conquests,<br />
of judging and banishing whom they pleased, of planting<br />
colonies, of taking moneys out of the treasury, and of levying<br />
and paying what soldiers should be thought needful. And several<br />
of the nobility favored this law, but especially Caius Antonius,<br />
Cicero's colleague, in hopes of being one of the ten. But what<br />
gave the greatest fear to the nobles was, that he was thought<br />
privy to the conspiracy of Catiline, and not to dislike it,<br />
because of his great debts.<br />
<br />
Cicero, endeavoring in the first place to provide a remedy<br />
against this danger, procured a decree assigning to him the<br />
province of Macedonia, he himself declining that of Gaul, which<br />
was offered to him. And this piece of favor so completely won<br />
over Antonius, that he was ready to second and respond to, like<br />
a hired player, whatever Cicero said for the good of the<br />
country. And now, having made his colleague thus tame and<br />
tractable, he could with greater courage attack the<br />
conspirators. And, therefore, in the senate, making an oration<br />
against the law of the ten commissioners, he so confounded those<br />
who proposed it, that they had nothing to reply. And when they<br />
again endeavored, and, having prepared things beforehand, had<br />
called the consuls before the assembly of the people, Cicero,<br />
fearing nothing, went first out, and commanded the senate to<br />
follow him, and not only succeeded in throwing out the law, but<br />
so entirely overpowered the tribunes by his oratory, that they<br />
abandoned all thought of their other projects.<br />
<br />
For Cicero, it may be said, was the one man, above all others,<br />
who made the Romans feel how great a charm eloquence lends to<br />
what is good, and how invincible justice is, if it be well<br />
spoken; and that it is necessary for him who would dexterously<br />
govern a commonwealth, in action, always to prefer that which<br />
is honest before that which is popular, and in speaking, to free<br />
the right and useful measure from everything that may occasion<br />
offense. An incident occurred in the theater, during his<br />
consulship, which showed what his speaking could do. For<br />
whereas formerly the knights of Rome were mingled in the theater<br />
with the common people, and took their places amongst them as it<br />
happened, Marcus Otho, when he was praetor, was the first who<br />
distinguished them from the other citizens, and appointed them a<br />
proper seat, which they still enjoy as their special place in<br />
the theater. This the common people took as an indignity done<br />
to them, and, therefore, when Otho appeared in the theater, they<br />
hissed him; the knights, on the contrary, received him with loud<br />
clapping. The people repeated and increased their hissing; the<br />
knights continued their clapping. Upon this, turning upon one<br />
another, they broke out into insulting words, so that the<br />
theater was in great disorder. Cicero, being informed of it,<br />
came himself to the theater, and summoning the people into the<br />
temple of Bellona, he so effectually chid and chastised them for<br />
it, that, again returning into the theater, they received Otho<br />
with loud applause, contending with the knights who should give<br />
him the greatest demonstrations of honor and respect.<br />
<br />
The conspirators with Catiline, at first cowed and disheartened,<br />
began presently to take courage again. And assembling<br />
themselves together, they exhorted one another boldly to<br />
undertake the design before Pompey's return, who, as it was<br />
said, was now on his march with his forces for Rome. But the<br />
old soldiers of Sylla were Catiline's chief stimulus to action.<br />
They had been disbanded all about Italy, but the greatest number<br />
and the fiercest of them lay scattered among the cities of<br />
Etruria, entertaining themselves with dreams of new plunder and<br />
rapine amongst the hoarded riches of Italy. These, having for<br />
their leader Manlius, who had served with distinction in the<br />
wars under Sylla, joined themselves to Catiline, and came to<br />
Rome to assist him with their suffrages at the election. For he<br />
again pretended to the consulship, having resolved to kill<br />
Cicero in a tumult at the elections. Also, the divine powers<br />
seemed to give intimation of the coming troubles, by<br />
earthquakes, thunderbolts, and strange appearances. Nor was<br />
human evidence wanting, certain enough in itself, though not<br />
sufficient for the conviction of the noble and powerful<br />
Catiline. Therefore Cicero, deferring the day of election,<br />
summoned Catiline into the senate, and questioned him as to the<br />
charges made against him. Catiline, believing there were many<br />
in the senate desirous of change, and to give a specimen of<br />
himself to the conspirators present, returned an audacious<br />
answer, "What harm," said he, "when I see two bodies, the one<br />
lean and consumptive with a head, the other great and strong<br />
without one, if I put a head to that body which wants one?"<br />
This covert representation of the senate and the people excited<br />
yet greater apprehensions in Cicero. He put on armor, and was<br />
attended from his house by the noble citizens in a body; and a<br />
number of the young men went with him into the Plain. Here,<br />
designedly letting his tunic slip partly off from his shoulders,<br />
he showed his armor underneath, and discovered his danger to the<br />
spectators; who, being much moved at it, gathered round about<br />
him for his defense. At length, Catiline was by a general<br />
suffrage again put by, and Silanus and Murena chosen consuls.<br />
<br />
Not long after this, Catiline's soldiers got together in a body<br />
in Etruria, and began to form themselves into companies, the day<br />
appointed for the design being near at hand. About midnight,<br />
some of the principal and most powerful citizens of Rome, Marcus<br />
Crassus, Marcus Marcellus, and Scipio Metellus went to Cicero's<br />
house, where, knocking at the gate, and calling up the porter,<br />
they commended him to awake Cicero, and tell him they were<br />
there. The business was this: Crassus's porter after supper<br />
had delivered to him letters brought by an unknown person. Some<br />
of them were directed to others, but one to Crassus, without a<br />
name; this only Crassus read, which informed him that there was<br />
a great slaughter intended by Catiline, and advised him to leave<br />
the city. The others he did not open, but went with them<br />
immediately to Cicero, being affrighted at the danger, and to<br />
free himself of the suspicion he lay under for his familiarity<br />
with Catiline. Cicero, considering the matter, summoned the<br />
senate at break of day. The letters he brought with him, and<br />
delivered them to those to whom they were directed, commanding<br />
them to read them publicly; they all alike contained an account<br />
of the conspiracy. And when Quintus Arrius, a man of praetorian<br />
dignity, recounted to them, how soldiers were collecting in<br />
companies in Etruria, and Manlius stated to be in motion with a<br />
large force, hovering about those cities, in expectation of<br />
intelligence from Rome, the senate made a decree, to place all<br />
in the hands of the consuls, who should undertake the conduct of<br />
everything, and do their best to save the state. This was not<br />
a common thing, but only done by the senate in case of imminent<br />
danger.<br />
<br />
After Cicero had received this power, he committed all affairs<br />
outside to Quintus Metellus, but the management of the city he<br />
kept in his own hands. Such a numerous attendance guarded him<br />
every day when he went abroad, that the greatest part of the<br />
market-place was filled with his train when he entered it.<br />
Catiline, impatient of further delay, resolved himself to break<br />
forth and go to Manlius, but he commanded Marcius and Cethegus<br />
to take their swords, and go early in the morning to Cicero's<br />
gates, as if only intending to salute him, and then to fall upon<br />
him and slay him. This a noble lady, Fulvia, coming by night,<br />
discovered to Cicero, bidding him beware of Cethegus and<br />
Marcius. They came by break of day, and being denied entrance,<br />
made an outcry and disturbance at the gates, which excited all<br />
the more suspicion. But Cicero, going forth, summoned the<br />
senate into the temple of Jupiter Stator, which stands at the<br />
end of the Sacred Street, going up to the Palatine. And when<br />
Catiline with others of his party also came, as intending to<br />
make his defense, none of the senators would sit by him, but all<br />
of them left the bench where he had placed himself. And when he<br />
began to speak, they interrupted him with outcries. At length<br />
Cicero, standing up, commanded him to leave the city, for since<br />
one governed the commonwealth with words, the other with arms,<br />
it was necessary there should be a wall betwixt them. Catiline,<br />
therefore, immediately left the town, with three hundred armed<br />
men; and assuming, as if he had been a magistrate, the rods,<br />
axes, and military ensigns, he went to Manlius, and having got<br />
together a body of near twenty thousand men, with these he<br />
marched to the several cities, endeavoring to persuade or force<br />
them to revolt. So it being now come to open war, Antonius was<br />
sent forth to fight him.<br />
<br />
The remainder of those in the city whom he had corrupted,<br />
Cornelius Lentulus kept together and encouraged. He had the<br />
surname Sura, and was a man of a noble family, but a dissolute<br />
liver, who for his debauchery was formerly turned out of the<br />
senate, and was now holding the office of praetor for the second<br />
time, as the custom is with those who desire to regain the<br />
dignity of senator. It is said that he got the surname Sura<br />
upon this occasion; being quaestor in the time of Sylla, he had<br />
lavished away and consumed a great quantity of the public<br />
