(QotncU Unittetaitg Slihtata jltljara, N»in lark FROM Henry Woodward Sackett, '75 A BEQUEST Cornell University Library DG 260 .C56S39 1894 Cicero and the fall of the Roman, .Republi 3 1924 026 373 575 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026373575 Iberoes of tbe IRations. PER VOLUME, CLOTH, |l.50. HALF MOROCCO, $1.75- I.— Nelson, and the Naval Supremacy of England. By W. Clark Russell, author of "The Wreck of the Grosvenor," etc. 11.— Gustavus Adolphus, and the Struggle of Protest- antism for Existence. By C. R. L. Fletcher, M.A., late Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. III.— Pericles, and the Golden Age of Athens. By Evelyn Abbott, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. XV. — Theodoric the Goth, the Barbarian Champion o) Civilization. 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FROM A BUST NOW IN THE ROYAL GALLERY IN MADRID. CICERO AND THE FALL OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC BY J. L. STRACHAN-DAVIDSON, M.A. FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK LONDON 27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND S^e ^tticktrbotliM ^rcss T8g4 . ^ 1 3' COPYKIGHT, i8g4 COPYKIGHT, i: BY G. p. PUTNAM'S SONS Entered at Stationers' Hall^ London Electrotyped, Printed and Bound by llbc Iknicherbochev iprees, IHew l^ork G. P. Putnam's Soi.s CONTENTS. • I. — Cicero's training (106-74 ^'-C.) • 11. — ROMAN PARTIES AND STATESMEN (81-71 B.C.) • III. — CICERO AS AN ADVOCATE. ATTICUS. CICERO's FAMILY (71-67 B.C.) . . . . IV. CICERO AS A MAGISTRATE (69-63 B.C.) V. CICERO AND CATILINE (63 B.C.). . VI. CICERO'S IDEAL PARTY (63-60 B.C.) . VII. — THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE (60-59 B.C.) VIII. CICERO'S EXILE AND RETURN (58-56 B.C.) IX. ROME AFTER THE CONFERENCE OF LUCA (56-52 B.C.) CICERO AS PROVINCIAL GOVERNOR. TIRO C^LIUS. ROME ON THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR (51-50 B.C.) . ■the civil war (49-47 b.c.) ■Cesar's dictatorship (47-44 b.c.) cicero and antony (44-43 b.c.) X.—< XI.- XII.- XIII.- INDEX PAGE I 24 52 81 no 159 201 229 262 29s 323 345 380 431 ILLUSTRATIONS. FACE PAGE CICERO, FROM THE BUST IN THE ROYAL GALLERY IN MADRID ..... Frontispiece ARPINUM ' JDuruy 4 CASCADE OF THE LIRIS .... Duruy 10 SLING MISSILES FOUND AT ASCULUM . Duruy 36 COIN STRUCK BY ITALIANS IN THE SOCIAL WAR. Duruy 5 1 BUST OF HORTENSIUS, FROM BERNOUILLl's " Ro- mische Ikonographie " . . . . .62 COINS OF AGRiPPA AND DRUsus . . ' CoAen j6 COIN OF MITHRIDATES .... Duruy 86 COINS OF POMPEY ^ Babeloii 86 WALLS OF F^SUL^ (fIESOLe) . DurUy 122 FRIEZE OF THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD . Duruy I38 THE TULLIANUM : ANCIENT PRISON OF THE KINGS. Duruy 148 BONA DEA : THE GODDESS OF FERTILITY Duruy 172 COIN OF C^SAR, WITH HEAD OF VENUS Cohetl 172 ANCIENT ROMAN AS ... . Babelon 200 ' Duruy's "History of Rome." '^ Cohen and Fenardent, "Description Hisiorique des Monnaies Frafpdes sous V Empire Remain.'' ^ Babelon's ' ' Description des Monnaies de la Republique Romaine.'' VI Illustrations. FACE PAGE THE THREE COLUMNS OF THE TEMPLE OF CASTOR. Duruy 232 LUCA THE SHE-WOLF OF THE CAPITOL . RUINS OF THE CIRCUS OF BOVILL^ COIN OF C^SAR COINS OF NERO AND AGRIPPINA C^SAR, FROM THE BUST IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM COINS OF C^SAR COINS OF C^SAR, BRUTUS, AND ANTONY Cohcit COIN OF SEXTus POMPEius , Babeloii THE YOUNG AUGUSTUS, FROM BAUMEISTER's " Denk- mdle7- des klassischen Alter turns " MAP OF THE CAMPAIGN ABOUT MUTINA . Duruy 264 Duruy 282 Duruy 286 Cohen 326 Cohen 326 346 350 382 382 394 430 ^'t PREFACE ^ORE is known of Cicero than of any other person of the ancient world, and almost in proportion to the knowledge is the con- troversy of opinion concerning him. I formerly attempted a discus- sion of some disputed points in articles in the Quarterly Review (1879 ^"d 1880) on the writings of Mr. Froude and Mr. Beesley. Some paragraphs from these articles are incorporated in the present volume. Here, however, my business is not to criticise but t narrate, and I have refrained even from the con- futation of Drumann, with whose utterances I find myself at issue on almost every page. In writing Roman history it is impossible to escape from the influence of the genius of Mommsen. Sometimes by suggestion, sometimes by repulsion, his presence is always felt. I have likewise more especially to acknowledge the aid which I have received from the comments of Tyrrell and Purser, of Boissier, and of Watson. As a lecturer, constantly using Mr. Watson's Letters of Cicero for my text-book, I naturally appropriate the result of his labours, and cannot always clearly distinguish how much of my, material is borrowed from him. CICERO, AND THE FALL OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. CHAPTER I. CICERO S TRAINING. J3.ii. HE purpose of this volume is to tell the story of Cicero's life, and at the same time to set forth from his writings a presentation of the concluding age of the Roman Republic, and to record the disastrous but not inglorious failure of the last Free State of the an- cient world. So far as may be, I propose to let Cicero himself speak to my readers. The " most eloquent of all the sons of Romulus," as a contemporary poet * calls * CatuUus, 49, i. Cicero's Training. him, committed his orations to writing after their delivery, and gave them to the world. These speeches are public documents which were a living force in the practical politics of Rome ; we must not expect absolute candour in words thus spoken and written for a purpose ; but it is much to know what were the assertions, the sentiments, and the reason- ings which rang in the ears of the Romans them- selves at this momentous crisis of their fate. Still more important for the purpose of our story are the private letters, and especially the letters to Atticus. We have before us the very words in which Cicero recorded his thoughts from day to day in all the confidence of intimate friendship. Cicero was not a man of cool and cautious temperament, afraid to commit himself to opinions, accurately weighing and discounting probabilities beforehand, or occupying by anticipation the province of the philosophical historian. From the letters of such a one we should have learnt comparatively little. We have to deal with a man of lively mind, quick to receive impres- sions, rushing to conclusions, garrulous in expression, and sensitively responsive to the prevailing temper or drift of opinion. In communing with Atticus he never pauses to make his writing self-consistent or plausible. Reasons "plentiful as blackberries" crowd through his mind as he writes, and the reasons of to-day will often not fit in with those of yesterday. There is no reticence, no economy of statement ; every passing fancy, every ebullition of temper, every varying mood of exultation and depression, every momentary view of men and 106 B.C.] Arpinum. things, finds itself accurately mirrored in these let- ters. The time lives again before us in the pages of \^ Cicero, and, thanks to him, he and his contempora- ries are for us not mere lay-figures but actual flesh and blood. Marcus Tullius Cicero was born on the third of January in the year io6 B.C., about the end of the war with Jugurtha. His forefathers had inhabited from time immemorial the town of Arpimma in the Volscian mountains which part Latium from Cam- pania. Cic ero was therefore _3^tribesmaa of the hard}'jucejwhosejwars_with-E.oine, filled the early pages of Latin history. Some would have it * that he wastrdescendant of Aufidius or Attius TulHus, the Volscian partner and rival of Coriolanus. The struggle with Rome had ended more than 200 years before Cicero was born ; after generations of gallant resistance the Volscians of Arginuimvere jeduced to the lowly position of "^idtizenswithout the right of suffrage,l'„livirig: under Roman law and serving in ^the^ Roman legions withouF political privileges either in their own town or in the capital. But the races predestined to political greatness possess the faculty of forgetting that which it is best not to remember ; and this invaluable gift of character was not wanting to the Volscians. The memory of their alien origin faded away, and they frankly accepted their place as humble members of the great Roman commonwealth. Their ambition now was to attain the full Roman citizenship, and Rome, at the begin- ning of the second century before Christ, was still * Plutarch, Cic, i. Cicero s Training. wise enough to encourage and reward such aspira- tions. The full franchise was granted to the Arpi- nates in the year i88 B.C., shortly before the death of Hannibal and of Scipio Africanus. In the next generation the Romans deliberately set aside the wisdom of their ancestors, and adopted a system of harsh and rigid exclusion in the place of the liberal practice of gradually elevating aliens to the citizen- ship, by which the greatness of Rome had been built up. The punishment for this political crime came upon them when, a century after the enfranchise- ment of Arpinum, their Italian allies, after having in vain sought the citizenship by peaceful agitation, at length resolved to demand it at the point of the sword. During the Social War (B.C. 90 and 89) and during the civic conflicts which grew out of it, Rome tardily granted to the Italians, in the midst of her own ruin and theirs, the boon which, if accorded a few years earlier, would have averted irreparable disasters from the nation.* So far, however, as Arpinum was concerned, the old liberal policy of Rome had lasted just long enough to secure its inclusion ; and thus it came to pass that in her hour of peril Rome could reckon Caius Marius among her citizens. While Cicero was still an infant, the great soldier of Arpinum tri- umphed over Jugurtha ; then re-elected during five successive years (B.C. 104- 100) to the consulship, he crushed by two splendid victories the invading hordes of the Cimbri and Teu- * See below, p. 1 1, 0- ^ < — Arpinum. 5 tones and saved Rome in this her first conflict with the German race. Along with the full Roman franchise the Arpinates now enjoyed a considerable measure of local self- government. They were an organised community, capable of deciding local questions for themselves, and with their local politics and parties. We get an interesting glimpse of Arpinum in the second cen- tury B.C. from a passing notice which Cicero * gives of his family two generations back. " Our grand- father showed great qualities in the administration of this borough, opposing throughout his life his brother-in-law Gratidius, who wished to introduce elections by ballot. For Gratidius raised storms in a sauce-boat, as the saying goes, just as his son IVIarius f did on the high seas. When the matter was reported to the consul Scaurus, he ^ 115 B.C. remarked to our ancestor : ' Such prin- ciples and such firmness, Marcus Cicero, should have a field for their exercise by our side in the imperial politics of the capital rather than in the local politics of your borough.' " The contrast here marked between the central unity of Rome and the local life of the township, is a characteristic feature of these Italian " municipia." Arpinum was one of the earlier of these " borough- * De Leg., iii., i6, 36. f This Marius Gratidianus was a partisan of his great namesake and probably his kinsman by adoption. He was guilty of many out- rages during the domination of his faction, and was himself murdered with circumstances of much brutality by Catiline, when Sulla in turn triumphed. 6 Cicero s Training. towns," but the whole of Italy was after the Social War organised on the same plan. Each community of newly enfranchised Romans had its own institu- tions, its own magistrates and its own local patriot- ism, which however did not interfere with the allegiance of every citizen to the city of Rome. " Every burgess of a corporate town," says Cicero,* " has, I take it, two father-lands, that of which he is a native, and that of which he is a citizen. I will never deny my allegiance to my native town, only I will never forget that Rome is my greater Father- land, and that Arpinum is but a portion of Rome." It will be noticed that while Cicero loves to call him- self an Arpinate, and exults to call himself a Roman, he has succeeded in quite forgetting that he is a Volscian. The insolence of the Roman nobles, especially if they happened to be of patrician blood, might some- times tempt them to sneer at the modern origin of these municipal Romans. Catiline could speak of Cicero as " a naturalised immigrant," and the young Manlius Torquatus, pleading against him at the bar, could describe his consulship as " the reign of an alien," because forsooth Cicero " came from a borough-town." " I will give you a piece of advice, my young friend," says Cicero in reply f ; " when you are to sue for office, do not use that expression about any of your competitors ; else you may find yourself swamped by the votes of the ' aliens.' " The statesman who came from a country-town in * De Leg., ii., 2, 5. f Pro Sulla, 8, 24. Arpinum. 7 Italy was perhaps more than compensated for the lack of ancestral connection with the city of Rome, by the keen interest which his fellow-townsmen and neighbours took in his political career, by their pride and delight in his exploits, and by their anxiety for the reputation which reflected credit on their native place. In this respect the country-towns were in strong contrast with the civic and suburban districts, such as that of Tusculum, which were surfeited with famous and- noble families and were careless about their local worthies. " This is our way," says Cicero,* pleading the cause of a client from his own Volscian district, " and this is the way of our native towns. Why need I speak of my brother and my- self? The very fields, if I may say so, and the mountains were partisans in our elections. Do you ever hear a Tusculan boasting of the great Marcus Cato, foremost though he was in every virtue, or of Coruncanius his fellow-townsman, or of all the famous men who have borne the name of Fulvius ? No one ever says a word about them. But if you are in company with any burgess of Arpinum, you will probably have to listen, however little you may like the topic, to something about me and my brother : most certainly you will not get off without some reference to Caius Marius." " Our boroughs," he proceeds,t " lay great stress on the duties of neigh- bourship. In what I say about Plancius I am found- ing on what I experienced in my own case, for we are close neighbours of the Atinates. Most lauda- * Fro Plancio, i, 20. , ^j^,, j^->,'. a-,). .:,'(i^: \ Pro Flancio, (), 22. ^ \''' , . ',^ ; ut" 8 Cicerds Training. ble, or rather I should say lovable, is this feeling of good neighbourship, which keeps the constant fashion of the olden time, not shadowed by thoughts of evil, not practised in untruths, not veneered with false colours, undisciplined in the arts of the suburb and of the city. In all Arpinum there was not a man but strove his utmost for Plancius, not one in Sora, not one in Casinum, not one in Aquinum. All that well-peopled district of Venafrum and AUifae, all that rugged mountainous faithful plain-dealing clannish land of ours felt that it was honoured in his advancement and dignified in his dignity." Cicero himself shared the feelings which he so finely describes. It is always with a throb of pleasure that he betakes himself to his mountain home. "Ad monies patrios, et ad incunabula nostra." In speaking of it he loves to borrow the language of the home-sick Ulysses as he sets his face toward Ithaca. " Rugged is she, but nurse of a worthy breed of sons ; never can I see anything to glad my heart like that land." The little town still stands in the Volscian highlands, and over its gate the traveller may read an inscription which the burgesses have put up to commemorate their two great townsmen Marius and Cicero. The family of Cicero had held for many genera- : tions a place of honour and influence in this little community. They belonged to the up per-midd le classjn^fortune and position, a class which (from a reminiscence of the time when wealth determined the nature of military service) the Romans named "the equestrian order." They had never ventured Arpinum. 9 into the arena of national politics, or aspired to the magistracies of the imperial State. The family house, the actual birthplace of Cicero, was situated some three mii€s from the town on the banks of the river Filj^gnjis, an affluent of the Liris. The place maybest be described in the words of Cicero him- self, who has made it the scene of his dialogue on the Laws. The second book of that treatise opens as follows : — Atticus. We have had enough walking, and you have come to a pause in your argument. What if we were to cross over and sit down to finish our conversation in the island of the Fibrenus — ^that, I think, is the name of this second stream ? Cicero. By all means, for this is my favourite spot whenever I want to think over anything quietly or to write or to read. Atticus. For my part, this is the first time I have been at the place, and I cannot have enough of it ; I think scorn now of splendid villas and marble pavements and fretted roofs. When one looks at this, one can only smile at the artificial canals which our fashionable friends call their " Nile " or their " Euripus.'' Just now when you were discussing law and jurisprudence you ascribed everything to nature ; and certainly in regard to these objects at any rate which we seek for the repose and refreshment of the mind, nature is the only true mistress. I used to wonder when I considered that theri^was nothing in this district but rocks and mountains, (so I gathered from your verses and speeches), I used to wonder, I say, that you so delighted in this spot. Now on the contrary my astonishment is that, when you are away from Rome, you can bear to be anywhere else but here. Cicero. Nay, whenever I am able to take a long absence from the city, especially if it be at this time of year, I seek this pleasant and healthy spot ; but it is not often that I have the chance. However I have another reason for loving it, which will not affect you so much. Atticus. What reason, pray ? Cicero. Well, if the truth must be told, this and no other is the very native land of Quintus and myself : here is the ancient stock from which we are sprung, here are our sacred rites, here our kindred, lO Cicero's Training. here countless traces of our ancestors. Just look at this country- house ; you see it, as it is now, enlarged by the care of my father, who having weak health passed almost all his life here in literary pur- suits ; but in this very house, I must tell you, when it was a little old-fashioned cottage, like that of Curius in the Sabine country, I was born. And so there is a something, some sort of lurking feeling and fancy, which seems to make me take a peculiar pleasure in it. And why not ? when we remember that the wise man of old is said to have rejected immortality that he might see Ithaca once more. The early years of Cicero were spent partly in his native hills, partly in Rome. He^dls that,^s far back as he can remember anything, he recollects the help and the encouragernent which his childish efforts received from the poet Archias. Archias came to Rome in I02 B.C. (when Cicero would be four yeaFs^bl'dJUid lived as an inmate of the house of Lucullus. When, forty years later, Cicero ap- peared as counsel for his old tutor, and successfully asserted his claims to the citizenship before a Roman law-court,* he told the jury that Archias had more right than any man living to claim the benefit of whatever skill in pleading he possessed, for it was Archias who had first implanted in him the love of those studies which had made him an orator. Throughout life Cicero was an omnivorous reader. His theory was that a man who wished to excel in oratory could not study too much nor make his range of culture too wide; and we gather from his descriptions f that he and the group of cousins to which he belonged were trained from the first on this system. * See below, p. iqo. \ De Oraiore^ ii., i. Social War. 1 1 Cicero e otered on manhnnH in IrauJaWLS- l-ime-;. The final defeat of the Cimbri in loi B.C. and the dis- turbances at home which cost Saturninus his life in the next year had been followed by a period of com- parative quiet. But the precious time had been wasted ; the enfranchisement of ^the Italians had been vainly urged by the great tribune, Livius Drusus, who laid down his life in their cause, and now , in the year 90 B.C., the seventeenth of Cicero's life, the obstinate apathy of Rome was rudely disturbed by the revolt of the Italian allies. In this war Cicero served his apprenticeship as a soldier. His references to personal recollections show that he was-a1rorre~trme-with_the northern army under Pompeius Strabo,* and at another with the southern army under Sulla.f This was in the second year of the war. During the year 90 he remained in Rome and we find in the BriitusX a full account of the condition of things in ^ „ ° . 90 B.C. the city and of his own way of life there. Cicero was eager to use his new emancipa- tion from boyhood by listening_tQ_the speeches of the b est orators _ol the time. But all ordihaty-biisi- ness was interrupted by the war ; Hortensius, the rising light of the bar, was away with the army ; so was Sulpicius Rufus, the most distinguished among the men in middle life, and Antonius, the most famous orator of the seniors; Crassus, the great rival of Antonius, had died the year before. The *■ Philif.,Ti\\., II, 27. \De Div., i., 33, 72. XBruL, 89. Vr^ ; 12 Cicero s Training. [90 B.C. (J law-courts were closed with the exception of the Commission for High-treason. This court had ^ been instituted by the democratic and equestrian * .A- parties against those friends of Drusus whose policy /? would have averted the Social War, and who were '■ now accused of having caused it. The noblest men ^ '^ in Rome were brought to the bar on the charge of ■'' i' having "incited the allies to revolt." One of the f.'][. victims was the orator Caius Cotta. " His_exile," V -V \. writes Cicero,t " justjit the -time-^wien I w3S.jnost Xy" r anximis^^o^;ar''hLro was the first untoward incident mmy career." Cicero had to content himself with fisteiTinglo the poHtical harangues of the magis- trates. Of these there was no lack ; Varius, Carbo and Cnsus Pomponius "seemed," he says, "as if they had taken lodgings on the Rostra." Cicero at- tended them all diligently " and every day wrote and read and took notes." In the year 88 B.C. he studied the technical part of / his art with the Rhodian rhetorician Molo, who was then visiting Rome. Philosophical training was sup- plied him first by the Athenian Academician Philo, (who fled from the disturbances of the Mithridatic War and took refuge at Rome in this year) and after- wards by the Stoic Diodotus. Diodotus became for many years an inmate of Cicero's house, and died there at last in the year 59, making his great pupil his heir. A yet more important aid to Cicero's mental de- velopment was the instruction which he received * See below, p, 35. \Brut., 89. 88 B.C.] His Teachers. 13 from S£ae\ralaJhe_.3ugiiivJJbe_gi^^sjt_j£w^ his time. " My father/' writes Cicero,* " immediately afEeFI had put on the dress of manhood, introduced me to him, instructing me that, so far as I found it possible and was permitted to do so, I should remain continually at his side. And so I committed to memory many of his wise discourses and pithy say- ings, and strove to learn from his wisdom." After the death of the augur (probably in the year 87) Cicero attended on his cousin and namesake Scae- vola the pontifex maximus, " whom above all others of our nation I venture to call the most eminent in talent and in justice." From these men Cicero, though he never professed the science of jurispru- dence, gained such a practical knowledge of the laws of his country, that he was well equipped for the duties of an advocate. The year of Sulla's first consulship (88 B.C.) marks the close of the Social War and the beginning of the yet more fatal Civil War which was its conse- quence. Now for the first time Roman armies were ranged against one another on the battle-field ; the leaders of the beaten party were executed by public authority and their heads exposed on the Rostra as those of enemies of the State. This year saw the first victory of Sulla, the next year the return of Marius. Both made havoc amongst the most bril- liant orators of Rome. Sulpicius Rufus, Antonius, Catulus, and Caius JuHus (whom Cicero brings to- gether, along with Crassus, as the personages of his dialogue De Oratore) had all perished before quiet * De Amicitia, i, i. 14 Cicero's Training. [81 B.C. was restored for a time in the year 86. Cotta was still in exile, and for the next three years Hortensius was almost without a rival at the bar. Then with the return of Sulla from the East in 83 the civil wars and massacres began again, ending at last with the re-establishment by Sulla of the oligarchical con- stitution. Just upon the close of this period of disorder, about the year ,8 1 RP., Cicero^aita;^ hisj^ng^dirai- nary training-began to speak iii_tlieJaHi=C0«-Fts-. He was now about twenty-five years of age. An early speech is preserved to us from a suit in which the young advocate matched himself for the first time with Hortensius. He repeatedly reTefs^foTiis timid- fEy on this occasion, and says * that when his friend Roscius, the great comic actor, urged him to the attempt, he replied, " that he fears he will seem as impudent as a man who should strive for the palm of comedy with Roscius himself." Elsewhere f he relates that he was ambitious to imitate the two leaders of the bar (for Cotta had now been restored by Sulla), but of the two he considered Hortensius the better model. Next year Cicero had the opportunity of estab- lishing oncei.oj- all his own position as^" great ad vo- 80 B.C. ^-^' During .Su lja'^ rejc rji nf f^t-nr' legalised murder had been an every- day occurrence in Rome, and it was not easy to confine the slaughter within the precise limits which the Dictator ordained. In the midst of the confu- * Pro Quinctio, 24, 77. f Brutus, Q2, 317. 80 B.C.] Roscius of Ameria. 15 sion, when the city was full of gangs of assassins hunting down their victims for the sake of the blood- money promised by the government, Sg2£tusJRjaacius, a wealthy citizen of Ameria, who -IraH'^rved in Sulla's army and had come to Rome after his vic- tory, wasmurdeFed'ln the street as he returned home from-^upfrcrr' The assassins were neighbours and distant kinsmen who ha^ been on bad terms with the murdered man. The:se men next applied to_Chrysogoniis, a favmiril-p freedman of the Dicta- tor, and induced him to get the name of Roscius- inserted in theTroscfiption list. His property was theretrpoiT'confiscated and sold en bloc at a sham auction ; Chrysogonus was the buyer, and paid into the treasury the sum of .^20 as the purchase money of an estate worth ^^60,000. He then con- stituted the murderers his agents and employed them to oust from his father's house the only son of the deceased, who had remained throughout in his country-seat at Ameria. Chrysogonus and his associates now divided the property at their lei- sure. But they could not feel quite sure that the son, named HKe hiaJaEh^r Sextus Roscius, would not one-day^^all them_La^ccount. To assassinate him, now that times were quieter, was not so easy ; so they adopted the plan of accusing him of being the murderer of his father. If they could procure his condemnation on a capital charge, he would, even if he evaded actual execution by exile, be quite power- less to annoy them in the future. It mattered little to the promoters of the accusation, that they were notoriously in possession of the property of the de- 1 6 Cicero s Training. [80 B.C. ceased, and that if he had come to his death, as they now pretended, by the parricidal machinations of his own son, his goods could not be liable to confis- cation as those of a proscribed person. They calcu- lated that this side of the story would never come out in court. No advocate, they thought, would venture to say a word of the Proscription, of the confiscation of the property, and of its purchase for an old song by Chrysogonus. How could any one insist on these points without openly attacking the Dictator's favourite ? and to attack the favourite was to brave the displeasure of his terrible master. This was Cicero's opportunity. While all Rome lay crushed and silent at Sulla's feet, this young advocate alone dared to set himself in opposition to the Regent's pleasure. In the first five minutes of his speech Cicero had cast away all disguise, and grappled openly with Chrysogonus. " Chrysogonus asks you, gentlemen of the jury, that forasmuch as he has made himself master of so ample a fortune, which belongs by right to another man, and forasmuch as he is hindered and ham- pered in the enjoyment of that fortune by the fact that Sextus Roscius lives, he asks you, I say, to relieve his mind from every shade of doubt and anxiety. While Roscius is a citizen, he does not think that he can keep hold of Roscius' rich and splendid inheritance ; if only Roscius be condemned and cast forth from society, then he hopes that he may be able to squander in luxury and profusion that which he has won by crime. He begs you, gentlemen, to pluck from his bosom this rooted 80 B.C.] Defence of Roscms. distrust which frets and plagues him night and da] and to lend yourselves to secure him his jll-gotte Cicero modestly ascribes it to his own obscurit that he is privileged to appear as the champion c such a cause, while all the leading advocates shran from the undertaking ; " my plain-speaking may b unobserved because I have as yet no pretensions t be a statesman, or it may be pardoned in consider; tion of my youth-^though, to be sure, the notion c pardoning and even the practice of judging has fade from the memory of the Republic." f That day we the last on which Cicero could plead the securit of insignificance. He left the court a man of mar in Rome. He had done more than save his client he had given voice to feelings which all the worl must needs smother in silence ; he had struck a ke; note whiehr^bTat-e-d^un_a^tlK)_usandJiearts, sick c blo odshed ^ nd robbery and^ terror. All this required not only great boldness but gre; skill. He was pleading before a bench of senator newly re-established in the law-courts by Sulla, wh would not be likely to tolerate from a young man ( equestrian family anything which implied disaj proval of the Restoration or disrespect towards tl; government. Nevertheless, with the instinct of great pleader, Cicero seems to have felt the pulse < the jury as he proceeded. He begins by protestin that he will touch on politics only so far as is abs^ lutely necessary for his case ; he ends by claimir * Pro Rose. Amer., 2, 6. f Pro Rose. Amer., i, 3. 1 8 Cicero s Training. [so B.C. that he may speak not only for his client but for himself. " On what seems to me shameful and in- tolerable, on what, as I think, will touch us all unless we provide against it, on this I will make my utter- ance in all the sincerity of my heart and from all the bitterness of my soul." * Of Sulla himself, whose carelessness and indiffer- ence allows creatures like Chrysogonus to batten on the Commonwealth, Cicero speaks with an apparent respect which really covers the sharpest censure. " Rascally freedmen," he says,f " always try to throw the responsibility for their misdeeds on their patron ; but all the world knows that many things have been done, of which Sulla is only half aware. Are we to approve then, if some such acts are passed over because he does not know about them ? We cannot approve ; but it cannot be helped. Jupiter reigns above ; yet we have men injured, and cities ruined, and crops lost by hurricanes or floods or extremes of heat and cold. We do not attribute these mis- chiefs to the intention of the god, but to the force of circumstances and to the magnitude of the uni- verse over which he has to preside, while we acknowl- edge his hand in the blessings we receive. And so it is with Sulla." But if Cicero affects to screen Sulla under this contemptuous apology, he condescends to no half- measures when he deals with his favourite. " Let the leaders of the party look to it, whether this be not a sad and shameful conclusion, that * Pro Rose. Amer., 44, 129. f Pro Rose. Amer., 45, 130. 80 B.C.] Defence of Roscius, those who could not bear to see the Roman Kni in the pride of place,* should brook the tyrann this vile slave. Hitherto, gentlemen of the jury, tyranny has been exercised in other spheres. ] you see what path it is shaping for itself, at what it aims ; it aims at your honour, your oath, ; verdict, that is to say, at almost all that retr sound and uncontaminated in the State. Tl that on that judgment-seat Chrysogonus beli that he will work his will, that here too he can sway. O the misery and the bitterness of it ! not that I fear that he will have such power. V cuts me to the quick is that he has presumed, he has hoped to compass, by means of such a b( as that which I see before me, the condemnatio an innocent man. That is the burden of my ( plaint. Was it for this that the nobility aro itself and won back the State at the point of sword ? Was it in order that the menials and lac of the great should be able to harry the goods the honour of us and you alike ? " f Of even greater weight are the words of war with which the speech concludes : " Men of wisdom, men endowed with the f and the power which you occupy, are boun( apply the appropriate remedies to the diseas which the State is sickening. There is no on you but knows well, that the Roman people, w formerly had the reputation of being most plac towards its enemies, labours to-day under the c * See below, p. 34. \ Pro Rose. Amer., 48, 140. 20 Cicero's Training. [so B.C. of cruelty to its own children. Remove this cruelty from the State, gentlemen of the jury ; suffer it no longer to work its pleasure in this Commonwealth. It is a vice which is mischievous, not only in that it has swept off so many of our fellow-citizens under every circumstance of horror, but likewise because by the daily spectacle of painful sights it has made the tenderest hearts callous to the sense of pity. For when each hour we see or hear of some fresh atrocity, even though nature has made us mild of mood, familiarity with dreadful deeds plucks all feelings of humanity from our minds." * In later life Cicero criticised f the style of this his early effort at oratory, which he found too florid and exaggerated for his more matured taste. For all that, the speech is full of vigour and promise ; and the situation was so critical and momentous, that every sentence struck home. Rome was conscious that yet another brave man and great orator had been born among her sons. We can well believe that " the speech met with such approval, that from that time no case was deemed too important to be committed to my charge." \ Nevertheless the acquittal of Roscius was soon fol- lowfid^byCicero's temporary retiremenl~~fr(5"m the bar^ The circumstances may besFbe" recorded in his ^ own words § : "At that time my body was very thin ' and weak, my neck long and slender ; and a frame "^ Pro Rose. Amer., 53, 154. f Orator, 30, 107. X Brut., go, 312. %Brut., 91, 313. B B.C.] Molo of Rhodes. ^ ke this, if exposed to over-exertion and strain ( he lungs, is reckoned to incur fatal risks. My frienc ^ere the more anxious about me because my pra ice was to speak without any relief from change ( ones, but always at the full stretch of my powers ( oice and straining my whole body to the uttermos ?hey and the physicians urged me to give up speal ng at the bar ; but I felt that I would rather ru ny risks than renounce my ambitious hopes ( leing an orator. I reflected, however, that b hanging my style of speaking and by lowering an egulating my voice, I might both avoid the dang( my health, and likewise bring my utterances be er within compass. It was this purpose of a chang 1 my habits of speaking that made me resolve on ourney to Asia. So after I had been two years ; he bar, and had already some reputation in tl: ourts, I set forth from Rome." Some account ( lis studies at Athens and in Asia Minor follows, an le continues : " Not content with these I came 1 Ihodes and resorted to Molo, the same whose pup had formerly been at Rome. Molo was not on] n eminent writer and pleader in actual suits at tl )ar, but he had a rare skill in noting and correctir aults and in conveying instruction. He exerted a lis powers in checking and keeping within bounc ny tendency to exaggerate and to overflow, as /ere, with a certain youthful hardihood and licen; (f speech. I retur ned home after two years' a encgjnot only~a more practised rhetorician-,- b' .ImostlalxH^ged ThanT" The over-straining of tl 'oice had abated, my~style had lost its frothiness, m ^° Cicero s Training. [75 B.C. lungs had grown stronger, and my bodily frame was moderately filled out." Cicero was now fullv_ establis jied_as one of the leade rs~of~Tlr eT)ar"along with Cotta and Hortensius, and was /constantly employed in the most important cases. All three were candidates for office in the year following Cicero's return to Italy. Cotta gained the consulship, Hor- t. tensius the office of curule ffidile, and Cicero that of ':' quaestor. Under Sulla's constitution twenty quaestors ^ were elected for each year, and each quaestor when his term of magistracy was over passed on to the benches of the Senate, where he had now a seat for j life. Meanwhile Cicero's official duties 75 B.C. '^ sent him to spend the year 75 outside ';, of Italy. The lot gave him as his province the ■ western portion of Sicily with Lilybaeum for his headquarters. The other side of the island (though one praetor ruled the whole) had a separate quaestor ^ who resided at Syracuse. It is necessary to make this point clear for the understanding of an amusing anecdote, which Cicero * tells against himself by way of illustrating to a jury the small attention paid in the capital to provincial concerns and provincial reputations. The experience is one which many an Indian Commissioner will recognise with a sigh. " Now, gentlemen, I will make a clean breast of it, and confess that I thought at the 74 B.C. . => time that people in Rome were talk- ing of nothing but my quaestorship. During a season of dearth I had forwarded a great supply of * Pro Plancio, 26, 64. 74 B. C] The QucBstorship. grain to the capital. I had been obliging to dealers, fair to the merchants, liberal to the cour people, scrupulous towards our allies, and all agr that I had been faithful in every duty of my off The Sicilians had devised compliments for me qi out of the common. And so I returned homi the expectation that the Roman people would cc and lay the world at my feet. But it so happe that in the course of my journey I arrived at Put' in the height of the season when it was full of sons of the first fashion. Well, gentlemen, might have knocked me down with a feather w one of these came up and asked, on what day I left Rome and what was the last news there? am returning,' I replied, ' from my province.' yes, of course,' says he, ' from Africa, I think.' terly vexed and disgusted, I said, ' No, from Sic Then another, who wished to play the well-infon man, put in : ' What, don't you know,' says he, ' 1 our friend here has been qusestor at Syracuse ? ' to make a long story of it, I pocketed my vexat and lost myself among the crowd of those who come to take the waters." Cicero was thirty-two years of age when, after adventure, he returned once more to Rome in the ; ''74 B.C. As a senator, it was time for him to chc alsiS^e andloTnakeTTis~mHueh^e~fel±4nr^ state. To gain a clear conception of the polii arena on which Cicero is now entering, it wil necessary to consider what were the parties and the statesmen with whom he was to be engaged CHAPTER 11. ROMAN PARTIES AND STATESMEN. 81-71 B.C. HEN Cicero entered on public life the government was in the full possession of the " Optimates " or Notables, and of the Senate in which they reigned supreme. These Nobles inherited the splendid traditions of their ancestors who had made Rome great in the century of the Punic and Macedonian wars. At that epoch a ring of great families, some patrician and some plebeian, had been set in a position of eminence, not by any invidious prerogative, but by the natural process of the working forces of the constitution. Every man was " noble " who could count curule magistrates among his ancestors, and he was most noble whose hall showed the greatest number of family portraits of consuls and censors. Power and influence accrued to the men who had 250-150 B.C. 24 The Nobles. i the Roman armies in their triumphal march o' e civilised world, and this power and influei ey handed on to their descendants. There -v cewise among the Romans a strong public opin favour of a man's sitting in the seat of his fath( here was no occasion for the Nobles to assert w their exclusive right to the highest ofifices, le electors would hardly look at any candidate ^ id not ancestral claims on their attention. It \ ;rfectly legal indeed, for " the son of a Ron knight" — in other word's, for one who did : ilong to the official caste — to contend for h Efice with a Noble/ but he would find that ars in their courses fought against the " new ma Fato Romae fiunt Metelli consules" — Provide ways sends the great Noble, the Caecilius Me IS, to the head of the poll. To dream of clear I a single generation the space that lies betw le Roman Knight and the consul is an insole hich is to be suppressed by the united force of [obility, and which is looked on with disfavour c mongst the ranks from which the candidate :ruggling to emerge. Thus the Roman Nobles became in fact thoi ot in law an hereditary caste of office-holding fa es. In their best days they had all the gt ualities of an oligarchy — high spirit, steadiness urpose, persistence under difificulties, trained acity in war, and diplomacy. The Nobility rej ;nted Rome in a stronger and loftier spirit than ; opular organisation could have done, and Lomans were proud to follow its lead and to ace 26 Roman Parties. as their own the majestic policy which the Senate announced by word and deed. During the latter half of the second century the Nobility shows in a less favourable 150-100 B.C. light. It failed to deal with the com- plicated questions which presented themselves as the result of conquest, especially the agrarian ques- tion and the question of the Italian allies. Thus the statesmen who undertook to solve these prob- lems naturally drifted into opposition, and from op- position into revolution. The Roman constitution gave fatal facilities for such a development. It had the theory of popular sovereignty without any ma- chinery for realising that sovereignty in fact. The power of the people was nullified by the dangerous fiction that the whole nation could assemble in the Forum, and that an affirmative answer to the ques- tion put by a magistrate to such a casual gathering made the proposal into law, absolute and indefeasi- ble. The machinery, like that of the French ///(Jzi- cite, was fitted not to express the popular will, but to give opportunities for a despotism. Unlimited power would be lodged in the hands of any magis- trate who could organise the city rabble, if only he were unchecked in his right of initiating proposals. To avoid this consequence, the Romans gave the legal power of initiative, not to one man or to any body of men collectively, but to each one of a num- ber of annual magistrates, consuls, praetors, and tribunes, and they further gave to each of them singly an absolute right of veto over the action of any or of all his colleagues. The result was to throw The Democrats. 