diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/11448-8.txt | 5369 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/11448-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 128840 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/11448.txt | 5369 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/11448.zip | bin | 0 -> 128815 bytes |
4 files changed, 10738 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/11448-8.txt b/old/11448-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2724863 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11448-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5369 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cicero, by Rev. W. Lucas Collins + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Cicero + Ancient Classics for English Readers + +Author: Rev. W. Lucas Collins + +Release Date: March 5, 2004 [EBook #11448] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CICERO *** + + + + +Produced by Stan Goodman, Ted Garvin, Lazar Liveanu and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +_Ancient Classics for English Readers_ + +edited by the + +REV. W. LUCAS COLLINS, M.A. + + + + + +CICERO + + +by the + +REV. W. LUCAS COLLINS, M.A. + +AUTHOR OF 'ETONIANA', 'THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS', ETC. + + + + +I have to acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Forsyth's well-known 'Life of +Cicero', especially as a guide to the biographical materials which abound +in his Orations and Letters. Mr. Long's scholarly volumes have also been +found useful. For the translations, such as they are, I am responsible. If +I could have met with any which seemed to me more satisfactory, I would +gladly have adopted them. + +W.L.C. + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I. BIOGRAPHICAL--EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION, + II. PUBLIC CAREER--IMPEACHMENT OF VERRES, + III. THE CONSULSHIP AND CATILINE, + IV. EXILE AND RETURN, + V. CICERO AND CAESAR, + VI. CICERO AND ANTONY, + VII. CHARACTER AS POLITICIAN AND ORATOR, +VIII. MINOR CHARACTERISTICS, + IX. CICERO's CORRESPONDENCE, + X. ESSAYS ON 'OLD AGE' AND 'FRIENDSHIP', + XI. CICERO'S PHILOSOPHY, + XII. CICERO'S RELIGION. + + + + +CICERO. + + +CHAPTER I. + + +EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. + +When we speak, in the language of our title-page, of the 'Ancient +Classics', we must remember that the word 'ancient' is to be taken with +a considerable difference, in one sense. Ancient all the Greek and Roman +authors are, as dated comparatively with our modern era. But as to the +antique character of their writings, there is often a difference which +is not merely one of date. The poetry of Homer and Hesiod is ancient, as +having been sung and written when the society in which the authors lived, +and to which they addressed themselves, was in its comparative infancy. +The chronicles of Herodotus are ancient, partly from their subject-matter +and partly from their primitive style. But in this sense there are ancient +authors belonging to every nation which has a literature of its own. +Viewed in this light, the history of Thucydides, the letters and orations +of Cicero, are not ancient at all. Bede, and Chaucer, and Matthew of +Paris, and Froissart, are far more redolent of antiquity. The several +books which make up what we call the Bible are all ancient, no doubt; but +even between the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and the Epistles of St. +Paul there is a far wider real interval than the mere lapse of centuries. + +In one respect, the times of Cicero, in spite of their complicated +politics, should have more interest for a modern reader than most of what +is called Ancient History. Forget the date but for a moment, and there +is scarcely anything ancient about them. The scenes and actors are +modern--terribly modern; far more so than the middle ages of Christendom. +Between the times of our own Plantagenets and Georges, for instance, there +is a far wider gap, in all but years, than between the consulships of +Caesar and Napoleon. The habits of life, the ways of thinking, the family +affections, the tastes of the Romans of Cicero's day, were in many +respects wonderfully like our own; the political jealousies and rivalries +have repeated themselves again and again in the last two or three +centuries of Europe: their code of political honour and morality, debased +as it was, was not much lower than that which was held by some great +statesmen a generation or two before us. Let us be thankful if the most +frightful of their vices were the exclusive shame of paganism. + +It was in an old but humble country-house, neat the town of Arpinum, under +the Volscian hills, that Marcus Tullius Cicero was born, one hundred +and six years before the Christian era. The family was of ancient +'equestrian'[1] dignity, but as none of its members had hitherto borne +any office of state, it did not rank as 'noble'. His grandfather and his +father had borne the same three names--the last an inheritance from some +forgotten ancestor, who had either been successful in the cultivation of +vetches (_cicer_), or, as less complimentary traditions said, had a +wart of that shape upon his nose. The grandfather was still living when +the little Cicero was born; a stout old conservative, who had successfully +resisted the attempt to introduce vote by ballot into his native town, and +hated the Greeks (who were just then coming into fashion) as heartily as +his English representative, fifty years ago, might have hated a Frenchman. +"The more Greek a man knew", he protested, "the greater rascal he turned +out". The father was a man of quiet habits, taking no part even in local +politics, given to books, and to the enlargement and improvement of the +old family house, which, up to his time, seems not to have been more than +a modest grange. The situation (on a small island formed by the little +river Fibrenus[2]) was beautiful and romantic; and the love for it, which +grew up with the young Cicero as a child, he never lost in the busy days +of his manhood. It was in his eyes, he said, what Ithaca was to Ulysses, + + "A rough, wild nurse-land, but whose crops are men". + +[Footnote 1: The _Equites_ were originally those who served in the +Roman cavalry; but latterly all citizens came to be reckoned in the class +who had a certain property qualification, and who could prove free +descent up to their grandfather.] + +[Footnote 2: Now known as Il Fiume della Posta. Fragments of Cicero's +villa are thought to have been discovered built into the walls of the +deserted convent of San Dominico. The ruin known as 'Cicero's Tower' has +probably no connection with him.] + +There was an aptness in the quotation; for at Arpinum, a few years before, +was born that Caius Marius, seven times consul of Rome, who had at least +the virtue of manhood in him, if he had few besides. + +But the quiet country gentleman was ambitious for his son. Cicero's +father, like Horace's, determined to give him the best education in his +power; and of course the best education was to be found in Rome, and the +best teachers there were Greeks. So to Rome young Marcus was taken in +due time, with his younger brother Quintus. They lodged with their +uncle-in-law, Aculeo, a lawyer of some distinction, who had a house in +rather a fashionable quarter of the city, and moved in good society; and +the two boys attended the Greek lectures with their town cousins. Greek +was as necessary a part of a Roman gentleman's education in those days as +Latin and French are with us now; like Latin, it was the key to literature +(for the Romans had as yet, it must be remembered, nothing worth calling +literature of their own); and, like French, it was the language of +refinement and the play of polished society. Let us hope that by this time +the good old grandfather was gathered peacefully into his urn; it might +have broken his heart to have seen how enthusiastically his grandson +Marcus threw himself into this newfangled study; and one of those letters +of his riper years, stuffed full of Greek terms and phrases even to +affectation, would have drawn anything but blessings from the old +gentleman if he had lived to hear them read. + +Young Cicero went through the regular curriculum--grammar, rhetoric, and +the Greek poets and historians. Like many other youthful geniuses, he +wrote a good deal of poetry of his own, which his friends, as was natural, +thought very highly of at the time, and of which he himself retained the +same good opinion to the end of his life, as would have been natural to +few men except Cicero. But his more important studies began after he had +assumed the 'white gown' which marked the emergence of the young Roman +from boyhood into more responsible life--at sixteen years of age. He then +entered on a special education for the bar. It could scarcely be called a +profession, for an advocate's practice at Rome was gratuitous; but it was +the best training for public life;--it was the ready means, to an able and +eloquent man, of gaining that popular influence which would secure +his election in due course to the great magistracies which formed the +successive steps to political power. The mode of studying law at Rome bore +a very considerable resemblance to the preparation for the English bar. +Our modern law-student purchases his admission to the chambers of some +special pleader or conveyancer, where he is supposed to learn his future +business by copying precedents and answering cases, and he also attends +the public lectures at the Inns of Court. So at Rome the young aspirant +was to be found (but at a much earlier hour than would suit the Temple or +Lincoln's Inn) in the open hall of some great jurist's House, listening +to his opinions given to the throng of clients who crowded there every +morning; while his more zealous pupils would accompany him in his stroll +in the Forum, and attend his pleadings in the courts or his speeches on +the Rostra, either taking down upon their tablets, or storing in their +memories, his _dicta_ upon legal questions.[1] In such wise Cicero +became the pupil of Mucius Scaevola, whose house was called "the oracle +of Rome"--scarcely ever leaving his side, as he himself expresses it; and +after that great lawyer's death, attaching himself in much the same way to +a younger cousin of the same name and scarcely less reputation. Besides +this, to arm himself at all points for his proposed career, he read logic +with Diodotus the Stoic, studied the action of Esop and Roscius--then the +stars of the Roman stage--declaimed aloud like Demosthenes in private, +made copious notes, practised translation in order to form a written +style, and read hard day and night. He trained severely as an intellectual +athlete; and if none of his contemporaries attained such splendid success, +perhaps none worked so hard for it. He made use, too, of certain special +advantages which were open to him--little appreciated, or at least seldom +acknowledged, by the men of his day--the society and conversation of +elegant and accomplished women. In Scaevola's domestic circle, where the +mother, the daughters, and the grand-daughters successively seem to have +been such charming talkers that language found new graces from their lips, +the young advocate learnt some of his not least valuable lessons. "It +makes no little difference", said he in his riper years, "what style of +expression one becomes familiar with in the associations of daily life". +It was another point of resemblance between the age of Cicero and the +times in which we live--the influence of the "queens of society", whether +for good or evil. + +[Footnote 1: These _dicta_, or 'opinions', of the great jurists, +acquired a sort of legal validity in the Roman law-courts, like 'cases' +with us.] + +But no man could be completely educated for a public career at Rome until +he had been a soldier. By what must seem to us a mistake in the Republican +system--a mistake which we have seen made more than once in the late +American war--high political offices were necessarily combined with +military command. The highest minister of state, consul or praetor, +however hopelessly civilian in tastes and antecedents, might be sent to +conduct a campaign in Italy or abroad at a few hours' notice. If a man was +a heaven-born general, all went well; if not, he had usually a chance of +learning in the school of defeat. It was desirable, at all events, that he +should have seen what war was in his youth. Young Cicero served his first +campaign, at the age of eighteen, under the father of a man whom he was to +know only too well in after life--Pompey the Great--and in the division of +the army which was commanded by Sylla as lieutenant-general. He bore arms +only for a year or two, and probably saw no very arduous service, or we +should certainly have beard of it from himself; and he never was in camp +again until he took the chief command, thirty-seven years afterwards, +as pro-consul in Cilicia. He was at Rome, leading a quiet +student-life--happily for himself, too young to be forced or tempted into +an active part--during the bloody feuds between Sylla and the younger +Marius. + +He seems to have made his first appearance as an advocate when he was +about twenty-five, in some suit of which we know nothing. Two years +afterwards he undertook his first defence of a prisoner on a capital +charge, and secured by his eloquence the acquittal of Sextus Roscius on an +accusation of having murdered his father. The charge appears to have been +a mere conspiracy, wholly unsupported by evidence; but the accuser was a +favourite with Sylla, whose power was all but absolute; and the innocence +of the accused was a very insufficient protection before a Roman jury of +those days. What kind of considerations, besides the merits of the case +and the rhetoric of counsel, did usually sway these tribunals, we shall +see hereafter. In consequence of this decided success, briefs came in upon +the young pleader almost too quickly. Like many other successful orators, +he had to combat some natural deficiencies; he had inherited from his +father a somewhat delicate constitution; his lungs were not powerful, +and his voice required careful management; and the loud declamation and +vehement action which he had adopted from his models--and which were +necessary conditions of success in the large arena in which a Roman +advocate had to plead--he found very hard work. He left Rome for a while, +and retired for rest and change to Athens. + +The six months which he spent there, though busy and studious, must have +been very pleasant ones. To one like Cicero, Athens was at once classic +and holy ground. It combined all those associations and attractions which +we might now expect to find in a visit to the capitals of Greece and +of Italy, and a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Poetry, rhetoric, philosophy, +religion--all, to his eyes, had their cradle there. It was the home of +all that was literature to him; and there, too, were the great Eleusinian +mysteries--which are mysteries still, but which contained under their +veil whatever faith in the Invisible and Eternal rested in the mind of an +enlightened pagan. There can be little doubt but that Cicero took this +opportunity of initiation. His brother Quintus and one of his cousins were +with him at Athens; and in that city he also renewed his acquaintance with +an old school-fellow, Titus Pomponius, who lived so long in the city, and +became so thoroughly Athenian in his tastes and habits, that he is better +known to us, as he was to his contemporaries, by the surname of Atticus, +which was given him half in jest, than by his more sonorous Roman name. It +is to the accidental circumstance of Atticus remaining so long a voluntary +exile from Rome, and to the correspondence which was maintained +between the two friends, with occasional intervals, for something like +four-and-twenty years, that we are indebted for a more thorough insight +into the character of Cicero than we have as to any other of the great +minds of antiquity; nearly four hundred of his letters to Atticus, written +in all the familiar confidence of private friendship by a man by no +means reticent as to his personal feelings, having been preserved to us. +Atticus's replies are lost; it is said that he was prudent enough, after +his friend's unhappy death, to reclaim and destroy them. They would +perhaps have told us, in his case, not very much that we care to know +beyond what we know already. Rich, luxurious, with elegant tastes and +easy morality--a true Epicurean, as he boasted himself to be--Atticus had +nevertheless a kind heart and an open hand. He has generally been called +selfish, somewhat unfairly; at least his selfishness never took the form +of indifference or unkindness to others. In one sense he was a truer +philosopher than Cicero: for he seems to have acted through life on that +maxim of Socrates which his friend professed to approve, but certainly +never followed,--that "a wise man kept out of public business". His +vocation was certainly not patriotism; but the worldly wisdom which +kept well with men of all political colours, and eschewed the wretched +intrigues and bloody feuds of Rome, stands out in no unfavourable contrast +with the conduct of many of her _soi-disant_ patriots. If he declined +to take a side himself, men of all parties resorted to him in their +adversity; and the man who befriended the younger Marius in his exile, +protected the widow of Antony, gave shelter on his estates to the victims +of the triumvirate's proscription, and was always ready to offer his +friend Cicero both his house and his purse whenever the political horizon +clouded round him,--this man was surely as good a citizen as the noisiest +clamourer for "liberty" in the Forum, or the readiest hand with the +dagger. He kept his life and his property safe through all those years of +peril and proscription, with less sacrifice of principle than many who +had made louder professions, and died--by a singular act of voluntary +starvation, to make short work with an incurable disease--at a ripe old +age; a godless Epicurean, no doubt, but not the worst of them. + +We must return to Cicero, and deal somewhat briefly with the next few +years of his life. He extended his foreign tour for two years, visiting +the chief cities of Asia Minor, remaining for a short time at Rhodes +to take lessons once more from his old tutor Molo the rhetorician, and +everywhere availing himself of the lectures of the most renowned Greek +professors, to correct and improve his own style of composition and +delivery. Soon after his return to Rome, he married. Of the character of +his wife Terentia very different views have been taken. She appears to +have written to him very kindly during his long forced absences. Her +letters have not reached us; but in all her husband's replies she is +mentioned in terms of apparently the most sincere affection. He calls +her repeatedly his "darling"--"the delight of his eyes"--"the best of +mothers;" yet he procured a divorce from her, for no distinctly assigned +reason, after a married life of thirty years, during which we find no +trace of any serious domestic unhappiness. The imputations on her honour +made by Plutarch, and repeated by others, seem utterly without foundation; +and Cicero's own share in the transaction is not improved by the fact of +his taking another wife as soon as possible--a ward of his own, an almost +girl, with whom he did not live a year before a second divorce released +him. Terentia is said also to have had an imperious temper; but the +only ground for this assertion seems to have been that she quarrelled +occasionally with her sister-in-law Pomponia, sister of Atticus and wife +of Quintus Cicero; and since Pomponia, by her own brother's account, +showed her temper very disagreeably to her husband, the feud between the +ladies was more likely to have been her fault than Terentia's. But the +very low notion of the marriage relations entertained by both the later +Greeks and Romans helps to throw some light upon a proceeding which would +otherwise seem very mysterious. Terentia, as is pretty plain from the +hints in her husband's letters, was not a good manager in money matters; +there is room for suspicion that she was not even an honest one in his +absence, and was "making a purse" for herself; she had thus failed in +one of the only two qualifications which, according to Demosthenes--an +authority who ranked very high in Cicero's eyes--were essential in a wife, +to be "a faithful house-guardian" and "a fruitful mother". She did not die +of a broken heart; she lived to be 104, and, according to Dio Cassius, to +have three more husbands. Divorces were easy enough at Rome, and had the +lady been a rich widow, there might be nothing so improbable in this +latter part of the story, though she was fifty years old at the date of +this first divorce.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Cato, who is the favourite impersonation of all the moral +virtues of his age, divorced his wife--to oblige a friend!] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +PUBLIC CAREER.--IMPEACHMENT OF VERRES. + +Increasing reputation as a brilliant and successful pleader, and the +social influence which this brought with it, secured the rapid succession +of Cicero to the highest public offices. Soon after his marriage he was +elected Quaestor--the first step on the official ladder--which, as he +already possessed the necessary property qualification, gave him a seat in +the Senate for life. The Aedileship and Praetorship followed subsequently, +each as early, in point of age, as it could legally be held.[1] His +practice as an advocate suffered no interruption, except that his +Quaestorship involved his spending a year in Sicily. The Praetor who +was appointed to the government of that province[2] had under him two +quaestors, who were a kind of comptrollers of the exchequer; and Cicero +was appointed to the western district, having his headquarters at +Lilybaeum. In the administration of his office there he showed himself a +thorough man of business. There was a dearth of corn at Rome that year, +and Sicily was the great granary of the empire. The energetic measures +which the new Quaestor took fully met the emergency. He was liberal to +the tenants of the State, courteous and accessible to all, upright in his +administration, and, above all, he kept his hands clean from bribes and +peculation. The provincials were as much astonished as delighted: for Rome +was not in the habit of sending them such officers. They invented honours +for him such as had never been bestowed on any minister before. + +[Footnote 1: The Quaestors (of whom there were at this time twenty) acted +under the Senate as State treasurers. The Consul or other officer who +commanded in chief during a campaign would be accompanied by one of them +as paymaster-general. + +The Aediles, who were four in number, had the care of all public +buildings, markets, roads, and the State property generally. They had also +the superintendence of the national festivals and public games. + +The duties of the Praetors, of whom there were eight, were principally +judicial. The two seniors, called the 'City' and 'Foreign' respectively, +corresponded roughly to our Home and Foreign Secretaries. These were all +gradual steps to the office of Consul.] + +[Footnote 2: The provinces of Rome, in their relation to the mother-state +of Italy, may be best compared with our own government of India, or such +of our crown colonies as have no representative assembly. They had each +their governor or lieutenant-governor, who must have been an ex-minister +of Rome: a man who had been Consul went out with the rank of +"pro-consul",--one who had been Praetor with the rank of "pro-praetor". +These held office for one or two years, and had the power of life and +death within their respective jurisdictions. They had under them one or +more officers who bore the title of Quaestor, who collected the taxes and +had the general management of the revenues of the province. The provinces +at this time were Sicily, Sardinia with Corsica, Spain and Gaul (each in +two divisions); Greece, divided into Macedonia and Achaia (the Morea); +Asia, Syria, Cilicia, Bithynia, Cyprus, and Africa in four divisions. +Others were added afterwards, under the Empire.] + +No wonder the young official's head (he was not much over thirty) +was somewhat turned. "I thought", he said, in one of his speeches +afterwards--introducing with a quiet humour, and with all a practised +orator's skill, one of those personal anecdotes which relieve a long +speech--"I thought in my heart, at the time, that the people at Rome must +be talking of nothing but my quaestorship". And he goes on to tell his +audience how he was undeceived. + +"The people of Sicily had devised for me unprecedented honours. So I left +the island in a state of great elation, thinking that the Roman people +would at once offer me everything without my seeking. But when I was +leaving my province, and on my road home, I happened to land at Puteoli +just at the time when a good many of our most fashionable people are +accustomed to resort to that neighbourhood. I very nearly collapsed, +gentlemen, when a man asked me what day I had left Rome, and whether there +was any news stirring? When I made answer that I was returning from my +province--'Oh! yes, to be sure', said he; 'Africa, I believe?' 'No', said +I to him, considerably annoyed and disgusted; 'from Sicily'. Then somebody +else, with the air of a man who knew all about it, said to him--'What! +don't you know that he was Quaestor at _Syracuse_?' [It was at +Lilybaeum--quite a different district.] No need to make a long story of +it; I swallowed my indignation, and made as though I, like the rest, had +come there for the waters. But I am not sure, gentlemen, whether that +scene did not do me more good than if everybody then and there had +publicly congratulated me. For after I had thus found out that the people +of Rome have somewhat deaf ears, but very keen and sharp eyes, I left off +cogitating what people would hear about me; I took care that thenceforth +they should see me before them every day: I lived in their sight, I stuck +close to the Forum; the porter at my gate refused no man admittance--my +very sleep was never allowed to be a plea against an audience".[1] + +[Footnote 1: Defence of Plancius, c. 26, 27.] + +Did we not say that Cicero was modern, not ancient? Have we not here the +original of that Cambridge senior wrangler, who, happening to enter a +London theatre at the same moment with the king, bowed all round with a +gratified embarrassment, thinking that the audience rose and cheered at +_him_? + +It was while he held the office of Aedile that he made his first +appearance as public prosecutor, and brought to justice the most important +criminal of the day. Verres, late Praetor in Sicily, was charged with +high crimes and misdemeanours in his government. The grand scale of his +offences, and the absorbing interest of the trial, have led to his case +being quoted as an obvious parallel to that of Warren Hastings, though +with much injustice to the latter, so far as it may seem to imply any +comparison of moral character. This Verres, the corrupt son of a corrupt +father, had during his three years' rule heaped on the unhappy province +every evil which tyranny and rapacity could inflict. He had found it +prosperous and contented: he left it exhausted and smarting under its +wrongs. He met his impeachment now with considerable confidence. The gains +of his first year of office were sufficient, he said, for himself; the +second had been for his friends; the third produced more than enough to +bribe a jury. + +The trials at Rome took place in the Forum--the open space, of nearly five +acres, lying between the Capitoline and Palatine hills. It was the city +market-place, but it was also the place where the population assembled for +any public meeting, political or other--where the idle citizen strolled +to meet his friends and hear the gossip of the day, and where the man +of business made his appointments. Courts for the administration of +justice--magnificent halls, called _basilicae_--had by this time been +erected on the north and south sides, and in these the ordinary trials +took place; but for state trials the open Forum was itself the court. One +end of the wide area was raised on a somewhat higher level--a kind of daïs +on a large scale--and was separated from the rest by the Rostra, a sort of +stage from which the orators spoke. It was here that the trials were held. +A temporary tribunal for the presiding officer, with accommodation for +counsel, witnesses, and jury, was erected in the open air; and the scene +may perhaps best be pictured by imagining the principal square in +some large town fitted up with open hustings on a large scale for an +old-fashioned county election, by no means omitting the intense popular +excitement and mob violence appropriate to such occasions. Temples of the +gods and other public buildings overlooked the area, and the steps of +these, on any occasion of great excitement, would be crowded by those who +were anxious to see at least, if they could not hear. + +Verres, as a state criminal, would be tried before a special commission, +and by a jury composed at this time entirely from the senatorial order, +chosen by lot (with a limited right of challenge reserved to both parties) +from a panel made out every year by the praetor. This magistrate, who +was a kind of minister of justice, usually presided on such occasions, +occupying the curule chair, which was one of the well-known privileges of +high office at Rome. But his office was rather that of the modern chairman +who keeps order at a public meeting than that of a judge. Judge, in our +sense of the word, there was none; the jury were the judges both of law +and fact. They were, in short, the recognised assessors of the praetor, in +whose hands the administration of justice was supposed to lie. The law, +too, was of a highly flexible character, and the appeals of the advocates +were rather to the passions and feelings of the jurors than to the legal +points of the case. Cicero himself attached comparatively little weight +to this branch of his profession;--"Busy as I am", he says in one of his +speeches, "I could make myself lawyer enough in three days". The jurors +gave each their vote by ballot,--'guilty', 'not guilty', or (as in the +Scotch courts) 'not proven',--and the majority carried the verdict. + +But such trials as that of Verres were much more like an impeachment +before the House of Commons than a calm judicial inquiry. The men who +would have to try a defendant of his class would be, in very few cases, +honest and impartial weighers of the evidence. Their large number (varying +from fifty to seventy) weakened the sense of individual responsibility, +and laid them more open to the appeal of the advocates to their political +passions. Most of them would come into court prejudiced in some degree +by the interests of party; many would be hot partisans. Cicero, in his +treatise on 'Oratory', explains clearly for the pleader's guidance the +nature of the tribunals to which he had to appeal. "Men are influenced +in their verdicts much more by prejudice or favour, or greed of gain, +or anger, or indignation, or pleasure, or hope or fear, or by +misapprehension, or by some excitement of their feelings, than either by +the facts of the case, or by established precedents, or by any rules or +principles whatever either of law or equity". + +Verres was supported by some of the most powerful families at Rome. +Peculation on the part of governors of provinces had become almost a +recognised principle: many of those who held offices of state either had +done, or were waiting their turn to do, much the same as the present +defendant; and every effort had been made by his friends either to +put off the trial indefinitely, or to turn it into a sham by procuring +the appointment of a private friend and creature of his own as public +prosecutor. On the other hand, the Sicilian families, whom he had wronged +and outraged, had their share of influence also at Rome, and there was +a growing impatience of the insolence and rapacity of the old governing +houses, of whose worst qualities the ex-governor of Sicily was a fair +type. There were many reasons which would lead Cicero to take up such a +cause energetically. It was a great opening for him in what we may call +his profession: his former connection with the government of Sicily gave +him a personal interest in the cause of the province; and, above all, the +prosecution of a state offender of such importance was a lift at once into +the foremost ranks of political life. He spared no pains to get up his +case thoroughly. He went all over the island collecting evidence; and his +old popularity there did him good service in the work. + +There was, indeed, evidence enough against the late governor. The reckless +gratification of his avarice and his passions had seldom satisfied him, +without the addition of some bitter insult to the sufferers. But there was +even a more atrocious feature in the case, of which Cicero did not fail to +make good use in his appeal to a Roman jury. Many of the unhappy victims +had the Roman franchise. The torture of an unfortunate Sicilian might be +turned into a jest by a clever advocate for the defence, and regarded by a +philosophic jury with less than the cold compassion with which we regard +the sufferings of the lower animals; but "to scourge a man that was a +Roman and uncondemned", even in the far-off province of Judea, was a +thought which, a century later, made the officers of the great Empire, +at its pitch of power, tremble before a wandering teacher who bore the +despised name of Christian. No one can possibly tell the tale so well as +Cicero himself; and the passage from his speech for the prosecution is an +admirable specimen both of his power of pathetic narrative and scathing +denunciation, "How shall I speak of Publius Gavius, a citizen of Consa? +With what powers of voice, with what force of language, with what +sufficient indignation of soul, can I tell the tale? Indignation, at +least, will not fail me: the more must I strive that in this my pleading +the other requisites may be made to meet the gravity of the subject, the +intensity of my feeling. For the accusation is such that, when it was +first laid before me, I did not think to make use of it; though I knew it +to be perfectly true, I did not think it would be credible.--How shall I +now proceed?--when I have already been speaking for so many hours on one +subject--his atrocious cruelty; when I have exhausted upon other points +well-nigh all the powers of language such as alone is suited to that man's +crimes;--when I have taken no precaution to secure your attention by any +variety in my charges against him,--in what fashion can I now speak on a +charge of this importance? I think there is one way--one course, and only +one, left for me to take. I will place the facts before you; and they have +in themselves such weight, that no eloquence--I will not say of mine, for +I have none--but of any man's, is needed to excite your feelings. + +"This Gavius of Consa, of whom I speak, had been among the crowds of Roman +citizens who had been thrown into prison under that man. Somehow he had +made his escape out of the Quarries,[1] and had got to Messana; and when +he saw Italy and the towers of Rhegium now so close to him, and out of +the horror and shadow of death felt himself breathe with a new life as he +scented once more the fresh air of liberty and the laws, he began to talk +at Messana, and to complain that he, a Roman citizen, had been put in +irons--that he was going straight to Rome--that he would be ready there +for Verres on his arrival. + +[Footnote 1: This was one of the state prisons at Syracuse, so called, +said to have been constructed by the tyrant Dionysius. They were the +quarries from which the stone was dug for building the city, and had been +converted to their present purpose. Cicero, who no doubt had seen the one +in question, describes it as sunk to an immense depth in the solid rock. +There was no roof; and the unhappy prisoners were exposed there "to the +sun by day and to the rain and frosts by night". In these places the +survivors of the unfortunate Athenian expedition against Syracuse were +confined, and died in great numbers.] + +"The wretched man little knew that he might as well have talked in this +fashion in the governor's palace before his very face, as at Messana. +For, as I told you before, this city he had selected for himself as the +accomplice in his crimes, the receiver of his stolen goods, the confidant +of all his wickedness. So Gavius is brought at once before the city +magistrates; and, as it so chanced, on that very day Verres himself came +to Messana. The case is reported to him; that there is a certain Roman +citizen who complained of having been put into the Quarries at Syracuse; +that as he was just going on board ship, and was uttering threats--really +too atrocious--against Verres, they had detained him, and kept him in +custody, that the governor himself might decide about him as should seem +to him good. Verres thanks the gentlemen, and extols their goodwill and +zeal for his interests. He himself, burning with rage and malice, comes +down to the court. His eyes flashed fire; cruelty was written on every +line of his face. All present watched anxiously to see to what lengths he +meant to go, or what steps he would take; when suddenly he ordered the +prisoner to be dragged forth, and to be stripped and bound in the open +forum, and the rods to be got ready at once. The unhappy man cried out +that he was a Roman citizen--that he had the municipal franchise +of Consa--that he had served in a campaign with Lucius Pretius, a +distinguished Roman knight, now engaged in business at Panormus, from whom +Verres might ascertain the truth of his statement. Then that man replies +that he has discovered that he, Gavius, has been sent into Sicily as a +spy by the ringleaders of the runaway slaves; of which charge there was +neither witness nor trace of any kind, or even suspicion in any man's +mind. Then he ordered the man to be scourged severely all over his body. +Yes--a Roman citizen was cut to pieces with rods in the open forum at +Messana, gentlemen; and as the punishment went on, no word, no groan of +the wretched man, in all his anguish, was heard amid the sound of the +lashes, but this cry,--'I am a Roman citizen!' By such protest of +citizenship he thought he could at least save himself from anything like +blows--could escape the indignity of personal torture. But not only did he +fail in thus deprecating the insult of the lash, but when he redoubled +his entreaties and his appeal to the name of Rome, a cross--yes, I say, a +cross--was ordered for that most unfortunate and ill-fated man, who had +never yet beheld such an abuse of a governor's power. + +"O name of liberty, sweet to our ears! O rights of citizenship, in which +we glory! O laws of Porcius and Sempronius! O privilege of the tribune, +long and sorely regretted, and at last restored to the people of Rome! +Has it all come to this, that a Roman citizen in a province of the Roman +people--in a federal town--is to be bound and beaten with rods in the +forum by a man who only holds those rods and axes--those awful emblems--by +grace of that same people of Rome? What shall I say of the fact that fire, +and red-hot plates, and other tortures were applied? Even if his agonised +entreaties and pitiable cries did not check you, were you not moved by the +tears and groans which burst from the Roman citizens who were present at +the scene? Did you dare to drag to the cross any man who claimed to be a +citizen of Rome?--I did not intend, gentlemen, in my former pleading, to +press this case so strongly--I did not indeed; for you saw yourselves +how the public feeling was already embittered against the defendant by +indignation, and hate, and dread of a common peril". + +He then proceeds to prove by witnesses the facts of the case and the +falsehood of the charge against Gavius of having been a spy. "However", he +goes on to say, addressing himself now to Verres, "we will grant, if +you please, that your suspicions on this point, if false, were honestly +entertained". + +"You did not know who the man was; you suspected him of being a spy. I do +not ask the grounds of your suspicion. I impeach you on your own evidence. +He said he was a Roman citizen. Had you yourself, Verres, been seized and +led out to execution, in Persia, say, or in the farthest Indies, what +other cry or protest could you raise but that you were a Roman citizen? +And if you, a stranger there among strangers, in the hands of barbarians, +amongst men who dwell in the farthest and remotest regions of the earth, +would have found protection in the name of your city, known and renowned +in every nation under heaven, could the victim whom you were dragging to +the cross, be he who he might--and you did not know who he was--when he +declared he was a citizen of Rome, could he obtain from you, a Roman +magistrate, by the mere mention and claim of citizenship, not only no +reprieve, but not even a brief respite from death? + +"Men of neither rank nor wealth, of humble birth and station, sail the +seas; they touch at some spot they never saw before, where they are +neither personally known to those whom they visit, nor can always find +any to vouch for their nationality. But in this single fact of their +citizenship they feel they shall be safe, not only with our own governors, +who are held in check by the terror of the laws and of public opinion--not +only among those who share that citizenship of Rome, and who are +united with them by community of language, of laws, and of many things +besides--but go where they may, this, they think, will be their safe +guard. Take away this confidence, destroy this safeguard for our Roman +citizens--once establish the principle that there is no protection in the +words, 'I am a citizen of Rome'--that praetor or other magistrate may with +impunity sentence to what punishment he will a man who says he is a Roman +citizen, merely because somebody does not know it for a fact; and at +once, by admitting such a defence, you are shutting up against our +Roman citizens all our provinces, all foreign states, despotic or +independent--all the whole world, in short, which has ever lain open to +our national enterprise beyond all". + +He turns again to Verres. + +"But why talk of Gavius? as though it were Gavius on whom you were +wreaking a private vengeance, instead of rather waging war against the +very name and rights of Roman citizenship. You showed yourself an enemy, +I say, not to the individual man, but to the common cause of liberty. For +what meant it that, when the authorities of Messana, according to their +usual custom, would have erected the cross behind their city on the +Pompeian road, you ordered it to be set up on the side that looked toward +the Strait? Nay, and added this--which you cannot deny, which you said +openly in the hearing of all--that you chose that spot for this reason, +that as he had called himself a Roman citizen, he might be able, from his +cross of punishment, to see in the distance his country and his home! And +so, gentlemen, that cross was the only one, since Messana was a city, that +was ever erected on that spot. A point which commanded a view of Italy was +chosen by the defendant for the express reason that the dying sufferer, in +his last agony and torment, might see how the rights of the slave and the +freeman were separated by that narrow streak of sea; that Italy might +look upon a son of hers suffering the capital penalty reserved for slaves +alone. + +"It is a crime to put a citizen of Rome in bonds; it is an atrocity to +scourge him; to put him to death is well-nigh parricide; what shall I say +it is to crucify him?--Language has no word by which I may designate such +an enormity. Yet with all this yon man was not content. 'Let him look', +said he, 'towards his country; let him die in full sight of freedom and +the laws'. It was not Gavius; it was not a single victim, unknown to fame, +a mere individual Roman citizen; it was the common cause of liberty, +the common rights of citizenship, which you there outraged and put to a +shameful death". + +But in order to judge of the thrilling effect of such passages upon a +Roman jury, they must be read in the grand periods of the oration itself, +to which no translation into a language so different in idiom and rhythm +as English is from Latin can possibly do justice. The fruitless appeal +made by the unhappy citizen to the outraged majesty of Rome, and the +indignant demand for vengeance which the great orator founds upon +it--proclaiming the recognised principle that, in every quarter of the +world, the humblest wanderer who could say he was a Roman citizen should +find protection in the name--will be always remembered as having supplied +Lord Palmerston with one of his most telling illustrations. But this great +speech of Cicero's--perhaps the most magnificent piece of declamation in +any language--though written and preserved to us was never spoken. The +whole of the pleadings in the case, which extend to some length, were +composed for the occasion, no doubt, in substance, and we have to thank +Cicero for publishing them afterwards in full. But Verres only waited +to hear the brief opening speech of his prosecutor; he did not dare to +challenge a verdict, but allowing judgment to go by default, withdrew to +Marseilles soon after the trial opened. He lived there, undisturbed in the +enjoyment of his plunder, long enough to see the fall and assassination +of his great accuser, but only (as it is said) to share his fate soon +afterwards as one of the victims of Antony's proscription. Of his guilt +there can be no question; his fear to face a court in which he had many +friends is sufficient presumptive evidence of it; but we must hesitate in +assuming the deepness of its dye from the terrible invectives of Cicero. +No sensible person will form an opinion upon the real merits of a case, +even in an English court of justice now, entirely from the speech of the +counsel for the prosecution. And if we were to go back a century or two, +to the state trials of those days, we know that to form our estimate of a +prisoner's guilt from such data only would be doing him a gross injustice. +We have only to remember the exclamation of Warren Hastings himself, whose +trial, as has been said, has so many points of resemblance with that of +Verres, when Burke sat down after the torrent of eloquence which he had +hurled against the accused in his opening speech for the prosecution;--"I +thought myself for the moment", said Hastings, "the guiltiest man in +England". + +The result of this trial was to raise Cicero at once to the leadership--if +so modern an expression may be used--of the Roman bar. Up to this time the +position had been held by Hortensius, the counsel for Verres, whom Cicero +himself calls "the king of the courts". He was eight years the senior of +Cicero in age, and many more professionally, for he is said to have made +his first public speech at nineteen. He had the advantage of the most +extraordinary memory, a musical voice, and a rich flow of language: but +Cicero more than implies that he was not above bribing a jury. It was not +more disgraceful in those days than bribing a voter in our own. The two +men were very unlike in one respect; Hortensius was a fop and an exquisite +(he is said to have brought an action against a colleague for disarranging +the folds of his gown), while Cicero's vanity was quite of another kind. +After Verres's trial, the two advocates were frequently engaged together +in the same cause and on the same side: but Hortensius seems quietly to +have abdicated his forensic sovereignty before the rising fame of his +younger rival. They became, ostensibly at least, personal friends. What +jealousy there was between them, strange to say, seems always to have been +on the side of Cicero, who could not be convinced of the friendly feeling +which, on Hortensius's part, there seems no reason to doubt. After his +rival's death, however, Cicero did full justice to his merits and his +eloquence, and even inscribed to his memory a treatise on 'Glory', which +has been lost. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +THE CONSULSHIP AND CATILINE. + +There was no check as yet in Cicero's career. It had been a steady course +of fame and success, honestly earned and well deserved; and it was soon to +culminate in that great civil triumph which earned for him the proud title +of _Pater Patriae_--the Father of his Country. It was a phrase which +the orator himself had invented; and it is possible that, with all his +natural self-complacency, he might have felt a little uncomfortable under +the compliment, when he remembered on whom he had originally bestowed +it--upon that Caius Marius, whose death in his bed at a good old age, +after being seven times consul, he afterwards uses as an argument, in the +mouth of one of his imaginary disputants, against the existence of an +overruling Providence. In the prime of his manhood he reached the great +object of a Roman's ambition--he became virtually Prime Minister of the +republic: for he was elected, by acclamation rather than by vote, the +first of the two consuls for the year, and his colleague, Caius Antonius +(who had beaten the third candidate, the notorious Catiline, by a few +votes only) was a man who valued his office chiefly for its opportunities +of peculation, and whom Cicero knew how to manage. It is true that this +high dignity--so jealous were the old republican principles of individual +power--would last only for a year; but that year was to be a most eventful +one, both for Cicero and for Rome. The terrible days of Marius and Sylla +had passed, only to leave behind a taste for blood and licence amongst +the corrupt aristocracy and turbulent commons. There were men amongst +the younger nobles quite ready to risk their lives in the struggle for +absolute power; and the mob was ready to follow whatever leader was bold +enough to bid highest for their support. + +It is impossible here to do much more than glance at the well-known story +of Catiline's conspiracy. It was the attempt of an able and desperate man +to make himself and his partisans masters of Rome by a bloody revolution. +Catiline was a member of a noble but impoverished family, who had borne +arms under Sylla, and had served an early apprenticeship in bloodshed +under that unscrupulous leader. Cicero has described his character in +terms which probably are not unfair, because the portrait was drawn by +him, in the course of his defence of a young friend who had been too much +connected with Catiline, for the distinct purpose of showing the popular +qualities which had dazzled and attracted so many of the youth of Rome. + +"He had about him very many of, I can hardly say the visible tokens, but +the adumbrations of the highest qualities. There was in his character +that which tempted him to indulge the worst passions, but also that which +spurred him to energy and hard work. Licentious appetites burnt fiercely +within him, but there was also a strong love of active military service. +I believe that there never lived on earth such a monster of +inconsistency,--such a compound of opposite tastes and passions brought +into conflict with each other. Who at one time was a greater favourite +with our most illustrious men? Who was a closer intimate with our very +basest? Who could be more greedy of money than he was? Who could lavish it +more profusely? There were these marvellous qualities in the man,--he made +friends so universally, he retained them by his obliging ways, he was +ready to share what he had with them all, to help them at their need with +his money, his influence, his personal exertions--not stopping short of +the most audacious crime, if there was need of it. He could change his +very nature, and rule himself by circumstances, and turn and bend in any +direction. He lived soberly with the serious, he was a boon companion with +the gay; grave with the elders, merry with the young; reckless among the +desperate, profligate with the depraved. With a nature so complex +and many-sided, he not only collected round him wicked and desperate +characters from all quarters of the world, but he also attracted many +brave and good men by his simulation of virtue. It would have been +impossible for him to have organised that atrocious attack upon the +Commonwealth, unless that fierce outgrowth of depraved passions had rested +on some under-stratum of agreeable qualities and powers of endurance". + +Born in the same year with Cicero, his unsuccessful rival for the +consulship, and hating him with the implacable hatred with which a bad, +ambitious, and able man hates an opponent who is his superior in ability +and popularity as well as character, Catiline seems to have felt, as his +revolutionary plot ripened, that between the new consul and himself the +fates of Rome must choose. He had gathered round him a band of profligate +young nobles, deep in debt like himself, and of needy and unscrupulous +adventurers of all classes. He had partisans who were collecting and +drilling troops for him in several parts of Italy. The programme was +assassination, abolition of debts, confiscation of property: so little of +novelty is there in revolutionary principles. The first plan had been to +murder the consuls of the year before, and seize the government. It had +failed through his own impatience. He now hired assassins against Cicero, +choosing the opportunity of the election of the incoming consuls, which +always took place some time before their entrance on office. But the plot +was discovered, and the election was put off. When it did take place, +Cicero appeared in the meeting, wearing somewhat ostentatiously a corslet +of bright steel, to show that he knew his danger; and Catiline's partisans +found the place of meeting already occupied by a strong force of the +younger citizens of the middle class, who had armed themselves for the +consul's protection. The election passed off quietly, and Catiline was +again rejected. A second time he tried assassination, and it failed--so +watchful and well informed was the intended victim. And now Cicero, +perhaps, was roused to a consciousness that one or other must fall; for in +the unusually determined measures which he took in the suppression of the +conspiracy, the mixture of personal alarm with patriotic indignation +is very perceptible. By a fortunate chance, the whole plan of the +conspirators was betrayed. Rebel camps had been formed not only in Italy, +but in Spain and Mauritania: Rome was to be set on fire, the slaves to be +armed, criminals let loose, the friends of order to be put out of the way. +The consul called a meeting of the senate in the temple of Jupiter Stator, +a strong position on the Palatine Hill, and denounced the plot in all +its details, naming even the very day fixed for the outbreak. The +arch-conspirator had the audacity to be present, and Cicero addressed him +personally in the eloquent invective which has come to us as his "First +Oration against Catiline". His object was to drive his enemy from the +city to the camp of his partisans, and thus to bring matters at once to a +crisis for which he now felt himself prepared. This daily state of public +insecurity and personal danger had lasted too long, he said: + +"Therefore, let these conspirators at once take their side; let them +separate themselves from honest citizens, and gather themselves together +somewhere else; let them put a wall between us, as I have often said. Let +us have them no longer thus plotting the assassination of a consul in his +own house, overawing our courts of justice with armed bands, besieging the +senate-house with drawn swords, collecting their incendiary stores to burn +our city. Let us at last be able to read plainly in every Roman's face +whether he be loyal to his country or no. I may promise you this, +gentlemen of the Senate--there shall be no lack of diligence on the part +of your consuls; there will be, I trust, no lack of dignity and firmness +on your own, of spirit amongst the Roman knights, of unanimity amongst all +honest men, but that when Catiline has once gone from us, everything +will be not only discovered and brought into the light of day, but also +crushed,--ay, and punished. Under such auspices, I bid you, Catiline. go +forth to wage your impious and unhallowed war.--go, to the salvation of +the state, to your own overthrow and destruction, to the ruin of all who +have joined you in your great wickedness and treason. And thou, great +Jupiter, whose worship Romulus founded here coeval with our city;--whom we +call truly the 'Stay'[1] of our capital and our empire; thou wilt protect +thine own altars and the temples of thy kindred gods, the walls and +roof-trees of our homes, the lives and fortunes of our citizens, from yon +man and his accomplices. These enemies of all good men, invaders of their +country, plunderers of Italy, linked together in a mutual bond of crime +and an alliance of villany, thou wilt surely, visit with an everlasting +punishment, living and dead'". + +[Footnote 1: 'Stator'.] + +Catiline's courage did not fail him. He had been sitting alone--for, all +the other senators had shrunk away from the bench of which he had taken +possession. He rose, and in reply to Cicero, in a forced tone of humility +protested his innocence. He tried also another point. Was he,--a man of +ancient and noble family;--to be hastily condemned by his fellow-nobles +on the word of this 'foreigner', as he contemptuously called Cicero--this +_parvenu_ from Arpinum? But the appeal failed; his voice was drowned +in the cries of 'traitor' which arose on all sides, and with threats and +curses, vowing that since he was driven to desperation he would involve +all Rome in his ruin, he rushed out of the Senate-house. At dead of night +he left the city, and joined the insurgent camp at Faesulae. + +When the thunders of Cicero's eloquence had driven Catiline from the +Senate-house, and forced him to join his fellow-traitors, and so put +himself in the position of levying open war against the state, it remained +to deal with those influential conspirators who had been detected and +seized within the city walls. In three subsequent speeches in the Senate +he justified the course he had taken in allowing Catiline to escape, +exposed further particulars of the conspiracy, and urged the adoption +of strong measures to crush it out within the city. Even now, not all +Cicero's eloquence, nor all the efforts of our imagination to realise, as +men realised it then, the imminence of the public danger, can reconcile +the summary process adopted by the consul with our English notions of calm +and deliberate justice. Of the guilt of the men there was no doubt; most +of them even admitted it. But there was no formal trial; and a few hours +after a vote of death had been passed upon them in a hesitating Senate, +Lentulus and Cethegus, two members of that august body, with three of +their companions in guilt, were brought from their separate places of +confinement, with some degree of secrecy (as appears from different +writers), carried down into the gloomy prison-vaults of the Tullianum,[1] +and there quietly strangled, by the sole authority of the consul. +Unquestionably they deserved death, if ever political criminals deserved +it: the lives and liberties of good citizens were in danger; it was +necessary to strike deep and strike swiftly at a conspiracy which extended +no man knew how widely, and in which men like Julius Caesar and Crassus +were strongly suspected of being engaged. The consuls had been armed with +extra-constitutional powers, conveyed by special resolution of the Senate +in the comprehensive formula that they "were to look to it that the state +suffered no damage". Still, without going so far as to call this +unexampled proceeding, as the German critic Mommsen does, "an act of the +most brutal tyranny", it is easy to understand how Mr. Forsyth, bringing +a calm and dispassionate legal judgment to bear upon the case, finds it +impossible to reconcile it with our ideas of dignified and even-handed +justice.[2] It was the hasty instinct of self-preservation, the act of +a weak government uncertain of its very friends, under the influence of +terror--a terror for which, no doubt, there were abundant grounds. When +Cicero stood on the prison steps, where he had waited to receive the +report of those who were making sure work with the prisoners within, and +announced their fate to the assembled crowd below in the single word +"_Vixerunt_" (a euphemism which we can only weakly translate into +"They have lived their life"), no doubt he felt that he and the republic +held theirs from that moment by a firmer tenure; no doubt very many of +those who heard him felt that they could breathe again, now that the +grasp of Catiline's assassins was, for the moment at all events, off +their throats; and the crowd who followed the consul home were sincere +enough when they hailed such a vigorous avenger as the 'Father of his +Country'. But none the less it was that which politicians have called +worse than a crime--it was a political blunder; and Cicero came to find +it so in after years; though--partly from his immense self-appreciation, +and partly from an honest determination to stand by his act and deed in +all its consequences--he never suffered the shadow of such a confession +to appear in his most intimate correspondence. He claimed for himself +ever afterwards the sole glory of having saved the state by such +prompt and decided action; and in this he was fully borne out by the +facts: justifiable or unjustifiable, the act was his; and there were +burning hearts at Rome which dared not speak out against the popular +consul, but set it down to his sole account against the day of +retribution. + +[Footnote 1: A state dungeon, said to have been built in the reign of +Servius Tullius. It was twelve feet under ground. Executions often took +place there, and the bodies of the criminals were afterwards thrown down +the Gemonian steps (which were close at hand) into the Forum, for the +people to see.] + +[Footnote 2: Life of Cicero, p. 119.] + +For the present, however, all went successfully. The boldness of the +consul's measures cowed the disaffected, and confirmed the timid and +wavering. His colleague Antonius--himself by no means to be depended on at +this crisis, having but lately formed a coalition with Catiline as against +Cicero in the election for consuls--had, by judicious management, been got +away from Rome to take the command against the rebel army in Etruria. He +did not, indeed, engage in the campaign actively in person, having +just now a fit of the gout, either real or pretended; but his +lieutenant-general was an old soldier who cared chiefly for his duty, and +Catiline's band--reckless and desperate men who had gathered to his camp +from all motives and from all quarters--were at length brought to bay, and +died fighting hard to the last. Scarcely a man of them, except the slaves +and robbers who had swelled their ranks, either escaped or was made +prisoner. Catiline's body--easily recognised by his remarkable height--was +found, still breathing, lying far in advance of his followers, surrounded +by the dead bodies of the Roman legionaries--for the loss on the side of +the Republic had been very severe. The last that remained to him of the +many noble qualities which had marked his earlier years was a desperate +personal courage. + +For the month that yet remained of his consulship, Cicero was the foremost +man in Rome--and, as a consequence, in the whole world. Nobles and commons +vied in doing honour to the saviour of the state. Catulus and Cato--men +from whose lips words of honour came with a double weight--saluted him +publicly by that memorable title of _Pater Patriae_; and not only the +capital, but most of the provincial towns of Italy, voted him some +public testimony of his unrivalled services. No man had a more profound +appreciation of those services than the great orator himself. It is +possible that other men have felt quite as vain of their own exploits, and +on far less grounds; but surely no man ever paraded his self-complacency +like Cicero. His vanity was indeed a thing to marvel at rather than to +smile at, because it was the vanity of so able a man. Other great men have +been either too really great to entertain the feeling, or have been wise +enough to keep it to themselves. But to Cicero it must have been one of +the enjoyments of his life. He harped upon his consulship in season and +out of season, in his letters, in his judicial pleadings, in his public +speeches (and we may be sure in his conversation), until one would think +his friends must have hated the subject even more than his enemies. He +wrote accounts of it in prose and verse, in Latin and Greek--and, no +doubt, only limited them to those languages because they were the only +ones he knew. The well-known line which provoked the ridicule of critics +like Juvenal and Quintilian, because of the unlucky jingle peculiarly +unpleasant to a Roman ear: + + "O fortunatam natam me consule Romam!" + +expresses the sentiment which--rhyme or no rhyme, reason or no reason--he +was continually repeating in some form or other to himself and to every +one who would listen. + +His consulship closed in glory; but on his very last day of office there +was a warning voice raised amidst the triumph, which might have opened his +eyes--perhaps it did--to the troubles which were to come. He stood up in +the Rostra to make the usual address to the people on laying down his +authority. Metellus Nepos had been newly elected one of the tribunes: it +was his office to guard jealously all the rights and privileges of the +Roman commons. Influenced, it is said, by Caesar--possibly himself an +undiscovered partisan of Catiline--he dealt a blow at the retiring consul +under cover of a discharge of duty. As Cicero was about to speak, he +interposed a tribune's 'veto'; no man should be heard, he said, who _had +put Roman citizens to death without a trial_. There was consternation +in the Forum. Cicero could not dispute what was a perfectly legal exercise +of the tribune's power; only, in a few emphatic words which he seized the +opportunity of adding to the usual formal oath on quitting office, he +protested that his act had saved Rome. The people shouted in answer, "Thou +hast said true!" and Cicero went home a private citizen, but with that +hearty tribute from his grateful countrymen ringing pleasantly in his +ears. But the bitter words of Metellus were yet to be echoed by his +enemies again and again, until that fickle popular voice took them up, and +howled them after the once popular consul. + +Let us follow him for a while into private life; a pleasanter +companionship for us, we confess, than the unstable glories of the +political arena at Rome. In his family and social relations, the great +orator wins from us an amount of personal interest and sympathy which he +fails sometimes to command in his career as a statesman. At forty-five +years of age he has become a very wealthy man--has bought for something +like £30,000 a noble mansion on the Palatine Hill; and besides the +old-fashioned family seat near Arpinum--now become his own by his father's +death--he has built, or enlarged, or bought as they stood, villas at +Antium, at Formiae, at Pompeii, at Cumae, at Puteoli, and at half-a-dozen +other places, besides the one favourite spot of all, which was to him +almost what Abbotsford was to Scott, the home which it was the delight +of his life to embellish--his country-house among the pleasant hills of +Tusculum.[1] It had once belonged to Sulla, and was about twelve miles +from Rome. In that beloved building and its arrangements he indulged, as +an ample purse allowed him, not only a highly-cultivated taste, but in +some respects almost a whimsical fancy. "A mere cottage", he himself terms +it in one place; but this was when he was deprecating accusations of +extravagance which were brought against him, and we all understand +something of the pride which in such matters "apes humility". He would +have it on the plan of the Academia at Athens, with its _palaestra_ +and open colonnade, where, as he tells us, he could walk and discuss +politics or philosophy with his friends. Greek taste and design were as +fashionable among the Romans of that day as the Louis Quatorze style was +with our grandfathers. But its grand feature was a library, and its most +valued furniture was books. Without books, he said, a house was but a body +without a soul. He entertained for these treasures not only the calm love +of a reader, but the passion of a bibliophile; he was particular about his +bindings, and admired the gay colours of the covers in which the precious +manuscripts were kept as well as the more intellectual beauties within. He +had clever Greek slaves employed from time to time in making copies of all +such works as were not to be readily purchased. He could walk across, too, +as he tells us, to his neighbour's, the young Lucullus, a kind of ward +of his, and borrow from the library of that splendid mansion any book he +wanted. His friend Atticus collected for him everywhere--manuscripts, +paintings, statuary; though for sculpture he professes not to care much, +except for such subjects as might form appropriate decorations for his +_palaestra_ and his library. Very pleasant must have been the days +spent together by the two friends--so alike in their private tastes and +habits, so far apart in their chosen course of life--when they met there +in the brief holidays which Cicero stole from the law-courts and the +Forum, and sauntered in the shady walks, or lounged in the cool library, +in that home of lettered ease, where the busy lawyer and politician +declared that he forgot for a while all the toils and vexations of public +life. + +[Footnote 1: Near the modern town of Frascati. But there is no certainty +as to the site of Cicero's villa.] + +He had his little annoyances, however, even in these happy hours of +retirement. Morning calls were an infliction to which a country gentleman +was liable in ancient Italy as in modern England. A man like Cicero was +very good company, and somewhat of a lion besides; and country neighbours, +wherever he set up his rest, insisted on bestowing their tediousness on +him. His villa at Formiae, his favourite residence next to Tusculum, was, +he protested, more like a public hall. Most of his visitors, indeed, had +the consideration not to trouble him after ten or eleven in the forenoon +(fashionable calls in those days began uncomfortably early); but there +were one or two, especially his next-door neighbour, Arrius, and a +friend's friend, named Sebosus, who were in and out at all hours: the +former had an unfortunate taste for philosophical discussion, and was +postponing his return to Rome (he was good enough to say) from day to day +in order to enjoy these long mornings in Cicero's conversation. Such are +the doleful complaints in two or three of the letters to Atticus; but, +like all such complaints, they were probably only half in earnest: +popularity, even at a watering-place, was not very unpleasant, and the +writer doubtless knew how to practise the social philosophy which he +recommends to others, and took his place cheerfully and pleasantly in the +society which he found about him--not despising his honest neighbours +because they had not all adorned a consulship or saved a state. + +There were times when Cicero fancied that this rural life, with all its +refinements of wealth and taste and literary leisure, was better worth +living than the public life of the capital. His friends and his books, he +said, were the company most congenial to him; "politics might go to the +dogs;" to count the waves as they rolled on the beach was happiness; he +"had rather be mayor of Antium than consul at Rome"; "rather sit in +his own library with Atticus in their favourite seat under the bust of +Aristotle than in the curule chair". It is true that these longings for +retirement usually followed some political defeat or mortification; that +his natural sphere, the only life in which he could be really happy, was +in the keen excitement of party warfare--the glorious battle-field of the +Senate and the Forum. The true key-note of his mind is to be found in +these words to his friend Coelius: "Cling to the city, my friend, and +live in her light: all employment abroad, as I have felt from my earliest +manhood, is obscure and petty for those who have abilities to make them +famous at Rome". Yet the other strain had nothing in it of affectation, or +hypocrisy: it was the schoolboy escaped from work, thoroughly enjoying +his holiday, and fancying that nothing would be so delightful as to have +holidays always. In this, again, there was a similarity between Cicero's +taste and that of Horace. The poet loved his Sabine farm and all its rural +delights--after his fashion; and perhaps thought honestly that he loved it +more than he really did. Above all, he loved to write about it. With that +fancy, half-real, perhaps, and half-affected, for pastoral simplicity, +which has always marked a state of over-luxurious civilisation, he +protests to himself that there is nothing like the country. But perhaps +Horace discharges a sly jest at himself, in a sort of aside to his +readers, in the person of Alphius, the rich city money-lender, who is made +to utter that pretty apostrophe to rural happiness: + + "Happy the man, in busy schemes unskilled, + Who, living simply, like our sires of old, + Tills the few acres which his father tilled, + Vexed by no thoughts of usury or gold". + Martin's 'Horace' + +And who, after thus expatiating for some stanzas on the charms of the +country, calls in all his money one week in order to settle there, and +puts it all out again (no doubt at higher interest) the week after. "_O +rus, quando to aspiciam_!" has been the cry of public men before and +since Cicero's day, to whom, as to the great Roman, banishment from +political life, and condemnation to perpetual leisure, would have been a +sentence that would have crushed their very souls. + +He was very happy at this time in his family. His wife and he loved one +another with an honest affection; anything more would have been out of the +natural course of things in Roman society at any date, and even so much as +this was become a notable exception in these later days. It is paying a +high honour to the character of Cicero and his household--and from all +evidence that has come down to us it may be paid with truth--that even in +those evil times it might have presented the original of what Virgil +drew as almost a fancy picture, or one to be realised only in some happy +retirement into which the civilised vices of the capital had never +penetrated-- + + "Where loving children climb to reach a kiss-- + A home of chaste delights and wedded bliss.[1]" + +His little daughter, Tullia, or Tulliola, which was her pet name (the +Roman diminutives being formed somewhat more elegantly than ours, by +adding a syllable instead of cutting short), was the delight of his +heart in his earlier letters to Atticus he is constantly making some +affectionate mention of her--sending her love, or some playful message +which his friend would understand. She had been happily married (though +she was then but thirteen at the most) the year before his consulship; +but the affectionate intercourse between father and daughter was never +interrupted until her early death. His only son, Marcus, born after a +considerable interval, who succeeded to Tullia's place as a household pet, +is made also occasionally to send some childish word of remembrance to his +father's old friend: + +"Cicero the Little sends his compliments to Titus the Athenian"--"Cicero +the Philosopher salutes Titus the Politician.