moneys, at which Sylla being provoked, called him to give an<br />
account in the senate; he appeared with great coolness and<br />
contempt, and said he had no account to give, but they might<br />
take this, holding up the calf of his leg, as boys do at ball,<br />
when they have missed. Upon which he was surnamed Sura, sura<br />
being the Roman word for the calf of the leg. Being at another<br />
time prosecuted at law, and having bribed some of the judges, he<br />
escaped only by two votes, and complained of the needless<br />
expense he had gone to in paying for a second, as one would have<br />
sufficed to acquit him. This man, such in his own nature, and<br />
now inflamed by Catiline, false prophets and fortune-tellers had<br />
also corrupted with vain hopes, quoting to him fictitious verses<br />
and oracles, and proving from the Sibylline prophecies that<br />
there were three of the name Cornelius designed by fate to be<br />
monarchs of Rome; two of whom, Cinna and Sylla, had already<br />
fulfilled the decree, and that divine fortune was now advancing<br />
with the gift of monarchy for the remaining third Cornelius; and<br />
that therefore he ought by all means to accept it, and not lose<br />
opportunity by delay, as Catiline had done.<br />
<br />
Lentulus, therefore, designed no mean or trivial matter, for he<br />
had resolved to kill the whole senate, and as many other<br />
citizens as he could, to fire the city, and spare nobody, except<br />
only Pompey's children, intending to seize and keep them as<br />
pledges of his reconciliation with Pompey. For there was then a<br />
common and strong report that Pompey was on his way homeward<br />
from his great expedition. The night appointed for the design<br />
was one of the Saturnalia; swords, flax, and sulfur they carried<br />
and hid in the house of Cethegus; and providing one hundred men,<br />
and dividing the city into as many parts, they had allotted to<br />
every one singly his proper place, so that in a moment many<br />
kindling the fire, the city might be in a flame all together.<br />
Others were appointed to stop up the aqueducts, and to kill<br />
those who should endeavor to carry water to put it out. Whilst<br />
these plans were preparing, it happened there were two<br />
ambassadors from the Allobroges staying in Rome; a nation at<br />
that time in a distressed condition, and very uneasy under the<br />
Roman government. These Lentulus and his party judging useful<br />
instruments to move and seduce Gaul to revolt, admitted into the<br />
conspiracy, and they gave them letters to their own magistrates,<br />
and letters to Catiline; in those they promised liberty, in<br />
these they exhorted Catiline to set all slaves free, and to<br />
bring them along with him to Rome. They sent also to accompany<br />
them to Catiline, one Titus, a native of Croton, who was to<br />
carry those letters to him.<br />
<br />
These counsels of inconsidering men, who conversed together over<br />
wine and with women, Cicero watched with sober industry and<br />
forethought, and with most admirable sagacity, having several<br />
emissaries abroad, who observed and traced with him all that was<br />
done, and keeping also a secret correspondence with many who<br />
pretended to join in the conspiracy. He thus knew all the<br />
discourse which passed betwixt them and the strangers; and lying<br />
in wait for them by night, he took the Crotonian with his<br />
letters, the ambassadors of the Allobroges acting secretly in<br />
concert with him.<br />
<br />
By break of day, he summoned the senate into the temple of<br />
Concord, where he read the letters and examined the informers.<br />
Junius Silanus further stated, that several persons had heard<br />
Cethegus say, that three consuls and four praetors were to be<br />
slain; Piso, also, a person of consular dignity, testified other<br />
matters of the like nature; and Caius Sulpicius, one of the<br />
praetors, being sent to Cethegus's house, found there a quantity<br />
of darts and of armor, and a still greater number of swords and<br />
daggers, all recently whetted. At length, the senate decreeing<br />
indemnity to the Crotonian upon his confession of the whole<br />
matter, Lentulus was convicted, abjured his office (for he was<br />
then praetor), and put off his robe edged with purple in the<br />
senate, changing it for another garment more agreeable to his<br />
present circumstances. He, thereupon, with the rest of his<br />
confederates present, was committed to the charge of the<br />
praetors in free custody.<br />
<br />
It being evening, and the common people in crowds expecting<br />
without, Cicero went forth to them, and told them what was done,<br />
and then, attended by them, went to the house of a friend and<br />
near neighbor; for his own was taken up by the women, who were<br />
celebrating with secret rites the feast of the goddess whom the<br />
Romans call the Good, and the Greeks, the Women's goddess. For<br />
a sacrifice is annually performed to her in the consul's house,<br />
either by his wife or mother, in the presence of the vestal<br />
virgins. And having got into his friend's house privately, a<br />
few only being present, he began to deliberate how he should<br />
treat these men. The severest, and the only punishment fit for<br />
such heinous crimes, he was somewhat shy and fearful of<br />
inflicting, as well from the clemency of his nature, as also<br />
lest he should be thought to exercise his authority too<br />
insolently, and to treat too harshly men of the noblest birth<br />
and most powerful friendships in the city; and yet, if he should<br />
use them more mildly, he had a dreadful prospect of danger from<br />
them. For there was no likelihood, if they suffered less than<br />
death, they would be reconciled, but rather, adding new rage to<br />
their former wickedness, they would rush into every kind of<br />
audacity, while he himself, whose character for courage already<br />
did not stand very high with the multitude, would be thought<br />
guilty of the greatest cowardice and want of manliness.<br />
<br />
Whilst Cicero was doubting what course to take, a portent<br />
happened to the women in their sacrificing. For on the altar,<br />
where the fire seemed wholly extinguished, a great and bright<br />
flame issued forth from the ashes of the burnt wood; at which<br />
others were affrighted, but the holy virgins called to Terentia,<br />
Cicero's wife, and bade her haste to her husband, and command<br />
him to execute what he had resolved for the good of his country,<br />
for the goddess had sent a great light to the increase of his<br />
safety and glory. Terentia, therefore, as she was otherwise in<br />
her own nature neither tender-hearted nor timorous, but a woman<br />
eager for distinction (who, as Cicero himself says, would rather<br />
thrust herself into his public affairs, than communicate her<br />
domestic matters to him), told him these things, and excited him<br />
against the conspirators. So also did Quintus his brother, and<br />
Publius Nigidius, one of his philosophical friends, whom he<br />
often made use of in his greatest and most weighty affairs of<br />
state.<br />
<br />
The next day, a debate arising in the senate about the<br />
punishment of the men, Silanus, being the first who was asked<br />
his opinion, said, it was fit they should be all sent to the<br />
prison, and there suffer the utmost penalty. To him all<br />
consented in order till it came to Caius Caesar, who was<br />
afterwards dictator. He was then but a young man, and only at<br />
the outset of his career, but had already directed his hopes and<br />
policy to that course by which he afterwards changed the Roman<br />
state into a monarchy. Of this others foresaw nothing; but<br />
Cicero had seen reason for strong suspicion, though without<br />
obtaining any sufficient means of proof. And there were some<br />
indeed that said that he was very near being discovered, and<br />
only just escaped him; others are of opinion that Cicero<br />
voluntarily overlooked and neglected the evidence against him,<br />
for fear of his friends and power; for it was very evident to<br />
everybody, that if Caesar was to be accused with the<br />
conspirators, they were more likely to be saved with him, than<br />
he to be punished with them.<br />
<br />
When, therefore, it came to Caesar's turn to give his opinion,<br />
he stood up and proposed that the conspirators should not be put<br />
to death, but their estates confiscated, and their persons<br />
confined in such cities in Italy as Cicero should approve, there<br />
to be kept in custody till Catiline was conquered. To this<br />
sentence, as it was the most moderate, and he that delivered it<br />
a most powerful speaker, Cicero himself gave no small weight,<br />
for he stood up and, turning the scale on either side, spoke in<br />
favor partly of the former, partly of Caesar's sentence. And<br />
all Cicero's friends, judging Caesar's sentence most expedient<br />
for Cicero, because he would incur the less blame if the<br />
conspirators were not put to death, chose rather the latter; so<br />
that Silanus, also, changing his mind, retracted his opinion,<br />
and said he had not declared for capital, but only the utmost<br />
punishment, which to a Roman senator is imprisonment. The first<br />
man who spoke against Caesar's motion was Catulus Lutatius.<br />
Cato followed, and so vehemently urged in his speech the strong<br />
suspicion about Caesar himself, and so filled the senate with<br />
anger and resolution, that a decree was passed for the execution<br />
of the conspirators. But Caesar opposed the confiscation of<br />
their goods, not thinking it fair that those who had rejected<br />
the mildest part of his sentence should avail themselves of the<br />
severest. And when many insisted upon it, he appealed to the<br />
tribunes, but they would do nothing; till Cicero himself<br />
yielding, remitted that part of the sentence.<br />
<br />
After this, Cicero went out with the senate to the conspirators;<br />
they were not all together in one place, but the several<br />
praetors had them, some one, some another, in custody. And<br />
