diff options
Diffstat (limited to '8945-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 8945-h/8945-h.htm | 14812 |
1 files changed, 14812 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/8945-h/8945-h.htm b/8945-h/8945-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a31972 --- /dev/null +++ b/8945-h/8945-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14812 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<title>Life of Cicero by Antony Trollope.</title> +<style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em;} + + p.indent { margin-top: 0em; text-indent: -1em; + text-align: left; margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: .5em;} + + p.pn { margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: .5em; text-align: right;} + + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 { + text-align: center; font-weight: normal; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + td.left_90 {vertical-align: top; width: 90%; text-align: left; + } + td.right_10 {vertical-align: bottom; width: 10%; text-align: right; + } + td.center_100 {vertical-align: top; width: 100%; text-align: center; + } + td.left_50 { vertical-align: top; width: 50%; text-align: left;} + + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 94%; + font-size: .8em; + text-align: left; + } /* page numbers .8em */ + + .sidenote {width: 15%; padding-bottom: .01em; padding-top: .1em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .1em; margin-left: .5em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: .2em; + font-size: smaller; } + + .center {text-align: center; margin-top: 1.5em;} + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + small {font-size: .7em;} + + .footnote {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.8em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 83%; text-align: right; font-size: .8em;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .6em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left; font-size: .9em;} + .poem2 {margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 0%; text-align: left; font-size: 1em;} + + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 0em 0em 0em 0em;} + .poem span.i05 {display: block; margin-left: -0.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem2 span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem2 span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i00 {display: block; margin-left:-2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + .poem span.i3 {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i5 {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + + +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Cicero, by Anthony Trollope + +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: Life of Cicero + Volume One + +Author: Anthony Trollope + +Release Date: August 28, 2003 [EBook #8945] +HTML version posted: April 30, 2009 +Most recently updated: April 18, 2011 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF CICERO *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Marc D'Hooghe, Steve Whitaker, and +the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h3>THE</h3> + +<h1>LIFE OF CICERO</h1> + +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h3>ANTHONY TROLLOPE</h3> + +<h4><i>IN TWO VOLUMES</i><br /> + <span class="smcap">Vol. I.</span></h4> + + +<h5>NEW YORK<br /> +<small>HARPER AND BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE</small><br /> + 1881</h5> + +<hr /> +<h4>CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.</h4> + +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"> +5</a></span></p> + + +<table width="100%" summary="TOC"> +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> </td> +<td class="rihht_10"><small>PAGE</small></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center_100">CHAPTER I.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Introduction.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">7</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center_100">CHAPTER II.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">His Education.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">40</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center_100">CHAPTER III.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">The Condition of +Rome.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">62</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center_100">CHAPTER IV.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">His Early +Pleadings.—Sextus Roscius Amerinus.—His +Income.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">80</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center_100">CHAPTER V.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Cicero as +Quæstor.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">107</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center_100">CHAPTER VI.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Verres.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">125</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center_100">CHAPTER VII.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Cicero As Ædile and +Prætor.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">162</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center_100">CHAPTER VIII.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Cicero as Consul.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">184</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center_100"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id= +"Page_6">6</a></span>CHAPTER IX.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Catiline.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">206</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center_100">CHAPTER X.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Cicero after his +Consulship.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">240</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center_100">CHAPTER XI.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">The Triumvirate.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">264</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="center_100">CHAPTER XII.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">His Exile.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">297</a></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h4>APPENDICES.</h4> + +<table width="100%" summary="TOC"> +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Appendix A.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#APPENDIX_A">335</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Appendix B.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#APPENDIX_B">340</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Appendix C.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#APPENDIX_C">342</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Appendix D.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#APPENDIX_D">345</a></p> +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_90"> +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Appendix E.</span></p> +</td> +<td class="right_10"> +<p class="pn"><a href="#APPENDIX_E">347</a></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"> +7</a></span></p> + +<h4>THE</h4> +<h2>LIFE OF CICERO.</h2> + + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter I.</span></h3> + +<h4><i>INTRODUCTION.</i></h4> + +<p>I am conscious of a certain audacity in thus attempting to give +a further life of Cicero which I feel I may probably fail in +justifying by any new information; and on this account the +enterprise, though it has been long considered, has been postponed, +so that it may be left for those who come after me to burn or +publish, as they may think proper; or, should it appear during my +life, I may have become callous, through age, to criticism.</p> + +<p>The project of my work was anterior to the life by Mr. Forsyth, +and was first suggested to me as I was reviewing the earlier +volumes of Dean Merivale's History of the Romans under the Empire. +In an article on the Dean's work, prepared for one of the magazines +of the day, I inserted an apology for the character of Cicero, +which was found to be too long as an episode, and was discarded by +me, not without regret. From that time the subject has grown in my +estimation till it has reached its present dimensions.</p> + +<p>I may say with truth that my book has sprung from love of the +man, and from a heartfelt admiration of his virtues and his +conduct, as well as of his gifts. I must acknowledge that<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span> in +discussing his character with men of letters, as I have been prone +to do, I have found none quite to agree with me. His intellect they +have admitted, and his industry; but his patriotism they have +doubted, his sincerity they have disputed, and his courage they +have denied. It might have become me to have been silenced by their +verdict; but I have rather been instigated to appeal to the public, +and to ask them to agree with me against my friends. It is not only +that Cicero has touched all matters of interest to men, and has +given a new grace to all that he has touched; that as an orator, a +rhetorician, an essayist, and a correspondent he was supreme; that +as a statesman he was honest, as an advocate fearless, and as a +governor pure; that he was a man whose intellectual part always +dominated that of the body; that in taste he was excellent, in +thought both correct and enterprising, and that in language he was +perfect. All this has been already so said of him by other +biographers. Plutarch, who is as familiar to us as though he had +been English, and Middleton, who thoroughly loved his subject, and +latterly Mr. Forsyth, who has struggled to be honest to him, might +have sufficed as telling us so much as that. But there was a +humanity in Cicero, a something almost of Christianity, a stepping +forward out of the dead intellectualities of Roman life into moral +perceptions, into natural affections, into domesticity, +philanthropy, and conscious discharge of duty, which do not seem to +have been as yet fully appreciated. To have loved his neighbor as +himself before the teaching of Christ was much for a man to +achieve; and that he did this is what I claim for Cicero, and hope +to bring home to the minds of those who can find time for reading +yet another added to the constantly increasing volumes about Roman +times.</p> + +<p>It has been the habit of some latter writers, who have left to +Cicero his literary honors, to rob him of those which had been +accorded to him as a politician. Macaulay, expressing his surprise +at the fecundity of Cicero, and then passing on to the praise of +the Philippics as senatorial speeches, says of him that<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> he seems +to have been at the head of the "minds of the second order." We +cannot judge of the classification without knowing how many of the +great men of the world are to be included in the first rank. But +Macaulay probably intended to express an opinion that Cicero was +inferior because he himself had never dominated others as Marius +had done, and Sylla, and Pompey, and Cæsar, and Augustus. But +what if Cicero was ambitious for the good of others, while these +men had desired power only for themselves?</p> + +<p>Dean Merivale says that Cicero was "discreet and decorous," as +with a similar sneer another clergyman, Sydney Smith, ridiculed a +Tory prime-minister because he was true to his wife. There is +nothing so open to the bitterness of a little joke as those humble +virtues by which no glitter can be gained, but only the happiness +of many preserved. And the Dean declares that Cicero himself was +not, except once or twice, and for a "moment only, a real power in +the State." Men who usurped authority, such as those I have named, +were the "real powers," and it was in opposition to such usurpation +that Cicero was always urgent. Mr. Forsyth, who, as I have said, +strives to be impartial, tells us that "the chief fault of Cicero's +moral character was a want of sincerity." Absence of sincerity +there was not. Deficiency of sincerity there was. Who among men has +been free from such blame since history and the lives of men were +first written? It will be my object to show that though less than +godlike in that gift, by comparison with other men around him he +was sincere, as he was also self-denying; which, if the two virtues +be well examined, will indicate the same phase of character.</p> + +<p>But of all modern writers Mr. Froude has been the hardest to +Cicero. His sketch of the life of Cæsar is one prolonged +censure on that of Cicero. Our historian, with all that glory of +language for which he is so remarkable, has covered the poor orator +with obloquy. There is no period in Cicero's life so touching, I +think, as that during which he was hesitating <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span>whether, +in the service of the Republic, it did or did not behoove him to +join Pompey before the battle of Pharsalia. At this time he wrote +to his friend Atticus various letters full of agonizing doubts as +to what was demanded from him by his duty to his country, by his +friendship for Pompey, by loyalty to his party, and by his own +dignity. As to a passage in one of those, Mr. Froude says "that +Cicero had lately spoken of Cæsar's continuance in life as a +disgrace to the State." "It has been seen also that he had long +thought of assassination as the readiest means of ending it,"<a +name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" +class="fnanchor">1</a> says Mr. Froude. The "It has been seen" +refers to a statement made a few pages earlier, in which he +translates certain words written by Cicero to Atticus.<a name= +"FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class= +"fnanchor">2</a> "He considered it a disgrace to them that +Cæsar was alive." That is his translation; and in his +indignation he puts other words, as it were, into the mouth of his +literary brother of two thousand years before. "Why did not +somebody kill him?" The Latin words themselves are added in a +note, "Cum vivere ipsum turpe sit nobis."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id= +"FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> +Hot indignation has so carried the translator away that he has +missed the very sense of Cicero's language. "When even to draw the +breath of life at such a time is a disgrace to us!" That is what +Cicero meant. Mr. Froude in a preceding passage gives us another +passage from a letter to Atticus,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id= +"FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> +"Cæsar was mortal."<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id= +"FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">5</a> +So much is an intended translation. Then Mr. Froude tells us how +Cicero had "hailed Cæsar's eventual murder with rapture;" and +goes on to say, "We read the words with sorrow and yet with pity." +But Cicero had never dreamed of Cæsar's murder. The words of +the passage are as follows: "Hunc primum mortalem esse, deinde +etiam multis modis extingui posse cogitabam." "I bethought myself +in the first place that this man was mortal, and then that there +were a hundred ways in which he might be put on one side." All +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"> +11</a></span>the latter authorities have, I believe, supposed the +"hunc" or "this man" to be Pompey. I should say that this was +proved by the gist of the whole letter—one of the most +interesting that was ever written, as telling the workings of a +great man's mind at a peculiar crisis of his life—did I not +know that former learned editors have supposed Cæsar to have +been meant. But whether Cæsar or Pompey, there is nothing in +it to do with murder. It is a question—Cicero is saying to +his friend—of the stability of the Republic. When a matter so +great is considered, how is a man to trouble himself as to an +individual who may die any day, or cease from any accident to be of +weight? Cicero was speaking of the effect of this or that step on +his own part. Am I, he says, for the sake of Pompey to bring down +hordes of barbarians on my own country, sacrificing the Republic +for the sake of a friend who is here to-day and may be gone +to-morrow? Or for the sake of an enemy, if the reader thinks that +the "hunc" refers to Cæsar. The argument is the same. Am I to +consider an individual when the Republic is at stake? Mr. Froude +tells us that he reads "the words with sorrow and yet with pity." +So would every one, I think, sympathizing with the patriot's doubts +as to his leader, as to his party, and as to his country. Mr. +Froude does so because he gathers from them that Cicero is +premeditating the murder of Cæsar!</p> + +<p>It is natural that a man should be judged out of his own mouth. +A man who speaks much, and so speaks that his words shall be +listened to and read, will be so judged. But it is not too much to +demand that when a man's character is at stake his own words shall +be thoroughly sifted before they are used against him.</p> + +<p>The writer of the biographical notice in the Encyclopedia +Britannica on Cicero, sends down to posterity a statement that in +the time of the first triumvirate, when our hero was withstanding +the machinations of Cæsar and Pompey against the liberties of +Rome, he was open to be bought. The augurship <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span>would +have bought him. "So pitiful," says the biographer, "was the bribe +to which he would have sacrificed his honor, his opinions, and the +commonwealth!" With no more sententious language was the character +of a great man ever offered up to public scorn. And on what +evidence? We should have known nothing of the bribe and the +corruption but for a few playful words in a letter from Cicero +himself to Atticus. He is writing from one of his villas to his +friend in Rome, and asks for the news of the day: Who are to be the +new consuls? Who is to have the vacant augurship? Ah, says he, they +might have caught even me with that bait;<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id= +"FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> +as he said on another occasion that he was so much in debt as to be +fit for a rebel; and again, as I shall have to explain just now, +that he was like to be called in question under the Cincian law +because of a present of books! This was just at the point of his +life when he was declining all offers of public service—of +public service for which his soul longed—because they were +made to him by Cæsar. It was then that the "Vigintiviratus" +was refused, which Quintilian mentions to his honor. It was then +that he refused to be Cæsar's lieutenant. It was then that he +might have been fourth with Cæsar, and Pompey, and Crassus, +had he not felt himself bound not to serve against the Republic. +And yet the biographer does not hesitate to load him with infamy +because of a playful word in a letter half jocose and half pathetic +to his friend. If a man's deeds be always honest, surely he should +not be accused of dishonesty on the strength of some light word +spoken in the confidence of familiar intercourse. The light words +are taken to be grave because they meet the modern critic's eye +clothed in the majesty of a dead language; and thus it comes to +pass that their very meaning is misunderstood.</p> + +<p>My friend Mr. Collins speaks, in his charming little volume +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"> +13</a></span>on Cicero, of "quiet evasions" of the Cincian law,<a +name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" +class="fnanchor">7</a> and tells us that we are taught by +Cicero's letters not to trust Cicero's words when he was in a +boasting vein. What has the one thing to do with the other? He +names no quiet evasions. Mr. Collins makes a surmise, by which the +character of Cicero for honesty is impugned—without evidence. +The anonymous biographer altogether misinterprets Cicero. Mr. +Froude charges Cicero with anticipation of murder, grounding his +charge on words which he has not taken the trouble to understand. +Cicero is accused on the strength of his own private letters. It is +because we have not the private letters of other persons that they +are not so accused. The courtesies of the world exact, I will not +say demand, certain deviations from straightforward expression; and +these are made most often in private conversations and in private +correspondence. Cicero complies with the ways of the world; but his +epistles are no longer private, and he is therefore subjected to +charges of falsehood. It is because Cicero's letters, written +altogether for privacy, have been found worthy to be made public +that such accusations have been made. When the injustice of these +critics strikes me, I almost wish that Cicero's letters had not +been preserved.</p> + +<p>As I have referred to the evidence of those who have, in these +latter days, spoken against Cicero, I will endeavor to place before +the reader the testimony of his character which <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span>was +given by writers, chiefly of his own nation, who dealt with his +name for the hundred and fifty years after his death—from the +time of Augustus down to that of Adrian—a period much given +to literature, in which the name of a politician and a man of +literature would assuredly be much discussed. Readers will see in +what language he was spoken of by those who came after him. I trust +they will believe that if I knew of testimony on the other side, of +records adverse to the man, I would give them. The first passage to +which I will allude does not bear Cicero's name; and it may be that +I am wrong in assuming honor to Cicero from a passage in poetry, +itself so famous, in which no direct allusion is made to himself. +But the idea that Virgil in the following lines refers to the +manner in which Cicero soothed the multitude who rose to destroy +the theatre when the knights took their front seats in accordance +with Otho's law, does not originate with me. I give the lines as +translated by Dryden, with the original in a note.<a name= +"FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class= +"fnanchor">8</a></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i05">"As when in tumults rise the +ignoble crowd,</span> <span class="i0">Mad are their motions, and +their tongues are loud;</span> <span class="i0">And stones and +brands in rattling volleys fly,</span> <span class="i0">And all the +rustic arms that fury can supply;</span> <span class="i0">If then +some grave and pious man appear,</span> <span class="i0">They hush +their noise, and lend a listening ear;</span> <span class="i0">He +soothes with sober words their angry mood,</span> <span class= +"i0">And quenches their innate desire of blood."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>This, if it be not intended for a portrait of Cicero on that +occasion, exactly describes his position and his success. We have a +fragment of Cornelius Nepos, the biographer of the <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span>Augustan +age, declaring that at Cicero's death men had to doubt whether +literature or the Republic had lost the most.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" +id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class= +"fnanchor">9</a> Livy declared of him only, that he would be the +best writer of Latin prose who was most like to Cicero.<a name= +"FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" +class="fnanchor">10</a> Velleius Paterculus, who wrote in the +time of Tiberius, speaks of Cicero's achievements with the highest +honor. "At this period," he says, "lived Marcus Cicero, who owed +everything to himself; a man of altogether a new family, as +distinguished for ability as he was for the purity of his life."<a +name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> Valerius Maximus quotes +him as an example of a forgiving character.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" +id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class= +"fnanchor">12</a> Perhaps the warmest praise ever given to him +came from the pen of Pliny the elder, from whose address to the +memory of Cicero I will quote only a few words, as I shall refer to +it more at length when speaking of his consulship. "Hail thou," +says Pliny, "who first among men was called the father of your +country."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> Martial, in one of his +distichs, tells the traveller that if he have but a book of +Cicero's writing he may fancy that he is travelling with Cicero +himself.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> Lucan, in his bombastic +verse, declares how Cicero dared to speak of peace in the camp of +Pharsalia. The reader may think that Cicero should have said +nothing of the kind, but Lucan mentions him with all honor.<a name= +"FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" +class="fnanchor">15</a> Not Tacitus, as I think, but some author +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"> +16</a></span>whose essay De Oratoribus was written about the time +of Tacitus, and whose work has come to us with the name of Tacitus, +has told us of Cicero that he was a master of logic, of ethics, and +of physical science.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id= +"FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class= +"fnanchor">16</a> Everybody remembers the passage in Juvenal,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i10">"Sed Roma parentem</span> +<span class="i0">Roma patrem patriæ Ciceronem libera +dixit."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>"Rome, even when she was free, declared him to be the father of +his country."<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a +href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">17</a> Even Plutarch, who +generally seems to have a touch of jealousy when speaking of +Cicero, declares that he verified the prediction of Plato, "That +every State would be delivered from its calamities whenever power +should fortunately unite with wisdom and justice in one person."<a +name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">18</a> The praises of +Quintilian as to the man are so mixed with the admiration of the +critic for the hero of letters, that I would have omitted to +mention them here were it not that they will help to declare what +was the general opinion as to Cicero at the time in which it was +written. He has been speaking of Demosthenes,<a name= +"FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" +class="fnanchor">19</a> and then goes on: "Nor in regard to +Cicero do I see that he ever failed in the duty of a good citizen. +There is in evidence of this the splendor of his consulship, the +rare integrity of his provincial administration, his refusal of +office under Cæsar,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id= +"FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class= +"fnanchor">20</a> the firmness of his mind on the civil wars, +giving way neither to hope nor fear, though these sorrows came +heavily on him in his old age. On all these occasions he did the +best he could for the Republic." Florus, who wrote after the twelve +Cæsars, in the time of Trajan and of Adrian, whose rapid +summary of Roman events can hardly be called a history, tells us, +in a few words, how Catiline's conspiracy was crushed by the +authority <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"> +17</a></span>of Cicero and Cato in opposition to that of +Cæsar.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a +href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">21</a> Then, when he has +passed in a few short chapters over all the intervening history of +the Roman Empire, he relates, in pathetic words, the death of +Cicero. "It was the custom in Rome to put up on the rostra the +heads of those who had been slain; but now the city was not able to +restrain its tears when the head of Cicero was seen there, upon the +spot from which the citizens had so often listened to his words."<a +name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">22</a> Such is the testimony +given to this man by the writers who may be supposed to have known +most of him as having been nearest to his time. They all wrote +after him. Sallust, who was certainly his enemy, wrote of him in +his lifetime, but never wrote in his dispraise. It is evident that +public opinion forbade him to do so. Sallust is never warm in +Cicero's praise, as were those subsequent authors whose words I +have quoted, and has been made subject to reproach for envy, for +having passed too lightly over Cicero's doings and words in his +account of Catiline's conspiracy; but what he did say was to +Cicero's credit. Men had heard of the danger, and therefore, says +Sallust,<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">23</a> "They conceived the +idea of intrusting the consulship to Cicero. For before that the +nobles were envious, and thought that the consulship would be +polluted if it were conferred on a <i>novus homo</i>, however +distinguished. But when danger came, envy and pride had to give +way." He afterward declares that Cicero made a speech against +Catiline most brilliant, and at the same time useful to the +Republic. This was lukewarm praise, but coming from Sallust, who +would have censured if he could, it is as eloquent as any eulogy. +There is extant a passage attributed to Sallust full of virulent +abuse of Cicero, but no one now imagines that Sallust wrote it. It +is called <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"> +18</a></span>the Declamation of Sallust against Cicero, and bears +intrinsic evidence that it was written in after years. It suited +some one to forge pretended invectives between Sallust and Cicero, +and is chiefly noteworthy here because it gives to Dio Cassius a +foundation for the hardest of hard words he said against the +orator.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">24</a></p> + +<p>Dio Cassius was a Greek who wrote in the reign of Alexander +Severus, more than two centuries and a half after the death of +Cicero, and he no doubt speaks evil enough of our hero. What was +the special cause of jealousy on his part cannot probably be now +known, but the nature of his hatred may be gathered from the +passage in the note, which is so foul-mouthed that it can be only +inserted under the veil of his own language.<a name= +"FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" +class="fnanchor">25</a> Among other absurdities Dio Cassius says +of Cicero that in his latter days he put away a gay young wife, +forty years younger than himself, in order that he might enjoy +without disturbance the company of another lady who was nearly as +much older than himself as his wife was younger.</p> + +<p>Now I ask, having brought forward so strong a testimony, not, I +will say, as to the character of the man, but of the estimation in +which he was held by those who came shortly after <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span>him in +his own country; having shown, as I profess that I have shown, that +his name was always treated with singular dignity and respect, not +only by the lovers of the old Republic but by the minions of the +Empire; having found that no charge was ever made against him +either for insincerity or cowardice or dishonesty by those who +dealt commonly with his name, am I not justified in saying that +they who have in later days accused him should have shown their +authority? Their authority they have always found in his own words. +It is on his own evidence against himself that they have +depended—on his own evidence, or occasionally on their own +surmises. When we are told of his cowardice, because those human +vacillations of his, humane as well as human, have been laid bare +to us as they came quivering out of his bosom on to his fingers! He +is a coward to the critics because they have written without giving +themselves time to feel the true meaning of his own words. If we +had only known his acts and not his words—how he stood up +against the judges at the trial of Verres, with what courage he +encountered the responsibility of his doings at the time of +Catiline, how he joined Pompey in Macedonia from a sense of sheer +duty, how he defied Antony when to defy Antony was probable +death—then we should not call him a coward! It is out of his +own mouth that he is condemned. Then surely his words should be +understood. Queen Christina says of him, in one of her maxims, that +"Cicero was the only coward that was capable of great actions." The +Queen of Sweden, whose sentences are never worth very much, has +known her history well enough to have learned that Cicero's acts +were noble, but has not understood the meaning of words +sufficiently to extract from Cicero's own expressions their true +bearing. The bravest of us all, if he is in high place, has to +doubt much before he can know what true courage will demand of him; +and these doubts the man of words will express, if there be given +to him an <i>alter ego</i> such as Cicero had in Atticus.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"> +20</a></span>In reference to the biography of Mr Forsyth I must, +in justice both to him and to Cicero, quote one passage from the +work: "Let those who, like De Quincey,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id= +"FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class= +"fnanchor">26</a> Mommsen, and others, speak disparagingly of +Cicero, and are so lavish in praise of Cæsar, recollect that +Cæsar never was troubled by a conscience." Here it is that we +find that advance almost to Christianity of which I have spoken, +and that superiority of mind being which makes Cicero the most fit +to be loved of all the Romans.</p> + +<p>It is hard for a man, even in regard to his own private +purposes, to analyze the meaning of a conscience, if he put out of +question all belief in a future life. Why should a man do right if +it be not for a reward here or hereafter? Why should anything be +right—or wrong? The Stoics tried to get over the difficulty +by declaring that if a man could conquer all his personal desires +he would become, by doing so, happy, and would therefore have +achieved the only end at which a man can rationally aim. The school +had many scholars, but probably never a believer. The normal Greek +or Roman might be deterred by the law, which means fear of +punishment, or by the opinion of his neighbors, which means +ignominy. He might recognize the fact that comfort would combine +itself with innocence, or disease and want with lust and greed. In +this there was little need of a conscience—hardly, perhaps, +room for it. But when ambition came, with all the opportunities +that chance, audacity, and intellect would give—as it did to +Sylla, to Cæsar, and to Augustus—then there was nothing +to restrain the men. There was to such a man no right but his +power, no wrong but opposition to it. His cruelty or his <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"> +21</a></span>clemency might be more or less, as his conviction of +the utility of this or that other weapon for dominating men might +be strong with him. Or there might be some variation in the flowing +of the blood about his heart which might make a massacre of +citizens a pleasing diversion or a painful process to him; but +there was no conscience. With the man of whom we are about to speak +conscience was strong. In his sometimes doubtful wanderings after +political wisdom—in those mental mazes which have been called +insincerity—we shall see him, if we look well into his +doings, struggling to find whether, in searching for what was his +duty, he should go to this side or to that. Might he best hope a +return to that state of things which he thought good for his +country by adhering to Cæsar or to Pompey? We see the +workings of his conscience, and, as we remember that Scipio's dream +of his, we feel sure that he had, in truth, within him a +recognition of a future life.</p> + +<p>In discussing the character of a man, there is no course of +error so fertile as the drawing of a hard and fast line. We are +attracted by salient points, and, seeing them clearly, we jump to +conclusions, as though there were a light-house on every point by +which the nature of the coast would certainly be shown to us. And +so it will, if we accept the light only for so much of the shore as +it illumines. But to say that a man is insincere because he has +vacillated in this or the other difficulty, that he is a coward +because he has feared certain dangers, that he is dishonest because +he has swerved, that he is a liar because an untrue word has been +traced to him, is to suppose that you know all the coast because +one jutting headland has been defined to you. He who so expresses +himself on a man's character is either ignorant of human nature, or +is in search of stones with which to pelt his enemy. "He has lied! +He has lied!" How often in our own political contests do we hear +the cry with a note of triumph! And if he have, how often has he +told the truth? And if he have, how many are entitled by pure +innocence in that matter to throw a stone at <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span>him? And +if he have, do we not know how lies will come to the tongue of a +man without thought of lying? In his stoutest efforts after the +truth a man may so express himself that when afterward he is driven +to compare his recent and his former words, he shall hardly be able +to say even to himself that he has not lied. It is by the tenor of +a man's whole life that we must judge him, whether he be a liar or +no.</p> + +<p>To expect a man to be the same at sixty as he was at thirty, is +to suppose that the sun at noon shall be graced with the colors +which adorn its setting. And there are men whose intellects are set +on so fine a pivot that a variation in the breeze of the moment, +which coarser minds shall not feel, will carry them round with a +rapidity which baffles the common eye. The man who saw his duty +clearly on this side in the morning shall, before the evening come, +recognize it on the other; and then again, and again, and yet again +the vane shall go round. It may be that an instrument shall be too +fine for our daily uses. We do not want a clock to strike the +minutes, or a glass to tell the momentary changes in the +atmosphere. It may be found that for the work of the world, the +coarse work—and no work is so coarse, though none is so +important, as that which falls commonly into the hands of +statesmen—instruments strong in texture, and by reason of +their rudeness not liable to sudden impressions, may be the best. +That it is which we mean when we declare that a scrupulous man is +impractical in politics. But the same man may, at various periods +of his life, and on various days at the same period, be scrupulous +and unscrupulous, impractical and practical, as the circumstances +of the occasion may affect him. At one moment the rule of simple +honesty will prevail with him. "Fiat justitia, ruat cœlum." "Si +fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinæ." At another +he will see the necessity of a compromise for the good of the many. +He will tell himself that if the best cannot be done, he must +content himself with the next best. He must shake hands with the +imperfect, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"> +23</a></span>as the best way of lifting himself up from a bad way +toward a better. In obedience to his very conscience he will +temporize, and, finding no other way of achieving good, will do +even evil that good may come of it. "Rem si possis recte; si non, +quocunque modo rem." In judging of such a character as this, a hard +and fast line will certainly lead us astray. In judging of Cicero, +such a hard and fast line has too generally been used. He was a man +singularly sensitive to all influences. It must be admitted that he +was a vane, turning on a pivot finer than those on which statesmen +have generally been made to work. He had none of the fixed purpose +of Cæsar, or the unflinching principle of Cato. They were men +cased in brass, whose feelings nothing could hurt. They suffered +from none of those inward flutterings of the heart, doubtful +aspirations, human longings, sharp sympathies, dreams of something +better than this world, fears of something worse, which make Cicero +so like a well-bred, polished gentleman of the present day. It is +because he has so little like a Roman that he is of all the Romans +the most attractive.</p> + +<p>Still there may be doubt whether, with all the intricacies of +his character, his career was such as to justify a further +biography at this distance of time. "What's Hecuba to him, or he to +Hecuba?" asks Hamlet, when he finds himself stirred by the passion +thrown into the bare recital of an old story by an itinerant +player. What is Cicero to us of the nineteenth century that we +should care so much for him as to read yet another book? +Nevertheless, Hamlet was moved because the tale was well told. +There is matter in the earnestness, the pleasantness, the +patriotism, and the tragedy of the man's life to move a reader +still—if the story could only be written of him as it is +felt! The difficulty lies in that, and not in the nature of the +story.</p> + +<p>The period of Cicero's life was the very turning-point of +civilization and government in the history of the world. At that +period of time the world, as we know it, was Rome. <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span>Greece +had sunk. The Macedonian Empire had been destroyed. The kingdoms of +the East—whether conquered, or even when conquering, as was +Parthia for awhile—were barbaric, outside the circle of +cultivation, and to be brought into it only by the arms and +influence of Rome. During Cæsar's career Gaul was conquered; +and Britain, with what was known of Germany, supposed to be partly +conquered. The subjugation of Africa and Spain was all but +completed. Letters, too, had been or were being introduced. +Cicero's use of language was so perfect that it seems to us to have +been almost necessarily the result of a long established art of +Latin literature. But, in truth, he is the earliest of the prose +writers of his country with whose works we are familiar. Excepting +Varro, who was born but ten years before him, no earlier Latin +prose writer has left more than a name to us; and the one work by +which Varro is at all known, the De Re Rustica, was written after +Cicero's death. Lucretius, whose language we regard as almost +archaic, so unlike is it to that of Virgil or Horace, was born +eight years after Cicero. In a great degree Cicero formed the Latin +language—or produced that manipulation of it which has made +it so graceful in prose, and so powerful a vehicle of thought. That +which he took from any Latin writer he took from Terence.</p> + +<p>And it was then, just then, that there arose in Rome that +unpremeditated change in its form of government which resulted in +the self-assumed dictatorship of Cæsar, and the usurpation +of the Empire by Augustus. The old Rome had had kings. Then the +name and the power became odious—the name to all the +citizens, no doubt, but the power simply to the nobility, who +grudged the supremacy of one man. The kings were abolished, and an +oligarchy was established under the name of a Republic, with its +annual magistrates—at first its two Consuls, then its +Prætors and others, and occasionally a Dictator, as some current +event demanded a concentration of temporary power in a single hand +for a certain purpose. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id= +"Page_25">25</a></span>The Republic was no republic, as we +understand the word; nor did it ever become so, though their was +always going on a perpetual struggle to transfer the power from the +nobles to the people, in which something was always being given or +pretended to be given to the outside class. But so little was as +yet understood of liberty that, as each plebeian made his way up +into high place and became one of the magistrates of the State, he +became also one of the oligarchical faction. There was a continued +contest, with a certain amount of good faith on each side, on +behalf of the so-called Republic—but still a contest for +power. This became so continued that a foreign war was at times +regarded as a blessing, because it concentrated the energies of the +State, which had been split and used by the two sections—by +each against the other. It is probably the case that the invasion +of the Gauls in earlier days, and, later on, the second Punic war, +threatening as they were in their incidents to the power of Rome, +provided the Republic with that vitality which kept it so long in +existence. Then came Marius, dominant on one side as a tribune of +the people, and Sylla, as aristocrat on the other, and the civil +wars between them, in which, as one prevailed or the other, Rome +was mastered. How Marius died, and Sylla reigned for three bloody, +fatal years, is outside the scope of our purpose—except in +this, that Cicero saw Sylla's proscriptions, and made his first +essay into public life hot with anger at the Dictator's +tyranny.</p> + +<p>It occurs to us as we read the history of Rome, beginning with +the early Consuls and going to the death of Cæsar and of +Cicero, and the accomplished despotism of Augustus, that the +Republic could not have been saved by any efforts, and was in truth +not worth the saving. We are apt to think, judging from our own +idea of liberty, that there was so much of tyranny, so little of +real freedom in the Roman form of government, that it was not good +enough to deserve our sympathies. But it had been successful. It +had made a great people, and had produced a wide-spread +civilization. Roman <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id= +"Page_26">26</a></span>citizenship was to those outside the +one thing the most worthy to be obtained. That career which led the +great Romans up from the state of Quæstor to the Ædile's, +Prætor's, and Consul's chair, and thence to the rich reward of +provincial government, was held to be the highest then open to the +ambition of man. The Kings of Greece, and of the East, and of +Africa were supposed to be inferior in their very rank to a Roman +Proconsul, and this greatness was carried on with a semblance of +liberty, and was compatible with a belief in the majesty of the +Roman citizen. When Cicero began his work, Consuls, Prætors, +Ædiles, and Quæstors were still chosen by the votes of the +citizens. There was bribery, no doubt, and intimidation, and a +resort to those dirty arts of canvassing with which we English have +been so familiar; but in Cicero's time the male free inhabitants of +Rome did generally carry the candidates to whom they attached +themselves. The salt of their republican theory was not as yet +altogether washed out from their practice.</p> + +<p>The love of absolute liberty as it has been cultivated among +modern races did not exist in the time of Cicero. The idea never +seems to have reached even his bosom, human and humanitarian as +were his sympathies, that a man, as man, should be free. Half the +inhabitants of Rome were slaves, and the institution was so grafted +in the life of the time that it never occurred to a Roman that +slaves, as a body, should be manumitted. The slaves themselves, +though they were not, as have been the slaves whom we have seen, of +a different color and presumed inferior race, do not themselves +seem to have entertained any such idea. They were instigated now +and again to servile wars, but there was no rising in quest of +freedom generally. Nor was it repugnant to the Roman theory of +liberty that the people whom they dominated, though not subjected +to slavery, should still be outside the pale of civil freedom. That +boon was to be reserved for the Roman citizen, and for him only. It +had become common to admit to citizenship <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span>the inhabitants of +other towns and further territories. The glory was kept not +altogether for Rome, but for Romans.</p> + +<p>Thus, though the government was oligarchical, and the very +essence of freedom ignored, there was a something which stood in +the name of liberty, and could endear itself to a real patriot. +With genuine patriotism Cicero loved his country, and beginning his +public life as he did at the close of Sylla's tyranny, he was able +to entertain a dream that the old state of things might be restored +and the republican form of government maintained. There should +still be two Consuls in Rome, whose annual election would guard the +State against regal dominion. And there should, at the same time, +be such a continuance of power in the hands of the better +class—the "optimates," as he called them—as would +preserve the city from democracy and revolution. No man ever +trusted more entirely to popular opinion than Cicero, or was more +anxious for aristocratic authority. But neither in one direction +nor the other did he look for personal aggrandizement, beyond that +which might come to him in accordance with the law and in +subjection to the old form of government.</p> + +<p>It is because he was in truth patriotic, because his dreams of a +Republic were noble dreams, because he was intent on doing good in +public affairs, because he was anxious for the honor of Rome and of +Romans, not because he was or was not a "real power in the State" +that his memory is still worth recording. Added to this was the +intellect and the wit and erudition of the man, which were at any +rate supreme. And then, though we can now see that his efforts were +doomed to failure by the nature of the circumstances surrounding +him, he was so nearly successful, so often on the verge of success, +that we are exalted by the romance of his story into the region of +personal sympathy. As we are moved by the aspirations and +sufferings of a hero in a tragedy, so are we stirred by the +efforts, the fortune, and at last the fall of this man. There is a +picturesqueness about the life of Cicero which is wanting in the +stories <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"> +28</a></span>of Marius or Sylla, of Pompey, or even of +Cæsar—a picturesqueness which is produced in great part +by these very doubtings which have been counted against him as +insincerity.</p> + +<p>His hands were clean when the hands of all around him were +defiled by greed. How infinitely Cicero must have risen above his +time when he could have clean hands! A man in our days will keep +himself clean from leprosy because to be a leper is to be despised +by those around him. Advancing wisdom has taught us that such +leprosy is bad, and public opinion coerces us. There is something +too, we must suppose, in the lessons of Christianity. Or it may be +that the man of our day, with all these advantages, does not keep +himself clean—that so many go astray that public opinion +shall almost seem to tremble in the balance. Even with us this and +that abomination becomes allowable because so many do it. With the +Romans, in the time of Cicero, greed, feeding itself on usury, +rapine, and dishonesty, was so fully the recognized condition of +life that its indulgence entailed no disgrace. But Cicero, with +eyes within him which saw farther than the eyes of other men, +perceived the baseness of the stain. It has been said also of him +that he was not altogether free from reproach. It has been +suggested that he accepted payment for his services as an advocate, +any such payment being illegal. The accusation is founded on the +knowledge that other advocates allowed themselves to be paid, and +on the belief that Cicero could not have lived as he did without an +income from that source. And then there is a story told of him +that, though he did much at a certain period of his life to repress +the usury, and to excite at the same time the enmity of a powerful +friend, he might have done more. As we go on, the stories of these +things will be told; but the very nature of the allegations against +him prove how high he soared in honesty above the manners of his +day. In discussing the character of the men, little is thought of +the robberies of Sylla, the borrowings of Cæsar, the +money-lending of Brutus, or the accumulated wealth of <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span>Crassus. +To plunder a province, to drive usury to the verge of personal +slavery, to accept bribes for perjured judgment, to take illegal +fees for services supposed to be gratuitous, was so much the custom +of the noble Romans that we hardly hate his dishonest greed when +displayed in its ordinary course. But because Cicero's honesty was +abnormal, we are first surprised, and then, suspecting little +deviations, rise up in wrath against him, because in the midst of +Roman profligacy he was not altogether a Puritan in his money +matters.</p> + +<p>Cicero is known to us in three great capacities: as a statesman, +an advocate, and a man of letters. As the combination of such +pursuits is common in our own days, so also was it in his. +Cæsar added them all to the great work of his life as a +soldier. But it was given to Cicero to take a part in all those +political struggles, from the resignation of Sylla to the first +rising of the young Octavius, which were made on behalf of the +Republic, and were ended by its downfall. His political life +contains the story of the conversion of Rome from republican to +imperial rule; and Rome was then the world. Could there have been +no Augustus, no Nero, and then no Trajan, all Europe would have +been different. Cicero's efforts were put forth to prevent the +coming of an Augustus or a Nero, or the need of a Trajan; and as we +read of them we feel that, had success been possible, he would have +succeeded.</p> + +<p>As an advocate he was unsurpassed. From him came the +feeling—whether it be right or wrong—that a lawyer, in +pleading for his client, should give to that client's cause not +only all his learning and all his wit, but also all his sympathy. +To me it is marvellous, and interesting rather than beautiful, to +see how completely Cicero can put off his own identity and assume +another's in any cause, whatever it be, of which he has taken the +charge. It must, however, be borne in mind that in old Rome the +distinction between speeches made in political and in civil or +criminal cases was not equally well marked as with us, and also +that the reader having the speeches which have <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span>come +down to us, whether of one nature or the other, presented to him in +the same volume, is apt to confuse the public and that which may, +perhaps, be called the private work of the man. In the speeches +best known to us Cicero was working as a public man for public +objects, and the ardor, I may say the fury, of his energy in the +cause which he was advocating was due to his public aspirations. +The orations which have come to us in three sets, some of them +published only but never spoken—those against Verres, against +Catiline, and the Philippics against Antony—were all of this +nature, though the first concerned the conduct of a criminal charge +against one individual. Of these I will speak in their turn; but I +mention them here in order that I may, if possible, induce the +reader to begin his inquiry into Cicero's character as an advocate +with a just conception of the objects of the man. He wished, no +doubt, to shine, as does the barrister of to-day: he wished to +rise; he wished, if you will, to make his fortune, not by the +taking of fees, but by extending himself into higher influence by +the authority of his name. No doubt he undertook this and the other +case without reference to the truth or honesty of the cause, and, +when he did so, used all his energy for the bad, as he did for the +good cause. There seems to be special accusation made against him +on this head, as though, the very fact that he undertook his work +without pay threw upon him the additional obligation of undertaking +no cause that was not in itself upright. With us the advocate does +this notoriously for his fee. Cicero did it as notoriously in +furtherance of some political object of the moment, or in +maintenance of a friendship which was politically important. I say +nothing against the modern practice. This would not be the place +for such an argument. Nor do I say that, by rules of absolute right +and wrong, Cicero was right; but he was as right, at any rate, as +the modern barrister. And in reaching the high-minded conditions +under which he worked, he had only the light of his own genius to +guide him. When <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id= +"Page_31">31</a></span>we compare the clothing of the savage +race with our own, their beads and woad and straw and fibres with +our own petticoats and pantaloons, we acknowledge the progress of +civilization and the growth of machinery. It is not a wonderful +thing to us that an African prince should not be as perfectly +dressed as a young man in Piccadilly. But, when we make a +comparison of morals between our own time and a period before +Christ, we seem to forget that more should be expected from us than +from those who lived two thousand years ago.</p> + +<p>There are some of those pleadings, speeches made by Cicero on +behalf of or against an accused party, from which we may learn more +of Roman life than from any other source left to us. Much we may +gather from Terence, much from Horace, something from Juvenal. +There is hardly, indeed, a Latin author from which an attentive +reader may not pick up some detail of Roman customs. Cicero's +letters are themselves very prolific. But the pretty things of the +poets are not quite facts, nor are the bitter things of the +satirist; and though a man's letters to his friend may be true, +such letters as come to us will have been the products of the +greater minds, and will have come from a small and special class. I +fear that the Newgate Calendar of the day would tell us more of the +ways of living then prevailing than the letters of Lady Mary W. +Montagu or of Horace Walpole. From the orations against Verres we +learn how the people of a province lived under the tyranny +inflicted upon them; and from those spoken in defence of Sextus +Amerinus and Aulus Cluentius, we gather something of the horrors of +Roman life—not in Rome, indeed, but within the limits of +Roman citizenship.</p> + +<p>It is, however, as a man of letters that Cicero will be held in +the highest esteem. It has been his good-fortune to have a great +part of what he wrote preserved for future ages. His works have not +perished, as have those of his contemporaries, Varro and +Hortensius. But this has been due to two causes, which were +independent of Fortune. He himself believed in <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span>their +value, and took measures for their protection; and those who lived +in his own time, and in the immediately succeeding ages, +entertained the same belief and took the same care. Livy said that, +to write Latin well, the writer should write it like Cicero; and +Quintilian, the first of Latin critics, repeated to us what Livy +had asserted.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a +href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">27</a> There is a +sweetness of language about Cicero which runs into the very sound; +so that passages read aright would, by their very cadences, charm +the ear of listeners ignorant of the language. Eulogy never was so +happy as his. Eulogy, however, is tasteless in comparison with +invective. Cicero's abuse is awful. Let the reader curious in such +matters turn to the diatribes against Vatinius, one of +Cæsar's creatures, and to that against the unfortunate +Proconsul Piso; or to his attacks on Gabinius, who was Consul +together with Piso in the year of Cicero's banishment. There are +wonderful morsels in the philippics dealing with Antony's private +character; but the words which he uses against Gabinius and Piso +beat all that I know elsewhere in the science of invective. Junius +could not approach him; and even Macaulay, though he has, in +certain passages, been very bitter, has not allowed himself the +latitude which Roman taste and Roman manners permitted to +Cicero.</p> + +<p>It may, however, be said that the need of biographical memoirs +as to a man of letters is by no means in proportion to the +excellence of the work that he has achieved. Alexander is known but +little to us, because we know so little of the details of his life. +Cæsar is much to us, because we have in truth been made +acquainted with him. But Shakspeare, of whose absolute doings we +know almost nothing, would not be nearer or dearer had he even had +a Boswell to paint his daily portrait. The man of letters is, in +truth, ever writing his own biography. What there is in his mind is +being declared to the world at large by himself; and if he can so +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"> +33</a></span>write that the world at large shall care to read what +is written, no other memoir will, perhaps, be necessary. For myself +I have never regretted those details of Shakspeare's life which a +Boswell of the time might have given us. But Cicero's personality +as a man of letters seems especially to require elucidation. His +letters lose their chief charm if the character of the man be not +known, and the incidents of his life. His essays on +rhetoric—the written lessons which he has left on the art of +oratory—are a running commentary on his own career as an +orator. Most of his speeches require for their understanding a +knowledge of the circumstances of his life. The treatises which we +know as his Philosophy—works which have been most wrongly +represented by being grouped under that name—can only be read +with advantage by the light of his own experience. There are two +separate classes of his so-called Philosophy, in describing which +the word philosophy, if it be used at all, must be made to bear two +different senses. He handles in one set of treatises, not, I think, +with his happiest efforts, the teaching of the old Greek schools. +Such are the Tusculan Disquisitions, the Academics, and the De +Finibus. From reading these, without reference to the +idiosyncrasies of the writer, the student would be led to believe +that Cicero himself was a philosopher after that sort. But he was, +in truth, the last of men to lend his ears</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"To those budge doctors of the +stoic fur."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Cicero was a man thoroughly human in all his strength and all +his weakness. To sit apart from the world and be happy amid scorn, +poverty, and obscurity, with a mess of cabbage and a crust, +absolutely contented with abstract virtue, has probably been given +to no man; but of none has it been less within the reach than of +Cicero. To him ginger was always hot in the mouth, whether it was +the spice of politics, or of social delight, or of intellectual +enterprise. When in his deep sorrow at the death of his daughter, +when for a time the Republic <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span>was dead to him, and +public and private life were equally black, he craved employment. +Then he took down his Greek manuscripts and amused himself as best +he might by writing this way or that. It was a matter on which his +intellect could work and his energies be employed, though the +theory of his life was in no way concerned in it. Such was one +class of his Philosophy. The other consisted of a code of morals +which he created for himself by his own convictions, formed on the +world around him, and which displayed itself in essays, such as +those De Officiis—on the duties of life; De Senectute, De +Amicitia—on old age and friendship, and the like, which were +not only intended for use, but are of use to any man or woman who +will study them up to this day. There are others, treatises on law +and on government and religion, which have all been lumped +together, for the misguidance of school-boys, under the name of +Cicero's Philosophy. But they, be they of one class or the other, +require an understanding of the man's character before they can be +enjoyed.</p> + +<p>For these reasons I think that there are incidents in the life, +the character, and the work of Cicero which ought to make his +biography interesting. His story is fraught with energy, with +success, with pathos, and with tragedy. And then it is the story of +a man human as men are now. No child of Rome ever better loved his +country, but no child of Rome was ever so little like a Roman. Arms +and battles were to him abominable, as they are to us. But arms and +battles were the delight of Romans. He was ridiculed in his own +time, and has been ridiculed ever since, for the alliterating twang +of the line in which he declared his feeling:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Cedant arma togæ; concedat +laurea linguæ."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>But the thing said was thoroughly good, and the better because +the opinion was addressed to men among whom the glory of arms was +still in ascendant over the achievements of <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"> +35</a></span>intellectual enterprise. The greatest men have been +those who have stepped out from the mass, and gone beyond their +time—seeing things, with eyesight almost divine, which have +hitherto been hidden from the crowd. Such was Columbus when he made +his way across the Western Ocean; such were Galileo and Bacon; such +was Pythagoras, if the ideas we have of him be at all true. Such +also was Cicero. It is not given to the age in which such men live +to know them. Could their age even recognize them, they would not +overstep their age as they do. Looking back at him now, we can see +how like a Christian was the man—so like, that in essentials +we can hardly see the difference. He could love another as +himself—as nearly as a man may do; and he taught such love as +a doctrine.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a +href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">28</a> He believed in the +existence of one supreme God.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id= +"FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class= +"fnanchor">29</a> He believed that man would rise again and live +forever in some heaven.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id= +"FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class= +"fnanchor">30</a> I am conscious that I cannot much promote this +view of Cicero's character by quoting isolated passages from his +works—words which taken alone may be interpreted in one sense +or another, and which should be read, each with its context, before +their due meaning can be understood. But I may perhaps succeed in +explaining to a reader what it is that I hope to do in the +following pages, and why it is that I undertake a work which must +be laborious, and for which many will think that there is no +remaining need.</p> + +<p>I would not have it thought that, because I have so spoken of +Cicero's aspirations and convictions, I intend to put him forth as +a faultless personage in history. He was much too <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span>human to +be perfect. Those who love the cold attitude of indifference may +sing of Cato as perfect. Cicero was ambitious, and often +unscrupulous in his ambition. He was a loving husband and a loving +father; but at the end of his life he could quarrel with his old +wife irrecoverably, and could idolize his daughter, while he ruined +his son by indulgence. He was very great while he spoke of his +country, which he did so often; but he was almost as little when he +spoke of himself—which he did as often. In money-matters he +was honest—for the times in which he lived, wonderfully +honest; but in words he was not always equally trustworthy. He +could flatter where he did not love. I admit that it was so, though +I will not admit without a protest that the word insincere should +be applied to him as describing his character generally. He was so +much more sincere than others that the protest is needed. If a man +stand but five feet eleven inches in his shoes, shall he be called +a pygmy? And yet to declare that he measures full six feet would be +untrue.</p> + +<p>Cicero was a busybody. Were there anything to do, he wished to +do it, let it be what it might. "Cedant arma togæ." If anything +was written on his heart, it was that. Yet he loved the idea of +leading an army, and panted for a military triumph. Letters and +literary life were dear to him, and yet he liked to think that he +could live on equal terms with the young bloods of Rome, such as +Cœlius. As far as I can judge, he cared nothing for luxurious +eating and drinking, and yet he wished to be reckoned among the +gormands and gourmets of his times. He was so little like the +"budge doctors of the stoic fur," of whom it was his delight to +write when he had nothing else to do, that he could not bear any +touch of adversity with equanimity. The stoic requires to be +hardened against "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." It +is his profession to be indifferent to the "whips and scorns of +time." No man was less hardened, or more subject to suffering from +scorns and whips. There be those who think proneness <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span>to such +suffering is unmanly, or that the sufferer should at any rate hide +his agony. Cicero did not. Whether of his glory or of his shame, +whether of his joy or of his sorrow, whether of his love or of his +hatred, whether of his hopes or of his despair, he spoke openly, as +he did of all things. It has not been the way of heroes, as we read +of them; but it is the way with men as we live with them.</p> + +<p>What a man he would have been for London life! How he would have +enjoyed his club, picking up the news of the day from all lips, +while he seemed to give it to all ears! How popular he would have +been at the Carlton, and how men would have listened to him while +every great or little crisis was discussed! How supreme he would +have sat on the Treasury bench, or how unanswerable, how fatal, how +joyous, when attacking the Government from the opposite seats! How +crowded would have been his rack with invitations to dinner! How +delighted would have been the middle-aged countesses of the time to +hold with him mild intellectual flirtations—and the girls of +the period, how proud to get his autograph, how much prouder to +have touched the lips of the great orator with theirs! How the +pages of the magazines would have run over with little essays from +his pen! "Have you seen our Cicero's paper on agriculture? That +lucky fellow, Editor ——, got him to do it last month!" "Of +course you have read Cicero's article on the soul. The bishops +don't know which way to turn." "So the political article in the +<i>Quarterly</i> is Cicero's?" "Of course you know the +art-criticism in the <i>Times</i> this year is Tully's doing?" But +that would probably be a bounce. And then what letters he would +write! With the penny-post instead of travelling messengers at his +command, and pen instead of wax and sticks, or perhaps with an +instrument-writer and a private secretary, he would have answered +all questions and solved all difficulties. He would have so +abounded with intellectual fertility that men would not have known +whether most to admire his powers of expression or to deprecate his +want of reticence.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"> +38</a></span>There will necessarily be much to be said of Cicero's +writings in the following pages, as it is my object to delineate +the literary man as well as the politician. In doing this, there +arises a difficulty as to the sequence in which his works should be +taken. It will hardly suit the purpose in view to speak of them all +either chronologically or separately as to their subjects. The +speeches and the letters clearly require the former treatment as +applying each to the very moment of time at which they were either +spoken or written. His treatises, whether on rhetoric or on the +Greek philosophy, or on government, or on morals, can best be taken +apart as belonging in a very small degree, if at all, to the period +in which they were written. I will therefore endeavor to introduce +the orations and letters as the periods may suit, and to treat of +his essays afterward by themselves.</p> + +<p>A few words I must say as to the Roman names I have used in my +narrative. There is a difficulty in this respect, because the +practice of my boyhood has partially changed itself. Pompey used to +be Pompey without a blush. Now with an erudite English writer he is +generally Pompeius. The denizens of Africa—the "nigger" +world—have had, I think, something to do with this. But with +no erudite English writer is Terence Terentius, or Virgil +Virgilius, or Horace Horatius. Were I to speak of Livius, the +erudite English listener would think that I alluded to an old +author long prior to our dear historian. And though we now talk of +Sulla instead of Sylla, we hardly venture on Antonius instead of +Antony. Considering all this, I have thought it better to cling to +the sounds which have ever been familiar to myself; and as I talk +of Virgil and of Horace and Ovid freely and without fear, so shall +I speak also of Pompey and of Antony and of Catiline. In regard to +Sulla, the change has been so complete that I must allow the old +name to have re-established itself altogether.</p> + +<p>It has been customary to notify the division of years in the +period of which I am about to write by dating from two different +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"> +39</a></span>eras, counting down from the building of Rome, +A.U.C., or "anno urbis conditæ," and back from the birth of +Christ, which we English mark by the letters <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span>, before Christ. In dealing with Cicero, writers +(both French and English) have not uncommonly added a third mode of +dating, assigning his doings or sayings to the year of his age. +There is again a fourth mode, common among the Romans, of +indicating the special years by naming the Consuls, or one of them. +"O nata mecum consule Manlio," Horace says, when addressing his +cask of wine. That was, indeed, the official mode of indicating a +date, and may probably be taken as showing how strong the +impression in the Roman mind was of the succession of their +Consuls. In the following pages I will use generally the date <span +class="smcap">b.c.</span>, which, though perhaps less simple than +the A.U.C., gives to the mind of the modern reader a clearer idea +of the juxtaposition of events. The reader will surely know that +Christ was born in the reign of Augustus, and crucified in that of +Tiberius; but he will not perhaps know, without the trouble of some +calculation, how far removed from the period of Christ was the year +648 A.U.C., in which Cicero was born. To this I will add on the +margin the year of Cicero's life. He was nearly sixty-four when he +died. I shall, therefore, call that year his sixty-third year.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"> +40</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter II.</span></h3> + +<h4><i>HIS EDUCATION.</i></h4> + +<p>At Arpinum, on the river Liris, a little stream which has been +made to sound sweetly in our ears by Horace,<a name= +"FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" +class="fnanchor">31</a> in a villa residence near the town, +Marcus Tullius Cicero was born, 106 years before Christ, on the 3d +of January, according to the calendar then in use. Pompey the Great +was born in the same year. Arpinum was a State which had been +admitted into Roman citizenship, lying between Rome and Capua, just +within that portion of Italy which was till the other day called +the Kingdom of Naples. The district from which he came is noted, +also, as having given birth to Marius. Cicero was of an equestrian +family, which means as much as though we were to say among +ourselves that a man had been born a gentleman and nothing more. An +"eques" or knight in Cicero's time became so, or might become so, +by being in possession of a certain income. The title conferred no +nobility. The plebeian, it will be understood, could not become +patrician, though he might become noble—as Cicero did. The +patrician must have been born so—must have sprung from the +purple of certain fixed families.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id= +"FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class= +"fnanchor">32</a> Cicero was born a plebeian, of equestrian <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"> +41</a></span>rank and became ennobled when he was ranked among the +senators because of his service among the high magistrates of the +Republic. As none of his family had served before him, he was +"novus homo," a new man, and therefore not noble till he had +achieved nobility himself. A man was noble who could reckon a +Consul, a Prætor, or an Ædile among his ancestors. Such was not +the case with Cicero. As he filled all these offices, his son was +noble—as were his son's sons and grandsons, if such there +were.</p> + +<p>It was common to Romans to have three names, and our Cicero had +three. Marcus, which was similar in its use to the Christian name +of one of us, had been that of his grandfather and father, and was +handed on to his son. This, called the prænomen, was conferred on +the child when a babe with a ceremony not unlike that of our +baptism. There was but a limited choice of such names among the +Romans, so that an initial letter will generally declare to those +accustomed to the literature that intended. A. stands for Aulus, P. +for Publius, M. generally for Marcus, C. for Caius, though there +was a Cneus also. The nomen, Tullius, was that of the family. Of +this family of Tullius to which Cicero belonged we know no details. +Plutarch tells us that of his father nothing was said but in +extremes, some declaring that he had been a fuller, and others that +he had been descended from a prince who had governed the Volsci. We +do not see why he may not have sprung from the prince, and also +have been a fuller. There can, however, be no doubt that he was a +gentleman, not uneducated himself, with means and the desire to +give his children the best education which Rome or Greece afforded. +The third name or cognomen, that of Cicero, belonged to a branch of +the family of Tullius. This third name had generally its origin, as +do so many of our surnames, in some specialty of place, or trade, +or chance circumstance. It was said that an ancestor had been +called Cicero from "cicer," a vetch, because his nose was marked +with the figure of that vegetable. It is <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span>more probable that +the family prospered by the growing and sale of vetches. Be that as +it may, the name had been well established before the orator's +time. Cicero's mother was one Helvia, of whom we are told that she +was well-born and rich. Cicero himself never alludes to +her—as neither, if I remember rightly, did Horace to his +mother, though he speaks so frequently of his father. Helvia's +younger son, Quintus, tells a story of his mother in a letter, +which has been, by chance, preserved among those written by our +Cicero. She was in the habit of sealing up the empty wine-jars, as +well as those which were full, so that a jar emptied on the sly by +a guzzling slave might be at once known. This is told in a letter +to Tiro, a favorite slave belonging to Marcus, of whom we shall +hear often in the course of our work. As the old lady sealed up the +jars, though they contained no wine, so must Tiro write letters, +though he has nothing to say in them. This kind of argument, taken +from the old familiar stories of one's childhood and one's parents, +could be only used to a dear and familiar friend. Such was Tiro, +though still a slave, to the two brothers. Roman life admitted of +such friendships, though the slave was so completely the creature +of the master that his life and death were at the master's +disposal. This is nearly all that is known of Cicero's father and +mother, or of his old home.</p> + +<p>There is, however, sufficient evidence that the father paid +great attention to the education of his sons—if, in the case +of Marcus, any evidence were wanting where the result is so +manifest by the work of his life. At a very early age, probably +when he was eight—in the year which produced Julius +Cæsar—he was sent to Rome, and there was devoted to +studies which from the first were intended to fit him for public +life. Middleton says that the father lived in Rome with his son, +and argues from this that he was a man of large means. But Cicero +gives no authority for this. It is more probable that he lived at +the house of one Aculeo, who had married his <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span>mother's +sister, and had sons with whom Cicero was educated. Stories are +told of his precocious talents and performances such as we are +accustomed to hear of many remarkable men—not unfrequently +from their own mouths. It is said of him that he was intimate with +the two great advocates of the time, Lucius Crassus and Marcus +Antonius the orator, the grandfather of Cicero's future enemy, whom +we know as Marc Antony. Cicero speaks of them both as though he had +seen them and talked much of them in his youth. He tells us +anecdotes of them;<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id= +"FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class= +"fnanchor">33</a> how they were both accustomed to conceal their +knowledge of Greek, fancying that the people in whose eyes they +were anxious to shine would think more of them if they seemed to +have contented themselves simply with Roman words and Roman +thoughts. But the intimacy was probably that which a lad now is apt +to feel that he has enjoyed with a great man, if he has seen and +heard him, and perhaps been taken by the hand. He himself gives in +very plain language an account of his own studies when he was +seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen. He speaks of the orators of that +day<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">34</a>: "When I was above all +things anxious to listen to these men, the banishment of Cotta was +a great sorrow to me. I was passionately intent on hearing those +who were left, daily writing, reading, and making notes. Nor was I +content only with practice in the art of speaking. In the following +year Varius had to go, condemned by his own enactment; and at this +time, in working at the civil law, I gave much of my time to +Quintus Scævola, the son of Publius, who, though he took no +pupils, by explaining points to those who consulted him, gave great +assistance to students. The year after, when Sulla and Pompey were +Consuls, I learned what oratory really means by listening to +Publius Sulpicius, who as tribune was daily making harangues. It +was then that Philo, the Chief of the Academy, with other leading +philosophers of Athens, had been put to <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span>flight by the war +with Mithridates, and had come to Rome. To him I devoted myself +entirely, stirred up by a wonderful appetite for acquiring the +Greek philosophy. But in that, though the variety of the pursuit +and its greatness charmed me altogether, yet it seemed to me that +the very essence of judicial conclusion was altogether suppressed. +In that year Sulpicius perished, and in the next, three of our +greatest orators, Quintus Catulus, Marcus Antonius, and Caius +Julius, were cruelly killed." This was the time of the civil war +between Marius and Sulla. "In the same year I took lessons from +Molo the Rhodian, a great pleader and master of the art." In the +next chapter he tells us that he passed his time also with Diodatus +the Stoic, who afterward lived with him, and died in his house. +Here we have an authentic description of the manner in which Cicero +passed his time as a youth at Rome, and one we can reduce probably +to absolute truth by lessening the superlatives. Nothing in it, +however, is more remarkable than the confession that, while his +young intellect rejoiced in the subtle argumentation of the Greek +philosophers, his clear common sense quarrelled with their +inability to reach any positive conclusion.</p> + +<p>But before these days of real study had come upon him he had +given himself up to juvenile poetry. He is said to have written a +poem called Pontius Glaucus when he was fourteen years old. This +was no doubt a translation from the Greek, as were most of the +poems that he wrote, and many portions of his prose treatises.<a +name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">35</a> Plutarch tells us that +the poem was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id= +"Page_45">45</a></span>extant in his time, and declares that, +"in process of time, when he had studied this art with greater +application, he was looked upon as the best poet, as well as the +greatest orator in Rome." The English translators of Plutarch tell +us that their author was an indifferent judge of Latin poetry, and +allege as proof of this that he praised Cicero as a poet, a praise +which he gave "contrary to the opinion of Juvenal." But Juvenal has +given no opinion of Cicero's poetry, having simply quoted one +unfortunate line noted for its egotism, and declared that Cicero +would never have had his head cut off had his philippics been of +the same nature.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a +href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">36</a> The evidence of +Quintus Mucius Scævola as to Cicero's poetry was perhaps better, +as he had the means, at any rate, of reading it. He believed that +the Marius, a poem written by Cicero in praise of his great +fellow-townsman, would live to posterity forever. The story of the +old man's prophecy comes to us, no doubt, from Cicero himself, and +is put into the mouth of his brother;<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id= +"FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class= +"fnanchor">37</a> but had it been untrue it would have been +contradicted.</p> + +<p>The Glaucus was a translation from the Greek done by a boy, +probably as a boy's lesson It is not uncommon that such exercises +should be treasured by parents, or perhaps by the performer +himself, and not impossible that they should be made to reappear +afterward as original compositions. Lord Brougham tells us in his +autobiography that in his early youth he tried his hand at writing +English essays, and even tales of fiction.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" +id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class= +"fnanchor">38</a> "I find one of these," he says, "has survived +the waste-paper <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id= +"Page_46">46</a></span>basket, and it may amuse my readers to +see the sort of composition I was guilty of at the age of thirteen. +My tale was entitled 'Memnon, or Human Wisdom,' and is as follows." +Then we have a fair translation of Voltaire's romance, "Memnon," or +"La Sagesse Humaine." The old lord, when he was collecting his +papers for his autobiography, had altogether forgotten his +Voltaire, and thought that he had composed the story! Nothing so +absurd as that is told of Cicero by himself or on his behalf.</p> + +<p>It may be as well to say here what there may be to be said as to +Cicero's poetry generally. But little of it remains to us, and by +that little it has been admitted that he has not achieved the name +of a great poet; but what he did was too great in extent and too +good in its nature to be passed over altogether without notice. It +has been his fate to be rather ridiculed than read as a maker of +verses, and that ridicule has come from two lines which I have +already quoted. The longest piece which we have is from the +Phænomena of Aratus, which he translated from the Greek when he +was eighteen years old, and which describes the heavenly bodies. It +is known to us best by the extracts from it given by the author +himself in his treatise, De Naturâ Deorum. It must be owned +that it is not pleasant reading. But translated poetry seldom is +pleasant, and could hardly be made so on such a subject by a boy of +eighteen. The Marius was written two years after this, and we have +a passage from it, quoted by the author in his De Divinatione, +containing some fine lines. It tells the story of the battle of the +eagle and the serpent. Cicero took it, no doubt (not translated it, +however), from the passage in the Iliad, lib, xii, 200, which has +been rendered by Pope with less than his usual fire, and by Lord +Derby with no peculiar charm. Virgil has reproduced the picture +with his own peculiar grace of words. His version has been +translated by Dryden, but better, perhaps, by Christopher Pitt. +Voltaire has translated Cicero's lines with great power, and +Shelley has reproduced the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" +id="Page_47">47</a></span>same idea at much greater length in +the first canto of the Revolt of Islam, taking it probably from +Cicero, but, if not, from Voltaire.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id= +"FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class= +"fnanchor">39</a> I venture to think that, of the nine versions, +Cicero's is the best, and that it is the most melodious piece of +Latin poetry we have up to that date. Twenty-seven years afterward, +when Lucretius was probably at work on his great poem, Cicero wrote +an account of his consulship in verse. Of this we have fifty or +sixty lines, in which the author describes the heavenly warnings +which were given as to the affairs of his own consular year. The +story is not a happy one, but the lines are harmonious. It is often +worth our while to inquire how poetry has become such as it is, and +how the altered and improved phases of versification have arisen. +To trace our melody from Chaucer to Tennyson is matter of interest +to us all. Of Cicero as a poet we may say that he found Latin +versification rough, and left it smooth and musical. Now, as we go +on with the orator's life and prose works, we need not return to +his poetry.</p> + +<p>The names of many masters have been given to us as those under +whom Cicero's education was carried on. Among others he is +supposed, at a very early age, to have been confided to Archias. +Archias was a Greek, born at Antioch, who devoted himself to +letters, and, if we are to believe what Cicero says, when speaking +as an advocate, excelled all his rivals of the day. Like many other +educated Greeks, he made his way to Rome, and was received as one +of the household of Lucullus, with whom he travelled, accompanying +him even to the wars. He became a citizen of Rome—so Cicero +assures us—and Cicero's tutor. What Cicero owed to him we do +not know, but to Cicero Archias owed immortality. His claim to +citizenship was disputed; and Cicero, pleading on his behalf, <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"> +48</a></span>made one of those shorter speeches which are perfect +in melody, in taste, and in language. There is a passage in which +speaking on behalf of so excellent a professor in the art, he sings +the praises of literature generally. I know no words written in +praise of books more persuasive or more valuable. "Other +recreations," he says, "do not belong to all seasons nor to all +ages, nor to all places. These pursuits nourish our youth and +delight our old age. They adorn our prosperity and give a refuge +and a solace to our troubles. They charm us at home, and they are +not in our way when we are abroad. They go to bed with us. They +travel about with us. They accompany us as we escape into the +country."<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">40</a> Archias probably did +something for him in directing his taste, and has been rewarded +thus richly. As to other lessons, we know that he was instructed in +law by Scævola, and he has told us that he listened to Crassus and +Antony. At sixteen he went through the ceremony of putting off his +boy's dress, the toga prætexta, and appearing in the toga virilis +before the Prætor, thus assuming his right to go about a man's +business. At sixteen the work of education was <i>not</i> +finished—no more than it is with us when a lad at Oxford +becomes "of age" at twenty-one; nor was he put beyond his father's +power, the "patria potestas," from which no age availed to liberate +a son; but, nevertheless, it was a very joyful ceremony, and was +duly performed by Cicero in the midst of his studies with +Scævola.</p> + +<p>At eighteen he joined the army. That doctrine of the division of +labor which now, with us, runs through and dominates all pursuits, +had not as yet been made plain to the minds of men at Rome by the +political economists of the day. It was well that a man should know +something of many things—that he should especially, if he +intended to be a leader of men, be both soldier and orator. To rise +to be Consul, having first been Quæstor, Ædile, and Prætor, was +the path of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id= +"Page_49">49</a></span>glory. It had been the special duty of +the Consuls of Rome, since the establishment of consular +government, to lead the armies of the Republic. A portion of the +duty devolved upon the Prætors, as wars became more numerous; and +latterly the commanders were attended by Quæstors. The Governors +of the provinces, Proconsuls, or Proprætors with proconsular +authority, always combined military with civil authority. The art +of war was, therefore, a necessary part of the education of a man +intended to rise in the service of the State. Cicero, though, in +his endeavor to follow his own tastes, he made a strong effort to +keep himself free from such work, and to remain at Rome instead of +being sent abroad as a Governor, had at last to go where fighting +was in some degree necessary, and, in the saddest phase of his +life, appeared in Italy with his lictors, demanding the honors of a +triumph. In anticipation of such a career, no doubt under the +advice of his friends, he now went out to see, if not a battle, +something, at any rate, of war. It has already been said how the +citizenship of Rome was conferred on some of the small Italian +States around, and not on others. Hence, of course, arose jealousy, +which was increased by the feeling on the part of those excluded +that they were called to furnish soldiers to Rome, as well as those +who were included. Then there was formed a combination of Italian +cities, sworn to remedy the injury thus inflicted on them. Their +purpose was to fight Rome in order that they might achieve Roman +citizenship; and hence arose the first civil war which distracted +the Empire. Pompeius Strabo, father of Pompey the Great, was then +Consul (<span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 89), and Cicero was sent +out to see the campaign under him. Marius and Sulla, the two Romans +who were destined soon to bathe Rome in blood, had not yet +quarrelled, though they had been brought to hate each +other—Marius by jealousy, and Sulla by rivalry. In this war +they both served under the Consuls, and Cicero served with Sulla. +We know nothing of his doings in that campaign. There are no +tidings even of a misfortune such as <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span>that which happened to +Horace when he went out to fight, and came home from the +battle-field "relicta non bene parmula."</p> + +<p>Rome trampled on the rebellious cities, and in the end admitted +them to citizenship. But probably the most important, certainly the +most notorious, result of the Italian war, was the deep antagonism +of Marius and Sulla. Sulla had made himself conspicuous by his +fortune on the occasion, whereas Marius, who had become the great +soldier of the Republic, and had been six times Consul, failed to +gather fresh laurels. Rome was falling into that state of anarchy +which was the cause of all the glory and all the disgrace of +Cicero's life, and was open to the dominion of any soldier whose +grasp might be the least scrupulous and the strongest. Marius, +after a series of romantic adventures with which we must not +connect ourselves here, was triumphant only just before his death, +while Sulla went off with his army, pillaged Athens, plundered Asia +Minor generally, and made terms with Mithridates, though he did not +conquer him. With the purport, no doubt, of conquering Mithridates, +but perhaps with the stronger object of getting him out of Rome, +the army had been intrusted to him, with the consent of the Marian +faction.</p> + +<p>Then came those three years, when Sulla was in the East and +Marius dead, of which Cicero speaks as a period of peace, in which +a student was able to study in Rome. "Triennium fere fuit urbs sine +armis."<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">41</a> These must have been +the years 86, 85, and 84 before Christ, when Cicero was twenty-one, +twenty-two, and twenty-three years old; and it was this period, in +truth, of which he speaks, and not of earlier years, when he tells +us of his studies with Philo, and Molo, and Diodatus. Precocious as +he was in literature, writing one poem—or translating +it—when he was fourteen, and another when he was eighteen, he +was by no means in a hurry to commence the work of his life. He is +said also to have written a treatise on <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span>military tactics when +he was nineteen; which again, no doubt, means that he had exercised +himself by translating such an essay from the Greek. This, happily, +does not remain. But we have four books, Rhetoricorum ad C. +Herennium, and two books De Inventione, attributed to his twentieth +and twenty-first years, which are published with his works, and +commence the series. Of all that we have from him, they are perhaps +the least worth reading; but as they are, or were, among his +recognized writings, a word shall be said of them in their proper +place.