[2]" These messages are +written in Greek at the end of the letters. Abeken thinks that in the +originals they might have been added in the little Cicero's own hand, "to +show that he had begun Greek;" "a conjecture", says Mr. Merivale, "too +pleasant not to be readily admitted". The boy gave his father some trouble +in after life. He served with some credit as an officer of cavalry under +Pompey in Greece, or at least got into no trouble there. Some years after, +he wished to take service in Spain, under Caesar, against the sons +of Pompey; but the father did not approve of this change of side. He +persuaded him to go to Athens to study instead, allowing him what both +Atticus and himself thought a very liberal income--not sufficient, +however, for him to keep a horse, which Cicero held to be an unnecessary +luxury. Probably the young cavalry officer might not have been of the same +opinion; at any rate, he got into more trouble among the philosophers than +he did in the army. He spent a great deal more than his allowance, and one +of the professors, whose lectures he attended, had the credit of helping +him to spend it. The young man must have shared the kindly disposition +of his father. He wrote a confidential letter to Tiro, the old family +servant, showing very good feeling, and promising reformation. It is +doubtful how far the promise was kept. He rose, however, subsequently to +place and power under Augustus, but died without issue; and, so far at +least as history knows them, the line of the Ciceros was extinct. It had +flashed into fame with the great orator, and died out with him. + +[Footnote 1: "Interia dulces pendent circum oscula nati; Casta pudicitiam +servat domus".--Georg. ii. 524.] + +[Footnote 2: See 'Letters to Atticus', ii. 9, 12; Merivale's translation +of Abeken's 'Cicero in Seinen Briefen', p. 114.] + +All Cicero's biographers have found considerable difficulty in tracing, at +all satisfactorily, the sources of the magnificent fortune which must have +been required to keep up, and to embellish in accordance with so luxurious +a taste, so many residences in all parts of the country. True, these +expenses often led Cicero into debt and difficulties; but what he borrowed +from his friends he seems always to have repaid, so that the money must +have come in from some quarter or other. His patrimony at Arpinum would +not appear to have been large; he got only some £3000 or £4000 dowry +with Terentia; and we find no hint of his making money by any commercial +speculations, as some Roman gentlemen did. On the other hand, it is the +barest justice to him to say that his hands were clean from those +ill-gotten gains which made the fortunes of many of the wealthiest public +men at Rome, who were criminals in only a less degree than +Verres--peculation, extortion, and downright robbery in the unfortunate +provinces which they were sent out to govern. Such opportunities lay as +ready to his grasp as to other men's, but he steadily eschewed them. His +declining the tempting prize of a provincial government, which was his +right on the expiration of his praetorship, may fairly be attributed to +his having in view the higher object of the consulship, to secure which, +by an early and persistent canvass, he felt it necessary to remain in +Rome. But he again waived the right when his consulship was over; and +when, some years afterwards, he went unwillingly as pro-consul to +Cilicia, his administration there, as before in his lower office in +Sicily, was marked by a probity and honesty quite exceptional in a Roman +governor. His emoluments, confined strictly within the legal bounds, +would be only moderate, and, whatever they were, came too late in +his life to be any explanation of his earlier expenditure. He received +many valuable legacies, at different times, from personal friends or +grateful clients who died childless (be it remembered how the barrenness +of the marriage union had become then, at Rome, as it is said to be in +some countries now, the reproach of a sensual and effete aristocracy); he +boasts himself, in one of his 'Philippics', that he had received from this +source above £170,000. Mr. Forsyth also notices the large presents that +were made by foreign kings and states to conciliate the support and +advocacy of the leading men at Rome--"we can hardly call them bribes, for +in many cases the relation of patron and client was avowedly established +between a foreign state and some influential Roman: and it became his +duty, as of course it was his interest, to defend it in the Senate and +before the people". In this way, he thinks, Cicero held "retainers" from +Dyrrachium; and, he might have added, from Sicily. The great orator's own +boast was, that he never took anything for his services as an advocate; +and, indeed, such payments were forbidden by law.[1] But with all respect +for Cicero's material honesty, one learns from his letters, unfortunately, +not to put implicit confidence in him when he is in a boasting vein; and +he might not look upon voluntary gifts, after a cause was decided, in the +light of payment. Paetus, one of his clients, gave him a valuable library +of books; and one cannot believe that this was a solitary instance of +the quiet evasion of the Cincian law, or that there were not other +transactions of the same nature which never found their way into any +letter of Cicero's that was likely to come down to us. + +[Footnote 1: The principle passed, like so many others, from the old Roman +law into our own, so that to this very day, a barrister's fees, being +considered in the nature of an _honorarium_, or voluntary present +made to him for his services, are not recoverable by law.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +HIS EXILE AND RETURN. + +We must return to Rome. Cicero had never left it but for his short +occasional holiday. Though no longer in office, the ex-consul was still +one of the foremost public men, and his late dignity gave him important +precedence in the Senate. He was soon to be brought into contact, and more +or less into opposition, with the two great chiefs of parties in whose +feuds he became at length so fatally involved. Pompey and Caesar were both +gradually becoming formidable, and both had ambitious plans of their own, +totally inconsistent with any remnant of republican liberty--plans which +Cicero more or less suspected, and of that suspicion they were probably +both aware. Both, by their successful campaigns, had not only acquired +fame and honours, but a far more dangerous influence--an influence which +was to overwhelm all others hereafter--in the affection of their legions. +Pompey was still absent in Spain, but soon to return from his long war +against Mithridates, to enjoy the most splendid triumph ever seen at Rome, +and to take the lead of the oligarchical party just so long and so far as +they would help him to the power he coveted. The enemies whom Cicero had +made by his strong measures in the matter of the Catilinarian conspiracy +now took advantage of Pompey's name and popularity to make an attack upon +him. The tribune Metellus, constant to his old party watchword, moved in +the Senate that the successful general, upon whom all expectations were +centred, should be recalled to Rome with his army "to restore the violated +constitution". All knew against whom the motion was aimed, and what the +violation of the constitution meant; it was the putting citizens to death +without a trial. The measure was not passed, though Caesar, jealous of +Cicero even more than of Pompey, lent himself to the attempt. + +But the blow fell on Cicero at last from a very different quarter, and +from the mere private grudge of a determined and unprincipled man. Publius +Clodius, a young man of noble family, once a friend and supporter of +Cicero against Catiline, but who had already made himself notorious for +the most abandoned profligacy, was detected, in a woman's dress, at the +celebration of the rites of the Bona Dea--a kind of religious freemasonry +amongst the Roman ladies, the mysteries of which are very little known, +and probably would in any case be best left without explanation. But for a +man to have been present at them was a sacrilege hitherto unheard of, and +which was held to lay the whole city under the just wrath of the offended +goddess. The celebration had been held in the house of Caesar, as praetor, +under the presidency of his wife Pompeia; and it was said that the object +of the young profligate was an intrigue with that lady. The circumstances +are not favourable to the suspicion; but Caesar divorced her forthwith, +with the often-quoted remark that "Caesar's wife must not be even +suspected". For this crime--unpardonable even in that corrupt society, +when crimes of far deeper dye passed almost unreproved--Clodius was, +after some delay, brought to public trial. The defence set up was an +_alibi_, and Cicero came forward as a witness to disprove it: he had +met and spoken with Clodius in Rome that very evening. The evidence was +clear enough, but the jury had been tampered with by Clodius and his +friends; liberal bribery, and other corrupting influences of even a more +disgraceful kind, had been successfully brought to bear upon the majority +of them, and he escaped conviction by a few votes. But he never forgave +the part which Cicero had taken against him; and from that time forth the +latter found a new, unscrupulous, indefatigable enemy, of whose services +his old opponents gladly availed themselves. Cicero himself for some +time underrated this new danger. He lost no opportunity of taunting +the unconvicted criminal in the bitterest terms in the Senate, and of +exchanging with him--very much to the detriment of his own character and +dignity, in our modern eyes--the coarsest jests when they met in the +street. But the temptation to a jest, of whatever kind, was always +irresistible to Cicero: it was a weakness for which he more than once paid +dearly, for they were remembered against him when be had forgotten them. +Meanwhile Clodius--a sort of milder Catiline, not without many popular +qualities--had got himself elected tribune; degrading himself formally +from his own order of nobles for that purpose, since the tribune must be +a man of the commons. The powers of the office were formidable for all +purposes of obstruction and attack; Clodius had taken pains to ingratiate +himself with all classes; and the consuls of the year were men of infamous +character, for whom he had, found a successful means of bribery by the +promise of getting a special law passed to secure them the choice of the +richest provincial governments--those coveted fields of plunder--of which +they would otherwise have had to take their chance by lot. When all was +ripe for his revenge, he brought before the people in full assembly the +following bill of pains and penalties:--"Be it enacted, that whoever has +put to death a Roman citizen uncondemned in due form of trial, shall be +interdicted from fire and water". Such was the legal form of words which +implied banishment from Rome, outlawry, and social excommunication. Every +man knew against whom the motion was levelled. It was carried--carried in +spite of the indignation of all honest men in Rome, in spite of all +Cicero's humiliating efforts to obtain its rejection. + +It was in vain that he put on mourning, as was the custom with those who +were impeached of public crimes, and went about the streets thus silently +imploring the pity of his fellow-citizens. In vain the whole of his own +equestrian order, and in fact, as he declares, "all honest men" (it was +his favourite term for men of his own party); adopted the same dress to +show their sympathy, and twenty thousand youths of good family--all in +mourning--accompanied him through the city. The Senate even met and passed +a resolution that their whole house should put on mourning too. But +Gabinius, one of the consuls, at once called a public meeting, and warned +the people not to make the mistake of thinking that the Senate was Rome. + +In vain, also, was any personal appeal which Cicero could make to the only +two men who might have had influence enough to sway the popular vote. He +was ostensibly on good terms both with Pompey and Caesar; in fact, he +made it his policy so to be. He foresaw that on their future course would +probably depend the fate of Rome, and he persuaded himself, perhaps +honestly, that he could make them "better citizens". But he trusted +neither; and both saw in him an obstacle to their own ambition. Caesar +now looked on coldly, not altogether sorry at the turn which affairs had +taken, and faintly suggested that perhaps some "milder measure" might +serve to meet the case. From Pompey Cicero had a right to look for some +active support; indeed, such had been promised in case of need. He threw +himself at his feet with prayers and tears, but even this last humiliation +was in vain; and he anticipated the execution of that disgraceful edict +by a voluntary withdrawal into exile. Piso, one of the consuls, had +satirically suggested that thus he might "save Rome" a second time. His +property was at once confiscated; his villas at Tusculum and at Formiae +were plundered and laid waste, the consuls claiming the lion's share of +the spoil; and Clodius, with his armed mob, set fire to the noble house +on the Palatine, razed it to the ground, and erected on the site a temple +to--_Liberty_! + +Cicero had friends who strongly urged him to defy the edict; to remain +at Rome, and call on all good citizens to arm in his defence. Modern +historians very generally have assumed that, if he could have made up his +mind to such a course, it would probably have been successful. He was to +rely, we suppose, upon those "twenty thousand Roman youths "--rather a +broken reed to trust to (remembering what those young gallants were), with +Caesar against him, now at the head of his legions just outside the gates +of Rome. He himself seriously contemplated suicide, and consulted his +friends as to the propriety of such a step in the gravest and most +business-like manner; though, with our modern notions on the subject, such +a consultation has more of the ludicrous than the sublime. The sensible +and practical Atticus convinced him that such a solution of his +difficulties would be the greatest possible mistake--a mistake, moreover, +which could never be rectified. + +But almost any course would have become him better than that which he +chose. Had he remained and faced Clodius and his bravos manfully--or had +he turned his back upon Rome for ever, and shaken the dust off his feet +against the ungrateful city, and become a noble pensioner upon Atticus at +Buthrotum--he would have died a greater man. He wandered from place to +place sheltered by friends whose unselfish loyalty marks their names +with honour in that false and evil generation--Sica, and Flaccus, and +Plancius--bemoaning himself like a woman,--"too blinded with tears to +write", "loathing the light of day". Atticus thought he was going mad. It +is not pleasant to dwell upon this miserable weakness of a great mind, +which Cicero's most eager eulogists admit, and which his detractors have +not failed to make the most of. Nor is it easy to find excuse for him, but +we will give him all the benefit of Mr. Forsyth's defence: + +"Seldom has misfortune so crushed a noble spirit, and never, perhaps, has +the 'bitter bread of banishment' seemed more bitter to any one than to +him. We must remember that the love of country was a passion with the +ancients to a degree which it is now difficult to realise, and exile +from it even for a time was felt to be an intolerable evil. The nearest +approach to such a feeling was perhaps that of some favourite under an +European monarchy, when, frowned upon by his sovereign, he was hurled from +place and power, and banished from the court. The change to Cicero was +indeed tremendous. Not only was he an exile from Rome, the scene of all +his hopes, his glories, his triumphs, but he was under the ban of an +outlaw. If found within a certain distance from the capital, he must die, +and it was death to any one to give him food or shelter. His property +was destroyed, his family was penniless, and the people whom he had so +faithfully served were the authors of his ruin. All this may be urged +in his behalf, but still it would have been only consistent with Roman +fortitude to have shown that he possessed something of the spirit of the +fallen archangel".[1] + +[Footnote 1: Forsyth's Life of Cicero, p. 190.] + +His exile lasted nearly a year and a half. Long before that time there had +come a reaction in his favour. The new consuls were well disposed towards +him; Clodius's insolence had already disgusted Pompey; Caesar was absent +with his legions in Gaul; his own friends, who had all along been active +in his favour (though in his querulous mood he accused them of apathy) +took advantage of the change, his generous rival Hortensius being amongst +the most active; and all the frantic violence of Clodius and his party +served only to delay for a while the return which they could not prevent. +A motion for his recall was carried at last by an immense majority. + +Cicero had one remarkable ally on that occasion. On one of the days when +the Senate was known to be discussing his recall, the 'Andromache' of +Ennius was being played in the theatre. The popular actor Esop, whose name +has come down to us in conjunction with that of Roscius, was playing +the principal character. The great orator had been his pupil, and was +evidently regarded by him as a personal friend. With all the force of his +consummate art, he threw into Andromache's lament for her absent father +his own feelings for Cicero. The words in the part were strikingly +appropriate, and he did not hesitate to insert a phrase or two of his own +when he came to speak of the man + + "Who with a constant mind upheld the state, + Stood on the people's side in perilous times, + Ne'er reeked of his own life, nor spared himself". + +So significant and empathetic were his tone and gesture as he addressed +himself pointedly to his Roman audience, that they recalled him, and, +amid a storm of plaudits, made him repeat the passage. He added to it the +words--which were not set down for him-- + + "Best of all friends in direst strait of war!" + +and the applause was redoubled. The actor drew courage from his success. +When, as the play went on, he came to speak the words-- + + "And you--you let him live a banished man-- + See him driven forth and hunted from your gates!" + +he pointed to the nobles, knights, and commons, as they sat in their +respective seats in the crowded rows before him, his own voice broke with +grief, and the tears even more than the applause of the whole audience +bore witness alike to their feelings towards the exile, and the dramatic +power of the actor. "He pleaded my cause before the Roman people", says +Cicero (for it is he that tells the story), "with far more weight of +eloquence than I could have pleaded for myself".[1] + +[Footnote 1: Defence of Sestius, c. 56, &c.] + +He had been visited with a remarkable dream, while staying with one of +his friends in Italy, during the earlier days of his exile, which he now +recalled with some interest. He tells us this story also himself, +though he puts it into the mouth of another speaker, in his dialogue on +"Divination". If few were so fond of introducing personal anecdotes into +every place where he could find room for them, fewer still could tell +them so well. + +"I had lain awake a great part of the night, and at last towards dawn had +begun to sleep soundly and heavily. I had given orders to my attendant +that, in this case, though we had to start that very morning, strict +silence should be kept, and that I was on no account to be disturbed; +when about seven o'clock I awoke, and told him my dream. I thought I was +wandering alone in some solitary place, when Caius Marius appeared to me, +with his fasces bound with laurel, and asked why I was so sad? And when I +answered that I had been driven from my country, he caught my hand, bade +me be of good cheer, and put me under the guidance of his own lictor to +lead me to his monument; there, he said, I should find my deliverance". + +So indeed it had turned out. The temple dedicated to Honour and Virtue, in +which the Senate sat when they passed the first resolution for Cicero's +recall, was known as the "Monument of Marius". There is no need to doubt +the perfect good faith of the story which he tells, and it may be set down +as one of the earliest authenticated instances of a dream coming true. +But if dreams are fashioned out of our waking imaginations, it is easy to +believe that the fortunes of his great townsman Marius, and the scenes in +the Senate at Rome, were continually present to the exile's thoughts. + +His return was a triumphal progress. He landed at Brundusium on his +daughter's birthday. She had only just lost her husband Piso, who had +gallantly maintained her father's cause throughout, but she was the first +to welcome him with tears of joy which overmastered her sorrow. He was +careful to lose no chance of making his return impressive. He took his way +to Rome with the slow march of a conqueror. The journey which Horace made +easily in twelve days, occupied Cicero twenty-four. But he chose not the +shortest but the most public route, through Naples, Capua, Minturnae, +Terracina, and Aricia. + +Let him tell the story of his own reception. If he tells it (as he does +more than once) with an undisguised pride, it is a pride with which it +is impossible not to sympathise. He boasted afterwards that he had been +"carried back to Rome on the shoulders of Italy;" and Plutarch says it was +a boast he had good right to make. + +"Who does not know what my return home was like? How the people of +Brundusium held out to me, as I might say, the right hand of welcome on +behalf of all my native land? From thence to Rome my progress was like +a march of all Italy. There was no district, no town, corporation, or +colony, from which a public deputation was not sent to congratulate me. +Why need I speak of my arrival at each place? how the people crowded the +streets in the towns; how they flocked in from the country--fathers of +families with wives and children? How can I describe those days, when all +kept holiday, as though it were some high festival of the immortal gods, +in joy for my safe return? That single day was to me like immortality; +when I returned to my own city, when I saw the Senate and the population +of all ranks come forth to greet me, when Rome herself looked as though +she had wrenched herself from her foundations to rush to embrace her +preserver. For she received me in such sort, that not only all sexes, +ages, and callings, men and women, of every rank and degree, but even the +very walls, the houses, the temples, seemed to share the universal joy". + +The Senate in a body came out to receive him on the Appian road; a gilded +chariot waited for him at the city gates; the lower class of citizens +crowded the steps of the temples to see him as he passed; and so he rode, +escorted by troops of friends, more than a conqueror, to the Capitol. + +His exultation was naturally as intense as his despair had been. He +made two of his most florid speeches (if indeed they be his, which is +doubtful), one in the Senate and another to the people assembled in the +Forum, in which he congratulated himself on his return, and Rome on having +regained her most illustrious citizen. It is a curious note of the temper +and logical capacities of the mob, in all ages of the world alike, +that within a few hours of their applauding to the echo this speech +of Cicero's, Clodius succeeded in exciting them to a serious riot by +appealing to the ruinous price of corn as one of the results of the +exile's return. + +For nearly four years more, though unable to shake Cicero's recovered +position in the state--for he was now supported by Pompey--Clodius and his +partisans, backed by a strong force of trained gladiators in their pay, +kept Rome in a state of anarchy which is almost inexplicable. It was more +than suspected that Crassus, now utterly estranged from Pompey, supplied +out of his enormous wealth the means of keeping on foot this lawless +agitation. Elections were overawed, meetings of the Senate interrupted, +assassinations threatened and attempted. Already men began to look to +military rule, and to think a good cause none the worse for being backed +by "strong battalions". Things were fast tending to the point where Pompey +and Caesar, trusty allies as yet in profession and appearance, deadly +rivals at heart, hoped to step in with their veteran legions. Even Cicero, +the man of peace and constitutional statesman, felt comfort in the thought +that this final argument could be resorted to by his own party. But +Clodius's mob-government, at any rate, was to be put an end to somewhat +suddenly. Milo, now one of the candidates for the consulship, a man of +determined and unscrupulous character, had turned his own weapons +against him, and maintained an opposition patrol of hired gladiators and +wild-beast fighters. The Senate quite approved, if they did not openly +sanction, this irregular championship of their order. The two parties +walked the streets of Rome like the Capulets and Montagues at Verona; and +it was said that Milo had been heard to swear that he would rid the city +of Clodius if he ever got the chance. It came at last, in a casual +meeting on the Appian road, near Bovillae. A scuffle began between their +retainers, and Clodius was killed--his friends said, murdered. The +excitement at Rome was intense: the dead body was carried and laid +publicly on the Rostra. Riots ensued; Milo was obliged to fly, and +renounce his hopes of power; and the Senate, intimidated, named +Pompey--not indeed "Dictator", for the name had become almost as hateful +as that of King--but sole consul, for the safety of the state. + +Cicero had resumed his practice as an advocate, and was now called upon to +defend Milo. But Pompey, either from some private grudge, or in order to +win favour with the populace, determined that Milo should be convicted. +The jury were overawed by his presence in person at the trial, and by the +occupation by armed soldiers of all the avenues of the court under +colour of keeping order. It was really as great an outrage upon the free +administration of justice as the presence of a regiment of soldiers at the +entrance to Westminster Hall would be at a modern trial for high treason +or sedition. Cicero affected to see in Pompey's legionaries nothing more +than the maintainers of the peace of the city. But he knew better; and the +fine passage in the opening of his speech for the defence, as it has come +down to us, is at once a magnificent piece of irony, and a vindication of +the rights of counsel. + +"Although I am conscious, gentlemen, that it is a disgrace to me to +show fear when I stand here to plead in behalf of one of the bravest of +men;--and especially does such weakness ill become me, that when Milo +himself is far more anxious about the safety of the state than about his +own, I should be unable to bring to his defence the like magnanimous +spirit;--yet this strange scene and strangely constituted court does +terrify my eyes, for, turn them where I will, I look in vain for the +ancient customs of the Forum, and the old style of public trials. For your +tribunal to-day is girt with no such audience as was wont; this is no +ordinary crowd that hems us in. Yon guards whom you see on duty in front +of all the temples, though set to prevent violence, yet still do a sort +of violence to the pleader; since in the Forum and the count of justice, +though the military force which surrounds us be wholesome and needful, yet +we cannot even be thus freed from apprehension without looking with some +apprehension on the means. And if I thought they were set there in hostile +array against Milo, I would yield to circumstances, gentlemen, and feel +there was no room for the pleader amidst such a display of weapons. But +I am encouraged by the advice of a man of great wisdom and justice--of +Pompey, who surely would not think it compatible with that justice, after +committing a prisoner to the verdict of a jury, then to hand him over +to the swords of his soldiers; nor consonant with his wisdom to arm the +violent passions of a mob with the authority of the state. Therefore those +weapons, those officers and men, proclaim to us not peril but protection; +they encourage us to be not only undisturbed but confident; they promise +me not only support in pleading for the defence, but silence for it to be +listened to. As to the rest of the audience, so far as it is composed of +peaceful citizens, all, I know, are on our side; nor is there any single +man among all those crowds whom you see occupying every point from which a +glimpse of this court can be gained, looking on in anxious expectation +of the result of this trial, who, while he approves the boldness of the +defendant, does not also feel that the fate of himself, his children, and +his country, hangs upon the issue of to-day". + +After an elaborate argument to prove that the slaying of Clodius by Milo +was in self-defence, or, at the worst, that it was a fate which he well +deserved as a public enemy, he closes his speech with a peroration, the +pathos of which has always been admired: + +"I would it had been the will of heaven--if I may say so with all +reverence for my country, for I fear lest my duty to my client may make me +say what is disloyal towards her--I would that Publius Clodius were not +only alive, but that he were praetor, consul, dictator even, before my +eyes had seen this sight! But what says Milo? He speaks like a brave man, +and a man whom it is your duty to protect--'Not so--by no means', says he. +'Clodius has met the doom he well deserved: I am ready, if it must be so, +to meet that which I do not deserve'. ... But I must stop; I can no longer +speak for tears; and tears are an argument which he would scorn for his +defence. I entreat you, I adjure you, ye who sit here in judgment, that in +your verdict you dare to give utterance to what I know you feel". + +But the appeal was in vain, or rather, as far as we can ascertain, was +never made,--at least in such powerful terms as those in which we read +it. The great advocate was wholly unmanned by the scene before him, grew +nervous, and broke down utterly in his speech for the defence. This +presence of a military force under the orders of Pompey--the man in whom +he saw, as he hoped, the good genius of Rome--overawed and disturbed him. +The speech which we read is almost certainly not that which he delivered, +but, as in the previous case of Verres, the finished and elaborate +composition of his calmer hours. Milo was convicted by a large majority; +in fact, there can be little doubt but that he was legally guilty, however +political expediency might, in the eyes of Cicero and his party, have +justified his deed. Cato sat on the jury, and did all he could to insure +an acquittal, showing openly his voting-paper to his fellow jurors, with +that scorn of the "liberty of silence" which he shared with Cicero. + +Milo escaped any worse penalty by at once going into voluntary banishment +at Marseilles. But he showed more practical philosophy than his advocate; +for when he read the speech in his exile, he is said to have declared that +"it was fortunate for him it was not spoken, or he should never have known +the flavour of the red mullet of Marseilles". + +The removal of Clodius was a deliverance upon which Cicero never ceased to +congratulate himself. That "battle of Bovillae", as he terms it, became an +era in his mental records of only less significance than his consulship. +His own public life continued to be honourable and successful. He was +elected into the College of Augurs, an honour which he had long coveted; +and he was appointed to the government of Cilicia. This latter was a +greatness literally "thrust upon him", and which he would gladly have +declined, for it took him away in these eventful days from his beloved +Rome; and to these grand opportunities for enriching himself he was, +as has been said, honourably indifferent. The appointment to a distant +province was, in fact, to a man like Cicero, little better than an +honourable form of exile: it was like conferring on a man who had been, +and might hope one day to be again, Prime Minister of England, the +governor-generalship of Bombay. + +One consolation he found on reaching his new government--that even in the +farthest wilds of Cilicia there were people who had heard of "the consul +who saved Rome". And again the astonished provincials marvelled at a +governor who looked upon them as having rights of their own, and neither +robbed nor ill-used them. He made a little war, too, upon some troublesome +hill-tribes (intrusting the command chiefly to his brother Quintus, who +had served with distinction under Caesar in Gaul), and gained a victory +which his legions thought of sufficient importance to salute him with +the honoured title of "imperator". Such military honours are especially +flattering to men who, like Cicero, are naturally and essentially +civilians; and to Cicero's vanity they were doubly delightful. Unluckily +they led him to entertain hopes of the further glory of a triumph; and +this, but for the revolution which followed, he might possibly have +obtained. As it was, the only result was his parading about with him +everywhere, from town to town, for months after his return, the lictors +with laurelled fasces, which betokened that a triumph was claimed--a +pompous incumbrance, which became, as he confessed, a grand subject for +evil-disposed jesters, and a considerable inconvenience to himself. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +CICERO AND CAESAR. + +The future master of Rome was now coming home, after nearly ten years' +absence, at the head of the victorious legions with which he had struck +terror into the Germans, overrun all Spain, left his mark upon Britain, +and "pacified" Gaul. But Cicero, in common with most of the senatorial +party, failed to see in Julius Caesar the great man that he was. He +hesitated a little--Caesar would gladly have had his support, and made him +fair offers; but when the Rubicon was crossed, he threw in his lot with +Pompey. He was certainly influenced in part by personal attachment: Pompey +seems to have exercised a degree of fascination over his weakness. He knew +Pompey's indecision of character, and confessed that Caesar was "a prodigy +of energy;" but though the former showed little liking for him, he clung +to him nevertheless. He foreboded that, let the contest end which way +it would, "the result would certainly be a despotism". He foresaw that +Pompey's real designs were as dangerous to the liberties of Rome as any of +which Caesar could be suspected. "_Sullaturit animus_", he says of +him in one of his letters, coining a verb to put his idea strongly--"he +wants to be like Sulla". And it was no more than the truth. He found out +afterwards, as he tells Atticus, that proscription-lists of all Caesar's +adherents had been prepared by Pompey and his partisans, and that his old +friend's name figured as one of the victims. Only this makes it possible +to forgive him for the little feeling that he showed when he heard of +Pompey's own miserable end. + +Cicero's conduct and motives at this eventful crisis have been discussed +over and over again. It may be questioned whether at this date we are in +any position to pass more than a very cautious and general judgment upon +them. We want all the "state papers" and political correspondence of +the day--not Cicero's letters only, but those of Caesar and Pompey and +Lentulus, and much information besides that was never trusted to pen or +paper--in order to lay down with any accuracy the course which a really +unselfish patriot could have taken. But there seems little reason to +accuse Cicero of double-dealing or trimming in the worst sense. His policy +was unquestionably, from first to last, a policy of expedients. But +expediency is, and must be more or less, the watchword of a statesman. If +he would practically serve his country, he must do to some extent what +Cicero professed to do--make friends with those in power. "_Sic +vivitur_"--"So goes the world;" "_Tempori serviendum est_"--"We +must bend to circumstances"--these are not the noblest mottoes, but they +are acted upon continually by the most respectable men in public and +private life, who do not open their hearts to their friends so +unreservedly as Cicero does to his friend Atticus. It seemed to him a +choice between Pompey and Caesar; and he probably hoped to be able so far +to influence the former, as to preserve some shadow of a constitution for +Rome. What he saw in those "dregs of a Republic",[1] as he himself calls +it, that was worth preserving;--how any honest despotism could seem to +him more to be dreaded than that prostituted liberty,--this is harder to +comprehend. The remark of Abeken seems to go very near the truth--"His +devotion to the commonwealth was grounded not so much upon his conviction +of its actual merits, as of its fitness for the display of his own +abilities". + +[Footnote 1: "Faex Romuli".] + +But that commonwealth was past saving even in name. Within two months of +his having been declared a public enemy, all Italy was at Caesar's feet. +Before another year was past, the battle of Pharsalia had been fought, and +the great Pompey lay a headless corpse on the sea-shore in Egypt. It was +suggested to Cicero, who had hitherto remained constant to the fortunes of +his party, and was then in their camp at Dyrrachium, that he should take +the chief command, but he had the sense to decline; and though men called +him "traitor", and drew their swords upon him, he withdrew from a cause +which he saw was lost, and returned to Italy, though not to Rome. + +The meeting between him and Caesar, which came at last, set at rest any +personal apprehensions from that quarter. Cicero does not appear to have +made any dishonourable submission, and the conqueror's behaviour was nobly +forgetful of the past. They gradually became on almost friendly terms. The +orator paid the Dictator compliments in the Senate, and found that, in +private society, his favourite jokes were repeated to the great man, and +were highly appreciated. With such little successes he was obliged now to +be content. He had again taken up his residence in Rome; but his political +occupation was gone, and his active mind had leisure to employ itself in +some of his literary works. + +It was at this time that the blow fell upon him which prostrated him for +the time, as his exile had done, and under which he claims our far more +natural sympathy. His dear daughter Tullia--again married, but unhappily, +and just divorced--died at his Tusculan villa. Their loving intercourse +had undergone no change from her childhood, and his grief was for a +while inconsolable. He shut himself up for thirty days. The letters of +condolence from well-meaning friends were to him--as they so often are--as +the speeches of the three comforters to Job. He turned in vain, as he +pathetically says, to philosophy for consolation. + +It was at this time that he wrote two of his philosophical treatises, +known to us as 'The True Ends of Life',[1] and the 'Tusculan +Disputations', of which more will be said hereafter. In this latter, which +he named from his favourite country-house, he addressed himself to the +subjects which suited best with his own sorrowful mood under his recent +bereavement. How men might learn to shake off the terrors of death--nay, +to look upon it rather as a release from pain and evil; how pain, mental +and bodily, may best be borne; how we may moderate our passions; and, +lastly, whether the practice of virtue be not all-sufficient for our +happiness. + +[Footnote 1: 'De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum'--a title hard to translate.] + +A philosopher does not always find in himself a ready pupil. It was hardly +so in Cicero's case. His arguments were incontrovertible; but he found +them fail him sadly in their practical application to life. He never could +shake off from himself that dread of death which he felt in a degree +unusually vivid for a Roman. He sought his own happiness afterwards, as he +had done before, rather in the exciting struggle of public life than in +the special cultivation of any form of virtue; and he did not even find +the remedy for his present domestic sorrow in any of those general moral +reflections which philosophy, Christian as well as pagan, is so ready +to produce upon such occasions; which are all so undeniable, and all so +utterly unendurable to the mourner. + +Cicero found his consolation, or that diversion of thought which so +mercifully serves the purpose of consolation, where most men of active +minds like his seek for it and find it--in hard work. The literary effort +of writing and completing the works which have been just mentioned +probably did more to soothe his mind than all the arguments which they +contained. He resumed his practice as an advocate so far as to plead a +cause before Caesar, now ruling as Dictator at Rome--the last cause, as +events happened, that he was ever to plead. It was a cause of no great +importance--a defence of Deiotarus, titulary king of Armenia, who was +accused of having entertained designs against the life of Caesar while +entertaining him as a guest in his palace. The Dictator reserved his +judgment until he should have made his campaign against the Parthians. +That more convenient season never came: for before the spring campaign +could open, the fatal "Ides of March" cut short Caesar's triumphs and +his life. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +CICERO AND ANTONY. + +It remained for Cicero yet to take a part in one more great national +struggle--the last for Rome and for himself. No doubt there was some +grandeur in the cause which he once more so vigorously espoused--the +recovery of the liberties of Rome. But all the thunders of Cicero's +eloquence, and all the admiration of modern historians and poets, fail +to enlist our hearty sympathies with the assassins of Caesar. That +"consecration of the dagger" to the cause of liberty has been the fruitful +parent of too much evil ever since to make its use anything but hateful. +That Cicero was among the actual conspirators is probably not true, though +his enemies strongly asserted it. But at least he gloried in the deed when +done, and was eager to claim all the honours of a tyrannicide. Nay, he +went farther than the actual conspirators, in words at least; it is +curious to find him so careful to disclaim complicity in the act. "Would +that you had invited me to that banquet on the Ides of March! there would +then have been no leavings from the feast",--he writes to Cassius. He +would have had their daggers turned on Antony, at all events, as well as +on Caesar. He wishes that "the gods may damn Caesar after he is dead;" +professing on this occasion a belief in a future retribution, on which at +other times he was sceptical. It is but right to remember all this, when +the popular tide turned, and he himself came to be denounced to +political vengeance. The levity with which he continually speaks of the +assassination of Caesar--a man who had never treated _him_, at +any rate, with anything but a noble forbearance--is a blot on Cicero's +character which his warmest apologists admit. + +The bloody deed in the Capitol was done--a deed which was to turn out +almost what Goethe called it--"the most absurd that ever was committed". +The great Dictator who lay there alone, a "bleeding piece of earth", +deserted by the very men who had sought of late to crown him, was perhaps +Rome's fittest master; certainly not the worst of the many with whom a +personal ambition took the place of principle. Three slaves took up +the dead body of their master, and carried it home to his house. Poor +wretches! they knew nothing about liberty or the constitution; they had +little to hope, and probably little to fear; they had only a humble duty +to do, and did it. But when we read of them, and of that freedman who, not +long before, sat by the dead body of Pompey till he could scrape together +wreck from the shore to light some sort of poor funeral-pile, we return +with a shudder of disgust to those "noble Romans" who occupy at this time +the foreground of history. + +Caesar had been removed, but it is plain that Brutus and Cassius and their +party had neither the ability nor the energy to make any real use of their +bloody triumph. Cicero soon lost all hope of seeing in them the liberators +of his country, or of being able to guide himself the revolution which he +hoped he had seen begun. "We have been freed", he writes to Atticus, +"but we are not free". "We have struck down the tyrant, but the tyranny +survives". Antony, in fact, had taken the place of Caesar as master of +Rome--a change in all respects for the worse. He had surrounded himself +with guards; had obtained authority from the Senate to carry out all +decrees and orders left by the late Dictator; and when he could not find, +amongst Caesar's memoranda, materials to serve his purpose, he did not +hesitate to forge them. Cicero had no power, and might be in personal +danger, for Antony knew his sentiments as to state matters generally, and +more particularly towards himself. Rome was no longer any place for him, +and he soon left it--this time a voluntary exile. He wandered from +place to place, and tried as before to find interest and consolation in +philosophy. It was now that he wrote his charming essays on 'Friendship' +and on 'Old Age', and completed his work 'On the Nature of the Gods', and +that on 'Divination'. His treatise 'De Officiis' (a kind of pagan 'Whole +Duty of Man') is also of this date, as well as some smaller philosophical +works which have been lost. He professed himself hopeless of his country's +future, and disgusted with political life, and spoke of going to end his +days at Athens. + +But, as before and always, his heart was in the Forum at Rome. Political +life was really the only atmosphere in which he felt himself breathe +vigorously. Unquestionably he had also an earnest patriotism, which would +have drawn him back to his country's side at any time when he believed +that she had need of his help. He was told that he was needed there +now; that there was a prospect of matters going better for the cause of +liberty; that Antony was coming to terms of some kind with the party of +Brutus,--and he returned. + +For a short while these latter days brought with them a gleam of triumph +almost as bright as that which had marked the overthrow of Catiline's +conspiracy. Again, on his arrival at Rome, crowds rushed to meet him with +compliments and congratulations, as they had done some thirteen years +before. And in so far as his last days were spent in resisting to the +utmost the basest of all Rome's bad men, they were to him greater than any +triumph. Thenceforth it was a fight to the death between him and Antony; +so long as Antony lived, there could be no liberty for Rome. Cicero left +it to his enemy to make the first attack. It soon came. Two days after his +return, Antony spoke vehemently in the Senate against him, on the occasion +of moving a resolution to the effect that divine honours should be paid +to Caesar. Cicero had purposely stayed away, pleading fatigue after his +journey; really, because such a proposition was odious to him. Antony +denounced him as a coward and a traitor, and threatened to send men to +pull down his house about his head--that house which had once before been +pulled down, and rebuilt for him by his remorseful fellow-citizens. +Cicero went down to the Senate the following day, and there delivered a +well-prepared speech, the first of those fourteen which are known to us +as his 'Philippics'--a name which he seems first to have given to them in +jest, in remembrance of those which his favourite model Demosthenes +had delivered at Athens against Philip of Macedon. He defended his own +conduct, reviewed in strong but moderate terms the whole policy of Antony, +and warned him--still ostensibly as a friend--against the fate of Caesar. +The speaker was not unconscious what his own might possibly be. + +"I have already, senators, reaped fruit enough from my return home, in +that I have had the opportunity to speak words which, whatever may betide, +will remain in evidence of my constancy in my duty, and you have listened +to me with much kindness and attention. And this privilege I will use so +often as I may without peril to you and to myself; when I cannot, I will +be careful of myself, not so much for my own sake as for the sake of my +country. For me, the life that I have lived seems already well-nigh long +enough, whether I look at my years or my honours; what little span may yet +be added to it should be your gain and the state's far more than my own". + +Antony was not in the house when Cicero spoke; he had gone down to his +villa at Tibur. There he remained for a fortnight, brooding over his +reply--taking lessons, it was said, from professors in the art of +rhetorical self-defence. At last he came to Rome and answered his +opponent. His speech has not reached us; but we know that it contained the +old charges of having put Roman citizens to death without trial in the +case of the abettors of Catiline, and of having instigated Milo to the +assassination of Clodias. Antony added a new charge--that of complicity +with the murderers of Caesar. Above all, he laughed at Cicero's old +attempts as a poet; a mode of attack which, if not so alarming, was at +least as irritating as the rest. Cicero was not present--he dreaded +personal violence; for Antony, like Pompey at the trial of Milo, had +planted an armed guard of his own men outside and inside the Senate-house. +Before Cicero had nerved himself to reply, Antony had left Rome to put +himself at the head of his legions, and the two never met again. + +The reply, when it came, was the terrible second Philippic; never spoken, +however, but only handed about in manuscript to admiring friends. There is +little doubt, as Mr. Long observes, that Antony had also some friend kind +enough to send him a copy; and if we may trust the Roman poet Juvenal, who +is at least as likely to have been well informed upon the subject as any +modern historian, this composition eventually cost the orator his life. It +is not difficult to understand the bitter vindictiveness of Antony. Cicero +had been not merely a political opponent; he had attacked his private +character (which presented abundant grounds for such attack) with all +the venom of his eloquence. He had said, indeed, in the first of these +powerful orations, that he had never taken this line. + +"If I have abused his private life and character, I have no right to +complain if he is my enemy: but if I have only followed my usual custom, +which I have ever maintained in public life,--I mean, if I have only +spoken my opinion on public questions freely,--then, in the first place, I +protest against his being angry with me at all: or, if this be too much +to expect, I demand that he should be angry with me only as with a +fellow-citizen". + +If there had been any sort of reticence on this point hitherto on the part +of Cicero, he made up for it in this second speech. Nothing can equal its +bitter personality, except perhaps its rhetorical power. He begins the +attack by declaring that he will not tell all he knows--"in order that, if +we have to do battle again hereafter, I may come always fresh-armed to the +attack; an advantage which the multiplicity of that man's crimes and vices +gives me in large measure". Then he proceeds: + +"Would you like us, then, to examine into your course of life from +boyhood? I conclude you would. Do you remember that before you put on the +robe of manhood, you were a bankrupt? That was my father's fault, you will +say. I grant it--it is a defence that speaks volumes for your feelings as +a son. It was your own shamelessness, however, that made you take your +seat in the stalls of honourable knights, whereas by law there is a fixed +place for bankrupts, even when they have become so by fortune's fault, and +not their own. You put on the robe which was to mark your manhood,--on +your person it became the flaunting gear of a harlot". + +It is not desirable to follow the orator through some of his accusations; +when he had to lash a man whom he held to be a criminal, he did not much +care where or how he struck. He even breaks off himself--after saying a +good deal. + +"There are some things, which even a decent enemy hesitates to speak +of.... Mark, then, his subsequent course of life, which I will trace as +rapidly as I can. For though these things are better known to you than +even to me, yet I ask you to hear me with attention--as indeed you do; for +it is right that in such cases men's feelings should be roused not +merely by the knowledge of the facts, but by calling them back to their +remembrance; though we must dash at once, I believe, into the middle of +his history, lest we should be too long in getting to the end". + +The peroration is noble and dignified, in the orator's best style. He +still supposes himself addressing his enemy. He has warned Antony that +Caesar's fate may be his: and he is not unconscious of the peril in which +his own life may stand. + +"But do you look to yourself--I will tell you how it stands with me. I +defended the Commonwealth when I was young--I will not desert it now I am +old. I despised the swords of Catiline--I am not likely to tremble before +yours. Nay, I shall lay my life down gladly, if the liberty of Rome can be +secured by my death, so that this suffering nation may at last bring to +the birth that which it his long been breeding.[1] If, twenty years ago, I +declared in this house that death could never be said to have come before +its time to a man who had been consul of Rome, with how much more truth, +at my age, may I say it now! To me indeed, gentlemen of the Senate, death +may well be a thing to be even desired, when I have done what I have done +and reaped the honours I have reaped. Only two wishes I have,--the one, +that at my death I may leave the Roman people free--the immortal gods can +give me no greater boon than this; the other, that every citizen may meet +with such reward as his conduct towards the state may have deserved". + +[Footnote 1: _I.e._, the making away with Antony.] + +The publication of this unspoken speech raised for the time an enthusiasm +against Antony, whom Cicero now openly declared to be an enemy to the +state. He hurled against him Philippic after Philippic. The appeal at the +end of that which comes the sixth in order is eloquent enough. + +"The time is come at last, fellow-citizens; somewhat too late, indeed, for +the dignity of the people of Rome, but at least the crisis is so ripe, +that it cannot now be deferred an instant longer. We have had one calamity +sent upon us, as I may say, by fate, which we bore with--in such sort as +it might be borne. If another befalls us now, it will be one of our own +choosing. That this Roman people should serve any master, when the gods +above have willed us to be the masters of the world, is a crime in the +sight of heaven. The question hangs now on its last issue. The struggle is +for our liberties. You must either conquer, Romans,--and this, assuredly, +with such patriotism and such unanimity as I see here, you must do, or you +must endure anything and everything rather than be slaves. Other nations +may endure the yoke of slavery, but the birthright of the people of Rome +is liberty". + +Antony had left Rome, and thrown himself, like Catiline, into the arms +of his soldiers, in his province of Cisalpine Gaul. There he maintained +himself in defiance of the Senate, who at last, urged by Cicero, declared +him a public enemy. Caesar Octavianus (great-nephew of Julius) offered his +services to the state, and with some hesitation they were accepted. The +last struggle was begun. Intelligence soon arrived that Antony had been +defeated at Mutina by the two last consuls of the Republic, Hirtius and +Pansa. The news was dashed, indeed, afterwards by the further announcement +that both consuls had died of their wounds. But it was in the height of +the first exultation that Cicero addressed to the Senate his fourteenth +Philippic--the last oration which he was ever to make. For the moment, +he found himself once more the foremost man at Rome. Crowds of roaring +patriots had surrounded his house that morning, escorted him in triumph up +to the Capitol, and back to his own house, as they had done in the days of +his early glory. Young Caesar, who had paid him much personal deference, +was professing himself a patriot; the Commonwealth was safe again--and +Cicero almost thought that he again himself had saved it. + +But Rome now belonged to those who had the legions. It had come to that: +and when Antony succeeded in joining interests with Octavianus (afterwards +miscalled Augustus)--"the boy", as both Cicero and Antony called him--a +boy in years as yet, but premature in craft and falsehood--who had come +"to claim his inheritance", and succeeded in rousing in the old veterans +of his uncle the desire to take vengeance a on his murderers, the fate of +the Republic and of Cicero was sealed. + +It was on a little eyot formed by the river Reno, near Bologna, that +Antony, young Caesar, and Lepidus (the nominal third in what is known as +the Second Triumvirate) met to arrange among themselves the division of +power, and what they held to be necessary, to the securing it for the +future--the proscription of their several enemies. No private affections +or interests were to be allowed to interfere with this merciless +arrangement. If Lepidus would give up his brother, Antony would +surrender an obnoxious uncle. Octavianus made a cheaper sacrifice in +Cicero, whom Antony, we may be sure, with those terrible Philippics +ringing in his ears, demanded with an eager vengeance. All was soon +amicably settled; the proscription-lists were made out, and the +Triumvirate occupied Rome. + +Cicero and his brother--whose name was known to be also on the fatal +roll--heard of it while they were together at the Tusculan villa. Both +took immediate measures to escape. But Quintus had to return to Rome to +get money for their flight, and, as it would appear, to fetch his son. The +emissaries of the Triumvirate were sent to search the house: the father +had hid himself, but the son was seized, and refusing to give any +information, was put to the torture. His father heard his cries of agony, +came forth from his hiding-place, and asked only to be put to death first. +The son in his turn made the same request, and the assassins were so far +merciful that they killed both at once. + +Cicero himself might yet have escaped, but for some thing of his old +indecision. He had gone on board a small vessel with the intention of +joining Brutus in Macedonia, when he suddenly changed his mind, and +insisted on being put on shore again. He wandered about, half-resolving +(for the third) time on suicide. He would go to Rome, stab himself on +the altar-hearth in young Caesar's house, and call down the vengeance of +heaven upon the traitor. The accounts of these last hours of his life are, +unfortunately, somewhat contradictory, and none of the authorities to be +entirely depended on; Abeken has made a careful attempt to harmonise them, +which it will be best here to follow. + +Urged by the prayers of his slaves, the faithful adherents of a kind +master, he once more embarked, and once more (Appian says, from +sea-sickness, which he never could endure) landed near Caieta, where be +had a seaside villa. Either there, or, as other accounts say, at his house +at Formiae, he laid himself down to pass the night, and wait for death. +"Let me die", said he, "in my own country, which I have so often saved". +But again the faithful slaves aroused him, forced him into a litter, and +hurried him down through the woods to the sea-shore--for the assassins +were in hot pursuit of him. They found his house shut up; but some traitor +showed them a short cut by which to overtake the fugitive. As he lay +reading (it is said), even during these anxious moments, a play of his +favourite Euripides, every line of whom he used to declare contained some +maxim worth remembering, he heard their steps approaching, and ordered the +litter to be set down. He looked out, and recognised at the head of the +party an officer named Laenas, whom he had once successfully defended on +a capital charge; but he saw no gratitude or mercy in the face, though +there were others of the band who covered their eyes for pity, when they +saw the dishevelled grey hair and pale worn features of the great Roman +(he was within a month of sixty-four). He turned from Laenas to the +centurion, one Herennius, and said, "Strike, old soldier, if you +understand your trade!" At the third blow--by one or other of those +officers, for both claimed the evil honour--his head was severed. They +carried it straight to Antony, where he sat on the seat of justice in the +Forum, and demanded the offered reward. The triumvir, in his joy, paid it +some ten times over. He sent the bloody trophy to his wife; and the Roman +Jezebel spat in the dead face, and ran her bodkin through the tongue which +had spoken those bold and bitter truths against her false husband. The +great orator fulfilled, almost in the very letter, the words which, +treating of the liberty of the pleader, he had put into the mouth of +Crassus--"You must cut out this tongue, if you would check my free +speech: nay, even then, my very breathing should protest against your +lust for power". The head, by Antony's order, was then nailed upon the +Rostra, to speak there, more eloquently than ever the living lips had +spoken, of the dead liberty of Rome. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +CHARACTER AS A POLITICIAN AND AN ORATOR. + +Cicero shared very largely in the feeling which is common to all men of +ambition and energy,--a desire to stand well not only with their own +generation, but with posterity. It is a feeling natural to every man who +knows that his name and acts must necessarily become historical. If it +is more than usually patent in Cicero's case, it is only because in his +letters to Atticus we have more than usual access to the inmost heart of +the writer; for surely such a thoroughly confidential correspondence has +never been published before or since. "What will history say of me six +hundred years hence?" he asks, unbosoming himself in this sort to his +friend. More than thrice the six hundred years have passed, and, in +Cicero's case, history has hardly yet made up its mind. He has been +lauded and abused, from his own times down to the present, in terms as +extravagant as are to be found in the most passionate of his own orations; +both his accusers and his champions have caught the trick of his +rhetorical exaggeration more easily than his eloquence. Modern German +critics like Drumann and Mommsen have attacked him with hardly less +bitterness, though with more decency, than the historian Dio Cassius, who +lived so near his own times. Bishop Middleton, on the other hand, in those +pleasant and comprehensive volumes which are still to this day the great +storehouse of materials for Cicero's biography, is as blind to his faults +as though he were himself delivering a panegyric in the Rostra at Rome. +Perhaps it is the partiality of the learned bishop's view which has +produced a reaction in the minds of sceptical German scholars, and of some +modern writers of our own. It is impossible not to sympathise in some +degree with that Athenian who was tired of always hearing Aristides +extolled as "the Just;" and there was certainly a strong temptation to +critics to pick holes in a man's character who was perpetually, during +his lifetime and for eighteen centuries after his death, having a trumpet +sounded before him to announce him as the prince of patriots as well as +philosophers; worthy indeed, as Erasmus thought, to be canonised as a +saint of the Catholic Church, but for the single drawback of his not +having been a Christian. + +On one point some of his eulogists seem manifestly unfair. They say +that the circumstances under which we form our judgment of the man are +exceptional in this--that we happen to possess in his case all this mass +of private and confidential letters (there are nearly eight hundred of his +own which have come down to us), giving us an insight into his private +motives, his secret jealousies, and hopes, and fears, and ambitions, of +which in the case of other men we have no such revelation. It is quite +true; but his advocates forget that it is from the very same pages which +reveal his weaknesses, that they draw their real knowledge of many of +those characteristics which they most admire--his sincere love for his +country, his kindness of heart, his amiability in all his domestic +relations. It is true that we cannot look into the private letters of +Caesar, or Pompey, or Brutus, as we can into Cicero's; but it is not +so certain that if we could, our estimate of their characters would be +lowered. We might discover, in their cases as in his, many traces of what +seems insincerity, timidity, a desire to sail with the stream; we might +find that the views which they expressed in public were not always those +which they entertained in private; but we might also find an inner current +of kindness, and benevolence, and tenderness of heart, for which the world +gives them little credit. One enthusiastic advocate, Wieland, goes so far +as to wish that this kind of evidence could, in the case of such a man as +Cicero, have been "cooked", to use a modern phrase: that we could have had +only a judicious selection from this too truthful mass, of correspondence; +that his secretary, Tiro, or some judicious friend, had destroyed the +whole packet of letters in which the great Roman bemoaned himself, during +his exile from Rome, to his wife, to his brother, and to Atticus. The +partisan method of writing history, though often practised, has seldom +been so boldly professed. + +But it cannot be denied, that if we know too much of Cicero to judge him +merely by his public life, as we are obliged to do with so many heroes of +history, we also know far too little of those stormy times in which he +lived, to pronounce too strongly upon his behaviour in such difficult +circumstances. The true relations between the various parties at Rome, as +we have tried to sketch them, are confessedly puzzling even to the careful +student. And without a thorough understanding of these, it is impossible +to decide, with any hope of fairness, upon Cicero's conduct as a patriot +and a politician. His character was full of conflicting elements, like the +times in which he lived, and was necessarily in a great degree moulded +by them. The egotism which shows itself so plainly alike in his public +speeches and in his private writings, more than once made him personal +enemies, and brought him into trouble, though it was combined with great +kindness of heart and consideration for others. He saw the right clearly, +and desired to follow it, but his good intentions were too often +frustrated by a want of firmness and decision. His desire to keep well +with men of all parties, so long as it seemed possible (and this not so +much from the desire of self-aggrandisement, as from a hope through their +aid to serve the commonwealth) laid him open on more than one occasion to +the charge of insincerity. + +There is one comprehensive quality which may be said to lave been wanting +in his nature, which clouded his many excellences, led him continually +into false positions, and even in his delightful letters excites in the +reader, from time to time, an impatient feeling of contempt. He wanted +manliness. It was a quality which was fast dying out, in his day, among +even the best of the luxurious and corrupt aristocracy of Rome. It was +perhaps but little missed in his character by those of his contemporaries +who knew and loved him best. But without that quality, to an English mind, +it is hard to recognise in any man, however brilliant and amiable, the +true philosopher or hero. + +The views which this great Roman politician held upon the vexed question +of the ballot did not differ materially from those of his worthy +grandfather before-mentioned.[1] The ballot was popular at Rome,--for many +reasons, some of them not the most creditable to the characters of the +voters; and because it was popular, Cicero speaks of it occasionally, in +his forensic speeches, with a cautious praise; but of his real estimate +of it there can be no kind of doubt. "I am of the same opinion now", he +writes to his brother, "that ever I was; there is nothing like the open +suffrage of the lips". So in one of his speeches, he uses even stronger +language: "The ballot", he says, "enables men to open their faces, and to +cover up their thoughts; it gives them licence to promise whatever they +are asked, and at the same time to do whatever they please". Mr. Grote +once quoted a phrase of Cicero's, applied to the voting-papers of his day, +as a testimony in favour of this mode of secret suffrage--grand words, +and wholly untranslatable into anything like corresponding +English--"_Tabella vindex tacitae libertatis_"--"the tablet which +secures the liberty of silence". But knowing so well as Cicero did what +was the ordinary character of Roman jurors and Roman voters, and how often +this "liberty of silence" was a liberty to take a bribe and to vote the +other way, one can almost fancy that we see upon his lips, as he utters +the sounding phrase, that playful curve of irony which is said to have +been their characteristic expression.[2] Mr. Grote forgot, too, as was +well pointed out by a writer in the 'Quarterly Review',[3] that in the +very next sentence the orator is proud to boast that he himself was not so +elected to office, but "by the living voices" of his fellow-citizens. + +[Footnote 1: See p. 3.] + +[Footnote 2: No bust, coin, or gem is known which bears any genuine +likeness of Cicero. There are several existing which purport to be such, +but all are more or less apocryphal.] + +[Footnote 3: Quart. Rev., lxi. 522.] + +The character of his eloquence may be understood in some degree by the +few extracts which have been given from his public speeches; always +remembering how many of its charms are necessarily lost by losing the +actual language in which his thoughts were clothed. We have lost perhaps +nearly as much in another way, in that we can only read the great orator +instead of listening to him. Yet it is possible, after all, that this loss +to us is not so great as it might seem. Some of his best speeches, as we +know--those, for instance, against Verres and in defence of Milo--were +written in the closet, and never spoken at all; and most of the others +were reshaped and polished for publication. Nor is it certain that his +declamation, which some of his Roman rivals found fault with as savouring +too much of the florid Oriental type, would have been agreeable to our +colder English taste. He looked upon gesture and action as essential +elements of the orator's power, and had studied them carefully from the +artists of the theatre. There can be no doubt that we have his own +views on this point in the words which he has put into the mouth of his +"Brutus", in the treatise on oratory which bears that name. He protests +against the "Attic coldness" of style which, he says, would soon empty the +benches of their occupants. He would have the action and bearing of the +speaker to be such that even the distant spectator, too far off to hear, +should "know that there was a Roscius on the stage". He would have found a +French audience in this respect more sympathetic than an English one.[1] +His own highly nervous temperament would certainly tend to excited action. +The speaker, who, as we are told, "shuddered visibly over his whole body +when he first began to speak", was almost sure, as he warmed to his work, +to throw himself into it with a passionate energy. + +[Footnote 1: Our speakers certainly fall into the other extreme. The +British orator's style of gesticulation may still be recognised, +_mutatis mutandis_, in Addison's humorous sketch of a century ago: +"You may see many a smart rhetorician turning his hat in his hands, +moulding it into several different cocks, examining sometimes the lining +and sometimes the button, during the whole course of his harangue. A +deaf man would think that he was cheapening a beaver, when he is talking +perhaps of the fate of the British nation".] + +He has put on record his own ideas of the qualifications and the duties +of the public speaker, whether in the Senate or at the bar, in three +continuous treatises on the subject, entitled respectively, 'On Oratory', +'Brutus', and 'The Orator', as well as in some other works of which we +have only fragments remaining. With the first of these works, which he +inscribed to his brother, he was himself exceedingly well satisfied, and +it perhaps remains still the ablest, as it was the first, attempt to +reduce eloquence to a science. The second is a critical sketch of the +great orators of Rome: and in the third we have Cicero's view of what the +perfect orator should be. His ideal is a high one, and a true one; that +he should not be the mere rhetorician, any more than the mere technical +lawyer or keen partisan, but the man of perfect education and perfect +taste, who can speak on all subjects, out of the fulness of his mind, +"with variety and copiousness". + +Although, as has been already said, he appears to have attached but little +value to a knowledge of the technicalities of law, in other respects his +preparation for his work was of the most careful kind; if we may assume, +as we probably may, that it is his own experience which, in his treatise +on Oratory, he puts into the mouth of Marcus Antonius, one of his greatest +predecessors at the Roman bar. + +"It is my habit to have every client explain to me personally his own +case; to allow no one else to be present, that so he may speak more +freely. Then I take the opponent's side, while I make him plead his own +cause, and bring forward whatever arguments he can think of. Then, when +he is gone, I take upon myself, with as much impartiality as I can, +three different characters--my own, my opponent's, and that of the jury. +Whatever point seems likely to help the case rather than injure it, this I +decide must be brought forward; when I see that anything is likely to do +more harm than good, I reject and throw it aside altogether. So I gain +this,--that I think over first what I mean to say, and speak afterwards; +while a good many pleaders, relying on their abilities, try to do both at +once".