first he took Lentulus from the Palatine, and brought him by the<br />
Sacred Street, through the middle of the marketplace, a circle<br />
of the most eminent citizens encompassing and protecting him.<br />
The people, affrighted at what was doing, passed along in<br />
silence, especially the young men; as if, with fear and<br />
trembling; they were undergoing a rite of initiation into some<br />
ancient, sacred mysteries of aristocratic power. Thus passing<br />
from the market-place, and coming to the gaol, he delivered<br />
Lentulus to the officer, and commanded him to execute him; and<br />
after him Cethegus, and so all the rest in order, he brought and<br />
delivered up to execution. And when he saw many of the<br />
conspirators in the market-place, still standing together in<br />
companies, ignorant of what was done, and waiting for the night,<br />
supposing the men were still alive and in a possibility of being<br />
rescued, he called out in a loud voice, and said, "They did<br />
live;" for so the Romans, to avoid inauspicious language, name<br />
those that are dead.<br />
<br />
It was now evening, when he returned from the market-place to<br />
his own house, the citizens no longer attending him with<br />
silence, nor in order, but receiving him, as he passed, with<br />
acclamations and applauses, and saluting him as the savior and<br />
founder of his country. A bright light shone through the<br />
streets from the lamps and torches set up at the doors, and the<br />
women showed lights from the tops of the houses, to honor<br />
Cicero, and to behold him returning home with a splendid train<br />
of the most principal citizens; amongst whom were many who had<br />
conducted great wars, celebrated triumphs, and added to the<br />
possessions of the Roman empire, both by sea and land. These,<br />
as they passed along with him, acknowledged to one another, that<br />
though the Roman people were indebted to several officers and<br />
commanders of that age for riches, spoils, and power, yet to<br />
Cicero alone they owed the safety and security of all these, for<br />
delivering them from so great and imminent a danger. For though<br />
it might seem no wonderful thing to prevent the design, and<br />
punish the conspirators, yet to defeat the greatest of all<br />
conspiracies with so little disturbance, trouble, and commotion,<br />
was very extraordinary. For the greater part of those who had<br />
flocked in to Catiline, as soon as they heard the fate of<br />
Lentulus and Cethegus, left and forsook him, and he himself,<br />
with his remaining forces, joining battle with Antonius, was<br />
destroyed with his army.<br />
<br />
And yet there were some who were very ready both to speak ill of<br />
Cicero, and to do him hurt for these actions; and they had for<br />
their leaders some of the magistrates of the ensuing year, as<br />
Caesar, who was one of the praetors, and Metellus and Bestia,<br />
the tribunes. These, entering upon their office some few days<br />
before Cicero's consulate expired, would not permit him to make<br />
any address to the people, but, throwing the benches before the<br />
Rostra, hindered his speaking, telling him he might, if he<br />
pleased, make the oath of withdrawal from office, and then come<br />
down again. Cicero, accordingly, accepting the conditions, came<br />
forward to make his withdrawal; and silence being made, he<br />
recited his oath, not in the usual, but in a new and peculiar<br />
form, namely, that he had saved his country, and preserved the<br />
empire; the truth of which oath all the people confirmed with<br />
theirs. Caesar and the tribunes, all the more exasperated by<br />
this, endeavored to create him further trouble, and for this<br />
purpose proposed a law for calling Pompey home with his army, to<br />
put an end to Cicero's usurpation. But it was a very great<br />
advantage for Cicero and the whole commonwealth that Cato was at<br />
that time one of the tribunes. For he, being of equal power<br />
with the rest, and of greater reputation, could oppose their<br />
designs. He easily defeated their other projects, and, in an<br />
oration to the people, so highly extolled Cicero's consulate,<br />
that the greatest honors were decreed him, and he was publicly<br />
declared the Father of his Country, which title he seems to have<br />
obtained, the first man who did so, when Cato gave it him in<br />
this address to the people.<br />
<br />
At this time, therefore, his authority was very great in the<br />
city; but he created himself much envy, and offended very many,<br />
not by any evil action, but because he was always lauding and<br />
magnifying himself. For neither senate, nor assembly of the<br />
people, nor court of judicature could meet, in which he was not<br />
heard to talk of Catiline and Lentulus. Indeed, he also filled<br />
his books and writings with his own praises, to such an excess<br />
as to render a style, in itself most pleasant and delightful,<br />
nauseous and irksome to his hearers; this ungrateful humor, like<br />
a disease, always cleaving to him. Nevertheless, though he was<br />
intemperately fond of his own glory, he was very free from<br />
envying others, and was, on the contrary, most liberally profuse<br />
in commending both the ancients and his contemporaries, as<br />
anyone may see in his writings. And many such sayings of his are<br />
also remembered; as that he called Aristotle a river of flowing<br />
gold, and said of Plato's Dialogues, that if Jupiter were to<br />
speak, it would be in language like theirs. He used to call<br />
Theophrastus his special luxury. And being asked which of<br />
Demosthenes's orations he liked best, he answered, the longest.<br />
And yet some affected imitators of Demosthenes have complained<br />
of some words that occur in one of his letters, to the effect<br />
that Demosthenes sometimes falls asleep in his speeches;<br />
forgetting the many high encomiums he continually passes upon<br />
him, and the compliment he paid him when he named the most<br />
elaborate of all his orations, those he wrote against Antony,<br />
Philippics. And as for the eminent men of his own time, either<br />
in eloquence or philosophy, there was not one of them whom he<br />
did not, by writing or speaking favorably of him, render more<br />
illustrious. He obtained of Caesar, when in power, the Roman<br />
citizenship for Cratippus, the Peripatetic, and got the court of<br />
Areopagus, by public decree, to request his stay at Athens, for<br />
the instruction of their youth, and the honor of their city.<br />
There are letters extant from Cicero to Herodes, and others to<br />
his son, in which he recommends the study of philosophy under<br />
Cratippus. There is one in which he blames Gorgias, the<br />
rhetorician, for enticing his son into luxury and drinking, and,<br />
therefore, forbids him his company. And this, and one other to<br />
Pelops, the Byzantine, are the only two of his Greek epistles<br />
which seem to be written in anger. In the first, he justly<br />
reflects on Gorgias, if he were what he was thought to be, a<br />
dissolute and profligate character; but in the other, he rather<br />
meanly expostulates and complains with Pelops, for neglecting to<br />
procure him a decree of certain honors from the Byzantines.<br />
<br />
Another illustration of his love of praise is the way in which<br />
sometimes, to make his orations more striking, he neglected<br />
decorum and dignity. When Munatius, who had escaped conviction<br />
by his advocacy, immediately prosecuted his friend Sabinus, he<br />
said in the warmth of his resentment, "Do you suppose you were<br />
acquitted for your own meets, Munatius, and was it not that I so<br />
darkened the case, that the court could not see your guilt?"<br />
When from the Rostra he had made an eulogy on Marcus Crassus,<br />
with much applause, and within a few days after again as<br />
publicly reproached him, Crassus called to him, and said, "Did<br />
not you yourself two days ago, in this same place, commend me?"<br />
"Yes," said Cicero, "I exercised my eloquence in declaiming upon<br />
a bad subject." At another time, Crassus had said that no one<br />
of his family had ever lived beyond sixty years of age, and<br />
afterwards denied it, and asked, "What should put it into my<br />
head to say so?" "It was to gain the people's favor," answered<br />
Cicero; "you knew how glad they would be to hear it." When<br />
Crassus expressed admiration of the Stoic doctrine, that the<br />
good man is always rich, "Do you not mean," said Cicero, "their<br />
doctrine that all things belong to the wise?" Crassus being<br />
generally accused of covetousness. One of Crassus's sons, who<br />
was thought so exceedingly like a man of the name of Axius as to<br />
throw some suspicion on his mother's honor, made a successful<br />
speech in the senate. Cicero on being asked how he liked it,<br />
replied with the Greek words, Axios Crassou.<br />
<br />
When Crassus was about to go into Syria, he desired to leave<br />
Cicero rather his friend than his enemy, and, therefore, one day<br />
saluting him, told him he would come and sup with him, which the<br />
other as courteously received. Within a few days after, on some<br />
of Cicero's acquaintances interceding for Vatinius, as desirous<br />
of reconciliation and friendship, for he was then his enemy,<br />
"What," he replied, "does Vatinius also wish to come and sup<br />
with me?" Such was his way with Crassus. When Vatinius, who<br />
had swellings in his neck, was pleading a cause, he called him<br />
the tumid orator; and having been told by someone that Vatinius<br />
was dead, on hearing presently after that he was alive, "May the<br />
rascal perish," said he, "for his news not being true."<br />
<br />
Upon Caesar's bringing forward a law for the division of the<br />
lands in Campania amongst the soldiers, many in the senate<br />
opposed it; amongst the rest, Lucius Gellius, one of the oldest<br />
men in the house, said it should never pass whilst he lived.<br />
"Let us postpone it," said Cicero, "Gellius does not ask us to<br />
wait long." There was a man of the name of Octavius, suspected<br />