</p> + +<p>The success of the education of Cicero probably became a +commonplace among Latin school-masters and Latin writers. In the +dialogue De Oratoribus, attributed to Tacitus, the story of it is +given by Messala when he is praising the orators of the earlier +age. "We know well," says Messala, "that book of Cicero which is +called Brutus, in the latter part of which he describes to us the +beginning and the progress of his own eloquence, and, as it were, +the bringing up on which it was founded. He tells us that he had +learned civil law under Q. Mutius Scævola; that he had exhausted +the realm of philosophy—learning that of the Academy under +Philo, and that of the Stoics under Diodatus; that, not content +with these treatises, he had travelled through Greece and Asia, so +as to embrace the whole world of art. And thus it had come about +that in the works of Cicero no knowledge is wanting—neither +of music, nor of grammar, nor any other liberal accomplishment. He +understood the subtilty of logic, the purpose of ethics, the +effects and causes of things." Then the speaker goes on to explain +what may be expected from study such as that. "Thus it is, my good +friends—thus, that from the acquirement of many arts, and +from a general knowledge of all things, eloquence that is truly +admirable is created in its full force; for the power and capacity +of an orator need not be hemmed in, as are those of other callings, +by certain narrow bounds; but that man is the true orator who is +able to speak <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id= +"Page_52">52</a></span>on all subjects with dignity and grace, +so as to persuade those who listen, and to delight them, in a +manner suited to the nature of the subject in hand and the +convenience of the time."<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id= +"FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class= +"fnanchor">42</a></p> + +<p>We might fancy that we were reading words from Cicero himself! +Then the speaker in this imaginary conversation goes on to tell us +how far matters had derogated in his time, pointing out at the same +time that the evils which he deplores had shown themselves even +before Cicero, but had been put down, as far as the law could put +them down, by its interference. He is speaking of those schools of +rhetoric in which Greek professors of the art gave lessons for +money, which were evil in their nature, and not, as it appears, +efficacious even for the purpose in hand. "But now," continues +Messala, "our very boys are brought into the schools of those +lecturers who are called 'rhetores,' who had sprung up before +Cicero, to the displeasure of our ancestors, as is evident from the +fact that when Crassus and Domitius were Censors they were ordered +to shut up their school of impudence, as Cicero calls it. Our boys, +as I was going to say, are taken to these lecture-rooms, in which +it is hard to say whether the atmosphere of the place, or the lads +they are thrown among, or the nature of the lessons taught, are the +most injurious. In the place itself there is neither discipline nor +respect. All who go there are equally ignorant. The boys among the +boys, the lads among the lads, utter and listen to just what words +they please. Their very exercises are, for the most part, useless. +Two kinds are in vogue with these 'rhetores,' called 'suasoriæ' +and 'controversiæ,'" tending, we may perhaps say, to persuade or +to refute. "Of these, the 'suasoriæ,' as being the lighter and +requiring less of experience, are given to the little boys, the +'controversiæ' to the bigger lads. But—oh heavens, what they +are—what miserable compositions!" Then he tells us the +subjects <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"> +53</a></span>selected. Rape, incest, and other horrors are +subjected to the lads for their declamation, in order that they may +learn to be orators.</p> + +<p>Messala then explains that in those latter days—his days, +that is—under the rule of despotic princes, truly large +subjects are not allowed to be discussed in +public—confessing, however, that those large subjects, though +they afford fine opportunities to orators, are not beneficial to +the State at large. But it was thus, he says, that Cicero became +what he was, who would not have grown into favor had he defended +only P. Quintius and Archias, and had had nothing to do with +Catiline, or Milo, or Verres, or Antony—showing, by-the-way, +how great was the reputation of that speech, Pro Milone, with which +we shall have to deal farther on.</p> + +<p>The treatise becomes somewhat confused, a portion of it having +probably been lost. From whose mouth the last words are supposed to +come is not apparent. It ends with a rhapsody in favor of imperial +government—suitable, indeed, to the time of Domitian, but +very unlike Tacitus. While, however, it praises despotism, it +declares that only by the evils which despotism had quelled could +eloquence be maintained. "Our country, indeed, while it was astray +in its government; while it tore itself to pieces by parties and +quarrels and discord; while there was no peace in the Forum, no +agreement in the Senate, no moderation on the judgment-seat, no +reverence for letters, no control among the magistrates, boasted, +no doubt, a stronger eloquence."</p> + +<p>From what we are thus told of Cicero, not what we hear from +himself, we are able to form an idea of the nature of his +education. With his mind fixed from his early days on the ambition +of doing something noble with himself, he gave himself up to all +kinds of learning. It was Macaulay, I think, who said of him that +the idea of conquering the "omne scibile,"—the understanding of +all things within the reach of human intellect—was before his +eyes as it was before those <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" +id="Page_54">54</a></span>of Bacon. The special preparation +which was, in Cicero's time, employed for students at the bar is +also described in the treatise from which I have quoted—the +preparation which is supposed to have been the very opposite of +that afforded by the "rhetores." "Among ourselves, the youth who +was intended to achieve eloquence in the Forum, when already +trained at home and exercised in classical knowledge, was brought +by his father or his friends to that orator who might then be +considered to be the leading man in the city. It became his daily +work to follow that man, to accompany him, to be conversant with +all his speeches, whether in the courts of law or at public +meetings, so that he might learn, if I might say so, to fight in +the very thick of the throng." It was thus that Cicero studied his +art. A few lines farther down, the pseudo-Tacitus tells us that +Crassus, in his nineteenth year, held a brief against Carbo; that +Cæsar did so in his twenty-first against Dolabella; and +Pollio, in his twenty-second year, against Cato.<a name= +"FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" +class="fnanchor">43</a> In this precocity Cicero did not imitate +Crassus, or show an example to the Romans who followed him. He was +twenty-six when he pleaded his first cause. Sulla had then +succeeded in crushing the Marian faction, and the Sullan +proscriptions had taken place, and were nominally over. Sulla had +been declared Dictator, and had proclaimed that there should be no +more selections for death. The Republic was supposed to be +restored. "Recuperata republica * * * tum primum nos ad +causas et privatas et publicas adire cœpimus,"<a name= +"FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" +class="fnanchor">44</a> "The Republic having been restored, I +then first applied myself to pleadings, both private and +public."</p> + +<p>Of Cicero's politics at that time we are enabled to form a <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"> +55</a></span>fair judgment. Marius had been his townsman; Sulla +had been his captain. But the one thing dear to him was the +Republic—what he thought to be the Republic. He was neither +Marian nor Sullan. The turbulence in which so much noble blood had +flowed—the "crudelis interitus oratorum," the crushing out of +the old legalized form of government—was abominable to him. +It was his hope, no doubt his expectation, that these old forms +should be restored in all their power. There seemed to be more +probability of this—there was more probability of it—on +the side of Sulla than the other. On Sulla's side was Pompey, the +then rising man, who, being of the same age with Cicero, had +already pushed himself into prominence, who was surnamed the Great, +and who "triumphed" during these very two years in which Cicero +began his career; who through Cicero's whole life was his bugbear, +his stumbling-block, and his mistake. But on that side were the +"optimates," the men who, if they did not lead, ought to lead the +Republic; those who, if they were not respectable, ought to be so; +those who, if they did not love their country, ought to love it. If +there was a hope, it was with them. The old state of +things—that oligarchy which has been called a +Republic—had made Rome what it was; had produced power, +civilization, art, and literature. It had enabled such a one as +Cicero was himself to aspire to lead, though he had been humbly +born, and had come to Rome from an untried provincial family. To +him the Republic—as he fancied that it had been, as he +fancied that it might be—was all that was good, all that was +gracious, all that was beneficent. On Sulla's side lay what chance +there was of returning to the old ways. When Sulla was declared +Dictator, it was presumed that the Republic was restored. But not +on this account should it be supposed that Cicero regarded the +proscriptions of Sulla with favor, or that he was otherwise than +shocked by the wholesale robberies for which the proscription paved +the way. This is a matter with which it will be necessary to deal +more fully when we come <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id= +"Page_56">56</a></span>in our next chapter to the first +speeches made by Cicero; in the very first of which, as I place +them, he attacks the Sullan robberies with an audacity which, when +we remember that Sulla was still in power, rescues, at any rate, in +regard to this period of his life, the character of the orator from +that charge of cowardice which has been imputed to him.</p> + +<p>It is necessary here, in this chapter devoted to the education +of Cicero, to allude to his two first speeches, because that +education was not completed till afterward—so that they may +be regarded as experiments, or trials, as it were, of his force and +sufficiency. "Not content with these teachers"—teachers who +had come to Rome from Greece and Asia—"he had travelled +through Greece and Asia, so as to embrace the whole world of art." +These words, quoted a few pages back from the treatise attributed +to Tacitus, refer to a passage in the Brutus in which Cicero makes +a statement to that effect. "When I reached Athens,<a name= +"FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" +class="fnanchor">45</a> I passed six months with Antiochus, by +far the best known and most erudite of the teachers of the old +Academy, and with him, as my great authority and master, I renewed +that study of philosophy which I had never abandoned—which +from my boyhood I had followed with always increasing success. At +the same time I practised oratory laboriously with Demetrius Syrus, +also at Athens, a well-known and by no means incapable master of +the art of speaking. After that I wandered over all Asia, and came +across the best orators there, with whom I practised, enjoying +their willing assistance." There is more of it, which need not be +repeated verbatim, giving the names of those who aided him in Asia: +Menippus of Stratonice—who, he says, was sweet enough to have +belonged himself to Athens—with Dionysius of Magnesia, with +Œschilus of Cnidos, and with Xenocles of Adramyttium. Then at +Rhodes he came across his old friend Molo, and applied himself +again to the teaching of his former master. <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"> +57</a></span>Quintilian explains to us how this was done with a +purpose, so that the young orator, when he had made a first attempt +with his half-fledged wings in the courts, might go back to his +masters for awhile<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id= +"FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class= +"fnanchor">46</a>.</p> + +<p>He was twenty-eight when he started on this tour. It has been +suggested that he did so in fear of the resentment of Sulla, with +whose favorites and with whose practices he had dealt very plainly. +There is no reason for alleging this, except that Sulla was +powerful, that Sulla was blood-thirsty, and that Sulla must have +been offended. This kind of argument is often used. It is supposed +to be natural, or at least probable, that in a certain position a +man should have been a coward or a knave, ungrateful or cruel; and +in the presumption thus raised the accusation is brought against +him. "Fearing Sulla's resentment," Plutarch says, "he travelled +into Greece, and gave out that the recovery of his health was the +motive." There is no evidence that such was his reason for +travelling; and, as Middleton says in his behalf, it is certain +that he "continued for a year after this in Rome without any +apprehension of danger." It is best to take a man's own account of +his own doings and their causes, unless there be ground for +doubting the statement made. It is thus that Cicero himself speaks +of his journey: "Now," he says, still in his Brutus<a name= +"FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" +class="fnanchor">47</a>, "as you wish to know what I am—not +simply what mark I may have on my body from my birth, or with what +surroundings of childhood I was brought up—I will include +some details which might perhaps seem hardly necessary. At this +time I was thin and weak, my neck being long and narrow—a +habit and form of body which is supposed to be adverse to long +life; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"> +58</a></span>and those who loved me thought the more of this, +because I had taken to speaking without relaxation, without +recreation with all the powers of my voice, and with much muscular +action. When my friends and the doctors desired me to give up +speaking, I resolved that, rather than abandon my career as an +orator, I would face any danger. But when it occurred to me that by +lowering my voice, by changing my method of speaking, I might avoid +the danger, and at the same time learn to speak with more elegance, +I accepted that as a reason for going into Asia, so that I might +study how to change my mode of elocution. Thus, when I had been two +years at work upon causes, and when my name was already well known +in the Forum, I took my departure, and left Rome."</p> + +<p>During the six months that he was at Athens he renewed an early +acquaintance with one who was destined to become the most faithful, +and certainly the best known, of his friends. This was Titus +Pomponius, known to the world as that Atticus to whom were +addressed something more than half the large body of letters which +were written by Cicero, and which have remained for our use.<a +name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">48</a> He seems to have lived +much with Atticus, who was occupied with similar studies, though +with altogether different results. Atticus applied himself to the +practices of the Epicurean school, and did in truth become "Epicuri +de grege porcus." To enjoy life, to amass a fortune, to keep +himself free from all turmoils of war or state, to make the best of +the times, whether they were bad or good, without any attempt on +his part to mend them—this was the philosophy of Titus +Pomponius, who was called Atticus because Athens, full of art and +literature, easy, unenergetic, and luxurious, was dear to him. To +this philosophy, or rather to this theory of life, Cicero was +altogether opposed. He studied <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span>in all the +schools—among the Platonists, the Stoics, even with the +Epicureans enough to know their dogmas so that he might criticise +them—proclaiming himself to belong to the new Academy, or +younger school of Platonists, but in truth drawing no system of +morals or rule of life from any of them. To him, and also to +Atticus, no doubt, these pursuits afforded an intellectual pastime. +Atticus found himself able to justify to himself the bent of his +disposition by the name of a philosopher, and therefore became an +Epicurean. Cicero could in no way justify to himself any deviation +from the energy of public life, from its utility, from its +ambition, from its loves, or from its hatred; and from the Greek +philosophers whom he named of this or the other school, received +only some assistance in that handling of so-called philosophy which +became the chief amusement of his future life. This was well +understood by the Latin authors who wrote of Cicero after his own +time. Quintilian, speaking of Cicero and Brutus as writers of +philosophy, says of the latter, "Suffecit ponderi rerum; seias enim +sentire quæ dicit."<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id= +"FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class= +"fnanchor">49</a>—"He was equal to the weight of the +subject, for you feel that he believes what he writes." He leaves +the inference, of course, that Cicero wrote on such matters only +for the exercise of his ingenuity, as a school-boy writes.</p> + +<p>When at Athens, Cicero was initiated into the Eleusinian +mysteries—as to which Mr. Collins, in his little volume on +Cicero, in the Ancient Classics for English Readers, says that they +"contained under this veil whatever faith in the Invisible and +Eternal rested in the mind of an enlightened pagan." In this Mr. +Collins is fully justified by what Cicero himself has said although +the character thus given to these mysteries is very different from +that which was attributed to them by early Christian writers. They +were to those pious but somewhat prejudiced theologists mysterious +and pagan, and therefore <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" +id="Page_60">60</a></span>horrible.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" +id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class= +"fnanchor">50</a> But Cicero declares in his dialogue with +Atticus, De Legibus, written when he was fifty-five years old, in +the prime of his intellect, that "of all the glories and divine +gifts which your Athens has produced for the improvement of men +nothing surpasses these mysteries, by which the harshness of our +uncivilized life has been softened, and we have been lifted up to +humanity; and as they are called 'initia,'" by which aspirants were +initiated, "so we have in truth found in them the seeds of a new +life. Nor have we received from them only the means of living with +satisfaction, but also of dying with a better hope as to the +future."<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">51</a></p> + +<p>Of what took place with Cicero and Atticus at their introduction +to the Eleusinian mysteries we know nothing. But it can hardly be +that, with such memories running in his mind after thirty years, +expressed in such language to the very friend who had then been his +companion, they should not have been accepted by him as indicating +the commencement of some great line of thought. The two doctrines +which seem to mark most clearly the difference between the men whom +we regard, the one as a pagan and the other as a Christian, are the +belief in a future life and the duty of doing well by our +neighbors. Here they are both indicated, the former in plain +language, and the latter in that assurance of the softening of the +barbarity of uncivilized life, "Quibus ex agresti immanique vita +exculti ad humanitatem et mitigati sumus."</p> + +<p>Of the inner life of Cicero at this moment—how he ate, how +he drank, with what accompaniment of slaves he lived, how he was +dressed, and how lodged—we know very little; <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span>but we +are told enough to be aware that he could not have travelled, as he +did in Greece and Asia, without great expense. His brother Quintus +was with him, so that cost, if not double, was greatly increased. +Antiochus, Demetrius Syrus, Molo, Menippus, and the others did not +give him their services for nothing. These were gentlemen of whom +we know that they were anxious to carry their wares to the best +market. And then he seems to have been welcomed wherever he went, +as though travelling in some sort "en prince." No doubt he had +brought with him the best introductions which Rome could afford; +but even with them a generous allowance must have been necessary, +and this must have come from his father's pocket.</p> + +<p>As we go on, a question will arise as to Cicero's income and the +sources whence it came. He asserts of himself that he was never +paid for his services at the bar. To receive such payment was +illegal, but was usual. He claims to have kept himself exempt from +whatever meanness there may have been in so receiving such +fees—exempt, at any rate, from the fault of having broken the +law. He has not been believed. There is no evidence to convict him +of falsehood, but he has not been believed, because there have not +been found palpable sources of income sufficient for an expenditure +so great as that which we know to have been incident to the life he +led. But we do not know what were his father's means. Seeing the +nature of the education given to the lad, of the manner in which +his future life was prepared for him from his earliest days, of the +promise made to him from his boyhood of a career in the metropolis +if he could make himself fit for it, of the advantages which costly +travel afforded him, I think we have reason to suppose that the old +Cicero was an opulent man, and that the house at Arpinum was no +humble farm, or fuller's poor establishment.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"> +62</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter III.</span></h3> + +<h4><i>THE CONDITION OF ROME.</i></h4> + +<p>It is far from my intention to write a history of Rome during +the Ciceronian period. Were I to attempt such a work, I should have +to include the doings of Sertorius in Spain, of Lucullus and Pompey +in the East, Cæsar's ten years in Gaul, and the civil wars +from the taking of Marseilles to the final battles of Thapsus and +Munda. With very many of the great events which the period includes +Cicero took but slight concern—so slight that we can hardly +fail to be astonished when we find how little he had to say of +them—he who ran through all the offices of the State, who was +the chosen guardian of certain allied cities, who has left to us so +large a mass of correspondence on public subjects, and who was +essentially a public man for thirty-four years. But he was a public +man who concerned himself personally with Rome rather than with the +Roman Empire. Home affairs, and not foreign affairs, were dear to +him. To Cæsar's great deeds in Gaul we should have had from +him almost no allusion, had not his brother Quintus been among +Cæsar's officers, and his young friend Trebatius been +confided by himself to Cæsar's care. Of Pharsalia we only +learn from him that, in utter despair of heart, he allowed himself +to be carried to the war. Of the proconsular governments throughout +the Roman Empire we should not learn much from Cicero, were it not +that it has been shown to us by the trial of Verres how atrocious +might be the conduct of a Roman Governor, and by the narratives of +Cicero's own rule in Cilicia, how excellent. The history of +the time has been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id= +"Page_63">63</a></span>written for modern readers by Merivale +and Mommsen, with great research and truth as to facts, but, as I +think with some strong feeling. Now Mr. Froude has followed with +his Cæsar, which might well have been called Anti-Cicero. All +these in lauding, and the two latter in deifying, the successful +soldier, have, I think, dealt hardly with Cicero, attributing to +his utterances more than they mean; doubting his sincerity, but +seeing clearly the failure of his political efforts. With the great +facts of the Roman Empire as they gradually formed themselves from +the fall of Carthage, when the Empire began,<a name= +"FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" +class="fnanchor">52</a> to the establishment of Augustus, when it +was consummated, I do not pretend to deal, although by far the most +momentous of them were crowded into the life of Cicero. But in +order that I may, if possible, show the condition of his mind +toward the Republic—that I may explain what it was that he +hoped and why he hoped it—I must go back and relate in a few +words what it was that Marius and Sulla had done for Rome.</p> + +<p>Of both these men all the doings with which history is greatly +concerned were comprised within the early years of Cicero's life. +Marius, indeed, was nearly fifty years of age when his +fellow-townsman was born, and had become a distinguished soldier, +and, though born of humble parents, had pushed himself to the +Consulate. His quarrel with Sulla had probably commenced, springing +from jealousy as to deeds done in the Jugurthine war. But it is not +matter of much moment, now that Marius had proved himself to be a +good and hardy soldier, excepting in this, that, by making himself +a soldier in early life, he enabled himself in his latter years to +become the master of Rome.</p> + +<p>Sulla, too, was born thirty-two years before Cicero—a +patrician of the bluest blood—and having gone, as we say, +into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"> +64</a></span>public life, and having been elected Quæstor, became +a soldier by dint of office, as a man with us may become head of +the Admiralty. As Quæstor he was sent to join Marius in Africa a +few months before Cicero was born. Into his hands, as it happened, +not into those of Marius, Jugurtha was surrendered by his +father-in-law, Bocchus, who thought thus to curry favor with the +Romans. Thence came those internecine feuds, in which, some +twenty-five years later, all Rome was lying butchered. The cause of +quarrelling between these two men, the jealousies which grew in the +heart of the elder, from the renewed successes of the younger, are +not much to us now; but the condition to which Rome had been +brought, when two such men could scramble for the city, and each +cut the throats of the relatives, friends, and presumed allies of +the other, has to be inquired into by those who would understand +what Rome had been, what it was, and what it was necessarily to +become.</p> + +<p>When Cicero was of an age to begin to think of these things, and +had put on the "toga virilis," and girt himself with a sword to +fight under the father of Pompey for the power of Rome against the +Italian allies who were demanding citizenship, the quarrel was in +truth rising to its bitterness. Marius and Sulla were on the same +side in that war. But Marius had then not only been Consul, but had +been six times Consul; and he had beaten the Teutons and the +Cimbrians, by whom Romans had feared that all Italy would be +occupied. What was not within the power of such a leader of +soldiers? and what else but a leader of soldiers could prevail when +Italy and Rome, but for such a General, had been at the mercy of +barbaric hordes, and when they had been compelled to make that +General six times Consul?</p> + +<p>Marius seems to have been no politician. He became a soldier and +then a General; and because he was great as a soldier and General, +the affairs of the State fell into his hands with very little +effort. In the old days of Rome military <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span>power had been needed +for defence, and successful defence had of course produced +aggressive masterhood and increased territory. When Hannibal, while +he was still lingering in Italy, had been circumvented by the +appearance of Scipio in Africa and the Romans had tasted the +increased magnificence of external conquest, the desire for foreign +domination became stronger than that of native rule. From that time +arms were in the ascendant rather than policy. Up to that time a +Consul had to become a General, because it was his business to look +after the welfare of the State. After that time a man became a +Consul in order that he might be a General. The toga was made to +give way to the sword, and the noise of the Forum to the trumpets. +We, looking back now, can see that it must have been so, and we are +prone to fancy that a wise man looking forward then might have read +the future. In the days of Marius there was probably no man so +wise. Cæsar was the first to see it. Cicero would have seen +it, but that the idea was so odious to him that he could not +acknowledge to himself that it need be so. His life was one +struggle against the coming evil—against the time in which +brute force was to be made to dominate intellect and civilization. +His "cedant arma togæ" was a scream, an impotent scream, against +all that Sulla had done or Cæsar was about to do. The +mischief had been effected years before his time, and had gone too +far ahead to be arrested even by his tongue. Only, in considering +these things, let us confess that Cicero saw what was good and what +was evil, though he was mistaken in believing that the good was +still within reach.</p> + +<p>Marius in his way was a Cæsar—as a soldier, +undoubtedly a very efficient Cæsar—having that great +gift of ruling his own appetites which enables those who possess it +to conquer the appetites of others. It may be doubted whether his +quickness in stopping and overcoming the two great hordes from the +north, the Teutons and the Cimbrians, was not equal in strategy to +anything that Cæsar accomplished in Gaul. It is probable +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"> +66</a></span>that Cæsar learned much of his tactics from +studying the manœuvres of Marius. But Marius was only a General. +Though he became hot in Roman politics, audacious and confident, +knowing how to use and how to disregard various weapons of +political power as they had been handed down by tradition and law, +the "vetoes" and the auguries, and the official dignities, he used +them, or disregarded them, in quest only of power for himself. He +was able to perceive how vain was law in such a period as that in +which he lived; and that, having risen by force of arms, he must by +force of arms keep his place or lose his life. With him, at least, +there was no idea of Roman liberty, little probably of Roman glory, +except so far as military glory and military power go together.</p> + +<p>Sulla was a man endowed with a much keener insight into the +political condition of the world around him. To make a dash for +power, as a dog might do, and keep it in his clutch as a dog would, +was enough for Marius. Sulla could see something of future events. +He could understand that, by reducing men around him to a low +level, he could make fast his own power over them, and that he +could best do this by cutting off the heads of all who stood a +little higher than their neighbors. He might thus produce +tranquillity, and security to himself and others. Some glimmer of +an idea of an Augustan rule was present to him; and with the view +of producing it, he re-established many of the usages of the +Republic, not reproducing the liberty but the forms of liberty. It +seems to have been his idea that a Sullan party might rule the +Empire by adherence to these forms. I doubt if Marius had any fixed +idea of government. To get the better of his enemies, and then to +grind them into powder under his feet, to seize rank and power and +riches, and then to enjoy them, to sate his lust with blood and +money and women, at last even with wine, and to feed his revenge by +remembering the hard things which he was made to endure during the +period of his overthrow—this <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span>seems to have been enough +for Marius.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a +href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">53</a> With Sulla there +was understanding that the Empire must be ruled, and that the old +ways would be best if they could be made compatible with the +newly-concentrated power.</p> + +<p>The immediate effect upon Rome, either from one or from the +other, was nearly the same. In the year 87 <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> Marius occupied himself in slaughtering the +Sullan party—during which, however, Sulla escaped from Rome +to the army of which he was selected as General, and proceeded to +Athens and the East with the object of conquering Mithridates; for, +during these personal contests, the command of this expedition had +been the chief bone of contention among them. Marius, who was by +age unfitted, desired to obtain it in order that Sulla might not +have it. In the next year, 86 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, +Marius died, being then Consul for the seventh time. Sulla was away +in the East, and did not return till 83 <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> In the interval was that period of peace, fit +for study, of which Cicero afterward spoke. "Triennium fere fuit +urbs sine armis."<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id= +"FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class= +"fnanchor">54</a> Cicero was then twenty-two or twenty-three +years old, and must well have understood, from his remembrance of +the Marian massacres, what it was to have the city embroiled by +arms. It was not that men were fighting, but that they were simply +being killed at the pleasure of the slaughterer. Then Sulla came +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"> +68</a></span>back, 83 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, when Cicero +was twenty-four; and if Marius had scourged the city with rods, he +scourged it with scorpions. It was the city, in truth, that was +scourged, and not simply the hostile faction. Sulla began by +proscribing 520 citizens declaring that he had included in his list +all that he remembered, and that those forgotten should be added on +another day. The numbers were gradually raised to 4,700! Nor did +this merely mean that those named should be caught and killed by +some miscalled officers of justice.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id= +"FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class= +"fnanchor">55</a> All the public was armed against the wretched, +and any who should protect them were also doomed to death. This, +however, might have been comparatively inefficacious to inflict the +amount of punishment intended by Sulla. Men generally do not +specially desire to imbrue their hands in the blood of other men. +Unless strong hatred be at work, the ordinary man, even the +ordinary Roman, will hardly rise up and slaughter another for the +sake of the employment. But if lucre be added to blood, then blood +can be made to flow copiously. This was what Sulla did. Not only +was the victim's life proscribed, but his property was proscribed +also; and the man who busied himself in carrying out the great +butcher's business assiduously, ardently, and unintermittingly, was +rewarded by the property so obtained. Two talents<a name= +"FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" +class="fnanchor">56</a> was to be the fee for mere assassination; +but the man who knew how to carry on well the work of an informer +could earn many talents. It was thus that fortunes were made in the +last days of Sulla. It was not only those 520 who were named for +killing. They were but the firstlings of the flock—the few +victims selected before the real workmen understood how valuable a +trade proscription <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id= +"Page_69">69</a></span>and confiscation might be made. +Plutarch tells us how a quiet gentleman walking, as was his custom, +in the Forum, one who took no part in politics, saw his own name +one day on the list. He had an Alban villa, and at once knew that +his villa had been his ruin. He had hardly read the list, and had +made his exclamation, before he was slaughtered. Such was the +massacre of Sulla, coming with an interval of two or three years +after those of Marius, between which was the blessed time in which +Rome was without arms. In the time of Marius, Cicero was too young, +and of no sufficient importance, on account of his birth or +parentage, to fear anything. Nor is it probable that Marius would +have turned against his townsmen. When Sulla's turn came, Cicero, +though not absolutely connected with the Dictator, was, so to say, +on his side in politics. In going back even to this period we may +use the terms Liberals and Conservatives for describing the two +parties. Marius was for the people; that is to say, he was opposed +to the rule of the oligarchy, dispersed the Senate, and loved to +feel that his own feet were on the necks of the nobility. Of +liberty, or rights, or popular institutions he recked nothing; but +not the less was he supposed to be on the people's side. Sulla, on +the other hand, had been born a patrician, and affected to preserve +the old traditions of oligarchic rule; and, indeed, though he took +all the power of the State into his own hands, he did restore, and +for a time preserve, these old traditions. It must be presumed that +there was at his heart something of love for old Rome. The +proscriptions began toward the end of the year 82 <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span>, and were continued through eight or nine +fearful months—up to the beginning of June, 81 <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> A day was fixed at which there should be no +more slaughtering—no more slaughtering, that is, without +special order in each case, and no more confiscation—except +such as might be judged necessary by those who had not as yet +collected their prey from past victims. Then Sulla, as Dictator, +set himself to work to reorganize the old laws. There should still +be Consuls and Prætors, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" +id="Page_70">70</a></span>but with restricted powers, lessened +almost down to nothing. It seems hard to gather what was exactly +the Dictator's scheme as the future depositary of power when he +should himself have left the scene. He did increase the privileges +of the Senate; but thinking of the Senate of Rome as he must have +thought of it, esteeming those old men as lowly as he must have +esteemed them, he could hardly have intended that imperial power +should be maintained by dividing it among them. He certainly +contemplated no follower to himself, no heir to his power, as +Cæsar did. When he had been practically Dictator about three +years—though he did not continue the use of the objectionable +name—he resigned his rule and walked down, as it were, from +his throne into private life. I know nothing in history more +remarkable than Sulla's resignation; and yet the writers who have +dealt with his name give no explanation of it. Plutarch, his +biographer, expresses wonder that he should have been willing to +descend to private life, and that he who made so many enemies +should have been able to do so with security. Cicero says nothing +of it. He had probably left Rome before it occurred, and did not +return till after Sulla's death. It seems to have been accepted as +being in no especial way remarkable.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id= +"FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class= +"fnanchor">57</a> At his own demand, the plenary power of +Dictator had been given to him—power to do all as he liked, +without reference either to the Senate or to the people, and with +an added proviso that he should keep it as long as he thought fit, +and lay it down when it pleased him. He did lay it down, flattering +himself, probably, that, as he had done his work, he would walk out +from his dictatorship like some Camillus of old. There had been no +Dictator in Rome for more than a century and a quarter—not +since the time of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id= +"Page_71">71</a></span>Hannibal's great victories; and the old +dictatorships lasted but for a few months or weeks, after which the +Dictator, having accomplished the special task, threw up his +office. Sulla now affected to do the same; and Rome, after the +interval of three years, accepted the resignation in the old +spirit. It was natural to them, though only by tradition, that a +Dictator should resign—so natural that it required no special +wonder. The salt of the Roman Constitution was gone, but the +remembrance of the savor of it was still sweet to the minds of the +Romans.</p> + +<p>It seems certain that no attempt was made to injure Sulla when +he ceased to be nominally at the head of the army, but it is +probable that he did not so completely divest himself of power as +to be without protection. In the year after his abdication he died, +at the age of sixty-one, apparently strong as regards general +health, but, if Plutarch's story be true, affected with a terrible +cutaneous disease. Modern writers have spoken of Sulla as though +they would fain have praised him if they dared, because, in spite +of his demoniac cruelty, he recognized the expediency of bringing +the affairs of the Republic again into order. Middleton calls him +the "only man in history in whom the odium of the most barbarous +cruelties was extinguished by the glory of his great acts." +Mommsen, laying the blame of the proscriptions on the head of the +oligarchy, speaks of Sulla as being either a sword or a pen in the +service of the State, as a sword or a pen would be required, and +declares that, in regard to the total "absence of political +selfishness—although it is true in this respect +only—Sulla deserves to be named side by side with +Washington."<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a +href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">58</a> To us at present +who are endeavoring to investigate the sources and the nature of +Cicero's character, the attributes of this man would be but of +little moment, were it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id= +"Page_72">72</a></span>not that Cicero was probably Cicero +because Sulla had been Sulla. Horrid as the proscriptions and +confiscations were to Cicero—and his opinion of them was +expressed plainly enough when it was dangerous to express them<a +name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">59</a>—still it was +apparent to him that the cause of order (what we may call the best +chance for the Republic) lay with the Senate and with the old +traditions and laws of Rome, in the re-establishment of which Sulla +had employed himself. Of these institutions Mommsen speaks with a +disdain which we now cannot but feel to be justified. "On the Roman +oligarchy of this period," he says "no judgment can be passed save +one of inexorable and remorseless condemnation; and, like +everything connected with it, the Sullan constitution is involved +in that condemnation."<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id= +"FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class= +"fnanchor">60</a> We have to admit that the salt had gone out +from it, and that there was no longer left any savor by which it +could be preserved. But the German historian seems to err somewhat +in this, as have also some modern English historians, that they +have not sufficiently seen that the men of the day had not the +means of knowing all that they, the historians, know. Sulla and his +Senate thought that by massacring the Marian faction they had +restored everything to an equilibrium. Sulla himself seems to have +believed that when the thing was accomplished Rome would go on, and +grow in power and prosperity as she had grown, without other +reforms than those which he had initiated. There can be no doubt +that many of the best in Rome—the best in morals, the best in +patriotism, and the best in erudition—did think that, with +the old forms, the old virtue would come back. Pompey thought so, +and Cicero. Cato thought so, and Brutus. Cæsar, when he came +to think about it, thought the reverse. But even now to us, looking +back <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"> +73</a></span>with so many things made clear to us, with all the +convictions which prolonged success produces, it is doubtful +whether some other milder change—some such change as Cicero +would have advocated—might not have prevented the tyranny of +Augustus, the mysteries of Tiberius, the freaks of Caligula, the +folly of Claudius, and the madness of Nero.</p> + +<p>It is an uphill task, that of advocating the cause of a man who +has failed. The Cæsars of the world are they who make +interesting stories. That Cicero failed in the great purpose of his +life has to be acknowledged. He had studied the history of his +country, and was aware that hitherto the world had produced nothing +so great as Roman power; and he knew that Rome had produced true +patriotism. Her Consuls, her Censors, her Tribunes, and her +Generals had, as a rule, been true to Rome, serving their country, +at any rate till of late years, rather than themselves. And he +believed that liberty had existed in Rome, though nowhere else. It +would be well if we could realize the idea of liberty which Cicero +entertained. Liberty was very dear to him—dear to him not +only as enjoying it himself, but as a privilege for the enjoyment +of others. But it was only the liberty of a few. Half the +population of the Roman cities were slaves, and in Cicero's time +the freedom of the city, which he regarded as necessary to liberty, +belonged only to a small proportion of the population of Italy. It +was the liberty of a small privileged class for which he was +anxious. That a Sicilian should be free under a Roman Proconsul, as +a Roman citizen was entitled to be, was abhorrent to his doctrine. +The idea of cosmopolitan freedom—an idea which exists with +us, but is not common to very many even now—had not as yet +been born: that care for freedom which springs from a desire to do +to others as we would that they should do to us. It required Christ +to father that idea; and Cicero, though he was nearer to +Christianity than any who had yet existed, had not reached it. But +this liberty, though it was but of a few, was so dear to him that +he spent his life in an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id= +"Page_74">74</a></span>endeavor to preserve it. The kings had +been expelled from Rome because they had trampled on liberty. Then +came the Republic, which we know to have been at its best no more +than an oligarchy; but still it was founded on the idea that +everything should be done by the votes of the free people. For many +years everything was done by the votes of the free people. Under +what inducements they had voted is another question. Clients were +subject to their patrons, and voted as they were told. We have +heard of that even in England, where many of us still think that +such a way of voting is far from objectionable. Perhaps compulsion +was sometimes used—a sort of "rattening" by which large +bodies were driven to the poll to carry this or the other measure. +Simple eloquence prevailed with some, and with others flattery. +Then corruption became rampant, as was natural, the rich buying the +votes of the poor; and votes were bought in various ways—by +cheap food as well as by money, by lavish expenditure in games, by +promises of land, and other means of bribery more or less overt. +This was bad, of course. Every freeman should have given a vote +according to his conscience. But in what country—the +millennium not having arrived in any—has this been achieved? +Though voting in England has not always been pure, we have not +wished to do away with the votes of freemen and to submit +everything to personal rule. Nor did Cicero.</p> + +<p>He knew that much was bad, and had himself seen many things that +were very evil. He had lived through the dominations of Marius and +Sulla, and had seen the old practices of Roman government brought +down to the pretence of traditional forms. But still, so he +thought, there was life left in the old forms, if they could be +revivified by patriotism, labor, and intelligence. It was the best +that he could imagine for the State—infinitely better than +the chance of falling into the bloody hands of one Marius and one +Sulla after another. Mommsen tells us that nothing could be more +rotten than the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id= +"Page_75">75</a></span>condition of oligarchical government +into which Rome had fallen; and we are inclined to agree with +Mommsen, because we have seen what followed. But that Cicero, +living and seeing it all as a present spectator, should have hoped +better things, should not, I think, cause us to doubt either +Cicero's wisdom or his patriotism. I cannot but think that, had I +been a Roman of those days, I should have preferred Cicero, with +his memories of the past, to Cæsar, with his ambition for the +future.</p> + +<p>Looking back from our standing-point of to-day, we know how +great Rome was—infinitely greater, as far as power is +concerned, than anything else which the world has produced. It came +to pass that "Urbis et orbis" was not a false boast. Gradually +growing from the little nest of robbers established on the banks of +the Tiber, the people of Rome learned how to spread their arms over +all the known world, and to conquer and rule, while they drew to +themselves all that the ingenuity and industry of other people had +produced. To do this, there must have been not only courage and +persistence, but intelligence, patriotism, and superior excellence +in that art of combination of which government consists. But yet, +when we look back, it is hard to say when were the palmy days of +Rome. When did those virtues shine by which her power was founded? +When was that wisdom best exhibited from which came her capacity +for ruling? Not in the time of her early kings, whose mythic +virtues, if they existed, were concerned but in small matters; for +the Rome of the kings claimed a jurisdiction extending as yet but a +few miles from the city. And from the time of their expulsion, +Rome, though she was rising in power, was rising slowly, and +through such difficulties that the reader of history, did he not +know the future, would think from time to time that the day of her +destruction had come upon her. Not when Brennus was at Rome with +his Gauls, a hundred and twenty-five years after the expulsion of +the kings, could Rome be said to have been great; nor when, fifty +or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"> +76</a></span>sixty years afterward, the Roman army—the only +army which Rome then possessed—had to lay down its arms in +the Caudine Forks and pass under the Samnite yoke. Then, when the +Samnite wars were ended, and Rome was mistress in +Italy—mistress, after all, of no more than Southern +Italy—the Punic wars began. It could hardly have been during +that long contest with Carthage, which was carried on for nearly +fifty years, that the palmy days of Rome were at their best. +Hannibal seems always to be the master. Trebia, Thrasymene and +Cannæ, year after year, threaten complete destruction to the State. +Then comes the great Scipio; and no doubt, if we must mark an era +of Roman greatness, it would be that of the battle of Zama and the +submission of Carthage, 201 years before Christ. But with Scipio +there springs up the idea of personal ambition; and in the +Macedonian and Greek wars that follow, though the arm of Rome is +becoming stronger every day, and her shoulders broader, there is +already the glamour of her decline in virtue. Her dealings with +Antiochus, with Pyrrhus, and with the Achæans, though successful, +were hardly glorious. Then came the two Gracchi, and the reader +begins to doubt whether the glory of the Republic is not already +over. They demanded impossible reforms, by means as illegal as they +were impossible, and were both killed in popular riots. The war +with Jugurtha followed, in which the Romans were for years +unsuccessful, and during which German hordes from the north rushed +into Gaul and destroyed an army of 80,000 Romans. This brings us to +Marius and to Sulla, of whom we have already spoken, and to that +period of Roman politics which the German historian describes as +being open to no judgment "save one of inexorable and remorseless +condemnation."</p> + +<p>But, in truth, the history of every people and every nation will +be subject to the same criticism, if it be regarded with the same +severity. In all that man has done as yet in the way of government, +the seeds of decay are apparent when looked back upon from an age +in advance. The period of Queen Elizabeth <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span>was very great to us; +yet by what dangers were we enveloped in her days! But for a storm +at sea, we might have been subjected to Spain. By what a system of +falsehood and petty tyrannies were we governed through the reigns +of James I. and Charles I.! What periods of rottenness and danger +there have been since! How little glorious was the reign of Charles +II.! how full of danger that of William! how mean those of the four +Georges, with the dishonesty of ministers such as Walpole and +Newcastle! And to-day, are there not many who are telling us that +we are losing the liberties which our forefathers got for us, and +that no judgment can be passed on us "save one of inexorable and +remorseless condemnation?" We are a great nation, and the present +threatenings are probably vain. Nevertheless, the seeds of decay +are no doubt inherent in our policies and our practices—so +manifestly inherent that future historians will pronounce upon them +with certainty.</p> + +<p>But Cicero, not having the advantage of distance, having simply +in his mind the knowledge of the greatness which had been achieved, +and in his heart a true love for the country which had achieved it, +and which was his own, encouraged himself to think that the good +might be recovered and the bad eliminated. Marius and +Sulla—Pompey also, toward the end of his career, if I can +read his character rightly—Cæsar, and of course +Augustus, being all destitute of scruple, strove to acquire, each +for himself, the power which the weak hands of the Senate were +unable to grasp. However much, or however little, the country of +itself might have been to any of them, it seemed good to him, +whether for the country's sake or for his own, that the rule should +be in his own hands. Each had the opportunity, and each used it, or +tried to use it. With Cicero there is always present the longing to +restore the power to the old constitutional possessors of it. So +much is admitted, even by his bitter enemies; and I am sometimes at +a loss whether to wonder most that a man of letters, dead two +thousand years ago, should have enemies so bitter or a friend so +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"> +78</a></span>keenly in earnest about him as I am. Cicero was aware +quite as well as any who lived then, if he did not see the matter +clearer even than any others, that there was much that was rotten +in the State. Men who had been murderers on behalf of Marius, and +then others who had murdered on behalf of Sulla—among whom +that Catiline, of whom we have to speak presently, had been +one—were not apt to settle themselves down as quiet citizens. +The laws had been set aside. Even the law courts had been closed. +Sulla had been law, and the closets of his favorites had been the +law courts. Senators had been cowed and obedient. The Tribunes had +only been mock Tribunes. Rome, when Cicero began his public life, +was still trembling. The Consuls of the day were men chosen at +Sulla's command. The army was Sulla's army. The courts were now +again opened by Sulla's permission. The day fixed by Sulla when +murderers might no longer murder—or, at any rate, should not +be paid for murdering—had arrived. There was not, one would +say, much hope for good things. But Sulla had reproduced the signs +of order, and the best hope lay in that direction. Consuls, +Prætors, Quæstors, Ædiles, even Tribunes, were still there. +Perhaps it might be given to him, to Cicero, to strengthen the +hands of such officers. At any rate, there was no better course +open to him by which he could serve his country.</p> + +<p>The heaviest accusation brought against Cicero charges him with +being insincere to the various men with whom he was brought in +contact in carrying out the purpose of his life, and he has also +been accused of having changed his purpose. It has been alleged +that, having begun life as a democrat, he went over to the +aristocracy as soon as he had secured his high office of State. As +we go on, it will be my object to show that he was altogether +sincere in his purpose, that he never changed his political idea, +and that, in these deviations as to men and as to means, whether, +for instance, he was ready to serve Cæsar or to oppose him, +he was guided, even in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" +id="Page_79">79</a></span>insincerity of his utterances, by +the sincerity of his purpose. I think that I can remember, even in +Great Britain, even in the days of Queen Victoria, men sitting +check by jowl on the same Treasury bench who have been very bitter +to each other with anything but friendly words. With us fidelity in +friendship is, happily, a virtue. In Rome expediency governed +everything. All I claim for Cicero is, that he was more sincere +than others around him.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"> +80</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter IV.</span></h3> + +<h4><i>HIS EARLY PLEADINGS.—SEXTUS ROSCIUS AMERINUS.—HIS +INCOME.</i></h4> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 80, +<i>ætat</i> 27</div> + +<p>We now come to the beginning of the work of Cicero's life. This +at first consisted in his employment as an advocate, from which he +gradually rose into public or political occupation, as so often +happens with a successful barrister in our time. We do not know +with absolute certainty even in what year Cicero began his +pleadings, or in what cause. It may probably have been in 81 <span +class="smcap">b.c.</span>, when he was twenty-five, or in his +twenty-sixth year. Of the pleadings of which we know the +particulars, that in the defence of Sextus Roscius Amerinus, which +took place undoubtedly in the year 80 <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span>, ætat twenty-seven, was probably the earliest. +As to that, we have his speech nearly entire, as we have also one +for Publius Quintius, which has generally been printed first among +the orator's works. It has, however, I think, been made clear that +that spoken for Sextus Roscius came before it. It is certain that +there had been others before either of them. In that for Sextus he +says that he had never spoken before in any public cause,<a name= +"FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" +class="fnanchor">61</a> such as was the accusation in which he +was now engaged, from which the inference has to be made that he +had been engaged in private causes; and in that for Quintius he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"> +81</a></span>declares that there was wanting to him in that matter +an aid which he had been accustomed to enjoy in others.<a name= +"FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" +class="fnanchor">62</a> No doubt he had tried his 'prentice hand +in cases of less importance. That of these two the defence of +Sextus Roscius came first, is also to be found in his own words. +More than once, in pleading for Quintius, he speaks of the +proscriptions and confiscations of Sulla as evils then some time +past. These were brought nominally to a close in June, 81; but it +has been supposed by those who have placed this oration first that +it was spoken in that very year. This seems to have been +impossible. "I am most unwilling," says he, "to call to mind that +subject, the very memory of which should be wiped out from our +thoughts."<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">63</a> When the tone of the +two speeches is compared, it will become evident that that for +Sextus Roscius was spoken the first. It was, as I have said, spoken +in his twenty-seventh year, <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 80, the +year after the proscription lists had been closed, when Sulla was +still Dictator, and when the sales of confiscated goods, though no +longer legal, were still carried on under assumed authority. As to +such violation of Sulla's own enactment, Cicero excuses the +Dictator in this very speech, likening him to Great Jove the +Thunderer. Even "Jupiter Optimus Maximus," as he is whose nod the +heavens, the earth, and seas obey—even he cannot so look +after his numerous affairs but that the winds and the storms will +be too strong sometimes, or the heat too great, or the cold too +bitter. If so, how can we wonder that Sulla, who has to rule the +State, to govern, in fact, the world, should not be able himself to +see to everything? Jove probably found it convenient not to see +many things. Such must certainly have been the case with Sulla.</p> + +<p>I will venture, as other biographers have done before, to tell +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"> +82</a></span>the story of Sextus Roscius of Ameria at some length, +because it is in itself a tale of powerful romance, mysterious, +grim, betraying guilt of the deepest dye, misery most profound, and +audacity unparalleled; because, in a word, it is as interesting as +any novel that modern fiction has produced; and also, I will tell +it, because it lets in a flood of light upon the condition of Rome +at the time. Our hair is made to stand on end when we remember that +men had to pick their steps in such a State as this, and to live if +it were possible, and, if not, then to be ready to die. We come in +upon the fag-end of the proscription, and see, not the bloody +wreath of Sulla as he triumphed on his Marian foes, not the cruel +persecution of the ruler determined to establish his order of +things by slaughtering every foe, but the necessary accompaniments +of such ruthless deeds—those attendant villanies for which +the Jupiter Optimus Maximus of the day had neither ears nor eyes. +If in history we can ever get a glimpse at the real life of the +people, it is always more interesting than any account of the great +facts, however grand.</p> + +<p>The Kalends of June had been fixed by Sulla as the day on which +the slaughter legalized by the proscriptions should cease. In the +September following an old gentleman named Sextus Roscius was +murdered in the streets of Rome as he was going home from supper +one night, attended by two slaves. By whom he was murdered, +probably more than one or two knew then, but nobody knows now. He +was a man of reputation, well acquainted with the Metelluses and +Messalas of the day, and passing rich. His name had been down on no +proscription list, for he had been a friend of Sulla's friends. He +was supposed, when he was murdered, to be worth about six million +of sesterces, or something between fifty and sixty thousand pounds +of our money. Though there was at that time much money in Rome, +this amounted to wealth; and though we cannot say who murdered the +man, we may feel sure that he was murdered for his money.</p> + +<p>Immediately on his death his chattels were seized and +sold—<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"> +83</a></span>or divided, probably, without being +sold—including his slaves, in whom, as with every rich Roman, +much of his wealth was invested; and his landed estates—his +farms, of which he had many—were also divided. As to the +actual way in which this was done, we are left much in the dark. +Had the name of Sextus Roscius been on one of the lists, even +though the list would then have been out of date, we could have +understood that it should have been so. Jupiter Optimus Maximus +could not see everything, and great advantages were taken. We must +only suppose that things were so much out of order that they who +had been accustomed to seize upon the goods of the proscribed were +able to stretch their hands so as to grasp almost anything that +came in their way. They could no longer procure a rich man's name +to be put down on the list, but they could pretend that it had been +put down. At any rate, certain persons seized and divided the +chattels of the murdered man as though he had been proscribed.</p> + +<p>Old Roscius, when he was killed, had one son, of whom we are +told that he lived always in the country at Ameria, looking after +his father's farms, never visiting the capital, which was distant +from Ameria something under fifty miles; a rough, uncouth, and +probably honest man—one, at any rate, to whom the ways of the +city were unknown, and who must have been but partially acquainted +with the doings of the time.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id= +"FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class= +"fnanchor">64</a> As we read the story, we feel that very much +depends on the character of this man, and we are aware that our +only description of him comes from his own advocate. Cicero would +probably say much which, though beyond the truth, could not be +absolutely refuted, but would state as facts nothing that was +absolutely false. Cicero describes him as a middle-aged man, who +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"> +84</a></span>never left his farm, doing his duty well by his +father, as whose agent he acted on the land—a simple, +unambitious, ignorant man, to whom one's sympathies are due rather +than our antipathy, because of his devotion to agriculture. He was +now accused of having murdered his father. The accusation was +conducted by one Erucius, who in his opening speech—the +speech made before that by Cicero—had evidently spoken ill of +rural employments. Then Cicero reminds him, and the judges, and the +Court how greatly agriculture had been honored in the old days, +when Consuls were taken from the ploughs. The imagination, however, +of the reader pictures to itself a man who could hardly have been a +Consul at any time—one silent, lonely, uncouth, and +altogether separate from the pleasant intercourses of life. Erucius +had declared of him that he never took part in any festivity. +Cicero uses this to show that he was not likely to have been +tempted by luxury to violence. Old Roscius had had two sons, of +whom he had kept one with him in Rome—the one, probably, +whose society had been dearest to him. He, however, had died, and +our Roscius—Sextus Roscius Amerinus, as he came to be called +when he was made famous by the murder—was left on one of the +farms down in the country. The accusation would probably not have +been made, had he not been known to be a man sullen, silent, rough, +and unpopular—as to whom such a murder might be supposed to +be credible.</p> + +<p>Why should any accusation have been made unless there was clear +evidence as to guilt? That is the first question which presents +itself. This son received no benefit from his father's death. He +had in fact been absolutely beggared by it—had lost the farm, +the farming utensils, every slave in the place, all of which had +belonged to his father, and not to himself. They had been taken, +and divided; taken by persons called "Sectores," informers or +sequestrators, who took possession of and sold—or did not +sell—confiscated goods. Such men in this case had pounced +down upon the goods of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id= +"Page_85">85</a></span>the murdered man at once and swallowed +them all up, not leaving an acre or a slave to our Roscius. Cicero +tells us who divided the spoil among them. There were two other +Rosciuses, distant relatives, probably, both named Titus; Titus +Roscius Magnus, who sojourned in Rome, and who seems to have +exercised the trade of informer and assassin during the +proscriptions, and Titus Roscius Capito, who, when at home, lived +at Ameria, but of whom Cicero tells us that he had become an apt +pupil of the other during this affair. They had got large shares, +but they shared also with one Chrysogonus, the freedman and +favorite of Sulla, who did the dirty work for Jupiter Optimus +Maximus when Jupiter Optimus Maximus had not time to do it himself. +We presume that Chrysogonus had the greater part of the plunder. As +to Capito, the apt pupil, we are told again and again that he got +three farms for himself.</p> + +<p>Again, it is necessary to say that all these facts come from +Cicero, who, in accordance with the authorized practice of +barristers, would scruple at saying nothing which he found in his +instructions. How instructions were conveyed to an advocate in +those days we do not quite know. There was no system of attorneys. +But the story was probably made out for the "patronus" or advocate +by an underling, and in some way prepared for him. That which was +thus prepared he exaggerated as the case might seem to require. It +has to be understood of Cicero that he possessed great art and, no +doubt, great audacity in such exaggeration; in regard to which we +should certainly not bear very heavily upon him now, unless we are +prepared to bear more heavily upon those who do the same thing in +our own enlightened days. But Cicero, even as a young man, knew his +business much too well to put forward statements which could be +disproved. The accusation came first; then the speech in defence; +after that the evidence, which was offered only on the side of the +accuser, and which was subject to cross-examination. Cicero would +have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"> +86</a></span>no opportunity of producing evidence. He was thus +exempted from the necessity of proving his statements, but was +subject to have them all disproved. I think we may take it for +granted that the property of the murdered man was divided as he +tells us.</p> + +<p>If that was so, why should any accusation have been made? Our +Sextus seems to have been too much crushed by the dangers of his +position to have attempted to get back any part of his father's +wealth. He had betaken himself to the protection of a certain noble +lady, one Metella, whose family had been his father's friends, and +by her and her friends the defence was no doubt managed. "You have +my farms," he is made to say by his advocate; "I live on the +charity of another. I abandon everything because I am placid by +nature, and because it must be so. My house, which is closed to me, +is open to you: I endure it. You have possessed yourself of my +whole establishment; I have not one single slave. I suffer all +this, and feel that I must suffer it. What do you want more? Why do +you persecute me further? In what do you think that I shall hurt +you? How do I interfere with you? In what do I oppose you? Is it +your wish to kill a man for the sake of plunder? You have your +plunder. If for the sake of hatred, what hatred can you feel +against him of whose land you have taken possession before you had +even known him?"<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a +href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">65</a> Of all this, which +is the advocate's appeal to pity, we may believe as little as we +please. Cicero is addressing the judge, and desires only an +acquittal. But the argument shows that no overt act in quest of +restitution had as yet been made. Nevertheless, Chrysogonus feared +such action, and had arranged with the two Tituses that something +should be done to prevent it. What are we to think of the condition +of a city in which not only could a man be murdered for his wealth +walking home from supper—that, indeed, might happen in London +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"> +87</a></span>if there existed the means of getting at the man's +money when the man was dead—but in which such a plot could be +concerted in order that the robbery might be consummated? "We have +murdered the man and taken his money under the false plea that his +goods had been confiscated. Friends, we find, are +interfering—these Metellas and Metelluses, probably. There is +a son who is the natural heir. Let us say that he killed his own +father. The courts of law, which have only just been reopened since +the dear days of proscription, disorder, and confiscation, will +hardly yet be alert enough to acquit a man in opposition to the +Dictator's favorite. Let us get him convicted, and, as a parricide, +sewed up alive in a bag and thrown into the river"—as some of +us have perhaps seen cats drowned, for such was the +punishment—"and then he at least will not disturb us." It +must have thus been that the plot was arranged.</p> + +<p>It was a plot so foul that nothing could be fouler; but not the +less was it carried out persistently with the knowledge and the +assistance of many. Erucius, the accuser, who seems to have been +put forward on the part of Chrysogonus, asserted that the man had +caused his father to be murdered because of hatred. The father was +going to disinherit the son, and therefore the son murdered the +father. In this there might have been some probability, had there +been any evidence of such an intention on the father's part. But +there was none. Cicero declares that the father had never thought +of disinheriting his son. There had been no quarrel, no hatred. +This had been assumed as a reason—falsely. There was in fact +no cause for such a deed; nor was it possible that the son should +have done it. The father was killed in Rome when, as was evident, +the son was fifty miles off. He never left his farm. Erucius, the +accuser, had said, and had said truly, that Rome was full of +murderers.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">66</a> But who was the <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"> +88</a></span>most likely to have employed such a person: this +rough husbandman, who had no intercourse with Rome, who knew no one +there, who knew little of Roman ways, who had nothing to get by the +murder when committed, or they who had long been concerned with +murderers, who knew Rome, and who were now found to have the +property in their hands?</p> + +<p>The two slaves who had been with the old man when he was killed, +surely they might tell something? Here there comes out incidentally +the fact that slaves when they were examined as witnesses were +tortured, quite as a matter of course, so that their evidence might +be extracted. This is spoken of with no horror by Cicero, nor, as +far as I can remember, by other Roman writers. It was regarded as +an established rule of life that a slave, if brought into a court +of law, should be made to tell the truth by such appliances. This +was so common that one is tempted to hope, and almost to suppose +that the "question" was not ordinarily administered with +circumstances of extreme cruelty. We hear, indeed, of slaves having +their liberty given them in order that, being free, they may not be +forced by torture to tell the truth;<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id= +"FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class= +"fnanchor">67</a> but had the cruelty been of the nature +described by Scott in "Old Mortality," when the poor preacher's +limbs were mangled, I think we should have heard more of it. Nor +was the torture always applied, but only when the expected evidence +was not otherwise forth-coming. Cicero explains, in the little +dialogue given below, how the thing was carried on.<a name= +"FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" +class="fnanchor">68</a> "You had better tell the truth now, my +friend: Was it so and so?" The slave knows that, if he says it was +so, there is the cross for him, or the "little horse;" but that, if +he will say the contrary, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" +id="Page_89">89</a></span>he will save his joints from +racking. And yet the evidence went for what it was worth.</p> + +<p>In this case of Roscius there had certainly been two slaves +present; but Cicero, who, as counsel for the defence, could call no +witnesses, had not the power to bring them into court; nor could +slaves have been made to give evidence against their masters. These +slaves, who had belonged to the murdered man, were now the property +either of Chrysogonus or of the two Tituses. There was no getting +at their evidence but by permission of their masters, and this was +withheld. Cicero demands that they shall be produced, knowing that +the demand will have no effect. "The man here," he says, pointing +to the accused, "asks for it, prays for it. What will you do in +this case? Why do you refuse?"<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id= +"FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class= +"fnanchor">69</a></p> + +<p>By this time the reader is brought to feel that the accused +person cannot possibly have been guilty; and if the reader, how +much more the hearer? Then Cicero goes on to show who in truth were +guilty. "Doubt now if you can, judges, by whom Roscius was killed: +whether by him who, by his father's death, is plunged into poverty +and trouble—who is forbidden even to investigate the +truth—or by those who are afraid of real evidence, who +themselves possess the plunder, who live in the midst of murder, +and on the proceeds of murder."<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id= +"FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class= +"fnanchor">70</a></p> + +<p>Then he addresses one of the Tituses, Titus Magnus, who seems to +have been sitting in the court, and who is rebuked for his +impudence in doing so: "Who can doubt who was the +murderer—you who have got all the plunder, or this man who +has lost everything? But if it be added to this that you were a +pauper before—that you have been known as a greedy fellow, as +a dare-devil, as the avowed enemy of him who has been +killed—then need one ask what has brought you to do such a +deed as this?"<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a +href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">71</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"> +90</a></span>He next tells what took place, as far as it was +known, immediately after the murder. The man had been killed coming +home from supper, in September, after it was dark, say at eight or +nine o'clock, and the fact was known in Ameria before dawn. +Travelling was not then very quick; but a messenger, one Mallius +Glaucia, a man on very close terms with Titus Magnus, was sent down +at once in a light gig to travel through the night and take the +information to Titus Capito Why was all this hurry? How did Glaucia +hear of the murder so quickly? What cause to travel all through the +night? Why was it necessary that Capito should know all about it at +once? "I cannot think," says Cicero, "only that I see that Capito +has got three of the farms out of the thirteen which the murdered +man owned!" But Capito is to be produced as a witness, and Cicero +gives us to understand what sort of cross-examination he will have +to undergo.</p> + +<p>In all this the reader has to imagine much, and to come to +conclusions as to facts of which he has no evidence. When that +hurried messenger was sent, there was probably no idea of accusing +the son. The two real contrivers of the murder would have been more +on their guard had they intended such a course. It had been +conceived that when the man was dead and his goods seized, the fear +of Sulla's favorite, the still customary dread of the horrors of +the time, would cause the son to shrink from inquiry. Hitherto, +when men had been killed and their goods taken, even if the killing +and the taking had not been done strictly in accordance with +Sulla's ordinance, it had been found safer to be silent and to +endure; but this poor wretch, Sextus, had friends in +Rome—friends who were friends of Sulla—of whom +Chrysogonus and the Tituses had probably not bethought themselves. +When it came to pass that more stir was made than they had +expected, then the accusation became necessary.</p> + +<p>But, in order to obtain the needed official support and aid, +Chrysogonus must be sought. Sulla was then at Volaterra, in Etruria +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"> +91</a></span>perhaps 150 miles north-west from Rome, and with him +was his favorite Chrysogonus. In four days from the time of this +murder the news was earned thither, and, so Cicero states, by the +same messenger—by Glaucia—who had taken it to Ameria. +Chrysogonus immediately saw to the selling of the goods, and from +this Cicero implies that Chrysogonus and the two Tituses were in +partnership.</p> + +<p>But it seems that when the fact of the death of old Roscius was +known at Ameria—at which place he was an occasional resident +himself, and the most conspicuous man in the place—the +inhabitants, struck with horror, determined to send a deputation to +Sulla. Something of what was being done with their townsman's +property was probably known, and there seems to have been a desire +for justice. Ten townsmen were chosen to go to Sulla, and to beg +that he would personally look into the matter. Here, again, we are +very much in the dark, because this very Capito, to whom these +farms were allotted as his share, was not only chosen to be one of +the ten, but actually became their spokesman and their manager. The +great object was to keep Sulla himself in the dark, and this Capito +managed to do by the aid of Chrysogonus. None of the ten were +allowed to see Sulla. They are hoaxed into believing that +Chrysogonus himself will look to it, and so they go back to Ameria, +having achieved nothing. We are tempted to believe that the +deputation was a false deputation, each of whom probably had his +little share, so that in this way there might be an appearance of +justice. If it was so, Cicero has not chosen to tell that part of +the story, having, no doubt, some good advocate's reason for +omitting it.</p> + +<p>So far the matter had gone with the Tituses, and with +Chrysogonus who had got his lion's share. Our poor Roscius, the +victim, did at first abandon his property, and allow himself to be +awed into silence. We cannot but think that he was a poor creature, +and can fancy that he had lived a wretched life during all the +murders of the Sullan proscriptions. But in his <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span>abject +misery he had found his way up among the great friends of his +family at Rome, and had there been charged with the parricide, +because Chrysogonus and the Tituses began to be afraid of what +these great friends might do.</p> + +<p>This is the story as Cicero has been able to tell it in his +speech. Beyond that, we only know that the man was acquitted. +Whether he got back part of his father's property there is nothing +to inform us. Whether further inquiry was made as to the murder; +whether evil befell those two Tituses or Chrysogonus was made to +disgorge, there has been no one to inform us. The matter was of +little importance in Rome, where murders and organized robberies of +the kind were the common incidents of every-day life. History would +have meddled with nothing so ordinary had not it happened that the +case fell into the hands of a man so great a master of his language +that it has been worth the while of ages to perpetuate the speech +which he made in the matter. But the story, as a story of Roman +life, is interesting, and it gives a slight aid to history in +explaining the condition of things which Sulla had produced.</p> + +<p>The attack upon Chrysogonus is bold, and cannot but have been +offensive to Sulla, though Sulla is by name absolved from immediate +blame. Chrysogonus himself, the favorite, he does not spare, saying +words so bitter of tone that one would think that the +judges—Sulla's judges—would have stopped him, had they +been able. "Putting aside Sextus Roscius," he says, "I demand, +first of all, why the goods of an esteemed citizen were sold; then, +why have the goods been sold of one who had not himself been +proscribed, and who had not been killed while defending Sulla's +enemies? It is against those only that the law is made. Then I +demand why they were sold when the legal day for such sales had +passed, and why they were sold for such a trifle."<a name= +"FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" +class="fnanchor">72</a> Then he gives us a picture of Chrysogonus +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"> +93</a></span>flaunting down the streets. "You have seen him, +judges, how, his locks combed and perfumed, he swims along the +Forum"—he, a freedman, with a crowd of Roman citizens at his +heels, that all may see that he thinks himself inferior to +none—"the only happy man of the day, the only one with any +power in his hands."<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id= +"FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class= +"fnanchor">73</a></p> + +<p>This trial was, as has been said, a "causa publica," a criminal +accusation of such importance as to demand that it should be tried +before a full bench of judges. Of these the number would be +uncertain, but they were probably above fifty. The Prætor of the +day—the Prætor to whom by lot had fallen for that year that +peculiar duty—presided, and the judges all sat round him. +Their duty seems to have consisted in listening to the pleadings, +and then in voting. Each judge could vote<a name="FNanchor_74_74" +id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class= +"fnanchor">74</a> "guilty," "acquitted," or "not proven," as they +do in Scotland. They were, in fact, jurymen rather than judges. It +does not seem that any amount of legal lore was looked for +specially in the judges, who at different periods had been taken +from various orders of the citizens, but who at this moment, by a +special law enacted by Sulla, were selected only from the Senators. +We have ample evidence that at this period the judges in Rome were +most corrupt. They were tainted by a double corruption: that of +standing by their order instead of standing by the +public—each man among them feeling that his turn to be +accused might come—and that also of taking direct bribes. +Cicero on various occasions—on this, for instance, and +notably in the trial of Verres, to which we shall come +soon—<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"> +94</a></span>felt very strongly that his only means of getting a +true verdict from the majority of judges was to frighten them into +temporary honesty by the magnitude of the occasion. If a trial +could be slurred through with indifferent advocates, with nothing +to create public notice, with no efforts of genius to attract +admiration, and a large attendance and consequent sympathy the +judgment would, as a matter of course, be bought. In such a case as +this of Sextus Roscius, the poor wretch would be condemned, sewed +up in his bag, and thrown into the sea, a portion of the plunder +would be divided among the judges, and nothing further would be +said about it. But if an orator could achieve for himself such a +reputation that the world would come and listen to him, if he could +so speak that Rome should be made to talk about the trial, then +might the judges be frightened into a true verdict. It may be +understood, therefore, of what importance it was to obtain the +services of a Cicero, or of a Hortensius, who was unrivalled at the +Roman bar when Cicero began to plead.</p> + +<p>There were three special modes of oratory in which Cicero +displayed his powers. He spoke either before the judges—a +large body of judges who sat collected round the Prætor, as in the +case of Sextus Roscius—or in cases of civil law before a +single judge, selected by the Prætor, who sat with an assessor, as +in the case of Roscius the actor, which shall be mentioned just +now. This was the recognized work of his life, in which he was +engaged, at any rate, in his earlier years; or he spoke to the +populace, in what was called the Concio, or assembly of the +people—speeches made before a crowd called together for a +special purpose, as were the second and third orations against +Catiline; or in the Senate, in which a political rather than a +judicial sentence was sought from the votes of the Senators. There +was a fourth mode of address, which in the days of the Emperors +became common, when the advocate spoke "ad Principem;" that is, to +the Emperor himself, or to some ruler acting for him as sole judge. +It was thus that Cicero <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id= +"Page_95">95</a></span>pleaded before Cæsar for Ligarius +and for King Deiotarus, in the latter years of his life. In each of +these a separate manner and a distinct line had to be adopted, in +all of which he seems to have been equally happy, and equally +powerful. In judging of his speeches, we are bound to remember that +they were not probably uttered with their words arranged as we read +them. Some of those we have were never spoken at all, as was the +case with the five last Verrene orations, and with the second, by +far the longest of the Philippics. Some, as was specially the case +with the defence of Milo, the language of which is perhaps as +perfect as that of any oration which has reached us from ancient or +modern days, were only spoken in part; so that that which we read +bears but small relation to that which was heard. All were probably +retouched for publication.<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id= +"FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class= +"fnanchor">75</a> That words so perfect in their construction +should have flowed from a man's mouth, often with but little +preparation, we cannot conceive. But we know from the evidence of +the day, and from the character which remained of him through after +Roman ages, how great was the immediate effect of his oratory. We +can imagine him, in this case of Sextus Roscius, standing out in +the open air in the Forum, with the movable furniture of the court +around him, the seats on which the judges sat with the Prætor in +the midst of them, all Senators in their white robes, with broad +purple borders. There too were seated, we may suppose on lower +benches, the friends of the accused and the supporters of the +accusation, and around, at the back of the orator, was such a crowd +as he by the character of his eloquence may have drawn to the spot. +Cicero was still a young man; but his name had made itself known +and we can imagine that some tidings had got abroad as to <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"> +96</a></span>the bold words which would be spoken in reference to +Sulla and Chrysogonus. The scene must have been very different from +that of one of our dingy courts, in which the ermine is made +splendid only by the purity and learning of the man who wears it. +In Rome all exterior gifts were there. Cicero knew how to use them, +so that the judges who made so large a part in the pageant should +not dare to disgrace themselves because of its publicity. +Quintilian gives his pupils much advice as to the way in which they +should dress themselves<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id= +"FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class= +"fnanchor">76</a> and hold their togas—changing the folds +of the garment so as to suit the different parts of the +speech—how they should move their arms, and hold their heads, +and turn their necks; even how they should comb their hair when +they came to stand in public and plead at the bar. All these arts, +with many changes, no doubt, as years rolled on, had come down to +him from days before Cicero; but he always refers to Cicero as +though his were the palmy days of Roman eloquence. We can well +believe that Cicero had studied many of these arts by his +twenty-seventh year—that he knew how to hold his toga and how +to drop it—how to make the proper angle with his +elbow—how to comb his hair, and yet not be a fop—and to +add to the glory of his voice all the personal graces which were at +his command.</p> + +<p>Sextus Roscius Amerinus, with all his misfortunes, injustices, +and miseries, is now to us no more than the name of a fable; but to +those who know it, the fable is, I think, more attractive than most +novels.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"> +97</a></span>We know that Cicero pleaded other causes before he +went to Greece in the year 79 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, +especially those for Publius Quintius, of which we have his speech, +and that for a lady of Arretium, in which he defended her right to +be regarded as a free woman of that city. In this speech he again +attacked Sulla, the rights of the lady in question having been +placed in jeopardy by an enactment made by the Dictator; and again +Cicero was successful. This is not extant. Then he started on his +travels, as to which I have already spoken. While he was absent +Sulla died, and the condition of the Republic during his absence +was anything but hopeful. Lepidus was Consul during these two +years, than whom no weaker officer ever held rule in Rome—or +rebelled against Rome; and Sertorius, who was in truth a great man, +was in arms against Rome in Spain, as a rebel, though he was in +truth struggling to create a new Roman power, which should be purer +than that existing in Italy. What Cicero thought of the condition +of his country at this time we have no means of knowing. If he then +wrote letters, they have not been preserved. His spoken words speak +plainly enough of the condition of the courts of law, and let us +know how resolved he was to oppose himself to their iniquities. A +young man may devote himself to politics with as much ardor as a +senior, but he cannot do so if he be intent on a profession. It is +only when his business is so well grasped by him as to sit easily +on him, that he is able to undertake the second occupation.</p> + +<p>There is a rumor that Cicero, when he returned home from Greece, +thought for awhile of giving himself up to philosophy, so that he +was called Greek and Sophist in ridicule. It is not, however, to be +believed that he ever for a moment abandoned the purpose he had +formed for his own career. It will become evident as we go on with +his life, that this so-called philosophy of the Greeks was never to +him a matter of more than interesting inquiry. A full, active, +human life, in which he might achieve for himself all the charms of +high rank, gilded by intelligence, <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span>erudition, and refined +luxury, in which also he might serve his country, his order, and +his friends—just such a life as our leading men propose to +themselves here, to-day, in our country—this is what Cicero +had determined to achieve from his earliest years, and it was not +likely that he should be turned from it by the pseudo logic of +Greek philosophers. That the logic even of the Academy was false to +him we have ample evidence, not only in his life but in his +writings. There is a story that, during his travels, he consulted +the oracle at Delphi as to his future career, and that on being +told that he must look to his own genius and not to the opinion of +the world at large, he determined to abandon the honors of the +Republic. That he should have talked among the young men of the day +of his philosophic investigations till they laughed at him and gave +him a nickname, may be probable, but it cannot have been that he +ever thought of giving up the bar.</p> + +<p>In the year of his return to Rome, when he was thirty, he +married Terentia, a noble lady, of whom we are informed that she +had a good fortune, and that her sister was one of the Vestal +Virgins.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">77</a> Her nobility is +inferred from the fact that the virgins were, as a rule, chosen +from the noble families, though the law required only that they +should be the daughters of free parents, and of persons engaged in +no mean pursuits. As to the more important question of Terentia's +fortune there has never been a doubt. Plutarch, however, does not +make it out to have been very great, assuming a sum which was equal +to about £4200 of our money. He tells us at the same time +that Cicero's own fortune was less than £4000. But in both of +these statements, Plutarch, who was forced to take his facts where +he could get them, and was not very <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span>particular in his +authority, probably erred. The early education of Cicero, and the +care taken to provide him with all that money could purchase, is, I +think, conclusive of his father's wealth; and the mode of life +adopted by Cicero shows that at no period did he think it necessary +to live as men do live with small incomes.</p> + +<p>We shall find, as we go on, that he spent his money freely, as +men did at Rome who had the command of large means. We are aware +that he was often in debt. We find that from his letters. But he +owed money not as a needy man does, but as one who is speculative, +sanguine, and quite confident of his own resources. The management +of incomes was not so fixed a thing then as it is with us now. +Speculation was even more rampant, and rising men were willing and +were able to become indebted for enormous sums, having no security +to offer but the promise of their future career. Cæsar's +debts during various times of his life were proverbial. He is said +to have owed over £300,000 before he reached his first step +in the public employment. Cicero rushed into no such danger as +this. We know, indeed, that when the time came to him for public +expenditure on a great scale, as, for instance, when he was filling +the office of Ædile, he kept within bounds, and he did not lavish +money which he did not possess. We know also that he refrained, +altogether refrained, from the iniquitous habits of making large +fortunes which were open to the great politicians of the Republic. +To be Quæstor that he might be Ædile, Ædile that he might be +Prætor and Consul, and Prætor and Consul that he might rob a +province—pillage Sicily, Spain, or Asia, and then at last +come back a rich man, rich enough to cope with all his creditors, +and to bribe the judges should he be accused for his +misdeeds—these were the usual steps to take by enterprising +Romans toward power, wealth, and enjoyment. But it will be +observed, in this sequence of circumstances, the robbery of the +province was essential to success. This was sometimes done after so +magnificent a fashion as to <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span>have become an immortal +fact in history. The instance of Verres will be narrated in the +next chapter but one. Something of moderation was more general, so +that the fleeced provincial might still live, and prefer sufferance +to the doubtful chances of recovery. A Proconsul might rob a +great deal, and still return with hands apparently clean, bringing +with him a score of provincial Deputies to laud his goodness before +the citizens at home. But Cicero robbed not at all. Even they who +have been most hard upon his name, accusing him of insincerity and +sometimes of want of patriotism, because his Roman mode of +declaring himself without reserve in his letters has been +perpetuated for us by the excellence of their language, even they +have acknowledged that he kept his hands studiously clean in the +service of his country, when to have clean hands was so peculiar as +to be regarded as absurd.