27 the constitutional control into the hands of the per- manent advising board, the Senate of Nobles. Con- stitutional usage obliged the magistrate to employ his power of initiative only in accordance with the advice of the Senate ; if he declined to do so, his ac- tion was at once paralysed by the veto, and he must either submit * or else incur the guilt and danger of an actual breach of the law. Thus, so long as a single tribune remained loyal, the Senate would govern Rome in peace. The whole constitutional fabric rested on the ab- solute sanctity of the veto. In the controversies of the Gracchi and their successors with the Senate, this ultimate safeguard of the constitution was vio- lated and so the Revolution began. But while they impaired the oligarchical constitution, the demo- crats failed in all efforts to set up a new one in its place. Notwithstanding its formally recognised sovereignty, the Assembly was too uncertain and too little representative of the whole people to be able either to check its leaders or to give them any eilective support in the hour of danger. The dema- gogues were for the moment irresponsible despots in the midst of a dependent crowd, and for that very reason they had no reserve force of organised public opinion on which to fall back. The democracy in its impotence turned to a military chief, and at- tained by this evil alliance a brief supremacy under the leadership of Marius and of his successor Cinna. * As for instance Scipio Africanus was obliged to do when he tried to override the Senate in his first consulship, 205 B.C. ; see Livy, xxviu., 45. 28 Roman Parties. [81 B.C- But the revolutionists proved themselves unworthy to rule ; they resorted to bloodshed and plunder ; they governed yet more despotically than their rivals had done, and without the softening effect of ancestral custom and historic dignity to relieve the naked harshness of their domination. This party fell ingloriously and without regret before the swords of Sulla's veterans when he returned from the East in 83 B.C. An unlimited power for the reconstruction of the State was lodged in the hands of Sulla. Avowedly the partisan of a Restoration, he attempted little that was original in substance, though many of his regulations were new in form. He desired to revive, so far as possible, the Rome which had been before the Gracchi with such variations in detail and such safeguards against revolution as seemed to be sug- gested by the experience of the last half-century. The senators were henceforth to have exclusive possession of the jury-courts, the corn-distributions instituted by Gracchus were abolished, and the tribunate which had been used as an instrument of revolution was strictly curbed. The constitutional obligation which lay on the tribune to use his initia- tive power only with the approval of the Senate, was no longer left to be enforced by the uncertain and, as it had proved, insufficient sanction of the veto, but was raised to the level of positive law ; the pro- posal of a bill to the Plebs was now null and void, unless it had received the previous assent of the Senate. Within the Senate itself precautions were taken to prevent any one man from aspiring to rise 71 B.C.] The Equestrian Order. 29 above the little circle of his peers ; the offices of the State must be held at fixed intervals, and no man might hold the same office twice except after the lapse of ten years. Free popular election of the magistrates was still allowed. Long experience had shown that this was not really dangerous to the sugpernacy of the N-obles, and that the influence of the greal^Tamllies would secure them a practical monopoly of the highest offices. -^ Such was the constitution of the Republic when Cicero became a senator. His bold defence of Ros- cius had marked him out as a future leader of oppo- sition. Indeed, from his position and circumstances he could not well be otherwise. His sympathies werejiatJirally-€>nJJie__sid£_qf__the^deq]B^ frornjwhiclv-h-e-had— s.pic.ujig,,„and that order was now in a state of disco ntent and host ility to thegoy-ern- ment: — -Ftn^-aiT'explanation we must look back a littlelh the history. The Roman Nobility was, as we have seen, a No- bility of office ; and public opinion as well as positive law prescribed that this official caste should confine itself to the business of war and government, and should hold aloof from trade and banking, and more especially from speculations connected with state- contracts. All these fell into the hands of another set of families, which constituted in its turn a sort of high mercantile caste. As the armies of Rome spread her power over the shores of the Mediter- ranean, her commerce increased likewise, and so did the complexity and magnitude of her financial arrangements : all this added to the importance of 30 Roman Parties. the second order in the State. Its members were necessarily men of wealth and substance, arrd~neees-- sarily likewise they were men who renounced the chances held out to ambition by the official career of magistracy. The new order borrowed a name from the centuries of Knights, which had originally formed the cavalry of the State, and for which a high property qualification was required. Every Roman who was in possession of the requi- site property (about .£'4000),* and who had never held a magistracy or sat in the Senate, now called himself a " Roman Knight." The phrase implies pretty much what we mean when we speak of a " private gentleman." The consolidation of the order is due to Caius Gracchus. He gave the Knights outward signs of distinction, the narrow hem of purple on the tunic, the gold ring, and the right to reserved seats, immediately behind the sena- torial stalls, in the theatre ; he multiplied their in- fluence and their gains by ordering the collection of the taxes of Rome's new province of Asia to be farmed out to them ; and above all he gave them a controlling power oyer the Nobles, by bestowing-on them the exclusive right to sit as jurors in the.crimi- rial courts. This new: oxder occupied a position midway be- tween ruling senatorial families and the mass of the * Throughout this volume I count loo sesterces as equal to £\ ster- ling, and an Attic talent as equal to £is°- This is a rough com- promise between the weight of gold and the weight of silver in the sums named. In the ancient world gold was worth only about twelve time its weight in silver. The Equestrian Order. 3 1 people. It was strong enough to give a preponder- ating power to whichever of the extreme parties it might favour for the moment ; and, as its interests were in^ip any respects identical wit h th ose of the Commonwealth, it__seemed as if this- influence was likely to^be used, for good. To men of substance, engaged iff commerce and banking at Rome and throughout the civilised world, public order and the maintenance of credit were matters of prime im- portance. Whenever the democratic r ■ 1 , r- • 100 B.C. factions resorted, as under baturnmus, to riot and bloodshed in the streets, the Knights took sides with the Senate against the disturbers of the peace. When the slackness of the Senate allowed piracy to get the upper hand in the Medi- terranean or when its leaders pocketed Jugurtha's bribes, while he was cutting the throats of Roman merchants in Africa, the Knights bestirred them- selves and gave valuable support to the democratic opposition. Unhappily there were other considera- tions which touched them more nearly. In the first place the State-contracts were their monopoly, and the equestrian order was apt to be the humble ser- vant of whichever party promised the best bargains. Scarcely less important were its interests in the provincial administration. The Roman Knights trafficked with and lent money to the subjects of the Republic; they had control of the lucrative slave-trade ; they collected from the provincials the taxes which had been farmed from the Roman treas- ury, or which had been pledged to them as security for debt by the local exchequers of client kings and 32 Roman Parties. conquered civic communities. All controversies arising out of these matters fell under the cognisance of the Roman governor. If he were contemptuous of the traders and tax-collectors, these might find endless difficulties in exacting their dues ; if he were subservient, they were able to reap a rich harvest from the subjects. In every commercial transaction with a provincial the Roman Knight considered himself a privileged person, who might stand on the strictest letter of his bond, if it suited his purpose, or again, if he found it convenient, might play fast and loose with the law. Atticus once asked Cicero's advice on behalf of a provincial who was unable to pay his way. "Good heavens," writes Cicero in reply, " has the man lost his wits ? Does this Greek think that he is privileged to commit acts of fraudulent bankruptcy, just as if he were a Roman Knight?"* " Publicans," or farmers of the taxes, have always laboured under an evil reputation. It is related that to pass a wet day at a French country-house it was once agreed that each of the company should tell a story of robbers. Voltaire was of the party, and when it came to his turn he said, " Ladies and gentlemen, there was once a Farmer-General." " Well," said his hearers, " and what next ? " " What next ? What more do you want ? We were to tell of robbers." The Roman tax-farmers had at least an equal claim to the title. Cicero is a very friendly witness when the Roman Knights are concerned, and we maybe sure that he is within the truth when he tells us that * Ad. Alt., iv., 7, I. The Equestrian Order. 33 a conscientious governor was often sorely perplexed by their demands. When his brother was governor of Asia, Cicero wrote to him : " If we set ourselves in opposition to the publicans we alienate both from ourselves and from the State an order, to which we are under obligations, and which by our efforts has been attached to the constitution. If on the other hand we give way to them in everything, we shall be parties to the utter ruin of those over whose safety and even whose interests it is our bounden duty to keep guard. This is (if we are to look the business in the face) the one great difficulty in your administration."* -^.^^^o We now see why the control of the jury-cguits was a niafl:ef~6rprnTie Importance for the equestrian order. In the province they were at the mercy of the governor; they required that he should be at their mercy when he came to stand his trial at home. There was the closest understanding be- tween the Roman Knights in the provinces and their fellows on the bench in the Forum. " In former days," says Cicero,t " when the equestrian order sat on the juries, evil and extortionate magis- trates in the provinces were always the humble servants of the tax-farmers ; they were civil to the agents of the companies ; whenever they saw a Roman Knight in their province, they followed him up with favours and compliments. These efforts did not after all do much to help those who had been guilty of malpractices; but on the other hazid * Ad Q. F., i., I, 32. fin Verr., iii., 41, 94. 34 Roman Parties. many a one found it fatal to him to have acted in any way against the wishes and interests of the order. There was observed among them a strict understanding that any one who had thought him- self at liberty to treat with indignity a single Roman Knight should be treated as a malefactor by the whole order." These £queatrian juries were natu- rally disliked and feared J>yjthe_ Nj^BTei; ft was against them that the famous appeal of the great orator Lucius Crassus was urged. " Snatch us away from this torture ; tear us out of the jaws of those whose cruelty cannot be satiated I06 B.C. . , 1 1 , ri- 1 ■ with our blood ; suiter us not to be in bondage to any, saving to yourselves as a nation, to bear whose yoke is within our endurance and within our duty." * I To secure this control over the official class was the first object of equestrian policy ; the second was as purely selfish and far more perverse. The Roman Knights claimed for themselves an immunity from all State-prosecutions. The senators, such was their contention, are the governing class, and against them alone should such prosecutions be directed. Cicero puts their pretension as plausibly as he can when pleading at the bar for an equestrian chent.f "There is a charm in the most exalted rank in the State, in the curule chair, the fasces, the commands, governments, priesthoods, triumphs, and, last of all, in the efifigy which hands down your memory to posterity. Along with these come some anxieties, * De Orat., i., 52, 225. \Pro Rab. Post., 7, 16. The Equestrian Order. 35 and a greater responsibility to laws and tribunals. We have never thought lightly of your prerogatives (so the Roman Knights argue), but we have chosen instead this life of quiet and leisure ; as there is no glory to win in it, so let there be no trouble to molest it." This limitation was introduced not only in the case of the court which dealt with extortion in the provinces, but also into the trial of charges for judicial corruption. A senator, who gave false witness or conspired to bribe a jury or himself took money for the condemnation of an innocent man, might be put on his trial for the offence ; any other citizen was irresponsible. This monstrous immunity was not only publicly defended by Cicero,* the favourite champion of the equestrian order, but was acquiesced in even by its greatest enemy, Sulla, who " when he reconstituted the court for the trial of these offences, forasmuch as he had found the Commons of Rome free from such responsibility did not venture to entangle them in fresh habilities."t Any one who presumed to interfere with these cherished exemptions and prerogatives incurred the deadly enmity of the Roman Knights. Livius Drusus, the patriotic tribune of 91 B.C., had com- mitted this unpardonable offence, and, in order to thwart him, the Knights turned against the Italian allies, whose cause Drusus defended, and thus in- volved Rome in the disaster of the Social War.J On * See below, p. 185 \Pro Chi., 55, 151. \ See above, p. 12. We shall see later on how the equestrian order turned against Cato for the same reason, 36 Roman Parties. this occasion, as on many others, those who might have controlled both the extreme parties and en- forced moderation on both, preferred to sell their support to whichever of the combatants best served their private interests and class privileges. When the contest wi_th tjie_allies. developed in the years 88jmd Sj^mto the^firstXiyiLWar, the equ £s- -tjiian nrdpy patched up its differences with the Italians ; but the alarm which Drusus had spread in its ranks wjas still the governing principle of its policy. In fear and hatre d of the No biHty th e Knights espoused the-d£m£t£r atic cause. They saw with satisfaction their haughty rivals fall beneath the daggers of Marius, and pressed forward to buy up the confiscated properties. A__ten;ibleday of reck onin gjwasj n stor ejorjthem. The full brunt of Sulla's savage retaliation fell on the equestrian order, tw£jity:.six Jiundxed of whose ni£mh£rs_faund__their , nameaJii_the-Pr©ser-i-ptien-JLists.* Sull a red uced the survivors to political insigmfifiance by expelling them from the jUry-cburts, and at the same time he de- prived them of dignity and precedence by withdraw^ ■ ing their valued privilege of special seats in the theatre. The equestrian order wa^naturally_the_enemy of the constit.uii£m_estabTished by Sulla; and, decimated though-it had been by the Proscriptions^ its influence was still considerable. The enfranchisement of the ItaUanahad fi lled its ra nks with VoTttiJ^ 90-81 B.C. . :,: ; ." ; ~; recru^t^. In each new municipal town and district were to be found substantial and honour- *Appian, Bell. Civ., i., 103. SLINQ MISSILES FOUND AT ASCULUM. SOME OF THESE DATE FROM THE SOCIAL WAR. iDuruy.) Crassiis and Cicero. 37 able families, whose members were now Romans, but Romans without ancestral nobility ; not belonging by birth to the official caste, these naturally found their place in the second order of the State. The Roman Knights, not being personally engaged in politics, sought their spokesmen and representa- tives among those members of the senatorial order who were most in sympathy with their feelings and interests. At this time their most prominent cham- pion was IVIarcus Licinius Crassus, a .74 B.C. - man of high nobility and now in the prime of life. He had fought on the side of Sulla in the Civil War, but he had no loyalty to his caste ; as the richest man in Rome and the foremost in all lucrative speculations, he was the natural representa- tive of the capitalists and bankers. Cicero himself was fast rising into the position of a second leader of the party. He had fully resolved to win his way by his own talents and energy to the highest grade in the State. For the last three generations only one " new man " had succeeded in attaining the con- sulship, and this one was his fellow-townsman, Caius Marius. In aspiring to reach the same goal Cicero must necessarily offend all the proprieties of good society, and must be sure that the ruling families would exert themselves to exclude him. He de- scribes the struggle as he looks back on it in the in- augural speech of his consulship.* " I am the first ' new man ' whom you have raised to the consulship after an interval which reaches back almost beyond our recollection and the present generation ; I have * Contra Rullum, ii., i, 3. 38 Roman Parties. [si b.c- shown you the way into that stronghold which the Nobility has held with its garrison and fortified with every device ; you have breached the defences of that stronghold, and have willed that they should lie open to merit in the future." The professional rivalry betweei^-Cicera -and Hor- tensius at the bar was sharpened by the circumstance that the one represented the " n^ men^and the othex-the- ruling Nobility-. Tlle"one naturally led the assault and the other defended the barriers of political and social exclusiveness which Cicero had resolved to pass. We may catch a glimpse of the situation in a passage * where the younger advocate challenges the behaviour of the high society of Rome, tolerant to the mis-doings of those within the charmed circle, cold and rigid towards all outsiders— " Is it not intolerable, Hortensius, to see that your friendship and that of the rest of the great and noble allows an easier approach to the wickedness and effrontery of Verres, than to the virtue and incor- ruptibility of any one of us. You detest the industry of ' new men,' you look down on their frugal life, you think scorn of their purity, and for their genius and their manliness you wish it stifled and crushed out. Verres is your favourite." The survivors of the Marian party were of course bitterly opposed to the constitution set up by the conqueror ; but they had exhausted themselves in an abortive attempt at revolution under 78 B.C. , the conduct of Lepidus immediately after Su lla's death. They gathered around Crassus, *In Verr., iii., 4, 7. 71 B.C.] Ccssar. 39 so far as he showed himself in opposition ; but much their ablest man and the one already marked out for their future chief was the young Caius Julius Caesar. Wild and profligate and immersed in debt though he was, his native genius, his manly beauty and the charm of his manners and conversation already won the hearts of men and women and made him the most popular man in Rome. Though a patrician of the very bluest blood, claiming descent from ^neas and the kings of Alba, he was closely connected by family ties with the democratic party. Julia, Caesar's aunt, was married to Marius, and he himself had taken to wife Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna. Caesar, like Cicero, and under circumstances of greater danger, first showed his mettle by daring to op_i3 0se the will of Su llaTthe threats of the Dictator failed to terrify the young man into divorcing Cor- nelia, and he was obliged to fly for his life. His powerful friends and relations afterwards extorted a reluctant pardon from Sulla, who warned them that "in that young dandy there lay hidden many Mariuses." Young as he was, being four* years junior to Cicero , Caesar from the first judged and acted for himself! He saw that the movement of Lepidus in 78 B.C. was premature and destined to fail, and he refused to throw in his lot with it. He urged that the various provisions of the complicated constitu- tion of Sulla should be assailed one by one, and that the rehabilitation of the tribunate was the first point * I adopt Mommsen's conclusion that Caesar was really born in the year 102. Most authorities make him two years younger. 40 Roman Parties. [81 B.C.- to aim at. The personal disqualifications which Sulla had attached to all who had ever held this office were removed by a law of the orator Cotta in his consulship 75 B.C. ; and another ordinance of the Dictator was repealed by the renewal of the dis- tributions of corn to the people. In estimating the forces with which the govern- ment had to reckon, we must not forget the newly found power of a professional soldiery. During the three generations which elapsed between the first consulship of Marius and the battle of Actium the Roman armies were organised on a principle inter- mediate between the militia system of the earlier Republic and the permanent standing armies of the Empire. The soldier, during this period of transi- tion, is a volunteer and not a conscript. He is no longer a citizen serving his time in the ranks, but a professional. On the other hand he is under no permanent contract with the State, and hardly feels himself to be its servant. He has enlisted under a particular general for a particular war, which now often extends over many campaigns, and to his general alone he looks for promotion and for reward.* There now comes into prominence the personal " sacramentum " or oath of military obedience which the soldier swears to his own commander. The "sacramentum" and not loyalty to the State is his point of honour, and the circumstances under which this allegiance may be lent or recalled or trans- * The mischief of the want of a regular system of retirement and pension is set forth by Mr. Fowler in his Life of Casar in this series (p. 107). n B.C.] Pompey. 41 Ferred are points to be argued with the lawyer-like precision which the Romans carried into all their transactions whether with men or gods. The power of this mercenary soldiery had been abundantly shown by Sulla, who revealed the fatal secret that with a victorious proconsul and a veteran army lay the last word in political contests. When Sulla had completed his work of restoration, it was from the same quarter that danger to his oligarchical constitution was most to be apprehended. Yet Sulla did nothing or little to guard against the peril. The best safeguard would have been a strong central executive in Rome, wielding the whole military force of the empire and strictly responsible to the Senate. But this seemed too hazardous an experiment. Sulla weakened the magistrates at the seat of govern- ment, lest they should be too strong for the Senate, and shut his eyes to the fact that he thus renounced control over the far more dangerous magistrates on the frontiers. As yet the mercenary soldiery was only half con- scious of its powers ; nevertheless the fact that a ne w military force had grown up was one of the main elements in the political situation. Thejdinti hopes and3dsh«s-&f-t-he_saldiersjLeedejLa_represent- atiyCj-and this representative was found in the person of the young commander Cnseus Pompeius Magnus. Born in the same year as Cicero, and son of the consul under whom Cicero had served in the Social War (p. 11), Ppmpqy was twenty-three years of age when Sulla returned from the East in 83 B.C. By his own influence and reputation with the soldiers, 42 Roman Parties. [81 B.c- Pompey raised three legions in Picenum, out- manoeuvred the superior forces opposed to him, and affected a junction with Sulla's troops in Southern Italy. The Dictator treated the young soldier with marked distinction ; he employed him in indepen- dent commands, he yielded in spite of all constitu- tional objections to his demand for a triumph, and saluted him with the title of "the Great," which Pompey bore henceforth as a surname. After Sulla's death Pompey in turn lent his sword to'Hefend the constitution against the attacks of Lepidus. Never- theless the union between the general and the gov- ernment was never hearty or sincere ; and this was mainly because the oligarchs would not take the trouble to bind Pompey to their cause. It was intolerable to them that any man should claim the exceptional position which Pompey had occupied from the outset, and which he had no intention of relinquishing. It was contrary to all rules that a young man, not yet of senatorial age, who had filled none even of the minor magistracies of the State, should be invested with one extraordinary command after another, that he should be general-in-chief of armies, and triumph like a legitimate consul. Pont_ pey was not really a dangerous man: he had no designs against the State, and no love of the hazards and dislocations of revolution ; he^ked for nothing better than to be the armed protector of a Republi- can government ; but he considered himself a privi- leged person, for whom every-day rules were not made, and he was fully resolved not to reduce himself to the rank of an ordinary noble as the 1 B.C.] The Government. 43 irinciples of oligarchy required. The difference was ne which might have been easily settled with a ittle tact on both sides ; but this was wanting, and he influence of Pompey must be considered as •otentially at least on the side of the opposition. These then were the forces which threatened the stablished order of things when Cicero became a enator. We have yet to consider what was the haracter of the government itself, and who were its hief supporters. An oligarchy, governing by a per- nanent and practically hereditary chamber, such as vas the Roman Senate, is exposed to many risks md dangers. It is apt to injure itself by over- ixclusiveness, cutting off the supply of able recruits rom below, and thus impairing the efficiency in idministration which is the chief title of such a government to rule. The great prizes which are to )e distributed among its members give occasion to :liques and cabals within the privileged ranks. Self- :onceit shuts the eyes of the Nobles to dangers, and eads them to disregard public opinion outside their )wn ranks as the mere babble of the multitude ; lack )f sympathy and intelligence makes them slow to ead the necessities of the time, and they are apt to je affected by a certain lordly apathy which prevents heir seriously exerting themselves to frame a pohcy )r to adapt themselves to changing social conditions. These are all natural and inherent defects which ;very oligarchy has to dread. These dangers may )e aggravated by habits of luxury and by the ab- ;ence of political responsibility. Never, perhaps, vas an oligarchy set in the midst of such dangers 44 Roman Parties. [si b.c- and temptations as those with which Sulla_ had surrounded the ruling families of Rome. mestic trouble, the death of his cousin Lucius, to whom he was much attached. Late in the previous year Cicero had lost his father, and his mother had been long dead. His immediate family circle now consisted of his brother and nephew and of his own wife and children. Shortly after his return from the East in the year yy B.C., Cicero had married Terentia, a lady of good family but, so far as we can judge, of somewhat harsh and unfeminine temper. Her husband said of her, t that she was much more likely to take on herself the management of the affairs of the State, than to allow him to meddle in the affairs of her household. Their eldest child was a daughter, TuUia, on whom her father lavished all his affection. Her betrothal to Piso, while yet a child, is men- tioned in a letter of the year 6j B.C. Cicero's only son, named Marcus like his father, was born in the summer of 65 B.C. We find frequent references to the children in these early letters. Now it is Tullia, who " insists, the little pet, on having the present you promised her, and calls on me as the surety ; but I am resolved to repudiate rather than pay up." % *AdAtt.,i., 5. f Plutarch, Cic, 20. XAdAtt., i., 8, 2. 78 Cicero's Family. Now, the young Marcus, at the age of six, claims a Hne at the end of his father's letter to show off his first Greek writing in a postscript, " Cicero the small sends his love to Titus the Athenian," or " Cicero the philosopher sends his love to Titus the statesman." Quintus the younger brother of Marcus Cicero followed his example in adopting the senatorial career, and rose to the prsetorship. He had some pretensions to be a man of letters, and wrote Greek tragedies while campaigning in Gaul and Britain ; but nature had meant him for a soldier rather than for a student or for a statesman. His frank and affectionate nature was marred by a passionate and hasty temper, and the possession of great office did not awaken him to any high sense of duty or re- sponsibility. Marcus Cicero perhaps somewhat abuses an elder brother's privilege * of pointing out to him the error of his ways, and Quintus in turn sometimes chafes under the lecture ; but in spite of this the brothers heartily loved one another. Quintus married Pomponia the sister of Atticus, and had by her one son named after his father. This " Quintus the son " was spoiled, so his uncle thought, by the over-indulgence of his parents. He died nobly in the end, but his conduct as he emerged from boyhood was anything but satisfactory. Cicero always felt himself responsible for the behaviour of his brother and his nephew and was ever in a fidget * " Eas litteras ad eum misi, quibus et placarem ut fratrem et monerem ut minorem et objurgarem ut errautem." — Ad Att., i., 5.2. Quintus Cicero. 79 lest they should do something to discredit the family. It is needless to say that he confides his alarms to Atticus. One such communication may serve to illustrate the elder brother's uneasiness. When Cicero quitted Cilicia after his year of gov- ernorship (50 B.C.), it was a difficult question, whom to leave in charge of his province ; he finally resolves that he will not pass over his quaestor, officially the second in command, in favour of the higher standing and greater experience of his brother. In writing to Atticus, after a long string of arguments for this decision, he concludes * — " So much for reasons which we can give to the world ; next one for your private ear. I should never have a moment's peace for fear he should do something hasty or insolent or indiscreet, for such things will happen in this world. Then there is his son, a boy, and a boy with a mighty good opinion of himself ; what a vexation it would be ; and his father will not hear of sending him home, and is displeased at your suggesting it. Now as for the quaestor, I don't pretend to say what he may or may not do, but then I plague my- self much less about it." On one occasion (see below, p. 342) a darker cloud came between the brothers ; but though the evidence looks black against Quintus, the complete reconciliation which followed allows us to hope that what looked like baseness proved to have been only ill-temper and indiscretion. In death they were not divided; and Cicero's nephew, too, redeemed a *AdAtt.,y\.,t,a,. 8o Cicero's Family. worthless life by a heroic end. In the last dreadful days of the Proscription, the two brothers set forth together on their flight. Quintus returned with his son to Rome to procure supplies for their journey, and the two fell into the power of the head-hunters. They died like worthy Romans, each striving to sacrifice his own life for the preservation of the other.* Young Marcus, the son of Cicero, alone survived. Like his uncle he was a gallant soldier, and he did good service both under Pompey and under Brutus ; but with the Civil War his credit ended ; thenceforth he was known chiefly as the hardest-headed toper in Rome. Nevertheless in his case too " the whirligig of time brings in his re- venges." The pious historian f deemed it a clear case of the special interposition of Providence, that Marcus TuUius Cicero was consul in the latter part of the year 30 B.C., and that so it fell to his lot to announce in the Senate the tidings of the final defeat and death of Antony, and to decree the destruction of Antony's statues and the legal dam- nation of his name. * Dio Cassius, xlvii., 10. f Plutarch, Cic, 49, 4. 70 B.C. CHAPTER IV. CICERO AS A MAGISTRATE. 69-63 B.C. HILE the case against Verres was still pending Cicero had been elected curule aedile, and in the year 66 B.C. he served the office of praetor. He had no difficulty in his contest for this magistracy, and he tells Atticus that he need not put himself out of the way to come to Rome to help him. There appear to have been two abortive attempts at a voting before the election was actually carried through, and on each occasion it was clear that Cicero was at the head of the poll.* Meanwhile political agitations were astir which brought Cicero for the first time to the front as an orator dealing directly with the affairs of the State. * Fro Leg. Man., I, 2. 6 8i 82 Cicero as a Magistrate. [67 B.C. The spread of piracy in the Mediterranean became during these years so alarming, and the incapacity of the government to deal with it so obvious, that public opinion called for a drastic remedy. "Am I to tell you," says Cicero, "that during these years the sea was closed to our subjects, when our own armies could never set forth from Brun- disium except in the depth of winter? Am I to complain to you that envoys coming from foreign nations have been captured, when legates of the Roman People have been held to ransom ? Am I to say that the sea was not safe for merchants, when twelve fasces with their axes have fallen into the hands of the pirates ? Will you listen to the story how the famous cities of Cnidus and Colophon and Samos and many others have been captured, when you know that your own harbours, and those har- bours which are the very channels of your life and breath, have been in the pirates' power?"* And again — " What State was there ever before, I will not speak of great maritime powers such as Athens or Carthage or Rhodes, but what State was there ever so feeble, what island so petty, which could not by its own efforts defend its harbours and fields and some part of its shores and coasts? Yet for many years together before the Gabinian Law that same Roman People, which within our own memory had preserved a record clean from defeat at sea, made a huge surrender not only of its interests but of its power and dignity. We, whose * Fro Leg. Man., 12, 32. 67 B.C.] Gabinian Law. 83 ancestors overcame at sea King Antiochus and Perseus and the Carthaginians, we could not on any waters look pirates in the face. . . . And yet in those bad days the magistrates of the Roman People were not ashamed to take their stand on this very platform which your ancestors left to you adorned with the spoils of fleets and with the beaks torn from the ships of our enemies." * This reproach was quickly wiped away. In the year 67 B.C. Aulus Gabinius, a tribune of the plebs, proposed to the People that one man of consular rank should be invested for three years with supreme command over the whole Mediterranean and its coasts and islands, and should have all the resources of the Empire placed at his disposal for a great effort to clear the seas of pirates. The name of Pompey was not mentioned in the law, but it was certain that the popular vote would fall on him. f This proposal was eagerly welcomed by every rank in the State, except the senators. The populace of the capital was cut off from its supplies of grain ; the country-people of Italy found not even the great Appian Road safe from the free-booters ; the Roman Knights, who had business relations in all parts of the civilised world, suffered from an interruption of communications ruinous to their interests. All were sick of the prolonged inaction and feebleness of the government, and called upon it to stand aside and let the one efficient man do the work. In spite of the utmost efforts of the senatorial leaders the law * Pro Leg. Man., 1 8, 54. f Dio Cassius, xxxvi., 23, 5. 84 Gabinian Law. [67 B.C. was passed. Pompey was then unanimously ap- pointed to this great charge, and the Senate was directed to give him all assistance in detail, an in- struction which the Nobles did not now venture to disregard.* The public confidence in Pompey was marked by an immediate relief in the corn-market, where famine prices had been ruling, and this confidence was abundantly justified by the result. Pompey made his preparations instantly for a systematic campaign. Personally and by aid of the fifteen lieutenants whose services he commanded, he swept the Medi- terranean from west to east, and drove back the pirates into their Cilician harbours where he soon compelled their surrender. Before the end of the summer his task was accomplished, and the seas were open. His triumph was due partly to the over- whelming force which he displayed at every point, partly to the mildness and clemency with which he received submission. Many of the freebooters were glad to abandon resistance and to accept pardon from Pompey's hands. He planted thousands of them in Cilician colonies, and granted them lands, that they might not be driven by poverty to resume their old trade. The anxiety of the Cretans to make their submission to Pompey, rather than to Metellus, the proconsul of the island, nearly brought on an armed collision between the two generals. In an age when, as Cicero says, f " the Roman sol- diers had destroyed more cities of their aUies, which * Dio Cassius, xxxvi., 37, i. f Pro Leg. Man., 13, 38. 67 B.C.] Pompey and the Pirates. 85 were assigned to them for winter-quarters, than cities of the enemy, which they had taken by force of arms," Pompey succeeded in protecting the peace- able provincials against his troops. His own self- restraint set them an example, and likewise enabled him sternly to repress any outrages on the part of his subordinates. The integrity and single-minded- ness of the commander contributed not a little to his great and startling success. " Whence came, do you suppose, this incredible rapidity of movement ? It was not any preternatural strength in his oars-men, nor any magic art in navigation, nor any new cur- rents of wind which bore him so swiftly to the ends of the earth. It w:as, that those impediments, which check the progress of other commanders, never stayed him. Greed never made hiqri swerve from his path for any prey, nor lust for any beauty, nor any pleasant spot that he should loiter there, nor any famous city that he should be curious about it, nor any toil that he should repose after it ; and for the statues and pictures and all the adornments of • Grecian towns, which others think are made for them to carry off, he would not so much as look at them."* The glories of Pompey's success are heightened doubtless by all the skill of the orator ; but the suc- cess itself was complete, indubitable, and overwhelm- ing, and it was the more welcome from the long period of distress and humiliation to which it put an end. In the meantime affairs in the East were fast approaching a serious crisis. Lucullus could conquer * Pro. Leg. Man., 14, 40. 86 Cicero as Prcetor. [66 B.C. in the field, but he could not manage his troops, who were now in open mutiny against him. Acilius Glabrio had been sent to succeed Lucullus, and the soldiers considered this sufficient to discharge them of their allegiance ; although the new commander delayed his appearance they refused to obey the old one. Mithridates with the assistance of Tigranes had again begun to make head against the Romans; he had cut off and overpowered a division of the Roman army under Triarius before Lucullus could come to its assistance ; he had recovered the greater part of his kingdom of Pontus, and was pressing hard upon Cappadocia. It was evident that the Romans had acted prematurely when they decreed the recall of Lucullus under the belief that the war was practi- cally over; and Glabrio and Marcius Rex, the gov- ernors on whom would fall the responsibility of defending Asia were obviously not strong enough for the task. Everything seemed to portend a great disaster in the East, and all eyes turned towards the victorious proconsul of the seas and coasts. Manilius (one of the tribunes of the year 6^ B.C.) gave voice to the general wish by a proposal that the command against Mithridates should be assigned to Pompey. A disturbance in Asia was not so much a matter of life and death to the mercantile class at Rome as was the blockade of the seas and coasts by the pirates. Still the interests of the Roman Knights both as merchants and as tax-farmers were seriously affected by the threatened danger, and they expected rehef from the same hand which had just rescued them from the more pressing and intolerable calamity. COIN OF CN^US POMPEIUS MAGNUS. MITHRIDATES. (Duruy.) COIN OF CN/EUS POMPEIUS MAGNUS, AND ONE OF HIS LEGATES. HEAD OP PALLAS. ^Babelon.) 66 B.C.] Manilian Law. 87 They applied to Cicero, as their natural representa- tive and champion, to support before the People the proposal of Manilius.* Thus it was that for the first time Cicero, now vested with the ofifice of prsetor, came forward on the Rostra and lifted up his voice no longer to a bench of jurors but to the assembled Roman People. To the Nobles, this heaping of fresh honours and powers on the head of the man they detested was a bitter necessity, against which they rebelled to the end. Had they possessed sagacity to penetrate the character of Pompey, they might have known that he could be safely trusted with these powers ; but they seem never to have truly gauged either his greatness or his weakness. If he had been indeed a man possessed with the vulgar ambition to make him- self a despot, this last additional grant would, no doubt, have concentrated in his hands force sufficient for the overthrow of the free State. It might well be argued that the Republic ought not to be thus laid at the mercy of any citizen, however loyal. But such arguments were discredited by having been used the year before against the Gabinian law. Cicero's rejoinder f is crushing : " What then is the burden of Hortensius' speech ? That, if all power is to be placed in the hands of one man, Pompey is the most worthy recipient ; but that such a grant ought not to be made to him or to anyone else. That argument has grown stale ; it has been refuted, not so much by words as by events. For you, Horten- * Pro I^g. Man., 2, 4. \ Pro Leg. Man., 17, 52. 88 Cicero as Prcetor. [66 B.C. sius, who advise us now, employed last year all your wealth of words and all your marvellous faculty of oratory in a studied and weighty speech in the Sen- ate against that worthy citizen Aulus Gabinius, when he proposed his law for appointing a single com- mander-in-chief against the pirates ; and again from this place, where I now stand, you spoke at length against that law to the People. Well, suppose that —Heaven help us ! — the Roman People had then listened to j'our counsels rather than to its own instinct of self-preservation and to the cogency of fact, should we this day be enjoying this glorious present, and this Empire which we hold over the wide world ? For how could you call that an Em- pire, when legates and praetors and quaestors of the Roman People were taken captive? When neither the State nor its citizens could touch the supplies which should have come to them from all the prov- inces ? when every sea was so closed to us that we could conduct no business, private or public, across the water? . . . And so the Roman People judged that you, Hortensius, and the rest who agreed with you, spoke in all sincerity what you be- heved to be for the best ; but it preferred, when the public safety was at stake, to obey the call of its own sufferings rather than bow to your authority. And so one law, one man, one year has not only freed us from that distress and that reproach, but has made us at last to be in very truth what we claimed to be, lords by land and by sea over all peoples and nations." The result could not be doubtful. The law of 66 B.C.] Pompey and the East. 89 Manilius was carried by acclamation, and Pompey was invested with powers hardly inferior to those afterwards enjoyed by Augustus. For the next five years he remained in the East, marching, fighting, and organising. Meanwhile affairs in the capital went on their course without his active interven- tion ; but amidst all the shifting scenes of parties and all the conflicts of statesmen, the presence in the background of the power of Pompey is never forgotten ; it is felt that whatever men may do at home, his must be in the end the deciding will Among those who most envied the great position of Pompey was his former colleague Crassus. Cras- sus was anxious to win for himself some exceptional command which might hold in check the power of his great rival. It seems probable that Caesar, who was now dazzling the world with the extravagant splendour of his shows as aedile, encouraged these aspirations of Crassus, and that the democratic party, as a whole, followed his lead. Though they had supported Pompey in the struggle over the Gabinian and Manilian laws, the democrats seem to have recognised more clearly than the Optimates, that the great soldier would not readily fall in with the plans of a revolutionary party. Crassus and Cssar looked to Egypt as the scene of their * operations. Crassus was censor this year, and he proposed to enrol Egypt in the list of provinces on the ground that it had been left to the Roman People by the will of the last king. This king * Plutarch, Crass., 13, i. go Cicero as a Magistrate. [65 B.C. (Ptolemy Alexander II.) had died sixteen years before, in 8i B.C.; but with characteristic hesitation the Senate had never declared whether they con- sidered the bequest valid or whether they meant to accept it. Meantime an illegitimate member of the family, nicknamed Auletes, or "the Piper," had usurped the throne, where he had been tolerated, though never acknowledged, by Rome.