to be of African descent. He once said, when Cicero was<br />
pleading, that he could not hear him; "Yet there are holes,"<br />
said Cicero, "in your ears." When Metellus Nepos told him,<br />
that he had ruined more as a witness, than he had saved as an<br />
advocate, "I admit," said Cicero, "that I have more truth than<br />
eloquence." To a young man who was suspected of having given a<br />
poisoned cake to his father, and who talked largely of the<br />
invectives he meant to deliver against Cicero, "Better these,"<br />
replied he, "than your cakes." Publius Sextius, having amongst<br />
others retained Cicero as his advocate in a certain cause, was<br />
yet desirous to say all for himself, and would not allow anybody<br />
to speak for him; when he was about to receive his acquittal<br />
from the judges, and the ballots were passing, Cicero called to<br />
him, "Make haste, Sextius, and use your time; tomorrow you will<br />
be nobody." He cited Publius Cotta to bear testimony in a<br />
certain cause, one who affected to be thought a lawyer, though<br />
ignorant and unlearned; to whom, when he had said, "I know<br />
nothing of the matter," he answered, "You think, perhaps, we ask<br />
you about a point of law." To Metellus Nepos, who, in a dispute<br />
between them, repeated several times, "Who was your father,<br />
Cicero?" he replied, "Your mother has made the answer to such a<br />
question in your case more difficult;" Nepos's mother having<br />
been of ill repute. The son, also, was of a giddy, uncertain<br />
temper. At one time, he suddenly threw up his office of<br />
tribune, and sailed off into Syria to Pompey; and immediately<br />
after, with as little reason, came back again. He gave his<br />
tutor, Philagrus, a funeral with more than necessary attention,<br />
and then set up the stone figure of a crow over his tomb.<br />
"This," said Cicero, "is really appropriate; as he did not teach<br />
you to speak, but to fly about." When Marcus Appius, in the<br />
opening of some speech in a court of justice, said that his<br />
friend had desired him to employ industry, eloquence, and<br />
fidelity in that cause, Cicero answered, "And how have you had<br />
the heart not to accede to any one of his requests?"<br />
<br />
To use this sharp raillery against opponents and antagonists in<br />
judicial pleading seems allowable rhetoric. But he excited much<br />
ill feeling by his readiness to attack anyone for the sake of a<br />
jest. A few anecdotes of this kind may be added. Marcus<br />
Aquinius, who had two sons-in-law in exile, received from him<br />
the name of king Adrastus. Lucius Cotta, an intemperate lover<br />
of wine, was censor when Cicero stood for the consulship.<br />
Cicero, being thirsty at the election, his friends stood round<br />
about him while he was drinking. "You have reason to be<br />
afraid," he said, "lest the censor should be angry with me for<br />
drinking water." Meeting one day Voconius with his three very<br />
ugly daughters, he quoted the verse,<br />
<br />
He reared a race without Apollo's leave.<br />
<br />
When Marcus Gellius, who was reputed the son of a slave, had<br />
read several letters in the senate with a very shrill, and loud<br />
voice, "Wonder not," said Cicero, "he comes of the criers."<br />
When Faustus Sylla, the son of Sylla the dictator, who had,<br />
during his dictatorship, by public bills proscribed and<br />
condemned so many citizens, had so far wasted his estate, and<br />
got into debt, that he was forced to publish his bills of sale,<br />
Cicero told him that he liked these bills much better than those<br />
of his father. By this habit he made himself odious with many<br />
people.<br />
<br />
But Clodius's faction conspired against him upon the following<br />
occasion. Clodius was a member of a noble family, in the flower<br />
of his youth, and of a bold and resolute temper. He, being in<br />
love with Pompeia, Caesar's wife, got privately into his house<br />
in the dress and attire of a music-girl; the women being at that<br />
time offering there the sacrifice which must not be seen by men,<br />
and there was no man present. Clodius, being a youth and<br />
beardless, hoped to get to Pompeia among the women without being<br />
taken notice of. But coming into a great house by night, he<br />
missed his way in the passages, and a servant belonging to<br />
Aurelia, Caesar's mother, spying him wandering up and down,<br />
inquired his name. Thus being necessitated to speak, he told<br />
her he was seeking for one of Pompeia's maids, Abra by name; and<br />
she, perceiving it not to be a woman's voice, shrieked out, and<br />
called in the women; who, shutting the gates, and searching<br />
every place, at length found Clodius hidden in the chamber of<br />
the maid with whom he had come in. This matter being much<br />
talked about, Caesar put away his wife, Pompeia, and Clodius was<br />
prosecuted for profaning the holy rites.<br />
<br />
Cicero was at this time his friend, for he had been useful<br />
to him in the conspiracy of Catiline, as one of his forwardest<br />
assistants and protectors. But when Clodius rested his defense<br />
upon this point, that he was not then at Rome, but at a distance<br />
in the country, Cicero testified that he had come to his house<br />
that day, and conversed with him on several matters; which thing<br />
was indeed true, although Cicero was thought to testify it not<br />
so much for the truth's sake as to preserve his quiet with<br />
Terentia his wife. For she bore a grudge against Clodius on<br />
account of his sister Clodia's wishing, as it was alleged, to<br />
marry Cicero, and having employed for this purpose the<br />
intervention of Tullus, a very intimate friend of Cicero's; and<br />
his frequent visits to Clodia, who lived in their neighborhood,<br />
and the attentions he paid to her had excited Terentia's<br />
suspicions, and, being a woman of a violent temper, and having<br />
the ascendant over Cicero, she urged him on to taking a part<br />
against Clodius, and delivering his testimony. Many other good<br />
and honest citizens also gave evidence against him, for<br />
perjuries, disorders, bribing the people, and debauching women.<br />
Lucullus proved, by his women-servants, that he had debauched<br />
his youngest sister when she was Lucullus's wife; and there was<br />
a general belief that he had done the same with his two other<br />
sisters, Tertia, whom Marcius Rex, and Clodia, whom Metellus<br />
Celer had married; the latter of whom was called Quadrantia,<br />
because one of her lovers had deceived her with a purse of small<br />
copper money instead of silver, the smallest copper coin being<br />
called a quadrant. Upon this sister's account, in particular,<br />
Clodius's character was attacked. Notwithstanding all this,<br />
when the common people united against the accusers and witnesses<br />
and the whole party, the judges were affrighted, and a guard was<br />
placed about them for their defense; and most of them wrote<br />
their sentences on the tablets in such a way, that they could<br />
not well be read. It was decided, however, that there was a<br />
majority for his acquittal, and bribery was reported to have<br />
been employed; in reference to which Catulus remarked, when he<br />
next met the judges, "You were very right to ask for a guard, to<br />
prevent your money being taken from you." And when Clodius<br />
upbraided Cicero that the judges had not believed his testimony,<br />
"Yes," said he, "five and twenty of them trusted me, and<br />
condemned you, and the other thirty did not trust you, for they<br />
did not acquit you till they had got your money."<br />
<br />
Caesar, though cited, did not give his testimony against<br />
Clodius, and declared himself not convinced of his wife's<br />
adultery, but that he had put her away because it was fit that<br />
Caesar's house should not be only free of the evil fact, but of<br />
the fame too.<br />
<br />
Clodius, having escaped this danger, and having got himself<br />
chosen one of the tribunes, immediately attacked Cicero, heaping<br />
up all matters and inciting all persons against him. The common<br />
people he gained over with popular laws; to each of the consuls<br />
he decreed large provinces, to Piso, Macedonia, and to Gabinius,<br />
Syria; he made a strong party among the indigent citizens, to<br />
support him in his proceedings, and had always a body of armed<br />
slaves about him. Of the three men then in greatest power,<br />
Crassus was Cicero's open enemy, Pompey indifferently made<br />
advances to both, and Caesar was going with an army into Gaul.<br />
To him, though not his friend (what had occurred in the time of<br />
the conspiracy having created suspicions between them), Cicero<br />
applied, requesting an appointment as one of his lieutenants in<br />
the province. Caesar accepted him, and Clodius, perceiving that<br />
Cicero would thus escape his tribunician authority, professed to<br />
be inclinable to a reconciliation, laid the greatest fault upon<br />
Terentia, made always a favorable mention of him, and addressed<br />
him with kind expressions, as one who felt no hatred or<br />
ill-will, but who merely wished to urge his complaints in a<br />
moderate and friendly way. By these artifices, he so freed<br />
Cicero of all his fears, that he resigned his appointment to<br />
Caesar, and betook himself again to political affairs. At which<br />
Caesar being exasperated, joined the party of Clodius against<br />
him, and wholly alienated Pompey from him; he also himself<br />
declared in a public assembly of the people, that he did not<br />
think Lentulus and Cethegus, with their accomplices, were fairly<br />
and legally put to death without being brought to trial. And<br />
this, indeed, was the crime charged upon Cicero, and this<br />
impeachment he was summoned to answer. And so, as an accused<br />
man, and in danger for the result, he changes his dress, and<br />
went round with his hair untrimmed, in the attire of a<br />
suppliant, to beg the people's grace. But Clodius met him in<br />
every corner, having a band of abusive and daring fellows about<br />