</p> + +<p>There were other means in which a noble Roman might make money, +and might do so without leaving the city. An orator might be paid +for his services as an advocate. Cicero, had such a trade been +opened to him, might have made almost any sum to which his +imagination could have stretched itself. Such a trade was carried +on to a very great extent. It was illegal, such payment having been +forbidden by the "Lex Cincia De Muneribus," passed more than a +century before Cicero began his pleadings.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" +id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class= +"fnanchor">78</a> But the law had become a dead letter in the +majority of cases. There can be no doubt that Hortensius, the +predecessor and great rival of Cicero, took presents, if not +absolute payment. Indeed, the myth of honorary work, which is in +itself absurd, was no more practicable in Rome than it has been +found to be in England, where every barrister is theoretically +presumed to work for nothing. That the "Lex Cincia," as far as the +payment of advocates went, was absurd, may be allowed by us all. +Services for which no regular payment <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span>can be exacted +will always cost more than those which have a defined price. But +Cicero would not break the law. It has been hinted rather than +stated that he, like other orators of the day, had his price. He +himself tells us that he took nothing; and no instance has been +adduced that he had ever done so. He is free enough in accusing +Hortensius of having accepted a beautiful statuette, an ivory +sphinx of great value. What he knew of Hortensius, Hortensius would +have known of him, had it been there to know; and what Hortensius +or others had heard would certainly have been told. As far as we +can learn, there is no ground for accusing Cicero of taking fees or +presents beyond the probability that he would do so. I think we are +justified in believing that he did not do so, because those who +watched his conduct closely found no opportunity of exposing him. +That he was paid by different allied States for undertaking their +protection in the Senate, is probable, such having been a custom +not illegal. We know that he was specially charged with the affairs +of Dyrrachium, and had probably amicable relations with other +allied communities. This, however, must have been later in life, +when his name was sufficiently high to insure the value of his +services, and when he was a Senator.</p> + +<p>Noble Romans also—noble as they were, and infinitely +superior to the little cares of trade—were accustomed to +traffic very largely in usury. We shall have a terrible example of +such baseness on the part of Brutus—that Brutus whom we have +been taught to regard as almost on a par with Cato in purity. To +lend money to citizens, or more profitably to allied States and +cities, at enormous rates of interest, was the ordinary resource of +a Roman nobleman in quest of revenue. The allied city, when +absolutely eaten to the bone by one noble Roman, who had plundered +it as Proconsul or Governor, would escape from its immediate +embarrassment by borrowing money from another noble Roman, who +would then grind its very bones in exacting his interest and his +principal. Cicero, in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" +id="Page_102">102</a></span>most perfect of his +works—the treatise De Officiis, an essay in which he +instructs his son as to the way in which a man should endeavor to +live so as to be a gentleman—inveighs both against trade and +usury. When he tells us that they are to be accounted mean who buy +in order that they may sell, we, with our later lights, do not +quite agree with him, although he founds his assertion on an idea +which is too often supported by the world's practice, namely, that +men cannot do a retail business profitably without lying.<a name= +"FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" +class="fnanchor">79</a> The doctrine, however, has always been +common that retail trade is not compatible with noble bearing, and +was practised by all Romans who aspired to be considered among the +upper classes. That other and certainly baser means of making money +by usury was, however, only too common. Crassus, the noted rich man +of Rome in Cæsar's day, who was one of the first Triumvirate, +and who perished ignominiously in Parthia, was known to have +gathered much of his wealth by such means. But against this Cicero +is as staunchly severe as against shopkeeping. "First of all," he +says, "these profits are despicable which incur the hatred of men, +such as those of gatherers of custom and lenders of money on +usury."<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">80</a></p> + +<p>Again, we are entitled to say that Cicero did not condescend to +enrich himself by the means which he himself condemns, because, had +he done so, the accusations made against him by his contemporaries +would have reached our ears. Nor is it probable that a man in +addressing his son as to rules of life would have spoken against a +method of gathering riches which, <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span>had he practised it +himself, must have been known to his son. His rules were severe as +compared with the habits of the time. His dear friend Atticus did +not so govern his conduct, or Brutus, who, when he wrote the De +Officiis, was only less dear to him than Atticus. But Cicero +himself seems to have done so faithfully. We learn from his letter +that he owned house-property in Rome to a considerable extent, +having probably thus invested his own money or that of his wife. He +inherited also the family house at Arpinum. He makes it a matter +for boasting that he had received in the course of his life by +legacies nearly £200,000 (twenty million sesterces), in +itself a source of great income, and one common with Romans of high +position.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">81</a> Of the extent of his +income it is impossible to speak, or even make a guess. But we do +know that he lived always as a rich man—as one who regards +such a condition of life as essentially proper to him; and that +though he was often in debt, as was customary with noble Romans, he +could always write about his debts in a vein of pleasantry, showing +that they were not a heavy burden to him; and we know that he could +at all times command for himself villas, books, statues, ornaments, +columns, galleries, charming shades, and all the delicious +appendages of mingled wealth and intelligence. He was as might be +some English marquis, who, though up to his eyes in mortgages, is +quite sure that he will never want any of the luxuries befitting a +marquis. Though we have no authority to tell us how his condition +of life became what it was, it is necessary that we should +understand that condition if we are to get a clear insight into his +life. Of that condition we have ample evidence. He commenced his +career as a youth upon whose behalf nothing was spared, and when he +settled himself in Rome, with the purport of winning for himself +the highest honors of the Republic, he did so with the means of +living like a nobleman.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"> +104</a></span>But the point on which it is most necessary to +insist is this: that while so many—I may almost say all +around him in his own order—were unscrupulous as to their +means of getting money, he kept his hands clean. The practice then +was much as it is now. A gentleman in our days is supposed to have +his hands clean; but there has got abroad among us a feeling that, +only let a man rise high enough, soil will not stick to him. To rob +is base; but if you rob enough, robbery will become heroism, or, at +any rate, magnificence. With Cæsar his debts have been +accounted happy audacity; his pillage of Gaul and Spain, and of +Rome also, have indicated only the success of the great General; +his cruelty, which in cold-blooded efficiency has equalled if not +exceeded the blood-thirstiness of any other tyrant, has been called +clemency.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">82</a> I do not mean to draw a +parallel between Cæsar and Cicero. No two men could have been +more different in their natures or in their career. But the one has +been lauded because he was unscrupulous, and the other has incurred +reproach because, at every turn and twist in his life, scruples +dominated him. I do not say that he always did what he thought to +be right. A man who doubts much can never do that. The thing that +was right to him in the thinking became wrong to him in the doing. +That from which he has shrunk as evil when it was within his grasp, +takes the color of good when it has been beyond his reach. Cicero +had not the stuff in him to rule the Rome and the Romans of his +period; but he was a man whose hands were free from all stain, +either of blood or money; and for so much let him, at any rate, +have the credit.</p> + +<p>Between the return of Cicero to Rome in 77 <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> and his election as Quæstor in 75, in which +period he married Terentia, <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span>he made various +speeches in different causes, of which only one remains to us, or +rather, a small part of one. This is notable as having been spoken +in behalf of that Roscius, the great comic actor, whose name has +become familiar to us on account of his excellence, almost as have +those of Garrick, of Siddons, and of Talma. It was a pleading as to +the value of a slave, and the amount of pecuniary responsibility +attaching to Roscius on account of the slave, who had been murdered +when in his charge. As to the murder, no question is made. The +slave was valuable, and the injury done to his master was a matter +of importance. He, having been a slave, could have no stronger a +claim for an injury done to himself than would a dog or a horse. +The slave, whose name was Panurge—a name which has since been +made famous as having been borrowed by Rabelais, probably from this +occurrence, and given to his demon of mischief—showed +aptitude for acting, and was therefore valuable. Then one Flavius +killed him; why or how we do not know; and, having killed him, +settled with Roscius for the injury by giving him a small farm. But +Roscius had only borrowed or hired the man from one +Chærea—or was in partnership with Chærea as to the +man—and on that account paid something out of the value of +the farm for the loss incurred; but the owner was not satisfied, +and after a lapse of time made a further claim. Hence arose the +action, in pleading which Cicero was successful. In the fragment we +have of the speech there is nothing remarkable except the studied +clearness of the language; but it reminds us of the opinion which +Cicero had expressed of this actor in the oration which he made for +Publius Quintius, who was the brother-in-law of Roscius. "He is +such an actor," says Cicero, "that there is none other on the stage +worthy to be seen; and such a man that among men he is the last +that should have become an actor."<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id= +"FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class= +"fnanchor">83</a> The orator's praise of the actor is not of much +importance. Had not Roscius <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span>been great in his +profession, his name would not have come down to later ages. Nor is +it now matter of great interest that the actor should have been +highly praised as a man by his advocate; but it is something for us +to know that the stage was generally held in such low repute as to +make it seem to be a pity that a good man should have taken himself +to such a calling.</p> + +<p>In the year 76 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> Cicero became +father of a daughter, whom we shall know as Tullia—who, as +she grew up, became the one person whom he loved best in all the +world—and was elected Quæstor. Cicero tells us of himself +that in the preceding year he had solicited the Quæstorship, when +Cotta was candidate for the Consulship and Hortensius for the +Prætorship. There are in the dialogue De Claris +Oratoribus—which has had the name of Brutus always given to +it—some passages in which the orator tells us more of himself +than in any other of his works. I will annex a translation of a +small portion because of its intrinsic interest; but I will +relegate it to an appendix, because it is too long either for +insertion in the text or for a note.<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id= +"FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class= +"fnanchor">84</a></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"> +107</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter V.</span></h3> + +<h4><i>CICERO AS QUÆSTOR.</i></h4> + +<p>Cicero was elected Quæstor in his thirtieth year, <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> 76. He was then nearly thirty-one. His +predecessors and rivals at the bar, Cotta and Hortensius, were +elected Consul and Prætor, respectively, in the same year. To +become Quæstor at the earliest age allowed by the law (at +thirty-one, namely) was the ambition of the Roman advocate who +purposed to make his fortune by serving the State. To act as +Quæstor in his thirty-second year, Ædile in his thirty-seventh, +Prætor in his forty-first, and Consul in his forty-fourth year, +was to achieve, in the earliest succession allowed by law, all the +great offices of trust, power, and future emolument. The great +reward of proconsular rapine did not generally come till after the +last step, though there were notable instances in which a +Proprætor with proconsular authority could make a large fortune, +as we shall learn when we come to deal with Verres, and though +Ædiles, and even Quæstors, could find pickings. It was therefore +a great thing for a man to begin as early as the law would permit, +and to lose as few years as possible in reaching the summit. Cicero +lost none. As he himself tells us in the passage to which I have +referred in the last chapter, and which is to be found in the +Appendix, he gained the good-will of men—that is, of free +Romans who had the suffrage, and who could therefore vote either +for him or against him—by the assiduity of his attention to +the cases which he undertook, and by a certain <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"> +108</a></span>brilliancy of speech which was new to them.<a name= +"FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" +class="fnanchor">85</a> Putting his hand strenuously to the +plough, allowing himself to be diverted by none of those luxuries +to which Romans of his day were so wont to give way, he earned his +purpose by a resolution to do his very best. He was "Novus +Homo"—a man, that is, belonging to a family of which no +member had as yet filled high office in the State. Against such +there was a strong prejudice with the aristocracy, who did not like +to see the good things of the Republic dispersed among an increased +number of hands. The power of voting was common to all Roman male +citizens; but the power of influencing the electors had passed very +much into the hands of the rich. The admiration which Cicero had +determined to elicit would not go very far, unless it could be +produced in a very high degree. A Verres could get himself made +Prætor; a Lepidus some years since could receive the Consulship; +or now an Antony, or almost a Catiline. The candidate would borrow +money on the security of his own audacity, and would thus +succeed—perhaps with some minor gifts of eloquence, if he +could achieve them. With all this, the borrowing and the spending +of money, that is, with direct bribery, Cicero would have nothing +to do; but of the art of canvassing—that art by which he +could at the moment make himself beloved by the citizens who had a +vote to give—he was a profound master.</p> + +<p>There is a short treatise, De Petitione Consulatus, on +canvassing for the Consulship, of which mention may be made here, +because all the tricks of the trade were as essential to him, when +looking to be Quæstor, as when he afterward desired to be Consul, +and because the political doings of his life will hurry us on too +quickly in the days of his Consulship to admit of our referring to +these lessons. This little piece, of which we have only a fragment, +is supposed to have been addressed <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span>to Cicero by his +brother Quintus, giving fraternal advice as to the then coming +great occasion. The critics say that it was retouched by the orator +himself. The reader who has studied Cicero's style will think that +the retouching went to a great extent, or that the two brothers +were very like each other in their power of expression.</p> + +<p>The first piece of advice was no doubt always in Cicero's mind, +not only when he looked for office, but whenever he addressed a +meeting of his fellow-citizens. "Bethink yourself what is this +Republic; what it is you seek to be in it, and who you are that +seek it. As you go down daily to the Forum, turn the answer to this +in your mind: 'Novus sum; consulatum peto; Roma est'—'I am a +man of an untried family. It is the Consulship that I seek. It is +Rome in which I seek it.'" Though the condition of Rome was bad, +still to him the Republic was the greatest thing in the world, and +to be Consul in that Republic the highest honor which the world +could give.</p> + +<p>There is nobility in that, but there is very much that is +ignoble in the means of canvassing which are advocated. I cannot +say that they are as yet too ignoble for our modern use here in +England, but they are too ignoble to be acknowledged by our +candidates themselves, or by their brothers on their behalf. +Cicero, not having progressed far enough in modern civilization to +have studied the beauty of truth, is held to be false and +hypocritical. We who know so much more than he did, and have the +doctrine of truth at our fingers' ends, are wise enough to declare +nothing of our own shortcomings, but to attribute such malpractices +only to others. "It is a good thing to be thought worthy of the +rank we seek by those who are in possession of it." Make yourself +out to be an aristocrat, he means. "Canvass them, and cotton to +them. Make them believe that in matters of politics you have always +been with the aristocracy, never with the mob;" that if "you have +at all spoken a word in public to tickle the people, you have done +so for the sake of gaining Pompey." As to this, it is necessary +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"> +110</a></span>to understand Pompey's peculiar popularity at the +moment, both with the Liberals and with the Conservatives. "Above +all, see that you have with you the 'jeunesse dorée.' They +carry so much! There are many with you already. Take care that they +shall know how much you think of them."</p> + +<p>He is especially desired to make known to the public the +iniquities of Catiline, his opponent, as to whom Quintus says that, +though he has lately been acquitted in regard to his speculations +in Africa, he has had to bribe the judges so highly that he is now +as poor as they were before they got their plunder. At every word +we read we are tempted to agree with Mommsen that on the Roman +oligarchy of the period no judgment can be passed save one, "of +inexorable condemnation."<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id= +"FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class= +"fnanchor">86</a></p> + +<p>"Remember," says Quintus, "that your candidature is very strong +in that kind of friendship which has been created by your +pleadings. Take care that each of those friends shall know what +special business is allotted to him on the occasion; and as you +have not troubled any of them yet, make them understand that you +have reserved for the present moment the payment of their debts." +This is all very well; but the next direction mingles so much of +business with its truth, that no one but Machiavelli or Quintus +Cicero could have expressed it in words. "Men," says Quintus, "are +induced to struggle for us in these canvassings by three +motives—by memory of kindness done, by the hope of kindness +to come, and by community of political conviction. You must see how +you are to catch each of these. Small favors will induce a man to +canvass for you; and they who owe their safety to your pleadings, +for there are many such, are aware that if they do not stand by you +now they will be regarded by all the world as sorry fellows. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> +Nevertheless, they should be made to feel that, as they are +indebted to you, you will be glad to have an opportunity of +becoming indebted to them. But as to those on whom you have a hold +only by hope—a class of men very much more numerous, and +likely to be very much more active—they are the men whom you +should make to understand that your assistance will be always at +their command."</p> + +<p>How severe, how difficult was the work of canvassing in Rome, we +learn from these lessons. It was the very essence of a great +Roman's life that he should live in public; and to such an extent +was this carried that we wonder how such a man as Cicero found time +for the real work of his life. The Roman patron was expected to +have a levee every morning early in his own house, and was wont, +when he went down into the Forum, to be attended by a crowd of +parasites. This had become so much a matter of course that a public +man would have felt himself deserted had he been left alone either +at home or abroad. Rome was full of idlers—of men who got +their bread by the favors of the great, who lounged through their +lives—political quidnuncs, who made canvassing a +trade—men without a conviction, but who believed in the +ascendency of this or the other leader, and were ready to fawn or +to fight in the streets, as there might be need. These were the +Quirites of the day—men who were in truth fattened on the +leavings of the plunder which was extracted from the allies; for it +was the case now that a Roman was content to live on the industry +of those whom his father had conquered. They would still fight in +the legions; but the work of Rome was done by slaves, and the +wealth of Rome was robbed from the Provinces. Hence it came about +that there was a numerous class, to whom the name "assectatores" +was given, who of course became specially prominent at elections. +Quintus divides all such followers into three kinds, and gives +instructions as to the special treatment to be applied to each. +"There are those who come to pay their respects to you at your own +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> +house"—"Salutatores" they were called; "then +those who go down with you into the Forum"—"Deductores;" "and +after these the third, the class of constant +followers"—"Assectatores," as they were specially named. "As +to the first, who are the least in consequence, and who, according +to our present ways of living, come in great numbers, you should +take care to let them know that their doing even so much as this is +much esteemed by you. Let them perceive that you note it when they +come, and say as much to their friends, who will repeat your words. +Tell themselves often if it be possible. In this way men, when +there are many candidates, will observe that there is one who has +his eyes open to these courtesies, and they will give themselves +heart and soul to him, neglecting all others. And mind you, when +you find that a man does but pretend, do not let him perceive that +you have perceived it. Should any one wish to excuse himself, +thinking that he is suspected of indifference, swear that you have +never doubted him, nor had occasion to doubt.</p> + +<p>"As to the work of the 'Deductores,' who go out with +you—as it is much more severe than that of those who merely +come to pay their compliments, let them understand that you feel it +to be so, and, as far as possible, be ready to go into town with +them at fixed hours." Quintus here means that the "Deductores" are +not to be kept waiting for the patron longer than can be helped. +"The attendance of a daily crowd in taking you down to the Forum +gives a great show of character and dignity.</p> + +<p>"Then come the band of followers which accompanies you +diligently wherever you go. As to those who do this without special +obligation, take care that they should know how much you think of +them. From those who owe it to you as a duty, exact it rigorously. +See that they who can come themselves do come themselves, and that +they who cannot, send others in their places." What an idea does +this give as to the labor of a candidate in Rome! I can imagine it +to be worse even than <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id= +"Page_113">113</a></span>the canvassing of an English borough, +which to a man of spirit and honor is the most degrading of all +existing employments not held to be absolutely disgraceful.</p> + +<p>Quintus then goes on from the special management of friends to +the general work of canvassing. "It requires the remembering of +men's names"—"nomenclationem," a happy word we do not +possess—"flattery, diligence, sweetness of temper, good +report, and a high standing in the Republic. Let it be seen that +you have been at the trouble to remember people, and practise +yourself to it so that the power may increase with you. There is +nothing so alluring to the citizen as that. If there be a softness +which you have not by nature, so affect it that it shall seem to be +your own naturally. You have indeed a way with you which is not +unbecoming to a good-natured man; but you must caress +men—which is in truth vile and sordid at other times, but is +absolutely necessary at elections. It is no doubt a mean thing to +flatter some low fellow, but when it is necessary to make a friend +it can be pardoned. A candidate must do it, whose face and look and +tongue should be made to suit those he has to meet. What +perseverance means I need not tell you. The word itself explains +itself. As a matter of course, you shall not leave the city; but it +is not enough for you to stick to your work in Rome and in the +Forum. You must seek out the voters and canvass them separately; +and take care that no one shall ask from another what it is that +you want from him. Let it have been solicited by yourself, and +often solicited." Quintus seems to have understood the business +well, and the elder brother no doubt profited by the younger +brother's care.</p> + +<p>It was so they did it at Rome. That men should have gone through +all this in search of plunder and wealth does not strike us as +being marvellous, or even out of place. A vile object justifies +vile means. But there were some at Rome who had it in their hearts +really to serve their country, and with whom it was at the same +time a matter of conscience that, in serving <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span>their +country, they would not dishonestly or dishonorably enrich +themselves. There was still a grain of salt left. But even this +could not make itself available for useful purpose without having +recourse to tricks such as these!</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 75, +ætat 32.</div> + +<p>In his proper year Cicero became Quæstor, and had assigned to +him by lot the duty of looking after the Western Division of +Sicily. For Sicily, though but one province as regarded general +condition, being under one governor with proconsular authority, +retained separate modes of government, or, rather, varied forms of +subjection to Rome, especially in matters of taxation, according as +it had or had not been conquered from the Carthaginians.<a name= +"FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" +class="fnanchor">87</a> Cicero was quartered at Lilybæum, on the +west, whereas the other Quæstor was placed at Syracuse, in the +east. There were at that time twenty Quæstors elected annually, +some of whom remained in Rome; but most of the number were +stationed about the Empire, there being always one as assistant to +each Proconsul. When a Consul took the field with an army, he +always had a Quæstor with him. This had become the case so +generally that the Quæstor became, as it were, something between a +private secretary and a senior lieutenant to a governor. The +arrangement came to have a certain sanctity attached to it, as +though there was something in the connection warmer and closer than +that of mere official life; so that a Quæstor has been called a +Proconsul's son for the time, and was supposed to feel that +reverence and attachment that a son entertains for his father.</p> + +<p>But to Cicero, and to young Quæstors in general, the great +attraction of the office consisted in the fact that the aspirant +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"> +115</a></span>having once become a Quæstor was a Senator for the +rest of his life, unless he should be degraded by misconduct. +Gradually it had come to pass that the Senate was replenished by +the votes of the people, not directly, but by the admission into +the Senate of the popularly elected magistrates. There were in the +time of Cicero between 500 and 600 members of this body. The +numbers down to the time of Sulla had been increased or made up by +direct selection by the old Kings, or by the Censors, or by some +Dictator, such as was Sulla; and the same thing was done afterward +by Julius Cæsar. The years between Sulla's Dictatorship and +that of Cæsar were but thirty—from 79 to 49 <span +class="smcap">b.c.</span> These, however, were the years in which +Cicero dreamed that the Republic could be re-established by means +of an honest Senate, which Senate was then to be kept alive by the +constant infusion of new blood, accruing to it from the entrance of +magistrates who had been chosen by the people. Tacitus tells us +that it was with this object that Sulla had increased the number of +Quæstors.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">88</a>Cicero's hopes—his +futile hopes of what an honest Senate might be made to +do—still ran high, although at the very time in which he was +elected Quæstor he was aware that the judges, then elected from +the Senate, were so corrupt that their judgment could not be +trusted. Of this popular mode of filling the Senate he speaks +afterward in his treatise De Legibus. "From those who have acted as +magistrates the Senate is composed—a measure altogether in +the popular interest, as no one can now reach the highest +rank"—namely, the Senate—"except by the votes of the +people, all power of selecting having been taken away from the +Censors."<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">89</a> In his pleadings for P. +Sextus he makes the same boast as to old times, not with absolute +accuracy, as far as we can understand the old constitution, but +with the same <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id= +"Page_116">116</a></span>passionate ardor as to the body. +"Romans, when they could no longer endure the rule of kings, +created annual magistrates, but after such fashion that the Council +of the Senate was set over the Republic for its guidance. Senators +were chosen for that work by the entire people, and the entrance to +that order was opened to the virtue and to the industry of the +citizens at large."<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id= +"FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class= +"fnanchor">90</a> When defending Cluentius, he expatiates on the +glorious privileges of the Roman Senate. "Its high place, its +authority, its splendor at home, its name and fame abroad, the +purple robe, the ivory chair, the appanage of office, the fasces, +the army with its command, the government of the provinces!"<a +name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">91</a> On that splendor "apud +exteras gentes," he expatiates in one of his attacks upon Verres.<a +name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">92</a> From all this will be +seen Cicero's idea of the chamber into which he had made his way as +soon as he had been chosen Quæstor.</p> + +<p>In this matter, which was the pivot on which his whole life +turned—the character, namely, of the Roman Senate—it +cannot but be observed that he was wont to blow both hot and cold. +It was his nature to do so, not from any aptitude for deceit, but +because he was sanguine and vacillating—because he now +aspired and now despaired. He blew hot and cold in regard to the +Senate, because at times he would feel it to be what it +was—composed, for the most part, of men who were time-serving +and corrupt, willing to sell themselves for a price to any buyer; +and then, again, at times he would think of the Senate as endowed +with all those privileges which he names, and would dream that +under his influence it would become what it should be—such a +Senate as he believed it to have been in its old palmy days. His +praise of the Senate, his description of what it should be and +might be, I have given. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" +id="Page_117">117</a></span>To the other side of the picture +we shall come soon, when I shall have to show how, at the trial of +Verres, he declared before the judges themselves how terrible had +been the corruption of the judgment-seat in Rome since, by Sulla's +enactment, it had been occupied only by the Senators. One passage I +will give now, in order that the reader may see by the +juxtaposition of the words that he could denounce the Senate as +loudly as he would vaunt its privileges. In the column on the left +hand in the note I quote the words with which, in the first +pleading against Verres, he declared "that every base and +iniquitous thing done on the judgment-seat during the ten years +since the power of judging had been transferred to the Senate +should be not only denounced by him, but also proved;" and in that +on the right I will repeat the noble phrases which he afterward +used in the speech for Cluentius when he chose to speak well of the +order.<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">93</a></p> + +<p>It was on the Senate that they who wished well for Rome must +depend—on the Senate, chosen, refreshed, and replenished from +among the people; on a body which should be at the same time august +and popular—as far removed on the one side from the tyranny +of individuals as on the other from the violence of the mob; but on +a Senate freed from its corruption and dirt, on a body of noble +Romans, fitted by their individual character and high rank to rule +and to control their fellow-citizens. This was Cicero's idea, and +this the state of things which he endeavored to achieve. No doubt +he dreamed that his own eloquence and his own example might do more +in producing this than is given to men to achieve by such <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"> +118</a></span>means. No doubt there was conceit in +this—conceit and perhaps, vanity. It has to be admitted that +Cicero always exaggerated his own powers. But the ambition was +great, the purpose noble, and the course of his whole life was such +as to bring no disgrace on his aspirations. He did not thunder +against the judges for taking bribes, and then plunder a province +himself. He did not speak grandly of the duty of a patron to his +clients, and then open his hands to illicit payments. He did not +call upon the Senate for high duty, and then devote himself to +luxury and pleasure. He had a <i>beau ideal</i> of the manner in +which a Roman Senator should live and work, and he endeavored to +work and live up to that ideal. There was no period after his +Consulship in which he was not aware of his own failure. +Nevertheless, with constant labor, but with intermittent struggles, +he went on, till, at the end, in the last fiery year of his +existence, he taught himself again to think that even yet there was +a chance. How he struggled, and in struggling perished, we shall +see by-and-by.</p> + +<p>What Cicero did as Quæstor in Sicily we have no means of +knowing. His correspondence does not go back so far. That he was +very active, and active for good, we have two testimonies, one of +which is serious, convincing, and most important as an episode in +his life. The other consists simply of a good story, told by +himself of himself; not intended at all for his own glorification, +but still carrying with it a certain weight. As to the first: +Cicero was Quæstor in Lilybæum in the thirty-second year of his +life. In the thirty-seventh year he was elected Ædile, and was +then called upon by the Sicilians to attack Verres on their behalf. +Verres was said to have carried off from Sicily plunder to the +amount of nearly £400,000,<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id= +"FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class= +"fnanchor">94</a> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id= +"Page_119">119</a></span>after a misrule of three years' +duration. All Sicily was ruined. Beyond its pecuniary losses, its +sufferings had been excruciating; but not till the end had come of +a Governor's proconsular authority could the almost hopeless chance +of a criminal accusation against the tyrant be attempted. The +tyrant would certainly have many friends in Rome. The injured +provincials would probably have none of great mark. A man because +he had been Quæstor was not, necessarily, one having influence, +unless he belonged to some great family. This was not the case with +Cicero. But he had made for himself such a character during his +year of office that the Sicilians declared that, if they could +trust themselves to any man at Rome, it would be to their former +Quæstor. It had been a part of his duty to see that the proper +supply of corn was collected in the island and sent to Rome. A +great portion of the bread eaten in Rome was grown in Sicily, and +much of it was supplied in the shape of a tax. It was the hateful +practice of Rome to extract the means of living from her colonies, +so as to spare her own laborers. To this, hard as it was, the +Sicilians were well used. They knew the amount required of them by +law, and were glad enough when they could be quit in payment of the +dues which the law required; but they were seldom blessed by such +moderation on the part of their rulers. To what extent this special +tax could be stretched we shall see when we come to the details of +the trial of Verres. It is no doubt only from Cicero's own words +that we learn that, though he sent to Rome plenteous supplies, he +was just to the dealer, liberal to the pawns, and forbearing to the +allies generally; and that when he took his departure they paid him +honors hitherto unheard of.<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id= +"FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class= +"fnanchor">95</a> But I think we may take it for granted that +this statement is true; firstly, because it has never been +contradicted; and then from the fact that the Sicilians all came to +him in the day of their distress.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"> +120</a></span>As to the little story to which I have alluded, it +has been told so often since Cicero told it himself, that I am +almost ashamed to repeat it. It is, however, too emblematic of the +man, gives us too close an insight both into his determination to +do his duty and to his pride—conceit, if you will—at +having done it, to be omitted. In his speech for Plancius<a name= +"FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" +class="fnanchor">96</a> he tells us that by chance, coming direct +from Sicily after his Quæstorship, he found himself at Puteoli +just at the season when the fashion from Rome betook itself to that +delightful resort. He was full of what he had done—how he had +supplied Rome with corn, but had done so without injury to the +Sicilians, how honestly he had dealt with the merchants, and had in +truth won golden opinions on all sides—so much so that he +thought that when he reached the city the citizens in a mob would +be ready to receive him. Then at Puteoli he met two acquaintances. +"Ah," says one to him, "when did you leave Rome? What news have you +brought?" Cicero, drawing his head up, as we can see him, replied +that he had just returned from his province. "Of course, just back +from Africa," said the other. "Not so," said Cicero, bridling in +anger—"stomachans fastidiose," as he describes it +himself—"but from Sicily." Then the other lounger, a fellow +who pretended to know everything, put in his word. "Do you not know +that our Cicero has been Quæstor at Syracuse?" The reader will +remember that he had been Quæstor in the other division of the +island, at Lilybæum. "There was no use in thinking any more about +it," says Cicero. "I gave up being angry and determined to be like +any one else, just one at the waters." Yes, he had been very +conceited, and well understood his own fault of character in that +respect; but he would not have shown his conceit in that matter had +he not resolved to do his duty in a manner uncommon then among +Quæstors, and been conscious that he had done it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"> +121</a></span>Perhaps there is no more certain way of judging a +man than from his own words, if his real words be in our +possession. In doing so, we are bound to remember how strong will +be the bias of every man's mind in his own favor, and for that +reason a judicious reader will discount a man's praise of himself. +But the reader, to get at the truth, if he be indeed judicious, +will discount them after a fashion conformable with the nature of +the man whose character he is investigating. A reader will not be +judicious who imagines that what a man says of his own praises must +be false, or that all which can be drawn from his own words in his +own dispraise must be true. If a man praise himself for honor, +probity, industry, and patriotism, he will at any rate show that +these virtues are dear to him, unless the course of his life has +proved him to be altogether a hypocrite in such utterances. It has +not been presumed that Cicero was a hypocrite in these utterances. +He was honest and industrious; he did appreciate honor and love his +country. So much is acknowledged; and yet it is supposed that what +good he has told us of himself is false. If a man doubt of himself +constantly; if in his most private intercourse and closest familiar +utterances he admit occasionally his own human weakness; if he find +himself to have failed at certain moments, and says so, the very +feelings that have produced such confessions are proof that the +highest points which have not been attained have been seen and +valued. A man will not sorrowfully regret that he has won only a +second place, or a third, unless he be alive to the glory of the +first. But Cicero's acknowledgments have all been taken as proof +against himself. All manner of evil is argued against him from his +own words, when an ill meaning can be attached to them; but when he +speaks of his great aspirations, he is ridiculed for bombast and +vanity. On the strength of some perhaps unconsidered expression, in +a letter to Atticus, he is condemned for treachery, whereas the +sentences in which he has thoughtfully declared the purposes of his +very soul are counted as clap-traps.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"> +122</a></span>No one has been so frequently condemned out of his +mouth as Cicero, and naturally. In these modern days we have +contemporary records as to prominent persons. Of the characters of +those who lived in long-past ages we generally fail to have any +clear idea, because we lack those close chronicles which are +necessary for the purpose. What insight have we into the +personality of Alexander the Great, or what insight had Plutarch, +who wrote about him? As to Samuel Johnson, we seem to know every +turn of his mind, having had a Boswell. Alexander had no Boswell. +But here is a man belonging to those past ages of which I speak who +was his own Boswell, and after such a fashion that, since letters +were invented, no records have ever been written in language more +clear or more attractive. It is natural that we should judge out of +his own mouth one who left so many more words behind him than did +any one else, particularly one who left words so pleasant to read. +And all that he wrote was after some fashion about himself. His +letters, like all letters, are personal to himself. His speeches +are words coming out of his own mouth about affairs in which he was +personally engaged and interested. His rhetoric consists of lessons +given by himself about his own art, founded on his own experience, +and on his own observation of others. His so-called philosophy +gives us the workings of his own mind. No one has ever told the +world so much about another person as Cicero has told the world +about Cicero. Boswell pales before him as a chronicler of minutiæ. +It may be a matter of small interest now to the bulk of readers to +be intimately acquainted with a Roman who was never one of the +world's conquerors. It may be well for those who desire to know +simply the facts of the world's history, to dismiss as unnecessary +the aspirations of one who lived so long ago. But if it be worth +while to discuss the man's character, it must be worth while to +learn the truth about it.</p> + +<p>"Oh that mine adversary had written a book!" Who does <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"> +123</a></span>not understand the truth of these words! It is +always out of a man's mouth that you may most surely condemn him. +Cicero wrote many books, and all about himself. He has been honored +very highly. Middleton, in the preface to his own biography, which, +with all its charms, has become a bye-word for eulogy quotes the +opinion of Erasmus, who tells us that he loves the writings of the +man "not only for the divine felicity of his style, but for the +sanctity of his heart and morals." This was the effect left on the +mind of an accurate thinker and most just man. But then also has +Cicero been spoken of with the bitterest scorn. From Dio Cassius, +who wrote two hundred and twenty years after Christ, down to Mr. +Froude, whose Cæsar has just been published, he has had such +hard things said of him by men who have judged him out of his own +mouth, that the reader does not know how to reconcile what he now +reads with the opinion of men of letters who lived and wrote in the +century next after his death—with the testimony of such a man +as Erasmus, and with the hearty praises of his biographer, +Middleton. The sanctity of his heart and morals! It was thus that +Erasmus was struck in reading his works. It is a feeling of that +kind, I profess, that has induced me to take this work in +hand—a feeling produced altogether by the study of his own +words. It has seemed to be that he has loved men so well, has been +so anxious for the true, has been so capable of honesty when +dishonesty was common among all around him, has been so jealous in +the cause of good government, has been so hopeful when there has +been but little ground for hope, as to have deserved a reputation +for sanctity of heart and morals.</p> + +<p>Of the speeches made by Cicero as advocate after his +Quæstorship, and before those made in the accusation of Verres, we +have the fragment only of the second of two spoken in defence of +Marcus Tullius Decula, whom we may suppose to have been distantly +connected with his family. He does not avow any relationship. +"What," he says, in opening his argument, <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span>"does it become +me, a Tullius, to do for this other Tullius, a man not only my +friend, but my namesake?" It was a matter of no great importance, +as it was addressed to judges not so called, but to +"recuperatores," judges chosen by the Prætor, and who acted in +lighter cases.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"> +125</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VI.</span></h3> + +<h4><i>VERRES.</i></h4> + +<p>There are six episodes, or, as I may say, divisions in the life +of Cicero to which special interest attaches itself. The first is +the accusation against Verres, in which he drove the miscreant +howling out of the city. The second is his Consulship, in which he +drove Catiline out of the city, and caused certain other +conspirators who were joined with the arch rebel to be killed, +either legally or illegally. The third was his exile, in which he +himself was driven out of Rome. The fourth was a driving out, too, +though of a more honorable kind, when he was compelled, much +against his will, to undertake the government of a province. The +fifth was Cæsar's passing of the Rubicon, the battle of +Pharsalia, and his subsequent adherence to Cæsar. The last +was his internecine combat with Antony, which produced the +Philippics, and that memorable series of letters in which he strove +to stir into flames the expiring embers of the Republic. The +literary work with which we are acquainted is spread, but spread +very unequally, over his whole life. I have already told the story +of Sextus Roscius Amerinus, having taken it from his own words. +From that time onward he wrote continually; but the fervid stream +of his eloquence came forth from him with unrivalled rapidity in +the twenty last miserable months of his life.</p> + +<p>We have now come to the first of those episodes, and I have to +tell the way in which Cicero struggled with Verres, and how he +conquered him. In 74 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> Verres was +Prætor in Rome. At that period of the Republic there were eight +Prætors elected <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id= +"Page_126">126</a></span>annually, two of whom remained in the +city, whereas the others were employed abroad, generally with the +armies of the Empire. In the next year, 73 <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span>, Verres went in due course to Sicily with +proconsular or proprætorial authority, having the government +assigned to him for twelve months. This was usual and +constitutional, but it was not unusual, even if unconstitutional, +that this period should be prolonged. In the case of Verres it was +prolonged, so that he should hold the office for three years. He +had gone through the other offices of the State, having been +Quæstor in Asia and Ædile afterward in Rome, to the great +misfortune of all who were subjected to his handling, as we shall +learn by-and-by. The facts are mentioned here to show that the +great offices of the Republic were open to such a man as Verres. +They were in fact more open to such a candidate than they would be +to one less iniquitous—to an honest man or a scrupulous one, +or to one partially honest, or not altogether unscrupulous. If you +send a dog into a wood to get truffles, you will endeavor to find +one that will tear up as many truffles as possible. A proconsular +robber did not rob only for himself; he robbed more or less for all +Rome. Verres boasted that with his three years of rule he could +bring enough home to bribe all the judges, secure all the best +advocates, and live in splendid opulence for the rest of his life. +What a dog he was to send into a wood for truffles!</p> + +<p>To such a condition as this had Rome fallen when the deputies +from Sicily came to complain of their late governor, and to obtain +the services of Cicero in seeking for whatever reparation might be +possible. Verres had carried on his plunder during the years 73, +72, 71 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> During this time Cicero had +been engaged sedulously as an advocate in Rome. We know the names +of some of the cases in which he was engaged—those, for +instance, for Publius Oppius, who, having been Quæstor in +Bithynia, was accused by his Proconsul of having endeavored to rob +the soldiers of their dues. We are told that the poor province +suffered greatly under these two officers, who <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span>were +always quarrelling as to a division of their plunder. In this case +the senior officer accused the younger, and the younger, by +Cicero's aid, was acquitted. Quintilian more than once refers to +the speech made for Oppius. Cicero also defended Varenus, who was +charged with having murdered his brother, and one Caius Mustius, of +whom we only know that he was a farmer of taxes. He was advocate +also for Sthenius, a Sicilian, who was accused before the Tribunes +by Verres. We shall hear of Sthenius again among the victims in +Sicily. The special charge in this case was that, having been +condemned by Verres as Prætor in Sicily, he had run away to Rome, +which was illegal. He was, however, acquitted. Of these speeches we +have only some short fragments, which have been quoted by authors +whose works have come down to us, such as Quintilian; by which we +know, at any rate, that Cicero's writings had been so far carefully +preserved, and that they were commonly read in those days. I will +translate here the concluding words of a short paper written by M. +du Rozoir in reference to Cicero's life at this period: "The +assiduity of our orator at the bar had obtained for him a high +degree of favor among the people, because they had seen how +strictly he had observed that Cincian law which forbade advocates +to take either money or presents for then pleadings—which +law, however, the advocates of the day generally did not scruple to +neglect."<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">97</a> It is a good thing to +be honest when honesty is in vogue; but to be honest when honesty +is out of fashion is magnificent.</p> + +<p>In the affair with Verres, there are two matters to interest the +reader—indeed, to instruct the reader—if the story were +sufficiently well told. The iniquity of Verres is the +first—which is of so extravagant a nature as to become +farcical by the absurdity of the extent to which he was not afraid +to go <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"> +128</a></span>in the furtherance of his avarice and lust. As the +victims suffered two thousand years ago, we can allow ourselves to +be amused by the inexhaustible fertility of the man's resources and +the singular iniquity of his schemes. Then we are brought face to +face with the barefaced corruption of the Roman judges—a +corruption which, however, became a regular trade, if not ennobled, +made, at any rate, aristocratic by the birth, wealth high names, +and senatorial rank of the robbers. Sulla, for certain State +purposes—which consisted in the maintenance of the +oligarchy—had transferred the privileges of sitting on the +judgment-seat from the Equites, or Knights, to the Senators. From +among the latter a considerable number—thirty, perhaps, or +forty, or even fifty—were appointed to sit with the Prætor +to hear criminal cases of importance, and by their votes, which +were recorded on tablets, the accused person was acquitted or +condemned. To be acquitted by the most profuse corruption entailed +no disgrace on him who was tried, and often but little on the +judges who tried him. In Cicero's time the practice, with all its +chances, had come to be well understood. The Provincial Governors, +with their Quæstors and lieutenants, were chosen from the high +aristocracy, which also supplied the judges. The judges themselves +had been employed, or hoped to be employed, in similar lucrative +service. The leading advocates belonged to the same class. If the +proconsular thief, when he had made his bag, would divide the spoil +with some semblance of equity among his brethren, nothing could be +more convenient. The provinces were so large, and the Greek spirit +of commercial enterprise which prevailed in them so lively, that +there was room for plunder ample, at any rate, for a generation or +two. The Republic boasted that, in its love of pure justice, it had +provided by certain laws for the protection of its allied subjects +against any possible faults of administration on the part of its +own officers. If any injury were done to a province, or a city, or +even to an individual, the province, or city, or individual could +bring its grievance to the ivory chair <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span>of the Prætor in +Rome and demand redress; and there had been cases not a few in +which a delinquent officer had been condemned to banishment. Much, +indeed, was necessary before the scheme as it was found to exist by +Verres could work itself into perfection. Verres felt that in his +time everything had been done for security as well as splendor. He +would have all the great officers of State on his side. The +Sicilians, if he could manage the case as he thought it might be +managed, would not have a leg to stand upon. There was many a trick +within his power before they could succeed in making good even +their standing before the Prætor. It was in this condition of +things that Cicero bethought himself that he might at one blow +break through the corruption of the judgment-seat, and this he +determined to do by subjecting the judges to the light of public +opinion. If Verres could be tried under a bushel, as it were, in +the dark, as many others had been tried, so that little or nothing +should be said about the trial in the city at large, then there +would be no danger for the judges. It could only be by shaming +them, by making them understand that Rome would become too hot to +hold them, that they could be brought to give a verdict against the +accused. This it was that Cicero determined to effect, and did +effect. And we see throughout the whole pleadings that he was +concerned in the matter not only for the Sicilians, or against +Verres. Could something be done for the sake of Rome, for the sake +of the Republic, to redeem the courts of justice from the obloquy +which was attached to them? Might it be possible for a man so to +address himself not only to the judgment-seat, but to all Rome, as +to do away with this iniquity once and forever? Could he so fill +the minds of the citizens generally with horror at such proceedings +as to make them earnest in demanding reform? Hortensius, the great +advocate of the day, was not only engaged on behalf of Verres, but +he was already chosen as Consul for the next year. Metellus, who +was elected Prætor for the next year, was hot in <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"> +130</a></span>defence of Verres. Indeed, there were three +Metelluses among the friends of the accused, who had also on his +side the Scipio of the day. The aristocracy of Rome was altogether +on the side of Verres, as was natural. But if Cicero might succeed +at all in this which he meditated, the very greatness of his +opponents would help him. When it was known that he was to be +pitted against Hortensius as an advocate, and that he intended to +defy Hortensius as the coming Consul, then surely Rome would be +awake to the occasion; and if Rome could be made to awake herself, +then would this beautiful scheme of wealth from provincial plunder +be brought to an end.</p> + +<p>I will first speak of the work of the judges, and of the +attempts made to hinder Cicero in the business he had undertaken. +Then I will endeavor to tell something of the story of Verres and +his doings. The subject divides itself naturally in this way. There +are extant seven so-called orations about Verres, of which the two +first apply to the manner in which the case should be brought +before the courts. These two were really spoken, and were so +effective that Verres—or probably Hortensius, on his +behalf—was frightened into silence. Verres pleaded guilty, as +we should say, which, in accordance with the usages of the court, +he was enabled to do by retiring and going into voluntary +banishment. This he did, sooner than stand his ground and listen to +the narration of his iniquities as it would be given by Cicero in +the full speech—the "perpetua oratio"—which would +follow the examination of the witnesses. What the orator said +before the examination of the witnesses was very short. He had to +husband his time, as it was a part of the grand scheme of +Hortensius to get adjournment after adjournment because of certain +sacred rites and games, during the celebration of which the courts +could not sit. All this was arranged for in the scheme; but Cicero, +in order that he might baffle the schemers, got through his +preliminary work as quickly as possible, saying all that he had to +say about the manner of the trial, about the judges, about the +scheme, but dilating <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id= +"Page_131">131</a></span>very little on the iniquities of the +criminal. But having thus succeeded, having gained his cause in a +great measure by the unexpected quickness of his operations, then +he told his story. Then was made that "perpetua oratio" by which we +have learned the extent to which a Roman governor could go on +desolating a people who were intrusted to his protection. This full +narration is divided into five parts, each devoted to a separate +class of iniquity. These were never spoken, though they appear in +the form of speeches. They would have been spoken, if required, in +answer to the defence made by Hortensius on behalf of Verres after +the hearing of the evidence. But the defence broke down altogether, +in the fashion thus described by Cicero himself. "In that one hour +in which I spoke"—this was the speech which we designate as +the Actio Prima contra Verrem, the first pleading made against +Verres, to which we shall come just now—"I took away all hope +of bribing the judges from the accused—from this +brazen-faced, rich, dissolute, and abandoned man. On the first day +of the trial, on the mere calling of the names of the witnesses, +the people of Rome were able to perceive that if this criminal were +absolved, then there could be no chance for the Republic. On the +second day his friends and advocates had not only lost all hope of +gaining their cause, but all relish for going on with it. The third +day so paralyzed the man himself that he had to bethink himself not +what sort of reply he could make, but how he could escape the +necessity of replying by pretending to be ill."<a name= +"FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" +class="fnanchor">98</a> It was in this way that the trial was +brought to an end.</p> + +<p>But we must go back to the beginning. When an accusation was to +be made against some great Roman of the day on account of illegal +public misdoings, as was to be made now against Verres, the conduct +of the case, which would require probably great labor and expense, +and would give scope for the display of oratorical excellence, was +regarded as a task in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id= +"Page_132">132</a></span>which a young aspirant to public +favor might obtain honor and by which he might make himself known +to the people. It had, therefore, come to pass that there might be +two or more accusers anxious to undertake the work, and to show +themselves off as solicitous on behalf of injured innocence, or +desirous of laboring in the service of the Republic. When this was +the case, a court of judges was called upon to decide whether this +man or that other was most fit to perform the work in hand. Such a +trial was called "Divinatio," because the judges had to get their +lights in the matter as best they could without the assistance of +witnesses—by some process of divination—with the aid of +the gods, as it might be. Cicero's first speech in the matter of +Verres is called In Quintum Cæcilium Divinatio, because one +Cæcilius came forward to take the case away from him. Here +was a part of the scheme laid by Hortensius. To deal with Cicero in +such a matter would no doubt be awkward. His purpose, his +diligence, his skill, his eloquence, his honesty were known. There +must be a trial. So much was acknowledged; but if the conduct of it +could be relegated to a man who was dishonest, or who had no skill, +no fitness, no special desire for success, then the little scheme +could be carried through in that way. So Cæcilius was put +forward as Cicero's competitor, and our first speech is that made +by Cicero to prove his own superiority to that of his rival.</p> + +<p>Whether Cæcilius was or was not hired to break down in his +assumed duty as accuser, we do not know. The biographers have +agreed to say that such was the case,<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id= +"FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class= +"fnanchor">99</a> grounding their assertion, no doubt, on extreme +probability. But I doubt whether there is any evidence as to this. +Cicero himself brings this accusation, but not in that direct +manner which he would have used had he been able to prove it. The +Sicilians, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id= +"Page_133">133</a></span>at any rate, said that it was so. As +to the incompetency of the man, there was probably no doubt, and it +might be quite as serviceable to have an incompetent as a dishonest +accuser. Cæcilius himself had declared that no one could be +so fit as himself for the work. He knew Sicily well, having been +born there. He had been Quæstor there with Verres, and had been +able to watch the governor's doings. No doubt there was—or +had been in more pious days—a feeling that a Quæstor should +never turn against the Proconsul under whom he had served, and to +whom he had held the position almost of a son.<a name= +"FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">100</a> But there was less +of that feeling now than heretofore. Verres had quarrelled with his +Quæstor. Oppius was called on to defend himself against the +Proconsul with whom he had served. No one could know the doings of +the governor of a province as well as his own Quæstor; and, +therefore, so said Cæcilius, he would be the preferable +accuser. As to his hatred of the man, there could be no doubt as to +that. Everybody knew that they had quarrelled. The purpose, no +doubt, was to give some colorable excuse to the judges for rescuing +Verres, the great paymaster, from the fangs of Cicero.</p> + +<p>Cicero's speech on the occasion—which, as speeches went in +those days, was very short—is a model of sagacity and +courage. He had to plead his own fitness, the unfitness of his +adversary, and the wishes in the matter of the Sicilians. This had +to be done with no halting phrases. It was not simply his object to +convince a body of honest men that, with the view of getting at the +truth, he would be the better advocate of the two. We may imagine +that there was not a judge there, not a Roman present, who was not +well aware of that before the orator began. It was needed that the +absurdity of the comparison between them should be declared so +loudly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"> +134</a></span>that the judges would not dare to betray the +Sicilians, and to liberate the accused, by choosing the incompetent +man. When Cicero rose to speak, there was probably not one of them +of his own party, not a Consul, a Prætor, an Ædile, or a +Quæstor, not a judge, not a Senator, not a hanger-on about the +courts, but was anxious that Verres with his plunder should escape. +Their hope of living upon the wealth of the provinces hung upon it. +But if he could speak winged words—words that should fly all +over Rome, that might fly also among subject nations—then +would the judges not dare to carry out this portion of the +scheme.</p> + +<p>"When," he says, "I had served as Quæstor in Sicily, and had +left the province after such a fashion that all the Sicilians had a +grateful memory of my authority there, though they had older +friends on whom they relied much, they felt that I might be a +bulwark to them in their need. These Sicilians, harassed and +robbed, have now come to me in public bodies, and have implored me +to undertake their defence. 'The time has come,' they say, 'not +that I should look after the interest of this or that man, but that +I should protect the very life and well-being of the whole +province.' I am inclined by my sense of duty, by the faith which I +owe them, by my pity for them, by the example of all good Romans +before me, by the custom of the Republic, by the old constitution, +to undertake this task, not as pertaining to my own interests, but +to those of my close friends."<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id= +"FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class= +"fnanchor">101</a> That was his own reason for undertaking the +case. Then he reminds the judges of what the Roman people +wished—the people who had felt with dismay the injury +inflicted upon them by Sulla's withdrawal of all power from the +Tribunes, and by the putting the whole authority of the bench into +the hands of the Senators. "The Roman people, much as they have +been made to suffer, regret nothing of that they have lost so much +as the strength and majesty of the old <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span>judges. It is with +the desire of having them back that they demand for the Tribunes +their former power. It is this misconduct of the present judges +that has caused them to ask for another class of men for the +judgment-seat. By the fault and to the shame of the judges of +to-day, the Censor's authority, which has hitherto always been +regarded as odious and stern, even that is now requested by the +people."<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a +href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">102</a> Then he goes on +to show that, if justice is intended, this case will be put into +the hands of him whom the Sicilians have themselves chosen. Had the +Sicilians said that they were unwilling to trust their affairs to +Cæcilius because they had not known him, but were willing to +trust him, Cicero, whom they did know, would not even that have +been reasonable enough of itself? But the Sicilians had known both +of them, had known Cæcilius almost as well as Cicero, and had +expressed themselves clearly. Much as they desired to have Cicero, +they were as anxious not to have Cæcilius. Even had they held +their tongues about this, everybody would have known it; but they +had been far from holding their tongues. "Yet you offer yourself to +these most unwilling clients," he says, turning to Cæcilius. +"Yet you are ready to plead in a cause that does not belong to you! +Yet you would defend those who would rather have no defender than +such a one as you!"<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id= +"FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class= +"fnanchor">103</a> Then he attacks Hortensius, the advocate for +Verres. "Let him not think that, if I am to be employed here, the +judges can be bribed without infinite danger to all concerned. In +undertaking this cause of the Sicilians, I undertake also the cause +of the people of Rome at large. It is not only that one wretched +sinner should be crushed, which is what the Sicilians want, but +that this terrible injustice should be stopped altogether, in +compliance with the wishes of the people."<a name= +"FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">104</a> When we remember how +this was spoken, in the presence of those very judges, in the +presence of Hortensius himself, in reliance only on the public +opinion which he was to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" +id="Page_136">136</a></span>create by his own words, we cannot +but acknowledge that it is very fine.</p> + +<p>After that he again turns upon Cæcilius. "Learn from me," +he says, "how many things are expected from him who undertakes the +accusation of another. If there be one of those qualities in you, I +will give up to you all that you ask."<a name="FNanchor_105_105" +id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class= +"fnanchor">105</a> Cæcilius was probably even now in +alliance with Verres. He himself, when Quæstor, had robbed the +people in the collection of the corn dues, and was unable therefore +to include that matter in his accusation. "You can bring no charge +against him on this head, lest it be seen that you were a partner +with him in the business."<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id= +"FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class= +"fnanchor">106</a> He ridicules him as to his personal +insufficiency. "What, Cæcilius! as to those practices of the +profession without which an action such as this cannot be carried +on, do you think that there is nothing in them? Need there be no +skill in the business, no habit of speaking, no familiarity with +the Forum, with the judgment-seats, and the laws?"<a name= +"FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">107</a> "I know well how +difficult the ground is. Let me advise you to look into yourself, +and to see whether you are able to do that kind of thing. Have you +got voice for it, prudence, memory, wit? Are you able to expose the +life of Verres, as it must be done, to divide it into parts and +make everything clear? In doing all this, though nature should have +assisted you"—as it has not at all, is of course +implied—"if from your earliest childhood you had been imbued +with letters; if you had learned Greek at Athens instead of at +Lilybæum—Latin in Rome instead of in Sicily—still +would it not be a task beyond your strength to undertake such a +case, so widely thought of, to complete it by your industry, and +then to grasp it in your memory; to make it plain by your +eloquence, and to support it with voice and strength sufficient? +'Have I these gifts,' you will ask. Would that I had! But from my +childhood I have done all that I could to attain them."<a name= +"FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">108</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"> +137</a></span>Cicero makes his points so well that I would fain go +through the whole speech, were it not that a similar reason might +induce me to give abridgments of all his speeches. It may not be +that the readers of these orations will always sympathize with the +orator in the matter which he has in hand—though his power +over words is so great as to carry the reader with him very +generally, even at this distance of time—but the neatness +with which the weapon is used, the effectiveness of the thrust for +the purpose intended, the certainty with which the nail is hit on +the head—never with an expenditure of unnecessary force, but +always with the exact strength wanted for the purpose—these +are the characteristics of Cicero's speeches which carry the reader +on with a delight which he will want to share with others, as a man +when he has heard a good story instantly wishes to tell it again. +And with Cicero we are charmed by the modernness, by the tone of +to-day, which his language takes. The rapid way in which he runs +from scorn to pity, from pity to anger, from anger to public zeal, +and then instantly to irony and ridicule, implies a lightness of +touch which, not unreasonably, surprises us as having endured for +so many hundred years. That poetry should remain to us, even lines +so vapid as some of those in which Ovid sung of love, seems to be +more natural, because verses, though they be light, must have been +labored. But these words spoken by Cicero seem almost to ring in +our ears as having come to us direct from a man's lips. We see the +anger gathering on the brow of Hortensius, followed by a look of +acknowledged defeat. We see the startled attention of the judges as +they began to feel that in this case they must depart from their +intended purpose. We can understand how Cæcilius cowered, and +found consolation in being relieved from his task. We can fancy how +Verres suffered—Verres whom no shame could have +touched—when all his bribes were becoming inefficient under +the hands of the orator.</p> + +<p>Cicero was chosen for the task, and then the real work began. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"> +138</a></span>The work as he did it was certainly beyond the +strength of any ordinary advocate. It was necessary that he should +proceed to Sicily to obtain the evidence which was to be collected +over the whole island. He must rate up, too, all the previous +details of the life of this robber. He must be thoroughly prepared +to meet the schemers on every point. He asked for a hundred and ten +days for the purpose of getting up his case, but he took only +fifty. We must imagine that, as he became more thoroughly versed in +the intrigues of his adversaries, new lights came upon him. Were he +to use the whole time allotted to him, or even half the time, and +then make such an exposition of the criminal as he would delight to +do were he to indulge himself with that "perpetua oratio" of which +we hear, then the trial would be protracted till the coming of +certain public games, during which the courts would not sit. There +seem to have been three sets of games in his way—a special +set for this year, to be given by Pompey, which were to last +fifteen days; then the Ludi Romani, which were continued for nine +days. Soon after that would come the games in honor of +Victory—so soon that an adjournment over them would be +obtained as a matter of course. In this way the trial would be +thrown over into the next year, when Hortensius and one Metellus +would be Consuls, and another Metellus would be the Prætor, +controlling the judgment-seats. Glabrio was the Prætor for this +present year. In Glabrio Cicero could put some trust. With +Hortensius and the two Metelluses in power, Verres would be as good +as acquitted. Cicero, therefore, had to be on the alert, so that in +this unexpected way, by sacrificing his own grand opportunity for a +speech, he might conquer the schemers. We hear how he went to +Sicily in a little boat from an unknown port, so as to escape the +dangers contrived for him by the friends of Verres.<a name= +"FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">109</a> <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span>If it +could be arranged that the clever advocate should be kidnapped by a +pirate, what a pleasant way would that be of putting an end to +these abominable reforms! Let them get rid of Cicero, if only for a +time, and the plunder might still be divided. Against all this he +had to provide. When in Sicily he travelled sometimes on foot, for +the sake of caution—never with the retinue to which he was +entitled as a Roman senator. As a Roman senator he might have +demanded free entertainment at any town he entered, at great cost +to the town. But from all this he abstained, and hurried back to +Rome with his evidence so quickly that he was able to produce it +before the judges, so as to save the adjournments which he +feared.</p> + +<p>Verres retired from the trial, pleading guilty, after hearing +the evidence. Of the witnesses and of the manner in which they told +the story, we have no account. The second speech which we +have—the Divinatio, or speech against Cæcilius, having +been the first—is called the Actio Prima contra +Verrem—"the first process against Verres." This is almost +entirely confined to an exhortation to the judges. Cicero had made +up his mind to make no speech about Verres till after the trial +should be over. There would not be the requisite time. The evidence +he must bring forward. And he would so appall these corrupt judges +that they should not dare to acquit the accused. This Actio Prima +contains the words in which he did appall the judges. As we read +them, we pity the judges. There were fourteen, whose names we know. +That there may have been many more is probable. There was the +Prætor Urbanus of the day, Glabrio. With him were Metellus, one of +the Prætors for the next year, and Cæsonius, who, with Cicero +himself, was Ædile designate. There were three Tribunes of <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"> +140</a></span>the people and two military Tribunes. There was a +Servilius, a Catulus, a Marcellus. Whom among these he suspected we +can hardly say. Certainly he suspected Metellus. To Servilius<a +name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">110</a> he paid an ornate +compliment in one of the written orations published after the trial +was over, from whence we may suppose that he was well inclined +toward him. Of Glabrio he spoke well. The body, as a body, was of +such a nature that he found it necessary to appall them. It is thus +that he begins: "Not by human wisdom, O ye judges, but by chance, +and by the aid, as it were, of the gods themselves, an event has +come to pass by which the hatred now felt for your order, and the +infamy attached to the judgment seat, may be appeased; for an +opinion has gone abroad, disgraceful to the Republic, full of +danger to yourselves—which is in the mouths of all men not +only here in Rome but through all nations—that by these +courts as they are now constituted, a man, if he be only rich +enough, will never be condemned, though he be ever so guilty." What +an exordium with which to begin a forensic pleading before a bench +of judges composed of Prætors, Ædiles, and coming Consuls! And +this at a time, too, when men's minds were still full of Sulla's +power; when some were thinking that they too might be Sullas; while +the idea was still strong that a few nobles ought to rule the Roman +Empire for their own advantage and their own luxury! What words to +address to a Metellus, a Catulus, and a Marcellus! I have brought +before you such a wretch, he goes on to say, that by a just +judgment upon him you can recover your favor with the people of +Rome, and your credit with other nations. "This is a trial in which +you, indeed, will have to judge this man who is accused, but in +which also the Roman people will have to judge you. By what is done +to him will be determined whether a man who is guilty, and at the +same time rich, can possibly be condemned in Rome.<a name= +"FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">111</a>If the matter goes +amiss here, all men will declare, <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span>not that better men +should be selected out of your order, which would be impossible, +but that another order of citizens must be named from which to +select the judges."<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id= +"FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class= +"fnanchor">112</a> This short speech was made. The witnesses were +examined during nine days; then Hortensius, with hardly a struggle +at a reply, gave way, and Verres stood condemned by his own +verdict.</p> + +<p>When the trial was over, and Verres had consented to go into +exile, and to pay whatever fine was demanded, the "perpetua oratio" +which Cicero thought good to make on the matter was published to +the world. It is written as though it was to have been spoken, with +counterfeit tricks of oratory—with some tricks so well done +in the first part of it as to have made one think that, when these +special words were prepared, he must have intended to speak them. +It has been agreed, however, that such was not the case. It +consists of a narration of the villainies of Verres, and is divided +into what have been called five different speeches, to which the +following appellations are given: De Prætura Urbana, in which we +are told what Verres did when he was city Prætor, and very many +things also which he did before he came to that office, De +Jurisdictione Siciliensi, in which is described his conduct as a +Roman magistrate on the island; De Re Frumentaria, setting forth +the abomination of his exactions in regard to the corn tax; De +Signis, detailing the robberies he perpetuated in regard to statues +and other ornaments; and De Suppliciis, giving an account of the +murders he committed and the tortures he inflicted. A question is +sometimes mooted in conversation whether or no the general +happiness of the world has been improved by increasing civilization +When the reader finds from these stories, as told by a leading +Roman of the day, how men were treated under the Roman +oligarchy—not only Greek allies but Romans also—I think +he will be inclined to answer the question in favour of +civilization.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"> +142</a></span>I can only give a few of the many little histories +which have been preserved for us in this Actio Secunda; but perhaps +these few may suffice to show how a great Roman officer could +demean himself in his government. Of the doings of Verres before he +went to Sicily I will select two. It became his duty on one +occasion—a job which he seems to have sought for purpose of +rapine—to go to Lampsacus, a town in Asia, as lieutenant, or +legate, for Dolabella, who then had command in Asia. Lampsacus was +on the Hellespont, an allied town of specially good repute. Here he +is put up as a guest, with all the honors of a Roman officer, at +the house of a citizen named Janitor. But he heard that another +citizen, one Philodamus, had a beautiful daughter—an article +with which we must suppose that Janitor was not equally well +supplied. Verres, determined to get at the lady, orders that his +creature Rubrius shall be quartered at the house of Philodamus. +Philodamus, who from his rank was entitled to be burdened only with +the presence of leading Romans, grumbles at this; but, having +grumbled, consents, and having consented, does the best to make his +house comfortable. He gives a great supper, at which the Romans eat +and drink, and purposely create a tumult. Verres, we understand, +was not there. The intention is that the girl shall be carried away +and brought to him. In the middle of their cups the father is +desired to produce his daughter; but this he refuses to do. Rubrius +then orders the doors to be closed, and proceeds to ransack the +house. Philodamus, who will not stand this, fetches his son, and +calls his fellow-citizens around him. Rubrius succeeds in pouring +boiling water over his host, but in the row the Romans get the +worst of it. At last one of Verres's lictors—absolutely a +Roman lictor—is killed, and the woman is not carried off. The +man at least bore the outward signs of a lictor, but, according to +Cicero, was in the pay of Verres as his pimp.</p> + +<p>So far Verres fails; and the reader, rejoicing at the courage of +the father who could protect his own house even against <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"> +143</a></span>Romans, begins to feel some surprise that this case +should have been selected. So far the lieutenant had not done the +mischief he had intended, but he soon avenges his failure. He +induces Dolabella, his chief, to have Philodamus and his son +carried off to Laodicea, and there tried before Nero, the then +Proconsul, for killing the sham lictor. They are tried at Laodicea +before Nero, Verres himself sitting as one of the judges, and are +condemned. Then in the market place of the town, in the presence of +each other, the father and son are beheaded—a thing, as +Cicero says, very sad for all Asia to behold. All this had been +done some years ago; and, nevertheless, Verres had been chosen +Prætor, and sent to Sicily to govern the Sicilians.</p> + +<p>When Verres was Prætor at Rome—the year before he was +sent to Sicily—it became his duty, or rather privilege, as he +found it, to see that a certain temple of Castor in the city was +given up in proper condition by the executors of a defunct citizen +who had taken a contract for keeping it in repair. This man, whose +name had been Junius, left a son, who was a Junius also under age, +with a large fortune in charge of various trustees, tutors, as they +were called, whose duty it was to protect the heir's interests. +Verres, knowing of old that no property was so easily preyed on as +that of a minor, sees at once that something may be done with the +temple of Castor. The heir took oath, and to the extent of his +property he was bound to keep the edifice in good repair. But +Verres, when he made an inspection, finds everything to be in more +than usually good order. There is not a scratch on the roof of +which he can make use. Nothing has been allowed to go astray. Then +"one of his dogs"—for he had boasted to his friend Ligur that +he always went about with dogs to search out his game for +him—suggested that some of the columns were out of the +perpendicular. Verres does not know what this means; but the dog +explains. All columns are, in fact, by strict measurement, more or +less out of the perpendicular, as we are told that all eyes squint +a little, though we do not see that they squint. <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span>But +as columns ought to be perpendicular, here was a matter on which he +might go to work. He does go to work. The trustees knowing their +man—knowing also that in the present condition of Rome it was +impossible to escape from an unjust Prætor without paying +largely—went to his mistress and endeavored to settle the +matter with her. Here we have an amusing picture of the way in +which the affairs of the city were carried on in that lady's +establishment; how she had her levee, took her bribes, and drove a +lucrative trade. Doing, however, no good with her, the trustees +settled with an agent to pay Verres two hundred thousand sesterces +to drop the affair. This was something under £2000. But +Verres repudiated the arrangement with scorn. He could do much +better than that with such a temple and such a minor. He puts the +repairs up to auction; and refusing a bid from the trustees +themselves—the very persons who are the most interested in +getting the work done, if there were work to do—has it +knocked down to himself for five hundred and sixty thousand +sesterces, or about £5000.<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id= +"FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class= +"fnanchor">113</a> Then we are told how he had the pretended work +done by the putting up of a rough crane. No real work is done, no +new stones are brought, no money is spent. That is the way in which +Verres filled his office as Prætor Urbanus; but it does not seem +that any public notice is taken of his iniquities as long as he +confined himself to little jobs such as this.</p> + +<p>Then we come to the affairs of Sicily—and the long list of +robberies is commenced by which that province was made desolate. It +seems that nothing gave so grand a scope to the greed of a public +functionary who was at the same time governor and judge as disputed +wills. It was not necessary that any of the persons concerned +should dispute the will among <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span>them. Given the facts +that a man had died and left property behind him, then Verres would +find means to drag the heir into court, and either frighten him +into payment of a bribe or else rob him of his inheritance. Before +he left Rome for the province he heard that a large fortune had +been left to one Dio on condition that he should put up certain +statues in the market-place.<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id= +"FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class= +"fnanchor">114</a> It was not uncommon for a man to desire the +reputation of adorning his own city, but to choose that the expense +should be borne by his heir rather than by himself. Failing to put +up the statues, the heir was required to pay a fine to Venus +Erycina—to enrich, that is, the worship of that goddess, who +had a favorite temple under Mount Eryx. The statues had been duly +erected. But, nevertheless, here there was an opening. So Verres +goes to work, and in the name of Venus brings an action against +Dio. The verdict is given, not in favor of Venus but in favor of +Verres.</p> + +<p>This manner of paying honor to the gods, and especially to +Venus, was common in Sicily. Two sons<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id= +"FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class= +"fnanchor">115</a> received a fortune from their father, with a +condition that, if some special thing were not done, a fine should +be paid to Venus. The man had been dead twenty years ago. But "the +dogs" which the Prætor kept were very sharp, and, distant as was +the time, found out the clause. Action is taken against the two +sons, who indeed gain their case; but they gain it by a bribe so +enormous that they are ruined men. There was one Heraclius,<a name= +"FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">116</a> the son of Hiero, a +nobleman of Syracuse, who received a legacy amounting to 3,000,000 +sesterces—we will say £24,000—from a relative, +also a Heraclius. He had, too, a house full of handsome silver +plate, silk and hangings, and valuable slaves. A man, "Dives equom, +dives pictai vestis et auri." Verres heard, of course. He had by +this time taken some Sicilian dogs into his service, men of +Syracuse, and had learned from <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span>them that there was a +clause in the will of the elder Heraclius that certain statues +should be put up in the gymnasium of the city. They undertake to +bring forward servants of the gymnasium who should say that the +statues were never properly erected. Cicero tells us how Verres +went to work, now in this court, now in that, breaking all the laws +as to Sicilian jurisdiction, but still proceeding under the +pretence of law, till he got everything out of the wretch—not +only all the legacies from Heraclius, but every shilling, and every +article left to the man by his father. There is a pretence of +giving some of the money to the town of Syracuse; but for himself +he takes all the valuables, the Corinthian vases, the purple +hangings, what slaves he chooses. Then everything else is sold by +auction. How he divided the spoil with the Syracusans, and then +quarrelled with them, and how he lied as to the share taken by +himself, will all be found in Cicero's narrative. Heraclius was of +course ruined. For the stories of Epicrates and Sopater I must +refer the reader to the oration. In that of Sopater there is the +peculiarity that Verres managed to get paid by everybody all +round.</p> + +<p>The story of Sthenius is so interesting that I cannot pass it +by. Sthenius was a man of wealth and high standing, living at +Therma in Sicily, with whom Verres often took up his abode; for, as +governor, he travelled much about the island, always in pursuit of +plunder. Sthenius had had his house full of beautiful things. Of +all these Verres possessed himself—some by begging, some by +demanding, and some by absolute robbery. Sthenius, grieved as he +was to find himself pillaged, bore all this. The man was Roman +Prætor, and injuries such as these had to be endured. At Therma, +however, in the public place of the city, there were some beautiful +statues. For these Verres longed, and desired his host to get them +for him. Sthenius declared that this was impossible. The statues +had, under peculiar circumstances, been recovered by Scipio +Africanus from Carthage, and been restored by the Roman General +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"> +147</a></span>to the Sicilians, from whom they had been taken, and +had been erected at Therma. There was a peculiarly beautiful figure +of Stesichorus, the poet, as an old man bent double, with a book in +his hand—a very glorious work of art; and there was a +goat—in bronze probably—as to which Cicero is at the +pains of telling us that even he, unskilled as he was in such +matters, could see its charms. No one had sharper eyes for such +pretty ornaments than Cicero, or a more decided taste for them. But +as Hortensius, his rival and opponent in this case, had taken a +marble sphinx from Verres, he thought it expedient to show how +superior he was to such matters. There was probably something of +joke in this, as his predilections would no doubt be known to those +he was addressing.<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id= +"FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class= +"fnanchor">117</a></p> + +<p>In the matter Sthenius was incorruptible, and not even the +Prætor could carry them away without his aid. Cicero, who is very +warm in praise of Sthenius, declares that "here at last Verres had +found one town, the only one in the world, from which he was unable +to carry away something of the public property by force, or +stealth, or open command, or favor."<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id= +"FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class= +"fnanchor">118</a> The governor was so disgusted with this that +he abandoned Sthenius, leaving the house which he had plundered of +everything, and betook himself to that of one Agathinus, who had a +beautiful daughter, Callidama, who, with her husband, Dorotheus, +lived with her father They were enemies of Sthenius, and we are +given to understand that Verres ingratiated himself with them +partly for the sake of Callidama, who seems very quickly to have +been given up to him,<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id= +"FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class= +"fnanchor">119</a> and partly that he might instigate them to +bring actions against Sthenius. This is done with great success; so +that Sthenius is forced to run away, and betake himself, winter as +it was, across the seas to Rome. It has already been told that when +he was at Rome <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id= +"Page_148">148</a></span>an action was brought against him by +Verres for having run away when he was under judgment, in which +Cicero defended him, and in which he was acquitted. In the teeth of +his acquittal, Verres persecuted the man by every form of law which +came to his hands as Prætor, but always in opposition to the law. +There is an audacity about the man's proceedings, in his open +contempt of the laws which it was his special duty to carry out, +making us feel how confident he was that he could carry everything +before him in Rome by means of his money. By robbery and concealing +his robberies, by selling his judgments in such a way that he +should maintain some reticence by ordinary precaution, he might +have made much money, as other governors had done. But he resolved +that it would pay him better to rob everywhere openly, and then, +when the day of reckoning came, to buy the judges wholesale. As to +shame at such doings, there was no such feelings left among +Romans.