[1] + +[Footnote 1: De Oratore, II. 24, 72.] + +He reads a useful lesson to young and zealous advocates in the same +treatise--that sometimes it may be wise not to touch at all in reply upon +a point which makes against your client, and to which you have no real +answer; and that it is even more important to say nothing which may injure +your case, than to omit something which might possibly serve it. A maxim +which some modern barristers (and some preachers also) might do well to +bear in mind. + +Yet he did not scorn to use what may almost be called the tricks of his +art, if he thought they would help to secure him a verdict. The outward +and visible appeal to the feelings seems to have been as effective in the +Roman forum as with a British jury. Cicero would have his client stand by +his side dressed in mourning, with hair dishevelled, and in tears, when +he meant to make a pathetic appeal to the compassion of the jurors; or a +family group would be arranged, as circumstances allowed,--the wife and +children, the mother and sisters, or the aged father, if presentable, +would be introduced in open court to create a sensation at the right +moment. He had tears apparently as ready at his command as an eloquent +and well-known English Attorney-General. Nay, the tears seem to have been +marked down, as it were, upon his brief. "My feelings prevent my saying +more", he declares in his defence of Publius Sylla. "I weep while I make +the appeal"--"I cannot go on for tears"--he repeats towards the close of +that fine oration in behalf of Milo--the speech that never was spoken. +Such phrases remind us of the story told of a French preacher, whose +manuscripts were found to have marginal stage directions: "Here take out +your handkerchief;"--"here cry--if possible". But such were held to be the +legitimate adjuncts of Roman oratory, and it is quite possible to conceive +that the advocate, like more than one modern tragedian who could be named, +entered so thoroughly into the spirit of the part that the tears flowed +quite naturally. + +A far less legitimate weapon of oratory--offensive and not defensive--was +the bitter and coarse personality in which he so frequently indulged. Its +use was held perfectly lawful in the Roman forum, whether in political +debate or in judicial pleadings, and it was sure to be highly relished by +a mixed audience. There is no reason to suppose that Cicero had +recourse to it in any unusual degree; but employ it he did, and most +unscrupulously. It was not only private character that he attacked, as in +the case of Antony and Clodius, but even personal defects or peculiarities +were made the subject of bitter ridicule. He did not hesitate to season +his harangue by a sarcasm on the cast in the prosecutor's eye, or the wen +on the defendant's neck, and to direct the attention of the court to these +points, as though they were corroborative evidence of a moral deformity. +The most conspicuous instance of this practice of his is in the invective +which he launched in the Senate against Piso, who had made a speech +reflecting upon him. Referring to Cicero's exile, he had made that sore +subject doubly sore by declaring that it was not Cicero's unpopularity, so +much as his unfortunate propensity to bad verse, which had been the cause +of it. A jingling line of his to the effect that + + "The gown wins grander triumphs than the sword"[1] + +had been thought to be pointed against the recent victories of Pompey, and +to have provoked him to use his influence to get rid of the author. But +this annotation of Cicero's poetry had not been Piso's only offence. He +had been consul at the time of the exile, and had given vent, it may be +remembered, to the witticism that the "saviour of Rome" might save the +city a second time by his absence. Cicero was not the man to forget it. +The beginning of his attack on Piso is lost, but there is quite enough +remaining. Piso was of a swarthy complexion, approaching probably to the +negro type. "Beast"--is the term by which Cicero addresses him. "Beast! +there is no mistaking the evidence of that slave-like hue, those bristly +cheeks, those discoloured fangs. Your eyes, your brows, your face, your +whole aspect, are the tacit index to your soul".[2] + +[Footnote 1: "Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea linguae".] + +[Footnote 2: Such flowers of eloquence are not encouraged at the modern +bar. But they were common enough, even in the English law-courts, in +former times. Mr. Attorney-General Coke's language to Raleigh at his +trial--"Thou viper!"--comes quite up to Cicero's. Perhaps the Irish House +of Parliament, while it existed, furnished the choicest modern specimens +of this style of oratory. Mr. O'Flanagan, in his 'Lives of the Lord +Chancellors of Ireland', tells us that a member for Galway, attacking +an opponent when he knew that his sister was present during the debate, +denounced the whole family--"from the toothless old hag that is now +grinning in the gallery, to the white-livered scoundrel that is shivering +on the floor".] + +It is not possible, within the compass of these pages, to give even +the briefest account of more than a few of the many causes (they are +twenty-four in number) in which the speeches made by Cicero, either for +the prosecution or the defence, have been preserved to us. Some of them +have more attraction for the English reader than others, either from the +facts of the case being more interesting or more easily understood, or +from their affording more opportunity for the display of the speaker's +powers. + +Mr. Fox had an intense admiration for the speech in defence of Caelius. +The opinion of one who was no mean orator himself, on his great Roman +predecessor, may be worth quoting: + +"Argumentative contention is not what he excels in; and he is never, I +think, so happy as when he has an opportunity of exhibiting a mixture of +philosophy and pleasantry, and especially when he can interpose anecdotes +and references to the authority of the eminent characters in the history +of his own country. No man appears, indeed, to have had such a real +respect for authority as he; and therefore when he speaks on that subject +he is always natural and earnest".[1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter to G. Wakefield--Correspondence, p. 35.] + +There is anecdote and pleasantry enough in this particular oration; but +the scandals of Roman society of that day, into which the defence of +Caelius was obliged to enter, are not the most edifying subject for any +readers. Caelius was a young man of "equestrian" rank, who had been a kind +of ward of Cicero's, and must have given him a good deal of trouble by his +profligate habits, if the guardianship was anything more than nominal. But +in this particular case the accusation brought against him--of trying to +murder an ambassador from Egypt by means of hired assassins, and then +to poison the lady who had lent him the money to bribe them with--was +probably untrue. Clodia, the lady in question, was the worthy sister of +the notorious Clodius, and bore as evil a reputation as it was possible +for a woman to bear in the corrupt society of Rome--which is saying a +great deal. She is the real mover in the case, though another enemy +of Caelius, the son of a man whom he had himself brought to trial for +bribery, was the ostensible prosecutor. Cicero, therefore, throughout the +whole of his speech, aims the bitter shafts of his wit and eloquence +at Clodia. His brilliant invectives against this lady, who was, as he +pointedly said, "not only noble but notorious", are not desirable to +quote. But the opening of the speech is in the advocate's best style. The +trial, it seems, took place on a public holiday, when it was not usual to +take any cause unless it were of pressing importance. + +"If any spectator be here present, gentlemen, who knows nothing of our +laws, our courts of justice, or our national customs, he will not fail to +wonder what can be the atrocious nature of this case, that on a day of +national festival and public holiday like this, when all other business in +the Forum is suspended, this single trial should be going on; and he will +entertain no doubt but that the accused is charged with a crime of +such enormity, that if it were not at once taken cognisance of, the +constitution itself would be in peril. And if he heard that there was a +law which enjoined that in the case of seditious and disloyal citizens who +should take up arms to attack the Senate-house, or use violence against +the magistrates, or levy war against the commonwealth, inquisition into +the matter should be made at once, on the very day;--he would not find +fault with such a law: he would only ask the nature of the charge. But +when he heard that it was no such atrocious crime, no treasonable attempt, +no violent outrage, which formed the subject of this trial, but that a +young man of brilliant abilities, hard-working in public life, and of +popular character, was here accused by the son of a man whom he had +himself once prosecuted, and was still prosecuting, and that all a bad +woman's wealth and influence was being used against him,--he might take no +exception to the filial zeal of Atratinus; but he would surely say that +woman's infamous revenge should be baffled and punished.... I can excuse +Atratinus; as to the other parties, they deserve neither excuse nor +forbearance". + +It was a strange story, the case for the prosecution, especially as +regarded the alleged attempt to poison Clodia. The poison was given to a +friend of Caelius, he was to give it to some slaves of Clodia whom he was +to meet at certain baths frequented by her, and they were in some way to +administer it. But the slaves betrayed the secret; and the lady employed +certain gay and profligate young men, who were hangers-on of her own, +to conceal themselves somewhere in the baths, and pounce upon Caelius's +emissary with the poison in his possession. But this scheme was said +to have failed. Clodia's detectives had rushed from their place of +concealment too soon, and the bearer of the poison escaped. The counsel +for the prisoner makes a great point of this. + +"Why, 'tis the catastrophe of a stage-play--nay, of a burlesque; when no +more artistic solution of the plot can be invented, the hero escapes, the +bell rings, and--the curtain falls! For I ask why, when Licinius was there +trembling, hesitating, retreating, trying to escape--why that lady's +body-guard let him go out of their hands? Were they afraid lest, so +many against one, such stout champions against a single helpless man, +frightened as he was and fierce as they were, they could not master him? I +should like exceedingly to see them, those curled and scented youths, the +bosom-friends of this rich and noble lady; those stout men-at-arms who +were posted by their she-captain in this ambuscade in the baths. And I +should like to ask them how they hid themselves, and where? A bath?--why, +it must rather have been a Trojan horse, which bore within its womb this +band of invincible heroes who went to war for a woman! I would make them +answer this question,--why they, being so many and so brave, did not +either seize this slight stripling, whom you see before you, where he +stood, or overtake him when he fled? They will hardly be able to explain +themselves, I fancy, if they get into that witness-box, however clever and +witty they may be at the banquet,--nay, even eloquent occasionally, no +doubt, over their wine. But the air of a court of justice is somewhat +different from that of the banquet-hall; the benches of this court are +not like the couches of a supper-table; the array of this jury presents a +different spectacle from a company of revellers; nay, the broad glare of +sunshine is harder to face than the glitter of the lamps. If they venture +into it, I shall have to strip them of their pretty conceits and fools' +gear. But, if they will be ruled by me, they will betake themselves to +another trade, win favour in another quarter, flaunt themselves elsewhere +than in this court. Let them carry their brave looks to their lady there; +let them lord it at her expense, cling to her, lie at her feet, be her +slaves; only let them make no attempt upon the life and honour of an +innocent man". + +The satellites of Clodia could scarcely have felt comfortable under this +withering fire of sarcasm. The speaker concluded with an apology--much +required--for his client's faults, as those of a young man, and a promise +on his behalf--on the faith of an advocate--that he would behave better +for the future. He wound up the whole with a point of sensational rhetoric +which was common, as has been said, to the Roman bar as to our own--an +appeal to the jurymen as fathers. He pointed to the aged father of the +defendant, leaning in the most approved attitude upon the shoulder of +his son. Either this, or the want of evidence, or the eloquence of the +pleader, had its due effect. Caelius was triumphantly acquitted; and it +is a proof that the young man was not wholly graceless, that he rose +afterwards to high public office, and never forgot his obligations to his +eloquent counsel, to whom he continued a stanch friend. He must have had +good abilities, for he was honoured with frequent letters from Cicero when +the latter was governor of Cilicia. He kept up some of his extravagant +tastes; for when he was Aedile (which involved the taking upon him the +expense of certain gladiatorial and wild-beast exhibitions), he wrote to +beg his friend to send him out of his province some panthers for his +show. Cicero complied with the request, and took the opportunity, so +characteristic of him, of lauding his own administration of Cilicia, and +making a kind of pun at the same time. "I have given orders to the hunters +to see about the panthers; but panthers are very scarce, and the few there +are complain, people say, that in the whole province there are no traps +laid for anybody but for them". Catching and skinning the unfortunate +provincials, which had been a favourite sport with governors like Verres, +had been quite done away with in Cilicia, we are to understand, under +Cicero's rule. + +His defence of Ligarius, who was impeached of treason against the state +in the person of Caesar, as having borne arms against him in his African +campaign, has also been deservedly admired. There was some courage in +Cicero's undertaking his defence; as a known partisan of Pompey, he was +treading on dangerous and delicate ground. Caesar was dictator at the +time; and the case seems to have been tried before him as the sole +judicial authority, without pretence of the intervention of anything like +a jury. The defence--if defence it may be called--is a remarkable instance +of the common appeal, not to the merits of the case, but to the feelings +of the court. After making out what case he could for his client, the +advocate as it were throws up his brief, and rests upon the clemency of +the judge. Caesar himself, it must be remembered, had begun public life, +like Cicero, as a pleader: and, in the opinion of some competent judges, +such as Tacitus and Quintilian, had bid fair to be a close rival. + +"I have pleaded many causes, Caesar--some, indeed, in association with +yourself, while your public career spared you to the courts; but surely I +never yet used language of this sort,--'Pardon him, sirs, he has offended: +he has made a false step: he did not think to do it; he never will again'. +This is language we use to a father. To the court it must be,--'He did +not do it: he never contemplated it: the evidence is false; the charge is +fabricated'. If you tell me you sit but as the judge of the fact in this +case, Caesar,--if you ask me where and when he served against you,--I am +silent; I will not now dwell on the extenuating circumstances, which even +before a judicial tribunal might have their weight. We take this course +before a judge, but I am here pleading to a father. 'I have erred--I have +done wrong, I am sorry: I take refuge in your clemency; I ask forgiveness +for my fault; I pray you, pardon me'.... There is nothing so popular, +believe me, sir, as kindness; of all your many virtues none wins men's +admiration and their love like mercy. In nothing do men reach so near the +gods, as when they can give life and safety to mankind. Fortune has given +you nothing more glorious than the power, your own nature can supply +nothing more noble than the will, to spare and pardon wherever you can. +The case perhaps demands a longer advocacy--your gracious disposition +feels it too long already. So I make an end, preferring for my cause that +you should argue with your own heart, than that I or any other should +argue with you. I will urge nothing more than this,--the grace which you +shall extend to my client in his absence, will be felt as a boon by all +here present". + +The great conqueror was, it is said, visibly affected by the appeal, and +Ligarius was pardoned. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +MINOR CHARACTERISTICS. + +Not content with his triumphs in prose, Cicero had always an ambition--to +be a poet. Of his attempts in this way we have only some imperfect +fragments, scattered here and there through his other works, too scanty +to form any judgment upon. His poetical ability is apt to be unfairly +measured by two lines which his opponents were very fond of quoting and +laughing at, and which for that reason have become the best known. But it +is obvious that if Wordsworth or Tennyson were to be judged solely by a +line or two picked out by an unfavourable reviewer--say from 'Peter Bell' +or from the early version of the 'Miller's Daughter'--posterity would have +a very mistaken appreciation of their merits. Plutarch and the younger +Pliny, who had seen more of Cicero's poetry than we have, thought highly +of it. So he did himself; but so it was his nature to think of most of his +own performances; and such an estimate is common to other authors besides +Cicero, though few announce it so openly. Montaigne takes him to task for +this, with more wit, perhaps, than fairness. "It is no great fault to +write poor verses; but it is a fault not to be able to see how unworthy +such poor verses were of his reputation". Voltaire, on the other hand, who +was perhaps as good a judge, thought there was "nothing more beautiful" +than some of the fragments of his poem on 'Marius', who was the ideal hero +of his youth. Perhaps the very fact, however, of none of his poems having +been preserved, is some argument that such poetic gift as he had was +rather facility than genius. He wrote, besides this poem on 'Marius', a +'History of my Consulship', and a 'History of my Own Times', in verse, and +some translations from Homer. + +He had no notion of what other men called relaxation: he found his own +relaxation in a change of work. He excuses himself in one of his orations +for this strange taste, as it would seem to the indolent and luxurious +Roman nobles with whom he was so unequally yoked. + +"Who after all shall blame me, or who has any right to be angry with me, +if the time which is not grudged to others for managing their private +business, for attending public games and festivals, for pleasures of any +other kind,--nay, even for very rest of mind and body,--the time +which others give to convivial meetings, to the gaming-table, to the +tennis-court,--this much I take for myself, for the resumption of my +favourite studies?" + +In this indefatigable appetite for work of all kinds, he reminds us of no +modern politician so much as of Sir George Cornewall Lewis; yet he would +not have altogether agreed with him in thinking that life would be very +tolerable if it were not for its amusements. He was, as we have seen, of a +naturally social disposition. "I like a dinner-party", he says in a letter +to one of his friends; "where I can say just what comes uppermost, and +turn my sighs and sorrows into a hearty laugh. I doubt whether you are +much better yourself, when you can laugh as you did even at a philosopher. +When the man asked--'Whether anybody wanted to know anything?' you said +you had been wanting to know all day when it would be dinner-time. The +fellow expected you to say you wanted to know how many worlds there were, +or something of that kind".[1] + +[Footnote 1: These professional philosophers, at literary dinner-parties, +offered to discuss and answer any question propounded by the company.] + +He is said to have been a great laugher. Indeed, he confesses honestly +that the sense of humour was very powerful with him--"I am wonderfully +taken by anything comic", he writes to one of his friends. He reckons +humour also as a useful ally to the orator. "A happy jest or facetious +turn is not only pleasant, but also highly useful occasionally;" but he +adds that this is an accomplishment which must come naturally, and cannot +be taught under any possible system.[1] There is at least sufficient +evidence that he was much given to making jokes, and some of them which +have come down to us would imply that a Roman audience was not very +critical on this point. There is an air of gravity about all courts of +justice which probably makes a very faint amount of jocularity hailed as a +relief. Even in an English law-court, a joke from the bar, much more from +the bench, does not need to be of any remarkable brilliancy in order to be +secure of raising a laugh; and we may fairly suppose that the same was the +case at Rome. Cicero's jokes were frequently nothing more than puns, which +it would be impossible, even if it were worth while, to reproduce to an +English ear. Perhaps the best, or at all events the most intelligible, is +his retort to Hortensius during the trial of Verres. The latter was said +to have feed his counsel out of his Sicilian spoils--especially, there was +a figure of a sphinx, of some artistic value, which had found its way from +the house of the ex-governor into that of Hortensius. Cicero was putting +a witness through a cross-examination of which his opponent could not see +the bearing. "I do not understand all this", said Hortensius; "I am no +hand at solving riddles". "That is strange, too", rejoined Cicero, "when +you have a sphinx at home". In the same trial he condescended, in the +midst of that burning eloquence of which we have spoken, to make two puns +on the defendant's name. The word "_Verres_" had two meanings in +the old Latin tongue: it signified a "boar-pig", and also a "broom" or +"sweeping-brush". One of Verres's friends, who either was or had the +reputation of being a Jew, had tried to get the management of the +prosecution out of Cicero's hands. "What has a Jew to do with +_pork_?" asked the orator. Speaking, in the course of the same trial, +of the way in which the governor had made "requisitions" of all the most +valuable works of art throughout the island, "the broom", said he, "swept +clean". He did not disdain the comic element in poetry more than in prose; +for we find in Quinitilian [2] a quotation from a punning epigram in some +collection of such trifles which in his time bore Cicero's name. Tiro is +said to have collected and published three volumes of his master's good +things after his death; but if they were not better than those which have +come down to us, as contained in his other writings, there has been no +great loss to literature in Tiro's 'Ciceroniana'. He knew one secret at +least of a successful humourist in society: for it is to him that we +owe the first authoritative enunciation of a rule which is universally +admitted--"that a jest never has so good an effect as when it is uttered +with a serious countenance". + +[Footnote 1: De Orat. II. 54.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Libellus Jocularis', Quint. viii. 6.] + +Cicero had a wonderful admiration for the Greeks. "I am not ashamed to +confess", he writes to his brother, "especially since my life and career +have been such that no suspicion of indolence or want of energy can rest +upon me, that all my own attainments are due to those studies and those +accomplishments which have been handed down to us in the literary +treasures and the philosophical systems of the Greeks". It was no mere +rhetorical outburst, when in his defence of Valerius Flaccus, accused +like Verres, whether truly or falsely, of corrupt administration in his +province, he thus introduced the deputation from Athens and Lacedaemon who +appeared as witnesses to the character of his client. + +"Athenians are here to-day, amongst whom civilisation, learning, religion, +agriculture, public law and justice, had their birth, and whence they have +been disseminated over all the world: for the possession of whose city, +on account of its exceeding beauty, even gods are said to have contended: +which is of such antiquity, that she is said to have bred her citizens +within herself, and the same soil is termed at once their mother, their +nurse, and their country: whose importance and influence is such that the +name of Greece, though it has lost much of its weight and power, still +holds its place by virtue of the renown of this single city". + +He had forgotten, perhaps, as an orator is allowed to forget, that in the +very same speech, when his object was to discredit the accusers of his +client, he had said, what was very commonly said of the Greeks at Rome, +that they were a nation of liars. There were excellent men among them, he +allowed--thinking at the moment of the counter-evidence which he had ready +for the defendant--but he goes on to make this sweeping declaration: + +"I will say this of the whole race of the Greeks: I grant them literary +genius, I grant them skill in various accomplishments, I do not deny them +elegance in conversation, acuteness of intellect, fluent oratory; to any +other high qualities they may claim I make no objection: but the sacred +obligation that lies upon a witness to speak the truth is what that nation +has never regarded".[1] + +[Footnote 1: Defence of Val. Flaccus, c. 4.] + +There was a certain proverb, he went on to say, "Lend me your evidence", +implying--"and you shall have mine when you want it;" a Greek proverb, of +course, and men knew these three words of Greek who knew no Greek besides. +What he loved in the Greeks, then, was rather the grandeur of their +literature and the charm of their social qualities (a strict regard for +truth is, unhappily, no indispensable ingredient in this last); he had no +respect whatever for their national character. The orator was influenced, +perhaps, most of all by his intense reverence for the Athenian +Demosthenes, whom, as a master in his art, he imitated and well-nigh +worshipped. The appreciation of his own powers which every able man has, +and of which Cicero had at least his share, fades into humility when he +comes to speak of his great model. "Absolutely perfect", he calls him in +one place; and again in another, "What I have attempted, Demosthenes has +achieved". Yet he felt also at times, when the fervour of genius was +strong within him, that there was an ideal of eloquence enshrined in his +own inmost mind, "which I can _feel_", he says, "but which I never +knew to exist in any man". + +He could not only write Greek as a scholar, but seems to have spoken it +with considerable ease and fluency; for on one occasion he made a speech +in that language, a condescension which some of his friends thought +derogatory to the dignity of a Roman. + +From the Greeks he learnt to appreciate art. How far his taste was really +cultivated in this respect is difficult for us to judge. Some passages +in his letters to Atticus might lead us to suspect that, as Disraeli +concludes, he was rather a collector than a real lover of art. His appeals +to his friend to buy up for him everything and anything, and his surrender +of himself entirely to Atticus's judgment in such purchases, do not +bespeak a highly critical taste. In a letter to another friend, he seems +to say that he only bought statuary as "furniture" for the gymnasium at +his country-seat; and he complains that four figures of Bacchanals, which +this friend had just bought for him, had cost more than he would care to +give for all the statues that ever were made. On the other hand, when he +comes to deal with Verres's wholesale plunder of paintings and statues in +Sicily, he talks about the several works with considerable enthusiasm. +Either he really understood his subject, or, like an able advocate, he +had thoroughly got up his brief. But the art-notices which are scattered +through his works show a considerable acquaintance with the artist-world +of his day. He tells us, in his own admirable style, the story of Zeuxis, +and the selection which he made from all the beauties of Crotona, in +order to combine their several points of perfection in his portrait of +Helen; he refers more than once, and always in language which implies an +appreciation of the artist, to the works of Phidias, especially that +which is said to have cost him his life--the shield of Minerva; and he +discusses, though it is but by way of illustration, the comparative +points of merit in the statues of Calamis, and Myron, and Polycletus, +and in the paintings of the earlier schools of Zeuxis, Polygnotus, and +Timanthes, with their four primitive colours, as compared with the more +finished schools of Protogenes and Apelles. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +CICERO'S CORRESPONDENCE. + + +I. ATTICUS. + +It seems wonderful how, in the midst of all his work, Cicero found time to +keep up such a voluminous correspondence. Something like eight hundred of +his letters still remain to us, and there were whole volumes of them long +preserved which are now lost,[1] to say nothing of the very many which may +never have been thought worth preserving. The secret lay in his wonderful +energy and activity. We find him writing letters before day-break, during +the service of his meals, on his journeys, and dictating them to an +amanuensis as he walked up and down to take needful exercise. + +[Footnote 1: Collections of his letters to Caesar, Brutus, Cornelius Nepos +the historian, Hirtius, Pansa, and to his son, are known to have existed.] + +His correspondents were of almost all varieties of position and character, +from Caesar and Pompey, the great men of the day, down to his domestic +servant and secretary, Tiro. Amongst them were rich and ease-loving +Epicureans like Atticus and Paetus, and even men of pleasure like Caelius: +grave Stoics like Cato, eager patriots like Brutus and Cassius, authors +such as Cornelius Nepos and Lucceius the historians, Varro the grammarian, +and Metius the poet; men who dabbled with literature in a gentleman-like +way, like Hirtius and Appius, and the accomplished literary critic and +patron of the day--himself of no mean reputation as poet, orator, and +historian--Caius Asinius Pollio. Cicero's versatile powers found no +difficulty in suiting the contents of his own letters to the various +tastes and interests of his friends. Sometimes he sends to his +correspondent what was in fact a political journal of the day--rather +one-sided, it must be confessed, as all political journals are, but +furnishing us with items of intelligence which throw light, as nothing +else can, on the history of those latter days of the Republic. Sometimes +he jots down the mere gossip of his last dinner-party; sometimes he +notices the speculations of the last new theorist in philosophy, or +discusses with a literary friend some philological question--the latter +being a study in which he was very fond of dabbling, though with little +success, for the science of language was as yet unknown. + +His chief correspondent, as has been said, was his old school-fellow and +constant friend through life, Pomponius Atticus. The letters addressed to +him which still remain to us cover a period of twenty-four years, with +a few occasional interruptions, and the correspondence only ceased with +Cicero's death. The Athenianised Roman, though he had deliberately +withdrawn himself from the distracting factions of his native city, which +he seldom revisited, kept on the best terms with the leaders of all +parties, and seems to have taken a very lively interest, though merely in +the character of a looker-on, in the political events which crowded so +fast upon each other during the fifty years of his voluntary expatriation. +Cicero's letters were to him what an English newspaper would be now to an +English gentleman who for his own reasons preferred to reside in Paris, +without forswearing his national interests and sympathies. At times, when +Cicero was more at leisure, and when messengers were handy (for we have +to remember that there was nothing like our modern post), Cicero would +despatch one of these letters to Atticus daily. We have nearly four +hundred of them in all. They are continually garnished, even to the point +of affectation, with Greek quotations and phrases, partly perhaps in +compliment to his friend's Athenian tastes, and partly from the writer's +own passion for the language. + +So much reference has been made to them throughout the previous +biographical sketch,--for they supply us with some of the most important +materials for Cicero's life and times,--that it may be sufficient to give +in this place two or three of the shorter as specimens of the collection. +One which describes a visit which he received from Julius Caesar, already +dictator, in his country-house near Puteoli, is interesting, as affording +a glimpse behind the scenes in those momentous days when no one knew +exactly whether the great captain was to turn out a patriot or a +conspirator against the liberties of Rome. + +"To think that I should have had such a tremendous visitor! But never +mind; for all went off very pleasantly. But when he arrived at Philippus's +house[1] on the evening of the second day of the Saturnalia, the place was +so full of soldiers that they could hardly find a spare table for Caesar +himself to dine at. There were two thousand men. Really I was in a state +of perplexity as to what was to be done next day: but Barba Cassius came +to my aid,--he supplied me with a guard. They pitched their tents in the +grounds, and the house was protected. He stayed with Philippus until one +o'clock on the third day of the Saturnalia, and would see no one. Going +over accounts, I suppose, with Balbus. Then he walked on the sea-shore. +After two he had a bath: then he listened to some verses on Mamurra, +without moving a muscle of his countenance: then dressed,[2] and sat down +to dinner. He had taken a precautionary emetic, and therefore ate and +drank heartily and unrestrainedly. We had, I assure you, a very good +dinner, and well served; and not only that, but + + 'The feast of reason and the flow of soul'[3] + +besides. His suite were abundantly supplied at three other tables: the +freedmen of lower rank, and even the slaves, were well taken care of. The +higher class had really an elegant entertainment. Well, no need to make a +long story; we found we were both 'flesh and blood'. Still he is not the +kind of guest to whom you would say--'Now do, pray, take us in your way on +your return'. Once is enough. We had no conversation on business, but a +good deal of literary talk. In short, he seemed to be much pleased, and to +enjoy himself. He said he should stay one day at Puteoli, and another at +Baiae. So here you have an account of this visit, or rather quartering of +troops upon me, which I disliked the thoughts of, but which really, as I +have said, gave me no annoyance. I shall stay here a little longer, then +go to my house at Tusculum. When Caesar passed Dolabella's villa, all +the troops formed up on the right and left of his horse, which they did +nowhere else.[4] I heard that from Nicias". + +[Footnote 1: This was close to Cicero's villa, on the coast.] + +[Footnote 2: Literally, "he got himself oiled". The emetic was a +disgusting practice of Roman _bon vivants_ who were afraid of +indigestion.] + +[Footnote 3: The verse which Cicero quotes from Lucilius is fairly +equivalent to this.] + +[Footnote 4: Probably by way of salute; or possibly as a precaution.] + +In the following, he is anticipating a visit from his friend, and from the +lady to whom he is betrothed. + +"I had a delightful visit from Cincius on the 30th of January, before +daylight. For he told me that you were in Italy, and that he was going +to send off some messengers to you, and would not let them go without a +letter from me. Not that I have much to write about (especially when +you are all but here), except to assure you that I am anticipating your +arrival with the greatest delight. Therefore fly to me, to show your own +affection, and to see what affection I bear you. Other matters when we +meet. I have written this in a hurry. As soon as ever you arrive, bring +all your people to my house. You will gratify me very much by coming. You +will see how wonderfully well Tyrrannio has arranged my books, the remains +of which are much better than I had thought. And I should be very glad if +you could send me a couple of your library clerks whom Tyrrannio could +make use of as binders, and to help him in other ways; and tell them to +bring some parchment to make indices--syllabuses, I believe you Greeks +call them. But this only if quite convenient to you. But, at any rate, be +sure you come yourself, if you can make any stay in our parts, and bring +Pilia with you, for that is but fair, and Tullia wishes it much. Upon my +word you have bought a very fine place. I hear that your gladiators fight +capitally. If you had cared to hire them out, you might have cleared +your expenses at these two last public shows. But we can talk about this +hereafter. Be sure to come; and do your best about the clerks, if you love +me". + +The Roman gentleman of elegant and accomplished tastes, keeping a troop of +private gladiators, and thinking of hiring them out, to our notions, is a +curious combination of character; but the taste was not essentially more +brutal than the prize-ring and the cock-fights of the last century. + + +II. PAETUS. + +Another of Cicero's favourite correspondents was Papirius Paetus, who +seems to have lived at home at ease, and taken little part in the +political tumults of his day. Like Atticus, he was an Epicurean, and +thought more of the pleasures of life than of its cares and duties. Yet +Cicero evidently took great pleasure in his society, and his letters to +him are written in the same familiar and genial tone as those to his old +school-fellow. Some of them throw a pleasant light upon the social +habits of the day. Cicero had had some friends staying with him at his +country-seat at Tusculum, to whom, he says, he had been giving lessons in +oratory. Dolabella, his son-in-law, and Hirtius, the future consul, were +among them. "They are my scholars in declamation, and I am theirs in +dinner-eating; for I conclude you have heard (you seem to hear everything) +that they come to me to declaim, and I go to them for dinners. 'Tis all +very well for you to swear that you cannot entertain me in such grand +fashion as I am used to, but it is of use.... Better be victimised by your +friend than by your debtors, as you have been. After all, I don't require +such a banquet as leaves a great waste behind it; a little will do, only +handsomely served and well cooked. I remember your telling me about a +dinner of Phamea's--well, it need not be such a late affair as that, nor +so grand in other respects; nay, if you persist in giving me one of your +mother's old family dinners, I can stand even that. My new reputation +for good living has reached you, I find, before my arrival, and you are +alarmed at it; but, pray, put no trust in your ante-courses--I have given +up that altogether. I used to spoil my appetite, I remember, upon your oil +and sliced sausages.... One expense I really shall put you to; I must have +my warm bath. My other habits, I assure you, are quite unaltered; all the +rest is joke". + +Paetus seems to answer him with the same good-humoured badinage. Balbus, +the governor of Africa, had been to see him, he says, and _he_ had +been content with such humble fare as he feared Cicero might despise. So +much, at least, we may gather from Cicero's answer. + +"Satirical as ever, I see. You say Balbus was content with very modest +fare. You seem to insinuate that when grandees are so moderate, much more +ought a poor ex-consul like myself so to be. You don't know that I fished +it all out of your visitor himself, for he came straight to my house on +his landing. The very first words I said to him were, 'How did you get on +with our friend Paetus?' He swore he had never been better entertained. +If this referred to the charms of your conversation, remember, I shall +be quite as appreciative a listener as Balbus; but if it meant the good +things on the table, I must beg you will not treat us men of eloquence +worse than you do a 'Lisper'".[1] + +[Footnote 1: One of Cicero's puns. Balbus means 'Lisper'.] + +They carry on this banter through several letters. Cicero regrets that he +has been unable as yet to pay his threatened visit, when his friend would +have seen what advances he had made in gastronomic science. He was +able now to eat through the whole bill of fare--"from the eggs to the +_roti_". + +"I [Stoic that used to be] have gone over with my whole forces into the +camp of Epicurus. You will have to do with a man who can eat, and who +knows what's what. You know how conceited we late learners are, as the +proverb says. You will have to unlearn those little 'plain dinners' and +makeshifts of yours. We have made such advances in the art, that we +have been venturing to invite, more than once, your friends Verrius and +Camillus (what elegant and fastidious gentlemen they are!). But see how +audacious we are getting! I have even given Hirtius a dinner--but without +a peacock. My cook could imitate nothing in his entertainments except the +hot soup". + +Then he hears that his friend is in bed with the gout. + +"I am extremely sorry to hear it, as in duty bound; still, I am quite +determined to come, that I may see you, and pay my visit,--yes, and have +my dinner: for I suppose your cook has not got the gout as well". + +Such were the playful epistles of a busy man. But even in some of these +lightest effusions we see the cares of the statesman showing through. Here +is a portion of a later letter to the same friend. + +"I am very much concerned to hear you have given up going out to +dinner; for it is depriving yourself of a great source of enjoyment and +gratification. Then, again, I am afraid--for it is as well to speak +honestly--lest you should unlearn certain old habits of yours, and forget +to give your own little dinners. For if formerly, when you had good +examples to imitate, you were still not much of a proficient in that way, +how can I suppose you will get on now? Spurina, indeed, when I mentioned +the thing to him, and explained your previous habits, proved to +demonstration that there would be danger to the highest interests of the +state if you did not return to your old ways in the spring. But indeed, my +good Paetus, I advise you, joking apart, to associate with good fellows, +and pleasant fellows, and men who are fond of you. There is nothing better +worth having in life, nothing that makes life more happy.... See how I +employ philosophy to reconcile you to dinner-parties. Take care of your +health; and that you will best do by going out to dinner.... But don't +imagine, as you love me, that because I write jestingly I have thrown off +all anxiety about public affairs. Be assured, my dear Paetus, that I seek +nothing and care for nothing, night or day, but how my country may be kept +safe and free. I omit no opportunity of advising, planning, or acting. I +feel in my heart that if in securing this I have to lay down my life, I +shall have ended it well and honourably". + + +III. HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. + +Between Marcus Cicero and his younger brother Quintus there existed a very +sincere and cordial affection--somewhat warmer, perhaps, on the side of +the elder, inasmuch as his wealth and position enabled him rather to +confer than to receive kindnesses; the rule in such cases being (so +cynical philosophers tell us) that the affection is lessened rather than +increased by the feeling of obligation. He almost adopted the younger +Quintus, his nephew, and had him educated with his own son; and the two +cousins received their earlier training together in one or other of Marcus +Cicero's country-houses under a clever Greek freedman of his, who was an +excellent scholar, and--what was less usual amongst his countrymen, unless +Cicero's estimate of them does them great injustice--a very honest man, +but, as the two boys complained, terribly passionate. Cicero himself, +however, was the head tutor--an office for which, as he modestly writes, +his Greek studies fully qualified him. Quintus Cicero behaved ill to his +brother after the battle of Pharsalia, making what seem to have been very +unjust accusations against him in order to pay court to Caesar; but they +soon became friends again. + +Twenty-nine of the elder Cicero's letters to his brother remain, written +in terms of remarkable kindness and affection, which go far to vindicate +the Roman character from a charge which has sometimes been brought against +it of coldness in these family relationships. Few modern brothers, +probably, would write to each other in such terms as these: + +"Afraid lest your letters bother me? I wish you would bother me, and +re-bother me, and talk to me and at me; for what can give me more +pleasure? I swear that no muse-stricken rhymester ever reads his own last +poem with more delight than I do what you write to me about matters +public or private, town or country. Here now is a letter from you full of +pleasant matter, but with this dash of the disagreeable in it, that you +have been afraid--nay, are even now afraid--of being troublesome to me. +I could quarrel with you about it, if that were not a sin. But if I have +reason to suspect anything of that sort again, I can only say that I shall +always be afraid lest, when we are together, I may be troublesome to you". + +Or take, again, the pathetic apology which he makes for having avoided an +interview with Quintus in those first days of his exile when he was so +thoroughly unmanned: + +"My brother, my brother, my brother! Did you really fear that I was angry, +because I sent off the slaves without any letter to you? And did you even +think that I was unwilling to see you? I angry with you? Could I possibly +be angry with you?... When I miss you, it is not a brother only that I +miss. To me you have always been the pleasantest of companions, a son in +dutiful affection, a father in counsel. What pleasure ever had I without +you, or you without me?" + +Quintus had accompanied Caesar on his expedition into Britain as one +of his lieutenants, and seems to have written home to his brother some +notices of the country; to which the latter, towards the end of his reply, +makes this allusion: + +"How delighted I was to get your letter from Britain! I had been afraid of +the voyage across, afraid of the rock-bound coast of the island. The other +dangers of such a campaign I do not mean to despise, but in these there is +more to hope than to fear, and I have been rather anxiously expecting the +result than in any real alarm about it. I see you have a capital subject +to write about. What novel scenery, what natural curiosities and +remarkable places, what strange tribes and strange customs, what a +campaign, and what a commander you have to describe! I will willingly help +you in the points you request, and I will send you the verses you ask +for--though it is sending 'an owl to Athens',[1] I know". + +[Footnote 1: A Greek proverb, equivalent to our 'coals to Newcastle'.] + +In another letter he says, "Only give me Britain to paint with your +colours and my own pencil". But either the Britons of those days did not, +after all, seem to afford sufficient interest for poem or history, or for +some other reason this joint literary undertaking, which seems once to +have been contemplated, was never carried out, and we have missed what +would beyond doubt have been a highly interesting volume of Sketches in +Britain by the brothers Cicero. + +Quintus was a poet, as well as his brother--nay, a better poet, in the +latter's estimation, or at least he was polite enough to say so more than +once. In quantity, at least, if not in quality, the younger must have been +a formidable rival, for he wrote, as appears from one of these letters, +four tragedies in fifteen days--possibly translations only from the Greek. + +One of the most remarkable of all Cicero's letters, and perhaps that which +does him most credit both as a man and a statesman, is one which he wrote +to his brother, who was at the time governor of Asia. Indeed, it is much +more than a letter; it is rather a grave and carefully weighed paper +of instructions on the duties of such a position. It is full of sound +practical sense, and lofty principles of statesmanship--very different +from the principles which too commonly ruled the conduct of Roman +governors abroad. The province which had fallen to the lot of Quintus +Cicero was one of the richest belonging to the Empire, and which presented +the greatest temptations and the greatest facilities for the abuse of +power to selfish purposes. Though called Asia, it consisted only of the +late kingdom of Pergamus, and had come under the dominion of Rome, not by +conquest, as was the case with most of the provinces, but by way of legacy +from Attalus, the last of its kings; who, after murdering most of his own +relations, had named the Roman people as his heirs. The seat of government +was at Ephesus. The population was of a very mixed character, consisting +partly of true Asiatics, and partly of Asiatic Greeks, the descendants of +the old colonists, and containing also a large Roman element--merchants +who were there for purposes of trade, many of them bankers and +money-lenders, and speculators who farmed the imperial taxes, and were +by no means scrupulous in the matter of fleecing the provincials. These +latter--the 'Publicani', as they were termed--might prove very dangerous +enemies to any too zealous reformer. If the Roman governor there really +wished to do his duty, what with the combined servility and double-dealing +of the Orientals, the proverbial lying of the Greeks, and the grasping +injustice of the Roman officials, he had a very difficult part to play. +How Quintus had been playing it is not quite clear. His brother, in this +admirable letter, assumes that he had done all that was right, and urges +him to maintain the same course. But the advice would hardly have been +needed if all had gone well hitherto. + +"You will find little trouble in holding your subordinates in check, if +you can but keep a check upon yourself. So long as you resist gain, and +pleasure, and all other temptations, as I am sure you do, I cannot fancy +there will be any danger of your not being able to check a dishonest +merchant or an extortionate collector. For even the Greeks, when they see +you living thus, will look upon you as some hero from their old annals, or +some supernatural being from heaven, come down into their province. + +"I write thus, not to urge you so to act, but that you may congratulate +yourself upon having so acted, now and heretofore. For it is a glorious +thing for a man to have held a government for three years in Asia, in such +sort that neither statue, nor painting, nor work of art of any kind, +nor any temptations of wealth or beauty (in all which temptations your +province abounds) could draw you from the strictest integrity and +self-control: that your official progresses should have been no cause +of dread to the inhabitants, that none should be impoverished by your +requisitions, none terrified at the news of your approach;--but that +you should have brought with you, wherever you came, the most hearty +rejoicings, public and private, inasmuch as every town saw in you a +protector and not a tyrant--every family received you as a guest, not as a +plunderer. + +"But in these points, as experience has by this time taught you, it is not +enough for you to have these virtues yourself, but you must look to it +carefully, that in this guardianship of the province not you alone, but +every officer under you, discharges his duty to our subjects, to our +fellow-citizens, and to the state.... If any of your subordinates seem +grasping for his own interest, you may venture to bear with him so long +as he merely neglects the rules by which he ought to be personally bound; +never so far as to allow him to abuse for his own gain the power with +which you have intrusted him to maintain the dignity of his office. For +I do not think it well, especially since the customs of official life +incline so much of late to laxity and corrupt influence, that you should +scrutinise too closely every abuse, or criticise too strictly every one of +your officers, but rather place trust in each in proportion as you feel +confidence in his integrity. + +"For those whom the state has assigned you as companions and assistants +in public business, you are answerable only within the limits I have just +laid down; but for those whom you have chosen to associate with yourself +as members of your private establishment and personal suite, you will be +held responsible not only for all they do, but for all they say.... + +"Your ears should be supposed to hear only what you publicly listen to, +not to be open to every secret and false whisper for the sake of private +gain. Your official seal should be not as a mere common tool, but as +though it were yourself; not the instrument of other men's wills, but the +evidence of your own. Your officers should be the agents of your clemency, +not of their own caprice; and the rods and axes which they bear should be +the emblems of your dignity, not merely of your power. In short, the whole +province should feel that the persons, the families, the reputation, and +the fortunes of all over whom you rule, are held by you very precious. Let +it be well understood that you will hold that man as much your enemy who +gives a bribe, if it comes to your knowledge, as the man who receives it. +But no one will offer bribes, if this be once made clear, that those who +pretend to have influence of this kind with you have no power, after all, +to gain any favour for others at your hands. + + * * * * * + +"Let such, then, be the foundations of your dignity;--first, integrity and +self-control on your own part; a becoming behaviour on the part of all +about you; a very careful and circumspect selection of your intimates, +whether Greeks or provincials; a grave and firm discipline maintained +throughout your household. For if such conduct befits us in our private +and everyday relations, it becomes well-nigh godlike in a government of +such extent, in a state of morals so depraved, and in a province which +presents so many temptations. Such a line of conduct and such rules will +alone enable you to uphold that severity in your decisions and decrees +which you have employed in some cases, and by which we have incurred (and +I cannot regret it) the jealousy of certain interested parties.... You may +safely use the utmost strictness in the administration of justice, so long +as it is not capricious or partial, but maintained at the same level for +all. Yet it will be of little use that your own decisions be just and +carefully weighed, unless the same course be pursued by all to whom you +delegate any portion of your judicial authority. Such firmness and dignity +must be employed as may not only be above partiality, but above the +suspicion of it. To this must be added readiness to give audience, +calmness in deciding, care in weighing the merits of the case and in +satisfying the claims of the parties". + +Yet he advises that justice should be tempered with leniency. + +"If such moderation be popular at Rome, where there is so much +self-assertion, such unbridled freedom, so much licence allowed to all +men;--where there are so many courts of appeal open, so many means +of help, where the people have so much power and the Senate so much +authority; how grateful beyond measure will moderation be in the governor +of Asia, a province where all that vast number of our fellow-citizens and +subjects, all those numerous states and cities, hang upon one man's nod! +where there is no appeal to the tribune, no remedy at law, no Senate, no +popular assembly. Wherefore it should be the aim of a great man, and one +noble by nature and trained by education and liberal studies, so to behave +himself in the exercise of that absolute power, as that they over whom +he presides should never have cause to wish for any authority other than +his". + + +IV. TIRO. + +Of all Cicero's correspondence, his letters to Tiro supply the most +convincing evidence of his natural kindness of heart. Tiro was a slave; +but this must be taken with some explanation. The slaves in a household +like Cicero's would vary in position from the lowest menial to the +important major-domo and the confidential secretary. Tiro was of this +higher class. He had probably been born and brought up in the service, +like Eliezer in the household of Abraham, and had become, like him, the +trusted agent of his master and the friend of the whole family. He was +evidently a person of considerable ability and accomplishments, acting as +literary amanuensis, and indeed in some sort as a domestic critic, to his +busy master. He had accompanied him to his government in Cilicia, and +on the return home had been taken ill, and obliged to be left behind at +Patrae. And this is Cicero's affectionate letter to him, written from +Leucas (Santa Maura) the day afterwards: + +"I thought I could have borne the separation from you better, but it is +plainly impossible; and although it is of great importance to the honours +which I am expecting[1] that I should get to Rome as soon as possible, yet +I feel I made a great mistake in leaving you behind. But as it seemed to +be your wish not to make the voyage until your health was restored, I +approved your decision. Nor do I think otherwise now, if you are still of +the same opinion. But if hereafter, when you are able to eat as usual, you +think you can follow me here, it is for you to decide. I sent Mario to +you, telling him either to join me with you as soon as possible, or, if +you are delayed, to come back here at once. But be assured of this, that +if it can be so without risk to your health, there is nothing I wish so +much as to have you with me. Only, if you feel it necessary for your +recovery to stay a little longer at Patrae, there is nothing I wish so +much as for you to get well. If you sail at once, you will catch us at +Leucas. But if you want to get well first, take care to secure pleasant +companions, fine weather, and a good ship. Mind this, my good Tiro, if you +love me--let neither Mario's visit nor this letter hurry you. By doing +what is best for your own health, you will be best obeying my directions. +Consider these points with your usual good sense. I miss you very much; +but then I love you, and my affection makes me wish to see you well, just +as my want of you makes me long to see you as soon as possible. But the +first point is the most important. Above all, therefore, take care to +get well: of all your innumerable services to me, this will be the most +acceptable". + +[Footnote 1: The triumph for the victory gained under his nominal command +over the hill-tribes in Cilicia, during his governorship of that province +(p. 68).] + +Cicero writes to him continually during his own journey homewards with the +most thoughtful kindness, begs that he will be cautious as to what vessel +he sails in, and recommends specially one very careful captain. He has +left a horse and a mule ready for him when he lands at Brundusium. Then he +hears that Tiro had been foolish enough to go to a concert, or something +of the kind, before he was strong, for which he mildly reproves him. He +has written to the physician to spare no care or pains, and to charge, +apparently, what he pleases. Several of his letters to his friend Atticus, +at this date, speak in the most anxious and affectionate terms of the +serious illness of this faithful servant. Just as he and his party are +starting from Leucas, they send a note "from Cicero and his son, and +Quintus the elder and younger, to their best and kindest Tiro". Then from +Rome comes a letter in the name of the whole family, wife and daughter +included: + +"Marcus Tullius Cicero, and Cicero the younger, and Terentia, and Tullia, +and Brother Quintus, and Quintus's Son, to Tiro send greeting. + +"Although I miss your able and willing service every moment, still it is +not on my own account so much as yours that I am sorry you are not well. +But as your illness has now taken the form of a quartan fever (for so +Curius writes), I hope, if you take care of yourself, you will soon be +stronger. Only be sure, if you have any kindness for me, not to trouble +yourself about anything else just now, except how to get well as soon +as may be. I am quite aware how much you regret not being with me; but +everything will go right if you get well. I would not have you hurry, +or undergo the annoyance of sea-sickness while you are weak, or risk a +sea-voyage in winter". Then he tells him all the news from Rome; how +there had been quite an ovation on his arrival there; how Caesar was (he +thought) growing dangerous to the state; and how his own coveted "triumph" +was still postponed. "All this", he says, "I thought you would like to +know". Then he concludes: "Over and over again, I beg you to take care +to get well, and to send me a letter whenever you have an opportunity. +Farewell, again and again". + +Tiro got well, and outlived his kind master, who, very soon after this, +presented him with his freedom. It is to him that we are said to be +indebted for the preservation and publication of Cicero's correspondence. +He wrote, also, a biography of him, which Plutarch had seen, and of which +he probably made use in his own 'Life of Cicero', but which has not come +down to us. + +There was another of his household for whom Cicero had the same affection. +This was Sositheus, also a slave, but a man, like Tiro, of some +considerable education, whom he employed as his reader. His death affected +Cicero quite as the loss of a friend. Indeed, his anxiety is such, that +his Roman dignity is almost ashamed of it. "I grieve", he says, "more than +I ought for a mere slave". Just as one might now apologise for making too +much fuss about a favourite dog; for the slave was looked upon in scarcely +a higher light in civilised Rome. They spoke of him in the neuter gender, +as a chattel; and it was gravely discussed, in case of danger in a storm +at sea, which it would be right first to cast overboard to lighten the +ship, a valuable horse or an indifferent slave. Hortensius, the rival +advocate who has been mentioned, a man of more luxurious habits and less +kindly spirit than Cicero, who was said to feed the pet lampreys in his +stews much better than he did his slaves, and to have shed tears at the +death of one of these ugly favourites, would have probably laughed at +Cicero's concern for Sositheus and Tiro. + +But indeed every glimpse of this kind which Cicero's correspondence +affords us gives token of a kindly heart, and makes us long to know +something more. Some have suspected him of a want of filial affection, +owing to a somewhat abrupt and curt announcement in a letter to Atticus +of his father's death; and his stanch defenders propose to adopt, +with Madvig, the reading, _discessit_--"left us", instead of +_decessit_--"died". There really seems no occasion. Unless Atticus +knew the father intimately, there was no need to dilate upon the old man's +death; and Cicero mentions subsequently, in terms quite as brief, the +marriage of his daughter and the birth of his son--events in which we are +assured he felt deeply interested. If any further explanation of this +seeming coldness be required, the following remarks of Mr. Forsyth are +apposite and true: + +"The truth is, that what we call _sentiment_ was almost unknown to +the ancient Romans, in whose writings it would be as vain to look for it +as to look for traces of Gothic architecture amongst classic ruins. And +this is something more than a mere illustration. It suggests a reason +for the absence. Romance and sentiment came from the dark forests of the +North, when Scandinavia and Germany poured forth their hordes to subdue +and people the Roman Empire. The life of a citizen of the Republic of Rome +was essentially a public life. The love of country was there carried to +an extravagant length, and was paramount to, and almost swallowed up, the +private and social affections. The state was everything, the individual +comparatively nothing. In one of the letters of the Emperor Marcus +Aurelius to Fronto, there is a passage in which he says that the +Roman language had no word corresponding with the Greek [Greek: +philostorgia],--the affectionate love for parents and children. Upon +this Niebuhr remarks that the feeling was 'not a Roman one; but Cicero +possessed it in a degree which few Romans could comprehend, and hence he +was laughed at for the grief which he felt at the death of his daughter +Tullia'". + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +ESSAYS ON 'OLD AGE' AND 'FRIENDSHIP' + +The treatise on 'Old Age', which is thrown into the form of a dialogue, is +said to have been suggested by the opening of Plato's 'Republic', in which +Cephalus touches so pleasantly on the enjoyments peculiar to that time +of life. So far as light and graceful treatment of his subject goes, the +Roman essayist at least does not fall short of his model. Montaigne +said of it, that "it made one long to grow old";[1] but Montaigne was a +Frenchman, and such sentiment was quite in his way. The dialogue, whether +it produce this effect on many readers or not, is very pleasant reading: +and when we remember that the author wrote it when he was exactly in his +grand climacteric, and addressed it to his friend Atticus, who was within +a year of the same age, we get that element of personal interest which +makes all writings of the kind more attractive. The argument in defence of +the paradox that it is a good thing to grow old, proceeds upon the only +possible ground, the theory of compensations. It is put into the mouth +of Cato the Censor, who had died about a century before, and who is +introduced as giving a kind of lecture on the subject to his young +friends Scipio and Laelius, in his eighty-fourth year. He was certainly +a remarkable example in his own case of its being possible to grow old +gracefully and usefully, if, as he tells us, he was at that age still able +to take part in the debates in the Senate, was busy collecting materials +for the early history of Rome, had quite lately begun the study of Greek, +could enjoy a country dinner-party, and had been thinking of taking +lessons in playing on the lyre. + +[Footnote 1: "Il donne l'appetit de vieiller".] + +He states four reasons why old age is so commonly considered miserable. +First, it unfits us for active employment; secondly, it weakens the bodily +strength; thirdly, it deprives us of nearly all pleasures; fourthly and +lastly, it is drawing near death. As to the first, the old senator argues +very fairly that very much of the more important business of life is not +only transacted by old men, but in point of fact, as is confessed by the +very name and composition of the Roman Senate, it is thought safest to +intrust it to the elders in the state. The pilot at the helm may not be +able to climb the mast and run up and down the deck like the younger +sailor, but he steers none the worse for being old. He quotes some +well-known examples of this from Roman annals; examples which might be +matched by obvious instances in modern English history. The defence which +he makes of old age against the second charge--loss of muscular vigour--is +rather more of the nature of special pleading. He says little more than +that mere muscular strength, after all, is not much wanted for our +happiness: that there are always comparative degrees of strength; and +that an old man need no more make himself unhappy because he has not the +strength of a young man, than the latter does because he has not the +strength of a bull or an elephant. It was very well for the great wrestler +Milo to be able to carry an ox round the arena on his shoulders; but, on +the whole, a man does not often want to walk about with a bullock on his +back. The old are said, too, to lose their memory. Cato thinks they can +remember pretty well all that they care to remember. They are not apt to +forget who owes them money; and "I never knew an old man forget", he says, +"where he had buried his gold". Then as to the pleasures of the senses, +which age undoubtedly diminishes our power of enjoying. "This", says Cato, +"is really a privilege, not a deprivation; to be delivered from the yoke +of such tyrants as our passions--to feel that we have 'got our discharge' +from such a warfare--is a blessing for which men ought rather to be +grateful to their advancing years". And the respect and authority which is +by general consent conceded to old age, is a pleasure more than equivalent +to the vanished pleasures of youth. + +There is one consideration which the author has not placed amongst his +four chief disadvantages of growing old,--which, however, he did not +forget, for he notices it incidentally in the dialogue,--the feeling that +we are growing less agreeable to our friends, that our company is less +sought after, and that we are, in short, becoming rather ciphers in +society. This, in a condition of high civilisation, is really perhaps felt +by most of us as the hardest to bear of all the ills to which old age is +liable. We should not care so much about the younger generation rising up +and making us look old, if we did not feel that they are "pushing us from +our stools". Cato admits that he had heard some old men complain that +"they were now neglected by those who had once courted their society", and +he quotes a passage from the comic poet Caecilius + + "This is the bitterest pang in growing old,-- + To feel that we grow hateful to our fellows". + +But he dismisses the question briefly in his own case by observing with +some complacency that he does not think his young friends find _his_ +company disagreeable--an assertion which Scipio and Laelius, who +occasionally take part in the dialogue, are far too well bred to +contradict. He remarks also, sensibly enough, that though some old persons +are no doubt considered disagreeable company, this is in great measure +their own fault: that testiness and ill-nature (qualities which, as he +observes, do not usually improve with age) are always disagreeable, and +that such persons attributed to their advancing years what was in truth +the consequence of their unamiable tempers. It is not all wine which turns +sour with age, nor yet all tempers; much depends on the original quality. +The old Censor lays down some maxims which, like the preceding, have +served as texts for a good many modern writers, and may be found expanded, +diluted, or strengthened, in the essays of Addison and Johnson, and in +many of their followers of less repute. "I never could assent", says Cato, +"to that ancient and much-bepraised proverb,--that 'you must become an old +man early, if you wish to be an old man long'". Yet it was a maxim which +was very much acted upon by modern Englishmen a generation or two back. It +was then thought almost a moral duty to retire into old age, and to assume +all its disabilities as well as its privileges, after sixty years or even +earlier. At present the world sides with Cato, and rushes perhaps into the +other extreme; for any line at which old age now begins would be hard to +trace either in dress or deportment. "We must resist old age, and +fight against it as a disease". Strong words from the old Roman; but, +undoubtedly, so long as we stop short of the attempt to affect juvenility, +Cato is right. We should keep ourselves as young as possible. He speaks +shrewd sense, again, when he says--"As I like to see a young man who has +something old about him, so I like to see an old man in whom there remains +something of the youth: and he who follows this maxim may become an old +man in body, but never in heart". "What a blessing it is", says Southey, +"to have a boy's heart!" Do we not all know these charming old people, to +whom the young take almost as heartily as to their own equals in age, who +are the favourite consultees in all amusements, the confidants in all +troubles? + +Cato is made to place a great part of his own enjoyment, in these latter +years of his, in the cultivation of his farm and garden (he had written, +we must remember, a treatise 'De Re Rustica',--a kind of Roman 'Book of +the Farm', which we have still remaining). He is enthusiastic in his +description of the pleasures of a country gentleman's life, and, like a +good farmer, as no doubt he was, becomes eloquent upon the grand subject +of manures. Gardening is a pursuit which he holds in equal honour--that +"purest of human pleasures", as Bacon calls it. On the subject of +the country life generally he confesses an inclination to become +garrulous--the one failing which he admits may be fairly laid to +the charge of old age. The picture of the way of living of a Roman +gentleman-farmer, as he draws it, must have presented a strong contrast +with the artificial city-life of Rome. + +"Where the master of the house is a good and careful manager, his +wine-cellar, his oil-stores, his larder, are always well stocked; there is +a fulness throughout the whole establishment; pigs, kids, lambs, poultry, +milk, cheese, honey,--all are in abundance. The produce of the garden is +always equal, as our country-folk say, to a double course. And all these +good things acquire a second relish from the voluntary labours of fowling +and the chase. What need to dwell upon the charm of the green fields, the +well-ordered plantations, the beauty of the vineyards and olive-groves? In +short, nothing can be more luxuriant in produce, or more delightful to the +eye, than a well-cultivated estate; and, to the enjoyment of this, old age +is so far from being any hindrance, that it rather invites and allures us +to such pursuits". + +He has no patience with what has been called the despondency of old +age--the feeling, natural enough at that time of life, but not desirable +to be encouraged, that there is no longer any room for hope or promise in +the future which gives so much of its interest to the present. He will not +listen to the poet when he says again-- + + "He plants the tree that shall not see the fruit" + +The answer which he would make has been often put into other and more +elaborate language, but has a simple grandeur of its own. "If any should +ask the aged cultivator for whom he plants, let him not hesitate to make +this reply,--'For the immortal gods, who, as they willed me to inherit +these possessions from my forefathers, so would have me hand them on to +those that shall come after'". + +The old Roman had not the horror of country society which so many +civilised Englishmen either have or affect. "I like a talk", he says, +"over a cup of wine". "Even when I am down at my Sabine estate, I +daily make one at a party of my country neighbours, and we prolong our +conversation very frequently far into the night". The words are put into +Cato's mouth, but the voice is the well-known voice of Cicero. We find +him here, as in his letters, persuading himself into the belief that the +secret of happiness is to be found in the retirement of the country. And +his genial and social nature beams through it all. We are reminded of his +half-serious complaints to Atticus of his importunate visitors at Formiae, +the dinner-parties which he was, as we say now, "obliged to go to", and +which he so evidently enjoyed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: "A clergyman was complaining of the want of society in the +country where he lived, and said, 'They talk of _runts_' (i.e., young +cows). 'Sir', said Mr. Salusbury, 'Mr. Johnson would learn to talk of +runts;' meaning that I was a man who would make the most of my situation, +whatever it was".--Boswell's Life. Cicero was like Dr. Johnson.] + +He is careful, however, to remind his readers that old age, to be really +either happy or venerable, must not be the old age of the mere voluptuary +or the debauchee; that the grey head, in order to be, even in his +pagan sense, "a crown of glory", must have been "found in the way of +righteousness". Shakespeare might have learned from Cicero in these points +the moral which he puts into the mouth of his Adam-- + + "Therefore mine age is as a lusty winter, + Frosty but kindly". + +It is a miserable old age, says the Roman, which is obliged to appeal to +its grey hairs as its only claim to the respect of its juniors. "Neither +hoar hairs nor wrinkles can arrogate reverence as their right. It is the +life whose opening years have been honourably spent which reaps the reward +of reverence at its close". + +In discussing the last of the evils which accompany old age, the near +approach of death, Cicero rises to something higher than his usual level. +His Cato will not have death to be an evil at all; it is to him the +escaping from "the prison of the body",--the "getting the sight of land at +last after a long voyage, and coming into port". Nay, he does not admit +that death is death. "I have never been able to persuade myself"; he says, +quoting the words of Cyrus in Xenophon, "that our spirits were alive while +they were in these mortal bodies, and died only when they departed out of +them; or that the spirit then only becomes void of sense when it escapes +from a senseless body; but that rather when freed from all admixture of +corporality, it is pure and uncontaminated, then it most truly has sense". +"I am fully persuaded", he says to his young listeners, "that your two +fathers, my old and dearly-loved friends, are living now, and living that +life which only is worthy to be so called". And he winds up the dialogue +with the very beautiful apostrophe, one of the last utterances of the +philosopher's heart, well known, yet not too well known to be here quoted: + +"It likes me not to mourn over departing life, as many men, and men of +learning, have done. Nor can I regret that I have lived, since I have so +lived that I may trust I was not born in vain; and I depart out of life as +out of a temporary lodging, not as out of my home. For nature has given +it to us as an inn to tarry at by the way, not as a place to abide in. +O glorious day! when I shall set out to join that blessed company and +assembly of disembodied spirits, and quit this crowd and rabble of life! +For I shall go my way, not only to those great men of whom I spoke, but +to my own son Cato, than whom was never better man born, nor more full of +dutiful affection; whose body I laid on the funeral pile--an office he +should rather have done for me.