* The plans of Crassus with regard to Egypt were frustrated by his brother censor Catulus and by Cicero, f who as a matter of course opposed all measures directed against Pompey. The most that Crassus could do was to induce the Senate to despatch a young partisan of his, named Cnseus Piso, with an extraordinary command to Spain, where he hoped that he might raise an army to serve as some sort of counterpoise to that of Pompey. This scheme too fell through, for Piso was assassinated, some said by partisans of Pompey, not long after his arrival in his province. The mission of Piso to Spain is connected with a strange story in which we hear for the first time the name of that Lucius Sergius Catilina, who was des- tined two years later to cross Cicero's path with momentous consequences to them both. This " first conspiracy of Catiline," as it is called, is assigned to the end of the year 66 and the beginning of the year 65 B.C. Crassus and Csesar are said to have been impli- cated in it. A plot which never came to overt acts * See below, p. 102. f Moramsen {Rom. Hist., v., ch. 5) points out that the fragments of the speech " De Rege Alexandrine'' prove it to have been de- livered at this time. 65 B.C.] First Catilinarian Conspiracy. 91 is a fruitful theme for speculation, and modern writers have expended much ingenuity in discussing it. The evidence is so inconclusive, and the story, as told, contains so many contradictions and improb- abilities, that I prefer to pass it over as wholly or almost wholly apocryphal. An assassination or a massacre, more or less, makes no great difference in our estimate of Catiline or even of Crassus ; but it is satisfactory not to be obliged to fix this stain on the great name of Caesar. Having served the prsetorship in 66 B.C. Cicero was eligible for the consulship of the year 63 B.C. For a year before the election, that is to say from about Mid- summer 65 to Midsummer 64 B.C., his thoughts and ef- forts were constantly directed to the attainment of this great prize. From his own letters, and from his speeches on behalf of clients, and likewise from the " canvasser's pocket-book " of instructions {Commen- tariolum Petitionis), which Quintus Cicero * wrote out for his brother's use, we get a vivid picture of a con- tested election at Rome. Questions of party or policy hold but a small place in these contests. There is nothing answering to the modern " caucus," and it is rarely that we hear of the selection of candidates who are to forward the interests of a party or can claim its united support. It was not even expected that a competitor for office should put forth any political creed or announce what " platform " he adopted ; rather it seems to have been considered proper for the aspirant to oiifice, * The genuineness of this little treatise has been questioned, but not, to my mind, on sufficient grounds. 92 Roman Elections. while striving to produce the general impression of statesmanlike qualities, to efface his particular con- victions as much as possible, and not to touch on the burning questions of the day* for fear of giving of- fence to any party or section in the State. The explanation of this strange divorce between politics and electioneering is not far to seek. In modern States there is what the French call " solidarity " between the different members of the executive government, so that votes at elections are practically given for a whole group of men united by common convictions under a common chief, who are to un- dertake, not only the business of administration, but the responsibility of initiative and the duty of guid- ing the policy of the State. But in the Roman Republic the function of the magistrate is much more limited. The Senate, and not the magistrate, advises and directs ; and, while he keeps within con- stitutional limits, the magistrate does not use his formal power of initiative in legislation except under the Senate's instructions. It is noticeable that the revolutionary faction at Rome, which never respected the constitutional rules and always, when it was strong enough, carried through its measures on the bare initiative of a magistrate, had an organisation more resembling that of modern parties, and tried to elect magistrates in order to carry out schemes of policy and legislation by their means. But this is the exception and not the rule. The regular practice is that, as each magistrate has under the constitution * Q. Cicero, De Pet. Cons., 13, 53. Roman Elections. 03 a personal though limited power co-ordinate with that of his colleagues and not a joint power as member of a Board or Cabinet, so in the contest for magistracies each man is chosen separately and in- dependently and each must " fight for his own hand." An election to the consulship is the advance of an individual in the ofHcial career, and the door of ad- mission to the most dignified order in the State, not the triumph of a party or of a principle. The aspirant does not wait to be adopted as the repre- sentative of a party, whether as the reward for past services or in hopes that he will carry out its politi- cal programme. If to high nobility and connections he unites a decent character and tolerable capacity, he drifts naturally to the front * ; if he be the son of a Roman Knight, destitute of the advantages of aristocratic lineage, he must force his way by per- sonal exertions. In either case it is a question " of men, not of measures." The ideal Roman elector was supposed to look to the merit or " dignity," as it was called of the can- didate, resting partly on a man's ancestry, partly on his own services to the State at home or abroad. But " merit " was always liable to be overridden by " favour " ; " each man who votes considers more frequently what claims the candidate has on him, * When Domitius Ahenobarbus was cut out of his hopes of the consulship of 55 B.C. by the unexpected and irresistible candidature of Pompey and Crassus, Cicero exclaimed (^Ad Atl., iv., 8, b. 2) : " What can be more annoying than for him, who has been designated for the consulship since his cradle, to miss it when his turn comes." After all Domitius was only put off till the next year. 94 Roman Elections. than what claims he has on the commonwealth." * To gain this personal favour was the first business of the candidate. To this end he must be constantly in evidence, and habituate the people to his pres- ence ; his face and manner must be familiar in their daily surroundings. " I perceived," says Cicero of himself, f " that the ears of the Roman People were somewhat dull but their eyes quick and keen ; and so I ceased to trouble myself as to what men might hear of me from a distance, but took care that they should see me in person. I lived in public, I fre- quented the Forum, no one was ever kept from seeing me by my porter or by my slumbers." In apportioning their good-will the electors kept a strict note of what each candidate had done or was prepared to do in the way of amusing them. "The Roman people dislikes private luxury, but it loves public magnificence ; it has no liking for sumptuous banquets, but it hates shabbiness and ungraciousness." % Cicero tells of one rich man who was always unsuccessful in his candidatures, because he was thought to have shirked the aedileship, and of another of great family and reputation who " lent his ears To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur," and by an unlucky display of philosophic frugality on a great occasion lost his chance of the praetor- * Pro Plancio^ 4, 10. •)■ This is the sequel to the story of Cicero's return after his Sicilian quEestorship, see p. 22. % Pro Mur., 36, 76. Roman Elections. 95 ship. On the other hand there was a feeHng that the man who had sufficiently dazzled the people by his entertainments would never ask for their votes in vain. It was on this account that the sediles ran- sacked the world for the gift of wild beasts and the loan of works of art, that Caesar displayed gladiators in silver panoply, and that Scaurus invented his movable theatres, which when the plays were over were wheeled round, spectators and all, so as to form an amphitheatre for the exhibition of the fight- ing. "You have no right," says Cicero,* "to cast such scorn on the tastefulness of Murena's games or the magnificence of his scenery, which were strong points in his favour. Why should I observe, what is obvious, that it is the populace and the crowd of ignorant men who are so much caught by games ? There is no great wonder in that. But that is enough for my argument ; for the elections lie with this same common multitude. . . . Men do enjoy the games, you may take my word for it, and not only those who frankly acknowledge their interest, but those who pretend not to care. This was brought home to me when I was a candidate, for I too had the magnificence of a rival's scenery against me; and if I, who had given three sets of games myself, was staggered by those of Antonius, do you suppose that you, who as it happened had not given any, were not put at a disadvantage by these very silver fittings of Murena's stage at which you scoff?" * ProMur., ig, 38. g6 Roinan Elections. [65 B.C. In Cicero's own case it was mainly the influence gained by his practice at the bar which won him the consulship. His brother puts this in the forefront of his advantages : " You will have your fame as an orator to counterbalance your want of noble birth." The Roman advocate was forbidden to accept a fee, but he expected to be repaid by the personal exer- tions of the client and his friends at the next elec- tion ; " you must take care," writes Quintus, " that they are as good as their word ; you must constantly remind, ask, exhort and look after them, that they may understand that they will never have another opportunity of showing their gratitude." Each brief undertaken thus formed a centre of influence and of support for the successful pleader. We hear much of the aid given by friends and partisans. In Murena's contested election, for instance, his step- son had feasted his young comrades in the eques- trian centuries, his chief engineer had hired seats at the games for his fellow-tribesmen, a Vestal, his kinswoman, had placed her stall at the disposal of the candidate. These proceedings, so Cicero argued with success, did not come within " the blow of the law " ; " all such observances count among the dues of friendship, the gratifications of the humbler classes, the attentions looked for from a candidate." The Roman elector expected to be asked and even entreated for his vote. He was not displeased if he were asked more than once. This required great personal exertions on the part of the candidate and his friends. Quintus urges his brother never to be out of the way, and never to give anyone the oppor- 65 B.C.] Canvassing. 97 tunity to say " that, so far as he was concerned, you might have had what you wished, if he had been asked by you and asked with earnestness and insist- ence." Nearly a year before the actual election there commenced the process of preliminary canvas- sing, /r^wja^?'^ or "hand-shaking," as it was called. It was a great point for the candidate to be able to address each voter by his name, and to aid him in this he had specially trained slaves, whose business it was to make themselves acquainted with the faces of the citizens and to whisper the name of each in his master's ear as he approached him. " O fie ! for shame, Cato ! " exclaims Cicero, as he banters the precisian statesman who is trying to upset the elec- tion of Murena,* " is it possible that you can do such a thing? are you not deceiving? are you not using your slave's memory to act a lie to your fellow- citizens ? is this consistent with principle ? can such a practice bear to be weighed in your philosophic scales?" t As " nothing succeeds like success," it is import- ant for a candidate to produce the impression that he is assured of overwhelming support. He must lose no opportunity of advertising his strength, and for this purpose must collect an imposing array of " followers." To take part in such a following is an attention which the humblest can offer, and on that ground Cicero defends the practice against Cato's strictures. % " ' What need is there,' says Cato, ' for * See below, p. 131. f Pro Mur., 36, 77. \ Pro Mur. , 34, 70. 7 98 Canvass for Considship. [64 B.C. followers?' What a question to put to me of all people, ' what need is there ' for that which we have all of us always practised ! The one oppor- tunity, which men of humble rank have of earning the thanks and repaying the kindnesses of those in our station, is the service and attendance which they give in our candidatures. Senators and Roman Knights cannot spend all the day in following about their friends when canvassing, and no one expects it of them. If they call at your house each morning, and occasionally escort you down to the Forum and honour you with their company for one turn along the colonnade, you think that they have shown ample consideration and observance. Constant at- tendance is the special task of our humbler friends, whose time is more at their own disposal, a.nd of these a kindly and charitable man is sure to have no lack. Do not be so anxious then, Cato, to rob the lower classes of their sole chance of showing their dutifulness ; allow those, who look to us for all sorts of favours, to retain one favour which they can con- fer on us. If such a one has nothing to give but his single vote, that seems a petty boon ; if he wishes to canvass for us, he has no influence. As they say themselves, they cannot speak for us, they cannot give security for us, they cannot invite us to their houses; such attentions they expect to receive from us, and they think that their only means of acknowl- edgment is this personal service." All this elaborate machinery of canvassing was worked with untiring assiduity by Cicero when he stood for the consulship. It may be doubted, how- 64 B.C.] Election as Consul. 99 ever, whether he would have had an easy victory, if he had not been aided by an external circumstance. The candidature of Catiline and Antonius began to alarm the constitutional party. Already during the early summer of the year 64 B.C. Catiline had begun to lay the foundations of a desperate conspiracy against the State. His plans got abroad through the vapour- ings of one of his associates, a foolish young spend- thrift, to his mistress. The woman gave information to the government, and the Nobles, who had hitherto looked askance on Cicero's candidature, now with- drew their opposition.* Cicero was returned by ac- clamation at the top of the poll, and Antonius headed Catiline by a few votes for the second place. Caius Antonius was a man of high birth but of indifferent character and small reputation, who had been closely connected with Catiline, and who was supposed to be ready to give at least a passive support to his plans. Cicero's first effort was to detach him from the conspiracy, and he purchased his support by giving up to him the lucrative province of Macedonia. Thus fortified Cicero entered on his consulship on the 1st of January 63 B.C. The year began with an attempt on the part of the democrats to renew the efforts, which they had made under the guidance of Crassus ^^ ^ ^ two years before, to win for themselves some base of operations independent of the power of Pompey. This time, the scheme took the well- known form of an Agrarian Law. A tribune of the * Sallust, Cat., 23. lOO Cicero's Consulship. [63 B.C. plebs, Publius Servilius Rullus, proposed that there should be a great distribution of land to the poorer citizens. But where was the land to be found ? As the result, partly of the legislation of the Gracchi, partly of the reactionary measures which had fol- lowed their death, the whole of the public land which had formerly been held by the great squatters had ceased to belong to the State. It was now the property of individual Romans, and the agrarian agitators of the Roman Republic, though they often disregarded equitable rights of occupancy hallowed by long prescription, never mentioned the confisca- tion of what was legally private property. Some fresh public land had indeed been provided for this generation through the appropriation by the State of the lands of towns and individuals that had stood against Sulla, and the occupiers of these lands might well fear eviction. But Rullus protested that he had no such design. He even introduced a clause making all such land the absolute property of the present occupiers, or else paying them its money value in case they preferred to get rid of it. There remained only a small district round Capua, which, because the tenants of this land paid a rack-rent to the State, had escaped distribution in the age of the Gracchi. This Rullus proposed to parcel out, though the Treasury could ill bear the loss of the rent. But this was the most modest feature of the bill. Rullus' commissioners were further empowered to sell the whole of the property of the Roman People beyond the seas, in order with the money so obtained 63 B.C.] Speech against Rullus. loi , to buy land in Italy for distribution. The project seems so extraordinary that we could hardly believe, it, if the very words of this clause had not been pre- served to us by Cicero.* " All lands, places, buildings — what is there besides ? Well there is much prop- erty in slaves, cattle, gold, silver, ivory, raiment, furniture and so forth. What are we to say ? Did he think it would not look modest if he named all these things ? He has never shown any signs of such scrupulosity. What then ? He thought it would be tedious, and feared that he might omit something ; so he simply added, or anything else. Everything therefore outside Italy, which has become the prop- erty of the Roman People in the first consulship of Sulla or since that date, is ordered to be sold by the decemvirs. I say, Romans, that by this clause all peoples, nations, provinces and kingdoms are granted away and committed to the sole authority, judgment, and power of the decemvirs. For first I would ask, what place in the world is there of which they may not assert that it has become the property of the Roman People ? For when the person who asserts has the power of pronouncing judicially on the ques- tion, where need he draw the line in his assertions ? It will be convenient to maintain that Pergamus, Smyrna, Tralles, Ephesus, Miletus, Cyzicus, in fact the whole of Asia, which has been recovered since that consulship, has become the property of the Roman People. . . . Then there is Alexandria and the whole of Egypt ; how secretly it is smuggled * Contra Rullum, ii., 15, 38, et seq. I02 Cicero s Consulship. 163B.C, in, how all mention of it is avoided, how cunningly it is handed over to the decemvirs. You all of you know, that it is said that this kingdom became the property of the Roman People under the Will of King Alexander. Now on this matter I, as consul of the Roman People, not only pronounce no judg- ment, but decline to express any opinion. For the question seems to me too difficult, I will not say to decide, but even to discuss. I see that there are some who assert that such a Will was made, and that the Senate committed itself to the acceptance of the inheritance, when after the death of Alexan- der it sent envoys to Tyre to claim possession of moneys which he had deposited there. I remember to have heard Lucius Philippus repeatedly assert this in the Senate ; and I take it that almost all are agreed that the person who occupies the throne at present is not of royal birth and has none of the qualities of a King. On the other side it is main- tained, that no such Will exists, that it is unbecom- ing in the Roman People to seem to be grasping at the possession of kingdoms ; that our citizens will be tempted to migrate to that country on account of the richness of the soil and the abundance which reigns there. Well, on this momentous question who is to be judge but Rullus and the rest of the commissioners his colleagues ? and a famous decision they will make of it surely ! " Thus under cover of an Agrarian Law the demo- cratic leaders seem to have designed to secure for themselves the control of the powerful province, which would as they hoped enable them to treat 63 B.C.] Speech against Rullus. 103 with Pompey on equal terms. This unlimited power of raising money was supplemented by an equally wide discretion in spending it. The decemvirs were empowered to buy lands and plant colonies in what- ever part of Italy they chose, or rather, says Cicero, to occupy the strategical points of the country with their garrisons, " keen partisans, eager for violence, ready for rebellion, who at a word from the decem- virs can be armed against the citizens and let loose for slaughter." * Respecting the " Ten Kings," as Cicero calls them, who were to be set up by the law, two things were certain : first, that Rullus would, under the machinery proposed, practically have the nomination of them ; and secondly, that Pompey was not to be one of them. While other existing magistrates were eligi- ble, Pompey was excluded, almost by name, through a clause which required the personal appearance of each candidate in the Forum ; " and can you doubt," says Cicero, \ " that certain persons are seeking for domination and supremacy over the whole State, when you see that they keep out that man who, as they plainly perceive, will be the defender of your liberties ? " The bill as it stood was fairly open to Cicero's strictures. At the same time we need not suppose that its promoters were so foolish as to intend to bring about any immediate conflict with Pompey. If the bill had been carried, Caesar would doubtless have persuaded his colleagues on the commission to * Contra Rullum, ii., 30, 82. t Contra Rullum, ii., 10, 25. I04 Cicero s Consulship. tea B.C. avoid carefully any interference with Asia Minor or Syria or the Greek islands. Possibly he might have made it a merit with Pompey, to refrain from any action which could trench on this, Pompey's un- doubted sphere of influence. At any rate the game of the democratic party was to allow Pompey to settle the East as he pleased and to return quietly to Rome, while they established a rival power for themselves in Egypt or elsewhere. Meanwhile they would have ample means at their disposal to provide for their more hungry partisans, and so to put off any premature attempts at revolution. It may be doubted whether Cicero himself fully understood the plan on which Caesar was working when he encouraged Rullus to propose this law. The main lines of that plan can now be clearly traced by the light of Caesar's subsequent action in Gaul ; but at the moment they were not so obviously discernible. In the meantime, however, it was quite clear that a blow was being aimed at Pompey, and Cicero justly thought that it was his first business to parry that blow. If the main object of the bill was dangerous to the future peace of the State and the stability of the constitution, the most tempting points for criticism were those which seemed to portend a speedy collision with Pompey. On these Cicero di- rected his main attack, and the bill was so loosely and clumsily drawn that it was easy to construe its provisions as an outrage on Pompey's dignity. All the sources of revenue with which Pompey had en- riched the State, all the kingdoms and cities which he had conquered, and whose affairs he was in the 63 B.C.] Speech against Rullus. 105 act of regulating, might be claimed by the rival power. The very ground on which Pompey was encamped might be sold under his feet by virtue of this law. " Pompey," he says,* " is determined that whatever you decide, he will consider that he must bear it ; but he will take good care, you may be sure, that whatever you cannot bear, he will not permit you to be compelled to bear it longer than you please." " Are these," Cicero asks in another place, f " the plans of sober men or the dreams of wine-bibbers ? Are they the calculations of sense, or the extrava- gances of lunacy ? " The answer doubtless is, that the promoters of the bill can have hoped to carry a scheme, manifestly directed against Pompey, only on the supposition that he was too far off to trouble himself about their machinations, and that his friends in Rome would not honestly and fearlessly maintain his cause. In this they were disappointed ; Cicero at once came forward, and in a series of spirited and effective speeches exposed the nature and object of the scheme. He directs many arguments against the promoters, but one is really sufficient, namely that the bill is a studied attack on the position of Pompey ; with the name of Pompey he always couples the liberty and the greatness of Rome. He sums up the whole matter at the end of the third speech — " Is any one of you disposed for violence, for crime, for massacre ? Not one. And yet it is for men who will do all these things that the land of * Contra Rullum, ii., 23, 62. \ Contra Rullum, i. , i, i. io6 Cicero s Consulship. [63 B.C. Campania and the great city of Capua is reserved. An army is being got together against yourselves, against your hberty, against Cnasus Pompeius. Capua is set up against this city ; bands of desperate ruffians against you ; the ten chiefs against Pompey." When once the bill was put in its true light, as an act of war on Pompey, public opinion declared against it. Cicero was listened to with marked fa- vour by the multitude. — " They gave up to him," says Pliny,* " the Agrarian Law, that is to say, their ov/n bread." One of the other tribunes announced that he would veto the bill, and its chances were so hopeless that Rullus presently withdrew it of his own accord. The next nine months may be passed lightly over. The consul is recorded to have pacified by a con- january to ciliatory spcech the popular resentment September. against Roscius Otho, who four years previously had restored to Cicero's friends, the Knights, their reserved seats in the theatre. A little later we find him resisting an attempt to remove the political disabilities with which Sulla had affected the children of those who had been put to death in the great Proscription. Cicero acknowledged that the proposal was humane and righteous, but he suc- ceeded in persuading not only the people but the very victims of the existing law themselves, f that it was ill-timed. Strange to say, the same considera- tions seem to have kept Caesar during his consulship and the triumvirs during their period of supremacy * Pliny, Hist. Nat., vii., 30, 116. \ Pliny, Hist. Nat., vii., 30, 116. 63 B.C.] Trial of Rabirius. 107 from meddling with Sulla's arrangement, and it was not until the year 49 B.C., while the second Civil War was in progress, that this relic of the first was re- moved. Cicero does not appear to have taken any part against a harmless but popular measure proposed by the tribune Labienus, which restored to the people under certain restrictions the power of electing the members of the great priestly colleges. The first effect of the change was to place in strong light the overwhelming personal popularity of Caesar. The supreme dignity of Pontifex Maximus was now vacant, and Caesar, though as yet he had served no ofifice higher than the sdileship, appeared as a can- didate, and was elected by a great majority over the heads of all the most distinguished members of the senatorial party, including the aged and revered Catulus. Labienus and Caesar were next found united in a fanciful project, which seems to have been intended as a sort of manifesto of principle on the side of the democratic party. Thirty-seven years previously the tribune Saturninus had been put to death in consequence of an armed riot during which he had seized on the Capitol. The Senate by special decree had empowered the Consul Marius to act against him, and on the strength of this decree Saturninus and his associates had been overpowered and mas- sacred. Caesar and Labienus now affected to re- habilitate the memory of Saturninus and to protest against such proceedings on the part of the Senate, by bringing to trial an aged senator named Caius io8 Cicero's Consulship. [63 B.C. Rabirius, who had avowedly taken part in the attack on Saturninus, and who, as his accusers asserted (though he seems to have proved the contrary), had actually struck the fatal blow. For the purpose of this trial an imposing though somewhat childish dis- play of constitutional antiquarianism was provided. On the one side there was furbished up the " rugged formula of the old law," * which was said to have been invented by King Tullus Hostilius for the trial of that Horatius who stabbed his sister for lamenting her lover, the fallen champion of Alba. On the other side an equally obsolete contrivance enabled the praetor Metellus Celer to break up the assembly by striking the red flag on the Janiculum, which in old times was the sign that the Etruscans were at the gates, and that the burghers must run to arms. Cicero spoke to the people on behalf of Rabirius ; but the proceedings were not intended to be very serious ; the assembly was allowed to disperse, and Labienus and Caesar, though they might have brought on the case again another day, let the matter quietly drop. Only two legislative measures bore the super- scription of Cicero's name as consul. The first was a law heightening the penalties for corrupt practices at elections. An opposing advocate once wittily suggested that Cicero must have passed it " in order to furnish his perorations with more touching appeals to the feelings of the jurors." f The second measure relates to honorary or, as they were called, " free * " Lex horrendi carminis," Livy, i., 26. f Pro Plancio, 34, 83. 63 B.C.] Cicero s Consulship. 109 embassies," which enabled a senator to travel in the provinces at the public expense. A law was passed by Cicero limiting the power of the Senate to grant such commissions. They were now never to be ex- tended beyond the period of one year. Cicero tells us * that he wished to abolish them altogether, but was thwarted by the opposition of a tribune. I have hitherto noticed those actions of Cicero, as consul, which had no direct bearing on the Catili- narian conspiracy. So far we have the record of a useful and creditable but by no means a brilliant year of office. We must now turn to the more stir- ring events which have made Cicero's consulship famous in the history of the world. * De Leg., iii., 8, i8. CHAPTER V. CICERO AND CATILINE. 63 B.C. N describing the conspiracy of Catiline we lie under one grave disadvantage. Atticus wasby Cicero's side throughout this period, and no letters passed between them ; and so the de- tail of events, as they appeared from day to day, is wanting. We cannot, as in each subse- quent crisis of Cicero's life, re- construct an absolutely trustworthy picture of his plans, his hopes, and his fears. We cannot say posi- tively what Cicero knew or believed about Catiline at the moment, but only what the consul chose to announce to the world. Our main authority is the collection of four speeches which Cicero delivered to the Senate or the people during the last two months of his consulship. The accounts of the later writers, Appian, Plutarch, and Dio Cassius, are probably founded to some extent on Cicero's own story as told no 63 B.C.] Catiline. 1 II in the lost treatise on his consulship. Besides these we possess the monograph of Sallust on the Catilin- arian conspiracy. This as the work of a contemporary and a Caesarian is of especial value. We have the satisfaction of finding that the writer on the Caesarian side gives substantially the same account of the con- spirators and their plans as that which we gather from Cicero's own speeches. In presence of this agreement we may feel pretty confident that we have a story trustworthy and correct in its main outlines. Lucius Sergius Catilina was a member of an ancient patrician family which had been famous in the early days of the Republic, but which had long fallen into obscurity. None of its members had attained the consulship during the last two hundred years, and the name of the Sergii is scarcely mentioned in the history of the period when Rome was conquering and ruling the world. During the Civil War Catiline had been a partisan of Sulla and had taken an active part in the bloody work of the Proscription. His brother was one of the victims, and a dark story ran that the infamy which Lepidus earned in later years had been anticipated in the first Proscription, and that Catiline was him- self responsible for the insertion of his kinsman's name in the list.* Since then he had risen through the various magistracies till he • attained the govern- ment of Africa as pro-praetor. After his return he was accused of extortion on evidence which Cicero, though he thought of accepting a brief for the * Plutarch. Sulla, 32, 2. 1 1 2 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. defence, evidently believed to be overwhelming.* He was acquitted by the jury, but according to Quintus Cicero f the verdict cost him a ruinous sum in bribes. At any rate we find him immediately afterwards overwhelmed with debt, and ready for des- perate methods of extrication. He had by this time completely deserted his old party and was among the most violent members of the opposition. The hopes which the democrats had of useful service from him are attested by Caesar's action when in 64 B.C. he brought to trial the assassins of Sulla's Pro- scription. Everyone knew that Catiline had been a ring-leader amongst these ; but Caesar, who throughout his life let by-gones be by-gones when- ever he had any present purpose to serve, screened him from punishment. In private life Catiline was known to be both dissolute and unscrupulous. He had many of the qualities necessary for a revolution- ary chief — a powerful frame, a fearless temper, great capacity for endurance, a ready tongue, and a faculty of adapting himself to his company and winning familiarity with good and bad alike. At the same time he was hopelessly deficient, as the event showed, in the most essential qualifications of a leader, the cool head, the keen eye for the real forces to be dealt with, and the power of co-ordinating means to ends. We have seen that in the years of Pompey's absence the democratic party under its recognised leaders Caesar and Crassus was engaged in fruitless * Ad Att., {., I, I, " si judicatum erit meridie non lucere." f De Pet. Cons., 3, 10. 63 B.C.] The Democratic Party. 113 attempts to establish itself as a power independent both of the Senate and of Pompey. This was the object of the attempt of Crassus, as censor, on Egypt in 65 B.C. and of the Agrarian Law of Rullus in 63 B.C. It must be supposed that Csesar and his asso- ciates counted on the political shortsightedness of both Pompey and the Senate to frustrate any cordial action between the two until the new power should have grown too strong to be successfully resisted. A consummation closely resembling this actually re- sulted some years later when Caesar established him- self in Gaul, so that the project must be deemed not wholly chimerical, if only the first step could be safely taken. This first step was however prevented on both occasions, by Catulus and by Cicero. In the meantime the democrats had striven hard to gain possession of the consulship. Catiline and Antonius were supported by all the efforts of the party against Cicero in 64 B.C. and Catiline again at the next year's elections. An active and unscrupu- lous man like Catiline, once possessed of the consul- ship, would have been able to help forward the long- cherished schemes of the party, and if at the same time, he could have found means to shake off the burden of his debts and to provide for himself in the future, he might easily have been induced to con- fine his operations within the limits prescribed by his more sober coadjutors. Crassus and Caesar could have kept Catiline quiet by flinging him a rich prov- ince to worry, just as Cicero converted Catiline's associate Caius Antonius by the gift of Macedonia. The frustration of these plans brought to light the 1 14 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. weak point in the position of the democrats. They had within their ranks men who could not afford to wait, to whom the want of immediate success meant absolute ruin ; these could not be withheld from at- tempts which in their failure brought discredit on the democratic party, but which, if they had suc- ceeded, would have destroyed that party altogether and profited no one but Pompey. At the head of this desperate class was Catiline himself, and around him were other men of high family whom reckless luxury and extravagance had brought to the verge of bankruptcy and ruin. If these men could see their way clear to a political revolution, they might hope to restore their fortunes in a general scramble for the good things of the government ; but, if they were debarred from this chance, they were resolved to fall back on counsels of despair, and, as Catiline afterwards put it, " to extinguish the fire which would consume them by bringing down the roof-tree on the top of it." * The evil precedents of Marius and of Sulla appealed with fatal seductiveness to these ruined aristocrats. A civil war, a massacre, a pro- scription, a confiscation appeared things possible and hopeful. They could point to men who in the late troubles had suddenly emerged from poverty to enormous wealth and from obscurity to domination.f Their power of judgment was impaired, partly by the dazzling contrast of these hopes with their present embarrassments, partly by the deluding atmosphere of secret cabals in which the vapourings and day- * Sallust, Cat. 31, 9. f Sallust, Cat., 37, 6. 63 B.C.] The Conspiracy. 115 dreams of one hour are apt to become the fixed ideas of the next, and above all perhaps by the im- patience of weakness which, when once men have begun to conspire, makes them feel that suspense is intolerable and that something, no matter what, must be done. To eyes so blinded the occasion seemed not unfavourable. The noble conspirators, though their fortunes were hopelessly undermined, still kept up the show of wealth and profusion, and could command the services of armed slaves, of clients and of retainers. Rome was full as Sallust tells us* of fugitive rascals from all the world ; the remnant of the sufferers by the last revolution likewise lingered on there in hopeless poverty. These would be ready enough for deeds of bloodshed ; and the mass of the populace crowded together in a great city without industry, pauperised by doles of State corn, puffed up with the conceit that they were the masters of the world and yet painfully conscious that they gained little either in comfort or in dignity by their pre-eminence, would, it was thought, welcome a dis- turbance in which they might hope to gain, while at the worst they had nothing to lose. In the country towns of Italy the conspirators though they might number in their ranks some Italians of good posi- tion f who had been drawn into the vortex of fash- ionable life in the capital, would find little favour with the rank and file of the citizens, who were sounder and more industrious than the masses in Rome itself ; but they counted that the country-folk * Sallust, Cat., 37, 5. f Sallust, Cat., 17, 4- ii6 Catilinartan Conspii'acy. [63 B.C. would be slow to move, and that they would have time to strike the great blow before a sufficient force could be raised against them. On the other hand Sulla had stored up for them an ample supply of revolutionaries in the very men whom he had in- tended to be the guardians of his government. The veterans * of his Asiatic army were richly rewarded from the spoils of the conquered party, and were planted out as colonists over Italy : it was supposed that their interests had been effectually bound up with the maintenance of Sulla's ordinances. But these professional soldiers seem not to have made good farmers. Some of them had sold their hold- ings and gone to swell the pauper population of Rome, others remained, having squandered their donatives and involved themselves in debt, and these naturally looked for a fresh call to civil war as the best means of restoring their fortunes. While these resources lay ready to the hand of the conspirators, the forces at the disposal of the gov- ernment were invitingly weak. There was no garri- son and no tolerable police force in the city of Rome ; the officers and public slaves who attended the magistrates might be overpowered by a resolute gang of assassins, especially if their attention could be distracted by the alarm of fire in various parts of the city. The only efficient army of the State was far away with Pompey in Asia, and all the troops avail- able were a few cohorts in Cisalpine Gaul and the scanty retinue of two commanders, Lucius Lucullus *Sallust, Cat., 28, 4. 63 B.C.] Ctzsar and Catiline. 1 1 7 and Marcius Rex, who were waiting for their triumphs outside the city gates. On these considerations the schemes of this party within a party were based. A military force was to be raised in Upper Italy which was to advance as quickly as might be on the city ; its approach was to be the signal for fire-raising within the walls, which would, it was hoped, give the opportunity for a sud- den assault. Catiline was to seize the government with the same title of consul, which Marius and Cinna had borne, there was to be a general abolition of debt and recall of condemned criminals, and the old story of massacre and confiscation was to be renewed. It will now be clear how widely the plans of Catiline differed from those of Caesar. The revolu- tion projected by the great leaders of the democratic party was an elaborate and far-reaching scheme. It recognised the fact that Rome was no longer the chief strategical point, and that the first requisite was a base of operations in the provinces. A remote country such as Spain or Egypt would be the best fitted for the silent equipment of an armed force which might eventually co-operate with partisans at home. To train an army for civil war and generals fit to command it must needs occupy, if not so long a stretch of time as Csesar afterwards employed in the same task in Gaul, at least several years of hard fighting with enemies who were to be sought on the frontiers of the Empire. In the meantime the rival interests in Rome were to be alarmed as little as possible ; the Senate and Pompey were to be left to 1 1 8 Ccesar and Catiline. [63 B.C. counteract each other by their mutual jealousies, and the Roman Knights were to be kept quiet by being allowed to see Crassus, the greatest of all the moneyed men, at the head of the movement. Viewed as a plan of revolution, the defect in this scheme lay not in the general lines on which it was framed, but in the great difiSculty of getting it launched. Catiline's plan on the other hand pre- sented a fatal facility in its initial stage, but it led up necessarily to a result the very contrary of that which Csesar hoped to accomplish. Its first effect was to produce a cordial union between the Senate and the equestrian order. Now one of two things must happen : either these two united would be strong enough to deal with Catiline — this of course was the actual result,- — or else the senatorial government would collapse and Catiline would be able to carry out his full programme and establish in Rome a revolutionary government of the same bloody type as that of Marius and Cinna. The con- spirators forgot that in one essential point their situation differed from that of which Cinna had taken advantage. The revolutionary movement of 87 B.C. had been possible because Sulla and his army were engaged with Mithridates. It took Sulla three years to dispose of his great enemy, and until this was done, happen what might in Italy, he could not stir.