</p> + +<p>Before he comes to the story of Sthenius, Cicero makes a grandly +ironical appeal to the bench before him: "Yes, O judges, keep this +man; keep him in the State! Spare him, preserve him so that he, +too, may sit with us as a judge here so that he, too, may, with +impartiality, advise us, as a Senator, what may be best for us as +to peace and war! Not that we need trouble ourselves as to his +senatorial duties. His authority would be nothing. When would he +dare, or when would he care, to come among us? Unless it might be +in the idle month of February, when would a man so idle, so +debauched, show himself in the Senate-house? Let him come and show +himself. Let him advise us to attack the Cretans; to pronounce the +Greeks of Byzantium free; to declare Ptolemy King.<a name= +"FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">120</a> Let him speak and +vote as Hortensius may direct. This will have but little effect +upon our lives or our property. But beyond <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span>this there is +something we must look to; something that would be distrusted; +something that every good man has to fear! If by chance this man +should escape out of our hands, he would have to sit there upon +that bench and be a judge. He would be called upon to pronounce on +the lives of a Roman citizen. He would be the right-hand officer in +the army of this man here,<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id= +"FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class= +"fnanchor">121</a> of this man who is striving to be the lord and +ruler of our judgment-seats. The people of Rome at least refuse +this! This at least cannot be endured!"</p> + +<p>The third of these narratives tells us how Verres managed in his +province that provision of corn for the use of Rome, the collection +of which made the possession of Sicily so important to the Romans. +He begins with telling his readers—as he does too +frequently—how great and peculiar is the task he has +undertaken; and he uses an argument of which we cannot but admit +the truth, though we doubt whether any modern advocate would dare +to put it forward. We must remember, however, that Romans were not +accustomed to be shamefaced in praising themselves. What Cicero +says of himself all others said also of themselves; only Cicero +could say it better than others. He reminds us that he who accuses +another of any crime is bound to be especially free from that crime +himself. "Would you charge any one as a thief? you must be clear +from any suspicion of even desiring another man's property. Have +you brought a man up for malice or cruelty? take care that you be +not found hard-hearted. Have you called a man a seducer or an +adulterer? be sure that your own life shows no trace of such vices. +Whatever you would punish in another, that you must avoid yourself. +A public accuser would be intolerable, or even a caviller, who +should inveigh against sins for which he himself is called in +question. But in this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id= +"Page_150">150</a></span>man I find all wickednesses combined. +There is no lust, no iniquity, no shamelessness of which his life +does not supply with ample evidence." The nature of the difficulty +to which Cicero is thus subjected is visible enough. As Verres is +all that is bad, so must he, as accuser, be all that is good; which +is more, we should say, than any man would choose to declare of +himself! But he is equal to the occasion. "In regard to this man, O +judges, I lay down for myself the law as I have stated it. I must +so live that I must clearly seem to be, and always have been, the +very opposite of this man, not only in my words and deeds, but as +to that arrogance and impudence which you see in him." Then he +shows how opposite he is to Verres at any rate, in impudence! "I am +not sorry to see," he goes on to say, "that that life which has +always been the life of my own choosing, has now been made a +necessity to me by the law which I have laid down for myself."<a +name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">122</a> Mr. Pecksniff spoke +of himself in the same way, but no one, I think, believed him. +Cicero probably was believed. But the most wonderful thing is, that +his manner of life justified what he said of himself. When others +of his own order were abandoned to lust, iniquity, and +shamelessness, he lived in purity, with clean hands, doing good as +far as was in his power to those around him. A laugh will be raised +at his expense in regard to that assertion of his that, even in the +matter of arrogance, his conduct should be the opposite of that of +Verres. But this will come because I have failed to interpret +accurately the meaning of those words, "oris oculorumque illa +contumacia ac superbia quam videtis." Verres, as we can understand, +had carried himself during the trial with a bragging, brazen, bold +face, determined to show no shame as to his own doings. It is in +this, which was a matter of manner and taste, that Cicero declares +that he will be the man's opposite as well as in conduct. As to the +ordinary boastings, by which it has to be acknowledged <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span>that +Cicero sometimes disgusts his readers, it will be impossible for us +to receive a just idea of his character without remembering that it +was the custom of a Roman to boast. We wait to have good things +said of us, or are supposed to wait. The Roman said them of +himself. The "veni, vidi, vici" was the ordinary mode of expression +in those times, and in earlier times among the Greeks.<a name= +"FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">123</a> This is distasteful +to us; and it will probably be distasteful to those who come after +us, two or three hundred years hence, that this or that British +statesman should have made himself an Earl or a Knight of the +Garter. Now it is thought by many to be proper enough. It will +shock men in future days that great peers or rich commoners should +have bargained for ribbons and lieutenancies and titles. Now it is +the way of the time. Though virtue and vice may be said to remain +the same from all time to all time, the latitudes allowed and the +deviations encouraged in this or the other age must be considered +before the character of a man can be discovered. The boastings of +Cicero have been preserved for us. We have to bethink ourselves +that his words are 2000 years old. There is such a touch of +humanity in them, such a feeling of latter-day civilization and +almost of Christianity, that we are apt to condemn what remains in +them of paganism, as though they were uttered yesterday. When we +come to the coarseness of his attacks, his descriptions of Piso +by-and-by, his abuse of Gabinius, and his invectives against +Antony; when we read his altered opinions, as shown in the period +of Cæsar's dominion, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" +id="Page_152">152</a></span>his flattery of Cæsar when +in power, and his exultations when Cæsar has been killed; +when we find that he could be coarse in his language and a bully, +and servile—for it has all to be admitted—we have to +reflect under what circumstances, under what surroundings, and for +what object were used the words which displease us. Speaking before +the full court at this trial, he dared to say he knew how to live +as a man and to carry himself as a gentleman. As men and gentlemen +were then, he was justified.</p> + +<p>The description of Verres's rapacity in regard to the corn tax +is long and complex, and need hardly be followed at length, unless +by those who desire to know how the iniquity of such a one could +make the most of an imposition which was in itself very bad, and +pile up the burden till the poor province was unable to bear it. +There were three kinds of imposition as to corn. The first, called +the "decumanum," was simply a tithe.</p> + +<p>The producers through the island had to furnish Rome with a +tenth of their produce, and it was the Prætor's duty, or rather +that of the Quæstor under the Prætor, to see that the tithe was +collected. How Verres saw to this himself, and how he treated the +Sicilian husbandmen in regard to the tithe, is so told that we are +obliged to give the man credit for an infinite fertility of +resources. Then there is the "emptum," or corn bought for the use +of Rome, of which there were two kinds. A second tithe had to be +furnished at a price fixed by the Roman Senate, which price was +considered to be below that of its real value, and then 800,000 +bushels were purchased, or nominally purchased, at a price which +was also fixed by the Senate, but which was nearer to the real +value. Three sesterces a bushel for the first and four for the +last, were the prices fixed at this time. For making these payments +vast sums of money were remitted to Verres, of which the accounts +were so kept that it was hard to say whether any found its way into +the hands of the farmers who undoubtedly furnished the corn. The +third corn tax was the "æstimatum." This consisted of a certain +fixed quantity <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id= +"Page_153">153</a></span>which had to be supplied to the +Prætor for the use of his governmental establishment—to be +supplied either in grain or in money. What such a one as Verres +would do with his, the reader may conceive.</p> + +<p>All this was of vital importance to Rome. Sicily and Africa were +the granaries from which Rome was supplied with its bread. To get +supplies from a province was necessary. Rich men have servants in +order that they may live at ease themselves. So it was with the +Romans to whom the provinces acted as servants. It was necessary to +have a sharp agent, some Proconsul or Proprætor; but when there +came one so sharp as Verres, all power of recreating supplies would +for a time be destroyed. Even Cicero boasted that in a time of +great scarcity, he, being then Quæstor in Sicily, had sent +extraordinary store of corn over to the city.<a name= +"FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">124</a> But he had so done +it as to satisfy all who were concerned.</p> + +<p>Verres, in his corn dealings with the Sicilians, had a certain +friend, companion, and minister—one of his favorite dogs, +perhaps we may call him—named Apronius, whom Cicero specially +describes. The description I must give, because it is so powerful; +because it shows us how one man could in those days speak of +another in open court before all the world; because it affords us +an instance of the intensity of hatred which the orator could throw +into his words; but I must hide it in the original language, as I +could not translate it without offence.<a name="FNanchor_125_125" +id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class= +"fnanchor">125</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"> +154</a></span>Then we have a book devoted to the special pillage +of statues and other ornaments, which, for the genius displayed in +story-telling, is perhaps of all the Verrine orations the most +amusing. The Greek people had become in a peculiar way devoted to +what we generally call Art. We are much given to the collecting of +pictures, china, bronze, and marbles, partly from love of such +things, partly from pride in ornamenting our houses so as to excite +the admiration of others, partly from a feeling that money so +invested is not badly placed with a view to future returns. All +these feelings operated with the Greeks to a much greater extent. +Investments in consols and railway shares were not open to them. +Money they used to lend at usury, no doubt, but with a great chance +of losing it. The Greek colonists were industrious, were covetous, +and prudent. From this it had come to pass that, as they made their +way about the world—to the cities which they established +round the Mediterranean—they collected in their new homes +great store of ornamental wealth. This was done with much profusion +at Syracuse, a Greek city in Sicily, and spread from them over the +whole island. The temples of the gods were filled with the works of +the great Greek artists, and every man of note had his gallery. +That Verres, hog as he is described to have been, had a passion for +these things, is manifest to us. He came to his death at last in +defence of some favorite images. He had returned to Rome by means +of Cæsar's amnesty, and Marc Antony had him murdered because +he would not surrender some treasures of art. When we read the De +Signis—About Statues—we are led to imagine that the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"> +155</a></span>search after these things was the chief object of +the man throughout his three years of office—as we have +before been made to suppose that all his mind and time had been +devoted to the cheating of the Sicilians in the matter of corn. But +though Verres loved these trinkets, it was not altogether for +himself that he sought them. Only one third of his plunder was for +himself. Senators, judges, advocates, Consuls, and Prætors could +be bribed with articles of <i>vertu</i> as well as with money.</p> + +<p>There are eleven separate stories told of these robberies. I +will give very shortly the details of one or two. There was one +Marcus Heius, a rich citizen of Messana, in whose house Verres took +great delight. Messana itself was very useful to him, and the +Mamertines, as the people of Messana were called were his best +friends in all Sicily: for he made Messana the depot of his +plunder, and there he caused to be built at the expense of the +Government an enormous ship called the <i>Cybea</i>,<a name= +"FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">126</a> in which his +treasures were carried out of the island. He therefore specially +favored Messana, and the district of Messana was supposed to have +been scourged by him with lighter rods than those used elsewhere in +Sicily. But this man Heius had a chapel, very sacred, in which were +preserved four specially beautiful images. There was a Cupid by +Praxiteles, and a bronze Hercules by Myro, and two Canœphræ by +Polycletus. These were treasures which all the world came to see, +and which were open to be seen by all the world. These Verres took +away, and caused accounts to be forged in which it was made to +appear that he had bought them for trifling sums. It seems that +some forced assent had been obtained from Heius as to the +transaction. Now there was a plan in vogue for making things +pleasant for a Proconsul retiring <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span>from his government, in +accordance with which a deputation would proceed from the province +to Rome to declare how well and kindly the Proconsul had behaved in +his government. The allies, even when they had been, as it were, +skinned alive by their governor, were constrained to send their +deputations. Deputations were got up in Sicily from Messana and +Syracuse, and with the others from Messana came this man Heius. +Heius did not wish to tell about his statues; but he was asked +questions, and was forced to answer. Cicero informs us how it all +took place. "He was a man," he said—this is what Cicero tells +us that Heius said—"who was well esteemed in his own country, +and would wish you"—you judges—"to think well of his +religious spirit and of his personal dignity. He had come here to +praise Verres because he had been required to do so by his +fellow-citizens. He, however, had never kept things for sale in his +own house; and had he been left to himself, nothing would have +induced him to part with the sacred images which had been left to +him by his ancestors as the ornaments of his own chapel.<a name= +"FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">127</a> Nevertheless, he had +come to praise Verres, and would have held his tongue had it been +possible."</p> + +<p>Cicero finishes his catalogue by telling us of the manifold +robberies committed by Verres in Syracuse, especially from the +temples of the gods; and he begins his account of the Syracusan +iniquities by drawing a parallel between two Romans whose names +were well known in that city: Marcellus, who had besieged it as an +enemy and taken it, and Verres, who had been sent to govern it in +peace. Marcellus had saved the lives of the Syracusans; Verres had +made the Forum to run with their blood. The harbor which had held +its own against Marcellus, as we may read in our Livy, had been +wilfully opened by Verres to Cilician pirates. This Syracuse which +had been so carefully preserved by its Roman conqueror <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span>the +most beautiful of all the Greek cities on the face of the +earth—so beautiful that Marcellus had spared to it all its +public ornaments—had been stripped bare by Verres. There was +the temple of Minerva from which he had taken all the pictures. +There were doors to this temple of such beauty that books had been +written about them. He stripped the ivory ornaments from them, and +the golden balls with which they had been made splendid. He tore +off from them the head of the Gorgon and carried it away, leaving +them to be rude doors, Goth that he was!</p> + +<p>And he took the Sappho from the Prytaneum, the work of Silanion! +a thing of such beauty that no other man can have the like of it in +his own private house; yet Verres has it—a man hardly fit to +carry such a work of art as a burden, not possess it as a treasure +of his own. "What, too!" he says, "have you not stolen Pæan from +the temple of Æsculapius—a statue so remarkable for its +beauty, so well-known for the worship attached to it, that all the +world has been wont to visit it? What! has not the image of +Aristæus been taken by you from the temple of Bacchus? Have you +not even stolen the statue of Jupiter Imperator, so sacred in the +eyes of all men—that Jupiter which the Greeks call Ourios? +You have not hesitated to rob the temple of Proserpine of the +lovely head in Parian marble."<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id= +"FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class= +"fnanchor">128</a> Then Cicero speaks of the worship due to all +these gods as though he himself believed in their godhead. As he +had begun this chapter with the Mamertines of Messana, so he ends +it with an address to them. "It is well that you should come, you +alone out of all the provinces, and praise Verres here in Rome. But +what can you say for him? Was it not your duty to have built a ship +for the Republic? You have built none such, but have constructed a +huge private transport-vessel for Verres. Have you not been +exempted from your tax on corn? Have you not been exempted in +regard to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id= +"Page_158">158</a></span>naval and military recruits? Have you +not been the receptacle of all his stolen goods? They will have to +confess, these Mamertines, that many a ship laden with his spoils +has left their port, and especially this huge transport-ship which +they built for him!"</p> + +<p>In the De Suppliciis—the treatise about punishments, as +the last division of this process is called—Cicero tells the +world how Verres exacted vengeance from those who were opposed to +him, and with what horrid cruelty he raged against his enemies. The +stories, indeed, are very dreadful. It is harrowing to think that +so evil a man should have been invested with powers so great for so +bad a purpose. But that which strikes a modern reader most is the +sanctity attached to the name of a Roman citizen, and the audacity +with which the Roman Proconsul disregarded that sanctity. "Cives +Romanus" is Cicero's cry from the beginning to the end. No doubt he +is addressing himself to Romans, and seeking popularity, as he +always did. But, nevertheless, the demands made upon the outside +world at large by the glory of that appellation are astonishing, +even when put forward on such an occasion as this. One Gavius +escapes from a prison in Syracuse, and, making his way to Messana, +foolishly boasts that he would be soon over in Italy, out of the +way of Prætor Verres and his cruelties. Verres, unfortunately, is +in Messana, and soon hears from some of his friends, the +Mamertines, what Gavius was saying. He at once orders Gavius to be +flogged in public. "Cives Romanus sum!" exclaims Gavius, no doubt +truly. It suits Verres to pretend to disbelieve this, and to +declare that the man is a runagate slave. The poor wretch still +cries "Cives Romanus!" and trusts alone to that appeal. Whereupon +Verres puts up a cross on the sea-shore, and has the man crucified +in sight of Italy, so that he shall be able to see the country of +which he is so proud. Whether he had done anything to deserve +crucifixion, or flogging, or punishment at all, we are not told. +The accusation against Verres is not for crucifying the man, but +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"> +159</a></span>for crucifying the Roman. It is on this occasion +that Cicero uses the words which have become proverbial as to the +iniquity of this proceeding.<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id= +"FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class= +"fnanchor">129</a> During the telling of this story he explains +this doctrine, claiming for the Roman citizen, all the world over, +some such protection as freemasons are supposed to give each other, +whether known or unknown. "Men of straw," he says, "of no special +birth, go about the world. They resort to places they have never +seen before, where they know none, and none know them. Here, +trusting to their claim solely, they feel themselves to be +safe—not only where our magistrates are to be found, who are +bound both by law and by opinion, not only among other Roman +citizens who speak their language and follow the same customs, but +abroad, over the whole world, they find this to be sufficient +protection."<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a +href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">130</a> Then he goes on +to say that if any Prætor may at his will put aside this sanctity, +all the provinces, all the kingdoms, all the free states, all the +world abroad, will very soon lose the feeling.</p> + +<p>But the most remarkable story is that told of a certain pirate +captain. Verres had been remiss in regard to the pirates—very +cowardly, indeed, if we are to believe Cicero. Piracy in the +Mediterranean was at that time a terrible drawback to +trade—that piracy that a year or two afterward Pompey was +effectual in destroying. A governor in Sicily had, among other +special duties, to keep a sharp lookout for the pirates. This +Verres omitted so entirely that these scourges of the sea soon +learned that they might do almost as they pleased on the Sicilian +coasts. But it came to pass that on one day a pirate vessel fell by +accident into the hands of the governor's officers. It was not +taken, Cicero says, but was so overladen that it was picked up +almost sinking.<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id= +"FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class= +"fnanchor">131</a> It was found to be full of <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span>fine, +handsome men, of silver both plated and coined, and precious +stuffs. Though not "taken," it was "found," and carried into +Syracuse. Syracuse is full of the news, and the first demand is +that the pirates, according to Roman custom, shall all be killed. +But this does not suit Verres. The slave-markets of the Roman +Empire are open, and there are men among the pirates whom it will +suit him better to sell than to kill. There are six musicians, +"symphoniacos homines," whom he sends as a present to a friend at +Rome. But the people of Syracuse are very much in earnest. They are +too sharp to be put off with pretences, and they count the number +of slaughtered pirates. There are only some useless, weak, ugly old +fellows beheaded from day to day; and being well aware how many men +it must have taken to row and manage such a vessel, they demand +that the full crew shall be brought to the block. "There is nothing +in victory more sweet," says Cicero, "no evidence more sure, than +to see those whom you did fear, but have now got the better of, +brought out to tortures or death."<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id= +"FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class= +"fnanchor">132</a> Verres is so much frightened by the resolution +of the citizens that he does not dare to neglect their wishes. +There are lying in the prisons of Syracuse a lot of prisoners, +Roman citizens, of whom he is glad to rid himself. He has them +brought out, with their heads wrapped up so that they shall not be +known, and has them beheaded instead of the pirates! A great deal +is said, too, about the pirate captain—the arch-pirate, as he +is called. There seems to have been some money dealings personally +between him and Verres, on account of which Verres kept him hidden. +At any rate, the arch-pirate was saved. "In such a manner this +celebrated victory is managed.<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id= +"FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class= +"fnanchor">133</a> The pirate ship is taken, and the chief pirate +is allowed to escape. The musicians are sent to Rome. The men who +are good-looking and young are taken to the Prætor's house. As +many Roman citizens as will fill their places are carried out <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"> +161</a></span>as public enemies, and are tortured and killed! All +the gold and silver and precious stuffs are made a prize of by +Verres!"</p> + +<p>Such are the accusations brought against this wonderful +man—the truth of which has, I think, on the whole been +admitted. The picture of Roman life which it displays is wonderful, +that such atrocities should have been possible; and equally so of +provincial subjection, that such cruelties should have been +endured. But in it all the greatest wonder is that there should +have risen up a man so determined to take the part of the weak +against the strong with no reward before him, apparently with no +other prospect than that of making himself odious to the party to +which he belonged. Cicero was not a Gracchus, anxious to throw +himself into the arms of the people; he was an oligarch by +conviction, born to oligarchy, bred to it, convinced that by it +alone could the Roman Republic be preserved. But he was convinced +also that unless these oligarchs could be made to do their duty the +Republic could not stand. Therefore it was that he dared to defy +his own brethren, and to make the acquittal of Verres an +impossibility. I should be inclined to think that the day on which +Hortensius threw up the sponge, and Verres submitted to banishment +and fine, was the happiest in the orator's life.</p> + +<p>Verres was made to pay a fine which was very insufficient for +his crimes, and then to retire into comfortable exile. From this he +returned to Rome when the Roman exiles were amnestied, and was +shortly afterward murdered by Antony, as has been told before.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"> +162</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VII.</span></h3> + +<h4><i>CICERO AS ÆDILE AND PRÆTOR.</i></h4> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 69, +<i>ætat</i>. 38.</div> + +<p>The year after the trial of Verres was that of Cicero's +Ædileship. We know but little of him in the performance of the +duties of this office, but we may gather that he performed them to +the satisfaction of the people. He did not spend much money for +their amusements, although it was the custom of Ædiles to ruin +themselves in seeking popularity after this fashion; and yet when, +two years afterward, he solicited the Prætorship from the people, +he was three times elected as first Prætor in all the +comitia—three separate elections having been rendered +necessary by certain irregularities and factious difficulties. To +all the offices, one after another, he was elected in his first +year—the first year possible in accordance with his +age—and was elected first in honor, the first as Prætor, and +then the first as Consul. This, no doubt, was partly due to his +compliance with those rules for canvassing which his brother +Quintus is said to have drawn out, and which I have quoted; but it +proves also the trust which was felt in him by the people. The +candidates, for the most part, were the candidates for the +aristocracy. They were put forward with the idea that thus might +the aristocratic rule of Rome be best maintained. Their elections +were carried on by bribery, and the people were for the most part +indifferent to the proceeding. Whether it might be a Verres, or an +Antony, or a Hortensius, they took the money that was going. They +allowed themselves to be delighted with the games, and they did as +they were bid. But every now and then there came up a name which +stirred them, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id= +"Page_163">163</a></span>and they went to the voting +pens—ovilia—with a purpose of their own. When such a +candidate came forward, he was sure to be first. Such had been +Marius, and such had been the great Pompey, and such was Cicero. +The two former were men successful in war, who gained the voices of +the people by their victories. Cicero gained them by what he did +inside the city. He could afford not to run into debt and ruin +himself during his Ædileship, as had been common with Ædiles, +because he was able to achieve his popularity in another way. It +was the chief duty of the Ædiles to look after the town +generally—to see to the temples of the gods, to take care +that houses did not tumble down, to look to the cleansing of the +streets, and to the supply of water. The markets were under them, +and the police, and the recurrent festivals. An active man, with +common-sense, such as was Cicero, no doubt did his duty as Ædile +well.</p> + +<p>He kept up his practice as an advocate during his years of +office. We have left to us the part of one speech and the whole of +another spoken during this period. The former was in favor of +Fonteius, whom the Gauls prosecuted for plundering them as +Proprætor, and the latter is a civil case on behalf of Cæcina, +addressed to the "Recuperatores," as had been that for Marcus +Tullius. The speech for Fonteius is remarkable as being as hard +against the provincial Gauls as his speech against Verres had been +favorable to the Sicilians. But the Gauls were barbarians, whereas +the Sicilians were Greeks. And it should be always remembered that +Cicero spoke as an advocate, and that the praise and censure of an +advocate require to be taken with many grains of salt. Nothing that +these wretched Gauls could say against a Roman citizen ought to be +accepted in evidence! "All the Romans," he says, "who have been in +the province wish well to Fonteius. Would you rather believe these +Gauls—led by what feeling? By the opinion of men! Is the +opinion, then, of your enemies of greater weight than that of your +fellow-citizens, or is it the greater credibility of the witnesses? +Would you prefer, then, unknown <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span>men to +known—dishonest men to honest—foreigners to your own +countrymen—greedy men to those who come before you for +nothing—men of no religion to those who fear the +gods—those who hate the Empire and the name of Rome to allies +and citizens who are good and faithful?"<a name="FNanchor_134_134" +id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class= +"fnanchor">134</a> In every word of this he begs the question so +as to convince us that his own case was weak; and when he makes a +final appeal to the pity of the judges we are sure that Fonteius +was guilty. He tells the judges that the poor mother of the accused +man has no other support than this son, and that there is a sister, +one of the virgins devoted to the service of Vesta, who, being a +vestal virgin, cannot have sons of her own, and is therefore +entitled to have her brother preserved for her. When we read such +arguments as these, we are sure that Fonteius had misused the +Gauls. We believe that he was acquitted, because we are told that +he bought a house in Rome soon afterward; but we feel that he +escaped by the too great influence of his advocate. We are driven +to doubt whether the power over words which may be achieved by a +man by means of natural gifts, practice, and erudition, may not do +evil instead of good. A man with such a tongue as that of Cicero +will make the listener believe almost whatever he will; and the +advocate is restrained by no horror of falsehood. In his profession +alone it is considered honorable to be a bulwark to deception, and +to make the worse appear the better cause. Cicero did so when the +occasion seemed to him to require it, and has been accused of +hypocrisy in consequence. There is a passage in one of the +dialogues, De Oratore, which has been continually quoted against +him because the word "fibs" has been used with approval. The orator +is told how it may become him to garnish his good story with little +white lies—"mendaciunculis."<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id= +"FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class= +"fnanchor">135</a> The advice does <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span>not indeed refer to +facts, or to evidence, or to arguments. It goes no farther than to +suggest that amount of exaggeration which is used by every teller +of a good story in order that the story may be good. Such +"mendaciuncula" are in the mouth of every diner-out in London, and +we may pity the dinner-parties at which they are not used. +Reference is made to them now because the use of the word by +Cicero, having been misunderstood by some who have treated his name +with severity, has been brought forward in proof of his falsehood. +You shall tell a story about a very little man, and say that he is +only thirty-six inches. You know very well that he is more than +four feet high. That will be a "mendaciunculum," according to +Cicero. The phrase has been passed on from one enemy to another, +till the little fibs of Cicero's recommending have been supposed to +be direct lies suggested by him to all advocates, and therefore +continually used by him as an advocate. They have been only the +garnishing of his drolleries. As an advocate, he was about as false +and about as true as an advocate of our own day.<a name= +"FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">136</a> That he was not +paid, and that our English barristers are paid for the work they +do, makes, I think, no difference either in the innocency or the +falseness of the practice. I cannot but believe that, hereafter, an +improved tone of general feeling will forbid a man of honor to use +arguments which he thinks to be untrue, or to make others believe +that which he does not believe himself. Such is not the state of +things now in London, nor was it at Rome in Cicero's <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span>time. +There are touches of eloquence in the plea for Fonteius, but the +reader will probably agree with me that the orator was well aware +that the late governor who was on his trial had misused those +unfortunate Gauls.</p> + +<p>In the year following that of Cicero's Ædileship were written +the first of his epistles which have come to us. He was then not +yet thirty-nine years old—<span class="smcap">b.c.</span> +68—and during that year and the next seven were written +eleven letters, all to Atticus. Those to his other friends—Ad +Familiares, as we have been accustomed to call them; Ad Diversos, +they are commonly called now—began only with the close of his +consular year. How it has come to pass that there have been +preserved only those which were written after a period of life at +which most men cease to be free correspondents, cannot be said with +certainty. It has probably been occasioned by the fact that he +caused his letters to be preserved as soon as he himself perceived +how great would be their value. Of the nature of their value it is +hardly possible to speak too highly. I am not prepared, indeed, to +agree with the often quoted assertion of Cornelius Nepos that he +who has read his letters to Atticus will not lack much of the +history of those days.<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id= +"FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class= +"fnanchor">137</a></p> + +<p>A man who should have read them and nothing else, even <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"> +167</a></span>in the days of Augustus, would not have learned much +of the preceding age. But if not for the purpose of history, the +letters generally have, if read aright, been all but enough for the +purpose of biography. With a view to the understanding of the man's +character, they have, I think, been enough. From them such a flood +of light has been turned upon the writer that all his nobility and +all his defects, all his aspirations and all his vacillations, have +been made visible. We know how human he was, and how, too, he was +only human—how he sighed for great events, and allowed +himself to think sometimes that they could be accomplished by small +manœuvres—how like a man he could be proud of his work and +boast—how like a man he could despair and almost die. But I +wish it to be acknowledged, by those who read his letters in order +that they may also read his character, that they were, when +written, private letters, intended to tell the truth, and that if +they are to be believed in reference to his weaknesses, they are +also to be believed in reference to his strength. If they are +singularly transparent as to the man—opening, especially to +Atticus, the doors of his soul more completely than would even any +girl of the nineteenth century when writing to her bosom +friend—they must be taken as being more honestly true. To +regard the aspirations as hypocritical, and only the meaner +effusions of his mind as emblematic of the true man, is both +unreasonable and uncharitable. Nor, I think, will that reader grasp +the way to see the truth who cannot teach himself what has in +Cicero's case, been the effect of daring to tell to his friend an +unvarnished tale. When with us some poor thought does make its way +across our minds, we do not sit down and write it to another, nor, +if we did, would an immortality be awarded to the letter. If one of +us were to lose his all—as Cicero lost his all when he was +sent into exile—I think it might well be that he should for a +time be unmanned; but he would either not write, or, in writing, +would hide much of his feelings. On losing his Tullia, some father +of to-day <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id= +"Page_168">168</a></span>would keep it all in his heart, would +not maunder out his sorrows. Even with our truest love for our +friends, some fear is mingled which forbids the use of open words. +Whether this be for good or for evil I will not say, but it is so. +Cicero, whether he did or did not know that his letters would live, +was impeded by no such fear. He said everything that there was +within him—being in this, I should say, quite as unlike to +other Romans of the day as he was to ourselves. In the collection +as it has come to us there are about fifty letters—not from +Cicero—written to Cicero by his brother, by Decimus Brutus, +by Plancus, and others. It will, I think, be admitted that their +tone is quite different from that used by himself. There are none, +indeed, from Atticus—none written under terms of such easy +friendship as prevailed when many were written by Cicero himself. +It will probably be acknowledged that his manner of throwing +himself open to his correspondent was peculiar to him. If this be +so, he should surely have the advantage as well as the disadvantage +of his own mode of utterance. The reader who allows himself to +think that the true character of the man is to be read in the +little sly things he said to Atticus, but that the nobler ideas +were merely put forth to cajole the public, is as unfair to himself +as he is to Cicero.</p> + +<p>In reading the entire correspondence—the letters from +Cicero either to Atticus or to others—it has to be remembered +that in the ordinary arrangement of them made by Grævius<a name= +"FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">138</a> they are often +incorrectly paced in regard to chronology. In subsequent times +efforts have been made to restore them to their proper position, +and so they should be read. The letters to Atticus and those Ad +Diversos have generally been published separately. For the ordinary +purpose of literary pleasure they may perhaps be best read in that +way. The tone of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id= +"Page_169">169</a></span>them is different. The great bulk of +the correspondence is political, or quasi-political. The manner is +much more familiar, much less severe—though not on that +account indicating less seriousness—in those written to +Atticus than in the others. With one or two signal exceptions, +those to Atticus are better worth reading. The character of the +writer may perhaps be best gathered from divided perusal; but for a +general understanding of the facts of Cicero's life, the whole +correspondence should be taken as it was written. It has been +published in this shape as well as in the other, and will be used +in this shape in my effort to portray the life of him who wrote +them.<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">139</a></p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 68, +<i>ætat</i> 39.</div> + +<p>We have three letters written when he was thirty-eight, in the +year after his Ædileship. In the first he tells his friend of the +death of his cousin, Lucius Cicero, who had travelled with him into +Sicily, and alludes to the disagreements which had taken place +between Pomponia, the sister of Atticus, and her husband, Quintus +Cicero—our Cicero's brother. Marcus, in all that he says of +his brother, makes the best of him. That Quintus was a scholar and +a man of parts there can be no doubt; one, too, who rose to high +office in the Republic. But he was arrogant, of harsh temper, cruel +to those dependent on him, and altogether unimbued with the +humanity which was the peculiar characteristic of his brother. +"When <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"> +170</a></span>I found him to be in the wrong," says Cicero, in his +first letter, "I wrote to him as to a brother whom I loved; but as +to one younger than myself, and whom I was bound to tell of his +fault." As is usual with correspondents, half the letter is taken +up with excuses for not writing sooner; then he gives commissions +for the purchase of statues for his Tusculan villa, of which we now +hear for the first time, and tells his friend how his wife, +Terentia, sends her love, though she is suffering from the gout. +Tullia also, the dear little Tullia, "deliciæ nostræ,"<a name= +"FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">140</a>sends her love. In +the next, he says how a certain house which Atticus had intended to +purchase had been secured by Fonteius for 130,000 +sesterces—something over £1000, taking the sesterce at +2 <i>d</i>. This no doubt was part of the plunder which Fonteius +had taken from the Gauls. Quintus is getting on better with his +wife. Then he tells his friend very abruptly that his father died +that year on the eighth day before the kalends of December—on +the 24th of November. Some question as to the date of the old man's +death had probably been asked. He gives further commissions as to +statues, and declares of his Tusculan villa that he is happy only +when he is there. In the third letter he promises that he will be +ready to pay one Cincius £170 on a certain day, the price +probably of more statues, and gives orders to his friend as to the +buying of books. "All my prospect of enjoying myself at my ease +depends on your goodness." These were the letters he wrote when he +had just ceased to be Ædile.</p> + +<p>From the next two years five letters remain to us, chiefly +noticeable from the continued commissions given by Cicero to +Atticus for statues. Statues and more statues are wanted as +ornaments for his Tusculanum. Should there be more than <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"> +171</a></span>are needed for that villa, he will begin to decorate +another that he has, the Formianum, near Caieta. He wants whatever +Atticus may think proper for his "palæstra" and "gymnasium." +Atticus has a library or collection of maps for sale, and Cicero +engages to buy them, though it seems that he has not at present +quite got the money. He reserves, he says, all his little +comings-in, "vindemiolas"—what he might make by selling his +grapes as a lady in the country might get a little income from her +spare butter—in order that he may have books as a resource +for his old age. Again, he bids Atticus not to be afraid but what +he, Cicero, will be able to buy them some day—which if he can +do he will be richer than Crassus, and will envy no one his +mansions or his lawns. He also declares that he has betrothed +Tullia, then ten years old, to Caius Piso, son of Lucius Piso +Frugi. The proposed marriage, which after three years of betrothal +was duly solemnized, was considered to be in all respects +desirable. Cicero thought very highly of his son-in-law, who was +related to Calpurnius Piso, one of the Consuls of that year. So far +everything was going well with our orator.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 67, +<i>ætat</i> 40</div> + +<p>He was then candidate for the Prætorship, and was elected +first, as has been already said. It was in that year, too that a +law was passed in Rome, at the instance of one Gabinius, a tribune, +authorizing Pompey to exterminate the pirates in the Mediterranean, +and giving him almost unlimited power for this object. Pompey was +not, indeed, named in this law. A single general, one who had been +Consul, was to be approved by the Senate, with exclusive command by +sea and for fifty miles on shore. He was to select as his own +officers a hitherto unheard-of number, all of senatorial rank. It +was well understood when the law was worded that Pompey alone could +fill the place. The Senate opposed the scheme with all its power, +although, seven years before, it had acknowledged the necessity of +some measure for extirpating the pirates. But jealousies prevailed, +and the Senate was afraid of <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span>Pompey. Gabinius, +however, carried his law by the votes of the people, and Pompey was +appointed.</p> + +<p>Nothing tells us more clearly the wretched condition of things +in Rome at this time than this infliction of pirates, under which +their commerce was almost destroyed. Sulla had re-established the +outside show of a strong government—a government which was +strong enough to enable rich men to live securely in Rome; but he +had done nothing to consolidate the Empire. Even Lucullus in the +East had only partially succeeded, leaving Mithridates still to be +dealt with by Pompey. Of what nature was the government of the +provinces under Sulla's aristocracy we learn from the trials of +Verres, and of Fonteius, and of Catiline. The Mediterranean swarmed +with pirates, who taught themselves to think that they had nothing +to fear from the hands of the Romans. Plutarch declares to +us—no doubt with fair accuracy, because the description has +been admitted by subsequent writers—how great was the horror +of these depredations.<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id= +"FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class= +"fnanchor">141</a> It is marvellous to us <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span>now +that this should have been allowed—marvellous that pirates +should reach such a pitch of importance that Verres had found it +worth his while to sacrifice Roman citizens in their place. Pompey +went forth with his officers, his fleets, and his money, and +cleared the Mediterranean in forty days, as Plutarch says. Floras +tells us that not a ship was lost by the Romans, and not a pirate +left on the seas.<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id= +"FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class= +"fnanchor">142</a></p> + +<p>In the history of Rome at this time we find men of mark whose +characters, as we read, become clear to us, or appear to become +clear. Of Marius and of Sulla we have a defined idea. Cæsar, +with his imperturbable courage, absence of scruples, and assurance +of success, comes home to us. Cicero, I think, we certainly may +understand. Catiline, Cato, Antony, and Brutus have left their +portraits with us. Of Pompey I must acknowledge for myself that I +have but a vague conception. His wonderful successes seem to have +been produced by so very little power of his own! He was not +determined and venomous as was Marius; not cold-blooded and +ruthless as was Sulla; certainly not confident as was Cæsar; +not humane as was Cicero; not passionate as Catiline; not stoic as +was Cato; not reckless as was Antony, nor wedded to the idea of an +oligarchy as was Brutus. Success came in his way, and he found +it—found it again and again, till fortune seemed to have +adopted him. Success lifted him higher and higher, till at last it +seemed to him that he must be a Sulla whether he would or no.<a +name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_143_143" class="fnanchor">143</a> <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span>But +he could not endure the idea of a rival Sulla. I doubt whether +ambition would have prompted him to fight for the empire of the +Republic, had he not perceived that that empire would fall into +Cæsar's hands did he not grasp it himself. It would have +satisfied him to let things go, while the citizens called him +"Magnus," and regarded him as the man who could do a great thing if +he would, if only no rivalship had been forced upon him. +Cæsar did force it on him, and then, as a matter of course, +he fell. He must have understood warfare from his youth upward, +knowing well the purposes of a Roman legion and of Roman +auxiliaries. He had destroyed Sertorius in Spain, a man certainly +greater than himself, and had achieved the honor of putting an end +to the Servile war when Spartacus, the leader of the slaves and +gladiators, had already been killed. He must have appreciated at +its utmost the meaning of those words, "Cives Romanus." He was a +handsome man, with good health, patient of labor, not given to +luxury, reticent, I should say ungenerous, and with a strong touch +of vanity; a man able to express but unable to feel friendship; +with none of the highest attributes of manhood, but with all the +second-rate attributes at their best; a capable, brave man, but one +certain to fall crushed beneath the heel of such a man as +Cæsar, and as certain to leave such a one as Cicero in the +lurch.</p> + +<p>It is necessary that the reader should attempt to realize to +himself the personal characteristics of Pompey, as from this time +forward Cicero's political life—and his life now became +altogether political—was governed by that of Pompey. That +this was the case to a great extent is certain—to a sad +extent, I think. The two men were of the same age; but Pompey had +become a general among soldiers before Cicero had ceased to be a +pupil among advocates. As Cicero was making his way toward the +front, Pompey was already the first among Romans. <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span>He +had been Consul seven years before his proper time, and had lately, +as we have seen, been invested with extraordinary powers in that +matter of putting down the pirates. In some sort the mantle of +Sulla had fallen upon him. He was the leader of what we may call +the conservative party. If, which I doubt, the political governance +of men was a matter of interest to him, he would have had them +governed by oligarchical forms. Such had been the forms in Rome, in +which, though the votes of the people were the source of all power, +the votes hardly went further than the selection of this or that +oligarch. Pompey no doubt felt the expediency of maintaining the +old order of things, in the midst of which he had been born to high +rank, and had achieved the topmost place either by fortune or by +merit. For any heartfelt conviction as to what might be best for +his country or his countrymen, in what way he might most surely use +his power for the good of the citizens generally, we must, I think, +look in vain to that Pompey whom history has handed down to us. +But, of all matters which interested Cicero, the governance of men +interested him the most. How should the great Rome of his day rise +to greater power than ever, and yet be as poor as in the days of +her comparative insignificance? How should Rome be ruled so that +Romans might be the masters of the world, in mental gifts as well +as bodily strength, in arts as well as in arms—as by valor, +so by virtue? He, too, was an oligarch by strongest conviction. His +mind could conceive nothing better than Consuls, Prætors, Censors, +Tribunes, and the rest of it; with, however, the stipulation that +the Consuls and the Prætors should be honest men. The condition +was no doubt an impossible one; but this he did not or would not +see. Pompey himself was fairly honest. Up to this time he had shown +no egregious lust for personal power. His hands were clean in the +midst of so much public plunder. He was the leader of the +conservative party. The "Optimates," or "Boni," as Cicero +indifferently calls them—meaning, as we should say, the upper +classes, who were minded to stand by <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span>their +order—believed in him, though they did not just at that time +wish to confide to him the power which the people gave him. The +Senate did not want another Sulla; and yet it was Sulla who had +reinstated the Senate. The Senate would have hindered Pompey, if it +could, from his command against the pirates, and again from his +command against Mithridates. But he, nevertheless, was naturally +their head, as came to be seen plainly when, seventeen years +afterward, Cæsar passed the Rubicon, and Cicero in his heart +acknowledged Pompey as his political leader while Pompey lived. +This, I think, was the case to a sad extent, as Pompey was +incapable of that patriotic enthusiasm which Cicero demanded. As we +go on we shall find that the worst episodes in Cicero's political +career were created by his doubting adherence to a leader whom he +bitterly felt to be untrue to himself, and in whom his trust became +weaker and weaker to the end.</p> + +<p>Then came Cicero's Prætorship. In the time of Cicero there were +eight Prætors, two of whom were employed in the city, and the six +others in the provinces. The "Prætor Urbanus" was confined to the +city, and was regarded as the first in authority. This was the +office filled by Cicero. His duty was to preside among the judges, +and to name a judge or judges for special causes.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 66, +<i>ætat</i> 41.</div> + +<p>Cicero at this time, when he and Pompey were forty or forty-one, +believed thoroughly in Pompey. When the great General was still +away, winding up the affairs of his maritime war against the +pirates, there came up the continually pressing question of the +continuation of the Mithridatic war. Lucullus had been absent on +that business nearly seven years, and, though he had been at first +grandly victorious, had failed at last. His own soldiers, tired of +their protracted absence, mutinied against him, and Glabrio, a +later Consul, who had been sent to take the command out of his +hands, had feared to encounter the difficulty. It was essential +that something should be done, and one Manilius, a Tribune, a man +of no repute <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id= +"Page_177">177</a></span>himself, but whose name has descended +to all posterity in the oration Pro Lege Manilia, proposed to the +people that Pompey should have the command. Then Cicero first +entered, as we may say, on political life. Though he had been +Quæstor and Ædile, and was now Prætor, he had taken a part only +in executive administration. He had had his political ideas, and +had expressed them very strongly in that matter of the judges, +which, in the condition of Rome, was certainly a political question +of great moment. But this he had done as an advocate, and had +interfered only as a barrister of to-day might do, who, in arguing +a case before the judges, should make an attack on some alleged +misuse of patronage. Now, for the first time, he made a political +harangue, addressing the people in a public meeting from the +rostra. This speech is the oration Pro Lego Manilia. This he +explains in his first words. Hitherto his addresses had been to the +judges—Judices; now it is to the people—Quirites: +"Although, Quirites, no sight has ever been so pleasant to me as +that of seeing you gathered in crowds—although this spot has +always seemed to me the fittest in the world for action and the +noblest for speech—nevertheless, not my own will, indeed, +but the duties of the profession which I have followed from my +earliest years have hitherto hindered me from entering upon this +the best path to glory which is open to any good man." It is only +necessary for our purpose to say, in reference to the matter in +question, that this command was given to Pompey in opposition to +the Senate.</p> + +<p>As to the speech itself, it requires our attention on two +points. It is one of those choice morsels of polished Latinity +which have given to Cicero the highest rank among literary men, and +have, perhaps, made him the greatest writer of prose which the +world has produced. I have sometimes attempted to make a short list +of his <i>chefs d'œuvre</i>—of his tidbits, as I must say, +if I am bound to express myself in English. The list would never +allow itself to be short, and so has become almost impossible; but, +whenever the attempt has been made, this short oration in its <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"> +178</a></span>integrity has always been included in it. My space +hardly permits me to insert specimens of the author's style, but I +will give in an appendix<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id= +"FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class= +"fnanchor">144</a> two brief extracts as specimens of the beauty +of words in Latin. I almost fancy that if properly read they would +have a grace about them even to the ears of those to whom Latin is +unknown. I venture to attach to them in parallel columns my own +translation, acknowledging in despair how impossible I have found +it to catch anything of the rhythm of the author. As to the beauty +of the language I shall probably find no opponent. But a serious +attack has been made on Cicero's character, because it has been +supposed that his excessive praise was lavished on Pompey with a +view of securing the great General's assistance in his candidature +for the Consulship. Even Middleton repeats this accusation, and +only faintly repels it. M. Du Rozoir, the French critic, declares +that "in the whole oration there is not a word which was not +dictated to Cicero the Prætor by his desire to become Consul, and +that his own elevation was in his thoughts all through, and not +that of Pompey." The matter would be one to us but of little +moment, were it not that Cicero's character for honesty as a +politician depends on the truth or falsehood of his belief in +Pompey. Pompey had been almost miraculously fortunate up to this +period of his life's career. He had done infinitely valuable +service to the State. He had already crushed the pirates. There was +good ground for believing that in his hands the Roman arms would be +more efficacious against Mithridates than in those of any other +General. All that Cicero says on this head, whatever might have +been his motive for saying it, was at any rate true.</p> + +<p>A man desirous of rising in the service of his country of course +adheres to his party. That Cicero was wrong in supposing that the +Republic, which had in fact already fallen, could be re-established +by the strength of any one man, could be bolstered <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span>up by +any leader, has to be admitted; that in trusting to Pompey as a +politician he leaned on a frail reed I admit; but I will not admit +that in praising the man he was hypocritical or unduly +self-seeking. In our own political contests, when a subordinate +member of the Cabinet is zealously serviceable to his chief, we do +not accuse him of falsehood because by that zeal he has also +strengthened his own hands. How shall a patriot do the work of his +country unless he be in high place? and how shall he achieve that +place except by co-operation with those whom he trusts? They who +have blamed Cicero for speaking on behalf of Pompey on this +occasion, seem to me to ignore not only the necessities but the +very virtues of political life.</p> + +<p>One other remarkable oration Cicero made during his +Prætorship—that, namely, in defence of Aulus Cluentius +Habitus. As it is the longest, so is it the most intricate, and on +account of various legal points the most difficult to follow of all +his speeches. But there are none perhaps which tell us more of the +condition, or perhaps I should say the possibilities, of life among +the Romans of that day. The accusation against Roscius Amerinus was +accompanied by horrible circumstances. The iniquities of Verres, as +a public officer who had the power of blessing or of cursing a +whole people, were very terrible; but they do not shock so much as +the story here told of private life. That any man should have lived +as did Oppianicus, or any woman as did Sassia, seems to prove a +state of things worse than anything described by Juvenal a hundred +and fifty years later. Cicero was no doubt unscrupulous as an +advocate, but he could have gained nothing here by departing from +verisimilitude. We must take the picture as given us as true, and +acknowledge that, though law processes were common, crimes such as +those of this man and of this woman were not only possible, but +might be perpetrated with impunity. The story is too long and +complicated to be even abridged; but it should be read by those who +wish to know <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id= +"Page_180">180</a></span>the condition of life in Italy during +the latter days of the Republic.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 65, +ætat 42.</div> + +<p>In the year after he was Prætor—in the first of the two +years between his Prætorship and Consulship, <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> 65—he made a speech in defence of one +Caius Cornelius, as to which we hear that the pleadings in the case +occupied four days. This, with our interminable "causes +célèbres," does not seem much to us, but Cicero's own +speech was so long that in publishing it he divided it into two +parts. This Cornelius had been Tribune in the year but one before, +and was accused of having misused his power when in office. He had +incurred the enmity of the aristocracy by attempts made on the +popular side to restrain the Senate; especially by the stringency +of a law proposed for stopping bribery at elections. Cicero's +speeches are not extant. We have only some hardly intelligible +fragments of them, which were preserved by Asconius,<a name= +"FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">145</a> a commentator on +certain of Cicero's orations; but there is ground for supposing +that these Cornelian orations were at the time matter of as great +moment as those spoken against Verres, or almost as those spoken +against Catiline. Cicero defended Cornelius, who was attacked by +the Senate—by the rich men who desired office and the +government of provinces. The law proposed for the restriction of +bribery at elections no doubt attempted to do more by the severity +of its punishment than can be achieved by such means: it was +mitigated, but was still admitted by Cicero to be too rigorous. The +rancor of the Senate against Cornelius seems to have been due to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"> +181</a></span>this attempt; but the illegality with which he was +charged, and for which he was tried, had reference to another law +suggested by him—for restoring to the people the right of +pardon which had been usurped by the Senate. Caius Cornelius seems +to have been a man honest and eager in his purpose to save the +Republic from the greed of the oligarchs, but—as had been the +Gracchi—ready in his eagerness to push his own authority too +far in his attempt to restrain that of the Senate. A second +Tribune, in the interest of the Senate, attempted to exercise an +authority which undoubtedly belonged to him, by inhibiting the +publication or reading of the proposed law. The person whose duty +it was to read it was stopped; then Cornelius pushed aside the +inferior officer, and read it himself. There was much violence, and +the men who brought the accusation about Cornelius—two +brothers named Cominii—had to hide themselves, and saved +their lives by escaping over the roofs of the houses.</p> + +<p>This took place when Cicero was standing for the Prætorship, +and the confusion consequent upon it was so great that it was for +awhile impossible to carry on the election. In the year after his +Prætorship Cornelius was put upon his trial, and the two speeches +were made.</p> + +<p>The matter seems to have been one of vital interest in Rome. The +contest on the part of the Senate was for all that made public life +dear to such a body. Not to bribe—not to be able to lay out +money in order that money might be returned ten-fold, a +hundred-fold—would be to them to cease to be aristocrats. The +struggles made by the Gracchi, by Livius Drusus, by others whose +names would only encumber us here, by this Cornelius, were the +expiring efforts of those who really desired an honest Republic. +Such were the struggles made by Cicero himself; though there was +present always to him an idea, with which, in truth, neither the +demagogues nor the aristocrats sympathized, that the reform could +be effected, not by depriving the Senate of its power, but by +teaching the Senate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id= +"Page_182">182</a></span>to use it honestly. We can sympathize +with the idea, but we are driven to acknowledge that it was +futile.</p> + +<p>Though we know that this was so, the fragments of the speeches, +though they have been made intelligible to us by the "argument" or +story of them prefixed by Asconius in his notes, cannot be of +interest to readers. They were extant in the time of Quintilian, +who speaks of them with the highest praise.<a name= +"FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">146</a> Cicero himself +selects certain passages out of these speeches as examples of +eloquence or rhythm,<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id= +"FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class= +"fnanchor">147</a> thus showing the labor with which he composed +them, polishing them by the exercise of his ear as well as by that +of his intellect. We know from Asconius that this trial was +regarded at the time as one of vital interest.</p> + +<p>We have two letters from Cicero written in the year after his +Prætorship, both to Atticus, the first of which tells us of his +probable competition for the Consulship; the second informs his +friend that a son is born to him—he being then forty-two +years old—and that he is thinking to undertake the defence of +Catiline, who was to be accused of peculation as Proprætor in +Africa. "Should he be acquitted," says Cicero, "I should hope to +have him on my side in the matter of my canvass. If he should be +convicted, I shall be able to bear that too." There were to be six +or seven candidates, of whom two, of course, would be chosen. It +would be much to Cicero "to run," as our phrase goes, with the one +who among his competitors <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" +id="Page_183">183</a></span>would be the most likely to +succeed. Catiline, in spite of his then notorious +character—in the teeth of the evils of his government in +Africa—was, from his birth, his connections, and from his +ability, supposed to have the best chance. It was open to Cicero to +defend Catiline as he had defended Fonteius, and we know from his +own words that he thought of doing so. But he did not; nor did +Cicero join himself with Catiline in the canvassing. It is probable +that the nature of Catiline's character and intentions were now +becoming clearer from day to day. Catiline was tried and acquitted, +having, it is said, bribed the judges.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"> +184</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VIII.</span></h3> + +<h4><i>CICERO AS CONSUL.</i></h4> + +<p>Hitherto everything had succeeded with Cicero. His fortune and +his fame had gone hand-in-hand. The good-will of the citizens had +been accorded to him on all possible occasions. He had risen +surely, if not quickly, to the top of his profession, and had so +placed himself there as to have torn the wreath from the brow of +his predecessor and rival, Hortensius. On no memorable occasion had +he been beaten. If now and then he had failed to win a cause in +which he was interested, it was as to some matter in which, as he +had said to Atticus in speaking of his contemplated defence of +Catiline, he was not called on to break his heart if he were +beaten. We may imagine that his life had been as happy up to this +point as a man's life may be. He had married well. Children had +been born to him, who were the source of infinite delight. He had +provided himself with houses, marbles, books, and all the +intellectual luxuries which well-used wealth could produce. Friends +were thick around him. His industry, his ability, and his honesty +were acknowledged. The citizens had given him all that it was in +their power to give. Now at the earliest possible day, with +circumstances of much more than usual honor, he was put in the +highest place which his country had to offer, and knew himself to +be the one man in whom his country at this moment trusted. Then +came the one twelve-month, the apex of his fortunes; and after +that, for the twenty years that followed, there fell upon him one +misery after another—one trouble on the head of another +trouble—so cruelly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" +id="Page_185">185</a></span>that the reader, knowing the +manner of the Romans, almost wonders that he condescended to +live.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 64, +<i>ætat</i> 43</div> + +<p>He was chosen Consul, we are told, not by the votes but by the +unanimous acclamation of the citizens. What was the exact manner of +doing this we can hardly now understand. The Consuls were elected +by ballot, wooden tickets having been distributed to the people for +the purpose; but Cicero tells us that no voting tickets were used +in his case, but that he was elected by the combined voice of the +whole people.<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id= +"FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class= +"fnanchor">148</a> He had stood with six competitors. Of these it +is only necessary to mention two, as by them only was Cicero's life +affected, and as out of the six, only they seem to have come +prominently forward during the canvassing. These were Catiline the +conspirator, as we shall have to call him in dealing with his name +in the next chapter, and Caius Antonius, one of the sons of Marc +Antony, the great orator of the preceding age, and uncle of the +Marc Antony with whom we are all so well acquainted, and with whom +we shall have so much to do before we get to the end of this work. +Cicero was so easily the first that it may be said of him that he +walked over the course. Whether this was achieved by the +Machiavellian arts which his brother Quintus taught in his treatise +De Petitione Consulatus, or was attributable to his general +popularity, may be a matter of doubt. As far as we can judge from +the signs which remain to us of the public feeling of the period, +it seems that he was at this time regarded with singular affection +by his countrymen. He had robbed none, and had been cruel to no +one. He had already abandoned the profit of provincial government—to +which he was by custom entitled after the lapse <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"> +186</a></span>of his year's duty as Prætor—in order that he +might remain in Rome among the people. Though one of the Senate +himself—and full of the glory of the Senate, as he had +declared plainly enough in that passage from one of the Verrine +orations which I have quoted—he had generally pleaded on the +popular side. Such was his cleverness, that even when on the +unpopular side—as he may be supposed to have been when +defending Fonteius—he had given a popular aspect to the cause +in hand. We cannot doubt, judging from the loud expression of the +people's joy at his election, that he had made himself beloved But, +nevertheless, he omitted none of those cares which it was expected +that a candidate should take. He made his electioneering speech "in +toga candida"—in a white robe, as candidates did, and were +thence so called. It has not come down to us, nor do we regret it, +judging from the extracts which have been collected from the notes +which Asconius wrote upon it. It was full of personal abuse of +Antony and Catiline, his competitors. Such was the practice of Rome +at this time, as it was also with us not very long since. We shall +have more than enough of such eloquence before we have done our +task. When we come to the language in which Cicero spoke of +Clodius, his enemy, of Piso and Gabinius, the Consuls who allowed +him to be banished, and of Marc Antony, his last great +opponent—the nephew of the man who was now his +colleague—we shall have very much of it. It must again be +pleaded that the foul abuse which fell from other lips has not been +preserved and that Cicero, therefore, must not be supposed to have +been more foul mouthed than his rivals. We can easily imagine that +he was more bitter than others, because he had more power to throw +into his words the meaning which he intended them to convey.</p> + +<p>Antony was chosen as Cicero's colleague. It seems, from such +evidence as we are able to get on the subject, that Cicero trusted +Antony no better than he did Catiline, but, appreciating the wisdom +of the maxim, "divide et impera"—separate your <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"> +187</a></span>enemies and you will get the better of them, which +was no doubt known as well then as now—he soon determined to +use Antony as his ally against Catiline, who was presumed to reckon +Antony among his fellow-conspirators. Sallust puts into the mouth +of Catiline a declaration to this effect,<a name="FNanchor_149_149" +id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149_149" class= +"fnanchor">149</a> and Cicero did use Antony for the purpose. The +story of Catiline's conspiracy is so essentially the story of +Cicero's Consulship, that I may be justified in hurrying over the +other events of his year's rule; but still there is something that +must be told. Though Catiline's conduct was under his eye during +the whole year, it was not till October that the affairs in which +we shall have to interest ourselves commenced.</p> + +<p>Of what may have been the nature of the administrative work done +by the great Roman officers of State we know very little; perhaps I +might better say that we know nothing. Men, in their own diaries, +when they keep them, or even in their private letters, are seldom +apt to say much of those daily doings which are matter of routine +to themselves, and are by them supposed to be as little interesting +to others. A Prime-minister with us, were he as prone to reveal +himself in correspondence as was Cicero with his friend Atticus, +would hardly say when he went to the Treasury Chambers or what he +did when he got there. We may imagine that to a Cabinet Minister +even a Cabinet Council would, after many sittings, become a matter +of course. A leading barrister would hardly leave behind him a +record of his work in chambers. It has thus come to pass that, +though we can picture to ourselves a Cicero before the judges, or +addressing the people from the rostra, or uttering his opinion in +the Senate, we know nothing of him as he sat in his office and did +his consular work. We cannot but suppose <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span>that there must +have been an office with many clerks. There must have been heavy +daily work. The whole operation of government was under the +Consul's charge, and to Cicero, with a Catiline on his hands, this +must have been more than usually heavy. How he did it, with what +assistance, sitting at what writing-table, dressed in what robes, +with what surroundings of archives and red tape, I cannot make +manifest to myself. I can imagine that there must have been much of +dignity, as there was with all leading Romans, but beyond that I +cannot advance even in fancying what was the official life of a +Consul.</p> + +<p>In the old days the Consul used, as a matter of course, to go +out and do the fighting. When there was an enemy here, or an enemy +there, the Consul was bound to hurry off with his army, north or +south, to different parts of Italy. But gradually this system +became impracticable. Distances became too great, as the Empire +extended itself beyond the bounds of Italy, to admit of the absence +of the Consuls. Wars prolonged themselves through many campaigns, +as notably did that which was soon to take place in Gaul under +Cæsar. The Consuls remained at home, and Generals were sent +out with proconsular authority. This had become so certainly the +case, that Cicero on becoming Consul had no fear of being called on +to fight the enemies of his country. There was much fighting then +in course of being done by Pompey in the East; but this would give +but little trouble to the great officers at home, unless it might +be in sending out necessary supplies.</p> + +<p>The Consul's work, however, was severe enough. We find from his +own words, in a letter to Atticus written in the year but one after +his Consulship, 61 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, that as Consul +he made twelve public addresses. Each of them must have been a work +of labor, requiring a full mastery over the subject in hand, and an +arrangement of words very different in their polished perfection +from the generality of parliamentary speeches to which we are +accustomed. The getting up of his cases must have taken great time. +Letters went slowly and at a heavy cost. <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span>Writing must have +been tedious when that most common was done with a metal point on +soft wax. An advocate who was earnest in a case had to do much for +himself. We have heard how Cicero made his way over to Sicily, +creeping in a little boat through the dangers prepared for him, in +order that he might get up the evidence against Verres. In +defending Aulus Cluentius when he was Prætor, Cicero must have +found the work to have been immense. In preparing the attack upon +Catiline it seems that every witness was brought to himself. There +were four Catiline speeches made in the year of his Consulship, but +in the same year many others were delivered by him. He mentions, +as we shall see just now, twelve various speeches +made in the year of his Consulship.</p> + +<p>I imagine that the words spoken can in no case have been +identical with those which have come to us—which were, as we +may say, prepared for the press by Tiro, his slave and secretary. +We have evidence as to some of them, especially as to the second +Catiline oration, that time did not admit of its being written and +learned by heart after the occurrence of the circumstances to which +it alludes. It needs must have been extemporary, with such mental +preparation as one night may have sufficed to give him. How the +words may have been taken down in such a case we do not quite know; +but we are aware that short-hand writers were employed, though +there can hardly have been a science of stenography perfected as is +that with us.<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id= +"FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150" class= +"fnanchor">150</a> The words which we read were probably much +polished before they were published, but how far this was done we +do not know. What we do know is that the words which <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span>he +spoke moved, convinced, and charmed those who heard them, as do the +words we read move, convince and charm us. Of these twelve consular +speeches Cicero gives a special account to his friend. "I will send +you," he says, "the speechlings<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id= +"FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151" class= +"fnanchor">151</a> which you require, as well as some others, +seeing that those which I have written out at the request of a few +young men please you also. It was an advantage to me here to follow +the example of that fellow-citizen of yours in those orations which +he called his Philippics. In these he brightened himself up, and +discarded his 'nisi prius' way of speaking, so that he might +achieve something more dignified, something more statesman-like. So +I have done with these speeches of mine which may be called +'consulares,'" as having been made not only in his consular year +but also with something of consular dignity. "Of these, one, on the +new land laws proposed, was spoken in the Senate on the kalends of +January. The second, on the same subject, to the people. The third +was respecting Otho's law.<a name="FNanchor_152_152" id= +"FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_152_152" class= +"fnanchor">152</a> The fourth was in defence of Rabirius.<a name= +"FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_153_153" class="fnanchor">153</a> The fifth was in +reference to the children of those who had lost their property and +their rank under Sulla's proscription.<a name="FNanchor_154_154" +id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154_154" class= +"fnanchor">154</a> The sixth was an address to the people, and +explained <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id= +"Page_191">191</a></span>why I renounced my provincial +government.<a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a +href="#Footnote_155_155" class="fnanchor">155</a> The seventh +drove Catiline out of the city. The eighth was addressed to the +people the day after Catiline fled. The ninth was again spoken to +the people, on the day on which the Allobroges gave their evidence. +Then, again, the tenth was addressed to the Senate on the fifth of +December"—also respecting Catiline. "There are also two short +supplementary speeches on the Agrarian war. You shall have the +whole body of them. As what I write and what I do are equally +interesting to you, you will gather from the same documents all my +doings and all my sayings."</p> + +<p>It is not to be supposed that in this list are contained all the +speeches which he made in his consular year, but those only which +he made as Consul—those to which he was desirous of adding +something of the dignity of statesmanship, something beyond the +weight attached to his pleadings as a lawyer. As an advocate, +Consul though he was, he continued to perform his work; from whence +we learn that no State dignity was so high as to exempt an +established pleader from the duty of defending his friends. +Hortensius, when Consul elect, had undertaken to defend Verres. +Cicero defended Murena when he was Consul. He defended C. +Calpurnius Piso also, who was accused, as were so many, of +proconsular extortion; but whether in this year or in the preceding +is not, I think, known.<a name="FNanchor_156_156" id= +"FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156" class= +"fnanchor">156</a> Of his <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span>speech on that occasion +we have nothing remaining. Of his pleading for Murena we have, if +not the whole, the material part, and, though nobody cares very +much for Murena now, the oration is very amusing. It was made +toward the end of the year, on the 20th of November, after the +second Catiline oration, and before the third, at the very moment +in which Cicero was fully occupied with the evidence on which he +intended to convict Catiline's fellow-conspirators. As I read it I +am carried away by wonder, rather than admiration, at the energy of +the man who could at such a period of his life give up his time to +master the details necessary for the trial of Murena.</p> + +<p>Early in the year Cicero had caused a law to be +passed—which, after him, was called the Lex +Tullia—increasing the stringency of the enactments against +bribery on the part of consular candidates. His intention had +probably been to hinder Catiline, who was again about to become a +candidate. But Murena, who was elected, was supposed to have been +caught in the meshes of the net, and also Silanus, the other Consul +designate. Cato, the man of stern nature, the great Stoic of the +day, was delighted to have an opportunity of proceeding against +some one, and not very sorry to attack Murena with weapons provided +from the armory of Murena's friend, Cicero. Silanus, however, who +happened to be cousin to Cato, was allowed to pass unmolested. +Sulpicius, who was one of the disappointed candidates, Cato, and +Postumius were the accusers. Hortensius, Crassus, and Cicero were +combined together for the defence of Murena. But as we read the +single pleading that has come to us, we feel that, unlike those +Roman trials generally, this was carried on without any acrimony on +either side. I think it must have been that Cato wished <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"> +193</a></span>to have an opportunity of displaying his virtue, but +it had been arranged that Murena was to be acquitted. Murena was +accused, among other things, of dancing! Greeks might dance, as we +hear from Cornelius Nepos,<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id= +"FNanchor_157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157_157" class= +"fnanchor">157</a> but for a Roman Consul it would be disgraceful +in the highest extreme. A lady, indeed, might dance, but not much. +Sallust tells us of Sempronia—who was, indeed, a very bad +female if all that he says of her be true—that she danced +more elegantly than became an honest woman.<a name= +"FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_158_158" class="fnanchor">158</a> She was the wife of +a Consul. But a male Roman of high standing might not dance at all. +Cicero defends his friend by showing how impossible it +was—how monstrous the idea. "No man would dance unless drunk +or mad." Nevertheless, I imagine that Murena had danced.</p> + +<p>Cicero seizes an opportunity of quizzing Cato for his stoicism, +and uses it delightfully. Horace was not more happy when, in +defence of Aristippus, he declared that any philosopher would turn +up his nose at cabbage if he could get himself asked to the tables +of rich men.<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><a +href="#Footnote_159_159" class="fnanchor">159</a> "There was one +Zeno," Cicero says, "who laid down laws. No wise man would forgive +any fault. No man worthy of the name of man would allow himself to +be pitiful. Wise men are beautiful, even though deformed; rich +though penniless; kings though they be slaves. We who are not wise +are mere exiles, runagates, enemies of our country, and madmen. Any +fault is an unpardonable crime. To kill an old cock, if you do not +want it, is as bad as to murder your father!"<a name= +"FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_160_160" class="fnanchor">160</a> And these doctrines, +he goes on to say, which are used by most of us merely as something +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"> +194</a></span>to talk about, this man Cato absolutely believes, +and tries to live by them. I shall have to refer back to this when +I speak of Cicero's philosophy more at length; but his common-sense +crops up continually in the expressions which he uses for defending +the ordinary conditions of a man's life, in opposition to that +impossible superiority to mundane things which the philosophers +professed to teach their pupils. He turns to Cato and asks him +questions, which he answers himself with his own philosophy: "Would +you pardon nothing? Well, yes; but not all things. Would you do +nothing for friendship? Sometimes, unless duty should stand in the +way. Would you never be moved to pity? I would maintain my habit of +sincerity, but something must no doubt be allowed to humanity. It +is good to stick to your opinion, but only until some better +opinion shall have prevailed with you." In all this the humanity of +our Cicero, as opposed equally to the impossible virtue of a Cato +or the abominable vice of a Verres, is in advance of his age, and +reminds us of what Christ has taught us.</p> + +<p>But the best morsel in the whole oration is that in which he +snubs the lawyers. It must be understood that Cicero did not pride +himself on being a lawyer. He was an advocate, and if he wanted law +there were those of an inferior grade to whom he could go to get +it. In truth, he did understand the law, being a man of deep +research, who inquired into everything. As legal points had been +raised, he thus addresses Sulpicius, who seems to have affected a +knowledge of jurisprudence, who had been a candidate for the +Consulship, and who was his own intimate friend: "I must put you +out of your conceit," he says; "it was your other gifts, not a +knowledge of the laws—your moderation, your wisdom, your +justice—which, in my opinion, made you worthy of being loved. +I will not say you threw away your time in studying law, but it was +not thus you made yourself worthy of the Consulship.<a name= +"FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_161_161" class="fnanchor">161</a> <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span>That +power of eloquence, majestic and full of dignity which has so often +availed in raising a man to the Consulship, is able by its words to +move the minds of the Senate and the people and the judges.<a name= +"FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_162_162" class="fnanchor">162</a> But in such a poor +science as that of law what honor can there be? Its details are +taken up with mere words and fragments of words.<a name= +"FNanchor_163_163" id="FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_163_163" class="fnanchor">163</a> They forget all +equity in points of law, and stick to the mere letter."<a name= +"FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_164_164" class="fnanchor">164</a> He goes through a +presumed scene of chicanery, which, Consul as he was, he must have +acted before the judges and the people, no doubt to the extreme +delight of them all. At last he says, "Full as I am of business, if +you raise my wrath I will make myself a lawyer, and learn it all in +three days."<a name="FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><a +href="#Footnote_165_165" class="fnanchor">165</a> From these and +many other passages in Cicero's writings and speeches, and also +from Quintilian, we learn that a Roman advocate was by no means +the same as an English barrister. The science which he was supposed +to have learned was simply that of telling his story in effective +language. It no doubt came to pass that he had much to do in +getting up the details of his story—what we may call the +evidence—but he looked elsewhere, to men of another +profession, for his law. The "juris consultus" or the "juris +peritus" was the lawyer, and as such was regarded as being of much +less importance than the "patronus" or advocate, who stood before +the whole city and pleaded the cause. In this trial of Murena, who +was by trade a soldier, it suited Cicero to belittle lawyers and to +extol the army. When he is telling Sulpicius that it was not by +being a lawyer that a man could become Consul, he goes on to praise +the high dignity of his client's profession. "The greatest glory is +achieved by those who excel in battle. All our empire, all our +republic, is defended and made strong by them."<a name= +"FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_166_166" class="fnanchor">166</a> It was thus that the +advocate could speak! This comes from the man who always <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"> +196</a></span>took glory to himself in declaring that the "toga" +was superior to helmet and shield. He had already declared that +they erred who thought that they were going to get his own private +opinion in speeches made in law courts.<a name="FNanchor_167_167" +id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_167_167" class= +"fnanchor">167</a> He knew how to defend his friend Murena, who +was a soldier, and in doing so could say very sharp things, though +yet in joke, against his friend Sulpicius, the lawyer. But in truth +few men understood the Roman law better than did Cicero.</p> + +<p>But we must go back to that agrarian law respecting which, as he +tells us, four of his consular speeches were made. This had been +brought forward by Rullus, one of the Tribunes, toward the end of +the last year. The Tribunes came into office in December, whereas +at this period of the Republic the Consuls were in power only on +and from January 1st. Cicero, who had been unable to get the +particulars of the new law till it had been proclaimed, had but a +few days to master its details. It was, to his thinking, altogether +revolutionary. We have the words of many of the clauses; and though +it is difficult at this distance of time to realize what would have +been its effect, I think we are entitled to say that it was +intended to subvert all property. Property, speaking of it +generally, cannot be destroyed The land remains, and the combined +results of man's industry are too numerous, too large, and too +lasting to become a wholesale prey to man's anger or madness. Even +the elements when out of order can do but little toward perfecting +destruction. A deluge is wanted—or that crash of doom which, +whether it is to come or not, is believed by the world to be very +distant. But it is within human power to destroy possession, and +redistribute the goods which industry, avarice, or perhaps +injustice has congregated. They who own property are in these days +so much stronger than those who have none, that an idea of any such +redistribution does not create much alarm among the possessors. The +spirit of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id= +"Page_197">197</a></span>communism does not prevail among +people who have learned that it is, in truth, easier to earn than +to steal. But with the Romans political economy had naturally not +advanced so far as with us. A subversion of property had to a great +extent taken place no later than in Sulla's time. How this had been +effected the story of the property of Roscius Amerinus has +explained to us. Under Sulla's enactments no man with a house, with +hoarded money, with a family of slaves, with rich ornaments, was +safe. Property had been made to change hands recklessly, +ruthlessly, violently, by the illegal application of a law +promulgated by a single individual, who, however, had himself been +instigated by no other idea than that of re-establishing the +political order of things which he approved. Rullus, probably with +other motives, was desirous of effecting a subversion which, though +equally great, should be made altogether in a different direction. +The ostensible purpose was something as follows: as the Roman +people had by their valor and wisdom achieved for Rome great +victories, and therefore great wealth, they, as Roman citizens, +were entitled to the enjoyment of what they had won; whereas, in +fact, the sweets of victory fell to the lot only of a few +aristocrats. For the reform of this evil it should be enacted that +all public property which had been thus acquired, whether land or +chattels, should be sold, and with the proceeds other lands should +be bought fit for the use of Roman citizens, and be given to those +who would choose to have it. It was specially suggested that the +rich country called the Campania—that in which Naples now +stands with its adjacent isles—should be bought up and given +over to a great Roman colony. For the purpose of carrying out this +law ten magistrates should be appointed, with plenipotentiary power +both as to buying and selling. There were many underplots in this. +No one need sell unless he chose to sell; but at this moment much +land was held by no other title than that of Sulla's proscriptions. +The present possessors were in daily fear of dispossession, by some +new law made <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id= +"Page_198">198</a></span>with the object of restoring their +property to those who had been so cruelly robbed. These would be +very glad to get any price in hand for land of which their tenure +was so doubtful; and these were the men whom the "decemviri," or +ten magistrates, would be anxious to assist. We are told that the +father-in-law of Rullus himself had made a large acquisition by his +use of Sulla's proscriptions. And then there would be the +instantaneous selling of the vast districts obtained by conquest +and now held by the Roman State. When so much land would be thrown +into the market it would be sold very cheap and would be sold to +those whom the "decemviri" might choose to favor. We can hardly now +hope to unravel all the intended details, but we may be sure that +the basis on which property stood would have been altogether +changed by the measure. The "decemviri" were to have plenary power +for ten years. All the taxes in all the provinces were to be sold, +or put up to market. Everything supposed to belong to the Roman +State was to be sold in every province, for the sake of collecting +together a huge sum of money, which was to be divided in the shape +of land among the poorer Romans. Whatever may have been the private +intentions of Rullus, whether good or bad, it is evident, even at +this distance of time, that a redistribution of property was +intended which can only be described as a general subversion. To +this the new Consul opposed himself vehemently, successfully, and, +we must needs say, patriotically.