him, who derided Cicero for his change of dress and his<br />
humiliation, and often, by throwing dirt and stones at him,<br />
interrupted his supplication to the people.<br />
<br />
However, first of all, almost the whole equestrian order changed<br />
their dress with him, and no less than twenty thousand young<br />
gentlemen followed him with their hair untrimmed, and<br />
supplicating with him to the people. And then the senate met,<br />
to pass a decree that the people should change their dress as in<br />
time of public sorrow. But the consuls opposing it, and Clodius<br />
with armed men besetting the senate-house, many of the senators<br />
ran out, crying out and tearing their clothes. But this sight<br />
moved neither shame nor pity; Cicero must either fly or<br />
determine it by the sword with Clodius. He entreated Pompey to<br />
aid him, who was on purpose gone out of the way, and was staying<br />
at his country-house in the Alban hills; and first he sent his<br />
son-in-law Piso to intercede with him, and afterwards set out to<br />
go himself. Of which Pompey being informed, would not stay to<br />
see him, being ashamed at the remembrance of the many conflicts<br />
in the commonwealth which Cicero had undergone in his behalf,<br />
and how much of his policy he had directed for his advantage.<br />
But being now Caesar's son-in-law, at his instance he had set<br />
aside all former kindness, and, slipping out at another door,<br />
avoided the interview. Thus being forsaken by Pompey, and left<br />
alone to himself, he fled to the consuls. Gabinius was rough<br />
with him, as usual, but Piso spoke more courteously, desiring<br />
him to yield and give place for a while to the fury of Clodius,<br />
and to await a change of times, and to be now, as before, his<br />
country's savior from the peril of these troubles and commotions<br />
which Clodius was exciting.<br />
<br />
Cicero, receiving this answer, consulted with his friends.<br />
Lucullus advised him to stay, as being sure to prevail at last;<br />
others to fly, because the people would soon desire him again,<br />
when they should have enough of the rage and madness of Clodius.<br />
This last Cicero approved. But first he took a statue of<br />
Minerva, which had been long set up and greatly honored in his<br />
house, and carrying it to the capitol, there dedicated it, with<br />
the inscription, "To Minerva, Patroness of Rome." And receiving<br />
an escort from his friends, about the middle of the night he<br />
left the city, and went by land through Lucania, intending to<br />
reach Sicily.<br />
<br />
But as soon as it was publicly known that he was fled, Clodius<br />
proposed to the people a decree of exile, and by his own order<br />
interdicted him fire and water, prohibiting any within five<br />
hundred miles in Italy to receive him into their houses. Most<br />
people, out of respect for Cicero, paid no regard to this edict,<br />
offering him every attention and escorting him on his way. But<br />
at Hipponium, a city of Lucania, now called Vibo, one Vibius, a<br />
Sicilian by birth, who, amongst many other instances of Cicero's<br />
friendship, had been made head of the state engineers when he<br />
was consul, would not receive him into his house, sending him<br />
word he would appoint a place in the country for his reception.<br />
Caius Vergilius, the praetor of Sicily, who had been on the most<br />
intimate terms with him, wrote to him to forbear coming into<br />
Sicily. At these things Cicero being disheartened, went to<br />
Brundusium, whence putting forth with a prosperous wind, a<br />
contrary gale blowing from the sea carried him back to Italy-<br />
the next day. He put again to sea, and having reached<br />
Dyrrachium, on his coming to shore there, it is reported that an<br />
earthquake and a convulsion in the sea happened at the same<br />
time, signs which the diviners said intimated that his exile<br />
would not be long, for these were prognostics of change.<br />
Although many visited him with respect, and the cities of Greece<br />
contended which should honor him most, he yet continued<br />
disheartened and disconsolate, like an unfortunate lover, often<br />
casting his looks back upon Italy; and, indeed, he was become so<br />
poor-spirited, so humiliated and dejected by his misfortunes,<br />
as none could have expected in a man who had devoted so much of<br />
his life to study and learning. And yet he often desired his<br />
friends not to call him orator, but philosopher, because he had<br />
made philosophy his business, and had only used rhetoric as an<br />
instrument for attaining his objects in public life. But the<br />
desire of glory has great power in washing the tinctures of<br />
philosophy out of the souls of men, and in imprinting the<br />
passions of the common people, by custom and conversation, in<br />
the minds of those that take a part in governing them, unless<br />
the politician be very careful so to engage in public affairs as<br />
to interest himself only in the affairs themselves, but not<br />
participate in the passions that are consequent to them.<br />
<br />
Clodius, having thus driven away Cicero, fell to burning his<br />
farms and villas, and afterwards his city house, and built on<br />
the site of it a temple to Liberty. The rest of his property he<br />
exposed to sale by daily proclamation, but nobody came to buy.<br />
By these courses he became formidable to the noble citizens,<br />
and, being followed by the commonalty, whom he had filled with<br />
insolence and licentiousness, he began at last to try his<br />
strength against Pompey, some of whose arrangements in the<br />
countries he conquered, he attacked. The disgrace of this made<br />
Pompey begin to reproach himself for his cowardice in deserting<br />
Cicero, and, changing his mind, he now wholly set himself with<br />
his friends to contrive his return. And when Clodius opposed<br />
it, the senate made a vote that no public measure should be<br />
ratified or passed by them till Cicero was recalled. But when<br />
Lentulus was consul, the commotions grew so high upon this<br />
matter, that the tribunes were wounded in the Forum, and<br />
Quintus, Cicero's brother, was left as dead, lying unobserved<br />
amongst the slain. The people began to change in their<br />
feelings; and Annius Milo, one of their tribunes, was the first<br />
who took confidence to summon Clodius to trial for acts of<br />
violence. Many of the common people and out of the neighboring<br />
cities formed a party with Pompey, and he went with them, and<br />
drove Clodius out of the Forum, and summoned the people to pass<br />
their vote. And, it is said, the people never passed any<br />
suffrage more unanimously than this. The senate, also, striving<br />
to outdo the people, sent letters of thanks to those cities<br />
which had received Cicero with respect in his exile, and decreed<br />
that his house and his country-places, which Clodius had<br />
destroyed, should be rebuilt at the public charge.<br />
<br />
Thus Cicero returned sixteen months after his exile, and the<br />
cities were so glad, and people so zealous to meet him, that<br />
what he boasted of afterwards, that Italy had brought him on her<br />
shoulders home to Rome, was rather less than the truth. And<br />
Crassus himself, who had been his enemy before his exile, went<br />
then voluntarily to meet him, and was reconciled, to please his<br />
son Publius, as he said, who was Cicero's affectionate admirer.<br />
<br />
Cicero had not been long at Rome, when, taking the opportunity<br />
of Clodius's absence, he went, with a great company, to the<br />
capitol, and there tore and defaced the tribunician tables, in<br />
which were recorded the acts done in the time of Clodius. And<br />
on Clodius calling him in question for this, he answered, that<br />
he, being of the patrician order, had obtained the office of<br />
tribune against law, and, therefore, nothing done by him was<br />
valid. Cato was displeased at this, and opposed Cicero, not<br />
that he commended Clodius, but rather disapproved of his whole<br />
administration; yet, he contended, it was an irregular and<br />
violent course for the senate to vote the illegality of so many<br />
decrees and acts, including those of Cato's own government in<br />
Cyprus and at Byzantium. This occasioned a breach between Cato<br />
and Cicero, which, though it came not to open enmity, yet made a<br />
more reserved friendship between them.<br />
<br />
After this, Milo killed Clodius, and, being arraigned for the<br />
murder, he procured Cicero as his advocate. The senate, fearing<br />
lest the questioning of so eminent and high-spirited a citizen<br />
as Milo might disturb the peace of the city, committed the<br />
superintendence of this and of the other trials to Pompey, who<br />
should undertake to maintain the security alike of the city and<br />
of the courts of justice. Pompey, therefore, went in the night,<br />
and occupying the high grounds about it, surrounded the Forum<br />
with soldiers. Milo, fearing lest Cicero, being disturbed by<br />
such an unusual sight, should conduct his cause the less<br />
successfully, persuaded him to come in a litter into the Forum,<br />
and there repose himself till the judges were set, and the court<br />
filled. For Cicero, it seems, not only wanted courage in arms,<br />
but, in his speaking also, began with timidity, and in many<br />
cases scarcely left off trembling and shaking when he had got<br />
thoroughly into the current and the substance of his speech.<br />
Being to defend Licinius Murena against the prosecution of Cato,<br />
and being eager to outdo Hortensius, who had made his plea with<br />
great applause, he took so little rest that night, and was so<br />
disordered with thought and over-watching, that he spoke much<br />
worse than usual. And so now, on quitting his litter to<br />
commence the cause of Milo, at the sight of Pompey, posted, as<br />
it were, and encamped with his troops above, and seeing arms<br />
shining round about the Forum, he was so confounded, that he<br />
could hardly begin his speech, for the trembling of his body,<br />