* A three years' respite was thus allowed to the new government, and it was only by its own folly that it did not use the time in building up a military ■ See above, pp. 14 and 28. 63 B.C.I Ccesar and Catiline. 119 and political power against which Sulla would have found it hard to contend. But what chance was there of a similar respite for Catiline? Mithridates was already driven from Asia and Pompey was ready to set sail immediately. A massacre in Rome would have brought the Nobles thronging to his camp ; he would have returned with his veteran army ; his name would have rallied all Italy to his standard, and the hasty levies of the insurgents, led by men not one of whom had ever commanded an army in the field, would have been swept like chaff before him.* The difference between Caesar and Catiline reminds one of the choice placed before the peasant of the Scottish legend, who found himself in the presence of a magic sword and horn, and whose fate was to depend on whether he first drew the sword or first blew the horn. Caesar avoided the challenge to Pompey until he had provided himself with a weapon. The fate of Catiline, even had his first effort succeeded, would have been that of the peas- ant in the tale, who was torn in pieces by the spirits whom his blast evoked — " Woe to the fool that ever he was born, That did not draw the sword before he blew the horn." It is obvious that Crassus, however willing he may have been to use Catiline as a tool in his designs against his rival Pompey, can have had no sympathy with his schemes of national bankruptcy, and we * Their plan for holding Pompey in check was in keeping with the folly of the whole movement ; they dreamed of pouncing on Pompey 's children and having them for hostages.— See Plutarch, Cic, i8, i. I20 Catilinarian Conspiracy. [63 B.C. may be sure that Caesar was no less averse to a move- ment which would have united the Senate and Pompey, the constitutional and the military power, once for all firmly together, and would have post- poned indefinitely the chances of revolution. Both Crassus and Csesar got wind of the plot which was formed inside the ranks of their party. They did their best at first to gain for Catiline an official position which would have enabled him to dispense with actual armed rebellion ; when this failed and it was mani- fest that the conspirators would proceed with their further designs, Csesar* and Crassus both warned Cicero of the danger and gave him such information as they possessed about the plot. The subsequent utterances of both may be cited in evidence of the reality of the conspiracy and the imminence of the danger. When C^sar fourteen years later wrote of the " ultimiim Senatus Consultum " that the State had never had recourse to it saving when " the city was almost in flames and the audacity of malefactors was striking terror into the hearts of all men,"f he must have been understood by all Rome to refer to Cati- line. Crassus is still more explicit. A year after Catiline's death he declared in the Senate : :]: " I owe it to Cicero that I am a senator, that I am a citizen, that I am a free man, that I draw the breath of life; whensoever I look on my wife, on my home, or on my country, I behold a blessing for which I am indebted to him." * Suet, yul., 17. f Caesar, Bel/. Civ., i. 5. X Ad Alt., i., 14, 3. 63 B.C.] Cicero and Catiline. 1 2 1 The consular elections were unusually late that year. The polling was fixed for the 20th of October, and Manlius, a veteran centurion of Sulla's army and a confederate of Catiline, was said to have come to Rome with a gang of his associates, intending to or- ganise a riot on the election day.* In view of this danger Cicero assembled the Senate on the 19th, and obtained a decree postponing the election till the 28th in order to give time for further inquiries. Next day (October 20th) he publicly questioned Catiline in the Senate f with regard to seditious and inflam- matory words which he was reported to have used in addressing the people. Catiline showed a bold front : he replied " that there were two bodies in the State, the one weak with a feeble head, the other strong without a head ; to this he would take good care that a head should be supplied." Cicero thought that the challenge should be taken up at once, but he could not on this occasion carry the Senate with him. The resolutions passed were mild and colour- less, and Catihne strode forth from the Senate-house triumphant. On the 2ist:{: of October the consul laid fresh in- formation before the House. He told the senators that he had reason to know that the revolutionary party had lost patience, that an armed insurrection under the leadership of Manlius was impending in Etruria, and that the 27th of October was fixed for the outbreak. Next day (the 22d) the state- * Plutarch, Cic, 14, 2. f Pro Mur., 25, 51. X Cicero, Cat., i., 3, 7. 122 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. ment of the consul was taken into consideration and the Senate resolved to proclaim that a state of civil war had begun,* thus recognising in the consul the power to use extreme measures of resistance, which were permissible only when the commonwealth was in danger. This " Extreme Decree," as it was termed, was expressed in the words, " Let the consuls see to it that the State takes no harm." Under this modest form the magistrate was commissioned to exercise, though always on his own responsibility, whatever force he might deem necessary for the salvation of the Republic. Within the city the plans of the con- spirators had not yet developed into overt acts which Cicero could visit with immediate punishment ; but levies were ordered throughout Italy, and the consul Antonius and the prsetor Metellus Celer were directed to take the field against the insurgents. Manlius ap- peared in arms, just as Cicero had announced, on the 27th of October at Faesulae in Etruria. The consular elections were held in Rome on the 28th of October. Catiline had hoped for the oppor- tunity of a riot in which the consul might be assassi- nated. Cicero warned the senators beforehand and many of them retired from Rome for the day.f He himself appeared as returning officer on the Campus Martius, guarded by a strong body of friends, and * The precise date (October 22d) of the ultivium Senatus Consul- turn is fixed by the note of Asconius on Cicero's In Pisonem. f Cicero, Cat., i., 3, 7. This is perhaps the occasion on which, as Plutarch (Cic, 15, i) asserts, Crassus brought to Cicero a number of letters which had been left at his house, warning him and other sena- tors to keep out of the way. The story closely resembles that of the letter to Lord Monteagle about the Gunpowder Plot. 63 B.C.] Armed Insurrection, 123 the gleam of a corselet which could be seen between the folds of the consul's civic gown proclaimed his danger to the world. The popular feeling was deeply stirred; Catihne saw that an attack on that day would be hopeless, and kept quiet. The voters gave their voices against him, and Silanus and M arena were elected consuls. Three days later, on the ist* of November, an attempt to surprise the stronghold of Praeneste was frustrated by the vigilance of Cicero, who had received intelligence from his spies, and who gave orders that the town should be carefully garri- soned and guarded.* Though the forces of his confederates were actually in the field and Catiline had arranged shortly to put himself at their head, he thought proper to occupy the intervening days with a clumsy display of inno- cence, offering himself to the custody of one magis- trate after another, and finally taking up his quarters, with Marcus Marcellus, whom he begged to keep watch over his movements.f Cicero tells us :j: that down to the time when Catiline actually joined the rebels in Etruria — "there are men in this House, who either do not see what is hanging over us, or seeing it pretend not to see, who have nourished the hopes of Catiline by the mildness of their proposals, and have given strength to the new-born conspiracy by refusing to believe in it ; and there are many out- side, not only of the bad but of the simple, who have followed their lead, and who, if I had taken extreme * Cicero, Cat., i., 3, 8. t Cicero, Cat., i., 8, 19. X Cicero, Cat., i., 12, 30. 124 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. measures against Catiline, would have called my ac- • tion cruel and tyrannical." Something like a drama- tic exposure of the childish pretences of Catiline was desired by the consul, and for this his adversary soon gave him an occasion. On the evening of the 6th of November a meeting of the conspirators was held at which it was agreed that Catiline should forthwith set out from Rome and take command of the troops raised by Manlius, leaving the other chiefs of the conspiracy to continue their operations in the city. He would fain have Cicero disposed of before his departure, and two of his associates, Cornelius and Vargunteius, promised to procure him this satisfaction. They were on suf- ficiently friendly terms with the consul to be able to make their way into his house as morning callers, and they arranged to take advantage of this oppor- tunity to murder him the first thing next day. Cicero, however, was well served by his spies. Next morning the murderers found the door barred against them, and a number of the principal senators as- sembled to witness the discomfiture of the men whose presence verified what Cicero had announced beforehand as to their names and their purpose. Next night the conspirators met again and decided that, notwithstanding the failure of the assassination, Catiline's departure could no longer be delayed. On the following morning (Nov. 8th) Cicero sum- moned the Senate to the temple of Jupiter Stator on the Palatine. Catiline himself, who was resolved not to throw off the mask until the very last mo- ment, had the audacity to be present. This was 63 B.C.] First Catilinarian Oration. 125 Cicero's opportunity. He knew that Catiline was about to join the insurgents, and he wished to em- phasise this his first act of overt rebellion. He wished likewise to have the correctness of his own information publicly attested, and to avoid the sup- position that Catiline's hypocritical protestations had duped the consul, and that his escape from Rome was a success scored against the government. He therefore turned upon him in the tremendous in- vective which has been preserved to us under the title of the First Catilinarian Oration. The opening words — "Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, pa- tientia nostra ? " — are perhaps more universally known than any other sentence from an ancient author, and the whole speech well merits its fame as a masterpiece of passionate and defiant eloquence. Throughout, Cicero assumes the tone of one who has complete command of the situation. He mocks at Catiline's affectation of innocence, he reveals all his *^ actions and projects before his face, charges him with all that had occurred at the secret meetings of the conspirators during the last two nights, and explains to him where his comrades are to meet him on the road, how the silver eagle which is to serve as their standard has gone on before, and how Manlius awaits his arrival. As consul, Cicero has ample evidence and ample precedent for ordering him to execution on the spot, but it does not suit his convenience to do so. " I will have you put to death, Catiline," he says,* " but it shall be later on, when it will be impos- * Cicero, Cai., i., 2, 5. :26 Cicero and Catiline. L63 B.C. sible to find anyone so vile, anyone so abandoned, anyone so like yourself, as to deny that I am justified in the act. So long as there is anyone left to plead for you, you shall live ; and you shall live, as you live now, hemmed in by my guards — many and trusty they are — so that you cannot stir a finger against the State : the eyes and ears of many, when you least suspect it, shall in the future as in the past spy out your ways and keep watch on your actions." If Catiline wishes to keep up the farce for a few hours longer and to represent himself as an innocent man driven friendless into exile by the threats of the consul, Cicero will humour him so far. " Go," he says,* " I order you ; go into banishment, if that is what you want me to say. And if," he continues,! " you wish to blast the name of me, whom you are pleased to call your enemy, withdraw in very truth into some distant land. I shall scarcely be able to survive the ill-fame which will attach to me, if you allow yourself to be driven from the country by the command of the consul. But if you wish to be the instrument of my praise and my reputation, then set forth with all your crew of reprobates, betake your- self to Manlius, summon all criminals to your stand- ard, sever yourself from every honest man, declare war against your country, glory in the act of impiety, that it may be clear that you have not been thrust forth among strangers, but that you have sought the company of your fellows. You will go at last," he ♦Cicero, Cat., i., 8, 20. f Cicero, Cat., i., 9, 23. 63 B.C.] Catilinarian Orations. 127 adds,* " well I know it, to that camp whither your iinbridled and insane desires have long been sum- moning you. It is no painful task that I impose upon you but an inexpressible pleasure. For this mad adventure it is, that nature has fashioned you, that choice has trained you, that fortune has spared you. You never loved peace, nor even war unless it were war as a pirate. You have found for yourself agangofrufifians, recruited from among broken men, whom not only all luck but all hope has deserted. In the midst of such a crew how you will take your joy, how you will triumph in delight, how you will revel in satisfaction, when in the whole circle of your associates you never hear the voice of one honest man, nor see one honest man's face." That night Catiline left the city for Etruria. Next day (Nov. 9th) Cicero addressed a speech (the Second Catilinarian Oration) to the Roman People, in which he announced the departure of Catiline, and laid before them the whole situation. He exults in the thought that he is now permitted to fight with the traitor in the daylight. " For this one leader of this intestine war, I have beaten him beyond a doubt. No longer will his dagger play against my breast. I have done with the perils which I have had to face on the Campus and in the Forum and in the Senate- house and even within the walls of my own home. He has lost his vantage ground now that he is driven from the city. We shall wage a fair war with none to hinder us against a declared enemy. Unquestionably we have ruined the man and tri- * Cicero, Cat., i., lo, 25. 128 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. umphed over him, now that we have drawn him from his secret ambush into open piracy." * Cicero answers to the people, as he had already- done to the Senate, the criticisms which he fears will be made on his policy in allowing the rebel cap- tain to put himself at the head of his forces. He protests that though he would have been justified in killing him, yet that his execution would have been useless to the commonwealth. Catiline's associates would have declared his innocence, would have made a martyr of him, and would have used the outcry against the consul in order to carry out Catiline's schemes more effectively. Now that he has set himself in arms against the State, no one can any longer pretend to disbelieve in his conspiracy, and so not only he but his accomplices whom he leaves behind can be safely dealt with. To these last Cicero addresses significant words of warning. " They are conscious," he says,f " that all the reso- lutions of their council of the night before last have been reported to me. I exposed them all yesterday in the Senate. Catiline took fright and departed. What are they waiting for? Nay, but they are much mistaken if they think that my lenity is going to last for ever. . . . One boon I will still grant them ; let them go forth, let them start on their journey, let them not suffer their Catiline to pine with grief for want of them. I will show them the road : he has gone along the Aurelian Way ; if they will but make haste, they may catch him up towards * Cicero, Cat.^ ii., i, i. f Cicero, Cat., ii., 5, 11. 63 B.C.] Second Catilmarian Oration. 129 evening. . . . One word more ; either go they shall, or keep quiet ; or else if they remain in the city and do not mend their ways let them look to receive their deserts." Further on * he returns to the same theme — ■" If my mildness heretofore has seemed to anyone to argue want of vigour, I would reply that it has been waiting till this which lay con- cealed should spring to light. For the future I can no longer forget that this is my native land, that I am the consul of all these Romans, that it is with them that I have to live or for them that I have to die. There is no guard set upon the gates, no am- bush upon the road. If anyone wishes to go forth, he can use his own discretion. But if anyone dares to stir a finger in the city, if I take him, I will not say in any accomplished act, but in any attempt or effort against the nation, then I say that I will make him feel that in this city there are consuls who will not sleep, there are magistrates who will do their duty, there is a Senate which will stand firm, there are forces in arms, there is a prison which our ances- tors established to be the scene of vengeance for heinous and red-handed crime." With this warning Cicero left things to run their course in the city. Outside, the armies of Metellus Celer in the valley of the Po and of Antonius in Etruria were hurriedly reinforced by fresh levies. Meanwhile Catiline had fulfilled Cicero's predictions by joining the band of Manlius at Fsesulse. Disguise was no longer possible, and he assumed the dress and title of consul in open rebellion against the ♦Cicero, Cat., ii., 12, 27. 9 130 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. State. The Senate replied by declaring Catiline and Manlius enemies, and summoning those who had followed them to disperse. Rewards had al- ready been offered for the denunciation of their confederates within the city. Sallust tells us* that these decrees produced no effect. None of the con- spirators in the capital came forward to give evi- dence, and none of those in the field deserted their standard. Catiline's force now amounted to ten thousand men. He felt himself strong enough to refuse the aid of the runaway slaves who would gladly have flocked to him. He feared that their presence might alarm those who looked with indif- ference or with favour on his movement, and so spoil his chance of support from the populace of the capital. While the forces were thus mustering on either side, Cicero was annoyed by a foolish and ill-timed contest among his own followers. At the recent consular election Silanus and Murena had headed the poll with Servius Sulpicius Rufus for third and Catiline for fourth. A law had been lately passed increasing the penalties against bribery, and Cato, the sworn foe of electoral corruption, whose charac- teristic it was to be instant in season and out of sea- son, must needs choose this moment, when all the fortunes of the commonwealth were at stake, to divide the friends of the constitution by trying to unseat Murena on a charge of bribery and treating. Cicero protested against the folly of throwing the city again into the confusion of a contested election ; * Sallust, Cat., 36, 5. 63 B.C.] Speech for Murena. 131 he offered himself as counsel for Murena, and deliv- ered on his behalf a speech * which is a very model of playful and persuasive eloquence, the more pleas- ant because it comes as an interlude in the grim tragedy of the Catilinarian orations. The serious arguments of the consul as to the political necessities of the time are relieved by a sportive attack on the technical subtleties which form the stock in trade of the lawyer Sulpicius, and on the precisian doctrines which Cato has imbibed from his Stoic tutors. " I must tell you, gentlemen, that those eminent quali- ties which we observe in Marcus Cato are all his own ; what we sometimes find wanting in him is to be set down not to his nature but to his master, Zeno, whose doctrines have been caught up from learned tutors by our most talented friend, and that not as a topic for discussion, which is the usual way, but as a rule of life." Cicero laughed the jurors into a good humour by a ludicrous application of Stoic maxims to the practical exigencies of Roman politics, and they unanimously acquitted Murena. The addi- tional peril which Cato's obstinate purism would have created was thus happily averted. It is difficult to reaUse that this witty and sparkling speech was ut- tered by a man in hourly danger of his life, and with all the responsibilities of a tremendous political crisis weighing upon him. " What a merry man we have for consul," was Cato's remark, as he Hstened from the accusers' bench. It never seems to have occurred to Cato, that Cicero's merriment was pressed into the * Some extracts from the Pro Murena will be found above, pp. 94-98. 132 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. service of the State, and that his own austerity was helping on the projects of the very men whose exe- cution he was himself to urge a few days later. The trial of Murena took place about the end of November. Meanwhile the conspirators in the city anxiously awaited the appearance of Catiline and his army. Their chief was Publius Cornelius Lentu- lus Sura, who had been consul in 71 B.C., and had been afterwards expelled from the Senate by the censors. He had recovered his seat by being again elected to the praetorship, and was now serving that office. He appears to have been a man of flighty and credulous temperament. He lent his ears to designing sooth- sayers who persuaded him that a Sibylline oracle had foretold the domination in Rome of three Cor- nelii. Part of the prophecy, they said, had been al- ready fulfilled by Cinna and Sulla, and Lentulus was marked by fate to be the third. Other senators and knights .of good family, Autronius, Gabinius, Stati- lius, Cassius, and Cethegus were associated with him. Cethegus was supposed to be the most energetic of the conspirators and always urged immediate and violent measures. Cicero had failed as yet to get evidence of any overt act which would justify the arrest of these men, but at length their own folly gave him the desired opportunity. There were present in Rome at this time some envoys from the Allobroges of Transalpine Gaul. The Allobroges were overwhelmed with a burden of debt to Roman money-lenders and were ready for any desperate action. In the meantime they had sent an embassy to Rome to beg some relief from 63 B.C.] The Alio broges. 133 the government. These GaUic envoys were intro- duced to Gabinius by a certain freedman named Umbrenus, and Gabinius and the rest conceived the wild idea of associating the Allobroges in the con- spiracy and inducing them to supply Catihne with cavalry for the invasion of Italy. The Gauls at first listened with sympathy ; but on further considera- tion they reflected that they might gain more by betraying their tempters to the government than by engaging seriously in so desperate a cause. They accordingly took counsel with Fabius Sanga, the pa- tron of their tribe, who at once gave notice to Cicero. The Allobroges were instructed to continue their negotiations with the conspirators and to obtain from them if possible written documents. With incredi- ble stupidity Lentulus and his associates fell into the trap. They gave the Gauls letters in their own hand- writing, addressed to the senate and people of the Allobroges, undertaking to perform what they had promised verbally to the envoys, and urging the Allobroges in turn to send the assistance which their envoys had promised. The Gauls were to visit Cati- line on their way north, and they bore with them a letter from Lentulus to Catiline in which he advised him to admit the slaves into the ranks of his band. By the evening of the 2d of December all was settled, and the Allobroges started on their home- ward journey that night. They were accompanied by Volturcius, one of the confederates, and attended by a considerable escort. Cicero was duly informed of all this, and made his preparations accordingly.* ♦Cicero, Cat., iii., 2, 5. T 34 Cicero and Catiline. [63 b.c. The great northern road from Rome crosses the Tiber at the Mulvian Bridge some two miles above the city. Cicero set two of the praetors in ambush with armed bands in farm-houses" on each side of the water. These waited until the Allobroges and their companions were crossing in the darkness ; then ad- vancing simultaneously they occupied the two ends of the bridge. Thus not only were the letters seized, but the whole party was caught on the bridge. They were conveyed to Rome and deposited at the con- sul's house about daybreak (Dec. 3d). Cicero forth- with summoned to his presence Gabinius, Cethegus, Statilius, and Lentulus. Messages were likewise sent to some of the principal senators, who hurried to the consul's house. Contrary to the advice of these, Cicero declined to open the letters. He pre- ferred at once to convoke the Senate, so that the evidence might come out in open court. In the meantime, acting on a hint from the Allobroges, he sent one of the praetors to search the house of Cethe- gus, where a store of swords and daggers was soon found. These were immediately seized. As soon as the Senate had assembled, Cicero took Lentulus by the hand and led him into the House. This show of gentle force exercised by the consul in person was considered due to the dignity of the praetor ; the other conspirators, being but private men, were arrested with less ceremony. Volturcius was first admitted to give evidence under promise of pardon, and detailed the instructions with which he was charged for Catiline, who was to be urged to ad- vance as soon as possible on Rome, so as to be before 63 B.C.] Evidence against Conspirators. 135 the city during the festival of the Saturnalia ; this would be the most convenient opportunity for his accomplices to co-operate with fire and sword within the city. Next came the Allobroges with their evi- dence as to the messages and letters with which they had been entrusted, and as to the promises which Lentulus had made them on the strength of his Sibylline oracle (see above, p. 132). When con- fronted on this point, Lentulus' assurance forsook him, and he did not venture to deny the charge. But the most overwhelming evidence was that of the letters themselves which lay still unopened on the table. The accused were called upon, one by one, and each acknowledged his own hand and seal before the thread was cut and the correspondence inciting to a Gallic invasion of Italy was read to the House.* After this there could be no question as to the guilt of the prisoners ; and to close the mouths of all ob- jectors for the future Cicero directed that the evi- dence should be taken down word for word by certain trustworthy senators, and then immediately copied out and published. The fidelity of the document was thus guaranteed by its being at once subjected to the criticism of those who had heard the evidence, and it was impossible to maintain with any plausi- bility that the record had been tampered with after- wards. f The Senate next % resolved by an unanimous vote that Lentulus should be required to resign his magistracy, and that he should then be remanded ♦Cicero, Cat., iii., 5, 10. \Pro Sulla, 14, 41. t Cicero, Cat., iii., 6, 14. 136 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. with the rest to safe-keeping. Cethegus, Statilius, and Gabinius were already secured, and orders for arrest were issued against five other ring-leaders, of whom however one only, Cceparius, was actually caught. The prisoners were guarded in the houses of magistrates and senators, two of them being com- mitted to the charge of Caesar and Crassus. By this choice of guardians the consul meant to indicate that he put no trust in the rumour which made Caesar and Crassus accessories to the conspiracy, but regarded them as loyal and trustworthy citizens. After thus providing for the custody of the prisoners, the Sen- ate with equal unanimity passed a vote of thanks to Cicero because " by his courage, wisdom, and fore- thought the commonwealth had been delivered from the greatest dangers." At the same time a solemn Thanksgiving was voted to the gods for having blessed the efforts of the consul " to rescue the city from conflagration, the citizens from massacre, and Italy from war." Thanksgivings had often been decreed for the success of commanders in the field, but Cicero was the first to whom it had ever befallen to receive such a recognition of his services in the city. Late in the afternoon of the same day (Dec. 3d) Cicero assembled the people and recounted to them the events of the last twenty-four hours. This speech, the Third Catilinarian Oration, is our main authority for the incidents which have been already detailed. The statements are fully confirmed not only by Plutarch but by Sallust, whose master, Caesar, voted on this day in agreement with the rest 53 B.C.] Third Catilinarian Oration. 137 of the Senate ; we are justified in concluding from this unanimity that the facts were absolutely plain and notorious and that there were not two opinions as to the guilt of the accused. Thus Cicero's first object was fully attained ; the conspirators in the city, whose machinations had hitherto been hidden from the public, were now caught in a flagrant act of rebellion, and an act which had conspicuously failed. In presence of their egregious folly Cicero may well have exulted that Catiline was no longer at hand to be their guide, and it is not surprising that he should have been tempted to magnify the sagacity of the leader whom they had lost in comparison with the in- eptitude of those who remained behind. " Catiline," he exclaims, " would never have fixed for our informa- tion the season of the Saturnalia, or announced so long beforehand the day of doom and destruction for the commonwealth ; he would never have been so simple as to allow me to lay hands on his own seal, his own letters, or the eye-witnesses of his guilt." "When I drove him from the city, Ro- mans, I had this in my mind that, Catiline once away, I had no reason to fear the sleepy Lentulus or the bloated Cassius or the raving maniac Cethegus." * The conflict was not yet over, but a first great suc- cess had been scored, and Cicero was fully justified in addressing his fellow-citizens in a tone of triumph and confidence ; f " Night is now upon us ; so do you, Romans, offer your thanks to that Jupiter who watches over the city and over you, and then return * Cicero, Cat., iii., 7, l6. f Cicero, Cat., iiL, 12, 29. 138 Cicero and Catiline. [63B.C, to your homes. Though the danger has been averted, yet I would have each one of you keep watch and ward over his own house this night as you did last night. That you shall not be called upon to do so much longer and that you shall enjoy quiet from this time forward, that shall be my care, Romans." The multitude greeted his words with acclamation, and escorted him back in honour to the house of a friend with whom he was to lodge for the night. The consul could not sleep that night in his own home, for it was in the possession of the Vestal Vir- gins, who each year celebrated in the house of one of the magistrates certain rites of the " Good God- dess " from which all males were rigorously ex- cluded. After the interval of one day (Dec. 4th), during which it appears that further evidence was being taken and rewards voted to the informers,* the Senate assembled for the third time on the 5th, the famous Nones of December, and the consul asked its advice on the question what was to be done with Lentulus and his fellows. The place of meeting was the temple of Concord at the foot of the Capitoline Hill. The Forum f was filled with citizens who had armed themselves at the consul's bidding, and the slopes of the Capitol were occupied by bodies of Roman Knights, amongst whom Cicero's friend At- ticus was conspicuous. :]; * Cicero, Cat., iv., 5, lo. t Cicero, Co/., iv., 7, 14. XAdAtt., ii., I, 7. "T"'n FRIEZE OF THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD. {Duriiy.) 63 B.C.] Debate in the Senate. 139 The accounts which have been preserved to us of this great debate are strangely conflicting. Plu- tarch * relates " that the only one of Cato's speeches surviving in his time was that delivered on this occasion ; for Cicero the consul had trained certain writers of special intelligence to use signs which ex- pressed the sense of many letters in a few short marks, and had set them here and there in the Senate-house. For the keeping and employment of what are called shorthand writers had not yet begun, but it is said that this occasion was the first when men struck on the track of any such invention." It might have been hoped that this precaution would have secured us an authentic account of the speeches and motions before the House. Nevertheless we find perplexing discrepancies. Sallust omits Cicero's speech altogether, and Plutarch and Dio Cassius f give accounts of it which are in contradiction of each other, and neither of which agrees very well with the published version. Brutus, who in later years wrote a Hfe of his uncle Cato, went hopelessly astray, be- lieving that Cato was the first to propose the punish- ment of death. Luckily for us, this blunder caused Cicero to give us in a confidential letter :]: of criticism, addressed to Atticus, a plain statement of some of the facts, which is our best guide through the laby- rinth of contradiction. Lastly as to the nature of Csesar's proposal, we have two distinct versions ; the one, easy in itself but irreconcilable with what we * Plutarch, Cato Minor, 23, 3. f Plutarch, Cic, 21, 2. Dio Cassius, xxxvii., 35, 4. \Ad Att., xii., 21. 1 40 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. know of the order of debate, is propounded by Ap- pian * and Plutarch ; the other, vouched for by Cicero in his published speech and by Sallust, fits in with the other facts as they are known to us but presents serious internal difficulties. This is not the place for a full discussion of these vexed ques- tions : I will only say that I believe that the con- temporary authorities, Cicero and Sallust, have preserved the true account of the order of debate and of Caesar's proposal, and that 1 shall follow them rather than Appian and Plutarch in the subse- quent narrative. Cicero first put the question to Silanus, the consul elect, who thereupon moved that the five prisoners should be put to death. He was followed by the other senators of consular rank, who all supported the motion. The praetorian benches were next to be consulted. Among the first in this rank came Caesar, who was prsetor-elect and would enter on office at the end of the month. Caesar, if we may trust Sal- lust's version f of his speech, while fully agreeing as to the guilt of the accused and acknowledging that no punishment could be too severe for their crimes, urged that the Senate should nevertheless consider not the deserts of the prisoners but its own charac- ter as the guardian of the laws and the constitution. He pointed out with much force that it is just by cases like this that bad precedents are set up and the habit of obedience to the law broken through; it was thus that the Thirty at Athens had begun their * Appian, Bell. Civ., ii., 5 and 6 ; see below pp. 141 and 148, \ Sallust, Cat., 51. 63 B.C.] Ccssar's Proposal. 141 tyranny by putting to death without trial men of notoriously criminal character. To let the prisoners go would be manifestly impolitic, but without break- ing the law which forbade that any Roman citizen should be punished with death except by command of the People, measures might be taken which would render the conspirators powerless to do harm for the future. He therefore proposed that the property of the culprits should be confiscated, and that they should be confined in chains in corporate towns of Italy, and that it should be declared illegal for any- one to bring before the Senate or the People any proposal for their release. It is obviously very difificult to understand how such a proposal could follow on such an argument. Caesar by proposing an alternative sentence seems to acknowledge the right of the Senate to try these men and to condemn them to punishment of some sort. Why was the Senate better qualified to pro- nounce a sentence of imprisonment for life, than a sentence of death? This question, though it seems to force itself on the notice of the reader, is never clearly stated, much less solved, by any of our au- thorities. Appian evades it by making Cssar pro- pose a mere remand of the prisoners for a legal trial later on. Sallust and Cicero give us little help in explanation, though they state the_ facts correctly. The most probable answer seems to be that impris- onment in the days of the Roman Republic was not fully recognised as a species of punishment, but only as a harsh method of safe-keeping. For this reason it was not mentioned amongst the punishments against 142 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. which a right of appeal was guaranteed to Roman citizens. All the laws which treat of the right of appeal speak of death, of scourging and of fine, as the penalties which are appealed against. The Senate then, or rather the consul acting under the advice of the Senate, is justified (so we must suppose Caesar to maintain) in punishing dangerous enemies of the State so long as the punishment inflicted is not one forbidden totidem verbis by the statute. Thus Caesar's motion may be* held to " keep on the windy side of the law," though it seems a strange subtlety to say that a court, not qualified to pro- nounce any " capital " sentence (which in this age commonly meant a sentence of death to be avoided by voluntary exile and self-deprivation of citizen- ship), should nevertheless have the right to inflict a punishment infinitely more severe. Whatever the reasonableness of Caesar's proposal, his speech produced a strong effect, and many of the senators of praetorian rank signified their assent. Silanus the consul-elect took alarm, and explained * I assume that the ' ' penal servitude " of later Roman law (by which a man undoubtedly lost his " caput") had not yet been invented, and that the "citizenship" and " liberty" of the prisoners would be technically intact, just as they were in the case of the insolvent debtor who was handed over to work in chains for his creditor (see Ortolan's Institutes of yustinian, iii. , § 2027, n.). In this case the sentence would not be technically a " capital " one but might be re- garded as detention indefinitely prolonged. Mommsen {Staats-Jiecht, iii., p. 1250, n. i) holds on the contrary that perpetual imprisonment is really a death-sentence indefinitely suspended by way of grace. If however this is what Csesar proposed, how could he with any plausibility afterwards declare his opinion (see below, p. 230), that the death-sentence had been illegal ? 63 B.C.] Fourth Catilinarian Oration. 143 away his own motion by an unworthy quibble. It was worded in the terms " that the extreme penalty be inflicted on the prisoners," and he now interpreted this to mean the same as Caesar's proposal ; " for perpetual imprisonment," he said "is the extreme penalty which can be inflicted on a Roman citizen." * Many of Cicero's friends approved of Csesar's motion, as it would undoubtedly relieve the consul from the risk and responsibility which he would incur by the actual infliction of death, f His brother Quintus is said to have been among those who wavered. % At this point Cicero intervened in the debate with the speech which he afterwards published as the Fourth Catilinarian Oration. As consul, he was not like the rest called upon to deliver his opinion in the order of his place, but might interpose with a magis- terial statement at any moment which he deemed expedient. In another respect the consul differs from the ordinary senator. He is present to ask and receive the advice of the Senate, not to give advice himself. He must therefore refrain, much as an English judge charging a jury refrains, from express- ing his adhesion to one side or the other, though by his method of summing up and laying the question before the House he may indicate pretty clearly what is his own opinion. In this speech Cicero in- sists on two points : first he wishes that the Senate shall decide according to what it deems good for the State without regard to what may be the personal * Plutarch, Cato Minor, 22, 5. f Plutarch, OV., 21, 2. \ Suetonius, Jul., 14. 144 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. consequences to himself ; these he is ready and proud to accept : secondly he protests against any delay. " Now whatever is to be done, whichever way your minds and your resolutions incline, you must decide before nightfall. You see what a crime has been brought before your bar. If you suppose that only a few are associated in it, you are much mistaken ; this mischief has spread further than we thought ; it has not only infected Italy, but it has crossed the Alps, and working its way in darkness has already laid hold on several provinces. It cannot be crushed out by withholding your hand and putting off the day of reckoning. Whatever the nature of the punishment which you select, you must inflict it instantly." * He next proceeds to explain to the senators the alternatives presented to them — " I see that there are two motions before the House, the first that of Decimus Silanus, who proposes that those who have attem,pted to destroy this commonwealth shall be punished by death, the other that of Caius Caesar who, while exempting them from death, provides for every other punishment in its most aggravated form. Both these senators have pronounced sentences stern as their own dignity and the gravity of the crisis de- mand. The one thinks that men who have attempted to slaughter the Roman people, to destroy our Em- pire, to blot out the name of Rome, ought not to be allowed to enjoy a moment longer the life and breath which we all draw in common ; and he bears in mind that this punishment has often been inflicted on * Cicero, Cat., iv. , 3, 6. 63 B.C.] Fourth Catilinarian Oration. 