</p> + +<p>The intense interest which Cicero threw into his work is as +manifest in these agrarian orations as in those subsequently made +as to the Catiline conspiracy. He ascends in his energy to a +dignity of self-praise which induces the reader to feel that a man +who could so speak of himself without fear of contradiction had a +right to assert the supremacy of his own character and intellect. +He condescends, on the other hand, to a virulence of personal abuse +against Rullus which, though it is to our taste offensive, is, even +to us, persuasive, making us feel that <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span>such a man should +not have undertaken such a work. He is describing the way in which +the bill was first introduced: "Our Tribunes at last enter upon +their office. The harangue to be made by Rullus is especially +expected. He is the projector of the law, and it was expected that +he would carry himself with an air of special audacity. When he was +only Tribune elect he began to put on a different countenance, to +speak with a different voice, to walk with a different step. We all +saw how he appeared with soiled raiment, with his person uncared +for, and foul with dirt, with his hair and beard uncombed and +untrimmed."<a name="FNanchor_168_168" id="FNanchor_168_168"></a><a +href="#Footnote_168_168" class="fnanchor">168</a> In Rome men +under afflictions, particularly if under accusation, showed +themselves in soiled garments so as to attract pity, and the +meaning here is that Rullus went about as though under grief at the +condition of his poor fellow-citizens, who were distressed by the +want of this agrarian law. No description could be more likely to +turn an individual into ridicule than this of his taking upon +himself to represent in his own person the sorrows of the city. The +picture of the man with the self-assumed garments of public woe, as +though he were big enough to exhibit the grief of all Rome, could +not but be effective. It has been supposed that Cicero was +insulting the Tribune because he was dirty. Not so. He was +ridiculing Rullus because Rullus had dared to go about in +mourning—"sordidatus"—on behalf of his country.</p> + +<p>But the tone in which Cicero speaks of himself is magnificent. +It is so grand as to make us feel that a Consul of Rome, who had +the cares of Rome on his shoulders, was entitled to declare his own +greatness to the Senate and to the people. There are the two +important orations—that spoken first in the Senate, and then +the speech to the people from which I have already quoted the +passage personal to Rullus. In both of them he declares his own +idea of a Consul, and of himself as Consul. He has been speaking of +the effect of the proposed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" +id="Page_200">200</a></span>law on the revenues of the State, +and then proceeds: "But I pass by what I have to say on that matter +and reserve it for the people. I speak now of the danger which +menaces our safety and our liberty. For what will there be left to +us untouched in the Republic, what will remain of your authority +and freedom, when Rullus, and those whom you fear much more than +Rullus,<a name="FNanchor_169_169" id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><a +href="#Footnote_169_169" class="fnanchor">169</a> with this band +of ready knaves, with all the rascaldom of Rome, laden with gold +and silver, shall have seized on Capua and all the cities round? To +all this, Senators"—Patres conscripti he calls them—"I +will oppose what power I have. As long as I am Consul I will not +suffer them to carry out their designs against the Republic.</p> + +<p>"But you, Rullus, and those who are with you, have been mistaken +grievously in supposing that you will be regarded as friends of the +people in your attempts to subvert the Republic in opposition to a +Consul who is known in very truth to be the people's friend I call +upon you, I invite you to meet me in the assembly. Let us have the +people of Rome as a judge between us. Let us look round and see +what it is that the people really desire. We shall find that there +is nothing so dear to them as peace and quietness and ease. You +have handed over the city to me full of anxiety, depressed with +fear, disturbed by these projected laws and seditious assemblies." +(It must be remembered that he had only on that very day begun his +Consulship) "The wicked you have filled with hope, the good with +fear. You have robbed the Forum of loyalty and the Republic of +dignity. But now, when in the midst of these troubles of mind and +body, when in this great darkness the voice and the authority of +the Consul has been heard by the people—when he shall have +made it plain that there is no cause <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span>for fear, that no +strange army shall enroll itself, no bands collect themselves; that +there shall be no new colonies, no sale of the revenue, no altered +empire, no royal 'decemvirs,' no second Rome, no other centre of +rule but this; that while I am Consul there shall be perfect peace, +perfect ease—do you suppose that I shall dread the superior +popularity of your new agrarian law? Shall I, do you think, be +afraid to hold my own against you in an assembly of the citizens +when I shall have exposed the iniquity of your designs, the fraud +of this law, the plots which your Tribunes of the people, popular +as they think themselves, have contrived against the Roman people? +Shall I fear—I who have determined to be Consul after that +fashion in which alone a man may do so in dignity and freedom, +reaching to ask nothing for myself which any Tribune could object +to have given to me?"<a name="FNanchor_170_170" id= +"FNanchor_170_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170_170" class= +"fnanchor">170</a></p> + +<p>This was to the Senate, but he is bolder still when he addresses +the people. He begins by reminding them that it has always been the +custom of the great officers of state, who have enjoyed the right +of having in their houses the busts and images of their ancestors, +in their first speech to the people to join with thanks for the +favors done to themselves some records of the noble deeds done by +their forefathers. <a name="FNanchor_171_171" id= +"FNanchor_171_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_171_171" class= +"fnanchor">171</a> He, however, could do nothing of the kind: he +had no such right: none in his family had achieved such dignity. To +speak of himself might seem too proud, but to be silent would be +ungrateful. Therefore would he restrain himself, but would still +say something, so that he might acknowledge what he had received. +Then he would leave it for them to judge whether he had deserved +what they had done for him.</p> + +<p>"It is long ago—almost beyond the memory of us now +here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"> +202</a></span>—since you last made a new man Consul.<a name= +"FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_172_172" class="fnanchor">172</a> That high office the +nobles had reserved for themselves, and defended it, as it were, +with ramparts. You have secured it for me, so that in future it +shall be open to any who may be worthy of it. Nor have you only +made me a Consul, much as that is, but you have done so in such a +fashion that but few among the old nobles have been so treated, and +no new man—'novus ante me nemo.' I have, if you will think of +it, been the only new man who has stood for the Consulship in the +first year in which it was legal, and who has got it." Then he goes +on to remind them, in words which I have quoted before, that they +had elected him by their unanimous voices. All this, he says, had +been very grateful to him, but he had quite understood that it had +been done that he might labor on their behalf. That such labor was +severe, he declares. The Consulship itself must be defended. His +period of Consulship to any Consul must be a year of grave +responsibility, but more so to him than to any other. To him, +should he be in doubt, the great nobles would give no kind advice. +To him, should he be overtasked, they would give no assistance. But +the first thing he would look for should be their good opinion. To +declare now, before the people, that he would exercise his office +for the good of the people was his natural duty. But in that place, +in which it was difficult to speak after such a fashion, in the +Senate itself, on the very first day of his Consulship, he had +declared the same thing—"popularem me futurum esse +consulem."<a name="FNanchor_173_173" id="FNanchor_173_173"></a><a +href="#Footnote_173_173" class="fnanchor">173</a></p> + +<p>The course he had to pursue was noble, but very difficult. He +desired, certainly, to be recognized as a friend of the people, but +he desired so to befriend them that he might support also at the +same time the power of the aristocracy. He still believed, as we +cannot believe now, that there was a residuum <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span>of +good in the Senate sufficient to blossom forth into new powers of +honest government. When speaking to the oligarchs in the Senate of +Rullus and his land law, it was easy enough to carry them with him. +That a Consul should oppose a Tribune who was coming forward with a +"Lex agraria" in his hands, as the latest disciple of the Gracchi, +was not out of the common order of things. Another Consul would +either have looked for popularity and increased power of +plundering, as Antony might have done, or have stuck to his order, +as he would have called it—as might have been the case with +the Cottas, Lepiduses and Pisos of preceding years. But Cicero +determined to oppose the demagogue Tribune by proving himself to +the people to be more of a demagogue than he. He succeeded, and +Rullus with his agrarian law was sent back into darkness. I regard +the second speech against Rullus as the <i>ne plus ultra</i>, the +very <i>beau ideal</i> of a political harangue to the people on the +side of order and good government.</p> + +<p>I cannot finish this chapter, in which I have attempted to +describe the lesser operations of Cicero's Consulship, without +again alluding to the picture drawn by Virgil of a great man +quelling the storms of a seditious rising by the gravity of his +presence and the weight of his words.<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id= +"FNanchor_174_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174_174" class= +"fnanchor">174</a> The poet surely had in his memory some +occasion in which had taken place this great triumph of character +and intellect combined. When the knights, during Cicero's +Consulship essayed to take their privileged places in the public +theatre, in accordance with a law passed by Roscius Otho a few +years earlier (<span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 68), the founder of +the obnoxious law himself entered the building. The people, enraged +against a man who had interfered with them and their pleasures, and +who had brought them, as it were under new restraints from the +aristocracy, arose in a body and began to break everything that +came to hand. "Tum pietate gravem!" The Consul was sent for. He +called on the people to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" +id="Page_204">204</a></span>follow him out of the theatre to +the Temple of Bellona, and there addressed to them that wonderful +oration by which they were sent away not only pacified but in +good-humor with Otho himself. "Iste regit dictis animos et pectora +mulcet." I have spoken of Pliny's eulogy as to the great Consul's +doings of the year. The passage is short and I will translate it:<a +name="FNanchor_175_175" id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_175_175" class="fnanchor">175</a> "But, Marcus +Tullius, how shall I reconcile it to myself to be silent as to you, +or by what special glory shall I best declare your excellence? How +better than by referring to the grand testimony given to you by the +whole nation, and to the achievements of your Consulship as a +specimen of your entire life? At your voice the tribes gave up +their agrarian law, which was as the very bread in their mouths. At +your persuasion they pardoned Otho his law and bore with good-humor +the difference of the seats assigned to them. At your prayer the +children of the proscribed forbore from demanding their rights of +citizenship. Catiline was put to flight by your skill and +eloquence. It was you who silenced<a name="FNanchor_176_176" id= +"FNanchor_176_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_176_176" class= +"fnanchor">176</a> M. Antony. Hail, thou who wert first addressed +as the father of your country—the first who, in the garb of +peace, hast deserved a triumph and won the laurel wreath of +eloquence." This was grand praise to be spoken of a man more than a +hundred years after his death, by one who had no peculiar +sympathies with him other than those created by literary +affinity.</p> + +<p>None of Cicero's letters have come to us from the year of his +Consulship.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"> +205</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter IX</span></h3> + +<h4><i>CATILINE.</i></h4> + +<p>To wash the blackamoor white has been the favorite task of some +modern historians. To find a paradox in character is a relief to +the investigating mind which does not care to walk always in the +well-tried paths, or to follow the grooves made plain and +uninteresting by earlier writers. Tiberius and even Nero have been +praised. The memories of our early years have been shocked by +instructions to regard Richard III. and Henry VIII. as great and +scrupulous kings. The devil may have been painted blacker than he +should be, and the minds of just men, who will not accept the +verdict of the majority, have been much exercised to put the matter +right. We are now told that Catiline was a popular hero; that, +though he might have wished to murder Cicero, he was, in accordance +with the practice of his days, not much to be blamed for that; and +that he was simply the follower of the Gracchi, and the forerunner +of Cæsar in his desire to oppose the oligarchy of Rome.<a +name="FNanchor_177_177" id="FNanchor_177_177"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_177_177" class="fnanchor">177</a> In this there is +much that is true. Murder was common. He who had seen the Sullan +proscriptions, as both Catiline and Cicero had done, might well +have learned to feel less scrupulous as to blood than we do in +these days. Even Cicero, who of all the Romans was the most +humane—even he, no doubt, would have been well contented that +Catiline should have been destroyed by the people.<a name= +"FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_178_178" class="fnanchor">178</a> Even he was the +cause, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"> +206</a></span>as we shall see just now, of the execution of the leaders of +the conspirators whom Catiline left behind him in the city—an +execution of which the legality is at any rate very doubtful. But +in judging even of bloodshed we have to regard the circumstances of +the time in the verdicts we give. Our consciousness of altered +manners and of the growth of gentleness force this upon us. We +cannot execrate the conspirators who murdered Cæsar as we +would do those who might now plot the death of a tyrant; nor can we +deal as heavily with the murderers of Cæsar as we would have +done then with Catilinarian conspirators in Rome, had Catiline's +conspiracy succeeded. And so, too, in acknowledging that Catiline +was the outcome of the Gracchi, and to some extent the preparation +for Cæsar, we must again compare him with them, his motives +and designs with theirs, before we can allow ourselves to +sympathize with him, because there was much in them worthy of +praise and honor.</p> + +<p>That the Gracchi were seditious no historian has, I think, +denied. They were willing to use the usages and laws of the +Republic where those usages and laws assisted them, but as willing +to act illegally when the usages and laws ran counter to them. In +the reforms or changes which they attempted they were undoubtedly +rebels; but no reader comes across the tale of the death, first of +one and then of the other, without a regret. It has to be owned +that they were murdered in tumults which they themselves had +occasioned. But they were honest and patriotic. History has +declared of them that their efforts were made with the real purport +of relieving their fellow-countrymen from what they believed to be +the tyranny of oligarchs. The Republic even in their time had +become too rotten to be saved; but the world has not the less given +them the credit for a desire to do good; and the names of the two +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"> +207</a></span>brothers, rebels as they were, have come down to us +with a sweet savor about them. Cæsar, on the other hand, was +no doubt of the same political party. He too was opposed to the +oligarchs, but it never occurred to him that he could save the +Republic by any struggles after freedom. His mind was not given to +patriotism of that sort—not to memories, not to associations. +Even laws were nothing to him but as they might be useful. To his +thinking, probably even in his early days, the state of Rome +required a master. Its wealth, its pleasures, its soldiers, its +power, were there for any one to take who could take them—for +any one to hold who could hold them. Mr. Beesly, the last defender +of Catiline, has stated that very little was known in Rome of +Cæsar till the time of Catiline's conspiracy, and in that I +agree with him. He possessed high family rank, and had been +Quæstor and Ædile; but it was only from this year out that his +name was much in men's mouths, and that he was learning to look +into things. It may be that he had previously been in league with +Catiline—that he was in league with him till the time came +for the great attempt. The evidence, as far as it goes, seems to +show that it was so. Rome had been the prey of many conspiracies. +The dominion of Marius and the dominion of Sulla had been effected +by conspiracies. No doubt the opinion was strong with many that +both Cæsar and Crassus, the rich man, were concerned with +Catiline. But Cæsar was very far-seeing, and, if such +connection existed, knew how to withdraw from it when the time was +not found to be opportune. But from first to last he always was +opposed to the oligarchy. The various steps from the Gracchi to him +were as those which had to be made from the Girondists to Napoleon. +Catiline, no doubt, was one of the steps, as were Danton and +Robespierre steps. The continuation of steps in each case was at +first occasioned by the bad government and greed of a few men in +power. But as Robespierre was vile and low, whereas Vergniaud was +honest and Napoleon great, so was it with Catiline <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"> +208</a></span>between the Gracchi and Cæsar. There is, to my +thinking, no excuse for Catiline in the fact that he was a natural +step, not even though he were a necessary step, between the Gracchi +and Cæsar.</p> + +<p>I regard as futile the attempts which are made to rewrite +history on the base of moral convictions and philosophical +conclusion. History very often has been, and no doubt often again +will be, rewritten, with good effect and in the service of truth, +on the finding of new facts. Records have been brought to light +which have hitherto been buried, and testimonies are compared with +testimonies which have not before been seen together. But to +imagine that a man may have been good who has lain under the ban of +all the historians, all the poets, and all the tellers of +anecdotes, and then to declare such goodness simply in accordance +with the dictates of a generous heart or a contradictory spirit, is +to disturb rather than to assist history. Of Catiline we at least +know that he headed a sedition in Rome in the year of Cicero's +Consulship; that he left the city suddenly; that he was killed in +the neighborhood of Pistoia fighting against the Generals of the +Republic, and that he left certain accomplices in Rome who were put +to death by an edict of the Senate. So much I think is certain to +the most truculent doubter. From his contemporaries, Sallust and +Cicero, we have a very strongly expressed opinion of his character. +They have left to us denunciations of the man which have made him +odious to all after-ages, so that modern poets have made him a +stock character, and have dramatized him as a fiend. Voltaire has +described him as calling upon his fellow-conspirators to murder +Cicero and Cato, and to burn the city. Ben Jonson makes Catiline +kill a slave and mix his blood, to be drained by his friends. +"There cannot be a fitter drink to make this sanction in." The +friends of Catiline will say that this shows no evidence against +the man. None, certainly; but it is a continued expression of the +feeling that has prevailed since Catiline's time. In his own age +Cicero and Sallust, who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" +id="Page_209">209</a></span>were opposed in all their +political views, combined to speak ill of him. In the next, Virgil +makes him as suffering his punishment in hell.<a name= +"FNanchor_179_179" id="FNanchor_179_179"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_179_179" class="fnanchor">179</a> In the next, +Velleius Paterculus speaks of him as the conspirator whom Cicero +had banished.<a name="FNanchor_180_180" id= +"FNanchor_180_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_180_180" class= +"fnanchor">180</a> Juvenal makes various allusions to him, but +all in the same spirit. Juvenal cared nothing for history, but used +the names of well-known persons as illustrations of the idea which +he was presenting.<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id= +"FNanchor_181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181_181" class= +"fnanchor">181</a> Valerius Maximus, who wrote commendable little +essays about all the virtues and all the vices, which he +illustrated with the names of all the vicious and all the virtuous +people he knew, is very severe on Catiline.<a name= +"FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_182_182" class="fnanchor">182</a> Florus, who wrote +two centuries and a half after the conspiracy, gives us of Catiline +the same personal story as that told both by Sallust and Cicero: +"Debauchery, in the first place; and then the poverty which that +had produced; and then the opportunity of the time, because the +Roman armies were in distant lands, induced Catiline to conspire +for the destruction of his country."<a name="FNanchor_183_183" id= +"FNanchor_183_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_183_183" class= +"fnanchor">183</a> Mommsen, who was certainly biassed by no +feeling in favor of Cicero, declares that Catiline in particular +was "one of the most nefarious men in that nefarious age. His +villanies belong to the criminal records, not to history."<a name= +"FNanchor_184_184" id="FNanchor_184_184"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_184_184" class="fnanchor">184</a> All this is no +evidence. Cicero and Sallust may possibly have combined to lie +about Catiline. Other Roman writers may have followed them, and +modern <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"> +210</a></span>poets and modern historians may have followed the +Roman writers. It is possible that the world may have been wrong as +to a period of Roman history with which it has thought itself to be +well acquainted; but the world now has nothing to go by but the +facts as they have come down to it. The writers of the ages since +have combined to speak of Cicero with respect and admiration. They +have combined, also, to speak of Catiline with abhorrence. They +have agreed, also, to treat those other rebels, the Gracchi, after +such a fashion that, in spite of their sedition, a sweet savor, as +I have said, attaches itself to their names. For myself, I am +contented to take the opinion of the world, and feel assured that I +shall do no injustice in speaking of Catiline as all who have +written about him hitherto have spoken of him I cannot consent to +the building up of a noble patriot out of such materials as we have +concerning him.<a name="FNanchor_185_185" id= +"FNanchor_185_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_185_185" class= +"fnanchor">185</a></p> + +<p>Two strong points have been made for Catiline in Mr. <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"> +211</a></span>Beesly's defence. His ancestors had been Consuls +when the forefathers of patricians of a later date "were clapping +their chapped hands and throwing up their sweaty nightcaps." That +scorn against the people should be expressed by the aristocrat +Casca was well supposed by Shakspeare; but how did a liberal of the +present day bring himself to do honor to his hero by such +allusions? In truth, however, the glory of <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span>ancient blood and +the disgrace attaching to the signs of labor are ideas seldom +relinquished even by democratic minds. A Howard is nowhere lovelier +than in America, or a sweaty nightcap less relished. We are then +reminded how Catiline died fighting, with the wounds all in front; +and are told that the "world has generally a generous word for the +memory of a brave man dying for his cause, be that cause what it +will; but for Catiline none!" I think there is a mistake in the +sentiment expressed here. To die readily when death must come is +but a little thing, and is done daily by the poorest of mankind. +The Romans could generally do it, and so can the Chinese. A Zulu is +quite equal to it, and people lower in civilization than Chinese or +Zulus. To encounter death, or the danger of death, for the sake of +duty—when the choice is there; but duty and death are +preferred to ignominious security, or, better still, to security +which shall bring with it self-abasement—that is grand. When +I hear that a man "rushed into the field and, foremost fighting, +fell," if there have been no adequate occasion, I think him a fool. +If it be that he has chosen to hurry on the necessary event, as was +Catiline's case, I recognize him as having been endowed with +certain physical attributes which are neither glorious nor +disgraceful. That Catiline was constitutionally a brave man no one +has denied. Rush, the murderer, was one of the bravest men of whom +I remember to have heard. What credit is due to Rush is due to +Catiline.</p> + +<p>What we believe to be the story of Catiline's life is this: In +Sulla's time he was engaged, as behooved a great nobleman of +ancient blood, in carrying out the Dictator's proscriptions and in +running through whatever means he had. There are fearful stories +told of him as to murdering his own son and other relatives; as to +which Mr. Beesly is no doubt right in saying that such tales were +too lightly told in Rome to deserve implicit confidence. To serve a +purpose any one would say anything of any enemy. Very marvellous +qualities are attributed to him—as to having been at the same +time steeped in luxury and yet able and willing to bear all bodily +hardships. He probably had been engaged in murders—as how +should a man not have been so who had served under Sulla during the +Dictatorship? He had probably allured some young aristocrats into +debauchery, when all young aristocrats were so allured. He had +probably undergone some extremity of cold and hunger. In reading of +these things the reader will know by instinct how much he may +believe, and how much he should receive as mythic. That he was a +fast young nobleman, brought up to know no scruples, to disregard +blood, and to look upon his country as a milch cow from which a +young nobleman might be fed with never-ending streams of rich cream +in the shape of money to be borrowed, wealth to be snatched, and, +above all, foreigners to be plundered, we may take, I think, as +proved. In spite of his vices, or by aid of them, he rose in the +service of his country. That such a one should become a Prætor and +a Governor was natural. He went to Africa with proconsular +authority, and of course fleeced the Africans. It was as natural as +that a flock of sheep should lose their wool at shearing time. He +came back intent, as was natural also, on being a Consul, and of +carrying on the game of promotion and of plunder. But there came a +spoke in his wheel—the not unusual spoke of an accusation +from the province. While under accusation for provincial robbery he +could not come forward as a candidate, and thus he was stopped in +his career.</p> + +<p>It is not possible now to unravel all the personal feuds of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"> +213</a></span>the time—the ins and outs of family quarrels. +Clodius—the Clodius who was afterward Cicero's notorious +enemy and the victim of Milo's fury—became the accuser of +Catiline on behalf of the Africans. Though Clodius was much the +younger, they were men of the same class. It may be possible that +Clodius was appointed to the work—as it had been intended +that Cæcilius should be appointed at the prosecution of +Verres—in order to assure not the conviction but the +acquittal of the guilty man. The historians and biographers say +that Clodius was at last bought by a bribe, and that he betrayed +the Africans after that fashion. It may be that such bribery was +arranged from the first. Our interest in that trial lies in the +fact that Cicero no doubt intended, from political motives, to +defend Catiline. It has been said that he did do so. As far as we +know, he abandoned the intention. We have no trace of his speech, +and no allusion in history to an occurrence which would certainly +have been mentioned.<a name="FNanchor_186_186" id= +"FNanchor_186_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_186_186" class= +"fnanchor">186</a> But there was <i>no</i> reason why he should +not have done so. He defended Fonteius, and I am quite willing to +own that he knew Fonteius to have been a robber. When I look at the +practice of our own times, I find that thieves and rebels are +defended by honorable advocates, who do not scruple to take their +briefs in opposition to their own opinions. It suited Cicero to do +the same. If I were detected in a plot for blowing up a Cabinet +Council, I do not doubt but that I should get the late +attorney-general to defend me.<a name="FNanchor_187_187" id= +"FNanchor_187_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_187_187" class= +"fnanchor">187</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"> +214</a></span>But Catiline, though he was acquitted, was balked in +his candidature for the Consulship of the next year, <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> 65. P. Sulla and Autronius were +elected<a name="FNanchor_188_188" id= +"FNanchor_188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_188_188" class= +"fnanchor">188</a>—that Sulla to whose subsequent defence I have just +referred in this note—but were ejected on the score of +bribery, and two others, Torquatus and Cotta, were elected in their +place. In this way three men standing on high before their +countrymen—one having been debarred from standing for the +Consulship, and the other two having been robbed of their prize +even when it was within their grasp—not unnaturally became +traitors at heart. Almost as naturally they came together and +conspired. Why should they have been selected as victims, having +only done that which every aristocrat did as a matter of course in +following out his recognized profession in living upon the subject +nations? Their conduct had probably been the same as that of +others, or if more glaring, only so much so as is always the case +with vices as they become more common. However, the three men fell, +and became the centre of a plot which is known as the first +Catiline conspiracy.</p> + +<p>The reader must bear in mind that I am now telling the story of +Catiline, and going back to a period of two years before Cicero's +Consulship, which was <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 63. How +during <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"> +215</a></span>that year Cicero successfully defended Murena when +Cato endeavored to rob him of his coming Consulship, has been +already told. It may be that Murena's hands were no cleaner than +those of Sulla and Autronius, and that they lacked only the +consular authority and forensic eloquence of the advocate who +defended Murena. At this time, when the two appointed Consuls were +rejected, Cicero had hardly as yet taken any part in public +politics. He had been Quæstor, Ædile, and Prætor, filling those +administrative offices to the best of his ability. He had, he says, +hardly heard of the first conspiracy.<a name="FNanchor_189_189" id= +"FNanchor_189_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_189_189" class= +"fnanchor">189</a> That what he says is true, is, I think, proved +by the absence of all allusion to it in his early letters, or in +the speeches or fragments of speeches that are extant. But that +there was such a conspiracy we cannot doubt, nor that the three men +named, Catiline, Sulla, and Autronius, were leaders in it. What +would interest us, if only we could have the truth, is whether +Cæsar and Crassus were joined in it.</p> + +<p>It is necessary again to consider the condition of the Republic. +To us a conspiracy to subvert the government under which the +conspirer lives seems either a very terrible remedy for great +evils, or an attempt to do evil which all good men should oppose. +We have the happy conspiracy in which Washington became the +military leader, and the French Revolution, which, bloody as it +was, succeeded in rescuing Frenchmen from the condition of serfdom. +At home we have our own conspiracy against the Stuart royalty, +which had also noble results. The Gracchi had attempted to effect +something of the same kind at Rome; but the moral condition of the +people had become so low that no real love of liberty remained. +Conspiracy! oh yes. As long as there was anything to get, of course +he who had not got it would conspire <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span>against him who had. +There had been conspiracies for and against Marius, for and against +Cinna, for and against Sulla. There was a grasping for plunder, a +thirst for power which meant luxury, a greed for blood which grew +from the hatred which such rivalry produced. These were the motive +causes for conspiracies; not whether Romans should be free but +whether a Sulla or a Cotta should be allowed to run riot in a +province.</p> + +<p>Cæsar at this time had not done much in the Roman world +except fall greatly into debt. Knowing, as we do know now, his +immense intellectual capacity, we cannot doubt but at the age he +had now reached, thirty-five, <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 65, +he had considered deeply his prospects in life. There is no reason +for supposing that he had conceived the idea of being a great +soldier. That came to him by pure accident, some years afterward. +To be Quæstor, Prætor, and Consul, and catch what was going, +seems to have been the cause to him of having encountered +extraordinary debt. That he would have been a Verres, or a +Fonteius, or a Catiline, we certainly are not entitled to think. +Over whatever people he might have come to reign, and in whatever +way he might have procured his kingdom, he would have reigned with +a far-seeing eye, fixed upon future results. At this period he was +looking out for a way to advance himself. There were three men, all +just six years his senior, who had risen or were rising into great +repute; they were Pompey, Cicero, and Catiline. There were two who +were noted for having clean hands in the midst of all the dirt +around; and they were undoubtedly the first Romans of the day. +Catiline was determined that he too would be among the first Romans +of the day; but his hands had never been clean. Which was the +better way for such a one as Cæsar to go?</p> + +<p>To have had Pompey under his feet, or Cicero, must have then +seemed to Cæsar to be impracticable, though the time came +when he did, in different ways, have his feet on both. With +Catiline the chance of success might be better. Crassus <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"> +217</a></span>he had already compassed. Crassus was like M. +Poirier in the play—a man who, having become rich, then +allowed himself the luxury of an ambition. If Cæsar joined +the plot we can well understand that Crassus should have gone with +him. We have all but sufficient authority for saying that it was +so, but authority insufficient for declaring it. That Sallust, in +his short account of the first conspiracy, should not have +implicated Cæsar was a matter of course,<a name= +"FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_190_190" class="fnanchor">190</a> as he wrote +altogether in Cæsar's interest. That Cicero should not have +mentioned it is also quite intelligible. He did not wish to pull +down upon his ears the whole house of the aristocracy. Throughout +his career it was his object to maintain the tenor of the law with +what smallest breach of it might be possible; but he was wise +enough to know that when the laws were being broken on every side +he could not catch in his nets all those who broke them. He had to +pass over much; to make the best of the state of things as he found +them. It is not to be supposed that a conspirator against the +Republic would be horrible to him, as would be to us a traitor +against the Crown: there were too many of them for horror. If +Cæsar and Crassus could be got to keep themselves quiet, he +would be willing enough not to have to add them to his list of +enemies. Livy is presumed to have told us that this conspiracy +intended to restore the ejected Consuls, and to kill the Consuls +who had been established in their place. But the book in which this +was written is lost, and we have only the Epitome, or heading of +the book, of which we know that it was not written by Livy.<a name= +"FNanchor_191_191" id="FNanchor_191_191"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_191_191" class="fnanchor">191</a> Suetonius, who got +his story not improbably from Livy, tells us that Cæsar was +suspected of having joined this conspiracy with Crassus;<a name= +"FNanchor_192_192" id="FNanchor_192_192"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_192_192" class="fnanchor">192</a> and he goes on to +say that Cicero, writing subsequently to one Axius, declared that +"Cæsar had attempted in his Consulship to accomplish the +dominion which he had intended to grasp in his Ædileship" <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"> +218</a></span>the year in question. There is, however, no such +letter extant. Asconius, who, as I have said before, wrote in the +time of Tiberius, declares that Cicero in his lost oration, "In +toga candida," accused Crassus of having been the author of the +conspiracy. Such is the information we have; and if we elect to +believe that Cæsar was then joined with Catiline, we must be +guided by our ideas of probability rather than by evidence.<a name= +"FNanchor_193_193" id="FNanchor_193_193"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_193_193" class="fnanchor">193</a> As I have said +before, conspiracies had been very rife. To Cæsar it was no +doubt becoming manifest that the Republic, with its oligarchs, must +fall. Subsequently it did fall, and he was—I will not say the +conspirator, nor will I judge the question by saying that he was +the traitor; but the man of power who, having the legions of the +Republic in his hands, used them against the Republic. I can well +understand that he should have joined such a conspiracy as this +first of Catiline, and then have backed out of it when he found he +could not trust those who were joined with him.</p> + +<p>This conspiracy failed. One man omitted to give a signal at one +time, and another at another. The Senate was to have been +slaughtered; the two Consuls, Cotta and Torquatus, murdered, and +the two ex-Consuls, Sulla and Autronius, replaced. Though all the +details seem to have been known to the Consuls, Catiline was +allowed to go free, nor were any steps taken for the punishment of +the conspirators.</p> + +<p>The second conspiracy was attempted in the Consulship of Cicero, +<span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 63, two years after the first. +Catiline had struggled for the Consulship, and had failed. Again +there would be no province, no plunder, no power. This +interference, as it must have seemed to him, with his peculiar +privileges, had all come from Cicero. Cicero was the busybody who +was attempting to stop the order of things <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span>which had, to his +thinking, been specially ordained by all the gods for the +sustenance of one so well born, and at the same time so poor, as +himself. There was a vulgar meddling about it—all coming from +the violent virtue of a Consul whose father had been a nobody at +Arpinum—which was well calculated to drive Catiline into +madness. So he went to work and got together in Rome a body of men +as discontented and almost as nobly born as himself, and in the +country north of Rome an army of rebels, and began his operations +with very little secrecy. In all the story the most remarkable +feature is the openness with which many of the details of the +conspiracy were carried on. The existence of the rebel army was +known; it was known that Catiline was the leader; the causes of his +disaffection were known; his comrades in guilt were known When any +special act was intended, such as might be the murder of the Consul +or the firing of the city, secret plots were concocted in +abundance. But the grand fact of a wide-spread conspiracy could go +naked in Rome, and not even a Cicero dare to meddle with it.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 63, +ætat 44</div> + +<p>As to this second conspiracy, the conspiracy with which Sallust +and Cicero have made us so well acquainted, there is no sufficient +ground for asserting that Cæsar was concerned in it.<a name= +"FNanchor_194_194" id="FNanchor_194_194"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_194_194" class="fnanchor">194</a> That he was greatly +concerned in the treatment of the conspirators there is no doubt. +He had probably learned to appreciate the rage, the madness, the +impotence of Catiline at their proper worth. He too, I think, must +have looked upon Cicero as a meddling, over-virtuous busybody; as +did even Pompey when he returned from the East. What practical use +could there be in such a man at such a time—in one who really +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"> +220</a></span>believed in honesty, who thought of liberty and the +Republic, and imagined that he could set the world right by +talking? Such must have been the feeling of Cæsar, who had +both experience and foresight to tell him that Rome wanted and must +have a master. He probably had patriotism enough to feel that he, +if he could acquire the mastership, would do something beyond +robbery—would not satisfy himself with cutting the throats of +all his enemies, and feeding his supporters with the property of +his opponents. But Cicero was impracticable—unless, indeed, +he could be so flattered as to be made useful. It was thus, I +think, that Cæsar regarded Cicero, and thus that he induced +Pompey to regard him. But now, in the year of his Consulship, +Cicero had really talked himself into power, and for this year his +virtue must be allowed to have its full way.</p> + +<p>He did so much in this year, was so really efficacious in +restraining for a time the greed and violence of the aristocracy, +that it is not surprising that he was taught to believe in himself. +There were, too, enough of others anxious for the Republic to +bolster him up in his own belief. There was that Cornelius in whose +defence Cicero made the two great speeches which have been +unfortunately lost, and there was Cato, and up to this time there +was Pompey, as Cicero thought. Cicero, till he found himself +candidate for the Consulship, had contented himself with +undertaking separate cases, in which, no doubt, politics were +concerned, but which were not exclusively political. He had +advocated the employment of Pompey in the East, and had defended +Cornelius. He was well acquainted with the history of the Republic; +but he had probably never asked himself the question whether it was +in mortal peril, and if so, whether it might possibly be saved. In +his Consulship he did do so; and, seeing less of the Republic than +we can see now, told himself that it was possible.</p> + +<p>The stories told to us of Catiline's conspiracy by Sallust and +by Cicero are so little conflicting that we can trust them both. +Trusting them both, we are justified in believing that <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span>we +know the truth. We are here concerned only with the part which +Cicero took. Nothing, I think, which Cicero says is contradicted by +Sallust, though of much that Cicero certainly did Sallust is +silent. Sallust damns him, but only by faint praise. We may, +therefore, take the account of the plot as given by Cicero himself +as verified: indeed, I am not aware that any of Cicero's facts have +been questioned.</p> + +<p>Sallust declares that Catiline's attempt was popular in Rome +generally.<a name="FNanchor_195_195" id="FNanchor_195_195"></a><a +href="#Footnote_195_195" class="fnanchor">195</a> This, I think, +must be taken as showing simply that revolution and conspiracy were +in themselves popular: that, as a condition of things around him +such as existed in Rome, a plotter of state plots should be able to +collect a body of followers, was a thing of course; that there were +many citizens who would not work, and who expected to live in +luxury on public or private plunder, is certain. When the +conspiracy was first announced in the Senate, Catiline had an army +collected; but we have no proof that the hearts of the inhabitants +of Rome generally were with the conspirators. On the other hand, we +have proof, in the unparalleled devotion shown by the citizens to +Cicero after the conspiracy was quelled, that their hearts were +with him. The populace, fond of change, liked a disturbance; but +there is nothing to show that Catiline was ever beloved as had been +the Gracchi, and other tribunes of the people who came after +them.</p> + +<p>Catiline, in the autumn of the year <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> 63, had arranged the outside circumstances of +his conspiracy, knowing that he would, for the third time, be +unsuccessful in his canvass for the Consulship. That Cicero with +other Senators should be murdered seems to have been their first +object, and that then the Consulship should be seized by force. On +the 21st of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id= +"Page_222">222</a></span>October Cicero made his first report +to the Senate as to the conspiracy, and called upon Catiline for +his answer. It was then that Catiline made his famous reply: "That +the Republic had two bodies, of which one was weak and had a bad +head"—meaning the aristocracy, with Cicero as its +chief—"and the other strong, but without any head," meaning +the people; "but that as for himself, so well had the people +deserved of him, that as long as he lived a head should be +forth-coming."<a name="FNanchor_196_196" id= +"FNanchor_196_196"></a><a href="#Footnote_196_196" class= +"fnanchor">196</a> Then, at that sitting, the Senate decreed, in +the usual formula, "That the Consuls were to take care that the +Republic did not suffer.<a name="FNanchor_197_197" id= +"FNanchor_197_197"></a><a href="#Footnote_197_197" class= +"fnanchor">197</a> On the 22d of October, the new Consuls, +Silanus and Murena, were elected. On the 23d, Catiline was +regularly accused of conspiracy by Paulus Lepidus, a young +nobleman, in conformity with a law which had been enacted +fifty-five years earlier, "de vi publica," as to violence applied +to the State. Two days afterward it was officially reported that +Manlius—or Mallius, as he seems to have been generally +called—Catiline's lieutenant, had openly taken up arms in +Etruria. The 27th had been fixed by the conspirators for the murder +of Cicero and the other Senators. That all this was to be, and was +so arranged by Catiline, had been declared in the Senate by Cicero +himself on that day when Catiline told them of the two bodies and +the two heads. Cicero, with his intelligence, ingenuity, and +industry, had learned every detail. There was one Curius among the +conspirators, a fair specimen of the young Roman nobleman of the +day, who told it all to his mistress Fulvia, and she carried the +information to the Consul. It is all narrated with fair dramatic +accuracy in Ben Jonson's dull play, though he has attributed to +Cæsar a share in the plot, for doing which he had no +authority. Cicero, on that sitting in the Senate, had been +specially anxious to make Catiline understand that he knew +privately every circumstance of the <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span>plot. Throughout the +whole conspiracy his object was not to take Catiline, but to drive +him out of Rome. If the people could be stirred up to kill him in +their wrath, that might be well; in that way there might be an end +of all the trouble. But if that did not come to pass, then it would +be best to make the city unbearable to the conspirators. If they +could be driven out, they must either take themselves to foreign +parts and be dispersed, or must else fight and assuredly be +conquered. Cicero himself was never blood-thirsty, but the +necessity was strong upon him of ridding the Republic from these +blood-thirsty men.</p> + +<p>The scheme for destroying Cicero and the Senators on the 27th of +October had proved abortive. On the 6th of the next month a meeting +was held in the house of one Marcus Porcius Læca, at which a plot +was arranged for the killing of Cicero the next day—for the +killing of Cicero alone—he having been by this time found to +be the one great obstacle in their path. Two knights were told off +for the service, named Vargunteius and Cornelius. These, after the +Roman fashion, were to make their way early on the following +morning into the Consul's bedroom for the ostensible purpose of +paying him their morning compliments, but, when there, they were to +slay him. All this, however, was told to Cicero, and the two +knights, when they came, were refused admittance. If Cicero had +been a man given to fear, as has been said of him, he must have +passed a wretched life at this period. As far as I can judge of his +words and doings throughout his life, he was not harassed by +constitutional timidity. He feared to disgrace his name, to lower +his authority, to become small in the eyes of men, to make +political mistakes, to do that which might turn against him. In +much of this there was a falling off from that dignity which, if we +do not often find it in a man, we can all of us imagine; but of +personal dread as to his own skin, as to his own life, there was +very little. At this time, when, as he knew well, many men with +many weapons in their hands, men <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span>who were altogether +unscrupulous, were in search for his blood he never seems to have +trembled.</p> + +<p>But all Rome trembled—even according to Sallust. I have +already shown how he declares in one part of his narrative that the +common people as a body were with Catiline, and have attempted to +explain what was meant by that expression. In another, in an +earlier chapter, he says "that the State," meaning the city, "was +disturbed by all this, and its appearance changed.<a name= +"FNanchor_198_198" id="FNanchor_198_198"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_198_198" class="fnanchor">198</a> Instead of the joy +and ease which had lately prevailed, the effect of the long peace, +a sudden sadness fell upon every one." I quote the passage because +that other passage has been taken as proving the popularity of +Catiline. There can, I think, be no doubt that the population of +Rome was, as a body, afraid of Catiline. The city was to be burnt +down, the Consuls and the Senate were to be murdered, debts were to +be wiped out, slaves were probably to be encouraged against their +masters. The "permota civitas" and the "cuncta plebes," of which +Sallust speaks, mean that all the "householders" were disturbed, +and that all the "roughs" were eager with revolutionary hopes.</p> + +<p>On the 8th of November, the day after that on which the Consul +was to have been murdered in his own house, he called a special +meeting of the Senate in the temple of Jupiter Stator. The Senate +in Cicero's time was convened according to expedience, or perhaps +as to the dignity of the occasion, in various temples. Of these +none had a higher reputation than that of the special Jupiter who +is held to have befriended Romulus in his fight with the Sabines. +Here was launched that thunderbolt of eloquence which all English +school-boys have known for its "Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, +patientia nostra." Whether it be from the awe which has come down +to me from my earliest years, mixed perhaps with something of dread +for the great pedagogue who first made the words to sound grandly +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"> +225</a></span>in my ears, or whether true critical judgment has +since approved to me the real weight of the words, they certainly +do contain for my intelligence an expression of almost divine +indignation. Then there follows a string of questions, which to +translate would be vain, which to quote, for those who read the +language, is surely unnecessary. It is said to have been a fault +with Cicero that in his speeches he runs too much into that vein of +wrathful interrogation which undoubtedly palls upon us in English +oratory when frequent resort is made to it. It seems to be too +easy, and to contain too little of argument. It was this, probably, +of which his contemporaries complained when they declared him to be +florid, redundant, and Asiatic in his style.<a name= +"FNanchor_199_199" id="FNanchor_199_199"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_199_199" class="fnanchor">199</a> This questioning +runs through nearly the whole speech, but the reader cannot fail to +acknowledge its efficacy in reference to the matter in hand. +Catiline was sitting there himself in the Senate, and the questions +were for the most part addressed to him. We can see him now, a man +of large frame, with bold, glaring eyes, looking in his wrath as +though he were hardly able to keep his hands from the Consul's +throat, even there in the Senate. Though he knew that this attack +was to be made on him, he had stalked into the temple and seated +himself in a place of honor, among the benches intended for those +who had been Consuls. When there, no one spoke to him, no one +saluted him. The consular Senators shrunk away, leaving their +places of privilege. Even his brother-conspirators, of whom many +were present, did not dare to recognize him. Lentulus was no doubt +there, and Cethegus, and two of the Sullan family, and Cassius +Longinus, and Autronius, and Læca, and Curius. All of them were or +had been conspirators in the same cause. Cæsar was there too, +and Crassus. A fellow conspirator with Catiline would probably be a +Senator. Cicero knew them all. We cannot say that in this matter +Cæsar <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id= +"Page_226">226</a></span>was guilty, but Cicero, no doubt, +felt that Cæsar's heart was with Catiline. It was his present +task so to thunder with his eloquence that he should turn these +bitter enemies into seeming friends—to drive Catiline from +out of the midst of them, so that it should seem that he had been +expelled by those who were in truth his brother-conspirators; and +this it was that he did.</p> + +<p>He declared the nature of the plot, and boldly said that, such +being the facts, Catiline deserved death. "If," he says, "I should +order you to be taken and killed, believe me I should be blamed +rather for my delay in doing so than for my cruelty." He spoke +throughout as though all the power were in his own hands, either to +strike or to forbear. But it was his object to drive him out and +not to kill him. "Go," he said; "that camp of yours and Mallius, +your lieutenant, are too long without you. Take your friends with +you. Take them all. Cleanse the city of your presence. When its +walls are between you and me then I shall feel myself secure. Among +us here you may no longer stir yourself. I will not have it—I +will not endure it. If I were to suffer you to be killed, your +followers in the conspiracy would remain here; but if you go out, +as I desire you, this cesspool of filth will drain itself off from +out the city. Do you hesitate to do at my command that which you +would fain do yourself? The Consul requires an enemy to depart from +the city. Do you ask me whether you are to go into exile? I do not +order it; but if you ask my counsel, I advise it." Exile was the +severest punishment known by the Roman law, as applicable to a +citizen, and such a punishment it was in the power of no Consul or +other officer of state to inflict. Though he had taken upon himself +the duty of protecting the Republic, still he could not condemn a +citizen. It was to the moral effect of his words that he must +trust: "Non jubeo, sed si me consulis, suadeo." Catiline heard him +to the end, and then, muttering a curse, left the Senate, and went +out of the city. Sallust tells us that he threatened <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span>to +extinguish, in the midst of the general ruin he would create, the +flames prepared for his own destruction. Sallust, however, was not +present on the occasion, and the threat probably had been uttered +at an earlier period of Catiline's career. Cicero tells us +expressly, in one of his subsequent works, that Catiline was struck +dumb.<a name="FNanchor_200_200" id="FNanchor_200_200"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_200_200" class="fnanchor">200</a></p> + +<p>Of this first Catiline oration Sallust says, that "Marcus +Tullius the Consul, either fearing the presence of the man, or +stirred to anger, made a brilliant speech, very useful to the +Republic."<a name="FNanchor_201_201" id="FNanchor_201_201"></a><a +href="#Footnote_201_201" class="fnanchor">201</a> This, coming +from an enemy, is stronger testimony to the truth of the story told +by Cicero, than would have been any vehement praise from the pen of +a friend.</p> + +<p>Catiline met some of his colleagues the same night. They were +the very men who as Senators had been present at his confusion, and +to them he declared his purpose of going. There was nothing to be +done in the city by him. The Consul was not to be reached. Catiline +himself was too closely watched for personal action. He would join +the army at Fæsulæ and then return and burn the city. His +friends, Lentulus, Cethegus, and the others, were to remain and be +ready for fire and slaughter as soon as Catiline with his army +should appear before the walls. He went, and Cicero had been so far +successful.</p> + +<p>But these men, Lentulus, Cethegus, and the other Senators, +though they had not dared to sit near Catiline in the Senate, or to +speak a word to him, went about their work zealously when evening +had come. A report was spread among the people that the Consul had +taken upon himself to drive a citizen into exile. Catiline, the +ill-used Catiline—Catiline, the friend of the people, had, +they said, gone to Marseilles in order that he might escape the +fury of the tyrant Consul. In this we see the jealousy of Romans as +to the infliction of any punishment <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span>by an individual +officer on a citizen. It was with a full knowledge of what was +likely to come that Cicero had ironically declared that he only +advised the conspirator to go. The feeling was so strong that on +the next morning he found himself compelled to address the people +on the subject. Then was uttered the second Catiline oration, which +was spoken in the open air to the citizens at large. Here too there +are words, among those with which he began his speech, almost as +familiar to us as the "Quousque tandem"—"Abiit; excessit; +evasit; erupit!" This Catiline, says Cicero, this pest of his +country, raging in his madness, I have turned out of the city. If +you like it better, I have expelled him by my very words. "He has +departed. He has fled. He has gone out from among us. He has broken +away!" "I have made this conspiracy plain to you all, as I said I +would, unless indeed there may be some one here who does not +believe that the friends of Catiline will do the same as Catiline +would have done. But there is no time now for soft measures. We +have to be strong-handed. There is one thing I will do for these +men. Let them too go out, so that Catiline shall not pine for them. +I will show them the road. He has gone by the Via Aurelia. If they +will hurry they may catch him before night." He implies by this +that the story about Marseilles was false. Then he speaks with +irony of himself as that violent Consul who could drive citizens +into exile by the very breath of his mouth. "Ego vehemens ille +consul qui verbo cives in exsilium ejicio." So he goes on, in truth +defending himself, but leading them with him to take part in the +accusation which he intends to bring against the chief conspirators +who remain in the city. If they too will go, they may go unscathed; +if they choose to remain, let them look to themselves.</p> + +<p>Through it all we can see there is but one thing that he +fears—that he shall be driven by the exigencies of the +occasion to take some steps which shall afterward be judged not to +have been strictly legal, and which shall put him into the <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"> +229</a></span>power of his enemies when the day of his ascendency +shall have passed away. It crops out repeatedly in these +speeches.<a name="FNanchor_202_202" id="FNanchor_202_202"></a><a +href="#Footnote_202_202" class="fnanchor">202</a> He seems to be +aware that some over-strong measure will be forced upon him for +which he alone will be held responsible. If he can only avoid that, +he will fear nothing else; if he cannot avoid it, he will encounter +even that danger. His foresight was wonderfully accurate. The +strong hand was used, and the punishment came upon him, not from +his enemies but from his friends, almost to the bursting of his +heart.</p> + +<p>Though the Senate had decreed that the Consuls were to see that +the Republic should take no harm, and though it was presumed that +extraordinary power was thereby conferred, it is evident that no +power was conferred of inflicting punishment. Antony, as Cicero's +colleague, was nothing. The authority, the responsibility, the +action were, and were intended, to remain with Cicero. He could not +legally banish any one. It was only too evident that there must be +much slaughter. There was the army of rebels with which it would be +necessary to fight. Let them go, these rebels within the city, and +either join the army and get themselves killed, or else disappear, +whither they would, among the provinces. The object of this second +Catiline oration, spoken to the people, was to convince the +remaining conspirators that they had better go, and to teach the +citizens generally that in giving such counsel he was "banishing" +no one. As far as the citizens were concerned he was successful; +but he did not induce the friends of Catiline to follow their +chief. This took place on the 9th of November. <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span>After +the oration the Senate met again, and declared Catiline and Mallius +to be public enemies.</p> + +<p>Twenty-four days elapsed before the third speech was +spoken—twenty- four days during which Rome must have been in +a state of very great fever. Cicero was actively engaged in +unravelling the plots the details of which were still being carried +on within the city; but nevertheless he made that speech for Murena +before the judicial bench of which I gave an account in the last +chapter, and also probably another for Piso, of which we have +nothing left. We cannot but marvel that he should have been able at +such a time to devote his mind to such subjects, and carefully to +study all the details of legal cases. It was only on October 21st +that Murena had been elected Consul; and yet on the 20th of +November Cicero defended him with great skill on a charge of +bribery. There is an ease, a playfulness, a softness, a drollery +about this speech which appears to be almost incompatible with the +stern, absorbing realities and great personal dangers in the midst +of which he was placed; but the agility of his mind was such that +there appears to have been no difficulty to him in these rapid +changes.</p> + +<p>On the same day, the 20th of November, when Cicero was defending +Murena, the plot was being carried on at the house of a certain +Roman lady named Sempronia. It was she of whom Sallust said that +she danced better than became an honest woman. If we can believe +Sallust, she was steeped in luxury and vice. At her house a most +vile project was hatched for introducing into Rome Rome's bitterest +foreign foes. There were in the city at this time certain delegates +from a people called the Allobroges, who inhabited the lower part +of Savoy. The Allobroges were of Gaulish race. They were warlike, +angry, and at the present moment peculiarly discontented with Rome. +There had been certain injuries, either real or presumed, +respecting which these delegates had been sent to the city. There +they had been delayed, and fobbed <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span>off with official replies which +gave no satisfaction, and were supposed to be ready to do any evil +possible to the Republic. What if they could be got to go back +suddenly to their homes, and bring a legion of red-haired Gauls to +assist the conspirators in burning down Rome? A deputation from the +delegates came to Sempronia's house and there met the +conspirators—Lentulus and others. They entered freely into +the project; but having, as was usual with foreign embassies at +Rome, a patron or peculiar friend of their own among the +aristocracy, one Fabius Sanga by name, they thought it well to +consult him.<a name="FNanchor_203_203" id="FNanchor_203_203"></a><a +href="#Footnote_203_203" class="fnanchor">203</a> Sanga, as a +matter of course, told everything to our astute Consul.</p> + +<p>Then the matter was arranged with more than all the craft of a +modern inspector of police. The Allobroges were instructed to lend +themselves to the device, stipulating, however, that they should +have a written signed authority which they could show to their +rulers at home. The written signed documents were given to them. +With certain conspirators to help them out of the city they were +sent upon their way. At a bridge over the Tiber they were stopped +by Cicero's emissaries. There was a feigned fight, but no blood was +shed; and the ambassadors with their letters were brought home to +the Consul.</p> + +<p>We are astonished at the marvellous folly of these conspirators, +so that we could hardly have believed the story had it not been +told alike by Cicero and by Sallust, and had not allusion to the +details been common among later writers.<a name="FNanchor_204_204" +id="FNanchor_204_204"></a><a href="#Footnote_204_204" class= +"fnanchor">204</a> The ambassadors <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span>were taken at the +Milvian bridge early on the morning of the 3d of December, and in +the course of that day Cicero sent for the leaders of the +conspiracy to come to him. Lentulus, who was then Prætor, +Cethegus, Gabinius, and Statilius all obeyed the summons. They did +not know what had occurred, and probably thought that their best +hope of safety lay in compliance. Cæparius was also sent for, but +he for the moment escaped—in vain; for before two days were +over he had been taken and put to death with the others. Cicero +again called the Senate together, and entered the meeting leading +the guilty Prætor by the hand. Here the offenders were examined +and practically acknowledged their guilt. The proofs against them +were so convincing that they could not deny it. There were the +signatures of some; arms were found hidden in the house of another. +The Senate decreed that the men should be kept in durance till some +decision as to their fate should have been pronounced. Each of them +was then given in custody to some noble Roman of the day. Lentulus +the Prætor was confided to the keeping of a Censor, Cethegus to +Cornificius, Statilius to Cæsar, Gabinius to Crassus, and +Cæparius, who had not fled very far before he was taken, to one +Terentius. We can imagine how willingly would Crassus and +Cæsar have let their men go, had they dared. But Cicero was +in the ascendant. Cæsar, whom we can imagine to have +understood that the hour had not yet come for putting an end to the +effete Republic, and to have perceived also that Catiline was no +fit helpmate for him in such a work, must bide his time, and for +the moment obey. That he was inclined to favor the conspirators +there is no doubt; but at present he could befriend them only in +accordance with the law. The Allobroges were rewarded. The Prætors +in the city who had assisted Cicero were thanked. To Cicero himself +a supplication was decreed. A supplication was, in its origin, a +thanksgiving to the gods on account of a victory, but had come to +be an honor shown to the General who had gained the victory.<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"> +233</a></span>In this case it was simply a means of adding glory +to Cicero, and was peculiar, as hitherto the reward had only been +conferred for military service.<a name="FNanchor_205_205" id= +"FNanchor_205_205"></a><a href="#Footnote_205_205" class= +"fnanchor">205</a> Remembering that, we can understand what at +the time must have been the feeling in Rome as to the benefits +conferred by the activity and patriotism of the Consul.</p> + +<p>On the evening of the same day, the 3d of December, Cicero again +addressed the people, explaining to them what he had done, and what +he had before explained in the Senate. This was the third Catiline +speech, and for rapid narrative is perhaps surpassed by nothing +that he ever spoke. He explains again the motives by which he had +been actuated; and in doing so extols the courage, the sagacity, +the activity of Catiline, while he ridicules the folly and the fury +of the others.<a name="FNanchor_206_206" id= +"FNanchor_206_206"></a><a href="#Footnote_206_206" class= +"fnanchor">206</a> Had Catiline remained, he says, we should have +been forced to fight with him here in the city; but with Lentulus +the sleepy, and Cassius the fat, and Cethegus the mad, it has been +comparatively easy to deal. It was on this account that he had got +rid of him, knowing that their presence would do no harm. Then he +reminds the people of all that the gods have done for them, and +addresses them in language which makes one feel that they did +believe in their gods. It is one instance, one out of many which +history and experience afford us, in which an honest and a good man +has endeavored to use for salutary purposes a faith in which he has +not himself participated. Does the bishop of to-day, when he calls +upon his clergy to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id= +"Page_234">234</a></span>pray for fine weather, believe that +the Almighty will change the ordained seasons, and cause his causes +to be inoperative because farmers are anxious for their hay or for +their wheat? But he feels that when men are in trouble it is well +that they should hold communion with the powers of heaven. So much +also Cicero believed, and therefore spoke as he did on this +occasion. As to his own religious views, I shall say something in a +future chapter.</p> + +<p>Then in a passage most beautiful for its language, though it is +hardly in accordance with our idea of the manner in which a man +should speak of himself, he explains his own ambition: "For all +which, my fellow-countrymen, I ask for no other recompense, no +ornament or honor, no monument but that this day may live in your +memories. It is within your breasts that I would garner and keep +fresh my triumph, my glory, the trophies of my exploits. No silent, +voiceless statue, nothing which can be bestowed upon the worthless, +can give me delight. Only by your remembrance can my fortunes be +nurtured—by your good words, by the records which you shall +cause to be written, can they be strengthened and perpetuated. I do +think that this day, the memory of which, I trust, may be eternal, +will be famous in history because the city has been preserved, and +because my Consulship has been glorious."<a name="FNanchor_207_207" +id="FNanchor_207_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_207_207" class= +"fnanchor">207</a> He ends the paragraph by an allusion to +Pompey, admitting Pompey to a brotherhood of patriotism and praise. +We shall see how Pompey repaid him.</p> + +<p>How many things must have been astir in his mind when he spoke +those words of Pompey! In the next sentence he tells the people of +his own danger. He has taken care of their safety; it is for them +to take care of his.<a name="FNanchor_208_208" id= +"FNanchor_208_208"></a><a href="#Footnote_208_208" class= +"fnanchor">208</a> But they, these Quirites, these Roman +citizens, these masters of the world, by whom everything was +supposed to be governed, could take care <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span>of no one; +certainly not of themselves, as certainly not of another. They +could only vote, now this way and now that, as somebody might tell +them, or more probably as somebody might pay them. Pompey was +coming home, and would soon be the favorite. Cicero must have felt +that he had deserved much of Pompey, but was by no means sure that +the debt of gratitude would be paid.</p> + +<p>Now we come to the fourth or last Catiline oration, which was +made to the Senate, convened on the 5th of December with the +purpose of deciding the fate of the leading conspirators who were +held in custody. We learn to what purport were three of the +speeches made during this debate—those of Cæsar and of +Cato and of Cicero. The first two are given to us by Sallust, but +we can hardly think that we have the exact words. The +Cæsarean spirit which induced Sallust to ignore altogether +the words of Cicero would have induced him to give his own +representation of the other two, even though we were to suppose +that he had been able to have them taken down by short-hand +writers—Cicero's words, we have no doubt, with such polishing +as may have been added to the short-hand writers' notes by Tiro, +his slave and secretary. The three are compatible each with the +other, and we are entitled to believe that we know the line of +argument used by the three orators.</p> + +<p>Silanus, one of the Consuls elect, began the debate by +counselling death. We may take it for granted that he had been +persuaded by Cicero to make this proposition. During the discussion +he trembled at the consequences, and declared himself for an +adjournment of their decision till they should have dealt with +Catiline. Murena, the other Consul elect, and Catulus, the Prince +of the Senate,<a name="FNanchor_209_209" id= +"FNanchor_209_209"></a><a href="#Footnote_209_209" class= +"fnanchor">209</a> spoke for death. Tiberius Nero, grandfather of +Tiberius the Emperor, made that proposition for <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"> +236</a></span>adjournment to which Silanus gave way. Then—or +I should rather say in the course of the debate, for we do not know +who else may have spoken—Cæsar got up and made his +proposition. His purpose was to save the victims, but he knew well +that, with such a spirit abroad as that existing in the Senate and +the city, he could only do so not by absolving but by condemning. +Wicked as these men might be, abominably wicked it was, he said, +for the Senate to think of their own dignity rather than of the +enormity of the crime. As they could not, he suggested, invent any +new punishment adequate to so abominable a crime, it would be +better that they should leave the conspirators to be dealt with by +the ordinary laws. It was thus that, cunningly, he threw out the +idea that as Senators they had no power of death. He did not dare +to tell them directly that any danger would menace them, but he +exposed the danger skilfully before their eyes. "Their crimes," he +says again, "deserve worse than any torture you can inflict. But +men generally recollect what comes last. When the punishment is +severe, men will remember the severity rather than the crime." He +argues all this extremely well. The speech is one of great +ingenuity, whether the words be the words of Sallust or of +Cæsar. We may doubt, indeed, whether the general assertion he +made as to death had much weight with the Senators when he told +them that death to the wicked was a relief, whereas life was a +lasting punishment; but when he went on to remind them of the Lex +Porcia, by which the power of punishing a Roman citizen, even under +the laws, was limited to banishment, unless by a plebiscite of the +people generally ordering death, then he was efficacious. He ended +by proposing that the goods of the conspirators should be sold, and +that the men should be condemned to imprisonment for life, each in +some separate town. This would, I believe, have been quite as +illegal as the death-sentence, but it would not have been +irrevocable. The Senate, or the people, in the next year could have +restored to the men their liberty, and <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span>compensated them +for their property. Cicero was determined that the men should die. +They had not obeyed him by leaving the city, and he was convinced +that while they lived the conspiracy would live also. He fully +understood the danger, and resolved to meet it. He replied to +Cæsar, and with infinite skill refrained from the expression +of any strong opinion, while he led his hearers to the conviction +that death was necessary. For himself he had been told of his +danger; "but if a man be brave in his duty death cannot be +disgraceful to him; to one who had reached the honors of the +Consulship it could not be premature; to no wise man could it be a +misery." Though his brother, though his wife, though his little +boy, and his daughter just married were warning him of his peril, +not by all that would he be influenced. "Do you," he says, +"Conscript Fathers, look to the safety of the Republic. These are +not the Gracchi, nor Saturninus, who are brought to you for +judgment—men who broke the laws, indeed, and therefore +suffered death, but who still were not unpatriotic. These men had +sworn to burn the city, to slay the Senate, to force Catiline upon +you as a ruler. The proofs of this are in your own hands. It was +for me, as your Consul, to bring the facts before you. Now it is +for you, at once, before night, to decide what shall be done. The +conspirators are very many; it is not only with these few that you +are dealing. On whatever you decide, decide quickly. Cæsar +tells you of the Sempronian law<a name="FNanchor_210_210" id= +"FNanchor_210_210"></a><a href="#Footnote_210_210" class= +"fnanchor">210</a>—the law, namely, forbidding the death of +a Roman citizen—but can he be regarded as a citizen who has +been found in arms against the city?" Then there is a fling at +Cæsar's assumed clemency, showing us that Cæsar had +already <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"> +238</a></span>endeavored to make capital out of that virtue which +he displayed afterward so signally at Alesia and Uxellodunum. Then +again he speaks of himself in words so grand that it is impossible +but to sympathize with him: "Let Scipio's name be glorious—he +by whose wisdom and valor Hannibal was forced out of Italy. Let +Africanus be praised loudly, who destroyed Carthage and Numantia, +the two cities which were most hostile to Rome. Let Paulus be +regarded as great—he whose triumph that great King Perses +adorned. Let Marius be held in undying honor, who twice saved Italy +from foreign yoke. Let Pompey be praised above all, whose noble +deeds are as wide as the sun's course. Perhaps among them there may +be a spot, too, for me; unless, indeed, to win provinces to which +we may take ourselves in exile is more than to guard that city to +which the conquerors of provinces may return in safety." The last +words of the orator also are fine: "Therefore, Conscript Fathers, +decide wisely and without fear. Your own safety, and that of your +wives and children, that of your hearths and altars, the temples of +your gods, the homes contained in your city, your liberty, the +welfare of Italy and of the whole Republic are at stake. It is for +you to decide. In me you have a Consul who will obey your decrees, +and will see that they be made to prevail while the breath of life +remains to him." Cato then spoke advocating death, and the Senate +decreed that the men should die. Cicero himself led Lentulus down +to the vaulted prison below, in which executioners were ready for +the work, and the other four men were made to follow. A few minutes +afterward, in the gleaming of the evening, when Cicero was being +led home by the applauding multitude, he was asked after the fate +of the conspirators. He answered them but by one word +"Vixerunt"—there is said to have been a superstition with the +Romans as to all mention of death—"They have lived their +lives."</p> + +<p>As to what was being done outside Rome with the army of +conspirators in Etruria, it is not necessary for the biographer +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"> +239</a></span>of Cicero to say much. Catiline fought, and died +fighting. The conspiracy was then over. On the 31st of December +Cicero retired from his office, and Catiline fell at the battle of +Pistoia on the 5th of January following, <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> 62.</p> + +<p>A Roman historian writing in the reign of Tiberius has thought +it worth his while to remind us that a great glory was added to +Cicero's consular year by the birth of Augustus—him who +afterward became Augustus Cæsar.<a name="FNanchor_211_211" +id="FNanchor_211_211"></a><a href="#Footnote_211_211" class= +"fnanchor">211</a> Had a Roman been living now, he might be +excused for saying that it was an honor to Augustus to have been +born in the year of Cicero's Consulship.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"> +240</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter X.</span></h3> + +<h4><i>CICERO AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP.</i></h4> + +<p>The idea that the great Consul had done illegally in putting +citizens to death was not allowed to lie dormant even for a day. It +must be remembered that a decree of the Senate had no power as a +law. The laws could be altered, or even a new law made, only by the +people. Such was the constitution of the Republic. Further on, when +Cicero will appeal as, in fact, on trial for the offence so alleged +to have been committed, I shall have to discuss the matter; but the +point was raised against him, even in the moment of his triumph, as +he was leaving the Consulship. The reiteration of his self-praise +had created for him many enemies. It had turned friends against +him, and had driven men even of his own party to ask themselves +whether all this virtue was to be endured. When a man assumes to be +more just than his neighbors there will be many ways found of +throwing in a shell against him. It was customary for a Consul when +he vacated his office to make some valedictory speech. Cicero was +probably expected to take full advantage of the opportunity. From +other words which have come from him, on other occasions but on the +same subject, it would not be difficult to compose such a speech as +he might have spoken. But there were those who were already sick of +hearing him say that Rome had been saved by his intelligence and +courage. We can imagine what Cæsar might have said among his +friends of the expediency of putting down this self-laudatory +Consul. As it was, Metellus Nepos, one of the Tribunes, forbade the +retiring officer to do more <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span>than take the oath +usual on leaving office, because he had illegally inflicted death +upon Roman citizens. Metellus, as Tribune, had the power of +stopping any official proceeding. We hear from Cicero himself that +he was quite equal to the occasion. He swore, on the spur of the +moment, a solemn oath, not in accordance with the form common to +Consuls on leaving office, but to the effect that during his +Consulship Rome had been saved by his work alone.<a name= +"FNanchor_212_212" id="FNanchor_212_212"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_212_212" class="fnanchor">212</a> We have the story +only as it is told by Cicero himself, who avers that the people +accepted the oath as sworn with exceeding praise.<a name= +"FNanchor_213_213" id="FNanchor_213_213"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_213_213" class="fnanchor">213</a> That it was so we +may, I think, take as true. There can be no doubt as to Cicero's +popularity at this moment, and hardly a doubt also as to the fact +that Metellus was acting in agreement with Cæsar, and also in +accord with the understood feelings of Pompey, who was absent with +his army in the East. This Tribune had been till lately an officer +under Pompey, and went into office together with Cæsar, who +in that year became Prætor. This, probably, was the beginning of +the party which two years afterward formed the first Triumvirate, +<span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 60. It was certainly now, in the +year succeeding the Consulship of Cicero, that Cæsar, as +Prætor, began his great career.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 62, +ætat 45.</div> + +<p>It becomes manifest to us, as we read the history of the time, +that the Dictator of the future was gradually entertaining the idea +that the old forms of the Republic were rotten, and that any man +who intended to exercise power in Rome or within the Roman Empire +must obtain it and keep it by illegal means. He had probably +adhered to Catiline's first conspiracy, but only with such moderate +adhesion as enabled him to withdraw when he found that his +companions were not fit for the work. It is manifest that he +sympathized with the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id= +"Page_242">242</a></span>later conspiracy, though it may be +doubted whether he himself had ever been a party to it. When the +conspiracy had been crushed by Cicero, he had given his full assent +to the crushing of it. We have seen how loudly he condemned the +wickedness of the conspirators in his endeavor to save their lives. +But, through it all, there was a well-grounded conviction in his +mind that Cicero, with all his virtues, was not practical. Not that +Cicero was to him the same as Cato, who with his Stoic +grandiloquence must, to his thinking, have been altogether useless. +Cicero, though too virtuous for supreme rule, too virtuous to seize +power and hold it, too virtuous to despise as effete the +institutions of the Republic, was still a man so gifted, and +capable in so many things, as to be very great as an assistant, if +he would only condescend to assist. It is in this light that +Cæsar seems to have regarded Cicero as time went on; admiring +him, liking him, willing to act with him if it might be possible, +but not the less determined to put down all the attempts at +patriotic republican virtue in which the orator delighted to +indulge. Mr. Forsyth expresses an opinion that Cæsar, till he +crossed the Rubicon after his ten years' fighting in Gaul, had +entertained no settled plan of overthrowing the Constitution. +Probably not; nor even then. It may be doubted whether Cæsar +ever spoke to himself of overthrowing the Constitution. He came +gradually to see that power and wealth were to be obtained by +violent action, and only by violent action. He had before him the +examples of Marius and Sulla, both of whom had enjoyed power and +had died in their beds. There was the example, also, of others who, +walking unwarily in those perilous times, had been banished as was +Verres, or killed as was Catiline. We can easily understand that +he, with his great genius, should have acknowledged the need both +of courage and caution. Both were exercised when he consented to be +absent from Rome, and almost from Italy, during the ten years of +the Gallic wars. But this, I think, is certain, that from the time +in which his name appears prominent—from <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span>the +period, namely, of the Catiline conspiracy—he had determined +not to overthrow the Constitution, but so to carry himself, amid +the great affairs of the day, as not to be overthrown himself.</p> + +<p>Of what nature was the intercourse between him and Pompey when +Pompey was still absent in the East we do not know; but we can +hardly doubt that some understanding had begun to exist. Of this +Cicero was probably aware. Pompey was the man whom Cicero chose to +regard as his party-leader, not having himself been inured to the +actual politics of Rome early enough in life to put himself forward +as the leader of his party. It had been necessary for him, as a +"novus homo," to come forward and work as an advocate, and then as +an administrative officer of the State, before he took up with +politics. That this was so I have shown by quoting the opening +words of his speech Pro Lege Manilia. Proud as he was of the doings +of his Consulship, he was still too new to his work to think that +thus he could claim to stand first. Nor did his ambition lead him +in that direction. He desired personal praise rather than personal +power. When in the last Catiline oration to the people he speaks of +the great men of the Republic—of the two Scipios, and of +Paulus Æmilius and of Marius—he adds the name of Pompey to +these names; or gives, rather, to Pompey greater glory than to any +of them; "Anteponatur omnibus Pompeius." This was but a few days +before Metellus as Tribune had stopped him in his speech—at +the instigation, probably, of Cæsar, and in furtherance of +Pompey's views. Pompey and Cæsar could agree, at any rate, in +this—that they did not want such a one as Cicero to interfere +with them.</p> + +<p>All of which Cicero himself perceived. The specially rich +province of Macedonia, which would have been his had he chosen to +take it on quitting the Consulship, he made over to Antony—no +doubt as a bribe, as with us one statesman may resign a special +office to another to keep that other from kicking over the traces. +Then Gaul became his province, <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span>as +allotted—Cisalpine Gaul, as northern Italy was then called; a +province less rich in plunder and pay than Macedonia. But Cicero +wanted no province, and had contrived that this should be confided +to Metellus Celer, the brother of Nepos, who, having been Prætor +when he himself was Consul, was entitled to a government. This too +was a political bribe. If courtesy to Cæsar, if provinces +given up here and there to Antonys and Metelluses, if flattery +lavished on Pompey could avail anything, he could not afford to +dispense with such aids. It all availed nothing. From this time +forward, for the twenty years which were to run before his death, +his life was one always of trouble and doubt, often of despair, and +on many occasions of actual misery. The source of this was that +Pompey whom, with divine attributes, he had extolled above all +other Romans.</p> + +<p>The first extant letter written by Cicero after his Consulship +was addressed to Pompey.<a name="FNanchor_214_214" id= +"FNanchor_214_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_214_214" class= +"fnanchor">214</a> Pompey was still in the East, but had +completed his campaigns against Mithridates successfully. Cicero +begins by congratulating him, as though to do so were the purpose +of his letter. Then he tells the victorious General that there were +some in Rome not so well pleased as he was at these victories. It +is supposed that he alluded here to Cæsar; but, if so, he +probably misunderstood the alliance which was already being formed +between Cæsar and Pompey. After that comes the real object of +the epistle. He had received letters from Pompey congratulating him +in very cold language as to the glories of his Consulship. He had +expected much more than that from the friend for whom he had done +so much. Still, he thanks his friend, explaining that the +satisfaction really necessary to him was the feeling that he had +behaved well to his friend. If his friend were less friendly to him +in return, then would the balance of friendship be on his side. If +Pompey <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"> +245</a></span>were not bound to him, Cicero, by personal +gratitude, still would he be bound by necessary co-operation in the +service of the Republic. But, lest Pompey should misunderstand him, +he declares that he had expected warmer language in reference to +his Consulship, which he believes to have been withheld by Pompey +lest offence should be given to some third person. By this he means +Cæsar, and those who were now joining themselves to +Cæsar. Then he goes on to warn him as to the future: +"Nevertheless, when you return, you will find that my actions have +been of such a nature that, even though you may loom larger than +Scipio, I shall be found worthy to be accepted as your Lælius."<a +name="FNanchor_215_215" id="FNanchor_215_215"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_215_215" class="fnanchor">215</a></p> + +<p>Infinite care had been given to the writing of this letter, and +sharp had been the heart-burnings which dictated it. It was only by +asserting that he, on his own part, was satisfied with his own +fidelity as a friend, that Cicero could express his dissatisfaction +at Pompey's coldness. It was only by continuing to lavish upon +Pompey such flattery as was contained in the reference to Scipio, +in which a touch of subtle irony is mixed with the flattery, that +he could explain the nature of the praise which had, he thought, +been due to himself. There is something that would have been abject +in the nature of these expressions, had it not been Roman in the +excess of the adulation. But there is courage in the letter, too, +when he tells his correspondent what he believes to have been the +cause of the coldness of which he complains: "Quod verere ne cujus +animum offenderes"—"Because you fear lest you should give +offence to some one." But let me tell you, he goes on to say, that +my Consulship has been of such a nature that you, Scipio, as you +are, must admit me as your friend.</p> + +<p>In these words we find a key to the whole of Cicero's connection +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246"> +246</a></span>with the man whom he recognizes as his political +leader. He was always dissatisfied with Pompey; always accusing +Pompey in his heart of ingratitude and insincerity; frequently +speaking to Atticus with bitter truth of the man's selfishness and +incapacity, even of his cruelty and want of patriotism; nicknaming +him because of his absurdities; declaring of him that he was minded +to be a second Sulla; but still clinging to him as the political +friend and leader whom he was bound to follow. In their earlier +years, when he could have known personally but little of Pompey, +because Pompey was generally absent from Rome, he had taken it into +his head to love the man. He had been called "Magnus;" he had been +made Consul long before the proper time; he had been successful on +behalf of the Republic, and so far patriotic. He had hitherto +adhered to the fame of the Republic. At any rate, Cicero had +accepted him, and could never afterward bring himself to be +disloyal to the leader with whom he had professed to act. But the +feeling evinced in this letter was carried on to the end. He had +been, he was, he would be, true to his political connection with +Pompey; but of Pompey's personal character to himself he had +nothing but complaints to make.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 62, +ætat 45.