[1] But his spirit has never left me; it +still looks fondly back upon me, though it has gone assuredly into those +abodes where he knew that I myself should follow. And this my great loss I +seemed to bear with calmness; not that I bore it undisturbed, but that +I still consoled myself with the thought that the separation between us +could not be for long. And if I err in this--in that I believe the spirits +of men to be immortal--I err willingly; nor would I have this mistaken +belief of mine uprooted so long as I shall live. But if, after I am dead, +I shall have no consciousness, as some curious philosophers assert, then I +am not afraid of dead philosophers laughing at my mistake". + +[Footnote 1: Burke touches the same key in speaking of his son; "I live in +an inverted order. They who ought to have succeeded me have gone before +me: they who should have been to me as posterity are in the place of +ancestors".] + + * * * * * + +The essay on 'Friendship' is dedicated by the author to Atticus--an +appropriate recognition, as he says, of the long and intimate friendship +which had existed between themselves. It is thrown, like the other, into +the form of a dialogue. The principal speaker here is one of the listeners +in the former case--Laelius, surnamed the Wise--who is introduced as +receiving a visit from his two sons-in-law, Fannius and Scaevola (the +great lawyer before mentioned), soon after the sudden death of his great +friend, the younger Scipio Africanus. Laelius takes the occasion, at the +request of the young men, to give them his views and opinions on the +subject of Friendship generally. This essay is perhaps more original +than that upon 'Old Age', but certainly is not so attractive to a modern +reader. Its great merit is the grace and polish of the language; but the +arguments brought forward to prove what an excellent thing it is for a man +to have good friends, and plenty of them, in this world, and the rules for +his behaviour towards them, seem to us somewhat trite and commonplace, +whatever might have been their effect upon a Roman reader. + +Cicero is indebted to the Greek philosophers for the main outlines of his +theory of friendship, though his acquaintance with the works of Plato and +Aristotle was probably exceedingly superficial. He holds, with them, that +man is a social animal; that "we are so constituted by nature that there +must be some degree of association between us all, growing closer in +proportion as we are brought into more intimate relations one with +another". So that the social bond is a matter of instinct, not of +calculation; not a cold commercial contract of profit and loss, of giving +and receiving, but the fulfilment of one of the yearnings of our nature. +Here he is in full accordance with the teaching of Aristotle, who, of +all the various kinds of friendship to which he allows the common name, +pronounces that which is founded merely upon interest--upon mutual +interchange, by tacit agreement, of certain benefits--to be the least +worthy of such a designation. Friendship is defined by Cicero to be "the +perfect accord upon all questions, religious and social, together with +mutual goodwill and affection". This "perfect accord", it must be +confessed, is a very large requirement. He follows his Greek masters again +in holding that true friendship can exist only amongst the good; that, in +fact, all friendship must assume that there is something good and lovable +in the person towards whom the feeling is entertained it may occasionally +be a mistaken assumption; the good quality we think we see in our friend +may have no existence save in our own partial imagination; but the +existence of the counterfeit is an incontestable evidence of the true +original. And the greatest attraction, and therefore the truest +friendships, will always be of the good towards the good. + +He admits, however, the notorious fact, that good persons are sometimes +disagreeable; and he confesses that we have a right to seek in our +friends amiability as well as moral excellence. "Sweetness", he +says--anticipating, as all these ancients so provokingly do, some of our +most modern popular philosophers--"sweetness, both in language and in +manner, is a very powerful attraction in the formation of friendships". He +is by no means of the same opinion as Sisyphus in Lord Lytton's 'Tale of +Miletus'-- + + "Now, then, I know thou really art my friend,-- + None but true friends choose such unpleasant words". + +He admits that it is the office of a friend to tell unpleasant truths +sometimes; but there should be a certain amount of this indispensable +"sweetness" to temper the bitterness of the advice. There are some friends +who are continually reminding you of what they have done for you--"a +disgusting set of people verily they are", says our author. And there are +others who are always thinking themselves slighted; "in which case there +is generally something of which they are conscious in themselves, as +laying them open to contemptuous treatment". + +Cicero's own character displays itself in this short treatise. Here, as +everywhere, he is the politician. He shows a true appreciation of the +duties and the qualifications of a true friend; but his own thoughts are +running upon political friendships. Just as when, in many of his letters, +he talks about "all honest men", he means "our party"; so here, when he +talks of friends, he cannot help showing that it was of the essence of +friendship, in his view, to hold the same political opinions, and that +one great use of friends was that a man should not be isolated, as he had +sometimes feared he was, in his political course. When he puts forward +the old instances of Coriolanus and Gracchus, and discusses the question +whether their "friends" were or were not bound to aid them in their +treasonable designs against the state, he was surely thinking of the +factions of his own times, and the troublesome brotherhoods which had +gathered round Catiline and Clodius. Be this as it may, the advice which +he makes Laelius give to his younger relatives is good for all ages, +modern or ancient: "There is nothing in this world more valuable than +friendship". "Next to the immediate blessing and providence of Almighty +God", Lord Clarendon was often heard to say, "I owe all the little I know, +and the little good that is in me, to the friendships and conversation I +have still been used to, of the most excellent men in their several kinds +that lived in that age". + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +CICERO'S PHILOSOPHY. + + +'THE TRUE ENDS OF LIFE'.[1] + +Philosophy was to the Roman what religion is to me. It professed to +answer, so far as it might be answered Pilate's question, "What is truth?" +or to teach men, as Cicero described it, "the knowledge of things human +and divine". Hence the philosopher invests his subject with all attributes +of dignity. To him Philosophy brings all blessings in her train. She is +the guide of life, the medicine for his sorrows, "the fountain-head of +all perfect eloquence--the mother of all good deeds and good words". He +invokes with affectionate reverence the great name of Socrates--the sage +who had "first drawn wisdom down from heaven". + +[Footnote 1: 'De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum'.] + +No man ever approached his subject more richly laden with philosophic lore +than Cicero. Snatching every leisure moment that he could from a busy +life, he devotes it to the study of the great minds of former ages. +Indeed, he held this study to be the duty of the perfect orator; a +knowledge of the human mind was one of his essential qualifications. Nor +could he conceive of real eloquence without it; for his definition of +eloquence is, "wisdom speaking fluently".[1] But such studies were also +suited to his own natural tastes. And as years passed on, and he grew +weary of civil discords and was harassed by domestic troubles, the great +orator turns his back upon the noisy city, and takes his parchments of +Plato and Aristotle to be the friends of his councils and the companions +of his solitude, seeking by their light to discover Truth, which +Democritus had declared to be buried in the depths of the sea. + +[Footnote 1: "Copiose loquens sapientia".] + +Yet, after all, he professes to do little more than translate. So +conscious is he that it is to Greece that Rome is indebted for all her +literature, and so conscious, also, on the part of his countrymen, of what +he terms "an arrogant disdain for everything national", that he apologises +to his readers for writing for the million in their mother-tongue. Yet he +is not content, as he says, to be "a mere interpreter". He thought that by +an eclectic process--adopting and rearranging such of the doctrines of his +Greek masters as approved themselves to his own judgment--he might make +his own work a substitute for theirs. His ambition is to achieve what +he might well regard as the hardest of tasks--a popular treatise on +philosophy; and he has certainly succeeded. He makes no pretence to +originality; all he can do is, as he expresses it, "to array Plato in a +Latin dress", and "present this stranger from beyond the seas with the +freedom of his native, city". And so this treatise on the Ends of Life--a +grave question even to the most careless thinker--is, from the nature of +the case, both dramatic and rhetorical. Representatives of the two great +schools of philosophy--the Stoics and Epicureans--plead and counter-plead +in his pages, each in their turn; and their arguments are based on +principles broad and universal enough to be valid even now. For now, as +then, men are inevitably separated into two classes--amiable men of ease, +who guide their conduct by the rudder-strings of pleasure--who for the +most part "leave the world" (as has been finely said) "in the world's +debt, having consumed much and produced nothing";[1] or, on the other +hand, zealous men of duty, + + "Who scorn delights and live laborious days", + +and act according to the dictates of their honour or their conscience. In +practice, if not in theory, a man must be either Stoic or Epicurean. + +[Footnote 1: Lord Derby.] + +Each school, in this dialogue, is allowed to plead its own cause. "Listen" +(says the Epicurean) "to the voice of nature that bids you pursue +pleasure, and do not be misled by that vulgar conception of pleasure as +mere sensual enjoyment; our opponents misrepresent us when they say that +we advocate this as the highest good; we hold, on the contrary, that men +often obtain the greatest pleasure by neglecting this baser kind. Your +highest instances of martyrdom--of Decii devoting themselves for +their country, of consuls putting their sons to death to preserve +discipline--are not disinterested acts of sacrifice, but the choice of a +present pain in order to procure a future pleasure. Vice is but ignorance +of real enjoyment. Temperance alone can bring peace of mind; and the +wicked, even if they escape public censure, 'are racked night and day by +the anxieties sent upon them by the immortal gods'. We do not, in this, +contradict your Stoic; we, too, affirm that only the wise man is really +happy. Happiness is as impossible for a mind distracted by passions, as +for a city divided by contending factions. The terrors of death haunt the +guilty wretch, 'who finds out too late that he has devoted himself to +money or power or glory to no purpose'. But the wise man's life is +unalloyed happiness. Rejoicing in a clear conscience, 'he remembers the +past with gratitude, enjoys the blessings of the present, and disregards +the future'. Thus the moral to be drawn is that which Horace (himself, as +he expresses it, 'one of the litter of Epicurus') impresses on his fair +friend Leuconöe: + + 'Strain your wine, and prove your wisdom; life is short; + should hope be more? + In the moment of our talking envious time has slipped away. + Seize the present, trust to-morrow e'en as little as you may'". + +Passing on to the second book of the treatise, we hear the advocate of +the counter-doctrine. Why, exclaims the Stoic, introduce Pleasure to the +councils of Virtue? Why uphold a theory so dangerous in practice? Your +Epicurean soon turns Epicure, and a class of men start up who have never +seen the sun rise or set, who squander fortunes on cooks and perfumers, on +costly plate and gorgeous rooms, and ransack sea and land for delicacies +to supply their feasts. Epicurus gives his disciples a dangerous +discretion in their choice. There is no harm in luxury (he tells us) +provided it be free from inordinate desires. But who is to fix the limit +to such vague concessions? + +Nay, more, he degrades men to the level of the brute creation. In his +view, there is nothing admirable beyond this pleasure--no sensation or +emotion of the mind, no soundness or health of body. And what is this +pleasure which he makes of such high account? How short-lived while it +lasts! how ignoble when we recall it afterwards! But even the common +feeling and sentiments of men condemn so selfish a doctrine. We are +naturally led to uphold truth and abhor deceit, to admire Regulus in his +tortures, and to despise a lifetime of inglorious ease. And then follows a +passage which echoes the stirring lines of Scott-- + + "Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife! + To all the sensual world proclaim, + One crowded hour of glorious life + Is worth an age without a name". + +Do not then (concludes the Stoic) take good words in your mouth, and prate +before applauding citizens of honour, duty, and so forth, while you make +your private lives a mere selfish calculation of expediency. We were +surely born for nobler ends than this, and none who is worthy the name +of a man would subscribe to doctrines which destroy all honour and all +chivalry. The heroes of old time won their immortality not by weighing +pleasures and pains in the balance, but by being prodigal of their lives, +doing and enduring all things for the sake of their fellow-men. + +The opening scene in the third book is as lively and dramatic as (what +was no doubt the writer's model) the introduction of a Platonic dialogue. +Cicero has walked across from his Tusculan villa to borrow some +manuscripts from the well-stocked library of his young friend +Lucullus[1]--a youth whose high promise was sadly cut short, for he +was killed at Philippi, when he was not more than twenty-three. There, +"gorging himself with books", Cicero finds Marcus Cato--a Stoic of the +Stoics--who expounds in a high tone the principles of his sect. + +[Footnote 1: See p. 43.] + +Honour he declares to be the rule, and "life according to nature" the end +of man's existence. And wrong and injustice are more really contrary to +this nature than either death, or poverty, or bodily suffering, or any +other outward evil.[1] Stoics and Peripatetics are agreed at least on one +point--that bodily pleasures fade into nothing before the splendours of +virtue, and that to compare the two is like holding a candle against the +sunlight, or setting a drop of brine against the waves of the ocean. Your +Epicurean would have each man live in selfish isolation, engrossed in +his private pleasures and pursuits. We, on the other hand, maintain that +"Divine Providence has appointed the world to be a common city for men and +gods", and each one of us to be a part of this vast social system. And +thus every man has his lot and place in life, and should take for his +guidance those golden rules of ancient times--"Obey God; know thyself; +shun excess". Then, rising to enthusiasm, the philosopher concludes: "Who +cannot but admire the incredible beauty of such a system of morality? What +character in history or in fiction can be grander or more consistent than +the 'wise man' of the Stoics? All the riches and glory of the world are +his, for he alone can make a right use of all things. He is 'free', +though he be bound by chains; 'rich', though in the midst of poverty; +'beautiful', for the mind is fairer than the body; 'a king', for, unlike +the tyrants of the world, he is lord of himself; 'happy', for he has no +need of Solon's warning to 'wait till the end', since a life virtuously +spent is a perpetual happiness". + +[Footnote 1: So Bishop Butler, in the preface to his Sermons upon 'Human +Nature', says they were "intended to explain what is meant by the nature +of man, when it is said that virtue consists in following, and vice in +deviating from it".] + +In the fourth book, Cicero himself proceeds to vindicate the wisdom of the +ancients--the old Academic school of Socrates and his pupils--against what +he considers the novelties of Stoicism. All that the Stoics have said has +been said a hundred times before by Plato and Aristotle, but in nobler +language. They merely "pick out the thorns" and "lay bare the bones" +of previous systems, using newfangled terms and misty arguments with a +"vainglorious parade". Their fine talk about citizens of the world and +the ideal wise man is rather poetry than philosophy. They rightly connect +happiness with virtue, and virtue with wisdom; but so did Aristotle some +centuries before them. + +But their great fault (says Cicero) is, that they ignore the practical +side of life. So broad is the line which they draw between the "wise" and +"foolish", that they would deny to Plato himself the possession of wisdom. +They take no account of the thousand circumstances which go to form our +happiness. To a spiritual being, virtue _might_ be the chief good; +but in actual life our physical is closely bound up with our mental +enjoyment, and pain is one of those stern facts before which all theories +are powerless. Again, by their fondness for paradox, they reduce all +offences to the same dead level. It is, in their eyes, as impious to +beat a slave as to beat a parent: because, as they say, "nothing can be +_more_ virtuous than virtue,--nothing _more_ vicious than vice". +And lastly, this stubbornness of opinion affects their personal character. +They too often degenerate into austere critics and bitter partisans, and +go far to banish from among us love, friendship, gratitude, and all the +fair humanities of life. + +The fifth book carries us back some twenty years, when we find Cicero once +more at Athens, taking his afternoon walk among the deserted groves of +the Academy. With him are his brother Quintus, his cousin Lucius, and +his friends Piso and Atticus. The scene, with its historic associations, +irresistibly carries their minds back to those illustrious spirits who had +once made the place their own. Among these trees Plato himself had walked; +under the shadow of that Porch Zeno had lectured to his disciples;[1] +yonder Quintus points out the "white peak of Colonus", described by +Sophocles in "those sweetest lines;" while glistening on the horizon were +the waves of the Phaleric harbour, which Demosthenes, Cicero's own +great prototype, had outvoiced with the thunder of his declamation. So +countless, indeed, are the memories of the past called up by the genius +of the place, that (as one of the friends remarks) "wherever we plant +our feet, we tread upon some history". Then Piso, speaking at Cicero's +request, begs his friends to turn from the degenerate thinkers of their +own day to those giants of philosophy, from whose writings all liberal +learning, all history, and all elegance of language may be derived. More +than all, they should turn to the leader of the Peripatetics, Aristotle, +who seemed (like Lord Bacon after him) to have taken all knowledge as his +portion. From these, if from no other source, we may learn the secret of a +happy life. But first we must settle what this 'chief good' is--this end +and object of our efforts--and not be carried to and fro, like ships +without a steersman, by every blast of doctrine. + +[Footnote 1: The Stoics took their name from the 'stoa', or portico in the +Academy, where they _sat_ at lecture, as the Peripatetics (the school +of Aristotle) from the little knot of listeners who followed their master +as he _walked_. Epicurus's school were known as the philosophers of +'the Garden', from the place where he taught. The 'Old Academy' were the +disciples of Plato; the 'New Academy' (to whose tenets Cicero inclined) +revived the great principle of Socrates--of affirming nothing.] + +If Epicurus was wrong in placing Happiness + + "In corporal pleasure and in careless ease", + +no less wrong are they who say that "honour" requires pleasure to be added +to it, since they thus make honour itself dishonourable. And again, to say +with others that happiness is tranquillity of mind, is simply to beg the +question. + +Putting, then, all such theories aside, we bring the argument to a +practical issue. Self-preservation is the first great principle of nature; +and so strong is this instinctive love of life both among men and animals, +that we see even the iron-hearted Stoic shrink from the actual pangs of a +voluntary death. Then comes the question, What _is_ this nature that +is so precious to each of us? Clearly it is compounded of body and mind, +each with many virtues of its own; but as the mind should rule the body, +so reason, as the dominant faculty, should rule the mind. Virtue itself is +only "the perfection of this reason", and, call it what you will, genius +or intellect is something divine. + +Furthermore, there is in man a gradual progress of reason, growing with +his growth until it has reached perfection. Even in the infant there are +"as it were sparks of virtue"--half-unconscious principles of love and +gratitude; and these germs bear fruit, as the child develops into the man. +We have also an instinct which attracts us towards the pursuit of wisdom; +such is the true meaning of the Sirens' voices in the Odyssey, says the +philosopher, quoting from the poet of all time: + + "Turn thy swift keel and listen to our lay; + Since never pilgrim to these regions came, + But heard our sweet voice ere he sailed away, + And in his joy passed on, with ampler mind".[1] + +It is wisdom, not pleasure, which they offer. Hence it is that men devote +their days and nights to literature, without a thought of any gain that +may accrue from it; and philosophers paint the serene delights of a life +of contemplation in the islands of the blest. + +[Footnote 1: Odyss. xii. 185 (Worsley).] + +Again, our minds can never rest. "Desire for action grows with us;" and in +action of some sort, be it politics or science, life (if it is to be +life at all) must be passed by each of us. Even the gambler must ply the +dice-box, and the man of pleasure seek excitement in society. But in the +true life of action, still the ruling principle should be honour. + +Such, in brief, is Piso's (or rather Cicero's) vindication of the old +masters of philosophy. Before they leave the place, Cicero fires a parting +shot at the Stoic paradox that the 'wise man' is always happy. How. he +pertinently asks, can one in sickness and poverty, blind, or childless, +in exile or in torture, be possibly called happy, except by a monstrous +perversion of language?[1] + +[Footnote 1: In a little treatise called "Paradoxes", Cicero discusses six +of these scholastic quibbles of the Stoics.] + +Here, somewhat abruptly, the dialogue closes; and Cicero pronounces no +judgment of his own, but leaves the great question almost as perplexed as +when he started the discussion. But, of the two antagonistic theories, he +leans rather to the Stoic than to the Epicurean. Self-sacrifice and honour +seem, to his view, to present a higher ideal than pleasure or expediency. + + +II. 'ACADEMIC QUESTIONS'. + +Fragments of two editions of this work have come down to us; for almost +before the first copy had reached the hands of his friend Atticus, to whom +it was sent, Cicero had rewritten the whole on an enlarged scale. The +first book (as we have it now) is dedicated to Varro, a noble patron of +art and literature. In his villa at Cumae were spacious porticoes and +gardens, and a library with galleries and cabinets open to all comers. +Here, on a terrace looking seawards, Cicero, Atticus, and Varro himself +pass a long afternoon in discussing the relative merits of the old and +new Academies; and hence we get the title of the work. Varro takes the +lion's share of the first dialogue, and shows how from the "vast and +varied genius of Plato" both Academics and Peripatetics drew all their +philosophy, whether it related to morals, to nature, or to logic. Stoicism +receives a passing notice, as also does what Varro considers the heresy +of Theophrastus, who strips virtue of all its beauty, by denying that +happiness depends upon it. + +The second book is dedicated to another illustrious name, the elder +Lucullus, not long deceased--half-statesman, half-dilettante, "with almost +as divine a memory for facts", says Cicero, with something of envy, "as +Hortensius had for words". This time it is at his villa, near Tusculum, +amidst scenery perhaps even now the loveliest of all Italian landscapes, +that the philosophic dialogue takes place. Lucullus condemns the +scepticism of the New Academy--those reactionists against the dogmatism of +past times, who disbelieve their very eyesight. If (he says) we reject the +testimony of the senses, there is neither body, nor truth, nor argument, +nor anything certain left us. These perpetual doubters destroy every +ground of our belief. + +Cicero ingeniously defends this scepticism, which was, in fact, the bent +of his own mind. After all, what is our eyesight worth? The ship sailing +across the bay yonder seems to move, but to the sailors it is the shore +that recedes from their view. Even the sun, "which mathematicians affirm +to be eighteen times larger than the earth, looks but a foot in diameter". +And as it is with these things, so it is with all knowledge. Bold indeed +must be the man who can define the point at which belief passes into +certainty. Even the "fine frenzy" of the poet, his pictures of gods +and heroes, are as lifelike to himself and to his hearers as though he +actually saw them: + + "See how Apollo, fair-haired god, + Draws in and bends his golden bow, + While on the left fair Dian waves her torch". + +No--we are sure of nothing; and we are happy if, like Socrates, we +only know this--that we know nothing. Then, as if in irony, or partly +influenced perhaps by the advocate's love of arguing the case both ways, +Cicero demolishes that grand argument of design which elsewhere he +so carefully constructs,[1] and reasons in the very language of +materialism--"You assert that all the universe could not have been so +ingeniously made without some godlike wisdom, the majesty of which you +trace down even to the perfection of bees and ants. Why, then, did the +Deity, when he made everything for the sake of man, make such a variety +(for instance) of venomous reptiles? Your divine soul is a fiction; it is +better to imagine that creation is the result of the laws of nature, and +so release the Deity from a great deal of hard work, and me from fear; for +which of us, when he thinks that he is an object of divine care, can help +feeling an awe of the divine power day and night? But we do not understand +even our own bodies; how, then, can we have an eyesight so piercing as to +penetrate the mysteries of heaven and earth?" + +[Footnote 1: See p. 168.] + +The treatise, however, is but a disappointing fragment, and the argument +is incomplete. + + +III. THE 'TUSCULAN DISPUTATIONS'. + +The scene of this dialogue is Cicero's villa at Tusculum. There, in his +long gallery, he walks and discusses with his friends the vexed questions +of morality. Was death an evil? Was the soul immortal? How could a man +best bear pain and the other miseries of life? Was virtue any guarantee +for happiness? + +Then, as now, death was the great problem of humanity--"to die and go we +know not where". The old belief in Elysium and Tartarus had died away; as +Cicero himself boldly puts it in another place, such things were no longer +even old wives' fables. Either death brought an absolute unconsciousness, +or the soul soared into space. "_Lex non poena mors_"--"Death is a +law, not a penalty"--was the ancient saying. It was, as it were, the close +of a banquet or the fall of the curtain. "While we are, death is not; when +death has come, we are not". + +Cicero brings forward the testimony of past ages to prove that death is +not a mere annihilation. Man cannot perish utterly. Heroes are deified; +and the spirits of the dead return to us in visions of the night. Somehow +or other (he says) there clings to our minds a certain presage of future +ages; and so we plant, that our children may reap; we toil, that others +may enter into our labours; and it is this life after death, the desire to +live in men's mouths for ever, which inspires the patriot and the martyr. +Fame to the Roman, even more than to us, was "the last infirmity of noble +minds". It was so in a special degree to Cicero. The instinctive sense of +immortality, he argues, is strong within us; and as, in the words of the +English poet, + + "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting", + +so also in death, the Roman said, though in other words: + + "Our souls have sight of that immortal sea + Which brought us hither". + +Believe not then, says Cicero, those old wives' tales, those poetic +legends, the terrors of a material hell, of the joys of a sensual +paradise. Rather hold with Plato that the soul is an eternal principle of +life, which has neither beginning nor end of existence; for if it were not +so, heaven and earth would be overset, and all nature would stand at gaze. +"Men say they cannot conceive or comprehend what the soul can be, distinct +from the body. As if, forsooth, they could comprehend what it is, when it +is _in_ the body,--its conformation, its magnitude, or its position +there.... To me, when I consider the nature of the soul, there is far more +difficulty and obscurity in forming a conception of what the soul is while +in the body,--in a dwelling where it seems so little at home,--than of +what it will be when it has escaped into the free atmosphere of heaven, +which seems its natural abode".[1] And as the poet seems to us inspired, +as the gifts of memory and eloquence seem divine, so is the soul itself, +in its simple essence, a god dwelling in the breast of each of us. What +else can be this power which enables us to recollect the past, to foresee +the future, to understand the present? + +[Footnote 1: I. c. 22.] + +There follows a passage on the argument from design which anticipates that +fine saying of Voltaire--"Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer; +mais toute la nature crie qu'il existe". "The heavens", says even the +heathen philosopher, "declare the glory of God". Look on the sun and the +stars; look on the alternation of the seasons, and the changes of day and +night; look again at the earth bringing forth her fruits for the use +of men; the multitude of cattle; and man himself, made as it were to +contemplate and adore the heavens and the gods. Look on all these things, +and doubt not that there is some Being, though you see him not, who has +created and presides over the world. + +"Imitate, therefore, the end of Socrates; who, with the fatal cup in his +hands, spoke with the serenity of one not forced to die, but, as it were, +ascending into heaven; for he thought that the souls of men, when they +left the body, went by different roads; those polluted by vice and unclean +living took a road wide of that which led to the assembly of the gods; +while those who had kept themselves pure, and on earth had taken a divine +life as their model, found it easy to return to those beings from whence +they came". Or learn a lesson from the swans, who, with a prophetic +instinct, leave this world with joy and singing. Yet do not anticipate +the time of death, "for the Deity forbids us to depart hence without his +summons; but, on just cause given (as to Socrates and Cato), gladly should +we exchange our darkness for that light, and, like men not breaking +prison but released by the law, leave our chains with joy, as having been +discharged by God". + +The feeling of these ancients with regard to suicide, we must here +remember, was very different from our own. There was no distinct idea +of the sanctity of life; no social stigma and consequent suffering were +brought on the family of the suicide. Stoic and Epicurean philosophers +alike upheld it as a lawful remedy against the pangs of disease, the +dotage of old age, or the caprices of a tyrant. Every man might, they +contended, choose his own route on the last great journey, and sleep well, +when he grew wearied out with life's fitful fever. The door was always +open (said Epictetus) when the play palled on the senses. You should +quit the stage with dignity, nor drain the flask to the dregs. Some +philosophers, it is true, protested against it as a mere device of +cowardice to avoid pain, and as a failure in our duties as good citizens. +Cicero, in one of his latest works, again quotes with approval the opinion +of Pythagoras, that "no man should abandon his post in life without the +orders of the Great Commander". But at Rome suicide had been glorified by +a long roll of illustrious names, and the protest was made in vain. + +But why, continues Cicero, why add to the miseries of life by brooding +over death? Is life to any of us such unmixed pleasure even while it +lasts? Which of us can tell whether he be taken away from good or from +evil? As our birth is but "a sleep and a forgetting", so our death may be +but a second sleep, as lasting as Endymion's. Why then call it wretched, +even if we die before our natural time? Nature has lent us life, without +fixing the day of payment; and uncertainty is one of the conditions of its +tenure. Compare our longest life with eternity, and it is as short-lived +as that of those ephemeral insects whose life is measured by a summer day; +and "who, when the sun sets, have reached old age". + +Let us, then, base our happiness on strength of mind, on a contempt of +earthly pleasures, and on the strict observance of virtue. Let us recall +the last noble words of Socrates to his judges. "The death", said he, "to +which you condemn me, I count a gain rather than a loss. Either it is +a dreamless sleep that knows no waking, or it carries me where I may +converse with the spirits of the illustrious dead. _I_ go to death, +_you_ to life; but which of us is going the better way, God only +knows". + +No man, then, dies too soon who has run a course of perfect virtue; for +glory follows like a shadow in the wake of such a life. Welcome death, +therefore, as a blessed deliverance from evil, sent by the special favour +of the gods, who thus bring us safely across a sea of troubles to an +eternal haven. + +The second topic which Cicero and his friends discuss is, the endurance of +pain. Is it an unmixed evil? Can anything console the sufferer? Cicero +at once condemns the sophistry of Epicurus. The wise man cannot pretend +indifference to pain; it is enough that he endure it with courage, since, +beyond all question, it is sharp, bitter, and hard to bear. And what is +this courage? Partly excitement, partly the impulse of honour or of shame, +partly the habituation which steels the endurance of the gladiator. Keep, +therefore--this is the conclusion--stern restraint over the feminine +elements of your soul, and learn not only to despise the attacks of pain, +but also + + "The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". + +From physical, the discussion naturally passes to mental, suffering. +For grief, as well as for pain, he prescribes the remedy of the +Stoics--_aequanimitas_--"a calm serenity of mind". The wise man, +ever serene and composed, is moved neither by pain or sorrow, by fear +or desire. He is equally undisturbed by the malice of enemies or the +inconstancy of fortune. But what consolation can we bring to ease the pain +of the Epicurean? "Put a nosegay to his nostrils--burn perfumes before +him--crown him with roses and woodbine"! But perfumes and garlands can do +little in such case; pleasures may divert, but they can scarcely console. + +Again, the Cyrenaics bring at the best but Job's comfort. No man will +bear his misfortunes the more lightly by bethinking himself that they are +unavoidable--that others have suffered before him--that pain is part and +parcel of the ills which flesh is heir to. Why grieve at all? Why feed +your misfortune by dwelling on it? Plunge rather into active life and +forget it, remembering that excessive lamentation over the trivial +accidents of humanity is alike unmanly and unnecessary. And as it is with +grief, so it is with envy, lust, anger, and those other "perturbations of +the mind" which the Stoic Zeno rightly declares to be "repugnant to reason +and nature". From such disquietudes it is the wise man who is free. + +The fifth and last book discusses the great question, Is virtue of +itself sufficient to make life happy? The bold conclusion is, that it is +sufficient. Cicero is not content with the timid qualifications adopted +by the school of the Peripatetics, who say one moment that external +advantages and worldly prosperity are nothing, and then again admit that, +though man may be happy without them, he is happier with them,--which is +making the real happiness imperfect after all. Men differ in their views +of life. As in the great Olympic games, the throng are attracted, some +by desire of gain, some by the crown of wild olive, some merely by the +spectacle; so, in the race of life, we are all slaves to some ruling idea, +it may be glory, or money, or wisdom. But they alone can be pronounced +happy whose minds are like some tranquil sea--"alarmed by no fears, +wasted by no griefs, inflamed by no lusts, enervated by no relaxing +pleasures,--and such serenity virtue alone can produce". + +These 'Disputations' have always been highly admired. But their popularity +was greater in times when Cicero's Greek originals were less read or +understood. Erasmus carried his admiration of this treatise to enthusiasm. +"I cannot doubt", he says, "but that the mind from which such teaching +flowed was inspired in some sort by divinity". + + +IV. THE TREATISE 'ON MORAL DUTIES'. + +The treatise 'De Officiis', known as Cicero's 'Offices, to which we pass +next, is addressed by the author to his son, while studying at Athens +under Cratippus; possibly in imitation of Aristotle, who inscribed +his Ethics to his son Nicomachus. It is a treatise on the duties of a +gentleman--"the noblest present", says a modern writer, "ever made by +parent to a child".[1] Written in a far higher tone than Lord +Chesterfield's letters, though treating of the same subject, it proposes +and answers multifarious questions which must occur continually to the +modern Christian as well as to the ancient philosopher. "What makes an +action right or wrong? What is a duty? What is expediency? How shall I +learn to choose between my principles and my interests? And lastly (a +point of casuistry which must sometimes perplex the strictest conscience), +of two 'things honest',[2] which is most so?" + +[Footnote 1: Kelsall.] + +[Footnote 2: The English "Honesty" and "Honour" alike fail to convey the +full force of the Latin _honestus_. The word expresses a progress +of thought from comeliness and grace of person to a noble and graceful +character--all whose works are done in honesty and honour.] + +The key-note of his discourse throughout is Honour; and the word seems to +carry with it that magic force which Burke attributed to chivalry--"the +unbought grace of life--the nurse of heroic sentiment and manly +enterprise". _Noblesse oblige_,--and there is no state of life, says +Cicero, without its obligations. In their due discharge consists all the +nobility, and in their neglect all the disgrace, of character. There +should be no selfish devotion to private interests. We are born not for +ourselves only, but for our kindred and fatherland. We owe duties not only +to those who have benefited but to those who have wronged us. We should +render to all their due; and justice is due even to the lowest of mankind: +what, for instance (he says with a hardness which jars upon our better +feelings), can be lower than a slave? Honour is that "unbought grace" +which adds a lustre to every action. In society it produces courtesy of +manners; in business, under the form of truth, it establishes public +credit. Again, as equity, it smooths the harsh features of the law. In war +it produces that moderation and good faith between contending armies which +are the surest basis of a lasting peace. And so in honour are centred the +elements of all the virtues--wisdom and justice, fortitude and temperance; +and "if", he says, reproducing the noble words of Plato, as applied by him +to Wisdom, "this 'Honour' could but be seen in her full beauty by mortal +eyes, the whole world would fall in love with her". + +Such is the general spirit of this treatise, of which only the briefest +sketch can be given in these pages. + +Cicero bases honour on our inherent excellence of nature, paying the same +noble tribute to humanity as Kant some centuries after: "On earth there is +nothing great but man; in man there is nothing great but mind". Truth is a +law of our nature. Man is only "lower than the angels"; and to him belong +prerogatives which mark him off from the brute creation--the faculties +of reason and discernment, the sense of beauty, and the love of law and +order. And from this arises that fellow--feeling which, in one sense, +"makes the whole world kin"--the spirit of Terence's famous line, which +Cicero notices (applauded on its recitation, as Augustin tells us, by the +cheers of the entire audience in the theatre)-- + + "Homo sum--humani nihil a me alienum puto:" [1] + +for (he continues) "all men by nature love one another, and desire an +intercourse of words and action". Hence spring the family affections, +friendship, and social ties; hence also that general love of combination, +which forms a striking feature of the present age, resulting in clubs, +trades-unions, companies, and generally in what Mr. Carlyle terms +"swarmery". + +[Footnote 1: "I am a man--I hold that nothing which concerns mankind can +be matter of unconcern to me".] + +Next to truth, justice is the great duty of mankind. Cicero at once +condemns "communism" in matters of property. Ancient immemorial seizure, +conquest, or compact, may give a title; but "no man can say that he has +anything his own by a right of nature". Injustice springs from avarice or +ambition, the thirst of riches or of empire, and is the more dangerous as +it appears in the more exalted spirits, causing a dissolution of all ties +and obligations. And here he takes occasion to instance "that late most +shameless attempt of Caesar's to make himself master of Rome". + +There is, besides, an injustice of omission. You may wrong your neighbour +by seeing him wronged without interfering. Cicero takes the opportunity of +protesting strongly against the selfish policy of those lovers of ease and +peace, who, "from a desire of furthering their own interests, or else from +a churlish temper, profess that they mind nobody's business but their own, +in order that they may seem to be men of strict integrity and to injure +none", and thus shrink from taking their part in "the fellowship of +life". He would have had small patience with our modern doctrine of +non-intervention and neutrality in nations any more than in men. Such +conduct arises (he says) from the false logic with which men cheat +their conscience; arguing reversely, that whatever is the best policy +is--honesty. + +There are two ways, it must be remembered, in which one man may injure +another--force and fraud; but as the lion is a nobler creature than the +fox, so open violence seems less odious than secret villany. No character +is so justly hateful as + + "A rogue in grain, + Veneered with sanctimonious theory". + +Nations have their obligations as well as individuals, and war has its +laws as well as peace. The struggle should be carried on in a generous +temper, and not in the spirit of extermination, when "it has sometimes +seemed a question between two hostile nations, not which should remain a +conqueror, but which should remain a nation at all". + +No mean part of justice consists in liberality, and this, too, has its +duties. It is an important question, how, and when, and to whom, we should +give? It is possible to be generous at another person's expense: it is +possible to injure the recipient by mistimed liberality; or to ruin one's +fortune by open house and prodigal hospitality. A great man's bounty (as +he says in another place) should be a common sanctuary for the needy. "To +ransom captives and enrich the meaner folk is a nobler form of generosity +than providing wild beasts or shows of gladiators to amuse the mob". +Charity should begin at home; for relations and friends hold the first +place in our affections; but the circle of our good deeds is not to +be narrowed by the ties of blood, or sect, or party, and "our country +comprehends the endearments of all". We should act in the spirit of the +ancient law--"Thou shalt keep no man from the running stream, or from +lighting his torch at thy hearth". Our liberality should be really +liberal,--like that charity which Jeremy Taylor describes as "friendship +to all the world". + +Another component principle of this honour is courage, or "greatness of +soul", which (continues Cicero) has been well defined by the Stoics as +"a virtue contending for justice and honesty"; and its noblest form is a +generous contempt for ordinary objects of ambition, not "from a vain or +fantastic humour, but from solid principles of reason". The lowest and +commoner form of courage is the mere animal virtue of the fighting-cock. + +But a character should not only be excellent,--it should be graceful. In +gesture and deportment men should strive to acquire that dignified grace +of manners "which adds as it were a lustre to our lives". They should +avoid affectation and eccentricity; "not to care a farthing what people +think of us is a sign not so much of pride as of immodesty". The want of +tact--the saying and doing things at the wrong time and place--produces +the same discord in society as a false note in music; and harmony of +character is of more consequence than harmony of sounds. There is a grace +in words as well as in conduct: we should avoid unseasonable jests, "and +not lard our talk with Greek quotations".[1] + +[Footnote 1: This last precept Cicero must have considered did not apply +to letter-writing, otherwise he was a notorious offender against his own +rule.] + +In the path of life, each should follow the bent of his own genius, so far +as it is innocent-- + + "Honour and shame from no condition rise; + Act well your part--there all the honour lies". + +Nothing is so difficult (says Cicero) as the choice of a profession, +inasmuch as "the choice has commonly to be made when the judgment is +weakest". Some tread in their father's steps, others beat out a fresh line +of their own; and (he adds, perhaps not without a personal reference) this +is generally the case with those born of mean parents, who propose to +carve their own way in the world. But the _parvenu_ of Arpinum--the +'new man', as aristocratic jealousy always loved to call him--is by +no means insensible to the true honours of ancestry. "The noblest +inheritance", he says, "that can ever be left by a father to his son, +far excelling that of lands and houses, is the fame of his virtues and +glorious actions"; and saddest of all sights is that of a noble house +dragged through the mire by some degenerate descendant, so as to be a +by-word among the populace,--"which may" (he concludes) "be justly said of +but too many in our times". + +The Roman's view of the comparative dignity of professions and occupations +is interesting, because his prejudices (if they be prejudices) have so +long maintained their ground amongst us moderns. Tax-gatherers and usurers +are as unpopular now as ever--the latter very deservedly so. Retail trade +is despicable, we are told, and "all mechanics are by their profession +mean". Especially such trades as minister to mere appetite or +luxury--butchers, fishmongers, and cooks; perfumers, dancers, and +suchlike. But medicine, architecture, education, farming, and even +wholesale business, especially importation and exportation, are the +professions of a gentleman. "But if the merchant, satisfied with his +profits, shall leave the seas and from the harbour step into a landed +estate, such a man seems justly deserving of praise". We seem to be +reading the verdict of modern English society delivered by anticipation +two thousand years ago. + +The section ends with earnest advice to all, that they should put their +principles into practice. "The deepest knowledge of nature is but a +poor and imperfect business", unless it proceeds into action. As justice +consists in no abstract theory, but in upholding society among men,--as +"greatness of soul itself, if it be isolated from the duties of social +life, is but a kind of uncouth churlishness",--so it is each citizen's +duty to leave his philosophic seclusion of a cloister, and take his place +in public life, if the times demand it, "though he be able to number the +stars and measure out the world". + +The same practical vein is continued in the next book. What, after all, +are a man's real interests? what line of conduct will best advance the +main end of his life? Generally, men make the fatal mistake of assuming +that honour must always clash with their interests, while in reality, says +Cicero, "they would obtain their ends best, not by knavery and underhand +dealing, but by justice and integrity". The right is identical with +the expedient. "The way to secure the favour of the gods is by upright +dealing; and next to the gods, nothing contributes so much to men's +happiness as men themselves". It is labour and co-operation which have +given us all the goods which we possess. + +Since, then, man is the best friend to man, and also his most formidable +enemy, an important question to be discussed is the secret of influence +and popularity--the art of winning men's affections. For to govern by +bribes or by force is not really to govern at all; and no obedience based +on fear can be lasting--"no force of power can bear up long against a +current of public hate". Adventurers who ride rough-shod over law (he is +thinking again of Caesar) have but a short-lived reign; and "liberty, when +she has been chained up a while, bites harder when let loose than if she +had never been chained at all".[1] Most happy was that just and moderate +government of Rome in earlier times, when she was "the port and refuge for +princes and nations in their hour of need". Three requisites go to form +that popular character which has a just influence over others; we must win +men's love, we must deserve their confidence, and we must inspire them +with an admiration for our abilities. The shortest and most direct road to +real influence is that which Socrates recommends--"for a man to be that +which he wishes men to take him for".[2] + +[Footnote 1: It is curious to note how, throughout the whole of this +argument, Cicero, whether consciously or unconsciously, works upon the +principle that the highest life is the political life, and that the +highest object a man can set before him is the obtaining, by legitimate +means, influence and authority amongst his fellow-citizens.] + +[Footnote 2: + + "Not being less but more than all + The gentleness he seemed to be". + --Tennyson: 'In Memoriam'.] + +Then follow some maxims which show how thoroughly conservative was the +policy of our philosopher. The security of property he holds to be the +security of the state. There must be no playing with vested rights, no +unequal taxation, no attempt to bring all things to a level, no cancelling +of debts and redistribution of land (he is thinking of the baits held out +by Catiline), none of those traditional devices for winning favour with +the people, which tend to destroy that social concord and unity which +make a common wealth. "What reason is there", he asks, "why, when I have +bought, built, repaired, and laid out much money, another shall come and +enjoy the fruits of it?" + +And as a man should be careful of the interests of the social body, so +he should be of his own. But Cicero feels that in descending to such +questions he is somewhat losing sight of his dignity as a moralist. +"You will find all this thoroughly discussed", he says to his son, "in +Xenophon's Economics--a book which, when I was just your age, I translated +from the Greek into Latin". [One wonders whether young Marcus took the +hint.] "And if you want instruction in money matters, there are gentlemen +sitting on the Exchange who will teach you much better than the +philosophers". + +The last book opens with a saying of the elder Cato's, which Cicero much +admires, though he says modestly that he was never able in his own case +quite to realise it--"I am never less idle than when I am idle, and never +less alone than when alone". Retirement and solitude are excellent things, +Cicero always declares; generally contriving at the same time to make it +plain, as he does here, that his own heart is in the world of public life. +But at least it gives him time for writing. He "has written more in this +short time, since the fall of the Commonwealth, than in all the years +during which it stood". + +He here resolves the question, If honour and interest seem to clash, which +is to give way? Or rather, it has been resolved already; if the right be +always the expedient, the opposition is seeming, not real. He puts a great +many questions of casuistry, but it all amounts to this: the good man +keeps his oath, "though it were to his own hindrance". But it is never to +his hindrance; for a violation of his conscience would be the greatest +hindrance of all. + +In this treatise, more than in any of his other philosophical works, +Cicero inclines to the teaching of the Stoics. In the others, he is +rather the seeker after truth than the maintainer of a system. His is the +critical eclecticism of the 'New Academy'--the spirit so prevalent in our +own day, which fights against the shackles of dogmatism. And with all his +respect for the nobler side of Stoicism, he is fully alive to its defects; +though it was not given to him to see, as Milton saw after him, the point +wherein that great system really failed--the "philosophic pride" which was +the besetting sin of all disciples in the school, from Cato to Seneca: + + "Ignorant of themselves, of God much more, + + * * * * * + + Much of the soul they talk, but all awry; + And in themselves seek virtue, and to themselves + All glory arrogate,--to God give none; + Rather accuse Him under usual names, + Fortune, or Fate, as one regardless quite + Of mortal things".[1] + +[Footnote 1: Paradise Regained.] + +Yet, in spite of this, such men were as the salt of the earth in a corrupt +age; and as we find, throughout the more modern pages of history, great +preachers denouncing wickedness in high places,--Bourdaloue and Massillon +pouring their eloquence into the heedless ears of Louis XIV, and his +courtiers--Sherlock and Tillotson declaiming from the pulpit in such +stirring accents that "even the indolent Charles roused himself to listen, +and the fastidious Buckingham forgot to sneer"[1]--so, too, do we find +these "monks of heathendom", as the Stoics have been not unfairly called, +protesting in their day against that selfish profligacy which was fast +sapping all morality in the Roman empire. No doubt (as Mr. Lecky takes +care to tell us), their high principles were not always consistent with +their practice (alas! whose are?); Cato may have ill-used his slaves, +Sallust may have been rapacious, and Seneca wanting in personal courage. +Yet it was surely something to have set up a noble ideal, though they +might not attain to it themselves, and in "that hideous carnival of vice" +to have kept themselves, so far as they might, unspotted from the world. +Certain it is that no other ancient sect ever came so near the light of +revelation. Passages from Seneca, from Epictetus, from Marcus Aurelius, +sound even now like fragments of the inspired writings. The Unknown God, +whom they ignorantly worshipped as the Soul or Reason of the World, +is--in spite of Milton's strictures--the beginning and the end of their +philosophy. Let us listen for a moment to their language. "Prayer should +be only for the good". "Men should act according to the spirit, and not +according to the letter of their faith". "Wouldest thou propitiate the +gods? Be good: he has worshipped them sufficiently who has imitated +them". It was from a Stoic poet, Aratus, that St. Paul quoted the great +truth which was the rational argument against idolatry--"For we are also +His offspring, and" (so the original passage concludes) "we alone +possess a voice, which is the image of reason". It is in another poet +of the same school that we find what are perhaps the noblest lines in +all Latin poetry. Persius concludes his Satire on the common hypocrisy +of those prayers and offerings to the gods which were but a service of +the lips and hands, in words of which an English rendering may give the +sense but not the beauty: "Nay, then, let us offer to the gods that which +the debauched sons of great Messala can never bring on their broad +chargers,--a soul wherein the laws of God and man are blended,--a heart +pure to its inmost depths,--a breast ingrained with a noble sense of +honour. Let me but bring these with me to the altar, and I care not +though my offering be a handful of corn". With these grand words, fit +precursors of a purer creed to come, we may take our leave of the Stoics, +remarking how thoroughly, even in their majestic egotism, they +represented the moral force of the nation among whom they flourished; a +nation, says a modern preacher, "whose legendary and historic heroes +could thrust their hand into the flame, and see it consumed without a +nerve shrinking; or come from captivity on parole, advise their +countrymen against a peace, and then go back to torture and certain +death; or devote themselves by solemn self-sacrifice like the Decii. The +world must bow before such men; for, unconsciously, here was a form of +the spirit of the Cross-self-surrender, unconquerable fidelity to duty, +sacrifice for others".[2] + +[Footnote 1: Macaulay.] + +[Footnote 2: F.W. Robertson, Sermons, i. 218.] + +Portions of three treatises by Cicero upon Political Philosophy have come +down to us: 1. I De Republica'; a dialogue on Government, founded chiefly +on the 'Republic' of Plato: 2. 'De Legibus'; a discussion on Law in the +abstract, and on national systems of legislation 3. 'De Jure Civili'; +of which last only a few fragments exist. His historical works have all +perished. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +CICERO'S RELIGION. + +It is difficult to separate Cicero's religion from his philosophy. In both +he was a sceptic, but in the better sense of the word. His search after +truth was in no sneering or incredulous spirit, but in that of a reverent +inquirer. We must remember, in justice to him, that an earnest-minded man +in his day could hardly take higher ground than that of the sceptic. The +old polytheism was dying out in everything but in name, and there was +nothing to take its place. + +His religious belief, so far as we can gather it, was rather negative than +positive. In the speculative treatise which he has left us, 'On the Nature +of the Gods', he examines all the current creeds of the day, but leaves +his own quite undefined. + +The treatise takes the form, like the rest, of an imaginary conversation. +This is supposed to have taken place at the house of Aurelius Cotta, then +Pontifex Maximus--an office which answered nearly to that of Minister +of religion. The other speakers are Balbus, Velleius, and Cicero +himself,--who acts, however, rather in the character of moderator than +of disputant. The debate is still, as in the more strictly philosophical +dialogues, between the different schools. Velleius first sets forth the +doctrine of his master Epicurus; speaking about the gods, says one of his +opponents, with as much apparent intimate knowledge "as if he had just +come straight down from heaven". All the speculations of previous +philosophers--which he reviews one after the other--are, he assures the +company, palpable errors. The popular mythology is a mere collection of +fables. Plato and the Stoics, with their Soul of the world and their +pervading Providence, are entirely wrong; the disciples of Epicurus alone +are right. There are gods; that much, the universal belief of mankind in +all ages sufficiently establishes. But that they should be the laborious +beings which the common systems of theology would make them,--that they +should employ themselves in the manufacture of worlds,--is manifestly +absurd. Some of this argument is ingenious. "What should induce the Deity +to perform the functions of an Aedile, to light up and decorate the world? +If it was to supply better accommodation for himself, then he must have +dwelt of choice, up to that time, in the darkness of a dungeon. If such +improvements gave him pleasure, why should he have chosen to be without +them so long?" + +No--the gods are immortal and happy beings; and these very attributes +imply that they should be wholly free from the cares of business--exempt +from labour, as from pain and death. They are in human form, but of an +ethereal and subtile essence, incapable of our passions or desires. Happy +in their own perfect wisdom and virtue, they + + "Sit beside their nectar, careless of mankind". + +Cotta--speaking in behalf of the New Academy--controverts these views. +Be these your gods, Epicurus, as well say there are no gods at all. What +reverence, what love, or what fear can men have of beings who neither wish +them, nor can work them, good or ill? Is idleness the divinest life? "Why, +'tis the very heaven of schoolboys; yet the schoolboys, on their holiday, +employ themselves in games". Nay, he concludes, what the Stoic Posidonius +said of your master Epicurus is true--"He believed there were no gods, and +what he said about their nature he said only to avoid popular odium". He +could not believe that the Deity has the outward shape of a man, without +any solid essence; that he has all the members of a man, without the power +to use them; that he is a shadowy transparent being, who shows no favour +and confers no benefits on any, cares for nothing and does nothing; this +is to allow his existence of the gods in word, but to deny it in fact. + +Velleius compliments his opponent on his clever argument, but desires that +Balbus would state his views upon the question. The Stoic consents; and, +at some length, proceeds to prove (what neither disputant has at all +denied) the existence of Divine beings of some kind. Universal belief, +well-authenticated instances of their appearance to men, and of the +fulfilment of prophecies and omens, are all evidences of their existence. +He dwells much, too, on the argument from design, of which so much use has +been made by modern theologians. He furnishes Paley with the idea for his +well-known illustration of the man who finds a watch; "when we see a dial +or a water-clock, we believe that the hour is shown thereon by art, and +not by chance".[1] He gives also an illustration from the poet Attius, +which from a poetical imagination has since become an historical incident; +the shepherds who see the ship Argo approaching take the new monster for a +thing of life, as the Mexicans regarded the ships of Cortes. Much more, +he argues, does the harmonious order of the world bespeak an intelligence +within. But his conclusion is that the Universe itself is the Deity; or +that the Deity is the animating Spirit of the Universe; and that the +popular mythology, which gives one god to the Earth, one to the Sea, one +to Fire, and so on, is in fact a distorted version of this truth. The very +form of the universe--the sphere--is the most perfect of all forms, and +therefore suited to embody the Divine. + +[Footnote 1: De Nat. Deor. ii. 34. Paley's Nat. Theol. ch. i.] + +Then Cotta--who though, as Pontifex, he is a national priest by vocation, +is of that sect in philosophy which makes doubt its creed--resumes his +objections. He is no better satisfied with the tenets of the Stoics than +with those of the Epicureans. He believes that there are gods; but, coming +to the discussion as a dispassionate and philosophical observer, he finds +such proofs as are offered of their existence insufficient. But this third +book is fragmentary, and the continuity of Cotta's argument is broken by +considerable gaps in all the manuscripts. There is a curious tradition, +that these portions were carefully torn out by the early Christians, +because they might prove too formidable weapons in the hands of +unbelievers. Cotta professes throughout only to raise his objections in +the hope that they may be refuted; but his whole reasoning is destructive +of any belief in an overruling Providence. He confesses himself puzzled by +that insoluble mystery--the existence of Evil in a world created and ruled +by a beneficent Power. The gods have given man reason, it is said; but man +abuses the gift to evil ends. "This is the fault", you say, "of men, not +of the gods. As though the physician should complain of the virulence of +the disease, or the pilot of the fury of the tempest! Though these are but +mortal men, even in them it would seem ridiculous. Who would have asked +your help, we should answer, if these difficulties had not arisen? May we +not argue still more strongly in the case of the gods? The fault, you say, +lies in the vices of men. But you should have given men such a rational +faculty as would exclude the possibility of such crimes". He sees, as +David did, "the ungodly in prosperity". The laws of Heaven are mocked, +crimes are committed, and "the thunders of Olympian Jove are silent". He +quotes, as it would always be easy to quote, examples of this from +all history: the most telling and original, perhaps, is the retort of +Diagoras, who was called the Atheist, when they showed him in the temple +at Samothrace the votive tablets (as they may be seen in some foreign +churches now) offered by those shipwrecked seamen who had been saved from +drowning. "Lo, thou that deniest a Providence, behold here how many have +been saved by prayer to the gods!" "Yea", was his reply; "but where are +those commemorated who were drowned?" + +The Dialogue ends with no resolution of the difficulties, and no +conclusion as to the points in question. Cicero, who is the narrator of +the imaginary conference, gives it as his opinion that the arguments of +the Stoic seemed to him to have "the greater probability". It was the +great tenet of the school which he most affected, that probability was the +nearest approach that man could make to speculative truth. "We are not +among those", he says, "to whom there seems to be no such thing as truth; +but we say that all truths have some falsehoods attached to them which +have so strong a resemblance to truth, that in such cases there is no +certain note of distinction which can determine our judgment and assent. +The consequence of which is that there are many things probable; and +although they are not subjects of actual perception to our senses, yet +they have so grand and glorious an aspect that a wise man governs his life +thereby".[1] It remained for one of our ablest and most philosophical +Christian writers to prove that in such matters probability was +practically equivalent to demonstration.[2] Cicero's own form of +scepticism in religious matters is perhaps very nearly expressed in the +striking anecdote which he puts, in this dialogue, into the mouth of the +Epicurean. + +[Footnote 1: De Nat. Deor. i. 5.] + +[Footnote 2: "To us, probability is the very guide of life".--Introd. to +Butler's Analogy.] + +"If you ask me what the Deity is, or what his nature and attributes are, +I should follow the example of Simonides, who, when the tyrant Hiero +proposed to him the same question, asked a day to consider of it. When the +king, on the next day, required from him the answer, Simonides requested +two days more; and when he went on continually asking double the time, +instead of giving any answer, Hiero in amazement demanded of him the +reason. 'Because', replied he, 'the longer I meditate on the question, the +more obscure does it appear'".[1] + +[Footnote 1: De Nat. Deor. i. 22.] + +The position of Cicero as a statesman, and also as a member of the College +of Augurs, no doubt checked any strong expression of opinion on his part +as to the forms of popular worship and many particulars of popular belief. +In the treatise which he intended as in some sort a sequel to this +Dialogue on the 'Nature of the Gods'--that upon 'Divination'--he states +the arguments for and against the national belief in omens, auguries, +dreams, and such intimations of the Divine will.[1] He puts the defence +of the system in the mouth of his brother Quintus, and takes himself the +destructive side of the argument: but whether this was meant to give his +own real views on the subject, we cannot be so certain. The course of +argument employed on both sides would rather lead to the conclusion that +the writer's opinion was very much that which Johnson delivered as to the +reality of ghosts--"All argument is against it, but all belief is for it". + +[Footnote 1: There is a third treatise, 'De Fato', apparently a +continuation of the series, of which only a portion has reached us. It is +a discussion of the difficult questions of Fate and Free-will.] + +With regard to the great questions of the soul's immortality, and a state +of future rewards and punishments, it would be quite possible to gather +from Cicero's writings passages expressive of entirely contradictory +views. The bent of his mind, as has been sufficiently shown, was towards +doubt, and still more towards discussion; and possibly his opinions were +not so entirely in a state of flux as the remains of his writings seem to +show. In a future state of some kind he must certainly have believed--that +is, with such belief as he would have considered the subject-matter to +admit of--as a strong probability. In a speculative fragment which has +come down to us, known as 'Scipio's Dream', we seem to have the creed of +the man rather than the speculations of the philosopher. Scipio Africanus +the elder appears in a dream to the younger who bore his name (his +grandson by adoption). He shows him a vision of heaven; bids him listen +to the music of the spheres, which, as they move in their order, "by a +modulation of high and low sounds", give forth that harmony which men have +in some poor sort reduced to notation. He bids him look down upon the +earth, contracted to a mere speck in the distance, and draws a lesson of +the poverty of all mere earthly fame and glory. "For all those who have +preserved, or aided, or benefited their country, there is a fixed and +definite place in heaven, where they shall be happy in the enjoyment of +everlasting life". But "the souls of those who have given themselves up to +the pleasures of sense, and made themselves, as it were, the servants of +these,--who at the bidding of the lusts which wait upon pleasure have +violated the laws of gods and men,--they, when they escape from the body, +flit still around the earth, and never attain to these abodes but after +many ages of wandering". We may gather that his creed admitted a Valhalla +for the hero and the patriot, and a long process of expiation for the +wicked. + +There is a curious passage preserved by St. Augustin from that one of +Cicero's works which he most admired--the lost treatise on 'Glory'--which +seems to show that so far from being a materialist, he held the body to be +a sort of purgatory for the soul. + +"The mistakes and the sufferings of human life make me think sometimes +that those ancient seers, or Interpreters of the secrets of heaven and the +counsels of the Divine mind, had some glimpse of the truth, when they said +that men are born in order to suffer the penalty for some sins committed +in a former life; and that the idea is true which we find in Aristotle, +that we are suffering some such punishment as theirs of old, who fell into +the hands of those Etruscan bandits, and were put to death with a studied +cruelty; their living bodies being tied to dead bodies, face to face, in +closest possible conjunction: that so our souls are coupled to our bodies, +united like the living with the dead". + +But whatever might have been the theological side, if one may so express +it, of Cicero's religion, the moral aphorisms which meet us here and there +in his works have often in them a teaching which comes near the tone of +Christian ethics. The words of Petrarch are hardly too strong--"You would +fancy sometimes it was not a Pagan philosopher but a Christian apostle who +was speaking".[1] These are but a few out of many which might be quoted: +"Strive ever for the truth, and so reckon as that not thou art mortal, but +only this thy body, for thou art not that which this outward form of thine +shows forth, but each man's mind, that is the real man--not the shape +which can be traced with the finger".[2] "Yea, rather, they live who have +escaped from the bonds of their flesh as from a prison-house". "Follow +after justice and duty; such a life is the path to heaven, and into yon +assembly of those who have once lived, and now, released from the body, +dwell in that place". Where, in any other heathen writer, shall we +find such noble words as those which close the apostrophe in the +Tusculans?--"One single day well spent, and in accordance with thy +precepts, were better to be chosen than an immortality of sin!"[3] He is +addressing himself, it is true, to Philosophy; but his Philosophy is here +little less than the Wisdom of Scripture: and the spiritual aspiration is +the same--only uttered under greater difficulties--as that of the Psalmist +when he exclaims, "One day in thy courts is better than a thousand!" +We may or may not adopt Erasmus's view of his inspiration--or rather, +inspiration is a word which has more than one definition, and this would +depend upon which definition we take; but we may well sympathise with the +old scholar when he says--"I feel a better man for reading Cicero". + +[Footnote 1: "Interdum non Paganum philosophum, sed apostolum loqui +putes".] + +[Footnote 2: 'The Dream of Scipio'.] + +[Footnote 3: Tusc., v. 2.] + + +END OF CICERO + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cicero, by Rev. W. Lucas Collins + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CICERO *** + +***** This file should be named 11448-8.txt or 11448-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/4/4/11448/ + +Produced by Stan Goodman, Ted Garvin, Lazar Liveanu and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + + https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06 + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/11448-8.zip b/old/11448-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a12a77c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11448-8.zip diff --git a/old/11448.txt b/old/11448.