145 wicked citizens in this commonwealth. The other perceives that death has not been established by Heaven as a punishment, but that it is either a debt due to nature, or a haven of rest from toils and troubles ; and so wise men never meet it with re- luctance, and brave men often seek it of their own will. But chains, and chains to be worn for ever, are truly a device framed for the exernplary punish- ment of heinous crimes. He adds a heavy penalty on the townships in which they are to be confined, if any of the prisoners escapes from his bonds ; he commits them to a dreadful prison, and provides as the crimes of these wretches deserve, that no one shall be allowed to propose to alleviate by decree of Senate or People the penalty to which he condemns them, thus depriving them even of hope, so often the sole consolation of men in trouble : he orders further that their property be confiscated. All that he leaves to these criminals is life, and if he had taken this too, by a single pang he would have re- lieved them from all the pangs of mind and body and all the expiation of their crime. And for this it was that the men of old, in order to set before the eyes of the wicked some terror in their lifetime, thought it well to teach that pains and penalties not unlike this are reserved for the impious in the world below; they understood, it is clear, that if these were set aside death in itself was nothing to fear. Now, Senators, I see what course is for my own bene- fit. If you accept the proposal of Caius Csesar, it is probable, since he has professed those politics which are supposed to be in favour with the many, that 146 Fourth Catilinarian Oration. [63 B.C. having him for the adviser and the voucher for this sentence I shall have less to fear from the attacks of the multitude ; if the other proposal be adopted, I do not know but that more of trouble may be in store for me. But let all considerations of my danger give way to the interests of the State. For Csesar, as his own dignity and the splendour of his ancestry required, has laid this sentence in our hands, as a pledge of his enduring loyalty to the State. The truth is, that Caius Cssar knows that the Semproni- an Law is intended for the benefit of Roman citizens, and that the man who is an enemy to the State can- not by any possibility be a citizen ; he knows likewise that the very man * who carried the Sempronian Law paid the penalty of his treason without the command of the People. . . . And so a man of his known kindliness and clemency does not hesitate to commit Publius Lentulus to a life-long dungeon and chains; he provides that for the future no man shall be per- mitted to gain credit for himself by alleviating the punishment of Lentulus, or to pose as the people's friend, while bringing calamity on the Roman Peo- ple ; he adds that his goods are to be confiscated, so that to all the other torments of mind and body want and beggary are to be added. Therefore, whether you vote with him, you will have given me a coadjutor beloved and acceptable to the commons, to help me to plead my cause to the multitude ; or whether you prefer to follow the advice of Silanus, you will have an easy defence both for yourselves and me against * I. c, Caius Gracchus. 63 B.C.] Cato^s Speech. 147 any charge of cruelty, and I will maintain that this sentence was far the less severe of the two." The next feature in the debate was the speech of Cato. He was tribune-elect, and would probably be asked for his opinion immediately after the senators of praetorian rank. Plutarch '* tells us that Cato severely rebuked his brother-in-law Silanus for his weakness, and fiercely attacked Caesar for' trying to intimidate the Senate, when he might be thankful if he himself escaped condemnation as an accomplice. Sallust's version of Cato's speech contains nothing about Silanus, and softens down the invective against Caesar. But the main argument, as Sallust gives it, is so perfectly adapted to the situation, that there can be little doubt that it is the one which Cato actually used. This argument is that the situation calls for administrative action rather than for precise weigh- ing of penalties, t The prisoners are avowedly guilty, so that no injustice can be done ; but the really vital question is what effect will the one or the other decision of the House have on the chances of Catiline and his army. % When the question was brought to this point, a sensible man could hardly doubt what answer it was his duty to give. Cesar's proposal was obviously and notoriously impracticable. What probability was there of such a sentence being carried out? How could the Senate prevent any magistrate from proposing the release of the prisoners ? Cicero had * Plutarch, Cato Minor, 23, i. f Sallust, Cat., 52, 3. % Sallust, Cat., 52, 17. 148 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. later on the opportunity of proving in his own person the futility of such restrictive clauses. Clodius in the law which banished him provided that it should be unlawful to propose his recall, but this did not prevent its being both proposed and carried. The same would doubtless have been the case in this instance if Caesar's motion had been adopted. An agitation would at once have been set on foot to review the sentence. Meanwhile Catiline and his companions in arms would have had no sense of dis- couragement or terror at the fate of their fellows. They would have regarded Lentulus as simply out of the game for the moment, until they could come and rescue him. His fate would have depended mainly on the issue of the military operations in the field, whereas, as we shall see presently, his im- mediate execution had a momentous effect on the decision of that issue. Cato's speech determined the sense of the House, which Cicero had left doubtful. An effort was in- deed made at the last moment to put off the decision, in spite of the protest which the consul had uttered against delay. Tiberius Claudius Nero moved to adjourn the question until further measures of de- fence against Catiline should be provided, and Sila- nus, tossed to and fro by conflicting anxieties, took refuge at last in this neutral proposal and announced that he should vote with Nero.* But by the rules of * Sallust, Cat., 50, 4. That Nero's proposal came last of all is proved (in contradiction of Appian) by Cicero's statement (Ad Ait., xii., 21, l) that " all who spoke before Cato, excepting Csesar, had spoken for death." I- X I- 63 B.C.I Execution of Conspirators. 149 the Roman Senate motions for adjournment had no precedence over those on the main question, and thus it happened that the proposal of Nero was never put to the vote. Cicero first submitted to the House the proposal of Cato, which was in substance the same as that of Silanus, but which was more fully and clearly expressed.* This was carried by a great majority and all the other motions before the House necessarily dropped. Cicero lost no time in carrying the sentence into execution. He at once dismissed the Senate, and proceeding to the Palatine, where Lentulus was con- fined, led him along the Sacred Way through the Forum to the door of the ancient prison of the Kings close to the Temple of Concord where the de- bate had been held. Hither he commanded the other prisoners to be conveyed, one by one, from their several places of detention. The multitude which thronged the Forum was as yet uncertain for what purpose they were being brought. As each arrived he was handed over to the magistrates charged with the care of executions, and by them thrust down in- to the subterranean vault of the prison, where he was immediately strangled. When all five had perished the consul turned to the assembled people and, hu- mouring the superstition which forbade the ill-omened mention of death, announced their fate in the words, "They have lived their life." Night was falling when Cicero returned homewards amidst the flare of torches displayed at every door and the shouts of * Ad Att., xii., 21, I. 150 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. the multitude who hailed him as their deliverer and preserver.* The soundness of Cato's advice and the wisdom of Cicero's action were soon manifested ; the army of Catiline, which had remained unaffected by all the previous decrees of the Senate, began, as soon as the news of Lentulus' execution arrived, to disperse and dwindle until it was reduced to three thousand men. These were soon confronted near Pistoria, some twenty miles from Fsesulae, by a superior force under Petreius, a brave and experienced officer who was acting as lieutenant to the second consul An- tonius. The whole of them were cut to pieces fight- ing bravely around their leader, whose gallant death atoned in some degree for the criminal stupidity of his attempt against the commonwealth. We may fairly apply to Catiline the lines in which Scott re- cords the death of another Roman who, like him, ' ' For empire enterprised ; He stood the cast his rashness played. Left not the victims he had made, Dug his red grave with his own blade, And on the field he lost was laid, Abhorred, but not despised." The defeat and death of Catiline happened on the Nones of January, exactly one month after the exe- cution of Lentulus. There can be no question that the one event was the direct result of the other. Catiline had calculated on having to deal with a weak government, divided by party factions and hampered by constitutional scruples. He was met * Plutarch, Cic, 22, 3. 63 B.C.] Legality of the Executions. 1 5 1 by a dramatic revelation of the total collapse of the schemes of his confederates in the city, and by a startling example of the length to which the consul and the Senate were prepared to go in dealing with them. Down to the Nones of December, it was not clear which party had most force on its side. When once this question seemed to be decided, Catiline lost his chief hopes of support. All the outer circle of his followers deserted him, and he was left alone with a handful of desperate men for whom there was no retreat. No State trial, except that perhaps of Charles I., has ever been the subject of so much controversy as that which consigned Lentulus and his companions to the executioner. The clamour against Cicero's action began a few days later and never ceased until he was driven into banishment by a vote of the People. This condemnation was solemnly reversed, and the exile restored in triumph eighteen months later. But after nineteen centuries the controversy still rages, and the question is eagerly debated whether Cicero's act was that of a bold and public- spirited magistrate, who at a critical moment used his legitimate powers with vigour and discretion, or whether it was a judicial murder,* perpetrated with- out legal warrant by a timid and self-seeking partisan. * "A brutal judicial murder" is Mommsen's expression in his Roman History. In his more recent work, the Staats-Recht (vol. iii. , p. 1246), Mommsen takes a much more moderate view, holding that the Senatus consuHum ultimum did really and legally justify the consul in treating all conspiring citizens as enemies caught on Roman terri- tory ; he now seems to blame Cicero only for consulting the Senate, instead of putting the prisoners to death on his own responsibility. 152 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. I will attempt to state very shortly the main points at issue. The Roman constitution, while restricting the capital jurisdiction of the magistrate over citizens, allows him to use any amount of force against enemies of the State. A citizen may commit acts which constitute him an enemy, in which case he by his own deed renounces his civic privileges. The rule for the magistrate by Roman, as by English,* law seems to be that he may not treat any citizen as an enemy on the ground of apprehended or future mischief nor on the ground of past offences, but. only in the presence of overt acts implying grave and immediate danger to the State, which can only be repelled by the use of violent methods of self-defence. It follows that the executions must be on a scale not out of proportion to the necessity, and that they must not be continued after the im- minent danger has ceased. If the conduct of the magistrate is afterwards called in question, the bur- den of proof that the forcible act was really necessary lies on him. On the other hand the moment that the necessity is present he is neglecting his duty if he fails to act on it. In extreme cases the private man has the same duty. In the colonies and depen- dencies of England the exercise of this terrible responsibility has been sometimes preceded by a solemn proclamation of " Martial Law." This proclamation does not, strictly speaking, make any alteration in the rights and duties which each magis- * See Dicey, Law of the Constitution, Lecture vii. 63 B.C.] Proclamation of Martial Law. 153 trate and each citizen had before,* but it calls atten- tion to the fact that a state of war exists with all the extraordinary obligations which such condition im- plies ; it indicates that the magistrate or the officer expects to be obliged to act on his extreme powers, and that he intends to do so. In Rome a correspond- ing proclamation is found in the decree of the Senate " that the consuls see to it that the State takes no harm." This decree, on the face of it, does not so much confer fresh powers, as call upon the magis- trates to stir up the powers which they already possess. Nevertheless it is felt to make a grave difference in the situation, to bring home to the magistrate the responsibility for defending the com- monwealth, and to justify acts which otherwise would be held tyrannous and outrageous. It authorises the consul, as Sallust says, \ " to employ every means of compulsion on aliens and Romans alike and to exercise extreme authority inside and outside the city." As Cicero himself puts the case, the whole dispute resolves itself into the question, was Lentulus a citizen or an enemy? About Catihne who was openly in arms there could be no doubt ; but Len- tulus had not actually struck a blow : was he to be classed in the same category? There was no doubt on any hand as to the guilt of the accused. They were taken red-handed in the act of corresponding with the enemies of the State, and their own public * Stephen, History of the Criminal Law, p. 214. t Sallust, Cat., 29. 154 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. confession constituted a plea of " Guilty." But how were they to be dealt with ? The Law of Caius Gracchus said that no Roman citizen was to be con- demned to death without the command of the People. The democratic exposition of that law was that, given a citizen, no amount of treason short of physi- cally appearing in arms against the State could con- stitute an enemy. The view of the Senate was that a man who from inside the walls co-operated with insurgents was really and truly an enemy, and a more dangerous one because he was posted in ambush. The common-sense answer to the ques- tion seems to be that suggested by Cato's speech as reported by Sallust (above p. 147). If the peril from outside had been over, there would have been no public need for the execution of these men, and under those circumstances their rights as citizens would have revived, as they did in fact in the case of the four criminals * who were included in the sen- tence of the Senate, and who escaped ifnmediate seizure ; but while Catiline was still threatening the commonwealth with a dangerous army, his confed- erates could not justly claim any immunity which conflicted with the pubhc safety. The determining factor in the decision was the prospect of the effect which either course would produce on the operations in the field. * Sallust, Cat., 50, 4. The fate of these men is not expressly mentioned, but we should certainly have heard if they had been put to death. They probably were summoned before the praetor, but acknowledged their guilt by retiring into exile (as Verres did) without waiting for the verdict of a jury. 63 B.C.] Legality of the Executions. 155 On the ground then of public necessity Cicero would have been justified in putting the Catilinarians to death by his own authority or by the advice of any assessors whom he might select to act with him. But in view of the fact that no case absolutely parallel had occurred since* the Law of Caius Grac- chus on which his adversaries mainly relied, he thought it better first to take the advice of the great public council which the constitution had provided for him. This was, strictly speaking, an innovation. The Senate had sometimes condemned rebels by name as public enemies, thereby directly advising the consul to put them to death ; but such rebels had always been persons at large and in arms (as Fulvius), or supposed to be in arms (as Caius Gracchus), not prisoners under present detention. The difference however is one of circumstances, not of principle. In either case the decree of the Senate could make no difference in the legal responsibility of the consul. The legal justification of his act was, not that the Senate had ordered it, but that it was necessary for the preservation of the State. He would have been worthy of blame, if in order to carry out this con- sultation he had dangerously delayed his action. But when the advice of the Senate could be asked without practical inconvenience, it was clearly wise in the consul to obtain it. It was important for the sake of the moral impression to be produced, that the * The precedent of the execution of the Bacchanalian conspirators In 186 B.C. (see Livy, xxxix., 14, etseq.), as being previous to the Sem- pronian Law, probably went for nothing. At any rate Cicero never refers to it. 1 56 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. execution should appear, not as an act of violence or panic on the part of the magistrate, but as the deliberate judgment of the supreme council of the State, which had seen the proofs of guilt and heard the confessions of the prisoners. By confirming the action of the consul, the Senate, though it could take no legal responsibility off his shoulders, could yet give him moral support to justify his severity from the charge of cruelty and tyranny.* Cicero's action throughout seems then to have been both righteous and prudent. He never lost his head though pressed by open enemies without and beset with traitors within the city. He refrained from striking prematurely, but allowed time for Catiline to appear in the rebel camp and for Lentulus to commit himself by overt acts of treason. He made the guilt of the conspirators so manifest, that even Caesar was obliged to concur in the verdict of " Guilty," and to sanction it by proposing an alter- native sentence as on convicted criminals. He baffled all attempts within the city by his vigilance, and finally blasted the hopes of CatiHne by the exe- * Cicero sometimes does injustice to his own case by yielding (as most orators are liable to yield) to the temptation of proving too much. In the process of refuting the charge of cruelty (as he is fully entitled to do) by alleging the concurrence of the Senate, he is led on to use expressions which seem to evade his own legal responsibility for the decision (e. g. In Pis. , 7, 14). That Cicero, nevertheless, really strengthened his cause by this consultation seems to have been recog- nised by his adversaries^ for they found it worth their while to assert that Cicero had forged the Setiatus Consultum. This absurd invention found a place in the preamble of Clodius' decree of banishment (Pro Domo, 19, 5g). 63 B.C.] Cicero and Catiline. 1 5 7 cution of his confederates. He acted throughout with the calmness and indifference to personal dan- ger proper to the chief magistrate of the Imperial State. He carried the Senate and people with him at each step, and so when the crisis came he could adopt the stern measures which led up surely to suc- cess, and yet at the same time could avoid any divi- sion in the government and enable it to present an united front to the enemy. There appears not a single false step to mark from the day when Cicero detached his fellow-consul from Catiline to the day when he broke the back of a formidable conspiracy by the death of five most guilty persons. Cicero was a man of mild temper and of constitu- tional timidity, but of honest heart and sincere pur- pose. On this occasion, in the presence of danger and under the stimulus of great responsibilities, he rose above himself and exhibited unexpected re- sources of strength and courage. Transformed by the exigencies of his duty into a man of action, he played his part with coolness, with vigour, and with marked practical success. His own conscience fully approved the deed. Nowhere, even in periods of the darkest depression and suffering, when all the world seems to have turned against him, do we find the least hint of a doubt that he has been in very truth the saviour of his country ; nor do the personal mis- fortunes which his act entailed upon him ever lead him to regret the act itself. " For these two mighty generals," he writes * of Caesar and Pompey at the beginning of the Civil War, " so far from setting their *AdAtt., X., 4, 4. 158 Cicero and Catiline. [63 B.C. achievements above my own, I would not change my battered fortunes for theirs which seem so glorious. For what man can be happy when his country is en- slaved by him or deserted by him ? . . . I am sustained by the proud reflection that, when I had the power, I did the State good service, or at any rate never had an intention that was not loyal, and that the Republic has foundered in the very storm which I foresaw fourteen years ago. I take this approving conscience with me as a companion in my flight." CHAPTER VI. CICERO'S IDEAL PARTY. 63-60 B.C. H E fortunes of Catiline had been watched with interest from the other side of the ^gean Sea. Pompey saw clearly what a marvellous piece of good for- tune the folly of the revolu- tionaries was preparing for him, and in order to take ad- vantage of it he sent one of his lieutenants, Metellus Ne- pos, to Rome in time for the tribunician elections in 63 B.C. It was hoped that Catiline might make sufficient head against the government to alarm all classes, and Metellus as tribune was to seize the opportunity to carry by general assent a decree call- ing upon Pompey to return to Italy with his army and save the State from the anarchists. Plutarch * tells us that Cato, who had just set forth on a journey, met Nepos and his reti- nue entering the gates of Rome. Cato guessed that * Plutarch, Cato Minor, 20. 159 S A^i^aa 63 B.C. 1 6o Pompey and the Catilinarians. [63 B.C. mischief was afoot, and in order to frustrate it he turned his horse's head and appeared as a rival can- didate for the tribunate. Both Cato and Metellus Nepos were elected and entered on ofifice on the loth of December in the year 63 B.C. If Catiline had succeeded better, and if the gov- ernment had shown itself incapable of dealing with the conspiracy, Cato's opposition would have gone for very little, and a prize such as man never won before would have been within Pompey's grasp. Without serious danger, and without breach of duty or loyalty, he would have stepped at once into the position of "saviour of society"; he would have been a Sulla without guilt or bloodshed, claiming from the gratitude of his fellow-citizens that defer- ence which a despot has to extort by force. Neither the jealous Nobles nor the baffled revolutionaries could have refused to recognise his pre-eminence and to accord him that place of acknowledged chief and protector of a free State, to which he aspired. Such were the prospects of Pompey during the October and November of the year 63 B.C. His hopes were rudely shattered by the Nones of De- cember. The conspiracy in the city was crushed, and Catiline's army had melted away. The " dignus vindice nodus" had been disentangled by other hands, and the " deus ex machina " had missed the opportunity for his appearance. Metellus Nepos proposed indeed that his patron should be given the command against Catiline * ; but his tribuneship had * Plutarch, Cato Minor, 26, 2. Schol. Bob. ad Cic. Pro Sestio, ch. 28 (Orelli, p. 302). 63 B.C.] Mission of Meteilus Nepos. i6i begun five days too late ; his arguments had lost their force now that Catiline's power was maimed. His only resource was to exaggerate, as far as pos- sible, whatever elements of discontent and disorder were still available. Amongst these was the dispute whether the action of Cicero had been legally justi- fied or not. Might not a state of affairs, in which citizens could be put to death without trial, be repre- sented as calling for the intervention of the second Sulla? If Pompey could no longer be summoned to save the State from the anarchy of Catiline, might not the " tyranny of Cicero " * serve, for want of a better, as an available pretext? With this object Nepos took the first opportunity of entering a formal pro- test against the executions. When Cicero laid down his consulship on the last day of December, he pre- pared to address, as was the custom, a parting speech to the people. Meteilus by virtue of his sacrosanct power as tribune interrupted him, declaring that he who had deprived Roman citizens of their right to plead in their own defence to the people, should not be allowed to speak to the people himself. He for- bade him therefore to do more than take the oath prescribed by law. Cicero affected compliance and advanced to take the oath ; then lifting up his voice so as to be heard by the assembled multitude, he swore : " This city and commonwealth have been pre- served from destruction by me." The unexpected appeal called forth a ready response from his audi- ence. The whole assembly shouted assent and swore along with him. * Plutarch, Cic, 23, 2. 1 62 Pompey and the Catilinarians. [62 B.C. The humiliation which Metellus had intended for Cicero was thus turned into a triumph, and attacks which the tribune made on him in the Senate on the following days were likewise repelled with vigour. Nevertheless the incident was calculated to cause him grave uneasiness. The hostility of Metellus Nepos might, in so far as he alone was concerned, be viewed with indifference ; but the menace implied in the action of Pompey's agent was in the highest degree alarming. The agent at least clearly thought that the loss of the opportunity of intervening as the supporter of law and order would make no difference in Pompey's action, except that he would now come as the ally of the Revolution instead of as its sup- pressor. Pompey's power as the commander of the only efficient army was so great, that the fortunes of the commonwealth hinged on his will, and the sole hope of the constitutionalists lay in his keeping true to his honour and obedient to the law. Cicero's anxiety was increased by a letter received somewhat later from Pompey, which was very cold in tone and contained no word of congratulation on the achieve- ments of his consulship. Pompey's annoyance may easily be understood ; and the only strange thing is that Cicero does not seem to have perceived how in- /evitable it was that Pompey should feel displeased. If CatiHne had been in Pompey's pay, he could not have served him better than by the untimely attempt at revolution. If Cicero had been Pompey's deadliest enemy, he could not have done more to thwart his action and frustrate his hopes. If Cicero had made 62 B.C.] Metellus Nepos. 163 a false step, if he had not parried CatiHne's attempts to assassinate him, if he had fled from the post of danger and called for Pompey's assistance, if he had only allowed matters to drift until riot and massacre began in Rome, Pompey's course would have been easy and dignified ; duty and interest would have pointed in the same direction. But now for the first time in Pompey's life fortune conspicuously failed him, and he was called upon to decide between the sacrifice of his cherished hopes and the sacrifice of his conscience. The temptation was strong, and Pompey wavered and waited, hoping that chance would serve him once more. Meantime Metellus continued his machinations in the city. In spite of the defeat and death of Cati- line, he still pressed his proposal that Pompey should be summoned to restore order * ; and in these efforts he was encouraged and supported by Csesar, who was now praetor. Caesar certainly did not wish any such decree to be really carried ; but he saw that the proposal could not be forced through, and he wished by every means to embitter the relations between Pompey and the Senate, thus averting the one com- bination which would have been fatal to all revolu- tionary schemes. Cato steadily interposed his veto on the proposals of his colleague, and Metellus and Caesar persevered with inflammatory speeches and riotous assemblies. The disorder grew to such an extent that the Senate passed decrees which, under whatever form (for on this point we have conflicting statements), prohibited both Cffisar and Metellus * Dio Cassius, xxxvii., 43, i. 164 Cicero s Ideal Party. [62 B.C. from the exercise of their magisterial functions. Csesar after a show of resistance submitted and shut himself up in his own house, and the Senate soon afterwards relieved him from his disabilities. Metel- lus declared that he was under stress of violence, and fled for protection to Pompey's camp. Cicero's brilliant success as consul had raised him at once to a place amongst the foremost statesmen of Rome. Cato made the first use of his new power as tribune to summon an assembly in which amidst the applause of the multitude he saluted Cicero as " the father of his country." The precedent was fol- lowed in later days in favour of the emperors, and the appellation came to be an official title.* When Cicero retired from office and took his seat among the consulars at the beginning of the year 62 B.C., the new consuls asked his opinion first in their consulta- tion of the Senate. His principles and line of policy are to be explained by the changes in the relation of parties which had occurred during the last seven years. The bond between the equestrian order and the demo- crats, who were equally hostile to the constitution of Sulla, had naturally been loosened by their joint victory. The Knights had now recovered their place in the jury-courts and their seats in the theatre, and had for the present no special grievance against the Senate ; the barrier of aristocratic exclusiveness had been forced by Cicero's election to the consulship, and everything tended towards a reconciliation be- tween the first and the second order in the State. * The contrast is marked by Juvenal {Sat., viii., 244), " Roma patrem patri^ Ciceronem libera dixit." 62 B.C.] The Hai^mony of t lie Orders. 165 This new union was further cemented by a common fear of the revolutionary designs of Catiline. The Roman Knights could feel no sympathy with the party which had favoured men who conspired to abolish debt and to wage war on capital. Hence it was natural and proper that Cicero and the equestrian party, of which he was one of the acknowledged chiefs, should be on the side of the constitution when the great crisis came. The consul who had risen from the ranks defended the State from revo- lution as vigorously as the proudest aristocrat could have done, and his success was largely owing to the staunchness with which the equestrian order stood by its leader and by the Senate. To consolidate and perpetuate the " harmony between the orders " thus attained was the dream of Cicero's politics, "the good cause" as he often calls it. His ideal party was to include the moderate men of both orders, and their combination was to present a firm barrier against revolution. As the equestrian order contained not only the great capitalists of Rome but the men of wealth and local importance in the coun- try towns, this " concordia ordinum " implied the " consensio Italiae," on which the statesman from Arpinum naturally laid great stress. But no union of parties in Rome could be suffi- cient unless accompanied by a reconciliation between the civil and the military power. To accomplish this Cicero was anxious to secure Pompey as the leader of his coalition. Seriously as he had crossed the path of his chosen hero, his own loyalty towards him remained unshaken. He marked him out as the 1 66 Cicero s Ideal Party. [62 B.C. man fit to play the part of Scipio, the soldier-chief of a free State, and alongside of him Cicero hoped to fill the place of Laelius, the man of peace, of eloquence, and of learning, who could supplement the qualities of the military leader. This apportion- ment of functions was suggested in a letter which Cicero wrote to Pompey, in reply to the one which had caused him so much uneasiness early in the year. Cicero's letter* is naturally severe in tone, and he refers not without dignity to his own services to • Pompey in the past : " It is my great satisfaction to be conscious that I have not failed in supporting my friends ; and if on any occasion these fail to support me in turn, I am well content that the balance of obligations conferred should rest with me. Of one thing I feel sure, that if the zeal which I have always shown in your service proves an insufficient link to bind us the one to the other, yet nevertheless the interests of the State will draw and unite us together. . . . When you have rriade yourself acquainted with the truth of the case, you will readily allow me, as scarcely less than Laelius, to be associated both as a political ally and as a friend with you who are so much greater than Africanus." The failure of Cicero's " good cause " is the story which we have to trace of the politics of the ensuing years ; but it may be well to attempt, once for all, to arrive at a judgment on the practicability of his ideal. The problem presented to Rome was one which had never been solved in the ancient world. Free States there had been and great Empires, but * Ad Fam. v., 7. 62 B.C.] Cicero s Ideal Party. 167 the two had always proved mutually exclusive. The question then which pressed for solution was this : How can a free State be at the same time a con- quering and governing State? How can an Empire be organised without the sacrifice of political liberty? In the absence of representative government, the sole forms of free State known to the ancients were the Confederation, an organisation which common- sense at once discarded as too loose and inefficient for the purpose, and the City-state, as it had been elaborated by Greek politicians and political philoso- phers. To the mind of all Roman statesmen, ex- cepting perhaps Augustus,* liberty and the City-state were inextricably bound up together, and under these conditions the task of uniting liberty and Empire was in truth an insuperable labour. Ceesar's failure to perform it was at least as conspicuous as that of Cicero and Cato. It is to Caesar's credit that he saw that the Empire must be maintained and organised at whatever sacrifice ; but his plan of organising it was simply to throw up in despair the problem which he was called to solve. He reverted to the method of primitive despotism,, that crude and long discredited form of government by which Egypt, Assyria, and Persia had ruled and degraded vast populations. He renounced all the political inheritance of the civilised West, and all the glorious * Suetonius [Aug., 46) tells us that Augustus conceived the project of having the magistrates, and through them the Senate, elected not by a mass-meeting at Rome but by a poll taken in the country-towns. This plan contains the germ of a representative system, but unhappily it was never carried into effect. 1 68 Cicero s Ideal Party. [62 B.c hopes and ideals with which Greece and Rome hac enriched the world.* To these hopes and ideal: Cicero clung, and unhappily he clung at the sam« time to the use of the very imperfect machinerj which Greece had invented for the fashioning o: political liberty and order. A State great and powerful, as Rome had now become, had really outgrown the forms adapted tc the government of a city. These forms supplied no means by which the collective will of the great body of Roman citizens could find a regular and peaceful expression ; they afforded no effective machinery for making the provincial administration work in due harmony and subordination to the central govern- ment, or for bringing home to the central government itself any sense of responsibility whether towards citizens or subjects. The Senate was too weak when it had to deal with the details of government throughout the empire, or to defend the civilised world by military force and at the same time to keep the soldiers and their commanders in order; it was too strong, whenever for the sake of its own interests it chose to ignore or to defy public opinion at home. The rectification of abuses, which with better arrangements might have been accomplished by a change of ministry, was possible under this perverse system only at the cost of revolution. Cicero seems to have been unconscious of these defects. He never saw that, if the free State was to survive, it must invent a fresh machinery of govern- ment. He looked on the forces which destroyed the * See below, pp. 349 to 352. 62 B.C.] Cicero s Ideal Party. 169 Republic as the devices of wicked men breaking into the system, whereas the system was in truth largely responsible for the mischief. He assumed that the traditional powers and methods recognised in the constitution of Rome were absolute and immutable, and that all his combinations must be within the lines thus prescribed for him. These limitations precluded any of those radical reforms which alone could have permanently saved Rome from her fatal revolution. But as a temporary expedient, staving off the evil day for that generation at least, and giving time for the Republic to work out its problems and re-model its institutions, Cicero's policy seems to have been far superior to that of any other statesman of his time. If the great disaster of the military despotism was to be avoided, it was necessary that Senate and Knights should compose their differences once for all and show a united front to the enemy. Still more necessary was it, that Pompey should be attached to the constitution, and diverted from any alliance with the revolutionary party. To accomplish this, Cicero was for frankly conceding to Pompey the exceptional position which he claimed as the first man in the State, and was quite content himself to act as Pompey 's lieutenant and coadjutor. For the success of any such combination, it was needful that all the parties with which he had to work should have shared Cicero's insight into the dangers of the time and his willingness to make sacrifices to meet them. But Cicero failed in his efforts to bring this conviction home to his contem- poraries. Nobles alike and men of business preferred 1 70 Pompey's Policy. [62 B.C. their private interests and animosities and prejudices to the pursuit of a sane and consistent policy ; and Pompey, the leader of Cicero's choice, was by no means equal to the difficult and delicate part which he had to play. The most obvious and pressing danger to liberty was however for the moment averted. With the outraged tribune in his camp, Pompey was furnished with the same sort of pretext for armed rebellion as that of which Csesar availed himself, when he crossed the Rubicon thirteen years later. Of the action of Caesar Plutarch pithily remarks,* that Caesar was far too sensible a man to have gone to war to redress the wrongs of the tribunes, if he had not made up his mind for war on other grounds. The same may be said of Pompey on the earlier occasion. The real question which he had to decide was whether the object of his own policy could be attained by espousing the tribune's quarrel. If the prize for which Pompey was seeking had been the same which Caesar afterwards won, if Pompey had desired to found a despotism for himself on the ruins of Roman liberty, then unquestionably success was within his grasp. The Republic had an able general in Lucul- lus, but it had no troops fit to oppose to Pompey's veterans. He was tempted to advance to a field on which victory was certain ; but he knew that such a victory would cause the destruction of all the ele- ments of Republican liberty, it would leave him no choice but to rule the Romans by the domination of naked force, and it would imply the renunciation of * Plutarch, Anl., 6, 2. 62 B.C.] Pompey Disbands his Army. 171 his own noble ambition to be the chief citizen of a free State. From such a crime Pompey shrank. If he had been a man of frank and generous dispo- sition, he would have instantly rejected the very idea of such a treason with horror and indignation. But this was not in the nature of Pompey. He spent the greater part of the year 62 in loitering on the homeward road, brooding over the ruin of his hopes of the year before, watching for the chance of making his power felt in some less odious way, and all the while dallying with the temptation to turn his arms against his country. Throughout these months Pompey preserved a gloomy silence, and the Roman world waited in suspense for his decision. At length towards the end of the year the dic- tates of honour and of conscience triumphed over those of ambition. Perhaps the prospect which Cicero's letter had held out to him may have in- fluenced him in some degree for good ; for Cicero, writing on the 1st of January, 61 B.C., says, " I have good evidence that Pompey is most friendly to me." A few days before this letter was written, Pompey had landed in Italy. His mind was now made up, and he resolved to give striking evidence of his loyalty, and to remove at once all apprehension of civil war. As soon as he landed at Brundisium he disbanded his troops and proceeded to Rome with a small escort. So far, Pompey's action was straight- forward and decisive. He put away from himself all possibiHty of appealing to unlawful force, and threw himself unreservedly for support on the good- will of his fellow-citizens, the only rightful basis of n/' 172 Cicero s Ideal Party. [62 B.C. authority. Unhappily his capacity for a plain and vigorous policy seems to have been exhausted by this single good action. He fell back on his pitiful habit of silence and reserve, never perceiving that the statesman who tries to refrain from committing himself on the main political issues of the time must of necessity become impotent and ridiculous. The natural and logical sequence to the dispersion of Pompey's army was a frank union with the constitu- tionalists ; and this implied a clear and unmistakable approval of the action of the government in the matter of Catiline. But for this Cicero looked in vain. During the month of December, 62 B.C., another question had arisen in Rome, petty enough in itself but destined to have serious consequences. A young patrician named Publius Clodius was caught, dis- guised as a woman, invading the mysteries of the " Good Goddess," whose privacy was polluted by the presence of any male at her worship. The sacri- fices were performed in the house of Cffisar, who was praetor for the year, * and in pursuit of an intrigue with Caesar's wife Clodius thrust himself into the company of Vestals and matrons. Caesar divorced his wife, and declined to stir further in the business.f * See above p. 138. f Cicero upbraids him for " lack of gall " in not resenting the affront which Clodius had put upon him (^De Har. Resp., 18, 38). But Caesar had just been engaged in an intrigue of his own which caused Pompey to divorce his wife Mucia ; he doubtless felt that his appear- ance in the character of the injured husband would be somewhat ridic- ulous. When we recollect that Pompey consoled himself for the loss of Mucia by taking Cfesar's own daughter to fill her place, it must be owned that Roman liusbands accepted these mishaps rather calmly. BONA DEA : THE GODDESS OF FERTILITY. (Duruy.) COIN OF C/ESAR, HEAD OF VENUS. (Cohen.) 61 B.C.] Sacrilege of Clodius. 