</div> + +<p>We have two other letters written by Cicero in this year, the +first of which is in answer to one from Metellus Celer to him, also +extant. Metellus wrote to complain of the ill-treatment which he +thought he had received from Cicero in the Senate, and from the +Senate generally. Cicero writes back at much greater length to +defend himself, and to prove that he had behaved as a most obliging +friend to his correspondent, though he had received a gross affront +from his correspondent's brother Nepos. Nepos had prevented him in +that matter of the speech. It is hardly necessary to go into the +question of this quarrel, except in so far as it may show how the +feeling which led to Cicero's exile was growing up among many of +the aristocracy in Rome. There was a counterplot going on at the +moment—a plot on the behalf of <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span>the aristocracy for +bringing back Pompey to Rome, not only with glory but with power, +probably originating in a feeling that Pompey would be a more +congenial master than Cicero. It was suggested that as Pompey had +been found good in all State emergencies—for putting down the +pirates, for instance, and for conquering Mithridates—he +would be the man to contend in arms with Catiline. Catiline was +killed before the matter could be brought to an issue, but still +the conspiracy went on, based on the jealousy which was felt in +regard to Cicero. This man, who had declared so often that he had +served his country, and who really had crushed the Catilinarians by +his industry and readiness, might, after all, be coming forward as +another Sulla, and looking to make himself master by dint of his +virtues and his eloquence. The hopelessness of the condition of the +Republic may be recognized in the increasing conspiracies which +were hatched on every side. Metellus Nepos was sent home from Asia +in aid of the conspiracy, and got himself made Tribune, and stopped +Cicero's speech. In conjunction with Cæsar, who was Prætor, +he proposed his new law for the calling of Pompey to their aid. +Then there was a fracas between him and Cæsar on the one side +and Cato on the other, in which Cato at last was so far victorious +that both Cæsar and Metellus were stopped in the performance +of their official duties. Cæsar was soon reinstated, but +Metellus Nepos returned to Pompey in the East, and nothing came of +the conspiracy. It is only noticed here as evidence of the feeling +which existed as to Cicero in Rome, and as explaining the +irritation on both sides indicated in the correspondence between +Cicero and Metellus Celer, the brother of Nepos,<a name= +"FNanchor_216_216" id="FNanchor_216_216"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_216_216" class="fnanchor">216</a> whom Cicero had +procured the government of Gaul.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248"> +248</a></span>The third letter from Cicero in this year was to +Sextius, who was then acting as Quæstor—or Proquæstor, as +Cicero calls him—with Antony as Proconsul in Macedonia. It is +specially interesting as telling us that the writer had just +completed the purchase of a house in Rome from Crassus for a sum +amounting to about £30,000 of our money. There was probably +no private mansion in Rome of greater pretension. It had been owned +by Livius Drusus, the Tribune—a man of colossal fortune, as +we are told by Mommsen—who was murdered at the door of it +thirty years before. It afterward passed into the hands of Crassus +the rich, and now became the property of Cicero. We shall hear how +it was destroyed during his exile, and how fraudulently made over +to the gods, and then how restored to Cicero, and how rebuilt at +the public expense. The history of the house has been so well +written that we know even the names of Cicero's two successors in +it, Censorinus and Statilius.<a name="FNanchor_217_217" id= +"FNanchor_217_217"></a><a href="#Footnote_217_217" class= +"fnanchor">217</a> It is interesting to know the sort of house +which Cicero felt to be suitable to his circumstances, for by that +we may guess what his circumstances were. In making this purchase +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249"> +249</a></span>he is supposed to have abandoned the family house in +which his father had lived next door to the new mansion, and to +have given it up to his brother. Hence we may argue that he had +conceived himself to have risen in worldly circumstances. +Nevertheless, we are informed by himself in this letter to Sextius +that he had to borrow money for the occasion—so much so that, +being a man now indebted, he might be supposed to be ripe for any +conspiracy. Hence has come to us a story through Aulus Gellius, the +compiler of anecdotes, to the effect that Cicero was fain to borrow +this money from a client whose cause he undertook in requital for +the favor so conferred. Aulus Gellius collected his stories two +centuries afterward for the amusement of his children, and has +never been regarded as an authority in matters for which +confirmation has been wanting. There is no allusion to such +borrowing from a client made by any contemporary. In this letter to +Sextius, in which he speaks jokingly of his indebtedness, he +declares that he has been able to borrow any amount he wanted at +six per cent—twelve being the ordinary rate—and gives +as a reason for this the position which he has achieved by his +services to the State. Very much has been said of the story, as +though the purchaser of the house had done something of which he +ought to have been ashamed, but this seems to have sprung entirely +from the idea that a man who, in the midst of such wealth as +prevailed at Rome, had practised so widely and so successfully the +invaluable profession of an advocate, must surely have taken money +for his services. He himself has asserted that he took none, and +all the evidence that we have goes to show that he spoke the truth. +Had he taken money, even as a loan, we should have heard of it from +nearer witnesses than Aulus Gellius, if, as Aulus Gellius tells us, +it had become known at the time. But because he tells his friend +that he has borrowed money for the purpose, he is supposed to have +borrowed it in a disgraceful manner! It will be found that all the +stones most injurious to Cicero's reputation have been produced in +the same manner. His own words <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span>have been +misinterpreted—either the purport of them, if spoken in +earnest, or their bearing, if spoken in joke—and then +accusations have been founded on them.<a name="FNanchor_218_218" +id="FNanchor_218_218"></a><a href="#Footnote_218_218" class= +"fnanchor">218</a></p> + +<p>Another charge of dishonest practice was about this time made +against Cicero without a grain of evidence, though indeed the +accusations so made, and insisted upon, apparently from a feeling +that Cicero cannot surely have been altogether clean when all +others were so dirty, are too numerous to receive from each +reader's judgment that indignant denial to which each is entitled. +The biographer cannot but fear that when so much mud has been +thrown some will stick, and therefore almost hesitates to tell of +the mud, believing that no stain of this kind has been in truth +deserved.</p> + +<p>It seems that Antony, Cicero's colleague in the Consulship, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251"> +251</a></span>who became Proconsul in Macedonia, had undertaken to +pay some money to Cicero. Why the money was to be paid we do not +know, but there are allusions in Cicero's letters to Atticus to one +Teucris (a Trojan woman), and it seems that Antony was designated +by the nickname. Teucris is very slow at paying his money, and +Cicero is in want of it. But perhaps it will be as well not to push +the matter. He, Antony, is to be tried for provincial peculation, +and Cicero declares that the case is so bad that he cannot defend +his late colleague. Hence have arisen two different suspicions: one +that Antony had agreed to make over to Cicero a share of the +Macedonian plunder in requital of Cicero's courtesy in giving up +the province which had been allotted to himself; the second, that +Antony was to pay Cicero for defending him. As to the former, +Cicero himself alludes to such a report as being common in +Macedonia, and as having been used by Antony himself as an excuse +for increased rapine. But this has been felt to be incredible, and +has been allowed to fall to the ground because of the second +accusation. But in support of that there is no word of evidence,<a +name="FNanchor_219_219" id="FNanchor_219_219"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_219_219" class="fnanchor">219</a> whereas the tenor of +the story as told by Cicero himself is against it. Is it likely, +would it be possible, that Cicero should have begun his letter to +Atticus by complaining that he could not get from Antony money +wanted for a peculiar purpose—it was wanted for his new +house—and have gone on in the same letter to say that this +might be as well, after all, as he did not intend to perform the +service for which the money was to be paid? The reader will +remember that the accusation is based solely on Cicero's own +statement that Antony was negligent in paying to him money <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252"> +252</a></span>that had been promised. In all these accusations the +evidence against Cicero, such as it is, is brought exclusively from +Cicero's own words. Cicero did afterward defend this Antony, as we +learn from his speech Pro Domo Suâ; but his change of purpose +in that respect has nothing to do with the argument.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 62, +ætat 45.</div> + +<p>We have two speeches extant made this year: one on behalf of P. +Sulla, nephew to the Dictator; the other for Archias the Greek +scholar and poet, who had been Cicero's tutor and now claimed to be +a citizen of Rome. I have already given an extract from this +letter, as showing the charm of words with which Cicero could +recommend the pursuit of literature to his hearers. The whole +oration is a beautiful morsel of Latinity, in which, however, +strength of argument is lacking. Cicero declares of Archias that he +was so eminent in literature that, if not a Roman citizen, he ought +to be made one. The result is not known, but the literary world +believes that the citizenship was accorded to him.<a name= +"FNanchor_220_220" id="FNanchor_220_220"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_220_220" class="fnanchor">220</a></p> + +<p>The speech on behalf of Sulla was more important, but still not +of much importance. This Sulla, as may be remembered, had been +chosen as Consul with Autronius, two years before the Consulship of +Cicero, and he had then after his election been deposed for +bribery, as had also Autronius. L. Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius +Torquatus had been elected in their places. It has also been +already explained that the two rejected Consuls had on this account +joined Catiline in his first conspiracy.<span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span>There can be no +doubt that whether as Consuls or as rejected Consuls, and on that +account conspirators, their purpose was to use their position as +aristocrats for robbing the State. They were of the number of those +to whom no other purpose was any longer possible. Then there came +Catiline's second conspiracy—the conspiracy which Cicero had +crushed—and there naturally rose the question whether from +time to time this or the other noble Roman should not be accused of +having joined it. Many noble Romans had no doubt joined besides +those who had fallen fighting, or who had been executed in the +dungeons. Accusations became very rife. One Vettius accused +Cæsar, the Prætor; but Cæsar, with that potentiality +which was peculiar to him, caused Vettius to be put into prison +instead of going to prison himself. Many were convicted and +banished; among them Porcius Leca, Vargunteius, Servius Sulla, the +brother of him of whom we are now speaking, and Autronius his +colleague. In the trial of these men Cicero took no part. He was +specially invited by Autronius, who was an old school-fellow, to +defend him, but he refused; indeed, he gave evidence against +Autronius at the trial. But this Publius Sulla he did defend, and +defended successfully. He was joined in the case with Hortensius, +and declared that as to the matter of the former conspiracy he left +all that to his learned friend, who was concerned with political +matters of that date.<a name="FNanchor_221_221" id= +"FNanchor_221_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_221_221" class= +"fnanchor">221</a> He, Cicero, had known nothing about them. The +part of the oration which most interests us is that in which he +defends himself from the accusations somewhat unwisely made against +himself personally by young Torquatus, the son of him who had been +raised to the Consulship in the place of P. Sulla. Torquatus had +called him a foreigner because he was a "novus <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254"> +254</a></span>homo," and had come from the municipality of +Arpinum, and had taunted him with being a king, because he had +usurped authority over life and death in regard to Lentulus and the +other conspirators. He answers this very finely, and does so +without an ill-natured word to young Torquatus, whom, from respect +to his father, he desires to spare. "Do not," he says, "in future +call me a foreigner, lest you be answered with severity, nor a +king, lest you be laughed at—unless, indeed, you think it +king-like so to live as to be a slave not only to no man but to no +evil passion; unless you think it be king-like to despise all +lusts, to thirst for neither gold nor silver nor goods, to express +yourself freely in the Senate, to think more of services due to the +people than of favors won from them, to yield to none, and to stand +firm against many. If this be king-like, then I confess that I am a +king." Sulla was acquitted, but the impartial reader will not the +less feel sure that he had been part and parcel with Catiline in +the conspiracy. It is trusted that the impartial reader will also +remember how many honest, loyal gentlemen have in our own days +undertaken the causes of those whom they have known to be rebels, +and have saved those rebels by their ingenuity and eloquence.</p> + +<p>At the end of this year, <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 62, +there occurred a fracas in Rome which was of itself but of little +consequence to Rome, and would have been of none to Cicero but that +circumstances grew out of it which created for him the bitterest +enemy he had yet encountered, and led to his sorest trouble. This +was the affair of Clodius and of the mysteries of the Bona Dea, and +I should be disposed to say that it was the greatest misfortune of +his life, were it not that the wretched results which sprung from +it would have been made to spring from some other source had that +source not sufficed. I shall have to tell how it came to pass that +Cicero was sent into exile by means of the misconduct of Clodius; +but I shall have to show also that the misconduct of Clodius was +but the tool which was used by those who were desirous of ridding +themselves of the presence of Cicero.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255"> +255</a></span>This Clodius, a young man of noble family and of +debauched manners, as was usual with young men of noble families, +dressed himself up as a woman, and made his way in among the ladies +as they were performing certain religious rites in honor of the +Bona Dea, or Goddess Cybele, a matron goddess so chaste in her +manners that no male was admitted into her presence. It was +specially understood that nothing appertaining to a man was to be +seen on the occasion, not even the portrait of one; and it may +possibly have been the case that Clodius effected his entrance +among the worshipping matrons on this occasion simply because his +doing so was an outrage, and therefore exciting. Another reason was +alleged. The rites in question were annually held, now in the house +of this matron and then of that, and during the occasion the very +master of the house was excluded from his own premises. They were +now being performed under the auspices of Pompeia, the wife of +Julius Cæsar, the daughter of one Quintus Pompeius, and it +was alleged that Clodius came among the women worshippers for the +sake of carrying on an intrigue with Cæsar's wife. This was +highly improbable, as Mr. Forsyth has pointed out to us, and the +idea was possibly used simply as an excuse to Cæsar for +divorcing a wife of whom he was weary. At any rate, when the +scandal got abroad, he did divorce Pompeia, alleging that it did +not suit Cæsar to have his wife suspected.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 61, +ætat 46.</div> + +<p>The story became known through the city, and early in January +Cicero wrote to Atticus, telling him the facts: "You have probably +heard that Publius Clodius, the son of Appius, has been taken +dressed in a woman's clothes in the house of Caius Cæsar, +where sacrifice was being made for the people, and that he escaped +by the aid of a female slave. You will be sorry to hear that it has +given rise to a great scandal."<a name="FNanchor_222_222" id= +"FNanchor_222_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_222_222" class= +"fnanchor">222</a> A few days afterward Cicero speaks of it again +to Atticus at greater length, and we learn that the matter had been +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256"> +256</a></span>taken up by the magistrates with the view of +punishing Clodius. Cicero writes without any strong feeling of his +own, explaining to his friend that he had been at first a very +Lycurgus in the affair, but that he is now tamed down.<a name= +"FNanchor_223_223" id="FNanchor_223_223"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_223_223" class="fnanchor">223</a> Then there is a +third letter in which Cicero is indignant because certain men of +whom he disapproves, the Consul Piso among the number<a name= +"FNanchor_224_224" id="FNanchor_224_224"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_224_224" class="fnanchor">224</a> are anxious to save +this wicked young nobleman from the punishment due to him; whereas +others of whom he approves Cato among the number, are desirous of +seeing justice done. But it was no affair special to Cicero. +Shortly afterward he writes again to Atticus as to the result of +the trial—for a trial did take place—and explains to +his friend how justice had failed. Atticus had asked him how it had +come to pass that he, Cicero, had not exerted himself as he usually +did.<a name="FNanchor_225_225" id="FNanchor_225_225"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_225_225" class="fnanchor">225</a> This letter, though +there is matter enough in it of a serious kind, yet jests with the +Clodian affair so continually as to make us feel that he attributed +no importance to it as regarded himself. He had exerted himself +till Hortensius made a mistake as to the selection of the judges. +After that he had himself given evidence. An attempt was made to +prove an alibi, but Cicero came forward to swear that he had seen +Clodius on the very day in question. There had, too, been an +exchange of repartee in the Senate between himself and Clodius +after the acquittal, of which he gives the details to his +correspondent with considerable self-satisfaction. The passage does +not enhance our idea of the dignity of the Senate, or of the power +of Roman raillery. It was known that Clodius had been saved by the +wholesale bribery of a large number of the judges. There had been +twenty-five for condemning against thirty-one for acquittal.<a +name="FNanchor_226_226" id="FNanchor_226_226"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_226_226" class="fnanchor">226</a> <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"> +257</a></span>Cicero in the Catiline affair had used a phrase with +frequency by which he boasted that he had "found out" this and +"found out" that—"comperisse omnia." Clodius, in the +discussion before the trial, throws this in his teeth: "Comperisse +omnia criminabatur." This gave rise to ill-feeling, and hurt Cicero +much worse than the dishonor done to the Bona Dea. As for that, we +may say that he and the Senate and the judges cared personally very +little, although there was no doubt a feeling that it was wise to +awe men's minds by the preservation of religious respect. Cicero +had cared but little about the trial; but as he had been able to +give evidence he had appeared as a witness, and enmity sprung from +the words which were spoken both on one side and on the other. +Clodius was acquitted, which concerns us not at all, and concerns +Rome very little; but things had so come to pass at the trial that +Cicero had been very bitter, and that Clodius had become his enemy. +When a man was wanted, three years afterward, to take the lead in +persecuting Cicero, Clodius was ready for the occasion.</p> + +<p>While the expediency of putting Clodius on his trial was being +discussed, Pompey had returned from the East, and taken up his +residence outside the city, because he was awaiting his triumph. +The General, to whom it was given to march through the city with +triumphal glory, was bound to make his first entrance after his +victories with all his triumphal appendages, as though he was at +that moment returning from the war with all his warlike spoils +around him. The usage had obtained the strength of law, but the +General was not on that account debarred from city employment +during the interval. The city must be taken out to him instead of +his coming into the city. Pompey was so great on his return from +his Mithridatic victories that the Senate went out to sit with him +in the suburbs, as he could not sit with it within the walls. We +find him taking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id= +"Page_258">258</a></span>part in these Clodian discussions. +Cicero at once writes of him to Athens with evident +dissatisfaction. When questioned about Clodius, Pompey had answered +with the grand air of aristocrat. Crassus on this occasion, between +whom and Cicero there was never much friendship, took occasion to +belaud the late great Consul on account of his Catiline successes. +Pompey, we are told, did not bear this well.<a name= +"FNanchor_227_227" id="FNanchor_227_227"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_227_227" class="fnanchor">227</a> Crassus had probably +intended to produce some such effect. Then Cicero had spoken in +answer to the remarks of Crassus, very glibly, no doubt, and had +done his best to "show off" before Pompey, his new listener.<a +name="FNanchor_228_228" id="FNanchor_228_228"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_228_228" class="fnanchor">228</a> More than six years +had passed since Pompey could have heard him, and then Cicero's +voice had not become potential in the Senate. Cicero had praised +Pompey with all the eloquence in his power. "Anteponatur omnibus +Pompeius," he had said, in the last Catiline oration to the Senate; +and Pompey, though he had not heard the words spoken, knew very +well what had been said. Such oratory was never lost upon those +whom it most concerned the orator to make acquainted with it. But +in return for all this praise, for that Manilian oration which had +helped to send him to the East, for continual loyalty, Pompey had +replied to Cicero with coldness. He would now let Pompey know what +was his standing in Rome. "If ever," he says to Atticus, "I was +strong with my grand rhythm, with my quick rhetorical passages, +with enthusiasm, and with logic, I was so now. Oh, the noise that I +made on the occasion! You know what my voice can do. I need say no +more about it, as surely you must have heard me away there in +Epirus." The reader, I trust, will have already a sufficiently +vivid idea of Cicero's character to understand the mingling of +triumph and badinage, with a spark of disappointment, which is here +expressed. "This Pompey, though I have <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span>been so true to +him, has not thought much of me—of me, the great Consul who +saved Rome! He has now heard what even Crassus has been forced to +say about me. He shall hear me too, me myself, and perhaps he will +then know better." It was thus that Cicero's mind was at work while +he was turning his loud periods. Pompey was sitting next to him +listening, by no means admiring his admirer as that admirer +expected to be admired. Cicero had probably said to himself that +they two together, Pompey and Cicero, might suffice to preserve the +Republic. Pompey, not thinking much of the Republic, was probably +telling himself that he wanted no brother near the throne. When of +two men the first thinks himself equal to the second, the second +will generally feel himself to be superior to the first. Pompey +would have liked Cicero better if his periods had not been so round +nor his voice so powerful. Not that Pompey was distinctly desirous +of any throne. His position at the moment was peculiar. He had +brought back his victorious army from the East to Brundisium, and +had then disbanded his legions. I will quote here the opening words +from one of Mommsen's chapters:<a name="FNanchor_229_229" id= +"FNanchor_229_229"></a><a href="#Footnote_229_229" class= +"fnanchor">229</a> "When Pompeius, after having transacted the +affairs committed to his charge, again turned his eyes toward home, +he found, for the second time, the diadem at his feet." He says +farther on, explaining why Pompey did not lift the diadem: "The +very peculiar temperament of Pompeius naturally turned once more +the scale. He was one of those men who are capable, it may be, of a +crime, but not of insubordination." And again: "While in the +capital all was preparation for receiving the new monarch, news +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260"> +260</a></span>came that Pompeius, when barely landed at +Brundisium, had broken up his legions, and with a small escort had +entered his journey to the capital. If it is a piece of +good-fortune to gain a crown without trouble, fortune never did +more for mortal than it did for Pompeius; but on those who lack +courage the gods lavish every favor and every gift in vain." I must +say here that, while I acknowledge the German historian's research +and knowledge without any reserve, I cannot accept his deductions +as to character. I do not believe that Pompey found any diadem at +his feet, or thought of any diadem, nor, according to my reading of +Roman history, had Marius or had Sulla; nor did Cæsar. The +first who thought of that perpetual rule—a rule to be +perpetuated during the ruler's life, and to be handed down to his +successors—was Augustus. Marius, violent, self-seeking, and +uncontrollable, had tumbled into supreme power; and, had he not +died, would have held it as long as he could, because it pleased +his ambition for the moment. Sulla, with a purpose, had seized it, +yet seems never to have got beyond the old Roman idea of a +temporary Dictatorship. The old Roman horror of a king was present +to these Romans, even after they had become kings. Pompey, no +doubt, liked to be first, and when he came back from the East +thought that by his deeds he was first, easily first. Whether +Consul year after year, as Marius had been, or Dictator, as Sulla +had been, or Imperator, with a running command over all the Romans, +it was his idea still to adhere to the forms of the Republic. +Mommsen, foreseeing—if an historian can be said to foresee +the future from his standing-point in the past—that a master +was to come for the Roman Empire, and giving all his sympathies to +the Cæsarean idea, despises Pompey because Pompey would not +pick up the diadem. No such idea ever entered Pompey's head. After +a while he "Sullaturized"—was desirous of copying +Sulla—to use an excellent word which Cicero coined. When he +was successfully opposed by those whom he had thought inferior to +himself, when he found <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id= +"Page_261">261</a></span>that Cæsar had got the better +of him, and that a stronger body of Romans went with Cæsar +than with him, then proscriptions, murder, confiscations, and the +seizing of dictatorial power presented themselves to his angry +mind, but of permanent despotic power there was, I think, no +thought, nor, as far as I can read the records, had such an idea +been fixed in Cæsar's bosom. To carry on the old trade of +Prætor, Consul, Proconsul, and Imperator, so as to get what he +could of power and wealth and dignity in the scramble, was, I +think, Cæsar's purpose. The rest grew upon him. As +Shakspeare, sitting down to write a play that might serve his +theatre, composed some Lear or Tempest—that has lived and +will live forever, because of the genius which was unknown to +himself—so did Cæsar, by his genius, find his way to a +power which he had not premeditated. A much longer time is +necessary for eradicating an idea from men's minds than a fact from +their practice. This should be proved to us by our own loyalty to +the word "monarch," when nothing can be farther removed from a +monarchy than our own commonwealth. From those first breaches in +republican practice which the historian Florus dates back to the +siege of Numantia,<a name="FNanchor_230_230" id= +"FNanchor_230_230"></a><a href="#Footnote_230_230" class= +"fnanchor">230</a> <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 133, down far +into the reign of Augustus, it took a century and a quarter to make +the people understand that there was no longer a republican form of +government, and to produce a leader who could himself see that +there was room for a despot.</p> + +<p>Pompey had his triumph; but the same aristocratic airs which had +annoyed Cicero had offended others. He was shorn of his honors. +Only two days were allowed for his processions. He was irritated, +jealous, and no doubt desirous of making his power felt; but he +thought of no diadem. Cæsar <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span>saw it all; and he +thought of that conspiracy which we have since called the First +Triumvirate.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 62, 61. +ætat45,46.</div> + +<p>The two years to which this chapter has been given were +uneventful in Cicero's life, and produced but little of that stock +of literature by which he has been made one of mankind's prime +favorites. Two discourses were written and published, and probably +spoken, which are now lost—that, namely, to the people +against Metellus, in which, no doubt, he put forth all that he had +intended to say when Metellus stopped him from speaking at the +expiration of his Consulship; the second, against Clodius and +Curio, in the Senate, in reference to the discreditable Clodian +affair. The fragments which we have of this contain those +asperities which he retailed afterward in his letter to Atticus, +and are not either instructive or amusing. But we learn from these +fragments that Clodius was already preparing that scheme for +entering the Tribunate by an illegal repudiation of his own family +rank, which he afterward carried out, to the great detriment of +Cicero's happiness. Of the speeches extant on behalf of Archias and +P. Sulla I have spoken already. We know of no others made during +this period. We have one letter besides this to Atticus, addressed +to Antony, his former colleague, which, like many of his letters, +was written solely for the sake of popularity.</p> + +<p>During these years he lived no doubt splendidly as one of the +great men of the greatest city in the world. He had his magnificent +new mansion in Rome, and his various villas, which were already +becoming noted for their elegance and charms of upholstery and +scenic beauty. Not only had he climbed to the top of official life +himself, but had succeeded in taking his brother Quintus up with +him. In the second of the two years, <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> 61, Quintus had been sent out as Governor or +Proprætor to Asia, having then nothing higher to reach than the +Consulship, which, however, he never attained. This step in the +life of Quintus has become famous by a letter which the <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263"> +263</a></span>elder brother wrote to him in the second year of his +office, to which reference will be made in the next chapter.</p> + +<p>So far all things seemed to have gone well with Cicero. He was +high in esteem and authority, powerful, rich, and with many people +popular. But the student of his life now begins to see that +troubles are enveloping him. He had risen too high not to encounter +envy, and had been too loud in his own praise not to make those who +envied him very bitter in their malice.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264"> +264</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XI.</span></h3> + +<h4><i>THE TRIUMVIRATE.</i></h4> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">Cb.c.</span> 60, ætat 47.</div> + +<p>I know of no great fact in history so impalpable, so shadowy, so +unreal, as the First Triumvirate. Every school-boy, almost every +school-girl, knows that there was a First Triumvirate, and that it +was a political combination made by three great Romans of the day, +Julius Cæsar, Pompey the Great, and Crassus the Rich, for +managing Rome among them. Beyond this they know little, because +there is little to know. That it was a conspiracy against the +ordained government of the day, as much so as that of Catiline, or +Guy Faux, or Napoleon III., they do not know generally, because +Cæsar, who, though the youngest of the three, was the +mainspring of it, rose by means of it to such a galaxy of glory +that all the steps by which he rose to it have been supposed to be +magnificent and heroic. But of the method in which this Triumvirate +was constructed, who has an idea? How was it first suggested, +where, and by whom? What was it that the conspirators combined to +do? There was no purpose of wholesale murder like that of Catiline +for destroying the Senate, and of Guy Faux for blowing up the House +of Lords. There was no plot arranged for silencing a body of +legislators like that of Napoleon. In these scrambles that are +going on every year for place and power, for provinces and plunder, +let us help each other. If we can manage to stick fast by each +other, we can get all the power and nearly all the plunder. That, +said with a wink by one of the Triumvirate—Cæsar, let +us say—and assented to with a nod by Pompey and Crassus, was +sufficient <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id= +"Page_265">265</a></span>for the construction of such a +conspiracy as that which I presume to have been hatched when the +First Triumvirate was formed.<a name="FNanchor_231_231" id= +"FNanchor_231_231"></a><a href="#Footnote_231_231" class= +"fnanchor">231</a> Mommsen, who never speaks of a Triumvirate +under that name, except in his index,<a name="FNanchor_232_232" id= +"FNanchor_232_232"></a><a href="#Footnote_232_232" class= +"fnanchor">232</a> where he has permitted the word to appear for +the guidance of persons less well instructed than himself, connects +the transaction which we call the First Triumvirate with a former +coalition, which he describes as having been made in (<span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> 71) the year before the Consulship of Pompey +and Crassus. With that we need not concern ourselves as we are +dealing with the life of Cicero rather than with Roman history, +except to say that Cæsar. who was the motive power of the +second coalition, could have had no personal hand in that of 71. +Though he had spent his early years in "harassing the aristocracy," +as Dean Merivale tells us, he had not been of sufficient standing +in men's minds to be put on a par with Pompey and Crassus. When +this First Triumvirate was formed, as the modern world generally +calls it, or the second coalition between the democracy and the +great military leaders, as Mommsen with greater, but not with +perfect, accuracy describes it, Cæsar no doubt had at his +fingers' ends the history of past years. "The idea naturally +occurred," says Mommsen, "whether * * * an alliance firmly +based on mutual advantage might not be established between the +democrats, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id= +"Page_266">266</a></span>with their ally, Crassus, on the one +side, and Pompeius and the great capitalists on the other. For +Pompeius such a coalition was certainly a political suicide."<a +name="FNanchor_233_233" id="FNanchor_233_233"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_233_233" class="fnanchor">233</a> The democracy here +means Cæsar. Cæsar during his whole life had been +learning that no good could come to any one from an effete Senate, +or from republican forms which had lost all their salt. Democracy +was in vogue with him; not, as I think, from any philanthropic +desire for equality; not from any far-seeing view of fraternal +citizenship under one great paternal lord—the study of +politics had never then reached to that height—but because it +was necessary that some one, or perhaps some two or three, should +prevail in the coming struggle, and because he felt himself to be +more worthy than others. He had no conscience in the matter. Money +was to him nothing. Another man's money was the same as his +own—or better, if he could get hold of it. That doctrine +taught by Cicero that men are "ad justitiam natos" must have been +to him simply absurd. Blood was to him nothing. A friend was better +than a foe, and a live man than a dead. Blood-thirstiness was a +passion unknown to him; but that tenderness which with us creates a +horror of blood was equally unknown. Pleasure was sweet to him; but +he was man enough to feel that a life of pleasure was contemptible. +To pillage a city, to pilfer his all from a rich man, to debauch a +friend's wife, to give over a multitude of women and children to +slaughter, was as easy to him as to forgive an enemy. But nothing +rankled with him, and he could forgive an enemy. Of courage he had +that better sort which can appreciate and calculate danger, and +then act as though there were none. Nothing was wrong to him but +what was injudicious. He could flatter, cajole, lie, deceive, and +rob; nay, would think it folly not to do so <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span>if to +do so were expedient.<a name="FNanchor_234_234" id= +"FNanchor_234_234"></a><a href="#Footnote_234_234" class= +"fnanchor">234</a> In this coalition he appears as supporting and +supported by the people. Therefore Mommsen speaks of him as "the +democrat." Crassus is called the ally of the democrats. It will be +enough for us here to know that Crassus had achieved his position +in the Senate by his enormous wealth, and that it was because of +his wealth, which was essential to Cæsar, that he was +admitted into the league. By means of his wealth he had risen to +power and had conquered and killed Spartacus, of the honor and +glory of which Pompey robbed him. Then he had been made Consul. +When Cæsar had gone as Proprætor to Spain, Crassus had found +the money. Now Cæsar had come back, and was hand and glove +with Crassus. When the division of the spoil came, some years +afterward—the spoil won by the Triumvirate—when +Cæsar had half perfected his grand achievements in Gaul, and +Crassus had as yet been only a second time Consul, he got himself +to be sent into Syria, that by conquering the Parthians he might +make himself equal to Cæsar. We know how he and his son +perished there, each of them probably avoiding the last extremity +of misery to a Roman—that of falling into the hands of a +barbarian enemy—by destroying himself. Than the life of +Crassus nothing could be more contemptible; than the death nothing +more pitiable. "For Pompeius," says Mommsen, "such a coalition was +certainly a political suicide." As events turned out it became so, +because <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268"> +268</a></span>Cæsar was the stronger man of the two; but it +is intelligible that at that time Pompey should have felt that he +could not lord it over the Senate, as he wished to do, without aid +from the democratic party. He had no well-defined views, but he +wished to be the first man in Rome. He regarded himself as still +greatly superior to Cæsar, who as yet had been no more than +Prætor, and at this time was being balked of his triumph because +he could not at one and the same moment be in the city, as +candidate for the Consulship, and out of the city waiting for his +triumph. Pompey had triumphed three times, had been Consul at an +unnaturally early age with abnormal honors, had been victorious +east and west, and was called "Magnus." He did not as yet fear to +be overshadowed by Cæsar.<a name="FNanchor_235_235" id= +"FNanchor_235_235"></a><a href="#Footnote_235_235" class= +"fnanchor">235</a> Cicero was his bugbear.</p> + +<p>Mommsen I believe to be right in eschewing the word +"Triumvirate." I know no mention of it by any Roman writer as +applied to this conspiracy, though Tacitus, Suetonius, and Florus +call by that name the later coalition of Octavius, Antony, and +Lepidus. The Langhornes, in translating Plutarch's life of Crassus, +speak of the Triumvirate; but Plutarch himself says that +Cæsar combined "an impregnable stronghold" by joining the +three men.<a name="FNanchor_236_236" id="FNanchor_236_236"></a><a +href="#Footnote_236_236" class="fnanchor">236</a> Paterculus and +Suetonius<a name="FNanchor_237_237" id="FNanchor_237_237"></a><a +href="#Footnote_237_237" class="fnanchor">237</a> explain very +clearly the nature of the compact, but do <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span>not use the term. +There was nothing in the conspiracy entitling it to any official +appellation, though, as there were three leading conspirators, that +which has been used has been so far appropriate.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 60, +ætat 47.</div> + +<p>Cicero was the bugbear to them all. That he might have been one +of them, if ready to share the plunder and the power, no reader of +the history of the time can doubt. Had he so chosen he might again +have been a "real power in the State;" but to become so in the way +proposed to him it was necessary that he should join others in a +conspiracy against the Republic.</p> + +<p>I do not wish it to be supposed that Cicero received the +overtures made to him with horror. Conspiracies were too common for +horror; and these conspirators were all our Cicero's friends in one +sense, though in another they might be his opponents. We may +imagine that at first Crassus had nothing to do with the matter, +and that Pompey would fain have stood aloof in his jealousy. But +Cæsar knew that it was well to have Cicero, if Cicero was to +be had. It was not only his eloquence which was marvellously +powerful, or his energy which had been shown to be indomitable: +there was his character, surpassed by that of no Roman living; if +only, in giving them the use of his character, he could be got to +disregard the honor and the justice and the patriotism on which his +character had been founded. How valuable may character be made, if +it can be employed under such conditions! To be believed because of +your truth, and yet to lie; to be trusted for your honesty, and yet +to cheat; to have credit for patriotism, and yet to sell your +country! The temptations to do this are rarely put before a man +plainly, in all their naked ugliness. They certainly <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span>were +not so presented to Cicero by Cæsar and his associates. The +bait was held out to him, as it is daily to others, in a form not +repellent, with words fitted to deceive and powerful almost to +persuade. Give us the advantage of your character, and then by your +means we shall be able to save our country. Though our line of +action may not be strictly constitutional, if you will look into it +you will see that it is expedient. What other course is there? How +else shall any wreck of the Republic be preserved? Would you be +another Cato, useless and impractical? Join us, and save Rome to +some purpose. We can understand that in such way was the lure held +out to Cicero, as it has been to many a politician since. But when +the politician takes the office offered to him—and the pay, +though it be but that of a Lord of the Treasury—he must vote +with his party.</p> + +<p>That Cicero doubted much whether he would or would not at this +time throw in his lot with Cæsar and Pompey is certain. To be +of real use—not to be impractical, as was Cato—to save +his country and rise honestly in power and glory—not to be +too straitlaced, not over-scrupulous—giving and taking a +little, so that he might work to good purpose with others in +harness—that was his idea of duty as a Roman. To serve in +accord with Pompey was the first dream of his political life, and +now Pompey was in accord with Cæsar. It was natural that he +should doubt—natural that he should express his doubts. Who +should receive them but Atticus, that "alter ego?" Cicero doubted +whether he should cling to Pompey—as he did in every phase of +his political life, till Pompey had perished at the mouth of the +Nile. But at last he saw his way clear to honesty, as I think he +always did. He tells his friend that Cæsar had sent his +confidential messenger, Balbus, to sound him. The present question +is whether he shall resist a certain agrarian law of which he does +not approve, but which is supported by both Pompey and Cæsar, +or retire from the contest and enjoy himself at his country villas, +or boldly stay <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id= +"Page_271">271</a></span>at Rome and oppose the law. +Cæsar assures him that if he will come over to them, +Cæsar will be always true to him and Pompey, and will do his +best to bring Crassus into the same frame of mind. Then he reckons +up all the good things which would accrue to him: "Closest +friendship with Pompey—with Cæsar also, should he wish +it; the making up of all quarrels with his enemies; popularity with +the people; ease for his old age, which was coming on him. But that +conclusion moves me to which I came in my third book."<a name= +"FNanchor_238_238" id="FNanchor_238_238"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_238_238" class="fnanchor">238</a> Then he repeats the +lines given in the note below, which he had written, probably this +very year, in a poem composed in honor of his own Consulship. The +lines are not in themselves grand, but the spirit of them is +magnificent: "Stick to the good cause which in your early youth you +chose for yourself, and be true to the party you have made your +own." "Should I doubt when the muse herself has so written," he +says, alluding to the name of Calliope, given to this third book of +his. Then he adds a line of Homer, very excellent for the +occasion:<a name="FNanchor_239_239" id="FNanchor_239_239"></a><a +href="#Footnote_239_239" class="fnanchor">239</a> "No augury for +the future can be better for you than that which bids you serve +your country." "But," he says, "we will talk of all that when you +come to me for the holidays. Your bath shall be ready for you: your +sister and mother shall be of the party." And so the doubts are +settled.</p> + +<p>Now came on the question of the Tribuneship of Clodius, in +reference to which I will quote a passage out of Middleton, <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272"> +272</a></span>because the phrase which he uses exactly explains +the purposes of Cæsar and Pompey.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 60, +ætat 47.</div> + +<p>"Clodius, who had been contriving all this while how to revenge +himself on Cicero, began now to give an opening to the scheme which +he had formed for that purpose. His project was to get himself +chosen Tribune, and in that office to drive him out of the city, by +the publication of a law which, by some stratagem or other, he +hoped to obtrude on the people. But as all Patricians were +incapable of the Tribunate, by its original institution so his +first step was to make himself a Plebeian by the pretence of an +adoption into a Plebeian house, which could not yet be done without +the suffrage of the people. This case was wholly new, and contrary +to all the forms—wanting every condition, and serving none of +the ends which were required in regular adoptions—so that, on +the first proposal, it seemed too extravagant to be treated +seriously, and would soon have been hissed off with scorn, had it +not been concerted and privately supported by persons of much more +weight than Clodius. Cæsar was at the bottom of it, and +Pompey secretly favored it—not that they intended to ruin +Cicero, but to keep him only under the lash—and if they could +not draw him into their measures, to make him at least sit quiet, +and let Clodius loose upon him."<a name="FNanchor_240_240" id= +"FNanchor_240_240"></a><a href="#Footnote_240_240" class= +"fnanchor">240</a></p> + +<p>This, no doubt, was the intention of the political leaders in +Rome at this conjunction of affairs. It had been found impossible +to draw Cicero gently into the net, so that he should become one of +them. If he would live quietly at his Antian or Tusculan villa, +amid his books and writings, he should be treated with all respect; +he should be borne with, even though he talked so much of his own +Consulate. But if he would interfere with the politics of the day, +and would not come into the net, then he must be dealt with. +Cæsar seems to have respected Cicero always, and even to have +liked him; but he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id= +"Page_273">273</a></span>was not minded to put up with a +"friend" in Rome who from day to day abused all his projects. In +defending Antony, the Macedonian Proconsul who was condemned, +Cicero made some unpleasant remarks on the then condition of +things. Cæsar, we are told, when he heard of this, on the +very spur of the moment, caused Clodius to be accepted as a +Plebeian.</p> + +<p>In all this we are reminded of the absolute truth of Mommsen's +verdict on Rome, which I have already quoted more than once: "On +the Roman oligarchy of this period no judgment can be passed, save +one of inexorable and remorseless condemnation." How had it come to +pass that Cæsar had the power of suddenly causing an edict to +become law, whether for good or for evil? Cicero's description of +what took place is as follows:<a name="FNanchor_241_241" id= +"FNanchor_241_241"></a><a href="#Footnote_241_241" class= +"fnanchor">241</a> "About the sixth hour of the day, when I was +defending my colleague Antony in court, I took occasion to complain +of certain things which were being done in the Republic, and which +I thought to be injurious to my poor client. Some dishonest persons +carried my words to men in power"—meaning Cæsar and +Pompey—"not, indeed, my own words, but words very different +from mine. At the ninth hour on that very same day, you, Clodius, +were accepted as a Plebeian." Cæsar, having been given to +understand that Cicero had been making himself disagreeable, was +determined not to put up with it. Suetonius tells the same story +with admirable simplicity. Of Suetonius it must be said that, if he +had no sympathy for a patriot such as Cicero, neither had he any +desire to represent in rosy colors the despotism of a Cæsar. +He tells his stories simply as he has heard them. "Cicero," says +Suetonius,<a name="FNanchor_242_242" id="FNanchor_242_242"></a><a +href="#Footnote_242_242" class="fnanchor">242</a> "having at some +trial complained of the state of the times, Cæsar, on the +very same day, at the ninth hour, passed <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span>Clodius over from +the Patrician to the Plebeian rank, in accordance with his own +desire." How did it come to pass that Cæsar, who, though +Consul at the time, had no recognized power of that nature, was +efficacious for any such work as this? Because the Republic had +come to the condition which the German historian has described. The +conspiracy between Cæsar and his subordinates had not been +made for nothing. The reader will require to know why Clodius +should have desired degradation, and how it came to pass that this +degradation should have been fatal to Cicero. The story has been +partly told in the passage from Middleton. A Patrician, in +accordance with the constitution, could not be a Tribune of the +people. From the commencement of the Tribunate, that office had +been reserved for the Plebeians. But a Tribune had a power of +introducing laws which exceeded that of any Senator or any other +official. "They had acquired the right," we are told in Smith's +Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, "of proposing to the +comitia tributa, or to the Senate, measures on nearly all the +important affairs of the State;" and as matters stood at this time, +no one Tribune could "veto" or put an arbitrary stop to a +proposition from another. When such proposition was made, it was +simply for the people to decide by their votes whether it should or +should not be law. The present object was to have a proposition +made and carried suddenly, in reference to Cicero, which should +have, at any rate, the effect of stopping his mouth. This could be +best done by a Tribune of the people. No other adequate Tribune +could be found—no Plebeian so incensed against Cicero as to +be willing to do this, possessing at the same time power enough to +be elected. Therefore it was that Clodius was so anxious to be +degraded.</p> + +<p>No Patrician could become a Tribune of the people; but a +Patrician might be adopted by a Plebeian, and the adopted child +would take the rank of his father—would, in fact, for all +legal purposes, be the same as a son. For doing this in any <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275"> +275</a></span>case a law had to be passed—or, in other +words, the assent of the people must be obtained and registered. +But many conditions were necessary. The father intending to adopt +must have no living son of his own, and must be past the time of +life at which he might naturally hope to have one; and the adopted +son must be of a fitting age to personate a son—at any rate, +must be younger than the father; nothing must be done injurious to +either family; there must be no trick in it, no looking after other +result than that plainly intended. All these conditions were +broken. The pretended father, Fonteius, had a family of his own, +and was younger than Clodius. The great Claudian family was +desecrated, and there was no one so ignorant as not to know that +the purpose intended was that of entering the Tribunate by a fraud. +It was required by the general law that the Sacred College should +report as to the proper observances of the prescribed regulations, +but no priest was ever consulted. Yet Clodius was adopted, made a +Plebeian, and in the course of the year elected as Tribune.</p> + +<p>In reading all this, the reader is mainly struck by the +wonderful admixture of lawlessness and law-abiding steadfastness. +If Cæsar, who was already becoming a tyrant in his +Consulship, chose to make use of this means of silencing Cicero, +why not force Clodius into the Tribunate without so false and +degrading a ceremony? But if, as was no doubt the case, he was not +yet strong enough to ignore the old popular feelings on the +subject, how was it that he was able to laugh in his sleeve at the +laws, and to come forth at a moment's notice and cause the people +to vote, legally or illegally, just as he pleased? It requires no +conjurer to tell us the reason. The outside hulls and husks remain +when the rich fruit has gone. It was in seeing this, and yet not +quite believing that it must be so, that the agony of Cicero's life +consisted. There could have been no hope for freedom, no hope for +the Republic, when Rome had been governed as it was during the +Consulship of Cæsar; but Cicero could still hope, though +faintly, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id= +"Page_276">276</a></span>still buoy himself up with +remembrances of his own year of office.</p> + +<p>In carrying on the story of the newly-adopted child to his +election as Tribune, I have gone beyond the time of my narration, +so that the reader may understand the cause and nature and effect +of the anger which Clodius entertained for Cicero. This originated +in the bitter words spoken as to the profanation of the Bona Dea, +and led to the means for achieving Cicero's exile and other +untoward passages of his life. In the year 60 <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span>, when Metellus Celer and Afranius were Consuls, +Clodius was tried for insulting the Bona Dea, and the since +so-called Triumvirate was instituted. It has already been shown +that Cicero, not without many doubts, rejected the first offers +which were made to him to join the forces that were so united. He +seems to have passed the greater portion of this year in Rome. One +letter only was written from the country, to Atticus, from his +Tusculan villa, and that is of no special moment. He spent his time +in the city, still engaged in the politics of the day; as to which, +though he dreaded the coming together of Cæsar and Pompey and +Crassus—those "graves principum amicitias" which were to +become so detrimental to all who were concerned in them—he +foresaw as yet but little of the evil which was to fall upon his +own head. He was by no means idle as to literature, though we have +but little of what he wrote, and do not regret what we have lost. +He composed a memoir of his Consulate in Greek, which he sent to +Atticus with an allusion to his own use of the foreign language +intended to show that he is quite at ease in that matter. Atticus +had sent him a memoir, also written in Greek, on the same subject, +and the two packets had crossed each other on the road. He candidly +tells Atticus that his attempt seems to be "horridula atque +incompta," rough and unpolished; whereas Posidonius, the great +Greek critic of Rhodes who had been invited by him, Cicero, to read +the memoir, and then himself to treat the same subject, had replied +that he was altogether debarred <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span>from such an attempt by +the excellence of his correspondent's performance.<a name= +"FNanchor_243_243" id="FNanchor_243_243"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_243_243" class="fnanchor">243</a> He also wrote three +books of a poem on his Consulate, and sent them to Atticus; of +which we have a fragment of seventy-five lines quoted by himself,<a +name="FNanchor_244_244" id="FNanchor_244_244"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_244_244" class="fnanchor">244</a> and four or five +other lines including that unfortunate verse handed down by +Quintilian, "O fortunatum natam me consule Romam"—unless, +indeed, it be spurious, as is suggested by that excellent critic +and whole-hearted friend of the orator's, M. Gueroult. Previous to +these he had produced in hexameters, also, a translation of the +Prognostics of Aratus. This is the second part of a poem on the +heavenly bodies, the first part, the Phænomena, having been turned +into Latin verse by him when he was eighteen. Of the Prognostics we +have only a few lines preserved by Priscian, and a passage repeated +by the author, also in his De Divinatione. I think that Cicero was +capable of producing a poem quite worthy of preservation; but in +the work of this year the subjects chosen were not alluring.</p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 60, +ætat 47.</div> + +<p>Among his epistles of the year there is one which might of +itself have sufficed to bring down his name to posterity. This is a +long letter, full of advice, to his brother Quintus, who had gone +out in the previous year to govern the province of Asia as +Proprætor. We may say that good advice could never have been more +wanted, and that better advice could not have been given. It has +been suggested that it was written as a companion to that treatise +on the duties of a candidate which Quintus composed for his +brother's service when standing for his Consulship. But I cannot +admit the analogy. The composition attributed to Quintus contained +lessons of advice equally suitable to any candidate, sprung from +the people, striving to rise to high honors in the State. <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278"> +278</a></span>This letter is adapted not only to the special +position of Quintus, but to the peculiarities of his character, and +its strength lies in this: that while the one brother praises the +other, justly praises him, as I believe, for many virtues, so as to +make the receipt of it acceptable, it points out +faults—faults which will become fatal, if not +amended—in language which is not only strong but +unanswerable.</p> + +<p>The style of this letter is undoubtedly very different from that +of Cicero's letters generally—so as to suggest to the reader +that it must have been composed expressly for publication whereas +the daily correspondence is written "currente calamo," with no +other than the immediate idea of amusing, instructing, or perhaps +comforting the correspondent. Hence has come the comparison between +this and the treatise De Petitione Consulatus. I think that the +gravity of the occasion, rather than any regard for posterity, +produced the change of style. Cicero found it to be essential to +induce his brother to remain at his post, not to throw up his +government in disgust, and so to bear himself that he should not +make himself absolutely odious to his own staff and to other Romans +around him; for Quintus Cicero, though he had been proud and +arrogant and ill tempered, had not made himself notorious by the +ordinary Roman propensity to plunder his province "What is it that +is required of you as a governor?"<a name="FNanchor_245_245" id= +"FNanchor_245_245"></a><a href="#Footnote_245_245" class= +"fnanchor">245</a> asks Cicero. "That men should not be +frightened by your journeys hither and thither—that they +should not be eaten up by your extravagance—that they should +not be disturbed by your coming among them—<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span>that +there should be joy at your approach; when each city should think +that its guardian angel, not a cruel master, had come upon +it—when each house should feel that it entertained not a +robber but a friend. Practice has made you perfect in this. But it +is not enough that you should exercise those good offices yourself, +but that you should take care that every one of those who come with +you should seem to do his best for the inhabitants of the province, +for the citizen of Rome, and for the Republic." I wish that I could +give the letter entire—both in English, that all readers +might know how grand are the precepts taught, and in Latin, that +they who understand the language might appreciate the beauty of the +words—but I do not dare to fill my pages at such length. A +little farther on he gives his idea of the duty of all those who +have power over others—even over the dumb animals.<a name= +"FNanchor_246_246" id="FNanchor_246_246"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_246_246" class="fnanchor">246</a> "To me it seems that +the duty of those in authority over others consists in making those +who are under them as happy as the nature of things will allow. +Every one knows that you have acted on this principle since you +first went to Asia." This, I fear, must be taken as flattery, +intended to gild the pill which comes afterward "This is not only +his duty who has under him allies and citizens, but is also that of +the man who has slaves under his control, and even dumb cattle, +that he should study the welfare of all over whom he stands in the +position of master!" Let the reader look into this, and ask himself +what precepts of Christianity have ever surpassed it.</p> + +<p>Then he points out that which he describes as the one great +difficulty in the career of a Roman Provincial Governor.<a name= +"FNanchor_247_247" id="FNanchor_247_247"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_247_247" class="fnanchor">247</a> The <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280"> +280</a></span>collectors of taxes, or "publicani," were of the +equestrian order. This business of farming the taxes had been their +rich privilege for at any rate more than a century, and as Cicero +says, farther on in his letter, it was impossible not to know with +what hardship the Greek allies would be treated by them when so +many stories were current of their cruelty even in Italy. Were +Quintus to take a part against these tax-gatherers, he would make +them hostile not only to the Republic but to himself also, and also +to his brother Marcus; for they were of the equestrian order, and +specially connected with these "publicani" by family ties. He +implies, as he goes on, that it will be easier to teach the Greeks +to be submissive than the tax-gatherers to be moderate. After all, +where would the Greeks of Asia be if they had no Roman master to +afford them protection? He leaves the matter in the hands of his +brother, with advice that he should do the best he can on one side +and on the other. If possible, let the greed of the "publicani" be +restrained; but let the ally be taught to understand that there may +be usage in the world worse even than Roman taxation. It would be +hardly worth our while to allude to this part of Cicero's advice, +did it not give an insight into the mode in which Rome taxed her +subject people.</p> + +<p>After this he commences that portion of the letter for the sake +of which we cannot but believe that the whole was written. "There +is one thing," he says, "which I will never cease to din into your +ears, because I could not endure to think that, amid the praises +which are lavished on you, there should be any matter in which you +should be found wanting. All who come to us here"—all who +come to Rome from Asia, that is—"when they tell us of your +honesty and goodness of heart, tell us also that you fail in +temper. It is a vice which, in the daily affairs of private life, +betokens a weak and unmanly spirit; but there can be nothing so +poor as the exhibition of the littleness of nature in those who +have risen to the dignity of command." He will not, he goes on to +say, trouble <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id= +"Page_281">281</a></span>his brother with repeating all that +the wise men have said on the subject of anger; he is sure that +Quintus is well acquainted with all that. But is it not a pity, +when all men say that nothing could be pleasanter than Quintus +Cicero when in a good-humor, the same Quintus should allow himself +to be so provoked that his want of kindly manners should be +regretted by all around him? "I cannot assert," he goes on to say, +"that when nature has produced a certain condition of mind, and +that years as they run on have strengthened it, a man can change +all that and pluck out from his very self the habits that have +grown within him; yet I must tell you that if you cannot eschew +this evil altogether—if you cannot protect yourself against +the feeling of anger, yet you should prepare yourself to be ready +for it when it comes, so that, when your very soul within you is +hot with it, your tongue, at any rate, may be restrained." Then +toward the end of the letter there is a fraternal exhortation which +is surely very fine: "Since chance has thrown into my way the +duties of official life in Rome, and into yours that of +administrating provincial government, if I, in the performance of +my work, have been second to none, do you see that you in yours may +be equally efficient." How grand, from an elder brother to a +younger! "And remember this, that you and I have not to strive +after some excellence still unattained, but have to be on our watch +to guard that which has been already won. If I should find myself +in anything divided from you, I should desire no further advance in +life. Unless your deeds and your words go on all-fours with mine, I +should feel that I had achieved nothing by all the work and all the +dangers which you and I have encountered together." The brother at +last was found to be a poor, envious, ill-conditioned +creature—intellectually gifted, and capable of borrowing +something from his brother's nobler nature; but when struggles +came, and political feuds, and the need of looking about to see on +which side safety lay, ready to sacrifice his brother for the sake +of safety. But up to this time <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span>Marcus was prepared to +believe all good of Quintus; and having made for himself and for +the family a great name, was desirous of sharing it with his +brother, and, as we shall afterward see, with his brother's son, +and with his own. In this he failed. He lived to know that he had +failed as regarded his brother and his nephew. It was not, however, +added to his misery to live to learn how little his son was to do +to maintain the honor of his family.</p> + +<p>I find a note scribbled by myself some years ago in a volume in +which I had read this epistle, "Probably the most beautiful letter +ever written." Reading it again subsequently, I added another note, +"The language altogether different from that of his ordinary +letters." I do not dissent now either from the enthusiastic praise +or the more careful criticism. The letter was from the man's +heart—true, affectionate, and full of anxious, brotherly +duty—but written in studied language, befitting, as Cicero +thought, the need and the dignity of the occasion.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">B C 59, ætat 48.</div> + +<p>The year following was that of Cæsar's first Consulship, +which he held in conjunction with Bibulus, a man who was altogether +opposed to him in thought, in character, and in action. So hostile +were these two great officers to each other that the one attempted +to undo whatever the other did. Bibulus was elected by bribery, on +behalf of the Senate, in order that he might be a counterpoise to +Cæsar. But Cæsar now was not only Cæsar: he was +Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus united, with all their dependents, +all their clients, all their greedy hangers-on. To give this +compact something of the strength of family union, Pompey, who was +now nearly fifty years of age, took in marriage Cæsar's +daughter Julia, who was a quarter of a century his junior. But +Pompey was a man who could endear himself to women, and the opinion +seems to be general that had not Julia died in childbirth the +friendship between the men would have been more lasting. But for +Cæsar's purposes the duration of this year and the next was +enough. Bibulus was a laughing-stock, the mere shadow <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span>of a +Consul, when opposed to such an enemy. He tried to use all the old +forms of the Republic with the object of stopping Cæsar in +his career; but Cæsar only ridiculed him; and Pompey, though +we can imagine that he did not laugh much, did as Cæsar would +have him. Bibulus was an augur, and observed the heavens when +political manœuvres were going on which he wished to stop. This +was the old Roman system for using religion as a drag upon +progressive movements. No work of state could be carried on if the +heavens were declared to be unpropitious; and an augur could always +say that the heavens were unpropitious if he pleased. This was the +recognized constitutional mode of obstruction, and was quite in +accord with the feelings of the people. Pompey alone, or Crassus +with him, would certainly have submitted to an augur; but +Cæsar was above augurs. Whatever he chose to have carried he +carried, with what approach he could to constitutional usage, but +with whatever departure from constitutional usage he found to be +necessary.</p> + +<p>What was the condition of the people of Rome at the time it is +difficult to learn from the conflicting statements of historians. +That Cicero had till lately been popular we know. We are told that +Bibulus was popular when he opposed Cæsar. Of personal +popularity up to this time I doubt whether Cæsar had achieved +much. Yet we learn that, when Bibulus with Cato and Lucullus +endeavored to carry out their constitutional threats, they were +dragged and knocked about, and one of them nearly killed. Of the +illegality of Cæsar's proceedings there can be no doubt. "The +tribunitian veto was interposed; Cæsar contented himself with +disregarding it."<a name="FNanchor_248_248" id= +"FNanchor_248_248"></a><a href="#Footnote_248_248" class= +"fnanchor">248</a> This is quoted from the German historian, who +intends to leave an impression that Cæsar was great and wise +in all that he did; and who tells us also of the "obstinate, weak +creature Bibulus," and of "the dogmatical fool Cato." I doubt +whether there was anything <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" +id="Page_284">284</a></span>of true popular ferment, or that +there was any commotion except that which was made by the "roughs" +who had attached themselves for pay to Cæsar or to Pompey, or +to Crassus, or, as it might be, to Bibulus and the other leaders. +The violence did not amount to more than "nearly" killing this man +or the other. Some Roman street fights were no doubt more +bloody—as for instance that in which, seven years afterward, +Clodius was slaughtered by Milo—but the blood was made to +flow, not by the people, but by hired bravoes. The Roman citizens +of the day were, I think, very quiescent. Neither pride nor misery +stirred them much. Cæsar, perceiving this, was aware that he +might disregard Bibulus and his auguries so long as he had a band +of ruffians around him sufficient for the purposes of the hour. It +was in order that he might thus prevail that the coalition had been +made with Pompey and Crassus. His colleague Bibulus, seeing how +matters were going, retired to his own house, and there went +through a farce of consular enactments. Cæsar carried all his +purposes, and the people were content to laugh, dividing him into +two personages, and talking of Julius and Cæsar as the two +Consuls of the year. It was in this way that he procured to be +allotted to him by the people his irregular command in Gaul. He was +to be Proconsul, not for one year, with perhaps a prolongation for +two or three, but for an established period of five. He was to have +the great province of Cisalpine Gaul—that is to say, the +whole of what we now call Italy, from the foot of the Alps down to +a line running from sea to sea just north of Florence. To this +Transalpine Gaul was afterward added. The province so named, +possessed at the time by the Romans, was called "Narbonensis," a +country comparatively insignificant, running from the Alps to the +Pyrenees along the Mediterranean. The Gaul or Gallia of which +Cæsar speaks when, in the opening words of his Commentary, he +tells us that it was divided into three parts, was altogether +beyond the Roman province which was assigned to him. Cæsar, +when he undertook his government, can hardly <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span>have +dreamed of subjecting to Roman rule the vast territories which were +then known as Gallia, beyond the frontiers of the Empire, and which +we now call France.</p> + +<p>But he caused himself to be supported by an enormous army. There +were stationed three legions on the Italian side of the Alps, and +one on the other. These were all to be under his command for five +years certain, and amounted to a force of not less than thirty +thousand men. "As no troops could constitutionally be stationed in +Italy proper, the commander of the legions of Northern Italy and +Gaul," says Mommsen, "dominated at the same time Italy and Rome for +the next five years; and he who was master for five years was +master for life."<a name="FNanchor_249_249" id= +"FNanchor_249_249"></a><a href="#Footnote_249_249" class= +"fnanchor">249</a></p> + +<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 59, +ætat 48.</div> + +<p>Such was the condition of Rome during the second year of the +Triumvirate, in which Cæsar was Consul and prepared the way +for the powers which he afterward exercised. Cicero would not come +to his call; and therefore, as we are told, Clodius was let loose +upon him. As he would not come to Cæsar's call, it was +necessary that he should be suppressed, and Clodius, +notwithstanding all constitutional difficulties—nay, +impossibilities—was made Tribune of the people. Things had +now so far advanced with a Cæsar that a Cicero who would not +come to his call must be disposed of after some fashion.</p> + +<p>Till we have thought much of it, often of it, till we have +looked thoroughly into it, we find ourselves tempted to marvel at +Cicero's blindness. Surely a man so gifted must have known enough +of the state of Rome to have been aware that there was no room left +for one honest, patriotic, constitutional politician. Was it not +plain to him that if, "natus ad justitiam," he could not bring +himself to serve with those who were intent on discarding the +Republic, he had better retire among his books, his busts, and his +literary luxuries, and leave the government <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span>of +the country to those who understood its people? And we are the more +prone to say and to think all this because the man himself +continually said it, and continually thought it. In one of the +letters written early in the year<a name="FNanchor_250_250" id= +"FNanchor_250_250"></a><a href="#Footnote_250_250" class= +"fnanchor">250</a> to Atticus from his villa at Antium he +declares very plainly how it is with him; and this, too, in a +letter written in good-humor, not in a despondent frame of mind, in +which he is able pleasantly to ridicule his enemy Clodius, who it +seems had expressed a wish to go on an embassy to Tigranes, King of +Armenia. "Do not think," he says, "that I am complaining of all +this because I myself am desirous of being engaged in public +affairs. Even while it was mine to sit at the helm I was tired of +the work; but now, when I am in truth driven out of the ship, when +the rudder has not been thrown down but seized out of my hands, how +should I take a pleasure in looking from the shore at the wrecks +which these other pilots have made?" But the study of human nature +tells us, and all experience, that men are unable to fathom their +own desires, and fail to govern themselves by the wisdom which is +at their fingers' ends. The retiring Prime-minister cannot but +hanker after the seals and the ribbons and the titles of office, +even though his soul be able to rise above considerations of +emolument, and there will creep into a man's mind an idea that, +though reform of abuses from other sources may be impossible, if he +were there once more the evil could at least be mitigated, might +possibly be cured. So it was during this period of his life with +Cicero. He did believe that political justice exercised by himself, +with such assistance as his eloquence would obtain for it, might be +efficacious for preserving the Republic, in spite of Cæsar, +and of Pompey, and of Crassus. He did not yet believe that these +men would consent to such an outrage as his banishment. It <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287"> +287</a></span>must have been incredible to him that Pompey should +assent to it. When the blow came, it crushed him for the time. But +he retricked his beams and struggled on to the end, as we shall see +if we follow his life to the close.</p> + +<p>Such was the intended purpose of the degradation of Clodius. +This, however, was not at once declared. It was said that Clodius +as Tribune intended rather to oppose Cæsar than to assist +him. He at any rate chose that Cicero should so believe and sent +Curio, a young man to whom Cicero was attached, to visit the orator +at his villa at Antium and to declare these friendly purposes. +According to the story told by Cicero,<a name="FNanchor_251_251" +id="FNanchor_251_251"></a><a href="#Footnote_251_251" class= +"fnanchor">251</a> Clodius was prepared to oppose the +Triumvirate; and the other young men of Rome, the <i>jeunesse +dorée</i>, of which both Curio and Clodius were members, +were said to be equally hostile to Cæsar, Pompey, and +Crassus, whose doings in opposition to the constitution were +already evident enough; so that it suited Cicero to believe that +the rising aristocracy of Rome would oppose them. But the +aristocracy of Rome, whether old or young, cared for nothing but +its fish-ponds and its amusements.</p> + +<p>Cicero spent the earlier part of the year out of Rome, among his +various villas—at Tusculanum, at Antium, and at Formiæ. The +purport of all his letters at this period is the same—to +complain of the condition of the Republic, and especially of the +treachery of his friend Pompey. Though there be much of despondency +in his tone, there is enough also of high spirit to make us feel +that his literary aspirations are not out of place, though mingled +with his political wailing. The time will soon come when his trust +even in literature will fail him for a while.</p> + +<p>Early in the year he declares that he would like to accept a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288"> +288</a></span>mission to Egypt, offered to him by Cæsar and +Pompey, partly in order that he might for a while be quit of Rome, +and partly that Romans might feel how ill they could do without +him. He then uses for the first time, as far as I am aware, a line +from the Iliad,<a name="FNanchor_252_252" id= +"FNanchor_252_252"></a><a href="#Footnote_252_252" class= +"fnanchor">252</a> which is repeated by him again and again, in +part or in whole, to signify the restraint which is placed on him +by his own high character among his fellow-citizens. "I would go to +Egypt on this pleasant excursion, but that I fear what the men of +Troy, and the Trojan women, with their wide-sweeping robes, would +say of me." And what, he asks, would the men of our party, "the +optimates," say? and what would Cato say, whose opinion is more to +me than that of them all? And how would history tell the story in +future ages? But he would like to go to Egypt, and he will wait and +see. Then, after various questions to Atticus, comes that great one +as to the augurship, of which so much has been made by Cicero's +enemies, "quo quidem uno ego ab istis capi possim." A few lines +above he had been speaking of another lure, that of the mission to +Egypt. He discusses that with his friend, and then goes on in his +half-joking phrase, "but this would have been the real thing to +catch me." Nothing caught him. He was steadfast all through, +accepting no offer of place from the conspirators by which his +integrity or his honor could be soiled. That it was so was well +known to history in the time of Quintilian, whose testimony as to +the "repudiatus vigintiviratus"—his refusal of a place among +the twenty commissioners—has been already quoted.<a name= +"FNanchor_253_253" id="FNanchor_253_253"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_253_253" class="fnanchor">253</a> And yet biographers +have written of him as of one willing to sell his honor, his +opinions, and the commonwealth, for a "pitiful bribe;" not that he +did do so, not that he attempted to do it, <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span>but because in a +half-joking letter to the friend of his bosom he tells his friend +which way his tastes lay!<a name="FNanchor_254_254" id= +"FNanchor_254_254"></a><a href="#Footnote_254_254" class= +"fnanchor">254</a></p> + +<p>He had been thinking of writing a book on geography, and +consulted Atticus on the subject; but in one of his letters he +tells his friend that he had abandoned the idea. The subject was +too dull; and if he took one side in a dispute that was existing, +he would be sure to fall under the lash of the critics on the +other. He is enjoying his leisure at Antium, and thinks it a much +better place than Rome. If the weather will not let him catch fish, +at any rate he can count the waves. In all these letters Cicero +asks questions about his money and his private affairs; about the +mending of a wall, perhaps, and adds something about his wife or +daughter or son. He is going from Antium to Formiæ, but must +return to Antium by a certain date because Tullia wants to see the +games.</p> + +<p>Then again he alludes to Clodius. Pompey had made a compact with +Clodius—so at least Cicero had heard—that he, Clodius, +if elected for the Tribunate, would do nothing to injure Cicero. +The assurance of such a compact had no doubt been spread about for +the quieting of Cicero; but no such compact had been intended to be +kept, unless Cicero would be amenable, would take some of the good +things offered to him, or at any rate hold his peace. But Cicero +affects to hope that no such agreement may be kept. He is always +nicknaming Pompey, who during his Eastern campaign had taken +Jerusalem, and who now parodies the Africanus, the Asiaticus, and +the Macedonicus of the Scipios and Metelluses. "If that +Hierosolymarian candidate for popularity does not keep his word +with me, I shall be delighted. If that be his return for my +speeches on his behalf"—the Anteponatur omnibus Pompeius, for +instance—"I will play him such a turn of another kind that he +shall remember it."<a name="FNanchor_255_255" id= +"FNanchor_255_255"></a><a href="#Footnote_255_255" class= +"fnanchor">255</a></p> + +<p>He begins to know what the "Triumvirate" is doing with <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290"> +290</a></span>the Republic, but has not yet brought himself to +suspect the blow that is to fall on himself. "They are going along +very gayly," he says, "and do not make as much noise as one would +have expected."<a name="FNanchor_256_256" id= +"FNanchor_256_256"></a><a href="#Footnote_256_256" class= +"fnanchor">256</a> If Cato had been more on the alert, things +would not have gone so quickly; but the dishonesty of others, who +have allowed all the laws to be ignored, has been worse than Cato. +If we used to feel that the Senate took too much on itself, what +shall we say when that power has been transferred, not to the +people, but to three utterly unscrupulous men? "They can make whom +they will Consuls, whom they will Tribunes—so that they may +hide the very goitre of Vatinius under a priest's robe." For +himself, Cicero says, he will be contented to remain with his +books, if only Clodius will allow him; if not, he will defend +himself.<a name="FNanchor_257_257" id="FNanchor_257_257"></a><a +href="#Footnote_257_257" class="fnanchor">257</a> As for his +country, he has done more for his country than has even been +desired of him; and he thinks it to be better to leave the helm in +the hands of pilots, however incompetent, than himself to steer +when passengers are so thankless. Then we find that he robs poor +Tullia of her promised pleasure at the games, because it will be +beneath his dignity to appear at them. He is always very anxious +for his friend's letters, depending on them for news and for +amusement. "My messenger will return at once," he says, in one; +"therefore, though you are coming yourself very soon, send me a +heavy letter, full not only of news but of your own ideas."<a name= +"FNanchor_258_258" id="FNanchor_258_258"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_258_258" class="fnanchor">258</a> In another: "Cicero +the Little sends greeting," he says, in Greek, "to Titus the +Athenian"—that is, to Titus Pomponius Atticus. The Greek +letters <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291"> +291</a></span>were probably traced by the child at his father's +knee as Cicero held the pen or the stylus. In another letter he +declares that there, at Formiæ, Pompey's name of Magnus is no more +esteemed than that of Dives belonging to Crassus. In the next he +calls Pompey Sampsiceramus. We learn from Josephus that there was a +lady afterward in the East in the time of Vitellius, who was +daughter of Sampsigeramus, King of the Emesi. It might probably be +a royal family name.<a name="FNanchor_259_259" id= +"FNanchor_259_259"></a><a href="#Footnote_259_259" class= +"fnanchor">259</a> In choosing the absurd title, he is again +laughing at his party leader. Pompey had probably boasted of his +doings with the Sampsiceramus of the day and the priests of +Jerusalem. "When this Sampsiceramus of ours finds how ill he is +spoken of, he will rush headlong into revolution." He complains +that he can do nothing at Formiæ because of the visitors. No +English poet was ever so interviewed by American admirers. They +came at all hours, in numbers sufficient to fill a temple, let +alone a gentleman's house. How can he write anything requiring +leisure in such a condition as this? Nevertheless he will attempt +something. He goes on criticising all that is done in Rome, +especially what is done by Pompey, who no doubt was vacillating +sadly between Cæsar, to whom he was bound, and Bibulus, the +other Consul, to whom he ought to have been bound, as being +naturally on the aristocratic side. He cannot for a moment keep his +pen from public matters; nor, on the other hand, can he refrain +from declaring that he will apply himself wholly, undividedly, to +his literature. "Therefore, oh my Titus, let me settle down to +these glorious occupations, and return to that which, if I had been +wise, I never should have left."<a name="FNanchor_260_260" id= +"FNanchor_260_260"></a><a href="#Footnote_260_260" class= +"fnanchor">260</a> A day or two afterward, writing from the same +place, he asks what Arabarches is saying of him. Arabarches is +another name for Pompey—this Arabian chieftain.</p> + +<p>In the early summer of this year Cicero returned to Rome, <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292"> +292</a></span>probably in time to see Atticus, who was then about +to leave the city for his estates in Epirus. We have a letter +written by him to his friend on the journey, telling us that +Cæsar had made him two distinct offers, evidently with the +view of getting rid of him, but in such a manner as would be +gratifying to Cicero himself.<a name="FNanchor_261_261" id= +"FNanchor_261_261"></a><a href="#Footnote_261_261" class= +"fnanchor">261</a> Cæsar asks him to go with him to Gaul as +his lieutenant, or, if that will not suit him, to accept a "free +legation for the sake of paying a vow." This latter was a kind of +job by which Roman Senators got themselves sent forth on their +private travels with all the appanages of a Senator travelling on +public business. We have his argument as to both. Elsewhere he +objects to a "libera legatio" as being a job.<a name= +"FNanchor_262_262" id="FNanchor_262_262"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_262_262" class="fnanchor">262</a> Here he only points +out that, though it enforce his absence from Rome at a time +disagreeable to him—just when his brother Quintus would +return—it would not give him the protection which he needs. +Though he were travelling about the world as a Senator on some +pretended embassy, he would still be open to the attacks of +Clodius. He would necessarily be absent, or he would not be in +enjoyment of his privilege, but by his very absence he would find +his position weakened; whereas, as Cæsar's appointed +lieutenant, he need not leave the city at once, and in that +position he would be quite safe against all that Clodius or other +enemies could do to him.<a name="FNanchor_263_263" id= +"FNanchor_263_263"></a><a href="#Footnote_263_263" class= +"fnanchor">263</a> +No indictment could be made against a Roman while he was in the +employment of the State. It must be remembered, too, on judging of +these overtures, that both the one and the other—and indeed +all the offers then made to him—were deemed to be highly +honorable, as Rome then existed. "The free legation"—the +"libera legatio voti causa"—had <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span>no reference to +parties. It was a job, no doubt, and, in the hands of the ordinary +Roman aristocrat, likely to be very onerous to the provincials +among whom the privileged Senator might travel; but it entailed no +party adhesion. In this case it was intended only to guarantee the +absence of a man who might be troublesome in Rome. The other was +the offer of genuine work in which politics were not at all +concerned. Such a position was accepted by Quintus, our Cicero's +brother, and in performance of the duties which fell to him he +incurred terrible danger, having been nearly destroyed by the Gauls +in his winter quarters among the Nervii. Labienus, who was +Cæsar's right-hand man in Gaul, was of the same politics as +Cicero—so much so that when Cæsar rebelled against the +Republic, Labienus, true to the Republic, would no longer fight on +Cæsar's side. It was open to Cicero, without disloyalty, to +accept the offer made to him; but with an insight into what was +coming, of which he himself was hardly conscious, he could not +bring himself to accept offers which in themselves were alluring, +but which would seem in future times to have implied on his part an +assent to the breaking up of the Republic. Αἰδέομαι Τρῶας καὶ +Τρωάδας ἐλκεσιπέπλους. What will be said of me in history by +my citizens if I now do simply that which may best suit my own +happiness? Had he done so, Pliny and the others would not have +spoken of him as they have spoken, and it would not have been worth +the while of modern lovers of Cæsarism to write books against +the one patriot of his age.</p> + +<p>During the remainder of this year, <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> 59, Cicero was at Rome, and seems gradually to +have become aware that a personal attack was to be made upon him. +At the close of a long and remarkable letter written to his brother +Quintus in November, he explains the state of his own mind, showing +us, who have now before us the future which was hidden from him, +how greatly mistaken he was as to the results which were to be +expected. He had been telling his brother how nearly Cato <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294"> +294</a></span>had been murdered for calling Pompey, in public, a +Dictator. Then he goes on to describe his own condition.<a name= +"FNanchor_264_264" id="FNanchor_264_264"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_264_264" class="fnanchor">264</a> "You may see from +this what is the state of the Republic. As far as I am concerned, +it seems that friends will not be wanting to defend me. They offer +themselves in a wonderful way, and promise assistance. I feel great +hope and still greater spirit—hope, which tells me that we +shall be victors in the struggle; spirit, which bids me fear no +casualty in the present state of public affairs."<a name= +"FNanchor_265_265" id="FNanchor_265_265"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_265_265" class="fnanchor">265</a> But the matter +stands in this way: "If he"—that is, Clodius—"should +indict me in court, all Italy would come to my defence, so that I +should be acquitted with honor. Should he attack me with open +violence, I should have, I think, not only my own party but the +world at large to stand by me. All men promise me their friends, +their clients, their freedmen, their slaves, and even their money. +Our old body of aristocrats"—Cato, Bibulus, and the makers of +fish-ponds generally—"are wonderfully warm in my cause. If +any of these have heretofore been remiss, now they join our party +from sheer hatred of these kings"—the Triumvirs. "Pompey +promises everything, and so does Cæsar, whom I only trust so +far as I can see them." Even the Triumvirs promise him that he will +be safe; but his belief in Pompey's honesty is all but gone. "The +coming Tribunes are my friends. The Consuls of next year promise +well." He was wofully mistaken. "We have excellent Prætors, +citizens alive to their duty. Domitius, Nigidius, Memmius, and +Lentulus are specially trustworthy. The others are good men. You +may therefore pluck up your courage and be confident." From this we +perceive that he had already formed the idea that he might perhaps +be required to fight for his position as a Roman citizen; and it +seems also <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id= +"Page_295">295</a></span>that he understood the cause of the +coming conflict. The intention was that he should be driven out of +Rome by personal enmity. Nothing is said in any of these letters of +the excuse to be used, though he knew well what that excuse was to +be. He was to be charged by the Patrician Tribune with having put +Roman citizens to death in opposition to the law. But there arises +at this time no question whether he had or had not been justified +in what he, as Consul, had done to Lentulus and the others. Would +Clodius be able to rouse a mob against him? and, if so, would +Cæsar assist Clodius? or would Pompey who still loomed to his +eyes as the larger of the two men? He had ever been the friend of +Pompey, and Pompey had promised him all manner of assistance; but +he knew already that Pompey would turn upon him. That Rome should +turn upon him—Rome which he had preserved from the torches of +Catiline's conspirators—that he could not bring himself to +believe!</p> + +<p>We must not pass over this long letter to Quintus without +observing that through it all the evil condition of the younger +brother's mind becomes apparent. The severity of his administration +had given offence. His punishments had been cruel. His letters had +been rash, and his language violent. In short, we gather from the +brother's testimony that Quintus Cicero was very ill-fitted to be +the civil governor of a province.</p> + +<p>The only work which we have from Cicero belonging to this year, +except his letters, is the speech, or part of the speech, he made +for Lucius Valerius Flaccus. Flaccus had been Prætor when Cicero +was Consul, and had done good service, in the eyes of his superior +officers, in the matter of the Catiline conspiracy. He had then +gone to Asia as governor, and, after the Roman manner, had fleeced +the province. That this was so there is no doubt. After his return +he was accused, was defended by Cicero, and was acquitted. +Macrobius tells us that Cicero, by the happiness of a bon-mot, +brought the accused off safely, though he was manifestly guilty. He +adds also that Cicero took care not to allow the joke to appear in +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296"> +296</a></span>published edition of his speech.<a name= +"FNanchor_266_266" id="FNanchor_266_266"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_266_266" class="fnanchor">266</a> There are parts of +the speech which have been preserved, and are sufficiently amusing +even to us. He is very hard upon the Greeks of Asia, the class from +which the witnesses against Flaccus were taken. We know here in +England that a spaniel, a wife, and a walnut-tree may be beaten +with advantage. Cicero says that in Asia there is a proverb that a +Phrygian may be improved in the same way. "Fiat experimentum in +corpore vili." It is declared through Asia that you should take a +Carian for your experiment. The "last of the Mysians" is the +well-known Asiatic term for the lowest type of humanity. Look +through all the comedies, you will find the leading slave is a +Lydian. Then he turns to these poor Asiatics, and asks them whether +any one can be expected to think well of them, when such is their +own testimony of themselves! He attacks the Jew, and speaks of the +Jewish religion as a superstition worthy in itself of no +consideration. Pompey had spared the gold in the Temple of +Jerusalem, because he thought it wise to respect the religious +prejudices of the people; but the gods themselves had shown, by +subjecting the Jews to the Romans, how little the gods had regarded +these idolatrous worshippers! Such were the arguments used; and +they prevailed with the judges—or jury, we should rather call +them—to whom they were addressed.