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..af2de42 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11448.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5369 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cicero, by Rev. W. Lucas Collins + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Cicero + Ancient Classics for English Readers + +Author: Rev. W. Lucas Collins + +Release Date: March 5, 2004 [EBook #11448] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CICERO *** + + + + +Produced by Stan Goodman, Ted Garvin, Lazar Liveanu and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +_Ancient Classics for English Readers_ + +edited by the + +REV. W. LUCAS COLLINS, M.A. + + + + + +CICERO + + +by the + +REV. W. LUCAS COLLINS, M.A. + +AUTHOR OF 'ETONIANA', 'THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS', ETC. + + + + +I have to acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Forsyth's well-known 'Life of +Cicero', especially as a guide to the biographical materials which abound +in his Orations and Letters. Mr. Long's scholarly volumes have also been +found useful. For the translations, such as they are, I am responsible. If +I could have met with any which seemed to me more satisfactory, I would +gladly have adopted them. + +W.L.C. + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I. BIOGRAPHICAL--EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION, + II. PUBLIC CAREER--IMPEACHMENT OF VERRES, + III. THE CONSULSHIP AND CATILINE, + IV. EXILE AND RETURN, + V. CICERO AND CAESAR, + VI. CICERO AND ANTONY, + VII. CHARACTER AS POLITICIAN AND ORATOR, +VIII. MINOR CHARACTERISTICS, + IX. CICERO's CORRESPONDENCE, + X. ESSAYS ON 'OLD AGE' AND 'FRIENDSHIP', + XI. CICERO'S PHILOSOPHY, + XII. CICERO'S RELIGION. + + + + +CICERO. + + +CHAPTER I. + + +EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. + +When we speak, in the language of our title-page, of the 'Ancient +Classics', we must remember that the word 'ancient' is to be taken with +a considerable difference, in one sense. Ancient all the Greek and Roman +authors are, as dated comparatively with our modern era. But as to the +antique character of their writings, there is often a difference which +is not merely one of date. The poetry of Homer and Hesiod is ancient, as +having been sung and written when the society in which the authors lived, +and to which they addressed themselves, was in its comparative infancy. +The chronicles of Herodotus are ancient, partly from their subject-matter +and partly from their primitive style. But in this sense there are ancient +authors belonging to every nation which has a literature of its own. +Viewed in this light, the history of Thucydides, the letters and orations +of Cicero, are not ancient at all. Bede, and Chaucer, and Matthew of +Paris, and Froissart, are far more redolent of antiquity. The several +books which make up what we call the Bible are all ancient, no doubt; but +even between the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and the Epistles of St. +Paul there is a far wider real interval than the mere lapse of centuries. + +In one respect, the times of Cicero, in spite of their complicated +politics, should have more interest for a modern reader than most of what +is called Ancient History. Forget the date but for a moment, and there +is scarcely anything ancient about them. The scenes and actors are +modern--terribly modern; far more so than the middle ages of Christendom. +Between the times of our own Plantagenets and Georges, for instance, there +is a far wider gap, in all but years, than between the consulships of +Caesar and Napoleon. The habits of life, the ways of thinking, the family +affections, the tastes of the Romans of Cicero's day, were in many +respects wonderfully like our own; the political jealousies and rivalries +have repeated themselves again and again in the last two or three +centuries of Europe: their code of political honour and morality, debased +as it was, was not much lower than that which was held by some great +statesmen a generation or two before us. Let us be thankful if the most +frightful of their vices were the exclusive shame of paganism. + +It was in an old but humble country-house, neat the town of Arpinum, under +the Volscian hills, that Marcus Tullius Cicero was born, one hundred +and six years before the Christian era. The family was of ancient +'equestrian'[1] dignity, but as none of its members had hitherto borne +any office of state, it did not rank as 'noble'. His grandfather and his +father had borne the same three names--the last an inheritance from some +forgotten ancestor, who had either been successful in the cultivation of +vetches (_cicer_), or, as less complimentary traditions said, had a +wart of that shape upon his nose. The grandfather was still living when +the little Cicero was born; a stout old conservative, who had successfully +resisted the attempt to introduce vote by ballot into his native town, and +hated the Greeks (who were just then coming into fashion) as heartily as +his English representative, fifty years ago, might have hated a Frenchman. +"The more Greek a man knew", he protested, "the greater rascal he turned +out". The father was a man of quiet habits, taking no part even in local +politics, given to books, and to the enlargement and improvement of the +old family house, which, up to his time, seems not to have been more than +a modest grange. The situation (on a small island formed by the little +river Fibrenus[2]) was beautiful and romantic; and the love for it, which +grew up with the young Cicero as a child, he never lost in the busy days +of his manhood. It was in his eyes, he said, what Ithaca was to Ulysses, + + "A rough, wild nurse-land, but whose crops are men". + +[Footnote 1: The _Equites_ were originally those who served in the +Roman cavalry; but latterly all citizens came to be reckoned in the class +who had a certain property qualification, and who could prove free +descent up to their grandfather.] + +[Footnote 2: Now known as Il Fiume della Posta. Fragments of Cicero's +villa are thought to have been discovered built into the walls of the +deserted convent of San Dominico. The ruin known as 'Cicero's Tower' has +probably no connection with him.] + +There was an aptness in the quotation; for at Arpinum, a few years before, +was born that Caius Marius, seven times consul of Rome, who had at least +the virtue of manhood in him, if he had few besides. + +But the quiet country gentleman was ambitious for his son. Cicero's +father, like Horace's, determined to give him the best education in his +power; and of course the best education was to be found in Rome, and the +best teachers there were Greeks. So to Rome young Marcus was taken in +due time, with his younger brother Quintus. They lodged with their +uncle-in-law, Aculeo, a lawyer of some distinction, who had a house in +rather a fashionable quarter of the city, and moved in good society; and +the two boys attended the Greek lectures with their town cousins. Greek +was as necessary a part of a Roman gentleman's education in those days as +Latin and French are with us now; like Latin, it was the key to literature +(for the Romans had as yet, it must be remembered, nothing worth calling +literature of their own); and, like French, it was the language of +refinement and the play of polished society. Let us hope that by this time +the good old grandfather was gathered peacefully into his urn; it might +have broken his heart to have seen how enthusiastically his grandson +Marcus threw himself into this newfangled study; and one of those letters +of his riper years, stuffed full of Greek terms and phrases even to +affectation, would have drawn anything but blessings from the old +gentleman if he had lived to hear them read. + +Young Cicero went through the regular curriculum--grammar, rhetoric, and +the Greek poets and historians. Like many other youthful geniuses, he +wrote a good deal of poetry of his own, which his friends, as was natural, +thought very highly of at the time, and of which he himself retained the +same good opinion to the end of his life, as would have been natural to +few men except Cicero. But his more important studies began after he had +assumed the 'white gown' which marked the emergence of the young Roman +from boyhood into more responsible life--at sixteen years of age. He then +entered on a special education for the bar. It could scarcely be called a +profession, for an advocate's practice at Rome was gratuitous; but it was +the best training for public life;--it was the ready means, to an able and +eloquent man, of gaining that popular influence which would secure +his election in due course to the great magistracies which formed the +successive steps to political power. The mode of studying law at Rome bore +a very considerable resemblance to the preparation for the English bar. +Our modern law-student purchases his admission to the chambers of some +special pleader or conveyancer, where he is supposed to learn his future +business by copying precedents and answering cases, and he also attends +the public lectures at the Inns of Court. So at Rome the young aspirant +was to be found (but at a much earlier hour than would suit the Temple or +Lincoln's Inn) in the open hall of some great jurist's House, listening +to his opinions given to the throng of clients who crowded there every +morning; while his more zealous pupils would accompany him in his stroll +in the Forum, and attend his pleadings in the courts or his speeches on +the Rostra, either taking down upon their tablets, or storing in their +memories, his _dicta_ upon legal questions.[1] In such wise Cicero +became the pupil of Mucius Scaevola, whose house was called "the oracle +of Rome"--scarcely ever leaving his side, as he himself expresses it; and +after that great lawyer's death, attaching himself in much the same way to +a younger cousin of the same name and scarcely less reputation. Besides +this, to arm himself at all points for his proposed career, he read logic +with Diodotus the Stoic, studied the action of Esop and Roscius--then the +stars of the Roman stage--declaimed aloud like Demosthenes in private, +made copious notes, practised translation in order to form a written +style, and read hard day and night. He trained severely as an intellectual +athlete; and if none of his contemporaries attained such splendid success, +perhaps none worked so hard for it. He made use, too, of certain special +advantages which were open to him--little appreciated, or at least seldom +acknowledged, by the men of his day--the society and conversation of +elegant and accomplished women. In Scaevola's domestic circle, where the +mother, the daughters, and the grand-daughters successively seem to have +been such charming talkers that language found new graces from their lips, +the young advocate learnt some of his not least valuable lessons. "It +makes no little difference", said he in his riper years, "what style of +expression one becomes familiar with in the associations of daily life". +It was another point of resemblance between the age of Cicero and the +times in which we live--the influence of the "queens of society", whether +for good or evil. + +[Footnote 1: These _dicta_, or 'opinions', of the great jurists, +acquired a sort of legal validity in the Roman law-courts, like 'cases' +with us.] + +But no man could be completely educated for a public career at Rome until +he had been a soldier. By what must seem to us a mistake in the Republican +system--a mistake which we have seen made more than once in the late +American war--high political offices were necessarily combined with +military command. The highest minister of state, consul or praetor, +however hopelessly civilian in tastes and antecedents, might be sent to +conduct a campaign in Italy or abroad at a few hours' notice. If a man was +a heaven-born general, all went well; if not, he had usually a chance of +learning in the school of defeat. It was desirable, at all events, that he +should have seen what war was in his youth. Young Cicero served his first +campaign, at the age of eighteen, under the father of a man whom he was to +know only too well in after life--Pompey the Great--and in the division of +the army which was commanded by Sylla as lieutenant-general. He bore arms +only for a year or two, and probably saw no very arduous service, or we +should certainly have beard of it from himself; and he never was in camp +again until he took the chief command, thirty-seven years afterwards, +as pro-consul in Cilicia. He was at Rome, leading a quiet +student-life--happily for himself, too young to be forced or tempted into +an active part--during the bloody feuds between Sylla and the younger +Marius. + +He seems to have made his first appearance as an advocate when he was +about twenty-five, in some suit of which we know nothing. Two years +afterwards he undertook his first defence of a prisoner on a capital +charge, and secured by his eloquence the acquittal of Sextus Roscius on an +accusation of having murdered his father. The charge appears to have been +a mere conspiracy, wholly unsupported by evidence; but the accuser was a +favourite with Sylla, whose power was all but absolute; and the innocence +of the accused was a very insufficient protection before a Roman jury of +those days. What kind of considerations, besides the merits of the case +and the rhetoric of counsel, did usually sway these tribunals, we shall +see hereafter. In consequence of this decided success, briefs came in upon +the young pleader almost too quickly. Like many other successful orators, +he had to combat some natural deficiencies; he had inherited from his +father a somewhat delicate constitution; his lungs were not powerful, +and his voice required careful management; and the loud declamation and +vehement action which he had adopted from his models--and which were +necessary conditions of success in the large arena in which a Roman +advocate had to plead--he found very hard work. He left Rome for a while, +and retired for rest and change to Athens. + +The six months which he spent there, though busy and studious, must have +been very pleasant ones. To one like Cicero, Athens was at once classic +and holy ground. It combined all those associations and attractions which +we might now expect to find in a visit to the capitals of Greece and +of Italy, and a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Poetry, rhetoric, philosophy, +religion--all, to his eyes, had their cradle there. It was the home of +all that was literature to him; and there, too, were the great Eleusinian +mysteries--which are mysteries still, but which contained under their +veil whatever faith in the Invisible and Eternal rested in the mind of an +enlightened pagan. There can be little doubt but that Cicero took this +opportunity of initiation. His brother Quintus and one of his cousins were +with him at Athens; and in that city he also renewed his acquaintance with +an old school-fellow, Titus Pomponius, who lived so long in the city, and +became so thoroughly Athenian in his tastes and habits, that he is better +known to us, as he was to his contemporaries, by the surname of Atticus, +which was given him half in jest, than by his more sonorous Roman name. It +is to the accidental circumstance of Atticus remaining so long a voluntary +exile from Rome, and to the correspondence which was maintained +between the two friends, with occasional intervals, for something like +four-and-twenty years, that we are indebted for a more thorough insight +into the character of Cicero than we have as to any other of the great +minds of antiquity; nearly four hundred of his letters to Atticus, written +in all the familiar confidence of private friendship by a man by no +means reticent as to his personal feelings, having been preserved to us. +Atticus's replies are lost; it is said that he was prudent enough, after +his friend's unhappy death, to reclaim and destroy them. They would +perhaps have told us, in his case, not very much that we care to know +beyond what we know already. Rich, luxurious, with elegant tastes and +easy morality--a true Epicurean, as he boasted himself to be--Atticus had +nevertheless a kind heart and an open hand. He has generally been called +selfish, somewhat unfairly; at least his selfishness never took the form +of indifference or unkindness to others. In one sense he was a truer +philosopher than Cicero: for he seems to have acted through life on that +maxim of Socrates which his friend professed to approve, but certainly +never followed,--that "a wise man kept out of public business". His +vocation was certainly not patriotism; but the worldly wisdom which +kept well with men of all political colours, and eschewed the wretched +intrigues and bloody feuds of Rome, stands out in no unfavourable contrast +with the conduct of many of her _soi-disant_ patriots. If he declined +to take a side himself, men of all parties resorted to him in their +adversity; and the man who befriended the younger Marius in his exile, +protected the widow of Antony, gave shelter on his estates to the victims +of the triumvirate's proscription, and was always ready to offer his +friend Cicero both his house and his purse whenever the political horizon +clouded round him,--this man was surely as good a citizen as the noisiest +clamourer for "liberty" in the Forum, or the readiest hand with the +dagger. He kept his life and his property safe through all those years of +peril and proscription, with less sacrifice of principle than many who +had made louder professions, and died--by a singular act of voluntary +starvation, to make short work with an incurable disease--at a ripe old +age; a godless Epicurean, no doubt, but not the worst of them. + +We must return to Cicero, and deal somewhat briefly with the next few +years of his life. He extended his foreign tour for two years, visiting +the chief cities of Asia Minor, remaining for a short time at Rhodes +to take lessons once more from his old tutor Molo the rhetorician, and +everywhere availing himself of the lectures of the most renowned Greek +professors, to correct and improve his own style of composition and +delivery. Soon after his return to Rome, he married. Of the character of +his wife Terentia very different views have been taken. She appears to +have written to him very kindly during his long forced absences. Her +letters have not reached us; but in all her husband's replies she is +mentioned in terms of apparently the most sincere affection. He calls +her repeatedly his "darling"--"the delight of his eyes"--"the best of +mothers;" yet he procured a divorce from her, for no distinctly assigned +reason, after a married life of thirty years, during which we find no +trace of any serious domestic unhappiness. The imputations on her honour +made by Plutarch, and repeated by others, seem utterly without foundation; +and Cicero's own share in the transaction is not improved by the fact of +his taking another wife as soon as possible--a ward of his own, an almost +girl, with whom he did not live a year before a second divorce released +him. Terentia is said also to have had an imperious temper; but the +only ground for this assertion seems to have been that she quarrelled +occasionally with her sister-in-law Pomponia, sister of Atticus and wife +of Quintus Cicero; and since Pomponia, by her own brother's account, +showed her temper very disagreeably to her husband, the feud between the +ladies was more likely to have been her fault than Terentia's. But the +very low notion of the marriage relations entertained by both the later +Greeks and Romans helps to throw some light upon a proceeding which would +otherwise seem very mysterious. Terentia, as is pretty plain from the +hints in her husband's letters, was not a good manager in money matters; +there is room for suspicion that she was not even an honest one in his +absence, and was "making a purse" for herself; she had thus failed in +one of the only two qualifications which, according to Demosthenes--an +authority who ranked very high in Cicero's eyes--were essential in a wife, +to be "a faithful house-guardian" and "a fruitful mother". She did not die +of a broken heart; she lived to be 104, and, according to Dio Cassius, to +have three more husbands. Divorces were easy enough at Rome, and had the +lady been a rich widow, there might be nothing so improbable in this +latter part of the story, though she was fifty years old at the date of +this first divorce.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Cato, who is the favourite impersonation of all the moral +virtues of his age, divorced his wife--to oblige a friend!] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +PUBLIC CAREER.--IMPEACHMENT OF VERRES. + +Increasing reputation as a brilliant and successful pleader, and the +social influence which this brought with it, secured the rapid succession +of Cicero to the highest public offices. Soon after his marriage he was +elected Quaestor--the first step on the official ladder--which, as he +already possessed the necessary property qualification, gave him a seat in +the Senate for life. The Aedileship and Praetorship followed subsequently, +each as early, in point of age, as it could legally be held.[1] His +practice as an advocate suffered no interruption, except that his +Quaestorship involved his spending a year in Sicily. The Praetor who +was appointed to the government of that province[2] had under him two +quaestors, who were a kind of comptrollers of the exchequer; and Cicero +was appointed to the western district, having his headquarters at +Lilybaeum. In the administration of his office there he showed himself a +thorough man of business. There was a dearth of corn at Rome that year, +and Sicily was the great granary of the empire. The energetic measures +which the new Quaestor took fully met the emergency. He was liberal to +the tenants of the State, courteous and accessible to all, upright in his +administration, and, above all, he kept his hands clean from bribes and +peculation. The provincials were as much astonished as delighted: for Rome +was not in the habit of sending them such officers. They invented honours +for him such as had never been bestowed on any minister before. + +[Footnote 1: The Quaestors (of whom there were at this time twenty) acted +under the Senate as State treasurers. The Consul or other officer who +commanded in chief during a campaign would be accompanied by one of them +as paymaster-general. + +The Aediles, who were four in number, had the care of all public +buildings, markets, roads, and the State property generally. They had also +the superintendence of the national festivals and public games. + +The duties of the Praetors, of whom there were eight, were principally +judicial. The two seniors, called the 'City' and 'Foreign' respectively, +corresponded roughly to our Home and Foreign Secretaries. These were all +gradual steps to the office of Consul.] + +[Footnote 2: The provinces of Rome, in their relation to the mother-state +of Italy, may be best compared with our own government of India, or such +of our crown colonies as have no representative assembly. They had each +their governor or lieutenant-governor, who must have been an ex-minister +of Rome: a man who had been Consul went out with the rank of +"pro-consul",--one who had been Praetor with the rank of "pro-praetor". +These held office for one or two years, and had the power of life and +death within their respective jurisdictions. They had under them one or +more officers who bore the title of Quaestor, who collected the taxes and +had the general management of the revenues of the province. The provinces +at this time were Sicily, Sardinia with Corsica, Spain and Gaul (each in +two divisions); Greece, divided into Macedonia and Achaia (the Morea); +Asia, Syria, Cilicia, Bithynia, Cyprus, and Africa in four divisions. +Others were added afterwards, under the Empire.] + +No wonder the young official's head (he was not much over thirty) +was somewhat turned. "I thought", he said, in one of his speeches +afterwards--introducing with a quiet humour, and with all a practised +orator's skill, one of those personal anecdotes which relieve a long +speech--"I thought in my heart, at the time, that the people at Rome must +be talking of nothing but my quaestorship". And he goes on to tell his +audience how he was undeceived. + +"The people of Sicily had devised for me unprecedented honours. So I left +the island in a state of great elation, thinking that the Roman people +would at once offer me everything without my seeking. But when I was +leaving my province, and on my road home, I happened to land at Puteoli +just at the time when a good many of our most fashionable people are +accustomed to resort to that neighbourhood. I very nearly collapsed, +gentlemen, when a man asked me what day I had left Rome, and whether there +was any news stirring? When I made answer that I was returning from my +province--'Oh! yes, to be sure', said he; 'Africa, I believe?' 'No', said +I to him, considerably annoyed and disgusted; 'from Sicily'. Then somebody +else, with the air of a man who knew all about it, said to him--'What! +don't you know that he was Quaestor at _Syracuse_?' [It was at +Lilybaeum--quite a different district.] No need to make a long story of +it; I swallowed my indignation, and made as though I, like the rest, had +come there for the waters. But I am not sure, gentlemen, whether that +scene did not do me more good than if everybody then and there had +publicly congratulated me. For after I had thus found out that the people +of Rome have somewhat deaf ears, but very keen and sharp eyes, I left off +cogitating what people would hear about me; I took care that thenceforth +they should see me before them every day: I lived in their sight, I stuck +close to the Forum; the porter at my gate refused no man admittance--my +very sleep was never allowed to be a plea against an audience".[1] + +[Footnote 1: Defence of Plancius, c. 26, 27.] + +Did we not say that Cicero was modern, not ancient? Have we not here the +original of that Cambridge senior wrangler, who, happening to enter a +London theatre at the same moment with the king, bowed all round with a +gratified embarrassment, thinking that the audience rose and cheered at +_him_? + +It was while he held the office of Aedile that he made his first +appearance as public prosecutor, and brought to justice the most important +criminal of the day. Verres, late Praetor in Sicily, was charged with +high crimes and misdemeanours in his government. The grand scale of his +offences, and the absorbing interest of the trial, have led to his case +being quoted as an obvious parallel to that of Warren Hastings, though +with much injustice to the latter, so far as it may seem to imply any +comparison of moral character. This Verres, the corrupt son of a corrupt +father, had during his three years' rule heaped on the unhappy province +every evil which tyranny and rapacity could inflict. He had found it +prosperous and contented: he left it exhausted and smarting under its +wrongs. He met his impeachment now with considerable confidence. The gains +of his first year of office were sufficient, he said, for himself; the +second had been for his friends; the third produced more than enough to +bribe a jury. + +The trials at Rome took place in the Forum--the open space, of nearly five +acres, lying between the Capitoline and Palatine hills. It was the city +market-place, but it was also the place where the population assembled for +any public meeting, political or other--where the idle citizen strolled +to meet his friends and hear the gossip of the day, and where the man +of business made his appointments. Courts for the administration of +justice--magnificent halls, called _basilicae_--had by this time been +erected on the north and south sides, and in these the ordinary trials +took place; but for state trials the open Forum was itself the court. One +end of the wide area was raised on a somewhat higher level--a kind of dais +on a large scale--and was separated from the rest by the Rostra, a sort of +stage from which the orators spoke. It was here that the trials were held. +A temporary tribunal for the presiding officer, with accommodation for +counsel, witnesses, and jury, was erected in the open air; and the scene +may perhaps best be pictured by imagining the principal square in +some large town fitted up with open hustings on a large scale for an +old-fashioned county election, by no means omitting the intense popular +excitement and mob violence appropriate to such occasions. Temples of the +gods and other public buildings overlooked the area, and the steps of +these, on any occasion of great excitement, would be crowded by those who +were anxious to see at least, if they could not hear. + +Verres, as a state criminal, would be tried before a special commission, +and by a jury composed at this time entirely from the senatorial order, +chosen by lot (with a limited right of challenge reserved to both parties) +from a panel made out every year by the praetor. This magistrate, who +was a kind of minister of justice, usually presided on such occasions, +occupying the curule chair, which was one of the well-known privileges of +high office at Rome. But his office was rather that of the modern chairman +who keeps order at a public meeting than that of a judge. Judge, in our +sense of the word, there was none; the jury were the judges both of law +and fact. They were, in short, the recognised assessors of the praetor, in +whose hands the administration of justice was supposed to lie. The law, +too, was of a highly flexible character, and the appeals of the advocates +were rather to the passions and feelings of the jurors than to the legal +points of the case. Cicero himself attached comparatively little weight +to this branch of his profession;--"Busy as I am", he says in one of his +speeches, "I could make myself lawyer enough in three days". The jurors +gave each their vote by ballot,--'guilty', 'not guilty', or (as in the +Scotch courts) 'not proven',--and the majority carried the verdict. + +But such trials as that of Verres were much more like an impeachment +before the House of Commons than a calm judicial inquiry. The men who +would have to try a defendant of his class would be, in very few cases, +honest and impartial weighers of the evidence. Their large number (varying +from fifty to seventy) weakened the sense of individual responsibility, +and laid them more open to the appeal of the advocates to their political +passions. Most of them would come into court prejudiced in some degree +by the interests of party; many would be hot partisans. Cicero, in his +treatise on 'Oratory', explains clearly for the pleader's guidance the +nature of the tribunals to which he had to appeal. "Men are influenced +in their verdicts much more by prejudice or favour, or greed of gain, +or anger, or indignation, or pleasure, or hope or fear, or by +misapprehension, or by some excitement of their feelings, than either by +the facts of the case, or by established precedents, or by any rules or +principles whatever either of law or equity". + +Verres was supported by some of the most powerful families at Rome. +Peculation on the part of governors of provinces had become almost a +recognised principle: many of those who held offices of state either had +done, or were waiting their turn to do, much the same as the present +defendant; and every effort had been made by his friends either to +put off the trial indefinitely, or to turn it into a sham by procuring +the appointment of a private friend and creature of his own as public +prosecutor. On the other hand, the Sicilian families, whom he had wronged +and outraged, had their share of influence also at Rome, and there was +a growing impatience of the insolence and rapacity of the old governing +houses, of whose worst qualities the ex-governor of Sicily was a fair +type. There were many reasons which would lead Cicero to take up such a +cause energetically. It was a great opening for him in what we may call +his profession: his former connection with the government of Sicily gave +him a personal interest in the cause of the province; and, above all, the +prosecution of a state offender of such importance was a lift at once into +the foremost ranks of political life. He spared no pains to get up his +case thoroughly. He went all over the island collecting evidence; and his +old popularity there did him good service in the work. + +There was, indeed, evidence enough against the late governor. The reckless +gratification of his avarice and his passions had seldom satisfied him, +without the addition of some bitter insult to the sufferers. But there was +even a more atrocious feature in the case, of which Cicero did not fail to +make good use in his appeal to a Roman jury. Many of the unhappy victims +had the Roman franchise. The torture of an unfortunate Sicilian might be +turned into a jest by a clever advocate for the defence, and regarded by a +philosophic jury with less than the cold compassion with which we regard +the sufferings of the lower animals; but "to scourge a man that was a +Roman and uncondemned", even in the far-off province of Judea, was a +thought which, a century later, made the officers of the great Empire, +at its pitch of power, tremble before a wandering teacher who bore the +despised name of Christian. No one can possibly tell the tale so well as +Cicero himself; and the passage from his speech for the prosecution is an +admirable specimen both of his power of pathetic narrative and scathing +denunciation, "How shall I speak of Publius Gavius, a citizen of Consa? +With what powers of voice, with what force of language, with what +sufficient indignation of soul, can I tell the tale? Indignation, at +least, will not fail me: the more must I strive that in this my pleading +the other requisites may be made to meet the gravity of the subject, the +intensity of my feeling. For the accusation is such that, when it was +first laid before me, I did not think to make use of it; though I knew it +to be perfectly true, I did not think it would be credible.--How shall I +now proceed?--when I have already been speaking for so many hours on one +subject--his atrocious cruelty; when I have exhausted upon other points +well-nigh all the powers of language such as alone is suited to that man's +crimes;--when I have taken no precaution to secure your attention by any +variety in my charges against him,--in what fashion can I now speak on a +charge of this importance? I think there is one way--one course, and only +one, left for me to take. I will place the facts before you; and they have +in themselves such weight, that no eloquence--I will not say of mine, for +I have none--but of any man's, is needed to excite your feelings. + +"This Gavius of Consa, of whom I speak, had been among the crowds of Roman +citizens who had been thrown into prison under that man. Somehow he had +made his escape out of the Quarries,[1] and had got to Messana; and when +he saw Italy and the towers of Rhegium now so close to him, and out of +the horror and shadow of death felt himself breathe with a new life as he +scented once more the fresh air of liberty and the laws, he began to talk +at Messana, and to complain that he, a Roman citizen, had been put in +irons--that he was going straight to Rome--that he would be ready there +for Verres on his arrival. + +[Footnote 1: This was one of the state prisons at Syracuse, so called, +said to have been constructed by the tyrant Dionysius. They were the +quarries from which the stone was dug for building the city, and had been +converted to their present purpose. Cicero, who no doubt had seen the one +in question, describes it as sunk to an immense depth in the solid rock. +There was no roof; and the unhappy prisoners were exposed there "to the +sun by day and to the rain and frosts by night". In these places the +survivors of the unfortunate Athenian expedition against Syracuse were +confined, and died in great numbers.] + +"The wretched man little knew that he might as well have talked in this +fashion in the governor's palace before his very face, as at Messana. +For, as I told you before, this city he had selected for himself as the +accomplice in his crimes, the receiver of his stolen goods, the confidant +of all his wickedness. So Gavius is brought at once before the city +magistrates; and, as it so chanced, on that very day Verres himself came +to Messana. The case is reported to him; that there is a certain Roman +citizen who complained of having been put into the Quarries at Syracuse; +that as he was just going on board ship, and was uttering threats--really +too atrocious--against Verres, they had detained him, and kept him in +custody, that the governor himself might decide about him as should seem +to him good. Verres thanks the gentlemen, and extols their goodwill and +zeal for his interests. He himself, burning with rage and malice, comes +down to the court. His eyes flashed fire; cruelty was written on every +line of his face. All present watched anxiously to see to what lengths he +meant to go, or what steps he would take; when suddenly he ordered the +prisoner to be dragged forth, and to be stripped and bound in the open +forum, and the rods to be got ready at once. The unhappy man cried out +that he was a Roman citizen--that he had the municipal franchise +of Consa--that he had served in a campaign with Lucius Pretius, a +distinguished Roman knight, now engaged in business at Panormus, from whom +Verres might ascertain the truth of his statement. Then that man replies +that he has discovered that he, Gavius, has been sent into Sicily as a +spy by the ringleaders of the runaway slaves; of which charge there was +neither witness nor trace of any kind, or even suspicion in any man's +mind. Then he ordered the man to be scourged severely all over his body. +Yes--a Roman citizen was cut to pieces with rods in the open forum at +Messana, gentlemen; and as the punishment went on, no word, no groan of +the wretched man, in all his anguish, was heard amid the sound of the +lashes, but this cry,--'I am a Roman citizen!' By such protest of +citizenship he thought he could at least save himself from anything like +blows--could escape the indignity of personal torture. But not only did he +fail in thus deprecating the insult of the lash, but when he redoubled +his entreaties and his appeal to the name of Rome, a cross--yes, I say, a +cross--was ordered for that most unfortunate and ill-fated man, who had +never yet beheld such an abuse of a governor's power. + +"O name of liberty, sweet to our ears! O rights of citizenship, in which +we glory! O laws of Porcius and Sempronius! O privilege of the tribune, +long and sorely regretted, and at last restored to the people of Rome! +Has it all come to this, that a Roman citizen in a province of the Roman +people--in a federal town--is to be bound and beaten with rods in the +forum by a man who only holds those rods and axes--those awful emblems--by +grace of that same people of Rome? What shall I say of the fact that fire, +and red-hot plates, and other tortures were applied? Even if his agonised +entreaties and pitiable cries did not check you, were you not moved by the +tears and groans which burst from the Roman citizens who were present at +the scene? Did you dare to drag to the cross any man who claimed to be a +citizen of Rome?--I did not intend, gentlemen, in my former pleading, to +press this case so strongly--I did not indeed; for you saw yourselves +how the public feeling was already embittered against the defendant by +indignation, and hate, and dread of a common peril". + +He then proceeds to prove by witnesses the facts of the case and the +falsehood of the charge against Gavius of having been a spy. "However", he +goes on to say, addressing himself now to Verres, "we will grant, if +you please, that your suspicions on this point, if false, were honestly +entertained". + +"You did not know who the man was; you suspected him of being a spy. I do +not ask the grounds of your suspicion. I impeach you on your own evidence. +He said he was a Roman citizen. Had you yourself, Verres, been seized and +led out to execution, in Persia, say, or in the farthest Indies, what +other cry or protest could you raise but that you were a Roman citizen? +And if you, a stranger there among strangers, in the hands of barbarians, +amongst men who dwell in the farthest and remotest regions of the earth, +would have found protection in the name of your city, known and renowned +in every nation under heaven, could the victim whom you were dragging to +the cross, be he who he might--and you did not know who he was--when he +declared he was a citizen of Rome, could he obtain from you, a Roman +magistrate, by the mere mention and claim of citizenship, not only no +reprieve, but not even a brief respite from death? + +"Men of neither rank nor wealth, of humble birth and station, sail the +seas; they touch at some spot they never saw before, where they are +neither personally known to those whom they visit, nor can always find +any to vouch for their nationality. But in this single fact of their +citizenship they feel they shall be safe, not only with our own governors, +who are held in check by the terror of the laws and of public opinion--not +only among those who share that citizenship of Rome, and who are +united with them by community of language, of laws, and of many things +besides--but go where they may, this, they think, will be their safe +guard. Take away this confidence, destroy this safeguard for our Roman +citizens--once establish the principle that there is no protection in the +words, 'I am a citizen of Rome'--that praetor or other magistrate may with +impunity sentence to what punishment he will a man who says he is a Roman +citizen, merely because somebody does not know it for a fact; and at +once, by admitting such a defence, you are shutting up against our +Roman citizens all our provinces, all foreign states, despotic or +independent--all the whole world, in short, which has ever lain open to +our national enterprise beyond all". + +He turns again to Verres. + +"But why talk of Gavius? as though it were Gavius on whom you were +wreaking a private vengeance, instead of rather waging war against the +very name and rights of Roman citizenship. You showed yourself an enemy, +I say, not to the individual man, but to the common cause of liberty. For +what meant it that, when the authorities of Messana, according to their +usual custom, would have erected the cross behind their city on the +Pompeian road, you ordered it to be set up on the side that looked toward +the Strait? Nay, and added this--which you cannot deny, which you said +openly in the hearing of all--that you chose that spot for this reason, +that as he had called himself a Roman citizen, he might be able, from his +cross of punishment, to see in the distance his country and his home! And +so, gentlemen, that cross was the only one, since Messana was a city, that +was ever erected on that spot. A point which commanded a view of Italy was +chosen by the defendant for the express reason that the dying sufferer, in +his last agony and torment, might see how the rights of the slave and the +freeman were separated by that narrow streak of sea; that Italy might +look upon a son of hers suffering the capital penalty reserved for slaves +alone. + +"It is a crime to put a citizen of Rome in bonds; it is an atrocity to +scourge him; to put him to death is well-nigh parricide; what shall I say +it is to crucify him?--Language has no word by which I may designate such +an enormity. Yet with all this yon man was not content. 'Let him look', +said he, 'towards his country; let him die in full sight of freedom and +the laws'. It was not Gavius; it was not a single victim, unknown to fame, +a mere individual Roman citizen; it was the common cause of liberty, +the common rights of citizenship, which you there outraged and put to a +shameful death". + +But in order to judge of the thrilling effect of such passages upon a +Roman jury, they must be read in the grand periods of the oration itself, +to which no translation into a language so different in idiom and rhythm +as English is from Latin can possibly do justice. The fruitless appeal +made by the unhappy citizen to the outraged majesty of Rome, and the +indignant demand for vengeance which the great orator founds upon +it--proclaiming the recognised principle that, in every quarter of the +world, the humblest wanderer who could say he was a Roman citizen should +find protection in the name--will be always remembered as having supplied +Lord Palmerston with one of his most telling illustrations. But this great +speech of Cicero's--perhaps the most magnificent piece of declamation in +any language--though written and preserved to us was never spoken. The +whole of the pleadings in the case, which extend to some length, were +composed for the occasion, no doubt, in substance, and we have to thank +Cicero for publishing them afterwards in full. But Verres only waited +to hear the brief opening speech of his prosecutor; he did not dare to +challenge a verdict, but allowing judgment to go by default, withdrew to +Marseilles soon after the trial opened. He lived there, undisturbed in the +enjoyment of his plunder, long enough to see the fall and assassination +of his great accuser, but only (as it is said) to share his fate soon +afterwards as one of the victims of Antony's proscription. Of his guilt +there can be no question; his fear to face a court in which he had many +friends is sufficient presumptive evidence of it; but we must hesitate in +assuming the deepness of its dye from the terrible invectives of Cicero. +No sensible person will form an opinion upon the real merits of a case, +even in an English court of justice now, entirely from the speech of the +counsel for the prosecution. And if we were to go back a century or two, +to the state trials of those days, we know that to form our estimate of a +prisoner's guilt from such data only would be doing him a gross injustice. +We have only to remember the exclamation of Warren Hastings himself, whose +trial, as has been said, has so many points of resemblance with that of +Verres, when Burke sat down after the torrent of eloquence which he had +hurled against the accused in his opening speech for the prosecution;--"I +thought myself for the moment", said Hastings, "the guiltiest man in +England". + +The result of this trial was to raise Cicero at once to the leadership--if +so modern an expression may be used--of the Roman bar. Up to this time the +position had been held by Hortensius, the counsel for Verres, whom Cicero +himself calls "the king of the courts". He was eight years the senior of +Cicero in age, and many more professionally, for he is said to have made +his first public speech at nineteen. He had the advantage of the most +extraordinary memory, a musical voice, and a rich flow of language: but +Cicero more than implies that he was not above bribing a jury. It was not +more disgraceful in those days than bribing a voter in our own. The two +men were very unlike in one respect; Hortensius was a fop and an exquisite +(he is said to have brought an action against a colleague for disarranging +the folds of his gown), while Cicero's vanity was quite of another kind. +After Verres's trial, the two advocates were frequently engaged together +in the same cause and on the same side: but Hortensius seems quietly to +have abdicated his forensic sovereignty before the rising fame of his +younger rival. They became, ostensibly at least, personal friends. What +jealousy there was between them, strange to say, seems always to have been +on the side of Cicero, who could not be convinced of the friendly feeling +which, on Hortensius's part, there seems no reason to doubt. After his +rival's death, however, Cicero did full justice to his merits and his +eloquence, and even inscribed to his memory a treatise on 'Glory', which +has been lost. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +THE CONSULSHIP AND CATILINE. + +There was no check as yet in Cicero's career. It had been a steady course +of fame and success, honestly earned and well deserved; and it was soon to +culminate in that great civil triumph which earned for him the proud title +of _Pater Patriae_--the Father of his Country. It was a phrase which +the orator himself had invented; and it is possible that, with all his +natural self-complacency, he might have felt a little uncomfortable under +the compliment, when he remembered on whom he had originally bestowed +it--upon that Caius Marius, whose death in his bed at a good old age, +after being seven times consul, he afterwards uses as an argument, in the +mouth of one of his imaginary disputants, against the existence of an +overruling Providence. In the prime of his manhood he reached the great +object of a Roman's ambition--he became virtually Prime Minister of the +republic: for he was elected, by acclamation rather than by vote, the +first of the two consuls for the year, and his colleague, Caius Antonius +(who had beaten the third candidate, the notorious Catiline, by a few +votes only) was a man who valued his office chiefly for its opportunities +of peculation, and whom Cicero knew how to manage. It is true that this +high dignity--so jealous were the old republican principles of individual +power--would last only for a year; but that year was to be a most eventful +one, both for Cicero and for Rome. The terrible days of Marius and Sylla +had passed, only to leave behind a taste for blood and licence amongst +the corrupt aristocracy and turbulent commons. There were men amongst +the younger nobles quite ready to risk their lives in the struggle for +absolute power; and the mob was ready to follow whatever leader was bold +enough to bid highest for their support. + +It is impossible here to do much more than glance at the well-known story +of Catiline's conspiracy. It was the attempt of an able and desperate man +to make himself and his partisans masters of Rome by a bloody revolution. +Catiline was a member of a noble but impoverished family, who had borne +arms under Sylla, and had served an early apprenticeship in bloodshed +under that unscrupulous leader. Cicero has described his character in +terms which probably are not unfair, because the portrait was drawn by +him, in the course of his defence of a young friend who had been too much +connected with Catiline, for the distinct purpose of showing the popular +qualities which had dazzled and attracted so many of the youth of Rome. + +"He had about him very many of, I can hardly say the visible tokens, but +the adumbrations of the highest qualities. There was in his character +that which tempted him to indulge the worst passions, but also that which +spurred him to energy and hard work. Licentious appetites burnt fiercely +within him, but there was also a strong love of active military service. +I believe that there never lived on earth such a monster of +inconsistency,--such a compound of opposite tastes and passions brought +into conflict with each other. Who at one time was a greater favourite +with our most illustrious men? Who was a closer intimate with our very +basest? Who could be more greedy of money than he was? Who could lavish it +more profusely? There were these marvellous qualities in the man,--he made +friends so universally, he retained them by his obliging ways, he was +ready to share what he had with them all, to help them at their need with +his money, his influence, his personal exertions--not stopping short of +the most audacious crime, if there was need of it. He could change his +very nature, and rule himself by circumstances, and turn and bend in any +direction. He lived soberly with the serious, he was a boon companion with +the gay; grave with the elders, merry with the young; reckless among the +desperate, profligate with the depraved. With a nature so complex +and many-sided, he not only collected round him wicked and desperate +characters from all quarters of the world, but he also attracted many +brave and good men by his simulation of virtue. It would have been +impossible for him to have organised that atrocious attack upon the +Commonwealth, unless that fierce outgrowth of depraved passions had rested +on some under-stratum of agreeable qualities and powers of endurance". + +Born in the same year with Cicero, his unsuccessful rival for the +consulship, and hating him with the implacable hatred with which a bad, +ambitious, and able man hates an opponent who is his superior in ability +and popularity as well as character, Catiline seems to have felt, as his +revolutionary plot ripened, that between the new consul and himself the +fates of Rome must choose. He had gathered round him a band of profligate +young nobles, deep in debt like himself, and of needy and unscrupulous +adventurers of all classes. He had partisans who were collecting and +drilling troops for him in several parts of Italy. The programme was +assassination, abolition of debts, confiscation of property: so little of +novelty is there in revolutionary principles. The first plan had been to +murder the consuls of the year before, and seize the government. It had +failed through his own impatience. He now hired assassins against Cicero, +choosing the opportunity of the election of the incoming consuls, which +always took place some time before their entrance on office. But the plot +was discovered, and the election was put off. When it did take place, +Cicero appeared in the meeting, wearing somewhat ostentatiously a corslet +of bright steel, to show that he knew his danger; and Catiline's partisans +found the place of meeting already occupied by a strong force of the +younger citizens of the middle class, who had armed themselves for the +consul's protection. The election passed off quietly, and Catiline was +again rejected. A second time he tried assassination, and it failed--so +watchful and well informed was the intended victim. And now Cicero, +perhaps, was roused to a consciousness that one or other must fall; for in +the unusually determined measures which he took in the suppression of the +conspiracy, the mixture of personal alarm with patriotic indignation +is very perceptible. By a fortunate chance, the whole plan of the +conspirators was betrayed. Rebel camps had been formed not only in Italy, +but in Spain and Mauritania: Rome was to be set on fire, the slaves to be +armed, criminals let loose, the friends of order to be put out of the way. +The consul called a meeting of the senate in the temple of Jupiter Stator, +a strong position on the Palatine Hill, and denounced the plot in all +its details, naming even the very day fixed for the outbreak. The +arch-conspirator had the audacity to be present, and Cicero addressed him +personally in the eloquent invective which has come to us as his "First +Oration against Catiline". His object was to drive his enemy from the +city to the camp of his partisans, and thus to bring matters at once to a +crisis for which he now felt himself prepared. This daily state of public +insecurity and personal danger had lasted too long, he said: + +"Therefore, let these conspirators at once take their side; let them +separate themselves from honest citizens, and gather themselves together +somewhere else; let them put a wall between us, as I have often said. Let +us have them no longer thus plotting the assassination of a consul in his +own house, overawing our courts of justice with armed bands, besieging the +senate-house with drawn swords, collecting their incendiary stores to burn +our city. Let us at last be able to read plainly in every Roman's face +whether he be loyal to his country or no. I may promise you this, +gentlemen of the Senate--there shall be no lack of diligence on the part +of your consuls; there will be, I trust, no lack of dignity and firmness +on your own, of spirit amongst the Roman knights, of unanimity amongst all +honest men, but that when Catiline has once gone from us, everything +will be not only discovered and brought into the light of day, but also +crushed,--ay, and punished. Under such auspices, I bid you, Catiline. go +forth to wage your impious and unhallowed war.--go, to the salvation of +the state, to your own overthrow and destruction, to the ruin of all who +have joined you in your great wickedness and treason. And thou, great +Jupiter, whose worship Romulus founded here coeval with our city;--whom we +call truly the 'Stay'[1] of our capital and our empire; thou wilt protect +thine own altars and the temples of thy kindred gods, the walls and +roof-trees of our homes, the lives and fortunes of our citizens, from yon +man and his accomplices. These enemies of all good men, invaders of their +country, plunderers of Italy, linked together in a mutual bond of crime +and an alliance of villany, thou wilt surely, visit with an everlasting +punishment, living and dead'". + +[Footnote 1: 'Stator'.] + +Catiline's courage did not fail him. He had been sitting alone--for, all +the other senators had shrunk away from the bench of which he had taken +possession. He rose, and in reply to Cicero, in a forced tone of humility +protested his innocence. He tried also another point. Was he,--a man of +ancient and noble family;--to be hastily condemned by his fellow-nobles +on the word of this 'foreigner', as he contemptuously called Cicero--this +_parvenu_ from Arpinum? But the appeal failed; his voice was drowned +in the cries of 'traitor' which arose on all sides, and with threats and +curses, vowing that since he was driven to desperation he would involve +all Rome in his ruin, he rushed out of the Senate-house. At dead of night +he left the city, and joined the insurgent camp at Faesulae. + +When the thunders of Cicero's eloquence had driven Catiline from the +Senate-house, and forced him to join his fellow-traitors, and so put +himself in the position of levying open war against the state, it remained +to deal with those influential conspirators who had been detected and +seized within the city walls. In three subsequent speeches in the Senate +he justified the course he had taken in allowing Catiline to escape, +exposed further particulars of the conspiracy, and urged the adoption +of strong measures to crush it out within the city. Even now, not all +Cicero's eloquence, nor all the efforts of our imagination to realise, as +men realised it then, the imminence of the public danger, can reconcile +the summary process adopted by the consul with our English notions of calm +and deliberate justice. Of the guilt of the men there was no doubt; most +of them even admitted it. But there was no formal trial; and a few hours +after a vote of death had been passed upon them in a hesitating Senate, +Lentulus and Cethegus, two members of that august body, with three of +their companions in guilt, were brought from their separate places of +confinement, with some degree of secrecy (as appears from different +writers), carried down into the gloomy prison-vaults of the Tullianum,[1] +and there quietly strangled, by the sole authority of the consul. +Unquestionably they deserved death, if ever political criminals deserved +it: the lives and liberties of good citizens were in danger; it was +necessary to strike deep and strike swiftly at a conspiracy which extended +no man knew how widely, and in which men like Julius Caesar and Crassus +were strongly suspected of being engaged. The consuls had been armed with +extra-constitutional powers, conveyed by special resolution of the Senate +in the comprehensive formula that they "were to look to it that the state +suffered no damage". Still, without going so far as to call this +unexampled proceeding, as the German critic Mommsen does, "an act of the +most brutal tyranny", it is easy to understand how Mr. Forsyth, bringing +a calm and dispassionate legal judgment to bear upon the case, finds it +impossible to reconcile it with our ideas of dignified and even-handed +justice.[2] It was the hasty instinct of self-preservation, the act of +a weak government uncertain of its very friends, under the influence of +terror--a terror for which, no doubt, there were abundant grounds. When +Cicero stood on the prison steps, where he had waited to receive the +report of those who were making sure work with the prisoners within, and +announced their fate to the assembled crowd below in the single word +"_Vixerunt_" (a euphemism which we can only weakly translate into +"They have lived their life"), no doubt he felt that he and the republic +held theirs from that moment by a firmer tenure; no doubt very many of +those who heard him felt that they could breathe again, now that the +grasp of Catiline's assassins was, for the moment at all events, off +their throats; and the crowd who followed the consul home were sincere +enough when they hailed such a vigorous avenger as the 'Father of his +Country'. But none the less it was that which politicians have called +worse than a crime--it was a political blunder; and Cicero came to find +it so in after years; though--partly from his immense self-appreciation, +and partly from an honest determination to stand by his act and deed in +all its consequences--he never suffered the shadow of such a confession +to appear in his most intimate correspondence. He claimed for himself +ever afterwards the sole glory of having saved the state by such +prompt and decided action; and in this he was fully borne out by the +facts: justifiable or unjustifiable, the act was his; and there were +burning hearts at Rome which dared not speak out against the popular +consul, but set it down to his sole account against the day of +retribution. + +[Footnote 1: A state dungeon, said to have been built in the reign of +Servius Tullius. It was twelve feet under ground. Executions often took +place there, and the bodies of the criminals were afterwards thrown down +the Gemonian steps (which were close at hand) into the Forum, for the +people to see.] + +[Footnote 2: Life of Cicero, p. 119.] + +For the present, however, all went successfully. The boldness of the +consul's measures cowed the disaffected, and confirmed the timid and +wavering. His colleague Antonius--himself by no means to be depended on at +this crisis, having but lately formed a coalition with Catiline as against +Cicero in the election for consuls--had, by judicious management, been got +away from Rome to take the command against the rebel army in Etruria. He +did not, indeed, engage in the campaign actively in person, having +just now a fit of the gout, either real or pretended; but his +lieutenant-general was an old soldier who cared chiefly for his duty, and +Catiline's band--reckless and desperate men who had gathered to his camp +from all motives and from all quarters--were at length brought to bay, and +died fighting hard to the last. Scarcely a man of them, except the slaves +and robbers who had swelled their ranks, either escaped or was made +prisoner. Catiline's body--easily recognised by his remarkable height--was +found, still breathing, lying far in advance of his followers, surrounded +by the dead bodies of the Roman legionaries--for the loss on the side of +the Republic had been very severe. The last that remained to him of the +many noble qualities which had marked his earlier years was a desperate +personal courage. + +For the month that yet remained of his consulship, Cicero was the foremost +man in Rome--and, as a consequence, in the whole world. Nobles and commons +vied in doing honour to the saviour of the state. Catulus and Cato--men +from whose lips words of honour came with a double weight--saluted him +publicly by that memorable title of _Pater Patriae_; and not only the +capital, but most of the provincial towns of Italy, voted him some +public testimony of his unrivalled services. No man had a more profound +appreciation of those services than the great orator himself. It is +possible that other men have felt quite as vain of their own exploits, and +on far less grounds; but surely no man ever paraded his self-complacency +like Cicero. His vanity was indeed a thing to marvel at rather than to +smile at, because it was the vanity of so able a man. Other great men have +been either too really great to entertain the feeling, or have been wise +enough to keep it to themselves. But to Cicero it must have been one of +the enjoyments of his life. He harped upon his consulship in season and +out of season, in his letters, in his judicial pleadings, in his public +speeches (and we may be sure in his conversation), until one would think +his friends must have hated the subject even more than his enemies. He +wrote accounts of it in prose and verse, in Latin and Greek--and, no +doubt, only limited them to those languages because they were the only +ones he knew. The well-known line which provoked the ridicule of critics +like Juvenal and Quintilian, because of the unlucky jingle peculiarly +unpleasant to a Roman ear: + + "O fortunatam natam me consule Romam!" + +expresses the sentiment which--rhyme or no rhyme, reason or no reason--he +was continually repeating in some form or other to himself and to every +one who would listen. + +His consulship closed in glory; but on his very last day of office there +was a warning voice raised amidst the triumph, which might have opened his +eyes--perhaps it did--to the troubles which were to come. He stood up in +the Rostra to make the usual address to the people on laying down his +authority. Metellus Nepos had been newly elected one of the tribunes: it +was his office to guard jealously all the rights and privileges of the +Roman commons. Influenced, it is said, by Caesar--possibly himself an +undiscovered partisan of Catiline--he dealt a blow at the retiring consul +under cover of a discharge of duty. As Cicero was about to speak, he +interposed a tribune's 'veto'; no man should be heard, he said, who _had +put Roman citizens to death without a trial_. There was consternation +in the Forum. Cicero could not dispute what was a perfectly legal exercise +of the tribune's power; only, in a few emphatic words which he seized the +opportunity of adding to the usual formal oath on quitting office, he +protested that his act had saved Rome. The people shouted in answer, "Thou +hast said true!" and Cicero went home a private citizen, but with that +hearty tribute from his grateful countrymen ringing pleasantly in his +ears. But the bitter words of Metellus were yet to be echoed by his +enemies again and again, until that fickle popular voice took them up, and +howled them after the once popular consul. + +Let us follow him for a while into private life; a pleasanter +companionship for us, we confess, than the unstable glories of the +political arena at Rome. In his family and social relations, the great +orator wins from us an amount of personal interest and sympathy which he +fails sometimes to command in his career as a statesman. At forty-five +years of age he has become a very wealthy man--has bought for something +like L30,000 a noble mansion on the Palatine Hill; and besides the +old-fashioned family seat near Arpinum--now become his own by his father's +death--he has built, or enlarged, or bought as they stood, villas at +Antium, at Formiae, at Pompeii, at Cumae, at Puteoli, and at half-a-dozen +other places, besides the one favourite spot of all, which was to him +almost what Abbotsford was to Scott, the home which it was the delight +of his life to embellish--his country-house among the pleasant hills of +Tusculum.[1] It had once belonged to Sulla, and was about twelve miles +from Rome. In that beloved building and its arrangements he indulged, as +an ample purse allowed him, not only a highly-cultivated taste, but in +some respects almost a whimsical fancy. "A mere cottage", he himself terms +it in one place; but this was when he was deprecating accusations of +extravagance which were brought against him, and we all understand +something of the pride which in such matters "apes humility". He would +have it on the plan of the Academia at Athens, with its _palaestra_ +and open colonnade, where, as he tells us, he could walk and discuss +politics or philosophy with his friends. Greek taste and design were as +fashionable among the Romans of that day as the Louis Quatorze style was +with our grandfathers. But its grand feature was a library, and its most +valued furniture was books. Without books, he said, a house was but a body +without a soul. He entertained for these treasures not only the calm love +of a reader, but the passion of a bibliophile; he was particular about his +bindings, and admired the gay colours of the covers in which the precious +manuscripts were kept as well as the more intellectual beauties within. He +had clever Greek slaves employed from time to time in making copies of all +such works as were not to be readily purchased. He could walk across, too, +as he tells us, to his neighbour's, the young Lucullus, a kind of ward +of his, and borrow from the library of that splendid mansion any book he +wanted. His friend Atticus collected for him everywhere--manuscripts, +paintings, statuary; though for sculpture he professes not to care much, +except for such subjects as might form appropriate decorations for his +_palaestra_ and his library. Very pleasant must have been the days +spent together by the two friends--so alike in their private tastes and +habits, so far apart in their chosen course of life--when they met there +in the brief holidays which Cicero stole from the law-courts and the +Forum, and sauntered in the shady walks, or lounged in the cool library, +in that home of lettered ease, where the busy lawyer and politician +declared that he forgot for a while all the toils and vexations of public +life. + +[Footnote 1: Near the modern town of Frascati. But there is no certainty +as to the site of Cicero's villa.] + +He had his little annoyances, however, even in these happy hours of +retirement. Morning calls were an infliction to which a country gentleman +was liable in ancient Italy as in modern England. A man like Cicero was +very good company, and somewhat of a lion besides; and country neighbours, +wherever he set up his rest, insisted on bestowing their tediousness on +him. His villa at Formiae, his favourite residence next to Tusculum, was, +he protested, more like a public hall. Most of his visitors, indeed, had +the consideration not to trouble him after ten or eleven in the forenoon +(fashionable calls in those days began uncomfortably early); but there +were one or two, especially his next-door neighbour, Arrius, and a +friend's friend, named Sebosus, who were in and out at all hours: the +former had an unfortunate taste for philosophical discussion, and was +postponing his return to Rome (he was good enough to say) from day to day +in order to enjoy these long mornings in Cicero's conversation. Such are +the doleful complaints in two or three of the letters to Atticus; but, +like all such complaints, they were probably only half in earnest: +popularity, even at a watering-place, was not very unpleasant, and the +writer doubtless knew how to practise the social philosophy which he +recommends to others, and took his place cheerfully and pleasantly in the +society which he found about him--not despising his honest neighbours +because they had not all adorned a consulship or saved a state. + +There were times when Cicero fancied that this rural life, with all its +refinements of wealth and taste and literary leisure, was better worth +living than the public life of the capital. His friends and his books, he +said, were the company most congenial to him; "politics might go to the +dogs;" to count the waves as they rolled on the beach was happiness; he +"had rather be mayor of Antium than consul at Rome"; "rather sit in +his own library with Atticus in their favourite seat under the bust of +Aristotle than in the curule chair". It is true that these longings for +retirement usually followed some political defeat or mortification; that +his natural sphere, the only life in which he could be really happy, was +in the keen excitement of party warfare--the glorious battle-field of the +Senate and the Forum. The true key-note of his mind is to be found in +these words to his friend Coelius: "Cling to the city, my friend, and +live in her light: all employment abroad, as I have felt from my earliest +manhood, is obscure and petty for those who have abilities to make them +famous at Rome". Yet the other strain had nothing in it of affectation, or +hypocrisy: it was the schoolboy escaped from work, thoroughly enjoying +his holiday, and fancying that nothing would be so delightful as to have +holidays always. In this, again, there was a similarity between Cicero's +taste and that of Horace. The poet loved his Sabine farm and all its rural +delights--after his fashion; and perhaps thought honestly that he loved it +more than he really did. Above all, he loved to write about it. With that +fancy, half-real, perhaps, and half-affected, for pastoral simplicity, +which has always marked a state of over-luxurious civilisation, he +protests to himself that there is nothing like the country. But perhaps +Horace discharges a sly jest at himself, in a sort of aside to his +readers, in the person of Alphius, the rich city money-lender, who is made +to utter that pretty apostrophe to rural happiness: + + "Happy the man, in busy schemes unskilled, + Who, living simply, like our sires of old, + Tills the few acres which his father tilled, + Vexed by no thoughts of usury or gold". + Martin's 'Horace' + +And who, after thus expatiating for some stanzas on the charms of the +country, calls in all his money one week in order to settle there, and +puts it all out again (no doubt at higher interest) the week after. "_O +rus, quando to aspiciam_!" has been the cry of public men before and +since Cicero's day, to whom, as to the great Roman, banishment from +political life, and condemnation to perpetual leisure, would have been a +sentence that would have crushed their very souls. + +He was very happy at this time in his family. His wife and he loved one +another with an honest affection; anything more would have been out of the +natural course of things in Roman society at any date, and even so much as +this was become a notable exception in these later days. It is paying a +high honour to the character of Cicero and his household--and from all +evidence that has come down to us it may be paid with truth--that even in +those evil times it might have presented the original of what Virgil +drew as almost a fancy picture, or one to be realised only in some happy +retirement into which the civilised vices of the capital had never +penetrated-- + + "Where loving children climb to reach a kiss-- + A home of chaste delights and wedded bliss.[1]" + +His little daughter, Tullia, or Tulliola, which was her pet name (the +Roman diminutives being formed somewhat more elegantly than ours, by +adding a syllable instead of cutting short), was the delight of his +heart in his earlier letters to Atticus he is constantly making some +affectionate mention of her--sending her love, or some playful message +which his friend would understand. She had been happily married (though +she was then but thirteen at the most) the year before his consulship; +but the affectionate intercourse between father and daughter was never +interrupted until her early death. His only son, Marcus, born after a +considerable interval, who succeeded to Tullia's place as a household pet, +is made also occasionally to send some childish word of remembrance to his +father's old friend: + +"Cicero the Little sends his compliments to Titus the Athenian"--"Cicero +the Philosopher salutes Titus the Politician.