173 But the matter could not rest there. The virgins performed afresh the ceremonies whose virtue had been impaired ; the pontiffs declared that sacrilege had been committed, and it followed that the State must purge itself from the impiety by the punish- ment of the offender. After discussions in the Senate, the consuls were instructed to bring a bill before the People, constituting a court for his trial. A tribune, Fufius, proposed in Clodius' interest a rival scheme, which differed from that of the Senate by providing that the jury should be chosen by lot, whereas the consular bill directed the prsetor to select the jurymen. This was the condition of affairs when Pompey arrived early in February before the gates of Rome, and the world eagerly awaited his utter- ° -^ .61 B.C. ances on all these burning questions. Cicero gives a graphic account * of his first appear- ances before the people and the Senate. " I have already told you what Pompey's first speech was [ike, with no comfort for the wretched, too un- substantial to please the disloyal, unsatisfactory to the comfortable classes, and with not sufficient firmness for honest men ; and so it fell flat. Not long after, at the instigation of the consul Piso, that paltry fellow Fufius the tribune again put Pompey forward. The scene of this was the Fla- minian Circus on a market-day with a large attend- ance. He questioned him as to whether he approved of a praetor selecting the jurors,whowere tositas that praetor's court — this being the arrangement proposed *AdAtl., i., 14, i. 1 74 Pompey's Return. [61 B.C. by the Senate in the case of Clodius. Then Pompey replied very much ' en grand seigneur ' ; he said that the authority of the Senate weighed heavily with him on all occasions and had always done so, and so on at great length. Next the consul Messalla asked Pompey in the Senate, what was his opinion regard- ing the sacrilege and regarding the bill that had been proposed. He replied by praising in general terms all the decrees of that House ; and as he sat down again beside me, he remarked — ' I suppose I have said enough on your business as well.' " It is not surprising that this hesitation and in- ability to speak his mind should have produced a bad impression on Pompey's contemporaries. The desire to keep things open and the weak love of silence and reserve could only be indulged in at the expense of his reputation for honesty and straight- forwardness. It is of no avail that a man has been seen to make great sacrifices on occasion to the cause of duty, if his daily bearing contradicts the idea of his sincerity. Cicero was strongly provoked with Pompey's conduct and expressed his vexation in no measured language to his friend * — " there is no courtesy, no candour in him, no sense of honour in politics, nothing high-minded or vigorous or straight- forward." On the other hand the leading Optimates were much to blame in not exerting themselves to win Pompey. Whenever he made advances, they were coldly received. Pompey showed what he wished, when he proposed a series of matrimonial aUiances *AdAtt., i., 13, 4. 61 B.C.] Pompey and the Nobles. 1 75 which would have united him closely with Cato. Cato rejected his overtures, and soon afterwards saw cause to exult in his short-sighted way over his own prudence. Pompey spent money too freely at the elections in 61 B.C. in order to secure the return of his partisan Afranius as consul. " I should have shared in the ill-fame of this," said Cato, " if I had allied myself to Pompey by marriage." Plutarch, who is our authority for the story, very sensibly adds*: " However, if we are to judge by the event, Cato made a fatal error in rejecting the alliance, and leaving Pompey to turn to Csesar and contract a marriage which, by uniting the forces of the two, nearly ruined Rome and actually destroyed the constitution. None of these things would have hap- pened, if Cato had not taken fright at the small faults of Pompey, and so allowed him to commit the greatest of all in building up the power of another." Meanwhile the business of Clodius had entered on a fresh phase. Hortensius, who was one of the prom- inent supporters of the bill, fearing that it would be vetoed at last by Fufius, suggested that it might be well to paralyse his opposition by accepting Fufius' own bill as a substitute. The guilt of Clodius, he thought, was so manifest that no jury, however con- stituted, could fail to find a true verdict on the question of fact. He would "-cut Clodius' throat," he protested " even with a leaden sword." Accord- ingly, the experiment was tried ; the consuls withdrew their bill, and that of Fufius was carried unopposed. When the jury came to be empanelled, it was manifest * Plutarch, Cato Minor, 30, 5. 1 76 Trial of Clodius. \&\ b.c. that the lot had fallen unluckily. The challenges of the accused cleared out the best men, while those of the prosecutor could make little impression on the mass of indifferent characters whose names had come from the ballot-box ; " there never was a more rascally lot collected round a gaming-table." * Clodius' defence was an alibi. He produced wit- nesses to swear that he was never near Caesar's house that night, but was fifty miles away at Interamna. Unfortunately Cicero had happened to meet him in Rome only three hours before, and he earned Clo- dius' deadly hatred by coming forward in disproof of the alibi. At first it seemed as if the jury were going to decide according to the facts. When Cicero came forward to give his evidence and the partisans of Clodius hooted and attempted to mob him, the jurors rose as one man, and interposed their persons for his protection. They protested likewise against the coercion of the court by Clodius' rabble, and applied to the Senate for an armed guard, which was immediately granted. Hortensius was trium- phant, and all the world believed that a verdict of Guilty was inevitable. But a powerful factor had been left out of consideration. Crassus was the richest man in Rome, and though he loved his money dearly, he loved power and influence still more, and was ready to spend freely when a political object was in view. He had lately become security to Cesar's creditors for about ;if 20o,ooo,t ii^ order to enable him to get safely out of Rome and to take * Ad Ail., i., 16, 3. t 830 talents. Plutarch, C^j-ar, n, i. 61 B.C.I Acquittal of Clodius. i "]"] up his command in Spain. It had doubtless been settled between the two, that Clodius would be use- ful to them in the future, and that he must be saved at all costs. Crassus accordingly paid down an enormous sum of money, and in the course of two days bought the votes of a majority of the jury. The acquittal was a heavy blow to the hopes of the constitutional party. The scandal was so noto- rious that it seemed to proclaim the hopelessness of orderly government and pure justice in Rome. " That settlement," Cicero writes,* " which you used to ascribe to my policy, and I to Providence, which seemed firmly established by the union of all loyal citizens and by the events of my consulship, has now, I must tell you, crumbled beneath our feet, un- less Heaven takes pity on us, all through this single verdict — if indeed one can call it a verdict — that thirty men, as worthless and base as you could find in our State, should take money to outrage all law and all right, and that when every man, and, let alone men, every beast in Rome knows that a thing was done, Thalna and Plautus and Spongia and riff-raff of that sort should decide that it was not done." The scandal gave rise to some neat epigrams. " They did not trust you on your oath," Clodius said, taunting Cicero. " Twenty-five of them," was the retort, " did trust me, and the other thirty-one certainly did not trust you, for they got their money down beforehand." f In the same vein was the re- * AdAtt.,\., i6, 6. \ AdAtt., i., i6, 10. 1 78 Cicero's Ideal Party. [61 B.C. mark of Catulus to a juror : " What made you ask us for a guard ? Were you afraid that your pocket would be lightened as you went home from the court ? " * It may be presumed that Pompey was disgusted with the shameless perversion of justice, for which the democratic leaders were responsible. At any rate we find constant evidence in the letters of the months which follow, that Pompey was now anxious to be on good terms with the constitutionalists, and that more especially he was drawing towards Cicero. He never frankly gives up his clumsy reticence, but it melts gradually away, and he finds heart at last to commit himself to a definite approval of the acts of Cicero's consulship. In the following December Cicero writes to Atticus \ : " However, 6' B.C. . ^ . , ,, . , . , ' smce your friends (the equestrian order) " seem unsteady, another road to safety is, as I hope, being laid. I cannot speak fully of it by letter, but I will indicate what I mean. I am on very intimate terms with Pompey. I perceive what you will say ; yes, I will be cautious, where caution is needed, and I will write again to you more at length about my poHtical projects." On the ist of Febru- DO B.C. ary he says % • " Meanwhile you cannot find a single true statesman, no nor the ghost of one. One man might be, if he chose, my friend, for I wish you to understand that he is very much so, Pompey ; but he only stares in silence on his lap, studying *AdAtt., i., 16, 5. f Ad Att., i., 17, 10. X Ad Att., i., 18, 6. 60 B.C.] Cicero and Pompey. 1 79 the pattern on that triumphal robe of his. * Crassus will not say a word to hazard his popularity : for the rest, you know them ; they are so stupid that they think that the State may founder, and yet that their fish-ponds will be safe. The single man who cares for the public good is Cato ; and he brings to the work principle and honesty, but, as it seems to me, very little judgment or sense." Next month, Cicero gives to his friend a fuller explanation of the political situation and of his own relations March to Pompey. Ever since his consulship ^°' ^•''• he has f " never ceased to act in politics with the same great aims, and worthily to maintain the dignity then achieved." But the acquittal of Clo- dius, the weakness of the equestrian order, and the jealousy of the Nobles — " all made me feel that I must look out for some stronger forces and more trustworthy defences. My first concern was with Pompey. He had held his tongue far too long ; but I brought him round to a proper state of mind ; so 'that, speaking in the Senate on several occasions, he ascribed the preservation of the Empire and the peace of the world to my action." Again ^ - , , T , ■ May, 60 B.C. in May we find %: "In your observations on affairs of State you argue like a true friend and a man of sense, and what you say is really not far away from my own sentiments. I quite agree with * " Togulam illam pictam silentio tuetur suam." I venture to give this poetical sense to "tuetur," though it is rare in Cicero. The sentence might mean " by his silence he keeps his embroidered robe for his ovifn," but this is very flat. \AdAtt., i., 19, 6. \AdAtt., i., 20, 2. i8o Cicero's Ideal Party. [60 B.C. you that I must not flinch from my post of honour, and that I must not enlist under the banner of any other, but must effect a junction at the head of my own forces. It is true likewise that the person you name has no breadth or greatness of policy and that he is too much inclined to truckle to the mob. But for all that, it is of some use for the quiet of my own life, and of infinitely greater use for the State, that the blows aimed at me by bad citizens should be parried ; and this I accomplished when I strength- ened the wavering resolution of a man with such a position, such influence, and such interest, and brought him to frustrate the hopes of the disloyal by recording his approval of my action." Unhap- pily, though Cicero was so far successful in winning Pompey towards the side of the Senate, he failed, as we shall see just now, in inducing the senatorial party frankly to meet Pompey's advances. Pompey's position throughout these months was full of anxiety and annoyance. He had pledged his word to his soldiers that their services against Mithri- ' dates should be recompensed by grants of land, for the purchase of which ample means were provided by the revenues with which his conquests had en- riched the Roman Treasury. But his efforts to get the necessary decrees passed had hitherto been un- availing. Another vexation was, that the Senate refused to confirm the settlement of Asia which Pompey had made before his departure. All the affairs of the provinces of the East with the adja- cent free cities and client kingdoms had been regu- lated and organised by Pompey, and he now wished 60 B.C.] The Nobles Oppose Pompey. i8i that his arrangements should be sanctioned en bloc. The Senate refused to do this, and insisted that each detail should be reviewed and voted on separately. Thus Pompey was exposed at every point to a gall- ing and wearisome opposition. His own proceedings showed, as usual, clumsiness and want of tact. By a lavish expenditure of money he succeeded in thrusting in one of his adherents, Afranius, as consul for the year 60 B.C. ; but Afranius was disliked by every one and was quite incapable of serving his master effectively. " He is such an abso- lute nonentity," writes Cicero,* " that he does not know what he has bought " ; and again : " He con- ducts himself in such a way that his office is not so much a consulship as a blot on the reputation of our Great One." f The other consul was Metellus Celer, the brother of Cicero's old opponent Nepos. Celer has left record of what manner of man he was in a curiously insolent letter which he addressed to Cicero at the time of the dispute with his brother, a letter which Cicero answered with admirable spirit and temper. \ If we may trust Cicero's judgment, § Celer was not a bad man at bottom, and meant well by his coun- try ;- but he must have been a very stupid and wrong- headed politician. He now set himself in violent opposition to Pompey, and thwarted all his efforts to provide for his soldiers. This object had been *■ Ad Att., i., 19, 4. \AdAtt., i., 20, 5. \ Ad Fam., v., i and 2. See also below p. 198. % Ad Att., ii., I, 4- 1 82 Cicero s Ideal Party. [60 B.C. undertaken by Flavius, one of the tribunes for the year 60 B.C., who proposed in Pompey's interest an Agrarian Law. Cicero acted in a wise and states- manUke manner. He suggested amendments in the proposal to make it more workable, and then gave the measure his support. In the month of March he writes * : " The chief po- litical news is that an Agrarian Law is being vigor- ously pushed by the tribune Flavius, backed by Pompey ; nothing in it is popular except its backer. Out of this bill, with full assent of the meeting, I cut all the clauses which infringed on vested inter- ests ; I exempted all the land which had been public property in the tribuneship of Tiberius Gracchus f ; I confirmed Sulla's grantees in their holdings, and left in full possession the people of Volaterra and Arretium, whose lands Sulla had confiscated but never parcelled out. One principle of the bill, however, I accepted, namely, that land for distri- bution should be purchased out of the wind-fall which the Treasury will have in the income to be derived during the next five years from the newly acquired sources of revenue. But the Senate sets itself in opposition to the principle of any Agrarian Law whatever, under the idea that some new power for Pompey is designed. Pompey on his side puts all his energies into carrying the bill." The struggle over this question was enlivened by a ludicrous episode. % The consul Metellus carried * Ad Att., i., ig, 4. •f This would be mainly the Campanian land. See p. 100. J Dio Cassius, xxxvii,, 50. 60 B.C.] Bill of Flavins. 183 his obstruction to lengths which Flavius considered unfair. The tribune thereupon by virtue of his sacred and inviolable office personally laid hands on the consul, as on one guilty of contempt, and dragged him off to prison. It would have been easy for Metellus to appeal to another tribune to grant him protection ; but he preferred the cheap martyr- dom with which his adversary provided him. Me- tellus then sat in his prison, but he issued from thence a summons to the Senate to assemble there. Not to be bafHed, the tribune placed his bench across the prison door and his own sacrosanct per- son on the bench, thus setting an insuperable barrier between the senators and the consul within. The Fathers of the State, thus beaten off in front, made an attack on the rear, and began pulling down the back wall of the prison to get at their consul. When the farce had reached this point, Pompey sent word in hot haste to his tribune that he had better let Metellus out. Under the effect of these ridiculous proceedings "the agrarian project began to fall flat."* The Nobles delighted in the discomfiture of Pompey and gloried in their own outrageous folly. The demands of Pompey were at this time exceedingly moderate ; the loyalty and good faith which he had shown in disbanding his army, might fairly claim liberal and friendly treatment ; and the constitutionalists were bound in honour to see that Pompey did not lose by his respect for the constitution. Common-sense, too, might have shown them that by a little con- *A(iAtt., ii., I, & 154 upposiiion oj i\ouies lo rumyey. leo B.c ciliatory action on their part they could now win ove the great soldier to the service of the Senate, am that here lay the only hope of averting the dange which threatened. A fair chance of respite was no\ offered them, and but for their folly in rejecting it Horace would not have had to date from this yea the " Motum ex Metello consule civicum," which destroyed the Roman Republic. Cato, Hoi tensius, and Lucullus were blind to their owi plainest interests, and their action at this crisis com pels us to recognise that they had none of th< instincts of statesmen. A petty jealousy of Pompe; seemed to dominate all their conduct. They strovj to make him feel that in renouncing the rule of thi sword he had laid himself at their mercy. Thu they drove him to unconstitutional methods whicl were destined to ruin himself and them alike. The Republic had experienced a heavy loss by th^ death of Catulus in the latter part of the year 6i B.C. and since then Cicero stood alone in recommendinj a sane policy. " I am acting," he writes, * " and wil act, so as not to incur the reproach that my ol( achievement was only the outcome of chance. M; ' honest men,' of whom you speak, and that ' Sparta,' in which, as you say, my lot is cast, shall not onl; never be deserted by me, but if I am deserted b; them I shall remain firm by my own principles. A the same time I wish you to understand, that sine * Ad Att., i., 20, 3. f Atticus had quoted a Greek proverb : " Sparta is your lo( make the best of Sparta." 60 B.C.] Estrangement of Knights. 185 the death of Catulus I am holding on this nnost excellent way alone, without escort and without companionship." Pompey was kept aloof by the obstinacy and in- gratitude of the Nobles, and this was in itself suffi- cient to spoil the hopes which Cicero had entertained for his " good cause." But in yet another quarter " the good cause " was perilously shaken. In these same months the " harmony of the orders," the union between Senate and Knights, which Cicero had taken such pains to realise, showed signs of dis- solution. The scandal of the acquittal of Clodius had drawn attention to the corruption of the law- courts, and Cato and others pressed for vigorous measures against all jurors who had taken bribes. But as two-thirds of the jurors were now not of senatorial rank, such measures could not be carried through without infringing the cherished immunities of the Roman Knights. * At the same time the Knights had another quarrel with the Senate, be- cause it refused to give them the consideration which they held to be their due in the arrangement of their contracts with the State. In both cases Cicero would have humoured the equestrian order, but he pleaded its cause in vain. We first hear of these jars in a letter of December, 61 B.C. f " Here we are Hving in a political condition that is precarious, pitiful, and unstable. For, as I fancy you must have heard, our friends the Knights are all but ahenated from the Senate. In the first place * See above, p. 35. \AdAtt., i., 17, 8. 1 86 Cicerds Ideal Party. [61 B.C. they are deeply offended that a bill has been intro- duced on the recommendation of the Senate, pro- viding that all persons who have received bribes as jurors shall be put on their trial. It happened by accident that I was not in the House, when that de- cree was carried, and I perceived that the equestrian order was offended, though silent ; so I took an op- portunity to lecture the Senate, and did it, so far as I can judge, with much force. The claim of my clients was hardly a reputable one, but I urged it at length and in a dignified tone. Now we have on our hands another whim of the Knights, which it is hard to put up with ; however I have not only put up with it, but made the best of it I could for them. The company, which farmed the province of Asia from the censors, complain that they have been too eager in their bidding, and have contracted to pay too high a figure. They demand therefore that the bargain shall be cancelled. I am the chief among their backers, or rather I should say the second, for Crassus was the man who egged them on to make the demand. It is an awkward business, and such a confession of their own want of caution is discredit- able enough. But there is every fear that, if their petition is rejected, they will sever themselves en- tirely from the Senate. I have risen to the emer- gency as best I could, and managed that they should have a full House and a friendly hearing, and I made long speeches on the ist and 2d of December con- cerning the dignity and union of the orders. . . . The business is not settled, but the feeling of the Senate has been clearly shown. Only one speaker 60 B.C.] Estrangement of Knighis. 187 opposed us, Metellus the consul-elect ; there was another to come, our hero Cato, but the debate had to be adjourned before his turn was reached. Thus I stand firm by our plans and principles, and main- tain so far as I can the union of the orders which was cemented by my exertions." Cato's opposition proved serious, and it was con- ducted in a singularly provoking manner. Cato was a master of the art of Parliamentary obstruction, and was able by means of long speeches and irrelevant objections to put off indefinitely the decision of the House. " For two good months," ^ , , „ ^ Feb., 00 B.C. writes Cicero, in a subsequent letter,* "he has been harrying the unhappy tax-farmers, who used to be his best friends, and he will not allow the Senate to give an answer to their petition. So we on our side are obliged to obstruct all other busi- ness until an answer has been given to the tax- farmers." Such were the causes of discord which broke up Cicero's ideal party. The precious months, during which it was still possible that a union should be consoHdated between Pompey, the Senate, and the equestrian order, were fast passing away. Cicero alone of Roman statesmen saw what was to be aimed at ; but he had preached in vain, and now the man was at hand, who was to take advantage of the con- fusions of the situation and organise the conflicting forces for his own purposes. In a letter written early in June we find a casual remark that Caesar is expected in two days' time. For the last year and * Ad Ait., i., 18, 7. 1 88 Cicerds Ideal Party. [60 B.C. a half he had been away in his Spanish governor- ship, and his return marks the beginning of the Revolution. In the same letter* we get a lively- sketch of the situation just before Czesar's arrival, and of the hopes and fears which Cicero entertained at the moment. " You chide me gently about my intimacy with Pompey. Now I would not have you think that I am leagued ^with him in order to get protection for myself ; but the position of affairs is such, that if any difference arose between him and me, it would inevitably produce serious disturbances in the State. Against this mischief I have provided, not by swerv- ing from my own honourable policy, but by inducing him to amend his ways and renounce some of his popularity-hunting vagaries. . . . What now if Csesar likewise, who has a marvellous fair wind in his sails just now, can be brought round by me to a better mind ? Shall I have done any great harm to the State? Why, if no one were envious of me, if all supported me as they ought to do, even then a treatment which should restore the unsound mem- bers of the commonwealth would be preferable to heroic surgery. But now, when the Knights, whom I once posted with you as their chief and standard- bearer on the slopes of the Capitol, when the Knights, I say, have deserted the Senate, and when our chief men think that they are in the seventh heaven if they have bearded mullets in their fish- ponds who will come to feed out of their hands, do you not think that I gain a point, if I bring it about *AdAtt., ii., I, 6. 60 B.C.] Political Situation. 189 that those who could injure me should not wish to do so ? For as for our friend Cato, your regard for him does not yield to mine ; at the same time, with the very best intentions and in all good faith he sometimes does mischief to the State. For he makes his proposals as if he were speaking in Plato's Republic instead of in Romulus' gutter. What can be fairer than that every man should be put on his trial, who has taken a bribe for his verdict ? Such was Cato's proposal, and the Senate agreed. So the Knights declare war against the House, not against me, for I protested. What could be more barefaced than the tax-farmers repudiating their bargain ? For all that we had better put up with the loss for the sake of retaining the good-will of the order. Cato resisted and gained his point. And so now when we have a consul shut up in prison and riot continually afoot, not a finger has been stirred to help by those who used to throng to the defence of the constitution whenever I or my immediate successors in the con- sulship called for their assistance." With this quotation we leave the politics and par- ties of Rome for a moment, to turn to other matters which are wanting to complete the picture of Cicero's life during the years following his consulship. In the next chapter we shall find what use Caesar made of the political material which lay awaiting his return. Only two of Cicero's extant speeches belong to this period. The suppression of Catiline's conspiracy had been followed up during the year 62 B.C. by prose- cutions directed against his accomplices. Cicero men- tions the names of several who were condemned by I go Forensic Speeches. [62 B.C. the juries and driven into exile — Vargunteius, Laeca, Servius Sulla, Cornelius, and Autronius. Autronius, along with Publius Sulla, had been unseated for bribery after the consular elections in the year (<^ B.C., and he lay under suspicion of having had a hand in the supposed " first conspiracy " * of Cati- line in the years 66 and 65 B.C. His companion Publius Sulla was now brought to the bar on charges connected with both conspiracies, and Cicero came forward in his defence. Leaving Hortensius to deal with the first part of the case, he contented himself with rebutting the assertion that Sulla had taken any part in the conspiracy of the year 63 B.C. On this point Cicero was able to speak from his own knowledge, and his exculpation of Sulla was decisive with the jury. The other speech is of a very different type. The Greek poet Archias, Cicero's earliest tutor, was ac- cused of having improperly usurped the Roman citizenship at the time of the Social War twenty- seven years before, and an inquisition was now held into his title. Cicero appeared, as in duty bound, to speak on behalf of his old friend and teacher. He passed lightly over the technical objections urged against his client's rights, and dwelt by preference on his great fame and merit as a man of letters, whose poems, like those of Ennius, had preserved the record of the martial deeds of Rome ; " for, if any one thinks that more glory is reaped when actions are enshrined in Latin poetry than in Greek, he is much mistaken ; for the Greek is read in all * See above, p. 90. 61 B.C.] Speech for Archias. 191 parts of the world, the Latin is confined to the bounds of its own country which are narrow by comparison." In pleading this cause Cicero begs to be allowed to deviate from the beaten track of forensic practice, and to speak freely of the glories and delights of literature, and of the benefits which he himself owes it. He expounds here at the bar of a law-court the / doctrine which we find so frequently laid down in his treatises on the Art of Rhetoric, that the orator must be not only a " ready man " but a "full man," and that wide reading and deep study are necessary for his perfection. " You ask me, why I take such an extraordinary delight in this man ? It is because he supplies me with a refuge where my mind can recruit its powers after the din of the Forum, and where my ears tired out with controversy may take some repose. Do you think, that a man could find the thoughts to express day after day on such a variety of topics, unless he cultivated his mind by study ? or that the mind could bear the strain, unless these same studies supplied him with relaxation ? " * Cicero was clearly in no great anxiety about the verdict. (The jury listened with pleasure to his v:^^ a ^-'T li^^-rrJ literary disquisition, and confirmed the citizenship ^f^^^,^°* of Archias. j =■'- y^4«i- Cicero's own writings at this time were chiefly di- rected to the history of his consulship. He composed a memoir of it in Latin and another in Greek, and he promises Atticus a poem on the same subject, " that * Pro Arch., 6, 12. 1 92 Cicero on his Consulship. [61 B.C. I may not omit any form of self-laudation."* A few very indifferent verses of the poem survive, amongst them the often-quoted '* O fortunatam natam me consule Romam," \ but the treatises in prose have been entirely lost. We possess, however, in Cicero's speeches and letters ample specimens of his utterances on the achievements of his consulship. He has undoubtedly injured his reputation by the undisguised fashion in which he glories over his own action. His consul- ship was, as Seneca remarked,:): " non sine causa, sed sine fine laudatus." He spoiled a good thing by making too much of it, and we get tired, as doubt- less did Cicero's contemporaries, of " the great Nones of December," with its " inspirations of Providence," and its " glorious deed," and its " eternal fame." If it be a deadly sin to be thoroughly pleased with one's own conduct and to express that pleasure un- blushingly, Cicero must stand condemned. But two faults, of very different degree of blackness, are liable to be confused under the common name of vanity or self-conceit. There are men into whose souls the poison seems to have eaten deep ; they are pompous, * Ad Ait., {., ig, lo. •j- Mr. Tyrrell renders the jingle — ' ' O happy fate of Rome to date Her birthday from my consulate.'' The reference is to his own title of "father of his country.'' Cicero's enemy, Piso, hit him in a ten- der place when he said that Cicero was really banished, not for having put Lentulus to death, but for the bad verses he had written on the subject. ?>e.e In Pison., 2g, 72. X Seneca, De Brevitaie Vitce, 5. 61 B.C.] Cicero s Vanity. 193 overweening, repellent ; their power of judgment and of action is impaired ; they are obstinate because they are weak ; they would rather perish than allow them- selves to be in the wrong, and they delight in reject- ing the counsels of common-sense merely to show their own greatness and independence. Sometimes, on the other hand, vanity is a mere superficial weak- ness, the accompaniment of a light heart, a quick, sensitive temperament, an unsuspicious loquacity, and an innocent love of display. Carlyle has hit off the difference very happily in the contrast which he draws between Boswell and his father — " Old Auchin- leck had, if not the gay tail-spreading peacock vanity of his son, no little of the slow-stalking contentious hissing vanity of the gander, a still more fatal species." Now Cicero's vanity is essentially of the innocuous and peacock-like kind. There is no pompous reti- cence about him. If he happens to be pleased with himself he blurts out his satisfaction with an almost childlike simplicity ; if the laugh turns against him, he is not wounded or distressed, and on occasion he can make fun of himself with perfect grace and good humour. Nothing can be happier than the story, as told by Cicero, of his own expectations of fame from his Sicilian qusestorship, and how he was disabused of them. This has been quoted in its place (above, p. 23). It is amusing to observe that, when Cicero finds himself, four-and-twenty years later, again charged with the administration of a province, he has just the same admiration for the integrity of his own conduct, and expresses that admiration with the 194 Cicero s Vanity. L61 B.C. like naivete and openness.* " In all my life I never experienced so much pleasure as I do in the contem- plation of my own incorruptibility. It is not so much the credit I get for it, though that is immense, as the thing itself which delights me. In a word it was worth while coming out here ; I did not do myself justice, or recognise what I was capable of in this line. I do well to be puffed up. Nothing is more glorious." Just so with his literary compositions. " The passages from my orations which you com- mend seemed to me, I assure you, very fine, but I did not venture to say so before ; now that they have your approval, I think them picked Attic every word." t He is particularly pleased with his Greek history of his consulship. " I sent my memoir to Posidonius, that he might use it as the foundation of a more eloquent treatise on the same subject ; but he writes back to me from Rhodes that, when he read my book, far from being encouraged to write, he felt himself fairly warned off the ground. Now you see ! I have discomfited the whole tribe of Greeks, and so the lot of them, who used to press me for material which they might work up, have ceased to pester me.":j; With the subject-matter of his treatise he is no less delighted, and it never occurs to him for a mo- ment that he ought to conceal his delight. It is true that in requesting the historian Lucceius to take his consulship as the theme for a separate treat- * Ad Att., v., 20, 6. \Ad Att., i., 13, 5. X Ad Att., ii., I, 2. 61 B.C.] Cicero s Vanity. 195 ise, Cicero professes to beg humbly for his en- comiums, and pretends to hope that he will owe something to the favour of the writer beyond the simple requirements of historical truth ; but this is merely an affected modesty, suitable to this studied and elaborate letter, * which he intended to serve as the model of the proper way of making such an ap- plication, -j- In his heart of hearts Cicero believed that neither Lucceius nor any one else could praise his consulship above its deserts. This comes out clearly enough when he is writing to Atticus, with whom he has no disguise. After recounting the va- rious records, in Greek and Latin, in verse and prose, which he has composed on his conflict with Catiline, he adds: "Now pray don't object that I am blow- ing my own trumpet ; for if there be any human action more glorious than mine, I am content that it should receive the meed of praise, and that I should incur blame for not having chosen the theme of my panegyric better — though in truth what I have writ- ten is not panegyric but sober history.":]; And a little later, when Pompey has soiled his good name by his support of Caesar's illegalities, though Cicero grieves over the defection of his old leader, he con- soles himself with the consideration that the great rival of his own fame has thus effaced himself. * Ad Fam., v., 12. f He directs Atticus to get the letter from Lucceius (doubtless with the intention of having it copied), and describes it as " mighty fine " (Ad Ait., iv., 6, 4). We may compare the letter (Ad Fam., xii., 17), where he sends his " Orator " to Cornificius with the request, " huic tu libro maxime velim ex animo ; si minus, gratis causa suffragere." XAdAtt., i., 19, 10. 196 Cicero and Jus Family. [61 B.C. " Nay, that side of my nature which is vainglorious and not indifferent to praise (for it is well to know one's own faults), is affected with a certain satisfac- tion. For the thought used to vex me that possibly, six hundred years hence, the services of our Great Bashaw to the nation might appear more eminent than my own ; now I am relieved from any such anxiety." * Each reader will judge of these utter- ances according as his own temperament prompts. To me it seems difficult to regard very sternly, or to take as a matter for very serious condemnation, a weakness so frankly and simply displayed. Cicero's vanity and love of praise make him less dignified, but they hardly make him less lovable. We have still to consider a few points connected with Cicero's private life at this period. In the year after his consulship he bought from Crassus a mag- nificent house on the Palatine, and borrowed money freely from his friends for the purpose. His burden sat very lightly on him, and it seemed a capital joke that he who had so sternly resisted schemes of national bankruptcy should now be qualified to enlist under another Catiline. " You must know," he says,t " that I am so deep in debt that I should be quite inclined to join in a conspiracy, if any one would have me ; but they all fight shy of me." We hear little of Cicero's wife and children at this time, but much of his brother Quintus. Quintus was praetor in the year 61 B.C., and it was at his bar that Cicero delivered the speech for Archias. Towards * Ad Att., ii., 17, 2. \ Ad Fam.^ v., 6, 2. 61 B.C.] Atticus and Quintus. 197 the end of the year he set out to take up the govern- ment of the province of Asia. He had wished his brother-in-law Atticus to accompany him as legate, but this Atticus declined, as he had always declined any participation in ofificial life. Quintus considered himself slighted at the refusal, and he was likewise deeply offended about other matters of which we have only obscure hints. It seems probable, how- ever, that his wife Pomponia had stirred up ill-will between her husband and her brother, for Marcus Cicero writes * : " Where the blame for this mis- chief lies, I can guess more easily than I can write it ; for I am afraid lest in excusing my kinsfolk I should he hard on yours. For I judge that the breach, if it were not caused by those of his own household, might at any rate easily have been healed by them." Cicero laboured anxiously to reconcile his brother and his friend, both equally dear to him. "All my hopes of allayingthis irritation," he writes to Atticus,f " are placed in your kindliness. For if you hold with me that the tempers of the best men are often easily excited and again as easily quieted down, and that this mobility and fluidity, if I may so speak, is often the characteristic of a kindly nature, and, which is the main point of all, that we ought to bear with whatever we find in each other that is inconsid- erate or faulty or aggressive, I hope and believe that this unpleasantness may easily be got over. I be- seech you to do this ; for to me, who love you * Ad Att., i., 17, 3- \AdAtt., i., 17,4. igS Cicero and A iticus. [60 B.C. dearly, it is all in all that there should be no one of mine who dishkes you or is disliked by you. . . . I have seen, and seen to the bottom, your tender interest in all my varying fortunes. Often and often I have found your congratulations on my success sweet to me, and your support in my hours of anxiety most cheering. Now when you are absent, it is not only that I miss your counsel, which none can give so well, but likewise the interchange of talk which is sweeter with you than with any one. I feel the void especially — where shall I say especially ? in my call- ing as a statesman, which does not admit of a moment's neglect? or in my labours at the bar, which I once undertook to help me to rise, and which I must now keep up to win influence for thesupport of my position ? or lastly in my home circle ? In all these, and the more so since my brother has left, I long for your presence and conversation. . . . You and I have hitherto been too delicate to utter all these feelings ; but now their expression seems to be called for by that part of your letter in which you strive to clear yourself from all reproaches and to justify yourself and your conduct." This letter was written in December, 6i B.C. In the following February he refers* again to the same topic. " My chief want at present is a man with whom to share all my anxieties, one who loves me, and has sense, and with whom I can talk without pretence or reserve or concealment. For my brother, the most open and loving soul in the world, is gone, Metellus is not a man, but just a desert island — * AdAtt., i., i8, I. 60 B.C.] Cicero and Atticus. 199 shore and sky and utter desolation. And you, who have so often by your talk and your counsel taken off the burden of my care and disquietude, you who are used to be my ally in the affairs of State, and the confidant of my private concerns, and the partner of all my talk and all my projects, where are you ? I am so lonely that my only solace is the time I spend with my wife and my girl and my sweet little Cicero. For as for all these fine friendships of in- terest and fashion, they have their glitter before the world, but nothing solid to carry home with me. And so when my reception rooms are thronged each morning, and I go down to the Forum marshalled by troops of friends, out of all the crowd I find no one to whom I can utter a joke with freedom or breathe a sigh in confidence. Thus I wait for you and long for you ; nay, more, now I summon you to my side ; for there are many troubles and anxieties of which I think I could rid my bosom, if I might only pour them into your ear in the course of a single walk." It is pleasant to know that Atticus was not dull to the affection so heartily lavished on him, and that no cloud was suffered to come between the friends. The answer of Atticus was all that Cicero could desire. " I am glad," Cicero writes in reply,* " that you understand the value which I set on you, and I am beyond measure rejoiced that in those matters in which our family has, as it seems to me, treated you ungently and inconsiderately, you have acted with such patience ; and I esteem this as the sign of a * Ad Att., 1., 20, I. 200 Cicero and A tticus. [60 B.C. perfect affection and of a large-hearted wisdom. You write about the matter with such gentleness, such reasonableness, such delicacy and such kindliness, that far from having occasion to urge you further, I can only say that I could never have looked for so much placability and tenderness from you or from any one in the world. I think that the most suita- ble course will be to drop the subject altogether for the present ; when we meet, we can, if desirable, talk the matter over together." ANCIENT ROMAN AS. {Babe ion.) CHAPTER VII. THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. 60-59 B.C. ^SAR had well employed the time of his absence in Spain, and he came back, „. . , June, 60 B.C. as Cicero said, " with a marvellous fair wind in his sails." In the first place he had freed himself from the most pressing of his money difificulties ; he " had wanted," so he said, " a million sterling * to be worth nothing," and now he was able to look his creditors in the face. Notwithstanding his great gains, he brought back the reputation of a good provincial governor. Above all he had served with success his apprenticeship as a general. To himself the secret, that he had a genius for the art of war, was no doubt already revealed, and the conscious- ness of this power determined the path which he marked out. Even in the eyes of the world his victories over revolted Spanish tribes were such as * Twenty-five million drachmas, Appian, Bell, Civ., ii., 8. 201 102 The First Triumvirate. [60 B.C. airly to entitle him to a triumph, and to confirm the nclination of the voters to raise the most popular •{ the Nobles at once to the consulship. The triumph he was obliged to forego, owing to he spiteful interposition of Cato, who obstructed * dispensation which the Senate would have granted, nd compelled Caesar to forfeit his command by oming within the walls to sue for the consulship. !"his however was a small matter. Caesar was duly lected consul for the next year, 59 B.C., having for is colleague Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, who was lie brother-in-law of Cato, and a vehement partisan f the oligarchy. In anticipation of Caesar's success the Senate, fhen assigning provinces for the consuls of 59 B.C., ad chosen trivial and obscure spheres of admin- itration. Caesar did not intend to be thus set aside, le was determined to have a great provincial com- land, and the control of a powerful army ; and to ain this object he set himself to combine all the owers which were at the moment in a state of lienation from the Senate. He could count on the support of his old ally 'rassus ; and though Pompey and Crassus were enerally on bad terms, he did not despair of niting them. To Crassus he could point out how ecessary it was for the fortunes of the democratic arty that Pompey should be estranged once for all ■om the Senate ; and as for Pompey himself, the isults and provocations to which he had been sub- ;cted for the last eighteen months, and the embar- * Plutarch, Cato Minor, 31, 3. 