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297"> +297</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XII.</span></h3> + +<h4><i>HIS EXILE.</i></h4> + +<p>We now come to that period of Cicero's life in which, by common +consent of all who have hitherto written of him, he is supposed to +have shown himself as least worthy of his high name. Middleton, who +certainly loved his hero's memory and was always anxious to do him +justice, condemns him. "It cannot be denied that in this calamity +of his exile he did not behave himself with that firmness which +might reasonably be expected from one who had borne so glorious a +part in the Republic." Morabin, the French biographer, speaks of +the wailings of his grief, of its injustice and its follies. +"Cicéron était trop plein de son malheur pour donner +entrée à de nouvelles espérances," he says. +"Il avait supporté ce malheur avec peu de courage," says +another Frenchman, M. Du Rozoir, in introducing us to the speeches +which Cicero made on his return. Dean Merivale declares that "he +marred the grace of the concession in the eyes of +posterity"—alluding to the concession made to popular feeling +by his voluntary departure from Rome, as will hereafter be +described—"by the unmanly lamentations with which he +accompanied it." Mommsen, with a want of insight into character +wonderful in an author who has so closely studied the history of +the period, speaks of his exile as a punishment inflicted on a "man +notoriously timid, and belonging to the class of political +weather-cocks." "We now come," says Mr. Forsyth, "to the most +melancholy period of Cicero's life, melancholy not so much from its +nature and the extent of the misfortunes which overtook him, as +from the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298"> +298</a></span>abject prostration of mind into which he was +thrown." Mr. Froude, as might be expected, uses language stronger +than that of others, and tells us that "he retired to Macedonia to +pour out his sorrows and his resentments in lamentations unworthy +of a woman." We have to admit that modern historians and +biographers have been united in accusing Cicero of want of +manliness during his exile. I propose—not, indeed, to wash +the blackamoor white—but to show, if I can, that he was as +white as others might be expected to have been in similar +circumstances.</p> + +<p>We are, I think, somewhat proud of the courage shown by public +men of our country who have suffered either justly or unjustly +under the laws. Our annals are bloody, and many such have had to +meet their death. They have done so generally with becoming +manliness. Even though they may have been rebels against the powers +of the day, their memories have been made green because they have +fallen like brave men. Sir Thomas More, who was no rebel, died +well, and crowned a good life by his manner of leaving it. Thomas +Cromwell submitted to the axe without a complaint. Lady Jane Grey, +when on the scaffold, yielded nothing in manliness to the others. +Cranmer and the martyr bishops perished nobly. The Earl of Essex, +and Raleigh, and Strafford, and Strafford's master showed no fear +when the fatal moment came. In reading the fate of each, we +sympathize with the victim because of a certain dignity at the +moment of death. But there is, I think, no crisis of life in which +it is so easy for a man to carry himself honorably as that in which +he has to leave it. "Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus." No +doubting now can be of avail. No moment is left for the display of +conduct beyond this, which requires only decorum and a free use of +the pulses to become in some degree glorious. The wretch from the +lowest dregs of the people can achieve it with a halter round his +neck. Cicero had that moment also to face; and when it came he was +as brave as the best Englishman of them all. <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span>But +of those I have named no one had an Atticus to whom it had been the +privilege of his life to open his very soul, in language so +charming as to make it worth posterity's while to read it, to study +it, to sift it, and to criticise it. Wolsey made many plaints in +his misery, but they have reached us in such forms of grace that +they do not disparage him; but then he too had no Atticus. +Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke were dismissed ministers and doomed to +live in exile, the latter for many years, and felt, no doubt, +strongly their removal from the glare of public life to obscurity. +We hear no complaint from them which can justify some future critic +in saying that their wails were unworthy of a woman; but neither of +them was capable of telling an Atticus the thoughts of his mind as +they rose. What other public man ever had an Atticus to whom, in +the sorrows which the ingratitude of friends had brought upon him, +he could disclose every throb of his heart?</p> + +<p>I think that we are often at a loss, in our efforts at +appreciation of character, and in the expressions of our opinion +respecting it, to realize the meaning of courage and manliness. +That sententious Swedish Queen, one of whose foolish maxims I have +quoted, has said that Cicero, though a coward, was capable of great +actions, because she did not know what a coward was. To +doubt—to tremble with anxiety—to vacillate hither and +thither between this course and the other as to which may be the +better—to complain within one's own breast that this or that +thing has been an injustice—to hesitate within one's self, +not quite knowing which way honor may require us to go—to be +indignant even at fancied wrongs—to rise in wrath against +another, and then, before the hour has passed, to turn that wrath +against one's self—that is not to be a coward. To know what +duty requires, and then to be deterred by fear of +results—that is to be a coward; but the man of many scruples +may be the greatest hero of them all. Let the law of things be +declared clearly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id= +"Page_300">300</a></span>so that the doubting mind shall no +longer doubt, so that scruples may be laid at rest, so that the +sense of justice may be satisfied—and he of whom I speak +shall be ready to meet the world in arms against him. There are +men, very useful in their way, who shall never doubt at all, but +shall be ready, as the bull is ready, to encounter any obstacles +that there may be before them. I will not say but that for the +coarse purposes of the world they may not be the most efficacious, +but I will not admit that they are therefore the bravest. The bull, +who has no imagination to tell him what the obstacle may do to him, +is not brave. He is brave who, fully understanding the potentiality +of the obstacle, shall, for a sufficient purpose, move against +it.</p> + +<p>This Cicero always did. He braved the murderous anger of Sulla +when, as a young man, he thought it well to stop the greed of +Sulla's minions. He trusted himself amid the dangers prepared for +him, when it was necessary that with extraordinary speed he should +get together the evidence needed for the prosecution of Verres. He +was firm against all that Catiline attempted for his destruction, +and had courage enough for the responsibility when he thought it +expedient to doom the friends of Catiline to death. In defending +Milo, whether the cause were good or bad, he did not blench.<a +name="FNanchor_267_267" id="FNanchor_267_267"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_267_267" class="fnanchor">267</a> He joined the +Republican army in Macedonia though he distrusted Pompey and his +companions. When he thought that there was a hope for the Republic, +he sprung at Antony with all the courage of a tigress protecting +her young; and when all had failed and was rotten around him, when +the Republic had so fallen that he knew it to be gone—then he +was able to give his neck to the swordsman with all the apparent +indifference of life which was displayed by those countrymen of our +own whom I have named.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301"> +301</a></span>But why did he write so piteously when he was driven +into exile? Why, at any rate, did he turn upon his chosen friend +and scold him, as though that friend had not done enough for +friendship? Why did he talk of suicide as though by that he might +find the easiest way of escape?</p> + +<p>I hold it to be natural that a man should wail to himself under +a sense, not simply of misfortune, but of misfortune coming to him +from the injustice of others, and specially from the ingratitude of +friends. Afflictions which come to us from natural causes, such as +sickness and physical pain, or from some chance such as the loss of +our money by the breaking of a bank, an heroic man will bear +without even inward complainings. But a sense of wrong done to him +by friends will stir him, not by the misery inflicted, but because +of the injustice; and that which he says to himself he will say to +his wife, if his wife be to him a second self, or to his friend, if +he have one so dear to him. The testimony by which the writers I +have named have been led to treat Cicero so severely has been found +in the letters which he wrote during his exile; and of these +letters all but one were addressed either to Atticus or to his wife +or to his brother.<a name="FNanchor_268_268" id= +"FNanchor_268_268"></a><a href="#Footnote_268_268" class= +"fnanchor">268</a> Twenty-seven of them were to Atticus. Before +he accepted a voluntary exile, as the best solution of the +difficulty in which he was placed—for it was voluntary at +first, as will be seen—he applied to the Consul Piso for aid, +and for the same purpose visited Pompey. So far he was a suppliant, +but this he did in conformity with Roman usage. In asking favor of +a man in power there was held to be no disgrace, even though the +favor asked were one improper to be granted, which was not the case +with Cicero. And he went about the Forum in +mourning—"sordidatus"—as was the custom with men on +their trial. We cannot doubt that in each of <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span>these +cases he acted with the advice of his friends. His conduct and his +words after his return from exile betray exultation rather than +despondency.</p> + +<p>It is from the letters which he wrote to Atticus that he has +been judged—from words boiling with indignation that such a +one as he should have been surrendered by the Rome that he had +saved, by those friends to whom he had been so true to be trampled +on by such a one as Clodius! When a man has written words intended +for the public ear, it is fair that he should bear the brunt of +them, be it what it may. He has intended them for public effect, +and if they are used against him he should not complain. But here +the secret murmurings of the man's soul were sent forth to his +choicest friend, with no idea that from them would he be judged by +the "historians to come in 600 years,"<a name="FNanchor_269_269" +id="FNanchor_269_269"></a><a href="#Footnote_269_269" class= +"fnanchor">269</a> of whose good word he thought so much. "Quid +vero historiæ de nobis ad annos DC. prædicarint!" he says, to +Atticus. How is it that from them, after 2000 years, the Merivales, +Mommsens, and Froudes condemn their great brother in letters whose +lightest utterances have been found worthy of so long a life! Is +there not an injustice in falling upon a man's private words, words +when written intended only for privacy, and making them the basis +of an accusation in which an illustrious man shall be arraigned +forever as a coward? It is said that he was unjust even to Atticus, +accusing even Atticus of lukewarmness. What if he did so—for +an hour? Is that an affair of ours? Did Atticus quarrel with him? +Let any reader of these words who has lived long enough to have an +old friend, ask himself whether there has never been a moment of +anger in his heart—of anger of which he has soon learned to +recognize the injustice? He may not have written his anger, but +then, perhaps, he has not had the pen of a Cicero. Let those who +rebuke the unmanliness of Cicero's wailings remember what were his +sufferings. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id= +"Page_303">303</a></span>story has yet to be told, but I may +in rough words describe their nature. Everything was to be taken +from him: all that he had—his houses, his books, his pleasant +gardens, his busts and pictures, his wide retinue of slaves, and +possessions lordly as are those of our dukes and earls. He was +driven out from Italy and so driven that no place of delight could +be open to him. Sicily, where he had friends, Athens, where he +might have lived, were closed against him. He had to look where to +live, and did live for a while on money borrowed from his friends. +All the cherished occupations of his life were over for +him—the law courts, the Forum, the Senate, and the crowded +meetings of Roman citizens hanging on his words. The circumstances +of his exile separated him from his wife and children, so that he +was alone. All this was assured to him for life, as far as Roman +law could assure it. Let us think of the condition of some great +and serviceable Englishman in similar circumstances. Let us suppose +that Sir Robert Peel had been impeached, and forced by some +iniquitous sentence to live beyond the pale of civilization: that +the houses at Whitehall Gardens and at Drayton had been +confiscated, dismantled, and levelled to the ground, and his rents +and revenues made over to his enemies; that everything should have +been done to destroy him by the country he had served, except the +act of taking away that life which would thus have been made a +burden to him. Would not his case have been more piteous, a source +of more righteous indignation, than that even of the Mores or +Raleighs? He suffered under invectives in the House of Commons, and +we sympathized with him; but if some Clodius of the day could have +done this to him, should we have thought the worse of him had he +opened his wounds to his wife, or to his brother, or to his friend +of friends?</p> + +<p>Had Cicero put an end to his life in his exile, as he thought of +doing, he would have been a second Cato to admiring posterity, and +some Lucan with rolling verses would have told us narratives of his +valor. The judges of to-day look back to his <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304"> +304</a></span>half-formed purposes in this direction as being an +added evidence of the weakness of the man; but had he let himself +blood and have perished in his bath, he would have been thought to +have escaped from life as honorably as did Junius Brutus It is +because he dared to live on that we are taught to think so little +of him,—because he had antedated Christianity so far as to feel +when the moment came that such an escape was, in truth, unmanly. He +doubted, and when the deed had not been done he expressed regret +that he had allowed himself to live. But he did not do it,—as Cato +would have done, or Brutus.</p> + +<p>It may be as well here to combat, in as few words as possible, +the assertions which have been made that Cicero, having begun life +as a democrat, discarded his colors as soon as he had received from +the people those honors for which he had sought popularity. They +who have said so have taken their idea from the fact that, in much +of his early forensic work, he spoke against the aristocratic +party. He attacked Sulla, through his favorite Chrysogonus, in his +defence of Roscius Amerinus. He afterward defended a woman of +Arretium in the spirit of antagonism to Sulla. His accusation of +Verres was made on the same side in politics, and was carried on in +opposition to Hortensius and the oligarchs. He defended the Tribune +Caius Cornelius. Then, when he became Consul, he devoted himself to +the destruction of Catiline, who was joined with many, perhaps with +Cæsar's sympathy, in the conspiracy for the overthrow of the +Republic. Cæsar soon became the leader of the democracy,—became +rather what Mommsen describes as "Democracy" itself; and as +Cicero had defended the Senate from Catiline, and had refused to +attach himself to Cæsar, he is supposed to have turned from +the political ideas of his youth, and to have become a Conservative +when Conservative ideas suited his ambition.</p> + +<p>I will not accept the excuse put forward on his behalf, that the +early speeches were made on the side of democracy because the +exigencies of the occasion required him to so devote <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span>his +energies as an advocate. No doubt he was an advocate, as are our +barristers of to-day, and, as an advocate, supported this side or +that; but we shall be wrong if we suppose that the Roman "patronus" +supplied his services under such inducements. With us a man goes +into the profession of the law with the intention of making money, +and takes the cases right and left, unless there be special +circumstances which may debar him from doing so with honor. It is a +point of etiquette with him to give his assistance, in turn, as +he may be called on; so much so, that leading men are not +unfrequently employed on one side simply that they may not be +employed on the other side. It should not be urged on the part of +Cicero that, so actuated, he defended Amerinus, a case in which he +took part against the aristocrats, or defended Publius Sulla, in +doing which he appeared on the side of the aristocracy. Such a +defence of his conduct would be misleading, and might be confuted. +It would be confuted by those who suppose him to have been +"notoriously a political trimmer," as Mommsen has<a name= +"FNanchor_270_270" id="FNanchor_270_270"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_270_270" class="fnanchor">270</a> called him; or a +"deserter," as he was described by Dio Cassius and by the +Pseudo-Sallust,<a name="FNanchor_271_271" id= +"FNanchor_271_271"></a><a href="#Footnote_271_271" class= +"fnanchor">271</a> by showing that in fact he took up causes +under the influence of strong personal motives such as rarely +govern an English barrister. These motives were in many cases +partly political; but they operated in such a manner as to give no +guide to his political views. In defending Sulla's nephew he was +moved, as far as we know, solely by private motives. In defending +Amerinus he may be said to have attacked Sulla. His object was to +stamp out the still burning embers of Sulla's cruelty; but not the +less was he wedded to Sulla's general views as to the restoration +of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306"> +306</a></span>authority of the Senate. In his early speeches, +especially in that spoken against Verres, he denounces the +corruption of the senatorial judges; but at that very period of his +life he again and again expresses his own belief in the glory and +majesty of the Senate. In accusing Verres he accused the general +corruption of Rome's provincial governors; and as they were always +past-Consuls or past-Prætors, and had been the elite of the +aristocracy, he may be said so far to have taken the part of a +democrat; but he had done so only so far as he had found himself +bound by a sense of duty to put a stop to corruption. The venality +of the judges and the rapacity of governors had been fit objects +for his eloquence; but I deny that he can be fairly charged with +having tampered with democracy because he had thus used his +eloquence on behalf of the people.</p> + +<p>He was no doubt stirred by other political motives less +praiseworthy, though submitted to in accordance with the practice +and the known usages of Rome. He had undertaken to speak for +Catiline when Catiline was accused of corruption on his return from +Africa, knowing that Catiline had been guilty. He did not do so; +but the intention, for our present purpose, is the same as the +doing. To have defended Catiline would have assisted him in his +operations as a candidate for the Consulship. Catiline was a bad +subject for a defence—as was Fonteius, whom he certainly did +defend—and Catiline was a democrat. But Cicero, had he +defended Catiline, would not have done so as holding out his hand +to democracy. Cicero, when, in the Pro Lege Manilia, he for the +first time addressed the people, certainly spoke in opposition to +the wishes of the Senate in proposing that Pompey should have the +command of the Mithridatic war; but his views were not democratic. +It has been said that this was done because Pompey could help him +to the Consulship. To me it seems that he had already declared to +himself that among leading men in Rome Pompey was the one to whom +the Republic would look with the most security as a bulwark, and +that on that account he had resolved to bind <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307"> +307</a></span>himself to Pompey in some political marriage. Be +that as it may, there was no tampering with democracy in the speech +Pro Lege Manilia. Of all the extant orations made by him before his +Consulship, the attentive reader will sympathize the least with +that of Fonteius. After his scathing onslaught on Verres for +provincial plunder, he defended the plunderer of the Gauls, and +held up the suffering allies of Rome to ridicule as being hardly +entitled to good government. This he did simply as an advocate, +without political motive of any kind—in the days in which he +was supposed to be currying favor with democracy—governed by +private friendship, looking forward, probably, to some friendly +office in return, as was customary. It was thus that afterward he +defended Antony, his colleague in the Consulship, whom he knew to +have been a corrupt governor. Autronius had been a party to +Catiline's conspiracy, and Autronius had been Cicero's +school-fellow; but Cicero, for some reserved reason with which we +are not acquainted, refused to plead for Autronius. There is, I +maintain, no ground for suggesting that Cicero had shown by his +speeches before his Consulship any party adherence. The declaration +which he made after his Consulship, in the speech for Sulla, that +up to the time of Catiline's first conspiracy forensic duties had +not allowed him to devote himself to party politics, is entitled to +belief: we know, indeed, that it was so. As Quæstor, as Ædile, +and as Prætor, he did not interfere in the political questions of +Rome, except in demanding justice from judges and purity from +governors. When he became Consul then he became a politician, and +after that there was certainly no vacillation in his views. Critics +say that he surrendered himself to Cæsar when Cæsar +became master. We shall come to that hereafter; but the accusation +with which I am dealing now is that which charges him with having +abandoned the democratic memories of his youth as soon as he had +enveloped himself with the consular purple. There had been no +democratic promises, and there was no change when he became +Consul.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308"> +308</a></span>In truth, Cicero's political convictions were the +same from the beginning to the end of his career, with a +consistency which is by no means usual in politicians; for though, +before his Consulship, he had not taken up politics as a business +he had entertained certain political views, as do all men who live +in public. From the first to the last we may best describe him by +the word we have now in use, as a conservative. The government of +Rome had been an oligarchy for many years, though much had been +done by the citizens to reduce the thraldom which an oligarchy is +sure to exact. To that oligarchy Cicero was bound by all the +convictions, by all the practices, and by all the prejudices of his +life. When he speaks of a Republic he speaks of a people and of an +Empire governed by an oligarchy; he speaks of a power to be kept in +the hands of a few—for the benefit of the few, and of the +many if it might be—but at any rate in the hands of a few. +That those few should be so select as to admit of no new-comers +among them, would probably have been a portion of his political +creed, had he not been himself a "novus homo." As he was the first +of his family to storm the barrier of the fortress, he had been +forced to depend much on popular opinion; but not on that account +had there been any dealings between him and democracy. That the +Empire should be governed according to the old oligarchical forms +which had been in use for more than four centuries, and had created +the power of Rome—that was his political creed. That Consuls, +Censors, and Senators might go on to the end of time with no +diminution of their dignity, but with great increase of justice and +honor and truth among them—that was his political aspiration. +They had made Rome what it was, and he knew and could imagine +nothing better; and, odious as an oligarchy is seen to be under the +strong light of experience to which prolonged ages has subjected +it, the aspiration on his part was noble. He has been wrongly +accused of deserting "that democracy with which he had flirted in +his youth." There had been no democracy in his youth, <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309"> +309</a></span>though there had existed such a condition in the +time of the Gracchi. There was none in his youth and none in his +age. That which has been wrongly called democracy was +conspiracy—not a conspiracy of democrats such as led to our +Commonwealth, or to the American Independence, or to the French +Revolution; but conspiracy of a few nobles for the better assurance +of the plunder, and the power, and the high places of the Empire. +Of any tendency toward democracy no man has been less justly +accused than Cicero, unless it might be Cæsar. To Cæsar +we must accord the merit of having seen that a continuation of the +old oligarchical forms was impracticable This Cicero did not see. +He thought that the wounds inflicted by the degeneracy and +profligacy of individuals were curable. It is attributed to +Cæsar that he conceived the grand idea of establishing +general liberty under the sole dominion of one great, and therefore +beneficent, ruler. I think he saw no farther than that he, by +strategy, management, and courage might become this ruler, whether +beneficent or the reverse. But here I think that it becomes the +writer, whether he be historian, biographer, or fill whatever +meaner position he may in literature, to declare that no +beneficence can accompany such a form of government. For all +temporary sleekness, for metropolitan comfort and fatness, the bill +has to be paid sooner or later in ignorance, poverty, and +oppression. With an oligarchy there will be other, perhaps graver, +faults; but with an oligarchy there will be salt, though it be +among a few. There will be a Cicero now and again—or at least +a Cato. From the dead, stagnant level of personal despotism there +can be no rising to life till corruption paralyzes the hands of +power, and the fabric falls by its own decay Of this no proof can +be found in the world's history so manifest as that taught by the +Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>I think it is made clear by a study of Cicero's life and works, +up to the period of his exile, that an adhesion to the old forms of +the Roman Government was his guiding principle. <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span>I am +sure that they who follow me to the close of his career will +acknowledge that after his exile he lived for this principle, and +that he died for it. "Respublica," the Republic, was the one word +which to his ear contained a political charm. It was the shibboleth +by which men were to be conjured into well-being. The word +constitution is nearly as potent with us. But it is essential that +the reader of Roman history and Roman biography should understand +that the appellation had in it, for all Roman ears, a thoroughly +conservative meaning. Among those who at Cicero's period dealt with +politics in Rome—all of whom, no doubt, spoke of the Republic +as the vessel of State which was to be defended by all +persons—there were four classes. These were they who simply +desired the plunder of the State—the Catilines, the Sullas of +the day, and the Antonys; men such as Verres had been, and +Fonteius, and Autronius. The other three can be best typified each +by one man. There was Cæsar, who knew that the Republic was +gone, past all hope. There was Cato—"the dogmatical fool +Cato" as Mommsen calls him, perhaps with some lack of the +historian's dignity—who was true to the Republic, who could +not bend an inch, and was thus as detrimental to any hope of +reconstruction as a Catiline or a Cæsar. Cicero was of the +fourth class, believing in the Republic, intent on saving it, +imbued amid all his doubts with a conviction that if the +"optimates" or "boni"—the leading men of the +party—would be true to themselves, Consuls, Censors, and +Senate would still suffice to rule the world; but prepared to give +and take with those who were opposed to him. It was his idea that +political integrity should keep its own hands clean, but should +wink at much dirt in the world at large. Nothing, he saw, could be +done by Catonic rigor. We can see now that Ciceronic compromises +were, and must have been, equally ineffective. The patient was past +cure. But in seeking the truth as to Cicero, we have to perceive +that amid all his doubts, frequently in despondency, sometimes +overwhelmed by the misery and hopelessness <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span>of his condition, +he did hold fast by this idea to the end. The frequent expressions +made to Atticus in opposition to this belief are to be taken as the +murmurs of his mind at the moment; as you shall hear a man swear +that all is gone, and see him tear his hair, and shall yet know +that there is a deep fund of hope within his bosom. It was the +ingratitude of his political friends, his "boni" and his +"optimates," of Pompey as their head, which tried him the sorest; +but he was always forgiving them, forgiving Pompey as the head of +them, because he knew that, were he to be severed from them, then +the political world must be closed to him altogether.</p> + +<p>Of Cicero's strength or Cicero's weakness Pompey seems to have +known nothing. He was no judge of men. Cæsar measured him +with a great approach to accuracy. Cæsar knew him to be the +best Roman of his day; one who, if he could be brought over to +serve in Cæsarean ranks, would be invaluable—because of +his honesty, his eloquence, and his capability; but he knew him as +one who must be silenced if he were not brought to serve on the +Cæsarean side. Such a man, however, might be silenced for a +while—taught to perceive that his efforts were vain—and +then brought into favor by further overtures, and made of use. +Personally he was pleasant to Cæsar, who had taste enough to +know that he was a man worthy of all personal dignity. But +Cæsar was not, I think, quite accurate in his estimation, +having allowed himself to believe at the last that Cicero's energy +on behalf of the Republic had been quelled.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">B. C. 58, ætat 49</div> + +<p>Now we will go back to the story of Cicero's exile. Gradually +during the preceding year he had learned that Clodius was preparing +to attack him, and to doubt whether he could expect protection from +the Triumvirate. That he could be made safe by the justice either +of the people or by that of any court before which he could be +tried, seems never to have occurred to him. He knew the people and +he knew the courts too well. Pompey no doubt might have warded +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312"> +312</a></span>off the coming evil; such at least was Cicero's +idea. To him Pompey was the greatest political power as yet extant +in Rome; but he was beginning to believe that Pompey would be +untrue to him. When he had sent to Pompey a long account of the +grand doings of his Consulship, Pompey had replied with faintest +praises. He had rejected the overtures of the Triumvirate. In the +last letter to Atticus in the year before, written in August,<a +name="FNanchor_272_272" id="FNanchor_272_272"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_272_272" class="fnanchor">272</a> he had declared that +the Republic was ruined; that they who had brought things to this +pass—meaning the Triumvirate—were hostile; but, for +himself, he was confident in saying that he was quite safe in the +good will of men around him. There is a letter to his brother +written in November, the next letter in the collection, in which he +says that Pompey and Cæsar promise him everything. With the +exception of two letters of introduction, we have nothing from him +till he writes to Atticus from the first scene of his exile.</p> + +<p>When the new year commenced, Clodius was Tribune of the people, +and immediately was active. Piso and Gabinius were Consuls. Piso +was kinsman to Piso Frugi, who had married Cicero's daughter,<a +name="FNanchor_273_273" id="FNanchor_273_273"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_273_273" class="fnanchor">273</a>and was expected to +befriend Cicero at this crisis. But Clodius procured the allotment +of Syria and Macedonia to the two Consuls by the popular vote. They +were provinces rich in plunder; and it was matter of importance for +a Consul to know that the prey which should come to him as +Proconsul should be worthy of his grasp. They were, therefore, +ready to support the Tribune in what he proposed to do. It was +necessary to Cicero's enemies that there should be some law by +which Cicero might be condemned. It would not be within the power +of Clodius, even with the Triumvirate at his back, to drive the man +out of Rome and out of Italy, without an <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span>alleged cause. +Though justice had been tabooed, law was still in vogue. Now there +was a matter as to which Cicero was open to attack. As Consul he +had caused certain Roman citizens to be executed as conspirators, +in the teeth of a law which enacted that no Roman citizen should be +condemned to die except by a direct vote of the people. It had +certainly become a maxim of the constitution of the Republic that a +citizen should not be made to suffer death except by the voice of +the people. The Valerian, the Porcian, and the Sempronian laws had +all been passed to that effect. Now there had been no popular vote +as to the execution of Lentulus and the other conspirators, who had +been taken red-handed in Rome in the affair of Catiline. Their +death had been decreed by the Senate, and the decree of the Senate +had been carried out by Cicero; but no decree of the Senate had the +power of a law. In spite of that decree the old law was in force; +and no appeal to the people had been allowed to Lentulus. But there +had grown up in the constitution a practice which had been supposed +to override the Valerian and Porcian laws. In certain emergencies +the Senate would call upon the Consuls to see that the Republic +should suffer no injury, and it had been held that at such moments +the Consuls were invested with an authority above all law. Cicero +had been thus strengthened when, as Consul, he had struggled with +Catiline; but it was an open question, as Cicero himself very well +knew. In the year of his Consulship—the very year in which +Lentulus and the others had been strangled—he had defended +Rabirius, who was then accused of having killed a citizen thirty +years before. Rabirius was charged with having slaughtered the +Tribune Saturninus by consular authority, the Consuls of the day +having been ordered to defend the Republic, as Cicero had been +ordered. Rabirius probably had not killed Saturninus, nor did any +one now care whether he had done so or not. The trial had been +brought about notoriously by the agency of Cæsar, who caused +himself to be selected by the Prætor as one of the <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span>two +judges for the occasion;<a name="FNanchor_274_274" id= +"FNanchor_274_274"></a><a href="#Footnote_274_274" class= +"fnanchor">274</a> and Cæsar's object as notoriously was to +lessen the authority of the Senate, and to support the democratic +interest. Both Cicero and Hortensius defended Rabirius, but he was +condemned by Cæsar, and, as we are told, himself only escaped +by using that appeal to the people in support of which he had +himself been brought to trial. In this, as in so many of the +forensic actions of the day, there had been an admixture of +violence and law. We must, I think, acknowledge that there was the +same leaven of illegality in the proceedings against Lentulus. It +had no doubt been the intention of the constitution that a Consul, +in the heat of an emergency, should use his personal authority for +the protection of the Commonwealth, but it cannot be alleged that +there was such an emergency, when the full Senate had had time to +debate on the fate of the Catiline criminals. Both from +Cæsar's words as reported by Sallust, and from Cicero's as +given to us by himself, we are aware that an idea of the illegality +of the proceeding was present in the minds of Senators at the +moment. But, though law was loved at Rome, all forensic and +legislative proceedings were at this time carried on with monstrous +illegality. Consuls consulted the heavens falsely; Tribunes used +their veto violently; judges accepted bribes openly; the votes of +the people were manipulated fraudulently. In the trial and escape +of Rabirius, the laws were despised by those who pretended to +vindicate them. Clodius had now become a Tribune by the means of +certain legal provision, but yet in opposition to all law. In the +conduct of the affair against Catiline Cicero seems to have been +actuated by pure patriotism, and to have been supported by a fine +courage; but he knew that in destroying Lentulus and Cethegus he +subjected himself to certain dangers. He had willingly faced these +dangers for the sake of the object in view. As long as he <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315"> +315</a></span>might remain the darling of the people, as he was at +that moment, he would no doubt be safe; but it was not given to any +one to be for long the darling of the Roman people. Cicero bad +become so by using an eloquence to which the Romans were peculiarly +susceptible; but though they loved sweet tongues, long purses went +farther with them. Since Cicero's Consulship he had done nothing to +offend the people, except to remain occasionally out of their +sight; but he had lost the brilliancy of his popularity, and he was +aware that it was so.</p> + +<p>In discussing popularity in Rome we have to remember of what +elements it was formed. We hear that this or that man was potent at +some special time by the assistance coming to him from the popular +voice. There was in Rome a vast population of idle men, who had +been trained by their city life to look to the fact of their +citizenship for their support, and who did, in truth, live on their +citizenship. Of "panem et circenses" we have all heard, and know +that eleemosynary bread and the public amusements of the day +supplied the material and æsthetic wants of many Romans. But men +so fed and so amused were sure to need further occupations. They +became attached to certain friends, to certain patrons, and to +certain parties, and soon learned that a return was expected for +the food and for the excitement supplied to them. This they gave by +holding themselves in readiness for whatever violence was needed +from them, till it became notorious in Rome that a great party man +might best attain his political object by fighting for it in the +streets. This was the meaning of that saying of Crassus, that a man +could not be considered rich till he could keep an army in his own +pay. A popular vote obtained and declared by a faction fight in the +forum was still a popular vote, and if supported by sufficient +violence would be valid. There had been street fighting of the kind +when Cicero had defended Caius Cornelius, in the year after his +Prætorship; there had been fighting of the kind when Rabirius had +been condemned in his Consulship. We shall learn <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316"> +316</a></span>by-and-by to what extent such fighting prevailed +when Clodius was killed by Milo's body-guard. At the period of +which we are now writing, when Clodius was intent on pursuing +Cicero to his ruin, it was a question with Cicero himself whether +he would not trust to a certain faction in Rome to fight for him, +and so to protect him. Though his popularity was on the +wane—that general popularity which, we may presume, had been +produced by the tone of his voice and the grace of his +language—there still remained to him that other popularity +which consisted, in truth, of the trained bands employed by the +"boni" and the "optimates," and which might be used, if need were, +in opposition to trained bands on the other side.</p> + +<p>The bill first proposed by Clodius to the people with the object +of destroying Cicero did not mention Cicero, nor, in truth, refer +to him. It purported to enact that he who had caused to be executed +any Roman citizen not duly condemned to death, should himself be +deprived of the privilege of water or fire.<a name= +"FNanchor_275_275" id="FNanchor_275_275"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_275_275" class="fnanchor">275</a> This condemned no +suggested malefactor to death; but, in accordance with Roman law, +made it impossible that any Roman so condemned should live within +whatever bounds might be named for this withholding of fire and +water. The penalty intended was banishment; but by this enactment +no individual would be banished. Cicero, however, at once took the +suggestion to himself, and put himself into mourning, as a man +accused and about to be brought to his trial. He went about the +streets accompanied by crowds armed for his protection; and Clodius +also caused himself to be so accompanied. There came thus to be a +question which might prevail should there be a general fight. The +Senate was, as a body, on Cicero's side, but was quite unable to +cope with the Triumvirate. Cæsar no doubt had resolved that +Cicero should be made to go, and Cæsar was lord of the +Triumvirate. On behalf of Cicero <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span>there was a large body +of the conservative or oligarchical party who were still true to +him; and they, too, all went into the usual public mourning, +evincing their desire that the accused man should be rescued from +his accusers.</p> + +<p>The bitterness of Clodius would be surprising did we not know +how bitter had been Cicero's tongue. When the affair of the Bona +Dea had taken place there was no special enmity between this +debauched young man and the great Consul. Cicero, though his own +life had ever been clean and well ordered, rather affected the +company of fast young men when he found them to be witty as well as +clever. This very Clodius had been in his good books till the +affair of the Bona Dea. But now the Tribune's hatred was +internecine. I have hitherto said nothing, and need say but little, +of a certain disreputable lady named Clodia. She was the sister of +Clodius and the wife of Metellus Celer. She was accused by public +voice in Rome of living in incest with her brother, and of +poisoning her husband. Cicero calls her afterward, in his defence +of Cælius, "amica omnium." She had the nickname of Quadrantaria<a name="FNanchor_276_276" id="FNanchor_276_276"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_276_276" class="fnanchor">276</a> given to her, +because she frequented the public baths, at which the charge was a +farthing. It must be said also of her, either in praise or in +dispraise, that she was the Lesbia who inspired the muse of +Catullus. It was rumored in Rome that she had endeavored to set her +cap at Cicero. Cicero in his raillery had not spared the lady. To +speak publicly the grossest evil of women was not opposed to any +idea of gallantry current among the Romans. Our sense of chivalry, +as well as decency, is disgusted by the language used by Horace to +women who once to him were young and pretty, but have become old +and ugly. The venom of Cicero's abuse of Clodia annoys us, and we +have to remember that the gentle ideas which we have taken in with +our mother's milk had not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" +id="Page_318">318</a></span>grown into use with the Romans. It +is necessary that this woman's name should be mentioned, and it may +appear here as she was one of the causes of that hatred which burnt +between Clodius and Cicero, till Clodius was killed in a street +row.</p> + +<p>It has been presumed that Cicero was badly advised in presuming +publicly that the new law was intended against himself, and in +taking upon himself the outward signs of a man under affliction. +"The resolution," says Middleton, "of changing his gown was too +hasty and inconsiderate, and helped to precipitate his ruin." He +was sensible of his error when too late, and oft reproaches Atticus +that, being a stander-by, and less heated with the game than +himself, he would suffer him to make such blunders. And he quotes +the words written to Atticus: "Here my judgment first failed me, +or, indeed, brought me into trouble. We were blind, blind I say, in +changing our raiment and in appealing to the +populace. * * * I handed myself and all belonging to me over +to my enemies, while you were looking on, while you were holding +your peace; yes, you, who, if your wit in the matter was no better +than mine, were impeded by no personal fears."<a name= +"FNanchor_277_277" id="FNanchor_277_277"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_277_277" class="fnanchor">277</a> But the reader +should study the entire letter, and study it in the original, for +no translator can give its true purport. This the reader must do +before he can understand Cicero's state of mind when writing it, or +his relation to Atticus; or the thoughts which distracted him when, +in accordance with the advice of Atticus, he resolved, while yet +uncondemned, to retire into banishment. The censure to which +Atticus is subjected throughout this letter is that which a +thoughtful, hesitating, scrupulous man is so often disposed to +address to himself. After reminding Atticus of the sort of advice +which should have been given—the want of which in the first +moment of his exile he regrets—and doing this in words of +which it is very difficult now to catch the <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">319</a></span>exact +flavor, he begs to be pardoned for his reproaches. "You will +forgive me this," he says. "I blame myself more than I do you; but +I look to you as a second self, and I make you a sharer with me of +my own folly." I take this letter out of its course, and speak of +it as connected with that terrible period of doubt to which it +refers, in which he had to decide whether he would remain in Rome +and fight it out, or run before his enemies. But in writing the +letter afterward his mind was as much disturbed as when he did fly. +I am inclined, therefore, to think that Middleton and others may +have been wrong in blaming his flight, which they have done, +because in his subsequent vacillating moods he blamed himself. How +the battle might have gone had he remained, we have no evidence to +show; but we do know that though he fled, he returned soon with +renewed glory, and altogether overcame the attempt which had been +made to destroy him.</p> + +<p>In this time of his distress a strong effort was made by the +Senate to rescue him. It was proposed to them that they all as a +body should go into mourning on his behalf; indeed, the Senate +passed a vote to this effect, but were prevented by the two Consuls +from carrying it out. As to what he had best do he and his friends +were divided. Some recommended that he should remain where he was, +and defend himself by street-fighting should it be necessary. In +doing this he would acknowledge that law no longer prevailed in +Rome—a condition of things to which many had given in their +adherence, but with which Cicero would surely have been the last to +comply. He himself, in his despair, thought for a time that the old +Roman mode of escape would be preferable, and that he might with +decorum end his life and his troubles by suicide. Atticus and +others dissuaded him from this, and recommended him to fly. Among +these Cato and Hortensius have both been named. To this advice he +at last yielded, and it may be doubted whether any better could +have been given. Lawlessness, which had been rampant in Rome +before, had, under the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id= +"Page_320">320</a></span>Triumvirate, become almost lawful. It +was Cæsar's intention to carry out his will with such +compliance with the forms of the Republic as might suit him, but in +utter disregard to all such forms when they did not suit him. The +banishment of Cicero was one of the last steps taken by Cæsar +before he left Rome for his campaigns in Gaul. He was already in +command of the legions, and was just without the city. He had +endeavored to buy Cicero, but had failed. Having failed, he had +determined to be rid of him. Clodius was but his tool, as were +Pompey and the two Consuls. Had Cicero endeavored to support +himself by violence in Rome, his contest would, in fact have been +with Cæsar.</p> + +<p>Cicero, before he went, applied for protection personally to +Piso the Consul, and to Pompey. Gabinius, the other Consul, had +already declared his purpose to the Senate, but Piso was bound to +him by family ties. He himself relates to us in his oration, spoken +after his return, against this Piso, the manner of the meeting +between him and Rome's chief officer. Piso told him—so at +least Cicero declared in the Senate, and we have heard of no +contradiction—that Gabinius was so driven by debts as to be +unable to hold up his head without a rich province; that he +himself, Piso, could only hope to get a province by taking part +with Gabinius; that any application to the Consuls was useless, and +that every one must look after himself.<a name="FNanchor_278_278" +id="FNanchor_278_278"></a><a href="#Footnote_278_278" class= +"fnanchor">278</a> Concerning his appeal to Pompey two stories +have been given to us, neither of which appears to be true. +Plutarch says that when Cicero had travelled out from Rome to +Pompey's Alban villa, Pompey ran out of the back-door to avoid +meeting him. Plutarch cared more for a good story than for +accuracy, and is not worthy of much credit as to details unless +when corroborated. The other account is based on Cicero's assertion +that he did see Pompey on this occasion. Nine or ten years after +the meeting he refers to it in a letter to <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span>Atticus, which +leaves no doubt as to the fact. The story founded on that letter +declares that Cicero threw himself bodily at his old friend's feet, +and that Pompey did not lend a hand to raise him, but told him +simply that everything was in Cæsar's hands. This narrative +is, I think, due to a misinterpretation of Cicero's words, though +it is given by a close translation of them. He is describing Pompey +when Cæsar after his Gallic wars had crossed the Rubicon, and +the two late Triumvirates—the third having perished miserably +in the East—were in arms against each other. "Alter ardet +furore et scelere" he says.<a name="FNanchor_279_279" id= +"FNanchor_279_279"></a><a href="#Footnote_279_279" class= +"fnanchor">279</a> Cæsar is pressing on unscrupulous in his +passion. "Alter is qui nos sibi quondam ad pedes stratos ne +sublevabat quidem, qui se nihil contra hujus voluntatem aiebat +facere posse." "That other one," he continues—meaning Pompey, +and pursuing his picture of the present contrast—"who in days +gone by would not even lift me when I lay at his feet, and told me +that he could do nothing but as Cæsar wished it." This little +supposed detail of biography has been given, no doubt, from an +accurate reading of the words; but in it the spirit of the writer's +mind as he wrote it has surely been missed. The prostration of +which he spoke, from which Pompey would not raise him, the memory +of which was still so bitter to him, was not a prostration of the +body. I hold it to have been impossible that Cicero should have +assumed such an attitude before Pompey, or that he would so have +written to Atticus had he done so. It would have been neither Roman +nor Ciceronian, as displayed by Cicero to Pompey. He had gone to +his old ally and told him of his trouble, and had no doubt reminded +him of those promises of assistance which Pompey had so often made. +Then Pompey had refused to help him, and had assured him, with too +much truth, that Cæsar's will was everything. Again, we have +to remember that in judging of the meaning of words between two +such <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322"> +322</a></span>correspondents as Cicero and Atticus, we must read +between the lines, and interpret the words by creating for +ourselves something of the spirit in which they were written and in +which they were received. I cannot imagine that, in describing to +Atticus what had occurred at that interview nine years after it had +taken place, Cicero had intended it to be understood that he had +really grovelled in the dust.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of March he started from Rome, intending to take +refuge among his friends in Sicily. On the same day Clodius brought +in a bill directed against Cicero by name and caused it to be +carried by the people, "Ut Marco Tullio aqua et igni interdictum +sit"—that it should be illegal to supply Cicero with fire and +water. The law when passed forbade any one to harbor the criminal +within four hundred miles of Rome, and declared the doing so to be +a capital offence. It is evident, from the action of those who +obeyed the law, and of those who did not, that legal results were +not feared so much as the ill-will of those who had driven Cicero +to his exile. They who refused him succor did do so not because to +give it him would be illegal, but lest Cæsar and Pompey would +be offended. It did not last long, and during the short period of +his exile he found perhaps more of friendship than of enmity; but +he directed his steps in accordance with the bearing of +party-spirit. We are told that he was afraid to go to Athens, +because at Athens lived that Autronius whom he had refused to +defend. Autronius had been convicted of conspiracy and banished, +and, having been a Catilinarian conspirator, had been in truth on +Cæsar's side. Nor were geographical facts sufficiently +established to tell Cicero what places were and what were not +without the forbidden circle. He sojourned first at Vibo, in the +extreme south of Italy, intending to pass from thence into Sicily. +It was there that he learned that a certain distance had been +prescribed; but it seems that he had already heard that the +Proconsular Governor of the island would not receive him, fearing +Cæsar. Then he came north from Vibo <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_323" id="Page_323">323</a></span>to Brundisium, +that being the port by which travellers generally went from Italy +to the East. He had determined to leave his family in Rome, +feeling, probably, that it would be easier for him to find a +temporary home for himself than for him and them together. And +there were money difficulties in which Atticus helped him.<a name= +"FNanchor_280_280" id="FNanchor_280_280"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_280_280" class="fnanchor">280</a> Atticus, always +wealthy, had now become a very rich man by the death of an uncle. +We do not know of what nature were the money arrangements made by +Cicero at the time, but there can be no doubt that the losses by +his exile were very great. There was a thorough disruption of his +property, for which the subsequent generosity of his country was +unable altogether to atone. But this sat lightly on Cicero's heart. +Pecuniary losses never weighed heavily with him.</p> + +<p>As he journeyed back from Vibo to Brundisium friends were very +kind to him, in spite of the law. Toward the end of the speech +which he made five years afterward on behalf of his friend C. +Plancius he explains the debt of gratitude which he owed to his +client, whose kindness to him in his exile had been very great. He +commences his story of the goodness of Plancius by describing the +generosity of the towns on the road to Brundisium, and the +hospitality of his friend Flavius, who had received him at his +house in the neighborhood of that town, and had placed him safely +on board a ship when at last he resolved to cross over to +Dyrrachium. There were many schemes running in his head at this +time. At one period he had resolved to pass through Macedonia into +Asia, and to remain for a while at Cyzicum. This idea he expresses +in a letter to his wife written from Brundisium. Then he goes, +wailing no doubt, but in words which to me seem very natural as +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324"> +324</a></span>coming from a husband in such a condition: "O me +perditum, O me afflictum;"<a name="FNanchor_281_281" id= +"FNanchor_281_281"></a><a href="#Footnote_281_281" class= +"fnanchor">281</a> exclamations which it is impossible to +translate, as they refer to his wife's separation from himself +rather than to his own personal sufferings. "How am I to ask you to +come to me?" he says; "you a woman, ill in health, worn out in body +and in spirit. I cannot ask you! Must I then live without you? It +must be so, I think. If there be any hope of my return, it is you +must look to it, you that must strengthen it; but if, as I fear, +the thing is done, then come to me. If I can have you I shall not +be altogether destroyed." No doubt these are wailings; but is a man +unmanly because he so wails to the wife of his bosom? Other humans +have written prettily about women: it was common for Romans to do +so. Catullus desires from Lesbia as many kisses as are the stars of +night or the sands of Libya. Horace swears that he would perish for +Chloe if Chloe might be left alive. "When I am dying," says +Tibullus to Delia, "may I be gazing at you; may my last grasp hold +your hand." Propertius tells Cynthia that she stands to him in lieu +of home and parents, and all the joys of life. "Whether he be sad +with his friends or happy, Cynthia does it all." The language in +each case is perfect; but what other Roman was there of whom we +have evidence that he spoke to his wife like this? Ovid in his +letters from his banishment says much of his love for his wife; but +there is no passion expressed in anything that Ovid wrote.</p> + +<p>Clodius, as soon as the enactment against Cicero became law, +caused it be carried into effect with all its possible cruelties. +The criminal's property was confiscated. The house on the Palatine +Hill was destroyed, and the goods were put up to auction, with, as +we are told, a great lack of buyers. His choicest treasures were +carried away by the Consuls themselves. Piso, who had lived near +him in Rome, got for himself and for <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span>his father-in-law the +rich booty from the town house. The country villas were also +destroyed, and Gabinius, who had a country house close by Cicero's +Tusculan retreat, took even the very shrubs out of the garden. He +tells the story of the greed and enmity of the Consuls in the +speech he made after his return, Pro Domo Sua,<a name= +"FNanchor_282_282" id="FNanchor_282_282"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_282_282" class="fnanchor">282</a> pleading for the +restitution of his household property. "My house on the Palatine +was burnt," he says, "not by any accident, but by arson. In the +mean time the Consuls were feasting, and were congratulating +themselves among the conspirators, when one boasted that he had +been Catiline's friend, the other that Cethegus had been his +cousin." By this he implies that the conspiracy which during his +Consulship had been so odious to Rome was now, in these days of the +Triumvirate, again in favor among Roman aristocrats.</p> + +<p>He went across from Brundisium to Dyrrachium, and from thence to +Thessalonica, where he was treated with most loving-kindness by +Plancius, who was Quæstor in these parts, and who came down to +Dyrrachium to meet him, clad in mourning for the occasion. This was +the Plancius whom he afterward defended, and indeed he was bound to +do so. Plancius seems to have had but little dread of the law, +though he was a Roman officer employed in the very province to the +government of which the present Consul Piso had already been +appointed. Thessalonica was within four hundred miles, and yet +Cicero lived there with Plancius for some months.</p> + +<p>The letters from Cicero during his exile are to me very +touching, though I have been told so often that in having written +them he lacked the fortitude of a Roman. Perhaps I am more capable +of appreciating natural humanity than Roman fortitude. We remember +the story of the Spartan boy who allowed the fox to bite him +beneath his frock without crying. I think we may imagine that he +refrained from tears in public, before some herd of school-fellows, +or a bench of masters, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id= +"Page_326">326</a></span>or amid the sternness of parental +authority; but that he told his sister afterward how he had been +tortured, or his mother as he lay against her bosom, or perhaps his +chosen chum. Such reticences are made dignified by the occasion, +when something has to be won by controlling the expression to which +nature uncontrolled would give utterance, but are not in themselves +evidence either of sagacity or of courage. Roman fortitude was but +a suit of armor to be worn on state occasions. If we come across a +warrior with his crested helmet and his sword and his spear, we +see, no doubt, an impressive object. If we could find him in his +night-shirt, the same man would be there, but those who do not look +deeply into things would be apt to despise him because his grand +trappings were absent. Chance has given us Cicero in his +night-shirt. The linen is of such fine texture that we are +delighted with it, but we despise the man because he wore a +garment—such as we wear ourselves indeed, though when we wear +it nobody is then brought in to look at us.</p> + +<p>There is one most touching letter written from Thessalonica to +his brother, by whom, after thoughts vacillating this way and that, +he was unwilling to be visited, thinking that a meeting would bring +more of pain than of service. "Mi frater, mi frater, mi frater!" he +begins. The words in English would hardly give all the pathos. "Did +you think that I did not write because I am angry, or that I did +not wish to see you? I angry with you! But I could not endure to be +seen by you. You would not have seen your brother; not him whom you +had left; not him whom you had known; not him whom, weeping as you +went away, you had dismissed, weeping himself as he strove to +follow you."<a name="FNanchor_283_283" id="FNanchor_283_283"></a><a +href="#Footnote_283_283" class="fnanchor">283</a> Then he heaps +blame on his own head, bitterly accusing himself because he had +brought his brother to such a pass of sorrow. In this letter he +throws great blame upon Hortensius, whom together with Pompey he +accuses of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id= +"Page_327">327</a></span>betraying him. What truth there may +have been in this accusation as to Hortensius we have no means of +saying. He couples Pompey in the same charge, and as to Pompey's +treatment of him there can be no doubt. Pompey had been untrue to +his promises because of his bond with Cæsar. It is probable +that Hortensius had failed to put himself forward on Cicero's +behalf with that alacrity which the one advocate had expected from +the other. Cicero and Hortensius were friends afterward, but so +were Cicero and Pompey. Cicero was forgiving by nature, and also by +self-training. It did not suit his purposes to retain his enmities. +Had there been a possibility of reconciling Antony to the cause of +the "optimates" after the Philippics, he would have availed himself +of it.</p> + +<p>Cicero at one time intended to go to Buthrotum in Epirus, where +Atticus possessed a house and property; but he changed his purpose. +He remained at Thessalonica till November, and then returned to +Dyrrachium, having all through his exile been kept alive by tidings +of steps taken for his recall. There seems very soon to have grown +up a feeling in Rome that the city had disgraced itself by +banishing such a man; and Cæsar had gone to his provinces. We +can well imagine that when he had once left Rome, with all his +purposes achieved, having so far quieted the tongue of the strong +speaker who might have disturbed them, he would take no further +steps to perpetuate the orator's banishment. Then Pompey and +Clodius soon quarrelled. Pompey, without Cæsar to direct him, +found the arrogance of the Patrician Tribune insupportable. We hear +of wheels within wheels, and stories within stories, in the drama +of Roman history as it was played at this time. Together with +Cicero, it had been necessary to Cæsar's projects that Cato +also should be got out of Rome; and this had been managed by means +of Clodius, who had a bill passed for the honorable employment of +Cato on state purposes in Cyprus. Cato had found himself obliged to +go. It was as though our Prime-minister had got parliamentary +authority for sending a noisy <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span>member of the +Opposition to Asiatic Turkey for six months There was an attempt, +or an alleged attempt, of Clodius to have Pompey murdered; and +there was street-fighting, so that Pompey was besieged, or +pretended to be besieged, in his own house. "We might as well seek +to set a charivari to music as to write the history of this +political witches' revel," says Mommsen, speaking of the state of +Rome when Cæsar was gone, Cicero banished, and Pompey +supposed to be in the ascendant.<a name="FNanchor_284_284" id= +"FNanchor_284_284"></a><a href="#Footnote_284_284" class= +"fnanchor">284</a> There was, at any rate, quarrelling between +Clodius and Pompey, in the course of which Pompey was induced to +consent to Cicero's return. Then Clodius took upon himself, in +revenge, to turn against the Triumvirate altogether, and to +repudiate even Cæsar himself. But it was all a vain +hurly-burly, as to which Cæsar, when he heard the details in +Gaul, could only have felt how little was to be gained by +maintaining his alliance with Pompey. He had achieved his purpose, +which he could not have done without the assistance of Crassus, +whose wealth, and of Pompey, whose authority, stood highest in +Rome; and now, having had his legions voted to him, and his +provinces, and his prolonged term of years, he cared nothing for +either of them.</p> + +<p>There is a little story which must be repeated, as against +Cicero, in reference to this period of his exile, because it has +been told in all records of his life. Were I to omit the little +story, it would seem as though I shunned the records which have +been repeated as opposed to his credit. He had written, some time +back, a squib in which he had been severe upon the elder Curio; so +it is supposed; but it matters little who was the object or what +the subject. This had got wind in Rome, as such matters do +sometimes, and he now feared that it would do him a mischief with +the Curios and the friends of the Curios. <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span>The authorship was +only matter of gossip. Could it not be denied? "As it is written," +says Cicero, "in a style inferior to that which is usual to me, can +it not be shown not to have been mine?"<a name="FNanchor_285_285" +id="FNanchor_285_285"></a><a href="#Footnote_285_285" class= +"fnanchor">285</a> Had Cicero possessed all the Christian +virtues, as we hope that prelates and pastors possess them in this +happy land, he would not have been betrayed into, at any rate, the +expression of such a wish. As it is, the enemies of Cicero must +make the most of it. His friends, I think, will look upon it +leniently.</p> + +<p>Continued efforts were made among Cicero's friends at Rome to +bring him back, with which he was not altogether contented. He +argues the matter repeatedly with Atticus, not always in the best +temper. His friends at Rome were, he thought, doing the matter +amiss: they would fail, and he would still have to finish his days +abroad. Atticus, in his way to Epirus, visits him at Dyrrachium, +and he is sure that Atticus would not have left Rome but that the +affair was hopeless. The reader of the correspondence is certainly +led to the belief that Atticus must have been the most patient of +friends; but he feels, at the same time, that Atticus would not +have been patient had not Cicero been affectionate and true. The +Consuls for the new year were Lentulus and Metellus Nepos. The +former was Cicero's declared friend, and the other had already +abandoned his enmity. Clodius was no longer Tribune, and Pompey had +been brought to yield. The Senate were all but unanimous. But there +was still life in Clodius and his party; and day dragged itself +after day, and month after month, while Cicero still lingered at +Dyrrachium, waiting till a bill should have been passed by the +people. Pompey, who was never whole-hearted in anything, had +declared that a bill voted by the people would be necessary. The +bill at last was voted, on the 14th of August, and Cicero, who knew +well what was being done at Rome, passed over from Dyrrachium to +Brundisium <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id= +"Page_330">330</a></span>on the same day, having been a year +and four months absent from Rome. During the year <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> 57, up to the time of his return, he wrote but +three letters that have come to us—two very short notes to +Atticus, in the first of which he declares that he will come over +on the authority of a decree of the Senate, without waiting for a +law. In the second he falls again into despair, declaring that +everything is over. In the third he asks Metellus for his aid, +telling the Consul that unless it be given soon the man for whom it +is asked will no longer be living to receive it. Metellus did give +the aid very cordially.</p> + +<p>It has been remarked that Cicero did nothing for literature +during his banishment, either by writing essays or preparing +speeches; and it has been implied that the prostration of mind +arising from his misfortunes must have been indeed complete, when a +man whose general life was made marvellous by its fecundity had +been repressed into silence. It should, however, be borne in mind +that there could be no inducement for the writing of speeches when +there was no opportunity of delivering them. As to his essays, +including what we call his Philosophy and his Rhetoric, they who +are familiar with his works will remember how apt he was, in all +that he produced, to refer to the writings of others. He translates +and he quotes, and he makes constant use of the arguments and +illustrations of those who have gone before him. He was a man who +rarely worked without the use of a library. When I think how +impossible it would be for me to repeat this oft-told tale of +Cicero's life without a crowd of books within reach of my hand, I +can easily understand why Cicero was silent at Thessalonica and +Dyrrachium. It has been remarked also by a modern critic that we +find "in the letters from exile a carelessness and inaccuracy of +expression which contrasts strongly with the style of his happier +days." I will not for a moment put my judgment in such a matter in +opposition to that of Mr. Tyrrell—but I should myself have +been inclined rather to say <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span>that the style of +Cicero's letters varies constantly, being very different when used +to Atticus, or to his brother, or to lighter friends such as Poetus +and Trebatius; and very different again when business of state was +in hand, as are his letters to Decimus Brutus, Cassius Brutus, and +Plancus. To be correct in familiar letters is not to charm. A +studied negligence is needed to make such work live to +posterity—a grace of loose expression which may indeed have +been made easy by use, but which is far from easy to the idle and +unpractised writer. His sorrow, perhaps, required a style of its +own. I have not felt my own untutored perception of the language to +be offended by unfitting slovenliness in the expression of his +grief.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332"> +332-334</a></span></p> + +<h4>APPENDICES TO VOLUME I.</h4> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335"> +335</a></span></p> + +<h4><a name="APPENDIX_A" id="APPENDIX_A"></a>APPENDIX A.</h4> + +<h5>(<i>See</i> ch. II., note [39])</h5> + +<h5><i>THE BATTLE OF THE EAGLE AND THE SERPENT.</i></h5> + +<p>Homer, Iliad, lib. xii, 200:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Οἵ ῥ' ἔτι μερμήριζον ἐφεσταότες παρὰ τάφρωι.</span> +<span class="i0">Ὄρνις γάρ σφιν ἐπῆλθε περησέμεναι μεμαῶσιν,</span> +<span class="i0">Αἰετὸς ὑψιπέτης ἐπ' ἀριστερὰ λαὸν ἐέργων,</span> +<span class="i0">Φοινήεντα δράκοντα φέρων ὀνύχεσσι πέλωρον,</span> +<span class="i0">Ζωὸν ἔτ' ἀσπαίροντα· καὶ οὔπω λήθετο χάρμης.</span> +<span class="i0">Κόψε γὰρ αὐτὸν ἔχοντα κατὰ στῆθος παρὰ δειρήν,</span> +<span class="i0">Ἰδνωθεὶς ὀπίσο· ὁ δ' ἀπὸ ἔθεν ἦκε χαμαζε,</span> +<span class="i0">Ἀλγήσας ὀδύνῃσι, μέσῳ δ' ἐνὶ κάββαλ' ὁμίλῳ·</span> +<span class="i0">Αὐτὸς δὲ κλάγξας πέτετο πνοῇις ἀνέμοιο.</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Pope's translation of the passage, book xii, 231:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"A signal omen stopp'd the +passing host,</span> <span class="i0">The martial fury in their +wonder lost.</span> <span class="i0">Jove's bird on sounding +pinions beat the skies;</span> <span class="i0">A bleeding serpent, +of enormous size,</span> <span class="i0">His talons trussed; +alive, and curling round,</span> <span class="i0">He stung the +bird, whose throat received the wound.</span> <span class="i0">Mad +with the smart, he drops the fatal prey,</span> <span class="i0">In +airy circles wings his painful way,</span> <span class="i0">Floats +on the winds, and rends the heav'ns with cries.</span> <span class= +"i0">Amid the host the fallen serpent lies.</span> <span class= +"i0">They, pale with terror, mark its spires unroll'd,</span> <span +class="i0">And Jove's portent with beating hearts +behold."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Lord Derby's Iliad, book xii, 236:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"For this I read the future, +if indeed</span> <span class="i0">To us, about to cross, this sign +from Heaven</span> <span class="i0">Was sent, to leftward of the +astonished crowd:</span> <span class="i0">A soaring eagle, bearing +in his claws</span> <span class="i0">A dragon huge of size, of +blood-red hue,</span> <span class="i0">Alive; yet dropped him ere +he reached his home,</span> <span class="i0">Nor to his nestlings +bore the intended prey."</span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336"> +336</a></span>Cicero's telling of the story:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Hic Jovis altisoni subito +pinnata satelles,</span> <span class="i0">Arboris e trunco +serpentis saucia morsu,</span> <span class="i0">Ipsa feris subigit +transfigens unguibus anguem</span> <span class="i0">Semianimum, et +varia graviter cervice micantem.</span> <span class="i0">Quem se +intorquentem lanians, rostroque cruentans,</span> <span class= +"i0">Jam satiata animum, jam duros ulta dolores,</span> <span +class="i0">Abjicit efflantem, et laceratum affligit in unda;</span> +<span class="i0">Seque obitu a solis nitidos convertit ad +ortus."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Voltaire's translation:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Tel on voit cet oiseau qui +porte le tonnerre,</span> <span class="i0">Blessé par un +serpent élancé de la terre;</span> <span class= +"i0">Il s'envole, il entraîne au séjour +azuré</span> <span class="i0">L'ennemi tortueux dont il est +entouré.</span> <span class="i0">Le sang tombe des airs. Il +déchire, il dévore</span> <span class="i0">Le reptile +acharné qui le combat encore;</span> <span class="i0">Il le +perce, il le tient sous ses ongles vainqueurs;</span> <span class= +"i0">Par cent coups redoublés il venge ses douleurs.</span> +<span class="i0">Le monstre, en expirant, se débat, se +replie;</span> <span class="i0">Il exhale en poisons les restes de +sa vie;</span> <span class="i0">Et l'aigle, tout sanglant, fier et +victorieux,</span> <span class="i0">Le rejette en fureur, et plane +au haut des cieux."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Virgil's version, Æneid, lib. xi., 751:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Utque volans alte raptum quum +fulva draconem</span> <span class="i0">Fert aquila, implicuitque +pedes, atque unguibus hæsit</span> <span class="i0">Saucius at +serpens sinuosa volumina versat,</span> <span class= +"i0">Arrectisque horret squamis, et sibilat ore,</span> <span +class="i0">Arduus insurgens. Illa haud minus urget obunco</span> +<span class="i0">Luctantem rostro; simul æthera verberat +alis."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Dryden's translation from Virgil's Æneid, book xi.:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"So stoops the yellow eagle +from on high,</span> <span class="i0">And bears a speckled serpent +through the sky;</span> <span class="i0">Fastening his crooked +talons on the prey,</span> <span class="i0">The prisoner hisses +through the liquid way;</span> <span class="i0">Resists the royal +hawk, and though opprest,</span> <span class="i0">She fights in +volumes, and erects her crest.</span> <span class="i0">Turn'd to +her foe, she stiffens every scale,</span> <span class="i0">And +shoots her forky tongue, and whisks her threatening tail.</span> +<span class="i0">Against the victor all defence is weak.</span> +<span class="i0">Th' imperial bird still plies her with his +beak:</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">337</a></span> <span class="i0">He tears her bowels, +and her breast he gores,</span> <span class="i0">Then claps his +pinions, and securely soars."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Pitt's translation, book xi.:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"As when th' imperial eagle +soars on high,</span> <span class="i0">And bears some speckled +serpent through the sky,</span> <span class="i0">While her sharp +talons gripe the bleeding prey,</span> <span class="i0">In many a +fold her curling volumes play,</span> <span class="i0">Her starting +brazen scales with horror rise,</span> <span class="i0">The +sanguine flames flash dreadful from her eyes</span> <span class= +"i0">She writhes, and hisses at her foe, in vain,</span> <span +class="i0">Who wins at ease the wide aerial plain,</span> <span +class="i0">With her strong hooky beak the captive plies,</span> +<span class="i0">And bears the struggling prey triumphant through +the skies."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Shelley's version of the battle, The Revolt of Islam, canto +i.:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"For in the air do I behold +indeed</span> <span class="i0">An eagle and a serpent wreathed in +fight,</span> <span class="i0">And now relaxing its impetuous +flight,</span> <span class="i0">Before the aerial rock on which I +stood</span> <span class="i0">The eagle, hovering, wheeled to left +and right,</span> <span class="i0">And hung with lingering wings +over the flood,</span> <span class="i00">And startled with its yells +the wide air's solitude</span><span class="i0"> </span> + +<span class="i0">"A shaft of light upon its +wings descended,</span> <span class="i0">And every golden feather +gleamed therein—</span> <span class="i0">Feather and scale +inextricably blended</span> <span class="i0">The serpent's mailed +and many-colored skin</span> <span class="i0">Shone through the +plumes, its coils were twined within</span> <span class="i0">By +many a swollen and knotted fold, and high</span> <span class= +"i0">And far, the neck receding lithe and thin,</span> <span class= +"i0">Sustained a crested head, which warily</span> <span class= +"i00">Shifted and glanced before the eagle's steadfast +eye.</span><span class="i0"> </span> + +<span class="i0">"Around, +around, in ceaseless circles wheeling,</span> <span class="i0">With +clang of wings and scream, the eagle sailed</span> <span class= +"i0">Incessantly—sometimes on high concealing</span> <span +class="i0">Its lessening orbs, sometimes, as if it failed,</span> +<span class="i0">Drooped through the air, and still it shrieked and +wailed,</span> <span class="i0">And casting back its eager head, +with beak</span> <span class="i0">And talon unremittingly +assailed</span> <span class="i0">The wreathed serpent, who did ever +seek</span> <span class="i00">Upon his enemy's heart a mortal wound +to wreak</span><span class="i0"> </span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">338</a></span> +<span class="i0">"What life, what power was kindled, and arose</span> <span class= +"i0">Within the sphere of that appalling fray!</span> <span class= +"i0">For, from the encounter of those wond'rous foes,</span> <span +class="i0">A vapor like the sea's suspended spray</span> <span +class="i0">Hung gathered; in the void air, far away,</span> <span +class="i0">Floated the shattered plumes; bright scales did +leap,</span> <span class="i0">Where'er the eagle's talons made +their way,</span> <span class="i0">Like sparks into the darkness; +as they sweep,</span> <span class="i00">Blood stains the snowy foam +of the tumultuous deep.</span> + +<span class="i0"> </span><span class="i0">"Swift chances +in that combat—many a check,</span> <span class="i0">And many +a change—a dark and wild turmoil;</span> <span class= +"i0">Sometimes the snake around his enemy's neck</span> <span +class="i0">Locked in stiff rings his adamantine coil,</span> <span +class="i0">Until the eagle, faint with pain and toil,</span> <span +class="i0">Remitted his strong flight, and near the sea</span> +<span class="i0">Languidly fluttered, hopeless so to foil</span> +<span class="i0">His adversary, who then reared on high</span> +<span class="i00">His red and burning crest, radiant with +victory.</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">"Then on the +white edge of the bursting surge,</span> <span class="i0">Where +they had sunk together, would the snake</span> <span class= +"i0">Relax his suffocating grasp, and scourge</span> <span class= +"i0">The wind with his wild writhings; for, to break</span> <span +class="i0">That chain of torment, the vast bird would shake</span> +<span class="i0">The strength of his unconquerable wings</span> +<span class="i0">As in despair, and with his sinewy neck</span> +<span class="i0">Dissolve in sudden shock those linked +rings,</span> <span class="i00">Then soar—as swift as smoke +from a volcano springs.</span><span class="i0"> </span><span class="i0">"Wile baffled +wile, and strength encountered strength,</span> <span class= +"i0">Thus long, but unprevailing—the event</span> <span +class="i0">Of that portentous fight appeared at length.</span> +<span class="i0">Until the lamp of day was almost spent</span> +<span class="i0">It had endured, when lifeless, stark, and +rent,</span> <span class="i0">Hung high that mighty serpent, and at +last</span> <span class="i0">Fell to the sea, while o'er the +continent,</span> <span class="i0">With clang of wings and scream, +the eagle past,</span> <span class="i00">Heavily borne away on the +exhausted blast."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>I have repudiated the adverse criticism on Cicero's poetry which +has been attributed to Juvenal; but, having done so, am bound in +fairness to state that which is to be found elsewhere in any later +author of renown <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id= +"Page_339">339</a></span>as a classic. In the treatise De +Oratoribus, attributed to Tacitus, and generally published with his +works by him—a treatise commenced, probably, in the last year +of Vespasian's reign, and completed only in that of +Domitian—Cicero as a poet is spoken of with a severity of +censure which the writer presumes to have been his recognized +desert. "For Cæsar," he says, "and Brutus made verses, and +sent them to the public libraries; not better, indeed, than Cicero, +but with less of general misfortune, because only a few people knew +that they had done so." This must be taken for what it is worth. +The treatise, let it have been written by whom it might, is full of +wit, and is charming in language and feeling. It is a dialogue +after the manner of Cicero himself, and is the work of an author +well conversant with the subjects in hand. But it is, no doubt, the +case that those two unfortunate lines which have been quoted became +notorious in Rome when there was a party anxious to put down +Cicero.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340"> +340</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="APPENDIX_B" id="APPENDIX_B"></a>APPENDIX B.</h3> + +<h5>(<i>See</i> ch. IV., note [84])</h5> + +<h4><i>FROM THE BRUTUS—CA. XCII., XCIII.</i></h4> + +<p>"There were at that time two orators, Cotta and Hortensius, who +towered above all others, and incited me to rival them. The first +spoke with self-restraint and moderation, clearly and easily, +expressing his ideas in appropriate language. The other was +magnificent and fierce; not such as you remember him, Brutus, when +he was already failing, but full of life both in his words and +actions. I then resolved that Hortensius should, of the two, be my +model, because I felt myself like to him in his energy, and nearer +to him in his age. I observed that when they were in the same +causes, those for Canuleius and for our consular Dolabella, though +Cotta was the senior counsel, Hortensius took the lead. A large +gathering of men and the noise of the Forum require that a speaker +shall be quick, on fire, active, and loud. The year after my return +from Asia I undertook the charge of causes that were honorable, and +in that year I was seeking to be Quæstor, Cotta to be Consul, and +Hortensius to be Prætor. Then for a year I served as Quæstor in +Sicily. Cotta, after his Consulship, went as governor into Gaul, +and then Hortensius was, and was considered to be, first at the +bar. When I had been back from Sicily twelve months I began to find +that whatever there was within me had come to such perfection as it +might attain. I feel that I am speaking too much of myself, but it +is done, not that you may be made to own my ability or my +eloquence—which is far from my thoughts—but that you +may see how great was my toil and my industry. Then, when I had +been employed for nearly five years in many cases, and was +accounted a leading advocate, I specially concerned myself in +conducting the great cause on behalf of Sicily—the trial of +Verres—when I and Hortensius were Ædile and Consul +designate.</p> + +<p>"But as this discussion of ours is intended to produce not a +mere catalogue of orators, but some true lessons of oratory, let us +see what there was in Hortensius that we must blame. When he was +out of his Consulship, seeing that among past Consuls there was no +one on a par with him, and thinking but little of those who were +below consular rank, he became idle in his work to which from +boyhood he had devoted himself, and chose to live in the midst of +his wealth, as he thought a happier life—certainly <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341"> +341</a></span>an easier one. The first two or three years took off +something from him. As the gradual decay of a picture will be +observed by the true critic, though it be not seen by the world at +large, so was it with his decay. From day to day he became more and +more unlike his old self, failing in all branches of oratory, but +specially in the rapidity and continuity of his words. But for +myself I never rested, struggling always to increase whatever power +there was in me by practice of every kind, especially in writing. +Passing over many things in the year after I was Ædile, I will +come to that in which I was elected first Prætor, to the great +delight of the public generally; for I had gained the good-will of +men, partly by my attention to the causes which I undertook, but +specially by a certain new strain of eloquence, as excellent as it +was uncommon, with which I spoke." Cicero, when he wrote this of +himself, was an old man sixty-two years of age, broken hearted for +the loss of his daughter, to whom it was no doubt allowed among his +friends to praise himself with the garrulity of years, because it +was understood that he had been unequalled in the matter of which +he was speaking. It is easy for us to laugh at his boastings; but +the account which he gives of his early life, and of the manner in +which he attained the excellence for which he had been celebrated, +is of value.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342"> +342</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="APPENDIX_C" id="APPENDIX_C"></a>APPENDIX C.</h3> + +<h5>(<i>See</i> ch. VI., note [117])</h5> + +<p>There was still prevailing in Rome at this time a strong feeling +that a growing taste for these ornamental luxuries was injurious to +the Republic, undermining its simplicity and weakening its +stability. We are well aware that its simplicity was a thing of the +past, and its stability gone The existence of a Verres is proof +that it was so; but still the feeling remained—and did remain +long after the time of Cicero—that these beautiful things +were a sign of decay. We know how conquering Rome caught the taste +for them from conquered Greece. "Græcia capta ferum victorem +cepit, et artes intulit agresti Latio." <a name="FNanchor_1_285" +id="FNanchor_1_285"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_285" class= +"fnanchor">286</a> Cicero submitted himself to this new captivity +readily, but with apologies, as shown in his pretended abnegation +of all knowledge of art. Two years afterward, in a letter to +Atticus, giving him instructions as to the purchase of statues, he +declares that he is altogether carried away by his longing for such +things, but not without a feeling of shame. "Nam in eo genere sic +studio efferimur ut abs te adjuvandi, ab aliis propre reprehendi +simus"<a name="FNanchor_2_286" id="FNanchor_2_286"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_2_286" class="fnanchor">287</a>—"Though you will +help me, others I know will blame me." The same feeling is +expressed beautifully, but no doubt falsely, by Horace when he +declares, as Cicero had done, his own indifference to such +delicacies:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Gems, marbles, ivory, Tuscan +statuettes,</span> <span class="i0">Pictures, gold plate, Gætulian +coverlets,</span> <span class="i0">There are who have not. One +there is, I trow,</span> <span class="i0">Who cares not greatly if +he has or no."<a name="FNanchor_3_287" id="FNanchor_3_287"></a><a +href="#Footnote_3_287" class="fnanchor">288</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Many years afterward, in the time of Tiberius, Velleius +Paterculus says the same when he is telling how ignorant Mummius +was of sculpture, who, when he had taken Corinth, threatened those +who had to carry away the statues from their places, that if they +broke any they should be made to replace them. "You will not doubt, +however," the historian says, "that it would have been better for +the Republic to remain ignorant of these Corinthian gems than to +understand them as well as it does now. <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span>That rudeness +befitted the public honor better than our present taste."<a name= +"FNanchor_4_288" id="FNanchor_4_288"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_288" +class="fnanchor">289</a> Cicero understood well enough, with one +side of his intelligence, that as the longing for these things grew +in the minds of rich men, as the leading Romans of the day became +devoted to luxury rather than to work, the ground on which the +Republic stood must be sapped. A Marcellus or a Scipio had taken +glory in ornamenting the city. A Verres or even an +Hortensius—even a Cicero—was desirous of beautiful +things for his own house. But still, with the other side of his +intelligence, he saw that a perfect citizen might appreciate art, +and yet do his duty, might appreciate art, and yet save his +country. What he did not see was, that the temptations of luxury, +though compatible with virtue, are antagonistic to it. The camel +may be made to go through the eye of the needle—but it is +difficult.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344"> +344</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="APPENDIX_D" id="APPENDIX_D"></a>APPENDIX D.</h3> + +<h5>(<i>See</i> ch. VII., note [144])</h5> + +<h4><i>PRO LEGE MANILIA—CA. X., XVI.</i></h4> + +<table width="100%" summary="poetry" cellpadding="10" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="left_50">"Utinam, Quirites, virorum fortium, atque +innocentium copiam tantam haberetis, ut hæc vobis deliberatio +difficilis esset, quemnam potissimum tantis rebus ac tanto bello +præficiendum putaretis! Nunc vero cum sit unus Cn. Pompeius, qui +non modo eorum hominum, qui nunc sunt, gloriam, sed etiam +antiquitatis memoriam virtute superarit; quæ res est, quæ +cujusquam animum in hac causa dubium facere posset? Ego enim sic +existimo, in summo imperatore quatuor has res inesse oportere, +scientiam rei militaris, virtutem, auctoritatem, felicitatem. Quis +igitur hoc homine scientior umquam aut fuit, aut esse debuit? qui e +ludo, atque pueritiæ disciplina, bello maximo atque acerrimis +hostibus, ad patris exercitum atque in militiæ disciplinam +profectus est? qui extrema pueritia miles fuit summi imperatoris? +ineunte adolescentia maximi ipse exercitus imperator? qui sæpius +cum hoste conflixit, quam quisquam cum inimico concertavit? plura +bella gessit, quam cæteri legerunt? plures provincias confecit, +quam alii concupiverunt? cujus adolescentia ad scientiam rei +militaris non alienis præceptis, sed suis imperiis; non <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345"> +345</a></span>offensionibus belli, sed victoriis; non stipendiis, +sed triumphis est erudita? Quod denique genus belli esse potest, in +quo illum non exercuerit fortuna reipublicæ? Civile; Africanum; +Transalpinum; Hispaniense; mistum ex civitatibus atque ex +bellicosissimis nationibus servile; navale bellum, varia et diversa +genera, et bellorum et hostium, non solum gesta ab hoc uno, sed +etiam confecta, nullam rem esse declarant, in usu militari positam, +quæ hojus viri scientiam fugere posset.</td> +<td class="left_50">"I could wish, Quirites, that there was open to +you so large a choice of men capable at the same time, and honest, +that you might find a difficulty in deciding who might best be +selected for command in a war so momentous as this. But now when +Pompey alone has surpassed in achievements not only those who live, +but all of whom we have read in history, what is there to make any +one hesitate in the matter? In my opinion there are four qualities +to be desired in a general—military knowledge, valor, +authority, and fortune. But whoever was or was ever wanted to be +more skilled than this man, who, taken fresh from school and from +the lessons of his boyhood, was subjected to the discipline of his +father's army during one of our severest wars, when our enemies +were strong against us? In his earliest youth he served under our +greatest general. As years went on he was himself in command over a +large army. He has been more frequent in fighting than others in +quarrelling. Few have read of so many battles as he has fought. He +has conquered more provinces than others have desired to pillage. +He learned the art of war not from written precepts, but by his own +practice; not from reverses, but from victories. He does not count +his campaigns, but the triumphs which he has won. What nature of +warfare is there in which the Republic has not used his services? +Think of our Civil war<a name="FNanchor_1_289" id= +"FNanchor_1_289"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_289" class= +"fnanchor">290</a>—of our African war<a name="FNanchor_2_290" +id="FNanchor_2_290"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_290" class= +"fnanchor">291</a>—of our war on the other side of the Alps<a +name="FNanchor_3_291" id="FNanchor_3_291"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_3_291" class="fnanchor">292</a>—of our Spanish +wars<a name="FNanchor_4_292" id="FNanchor_4_292"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_4_292" class="fnanchor">293</a>—of our Servile +war<a name="FNanchor_5_293" id="FNanchor_5_293"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_5_293" class="fnanchor">294</a>—which was carried +on by the energies of so many mighty people—and this Maritime +war.<a name="FNanchor_6_294" id="FNanchor_6_294"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_6_294" class="fnanchor">295</a> How many enemies had we, +how various were our contests! They were all not only carried +through by this one man, but brought to an end so gloriously as to +show that there is nothing in the practice of warfare which has +escaped his knowledge.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_50">"Quare cum et bellum ita necessarium sit, ut +negligi non possit; ita magnum, ut accuratissime sit +administrandum; et cum ei imperatorem præficere possitis, in quo +sit eximia belli scientia, singularis virtus, clarissima +auctoritas, egregia fortuna; dubitabitis, Quirites, quin hoc tantum +boni, quod vobis a diis immortalibus oblatum et datum est, in +rempublicam conservandam atque amplificandam conferatis?"</td> +<td class="left_50">"Seeing, therefore, that this war cannot be +neglected; that its importance demands the utmost care in its +administration; that it requires a general in whom should be found +sure military science, manifest valor, conspicuous authority, and +pre-eminent good fortune—do you doubt, Quirites, but that you +should use the great blessing which the gods have given you for the +preservation and glory of the Republic?"