and hesitance of his tongue; whereas Milo, meantime, was bold<br />
and intrepid in his demeanor, disdaining either to let his hair<br />
grow, or to put on the mourning habit. And this, indeed, seems<br />
to have been one principal cause of his condemnation. Cicero,<br />
however, was thought not so much to have shown timidity for<br />
himself, as anxiety about his friend.<br />
<br />
He was made one of the priests, whom the Romans call Augurs, in<br />
the room of Crassus the younger, dead in Parthia. Then he was<br />
appointed, by lot, to the province of Cilicia, and set sail<br />
thither with twelve thousand foot and two thousand six hundred<br />
horse. He had orders to bring back Cappadocia to its allegiance<br />
to Ariobarzanes, its king; which settlement he effected very<br />
completely without recourse to arms. And perceiving the<br />
Cilicians, by the great loss the Romans had suffered in Parthia,<br />
and the commotions in Syria, to have become disposed to attempt<br />
a revolt, by a gentle course of government he soothed them back<br />
into fidelity. He would accept none of the presents that were<br />
offered him by the kings; he remitted the charge of public<br />
entertainments, but daily, at his own house, received the<br />
ingenious and accomplished persons of the province, not<br />
sumptuously, but liberally. His house had no porter, nor was he<br />
ever found in bed by any man, but early in the morning, standing<br />
or walking before his door, he received those who came to offer<br />
their salutations. He is said never once to have ordered any of<br />
those under his command to be beaten with rods, or to have their<br />
garments rent. He never gave contumelious language in his<br />
anger, nor inflicted punishment with reproach. He detected an<br />
embezzlement, to a large amount, in the public money, and thus<br />
relieved the cities from their burdens, at the same time that he<br />
allowed those who made restitution, to retain without further<br />
punishment their rights as citizens. He engaged too, in war, so<br />
far as to give a defeat to the banditti who infested Mount<br />
Amanus, for which he was saluted by his army Imperator. To<br />
Caecilius, the orator, who asked him to send him some panthers<br />
from Cilicia, to be exhibited on the theater at Rome, he wrote,<br />
in commendation of his own actions, that there were no panthers<br />
in Cilicia, for they were all fled to Caria, in anger that in so<br />
general a peace they had become the sole objects of attack. On<br />
leaving his province, he touched at Rhodes, and tarried for some<br />
length of time at Athens, longing much to renew his old studies.<br />
He visited the eminent men of learning, and saw his former<br />
friends and companions; and after receiving in Greece the honors<br />
that were due to him, returned to the city, where everything<br />
was now just as it were in a flame, breaking out into a civil<br />
war.<br />
<br />
When the senate would have decreed him a triumph, he told them<br />
he had rather, so differences were accommodated, follow the<br />
triumphal chariot of Caesar. In private, he gave advice to<br />
both, writing many letters to Caesar, and personally entreating<br />
Pompey; doing his best to soothe and bring to reason both the<br />
one and the other. But when matters became incurable, and<br />
Caesar was approaching Rome, and Pompey durst not abide it, but,<br />
with many honest citizens, left the city, Cicero, as yet, did<br />
not join in the flight, and was reputed to adhere to Caesar.<br />
And it is very evident he was in his thoughts much divided, and<br />
wavered painfully between both, for he writes in his epistles,<br />
"To which side should I turn? Pompey has the fair and honorable<br />
plea for war; and Caesar, on the other hand, has managed his<br />
affairs better, and is more able to secure himself and his<br />
friends. So that I know whom I should fly, not whom I should<br />
fly to." But when Trebatius, one of Caesar's friends, by letter<br />
signified to him that Caesar thought it was his most desirable<br />
course to join his party, and partake his hopes, but if he<br />
considered himself too old a man for this, then he should retire<br />
into Greece, and stay quietly there, out of the way of either<br />
party, Cicero, wondering that Caesar had not written himself,<br />
gave an angry reply, that he should not do anything unbecoming<br />
his past life. Such is the account to be collected from his<br />
letters.<br />
<br />
But as soon as Caesar was marched into Spain, he immediately<br />
sailed away to join Pompey. And he was welcomed by all but<br />
Cato; who, taking him privately, chid him for coming to Pompey.<br />
As for himself, he said, it had been indecent to forsake that<br />
part in the commonwealth which he had chosen from the beginning;<br />
but Cicero might have been more useful to his country and<br />
friends, if, remaining neuter, he had attended and used his<br />
influence to moderate the result, instead of coming hither to<br />
make himself, without reason or necessity, an enemy to Caesar,<br />
and a partner in such great dangers. By this language, partly,<br />
Cicero's feelings were altered, and partly, also, because Pompey<br />
made no great use of him. Although, indeed, he was himself the<br />
cause of it, by his not denying that he was sorry he had come,<br />
by his depreciating Pompey's resources, finding fault underhand<br />
with his counsels, and continually indulging in jests and<br />
sarcastic remarks on his fellow-soldiers. Though he went about<br />
in the camp with a gloomy and melancholy face himself, he was<br />
always trying to raise a laugh in others, whether they wished it<br />
or not. It may not be amiss to mention a few instances. To<br />
Domitius, on his preferring to a command one who was no soldier,<br />
and saying, in his defense, that he was a modest and prudent<br />
person, he replied, "Why did not you keep him for a tutor for<br />
your children?" On hearing Theophanes, the Lesbian, who was<br />
master of the engineers in the army, praised for the admirable<br />
way in which he had consoled the Rhodians for the loss of their<br />
fleet, "What a thing it is," he said, "to have a Greek in<br />
command!" When Caesar had been acting successfully, and in a<br />
manner blockading Pompey, Lentulus was saying it was reported<br />
that Caesar's friends were out of heart; "Because," said Cicero,<br />
"they do not wish Caesar well." To one Marcius, who had just<br />
come from Italy, and told them that there was a strong report at<br />
Rome that Pompey was blocked up, he said, "And you sailed hither<br />
to see it with your own eyes." To Nonius, encouraging them<br />
after a defeat to be of good hope, because there were seven<br />
eagles still left in Pompey's camp, "Good reason for<br />
encouragement," said Cicero, "if we were going to fight with<br />
jack-daws." Labienus insisted on some prophecies to the effect<br />
that Pompey would gain the victory; "Yes," said Cicero, "and the<br />
first step in the campaign has been losing our camp."<br />
<br />
After the battle of Pharsalia was over, at which he was not<br />
present for want of health, and Pompey was fled, Cato, having<br />
considerable forces and a great fleet at Dyrrachium, would have<br />
had Cicero commander-in-chief, according to law, and the<br />
precedence of his consular dignity. And on his refusing the<br />
command, and wholly declining to take part in their plans for<br />
continuing the war, he was in the greatest danger of being<br />
killed, young Pompey and his friends calling him traitor, and<br />
drawing their swords upon him; only that Cato interposed, and<br />
hardly rescued and brought him out of the camp.<br />
<br />
Afterwards, arriving at Brundusium, he tarried there sometime in<br />
expectation of Caesar, who was delayed by his affairs in Asia<br />
and Egypt. And when it was told him that he was arrived at<br />
Tarentum, and was coming thence by land to Brundusium, he<br />
hastened towards him, not altogether without hope, and yet in<br />
some fear of making experiment of the temper of an enemy and<br />
conqueror in the presence of many witnesses. But there was no<br />
necessity for him either to speak or do anything unworthy of<br />
himself; for Caesar, as soon as he saw him coming a good way<br />
before the rest of the company, came down to meet him, saluted<br />
him, and, leading the way, conversed with him alone for some<br />
furlongs. And from that time forward he continued to treat him<br />
with honor and respect; so that, when Cicero wrote an oration in<br />
praise of Cato, Caesar, in writing an answer to it, took<br />
occasion to commend Cicero's own life and eloquence, comparing<br />
him to Pericles and Theramenes. Cicero's oration was called<br />
Cato; Caesar's, anti-Cato.<br />
<br />
So also, it is related that when Quintus Ligarius was prosecuted<br />
for having been in arms against Caesar, and Cicero had<br />
undertaken his defense, Caesar said to his friends, "Why might<br />
we not as well once more hear a speech from Cicero? Ligarius,<br />
there is no question, is a wicked man and an enemy." But when<br />
Cicero began to speak, he wonderfully moved him, and proceeded<br />
in his speech with such varied pathos, and such a charm of<br />
language, that the color of Caesar's countenance often changed,<br />
and it was evident that all the passions of his soul were in<br />
commotion. At length, the orator touching upon the Pharsalian<br />
battle, he was so affected that his body trembled, and some of<br />
the papers he held dropped out of his hands. And thus he was<br />
overpowered, and acquitted Ligarius.<br />
<br />
Henceforth, the commonwealth being changed into a monarchy,<br />
Cicero withdrew himself from public affairs, and employed his<br />
leisure in instructing those young men that would, in<br />
philosophy; and by the near intercourse he thus had with some of<br />
the noblest and highest in rank, he again began to possess great<br />
influence in the city. The work and object which he set himself<br />
was to compose and translate philosophical dialogues and to<br />