60 B.C.] Overtures to Cicero. 203 rassments of his present position, rendered him very open to the offers which Caesar was prepared to make. If the three could agree on common action, they might hope to overbear all opposition, and this hope would be almost a certainty if the adherence of Cicero could likewise be secured. His presence in the coalition would disarm the hostility of the middle class and of the country people of Italy, his character would give respectability to the new party, and his eloquence would sway public opinion to its side. Caesar's first scheme then was for a quattuorvirate, consisting of himself, Pompey, Crassus, and Cicero. This project was not, of course, openly proclaimed at the time ; but four years later Cicero publicly an- nounced the fact. " Caesar," he says,* " wished me to be one of three consulars most intimately allied with himself. . . . He showed, and I was not insensible to it, how friendly his intentions were, when he offered me a place side by side with the foremost of all the citizens, his own son-in-law." About the same time (56 B.C.) we find Cicero, in a confidential letter to Atticus, f lamenting that he, who had refused to be one of the masters in the co- alition, should now be reduced to act as its servant. Caesar had probably made some tentative advances even before his arrival in Rome, for, as we saw in the last chapter (p. 188), Cicero expressed g„ g (, so early as the beginning of June the hope that he could bring Caesar to a better mind. * De Prov. Cons., 17, 41. f See below, p. 269. 204 The First Triumvirate. [60 B.C. Though Caesar failed in this portion of his scheme, it does not follow that his expectations were ir- rational or impossible of fulfilment. Cicero had throughout his life acted with the equestrian or- der, and that order was now estranged from the Senate. He had from the first chosen Pompey as his leader, and after the temporary coolness, caused by the events of his consulship, he and Pompey had again drawn closely together. The Nobles on the other hand had rejected Cicero's latest counsels. It was well worth trying whether he might not be in- duced to follow Pompey and the Knights in their quest of new allies. Between the time of his elec- tion to the consulship and his entry on office Caesar made serious overtures, which will best be described in Cicero's own words * : " They say that Caesar looks for my support and has no doubt whatever that he will get it. For Cornelius came to see me just now, Cornelius Balbus I mean, Caesar's confi- dential agent. He assures me that Caesar will in all . matters act under the advice of Pompey and myself, and that he will exert himself to unite Pompey and Crassus. To accept this proposal offers many advan- tages : an intimate alliance with Pompey, and, since it comes to that, with Caesar too ; reconciliation with my enemies, peace with the multitude, quiet for my old age." On the other side is the conviction that to enter on this new alliance will be to throw up the " good cause " and to derogate from the glories of his consulship. He supports this good resolution by some bad verses from his own poem, and concludes * Ad Att., ii., 3, 3. 60 B.C.] Ccesar's Offer. 205 that his duty to his country obliges him to abide fast by his principles. That this resolve was final, is clear from one of the early letters of the next year,* in which he says : " Meantime I pursue my studies with a mind quiet, and even cheerful and contented ; for it never occurs to me to envy Crassus, or to regret that I did not prove false to myself." It may be doubted, even if Csesar had gained Cice- ro's adhesion, whether he could so far have modified his own course of action as to keep the union unim- paired. The presence of an ally who objected to breaking the law would have seriously hampered his proceedings. In seeking Cicero's support, he must either have hoped that this support would enable him to carry out his projects by milder means, or else he must have calculated that Cicero, once com- mitted to his party, would have been unable to shake himself loose, and would have been drawn along wherever it suited Csesar to carry him. As it was, Cicero stood aloof ; the coalition was organised as a trium.virate, and Caesar went on his way unchecked by any scruples. His plan was at once simple and effective. He knew exactly what he wanted, and was prepared to pay the price. Let his confederates give him an extraordinary command for a term of years of a province and an army, and he will undertake to secure for them anything else which they desire. All that they had been vainly striving to obtain for the last two years was to be theirs at once. Pompey was to have his acts in Asia confirmed, and his soldiers were to get their lands ; *AdAtt., ii., 4, 2. 2o6 The First Triuvtvirate. [60 B.C. the populace of the capital was likewise to be pro- vided for in an agrarian law ; the equestrian order, the clients of Crassus, were to have their Asiatic con- tract revised, and were to hear nothing more about prosecutions for judicial corruption. In case these objects could not be gained by legal methods, Csesar promised to accomplish them in spite of law and con- stitution. It followed of course that his allies must not be critical of the means employed ; he would take all the responsibility of carrying his measures, but they must be prepared to support whatever he did. On these terms the great conspiracy, known to history as the " First Triumvirate " was formed. Crassus, when once the initial difficulty of reconcilia- tion with Pompey was overcome, was not likely to find anything objectionable in the conditions ; but the case was different with Pompey. How could any price tempt Pompey to put another man in possession of just such a commanding military posi- tion as he had himself enjoyed three years before? Pompey must have recollected afterwards with bitter repentance that, if he could only have possessed his integrity in patience for a few months longer, all would have been well. The migration of the Hel- vetii and the passage of Ariovistus into Gaul would have certainly created a situation calling for his intervention, if he had not already placed Caesar in a position to deal with it. The explanation of Pom- pey's acquiescence doubtless is, that he had no idea that he was dealing with a man of military genius equal or superior to his own. Up to the age of forty 60 B.C.I Consent of Ponipey. 207 Caesar, though he had shown distinguished bravery in his youth, had never been in command of troops ; he was famous as a poHtician and party leader, but quite unknown as a soldier. Just now indeed he had supplemented his record by a single year's command in Spain ; but to the veteran warrior this would seem a very insufficient training, and Cesar's achievements, though creditable to him as an ofificer, were not such as to undeceive Pompey respecting his powers. There was then, as yet, little reason to fear a serious rivalry on this ground ; and Caesar was able to represent his province and his army merely as a reserve force, on which his partners at home might fall back in case of necessity. Other scruples however must have suggested them- selves. Pompey had declined the despotism which was within his reach, and had refused to violate his duty to the State in his own interest ; and now he was asked to abandon the character of a loyal repub- lican, and to give his sanction to illegal action and violent breaches of the constitution. It seems prob- able that he was too short-sighted to perceive clearly the treasonable nature of his compact with Csesar, and that he salved his conscience by disclaiming responsibility for whatever he could not approve. The bargain once struck, Pompey was no longer a free man. He had reaped the benefit of Caesar's illegalities, and could not refuse to support them in all their consequences; and so we shall find him during the ensuing years compelled in spite of mis- givings to do Caesar's work for him, and unable to break with him until Caesar has made himself too 2o8 The First Triumvirate. [60 B.C. strong to be safely resisted. Cicero afterwards * re- marked with truth that, as the day of the battle of AUia, not that on which the Gauls entered Rome, was marked as the black day in the Roman Calen- dar, so this compact should be regarded as the fatal epoch, rather than the Civil War which was merely its sequel. Meantime the temptation of Caesar's offers was too strong for Pompey. He must have suffered keenly during the months in which he had been worried and thwarted by the senseless and ungrateful oppo- sition of the Nobles, and now his patience was worn out, and, come what might, he was resolved to be even with the pack of them and to carry his measures in their despite. Pompey 's surrender dealt a fatal blow to Cicero's ideal party, and indeed to Cicero's position as an independent statesman. For the next eight years we shall find Roman politics dominated by the coalition, and when that coalition breaks up all controversies have to be decided on the battle-field. Cicero becomes almost powerless, and his statesman- ship suffers an eclipse, from which it fully emerges only after Caesar's death. Caesar entered on his consulship on the ist of Jan- uary, 59, and at once proceeded to carry out the engagements into which he had entered. January! *-^f ^^'^^ t)ills which he announced only one was of the nature of a legislative reform. This was the " Lex Julia Repetundarum " which consolidated and amended the laws against extor- tion in the provinces. His other proposals were * Ad Att., ix., 5, 2. 59 B.C.] Ccesars Consulship. 209 strictly party measures. He brought in a bill for the purchase of lands, alike for Pompey's veterans and for the fathers of large families among the poorer citizens. He proposed another bill for the confir- mation of Pompey's acts in Asia, and a third remit- ting part of the sum which the tax-farmers had agreed to pay to the Treasury. At the same time he con- trived an ingenious scheme to provide himself and his confederates with money. It will be remembered that the title of the present ruler of Egypt was de- fective, and that Rome had claims on the country under the Will of the late king (see page 102). For twenty-two years Roman statesmen had failed to make up their minds whether they should annex Egypt or not. Caesar and Crassus, who had been for annexation six years before, now looked to the North rather than to the East for their provincial base of operations, and were disposed to utilise Egypt in another way. It was therefore resolved to procure a decree of the people, recognising Ptolemy Auletes as king, and for this service Ptolemy paid the triumvirs a bribe of 6000 talents, about a million and a half sterling.* The prize which Cassar had marked for himself, the command for five years in Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum, was to be bestowed not by a law of his own proposing but by one brought in by the tribune Vatinius. Caesar at first affected to act with moderation. He submitted all his bills to the Senate, and in the case of the Agrarian Law in particular he declared himself ready and willing to listen to argument and to accept * Suetonius, Jul., 54. 2IO The First Triumvirate. [62 B.C. amendments. It was not likely, however, that the Senate would, except under compulsion, grant to Caesar what they had refused the year before to Pom- pey and Cicero. Accordingly a bitter opposition was raised to the measure in the Senate. Cato in particular spoke at such length and with such viru- lence, that Csesar ordered him to be arrested for con- tempt. Like Metellus the year before, Cato would not appeal for protection to a tribune, and he was marched off by the lictors continuing his speech as he walked towards the prison, while the senators rose from their places to accompany him to his con- finement. This did not suit the plans of the consul, and he sent word to one of his own tribunes to inter- pose and release the prisoner. The obstinate opposition to Caesar's measures gave him, however, an excuse for declaring that no fair treatment could be got from the Senate, and that he should therefore cease to consult it and should bring his bills direct before the People. It has been ex- plained in the second chapter (p. 27) how such an action on the part of a magistrate was a breach of constitutional order, and how it could not be carried through to the end without an actual violation of the law. Caesar had complete command of the streets, and could easily provide an assembly to say " aye " to his proposals, if only his power of initia- ting them were unimpeded. But this power of initia- tive was subject to the veto of his colleague and of the tribunes. Of the tribunes some were little more than his own servants, but there were also some ready to obey with equal promptitude the orders of 60 B.C.] Ccssar's Consulship. 211 the Senate. Bibulus accompanied by two tribunes appeared in the Forum on the day appointed for the voting on the Agrarian Law, and in due order vetoed the bill. This rendered all further proceedings un- lawful. But Caesar set law at defiance ; his mob drove Bibulus and the tribunes with blows from the spot,* and he then submitted his proposal to the assembly and declared it to be carried. A bill so passed was, of course, invalid, and could only be sustained, even as it had been enacted, by the strong hand. It was now clear that the personal interposition of the veto could be made only at the peril of the life of the intervening magistrate, and Bibulus was not inclined to face the risk again. But the constitution allowed the exercise of the veto in a more convenient form, namely by the allegation of religious obstacles to the business. At this period the religious, no less than the civil, veto was an essential part of the constitu- tion, and the conditions under which it might be ap- plied were strictly regulated by the law. The antiquarian history of this religious veto is curious and interesting. f The desire to ascertain be- forehand what is the pleasure of the gods, forms only a secondary motive in Roman augury; the primary object is to win the luck to your side, to avoid anything unchancy, to catch up and appro- priate any word or sight which may have a happy -significance. The Romans were full of contrivances for manufacturing good luck. Like Balak, if the * Dio Cassius, xxxviii., 6. \ See Mommsen Staals-rechi, i., p. ^^ et seq. 2 12 The First Triumvirate. [60 B.C. first sacrifice turned out unpropitious, they tried another, and continued the process until they found what they wanted. They starved the sacred chickens to make sure of their feeding, and then gave them porridge to eat, so that some of the food should drop from their beaks, which was esteemed a particularly happy augury. An omen again was held to be sig- nificant, not as it occurred in nature, but as it caught the attention of the person concerned, and this doc- trine admitted of many developments. If anything happened which it was inconvenient for the magis- trate to see, he might refuse to notice it ; much as Nelson put the telescope to his blind eye to look for the signal ordering him to retreat. The Marcellus of the Second Punic War, an excellent augur, as Cicero tells us,* always went in a closed litter when he meant to give battle, and so escaped the chance of seeing anything unlucky. Again, if an attendant falsely reported an omen to the magistrate, the magistrate might accept it as reported. The attend- ant indeed took the curse of the falsehood on his own head f ; but it was not difficult to find persons willing thus to purchase to themselves damnation in the way of their calling. Now the Roman magistrate, entering on any official business, was accustomed to consecrate that busi- ness by the previous consultation of the auspices. The omen which was most desired was a flash of lightning on the left hand, and this was at once ob- * De Divin., ii., 36, 77. f Those who wish to see this doctrine illustrated by an amusing story may look at Livy, x. , 40. 59 B.C.] Roman Augury. 213 tained by asking the attendant if he saw such a flash and receiving his answer in the affirmative. This was technicall}' termed servare de ccbIo " to observe something {i. e. hghtning) coming from the sky." But this omen, so good in itself, might be used as an obstruction to other business. A thunderstorm oc- curring during a meeting of the People was unlucky and broke up the assembly ; and accordingly the flash of lightning, which the magistrate was supposed to have seen, arrested all legislation for the day. To avoid this inconvenience the consul, when he fixed a day for the assembly of the People, used to issue an edict forbidding any inferior magistrate to look for lightning for any purpose of his own on that day. Such a prohibition was, however, of no avail against the consul's colleague or against the tribunes of the plebs, who were not bound to obey his orders. The duties and powers of the magistrates in this matter were accurately fixed for them by the Law of yElius and Fufius {circ. 150 B.C.). By this law every magis- trate holding an assembly of the People was for- bidden to ignore any omen officially reported to him by his colleague, and every magistrate who had the right to " observe hghtning " for his own purposes, might cause the same to be reported as a deterrent omen for his colleague who was proposing a bill to the People. Such a report rendered all proceedings by the assembly null and void. It is manifest that any sincere religious feeling on the subject, which may once have existed, must have died out before this cut-and-dried procedure was ordained. The regulation must be regarded not as a piece of super- 214 The First Triumvirate. [59 B.C. stition, but as a portion of constitutional law. It was a machinery contrived to extend the power of veto (for under this form it might be used by the consul even against a tribune), and to make its appli- cation more easy and convenient. Driven by armed force from the Forum, Bibulus now resorted to this method. He shut himself up in his house, and on every day when the people assembled he " saw lightning " and caused an ofificial intima- tion of it to be sent to Caesar.* Caesar systemati- cally ignored the prohibition and passed his measures one by one. He thereby broke the law, and usurped powers which were not his. As consul he had the legal right to propose measures to the people, but only provided that his initiative was not lawfully impeded. His colleague had an absolute right to forbid him. The whole business of the lightning was indeed a constitutional fiction, and absurd enough in itself ; but it was not more absurd than the other fiction.f that by reading a bill to the handful of partisans whom he could collect in the Forum, Caesar had obtained the sanction of the nine hundred thousand Roman citizens who were scattered through Italy. Bibulus effected his pur- pose, so far as this, that he established abundant and valid grounds for hereafter setting aside the laws of Cssar, if ever the constitutional party should again become strong enough to insist on its rights. The moment that Caesar received his governor- ship of Cisalpine Gaul, which legally commenced on * Dio Cassius, xxxviii., 6, 5. f See above, p. 26. 59 B.C.] CcBsar and Pompey. 215 the 1st of March of his consulship, he hurried on the enlistment of troops, so that he soon had an armed force collected at the gates of Rome. Many of Pompey's veterans were Hkewise invited to the city to support the measures in which their gen- eral was interested. Caesar, under the pretence that violence was likely to be used against him, had pub- licly appealed to Pompey for assistance, and Pompey had solemnly replied that, if the opponents of the consul ventured to draw the sword, he would provide both shield and sword in his defence.* Meanwhile he indulged himself in his favourite weakness of disclaiming responsibility. Every one knew that Caesar's measures were carried in the interest of Pompey, and that Caesar would have been powerless without Pompey's support. Nevertheless, " he takes refuge in quibbles of this sort. He approves the substance of Caesar's laws, but Caesar himself is to answer for his procedure. The Agrarian Law was quite to his mind ; whether or no it could be vetoed is no business of his. He was glad that the Egyp- tian question should be settled at last ; whether or not Bibulus observed lightning on that occasion, it was not for him to inquire. As for the tax-farmers, he was willing to oblige that order ; what would be the result of Bibulus coming down to the Forum he could not have predicted." f Cicero had declined any partnership with Cssar, but it was not yet clear whether he would venture on active opposition. Caesar was resolved to hold * Plutarch, Pomp., 47, 5- f Ad Att., ii., 16, 2. 2i6 The First Triumvirate. [59 B.C. him in check, and to accomplish this he possessed an effective instrument. We have seen that Clodius had an old grudge against Cicero, and an old debt of gratitude to Caesar and Crassus. He would be de- lighted to wipe off both scores at once, and to inflict punishment on Cicero, nominally for having put the Catilinarian conspirators to death, really for not being sufficiently submissive to the triumvirs. To deliver this attack it was necessary that Clodius should be- come tribune of the plebs, but he was debarred from the office by his patrician birth. The obstacle might be removed by his adoption into a plebeian family, and such adoptions were in the control of Caesar as Pontifex Maximus. Caesar was prepared to use this control according as Cicero behaved. This question was decided early in the year, probably during the month of March. March, 59 B.C. ^ . / . *= , Cams Antonms, Cicero s colleague m his consulship, who had since grossly misconducted himself in his province of Macedonia, was put on his trial, not only, as was reasonable, for extortion, but on the charge of complicity in the Catilinarian con- spiracy. Cicero was counsel for the defence, and, as he himself tells us,* " uttered in the course of my speech some complaints regarding the present state of the nation, which seemed to me to bear on the case of my unfortunate client." This was at noon, and Cicero's remarks were forthwith reported (in an exaggerated form, he says) to the consul. Caesar accepted the words as evidence that Cicero meant to throw in his lot with the opposition, and he in- * Pro Domo^ i6, 41. 59 B.C.] Adoption of Clodius. 217 stantly took up the challenge. At three o'clock the same afternoon Clodius was transferred to the plebs. Pompey officiated as augur on the occasion. He took the precaution indeed of exacting from Clodius and his brother Appius a solemn engagement that they would make no attack on Cicero ; but Clodius' promises were notoriously worthless, and Clodius was ready to make any number of them that might be desired, if only Pompey would put him in a position in which he would have the power to break them. Soon after receiving this significant warning Cicero retired into the country, where he spent the months of April and May. The tone of his letters to Atticus is at first more careless and cheerful than might have been expected. He was convinced, and not without reason, that the high-handed proceedings of the tri- umvirs must set public opinion against them,* and that dissensions must arise even amongst their own followers. He forgot for the moment that the tri- umvirs were resolved to rule by force, and that with force on their side they could afford to ignore public opinion. The country-people, as was natural, were disgusted with the doings in the capital. "You write that at Rome there is dead silence ; so I sup- posed : but here in the fields men are by no means silent ; the very fields themselves rebel against your tyranny. If you come to this ' far Laestrygonia '—to Formise, I mean — you will see how men chafe under it, how indignant they grow, how they detest our friend the Great One. His surname will soon be as * Ad Alt., ii., 9, 2. 2i8 The First Triumvirate. [59 B.C. much out of date as that of Crassus the Rich.* Trust me, I have not met a single man who takes these things so quietly as I do myself." f After the rejection of his own policy, Cicero had good reason to be sick of public life, and he seems to have contemplated with satisfaction a complete retirement. " I was weary of piloting the State, even while I was allowed to do so ; and now that I have been turned out of the boat, and have not abandoned the helm but have had it wrenched out of my hand, I had rather watch their ship-wreck from the shore, and as your friend Sophocles says — ' Beneath my roof-tree list with drowsy sense The plashing of the rain. ' " % At one time Cicero fancied that the triumvirs would offer him a mission to Egypt, but though he liked the prospect, he felt that he could April, 59 B.C. , ' , ■ 1 not accept the orter at their hands. In the same letter he inquires, § who is to have the vacant augurship, and adds, " that is the only bait with which they could catch me. Observe my venality. But why do I talk of these things, when all I want is to get rid of them and to devote my whole mind to philosophy ? That, I say, is my intention, and I only wish I had done so from the first." Of course this hankering after the augurship is only a momentary whim, which goes down, as does every * This is not the triumvir, but another person of the name who had fallen from great wealth to bankruptcy. + Ad Att., ii., 13, 2. X Ad Att.. ii., 7, 4. % Ad Ait., ii., 5. 59 B.C.] Cicero s Fears. 219 passing thought, on paper to his friend. If Cicero had been seriously willing to sell his services for any- such price, Csesar would gladly have paid it twenty times over.* In the month of May, Cicero began to be more anxious. He was alarmed by Pompey's marriage with Caesar's daughter Julia, and by a fresh agrarian proposal, under which the Campanian land, expressly exempted from the former law, was destined for distribution. " These things," he writes,f " are bad enough in themselves, but they cannot be meant to stop here. For what have these people gained by them as yet ? They would never have gone so far, except to pave the way for further abominations." From the month of June onwards Cicero is again in Rome, and his letters to Atticus (who has now retired to his estate in Epirus) give a lively picture of the situation. The triumvirs are absolute masters, but they are likewise the objects of universal hatred. " Speech is a little freer than it was, at least when people converse together in public places, or at dinner. Indignation begins to overpower fear.":j: Things are really much worse than before, because men have lost patience. " The poison administered at first was so slow in working that I thought we might have a painless extinction ; now I fear that the hisses of the Commons, the plain-speaking of decent folk, and * Cicero afterwards tells Cato {AdFam., xv., 4, 13), with apparent reference to this time, that he could have had the augurship if he had pressed for it. \AdAtt., ii., 17, I. %AdAtl., ii., 18, 2. 2 20 The First Triumvirate. [59 B.C. the indignation of Italy will stir them up to violence."* Bibulus' edicts, full of invective against Pompey and Csesar were eagerly welcomed ; " there is a block in the street, where they are posted up, from the num- bers who stand to read them. They cut Pompey to the heart, so that he is vilely fallen away with fretting ; and to myself they are, I confess, unpleasing, both because they give too much pain to one for whom I have always had a regard, and because I fear lest a man of his stubborn nature, who is so used to wear his hand on his sword-hilt and so unaccustomed to listen to abuse, should abandon himself to the dic- tates of vexation and displeasure."'}' Cicero tells us in the same letter that he could not restrain his tears at sight of the abject figure which Pompey made, when in face of a hostile audience he tried to defend himself against these attacks at a public meeting. " It was a sight to please Crassus ... for my- self I felt as Apelles or Protogenes might feel if they saw their masterpieces dragged in the dirt." At the games the young Curio, who had been bolder than others in his opposition, was heartily cheered alike by the equestrian benches and by the people, while Cssar himself was received in dead silence. The audience caught up every line in the play which could be applied against their masters. " The time shall come when thou shalt rue his valour," and " If neither law nor duty can restrain you," * Ad Alt., ii., 21, I. \ Ad Alt., ii., 21, 4. 59 B.C. Ccssar and the Senate. 221 were received with rounds of applause, and the actor Diphilus was rapturously encored, when he turned on Pompey with the words — " By our misery thou art Great." * To Caesar all this signified little ; indeed it was so far to his advantage that the unpopularity of Pompey made him the less able to dispense with his allies. Caesar had now ample force at his command, and all else was indifferent to him ; think what they might, Caesar could rig an assembly to vote whatever he should please. This was indeed so evident that the Senate at his request added Transalpine Gaul to his province in order to prevent that too being given away over their heads by decree of the People.f When his year of office was over, Caesar ventured to give a yet more striking proof of the lengths to which he could go with the Senate. Two of the new praetors foolishly brought the question of the validity of Caesar's acts before the House. Law and ^ight were absolutely on their side ; but force was "tiot. Caesar accepted the challenge, and with a feigned courtesy begged the Senate to decide the question once for all under the eyes of his soldiers. The Senate was, of course, helpless, and could only evade a formal surrender by ignominiously declining to entertain the question. :j: While he could thus trample the Senate under foot, it was not likely that Caesar should trouble himself about any other un- * Ad Ait., ii., 19, 3- f Dio Cassius, xxxviii., 8, 4, confirmed by Cicero, De Prov. Cons., 15. 36. :|; Suetonius, Jul., 23. 222 The First Triumvirate. [59 B.C. armed members of the commonwealth. The only notice which he took of the demonstrations in the theatre was to hint to the Knights that, unless they behaved themselves, he would take away their re- served seats, and to the populace that, if they hissed the wrong men, he would cut off the distribution of corn.* Pompey on the other hand felt his conscience uneasy and his position awkward. " I must inform you,"f Cicero writes to Atticus about the month of August, " that our friend, the Great Aug., 59 • ■ Bashaw, is heartily sick of the state of affairs and is anxious to recover the position from which he has fallen ; he confides his distress to me and openly begs me to suggest a remedy, which for my part I am wholly unable to do." Meanwhile the triumvirs made their arrangements for the magistracies of the next year. They put into the consulship Pompey's old adherent Gabinius, and along with him Piso, whose daughter Calpurnia was lately married to C^sar. At the same time Clodius was elected tribune. Since his adoption he had been playing strange pranks. In the month of April we find him announcing that he will stand for the tribuneship as an opponent of the triumvirs and with the intention of cancelling Caesar's laws. " In that case," retorted the chief pontiff and the ofificiat- ing augur, " we shall deny that we ever made a ple- beian of you." \ His sister Clodia, the terrible beauty of Rome, with whom Atticus was on very * Ad Alt., ii., ig, 3. f Ad Alt., ii., 23, 2. X Ad Alt., ii., 12, r. 59 B.C.] Cicero s Opposition. 223 intimate terms, assured Cicero's friend that she was urging her brotlier on this new course,* but it is not clear that she told Atticus the truth. In any case this quarrel was soon patched up, and before Clodius was elected tribune he and Ca;sarwere again fast friends. He now openly announced that he intended to attack Cicero, and Pompey as vehemently protested that he would allow no such thing. " He declares that there is no danger ; he takes his oath to it ; he adds that Clodius will have to pass over his dead body before he shall do me any harm." f And again : " It would be an everlasting disgrace to him, he says, if any mischief came to me, through the man into whose hands he placed a weapon of offence, when he allowed him to become a plebeian." \ Caesar however had otherwise determined. From the time when he returned from Spain to the end of his life, it was a principle of Caesar's policy that Cicero must be brought over to his side. Sometimes he tries to attract him by friendly offers and delicate acts of kindness, sometimes to drive him by well- directed strokes of chastisement. The means em- ployed might differ, but in pursuit of the end Caesar never wearied ; he knew full well that the great orator must be either a useful ally or a dangerous enemy, and that he could not afford to neglect him. In the present crisis he was prepared to employ either method as occasion might serve. For the moment he held Clodius in leash, but he made it clear that * Ad Att.,TS.-, 9. I- \AdAtt., ii., 20, 2. \AdAtt., ii., 22,2. 2 24 '^^^^ First Triumvirate. l59 B.C. he was to be slipped on his prey, unless Cicero gave sufficient guarantees that he had abandoned his op- position to the triumvirs. That Cicero should now have a voice in the counsels of the confederates, was of course out of the question ; but he might still, if he pleased, receive protection from them as the price of his silence. So far as outward position went, Caesar's offers were meant to be honourable and complimentary to Cicero ; and in after times Caesar unhesitatingly appealed to them as evidence of his good-will. Ten years later Cicero writes*: "When he is justifying his conduct, he always throws on me the blame for the occurrences of that time; I was so bitter against him, he says, that I would not accept even honours from his hand." But these honours would effectually have closed Cicero's mouth. He was offered either a vacant place on the board of com- missioners for executing Caesar's Agrarian Law, or else the post of Caesar's lieutenant in Gaul. Finally he was allowed the option of simple retirement by the acceptance of an honorary commission, which would have removed him for a year from Italy. All these offers Cicero declined. He claimed com- plete freedom of action, and thought himself strong enough to face the attack of Clodius unaided. " I am now bearing myself," he writes in the autumn,f " so that every day increases my forces and the good- will with which I am supported. I let politics alone, and work with all my might in my old field of labour, the law-courts. I find that this is favourably re- *AdAtt., ix., 2, b. I. f Ad Att., ii., 22, 3. 59 B.C.] Speech for Flaccus. 225 garded not only by my clients but by the public. My house is thronged, crowds come to greet me, the memory of my consulship is revived ; I am promised support, and I have raised my hopes, till I sometimes think that the struggle which lies before me is a thing to be welcomed." Cicero's efforts to fortify his position by speeches at the bar may receive illustration from his success- ful defence of Lucius Flaccus, the only 59 B.C. oration of this year which has been pre- served to us. Flaccus, now accused of extortion in his province of Asia, had been praetor in 63 B.C., and was one of the two who arrested the Allobroges on the Mulvian Bridge. Cicero speaks in his behalf, as if the prosecution were directed against himself and all his coadjutors in the suppression of the conspiracy. "Caius Antonius has been overwhelmed. Be it so ; he had his faults ; yet even he would never, if I may be allowed to say as much, have been found guilty by such a jury as that to which I speak to- day. On his condemnation the tomb of Lucius CatiHna was wreathed with flowers ; abandoned men and traitors to the State thronged to the spot and feasted there; CatiHne's ghost had its due. Now you are asked to wreak on Flaccus vengeance for Lentulus. How can you find a victim more sweet for Publius Lentulus, that Lentulus who tried to slaughter you in the arms of your wives and children and to bury you beneath the ashes of our country, than by sating with the blood of Lucius Flaccus that bitter hatred which he had for all of us. Let us 226 The First Triumvirate. [59 B.C. perform then an expiatory sacrifice for Lentulus, let us appease the shade of Cethegus, let us call back their associates from banishment. Let us, if so it must be, in our turn bear the punishment due to too exact a loyalty and to an excessive love of our country. For it is we who are now named by in- formers, against us charges are invented, for us perils are afoot. . . . Well, we see now clearly enough the mind and will of the Roman People. In every way which is open to it the Roman People makes it clear what it thinks ; there is no difference of opinion or of wish or of utterance. So if any man summons me to that bar, here I am. I do not refuse the Roman People for judge in this quarrel, nay I claim its decision. Only let force be absent, let swords and stones be kept out of the way, let the hired gangs depart, let the slaves be silent. No one who hears me, if he be but a citizen and a freeman, will be so unfair as not to judge that the question is not of punishment for me, but of reward." * Cicero's demands for a free decision of the people were of course absurd. Caesar's object was, not to give the Roman People an opportunity of expressing its opinion about the execution of Lentulus, but merely to coerce or to muzzle a dangerous political opponent. Cicero had rejected his offers, and though Csesar had no wish to hurt Cicero unneces- sarily, he had decided that the blow should fall. To this most practical of statesmen it would have ap- peared the extreme of simplicity to allow his victim a chance of escape. He intended to effect Cicero's * Pro Flacco, ch. 38. 59 B.C.] Conspiracy of the Nobles. 227 banishment, as he had effected the measures of his consulship, by the exercise of sheer force. To the latter part of" this year belongs a strange story, for which a brief allusion must suffice. A creature named Vettius, who had acted 59 B.C. as a spy on the Catilinarians for Cicero during his consulship, proposed to young Curio a plot to kill Pompey. Curio reported the matter to his father ; the two gave information to Pompey, and Vettius was promptly arrested. He now dis- closed a tale about a great conspiracy of the Nobles in which Bibulus and Cicero were implicated. The triumvirs at first tried to make political capital out of the story, to damage the character of their oppo- nents and rouse some popular feeling in favour of themselves. But Vettius proved to be a clumsy liar, and the contradictions and absurdities of his evidence were too glaring for him to be of any service. He was found strangled in prison, and the matter was hushed up. Whether the whole business was con- trived by the triumvirs and their adherents (as Cicero himself undoubtedly believed),* or whether some mad partisans of the oligarchy really had formed a plan of assassination, which served Vettius as the foundation of his lies about the senatorial leaders, it is impossible at this distance of time to determine. For us the chief interest of the transaction lies in the fact that the alarm brought Atticus back in hot haste from Epirus to his friend's side. Cicero had just before pressed him to return — "As you love me, if you are asleep, wake up ; if you are on your * Ad Att.,\\., 24. 228 The First Triumvirate. [59 B.C. legs, march ; if you are on the march, run ; if you are running, fly." * The fresh peril brooked no delay. Atticus returned at once to Rome, and the series of letters to him is interrupted until the follow- ing April. *AdAtt., ii., 23, 3. m^^^Sffj^ CHAPTER -VIII. CICERO'S EXILE AND RETURN. 58-56 B.C. LODIUS entered on his tribune- ship on the loth of December, and on the ist of January 58 B. C. the consulship of Ga- binius and Piso commenced. Cssar was now proconsul of Gaul, but he delayed his de- parture and remained with his newly levied legions at the gates of Rome. Though both consuls were the servants of the triumvirs, they ex- pected to be paid for their services. Clodius accord- ingly bargained to give them by decree of the People rich provinces and extraordinary allowances. Piso for instance received i^ 180,000 under the title of table-furniture, though, as Cicero says, it would be more truly described as blood-money.* Clodius next abolished the small fee which had hitherto been paid by the recipients of the public dole of corn, *In Pison., 35, 86. 22g 230 Attack on Cicero. [58 B.C. and effected certain constitutional changes with respect to the auspices and the censorship. Having thus prepared the way, he brought in a bill "that anyone who had put citizens to death without trial should be outlawed." Cicero was after- wards of opinion that he committed a fatal blunder in not expressing his approval of this decree, and taking his stand absolutely on the ground that Len- tulus was not a citizen but an enemy. At the mo- ment, however, he publicly recognised Clodius' proposal as directed against himself. He and his friends put on mourning and commended themselves to the people. The Roman Knights, always friendly to Cicero, stood by him on this occasion, and the Senate proclaimed its sympathies by a decree en- joining every member to lay aside the dress of his order as in times of public calamity. The consuls nullified this proceeding by an edict forbidding any senator to appear except in his proper robes. In the prevailing violence and disorder the tribunician protection, the proper remedy in such a case, was not available and the senators were obliged to sub- mit. The Roman Knights were roughly handled by Clodius' mobs, and were insulted by the consul Gabinius, who further arbitrarily ordered out of the city one of their number, ^lius Lamia, because he had made himself conspicuous among Cicero's de- fenders. Clodius commanded the streets with gangs of roughs whom he had enrolled under the pretence of founding " collegia," or street-guilds ; these were only the advanced guard of his force ; behind them 58 B.C.] Clodius and the Triumvirs. 231 were the triumvirs and Caesar's army. After Cicero had been restored from exile by aid of the Three, he was obliged to speak with reserve of the part they had taken in banishing him. Nevertheless he indi- cates pretty clearly that Clodius was little more than their instrument. What disturbed him, he says, was Clodius' declaration " that his measures had the ap- proval of these three and that he could command their help in carrying them through. Now one of these three had a powerful army in Italy ; the other two, though private men, could raise an army if they chose ; and this he said that they would do. He threatened me, not with the judgment of the People, not with any prosecution or trial or answer to the law, but with violence, with arms, with troops and generals and camps."* Cicero constantly complains of the " silence " of the Three when Clodius maintained that he was their agent, and indeed both their silence and their utter- ances left him no doubt that for once Clodius was telling the truth. Clodius held a meeting outside the gates that Caesar might be present, and he pub- licly questioned the proconsul as to his opinion on the execution of Lentulus. Caesar replied, "that in his judgment Cicero had acted illegally, but that he should prefer to let by-gones be by-gones and ad- vised them not to persecute Cicero further." f This reply, as it stood, was certainly hypocritical, for Caesar could have stopped Clodius' action by raising his finger ; but we may perhaps find a better excuse * Pro Sestio, 17, 40. f Dio Cassius, xxxviii., 17 ; Plutarch Cic, 30, 4. 