[2]" These messages are +written in Greek at the end of the letters. Abeken thinks that in the +originals they might have been added in the little Cicero's own hand, "to +show that he had begun Greek;" "a conjecture", says Mr. Merivale, "too +pleasant not to be readily admitted". The boy gave his father some trouble +in after life. He served with some credit as an officer of cavalry under +Pompey in Greece, or at least got into no trouble there. Some years after, +he wished to take service in Spain, under Caesar, against the sons +of Pompey; but the father did not approve of this change of side. He +persuaded him to go to Athens to study instead, allowing him what both +Atticus and himself thought a very liberal income--not sufficient, +however, for him to keep a horse, which Cicero held to be an unnecessary +luxury. Probably the young cavalry officer might not have been of the same +opinion; at any rate, he got into more trouble among the philosophers than +he did in the army. He spent a great deal more than his allowance, and one +of the professors, whose lectures he attended, had the credit of helping +him to spend it. The young man must have shared the kindly disposition +of his father. He wrote a confidential letter to Tiro, the old family +servant, showing very good feeling, and promising reformation. It is +doubtful how far the promise was kept. He rose, however, subsequently to +place and power under Augustus, but died without issue; and, so far at +least as history knows them, the line of the Ciceros was extinct. It had +flashed into fame with the great orator, and died out with him. + +[Footnote 1: "Interia dulces pendent circum oscula nati; Casta pudicitiam +servat domus".--Georg. ii. 524.] + +[Footnote 2: See 'Letters to Atticus', ii. 9, 12; Merivale's translation +of Abeken's 'Cicero in Seinen Briefen', p. 114.] + +All Cicero's biographers have found considerable difficulty in tracing, at +all satisfactorily, the sources of the magnificent fortune which must have +been required to keep up, and to embellish in accordance with so luxurious +a taste, so many residences in all parts of the country. True, these +expenses often led Cicero into debt and difficulties; but what he borrowed +from his friends he seems always to have repaid, so that the money must +have come in from some quarter or other. His patrimony at Arpinum would +not appear to have been large; he got only some L3000 or L4000 dowry +with Terentia; and we find no hint of his making money by any commercial +speculations, as some Roman gentlemen did. On the other hand, it is the +barest justice to him to say that his hands were clean from those +ill-gotten gains which made the fortunes of many of the wealthiest public +men at Rome, who were criminals in only a less degree than +Verres--peculation, extortion, and downright robbery in the unfortunate +provinces which they were sent out to govern. Such opportunities lay as +ready to his grasp as to other men's, but he steadily eschewed them. His +declining the tempting prize of a provincial government, which was his +right on the expiration of his praetorship, may fairly be attributed to +his having in view the higher object of the consulship, to secure which, +by an early and persistent canvass, he felt it necessary to remain in +Rome. But he again waived the right when his consulship was over; and +when, some years afterwards, he went unwillingly as pro-consul to +Cilicia, his administration there, as before in his lower office in +Sicily, was marked by a probity and honesty quite exceptional in a Roman +governor. His emoluments, confined strictly within the legal bounds, +would be only moderate, and, whatever they were, came too late in +his life to be any explanation of his earlier expenditure. He received +many valuable legacies, at different times, from personal friends or +grateful clients who died childless (be it remembered how the barrenness +of the marriage union had become then, at Rome, as it is said to be in +some countries now, the reproach of a sensual and effete aristocracy); he +boasts himself, in one of his 'Philippics', that he had received from this +source above L170,000. Mr. Forsyth also notices the large presents that +were made by foreign kings and states to conciliate the support and +advocacy of the leading men at Rome--"we can hardly call them bribes, for +in many cases the relation of patron and client was avowedly established +between a foreign state and some influential Roman: and it became his +duty, as of course it was his interest, to defend it in the Senate and +before the people". In this way, he thinks, Cicero held "retainers" from +Dyrrachium; and, he might have added, from Sicily. The great orator's own +boast was, that he never took anything for his services as an advocate; +and, indeed, such payments were forbidden by law.[1] But with all respect +for Cicero's material honesty, one learns from his letters, unfortunately, +not to put implicit confidence in him when he is in a boasting vein; and +he might not look upon voluntary gifts, after a cause was decided, in the +light of payment. Paetus, one of his clients, gave him a valuable library +of books; and one cannot believe that this was a solitary instance of +the quiet evasion of the Cincian law, or that there were not other +transactions of the same nature which never found their way into any +letter of Cicero's that was likely to come down to us. + +[Footnote 1: The principle passed, like so many others, from the old Roman +law into our own, so that to this very day, a barrister's fees, being +considered in the nature of an _honorarium_, or voluntary present +made to him for his services, are not recoverable by law.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +HIS EXILE AND RETURN. + +We must return to Rome. Cicero had never left it but for his short +occasional holiday. Though no longer in office, the ex-consul was still +one of the foremost public men, and his late dignity gave him important +precedence in the Senate. He was soon to be brought into contact, and more +or less into opposition, with the two great chiefs of parties in whose +feuds he became at length so fatally involved. Pompey and Caesar were both +gradually becoming formidable, and both had ambitious plans of their own, +totally inconsistent with any remnant of republican liberty--plans which +Cicero more or less suspected, and of that suspicion they were probably +both aware. Both, by their successful campaigns, had not only acquired +fame and honours, but a far more dangerous influence--an influence which +was to overwhelm all others hereafter--in the affection of their legions. +Pompey was still absent in Spain, but soon to return from his long war +against Mithridates, to enjoy the most splendid triumph ever seen at Rome, +and to take the lead of the oligarchical party just so long and so far as +they would help him to the power he coveted. The enemies whom Cicero had +made by his strong measures in the matter of the Catilinarian conspiracy +now took advantage of Pompey's name and popularity to make an attack upon +him. The tribune Metellus, constant to his old party watchword, moved in +the Senate that the successful general, upon whom all expectations were +centred, should be recalled to Rome with his army "to restore the violated +constitution". All knew against whom the motion was aimed, and what the +violation of the constitution meant; it was the putting citizens to death +without a trial. The measure was not passed, though Caesar, jealous of +Cicero even more than of Pompey, lent himself to the attempt. + +But the blow fell on Cicero at last from a very different quarter, and +from the mere private grudge of a determined and unprincipled man. Publius +Clodius, a young man of noble family, once a friend and supporter of +Cicero against Catiline, but who had already made himself notorious for +the most abandoned profligacy, was detected, in a woman's dress, at the +celebration of the rites of the Bona Dea--a kind of religious freemasonry +amongst the Roman ladies, the mysteries of which are very little known, +and probably would in any case be best left without explanation. But for a +man to have been present at them was a sacrilege hitherto unheard of, and +which was held to lay the whole city under the just wrath of the offended +goddess. The celebration had been held in the house of Caesar, as praetor, +under the presidency of his wife Pompeia; and it was said that the object +of the young profligate was an intrigue with that lady. The circumstances +are not favourable to the suspicion; but Caesar divorced her forthwith, +with the often-quoted remark that "Caesar's wife must not be even +suspected". For this crime--unpardonable even in that corrupt society, +when crimes of far deeper dye passed almost unreproved--Clodius was, +after some delay, brought to public trial. The defence set up was an +_alibi_, and Cicero came forward as a witness to disprove it: he had +met and spoken with Clodius in Rome that very evening. The evidence was +clear enough, but the jury had been tampered with by Clodius and his +friends; liberal bribery, and other corrupting influences of even a more +disgraceful kind, had been successfully brought to bear upon the majority +of them, and he escaped conviction by a few votes. But he never forgave +the part which Cicero had taken against him; and from that time forth the +latter found a new, unscrupulous, indefatigable enemy, of whose services +his old opponents gladly availed themselves. Cicero himself for some +time underrated this new danger. He lost no opportunity of taunting +the unconvicted criminal in the bitterest terms in the Senate, and of +exchanging with him--very much to the detriment of his own character and +dignity, in our modern eyes--the coarsest jests when they met in the +street. But the temptation to a jest, of whatever kind, was always +irresistible to Cicero: it was a weakness for which he more than once paid +dearly, for they were remembered against him when be had forgotten them. +Meanwhile Clodius--a sort of milder Catiline, not without many popular +qualities--had got himself elected tribune; degrading himself formally +from his own order of nobles for that purpose, since the tribune must be +a man of the commons. The powers of the office were formidable for all +purposes of obstruction and attack; Clodius had taken pains to ingratiate +himself with all classes; and the consuls of the year were men of infamous +character, for whom he had, found a successful means of bribery by the +promise of getting a special law passed to secure them the choice of the +richest provincial governments--those coveted fields of plunder--of which +they would otherwise have had to take their chance by lot. When all was +ripe for his revenge, he brought before the people in full assembly the +following bill of pains and penalties:--"Be it enacted, that whoever has +put to death a Roman citizen uncondemned in due form of trial, shall be +interdicted from fire and water". Such was the legal form of words which +implied banishment from Rome, outlawry, and social excommunication. Every +man knew against whom the motion was levelled. It was carried--carried in +spite of the indignation of all honest men in Rome, in spite of all +Cicero's humiliating efforts to obtain its rejection. + +It was in vain that he put on mourning, as was the custom with those who +were impeached of public crimes, and went about the streets thus silently +imploring the pity of his fellow-citizens. In vain the whole of his own +equestrian order, and in fact, as he declares, "all honest men" (it was +his favourite term for men of his own party); adopted the same dress to +show their sympathy, and twenty thousand youths of good family--all in +mourning--accompanied him through the city. The Senate even met and passed +a resolution that their whole house should put on mourning too. But +Gabinius, one of the consuls, at once called a public meeting, and warned +the people not to make the mistake of thinking that the Senate was Rome. + +In vain, also, was any personal appeal which Cicero could make to the only +two men who might have had influence enough to sway the popular vote. He +was ostensibly on good terms both with Pompey and Caesar; in fact, he +made it his policy so to be. He foresaw that on their future course would +probably depend the fate of Rome, and he persuaded himself, perhaps +honestly, that he could make them "better citizens". But he trusted +neither; and both saw in him an obstacle to their own ambition. Caesar +now looked on coldly, not altogether sorry at the turn which affairs had +taken, and faintly suggested that perhaps some "milder measure" might +serve to meet the case. From Pompey Cicero had a right to look for some +active support; indeed, such had been promised in case of need. He threw +himself at his feet with prayers and tears, but even this last humiliation +was in vain; and he anticipated the execution of that disgraceful edict +by a voluntary withdrawal into exile. Piso, one of the consuls, had +satirically suggested that thus he might "save Rome" a second time. His +property was at once confiscated; his villas at Tusculum and at Formiae +were plundered and laid waste, the consuls claiming the lion's share of +the spoil; and Clodius, with his armed mob, set fire to the noble house +on the Palatine, razed it to the ground, and erected on the site a temple +to--_Liberty_! + +Cicero had friends who strongly urged him to defy the edict; to remain +at Rome, and call on all good citizens to arm in his defence. Modern +historians very generally have assumed that, if he could have made up his +mind to such a course, it would probably have been successful. He was to +rely, we suppose, upon those "twenty thousand Roman youths "--rather a +broken reed to trust to (remembering what those young gallants were), with +Caesar against him, now at the head of his legions just outside the gates +of Rome. He himself seriously contemplated suicide, and consulted his +friends as to the propriety of such a step in the gravest and most +business-like manner; though, with our modern notions on the subject, such +a consultation has more of the ludicrous than the sublime. The sensible +and practical Atticus convinced him that such a solution of his +difficulties would be the greatest possible mistake--a mistake, moreover, +which could never be rectified. + +But almost any course would have become him better than that which he +chose. Had he remained and faced Clodius and his bravos manfully--or had +he turned his back upon Rome for ever, and shaken the dust off his feet +against the ungrateful city, and become a noble pensioner upon Atticus at +Buthrotum--he would have died a greater man. He wandered from place to +place sheltered by friends whose unselfish loyalty marks their names +with honour in that false and evil generation--Sica, and Flaccus, and +Plancius--bemoaning himself like a woman,--"too blinded with tears to +write", "loathing the light of day". Atticus thought he was going mad. It +is not pleasant to dwell upon this miserable weakness of a great mind, +which Cicero's most eager eulogists admit, and which his detractors have +not failed to make the most of. Nor is it easy to find excuse for him, but +we will give him all the benefit of Mr. Forsyth's defence: + +"Seldom has misfortune so crushed a noble spirit, and never, perhaps, has +the 'bitter bread of banishment' seemed more bitter to any one than to +him. We must remember that the love of country was a passion with the +ancients to a degree which it is now difficult to realise, and exile +from it even for a time was felt to be an intolerable evil. The nearest +approach to such a feeling was perhaps that of some favourite under an +European monarchy, when, frowned upon by his sovereign, he was hurled from +place and power, and banished from the court. The change to Cicero was +indeed tremendous. Not only was he an exile from Rome, the scene of all +his hopes, his glories, his triumphs, but he was under the ban of an +outlaw. If found within a certain distance from the capital, he must die, +and it was death to any one to give him food or shelter. His property +was destroyed, his family was penniless, and the people whom he had so +faithfully served were the authors of his ruin. All this may be urged +in his behalf, but still it would have been only consistent with Roman +fortitude to have shown that he possessed something of the spirit of the +fallen archangel".[1] + +[Footnote 1: Forsyth's Life of Cicero, p. 190.] + +His exile lasted nearly a year and a half. Long before that time there had +come a reaction in his favour. The new consuls were well disposed towards +him; Clodius's insolence had already disgusted Pompey; Caesar was absent +with his legions in Gaul; his own friends, who had all along been active +in his favour (though in his querulous mood he accused them of apathy) +took advantage of the change, his generous rival Hortensius being amongst +the most active; and all the frantic violence of Clodius and his party +served only to delay for a while the return which they could not prevent. +A motion for his recall was carried at last by an immense majority. + +Cicero had one remarkable ally on that occasion. On one of the days when +the Senate was known to be discussing his recall, the 'Andromache' of +Ennius was being played in the theatre. The popular actor Esop, whose name +has come down to us in conjunction with that of Roscius, was playing +the principal character. The great orator had been his pupil, and was +evidently regarded by him as a personal friend. With all the force of his +consummate art, he threw into Andromache's lament for her absent father +his own feelings for Cicero. The words in the part were strikingly +appropriate, and he did not hesitate to insert a phrase or two of his own +when he came to speak of the man + + "Who with a constant mind upheld the state, + Stood on the people's side in perilous times, + Ne'er reeked of his own life, nor spared himself". + +So significant and empathetic were his tone and gesture as he addressed +himself pointedly to his Roman audience, that they recalled him, and, +amid a storm of plaudits, made him repeat the passage. He added to it the +words--which were not set down for him-- + + "Best of all friends in direst strait of war!" + +and the applause was redoubled. The actor drew courage from his success. +When, as the play went on, he came to speak the words-- + + "And you--you let him live a banished man-- + See him driven forth and hunted from your gates!" + +he pointed to the nobles, knights, and commons, as they sat in their +respective seats in the crowded rows before him, his own voice broke with +grief, and the tears even more than the applause of the whole audience +bore witness alike to their feelings towards the exile, and the dramatic +power of the actor. "He pleaded my cause before the Roman people", says +Cicero (for it is he that tells the story), "with far more weight of +eloquence than I could have pleaded for myself".[1] + +[Footnote 1: Defence of Sestius, c. 56, &c.] + +He had been visited with a remarkable dream, while staying with one of +his friends in Italy, during the earlier days of his exile, which he now +recalled with some interest. He tells us this story also himself, +though he puts it into the mouth of another speaker, in his dialogue on +"Divination". If few were so fond of introducing personal anecdotes into +every place where he could find room for them, fewer still could tell +them so well. + +"I had lain awake a great part of the night, and at last towards dawn had +begun to sleep soundly and heavily. I had given orders to my attendant +that, in this case, though we had to start that very morning, strict +silence should be kept, and that I was on no account to be disturbed; +when about seven o'clock I awoke, and told him my dream. I thought I was +wandering alone in some solitary place, when Caius Marius appeared to me, +with his fasces bound with laurel, and asked why I was so sad? And when I +answered that I had been driven from my country, he caught my hand, bade +me be of good cheer, and put me under the guidance of his own lictor to +lead me to his monument; there, he said, I should find my deliverance". + +So indeed it had turned out. The temple dedicated to Honour and Virtue, in +which the Senate sat when they passed the first resolution for Cicero's +recall, was known as the "Monument of Marius". There is no need to doubt +the perfect good faith of the story which he tells, and it may be set down +as one of the earliest authenticated instances of a dream coming true. +But if dreams are fashioned out of our waking imaginations, it is easy to +believe that the fortunes of his great townsman Marius, and the scenes in +the Senate at Rome, were continually present to the exile's thoughts. + +His return was a triumphal progress. He landed at Brundusium on his +daughter's birthday. She had only just lost her husband Piso, who had +gallantly maintained her father's cause throughout, but she was the first +to welcome him with tears of joy which overmastered her sorrow. He was +careful to lose no chance of making his return impressive. He took his way +to Rome with the slow march of a conqueror. The journey which Horace made +easily in twelve days, occupied Cicero twenty-four. But he chose not the +shortest but the most public route, through Naples, Capua, Minturnae, +Terracina, and Aricia. + +Let him tell the story of his own reception. If he tells it (as he does +more than once) with an undisguised pride, it is a pride with which it +is impossible not to sympathise. He boasted afterwards that he had been +"carried back to Rome on the shoulders of Italy;" and Plutarch says it was +a boast he had good right to make. + +"Who does not know what my return home was like? How the people of +Brundusium held out to me, as I might say, the right hand of welcome on +behalf of all my native land? From thence to Rome my progress was like +a march of all Italy. There was no district, no town, corporation, or +colony, from which a public deputation was not sent to congratulate me. +Why need I speak of my arrival at each place? how the people crowded the +streets in the towns; how they flocked in from the country--fathers of +families with wives and children? How can I describe those days, when all +kept holiday, as though it were some high festival of the immortal gods, +in joy for my safe return? That single day was to me like immortality; +when I returned to my own city, when I saw the Senate and the population +of all ranks come forth to greet me, when Rome herself looked as though +she had wrenched herself from her foundations to rush to embrace her +preserver. For she received me in such sort, that not only all sexes, +ages, and callings, men and women, of every rank and degree, but even the +very walls, the houses, the temples, seemed to share the universal joy". + +The Senate in a body came out to receive him on the Appian road; a gilded +chariot waited for him at the city gates; the lower class of citizens +crowded the steps of the temples to see him as he passed; and so he rode, +escorted by troops of friends, more than a conqueror, to the Capitol. + +His exultation was naturally as intense as his despair had been. He +made two of his most florid speeches (if indeed they be his, which is +doubtful), one in the Senate and another to the people assembled in the +Forum, in which he congratulated himself on his return, and Rome on having +regained her most illustrious citizen. It is a curious note of the temper +and logical capacities of the mob, in all ages of the world alike, +that within a few hours of their applauding to the echo this speech +of Cicero's, Clodius succeeded in exciting them to a serious riot by +appealing to the ruinous price of corn as one of the results of the +exile's return. + +For nearly four years more, though unable to shake Cicero's recovered +position in the state--for he was now supported by Pompey--Clodius and his +partisans, backed by a strong force of trained gladiators in their pay, +kept Rome in a state of anarchy which is almost inexplicable. It was more +than suspected that Crassus, now utterly estranged from Pompey, supplied +out of his enormous wealth the means of keeping on foot this lawless +agitation. Elections were overawed, meetings of the Senate interrupted, +assassinations threatened and attempted. Already men began to look to +military rule, and to think a good cause none the worse for being backed +by "strong battalions". Things were fast tending to the point where Pompey +and Caesar, trusty allies as yet in profession and appearance, deadly +rivals at heart, hoped to step in with their veteran legions. Even Cicero, +the man of peace and constitutional statesman, felt comfort in the thought +that this final argument could be resorted to by his own party. But +Clodius's mob-government, at any rate, was to be put an end to somewhat +suddenly. Milo, now one of the candidates for the consulship, a man of +determined and unscrupulous character, had turned his own weapons +against him, and maintained an opposition patrol of hired gladiators and +wild-beast fighters. The Senate quite approved, if they did not openly +sanction, this irregular championship of their order. The two parties +walked the streets of Rome like the Capulets and Montagues at Verona; and +it was said that Milo had been heard to swear that he would rid the city +of Clodius if he ever got the chance. It came at last, in a casual +meeting on the Appian road, near Bovillae. A scuffle began between their +retainers, and Clodius was killed--his friends said, murdered. The +excitement at Rome was intense: the dead body was carried and laid +publicly on the Rostra. Riots ensued; Milo was obliged to fly, and +renounce his hopes of power; and the Senate, intimidated, named +Pompey--not indeed "Dictator", for the name had become almost as hateful +as that of King--but sole consul, for the safety of the state. + +Cicero had resumed his practice as an advocate, and was now called upon to +defend Milo. But Pompey, either from some private grudge, or in order to +win favour with the populace, determined that Milo should be convicted. +The jury were overawed by his presence in person at the trial, and by the +occupation by armed soldiers of all the avenues of the court under +colour of keeping order. It was really as great an outrage upon the free +administration of justice as the presence of a regiment of soldiers at the +entrance to Westminster Hall would be at a modern trial for high treason +or sedition. Cicero affected to see in Pompey's legionaries nothing more +than the maintainers of the peace of the city. But he knew better; and the +fine passage in the opening of his speech for the defence, as it has come +down to us, is at once a magnificent piece of irony, and a vindication of +the rights of counsel. + +"Although I am conscious, gentlemen, that it is a disgrace to me to +show fear when I stand here to plead in behalf of one of the bravest of +men;--and especially does such weakness ill become me, that when Milo +himself is far more anxious about the safety of the state than about his +own, I should be unable to bring to his defence the like magnanimous +spirit;--yet this strange scene and strangely constituted court does +terrify my eyes, for, turn them where I will, I look in vain for the +ancient customs of the Forum, and the old style of public trials. For your +tribunal to-day is girt with no such audience as was wont; this is no +ordinary crowd that hems us in. Yon guards whom you see on duty in front +of all the temples, though set to prevent violence, yet still do a sort +of violence to the pleader; since in the Forum and the count of justice, +though the military force which surrounds us be wholesome and needful, yet +we cannot even be thus freed from apprehension without looking with some +apprehension on the means. And if I thought they were set there in hostile +array against Milo, I would yield to circumstances, gentlemen, and feel +there was no room for the pleader amidst such a display of weapons. But +I am encouraged by the advice of a man of great wisdom and justice--of +Pompey, who surely would not think it compatible with that justice, after +committing a prisoner to the verdict of a jury, then to hand him over +to the swords of his soldiers; nor consonant with his wisdom to arm the +violent passions of a mob with the authority of the state. Therefore those +weapons, those officers and men, proclaim to us not peril but protection; +they encourage us to be not only undisturbed but confident; they promise +me not only support in pleading for the defence, but silence for it to be +listened to. As to the rest of the audience, so far as it is composed of +peaceful citizens, all, I know, are on our side; nor is there any single +man among all those crowds whom you see occupying every point from which a +glimpse of this court can be gained, looking on in anxious expectation +of the result of this trial, who, while he approves the boldness of the +defendant, does not also feel that the fate of himself, his children, and +his country, hangs upon the issue of to-day". + +After an elaborate argument to prove that the slaying of Clodius by Milo +was in self-defence, or, at the worst, that it was a fate which he well +deserved as a public enemy, he closes his speech with a peroration, the +pathos of which has always been admired: + +"I would it had been the will of heaven--if I may say so with all +reverence for my country, for I fear lest my duty to my client may make me +say what is disloyal towards her--I would that Publius Clodius were not +only alive, but that he were praetor, consul, dictator even, before my +eyes had seen this sight! But what says Milo? He speaks like a brave man, +and a man whom it is your duty to protect--'Not so--by no means', says he. +'Clodius has met the doom he well deserved: I am ready, if it must be so, +to meet that which I do not deserve'. ... But I must stop; I can no longer +speak for tears; and tears are an argument which he would scorn for his +defence. I entreat you, I adjure you, ye who sit here in judgment, that in +your verdict you dare to give utterance to what I know you feel". + +But the appeal was in vain, or rather, as far as we can ascertain, was +never made,--at least in such powerful terms as those in which we read +it. The great advocate was wholly unmanned by the scene before him, grew +nervous, and broke down utterly in his speech for the defence. This +presence of a military force under the orders of Pompey--the man in whom +he saw, as he hoped, the good genius of Rome--overawed and disturbed him. +The speech which we read is almost certainly not that which he delivered, +but, as in the previous case of Verres, the finished and elaborate +composition of his calmer hours. Milo was convicted by a large majority; +in fact, there can be little doubt but that he was legally guilty, however +political expediency might, in the eyes of Cicero and his party, have +justified his deed. Cato sat on the jury, and did all he could to insure +an acquittal, showing openly his voting-paper to his fellow jurors, with +that scorn of the "liberty of silence" which he shared with Cicero. + +Milo escaped any worse penalty by at once going into voluntary banishment +at Marseilles. But he showed more practical philosophy than his advocate; +for when he read the speech in his exile, he is said to have declared that +"it was fortunate for him it was not spoken, or he should never have known +the flavour of the red mullet of Marseilles". + +The removal of Clodius was a deliverance upon which Cicero never ceased to +congratulate himself. That "battle of Bovillae", as he terms it, became an +era in his mental records of only less significance than his consulship. +His own public life continued to be honourable and successful. He was +elected into the College of Augurs, an honour which he had long coveted; +and he was appointed to the government of Cilicia. This latter was a +greatness literally "thrust upon him", and which he would gladly have +declined, for it took him away in these eventful days from his beloved +Rome; and to these grand opportunities for enriching himself he was, +as has been said, honourably indifferent. The appointment to a distant +province was, in fact, to a man like Cicero, little better than an +honourable form of exile: it was like conferring on a man who had been, +and might hope one day to be again, Prime Minister of England, the +governor-generalship of Bombay. + +One consolation he found on reaching his new government--that even in the +farthest wilds of Cilicia there were people who had heard of "the consul +who saved Rome". And again the astonished provincials marvelled at a +governor who looked upon them as having rights of their own, and neither +robbed nor ill-used them. He made a little war, too, upon some troublesome +hill-tribes (intrusting the command chiefly to his brother Quintus, who +had served with distinction under Caesar in Gaul), and gained a victory +which his legions thought of sufficient importance to salute him with +the honoured title of "imperator". Such military honours are especially +flattering to men who, like Cicero, are naturally and essentially +civilians; and to Cicero's vanity they were doubly delightful. Unluckily +they led him to entertain hopes of the further glory of a triumph; and +this, but for the revolution which followed, he might possibly have +obtained. As it was, the only result was his parading about with him +everywhere, from town to town, for months after his return, the lictors +with laurelled fasces, which betokened that a triumph was claimed--a +pompous incumbrance, which became, as he confessed, a grand subject for +evil-disposed jesters, and a considerable inconvenience to himself. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +CICERO AND CAESAR. + +The future master of Rome was now coming home, after nearly ten years' +absence, at the head of the victorious legions with which he had struck +terror into the Germans, overrun all Spain, left his mark upon Britain, +and "pacified" Gaul. But Cicero, in common with most of the senatorial +party, failed to see in Julius Caesar the great man that he was. He +hesitated a little--Caesar would gladly have had his support, and made him +fair offers; but when the Rubicon was crossed, he threw in his lot with +Pompey. He was certainly influenced in part by personal attachment: Pompey +seems to have exercised a degree of fascination over his weakness. He knew +Pompey's indecision of character, and confessed that Caesar was "a prodigy +of energy;" but though the former showed little liking for him, he clung +to him nevertheless. He foreboded that, let the contest end which way +it would, "the result would certainly be a despotism". He foresaw that +Pompey's real designs were as dangerous to the liberties of Rome as any of +which Caesar could be suspected. "_Sullaturit animus_", he says of +him in one of his letters, coining a verb to put his idea strongly--"he +wants to be like Sulla". And it was no more than the truth. He found out +afterwards, as he tells Atticus, that proscription-lists of all Caesar's +adherents had been prepared by Pompey and his partisans, and that his old +friend's name figured as one of the victims. Only this makes it possible +to forgive him for the little feeling that he showed when he heard of +Pompey's own miserable end. + +Cicero's conduct and motives at this eventful crisis have been discussed +over and over again. It may be questioned whether at this date we are in +any position to pass more than a very cautious and general judgment upon +them. We want all the "state papers" and political correspondence of +the day--not Cicero's letters only, but those of Caesar and Pompey and +Lentulus, and much information besides that was never trusted to pen or +paper--in order to lay down with any accuracy the course which a really +unselfish patriot could have taken. But there seems little reason to +accuse Cicero of double-dealing or trimming in the worst sense. His policy +was unquestionably, from first to last, a policy of expedients. But +expediency is, and must be more or less, the watchword of a statesman. If +he would practically serve his country, he must do to some extent what +Cicero professed to do--make friends with those in power. "_Sic +vivitur_"--"So goes the world;" "_Tempori serviendum est_"--"We +must bend to circumstances"--these are not the noblest mottoes, but they +are acted upon continually by the most respectable men in public and +private life, who do not open their hearts to their friends so +unreservedly as Cicero does to his friend Atticus. It seemed to him a +choice between Pompey and Caesar; and he probably hoped to be able so far +to influence the former, as to preserve some shadow of a constitution for +Rome. What he saw in those "dregs of a Republic",[1] as he himself calls +it, that was worth preserving;--how any honest despotism could seem to +him more to be dreaded than that prostituted liberty,--this is harder to +comprehend. The remark of Abeken seems to go very near the truth--"His +devotion to the commonwealth was grounded not so much upon his conviction +of its actual merits, as of its fitness for the display of his own +abilities". + +[Footnote 1: "Faex Romuli".] + +But that commonwealth was past saving even in name. Within two months of +his having been declared a public enemy, all Italy was at Caesar's feet. +Before another year was past, the battle of Pharsalia had been fought, and +the great Pompey lay a headless corpse on the sea-shore in Egypt. It was +suggested to Cicero, who had hitherto remained constant to the fortunes of +his party, and was then in their camp at Dyrrachium, that he should take +the chief command, but he had the sense to decline; and though men called +him "traitor", and drew their swords upon him, he withdrew from a cause +which he saw was lost, and returned to Italy, though not to Rome. + +The meeting between him and Caesar, which came at last, set at rest any +personal apprehensions from that quarter. Cicero does not appear to have +made any dishonourable submission, and the conqueror's behaviour was nobly +forgetful of the past. They gradually became on almost friendly terms. The +orator paid the Dictator compliments in the Senate, and found that, in +private society, his favourite jokes were repeated to the great man, and +were highly appreciated. With such little successes he was obliged now to +be content. He had again taken up his residence in Rome; but his political +occupation was gone, and his active mind had leisure to employ itself in +some of his literary works. + +It was at this time that the blow fell upon him which prostrated him for +the time, as his exile had done, and under which he claims our far more +natural sympathy. His dear daughter Tullia--again married, but unhappily, +and just divorced--died at his Tusculan villa. Their loving intercourse +had undergone no change from her childhood, and his grief was for a +while inconsolable. He shut himself up for thirty days. The letters of +condolence from well-meaning friends were to him--as they so often are--as +the speeches of the three comforters to Job. He turned in vain, as he +pathetically says, to philosophy for consolation. + +It was at this time that he wrote two of his philosophical treatises, +known to us as 'The True Ends of Life',[1] and the 'Tusculan +Disputations', of which more will be said hereafter. In this latter, which +he named from his favourite country-house, he addressed himself to the +subjects which suited best with his own sorrowful mood under his recent +bereavement. How men might learn to shake off the terrors of death--nay, +to look upon it rather as a release from pain and evil; how pain, mental +and bodily, may best be borne; how we may moderate our passions; and, +lastly, whether the practice of virtue be not all-sufficient for our +happiness. + +[Footnote 1: 'De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum'--a title hard to translate.] + +A philosopher does not always find in himself a ready pupil. It was hardly +so in Cicero's case. His arguments were incontrovertible; but he found +them fail him sadly in their practical application to life. He never could +shake off from himself that dread of death which he felt in a degree +unusually vivid for a Roman. He sought his own happiness afterwards, as he +had done before, rather in the exciting struggle of public life than in +the special cultivation of any form of virtue; and he did not even find +the remedy for his present domestic sorrow in any of those general moral +reflections which philosophy, Christian as well as pagan, is so ready +to produce upon such occasions; which are all so undeniable, and all so +utterly unendurable to the mourner. + +Cicero found his consolation, or that diversion of thought which so +mercifully serves the purpose of consolation, where most men of active +minds like his seek for it and find it--in hard work. The literary effort +of writing and completing the works which have been just mentioned +probably did more to soothe his mind than all the arguments which they +contained. He resumed his practice as an advocate so far as to plead a +cause before Caesar, now ruling as Dictator at Rome--the last cause, as +events happened, that he was ever to plead. It was a cause of no great +importance--a defence of Deiotarus, titulary king of Armenia, who was +accused of having entertained designs against the life of Caesar while +entertaining him as a guest in his palace. The Dictator reserved his +judgment until he should have made his campaign against the Parthians. +That more convenient season never came: for before the spring campaign +could open, the fatal "Ides of March" cut short Caesar's triumphs and +his life. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +CICERO AND ANTONY. + +It remained for Cicero yet to take a part in one more great national +struggle--the last for Rome and for himself. No doubt there was some +grandeur in the cause which he once more so vigorously espoused--the +recovery of the liberties of Rome. But all the thunders of Cicero's +eloquence, and all the admiration of modern historians and poets, fail +to enlist our hearty sympathies with the assassins of Caesar. That +"consecration of the dagger" to the cause of liberty has been the fruitful +parent of too much evil ever since to make its use anything but hateful. +That Cicero was among the actual conspirators is probably not true, though +his enemies strongly asserted it. But at least he gloried in the deed when +done, and was eager to claim all the honours of a tyrannicide. Nay, he +went farther than the actual conspirators, in words at least; it is +curious to find him so careful to disclaim complicity in the act. "Would +that you had invited me to that banquet on the Ides of March! there would +then have been no leavings from the feast",--he writes to Cassius. He +would have had their daggers turned on Antony, at all events, as well as +on Caesar. He wishes that "the gods may damn Caesar after he is dead;" +professing on this occasion a belief in a future retribution, on which at +other times he was sceptical. It is but right to remember all this, when +the popular tide turned, and he himself came to be denounced to +political vengeance. The levity with which he continually speaks of the +assassination of Caesar--a man who had never treated _him_, at +any rate, with anything but a noble forbearance--is a blot on Cicero's +character which his warmest apologists admit. + +The bloody deed in the Capitol was done--a deed which was to turn out +almost what Goethe called it--"the most absurd that ever was committed". +The great Dictator who lay there alone, a "bleeding piece of earth", +deserted by the very men who had sought of late to crown him, was perhaps +Rome's fittest master; certainly not the worst of the many with whom a +personal ambition took the place of principle. Three slaves took up +the dead body of their master, and carried it home to his house. Poor +wretches! they knew nothing about liberty or the constitution; they had +little to hope, and probably little to fear; they had only a humble duty +to do, and did it. But when we read of them, and of that freedman who, not +long before, sat by the dead body of Pompey till he could scrape together +wreck from the shore to light some sort of poor funeral-pile, we return +with a shudder of disgust to those "noble Romans" who occupy at this time +the foreground of history. + +Caesar had been removed, but it is plain that Brutus and Cassius and their +party had neither the ability nor the energy to make any real use of their +bloody triumph. Cicero soon lost all hope of seeing in them the liberators +of his country, or of being able to guide himself the revolution which he +hoped he had seen begun. "We have been freed", he writes to Atticus, +"but we are not free". "We have struck down the tyrant, but the tyranny +survives". Antony, in fact, had taken the place of Caesar as master of +Rome--a change in all respects for the worse. He had surrounded himself +with guards; had obtained authority from the Senate to carry out all +decrees and orders left by the late Dictator; and when he could not find, +amongst Caesar's memoranda, materials to serve his purpose, he did not +hesitate to forge them. Cicero had no power, and might be in personal +danger, for Antony knew his sentiments as to state matters generally, and +more particularly towards himself. Rome was no longer any place for him, +and he soon left it--this time a voluntary exile. He wandered from +place to place, and tried as before to find interest and consolation in +philosophy. It was now that he wrote his charming essays on 'Friendship' +and on 'Old Age', and completed his work 'On the Nature of the Gods', and +that on 'Divination'. His treatise 'De Officiis' (a kind of pagan 'Whole +Duty of Man') is also of this date, as well as some smaller philosophical +works which have been lost. He professed himself hopeless of his country's +future, and disgusted with political life, and spoke of going to end his +days at Athens. + +But, as before and always, his heart was in the Forum at Rome. Political +life was really the only atmosphere in which he felt himself breathe +vigorously. Unquestionably he had also an earnest patriotism, which would +have drawn him back to his country's side at any time when he believed +that she had need of his help. He was told that he was needed there +now; that there was a prospect of matters going better for the cause of +liberty; that Antony was coming to terms of some kind with the party of +Brutus,--and he returned. + +For a short while these latter days brought with them a gleam of triumph +almost as bright as that which had marked the overthrow of Catiline's +conspiracy. Again, on his arrival at Rome, crowds rushed to meet him with +compliments and congratulations, as they had done some thirteen years +before. And in so far as his last days were spent in resisting to the +utmost the basest of all Rome's bad men, they were to him greater than any +triumph. Thenceforth it was a fight to the death between him and Antony; +so long as Antony lived, there could be no liberty for Rome. Cicero left +it to his enemy to make the first attack. It soon came. Two days after his +return, Antony spoke vehemently in the Senate against him, on the occasion +of moving a resolution to the effect that divine honours should be paid +to Caesar. Cicero had purposely stayed away, pleading fatigue after his +journey; really, because such a proposition was odious to him. Antony +denounced him as a coward and a traitor, and threatened to send men to +pull down his house about his head--that house which had once before been +pulled down, and rebuilt for him by his remorseful fellow-citizens. +Cicero went down to the Senate the following day, and there delivered a +well-prepared speech, the first of those fourteen which are known to us +as his 'Philippics'--a name which he seems first to have given to them in +jest, in remembrance of those which his favourite model Demosthenes +had delivered at Athens against Philip of Macedon. He defended his own +conduct, reviewed in strong but moderate terms the whole policy of Antony, +and warned him--still ostensibly as a friend--against the fate of Caesar. +The speaker was not unconscious what his own might possibly be. + +"I have already, senators, reaped fruit enough from my return home, in +that I have had the opportunity to speak words which, whatever may betide, +will remain in evidence of my constancy in my duty, and you have listened +to me with much kindness and attention. And this privilege I will use so +often as I may without peril to you and to myself; when I cannot, I will +be careful of myself, not so much for my own sake as for the sake of my +country. For me, the life that I have lived seems already well-nigh long +enough, whether I look at my years or my honours; what little span may yet +be added to it should be your gain and the state's far more than my own". + +Antony was not in the house when Cicero spoke; he had gone down to his +villa at Tibur. There he remained for a fortnight, brooding over his +reply--taking lessons, it was said, from professors in the art of +rhetorical self-defence. At last he came to Rome and answered his +opponent. His speech has not reached us; but we know that it contained the +old charges of having put Roman citizens to death without trial in the +case of the abettors of Catiline, and of having instigated Milo to the +assassination of Clodias. Antony added a new charge--that of complicity +with the murderers of Caesar. Above all, he laughed at Cicero's old +attempts as a poet; a mode of attack which, if not so alarming, was at +least as irritating as the rest. Cicero was not present--he dreaded +personal violence; for Antony, like Pompey at the trial of Milo, had +planted an armed guard of his own men outside and inside the Senate-house. +Before Cicero had nerved himself to reply, Antony had left Rome to put +himself at the head of his legions, and the two never met again. + +The reply, when it came, was the terrible second Philippic; never spoken, +however, but only handed about in manuscript to admiring friends. There is +little doubt, as Mr. Long observes, that Antony had also some friend kind +enough to send him a copy; and if we may trust the Roman poet Juvenal, who +is at least as likely to have been well informed upon the subject as any +modern historian, this composition eventually cost the orator his life. It +is not difficult to understand the bitter vindictiveness of Antony. Cicero +had been not merely a political opponent; he had attacked his private +character (which presented abundant grounds for such attack) with all +the venom of his eloquence. He had said, indeed, in the first of these +powerful orations, that he had never taken this line. + +"If I have abused his private life and character, I have no right to +complain if he is my enemy: but if I have only followed my usual custom, +which I have ever maintained in public life,--I mean, if I have only +spoken my opinion on public questions freely,--then, in the first place, I +protest against his being angry with me at all: or, if this be too much +to expect, I demand that he should be angry with me only as with a +fellow-citizen". + +If there had been any sort of reticence on this point hitherto on the part +of Cicero, he made up for it in this second speech. Nothing can equal its +bitter personality, except perhaps its rhetorical power. He begins the +attack by declaring that he will not tell all he knows--"in order that, if +we have to do battle again hereafter, I may come always fresh-armed to the +attack; an advantage which the multiplicity of that man's crimes and vices +gives me in large measure". Then he proceeds: + +"Would you like us, then, to examine into your course of life from +boyhood? I conclude you would. Do you remember that before you put on the +robe of manhood, you were a bankrupt? That was my father's fault, you will +say. I grant it--it is a defence that speaks volumes for your feelings as +a son. It was your own shamelessness, however, that made you take your +seat in the stalls of honourable knights, whereas by law there is a fixed +place for bankrupts, even when they have become so by fortune's fault, and +not their own. You put on the robe which was to mark your manhood,--on +your person it became the flaunting gear of a harlot". + +It is not desirable to follow the orator through some of his accusations; +when he had to lash a man whom he held to be a criminal, he did not much +care where or how he struck. He even breaks off himself--after saying a +good deal. + +"There are some things, which even a decent enemy hesitates to speak +of.... Mark, then, his subsequent course of life, which I will trace as +rapidly as I can. For though these things are better known to you than +even to me, yet I ask you to hear me with attention--as indeed you do; for +it is right that in such cases men's feelings should be roused not +merely by the knowledge of the facts, but by calling them back to their +remembrance; though we must dash at once, I believe, into the middle of +his history, lest we should be too long in getting to the end". + +The peroration is noble and dignified, in the orator's best style. He +still supposes himself addressing his enemy. He has warned Antony that +Caesar's fate may be his: and he is not unconscious of the peril in which +his own life may stand. + +"But do you look to yourself--I will tell you how it stands with me. I +defended the Commonwealth when I was young--I will not desert it now I am +old. I despised the swords of Catiline--I am not likely to tremble before +yours. Nay, I shall lay my life down gladly, if the liberty of Rome can be +secured by my death, so that this suffering nation may at last bring to +the birth that which it his long been breeding.[1] If, twenty years ago, I +declared in this house that death could never be said to have come before +its time to a man who had been consul of Rome, with how much more truth, +at my age, may I say it now! To me indeed, gentlemen of the Senate, death +may well be a thing to be even desired, when I have done what I have done +and reaped the honours I have reaped. Only two wishes I have,--the one, +that at my death I may leave the Roman people free--the immortal gods can +give me no greater boon than this; the other, that every citizen may meet +with such reward as his conduct towards the state may have deserved". + +[Footnote 1: _I.e._, the making away with Antony.] + +The publication of this unspoken speech raised for the time an enthusiasm +against Antony, whom Cicero now openly declared to be an enemy to the +state. He hurled against him Philippic after Philippic. The appeal at the +end of that which comes the sixth in order is eloquent enough. + +"The time is come at last, fellow-citizens; somewhat too late, indeed, for +the dignity of the people of Rome, but at least the crisis is so ripe, +that it cannot now be deferred an instant longer. We have had one calamity +sent upon us, as I may say, by fate, which we bore with--in such sort as +it might be borne. If another befalls us now, it will be one of our own +choosing. That this Roman people should serve any master, when the gods +above have willed us to be the masters of the world, is a crime in the +sight of heaven. The question hangs now on its last issue. The struggle is +for our liberties. You must either conquer, Romans,--and this, assuredly, +with such patriotism and such unanimity as I see here, you must do, or you +must endure anything and everything rather than be slaves. Other nations +may endure the yoke of slavery, but the birthright of the people of Rome +is liberty". + +Antony had left Rome, and thrown himself, like Catiline, into the arms +of his soldiers, in his province of Cisalpine Gaul. There he maintained +himself in defiance of the Senate, who at last, urged by Cicero, declared +him a public enemy. Caesar Octavianus (great-nephew of Julius) offered his +services to the state, and with some hesitation they were accepted. The +last struggle was begun. Intelligence soon arrived that Antony had been +defeated at Mutina by the two last consuls of the Republic, Hirtius and +Pansa. The news was dashed, indeed, afterwards by the further announcement +that both consuls had died of their wounds. But it was in the height of +the first exultation that Cicero addressed to the Senate his fourteenth +Philippic--the last oration which he was ever to make. For the moment, +he found himself once more the foremost man at Rome. Crowds of roaring +patriots had surrounded his house that morning, escorted him in triumph up +to the Capitol, and back to his own house, as they had done in the days of +his early glory. Young Caesar, who had paid him much personal deference, +was professing himself a patriot; the Commonwealth was safe again--and +Cicero almost thought that he again himself had saved it. + +But Rome now belonged to those who had the legions. It had come to that: +and when Antony succeeded in joining interests with Octavianus (afterwards +miscalled Augustus)--"the boy", as both Cicero and Antony called him--a +boy in years as yet, but premature in craft and falsehood--who had come +"to claim his inheritance", and succeeded in rousing in the old veterans +of his uncle the desire to take vengeance a on his murderers, the fate of +the Republic and of Cicero was sealed. + +It was on a little eyot formed by the river Reno, near Bologna, that +Antony, young Caesar, and Lepidus (the nominal third in what is known as +the Second Triumvirate) met to arrange among themselves the division of +power, and what they held to be necessary, to the securing it for the +future--the proscription of their several enemies. No private affections +or interests were to be allowed to interfere with this merciless +arrangement. If Lepidus would give up his brother, Antony would +surrender an obnoxious uncle. Octavianus made a cheaper sacrifice in +Cicero, whom Antony, we may be sure, with those terrible Philippics +ringing in his ears, demanded with an eager vengeance. All was soon +amicably settled; the proscription-lists were made out, and the +Triumvirate occupied Rome. + +Cicero and his brother--whose name was known to be also on the fatal +roll--heard of it while they were together at the Tusculan villa. Both +took immediate measures to escape. But Quintus had to return to Rome to +get money for their flight, and, as it would appear, to fetch his son. The +emissaries of the Triumvirate were sent to search the house: the father +had hid himself, but the son was seized, and refusing to give any +information, was put to the torture. His father heard his cries of agony, +came forth from his hiding-place, and asked only to be put to death first. +The son in his turn made the same request, and the assassins were so far +merciful that they killed both at once. + +Cicero himself might yet have escaped, but for some thing of his old +indecision. He had gone on board a small vessel with the intention of +joining Brutus in Macedonia, when he suddenly changed his mind, and +insisted on being put on shore again. He wandered about, half-resolving +(for the third) time on suicide. He would go to Rome, stab himself on +the altar-hearth in young Caesar's house, and call down the vengeance of +heaven upon the traitor. The accounts of these last hours of his life are, +unfortunately, somewhat contradictory, and none of the authorities to be +entirely depended on; Abeken has made a careful attempt to harmonise them, +which it will be best here to follow. + +Urged by the prayers of his slaves, the faithful adherents of a kind +master, he once more embarked, and once more (Appian says, from +sea-sickness, which he never could endure) landed near Caieta, where be +had a seaside villa. Either there, or, as other accounts say, at his house +at Formiae, he laid himself down to pass the night, and wait for death. +"Let me die", said he, "in my own country, which I have so often saved". +But again the faithful slaves aroused him, forced him into a litter, and +hurried him down through the woods to the sea-shore--for the assassins +were in hot pursuit of him. They found his house shut up; but some traitor +showed them a short cut by which to overtake the fugitive. As he lay +reading (it is said), even during these anxious moments, a play of his +favourite Euripides, every line of whom he used to declare contained some +maxim worth remembering, he heard their steps approaching, and ordered the +litter to be set down. He looked out, and recognised at the head of the +party an officer named Laenas, whom he had once successfully defended on +a capital charge; but he saw no gratitude or mercy in the face, though +there were others of the band who covered their eyes for pity, when they +saw the dishevelled grey hair and pale worn features of the great Roman +(he was within a month of sixty-four). He turned from Laenas to the +centurion, one Herennius, and said, "Strike, old soldier, if you +understand your trade!" At the third blow--by one or other of those +officers, for both claimed the evil honour--his head was severed. They +carried it straight to Antony, where he sat on the seat of justice in the +Forum, and demanded the offered reward. The triumvir, in his joy, paid it +some ten times over. He sent the bloody trophy to his wife; and the Roman +Jezebel spat in the dead face, and ran her bodkin through the tongue which +had spoken those bold and bitter truths against her false husband. The +great orator fulfilled, almost in the very letter, the words which, +treating of the liberty of the pleader, he had put into the mouth of +Crassus--"You must cut out this tongue, if you would check my free +speech: nay, even then, my very breathing should protest against your +lust for power". The head, by Antony's order, was then nailed upon the +Rostra, to speak there, more eloquently than ever the living lips had +spoken, of the dead liberty of Rome. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +CHARACTER AS A POLITICIAN AND AN ORATOR. + +Cicero shared very largely in the feeling which is common to all men of +ambition and energy,--a desire to stand well not only with their own +generation, but with posterity. It is a feeling natural to every man who +knows that his name and acts must necessarily become historical. If it +is more than usually patent in Cicero's case, it is only because in his +letters to Atticus we have more than usual access to the inmost heart of +the writer; for surely such a thoroughly confidential correspondence has +never been published before or since. "What will history say of me six +hundred years hence?" he asks, unbosoming himself in this sort to his +friend. More than thrice the six hundred years have passed, and, in +Cicero's case, history has hardly yet made up its mind. He has been +lauded and abused, from his own times down to the present, in terms as +extravagant as are to be found in the most passionate of his own orations; +both his accusers and his champions have caught the trick of his +rhetorical exaggeration more easily than his eloquence. Modern German +critics like Drumann and Mommsen have attacked him with hardly less +bitterness, though with more decency, than the historian Dio Cassius, who +lived so near his own times. Bishop Middleton, on the other hand, in those +pleasant and comprehensive volumes which are still to this day the great +storehouse of materials for Cicero's biography, is as blind to his faults +as though he were himself delivering a panegyric in the Rostra at Rome. +Perhaps it is the partiality of the learned bishop's view which has +produced a reaction in the minds of sceptical German scholars, and of some +modern writers of our own. It is impossible not to sympathise in some +degree with that Athenian who was tired of always hearing Aristides +extolled as "the Just;" and there was certainly a strong temptation to +critics to pick holes in a man's character who was perpetually, during +his lifetime and for eighteen centuries after his death, having a trumpet +sounded before him to announce him as the prince of patriots as well as +philosophers; worthy indeed, as Erasmus thought, to be canonised as a +saint of the Catholic Church, but for the single drawback of his not +having been a Christian. + +On one point some of his eulogists seem manifestly unfair. They say +that the circumstances under which we form our judgment of the man are +exceptional in this--that we happen to possess in his case all this mass +of private and confidential letters (there are nearly eight hundred of his +own which have come down to us), giving us an insight into his private +motives, his secret jealousies, and hopes, and fears, and ambitions, of +which in the case of other men we have no such revelation. It is quite +true; but his advocates forget that it is from the very same pages which +reveal his weaknesses, that they draw their real knowledge of many of +those characteristics which they most admire--his sincere love for his +country, his kindness of heart, his amiability in all his domestic +relations. It is true that we cannot look into the private letters of +Caesar, or Pompey, or Brutus, as we can into Cicero's; but it is not +so certain that if we could, our estimate of their characters would be +lowered. We might discover, in their cases as in his, many traces of what +seems insincerity, timidity, a desire to sail with the stream; we might +find that the views which they expressed in public were not always those +which they entertained in private; but we might also find an inner current +of kindness, and benevolence, and tenderness of heart, for which the world +gives them little credit. One enthusiastic advocate, Wieland, goes so far +as to wish that this kind of evidence could, in the case of such a man as +Cicero, have been "cooked", to use a modern phrase: that we could have had +only a judicious selection from this too truthful mass, of correspondence; +that his secretary, Tiro, or some judicious friend, had destroyed the +whole packet of letters in which the great Roman bemoaned himself, during +his exile from Rome, to his wife, to his brother, and to Atticus. The +partisan method of writing history, though often practised, has seldom +been so boldly professed. + +But it cannot be denied, that if we know too much of Cicero to judge him +merely by his public life, as we are obliged to do with so many heroes of +history, we also know far too little of those stormy times in which he +lived, to pronounce too strongly upon his behaviour in such difficult +circumstances. The true relations between the various parties at Rome, as +we have tried to sketch them, are confessedly puzzling even to the careful +student. And without a thorough understanding of these, it is impossible +to decide, with any hope of fairness, upon Cicero's conduct as a patriot +and a politician. His character was full of conflicting elements, like the +times in which he lived, and was necessarily in a great degree moulded +by them. The egotism which shows itself so plainly alike in his public +speeches and in his private writings, more than once made him personal +enemies, and brought him into trouble, though it was combined with great +kindness of heart and consideration for others. He saw the right clearly, +and desired to follow it, but his good intentions were too often +frustrated by a want of firmness and decision. His desire to keep well +with men of all parties, so long as it seemed possible (and this not so +much from the desire of self-aggrandisement, as from a hope through their +aid to serve the commonwealth) laid him open on more than one occasion to +the charge of insincerity. + +There is one comprehensive quality which may be said to lave been wanting +in his nature, which clouded his many excellences, led him continually +into false positions, and even in his delightful letters excites in the +reader, from time to time, an impatient feeling of contempt. He wanted +manliness. It was a quality which was fast dying out, in his day, among +even the best of the luxurious and corrupt aristocracy of Rome. It was +perhaps but little missed in his character by those of his contemporaries +who knew and loved him best. But without that quality, to an English mind, +it is hard to recognise in any man, however brilliant and amiable, the +true philosopher or hero. + +The views which this great Roman politician held upon the vexed question +of the ballot did not differ materially from those of his worthy +grandfather before-mentioned.[1] The ballot was popular at Rome,--for many +reasons, some of them not the most creditable to the characters of the +voters; and because it was popular, Cicero speaks of it occasionally, in +his forensic speeches, with a cautious praise; but of his real estimate +of it there can be no kind of doubt. "I am of the same opinion now", he +writes to his brother, "that ever I was; there is nothing like the open +suffrage of the lips". So in one of his speeches, he uses even stronger +language: "The ballot", he says, "enables men to open their faces, and to +cover up their thoughts; it gives them licence to promise whatever they +are asked, and at the same time to do whatever they please". Mr. Grote +once quoted a phrase of Cicero's, applied to the voting-papers of his day, +as a testimony in favour of this mode of secret suffrage--grand words, +and wholly untranslatable into anything like corresponding +English--"_Tabella vindex tacitae libertatis_"--"the tablet which +secures the liberty of silence". But knowing so well as Cicero did what +was the ordinary character of Roman jurors and Roman voters, and how often +this "liberty of silence" was a liberty to take a bribe and to vote the +other way, one can almost fancy that we see upon his lips, as he utters +the sounding phrase, that playful curve of irony which is said to have +been their characteristic expression.[2] Mr. Grote forgot, too, as was +well pointed out by a writer in the 'Quarterly Review',[3] that in the +very next sentence the orator is proud to boast that he himself was not so +elected to office, but "by the living voices" of his fellow-citizens. + +[Footnote 1: See p. 3.] + +[Footnote 2: No bust, coin, or gem is known which bears any genuine +likeness of Cicero. There are several existing which purport to be such, +but all are more or less apocryphal.] + +[Footnote 3: Quart. Rev., lxi. 522.] + +The character of his eloquence may be understood in some degree by the +few extracts which have been given from his public speeches; always +remembering how many of its charms are necessarily lost by losing the +actual language in which his thoughts were clothed. We have lost perhaps +nearly as much in another way, in that we can only read the great orator +instead of listening to him. Yet it is possible, after all, that this loss +to us is not so great as it might seem. Some of his best speeches, as we +know--those, for instance, against Verres and in defence of Milo--were +written in the closet, and never spoken at all; and most of the others +were reshaped and polished for publication. Nor is it certain that his +declamation, which some of his Roman rivals found fault with as savouring +too much of the florid Oriental type, would have been agreeable to our +colder English taste. He looked upon gesture and action as essential +elements of the orator's power, and had studied them carefully from the +artists of the theatre. There can be no doubt that we have his own +views on this point in the words which he has put into the mouth of his +"Brutus", in the treatise on oratory which bears that name. He protests +against the "Attic coldness" of style which, he says, would soon empty the +benches of their occupants. He would have the action and bearing of the +speaker to be such that even the distant spectator, too far off to hear, +should "know that there was a Roscius on the stage". He would have found a +French audience in this respect more sympathetic than an English one.[1] +His own highly nervous temperament would certainly tend to excited action. +The speaker, who, as we are told, "shuddered visibly over his whole body +when he first began to speak", was almost sure, as he warmed to his work, +to throw himself into it with a passionate energy. + +[Footnote 1: Our speakers certainly fall into the other extreme. The +British orator's style of gesticulation may still be recognised, +_mutatis mutandis_, in Addison's humorous sketch of a century ago: +"You may see many a smart rhetorician turning his hat in his hands, +moulding it into several different cocks, examining sometimes the lining +and sometimes the button, during the whole course of his harangue. A +deaf man would think that he was cheapening a beaver, when he is talking +perhaps of the fate of the British nation".] + +He has put on record his own ideas of the qualifications and the duties +of the public speaker, whether in the Senate or at the bar, in three +continuous treatises on the subject, entitled respectively, 'On Oratory', +'Brutus', and 'The Orator', as well as in some other works of which we +have only fragments remaining. With the first of these works, which he +inscribed to his brother, he was himself exceedingly well satisfied, and +it perhaps remains still the ablest, as it was the first, attempt to +reduce eloquence to a science. The second is a critical sketch of the +great orators of Rome: and in the third we have Cicero's view of what the +perfect orator should be. His ideal is a high one, and a true one; that +he should not be the mere rhetorician, any more than the mere technical +lawyer or keen partisan, but the man of perfect education and perfect +taste, who can speak on all subjects, out of the fulness of his mind, +"with variety and copiousness". + +Although, as has been already said, he appears to have attached but little +value to a knowledge of the technicalities of law, in other respects his +preparation for his work was of the most careful kind; if we may assume, +as we probably may, that it is his own experience which, in his treatise +on Oratory, he puts into the mouth of Marcus Antonius, one of his greatest +predecessors at the Roman bar. + +"It is my habit to have every client explain to me personally his own +case; to allow no one else to be present, that so he may speak more +freely. Then I take the opponent's side, while I make him plead his own +cause, and bring forward whatever arguments he can think of. Then, when +he is gone, I take upon myself, with as much impartiality as I can, +three different characters--my own, my opponent's, and that of the jury. +Whatever point seems likely to help the case rather than injure it, this I +decide must be brought forward; when I see that anything is likely to do +more harm than good, I reject and throw it aside altogether. So I gain +this,--that I think over first what I mean to say, and speak afterwards; +while a good many pleaders, relying on their abilities, try to do both at +once".