render logical and physical terms into the Roman idiom. For he<br />
it was, as it is said, who first or principally gave Latin names<br />
to phantasia, syncatathesis, epokhe, catalepsis, atomon,<br />
ameres, kenon, and other such technical terms, which, either by<br />
metaphors or other means of accommodation, he succeeded in<br />
making intelligible and expressible to the Romans. For his<br />
recreation, he exercised his dexterity in poetry, and when he<br />
was set to it, would make five hundred verses in a night. He<br />
spent the greatest part of his time at his country-house near<br />
Tusculum. He wrote to his friends that he led the life of<br />
Laertes, either jestingly, as his custom was, or rather from a<br />
feeling of ambition for public employment, which made him<br />
impatient under the present state of affairs. He rarely went to<br />
the city, unless to pay his court to Caesar. He was commonly<br />
the first amongst those who voted him honors, and sought out new<br />
terms of praise for himself and for his actions. As, for<br />
example, what he said of the statues of Pompey, which had been<br />
thrown down, and were afterwards by Caesar's orders set up<br />
again: that Caesar, by this act of humanity, had indeed set up<br />
Pompey's statues, but he had fixed and established his own.<br />
<br />
<br />
He had a design, it is said, of writing the history of his<br />
country, combining with it much of that of Greece, and<br />
incorporating in it all the stories and legends of the past that<br />
he had collected. But his purposes were interfered with by<br />
various public and various private unhappy occurrences and<br />
misfortunes; for most of which he was himself in fault. For<br />
first of all, he put away his wife Terentia, by whom he had been<br />
neglected in the time of the war, and sent away destitute of<br />
necessaries for his journey; neither did he find her kind when<br />
he returned into Italy, for she did not join him at Brundusium,<br />
where he stayed a long time, nor would allow her young daughter,<br />
who undertook so long a journey, decent attendance, or the<br />
requisite expenses; besides, she left him a naked and empty<br />
house, and yet had involved him in many and great debts. These<br />
were alleged as the fairest reasons for the divorce. But<br />
Terentia, who denied them all, had the most unmistakable defense<br />
furnished her by her husband himself, who not long after married<br />
a young maiden for the love of her beauty, as Terentia upbraided<br />
him; or as Tiro, his emancipated slave, has written, for her<br />
riches, to discharge his debts. For the young woman was very<br />
rich, and Cicero had the custody of her estate, being left<br />
guardian in trust; and being indebted many myriads of money, he<br />
was persuaded by his friends and relations to marry her,<br />
notwithstanding his disparity of age, and to use her money to<br />
satisfy his creditors. Antony, who mentions this marriage in<br />
his answer to the Philippics, reproaches him for putting away a<br />
wife with whom he had lived to old age; adding some happy<br />
strokes of sarcasm on Cicero's domestic, inactive,<br />
unsoldier-like habits. Not long after this marriage, his<br />
daughter died in child-bed at Lentulus's house, to whom she had<br />
been married after the death of Piso, her former husband. The<br />
philosophers from all parts came to comfort Cicero; for his<br />
grief was so excessive, that he put away his new-married wife,<br />
because she seemed to be pleased at the death of Tullia. And<br />
thus stood Cicero's domestic affairs at this time.<br />
<br />
He had no concern in the design that was now forming against<br />
Caesar, although, in general, he was Brutus's most principal<br />
confidant, and one who was as aggrieved at the present, and as<br />
desirous of the former state of public affairs, as any other<br />
whatsoever. But they feared his temper, as wanting courage, and<br />
his old age, in which the most daring dispositions are apt to<br />
be timorous.<br />
<br />
As soon, therefore, as the act was committed by Brutus and<br />
Cassius, and the friends of Caesar were got together, so that<br />
there was fear the city would again be involved in a civil war,<br />
Antony, being consul, convened the senate, and made a short<br />
address recommending concord. And Cicero, following with<br />
various remarks such as the occasion called for, persuaded the<br />
senate to imitate the Athenians, and decree an amnesty for what<br />
had been done in Caesar's case, and to bestow provinces on<br />
Brutus and Cassius. But neither of these things took effect. For<br />
as soon as the common people, of themselves inclined to pity,<br />
saw the dead body of Caesar borne through the marketplace, and<br />
Antony showing his clothes filled with blood, and pierced<br />
through in every part with swords, enraged to a degree of<br />
frenzy, they made a search for the murderers, and with<br />
firebrands in their hands ran to their houses to burn them.<br />
They, however, being forewarned, avoided this danger; and<br />
expecting many more and greater to come, they left the city.<br />
<br />
Antony on this was at once in exultation, and everyone was in<br />
alarm with the prospect that he would make himself sole ruler,<br />
and Cicero in more alarm than anyone. For Antony, seeing his<br />
influence reviving in the commonwealth, and knowing how closely<br />
he was connected with Brutus, was ill-pleased to have him in the<br />
city. Besides, there had been some former jealousy between<br />
them, occasioned by the difference of their manners. Cicero,<br />
fearing the event, was inclined to go as lieutenant with<br />
Dolabella into Syria. But Hirtius and Pansa, consuls elect as<br />
successors of Antony, good men and lovers of Cicero, entreated<br />
him not to leave them, undertaking to put down Antony if he<br />
would stay in Rome. And he, neither distrusting wholly, nor<br />
trusting them, let Dolabella go without him, promising Hirtius<br />
that he would go and spend his summer at Athens, and return<br />
again when he entered upon his office. So he set out on his<br />
journey; but some delay occurring in his passage, new<br />
intelligence, as often happens, came suddenly from Rome, that<br />
Antony had made an astonishing change, and was doing all things<br />
and managing all public affairs at the will of the senate, and<br />
that there wanted nothing but his presence to bring things to a<br />
happy settlement. And therefore, blaming himself for his<br />
cowardice, he returned again to Rome, and was not deceived in<br />
his hopes at the beginning. For such multitudes flocked out to<br />
meet him, that the compliments and civilities which were paid<br />
him at the gates, and at his entrance into the city, took up<br />
almost one whole day's time.<br />
<br />
On the morrow, Antony convened the senate, and summoned Cicero<br />
thither. He came not, but kept is bed, pretending to be ill<br />
with his journey; but the true reason seemed the fear of some<br />
design against him, upon a suspicion and intimation given him on<br />
his way to Rome. Antony, however, showed great offense at the<br />
affront, and sent soldiers, commanding them to bring him or burn<br />
his house; but many interceding and supplicating for him, he was<br />
contented to accept sureties. Ever after, when they met, they<br />
passed one another with silence, and continued on their guard,<br />
till Caesar, the younger, coming from Apollonia, entered on the<br />
first Caesar's inheritance, and was engaged in a dispute with<br />
Antony about two thousand five hundred myriads of money, which<br />
Antony detained from the estate.<br />
<br />
Upon this, Philippus, who married the mother, and Marcellus, who<br />
married the sister of young Caesar, came with the young man to<br />
Cicero, and agreed with him that Cicero should give them the aid<br />
of his eloquence and political influence with the senate and<br />
people, and Caesar give Cicero the defense of his riches and<br />
arms. For the young man had already a great party of the<br />
soldiers of Caesar about him. And Cicero's readiness to join<br />
him was founded, it is said, on some yet stronger motives; for<br />
it seems, while Pompey and Caesar were yet alive, Cicero, in his<br />
sleep, had fancied himself engaged in calling some of the sons<br />
of the senators into the capitol, Jupiter being about, according<br />
to the dream, to declare one of them the chief ruler of Rome.<br />
The citizens, running up with curiosity, stood about the temple,<br />
and the youths, sitting in their purple-bordered robes, kept<br />
silence. On a sudden the doors opened, and the youths, arising<br />
one by one in order, passed round the god, who reviewed them all,<br />
and, to their sorrow, dismissed them; but when this one was<br />
passing by, the god stretched forth his right hand and said, "O<br />
ye Romans, this young man, when he shall be lord of Rome, shall<br />
put an end to all your civil wars." It is said that Cicero<br />
formed from his dream a distinct image of the youth, and<br />
retained it afterwards perfectly, but did not know who it was.<br />
The next day, going down into the Campus Martius, he met the<br />
boys resuming from their gymnastic exercises, and the first was<br />
he, just as he had appeared to him in his dream. Being<br />
astonished at it, he asked him who were his parents. And it<br />
proved to be this young Caesar, whose father was a man of no<br />
great eminence, Octavius, and his mother, Attia, Caesar's<br />
sister's daughter; for which reason, Caesar, who had no<br />
children, made him by will the heir of his house and property.<br />
From that time, it is said that Cicero studiously noticed the<br />
youth whenever he met him, and he as kindly received the<br />
civility; and by fortune he happened to be born when Cicero was<br />
consul.<br />
<br />
These were the reasons spoken of; but it was principally<br />
Cicero's hatred of Antony, and a temper unable to resist honor,<br />
which fastened him to Caesar, with the purpose of getting the<br />
support of Caesar's power for his own public designs. For the<br />