</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<p>On reading, however, the piece over again, I almost doubt +whether there be any passages in it which should be selected as +superior to others.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346"> +346</a></span></p> + +<h3><a name="APPENDIX_E" id="APPENDIX_E"></a>APPENDIX E.</h3> + +<h5>(<i>See</i> ch. XI., note [235])</h5> + +<h4><i>LUCAN, LIBER I.</i></h4> + +<table width="100%" summary="poetry" cellpadding="5" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="left_50"> +<div class="poem2"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"<span class="smcap">O +male</span> concordes, nimiaque cupidine cæci,</span> <span +class="i0">Quid miscere juvat vires orbemque tenere</span> <span +class="i0">In medio."</span></div> +</div> +</td> +<td class="left_50">"O men so ill-fitted to agree, O men blind with +greed, of what service can it be that you should join your powers, +and possess the world between you?"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_50"> +<div class="poem2"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Temporis angusti mansit +concordia discors,</span> <span class="i0">Paxque fuit non sponte +ducum. Nam sola futuri</span> <span class="i0">Crassus erat belli +medius mora. Qualiter undas</span> <span class="i0">Qui secat, et +geminum gracilis mare separat isthmos,</span> <span class="i0">Nec +patitur conferre fretum; si terra recedat,</span> <span class= +"i0">Ionium Ægæo frangat mare. Sic, ubi sæva</span> <span class= +"i0">Arma ducum dirimens, miserando funere Crassus</span> <span +class="i0">Assyrias latio maculavit sanguine Carras."</span></div> +</div> +</td> +<td class="left_50">"For a short time the ill-sorted compact +lasted, and there was a peace which each of them abhorred. Crassus +alone stood between the others, hindering for a while the coming +war—as an isthmus separates two waters and forbids sea to +meet sea. If the morsel of land gives way, the Ionian waves and the +Ægean dash themselves in foam against each other. So was it with +the arms of the two chiefs when Crassus fell, and drenched the +Assyrian Carræ with Roman blood."</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_50"> +<div class="poem2"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Dividitur ferro regnum; +populique potentis,</span> <span class="i0">Quæ mare, quæ terras, +quæ totum possidet orbem,</span> <span class="i0">Non cepit +fortuna duos."</span></div> +</div> +</td> +<td class="left_50">"Then the possession of the Empire was put to +the arbitration of the sword. The fortunes of a people which +possessed sea and earth and the whole world, were not sufficient +for two men."</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_50"> +<div class="poem2"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Tu nova ne veteres obscurent +acta triumphos,</span> <span class="i0">Et victis cedat piratica +laurea Gallis,</span> <span class="i0">Magne, times; te jam series, +ususque laborum</span> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id= +"Page_347">347</a></span> <span class="i0">Erigit, +impatiensque loci fortuna secundi.</span> <span class="i0">Nec +quemquam jam ferre potest Cæsarve priorem,</span> +<span class="i0">Pompeiusve parem. Quis justius induit arma,</span> +<span class="i0">Scire nefas; magno se judice quisque +tuetur,</span> <span class="i0">Victrix causa deis placuit sed +victa, Catoni.<a name="FNanchor_1_295" id="FNanchor_1_295"></a><a +href="#Footnote_1_295" class="fnanchor">296</a></span></div> +</div> +</td> +<td class="left_50">"You, Magnus, you, Pompeius, fear lest newer +deeds than yours should make dull your old triumphs, and the +scattering of the pirates should be as nothing to the conquering of +Gaul. The practice of many wars has so exalted you, O Cæsar, +that you cannot put up with a second place. Cæsar will endure +no superior; but Pompey will have no equal. Whose cause was the +better the poet dares not inquire! Each will have his own advocate +in history. On the side of the conqueror the gods ranged +themselves. Cato has chosen to follow the conquered.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_50"> +<div class="poem2"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">Nec coiere pares; alter +vergentibus annis</span> <span class="i0">In senium, longoque togæ +tranquillior usu</span> <span class="i0">Dedidicit jam pace ducem; +famæque petitor</span> <span class="i0">Multa dare in vulgas; totus +popularibus auris</span> <span class="i0">Impelli, plausuque sui +gaudere theatri;</span> <span class="i0">Nec reparare novas vires, +multumque priori</span> <span class="i0">Credere fortunæ. Stat +magni nominis umbra."</span></div> +</div> +</td> +<td class="left_50">"But surely the men were not equal. The one in +declining years, who had already changed his arms for the garb of +peace, had unlearned the general in the statesman—had become +wont to talk to the people, to devote himself to harangues, and to +love the applause of his own theatre. He has not cared to renew his +strength, trusting to his old fortune. There remains of him but the +shadow of his great name."</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left_50"> +<div class="poem2"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i4">"Sed non in Cæsare +tantum</span> <span class="i0">Nomen erat, nec fama ducis; sed +nescia virtus</span> <span class="i0">Stare loco; solusque pudor +non vincere bello.</span> <span class="i0">Acer et indomitus; quo +spes, quoque ira vocasset,</span> <span class="i0">Ferre manum, et +nunquam te merando parcere ferro;</span> <span class="i0">Successus +urgere suos; instare favori</span> <span class="i0"> +Numinis."—Lucan, lib. i.</span></div> +</div> +</td> +<td class="left_50">"The name of Cæsar does not loom so +large; nor is his character as a general so high. But there is a +spirit which can content itself with no achievements; there is but +one feeling of shame—that of not conquering; a man +determined, not to be controlled, taking his arms wherever lust of +conquest or anger may call him; a man never sparing the sword, +creating all things from his own good-fortune trusting always the +favors of the gods."</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<h4>NOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">1</span></a> Froude's +Cæsar, p.444.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">2</span></a> Ibid., +p.428.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">3</span></a> Ad Att., +lib. xiii., 28.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">4</span></a> Ad Att., +lib. ix., 10.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">5</span></a> Froude, +p.365.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">6</span></a> Ad Att., +lib. ii., 5: "Quo quidem uno ego ab istis capi possum."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">7</span></a> The Cincian law, +of which I shall have to speak again, forbade Roman advocates to +take any payment for their services. Cicero expressly declares that +he has always obeyed that law. He accused others of disobeying it, +as, for instance, Hortensius. But no contemporary has accused him. +Mr. Collins refers to some books which had been given to Cicero by +his friend Pœtus. They are mentioned in a letter to Atticus, lib. +i., 20; and Cicero, joking, says that he has consulted +Cincius—perhaps some descendant of him who made the law 145 +years before—as to the legality of accepting the present. But +we have no reason for supposing that he had ever acted as an +advocate for Pœtus.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">8</span></a> Virgil, Æneid, +i., 150:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i05">"Ac, veluti magno in populo +quum sæpe coorta est</span> <span class="i0">Seditio, sævitque +animis ignobile vulgus;</span> <span class="i0">Jamque faces, et +saxa volant; furor arma ministrat:</span> <span class="i0">Tum, +pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quem</span> <span class= +"i0">Conspexere, silent, arrectisque auribus adstant;</span> <span +class="i0">Iste regit dictis animos, et pectora +mulcet."</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">9</span></a> The author is +saying that a history from Cicero would have been invaluable, and +the words are "interitu ejus utrum respublica an historia magis +doleat."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">10</span></a> Quintilian +tells us this, lib. ii., c. 5. The passage of Livy is not extant. +The commentators suppose it to have been taken from a letter to his +son.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">11</span></a> Velleius +Paterculus, lib. ii., c. 34.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">12</span></a> Valerius +Maximus, lib. iv., c. 2; 4.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">13</span></a> Pliny, Hist. +Nat., lib. vii., xxxi., 30.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">14</span></a> Martial, lib. +xiv., 188.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">15</span></a> Lucan, +lib. vii., 62:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i05">"Cunctorum voces Romani +maximus auctor</span> <span class="i0">Tullius eloquii, cujus sub +jure togaque</span> <span class="i0">Pacificas sævus tremuit +Catilina secures,</span> <span class="i0">Pertulit iratus bellis, +cum rostra forumque</span> <span class="i0">Optaret passus tam +longa silentia miles</span> <span class="i0">Addidit invalidæ +robur facundia causæ."</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">16</span></a> Tacitus, De +Oratoribus, xxx.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">17</span></a> Juvenal, +viii., 243.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">18</span></a> Demosthenes +and Cicero compared.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">19</span></a> Quintilian, +xii., 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">20</span></a> "Repudiatus +vigintiviratus." He refused a position of official value rendered +vacant by the death of one Cosconius. See Letters to Atticus, +2,19.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">21</span></a> Florus, +lib. iv., 1. In a letter from Essex to Foulke Greville, the writing +of which has been attributed to Bacon by Mr. Spedding, Florus is +said simply to have epitomized Livy (Life, vol. ii., p.23). In this +I think that Bacon has shorn him of his honors.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">22</span></a> Florus, +lib. iv., 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">23</span></a> Sallust, +Catilinaria, xxiii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">24</span></a> I will add +the concluding passage from the pseudo declamation, in order that +the reader may see the nature of the words which were put into +Sallust's mouth: "Quos tyrannos appellabas, eorum nunc potentiæ +faves; qui tibi ante optumates videbantur, eosdem nunc dementes ac +furiosos vocas; Vatinii caussam agis, de Sextio male existumas; +Bibulum petulantissumis verbis lædis, laudas Cæsarem; quem +maxume odisti, ei maxume obsequeris. Aliud stans, aliud sedens, de +republica sentis; his maledicis, illos odisti; levissume transfuga, +neque in hac, neque illa parte fidem habes." Hence Dio Cassius +declared that Cicero had been called a turncoat. καὶ αὐτόμαλος ὠνομάζετο.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">25</span></a> Dio Cassius, +lib. xlvi., 18: πρὸς ἣν καὶ αὐτὴν τοιαύτας ἐπίστολας +γραφεὶς οἵας ἂν γράψειεν ἀνὴρ σκωπτόλης ἀθυρόγλωρρος ... καὶ +προσέτι καὶ τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ διαβάλλειν ἐπεχείρησε τοσαύτη +ἀσελγεία καὶ ἀκαθαρσία παρὰ πάντα τὸν βιὸν χρώμενος ὥστε μηδὲ +τῶν συγγενεστάτων ἀπέχεσθαι, ἀλλὰ τήν τε γυναῖκα προαγωγεύειν +καὶ τὴν θυγατέρα μοιχεύειν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">26</span></a> As it +happens, De Quincey specially calls Cicero a man of conscience. +"Cicero is one of the very few pagan statesmen who can be described +as a thoroughly conscientious man," he says. The purport of his +illogical essay on Cicero is no doubt thoroughly hostile to the +man. It is chiefly worth reading on account of the amusing +virulence with which Middleton, the biographer, is attacked.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">27</span></a> Quintilian, +lib. ii., c. 5.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">28</span></a> De Finibus, +lib. v., ca. xxii.: "Nemo est igitur, qui non hanc affectionem animi +probet atque laudet."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">29</span></a> De Rep., +lib. vi., ca. vii.: "Nihil est enim illi principi deo, qui omnem hunc +mundum regit, quod quidem in terris fiat acceptius." Tusc. Quest., +lib. i., ca. xxx.: "Vetat enim dominans ille in nobis deus."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">30</span></a> De Rep., +lib. vi., ca. vii.: "Certum esse in cœlo definitum locum, ubi beati +ævo sempiterno fruantur."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">31</span></a> Hor., lib. i., +Ode xxii.,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i05">"Non rura qua; Liris +quieta</span> <span class="i0">Mordet aqua taciturnus +amnis."</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">32</span></a> Such was the +presumed condition of things at Rome. By the passing of a special +law a plebeian might, and occasionally did, become patrician. The +patricians had so nearly died out in the time of Julius Cæsar +that he introduced fifty new families by the Lex Cassia.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">33</span></a> De Orat., +lib. ii., ca. 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">34</span></a> Brutus, +ca. lxxxix.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">35</span></a> It should be +remembered that in Latin literature it was the recognized practice +of authors to borrow wholesale from the Greek, and that no charge +of plagiarism attended such borrowing. Virgil, in taking thoughts +and language from Homer, was simply supposed to have shown his +judgment in accommodating Greek delights to Roman ears and Roman +intellects.</p> + +<p>The idea as to literary larceny is of later date, and has grown +up with personal claims for originality and with copyright. +Shakspeare did not acknowledge whence he took his plots, because it +was unnecessary. Now, if a writer borrow a tale from the French, it +is held that he ought at least to owe the obligation, or perhaps +even pay for it.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">36</span></a> Juvenal, +Sat. x., 122,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i05">"O fortunatam natam me Consule +Romam!</span> <span class="i0">Antoni gladios potuit contemnere, si +sic</span> <span class="i0">Omnia dixisset."</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">37</span></a> De Leg., +lib. i., ca. 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">38</span></a> Life and +Times of Henry Lord Brougham, written by himself, vol. i., p. +58.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">39</span></a> I give the +nine versions to which I allude in an Appendix A, at the end of +this volume, so that those curious in such matters may compare the +words in which the same picture has been drawn by various +hands.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">40</span></a> Pro Archia, +ca. vii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">41</span></a> Brutus, +ca. xc.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">42</span></a> Tacitus, De +Oratoribus, xxx.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">43</span></a> Quintilian, +lib. xii., c. vi., who wrote about the same time as this essayist, +tells us of these three instances of early oratory, not, however, +specifying the exact age in either case. He also reminds us that +Demosthenes pleaded when he was a boy, and that Augustus at the age +of twelve made a public harangue in honor of his grandmother.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">44</span></a> Brutus, +ca. xc.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">45</span></a> Brutus, +xci.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">46</span></a> Quintilian, +lib. xii., vi.: "Quum jam clarum meruisset inter patronos, qui tum +erant, nomen, in Asiam navigavit, seque et aliis sine dubio +eloquentiæ ac sapientiæ magistris, sed præcipue tamen Apollonio +Moloni, quem Romæ quoque audierat, Rhodi rursus formandum ac velut +recognendum dedit."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">47</span></a> Brutus, +xci.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">48</span></a> The total +correspondence contains 817 letters, of which 52 were written to +Cicero, 396 were written by Cicero to Atticus, and 369 by Cicero to +his friends in general. We have no letters from Atticus to +Cicero.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">49</span></a> Quintilian, +lib. x., ca. 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">50</span></a> Clemens of +Alexandria, in his exhortation to the Gentiles, is very severe upon +the iniquities of these rites. "All evil be to him," he says, "who +brought them into fashion, whether it was Dardanus, or Eetion the +Thracian, or Midas the Phrygian." The old story which he repeats as +to Ceres and Proserpine may have been true, but he was altogether +ignorant of the changes which the common-sense of centuries had +produced.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">51</span></a> De Legibus, +lib. ii., c. xiv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">52</span></a> It was then +that the foreign empire commenced, in ruling which the simplicity +and truth of purpose and patriotism of the Republic were lost.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">53</span></a> The reverses +of fortune to which Marius was subjected, how he was buried up to +his neck in the mud, hiding in the marshes of Minturnæ, how he +would have been killed by the traitorous magistrates of that city +but that he quelled the executioners by the fire of his eyes; how +he sat and glowered, a houseless exile, among the ruins of +Carthage—all which things happened to him while he was +running from the partisans of Sulla—are among the picturesque +episodes of history. There is a tragedy called the <i>Wounds of +Civil War</i>, written by Lodge, who was born some eight years +before Shakspeare, in which the story of Marius is told with some +exquisite poetry, but also with some ludicrous additions. The Gaul +who is hired to kill Marius, but is frightened by his eyes, talks +bad French mingled with bad English, and calls on Jesus in his +horror!</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">54</span></a> Brutus, +ca. xc.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">55</span></a> Florus tells +us that there were 2000 Senators and Knights, but that any one was +allowed to kill just whom he would. "Quis autem illos potest +computare quos in urbe passim quisquis voluit occidit" (lib. iii., +ca. 21).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">56</span></a> About +£487 10<i>s.</i> In Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman +Antiquities the Attic talent is given as being worth £243 +15<i>s.</i> Mommsen quotes the price as 12,000 denarii, which would amount +to about the same sum.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">57</span></a> Suetonius +speaks of his death. Florus mentions the proscriptions and +abdication. Velleius Paterculus is eloquent in describing the +horrors of the massacres and confiscation. Dio Cassius refers again +and again to the Sullan cruelty. But none of them give a reason for +the abdication of Sulla.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">58</span></a> Vol. iii., +p.386. I quote from Mr. Dickson's translation, as I do not read +German.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">59</span></a> In defending +Roscius Amerinus, while Sulla was still in power, he speaks of the +Sullan massacres as "pugna Cannensis," a slaughter as foul, as +disgraceful, as bloody as had been the defeat at Cannæ.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">60</span></a> Mommsen, +vol. iii., p. 385.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">61</span></a> Pro Sexto +Roscio, ca. xxi.: "Quod antea causam publicam nullam dixerim." He +says also in the Brutus, ca. xc., "Itaque prima causa publica, pro +Sex. Roscio dicta." By "publica causa" he means a criminal +accusation in distinction from a civil action.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">62</span></a> Pro Publio +Quintio, ca. i.: "Quod mihi consuevit in ceteris causis esse +adjumento, id quoque in hac causa deficit."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">63</span></a> Pro Publio +Quintio, ca. xxi.: "Nolo eam rem commemorando renovare, cujus omnino +rei memoriam omnem tolli funditus ac deleri arbitror oportere."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">64</span></a> Pro Roscio, +ca. xlix. Cicero says of him that he would be sure to suppose that +anything would have been done according to law of which he should +be told that it was done by Sulla's order. "Putat homo imperitus +morum, agricola et rusticus, ista omnia, quæ vos per Sullam gesta +esse dicitis, more, lege, jure gentium facta."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">65</span></a> Pro Sexto +Roscio, ca. 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">66</span></a> Pro Sexto +Roscio, ca. xxix.: "Ejusmodi tempus erat, inquit, ut homines vulgo +impune occiderentur."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">67</span></a> Pro T. A. +Milone, ca.xxi.: "Cur igitur cos manumisit? Metuebat scilicit ne +indicarent; ne dolorem perferre non possent."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">68</span></a> Pro T. A. +Milone, ca.xxii.: "Heus tu, Ruscio, verbi gratia, cave sis +mentiaris. Clodius insidias fecit Miloni? Fecit. Certa crux. Nullas +fecit. Sperata libertas."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">69</span></a> Pro Sexto +Roscio, ca. xxviii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">70</span></a> Ibid.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">71</span></a> Ibid., +ca. xxxi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">72</span></a> Pro Sexto +Roscio, ca. xlv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">73</span></a> Pro Sexto +Roscio, ca. xlvi. The whole picture of Chrysogonus, of his house, of +his luxuries, and his vanity, is too long for quotation, but is +worth referring to by those who wish to see how bold and how +brilliant Cicero could be.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">74</span></a> They put in +tablets of wax, on which they recorded their judgment by +inscribing letter, C, A, or NL—Condemno, Absolvo, or Non +liquet—intending to show that the means of coming to a +decision did not seem to be sufficient.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">75</span></a> Quintilian +tells us, lib. x., ca.vii., that Cicero's speeches as they had come +to his day had been abridged—by which he probably means only +arranged—by Tiro, his slave and secretary and friend. "Nam +Ciceronis ad præsens modo tempus aptatos libertus Tiro +contraxit."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">76</span></a> Quintilian, +lib. xi., ca.iii.: "Nam et toga, et calecus, et capillus, tam nimia +cura, quam negligentia, sunt reprehendenda." * * * "Sinistrum +brachium eo usque allevandum est, ut quasi normalem illum angulum +faciat." Quint., lib. xii., ca.x., "ne hirta toga sit;" don't let +the toga be rumpled; "non serica:" the silk here interdicted was +the silk of effeminacy, not that silk of authority of which our +barristers are proud. "Ne intonsum caput; non in gradus atque +annulos comptum." It would take too much space were I to give here +all the lessons taught by this professor of deportment as to the +wearing of the toga.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">77</span></a> A doubt has +been raised whether he was not married when he went to Greece, as +otherwise his daughter would seem to have become a wife earlier +than is probable. The date, however, has been generally given as it +is stated here.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">78</span></a> Tacitus, +Annal., xi., 5, says, "Qua cavetur antiquitus, ne quis, ob causam +orandam, pecuniam donumve accipiat."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">79</span></a> De Off., +lib. i., ca. xlii.: "Sordidi etiam putandi, qui mercantur a +mercatoribus, quod statim vendant. Nihil enim proficiunt, nisi +admodum mentiantur."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">80</span></a> De Off., +lib. i., ca. xlii.: "Primum improbantur ii quæstus, qui in odia +hominum incurrunt: ut portitorum ut fœneratorum." The Portitores +were inferior collectors of certain dues, stationed at seaports, +who are supposed to have been extremely vexatious in their dealings +with the public.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">81</span></a> Philipp., +11-16.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">82</span></a> Let any who +doubt this statement refer to the fate of the inhabitants of Alesia +and Uxellodunum. Cæsar did not slay or torture for the sake +of cruelty, but was never deterred by humanity when expediency +seemed to him to require victims. Men and women, old and young, +many or few, they were sacrificed without remorse if his purpose +required it.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">83</span></a> Pro Pub. +Quintio, ca. xxv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">84</span></a> See Appendix +B, Brutus, ca. xcii., xciii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">85</span></a> Brutus, ca. +xciii.: "Animos hominum ad me dicendi novitate converteram."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">86</span></a> It must be +remembered that this advice was actually given when Cicero +subsequently became a candidate for the Consulship, but it is +mentioned here as showing the manner in which were sought the great +offices of State.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">87</span></a> Cicero speaks +of Sicily as divided into two provinces, "Quæstores utriusque +provinciæ." There was, however, but one Prætor or Proconsul. But +the island had been taken by the Romans at two different times. +Lilybæum and the west was obtained from the Carthaginians at +the end of the first Punic war, whereas, Syracuse was conquered by +Marcellus and occupied during the second Punic war.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">88</span></a> Tacitus, +Ann., lib.xi., ca.xxii.: "Post, lege Sullæ, viginti creati +supplendo senatui, cui judicia tradiderat."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">89</span></a> De Legibus, +iii., xii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">90</span></a> Pro P. Sexto, +lxv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">91</span></a> Pro Cluentio, +lvi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">92</span></a> Contra +Verrem, Act.iv., ca. xi.: "Ecquæ civitas est, non modo in +provinciis nostris, verum etiam in ultimis nationibus, aut tam +potens, aut tam libera, aut etiam am immanis ac barbara; rex +denique ecquis est, qui senatorem populi Romani tecto ac domo non +invitet?"</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">93</span></a> Contra +Verrem, Act. i., ca. xiii.: "Omnia non modo commemorabuntur, sed +etiam, expositis certis rebus, agentur, quæ inter decem annos, +posteaquam judicia ad senatum translata sunt, in rebus judicandis +nefarie flagitioseque facta sunt."</p> + +<p>Pro Cluentio, lvi.: "Locus, +auctoritas, domi splendor, apud exteras nationes nomen et gratia, +toga prætexta, sella curulis, insignia, fasces, exercitus, +imperia, provincia."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">94</span></a> Contra +Verrem, Act.i., ca. xviii.: "Quadringenties sestertium ex Sicilia +contra leges abstulisse." In Smith's Dictionary of Grecian and +Roman Antiquities we are told that a thousand sesterces is equal in +our money to £8 17<i>s.</i> 1<i>d.</i> Of the estimated amount of this +plunder we shall have to speak again.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">95</span></a> Pro Plancio, +xxvi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">96</span></a> Pro Plancio, +xxvi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">97</span></a> M. du Rozoir +was a French critic, and was joined with M. Guéroult and M. +de Guerle in translating and annotating the Orations of Cicero for +M. Panckoucke's edition of the Latin classics.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">98</span></a> In Verrem +Actio Secunda, lib. i., vii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">99</span></a> Plutarch says +that Cæcilius was an emancipated slave, and a Jew, which +could not have been true, as he was a Roman Senator.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">100</span></a> De +Oratore, lib. ii., c. xlix. The feeling is beautifully expressed in +the words put into the mouth of Antony in the discussion on the +charms and attributes of eloquence: "Qui mihi in liberum loco more +majorum esse deberet."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">101</span></a> In Q. +Cæc. Divinatio, ca. ii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">102</span></a> Divinatio, +ca. iii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">103</span></a> Ibid., +ca. vi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">104</span></a> Ibid., +ca. viii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">105</span></a> Divinatio, +ca. ix.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">106</span></a> Ibid., +ca. xi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">107</span></a> Ibid.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">108</span></a> Ibid., +ca. xii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">109</span></a> Actio +Secunda, lib. ii., xl. He is speaking of Sthenius, and the +illegality of certain proceedings on the part of Verres against +him. "If an accused man could be condemned in the absence of the +accuser, do you think that I would have gone in a little boat from +Vibo to Velia, among all the dangers prepared for me by your +fugitive slaves and pirates, when I had to hurry at the peril of my +life, knowing that you would escape if I were not present to the +day?"</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">110</span></a> Actio +Secunda, l. xxi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">111</span></a> In Verrem, +Actio Prima, xvi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">112</span></a> In Verrem, +Actio Prima, xvi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">113</span></a> We are to +understand that the purchaser at the auction having named the sum +for which he would do the work, the estate of the minor, who was +responsible for the condition of the temple, was saddled with that +amount.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">114</span></a> In Verrem, +Actio Secunda, lib. ii., vii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">115</span></a> Ibid., +ix.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">116</span></a> Ibid., +lib. ii., xiv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">117</span></a> See +Appendix C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">118</span></a> In Verrem, +Actio Secunda, lib. ii., ca. xxxvi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">119</span></a> Ibid. "Una +nox intercesserat, quam iste Dorotheum sic diligebat, ut diceres, +omnia inter eos esse communia."—wife and all. "Iste" always +means Verres in these narratives.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">120</span></a> These were +burning political questions of the moment. It was as though an +advocate of our days should desire some disgraced member of +Parliament to go down to the House and assist the Government in +protecting Turkey in Asia and invading Zululand.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">121</span></a> "Sit in +ejus exercitu signifer." The "ejus" was Hortensius, the coming +Consul, too whom Cicero intended to be considered as pointing. For +the passage, see In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. ii., xxxi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">122</span></a> In Verrem, +Actio Secunda, lib. iii., 11.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">123</span></a> "Exegi +monumentum ære perennius," said Horace, gloriously. "Sum pius +Æneas" is Virgil's expression, put into the mouth of his hero. +"Ipse Menaleas," said Virgil himself. Homer and Sophocles introduce +their heroes with self-sounded trumpetings:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Εἴμ' Οδυσσεὺς Δαερτιάδης ὅς πασι δόλοισι</span> +<span class="i0">Ἀνθρώποισι μέλω, και μὲυ κλέος οὐρανὸn ικει.</span> +<span class="i6">Odyssey,book ix., 19 and 20.</span> +<span class="i10"> </span> +<span class="i3">Ὁ πᾶσι κλεινος Οἰδίπους καλούμενος.</span> +<span class="i10">Œdipus Tyrannus, 8.</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">124</span></a> Pro +Plancio, xxvi.: "Frumenti in summa caritate maximum numerum miseram; +negotiatoribus comis, mercatoribus justus, municipibus liberalis, +sociis abstinens, omnibus eram visus in omni officio +diligentissimus."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">125</span></a> In Verrem, +Actio Secunda, lib. iii., ix.: "Is erit Apronius ille; qui, ut ipse +non solum vita, sed etiam corpore atque ore significat, immensa +aliqua vorago est ac gurges vitiorum turpitudinumque omnium. Hunc +in omnibus stupris, hunc in fanorum expilationibus, hunc in impuris +conviviis principem adhibebat; tantamque habebat morum similitudo +conjunctionem atque concordiam, ut Apronius, qui aliis inhumanus ac +barbarus, isti uni commodus ac disertus videretur; ut quem omnes +odissent neque videre vellent sine eo iste esse non posset; ut quum +alii ne conviviis quidem iisdem quibus Apronius, hic iisdem etiam +poculis uteretur, postremo, ut, odor Apronii teterrimus oris et +corporis, quem, ut aiunt, ne bestiæ quidem ferre possent, uni isti +suavis et jucundus videretur. Ille erat in tribunali proximus; in +cubiculo socius; in convivio dominus, ac tum maxime, quum, +accubante prætextato prætoris filio, in convivio saltare nudus +cœperat."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">126</span></a> A great +deal is said of the <i>Cybea</i> in this and the last speech. The +money expended on it was passed through the accounts as though the +ship had been built for the defence of the island from pirates, but +it was intended solely for the depository of the governor's +plunder.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">127</span></a> In Verrem, +Actio Secunda, lib. iv., vii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">128</span></a> In Verrem, +Actio Secunda, lib. iv., lvii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">129</span></a> In Verrem, +Actio Secunda, lib.v., lxvi.: "Facinus est vinciri civem Romanum; +scelus verberari; prope parricidium necari; quid dicam in +crucem tollere!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">130</span></a> In Verrem, +Actio Secunda, lib. v., lxv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">131</span></a> In Verrem, +Actio Secunda, lib. v., xx.: "Onere suo plane captam atque +depressam."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">132</span></a> In Verrem, +Actio Secunda, lib. v., xxvi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">133</span></a> Ibid., +xxviii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">134</span></a> Pro +Fonteio, xiii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">135</span></a> De +Oratore, lib.ii., lix.: "Perspicitis, hoc genus quam sit facetum, +quam elegans, quam oratorium, sive habeas vere, quod narrare +possis, quod tamen, est mendaciunculis aspergendum, sive fingas." +Either invent a story, or if you have an old one, add on something +so as to make it really funny. Is there a parson, a bishop, an +archbishop, who, if he have any sense of humor about him, does not +do the same?</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">136</span></a> Cicero, +Pro Cluentio, l., explains very clearly his own idea as to his own +speeches as an advocate, and may be accepted, perhaps, as +explaining the ideas of barristers of to-day. "He errs," he says, +"who thinks that he gets my own opinions in speeches made in law +courts; such speeches are what the special cases require, and are +not to be taken as coming from the advocate as his own."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">137</span></a> When the +question is discussed, we are forced rather to wonder how many of +the great historical doings of the time are not mentioned, or are +mentioned very slightly, in Cicero's letters. Of Pompey's treatment +of the pirates, and of his battling in the East, little or nothing +is said, nothing of Cæsar's doings in Spain. Mention is made +of Cæsar's great operations in Gaul only in reference to the +lieutenancy of Cicero's brother Quintus, and to the employment of +his young friend Trebatius. Nothing is said of the manner of +Cæsar's coming into Rome after passing the Rubicon; nothing +of the manner of fighting at Dyrrachium and Pharsalia; very little +of the death of Pompey; nothing of Cæsar's delay in Egypt. +The letters deal with Cicero's personal doings and thoughts, and +with the politics of Rome as a city. The passage to which allusion +is made occurs in the life of Atticus, ca. xvi: "Quæ qui legat non +multum desideret historiam contextam illorum temporum."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">138</span></a> Jean +George Greefe was a German, who spent his life as a professor at +Leyden, and, among other classical labors, arranged and edited the +letters of Cicero. He died in 1703.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">139</span></a> It must be +explained, however, that continued research and increased knowledge +have caused the order of the letters, and the dates assigned to +them, to be altered from time to time; and, though much has been +done to achieve accuracy, more remains to be done. In my references +to the letters I at first gave them, both to the arrangement made +by Grævius and to the numbers assigned in the edition I am using; +but I have found that the numbers would only mislead, as no +numbering has been yet adopted as fixed. Arbitrary and even +fantastic as is the arrangement of Grævius, it is better to +confine myself to that because it has been acknowledged, and will +enable my readers to find the letters if they wish to do so. Should +Mr. Tyrrell continue and complete his edition of the correspondence, +he will go far to achieve the desired accuracy. A second volume has +appeared since this work of mine has been in the press.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">140</span></a> The +peculiarities of Cicero's character are nowhere so clearly legible +as in his dealings with and words about his daughter. There is an +effusion of love, and then of sorrow when she dies, which is +un-Roman, almost feminine, but very touching.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">141</span></a> I annex a +passage from our well known English translation: "The power of the +pirates had its foundation in Cilicia. Their progress was the more +dangerous, because at first it had been but little noticed. In the +Mithridatic war they assumed new confidence and courage, on account +of some services which they had rendered the king. After this, the +Romans being engaged in civil war at the very gates of their +capital, the sea was left unguarded, and the pirates by degrees +attempted higher things—not only attacking ships, but islands +and maritime towns. Many persons distinguished for their wealth, +birth and capacity embarked with them, and assisted in their +depredations, as if their employment had been worthy the ambition +of men of honor. They had in various places arsenals, ports, and +watch-towers, all strongly fortified. Their fleets were not only +extremely well manned, supplied with skilful pilots, and fitted for +their business by their lightness and celerity, but there was a +parade of vanity about them, more mortifying than their strength, +in gilded sterns, purple canopies, and plated oars, as if they took +a pride and triumphed in their villany. Music resounded, and +drunken revels were exhibited on every coast. Here generals were +made prisoners; and there the cities which the pirates had seized +upon were paying their ransom, to the great disgrace of the Roman +power. The number of their galleys amounted to a thousand, and the +cities taken to four hundred." The passage is taken from the life +of Pompey.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">142</span></a> Florus, +lib. iii., 6: "An felicitatem, quod ne una cuidam navis amissa est; +an vero perpetuitatem, quod amplius piratæ non fuerunt."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">143</span></a> Of the +singular trust placed in Pompey there are very many proofs in the +history of Rome at this period, but none, perhaps, clearer than the +exception made in this favor in the wording of laws. In the +agrarian law proposed by the Tribune Rullus, and opposed by Cicero +when he was Consul, there is a clause commanding all Generals under +the Republic to account for the spoils taken by them in war. But +there is a special exemption in favor of Pompey. "Pompeius exceptus +esto." It is as though no Tribune dared to propose a law affecting +Pompey.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">144</span></a> See +Appendix D.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">145</span></a> Asconius +Pedianus was a grammarian who lived in the reign of Tiberius, and +whose commentaries on Cicero's speeches, as far as they go, are +very useful in explaining to us the meaning of the orator. We have +his notes on these two Cornelian orations and some others, +especially on that of Pro Milone. There are also commentaries on +some of the Verrine orations—not by Asconius, but from the +pen of some writer now called Pseudo-Asconius, having been long +supposed to have come from Asconius. They, too, go far to elucidate +much which would otherwise be dark to us.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">146</span></a> Quint., +lib. viii., 3. The critic is explaining the effect of ornament in +oratory—of that beauty of language which with the people has +more effect than argument—and he breaks forth himself into +perhaps the most eloquent passage in the whole Institute: "Cicero, +in pleading for Cornelius, fought with arms which were as splendid +as they were strong. It was not simply by putting the facts before +the judges, by talking usefully, in good language and clearly, that +he succeeded in forcing the Roman people to acknowledge by their +voices and by their hands their admiration; it was the grandeur of +his words, their magnificence, their beauty, their dignity, which +produced that outburst."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">147</span></a> Orator., +lxvii. and lxx.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">148</span></a> De Lege +Agraria, ii., 2: "Meis comitiis non tabellam, vindicem tacitæ +libertatis, sed vocem vivam præ vobis, indicem vestrarum erga me +voluntatum ac studiorum tulistis. Itaque me * * * una voce +universus populus Romanus consulem declaravit."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_149_149"><span class="label">149</span></a> Sall., +Conj. Catilinaria, xxi.: "Petere consulatum C. Antonium, quem sibi +collegam fore speraret, hominem et familiarem, et omnibus +necessitudinibus circumventum." Sallust would no doubt have put +anything into Catiline's mouth which would suit his own purpose; +but it was necessary for his purpose that he should confine himself +to credibilities.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_150_150"><span class="label">150</span></a> Cicero +himself tells us that many short-hand writers were sent by +him—"Plures librarii," as he calls them—to take down +the words of the Agrarian law which Rullus proposed. De Lege Agra., +ii., 5. Pliny, Quintilian, and Martial speak of these men as +Notarii. Martial explains the nature of their business:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Currant verba licet, manus +est velocior illis;</span> <span class="i4">Nondum lingua suum, +dextra peregit opus."—xiv., 208.</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_151_151"><span class="label">151</span></a>Ad Att., +ii., 1. "Oratiunculas," he calls them. It would seem here that he +pretends to have preserved these speeches only at the request of +some admiring young friends. Demosthenes, of course, was the +"fellow-citizen," so called in badinage, because Atticus, deserting +Rome, lived much at Athens.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_152_152"><span class="label">152</span></a> This +speech, which has been lost, was addressed to the people with the +view of reconciling them to a law in accordance with which the +Equites were entitled to special seats in the theatre. It was +altogether successful.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_153_153"><span class="label">153</span></a> This, +which is extant, was spoken in defence of an old man who was +accused of a political homicide thirty-seven years before—of +having killed, that is, Saturninus the Tribune. Cicero was +unsuccessful, but Rabirius was saved by the common subterfuge of an +interposition of omens. There are some very fine passages in this +oration.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_154_154"><span class="label">154</span></a> This has +been lost. Cicero, though he acknowledged the iniquity of Sulla's +proscriptions, showed that their effects could not now be reversed +without further revolutions. He gained his point on this +occasion.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_155_155"><span class="label">155</span></a> This has +been lost. Cicero, in accordance with the practice of the time, was +entitled to the government of a province when ceasing to be Consul. +The rich province of Macedonia fell to him by lot, but he made it +over to his colleague Antony, thus purchasing, if not Antony's +co-operation, at any rate his quiescence, in regard to Catiline. He +also made over the province of Gaul, which then fell to his lot, to +Metellus, not wishing to leave the city. All this had to be +explained to the people.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_156_156"><span class="label">156</span></a> It will be +seen that he also defended Rabirius in his consular year, but had +thought fit to include that among his consular speeches. Some doubt +has been thrown, especially by Mr. Tyrrell, on the genuineness of +Cicero's letter giving the list of his "oratiunculas consulares," +because the speeches Pro Murena and Pro Pisone are omitted, and as +containing some "rather un-Ciceronian expressions." My respect for +Mr. Tyrrell's scholarship and judgment is so great that I hardly +dare to express an opinion contrary to his; but I should be sorry +to exclude a letter so Ciceronian in its feeling. And if we are to +have liberty to exclude without evidence, where are we to stop?</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_157_157"><span class="label">157</span></a> Corn. +Nepo., Epaminondas, I.: "We know that with us" (Romans) "music is +foreign to the employments of a great man. To dance would amount to +a vice. But these things among the Greeks are not only pleasant but +praiseworthy."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_158_158"><span class="label">158</span></a> Conj. +Catilinaria, xxv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_159_159"><span class="label">159</span></a> Horace, +Epis. i., xvii.:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i05">"Si sciret regibus uti</span> +<span class="i0">Fastidiret olus qui me notat."</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_160_160"><span class="label">160</span></a> Pro +Murena, xxix.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_161_161"><span class="label">161</span></a> Pro +Murena, x. This Sulpicius was afterward Consul with M. Marcellus, +and in the days of the Philippics was sent as one of a deputation +to Antony. He died while on the journey. He is said to have been a +man of excellent character, and a thorough-going conservative.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_162_162"><span class="label">162</span></a> Pro +Murena, xi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_163_163"><span class="label">163</span></a> Ibid., +xi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_164_164"><span class="label">164</span></a> Ibid., +xii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_165_165"><span class="label">165</span></a> Ibid., +xiii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_166_166"><span class="label">166</span></a> Ibid., +xi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_167_167"><span class="label">167</span></a> Pro +Cluentio, 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_168_168" id="Footnote_168_168"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_168_168"><span class="label">168</span></a> De Lege +Agraria, ii., 5.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_169_169" id="Footnote_169_169"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_169_169"><span class="label">169</span></a> He alludes +here to his own colleague Antony, whom through his whole year of +office he had to watch lest the second Consul should join the +enemies whom he fears—should support Rullus or go over to +Catiline. With this view, choosing the lesser of the two evils, he +bribes Antony with the government of Macedonia.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_170_170" id="Footnote_170_170"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_170_170"><span class="label">170</span></a> De Lege +Agraria, i., 7 and 8.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_171_171" id="Footnote_171_171"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_171_171"><span class="label">171</span></a> The "jus +imaginis" belonged to those whose ancestors was counted an Ædile, a +Prætor, or a Consul. The descendants of such officers were +entitled to have these images, whether in bronze, or marble, or +wax, carried at the funerals of their friends.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_172_172" id="Footnote_172_172"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_172_172"><span class="label">172</span></a> Forty +years since, Marius who was also "novus homo," and also, singularly +enough, from Arpinum, had been made Consul, but not with the +glorious circumstances as now detailed by Cicero.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_173_173" id="Footnote_173_173"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_173_173"><span class="label">173</span></a> De Lege +Agraria, ii., 1, 2, and 3.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_174_174" id="Footnote_174_174"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_174_174"><span class="label">174</span></a> See +Introduction.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_175_175" id="Footnote_175_175"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_175_175"><span class="label">175</span></a> Pliny the +elder, Hist. Nat., lib. vii., ca. xxxi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_176_176" id="Footnote_176_176"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_176_176"><span class="label">176</span></a> The word +is "proscripsisti," "you proscribed him." For the proper +understanding of this, the bearing of Cicero toward Antony during +the whole period of the Philippics must be considered.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_177_177" id="Footnote_177_177"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_177_177"><span class="label">177</span></a> Catiline, +by Mr. Beesly. Fortnightly Review, 1865.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_178_178" id="Footnote_178_178"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_178_178"><span class="label">178</span></a> Pro +Murena, xxv.: "Quem omnino vivum illinc exire non oportuerat." I +think we must conclude from this that Cicero had almost expected +that his attack upon the conspirators, in his first Catiline +oration, would have the effect of causing him to be killed.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_179_179" id="Footnote_179_179"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_179_179"><span class="label">179</span></a> Æneid, +viii., 668:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i6.5"><i>"Te, Catilina, +minaci</i></span> <span class="i0"><i>Pendentem +scopulo."</i></span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_180_180" id="Footnote_180_180"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_180_180"><span class="label">180</span></a> Velleius +Paterculus, lib. ii., xxxiv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_181_181" id="Footnote_181_181"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_181_181"><span class="label">181</span></a> Juvenal, +Sat. ii., 27: "Catilina Cethegum!" Could such a one as Catiline +answer such a one as Cethegus? Sat. viii., 232: "Arma tamen vos +Nocturna et flammas domibus templisque parastis." Catiline, in +spite of his noble blood, had endeavored to burn the city. Sat. +xiv., 41: "Catilinam quocunque in populo videas." It is hard to +find a good man, but it is easy enough to put your hand anywhere on +a Catiline.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_182_182" id="Footnote_182_182"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_182_182"><span class="label">182</span></a> Val +Maximus, lib. v., viii., 5; lib. ix., 1, 9; lib. ix., xi., 3.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_183_183" id="Footnote_183_183"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_183_183"><span class="label">183</span></a> Florus, +lib. iv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_184_184" id="Footnote_184_184"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_184_184"><span class="label">184</span></a> Mommsen's +History of Rome, book v., chap v.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_185_185" id="Footnote_185_185"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_185_185"><span class="label">185</span></a> I feel +myself constrained here to allude to the treatment given to +Catiline by Dean Merivale in his little work on the two Roman +Triumvirates. The Dean's sympathies are very near akin to those of +Mr. Beesly, but he values too highly his own historical judgment to +allow it to run on all fours with Mr. Beesly's sympathies. "The +real designs," he says, "of the infamous Catiline and his +associates must indeed always remain shrouded in +mystery. * * * Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny, and +on the whole it would be unreasonable to doubt, that such a +conspiracy there really was, and that the very existence of the +commonwealth was for a moment seriously imperilled." It would +certainly be unreasonable to doubt it. But the Dean, though he +calls Catiline infamous, and acknowledges the conspiracy, never- +theless give us ample proof of his sympathy with the conspirators, +or rather of his strong feeling against Cicero. Speaking of +Catiline at a certain moment, he says that he "was not yet hunted +down." He speaks of the "upstart Cicero," and plainly shows us that +his heart is with the side which had been Cæsar's. Whether +conspiracy or no conspiracy, whether with or without wholesale +murder and rapine, a single master with a strong hand was the one +remedy needed for Rome! The reader must understand that Cicero's +one object in public life was to resist that lesson.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_186_186" id="Footnote_186_186"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_186_186"><span class="label">186</span></a> Asconius, +"In toga candida," reports that Fenestella, a writer of the time of +Augustus, had declared that Cicero had defended Catiline; but +Asconius gives his reasons for disbelieving the story.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_187_187" id="Footnote_187_187"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_187_187"><span class="label">187</span></a> Cicero, +however, declares that he has made a difference between traitors to +their country and other criminals. Pro P. Sulla, ca. iii.: "Verum +etiam quædam contagio sceleris, si defendas eum, quem obstrictum +esse patriæ parricidio suspicere." Further on in the same oration, +ca. vi., he explains that he had refused to defend Autronius +because he had known Autronius to be a conspirator against his +country. I cannot admit the truth of the argument in which Mr. +Forsyth defends the practice of the English bar in this respect, +and in doing so presses hard upon Cicero. "At Rome," he says, "it +was different. The advocate there was conceived to have a much +wider discretion than we allow." Neither in Rome nor in England has +the advocate been held to be disgraced by undertaking the defence +of bad men who have been notoriously guilty. What an English +barrister may do, there was no reason that a Roman advocate should +not do, in regard to simple criminality. Cicero himself has +explained in the passage I have quoted how the Roman practice did +differ from ours in regard to treason. He has stated also that he +knew nothing of the first conspiracy when he offered to defend +Catiline on the score of provincial peculations. No writer has been +heavy on Hortensius for defending Verres, but only because he took +bribes from Verres.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_188_188" id="Footnote_188_188"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_188_188"><span class="label">188</span></a> Publius +Cornelius Sulla, and Publius Autronius Pœtus.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_189_189" id="Footnote_189_189"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_189_189"><span class="label">189</span></a> Pro P. +Sulla, iv. He declares that he had known nothing of the first +conspiracy and gives the reason: "Quod nondum penitus in republica +versabar, quod nondum ad propositum mihi finem honoris +perveneram, quod mea me ambitio et forensis labor ab omni illa +cogitatione abstrahebat."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_190_190" id="Footnote_190_190"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_190_190"><span class="label">190</span></a> Sallust, +Catilinaria, xviii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_191_191" id="Footnote_191_191"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_191_191"><span class="label">191</span></a> Livy, +Epitome, lib. ci.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_192_192" id="Footnote_192_192"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_192_192"><span class="label">192</span></a> Suetonius, +J. Cæsar, ix.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_193_193" id="Footnote_193_193"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_193_193"><span class="label">193</span></a> Mommsen, +book v., ca. v., says of Cæsar and Crassus as to this period, +"that this notorious action corresponds with striking exactness to +the secret action which this report ascribes to them." By which he +means to imply that they probably were concerned in the plot.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_194_194" id="Footnote_194_194"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_194_194"><span class="label">194</span></a> Sallust +tells us, Catilinaria, xlix., that Cicero was instigated by special +enemies of Cæsar to include Cæsar in the accusation, +but refused to mix himself up in so great a crime. Crassus also was +accused, but probably wrongfully. Sallust declares that an attempt +was made to murder Cæsar as he left the Senate. There was +probably some quarrel and hustling, but no more.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_195_195" id="Footnote_195_195"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_195_195"><span class="label">195</span></a> Sallust, +Catilinaria, xxxvii.: "Omnino cuncta plebes, novarum rerum studio, +Catilinæ incepta probabat." By the words "novarum rerum +studio"—by a love of revolution—we can understand the +kind of popularity which Sallust intended to express.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_196_196" id="Footnote_196_196"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_196_196"><span class="label">196</span></a> Pro +Murena, xxv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_197_197" id="Footnote_197_197"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_197_197"><span class="label">197</span></a> "Darent +operam consules ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_198_198" id="Footnote_198_198"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_198_198"><span class="label">198</span></a> +Catilinaria, xxxi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_199_199" id="Footnote_199_199"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_199_199"><span class="label">199</span></a> +Quintilian, lib. xii., 10: "Quem tamen et suorum homines temporum +incessere audebant, ut tumidiorem, et asianum, et redundantem."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_200_200" id="Footnote_200_200"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_200_200"><span class="label">200</span></a> Orator., +xxxvii.: "A nobis homo audacissimus Catilina in senatu accusatus +obmutuit."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_201_201" id="Footnote_201_201"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_201_201"><span class="label">201</span></a> 2 +Catilinaria, xxxi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_202_202" id="Footnote_202_202"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_202_202"><span class="label">202</span></a> In the +first of them to the Senate, chap. ix., he declares this to Catiline +himself: "Si mea voce perterritus ire in exsilium animum induxeris, +quanta tempestas invidiæ nobis, si minus in præsens tempus, +recenti memoria scelerum tuorum, at in posteritatem impendeat." He +goes on to declare that he will endure all that, if by so doing he +can save the Republic. "Sed est mihi tanti; dummodo ista privata sit +calamitas, et a reipublicæ periculis sejungatur."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_203_203" id="Footnote_203_203"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_203_203"><span class="label">203</span></a> Sallust, +Catilinaria, xli.: "Itaque Q. Fabio Sangæ cujus patrocinio civitas +plurimum utebatur rem omnem uti cognoverant aperiunt."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_204_204" id="Footnote_204_204"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_204_204"><span class="label">204</span></a> Horace, +Epo. xvi., 6: "Novisque rebus infidelis Allobrox." The unhappy +Savoyard has from this line been known through ages as a +conspirator, false even to his fellow-conspirators.</p> + +<p>Juvenal, vii., +214: "Rufum qui toties Ciceronem Allobroga dixit." Some Rufus, +acting as advocate, had thought to put down Cicero by calling him +an Allobrogian.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_205_205" id="Footnote_205_205"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_205_205"><span class="label">205</span></a> The words +in which this honor was conferred he himself repeats: "Quod urbem +incendiis, cæde cives, Italiam bello liberassem"—"because I +had rescued the city from fire, the citizens from slaughter, and +Italy from war."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_206_206" id="Footnote_206_206"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_206_206"><span class="label">206</span></a> It is +necessary in all oratory to read something between the lines. It is +allowed to the speaker to produce effect by diminishing and +exaggerating. I think we should detract something from the praises +bestowed on Catiline's military virtues. The bigger Catiline could +be made to appear, the greater would be the honor of having driven +him out of the city.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_207_207" id="Footnote_207_207"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_207_207"><span class="label">207</span></a> In +Catilinam, iii., xi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_208_208" id="Footnote_208_208"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_208_208"><span class="label">208</span></a> In +Catilinam, ibid., xii.: "Ne mihi noceant vestrum est +providere."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_209_209" id="Footnote_209_209"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_209_209"><span class="label">209</span></a> "Prince of +the Senate" was an honorary title, conferred on some man of mark as +a dignity—at this period on some ex-Consul; it conferred no +power. Cicero, the Consul who had convened the Senate, called on +the speakers as he thought fit.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_210_210" id="Footnote_210_210"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_210_210"><span class="label">210</span></a> +Cæsar, according to Sallust, had referred to the Lex Porcia. +Cicero alludes, and makes Cæsar allude, to the Lex Sempronia. +The Porcian law, as we are told by Livy, was passed <span class= +"smcap">b.c.</span> 299, and forbade that a Roman should be +scourged or put to death. The Lex Sempronia was introduced by C. +Gracchus, and enacted that the life of a citizen should not be +taken without the voice of the citizens.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_211_211" id="Footnote_211_211"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_211_211"><span class="label">211</span></a> Velleius +Paterculus, xxxvi.: "Consulatui Ciceronis non mediocre adjecit +decus natus eo anno Divus Augustus."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_212_212" id="Footnote_212_212"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_212_212"><span class="label">212</span></a> In +Pisonem, iii.: "Sine ulla dubitatione juravi rempublicam atque hanc +urbem mea unius opera esse salvam."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_213_213" id="Footnote_213_213"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_213_213"><span class="label">213</span></a> Dio +Cassius tells the same story, lib. xxxvii., ca. 38, but he adds +that Cicero was more hated than ever because of the oath he took: +καὶ ὅ μέν καὶ ἐκ τούτου πολὺ μᾶλλον ἐμισήθη.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_214_214" id="Footnote_214_214"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_214_214"><span class="label">214</span></a> It is the +only letter given in the collection as having been addressed direct +to Pompey. In two letters written some years later to Atticus, +<span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 49, lib. viii., 11, and lib. viii., +12, he sends copies of a correspondence between himself and Pompey +and two of the Pompeian generals.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_215_215" id="Footnote_215_215"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_215_215"><span class="label">215</span></a> Lib. v., +7. It is hardly necessary to explain that the younger Scipio and +Lælius were as famous for their friendship as Pylades and Orestes. +The "Virtus Scipiadæ et mitis sapientia Læli" have been made +famous to us all by Horace.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_216_216" id="Footnote_216_216"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_216_216"><span class="label">216</span></a> These two +brothers, neither of whom was remarkable for great qualities, +though they were both to be Consuls, were the last known of the +great family of the Metelli, a branch of the "Gens Cæcilia." +Among them had been many who had achieved great names for +themselves in Roman history, on account of the territories added to +the springing Roman Empire by their victories. There had been a +Macedonicus, a Numidicus, a Balearicus, and a Creticus. It is of +the first that Velleius Paterculus sings the glory—lib. i., +ca. xi., and the elder Pliny repeats the story, Hist. Nat., vii., +44—that of his having been carried to the grave by four sons, +of whom at the time of his death three had been Consuls, one had +been a Prætor, two had enjoyed triumphal honors, and one had been +Censor. In looking through the consular list of Cicero's lifetime, +I find that there were no less than seven taken from the family of +the Metelli. These two brothers, Metellus Nepos and Celer, again +became friends to Cicero; Nepos, who had stopped his speech and +assisted in forcing him into exile, having assisted as Consul in +obtaining his recall from exile. It is very difficult to follow the +twistings and turnings of Roman friendships at this period.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_217_217" id="Footnote_217_217"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_217_217"><span class="label">217</span></a> Velleius +Paterculus, lib. ii., ca. xiv. Paterculus tells us how, when the +architect offered to build the house so as to hide its interior +from the gaze of the world, Drusus desired the man so to construct +it that all the world might see what he was doing.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_218_218" id="Footnote_218_218"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_218_218"><span class="label">218</span></a> It may be +worth while to give a translation of the anecdote as told by Aulus +Gellius, and to point out that the authors intention was to show +what a clever fellow Cicero was. Cicero did defend P. Sulla this +year; but whence came the story of the money borrowed from Sulla we +do not know. "It is a trick of rhetoric craftily to confess charges +made, so as not to come within the reach of the law. So that, if +anything base be alleged which cannot be denied, you may turn it +aside with a joke, and make it a matter of laughter rather than of +disgrace, as it is written that Cicero did when, with a drolling +word, he made little of a charge which he could not deny. For when +he was anxious to buy a house on the Palatine Hill, and had not the +ready money, he quietly borrowed from P. Sulla—who was then +about to stand his trial, 'sestertium viciens'—twenty million +sesterces. When that became known, before the purchase was made, +and it was objected to him that he had borrowed the money from a +client, then Cicero, instigated by the unexpected charge, denied +the loan, and denied also that he was going to buy the house. But +when he had bought it and the fib was thrown in his teeth, he +laughed heartily, and asked whether men had so lost their senses as +not to be aware that a prudent father of a family would deny an +intended purchase rather than raise the price of the article +against himself."—Noctes Atticæ, xii., 12. Aulus Gellius +though he tells us that the story was written, does not tell us +where he read it.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_219_219" id="Footnote_219_219"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_219_219"><span class="label">219</span></a> I must say +this, "pace" Mr. Tyrrell, who, in his note on the letter to +Atticus, lib. i., 12, attempts to show that some bargain for such +professional fee had been made. Regarding Mr. Tyrrell as a critic +always fair, and almost always satisfactory, I am sorry to have to +differ from him; but it seems to me that he, too, has been carried +away by the feeling that in defending a man's character it is best +to give up some point.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_220_220" id="Footnote_220_220"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_220_220"><span class="label">220</span></a> I have +been amused at finding a discourse, eloquent and most enthusiastic, +in praise of Cicero and especially of this oration, spoken by M. +Gueroult at the College of France in June, 1815. The worst literary +faults laid to the charge of Cicero, if committed by +him—which M. Gueroult thinks to be doubtful—had been +committed even by Voltaire and Racine! The learned Frenchman, with +whom I altogether sympathize, rises to an ecstasy of violent +admiration, and this at the very moment in which Waterloo was being +fought. But in truth the great doings of the world do not much +affect individual life. We should play our whist at the clubs +though the battle of Dorking were being fought.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_221_221" id="Footnote_221_221"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_221_221"><span class="label">221</span></a> Pro P. +Sulla, iv.: "Scis me * * * illorum expertem temporum et +sermonum fuisse; credo, quod nondum penitus in republica versabar, +quod nondum ad propositum mihi finem honoris +perveneram. * * * Quis ergo intererat vestris consiliis? +Omnes hi, quos vides huic adesse et in primis Q. Hortensius."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_222_222" id="Footnote_222_222"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_222_222"><span class="label">222</span></a> Ad Att., +lib. i., 12.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_223_223" id="Footnote_223_223"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_223_223"><span class="label">223</span></a> Ad Att., +lib. i., 13.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_224_224" id="Footnote_224_224"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_224_224"><span class="label">224</span></a> Ibid., i., +14.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_225_225" id="Footnote_225_225"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_225_225"><span class="label">225</span></a>Ibid., i., +16: "Vis scire quomodo minus quam soleam præliatus sum."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_226_226" id="Footnote_226_226"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_226_226"><span class="label">226</span></a> "You have +bought a fine house," said Clodius. "There would be more in what +you say if you could accuse me of buying judges," replied Cicero. +"The judges would not trust you on your oath," said Clodius, +referring to the alibi by which he had escaped in opposition to +Cicero's oath. "Yes," replied Cicero, "twenty-five trusted me; but +not one of the thirty-one would trust you without having his bribe +paid beforehand."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_227_227" id="Footnote_227_227"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_227_227"><span class="label">227</span></a> Ad Att., +i., 14: "Proxime Pompeium sedebam. Intellexi hominem moveri."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_228_228" id="Footnote_228_228"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_228_228"><span class="label">228</span></a> Ibid.: +"Quo modo ἐνεπερπερευσάμην, novo auditori Pompeio."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_229_229" id="Footnote_229_229"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_229_229"><span class="label">229</span></a> Mommsen, +book v., chap. vi. This probably has been taken from the statement +of Paterculus, lib. ii., 40: "Quippe plerique non sine exercitu +venturum in urbem adfirmabant, et libertati publicæ statuturum +arbitrio suo modum. Quo magis hoc homines timuerant, eo gratior +civilis tanti imperatoris reditus fuit." No doubt there was a dread +among many of Pompey coming back as Sulla had come: not from +indications to be found in the character of Pompey, but because +Sulla had done so.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_230_230" id="Footnote_230_230"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_230_230"><span class="label">230</span></a> Florus, +lib.ii., xix. Having described to us the siege of Numantia, he goes +on "Hactenus populus Romanus pulcher, egregius, pius, sanctus atque +magnificus. Reliqua seculi, ut grandia æque, ita vel magis turbida +et fœda".</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_231_231" id="Footnote_231_231"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_231_231"><span class="label">231</span></a> We have +not Pollio's poem on the conspiracy, but we have Horace's record of +Pollio's poem:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">Motum ex Metello consule +civicum,</span> <span class="i0">Bellique causas et vitia, et +modos,</span> <span class="i3">Ludumque Fortunæ, gravesque</span> +<span class="i4">Principum amicitias, et arma</span> <span class= +"i0">Nondum expiatis uncta cruoribus,</span> <span class= +"i0">Periculosæ plenum opus aleæ,</span> <span class= +"i3">Tractas, et incedis per ignes</span> <span class= +"i4">Suppositos cineri doloso.—Odes, lib. ii., 1.</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_232_232" id="Footnote_232_232"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_232_232"><span class="label">232</span></a> The German +index appeared—very much after the original work—as +late as 1875.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_233_233" id="Footnote_233_233"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_233_233"><span class="label">233</span></a> Mommsen, +lib. v., chap. vi. I cannot admit that Mommsen is strictly +accurate, as Cæsar had no real idea of democracy. He desired +to be the Head of the Oligarchs, and, as such, to ingratiate +himself with the people.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_234_234" id="Footnote_234_234"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_234_234"><span class="label">234</span></a> For the +character of Cæsar generally I would refer readers to +Suetonius, whose life of the great man is, to my thinking, more +graphic than any that has been written since. For his anecdotes +there is little or no evidence. His facts are not all historical. +His knowledge was very much less accurate than that of modern +writers who have had the benefit of research and comparison. But +there was enough of history, of biography, and of tradition to +enable him to form a true idea of the man. He himself as a narrator +was neither specially friendly nor specially hostile. He has told +what was believed at the time, and he has drawn a character that +agrees perfectly with all that we have learned since.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_235_235" id="Footnote_235_235"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_235_235"><span class="label">235</span></a> By no one +has the character and object of the Triumvirate been so well +described as by Lucan, who, bombastic as he is, still manages to +bring home to the reader the ideas as to persons and events which +he wishes to convey. I have ventured to give in an Appendix, E, the +passages referred to, with such a translation in prose as I have +been able to produce. It will be found at the end of this +volume.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_236_236" id="Footnote_236_236"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_236_236"><span class="label">236</span></a> +Plutarch—Crassus: καὶ συνέστησεν ἐκ τῶν τριῶν ἰσχὺν ἄμαχον.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_237_237" id="Footnote_237_237"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_237_237"><span class="label">237</span></a> Velleius +Paterculus, lib. ii., 44: "Hoc igitur consule, inter eum et Cn. +Pompeium et M. Crassum inita potentiæ societas, quæ urbi orbique +terrarum, nec minus diverso quoque tempore ipsis exitiabilis fuit." +Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, xix., "Societatem cum utroque +iniit." Officers called Triumviri were quite common, as were +Quinqueviri and Decemviri. Livy speaks of a "Triumviratus"—or +rather two such offices exercised by one man—ix., 46. We +remember, too, that wretch whom Horace gibbeted, Epod. iv.: "Sectus +flagellis hic triumviralibus." But the word, though in common use, +was not applied to this conspiracy.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_238_238" id="Footnote_238_238"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_238_238"><span class="label">238</span></a> Ad Att., +lib.ii., 3: "Is affirmabat, illum omnibus in rebus meo et Pompeii +consilio usurum, daturumque operam, ut cum Pompeio Crassum +conjungeret. Hic sunt hæc. Conjunctio mihi summa cum Pompeio; si +placet etiam cum Cæsare; reditus in gratiam cum inimicis, pax +cum multitudine; senectulis otium. Sed me κατακλείς mea +illa commovet, quæ est in libro iii.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Interea cursus, quos prima a +parte juventæ</span> <span class="i0">Quosque adeo consul virtute, +animoque petisti,</span> <span class="i0">Hos retine, atque, auge +famam laudesque bonorum."</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_239_239" id="Footnote_239_239"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_239_239"><span class="label">239</span></a> Homer, +Iliad, lib. xii., 243: Εἶς οἰωνὸς ἄριστος ἀμύνεσθαι περὶ πάτραες.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_240_240" id="Footnote_240_240"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_240_240"><span class="label">240</span></a> +Middleton's Life of Cicero, vol. i., p. 291.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_241_241" id="Footnote_241_241"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_241_241"><span class="label">241</span></a> Pro Domo +Sua, xvi. This was an oration, as the reader will soon learn more +at length, in which the orator pleaded for the restoration of his +town mansion after his return from exile. It has, however, been +doubted whether the speech as we have it was ever made by +Cicero.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_242_242" id="Footnote_242_242"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_242_242"><span class="label">242</span></a> Suetonius, +Julius Cæsar, xx.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_243_243" id="Footnote_243_243"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_243_243"><span class="label">243</span></a> Ad Att., +lib.ii., 1: "Quid quæris?" says Cicero. "Conturbavi Græcam +nationem"—"I have put all Greece into a flutter."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_244_244" id="Footnote_244_244"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_244_244"><span class="label">244</span></a> De +Divinatione, lib. i.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_245_245" id="Footnote_245_245"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_245_245"><span class="label">245</span></a> Ad Quin. +Fratrem, lib.i., 1: "Non itineribus tuis perterreri homines? non +sumptu exhauriri? non adventu commoveri? Esse, quocumque veneris, +et publice et privatim maximam lætitiam; quum urbs custodem non +tyrannum; domus hospitem non expilatorem, recipisse videatur? His +autem in rebus jam te usus ipse profecto erudivit nequaquam satis +esse, ipsum hasce habere virtutis, sed esse circumspiciendum +diligentur, ut in hac custodia provinciæ non te unum, sed omnes +ministros imperii tui, sociis, et civibus, et reipublicæ præstare +videare."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_246_246" id="Footnote_246_246"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_246_246"><span class="label">246</span></a> Ad Quin. +Fratrem, lib. i., 1: "Ac mihi quidem videntur huc omnia esse +referenda iis qui præsunt aliis; ut ii, qui erunt eorum in imperio +sint quam beatissimi, quod tibi et esse antiquissimum et ab initio +fuisse, ut primum Asiam attigisti, constante fama atque omnium +sermone celebratum est. Est autem non modo ejus, qui sociis et +civibus, sed etiam ejus qui servis, qui mutis pecudibus præsit, +eorum quibus præsit commodis utilitatique servire."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_247_247" id="Footnote_247_247"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_247_247"><span class="label">247</span></a> "Hæc est +una in toto imperio tuo difficultas."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_248_248" id="Footnote_248_248"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_248_248"><span class="label">248</span></a> Mommsen, +book v., ca. 6.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_249_249" id="Footnote_249_249"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_249_249"><span class="label">249</span></a> Mommsen, +vol. v., ca. vi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_250_250" id="Footnote_250_250"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_250_250"><span class="label">250</span></a> Ad Att., +lib.ii., 7: "Atque hæc, sin velim existimes, non me abs te κατὰ τὸ πρακτικὸν quærere, quod gestiat animus aliquid +agere in republica. Jam pridem gubernare me tædebat, etiam quum +licebat."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_251_251" id="Footnote_251_251"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_251_251"><span class="label">251</span></a> Ad Att., +lib.ii., 8: "Scito Curionem adolescentem venisse ad me salutatum. +Valde ejus sermo de Publio cum tuis litteris congruebat, ipse vero +mirandum in modum Reges odisse superbos. Peræque narrabat incensam +esse juventutem, neque ferre hæc posse." The "reges superbos" were +Cæsar and Pompey.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_252_252" id="Footnote_252_252"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_252_252"><span class="label">252</span></a> Ad Att., +lib.ii., 5: Αἰδέομαι Τρῶας καὶ Τρωάδας ἑλκεσιπέπλους.—Il., vi., 442. "I fear what Mrs. Grundy would +say of me," is Mr. Tyrrell's homely version. Cicero's mind soared, +I think, higher when he brought the words of Hector to his service +than does the ordinary reference to our old familiar critic.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_253_253" id="Footnote_253_253"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_253_253"><span class="label">253</span></a> Quint., +xii., 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_254_254" id="Footnote_254_254"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_254_254"><span class="label">254</span></a> Enc. +Britannica on Cicero.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_255_255" id="Footnote_255_255"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_255_255"><span class="label">255</span></a> Ad Att., +lib. ii., 9.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_256_256" id="Footnote_256_256"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_256_256"><span class="label">256</span></a> Ibid.: +"Festive, mihi crede, et minore sonitu, quam putaram, orbis hic in +republica est conversus." "Orbis hic," this round body of three is +the Triumvirate.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_257_257" id="Footnote_257_257"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_257_257"><span class="label">257</span></a> We cannot +but think of the threat Horace made, Sat., lib. ii., 1:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i10">"At ille</span> <span class= +"i0">Qui me commorit, melius non tangere! clamo,</span> <span +class="i0">Flebit, et insignis tota cantabitur urbe."</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_258_258" id="Footnote_258_258"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_258_258"><span class="label">258</span></a> Ad Att., +lib.ii., 11: "Da ponderosam aliquam epistolam."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_259_259" id="Footnote_259_259"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_259_259"><span class="label">259</span></a> Josephus, +lib. xviii., ca. 5.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_260_260" id="Footnote_260_260"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_260_260"><span class="label">260</span></a> Ad Att., +lib. ii., 16.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_261_261" id="Footnote_261_261"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_261_261"><span class="label">261</span></a> Ad Att., +lib. ii., 18: "A Cæsare valde liberaliter invitor in +legationem illam, sibi ut sim legatus; atque etiam libera legatio +voti causa datur."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_262_262" id="Footnote_262_262"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_262_262"><span class="label">262</span></a> De +Legibus, lib.iii., ca.viii.: "Jam illud apertum prefecto est nihil +esse turpius, quam quenquam legari nisi republica causa."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_263_263" id="Footnote_263_263"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_263_263"><span class="label">263</span></a> It may be +seen from this how anxious Cæsar was to secure his silence, +and yet how determined not to screen him unless he could secure his +silence.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_264_264" id="Footnote_264_264"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_264_264"><span class="label">264</span></a> Ad +Quintum, lib. i., 2.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_265_265" id="Footnote_265_265"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_265_265"><span class="label">265</span></a> Of this +last sentence I have taken a translation given by Mr. Tyrrell, who +has introduced a special reading of the original which the sense +seems to justify.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_266_266" id="Footnote_266_266"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_266_266"><span class="label">266</span></a> Macrobius, +Saturnalia, lib.ii., ca.i.: We are told that Cicero had been called +the consular buffoon. "And I," says Macrobius, "if it would not be +too long, could relate how by his jokes he has brought off the most +guilty criminals." Then he tells the story of Lucius Flaccus.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_267_267" id="Footnote_267_267"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_267_267"><span class="label">267</span></a> See the +evidence of Asconius on this point, as to which Cicero's conduct +has been much mistaken. We shall come to Milo's trial before +long.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_268_268" id="Footnote_268_268"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_268_268"><span class="label">268</span></a> The +statement is made by Mr. Tyrrell in his biographical introduction +to the Epistles.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_269_269" id="Footnote_269_269"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_269_269"><span class="label">269</span></a> The 600 +years, or anni DC., is used to signify unlimited futurity.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_270_270" id="Footnote_270_270"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_270_270"><span class="label">270</span></a> Mommsen's +History, book v., ca. v.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_271_271" id="Footnote_271_271"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_271_271"><span class="label">271</span></a> Αὐτόμαλος ὠνομάζετο is the phrase of Dio Cassius. +"Levissume transfuga" is the translation made by the author of the +"Declamatio in Ciceronem." If I might venture on a slang phrase, I +should say that αὐτόμαλος was a man who "went off +on his own hook." But no man was ever more loyal as a political +adherent than Cicero.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_272_272" id="Footnote_272_272"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_272_272"><span class="label">272</span></a> Ad Att., +ii., 25.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_273_273" id="Footnote_273_273"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_273_273"><span class="label">273</span></a> We do not +know when the marriage took place, or any of the circumstances; but +we are aware that when Tullia came, in the following year, <span +class="smcap">b.c.</span> 57, to meet her father at Brundisium, she +was a widow.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_274_274" id="Footnote_274_274"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_274_274"><span class="label">274</span></a> Suetonius, +Julius Cæsar, xii.: "Subornavit etiam qui C. Rabirio +perduellionis diem diceret."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_275_275" id="Footnote_275_275"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_275_275"><span class="label">275</span></a> "Qui civem +Romanum indemnatum perimisset, ei aqua at igni interdiceretur."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_276_276" id="Footnote_276_276"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_276_276"><span class="label">276</span></a>Plutarch +tells us of this sobriquet, but gives another reason for it, +equally injurious to the lady's reputation.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_277_277" id="Footnote_277_277"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_277_277"><span class="label">277</span></a> Ad Att., +lib. iii., 15.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_278_278" id="Footnote_278_278"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_278_278"><span class="label">278</span></a> In +Pisonem, vi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_279_279" id="Footnote_279_279"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_279_279"><span class="label">279</span></a> Ad Att., +lib. x., 4.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_280_280" id="Footnote_280_280"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_280_280"><span class="label">280</span></a> We are +told by Cornelius Nepos, in his life of Atticus, that when Cicero +fled from his country Atticus advanced to him two hundred and fifty +sesterces, or about £2000. I doubt, however, whether the +flight here referred to was not that early visit to Athens which +Cicero was supposed to have made in his fear of Sulla.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_281_281" id="Footnote_281_281"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_281_281"><span class="label">281</span></a> Ad Fam., +lib. xiv., iv.: "Tullius to his Terentia, and to his young Tullia, +and to his Cicero," meaning his boy.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_282_282" id="Footnote_282_282"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_282_282"><span class="label">282</span></a> Pro Domo +Sua, xxiv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_283_283" id="Footnote_283_283"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_283_283"><span class="label">283</span></a> Ad Quin. +Fra., 1, 3.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_284_284" id="Footnote_284_284"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_284_284"><span class="label">284</span></a> The reader +who wishes to understand with what anarchy the largest city in the +world might still exist, should turn to chapter viii. of book v. of +Mommsen's History.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_285_285" id="Footnote_285_285"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_285_285"><span class="label">285</span></a> Ad Att., +lib. iii., 12.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_285" id="Footnote_1_285"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_1_285"><span class="label">286</span></a> Horace, Epis., +lib. ii., 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_286" id="Footnote_2_286"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_2_286"><span class="label">287</span></a> Ad Att., +lib. i., 8.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_3_287" id="Footnote_3_287"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_3_287"><span class="label">288</span></a> Horace, Epis., +lib. ii., 11. The translation is Conington's.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_4_288" id="Footnote_4_288"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_4_288"><span class="label">289</span></a> Vell. Pat., +lib. i., xiii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_289" id="Footnote_1_289"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_1_289"><span class="label">290</span></a> "Civile;" when +Sulla, with Pompey under him, was fighting with young Marius and +Cinna.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_290" id="Footnote_2_290"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_2_290"><span class="label">291</span></a> "Africanum;" +when he had fought with Domitius, the son-in-law of Cinna, and with +Hiarbas.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_3_291" id="Footnote_3_291"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_3_291"><span class="label">292</span></a> +"Transalpinum;" during his march through Gaul into Spain.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_4_292" id="Footnote_4_292"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_4_292"><span class="label">293</span></a> "Hispaniense;" +in which he conquered Sertorius.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_5_293" id="Footnote_5_293"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_5_293"><span class="label">294</span></a> "Servile;" the +war with Spartacus, with the slaves and gladiators.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_6_294" id="Footnote_6_294"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_6_294"><span class="label">295</span></a> "Navale +Bellum;" the war with the pirates.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_295" id="Footnote_1_295"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_1_295"><span class="label">296</span></a>For the full +understanding of this oft-quoted line the reader should make +himself acquainted with Cato's march across Libya after the death +of Pompey, as told by Lucan in his 9th book.</p> +</div> + + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h4>END OF VOLUME I.</h4> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Cicero, by Anthony Trollope + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF CICERO *** + +***** This file should be named 8945-h.htm or 8945-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/9/4/8945/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Marc D'Hooghe, Steve Whitaker, and +the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +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 +http://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, are 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 http://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 +http://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 http://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 http://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 checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is 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. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://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. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> + |