[1] + +[Footnote 1: De Oratore, II. 24, 72.] + +He reads a useful lesson to young and zealous advocates in the same +treatise--that sometimes it may be wise not to touch at all in reply upon +a point which makes against your client, and to which you have no real +answer; and that it is even more important to say nothing which may injure +your case, than to omit something which might possibly serve it. A maxim +which some modern barristers (and some preachers also) might do well to +bear in mind. + +Yet he did not scorn to use what may almost be called the tricks of his +art, if he thought they would help to secure him a verdict. The outward +and visible appeal to the feelings seems to have been as effective in the +Roman forum as with a British jury. Cicero would have his client stand by +his side dressed in mourning, with hair dishevelled, and in tears, when +he meant to make a pathetic appeal to the compassion of the jurors; or a +family group would be arranged, as circumstances allowed,--the wife and +children, the mother and sisters, or the aged father, if presentable, +would be introduced in open court to create a sensation at the right +moment. He had tears apparently as ready at his command as an eloquent +and well-known English Attorney-General. Nay, the tears seem to have been +marked down, as it were, upon his brief. "My feelings prevent my saying +more", he declares in his defence of Publius Sylla. "I weep while I make +the appeal"--"I cannot go on for tears"--he repeats towards the close of +that fine oration in behalf of Milo--the speech that never was spoken. +Such phrases remind us of the story told of a French preacher, whose +manuscripts were found to have marginal stage directions: "Here take out +your handkerchief;"--"here cry--if possible". But such were held to be the +legitimate adjuncts of Roman oratory, and it is quite possible to conceive +that the advocate, like more than one modern tragedian who could be named, +entered so thoroughly into the spirit of the part that the tears flowed +quite naturally. + +A far less legitimate weapon of oratory--offensive and not defensive--was +the bitter and coarse personality in which he so frequently indulged. Its +use was held perfectly lawful in the Roman forum, whether in political +debate or in judicial pleadings, and it was sure to be highly relished by +a mixed audience. There is no reason to suppose that Cicero had +recourse to it in any unusual degree; but employ it he did, and most +unscrupulously. It was not only private character that he attacked, as in +the case of Antony and Clodius, but even personal defects or peculiarities +were made the subject of bitter ridicule. He did not hesitate to season +his harangue by a sarcasm on the cast in the prosecutor's eye, or the wen +on the defendant's neck, and to direct the attention of the court to these +points, as though they were corroborative evidence of a moral deformity. +The most conspicuous instance of this practice of his is in the invective +which he launched in the Senate against Piso, who had made a speech +reflecting upon him. Referring to Cicero's exile, he had made that sore +subject doubly sore by declaring that it was not Cicero's unpopularity, so +much as his unfortunate propensity to bad verse, which had been the cause +of it. A jingling line of his to the effect that + + "The gown wins grander triumphs than the sword"[1] + +had been thought to be pointed against the recent victories of Pompey, and +to have provoked him to use his influence to get rid of the author. But +this annotation of Cicero's poetry had not been Piso's only offence. He +had been consul at the time of the exile, and had given vent, it may be +remembered, to the witticism that the "saviour of Rome" might save the +city a second time by his absence. Cicero was not the man to forget it. +The beginning of his attack on Piso is lost, but there is quite enough +remaining. Piso was of a swarthy complexion, approaching probably to the +negro type. "Beast"--is the term by which Cicero addresses him. "Beast! +there is no mistaking the evidence of that slave-like hue, those bristly +cheeks, those discoloured fangs. Your eyes, your brows, your face, your +whole aspect, are the tacit index to your soul".[2] + +[Footnote 1: "Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea linguae".] + +[Footnote 2: Such flowers of eloquence are not encouraged at the modern +bar. But they were common enough, even in the English law-courts, in +former times. Mr. Attorney-General Coke's language to Raleigh at his +trial--"Thou viper!"--comes quite up to Cicero's. Perhaps the Irish House +of Parliament, while it existed, furnished the choicest modern specimens +of this style of oratory. Mr. O'Flanagan, in his 'Lives of the Lord +Chancellors of Ireland', tells us that a member for Galway, attacking +an opponent when he knew that his sister was present during the debate, +denounced the whole family--"from the toothless old hag that is now +grinning in the gallery, to the white-livered scoundrel that is shivering +on the floor".] + +It is not possible, within the compass of these pages, to give even +the briefest account of more than a few of the many causes (they are +twenty-four in number) in which the speeches made by Cicero, either for +the prosecution or the defence, have been preserved to us. Some of them +have more attraction for the English reader than others, either from the +facts of the case being more interesting or more easily understood, or +from their affording more opportunity for the display of the speaker's +powers. + +Mr. Fox had an intense admiration for the speech in defence of Caelius. +The opinion of one who was no mean orator himself, on his great Roman +predecessor, may be worth quoting: + +"Argumentative contention is not what he excels in; and he is never, I +think, so happy as when he has an opportunity of exhibiting a mixture of +philosophy and pleasantry, and especially when he can interpose anecdotes +and references to the authority of the eminent characters in the history +of his own country. No man appears, indeed, to have had such a real +respect for authority as he; and therefore when he speaks on that subject +he is always natural and earnest".[1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter to G. Wakefield--Correspondence, p. 35.] + +There is anecdote and pleasantry enough in this particular oration; but +the scandals of Roman society of that day, into which the defence of +Caelius was obliged to enter, are not the most edifying subject for any +readers. Caelius was a young man of "equestrian" rank, who had been a kind +of ward of Cicero's, and must have given him a good deal of trouble by his +profligate habits, if the guardianship was anything more than nominal. But +in this particular case the accusation brought against him--of trying to +murder an ambassador from Egypt by means of hired assassins, and then +to poison the lady who had lent him the money to bribe them with--was +probably untrue. Clodia, the lady in question, was the worthy sister of +the notorious Clodius, and bore as evil a reputation as it was possible +for a woman to bear in the corrupt society of Rome--which is saying a +great deal. She is the real mover in the case, though another enemy +of Caelius, the son of a man whom he had himself brought to trial for +bribery, was the ostensible prosecutor. Cicero, therefore, throughout the +whole of his speech, aims the bitter shafts of his wit and eloquence +at Clodia. His brilliant invectives against this lady, who was, as he +pointedly said, "not only noble but notorious", are not desirable to +quote. But the opening of the speech is in the advocate's best style. The +trial, it seems, took place on a public holiday, when it was not usual to +take any cause unless it were of pressing importance. + +"If any spectator be here present, gentlemen, who knows nothing of our +laws, our courts of justice, or our national customs, he will not fail to +wonder what can be the atrocious nature of this case, that on a day of +national festival and public holiday like this, when all other business in +the Forum is suspended, this single trial should be going on; and he will +entertain no doubt but that the accused is charged with a crime of +such enormity, that if it were not at once taken cognisance of, the +constitution itself would be in peril. And if he heard that there was a +law which enjoined that in the case of seditious and disloyal citizens who +should take up arms to attack the Senate-house, or use violence against +the magistrates, or levy war against the commonwealth, inquisition into +the matter should be made at once, on the very day;--he would not find +fault with such a law: he would only ask the nature of the charge. But +when he heard that it was no such atrocious crime, no treasonable attempt, +no violent outrage, which formed the subject of this trial, but that a +young man of brilliant abilities, hard-working in public life, and of +popular character, was here accused by the son of a man whom he had +himself once prosecuted, and was still prosecuting, and that all a bad +woman's wealth and influence was being used against him,--he might take no +exception to the filial zeal of Atratinus; but he would surely say that +woman's infamous revenge should be baffled and punished.... I can excuse +Atratinus; as to the other parties, they deserve neither excuse nor +forbearance". + +It was a strange story, the case for the prosecution, especially as +regarded the alleged attempt to poison Clodia. The poison was given to a +friend of Caelius, he was to give it to some slaves of Clodia whom he was +to meet at certain baths frequented by her, and they were in some way to +administer it. But the slaves betrayed the secret; and the lady employed +certain gay and profligate young men, who were hangers-on of her own, +to conceal themselves somewhere in the baths, and pounce upon Caelius's +emissary with the poison in his possession. But this scheme was said +to have failed. Clodia's detectives had rushed from their place of +concealment too soon, and the bearer of the poison escaped. The counsel +for the prisoner makes a great point of this. + +"Why, 'tis the catastrophe of a stage-play--nay, of a burlesque; when no +more artistic solution of the plot can be invented, the hero escapes, the +bell rings, and--the curtain falls! For I ask why, when Licinius was there +trembling, hesitating, retreating, trying to escape--why that lady's +body-guard let him go out of their hands? Were they afraid lest, so +many against one, such stout champions against a single helpless man, +frightened as he was and fierce as they were, they could not master him? I +should like exceedingly to see them, those curled and scented youths, the +bosom-friends of this rich and noble lady; those stout men-at-arms who +were posted by their she-captain in this ambuscade in the baths. And I +should like to ask them how they hid themselves, and where? A bath?--why, +it must rather have been a Trojan horse, which bore within its womb this +band of invincible heroes who went to war for a woman! I would make them +answer this question,--why they, being so many and so brave, did not +either seize this slight stripling, whom you see before you, where he +stood, or overtake him when he fled? They will hardly be able to explain +themselves, I fancy, if they get into that witness-box, however clever and +witty they may be at the banquet,--nay, even eloquent occasionally, no +doubt, over their wine. But the air of a court of justice is somewhat +different from that of the banquet-hall; the benches of this court are +not like the couches of a supper-table; the array of this jury presents a +different spectacle from a company of revellers; nay, the broad glare of +sunshine is harder to face than the glitter of the lamps. If they venture +into it, I shall have to strip them of their pretty conceits and fools' +gear. But, if they will be ruled by me, they will betake themselves to +another trade, win favour in another quarter, flaunt themselves elsewhere +than in this court. Let them carry their brave looks to their lady there; +let them lord it at her expense, cling to her, lie at her feet, be her +slaves; only let them make no attempt upon the life and honour of an +innocent man". + +The satellites of Clodia could scarcely have felt comfortable under this +withering fire of sarcasm. The speaker concluded with an apology--much +required--for his client's faults, as those of a young man, and a promise +on his behalf--on the faith of an advocate--that he would behave better +for the future. He wound up the whole with a point of sensational rhetoric +which was common, as has been said, to the Roman bar as to our own--an +appeal to the jurymen as fathers. He pointed to the aged father of the +defendant, leaning in the most approved attitude upon the shoulder of +his son. Either this, or the want of evidence, or the eloquence of the +pleader, had its due effect. Caelius was triumphantly acquitted; and it +is a proof that the young man was not wholly graceless, that he rose +afterwards to high public office, and never forgot his obligations to his +eloquent counsel, to whom he continued a stanch friend. He must have had +good abilities, for he was honoured with frequent letters from Cicero when +the latter was governor of Cilicia. He kept up some of his extravagant +tastes; for when he was Aedile (which involved the taking upon him the +expense of certain gladiatorial and wild-beast exhibitions), he wrote to +beg his friend to send him out of his province some panthers for his +show. Cicero complied with the request, and took the opportunity, so +characteristic of him, of lauding his own administration of Cilicia, and +making a kind of pun at the same time. "I have given orders to the hunters +to see about the panthers; but panthers are very scarce, and the few there +are complain, people say, that in the whole province there are no traps +laid for anybody but for them". Catching and skinning the unfortunate +provincials, which had been a favourite sport with governors like Verres, +had been quite done away with in Cilicia, we are to understand, under +Cicero's rule. + +His defence of Ligarius, who was impeached of treason against the state +in the person of Caesar, as having borne arms against him in his African +campaign, has also been deservedly admired. There was some courage in +Cicero's undertaking his defence; as a known partisan of Pompey, he was +treading on dangerous and delicate ground. Caesar was dictator at the +time; and the case seems to have been tried before him as the sole +judicial authority, without pretence of the intervention of anything like +a jury. The defence--if defence it may be called--is a remarkable instance +of the common appeal, not to the merits of the case, but to the feelings +of the court. After making out what case he could for his client, the +advocate as it were throws up his brief, and rests upon the clemency of +the judge. Caesar himself, it must be remembered, had begun public life, +like Cicero, as a pleader: and, in the opinion of some competent judges, +such as Tacitus and Quintilian, had bid fair to be a close rival. + +"I have pleaded many causes, Caesar--some, indeed, in association with +yourself, while your public career spared you to the courts; but surely I +never yet used language of this sort,--'Pardon him, sirs, he has offended: +he has made a false step: he did not think to do it; he never will again'. +This is language we use to a father. To the court it must be,--'He did +not do it: he never contemplated it: the evidence is false; the charge is +fabricated'. If you tell me you sit but as the judge of the fact in this +case, Caesar,--if you ask me where and when he served against you,--I am +silent; I will not now dwell on the extenuating circumstances, which even +before a judicial tribunal might have their weight. We take this course +before a judge, but I am here pleading to a father. 'I have erred--I have +done wrong, I am sorry: I take refuge in your clemency; I ask forgiveness +for my fault; I pray you, pardon me'.... There is nothing so popular, +believe me, sir, as kindness; of all your many virtues none wins men's +admiration and their love like mercy. In nothing do men reach so near the +gods, as when they can give life and safety to mankind. Fortune has given +you nothing more glorious than the power, your own nature can supply +nothing more noble than the will, to spare and pardon wherever you can. +The case perhaps demands a longer advocacy--your gracious disposition +feels it too long already. So I make an end, preferring for my cause that +you should argue with your own heart, than that I or any other should +argue with you. I will urge nothing more than this,--the grace which you +shall extend to my client in his absence, will be felt as a boon by all +here present". + +The great conqueror was, it is said, visibly affected by the appeal, and +Ligarius was pardoned. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +MINOR CHARACTERISTICS. + +Not content with his triumphs in prose, Cicero had always an ambition--to +be a poet. Of his attempts in this way we have only some imperfect +fragments, scattered here and there through his other works, too scanty +to form any judgment upon. His poetical ability is apt to be unfairly +measured by two lines which his opponents were very fond of quoting and +laughing at, and which for that reason have become the best known. But it +is obvious that if Wordsworth or Tennyson were to be judged solely by a +line or two picked out by an unfavourable reviewer--say from 'Peter Bell' +or from the early version of the 'Miller's Daughter'--posterity would have +a very mistaken appreciation of their merits. Plutarch and the younger +Pliny, who had seen more of Cicero's poetry than we have, thought highly +of it. So he did himself; but so it was his nature to think of most of his +own performances; and such an estimate is common to other authors besides +Cicero, though few announce it so openly. Montaigne takes him to task for +this, with more wit, perhaps, than fairness. "It is no great fault to +write poor verses; but it is a fault not to be able to see how unworthy +such poor verses were of his reputation". Voltaire, on the other hand, who +was perhaps as good a judge, thought there was "nothing more beautiful" +than some of the fragments of his poem on 'Marius', who was the ideal hero +of his youth. Perhaps the very fact, however, of none of his poems having +been preserved, is some argument that such poetic gift as he had was +rather facility than genius. He wrote, besides this poem on 'Marius', a +'History of my Consulship', and a 'History of my Own Times', in verse, and +some translations from Homer. + +He had no notion of what other men called relaxation: he found his own +relaxation in a change of work. He excuses himself in one of his orations +for this strange taste, as it would seem to the indolent and luxurious +Roman nobles with whom he was so unequally yoked. + +"Who after all shall blame me, or who has any right to be angry with me, +if the time which is not grudged to others for managing their private +business, for attending public games and festivals, for pleasures of any +other kind,--nay, even for very rest of mind and body,--the time +which others give to convivial meetings, to the gaming-table, to the +tennis-court,--this much I take for myself, for the resumption of my +favourite studies?" + +In this indefatigable appetite for work of all kinds, he reminds us of no +modern politician so much as of Sir George Cornewall Lewis; yet he would +not have altogether agreed with him in thinking that life would be very +tolerable if it were not for its amusements. He was, as we have seen, of a +naturally social disposition. "I like a dinner-party", he says in a letter +to one of his friends; "where I can say just what comes uppermost, and +turn my sighs and sorrows into a hearty laugh. I doubt whether you are +much better yourself, when you can laugh as you did even at a philosopher. +When the man asked--'Whether anybody wanted to know anything?' you said +you had been wanting to know all day when it would be dinner-time. The +fellow expected you to say you wanted to know how many worlds there were, +or something of that kind".[1] + +[Footnote 1: These professional philosophers, at literary dinner-parties, +offered to discuss and answer any question propounded by the company.] + +He is said to have been a great laugher. Indeed, he confesses honestly +that the sense of humour was very powerful with him--"I am wonderfully +taken by anything comic", he writes to one of his friends. He reckons +humour also as a useful ally to the orator. "A happy jest or facetious +turn is not only pleasant, but also highly useful occasionally;" but he +adds that this is an accomplishment which must come naturally, and cannot +be taught under any possible system.[1] There is at least sufficient +evidence that he was much given to making jokes, and some of them which +have come down to us would imply that a Roman audience was not very +critical on this point. There is an air of gravity about all courts of +justice which probably makes a very faint amount of jocularity hailed as a +relief. Even in an English law-court, a joke from the bar, much more from +the bench, does not need to be of any remarkable brilliancy in order to be +secure of raising a laugh; and we may fairly suppose that the same was the +case at Rome. Cicero's jokes were frequently nothing more than puns, which +it would be impossible, even if it were worth while, to reproduce to an +English ear. Perhaps the best, or at all events the most intelligible, is +his retort to Hortensius during the trial of Verres. The latter was said +to have feed his counsel out of his Sicilian spoils--especially, there was +a figure of a sphinx, of some artistic value, which had found its way from +the house of the ex-governor into that of Hortensius. Cicero was putting +a witness through a cross-examination of which his opponent could not see +the bearing. "I do not understand all this", said Hortensius; "I am no +hand at solving riddles". "That is strange, too", rejoined Cicero, "when +you have a sphinx at home". In the same trial he condescended, in the +midst of that burning eloquence of which we have spoken, to make two puns +on the defendant's name. The word "_Verres_" had two meanings in +the old Latin tongue: it signified a "boar-pig", and also a "broom" or +"sweeping-brush". One of Verres's friends, who either was or had the +reputation of being a Jew, had tried to get the management of the +prosecution out of Cicero's hands. "What has a Jew to do with +_pork_?" asked the orator. Speaking, in the course of the same trial, +of the way in which the governor had made "requisitions" of all the most +valuable works of art throughout the island, "the broom", said he, "swept +clean". He did not disdain the comic element in poetry more than in prose; +for we find in Quinitilian [2] a quotation from a punning epigram in some +collection of such trifles which in his time bore Cicero's name. Tiro is +said to have collected and published three volumes of his master's good +things after his death; but if they were not better than those which have +come down to us, as contained in his other writings, there has been no +great loss to literature in Tiro's 'Ciceroniana'. He knew one secret at +least of a successful humourist in society: for it is to him that we +owe the first authoritative enunciation of a rule which is universally +admitted--"that a jest never has so good an effect as when it is uttered +with a serious countenance". + +[Footnote 1: De Orat. II. 54.] + +[Footnote 2: 'Libellus Jocularis', Quint. viii. 6.] + +Cicero had a wonderful admiration for the Greeks. "I am not ashamed to +confess", he writes to his brother, "especially since my life and career +have been such that no suspicion of indolence or want of energy can rest +upon me, that all my own attainments are due to those studies and those +accomplishments which have been handed down to us in the literary +treasures and the philosophical systems of the Greeks". It was no mere +rhetorical outburst, when in his defence of Valerius Flaccus, accused +like Verres, whether truly or falsely, of corrupt administration in his +province, he thus introduced the deputation from Athens and Lacedaemon who +appeared as witnesses to the character of his client. + +"Athenians are here to-day, amongst whom civilisation, learning, religion, +agriculture, public law and justice, had their birth, and whence they have +been disseminated over all the world: for the possession of whose city, +on account of its exceeding beauty, even gods are said to have contended: +which is of such antiquity, that she is said to have bred her citizens +within herself, and the same soil is termed at once their mother, their +nurse, and their country: whose importance and influence is such that the +name of Greece, though it has lost much of its weight and power, still +holds its place by virtue of the renown of this single city". + +He had forgotten, perhaps, as an orator is allowed to forget, that in the +very same speech, when his object was to discredit the accusers of his +client, he had said, what was very commonly said of the Greeks at Rome, +that they were a nation of liars. There were excellent men among them, he +allowed--thinking at the moment of the counter-evidence which he had ready +for the defendant--but he goes on to make this sweeping declaration: + +"I will say this of the whole race of the Greeks: I grant them literary +genius, I grant them skill in various accomplishments, I do not deny them +elegance in conversation, acuteness of intellect, fluent oratory; to any +other high qualities they may claim I make no objection: but the sacred +obligation that lies upon a witness to speak the truth is what that nation +has never regarded".[1] + +[Footnote 1: Defence of Val. Flaccus, c. 4.] + +There was a certain proverb, he went on to say, "Lend me your evidence", +implying--"and you shall have mine when you want it;" a Greek proverb, of +course, and men knew these three words of Greek who knew no Greek besides. +What he loved in the Greeks, then, was rather the grandeur of their +literature and the charm of their social qualities (a strict regard for +truth is, unhappily, no indispensable ingredient in this last); he had no +respect whatever for their national character. The orator was influenced, +perhaps, most of all by his intense reverence for the Athenian +Demosthenes, whom, as a master in his art, he imitated and well-nigh +worshipped. The appreciation of his own powers which every able man has, +and of which Cicero had at least his share, fades into humility when he +comes to speak of his great model. "Absolutely perfect", he calls him in +one place; and again in another, "What I have attempted, Demosthenes has +achieved". Yet he felt also at times, when the fervour of genius was +strong within him, that there was an ideal of eloquence enshrined in his +own inmost mind, "which I can _feel_", he says, "but which I never +knew to exist in any man". + +He could not only write Greek as a scholar, but seems to have spoken it +with considerable ease and fluency; for on one occasion he made a speech +in that language, a condescension which some of his friends thought +derogatory to the dignity of a Roman. + +From the Greeks he learnt to appreciate art. How far his taste was really +cultivated in this respect is difficult for us to judge. Some passages +in his letters to Atticus might lead us to suspect that, as Disraeli +concludes, he was rather a collector than a real lover of art. His appeals +to his friend to buy up for him everything and anything, and his surrender +of himself entirely to Atticus's judgment in such purchases, do not +bespeak a highly critical taste. In a letter to another friend, he seems +to say that he only bought statuary as "furniture" for the gymnasium at +his country-seat; and he complains that four figures of Bacchanals, which +this friend had just bought for him, had cost more than he would care to +give for all the statues that ever were made. On the other hand, when he +comes to deal with Verres's wholesale plunder of paintings and statues in +Sicily, he talks about the several works with considerable enthusiasm. +Either he really understood his subject, or, like an able advocate, he +had thoroughly got up his brief. But the art-notices which are scattered +through his works show a considerable acquaintance with the artist-world +of his day. He tells us, in his own admirable style, the story of Zeuxis, +and the selection which he made from all the beauties of Crotona, in +order to combine their several points of perfection in his portrait of +Helen; he refers more than once, and always in language which implies an +appreciation of the artist, to the works of Phidias, especially that +which is said to have cost him his life--the shield of Minerva; and he +discusses, though it is but by way of illustration, the comparative +points of merit in the statues of Calamis, and Myron, and Polycletus, +and in the paintings of the earlier schools of Zeuxis, Polygnotus, and +Timanthes, with their four primitive colours, as compared with the more +finished schools of Protogenes and Apelles. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +CICERO'S CORRESPONDENCE. + + +I. ATTICUS. + +It seems wonderful how, in the midst of all his work, Cicero found time to +keep up such a voluminous correspondence. Something like eight hundred of +his letters still remain to us, and there were whole volumes of them long +preserved which are now lost,[1] to say nothing of the very many which may +never have been thought worth preserving. The secret lay in his wonderful +energy and activity. We find him writing letters before day-break, during +the service of his meals, on his journeys, and dictating them to an +amanuensis as he walked up and down to take needful exercise. + +[Footnote 1: Collections of his letters to Caesar, Brutus, Cornelius Nepos +the historian, Hirtius, Pansa, and to his son, are known to have existed.] + +His correspondents were of almost all varieties of position and character, +from Caesar and Pompey, the great men of the day, down to his domestic +servant and secretary, Tiro. Amongst them were rich and ease-loving +Epicureans like Atticus and Paetus, and even men of pleasure like Caelius: +grave Stoics like Cato, eager patriots like Brutus and Cassius, authors +such as Cornelius Nepos and Lucceius the historians, Varro the grammarian, +and Metius the poet; men who dabbled with literature in a gentleman-like +way, like Hirtius and Appius, and the accomplished literary critic and +patron of the day--himself of no mean reputation as poet, orator, and +historian--Caius Asinius Pollio. Cicero's versatile powers found no +difficulty in suiting the contents of his own letters to the various +tastes and interests of his friends. Sometimes he sends to his +correspondent what was in fact a political journal of the day--rather +one-sided, it must be confessed, as all political journals are, but +furnishing us with items of intelligence which throw light, as nothing +else can, on the history of those latter days of the Republic. Sometimes +he jots down the mere gossip of his last dinner-party; sometimes he +notices the speculations of the last new theorist in philosophy, or +discusses with a literary friend some philological question--the latter +being a study in which he was very fond of dabbling, though with little +success, for the science of language was as yet unknown. + +His chief correspondent, as has been said, was his old school-fellow and +constant friend through life, Pomponius Atticus. The letters addressed to +him which still remain to us cover a period of twenty-four years, with +a few occasional interruptions, and the correspondence only ceased with +Cicero's death. The Athenianised Roman, though he had deliberately +withdrawn himself from the distracting factions of his native city, which +he seldom revisited, kept on the best terms with the leaders of all +parties, and seems to have taken a very lively interest, though merely in +the character of a looker-on, in the political events which crowded so +fast upon each other during the fifty years of his voluntary expatriation. +Cicero's letters were to him what an English newspaper would be now to an +English gentleman who for his own reasons preferred to reside in Paris, +without forswearing his national interests and sympathies. At times, when +Cicero was more at leisure, and when messengers were handy (for we have +to remember that there was nothing like our modern post), Cicero would +despatch one of these letters to Atticus daily. We have nearly four +hundred of them in all. They are continually garnished, even to the point +of affectation, with Greek quotations and phrases, partly perhaps in +compliment to his friend's Athenian tastes, and partly from the writer's +own passion for the language. + +So much reference has been made to them throughout the previous +biographical sketch,--for they supply us with some of the most important +materials for Cicero's life and times,--that it may be sufficient to give +in this place two or three of the shorter as specimens of the collection. +One which describes a visit which he received from Julius Caesar, already +dictator, in his country-house near Puteoli, is interesting, as affording +a glimpse behind the scenes in those momentous days when no one knew +exactly whether the great captain was to turn out a patriot or a +conspirator against the liberties of Rome. + +"To think that I should have had such a tremendous visitor! But never +mind; for all went off very pleasantly. But when he arrived at Philippus's +house[1] on the evening of the second day of the Saturnalia, the place was +so full of soldiers that they could hardly find a spare table for Caesar +himself to dine at. There were two thousand men. Really I was in a state +of perplexity as to what was to be done next day: but Barba Cassius came +to my aid,--he supplied me with a guard. They pitched their tents in the +grounds, and the house was protected. He stayed with Philippus until one +o'clock on the third day of the Saturnalia, and would see no one. Going +over accounts, I suppose, with Balbus. Then he walked on the sea-shore. +After two he had a bath: then he listened to some verses on Mamurra, +without moving a muscle of his countenance: then dressed,[2] and sat down +to dinner. He had taken a precautionary emetic, and therefore ate and +drank heartily and unrestrainedly. We had, I assure you, a very good +dinner, and well served; and not only that, but + + 'The feast of reason and the flow of soul'[3] + +besides. His suite were abundantly supplied at three other tables: the +freedmen of lower rank, and even the slaves, were well taken care of. The +higher class had really an elegant entertainment. Well, no need to make a +long story; we found we were both 'flesh and blood'. Still he is not the +kind of guest to whom you would say--'Now do, pray, take us in your way on +your return'. Once is enough. We had no conversation on business, but a +good deal of literary talk. In short, he seemed to be much pleased, and to +enjoy himself. He said he should stay one day at Puteoli, and another at +Baiae. So here you have an account of this visit, or rather quartering of +troops upon me, which I disliked the thoughts of, but which really, as I +have said, gave me no annoyance. I shall stay here a little longer, then +go to my house at Tusculum. When Caesar passed Dolabella's villa, all +the troops formed up on the right and left of his horse, which they did +nowhere else.[4] I heard that from Nicias". + +[Footnote 1: This was close to Cicero's villa, on the coast.] + +[Footnote 2: Literally, "he got himself oiled". The emetic was a +disgusting practice of Roman _bon vivants_ who were afraid of +indigestion.] + +[Footnote 3: The verse which Cicero quotes from Lucilius is fairly +equivalent to this.] + +[Footnote 4: Probably by way of salute; or possibly as a precaution.] + +In the following, he is anticipating a visit from his friend, and from the +lady to whom he is betrothed. + +"I had a delightful visit from Cincius on the 30th of January, before +daylight. For he told me that you were in Italy, and that he was going +to send off some messengers to you, and would not let them go without a +letter from me. Not that I have much to write about (especially when +you are all but here), except to assure you that I am anticipating your +arrival with the greatest delight. Therefore fly to me, to show your own +affection, and to see what affection I bear you. Other matters when we +meet. I have written this in a hurry. As soon as ever you arrive, bring +all your people to my house. You will gratify me very much by coming. You +will see how wonderfully well Tyrrannio has arranged my books, the remains +of which are much better than I had thought. And I should be very glad if +you could send me a couple of your library clerks whom Tyrrannio could +make use of as binders, and to help him in other ways; and tell them to +bring some parchment to make indices--syllabuses, I believe you Greeks +call them. But this only if quite convenient to you. But, at any rate, be +sure you come yourself, if you can make any stay in our parts, and bring +Pilia with you, for that is but fair, and Tullia wishes it much. Upon my +word you have bought a very fine place. I hear that your gladiators fight +capitally. If you had cared to hire them out, you might have cleared +your expenses at these two last public shows. But we can talk about this +hereafter. Be sure to come; and do your best about the clerks, if you love +me". + +The Roman gentleman of elegant and accomplished tastes, keeping a troop of +private gladiators, and thinking of hiring them out, to our notions, is a +curious combination of character; but the taste was not essentially more +brutal than the prize-ring and the cock-fights of the last century. + + +II. PAETUS. + +Another of Cicero's favourite correspondents was Papirius Paetus, who +seems to have lived at home at ease, and taken little part in the +political tumults of his day. Like Atticus, he was an Epicurean, and +thought more of the pleasures of life than of its cares and duties. Yet +Cicero evidently took great pleasure in his society, and his letters to +him are written in the same familiar and genial tone as those to his old +school-fellow. Some of them throw a pleasant light upon the social +habits of the day. Cicero had had some friends staying with him at his +country-seat at Tusculum, to whom, he says, he had been giving lessons in +oratory. Dolabella, his son-in-law, and Hirtius, the future consul, were +among them. "They are my scholars in declamation, and I am theirs in +dinner-eating; for I conclude you have heard (you seem to hear everything) +that they come to me to declaim, and I go to them for dinners. 'Tis all +very well for you to swear that you cannot entertain me in such grand +fashion as I am used to, but it is of use.... Better be victimised by your +friend than by your debtors, as you have been. After all, I don't require +such a banquet as leaves a great waste behind it; a little will do, only +handsomely served and well cooked. I remember your telling me about a +dinner of Phamea's--well, it need not be such a late affair as that, nor +so grand in other respects; nay, if you persist in giving me one of your +mother's old family dinners, I can stand even that. My new reputation +for good living has reached you, I find, before my arrival, and you are +alarmed at it; but, pray, put no trust in your ante-courses--I have given +up that altogether. I used to spoil my appetite, I remember, upon your oil +and sliced sausages.... One expense I really shall put you to; I must have +my warm bath. My other habits, I assure you, are quite unaltered; all the +rest is joke". + +Paetus seems to answer him with the same good-humoured badinage. Balbus, +the governor of Africa, had been to see him, he says, and _he_ had +been content with such humble fare as he feared Cicero might despise. So +much, at least, we may gather from Cicero's answer. + +"Satirical as ever, I see. You say Balbus was content with very modest +fare. You seem to insinuate that when grandees are so moderate, much more +ought a poor ex-consul like myself so to be. You don't know that I fished +it all out of your visitor himself, for he came straight to my house on +his landing. The very first words I said to him were, 'How did you get on +with our friend Paetus?' He swore he had never been better entertained. +If this referred to the charms of your conversation, remember, I shall +be quite as appreciative a listener as Balbus; but if it meant the good +things on the table, I must beg you will not treat us men of eloquence +worse than you do a 'Lisper'".[1] + +[Footnote 1: One of Cicero's puns. Balbus means 'Lisper'.] + +They carry on this banter through several letters. Cicero regrets that he +has been unable as yet to pay his threatened visit, when his friend would +have seen what advances he had made in gastronomic science. He was +able now to eat through the whole bill of fare--"from the eggs to the +_roti_". + +"I [Stoic that used to be] have gone over with my whole forces into the +camp of Epicurus. You will have to do with a man who can eat, and who +knows what's what. You know how conceited we late learners are, as the +proverb says. You will have to unlearn those little 'plain dinners' and +makeshifts of yours. We have made such advances in the art, that we +have been venturing to invite, more than once, your friends Verrius and +Camillus (what elegant and fastidious gentlemen they are!). But see how +audacious we are getting! I have even given Hirtius a dinner--but without +a peacock. My cook could imitate nothing in his entertainments except the +hot soup". + +Then he hears that his friend is in bed with the gout. + +"I am extremely sorry to hear it, as in duty bound; still, I am quite +determined to come, that I may see you, and pay my visit,--yes, and have +my dinner: for I suppose your cook has not got the gout as well". + +Such were the playful epistles of a busy man. But even in some of these +lightest effusions we see the cares of the statesman showing through. Here +is a portion of a later letter to the same friend. + +"I am very much concerned to hear you have given up going out to +dinner; for it is depriving yourself of a great source of enjoyment and +gratification. Then, again, I am afraid--for it is as well to speak +honestly--lest you should unlearn certain old habits of yours, and forget +to give your own little dinners. For if formerly, when you had good +examples to imitate, you were still not much of a proficient in that way, +how can I suppose you will get on now? Spurina, indeed, when I mentioned +the thing to him, and explained your previous habits, proved to +demonstration that there would be danger to the highest interests of the +state if you did not return to your old ways in the spring. But indeed, my +good Paetus, I advise you, joking apart, to associate with good fellows, +and pleasant fellows, and men who are fond of you. There is nothing better +worth having in life, nothing that makes life more happy.... See how I +employ philosophy to reconcile you to dinner-parties. Take care of your +health; and that you will best do by going out to dinner.... But don't +imagine, as you love me, that because I write jestingly I have thrown off +all anxiety about public affairs. Be assured, my dear Paetus, that I seek +nothing and care for nothing, night or day, but how my country may be kept +safe and free. I omit no opportunity of advising, planning, or acting. I +feel in my heart that if in securing this I have to lay down my life, I +shall have ended it well and honourably". + + +III. HIS BROTHER QUINTUS. + +Between Marcus Cicero and his younger brother Quintus there existed a very +sincere and cordial affection--somewhat warmer, perhaps, on the side of +the elder, inasmuch as his wealth and position enabled him rather to +confer than to receive kindnesses; the rule in such cases being (so +cynical philosophers tell us) that the affection is lessened rather than +increased by the feeling of obligation. He almost adopted the younger +Quintus, his nephew, and had him educated with his own son; and the two +cousins received their earlier training together in one or other of Marcus +Cicero's country-houses under a clever Greek freedman of his, who was an +excellent scholar, and--what was less usual amongst his countrymen, unless +Cicero's estimate of them does them great injustice--a very honest man, +but, as the two boys complained, terribly passionate. Cicero himself, +however, was the head tutor--an office for which, as he modestly writes, +his Greek studies fully qualified him. Quintus Cicero behaved ill to his +brother after the battle of Pharsalia, making what seem to have been very +unjust accusations against him in order to pay court to Caesar; but they +soon became friends again. + +Twenty-nine of the elder Cicero's letters to his brother remain, written +in terms of remarkable kindness and affection, which go far to vindicate +the Roman character from a charge which has sometimes been brought against +it of coldness in these family relationships. Few modern brothers, +probably, would write to each other in such terms as these: + +"Afraid lest your letters bother me? I wish you would bother me, and +re-bother me, and talk to me and at me; for what can give me more +pleasure? I swear that no muse-stricken rhymester ever reads his own last +poem with more delight than I do what you write to me about matters +public or private, town or country. Here now is a letter from you full of +pleasant matter, but with this dash of the disagreeable in it, that you +have been afraid--nay, are even now afraid--of being troublesome to me. +I could quarrel with you about it, if that were not a sin. But if I have +reason to suspect anything of that sort again, I can only say that I shall +always be afraid lest, when we are together, I may be troublesome to you". + +Or take, again, the pathetic apology which he makes for having avoided an +interview with Quintus in those first days of his exile when he was so +thoroughly unmanned: + +"My brother, my brother, my brother! Did you really fear that I was angry, +because I sent off the slaves without any letter to you? And did you even +think that I was unwilling to see you? I angry with you? Could I possibly +be angry with you?... When I miss you, it is not a brother only that I +miss. To me you have always been the pleasantest of companions, a son in +dutiful affection, a father in counsel. What pleasure ever had I without +you, or you without me?" + +Quintus had accompanied Caesar on his expedition into Britain as one +of his lieutenants, and seems to have written home to his brother some +notices of the country; to which the latter, towards the end of his reply, +makes this allusion: + +"How delighted I was to get your letter from Britain! I had been afraid of +the voyage across, afraid of the rock-bound coast of the island. The other +dangers of such a campaign I do not mean to despise, but in these there is +more to hope than to fear, and I have been rather anxiously expecting the +result than in any real alarm about it. I see you have a capital subject +to write about. What novel scenery, what natural curiosities and +remarkable places, what strange tribes and strange customs, what a +campaign, and what a commander you have to describe! I will willingly help +you in the points you request, and I will send you the verses you ask +for--though it is sending 'an owl to Athens',[1] I know". + +[Footnote 1: A Greek proverb, equivalent to our 'coals to Newcastle'.] + +In another letter he says, "Only give me Britain to paint with your +colours and my own pencil". But either the Britons of those days did not, +after all, seem to afford sufficient interest for poem or history, or for +some other reason this joint literary undertaking, which seems once to +have been contemplated, was never carried out, and we have missed what +would beyond doubt have been a highly interesting volume of Sketches in +Britain by the brothers Cicero. + +Quintus was a poet, as well as his brother--nay, a better poet, in the +latter's estimation, or at least he was polite enough to say so more than +once. In quantity, at least, if not in quality, the younger must have been +a formidable rival, for he wrote, as appears from one of these letters, +four tragedies in fifteen days--possibly translations only from the Greek. + +One of the most remarkable of all Cicero's letters, and perhaps that which +does him most credit both as a man and a statesman, is one which he wrote +to his brother, who was at the time governor of Asia. Indeed, it is much +more than a letter; it is rather a grave and carefully weighed paper +of instructions on the duties of such a position. It is full of sound +practical sense, and lofty principles of statesmanship--very different +from the principles which too commonly ruled the conduct of Roman +governors abroad. The province which had fallen to the lot of Quintus +Cicero was one of the richest belonging to the Empire, and which presented +the greatest temptations and the greatest facilities for the abuse of +power to selfish purposes. Though called Asia, it consisted only of the +late kingdom of Pergamus, and had come under the dominion of Rome, not by +conquest, as was the case with most of the provinces, but by way of legacy +from Attalus, the last of its kings; who, after murdering most of his own +relations, had named the Roman people as his heirs. The seat of government +was at Ephesus. The population was of a very mixed character, consisting +partly of true Asiatics, and partly of Asiatic Greeks, the descendants of +the old colonists, and containing also a large Roman element--merchants +who were there for purposes of trade, many of them bankers and +money-lenders, and speculators who farmed the imperial taxes, and were +by no means scrupulous in the matter of fleecing the provincials. These +latter--the 'Publicani', as they were termed--might prove very dangerous +enemies to any too zealous reformer. If the Roman governor there really +wished to do his duty, what with the combined servility and double-dealing +of the Orientals, the proverbial lying of the Greeks, and the grasping +injustice of the Roman officials, he had a very difficult part to play. +How Quintus had been playing it is not quite clear. His brother, in this +admirable letter, assumes that he had done all that was right, and urges +him to maintain the same course. But the advice would hardly have been +needed if all had gone well hitherto. + +"You will find little trouble in holding your subordinates in check, if +you can but keep a check upon yourself. So long as you resist gain, and +pleasure, and all other temptations, as I am sure you do, I cannot fancy +there will be any danger of your not being able to check a dishonest +merchant or an extortionate collector. For even the Greeks, when they see +you living thus, will look upon you as some hero from their old annals, or +some supernatural being from heaven, come down into their province. + +"I write thus, not to urge you so to act, but that you may congratulate +yourself upon having so acted, now and heretofore. For it is a glorious +thing for a man to have held a government for three years in Asia, in such +sort that neither statue, nor painting, nor work of art of any kind, +nor any temptations of wealth or beauty (in all which temptations your +province abounds) could draw you from the strictest integrity and +self-control: that your official progresses should have been no cause +of dread to the inhabitants, that none should be impoverished by your +requisitions, none terrified at the news of your approach;--but that +you should have brought with you, wherever you came, the most hearty +rejoicings, public and private, inasmuch as every town saw in you a +protector and not a tyrant--every family received you as a guest, not as a +plunderer. + +"But in these points, as experience has by this time taught you, it is not +enough for you to have these virtues yourself, but you must look to it +carefully, that in this guardianship of the province not you alone, but +every officer under you, discharges his duty to our subjects, to our +fellow-citizens, and to the state.... If any of your subordinates seem +grasping for his own interest, you may venture to bear with him so long +as he merely neglects the rules by which he ought to be personally bound; +never so far as to allow him to abuse for his own gain the power with +which you have intrusted him to maintain the dignity of his office. For +I do not think it well, especially since the customs of official life +incline so much of late to laxity and corrupt influence, that you should +scrutinise too closely every abuse, or criticise too strictly every one of +your officers, but rather place trust in each in proportion as you feel +confidence in his integrity. + +"For those whom the state has assigned you as companions and assistants +in public business, you are answerable only within the limits I have just +laid down; but for those whom you have chosen to associate with yourself +as members of your private establishment and personal suite, you will be +held responsible not only for all they do, but for all they say.... + +"Your ears should be supposed to hear only what you publicly listen to, +not to be open to every secret and false whisper for the sake of private +gain. Your official seal should be not as a mere common tool, but as +though it were yourself; not the instrument of other men's wills, but the +evidence of your own. Your officers should be the agents of your clemency, +not of their own caprice; and the rods and axes which they bear should be +the emblems of your dignity, not merely of your power. In short, the whole +province should feel that the persons, the families, the reputation, and +the fortunes of all over whom you rule, are held by you very precious. Let +it be well understood that you will hold that man as much your enemy who +gives a bribe, if it comes to your knowledge, as the man who receives it. +But no one will offer bribes, if this be once made clear, that those who +pretend to have influence of this kind with you have no power, after all, +to gain any favour for others at your hands. + + * * * * * + +"Let such, then, be the foundations of your dignity;--first, integrity and +self-control on your own part; a becoming behaviour on the part of all +about you; a very careful and circumspect selection of your intimates, +whether Greeks or provincials; a grave and firm discipline maintained +throughout your household. For if such conduct befits us in our private +and everyday relations, it becomes well-nigh godlike in a government of +such extent, in a state of morals so depraved, and in a province which +presents so many temptations. Such a line of conduct and such rules will +alone enable you to uphold that severity in your decisions and decrees +which you have employed in some cases, and by which we have incurred (and +I cannot regret it) the jealousy of certain interested parties.... You may +safely use the utmost strictness in the administration of justice, so long +as it is not capricious or partial, but maintained at the same level for +all. Yet it will be of little use that your own decisions be just and +carefully weighed, unless the same course be pursued by all to whom you +delegate any portion of your judicial authority. Such firmness and dignity +must be employed as may not only be above partiality, but above the +suspicion of it. To this must be added readiness to give audience, +calmness in deciding, care in weighing the merits of the case and in +satisfying the claims of the parties". + +Yet he advises that justice should be tempered with leniency. + +"If such moderation be popular at Rome, where there is so much +self-assertion, such unbridled freedom, so much licence allowed to all +men;--where there are so many courts of appeal open, so many means +of help, where the people have so much power and the Senate so much +authority; how grateful beyond measure will moderation be in the governor +of Asia, a province where all that vast number of our fellow-citizens and +subjects, all those numerous states and cities, hang upon one man's nod! +where there is no appeal to the tribune, no remedy at law, no Senate, no +popular assembly. Wherefore it should be the aim of a great man, and one +noble by nature and trained by education and liberal studies, so to behave +himself in the exercise of that absolute power, as that they over whom +he presides should never have cause to wish for any authority other than +his". + + +IV. TIRO. + +Of all Cicero's correspondence, his letters to Tiro supply the most +convincing evidence of his natural kindness of heart. Tiro was a slave; +but this must be taken with some explanation. The slaves in a household +like Cicero's would vary in position from the lowest menial to the +important major-domo and the confidential secretary. Tiro was of this +higher class. He had probably been born and brought up in the service, +like Eliezer in the household of Abraham, and had become, like him, the +trusted agent of his master and the friend of the whole family. He was +evidently a person of considerable ability and accomplishments, acting as +literary amanuensis, and indeed in some sort as a domestic critic, to his +busy master. He had accompanied him to his government in Cilicia, and +on the return home had been taken ill, and obliged to be left behind at +Patrae. And this is Cicero's affectionate letter to him, written from +Leucas (Santa Maura) the day afterwards: + +"I thought I could have borne the separation from you better, but it is +plainly impossible; and although it is of great importance to the honours +which I am expecting[1] that I should get to Rome as soon as possible, yet +I feel I made a great mistake in leaving you behind. But as it seemed to +be your wish not to make the voyage until your health was restored, I +approved your decision. Nor do I think otherwise now, if you are still of +the same opinion. But if hereafter, when you are able to eat as usual, you +think you can follow me here, it is for you to decide. I sent Mario to +you, telling him either to join me with you as soon as possible, or, if +you are delayed, to come back here at once. But be assured of this, that +if it can be so without risk to your health, there is nothing I wish so +much as to have you with me. Only, if you feel it necessary for your +recovery to stay a little longer at Patrae, there is nothing I wish so +much as for you to get well. If you sail at once, you will catch us at +Leucas. But if you want to get well first, take care to secure pleasant +companions, fine weather, and a good ship. Mind this, my good Tiro, if you +love me--let neither Mario's visit nor this letter hurry you. By doing +what is best for your own health, you will be best obeying my directions. +Consider these points with your usual good sense. I miss you very much; +but then I love you, and my affection makes me wish to see you well, just +as my want of you makes me long to see you as soon as possible. But the +first point is the most important. Above all, therefore, take care to +get well: of all your innumerable services to me, this will be the most +acceptable". + +[Footnote 1: The triumph for the victory gained under his nominal command +over the hill-tribes in Cilicia, during his governorship of that province +(p. 68).] + +Cicero writes to him continually during his own journey homewards with the +most thoughtful kindness, begs that he will be cautious as to what vessel +he sails in, and recommends specially one very careful captain. He has +left a horse and a mule ready for him when he lands at Brundusium. Then he +hears that Tiro had been foolish enough to go to a concert, or something +of the kind, before he was strong, for which he mildly reproves him. He +has written to the physician to spare no care or pains, and to charge, +apparently, what he pleases. Several of his letters to his friend Atticus, +at this date, speak in the most anxious and affectionate terms of the +serious illness of this faithful servant. Just as he and his party are +starting from Leucas, they send a note "from Cicero and his son, and +Quintus the elder and younger, to their best and kindest Tiro". Then from +Rome comes a letter in the name of the whole family, wife and daughter +included: + +"Marcus Tullius Cicero, and Cicero the younger, and Terentia, and Tullia, +and Brother Quintus, and Quintus's Son, to Tiro send greeting. + +"Although I miss your able and willing service every moment, still it is +not on my own account so much as yours that I am sorry you are not well. +But as your illness has now taken the form of a quartan fever (for so +Curius writes), I hope, if you take care of yourself, you will soon be +stronger. Only be sure, if you have any kindness for me, not to trouble +yourself about anything else just now, except how to get well as soon +as may be. I am quite aware how much you regret not being with me; but +everything will go right if you get well. I would not have you hurry, +or undergo the annoyance of sea-sickness while you are weak, or risk a +sea-voyage in winter". Then he tells him all the news from Rome; how +there had been quite an ovation on his arrival there; how Caesar was (he +thought) growing dangerous to the state; and how his own coveted "triumph" +was still postponed. "All this", he says, "I thought you would like to +know". Then he concludes: "Over and over again, I beg you to take care +to get well, and to send me a letter whenever you have an opportunity. +Farewell, again and again". + +Tiro got well, and outlived his kind master, who, very soon after this, +presented him with his freedom. It is to him that we are said to be +indebted for the preservation and publication of Cicero's correspondence. +He wrote, also, a biography of him, which Plutarch had seen, and of which +he probably made use in his own 'Life of Cicero', but which has not come +down to us. + +There was another of his household for whom Cicero had the same affection. +This was Sositheus, also a slave, but a man, like Tiro, of some +considerable education, whom he employed as his reader. His death affected +Cicero quite as the loss of a friend. Indeed, his anxiety is such, that +his Roman dignity is almost ashamed of it. "I grieve", he says, "more than +I ought for a mere slave". Just as one might now apologise for making too +much fuss about a favourite dog; for the slave was looked upon in scarcely +a higher light in civilised Rome. They spoke of him in the neuter gender, +as a chattel; and it was gravely discussed, in case of danger in a storm +at sea, which it would be right first to cast overboard to lighten the +ship, a valuable horse or an indifferent slave. Hortensius, the rival +advocate who has been mentioned, a man of more luxurious habits and less +kindly spirit than Cicero, who was said to feed the pet lampreys in his +stews much better than he did his slaves, and to have shed tears at the +death of one of these ugly favourites, would have probably laughed at +Cicero's concern for Sositheus and Tiro. + +But indeed every glimpse of this kind which Cicero's correspondence +affords us gives token of a kindly heart, and makes us long to know +something more. Some have suspected him of a want of filial affection, +owing to a somewhat abrupt and curt announcement in a letter to Atticus +of his father's death; and his stanch defenders propose to adopt, +with Madvig, the reading, _discessit_--"left us", instead of +_decessit_--"died". There really seems no occasion. Unless Atticus +knew the father intimately, there was no need to dilate upon the old man's +death; and Cicero mentions subsequently, in terms quite as brief, the +marriage of his daughter and the birth of his son--events in which we are +assured he felt deeply interested. If any further explanation of this +seeming coldness be required, the following remarks of Mr. Forsyth are +apposite and true: + +"The truth is, that what we call _sentiment_ was almost unknown to +the ancient Romans, in whose writings it would be as vain to look for it +as to look for traces of Gothic architecture amongst classic ruins. And +this is something more than a mere illustration. It suggests a reason +for the absence. Romance and sentiment came from the dark forests of the +North, when Scandinavia and Germany poured forth their hordes to subdue +and people the Roman Empire. The life of a citizen of the Republic of Rome +was essentially a public life. The love of country was there carried to +an extravagant length, and was paramount to, and almost swallowed up, the +private and social affections. The state was everything, the individual +comparatively nothing. In one of the letters of the Emperor Marcus +Aurelius to Fronto, there is a passage in which he says that the +Roman language had no word corresponding with the Greek [Greek: +philostorgia],--the affectionate love for parents and children. Upon +this Niebuhr remarks that the feeling was 'not a Roman one; but Cicero +possessed it in a degree which few Romans could comprehend, and hence he +was laughed at for the grief which he felt at the death of his daughter +Tullia'". + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +ESSAYS ON 'OLD AGE' AND 'FRIENDSHIP' + +The treatise on 'Old Age', which is thrown into the form of a dialogue, is +said to have been suggested by the opening of Plato's 'Republic', in which +Cephalus touches so pleasantly on the enjoyments peculiar to that time +of life. So far as light and graceful treatment of his subject goes, the +Roman essayist at least does not fall short of his model. Montaigne +said of it, that "it made one long to grow old";[1] but Montaigne was a +Frenchman, and such sentiment was quite in his way. The dialogue, whether +it produce this effect on many readers or not, is very pleasant reading: +and when we remember that the author wrote it when he was exactly in his +grand climacteric, and addressed it to his friend Atticus, who was within +a year of the same age, we get that element of personal interest which +makes all writings of the kind more attractive. The argument in defence of +the paradox that it is a good thing to grow old, proceeds upon the only +possible ground, the theory of compensations. It is put into the mouth +of Cato the Censor, who had died about a century before, and who is +introduced as giving a kind of lecture on the subject to his young +friends Scipio and Laelius, in his eighty-fourth year. He was certainly +a remarkable example in his own case of its being possible to grow old +gracefully and usefully, if, as he tells us, he was at that age still able +to take part in the debates in the Senate, was busy collecting materials +for the early history of Rome, had quite lately begun the study of Greek, +could enjoy a country dinner-party, and had been thinking of taking +lessons in playing on the lyre. + +[Footnote 1: "Il donne l'appetit de vieiller".] + +He states four reasons why old age is so commonly considered miserable. +First, it unfits us for active employment; secondly, it weakens the bodily +strength; thirdly, it deprives us of nearly all pleasures; fourthly and +lastly, it is drawing near death. As to the first, the old senator argues +very fairly that very much of the more important business of life is not +only transacted by old men, but in point of fact, as is confessed by the +very name and composition of the Roman Senate, it is thought safest to +intrust it to the elders in the state. The pilot at the helm may not be +able to climb the mast and run up and down the deck like the younger +sailor, but he steers none the worse for being old. He quotes some +well-known examples of this from Roman annals; examples which might be +matched by obvious instances in modern English history. The defence which +he makes of old age against the second charge--loss of muscular vigour--is +rather more of the nature of special pleading. He says little more than +that mere muscular strength, after all, is not much wanted for our +happiness: that there are always comparative degrees of strength; and +that an old man need no more make himself unhappy because he has not the +strength of a young man, than the latter does because he has not the +strength of a bull or an elephant. It was very well for the great wrestler +Milo to be able to carry an ox round the arena on his shoulders; but, on +the whole, a man does not often want to walk about with a bullock on his +back. The old are said, too, to lose their memory. Cato thinks they can +remember pretty well all that they care to remember. They are not apt to +forget who owes them money; and "I never knew an old man forget", he says, +"where he had buried his gold". Then as to the pleasures of the senses, +which age undoubtedly diminishes our power of enjoying. "This", says Cato, +"is really a privilege, not a deprivation; to be delivered from the yoke +of such tyrants as our passions--to feel that we have 'got our discharge' +from such a warfare--is a blessing for which men ought rather to be +grateful to their advancing years". And the respect and authority which is +by general consent conceded to old age, is a pleasure more than equivalent +to the vanished pleasures of youth. + +There is one consideration which the author has not placed amongst his +four chief disadvantages of growing old,--which, however, he did not +forget, for he notices it incidentally in the dialogue,--the feeling that +we are growing less agreeable to our friends, that our company is less +sought after, and that we are, in short, becoming rather ciphers in +society. This, in a condition of high civilisation, is really perhaps felt +by most of us as the hardest to bear of all the ills to which old age is +liable. We should not care so much about the younger generation rising up +and making us look old, if we did not feel that they are "pushing us from +our stools". Cato admits that he had heard some old men complain that +"they were now neglected by those who had once courted their society", and +he quotes a passage from the comic poet Caecilius + + "This is the bitterest pang in growing old,-- + To feel that we grow hateful to our fellows". + +But he dismisses the question briefly in his own case by observing with +some complacency that he does not think his young friends find _his_ +company disagreeable--an assertion which Scipio and Laelius, who +occasionally take part in the dialogue, are far too well bred to +contradict. He remarks also, sensibly enough, that though some old persons +are no doubt considered disagreeable company, this is in great measure +their own fault: that testiness and ill-nature (qualities which, as he +observes, do not usually improve with age) are always disagreeable, and +that such persons attributed to their advancing years what was in truth +the consequence of their unamiable tempers. It is not all wine which turns +sour with age, nor yet all tempers; much depends on the original quality. +The old Censor lays down some maxims which, like the preceding, have +served as texts for a good many modern writers, and may be found expanded, +diluted, or strengthened, in the essays of Addison and Johnson, and in +many of their followers of less repute. "I never could assent", says Cato, +"to that ancient and much-bepraised proverb,--that 'you must become an old +man early, if you wish to be an old man long'". Yet it was a maxim which +was very much acted upon by modern Englishmen a generation or two back. It +was then thought almost a moral duty to retire into old age, and to assume +all its disabilities as well as its privileges, after sixty years or even +earlier. At present the world sides with Cato, and rushes perhaps into the +other extreme; for any line at which old age now begins would be hard to +trace either in dress or deportment. "We must resist old age, and +fight against it as a disease". Strong words from the old Roman; but, +undoubtedly, so long as we stop short of the attempt to affect juvenility, +Cato is right. We should keep ourselves as young as possible. He speaks +shrewd sense, again, when he says--"As I like to see a young man who has +something old about him, so I like to see an old man in whom there remains +something of the youth: and he who follows this maxim may become an old +man in body, but never in heart". "What a blessing it is", says Southey, +"to have a boy's heart!" Do we not all know these charming old people, to +whom the young take almost as heartily as to their own equals in age, who +are the favourite consultees in all amusements, the confidants in all +troubles? + +Cato is made to place a great part of his own enjoyment, in these latter +years of his, in the cultivation of his farm and garden (he had written, +we must remember, a treatise 'De Re Rustica',--a kind of Roman 'Book of +the Farm', which we have still remaining). He is enthusiastic in his +description of the pleasures of a country gentleman's life, and, like a +good farmer, as no doubt he was, becomes eloquent upon the grand subject +of manures. Gardening is a pursuit which he holds in equal honour--that +"purest of human pleasures", as Bacon calls it. On the subject of +the country life generally he confesses an inclination to become +garrulous--the one failing which he admits may be fairly laid to +the charge of old age. The picture of the way of living of a Roman +gentleman-farmer, as he draws it, must have presented a strong contrast +with the artificial city-life of Rome. + +"Where the master of the house is a good and careful manager, his +wine-cellar, his oil-stores, his larder, are always well stocked; there is +a fulness throughout the whole establishment; pigs, kids, lambs, poultry, +milk, cheese, honey,--all are in abundance. The produce of the garden is +always equal, as our country-folk say, to a double course. And all these +good things acquire a second relish from the voluntary labours of fowling +and the chase. What need to dwell upon the charm of the green fields, the +well-ordered plantations, the beauty of the vineyards and olive-groves? In +short, nothing can be more luxuriant in produce, or more delightful to the +eye, than a well-cultivated estate; and, to the enjoyment of this, old age +is so far from being any hindrance, that it rather invites and allures us +to such pursuits". + +He has no patience with what has been called the despondency of old +age--the feeling, natural enough at that time of life, but not desirable +to be encouraged, that there is no longer any room for hope or promise in +the future which gives so much of its interest to the present. He will not +listen to the poet when he says again-- + + "He plants the tree that shall not see the fruit" + +The answer which he would make has been often put into other and more +elaborate language, but has a simple grandeur of its own. "If any should +ask the aged cultivator for whom he plants, let him not hesitate to make +this reply,--'For the immortal gods, who, as they willed me to inherit +these possessions from my forefathers, so would have me hand them on to +those that shall come after'". + +The old Roman had not the horror of country society which so many +civilised Englishmen either have or affect. "I like a talk", he says, +"over a cup of wine". "Even when I am down at my Sabine estate, I +daily make one at a party of my country neighbours, and we prolong our +conversation very frequently far into the night". The words are put into +Cato's mouth, but the voice is the well-known voice of Cicero. We find +him here, as in his letters, persuading himself into the belief that the +secret of happiness is to be found in the retirement of the country. And +his genial and social nature beams through it all. We are reminded of his +half-serious complaints to Atticus of his importunate visitors at Formiae, +the dinner-parties which he was, as we say now, "obliged to go to", and +which he so evidently enjoyed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: "A clergyman was complaining of the want of society in the +country where he lived, and said, 'They talk of _runts_' (i.e., young +cows). 'Sir', said Mr. Salusbury, 'Mr. Johnson would learn to talk of +runts;' meaning that I was a man who would make the most of my situation, +whatever it was".--Boswell's Life. Cicero was like Dr. Johnson.] + +He is careful, however, to remind his readers that old age, to be really +either happy or venerable, must not be the old age of the mere voluptuary +or the debauchee; that the grey head, in order to be, even in his +pagan sense, "a crown of glory", must have been "found in the way of +righteousness". Shakespeare might have learned from Cicero in these points +the moral which he puts into the mouth of his Adam-- + + "Therefore mine age is as a lusty winter, + Frosty but kindly". + +It is a miserable old age, says the Roman, which is obliged to appeal to +its grey hairs as its only claim to the respect of its juniors. "Neither +hoar hairs nor wrinkles can arrogate reverence as their right. It is the +life whose opening years have been honourably spent which reaps the reward +of reverence at its close". + +In discussing the last of the evils which accompany old age, the near +approach of death, Cicero rises to something higher than his usual level. +His Cato will not have death to be an evil at all; it is to him the +escaping from "the prison of the body",--the "getting the sight of land at +last after a long voyage, and coming into port". Nay, he does not admit +that death is death. "I have never been able to persuade myself"; he says, +quoting the words of Cyrus in Xenophon, "that our spirits were alive while +they were in these mortal bodies, and died only when they departed out of +them; or that the spirit then only becomes void of sense when it escapes +from a senseless body; but that rather when freed from all admixture of +corporality, it is pure and uncontaminated, then it most truly has sense". +"I am fully persuaded", he says to his young listeners, "that your two +fathers, my old and dearly-loved friends, are living now, and living that +life which only is worthy to be so called". And he winds up the dialogue +with the very beautiful apostrophe, one of the last utterances of the +philosopher's heart, well known, yet not too well known to be here quoted: + +"It likes me not to mourn over departing life, as many men, and men of +learning, have done. Nor can I regret that I have lived, since I have so +lived that I may trust I was not born in vain; and I depart out of life as +out of a temporary lodging, not as out of my home. For nature has given +it to us as an inn to tarry at by the way, not as a place to abide in. +O glorious day! when I shall set out to join that blessed company and +assembly of disembodied spirits, and quit this crowd and rabble of life! +For I shall go my way, not only to those great men of whom I spoke, but +to my own son Cato, than whom was never better man born, nor more full of +dutiful affection; whose body I laid on the funeral pile--an office he +should rather have done for me.