young man went so far in his court to him, that he called him<br />
Father; at which Brutus was so highly displeased, that, in his<br />
epistles to Atticus he reflected on Cicero saying, it was<br />
manifest, by his courting Caesar for fear of Antony, he did not<br />
intend liberty to his country, but an indulgent master to<br />
himself. Notwithstanding, Brutus took Cicero's son, then<br />
studying philosophy at Athens, gave him a command, and employed<br />
him in various ways, with a good result. Cicero's own power at<br />
this time was at the greatest height in the city, and he did<br />
whatsoever he pleased; he completely overpowered and drove out<br />
Antony, and sent the two consuls, Hirtius and Pansa, with an<br />
army, to reduce him; and, on the other hand, persuaded the<br />
senate to allow Caesar the lictors and ensigns of a praetor, as<br />
though he were his country's defender. But after Antony was<br />
defeated in battle, and the two consuls slain, the armies<br />
united, and ranged themselves with Caesar. And the senate,<br />
fearing the young man, and his extraordinary fortune,<br />
endeavored, by honors and gifts, to call off the soldiers from<br />
him, and to lessen his power; professing there was no further<br />
need of arms, now Antony was put to flight.<br />
<br />
This giving Caesar an affright, he privately sends some friends<br />
to entreat and persuade Cicero to procure the consular dignity<br />
for them both together; saying he should manage the affairs as<br />
he pleased, should have the supreme power, and govern the young<br />
man who was only desirous of name and glory. And Caesar himself<br />
confessed, that in fear of ruin, and in danger of being<br />
deserted, he had seasonably made use of Cicero's ambition,<br />
persuading him to stand with him, and to accept the offer of his<br />
aid and interest for the consulship.<br />
<br />
And now, more than at any other time, Cicero let himself be<br />
carried away and deceived, though an old man, by the persuasions<br />
of a boy. He joined him in soliciting votes, and procured the<br />
good-will of the senate, not without blame at the time on the<br />
part of his friends; and he, too, soon enough after, saw that he<br />
had ruined himself, and betrayed the liberty of his country.<br />
For the young man, once established, and possessed of the office<br />
of consul, bade Cicero farewell; and, reconciling himself to<br />
Antony and Lepidus, joined his power with theirs, and divided<br />
the government, like a piece of property, with them. Thus<br />
united, they made a schedule of above two hundred persons who<br />
were to be put to death. But the greatest contention in all<br />
their debates was on the question of Cicero's case. Antony<br />
would come to no conditions, unless he should be the first man<br />
to be killed. Lepidus held with Antony, and Caesar opposed them<br />
both. They met secretly and by themselves, for three days<br />
together, near the town of Bononia. The spot was not far from<br />
the camp, with a river surrounding it. Caesar, it is said,<br />
contended earnestly for Cicero the first two days; but on the<br />
third day he yielded, and gave him up.<br />
<br />
The terms of their mutual concessions were these; that Caesar<br />
should desert Cicero, Lepidus his brother Paulus, and Antony,<br />
Lucius Caesar, his uncle by his mother's side. Thus they let<br />
their anger and fury take from them the sense of humanity, and<br />
demonstrated that no beast is more savage than man, when<br />
possessed with power answerable to his rage.<br />
<br />
Whilst these things were contriving, Cicero was with his brother<br />
at his country-house near Tusculum; whence, hearing of the<br />
proscriptions, they determined to pass to Astura, a villa of<br />
Cicero's near the sea, and to take shipping from thence for<br />
Macedonia to Brutus, of whose strength in that province news had<br />
already been heard. They traveled together in their separate<br />
litters, overwhelmed with sorrow; and often stopping on the way<br />
till their litters came together, condoled with one another.<br />
But Quintus was the more disheartened, when he reflected on his<br />
want of means for his journey; for, as he said, he had brought<br />
nothing with him from home. And even Cicero himself had but a<br />
slender provision. It was judged, therefore, most expedient<br />
that Cicero should make what haste he could to fly, and Quintus<br />
return home to provide necessaries, and thus resolved, they<br />
mutually embraced, and parted with many tears.<br />
<br />
Quintus, within a few days after, betrayed by his servants to<br />
those who came to search for him, was slain, together with his<br />
young son. But Cicero was carried to Astura, where, finding a<br />
vessel, he immediately went on board her, and sailed as far as<br />
Circaeum with a prosperous gale; but when the pilots resolved<br />
immediately to set sail from thence, whether fearing the sea, or<br />
not wholly distrusting the faith of Caesar, he went on shore,<br />
and passed by land a hundred furlongs, as if he was going for<br />
Rome. But losing resolution and changing his mind, he again<br />
returned to the sea, and there spent the night in fearful and<br />
perplexed thoughts. Sometimes he resolved to go into Caesar's<br />
house privately, and there kill himself upon the altar of his<br />
household gods, to bring divine vengeance upon him; but the fear<br />
of torture put him off this course. And after passing through a<br />
variety of confused and uncertain counsels, at last he let his<br />
servants carry him by sea to Capitae, where he had a house, an<br />
agreeable place to retire to in the heat of summer, when the<br />
Etesian winds are so pleasant.<br />
<br />
There was at that place a chapel of Apollo, not far from the<br />
sea-side, from which a flight of crows rose with a great noise,<br />
and made towards Cicero's vessel as it rowed to land, and<br />
lighting on both sides of the yard, some croaked, others pecked<br />
the ends of the ropes. This was looked upon by all as an ill<br />
omen; and, therefore, Cicero went again ashore, and entering his<br />
house, lay down upon his bed to compose himself to rest. Many<br />
of the crows settled about the window, making a dismal cawing;<br />
but one of them alighted upon the bed where Cicero lay covered<br />
up, and with its bill by little and little pecked off the<br />
clothes from his face. His servants, seeing this, blamed<br />
themselves that they should stay to be spectators of their<br />
master's murder, and do nothing in his defense, whilst the brute<br />
creatures came to assist and take care of him in his undeserved<br />
affliction; and, therefore, partly by entreaty, partly by force,<br />
they took him up, and carried him in his litter towards the<br />
sea-side.<br />
<br />
But in the meantime the assassins were come with a band of<br />
soldiers, Herennius, a centurion, and Popillius, a tribune, whom<br />
Cicero had formerly defended when prosecuted for the murder of<br />
his father. Finding the doors shut, they broke them open, and<br />
Cicero not appearing and those within saying they knew not<br />
where he was, it is stated that a youth, who had been educated<br />
by Cicero in the liberal arts and sciences, an emancipated slave<br />
of his brother Quintus, Philologus by name, informed the tribune<br />
that the litter was on its way to the sea through the close and<br />
shady walks. The tribune, taking a few with him, ran to the<br />
place where he was to come out. And Cicero, perceiving<br />
Herennius running in the walks, commanded his servants to set<br />
down the litter; and stroking his chin, as he used to do, with<br />
his left hand, he looked steadfastly upon his murderers, his<br />
person covered with dust, his beard and hair untrimmed, and his<br />
face worn with his troubles. So that the greatest part of those<br />
that stood by covered their faces whilst Herennius slew him.<br />
And thus was he murdered, stretching forth his neck out of the<br />
litter, being now in his sixty-fourth year. Herennius cut off<br />
his head, and, by Antony's command, his hands also, by which his<br />
Philippics were written; for so Cicero styled those orations he<br />
wrote against Antony, and so they are called to this day.<br />
<br />
When these members of Cicero were brought to Rome, Antony was<br />
holding an assembly for the choice of public officers; and when<br />
he heard it, and saw them, he cried out, "Now let there be an<br />
end of our proscriptions." He commanded his head and hands to<br />
be fastened up over the Rostra, where the orators spoke; a sight<br />
which the Roman people shuddered to behold, and they believed<br />
they saw there not the face of Cicero, but the image of Antony's<br />
own soul. And yet amidst these actions he did justice in one<br />
thing, by delivering up Philologus to Pomponia, the wife of<br />
Quintus; who, having got his body into her power, besides other<br />
grievous punishments, made him cut off his own flesh by pieces,<br />
and roast and eat it; for so some writers have related. But<br />
Tiro, Cicero's emancipated slave, has not so much as mentioned<br />
the treachery of Philologus.<br />
<br />
Some long time after, Caesar, I have been told, visiting one of<br />
his daughter's sons, found him with a book of Cicero's in his<br />
hand. The boy for fear endeavored to hide it under his gown;<br />
which Caesar perceiving, took it from him, and turning over a<br />
great part of the book standing, gave it him again, and said,<br />
"My child, this was a learned man, and a lover of his country."<br />
And immediately after he had vanquished Antony, being then<br />
consul, he made Cicero's son his colleague in the office; and<br />
under that consulship, the senate took down all the statues of<br />
Antony, and abolished all the other honors that had been given<br />
him, and decreed that none of that family should thereafter bear<br />
the name of Marcus; and thus the final acts of the punishment of<br />
Antony were, by the divine powers, devolved upon the family of<br />
Cicero.</div>M. Lucretius Agricola