[1] But his spirit has never left me; it +still looks fondly back upon me, though it has gone assuredly into those +abodes where he knew that I myself should follow. And this my great loss I +seemed to bear with calmness; not that I bore it undisturbed, but that +I still consoled myself with the thought that the separation between us +could not be for long. And if I err in this--in that I believe the spirits +of men to be immortal--I err willingly; nor would I have this mistaken +belief of mine uprooted so long as I shall live. But if, after I am dead, +I shall have no consciousness, as some curious philosophers assert, then I +am not afraid of dead philosophers laughing at my mistake". + +[Footnote 1: Burke touches the same key in speaking of his son; "I live in +an inverted order. They who ought to have succeeded me have gone before +me: they who should have been to me as posterity are in the place of +ancestors".] + + * * * * * + +The essay on 'Friendship' is dedicated by the author to Atticus--an +appropriate recognition, as he says, of the long and intimate friendship +which had existed between themselves. It is thrown, like the other, into +the form of a dialogue. The principal speaker here is one of the listeners +in the former case--Laelius, surnamed the Wise--who is introduced as +receiving a visit from his two sons-in-law, Fannius and Scaevola (the +great lawyer before mentioned), soon after the sudden death of his great +friend, the younger Scipio Africanus. Laelius takes the occasion, at the +request of the young men, to give them his views and opinions on the +subject of Friendship generally. This essay is perhaps more original +than that upon 'Old Age', but certainly is not so attractive to a modern +reader. Its great merit is the grace and polish of the language; but the +arguments brought forward to prove what an excellent thing it is for a man +to have good friends, and plenty of them, in this world, and the rules for +his behaviour towards them, seem to us somewhat trite and commonplace, +whatever might have been their effect upon a Roman reader. + +Cicero is indebted to the Greek philosophers for the main outlines of his +theory of friendship, though his acquaintance with the works of Plato and +Aristotle was probably exceedingly superficial. He holds, with them, that +man is a social animal; that "we are so constituted by nature that there +must be some degree of association between us all, growing closer in +proportion as we are brought into more intimate relations one with +another". So that the social bond is a matter of instinct, not of +calculation; not a cold commercial contract of profit and loss, of giving +and receiving, but the fulfilment of one of the yearnings of our nature. +Here he is in full accordance with the teaching of Aristotle, who, of +all the various kinds of friendship to which he allows the common name, +pronounces that which is founded merely upon interest--upon mutual +interchange, by tacit agreement, of certain benefits--to be the least +worthy of such a designation. Friendship is defined by Cicero to be "the +perfect accord upon all questions, religious and social, together with +mutual goodwill and affection". This "perfect accord", it must be +confessed, is a very large requirement. He follows his Greek masters again +in holding that true friendship can exist only amongst the good; that, in +fact, all friendship must assume that there is something good and lovable +in the person towards whom the feeling is entertained it may occasionally +be a mistaken assumption; the good quality we think we see in our friend +may have no existence save in our own partial imagination; but the +existence of the counterfeit is an incontestable evidence of the true +original. And the greatest attraction, and therefore the truest +friendships, will always be of the good towards the good. + +He admits, however, the notorious fact, that good persons are sometimes +disagreeable; and he confesses that we have a right to seek in our +friends amiability as well as moral excellence. "Sweetness", he +says--anticipating, as all these ancients so provokingly do, some of our +most modern popular philosophers--"sweetness, both in language and in +manner, is a very powerful attraction in the formation of friendships". He +is by no means of the same opinion as Sisyphus in Lord Lytton's 'Tale of +Miletus'-- + + "Now, then, I know thou really art my friend,-- + None but true friends choose such unpleasant words". + +He admits that it is the office of a friend to tell unpleasant truths +sometimes; but there should be a certain amount of this indispensable +"sweetness" to temper the bitterness of the advice. There are some friends +who are continually reminding you of what they have done for you--"a +disgusting set of people verily they are", says our author. And there are +others who are always thinking themselves slighted; "in which case there +is generally something of which they are conscious in themselves, as +laying them open to contemptuous treatment". + +Cicero's own character displays itself in this short treatise. Here, as +everywhere, he is the politician. He shows a true appreciation of the +duties and the qualifications of a true friend; but his own thoughts are +running upon political friendships. Just as when, in many of his letters, +he talks about "all honest men", he means "our party"; so here, when he +talks of friends, he cannot help showing that it was of the essence of +friendship, in his view, to hold the same political opinions, and that +one great use of friends was that a man should not be isolated, as he had +sometimes feared he was, in his political course. When he puts forward +the old instances of Coriolanus and Gracchus, and discusses the question +whether their "friends" were or were not bound to aid them in their +treasonable designs against the state, he was surely thinking of the +factions of his own times, and the troublesome brotherhoods which had +gathered round Catiline and Clodius. Be this as it may, the advice which +he makes Laelius give to his younger relatives is good for all ages, +modern or ancient: "There is nothing in this world more valuable than +friendship". "Next to the immediate blessing and providence of Almighty +God", Lord Clarendon was often heard to say, "I owe all the little I know, +and the little good that is in me, to the friendships and conversation I +have still been used to, of the most excellent men in their several kinds +that lived in that age". + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +CICERO'S PHILOSOPHY. + + +'THE TRUE ENDS OF LIFE'.[1] + +Philosophy was to the Roman what religion is to me. It professed to +answer, so far as it might be answered Pilate's question, "What is truth?" +or to teach men, as Cicero described it, "the knowledge of things human +and divine". Hence the philosopher invests his subject with all attributes +of dignity. To him Philosophy brings all blessings in her train. She is +the guide of life, the medicine for his sorrows, "the fountain-head of +all perfect eloquence--the mother of all good deeds and good words". He +invokes with affectionate reverence the great name of Socrates--the sage +who had "first drawn wisdom down from heaven". + +[Footnote 1: 'De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum'.] + +No man ever approached his subject more richly laden with philosophic lore +than Cicero. Snatching every leisure moment that he could from a busy +life, he devotes it to the study of the great minds of former ages. +Indeed, he held this study to be the duty of the perfect orator; a +knowledge of the human mind was one of his essential qualifications. Nor +could he conceive of real eloquence without it; for his definition of +eloquence is, "wisdom speaking fluently".[1] But such studies were also +suited to his own natural tastes. And as years passed on, and he grew +weary of civil discords and was harassed by domestic troubles, the great +orator turns his back upon the noisy city, and takes his parchments of +Plato and Aristotle to be the friends of his councils and the companions +of his solitude, seeking by their light to discover Truth, which +Democritus had declared to be buried in the depths of the sea. + +[Footnote 1: "Copiose loquens sapientia".] + +Yet, after all, he professes to do little more than translate. So +conscious is he that it is to Greece that Rome is indebted for all her +literature, and so conscious, also, on the part of his countrymen, of what +he terms "an arrogant disdain for everything national", that he apologises +to his readers for writing for the million in their mother-tongue. Yet he +is not content, as he says, to be "a mere interpreter". He thought that by +an eclectic process--adopting and rearranging such of the doctrines of his +Greek masters as approved themselves to his own judgment--he might make +his own work a substitute for theirs. His ambition is to achieve what +he might well regard as the hardest of tasks--a popular treatise on +philosophy; and he has certainly succeeded. He makes no pretence to +originality; all he can do is, as he expresses it, "to array Plato in a +Latin dress", and "present this stranger from beyond the seas with the +freedom of his native, city". And so this treatise on the Ends of Life--a +grave question even to the most careless thinker--is, from the nature of +the case, both dramatic and rhetorical. Representatives of the two great +schools of philosophy--the Stoics and Epicureans--plead and counter-plead +in his pages, each in their turn; and their arguments are based on +principles broad and universal enough to be valid even now. For now, as +then, men are inevitably separated into two classes--amiable men of ease, +who guide their conduct by the rudder-strings of pleasure--who for the +most part "leave the world" (as has been finely said) "in the world's +debt, having consumed much and produced nothing";[1] or, on the other +hand, zealous men of duty, + + "Who scorn delights and live laborious days", + +and act according to the dictates of their honour or their conscience. In +practice, if not in theory, a man must be either Stoic or Epicurean. + +[Footnote 1: Lord Derby.] + +Each school, in this dialogue, is allowed to plead its own cause. "Listen" +(says the Epicurean) "to the voice of nature that bids you pursue +pleasure, and do not be misled by that vulgar conception of pleasure as +mere sensual enjoyment; our opponents misrepresent us when they say that +we advocate this as the highest good; we hold, on the contrary, that men +often obtain the greatest pleasure by neglecting this baser kind. Your +highest instances of martyrdom--of Decii devoting themselves for +their country, of consuls putting their sons to death to preserve +discipline--are not disinterested acts of sacrifice, but the choice of a +present pain in order to procure a future pleasure. Vice is but ignorance +of real enjoyment. Temperance alone can bring peace of mind; and the +wicked, even if they escape public censure, 'are racked night and day by +the anxieties sent upon them by the immortal gods'. We do not, in this, +contradict your Stoic; we, too, affirm that only the wise man is really +happy. Happiness is as impossible for a mind distracted by passions, as +for a city divided by contending factions. The terrors of death haunt the +guilty wretch, 'who finds out too late that he has devoted himself to +money or power or glory to no purpose'. But the wise man's life is +unalloyed happiness. Rejoicing in a clear conscience, 'he remembers the +past with gratitude, enjoys the blessings of the present, and disregards +the future'. Thus the moral to be drawn is that which Horace (himself, as +he expresses it, 'one of the litter of Epicurus') impresses on his fair +friend Leuconoee: + + 'Strain your wine, and prove your wisdom; life is short; + should hope be more? + In the moment of our talking envious time has slipped away. + Seize the present, trust to-morrow e'en as little as you may'". + +Passing on to the second book of the treatise, we hear the advocate of +the counter-doctrine. Why, exclaims the Stoic, introduce Pleasure to the +councils of Virtue? Why uphold a theory so dangerous in practice? Your +Epicurean soon turns Epicure, and a class of men start up who have never +seen the sun rise or set, who squander fortunes on cooks and perfumers, on +costly plate and gorgeous rooms, and ransack sea and land for delicacies +to supply their feasts. Epicurus gives his disciples a dangerous +discretion in their choice. There is no harm in luxury (he tells us) +provided it be free from inordinate desires. But who is to fix the limit +to such vague concessions? + +Nay, more, he degrades men to the level of the brute creation. In his +view, there is nothing admirable beyond this pleasure--no sensation or +emotion of the mind, no soundness or health of body. And what is this +pleasure which he makes of such high account? How short-lived while it +lasts! how ignoble when we recall it afterwards! But even the common +feeling and sentiments of men condemn so selfish a doctrine. We are +naturally led to uphold truth and abhor deceit, to admire Regulus in his +tortures, and to despise a lifetime of inglorious ease. And then follows a +passage which echoes the stirring lines of Scott-- + + "Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife! + To all the sensual world proclaim, + One crowded hour of glorious life + Is worth an age without a name". + +Do not then (concludes the Stoic) take good words in your mouth, and prate +before applauding citizens of honour, duty, and so forth, while you make +your private lives a mere selfish calculation of expediency. We were +surely born for nobler ends than this, and none who is worthy the name +of a man would subscribe to doctrines which destroy all honour and all +chivalry. The heroes of old time won their immortality not by weighing +pleasures and pains in the balance, but by being prodigal of their lives, +doing and enduring all things for the sake of their fellow-men. + +The opening scene in the third book is as lively and dramatic as (what +was no doubt the writer's model) the introduction of a Platonic dialogue. +Cicero has walked across from his Tusculan villa to borrow some +manuscripts from the well-stocked library of his young friend +Lucullus[1]--a youth whose high promise was sadly cut short, for he +was killed at Philippi, when he was not more than twenty-three. There, +"gorging himself with books", Cicero finds Marcus Cato--a Stoic of the +Stoics--who expounds in a high tone the principles of his sect. + +[Footnote 1: See p. 43.] + +Honour he declares to be the rule, and "life according to nature" the end +of man's existence. And wrong and injustice are more really contrary to +this nature than either death, or poverty, or bodily suffering, or any +other outward evil.[1] Stoics and Peripatetics are agreed at least on one +point--that bodily pleasures fade into nothing before the splendours of +virtue, and that to compare the two is like holding a candle against the +sunlight, or setting a drop of brine against the waves of the ocean. Your +Epicurean would have each man live in selfish isolation, engrossed in +his private pleasures and pursuits. We, on the other hand, maintain that +"Divine Providence has appointed the world to be a common city for men and +gods", and each one of us to be a part of this vast social system. And +thus every man has his lot and place in life, and should take for his +guidance those golden rules of ancient times--"Obey God; know thyself; +shun excess". Then, rising to enthusiasm, the philosopher concludes: "Who +cannot but admire the incredible beauty of such a system of morality? What +character in history or in fiction can be grander or more consistent than +the 'wise man' of the Stoics? All the riches and glory of the world are +his, for he alone can make a right use of all things. He is 'free', +though he be bound by chains; 'rich', though in the midst of poverty; +'beautiful', for the mind is fairer than the body; 'a king', for, unlike +the tyrants of the world, he is lord of himself; 'happy', for he has no +need of Solon's warning to 'wait till the end', since a life virtuously +spent is a perpetual happiness". + +[Footnote 1: So Bishop Butler, in the preface to his Sermons upon 'Human +Nature', says they were "intended to explain what is meant by the nature +of man, when it is said that virtue consists in following, and vice in +deviating from it".] + +In the fourth book, Cicero himself proceeds to vindicate the wisdom of the +ancients--the old Academic school of Socrates and his pupils--against what +he considers the novelties of Stoicism. All that the Stoics have said has +been said a hundred times before by Plato and Aristotle, but in nobler +language. They merely "pick out the thorns" and "lay bare the bones" +of previous systems, using newfangled terms and misty arguments with a +"vainglorious parade". Their fine talk about citizens of the world and +the ideal wise man is rather poetry than philosophy. They rightly connect +happiness with virtue, and virtue with wisdom; but so did Aristotle some +centuries before them. + +But their great fault (says Cicero) is, that they ignore the practical +side of life. So broad is the line which they draw between the "wise" and +"foolish", that they would deny to Plato himself the possession of wisdom. +They take no account of the thousand circumstances which go to form our +happiness. To a spiritual being, virtue _might_ be the chief good; +but in actual life our physical is closely bound up with our mental +enjoyment, and pain is one of those stern facts before which all theories +are powerless. Again, by their fondness for paradox, they reduce all +offences to the same dead level. It is, in their eyes, as impious to +beat a slave as to beat a parent: because, as they say, "nothing can be +_more_ virtuous than virtue,--nothing _more_ vicious than vice". +And lastly, this stubbornness of opinion affects their personal character. +They too often degenerate into austere critics and bitter partisans, and +go far to banish from among us love, friendship, gratitude, and all the +fair humanities of life. + +The fifth book carries us back some twenty years, when we find Cicero once +more at Athens, taking his afternoon walk among the deserted groves of +the Academy. With him are his brother Quintus, his cousin Lucius, and +his friends Piso and Atticus. The scene, with its historic associations, +irresistibly carries their minds back to those illustrious spirits who had +once made the place their own. Among these trees Plato himself had walked; +under the shadow of that Porch Zeno had lectured to his disciples;[1] +yonder Quintus points out the "white peak of Colonus", described by +Sophocles in "those sweetest lines;" while glistening on the horizon were +the waves of the Phaleric harbour, which Demosthenes, Cicero's own +great prototype, had outvoiced with the thunder of his declamation. So +countless, indeed, are the memories of the past called up by the genius +of the place, that (as one of the friends remarks) "wherever we plant +our feet, we tread upon some history". Then Piso, speaking at Cicero's +request, begs his friends to turn from the degenerate thinkers of their +own day to those giants of philosophy, from whose writings all liberal +learning, all history, and all elegance of language may be derived. More +than all, they should turn to the leader of the Peripatetics, Aristotle, +who seemed (like Lord Bacon after him) to have taken all knowledge as his +portion. From these, if from no other source, we may learn the secret of a +happy life. But first we must settle what this 'chief good' is--this end +and object of our efforts--and not be carried to and fro, like ships +without a steersman, by every blast of doctrine. + +[Footnote 1: The Stoics took their name from the 'stoa', or portico in the +Academy, where they _sat_ at lecture, as the Peripatetics (the school +of Aristotle) from the little knot of listeners who followed their master +as he _walked_. Epicurus's school were known as the philosophers of +'the Garden', from the place where he taught. The 'Old Academy' were the +disciples of Plato; the 'New Academy' (to whose tenets Cicero inclined) +revived the great principle of Socrates--of affirming nothing.] + +If Epicurus was wrong in placing Happiness + + "In corporal pleasure and in careless ease", + +no less wrong are they who say that "honour" requires pleasure to be added +to it, since they thus make honour itself dishonourable. And again, to say +with others that happiness is tranquillity of mind, is simply to beg the +question. + +Putting, then, all such theories aside, we bring the argument to a +practical issue. Self-preservation is the first great principle of nature; +and so strong is this instinctive love of life both among men and animals, +that we see even the iron-hearted Stoic shrink from the actual pangs of a +voluntary death. Then comes the question, What _is_ this nature that +is so precious to each of us? Clearly it is compounded of body and mind, +each with many virtues of its own; but as the mind should rule the body, +so reason, as the dominant faculty, should rule the mind. Virtue itself is +only "the perfection of this reason", and, call it what you will, genius +or intellect is something divine. + +Furthermore, there is in man a gradual progress of reason, growing with +his growth until it has reached perfection. Even in the infant there are +"as it were sparks of virtue"--half-unconscious principles of love and +gratitude; and these germs bear fruit, as the child develops into the man. +We have also an instinct which attracts us towards the pursuit of wisdom; +such is the true meaning of the Sirens' voices in the Odyssey, says the +philosopher, quoting from the poet of all time: + + "Turn thy swift keel and listen to our lay; + Since never pilgrim to these regions came, + But heard our sweet voice ere he sailed away, + And in his joy passed on, with ampler mind".[1] + +It is wisdom, not pleasure, which they offer. Hence it is that men devote +their days and nights to literature, without a thought of any gain that +may accrue from it; and philosophers paint the serene delights of a life +of contemplation in the islands of the blest. + +[Footnote 1: Odyss. xii. 185 (Worsley).] + +Again, our minds can never rest. "Desire for action grows with us;" and in +action of some sort, be it politics or science, life (if it is to be +life at all) must be passed by each of us. Even the gambler must ply the +dice-box, and the man of pleasure seek excitement in society. But in the +true life of action, still the ruling principle should be honour. + +Such, in brief, is Piso's (or rather Cicero's) vindication of the old +masters of philosophy. Before they leave the place, Cicero fires a parting +shot at the Stoic paradox that the 'wise man' is always happy. How. he +pertinently asks, can one in sickness and poverty, blind, or childless, +in exile or in torture, be possibly called happy, except by a monstrous +perversion of language?[1] + +[Footnote 1: In a little treatise called "Paradoxes", Cicero discusses six +of these scholastic quibbles of the Stoics.] + +Here, somewhat abruptly, the dialogue closes; and Cicero pronounces no +judgment of his own, but leaves the great question almost as perplexed as +when he started the discussion. But, of the two antagonistic theories, he +leans rather to the Stoic than to the Epicurean. Self-sacrifice and honour +seem, to his view, to present a higher ideal than pleasure or expediency. + + +II. 'ACADEMIC QUESTIONS'. + +Fragments of two editions of this work have come down to us; for almost +before the first copy had reached the hands of his friend Atticus, to whom +it was sent, Cicero had rewritten the whole on an enlarged scale. The +first book (as we have it now) is dedicated to Varro, a noble patron of +art and literature. In his villa at Cumae were spacious porticoes and +gardens, and a library with galleries and cabinets open to all comers. +Here, on a terrace looking seawards, Cicero, Atticus, and Varro himself +pass a long afternoon in discussing the relative merits of the old and +new Academies; and hence we get the title of the work. Varro takes the +lion's share of the first dialogue, and shows how from the "vast and +varied genius of Plato" both Academics and Peripatetics drew all their +philosophy, whether it related to morals, to nature, or to logic. Stoicism +receives a passing notice, as also does what Varro considers the heresy +of Theophrastus, who strips virtue of all its beauty, by denying that +happiness depends upon it. + +The second book is dedicated to another illustrious name, the elder +Lucullus, not long deceased--half-statesman, half-dilettante, "with almost +as divine a memory for facts", says Cicero, with something of envy, "as +Hortensius had for words". This time it is at his villa, near Tusculum, +amidst scenery perhaps even now the loveliest of all Italian landscapes, +that the philosophic dialogue takes place. Lucullus condemns the +scepticism of the New Academy--those reactionists against the dogmatism of +past times, who disbelieve their very eyesight. If (he says) we reject the +testimony of the senses, there is neither body, nor truth, nor argument, +nor anything certain left us. These perpetual doubters destroy every +ground of our belief. + +Cicero ingeniously defends this scepticism, which was, in fact, the bent +of his own mind. After all, what is our eyesight worth? The ship sailing +across the bay yonder seems to move, but to the sailors it is the shore +that recedes from their view. Even the sun, "which mathematicians affirm +to be eighteen times larger than the earth, looks but a foot in diameter". +And as it is with these things, so it is with all knowledge. Bold indeed +must be the man who can define the point at which belief passes into +certainty. Even the "fine frenzy" of the poet, his pictures of gods +and heroes, are as lifelike to himself and to his hearers as though he +actually saw them: + + "See how Apollo, fair-haired god, + Draws in and bends his golden bow, + While on the left fair Dian waves her torch". + +No--we are sure of nothing; and we are happy if, like Socrates, we +only know this--that we know nothing. Then, as if in irony, or partly +influenced perhaps by the advocate's love of arguing the case both ways, +Cicero demolishes that grand argument of design which elsewhere he +so carefully constructs,[1] and reasons in the very language of +materialism--"You assert that all the universe could not have been so +ingeniously made without some godlike wisdom, the majesty of which you +trace down even to the perfection of bees and ants. Why, then, did the +Deity, when he made everything for the sake of man, make such a variety +(for instance) of venomous reptiles? Your divine soul is a fiction; it is +better to imagine that creation is the result of the laws of nature, and +so release the Deity from a great deal of hard work, and me from fear; for +which of us, when he thinks that he is an object of divine care, can help +feeling an awe of the divine power day and night? But we do not understand +even our own bodies; how, then, can we have an eyesight so piercing as to +penetrate the mysteries of heaven and earth?" + +[Footnote 1: See p. 168.] + +The treatise, however, is but a disappointing fragment, and the argument +is incomplete. + + +III. THE 'TUSCULAN DISPUTATIONS'. + +The scene of this dialogue is Cicero's villa at Tusculum. There, in his +long gallery, he walks and discusses with his friends the vexed questions +of morality. Was death an evil? Was the soul immortal? How could a man +best bear pain and the other miseries of life? Was virtue any guarantee +for happiness? + +Then, as now, death was the great problem of humanity--"to die and go we +know not where". The old belief in Elysium and Tartarus had died away; as +Cicero himself boldly puts it in another place, such things were no longer +even old wives' fables. Either death brought an absolute unconsciousness, +or the soul soared into space. "_Lex non poena mors_"--"Death is a +law, not a penalty"--was the ancient saying. It was, as it were, the close +of a banquet or the fall of the curtain. "While we are, death is not; when +death has come, we are not". + +Cicero brings forward the testimony of past ages to prove that death is +not a mere annihilation. Man cannot perish utterly. Heroes are deified; +and the spirits of the dead return to us in visions of the night. Somehow +or other (he says) there clings to our minds a certain presage of future +ages; and so we plant, that our children may reap; we toil, that others +may enter into our labours; and it is this life after death, the desire to +live in men's mouths for ever, which inspires the patriot and the martyr. +Fame to the Roman, even more than to us, was "the last infirmity of noble +minds". It was so in a special degree to Cicero. The instinctive sense of +immortality, he argues, is strong within us; and as, in the words of the +English poet, + + "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting", + +so also in death, the Roman said, though in other words: + + "Our souls have sight of that immortal sea + Which brought us hither". + +Believe not then, says Cicero, those old wives' tales, those poetic +legends, the terrors of a material hell, of the joys of a sensual +paradise. Rather hold with Plato that the soul is an eternal principle of +life, which has neither beginning nor end of existence; for if it were not +so, heaven and earth would be overset, and all nature would stand at gaze. +"Men say they cannot conceive or comprehend what the soul can be, distinct +from the body. As if, forsooth, they could comprehend what it is, when it +is _in_ the body,--its conformation, its magnitude, or its position +there.... To me, when I consider the nature of the soul, there is far more +difficulty and obscurity in forming a conception of what the soul is while +in the body,--in a dwelling where it seems so little at home,--than of +what it will be when it has escaped into the free atmosphere of heaven, +which seems its natural abode".[1] And as the poet seems to us inspired, +as the gifts of memory and eloquence seem divine, so is the soul itself, +in its simple essence, a god dwelling in the breast of each of us. What +else can be this power which enables us to recollect the past, to foresee +the future, to understand the present? + +[Footnote 1: I. c. 22.] + +There follows a passage on the argument from design which anticipates that +fine saying of Voltaire--"Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer; +mais toute la nature crie qu'il existe". "The heavens", says even the +heathen philosopher, "declare the glory of God". Look on the sun and the +stars; look on the alternation of the seasons, and the changes of day and +night; look again at the earth bringing forth her fruits for the use +of men; the multitude of cattle; and man himself, made as it were to +contemplate and adore the heavens and the gods. Look on all these things, +and doubt not that there is some Being, though you see him not, who has +created and presides over the world. + +"Imitate, therefore, the end of Socrates; who, with the fatal cup in his +hands, spoke with the serenity of one not forced to die, but, as it were, +ascending into heaven; for he thought that the souls of men, when they +left the body, went by different roads; those polluted by vice and unclean +living took a road wide of that which led to the assembly of the gods; +while those who had kept themselves pure, and on earth had taken a divine +life as their model, found it easy to return to those beings from whence +they came". Or learn a lesson from the swans, who, with a prophetic +instinct, leave this world with joy and singing. Yet do not anticipate +the time of death, "for the Deity forbids us to depart hence without his +summons; but, on just cause given (as to Socrates and Cato), gladly should +we exchange our darkness for that light, and, like men not breaking +prison but released by the law, leave our chains with joy, as having been +discharged by God". + +The feeling of these ancients with regard to suicide, we must here +remember, was very different from our own. There was no distinct idea +of the sanctity of life; no social stigma and consequent suffering were +brought on the family of the suicide. Stoic and Epicurean philosophers +alike upheld it as a lawful remedy against the pangs of disease, the +dotage of old age, or the caprices of a tyrant. Every man might, they +contended, choose his own route on the last great journey, and sleep well, +when he grew wearied out with life's fitful fever. The door was always +open (said Epictetus) when the play palled on the senses. You should +quit the stage with dignity, nor drain the flask to the dregs. Some +philosophers, it is true, protested against it as a mere device of +cowardice to avoid pain, and as a failure in our duties as good citizens. +Cicero, in one of his latest works, again quotes with approval the opinion +of Pythagoras, that "no man should abandon his post in life without the +orders of the Great Commander". But at Rome suicide had been glorified by +a long roll of illustrious names, and the protest was made in vain. + +But why, continues Cicero, why add to the miseries of life by brooding +over death? Is life to any of us such unmixed pleasure even while it +lasts? Which of us can tell whether he be taken away from good or from +evil? As our birth is but "a sleep and a forgetting", so our death may be +but a second sleep, as lasting as Endymion's. Why then call it wretched, +even if we die before our natural time? Nature has lent us life, without +fixing the day of payment; and uncertainty is one of the conditions of its +tenure. Compare our longest life with eternity, and it is as short-lived +as that of those ephemeral insects whose life is measured by a summer day; +and "who, when the sun sets, have reached old age". + +Let us, then, base our happiness on strength of mind, on a contempt of +earthly pleasures, and on the strict observance of virtue. Let us recall +the last noble words of Socrates to his judges. "The death", said he, "to +which you condemn me, I count a gain rather than a loss. Either it is +a dreamless sleep that knows no waking, or it carries me where I may +converse with the spirits of the illustrious dead. _I_ go to death, +_you_ to life; but which of us is going the better way, God only +knows". + +No man, then, dies too soon who has run a course of perfect virtue; for +glory follows like a shadow in the wake of such a life. Welcome death, +therefore, as a blessed deliverance from evil, sent by the special favour +of the gods, who thus bring us safely across a sea of troubles to an +eternal haven. + +The second topic which Cicero and his friends discuss is, the endurance of +pain. Is it an unmixed evil? Can anything console the sufferer? Cicero +at once condemns the sophistry of Epicurus. The wise man cannot pretend +indifference to pain; it is enough that he endure it with courage, since, +beyond all question, it is sharp, bitter, and hard to bear. And what is +this courage? Partly excitement, partly the impulse of honour or of shame, +partly the habituation which steels the endurance of the gladiator. Keep, +therefore--this is the conclusion--stern restraint over the feminine +elements of your soul, and learn not only to despise the attacks of pain, +but also + + "The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". + +From physical, the discussion naturally passes to mental, suffering. +For grief, as well as for pain, he prescribes the remedy of the +Stoics--_aequanimitas_--"a calm serenity of mind". The wise man, +ever serene and composed, is moved neither by pain or sorrow, by fear +or desire. He is equally undisturbed by the malice of enemies or the +inconstancy of fortune. But what consolation can we bring to ease the pain +of the Epicurean? "Put a nosegay to his nostrils--burn perfumes before +him--crown him with roses and woodbine"! But perfumes and garlands can do +little in such case; pleasures may divert, but they can scarcely console. + +Again, the Cyrenaics bring at the best but Job's comfort. No man will +bear his misfortunes the more lightly by bethinking himself that they are +unavoidable--that others have suffered before him--that pain is part and +parcel of the ills which flesh is heir to. Why grieve at all? Why feed +your misfortune by dwelling on it? Plunge rather into active life and +forget it, remembering that excessive lamentation over the trivial +accidents of humanity is alike unmanly and unnecessary. And as it is with +grief, so it is with envy, lust, anger, and those other "perturbations of +the mind" which the Stoic Zeno rightly declares to be "repugnant to reason +and nature". From such disquietudes it is the wise man who is free. + +The fifth and last book discusses the great question, Is virtue of +itself sufficient to make life happy? The bold conclusion is, that it is +sufficient. Cicero is not content with the timid qualifications adopted +by the school of the Peripatetics, who say one moment that external +advantages and worldly prosperity are nothing, and then again admit that, +though man may be happy without them, he is happier with them,--which is +making the real happiness imperfect after all. Men differ in their views +of life. As in the great Olympic games, the throng are attracted, some +by desire of gain, some by the crown of wild olive, some merely by the +spectacle; so, in the race of life, we are all slaves to some ruling idea, +it may be glory, or money, or wisdom. But they alone can be pronounced +happy whose minds are like some tranquil sea--"alarmed by no fears, +wasted by no griefs, inflamed by no lusts, enervated by no relaxing +pleasures,--and such serenity virtue alone can produce". + +These 'Disputations' have always been highly admired. But their popularity +was greater in times when Cicero's Greek originals were less read or +understood. Erasmus carried his admiration of this treatise to enthusiasm. +"I cannot doubt", he says, "but that the mind from which such teaching +flowed was inspired in some sort by divinity". + + +IV. THE TREATISE 'ON MORAL DUTIES'. + +The treatise 'De Officiis', known as Cicero's 'Offices, to which we pass +next, is addressed by the author to his son, while studying at Athens +under Cratippus; possibly in imitation of Aristotle, who inscribed +his Ethics to his son Nicomachus. It is a treatise on the duties of a +gentleman--"the noblest present", says a modern writer, "ever made by +parent to a child".[1] Written in a far higher tone than Lord +Chesterfield's letters, though treating of the same subject, it proposes +and answers multifarious questions which must occur continually to the +modern Christian as well as to the ancient philosopher. "What makes an +action right or wrong? What is a duty? What is expediency? How shall I +learn to choose between my principles and my interests? And lastly (a +point of casuistry which must sometimes perplex the strictest conscience), +of two 'things honest',[2] which is most so?" + +[Footnote 1: Kelsall.] + +[Footnote 2: The English "Honesty" and "Honour" alike fail to convey the +full force of the Latin _honestus_. The word expresses a progress +of thought from comeliness and grace of person to a noble and graceful +character--all whose works are done in honesty and honour.] + +The key-note of his discourse throughout is Honour; and the word seems to +carry with it that magic force which Burke attributed to chivalry--"the +unbought grace of life--the nurse of heroic sentiment and manly +enterprise". _Noblesse oblige_,--and there is no state of life, says +Cicero, without its obligations. In their due discharge consists all the +nobility, and in their neglect all the disgrace, of character. There +should be no selfish devotion to private interests. We are born not for +ourselves only, but for our kindred and fatherland. We owe duties not only +to those who have benefited but to those who have wronged us. We should +render to all their due; and justice is due even to the lowest of mankind: +what, for instance (he says with a hardness which jars upon our better +feelings), can be lower than a slave? Honour is that "unbought grace" +which adds a lustre to every action. In society it produces courtesy of +manners; in business, under the form of truth, it establishes public +credit. Again, as equity, it smooths the harsh features of the law. In war +it produces that moderation and good faith between contending armies which +are the surest basis of a lasting peace. And so in honour are centred the +elements of all the virtues--wisdom and justice, fortitude and temperance; +and "if", he says, reproducing the noble words of Plato, as applied by him +to Wisdom, "this 'Honour' could but be seen in her full beauty by mortal +eyes, the whole world would fall in love with her". + +Such is the general spirit of this treatise, of which only the briefest +sketch can be given in these pages. + +Cicero bases honour on our inherent excellence of nature, paying the same +noble tribute to humanity as Kant some centuries after: "On earth there is +nothing great but man; in man there is nothing great but mind". Truth is a +law of our nature. Man is only "lower than the angels"; and to him belong +prerogatives which mark him off from the brute creation--the faculties +of reason and discernment, the sense of beauty, and the love of law and +order. And from this arises that fellow--feeling which, in one sense, +"makes the whole world kin"--the spirit of Terence's famous line, which +Cicero notices (applauded on its recitation, as Augustin tells us, by the +cheers of the entire audience in the theatre)-- + + "Homo sum--humani nihil a me alienum puto:" [1] + +for (he continues) "all men by nature love one another, and desire an +intercourse of words and action". Hence spring the family affections, +friendship, and social ties; hence also that general love of combination, +which forms a striking feature of the present age, resulting in clubs, +trades-unions, companies, and generally in what Mr. Carlyle terms +"swarmery". + +[Footnote 1: "I am a man--I hold that nothing which concerns mankind can +be matter of unconcern to me".] + +Next to truth, justice is the great duty of mankind. Cicero at once +condemns "communism" in matters of property. Ancient immemorial seizure, +conquest, or compact, may give a title; but "no man can say that he has +anything his own by a right of nature". Injustice springs from avarice or +ambition, the thirst of riches or of empire, and is the more dangerous as +it appears in the more exalted spirits, causing a dissolution of all ties +and obligations. And here he takes occasion to instance "that late most +shameless attempt of Caesar's to make himself master of Rome". + +There is, besides, an injustice of omission. You may wrong your neighbour +by seeing him wronged without interfering. Cicero takes the opportunity of +protesting strongly against the selfish policy of those lovers of ease and +peace, who, "from a desire of furthering their own interests, or else from +a churlish temper, profess that they mind nobody's business but their own, +in order that they may seem to be men of strict integrity and to injure +none", and thus shrink from taking their part in "the fellowship of +life". He would have had small patience with our modern doctrine of +non-intervention and neutrality in nations any more than in men. Such +conduct arises (he says) from the false logic with which men cheat +their conscience; arguing reversely, that whatever is the best policy +is--honesty. + +There are two ways, it must be remembered, in which one man may injure +another--force and fraud; but as the lion is a nobler creature than the +fox, so open violence seems less odious than secret villany. No character +is so justly hateful as + + "A rogue in grain, + Veneered with sanctimonious theory". + +Nations have their obligations as well as individuals, and war has its +laws as well as peace. The struggle should be carried on in a generous +temper, and not in the spirit of extermination, when "it has sometimes +seemed a question between two hostile nations, not which should remain a +conqueror, but which should remain a nation at all". + +No mean part of justice consists in liberality, and this, too, has its +duties. It is an important question, how, and when, and to whom, we should +give? It is possible to be generous at another person's expense: it is +possible to injure the recipient by mistimed liberality; or to ruin one's +fortune by open house and prodigal hospitality. A great man's bounty (as +he says in another place) should be a common sanctuary for the needy. "To +ransom captives and enrich the meaner folk is a nobler form of generosity +than providing wild beasts or shows of gladiators to amuse the mob". +Charity should begin at home; for relations and friends hold the first +place in our affections; but the circle of our good deeds is not to +be narrowed by the ties of blood, or sect, or party, and "our country +comprehends the endearments of all". We should act in the spirit of the +ancient law--"Thou shalt keep no man from the running stream, or from +lighting his torch at thy hearth". Our liberality should be really +liberal,--like that charity which Jeremy Taylor describes as "friendship +to all the world". + +Another component principle of this honour is courage, or "greatness of +soul", which (continues Cicero) has been well defined by the Stoics as +"a virtue contending for justice and honesty"; and its noblest form is a +generous contempt for ordinary objects of ambition, not "from a vain or +fantastic humour, but from solid principles of reason". The lowest and +commoner form of courage is the mere animal virtue of the fighting-cock. + +But a character should not only be excellent,--it should be graceful. In +gesture and deportment men should strive to acquire that dignified grace +of manners "which adds as it were a lustre to our lives". They should +avoid affectation and eccentricity; "not to care a farthing what people +think of us is a sign not so much of pride as of immodesty". The want of +tact--the saying and doing things at the wrong time and place--produces +the same discord in society as a false note in music; and harmony of +character is of more consequence than harmony of sounds. There is a grace +in words as well as in conduct: we should avoid unseasonable jests, "and +not lard our talk with Greek quotations".[1] + +[Footnote 1: This last precept Cicero must have considered did not apply +to letter-writing, otherwise he was a notorious offender against his own +rule.] + +In the path of life, each should follow the bent of his own genius, so far +as it is innocent-- + + "Honour and shame from no condition rise; + Act well your part--there all the honour lies". + +Nothing is so difficult (says Cicero) as the choice of a profession, +inasmuch as "the choice has commonly to be made when the judgment is +weakest". Some tread in their father's steps, others beat out a fresh line +of their own; and (he adds, perhaps not without a personal reference) this +is generally the case with those born of mean parents, who propose to +carve their own way in the world. But the _parvenu_ of Arpinum--the +'new man', as aristocratic jealousy always loved to call him--is by +no means insensible to the true honours of ancestry. "The noblest +inheritance", he says, "that can ever be left by a father to his son, +far excelling that of lands and houses, is the fame of his virtues and +glorious actions"; and saddest of all sights is that of a noble house +dragged through the mire by some degenerate descendant, so as to be a +by-word among the populace,--"which may" (he concludes) "be justly said of +but too many in our times". + +The Roman's view of the comparative dignity of professions and occupations +is interesting, because his prejudices (if they be prejudices) have so +long maintained their ground amongst us moderns. Tax-gatherers and usurers +are as unpopular now as ever--the latter very deservedly so. Retail trade +is despicable, we are told, and "all mechanics are by their profession +mean". Especially such trades as minister to mere appetite or +luxury--butchers, fishmongers, and cooks; perfumers, dancers, and +suchlike. But medicine, architecture, education, farming, and even +wholesale business, especially importation and exportation, are the +professions of a gentleman. "But if the merchant, satisfied with his +profits, shall leave the seas and from the harbour step into a landed +estate, such a man seems justly deserving of praise". We seem to be +reading the verdict of modern English society delivered by anticipation +two thousand years ago. + +The section ends with earnest advice to all, that they should put their +principles into practice. "The deepest knowledge of nature is but a +poor and imperfect business", unless it proceeds into action. As justice +consists in no abstract theory, but in upholding society among men,--as +"greatness of soul itself, if it be isolated from the duties of social +life, is but a kind of uncouth churlishness",--so it is each citizen's +duty to leave his philosophic seclusion of a cloister, and take his place +in public life, if the times demand it, "though he be able to number the +stars and measure out the world". + +The same practical vein is continued in the next book. What, after all, +are a man's real interests? what line of conduct will best advance the +main end of his life? Generally, men make the fatal mistake of assuming +that honour must always clash with their interests, while in reality, says +Cicero, "they would obtain their ends best, not by knavery and underhand +dealing, but by justice and integrity". The right is identical with +the expedient. "The way to secure the favour of the gods is by upright +dealing; and next to the gods, nothing contributes so much to men's +happiness as men themselves". It is labour and co-operation which have +given us all the goods which we possess. + +Since, then, man is the best friend to man, and also his most formidable +enemy, an important question to be discussed is the secret of influence +and popularity--the art of winning men's affections. For to govern by +bribes or by force is not really to govern at all; and no obedience based +on fear can be lasting--"no force of power can bear up long against a +current of public hate". Adventurers who ride rough-shod over law (he is +thinking again of Caesar) have but a short-lived reign; and "liberty, when +she has been chained up a while, bites harder when let loose than if she +had never been chained at all".[1] Most happy was that just and moderate +government of Rome in earlier times, when she was "the port and refuge for +princes and nations in their hour of need". Three requisites go to form +that popular character which has a just influence over others; we must win +men's love, we must deserve their confidence, and we must inspire them +with an admiration for our abilities. The shortest and most direct road to +real influence is that which Socrates recommends--"for a man to be that +which he wishes men to take him for".[2] + +[Footnote 1: It is curious to note how, throughout the whole of this +argument, Cicero, whether consciously or unconsciously, works upon the +principle that the highest life is the political life, and that the +highest object a man can set before him is the obtaining, by legitimate +means, influence and authority amongst his fellow-citizens.] + +[Footnote 2: + + "Not being less but more than all + The gentleness he seemed to be". + --Tennyson: 'In Memoriam'.] + +Then follow some maxims which show how thoroughly conservative was the +policy of our philosopher. The security of property he holds to be the +security of the state. There must be no playing with vested rights, no +unequal taxation, no attempt to bring all things to a level, no cancelling +of debts and redistribution of land (he is thinking of the baits held out +by Catiline), none of those traditional devices for winning favour with +the people, which tend to destroy that social concord and unity which +make a common wealth. "What reason is there", he asks, "why, when I have +bought, built, repaired, and laid out much money, another shall come and +enjoy the fruits of it?" + +And as a man should be careful of the interests of the social body, so +he should be of his own. But Cicero feels that in descending to such +questions he is somewhat losing sight of his dignity as a moralist. +"You will find all this thoroughly discussed", he says to his son, "in +Xenophon's Economics--a book which, when I was just your age, I translated +from the Greek into Latin". [One wonders whether young Marcus took the +hint.] "And if you want instruction in money matters, there are gentlemen +sitting on the Exchange who will teach you much better than the +philosophers". + +The last book opens with a saying of the elder Cato's, which Cicero much +admires, though he says modestly that he was never able in his own case +quite to realise it--"I am never less idle than when I am idle, and never +less alone than when alone". Retirement and solitude are excellent things, +Cicero always declares; generally contriving at the same time to make it +plain, as he does here, that his own heart is in the world of public life. +But at least it gives him time for writing. He "has written more in this +short time, since the fall of the Commonwealth, than in all the years +during which it stood". + +He here resolves the question, If honour and interest seem to clash, which +is to give way? Or rather, it has been resolved already; if the right be +always the expedient, the opposition is seeming, not real. He puts a great +many questions of casuistry, but it all amounts to this: the good man +keeps his oath, "though it were to his own hindrance". But it is never to +his hindrance; for a violation of his conscience would be the greatest +hindrance of all. + +In this treatise, more than in any of his other philosophical works, +Cicero inclines to the teaching of the Stoics. In the others, he is +rather the seeker after truth than the maintainer of a system. His is the +critical eclecticism of the 'New Academy'--the spirit so prevalent in our +own day, which fights against the shackles of dogmatism. And with all his +respect for the nobler side of Stoicism, he is fully alive to its defects; +though it was not given to him to see, as Milton saw after him, the point +wherein that great system really failed--the "philosophic pride" which was +the besetting sin of all disciples in the school, from Cato to Seneca: + + "Ignorant of themselves, of God much more, + + * * * * * + + Much of the soul they talk, but all awry; + And in themselves seek virtue, and to themselves + All glory arrogate,--to God give none; + Rather accuse Him under usual names, + Fortune, or Fate, as one regardless quite + Of mortal things".[1] + +[Footnote 1: Paradise Regained.] + +Yet, in spite of this, such men were as the salt of the earth in a corrupt +age; and as we find, throughout the more modern pages of history, great +preachers denouncing wickedness in high places,--Bourdaloue and Massillon +pouring their eloquence into the heedless ears of Louis XIV, and his +courtiers--Sherlock and Tillotson declaiming from the pulpit in such +stirring accents that "even the indolent Charles roused himself to listen, +and the fastidious Buckingham forgot to sneer"[1]--so, too, do we find +these "monks of heathendom", as the Stoics have been not unfairly called, +protesting in their day against that selfish profligacy which was fast +sapping all morality in the Roman empire. No doubt (as Mr. Lecky takes +care to tell us), their high principles were not always consistent with +their practice (alas! whose are?); Cato may have ill-used his slaves, +Sallust may have been rapacious, and Seneca wanting in personal courage. +Yet it was surely something to have set up a noble ideal, though they +might not attain to it themselves, and in "that hideous carnival of vice" +to have kept themselves, so far as they might, unspotted from the world. +Certain it is that no other ancient sect ever came so near the light of +revelation. Passages from Seneca, from Epictetus, from Marcus Aurelius, +sound even now like fragments of the inspired writings. The Unknown God, +whom they ignorantly worshipped as the Soul or Reason of the World, +is--in spite of Milton's strictures--the beginning and the end of their +philosophy. Let us listen for a moment to their language. "Prayer should +be only for the good". "Men should act according to the spirit, and not +according to the letter of their faith". "Wouldest thou propitiate the +gods? Be good: he has worshipped them sufficiently who has imitated +them". It was from a Stoic poet, Aratus, that St. Paul quoted the great +truth which was the rational argument against idolatry--"For we are also +His offspring, and" (so the original passage concludes) "we alone +possess a voice, which is the image of reason". It is in another poet +of the same school that we find what are perhaps the noblest lines in +all Latin poetry. Persius concludes his Satire on the common hypocrisy +of those prayers and offerings to the gods which were but a service of +the lips and hands, in words of which an English rendering may give the +sense but not the beauty: "Nay, then, let us offer to the gods that which +the debauched sons of great Messala can never bring on their broad +chargers,--a soul wherein the laws of God and man are blended,--a heart +pure to its inmost depths,--a breast ingrained with a noble sense of +honour. Let me but bring these with me to the altar, and I care not +though my offering be a handful of corn". With these grand words, fit +precursors of a purer creed to come, we may take our leave of the Stoics, +remarking how thoroughly, even in their majestic egotism, they +represented the moral force of the nation among whom they flourished; a +nation, says a modern preacher, "whose legendary and historic heroes +could thrust their hand into the flame, and see it consumed without a +nerve shrinking; or come from captivity on parole, advise their +countrymen against a peace, and then go back to torture and certain +death; or devote themselves by solemn self-sacrifice like the Decii. The +world must bow before such men; for, unconsciously, here was a form of +the spirit of the Cross-self-surrender, unconquerable fidelity to duty, +sacrifice for others".[2] + +[Footnote 1: Macaulay.] + +[Footnote 2: F.W. Robertson, Sermons, i. 218.] + +Portions of three treatises by Cicero upon Political Philosophy have come +down to us: 1. I De Republica'; a dialogue on Government, founded chiefly +on the 'Republic' of Plato: 2. 'De Legibus'; a discussion on Law in the +abstract, and on national systems of legislation 3. 'De Jure Civili'; +of which last only a few fragments exist. His historical works have all +perished. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +CICERO'S RELIGION. + +It is difficult to separate Cicero's religion from his philosophy. In both +he was a sceptic, but in the better sense of the word. His search after +truth was in no sneering or incredulous spirit, but in that of a reverent +inquirer. We must remember, in justice to him, that an earnest-minded man +in his day could hardly take higher ground than that of the sceptic. The +old polytheism was dying out in everything but in name, and there was +nothing to take its place. + +His religious belief, so far as we can gather it, was rather negative than +positive. In the speculative treatise which he has left us, 'On the Nature +of the Gods', he examines all the current creeds of the day, but leaves +his own quite undefined. + +The treatise takes the form, like the rest, of an imaginary conversation. +This is supposed to have taken place at the house of Aurelius Cotta, then +Pontifex Maximus--an office which answered nearly to that of Minister +of religion. The other speakers are Balbus, Velleius, and Cicero +himself,--who acts, however, rather in the character of moderator than +of disputant. The debate is still, as in the more strictly philosophical +dialogues, between the different schools. Velleius first sets forth the +doctrine of his master Epicurus; speaking about the gods, says one of his +opponents, with as much apparent intimate knowledge "as if he had just +come straight down from heaven". All the speculations of previous +philosophers--which he reviews one after the other--are, he assures the +company, palpable errors. The popular mythology is a mere collection of +fables. Plato and the Stoics, with their Soul of the world and their +pervading Providence, are entirely wrong; the disciples of Epicurus alone +are right. There are gods; that much, the universal belief of mankind in +all ages sufficiently establishes. But that they should be the laborious +beings which the common systems of theology would make them,--that they +should employ themselves in the manufacture of worlds,--is manifestly +absurd. Some of this argument is ingenious. "What should induce the Deity +to perform the functions of an Aedile, to light up and decorate the world? +If it was to supply better accommodation for himself, then he must have +dwelt of choice, up to that time, in the darkness of a dungeon. If such +improvements gave him pleasure, why should he have chosen to be without +them so long?" + +No--the gods are immortal and happy beings; and these very attributes +imply that they should be wholly free from the cares of business--exempt +from labour, as from pain and death. They are in human form, but of an +ethereal and subtile essence, incapable of our passions or desires. Happy +in their own perfect wisdom and virtue, they + + "Sit beside their nectar, careless of mankind". + +Cotta--speaking in behalf of the New Academy--controverts these views. +Be these your gods, Epicurus, as well say there are no gods at all. What +reverence, what love, or what fear can men have of beings who neither wish +them, nor can work them, good or ill? Is idleness the divinest life? "Why, +'tis the very heaven of schoolboys; yet the schoolboys, on their holiday, +employ themselves in games". Nay, he concludes, what the Stoic Posidonius +said of your master Epicurus is true--"He believed there were no gods, and +what he said about their nature he said only to avoid popular odium". He +could not believe that the Deity has the outward shape of a man, without +any solid essence; that he has all the members of a man, without the power +to use them; that he is a shadowy transparent being, who shows no favour +and confers no benefits on any, cares for nothing and does nothing; this +is to allow his existence of the gods in word, but to deny it in fact. + +Velleius compliments his opponent on his clever argument, but desires that +Balbus would state his views upon the question. The Stoic consents; and, +at some length, proceeds to prove (what neither disputant has at all +denied) the existence of Divine beings of some kind. Universal belief, +well-authenticated instances of their appearance to men, and of the +fulfilment of prophecies and omens, are all evidences of their existence. +He dwells much, too, on the argument from design, of which so much use has +been made by modern theologians. He furnishes Paley with the idea for his +well-known illustration of the man who finds a watch; "when we see a dial +or a water-clock, we believe that the hour is shown thereon by art, and +not by chance".[1] He gives also an illustration from the poet Attius, +which from a poetical imagination has since become an historical incident; +the shepherds who see the ship Argo approaching take the new monster for a +thing of life, as the Mexicans regarded the ships of Cortes. Much more, +he argues, does the harmonious order of the world bespeak an intelligence +within. But his conclusion is that the Universe itself is the Deity; or +that the Deity is the animating Spirit of the Universe; and that the +popular mythology, which gives one god to the Earth, one to the Sea, one +to Fire, and so on, is in fact a distorted version of this truth. The very +form of the universe--the sphere--is the most perfect of all forms, and +therefore suited to embody the Divine. + +[Footnote 1: De Nat. Deor. ii. 34. Paley's Nat. Theol. ch. i.] + +Then Cotta--who though, as Pontifex, he is a national priest by vocation, +is of that sect in philosophy which makes doubt its creed--resumes his +objections. He is no better satisfied with the tenets of the Stoics than +with those of the Epicureans. He believes that there are gods; but, coming +to the discussion as a dispassionate and philosophical observer, he finds +such proofs as are offered of their existence insufficient. But this third +book is fragmentary, and the continuity of Cotta's argument is broken by +considerable gaps in all the manuscripts. There is a curious tradition, +that these portions were carefully torn out by the early Christians, +because they might prove too formidable weapons in the hands of +unbelievers. Cotta professes throughout only to raise his objections in +the hope that they may be refuted; but his whole reasoning is destructive +of any belief in an overruling Providence. He confesses himself puzzled by +that insoluble mystery--the existence of Evil in a world created and ruled +by a beneficent Power. The gods have given man reason, it is said; but man +abuses the gift to evil ends. "This is the fault", you say, "of men, not +of the gods. As though the physician should complain of the virulence of +the disease, or the pilot of the fury of the tempest! Though these are but +mortal men, even in them it would seem ridiculous. Who would have asked +your help, we should answer, if these difficulties had not arisen? May we +not argue still more strongly in the case of the gods? The fault, you say, +lies in the vices of men. But you should have given men such a rational +faculty as would exclude the possibility of such crimes". He sees, as +David did, "the ungodly in prosperity". The laws of Heaven are mocked, +crimes are committed, and "the thunders of Olympian Jove are silent". He +quotes, as it would always be easy to quote, examples of this from +all history: the most telling and original, perhaps, is the retort of +Diagoras, who was called the Atheist, when they showed him in the temple +at Samothrace the votive tablets (as they may be seen in some foreign +churches now) offered by those shipwrecked seamen who had been saved from +drowning. "Lo, thou that deniest a Providence, behold here how many have +been saved by prayer to the gods!" "Yea", was his reply; "but where are +those commemorated who were drowned?" + +The Dialogue ends with no resolution of the difficulties, and no +conclusion as to the points in question. Cicero, who is the narrator of +the imaginary conference, gives it as his opinion that the arguments of +the Stoic seemed to him to have "the greater probability". It was the +great tenet of the school which he most affected, that probability was the +nearest approach that man could make to speculative truth. "We are not +among those", he says, "to whom there seems to be no such thing as truth; +but we say that all truths have some falsehoods attached to them which +have so strong a resemblance to truth, that in such cases there is no +certain note of distinction which can determine our judgment and assent. +The consequence of which is that there are many things probable; and +although they are not subjects of actual perception to our senses, yet +they have so grand and glorious an aspect that a wise man governs his life +thereby".[1] It remained for one of our ablest and most philosophical +Christian writers to prove that in such matters probability was +practically equivalent to demonstration.[2] Cicero's own form of +scepticism in religious matters is perhaps very nearly expressed in the +striking anecdote which he puts, in this dialogue, into the mouth of the +Epicurean. + +[Footnote 1: De Nat. Deor. i. 5.] + +[Footnote 2: "To us, probability is the very guide of life".--Introd. to +Butler's Analogy.] + +"If you ask me what the Deity is, or what his nature and attributes are, +I should follow the example of Simonides, who, when the tyrant Hiero +proposed to him the same question, asked a day to consider of it. When the +king, on the next day, required from him the answer, Simonides requested +two days more; and when he went on continually asking double the time, +instead of giving any answer, Hiero in amazement demanded of him the +reason. 'Because', replied he, 'the longer I meditate on the question, the +more obscure does it appear'".[1] + +[Footnote 1: De Nat. Deor. i. 22.] + +The position of Cicero as a statesman, and also as a member of the College +of Augurs, no doubt checked any strong expression of opinion on his part +as to the forms of popular worship and many particulars of popular belief. +In the treatise which he intended as in some sort a sequel to this +Dialogue on the 'Nature of the Gods'--that upon 'Divination'--he states +the arguments for and against the national belief in omens, auguries, +dreams, and such intimations of the Divine will.[1] He puts the defence +of the system in the mouth of his brother Quintus, and takes himself the +destructive side of the argument: but whether this was meant to give his +own real views on the subject, we cannot be so certain. The course of +argument employed on both sides would rather lead to the conclusion that +the writer's opinion was very much that which Johnson delivered as to the +reality of ghosts--"All argument is against it, but all belief is for it". + +[Footnote 1: There is a third treatise, 'De Fato', apparently a +continuation of the series, of which only a portion has reached us. It is +a discussion of the difficult questions of Fate and Free-will.] + +With regard to the great questions of the soul's immortality, and a state +of future rewards and punishments, it would be quite possible to gather +from Cicero's writings passages expressive of entirely contradictory +views. The bent of his mind, as has been sufficiently shown, was towards +doubt, and still more towards discussion; and possibly his opinions were +not so entirely in a state of flux as the remains of his writings seem to +show. In a future state of some kind he must certainly have believed--that +is, with such belief as he would have considered the subject-matter to +admit of--as a strong probability. In a speculative fragment which has +come down to us, known as 'Scipio's Dream', we seem to have the creed of +the man rather than the speculations of the philosopher. Scipio Africanus +the elder appears in a dream to the younger who bore his name (his +grandson by adoption). He shows him a vision of heaven; bids him listen +to the music of the spheres, which, as they move in their order, "by a +modulation of high and low sounds", give forth that harmony which men have +in some poor sort reduced to notation. He bids him look down upon the +earth, contracted to a mere speck in the distance, and draws a lesson of +the poverty of all mere earthly fame and glory. "For all those who have +preserved, or aided, or benefited their country, there is a fixed and +definite place in heaven, where they shall be happy in the enjoyment of +everlasting life". But "the souls of those who have given themselves up to +the pleasures of sense, and made themselves, as it were, the servants of +these,--who at the bidding of the lusts which wait upon pleasure have +violated the laws of gods and men,--they, when they escape from the body, +flit still around the earth, and never attain to these abodes but after +many ages of wandering". We may gather that his creed admitted a Valhalla +for the hero and the patriot, and a long process of expiation for the +wicked. + +There is a curious passage preserved by St. Augustin from that one of +Cicero's works which he most admired--the lost treatise on 'Glory'--which +seems to show that so far from being a materialist, he held the body to be +a sort of purgatory for the soul. + +"The mistakes and the sufferings of human life make me think sometimes +that those ancient seers, or Interpreters of the secrets of heaven and the +counsels of the Divine mind, had some glimpse of the truth, when they said +that men are born in order to suffer the penalty for some sins committed +in a former life; and that the idea is true which we find in Aristotle, +that we are suffering some such punishment as theirs of old, who fell into +the hands of those Etruscan bandits, and were put to death with a studied +cruelty; their living bodies being tied to dead bodies, face to face, in +closest possible conjunction: that so our souls are coupled to our bodies, +united like the living with the dead". + +But whatever might have been the theological side, if one may so express +it, of Cicero's religion, the moral aphorisms which meet us here and there +in his works have often in them a teaching which comes near the tone of +Christian ethics. The words of Petrarch are hardly too strong--"You would +fancy sometimes it was not a Pagan philosopher but a Christian apostle who +was speaking".[1] These are but a few out of many which might be quoted: +"Strive ever for the truth, and so reckon as that not thou art mortal, but +only this thy body, for thou art not that which this outward form of thine +shows forth, but each man's mind, that is the real man--not the shape +which can be traced with the finger".[2] "Yea, rather, they live who have +escaped from the bonds of their flesh as from a prison-house". "Follow +after justice and duty; such a life is the path to heaven, and into yon +assembly of those who have once lived, and now, released from the body, +dwell in that place". Where, in any other heathen writer, shall we +find such noble words as those which close the apostrophe in the +Tusculans?--"One single day well spent, and in accordance with thy +precepts, were better to be chosen than an immortality of sin!"[3] He is +addressing himself, it is true, to Philosophy; but his Philosophy is here +little less than the Wisdom of Scripture: and the spiritual aspiration is +the same--only uttered under greater difficulties--as that of the Psalmist +when he exclaims, "One day in thy courts is better than a thousand!" +We may or may not adopt Erasmus's view of his inspiration--or rather, +inspiration is a word which has more than one definition, and this would +depend upon which definition we take; but we may well sympathise with the +old scholar when he says--"I feel a better man for reading Cicero". + +[Footnote 1: "Interdum non Paganum philosophum, sed apostolum loqui +putes".] + +[Footnote 2: 'The Dream of Scipio'.] + +[Footnote 3: Tusc., v. 2.] + + +END OF CICERO + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cicero, by Rev. W. Lucas Collins + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CICERO *** + +***** This file should be named 11448.txt or 11448.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/4/4/11448/ + +Produced by Stan Goodman, Ted Garvin, Lazar Liveanu and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + + https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06 + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/11448.zip b/old/11448.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9be30f5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11448.zip |