232 Attack on Cicero. [58 B.C. for him than that he merely wished to shirk responsi- bihty. It is probable that now, as all along, Caesar's action was determined solely by his desire to force Cicero to his side, that he looked on his exile as a mere temporary measure of policy, and was resolved to recall him so soon as he had humbled and fright- ened him sufficiently. In that case, he was wise in not committing himself to any public participation in his banishment, which would have made it more awkward for him to consent to his restoration. Meantime Clodius reaped all the fruits of Caesar's support, and openly boasted that he would march Caesar's army down on the Senate-house. From Crassus Cicero expected no help ; the two had never been friends. Young Publius indeed, the son of Crassus, was one of Cicero's warmest admir- ers and had put on mourning along with him ; but he could not influence his father. Pompey shows very badly on this occasion. Almost to the last he had encouraged Cicero by his promises, and now in the hour of peril " suddenly he fell away from him." * He studiously kept out of Cicero's way, and referred him to the consuls, whose help he pretended to de- sire ; he would be only too glad to oppose force to the violence of Clodius, but he was a private man, and must really wait till he was summoned by the consuls.f To the consuls accordingly Cicero turned. Gabinius rudely repulsed him. Piso affected some concern; "but," said he, " Gabinius is in difficulties; he is quite out at elbows ; he is a ruined man unless * " Subita defectio Pompeii," Ad Q. F., i., 4, 4. f Pro Seslio, 18, 41. THE THREE COLUMNS OF THE TEMPLE OF CASTOR. (Duruy.) 58 B.C.] Clodius Attack on Cicero. 233 he gets a province, and if I stand by him he has good hopes of one from the tribune, for it is hopeless to look for anything from the Senate. I must oblige him, just as you did your colleague Antonius. It is of no use your applying to the consuls ; every one must look after himself." * Shortly afterwards when publicly questioned by Clodius what he thought of Cicero's consulship, Piso delivered him- self of the oracular response, that " he did not ap- prove of cruelty." Meanwhile the day for the passing of Clodius' bill drew on. His new law about the auspices seems to have barred any attempt to invalidate the proceed- ings as those of Caesar had been invalidated by Bibulus. The veto of Clodius' colleagues in the tribuneship could only be exercised personally, and if they interposed except under the protection of an armed force they were certain to be killed on the spot. Clodius did not content himself with the bludgeons of his newly formed guilds, but occupied the temple of Castor in the Forum with armed men, removing the steps which led up to the temple, so as to make it a veritable fortress. It became every day more clear that Cicero must either fly or else fight a pitched battle. He had on his side the Senate, the equestrian order, and the whole country population of Italy ; but it would require time to collect and marshal these forces, whereas the gangs of Clodius were ready armed and organised. Even if the tribune were disposed of, Cicero would have still to deal with the consuls and with Csesar, so that, * In Pisonem, 6, 12. 234 Flight of Cicero. [53 b.c. as Clodius maliciously pointed out to him, he would either be knocked on the head once for all, or else have to win a battle twice over.* Lucullus notwith- standing gave his voice for fighting, and Cato prob- ably was of the same mind, f Hortensius, on the other hand, strongly advised that Cicero should bow to the storm, and retire voluntarily from the city. The majority of the Nobles agreed with him, pro- testing that it would only be a matter of a few days, and that Cicero would soon be brought home in triumph. Cicero made a final appeal to Pompey. In his despair he flung himself at his feet and begged him to redeem his promise ; but Pompey did not even raise him from the ground and coldly replied that he could do nothing against Caesar's wishes.:]: Thus baulked of his last hope, Cicero removed from his house a consecrated image of Minerva bearing the inscription " The Guardian of the City," and de- posited it as a pledge and memorial in Ma^rchV ^""' °^ the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol; then with a heavy heart he departed from Rome. The same day Clodius carried his bill. The oppo- sition to his measures had now collapsed, and he might do what he pleased. After first paying the consuls their hire, he next carried a resolution * Pro Sestio, ig, 43. f Dio Cassius (xxxviii. , 17,4) and Plutarch {Cato Minor, 35,1) assert the contrary, but their authority is not sufficient to outweigh Cicero's words [Ad Att., iii., 15, 2) expressly exonerating Cato from the blame which he heaps on Hortensius. See also Ad. Fani., xv., 4, 12. \ Ad Att., X., 4, 3. 58 B.C.] Cicero s Exile. 235 directed against Cicero by name. This decree set forth, not that Cicero should be outlawed, but that he " had been outlawed " already by the terms of the general law. * It further fixed a limit of space, 400 miles, within which this outlawry was to be operative ; anyone who received or comforted the banished man within these limits was himself liable to proscription. By the same decree Cicero's goods were confiscated, and his house ordered to be razed to the ground. No time was lost in carrying out these last provisions ; Clodius with his mob sacked and burned the house on the Palatine, seized all the property of Cicero on which he could lay hands, and threatened Terentia with legal proceedings on the charge that she was concealing some of her husband's goods. Csesar, who had remained at the gates until Cicero was driven from Rome, now swept northwards. In eight days he was on the banks of the Rhone ; be- fore the summer was out, he had annihilated the armed nation of the Helvetii and had driven the mighty hosts of the Germans back across the Rhine. After these two splendid victories, Csesar withdrew his army, as he tells us, into winter-quarters " some what earlier than the usual season." Before departing for his province, he had made * Cicero, {Pro Domo, 18, 47) speaks of the perfect tense as a monstrous blunder, but it was probably correct. The second decree is a declaratory act, which proceeds on the assumption that Cicero was hit by the terms of the first law and that he has acknowledged his guilt by retiring into exile. There is a close parallel in Livy, xxvi. , 3, 12. " Postquara dies comitiorum aderat, Cn. Fulvius exulatum Tarquinios abiit. Id ei justum exilium esse scivit plebs.'' 236 Removal of Cato. [58 B.C. arrangements for expelling from Rome the other statesman who shared with Cicero the honour of being feared by Caesar as a leader of opposition. Cato was to be removed more gently than his com- rade had been, but quite as effectually. Clodius had passed a law for the annexation of the kingdom of Cyprus, and the deposition of the Ptolemy who reigned there. This king was the brother of that Ptolemy Auletes who had purchased his recognition as King of Egypt from C^sar (above p. 209), and it was an act of cynical injustice thus to ruin the Cypriot ruler, whose title was just the same, as a punishment for not having bribed the triumvirs. Clodius had undertaken the business with all the more zest be- cause the King of Cyprus had once refused to ransom him from the pirates. Clodius now passed a supple- mentary decree, commanding Cato by name to execute the deposition of Ptolemy. This order he did not venture to disobey. He wrote to Ptolemy promising to treat him with all consideration ; but the unfortunate king put an end to his own life, and Cato was obliged to content himself with an ostenta- tious incorruptibility in administering his effects and paying the money realised into the Treasury. Mean- time Csesar's object was accomplished, and he wrote a letter * to Clodius, congratulating him that he had got Cato out of the way for the rest of his tribunate, and had likewise shut his mouth for the future about extraordinary commissions. Cato did not come back to Rome for more than two years. We must now turn to accompany Cicero on his * Pro Dotno, 9, 22. 58 B.C.] Cicero in Exile. 237 melancholy journey. After wandering for a while in southern Italy, always in dread lest he should bring ruin on his hosts, he crossed over into Epirus from Brundisium on the last day of April. ■^ ^ 58 B.C. He would have preferred Athens for his place of residence, but was afraid of Autronius and other exiled Catilinarians who infested Greece. Finally he resolved to avoid Greece altogether, and proceeded by the great northern road across Mace- donia to Thessalonica, where he arrived on the 22d of May. Here he was received with great kindness by Plancius the quaestor of the province, who afforded him ample protection and such consolation as was possible under the circumstances. But consolation was the last thing of which Cicero would accept at this time. He was crushed in spirit by the blow which had fallen on him, and his letters are full of nothing but lamentation and self-reproach and upbraidings of his friends. His retirement, for which he could find abundance of excellent reasons a few months later, now appears to him an act of in- credible folly and perverseness. Why had he not stayed and fought it out as Lucullus recommended ? Why had Hortensius and the rest given him such treacherous advice? Why had they said that his absence would be an affair of a few days? Why had Atticus contented himself with tears for his misfortune, when he might have averted it by sager counsel ? Why, when all was lost, had his friend re- strained him from falling on his own sword, the only honourable resource? It will come to that in the end, he thinks, but the opportunity for dying with 238 Cicero s Despondency. [58 B.C. credit has been lost. He is convinced that never has there been such a fall as his ; he measures it by- all the height of his former position of honour and influence. He has brought ruin not only on himself but on his dear ones at home ; he does not trust himself to meet his brother Quintus, now returning home from his province ; they would both be too much unmanned. Throughout he despairs of any improvement in the situation, and turns a deaf ear to the hopes which his friends hold out to him. Lessing in his famous treatise on the Laocoon has drawn an interesting contrast between the con- ventions of ancient and modern life with regard to the manifestations of pain and grief. The northern peoples of Europe have inherited notions of the dignity of stoical endurance, which, though far less thorough than those of some barbaric races, lead us to consider tears and lamentations as unworthy of a man. The Greeks and, to a certain extent, the Romans were more natural in their utterance of their feelings. Philoctetes can howl from the pain of his wound, and Achilles roll on the sand in the agony of his bereavement, without degradation or loss of sympathy. It is said * that the modern Italians show something of the same unconventionality and absence of self-restraint. In Cicero we find these characteristics carried to an extreme. Stoical reserve is sadly wanting in him. The versatile intelligence, the susceptibility to im- pressions, the quick wit and the genial receptiveness, * See Adolphus TroUope's Beppo the Conscript, ch. 7 (the Bad Number). 58 B.C.] Cicero s Mercurial Temperament. 239 which give their charm to his writings as they doubt- less did to his conversation, are compensated in the economy of nature by an equal sensitiveness to pain. There never was a man of less equable temperament than Cicero, nor one born more completely under the influence of the planet Mercury. In the stir of life and action he is alert and sanguine ; when he is struck down by misfortune he becomes nerveless and de- pressed, and all that remains of his ingenuity is employed in devising fresh reasons for torturing himself. During times of prosperity he suns himself in the society of his friends, in the affection of his children, in the applause of his fellows, in the ap- proval of his own judgment and conscience ; when- ever these fail him, the gloom of anxiety and disappointment closes around him, and he sets forth his grief and 'despair as frankly as he had set forth his self-satisfaction. Happiness and misery affect him with equal keenness, and his unrivalled powers of expression are employed in both cases to display to his friends, and, as fortune would have it, through them to future centuries, feelings which had better have been buried in his own breast. If we are in- clined to think hardly of him, let us remember that these are, as the French say, " the defects of his qualities." About the end of the year Cicero left Thessalonica for Epirus. He could hardly remain in Macedon ; his friend Plancius' term of office was Dec.^ 58 B.C. out, and his enemy Piso was expected as the new governor. Besides the horizon had already begun to clear ; Cicero could now afford to disregard 240 Clodius Tribunate. [53 B.C. the limits to which Clodius' law confined him, and was at liberty to approach close to Italy and await the restoration which was drawing nigh. Clodius had become intolerable in Rome. " Like Cssar himself," writes Mommsen, " Caesar's ape kept governorships and other posts great and small on sale for the benefit of his fellow-citizens, and sold the sovereign rights of the State for the benefit of sub- ject kings and cities." " What region," asks * Cicero, " what district of any extent was there on the face of the earth, in which some principality was not set up ? What king was there who did not recognise that it was time for him to buy what was another's right, or to pay black-mail for what was his own?" Grown bold with impunity, Clodius at length ventured to cross the path of Pompey himself. He May, 58 B.C. ^^cepted money from the King of Ar- menia to procure the release of his son, who had been brought to Rome as a hostage, and in pursuance of his bargain carried off the young prince from the custody in which Pompey had placed him. When Pompey tried to oppose force by force, Clodius not only defeated him in the streets, but attempted his life by means of an assassin. Pompey was obliged to barricade himself in his own house for the re- mainder of Clodius' year of office. The departure of Caesar's army and the estrange- ment of Pompey left the Romans more free to ex- june,58B.c. P''^^^ ^^"'' ""^^^ feelings as to Cicero's banishment. Though not one of Clodius' colleagues had dared to interpose his veto * Pro Sestio, 30, 56. 58 B.C.] Proposals for Recall. 241 at the critical moment, Ninnius, as early as the 1st of June brought the question of Cicero's recall be- fore the Senate, and elicited an unanimous resolution in favour of it ; in October, eight of the tribunes not only consulted the Senate but proposed a bill to the People.* These measures were inoperative except as a demonstration, for they were vetoed by Clodius and his single adherent among the tribunes. The consular elections in the summer resulted in favour of Lentulus Spinther and Metellus Nepos, the same who, as tribune, had forbidden Cicero to speak to the people when he went out of office at the end of the year 63 (see above p. 161). He now announced that he would forget his old feud, and not oppose any measures in Cicero's favour. His colleague declared himself from the first Cicero's friend, and almost all the tribunes-elect were on the same side. Amongst them were Titus Annius Milo, and PubHus Sestius. Sestiusbeforetheendof the year under- •' Autumn, 58 B.C. took a journey into Gaul to beg the acquiescence of Caesar. \ Ks, early as August Cicero had mentioned in a letter % some information re- ceived from Varro which seemed to indicate that Caesar showed signs of relenting. Nevertheless Sestius' overtures were at first unsuccessful, and some delay was thus caused ; for Pompey could hardly permit Cicero to return without first gaining Csesar's consent. At length his objections were re- moved, apparently by negotiations with Quintus * Pro Sestio, 31, 68 ; and 32, 69. f Pro Sestio, 33, 71. XAd Att., iii. 15, 3- 16 242 Cicero s Recall. 1.57 B.C. Cicero, who gave certain pledges on his brother's ac- count to the triumvirs, and Caesar now expressed his approval of the measures which Pompey wished to adopt (see below p. 266). The proceedings of Clodius in the last months of his tribuneship were like the tricks of a mischievous monkey. His quarrel with Pompey implied a breach in his alliance with Gabinius ; accordingly he set his gangs upon him, wounded his attendants, and broke up his consular fasces. Then he put up an altar of incense and, standing before it with veiled head, consecrated all the goods of the consul to the temple of Ceres ; as at a solemn sacrifice, a flute- player piped the accompaniment to the traditional words of banning. One of his colleagues mimicked the ceremony and consecrated Clodius' goods under the same form. Clodius next turned upon Csesar. He convened an assembly in the Forum and sum- moned Bibulus and the college of augurs to attend. He put the question to Bibulus, whether he had not observed lightning on each occasion when Csesar carried his laws ? He elicited a response from the augurs that such an observation invalidated the pro- ceedings. " In that case," summed up this impartial judge, " it appears that Caesar's official acts, includ- ing my adoption, are null and void. Let them all be set aside by a decree of the Senate. Cicero is the preserver of Rome, and I will bring him home again on my own shoulders." * The first act of Lentulus Spinther as consul was to bring the question of Cicero's recall again before * Pro Domo, 15, 40. 57 B.C.] Cicero s Recall. 243 the Senate, and the matter was fully discussed on the first of January, 57 B.C. * Lucius Aurelius Cotta, the first senator who was asked his opinion, protested that no legislation was required ; the whole of the proceedings against Cicero, he argued, were null and void ; he had merely yielded to violence, and now he should be simply invited to resume his place in the State. Pompey, who came next, while agreeing with much that Cotta said, recommended that for the avoidance of all scruples a bill should be proposed annulling the former decree and expressly restoring all Cicero's rights. This view (which was Cicero's own) met with the approval of the Senate. Though some delays occurred through . . Jan., 57 B.C. the opposition of a single tribune, a decree was actually brought before the people on the 24th of January. But Clodius, though no longer tribune, was still master of the streets. His gangs were reinforced by some gladiators whom he was training, and with these he made an armed attack on the supporters of the bill. A regular battle was fought f ; the Forum had to be swabbed with sponges to clear away the blood, and corpses were tossed into the river or choked the sewers; Quintus Cicero barely escaped with his Hfe; the day ended with the victory of Clodius and the bill was not carried. On another day the tribune Sestius was assailed with equal violence ; he was left for dead on the ground, but none of his wounds proved mortal. Mile attempted * Pro Sestio, 34. t Pro Sestio, 35, 75,- ■f«?- 244 Cicero's Recall. [57 B.C. to bring Clodius to justice, but found his family con- nections too powerful. He then resolved to meet Clodius with his own weapons and himself hired a band of gladiators ; many of Cicero's friends seem to have contributed to bear the expense. The two champions fought out their quarrel much in the fashion of the Montagues and Capulets, and neither could drive his adversary from the field. It was sufficient however for Milo to hold Clodius in check, and so soon as he accomplished this, the public feel- ing in favor of Cicero's recall bore down all other obstacles. Meanwhile the Senate refused to transact any other business until this measure was carried through, and it passed decrees commending Cicero's safety to the protection of all magistrates in the provinces, and giving thanks to those communities which had sheltered and comforted him.* At length after months of obstruction the bill was again introduced. The Senate, combining the ad- vice of Cottaand of Pompey, now issued a proclama- tion that all who desired the salvation of the State f should come to Rome to vote in Cicero's cause, and at the same time they decreed that, in case the vote should be delayed for more than five lawful days, they invited Cicero to return as a citizen under no legal condemnation or disability. On the strength of this invitation Cicero crossed over into Italy and landed at Brundisium on the i;th of Aug., 57 B.C. August. Here the whole population of the town went forth to greet his landing, and * Pro Sestio, 60, 128, and Pro Donio, 32, 85. f Pro Dome, 28, 73. 57 B.C.] Return from Exile. 245 with them his daughter TuUia, who had come thus far to meet her father. By a happy coincidence * the day was the anniversary of the foundation of the town and was likewise TuUia's birthday. Three days later Cicero received the news that the bill had actually passed on the 4th of August. Every circumstance served to heighten his triumph. The immense crowds of citizens from the country, who had flocked to Romef and now assembled on the Campus Martius to proclaim their good-will to Cicero, afforded a striking contrast to the handful of roughs and slaves whose assent had given the form of law to his banishment. The assembly was by centuries, the most solemn and august fashion for the utterance of the popular voice; the bill was intro- duced by both the consuls ; Pompey himself urged its acceptance and delivered a panegyric on Cicero ; men of rank and position not only appeared to give their votes, but were proud to discharge in person the subordinate functions of distributing the ballots and counting the votes. Clodius was present and was permitted to say what he had to say against the proposal ; but the feeling of the assembled multitude was practically unanimous, and every century voted in the affirmative. So far as the unwieldy forms of a mass-meeting permit a real expression of the will of the majority, this was a truly representative assem- bly, and this decree stands almost alone in the latter * Ad Att., iv., I, 4. \ Clodius accused Cicero {Ad Att., iv., i, 6, and /"re Domo, 6, 14) of having made corn dear, apparently on the ground that the number of strangers who had come to vote for him had eaten up the supplies. 246 Return from Exile. [57 B.C. days of the Republic, as having received not only the formal but the real assent of the Roman people. Cicero's journey homeward was a triumphal pro- gress. Along the way he was stopped by deputations sent from all parts of Italy to congratulate him. When he reached the gates he found that every one with the least pretence to be a notable person in Rome had come forth to greet him ; even Crassus was there, and none stayed behind except those whose hostility had been too notorious for them to be able to pretend to join in the welcome. As Cicero advanced he found the steps of the temples occupied from top to bottom by enthusiastic crowds, whose plaudits accompanied him through the densely thronged Forum and up to the Capitol, whither he went to offer thanks to the gods for his safe return.* One thing was wanting to complete Cicero's resto- ration. The site of his house on the Palatine had been consecrated by Clodius, and a shrine of Liberty erected thereon. It was doubtful therefore whether it could again be applied to secular uses. The question was referred to the college of pontiffs, and their unanimous votef declared the consecration to be null and void. Cicero's house was rebuilt on the old site at the public expense. Cicero was pleased to find that he was still re- garded as the unquestioned leader of the bar. The applications of clients the instant he returned to Rome sufficiently convinced him of this. The devo-. * Ad Ait., iv., I, 5. f De Har. Resp., 6, 12. 57 B.C.] Return from Exile. 247 tion of all loyal citizens in his cause seems even to have alarmed him, as likely to rekindle the jealousy from which he had suffered so much. He now shakes off all the despondency of his exile, and can look forward with a light heart. " I feel," he writes to Atticus,"* " as if I was starting at the commence- ment of a new life." The enthusiasm displayed by the Romans was partly due to sympathy with Cicero himself, partly it was a manifestation of disgust at the reign of law- lessness and rascality which had been the first-fruits of Caesar's attack on the constitution. With the return of Cicero, men began to hope that this most discreditable page in the national history was turned down once for all. They did not perceive how seri- ously the fabric of the constitution had been shaken, nor how imminent was the danger to those republi- can institutions which they still cherished as their most precious birthright. In real truth it would have taxed the utmost resources of statesmanship now to find a solution. Whether the triumvirate held to- gether, or whether it dissolved, the issue was likely to be equally disastrous to the survival of the free State. Cicero's " new life " began in a world which admitted only of counsels of despair. Three days after his return we find Cicero once more handling affairs of State. The Senate was called to suggest remedies for a dearth, which caused much discontent, and Cicero moved that Pompey should be invested with proconsular power for five years, and should exercise control over the corn-supply of *AdAti., iv., I, 8. 248 Pompey and the Corn-Supply. [57 B.C. the whole world.* The motion was carried, and the consuls immediately embodied the resolution in a bill which received the assent of the people. The pro- posal of this honorable charge for Pompey was in accordance with the general policy which Cicero had pursued since his first entry on public life ; it was likewise a graceful act of recognition of Pompey's services in procuring his recall from exile. It seems however, to have given offence to the leaders of the optimate party — " The consulars," Cicero writes, " take their cue from Favonius and express dissatis- faction." Clodius availed himself of their resent- ment when Cicero pleaded before the pontiffs for the restoration of his house, and Cicero found him- self obliged to defend his action at length, and to deprecate any prejudice which it might occasion in the minds of his judges. f But that which the Optimates thought too much for Pompey was much less than what Pompey him- self desired. His real wishes were revealed by a counter-proposal of the tribune Messius, which would have given to the Commissioner of the corn-supply the disposal of the Treasury, an army, a fleet, and a power in every province superior to that of the actual governor. Public opinion was not yet ripe for so thorough a measure. Even if the Republicans had accepted it, we may doubt whether Caesar would have acquiesced, and whether the effect would not rather have been to hurry on the civil war. This risk, however, might well have been faced. Ctesar's army was not as yet fashioned to that perfect ef- * AdAtt., iv., I, 7. \ Pro Domo, ch. 2-9. 57 B.C.] Difficulties of Poinpey. 249 ficiency which it afterwards attained, and though even now the Republicans would have found it dif- ficult to hold Italy, they might have made a fight for it in the East with far better chances than when they tried the fortune of war six years later. At this eleventh hour the sole chance for the Republic was to place itself unreservedly in Pompey's hands, and to trust that the loyalty which he had shown at the end of the Mithridatic war would still be the guiding principle of his conduct. This was the more to be hoped, because Pompey's subsequent defection from honour and duty had borne him bitter fruits. He had expected to use Caesar as his instrument, and now his eyes were opened to the fact that Csesar was fast becoming his master. Two years of splendid victories had half revealed to the world the supreme military genius. Caesar's army was devoted, not to any party or principle, but solely to its incomparable chief. He had made himself a position independent of his con- federate and could conquer and govern at will throughout his vast province, while a tribune or two in his pay at home served to secure his interests in the central government. Pompey meanwhile was sorely perplexed in his new position. He had little capacity and little inclination for guiding the turbu- lent politics of the capital. His main object now was to secure himself some military force and some base of operations independent of Czesar. But here he was met by constant difficulties ; he was checked alike by his own best feelings, and by the memory of his past defection. On the one hand the Optimates 250 The Political Situation. [57 B.C. wished that he should divorce Julia* ; but Pompey steadily refused to sacrifice the tender and beautiful woman, whose love both for her husband and for her father bound them together by a tie more honourable than that of political expediency. On the other hand, Pompey bore, and not unjustly, the odium which resulted from the lawless acts of Csesar's con- sulship, and he was still compelled to play the part of figure-head in a Cabinet in which the decisive word lay no longer with him. The constitutional party had now some excuse for refusing to trust him. Pompey was still further hampered by his own re- serve and mystery and dread of committing himself. These bad habits had by long indulgence now com- pletely gained the mastery over him. It is pitiful to see how a man, honest and well-meaning at bottom, earned the reputation of insincerity and double-deal- ing, merely because he was afraid to speak his mind. No one now relied on him. Cicero expresses this distrust in an amusing way to Atticus a few months later.f " He had a long conversation with me on politics, and was by no means satisfied with his posi- tion — so he said (for that is as much as one can vouch for in case of Pompey) : he did not care for Syria, and thought nothing of Spain — add, if you please, ^ so he said.' I think indeed that whenever we speak of him we may append the tag, ' so he said,' like the refrain of ' thus saith Phocylides ' in the epigrams." % *Plutarch, Pomp., 49, 3. \ Ad Att., iv., 9, I. X This tag was used both by Phocylides and Deraodocus. The fol- lowing epigram (it is doubtful to which of the two it belongs) will serve as an example : Kal toSe ^ooHvXiSov ■ MiXijdioi a^vvsroi /J,lr OvK eidir • dpcSdiv S' oiiXTtsa d^vvsrot. 56 B.C.] The Egyptian Question. 251 On this question of the corn-supply, while pressing the more thorough-going proposal of Messius by means of his friends and adherents, he affected to prefer that of Cicero. This hesitancy destroyed the last chance of Messius' success. " The bill," writes Cicero,* " which the consuls brought forward on my recommendation, now appears moderate, and this of Messius not to be borne." Pompey accepted the commission with its restricted powers, and this op- portunity was lost to the Republic. Pompey's hopes were next directed towards Egypt. King Ptolemy, " the Piper," had been forcibly ex- pelled by his subjects not long after Ceesar had obtained his recognition by Rome. As the triumvirs had sold him his throne for a great sum, he naturally expected them to guarantee him quiet possession of his purchase. He sent envoys to Rome, requesting that he might be restored and that Pompey might be authorised to re-instate him. This commission would have given Pompey just what he wanted — a fleet, an army, and a base of operations. It will be recollected that some years before (in 65 and again in 63) Caesar and Crassus had looked to Egypt as the place where they might build up a power against that of Pompey. Now the positions are reversed ; Csesar is the man in possession of military force, and Pompey would fain counterbalance that force by establishing himself in Egypt. But here again the Nobles could not recognise the fact, which seems to us so obvious, that Csesar was the really dangerous man, and that the only chance of resisting him was to make Pompey strong enough *AdAtt.,iv., I, 7. 252 The Political Situation. [56 B.C. to be independent of him. Their alarms were still directed to Pompey ; he was to them still what a " scatterbrained young man " * had nick-named him during Cesar's consulship, " The Dictator without office." The majority then of the Senate resolved in their wisdom that Pompey was not to be trusted with an army, and accordingly, on the pretext of a Sibylline oracle, unearthed for the occasion, they passed a decree that the King of Egypt must not be restored by military force. Even with this restriction they were unwilling that Pompey should be allowed to meddle with Egypt ; and, indeed, there were numerous rival candidates for so lucrative a commis- sion. While Pompey's adherents urged his claims, Pompey himself affected to approve of Cicero's exertions on behalf of his benefactor Lentulus Spinther, who after his consulship had become governor of Cilicia and Cyprus. Cicero writes to Lentulus that " when he hears Pompey speak, he acquits him of any hankering after the job," but that his action is so inconsistent that he cannot penetrate his real wishes. " You know," he adds, " how slow the man is, and how incapable of speak- ing out." f The time was wasted in endless wrangles, and nothing could be settled in the Senate. Ptolemy remained an exile till the next year (55 B.C.) when Gabinius, the governor of Syria, without any authorisation from the home govern- ment, restored him to his throne. * This " adolescens nullius consilii," as Cicero (Ad Q. p., i., 2, 15) called him, was Caius Cato, a person whom we must take care not to confuse with his great namesake Marcus. f Ad Fam., i., 5, b. 2. 56 B.C.] Clodius and Pompey. 253 So far then the Nobles had thwarted all Pompey's efforts. Their dislike to him was curiously evinced by their attitude towards Clodius at this period. Clodius had indeed done much to outrage the feel- ings of the Optimates ; but, after all, he was one of themselves, a Noble of the bluest blood, and they were disposed to put up with many eccentricities from such a one. The principal sufferer had been Cicero, and the wrongs of a " new man " did not rouse much sympathy in their minds. Besides, Cicero had been restored, and what more did he want? True, Clodius had appeared with his mob, and driven off the masons who were rebuilding Cicero's house ; he had attacked Cicero himself with stones and swords, as he was proceeding (happily with a sufficient escort) along the Sacred Way, and he had succeeded in setting fire to the house of Quintus. But the Ciceros might look after them- selves; men who had risen from the middle class had no business to stand on their dignity. The Nobles then petted and encouraged Clodius, who was always ready to show sport by insulting and annoying Pompey. They had baffled all Milo's efforts, as tribune, to bring him to trial, and now (in the year 56) Clodius was aedile, and could in turn arraign Milo before the People. When a namesake and creature of their favourite, Sextus Clodius, was tried before a jury for complicity in his patron's lawless proceedings, a majority among the non- senatorial jurors was for a verdict of " Guilty," but the senators' votes turned the scale, and procured an acquittal. 254 '^^^^ Political Situation. [55 B.C. Cicero was naturally indignant at all this. In a speech, delivered in the Senate early in this year, he upbraids the Nobles with the folly and indecency of their conduct. " I am not surprised at Clodius ; he does after his kind. But I am astonished at those men of sense and character, first, that they listen so readily when they hear a great citizen and a noble servant of the com- monwealth traduced by the tongue of a scoundrel; next, that they hold a doctrine most contrary to their own interests, that the glory and dignity of any man are at the mercy of the insults of a rascal, bankrupt in fortune and reputation ; lastly, that they do not appreciate, though I fancy they must have some suspicion of it, that these same wild and whirling words may one day be directed against themselves. . . . Can we believe it that worthy citizens have brooked to gather to their bosoms and hold as their darling this fanged and deadly adder? With what bait did he catch them ? ' We wish,' they say, ' that there should be some one to speak against Pompey, and to cast reproach on Pompey.' What ! does Clodius cast reproach on Pompey by abusing him? I hope that great man, to whom I owe so much, will take what I say in the spirit in which it is meant ; at any rate, I will speak my mind. To me, I protest, it seems that some reproach was cast on his noble and honoured name ; but it was on the occasion when Clodius praised him to the skies." * The situation was yet further complicated by * De Har. Resp., 24, 50. 56 B.C.] Pompey and Crasstis. 255 dissensions between Pompey and Crassus. There never was much love lost between the two, and though Caesar had brought them together, their true feelings manifested themselves now that Caesar's presence was withdrawn. We find Pompey com- plaining to Cicero in February, 56, " that plots were being laid against his life ; that money was being supplied by Crassus to Clodius and to Clodius' asso- ciate, Caius Cato, and that Curio, Bibulus, and others of his old opponents were likewise backing up the pair." * In order to protect himself, Pompey was obliged to enroll a band of roughs, whom he imported from his native Picenum. Meanwhile Clodius did not have it all his own way in the streets. Cicero's escort showed fight on the occasion when Clodius set upon him in the " Via Sacra." They retired into a friend's portico, and beat back their assailants from thence. At one moment Clodius' life was at their mercy, but Cicero would not give the word. " I am weary," he writes,-}- " of heroic surgery, and am trying to starve out the disease." Milo was less scrupulous. " I '^ Nov., 57 B.C. think," says Cicero in the same letter,:]: "that Publius will be brought to trial by Milo, unless he is killed first. If he puts himself in Milo's road during a riot, Milo will certainly do it ; he is quite resolved and announces it openly ; he has no fear of falling as I did, for he puts his trust in no one but himself." * AdQ. F., ii., 3, 4. \AdAtt., iv., 3, 3. XAdAtt., iv., 3, 5. 256 Defence of Sestius. [56 B.C. Clodius had no luck when he tried to carry the war of prosecutions at law into the enemy's camp. His accusation of Milo before the people came to nothing, and a charge of rioting which he brough4; before a jury against Sestius, whom we have seen as tribune exerting himself to procure Cicero's restora- tion, led to a signal triumph for Clodius' opponents. The occasion brought Cicero at once to Feb. 14, 56 B.C. , ^ „ o ■ 1, .. 1 the front. Sestms was unwell, he writes to his brother*; "I went straight to his house, and placed myself, as I was bound to do, entirely at his disposal. This, however, was more than people expected of me, for they thought that I had good reasons for being vexed with Sestius. So both he and the public consider that I have behaved like a kind friend and a grateful man, and I mean to act up to the character." Cicero nobly redeemed this pledge, and his speech for Sestius remains as an admirable specimen of forensic oratory applied to a State trial. The story \ of Sestius' tribunate, of his labours crowned at last with success in Cicero's cause, and of the desperate lawlessness, with which he had to contend, is set forth with every grace of language and Mar. ij, 56 B.C. -^ => . every force of argument. The jury responded readily to Cicero's appeal, and Sestius was acquitted by an absolutely unanimous vote. Among the witnesses for the prosecution in this case was Publius Vatinius, the same who as tribune, in 59 B.C., had passed the law which gave Csesar his command in Gaul. Cicero availed himself of the * Ad Q. F., ii., 3, 5- 56 B.C.] Speech against Vatinius. 257 curious practice of the Roman law-courts, to direct against Vatinius a speech of fierce invective under the form of questions in his cross-examination. " In defending our surly-tempered friend," he writes im- mediately afterwards, * " I gave him his due, full measure and running over ; and, as he particularly wished it, I turned upon Vatinius who was an avowedly hostile witness. I cut into him at my leisure to the satisfaction of heaven and earth. . . . The end of it was that Vatinius, impudent and reckless as he is, retired quite baffled and crest- fallen." Cicero's speech against Vatinius is not pleasant reading. The invective, which rises to dignity when aimed at great antagonists, like Catiline and Antony, sinks to vulgar abuse when directed against under- lings, such as Vatinius, Piso, and Gabinius. The account which Cicero, in his confidential letter to his brother, gives of the effectiveness of the speech is undoubtedly true ; but we can only wonder at the fact. It must be remembered, however, that the Romans tolerated and expected a roundness of in- vective, which is much at variance with the greater decorum of modern habits of speech. One reason for the difference probably is, that our notions of what is proper and gentlemanlike are an inheritance from days when the practice of duelling compelled every one to be punctilious both about the language he used and the language of which he must take notice. Now, nothing like the duel had existed in the civic communities of the ancient world, and so * Ad Q. F., ii., 4, I. 17 258 speech against Vatinins. [56 B.C. the point of honour was not Hable to be touched in the controversies of society or of politics. To a Roman, abuse was mere words and wind, carrying no responsibihty with it ; neither did the man who uttered it suffer from loss of dignity, nor was the ob- ject of it under any obligation to clear his character. Notwithstanding its sins against good taste, the speech against Vatinius has an interest of its own as illustrating Cicero's attitude towards Csesar. He could hardly attack Caesar's jackal without approach- ing dangerously near to the proconsul himself. When he inveighs against Vatinius for carrying laws in de- fiance of the auspices, do not his words reflect on Vatinius' master? Cicero will not allow his victim to associate his cause with that of Caesar — " and that not only for the sake of the commonwealth, but for the sake of Caesar, lest a stain from your despicable vileness should seem to rest on his worthy name. . . . Suppose that Caesar did break out into some excesses ; that the strain of conflict, his ambitious aspirations, his pre-eminent genius, his exalted birth, did hurry him into acts, to which we could submit at the time from such a man, and which should now be blotted from our minds by his glorious services meanwhile ; do you, rascal, dare to presume on the same forbearance? and shall we give ear to the voice of Vatinius, the pirate and the temple-robber, when he demands that the same privilege shall be extended to him as to Caesar ? " * This argument was really sound, as regarded the past. Caesar as consul had done fearful mischief to * In Vat., 6, 15. 56 B.C.] The Political Situation. 259 Rome, but the Romans might well condone it in consideration of the splendid deeds of the proconsul. The doubt arose when men looked to the future. Caesar had shown himself utterly unscrupulous ; he had trampled on all law and constitution. Could such a man be trusted with power? Would not the acquiescence in Caesar's supremacy mean the servi- tude of the commonwealth ? These anxieties, though but dimly felt, certainly affected the minds both of Cicero and Pompey at this time. Both of them were uneasy, and inclined to enter on lines of policy, likely to bring them into collision with Caesar. The relations of political parties were unsettled, and the position of Pompey in particular was doubt- ful and anxious. Towards the end of K/r 1 /— ■ • 1 ■ 1 < March, 56 B.C. March Cicero writes to his brother : " Pompey is not what he was ; the mob are cool towards him on Milo's account, and the loyalists find much wanting and much to blame. My only objec- tion to Marcellinus " (consul for the year) " is that he handles Pompey too severely. The Senate how- ever is pleased to see it, and this makes me the more inclined to absent myself from the House, and main- tain an attitude of reserve. In the law-courts I am all that I ever was, and my lev6e is as thronged as in my best days." * In spite of all draw backs, Cicero was at this time very confident in his own strength. He writes to Quintus t : "In other respects my position is what * Ad Q. F.,\\,, 4, 5. The reference to the letters to Quintus is always to the corrected arrangement as given in Wesenberg's Teub- ner Edition. \Ad Q. F., ii., 3, 7. 26o Cicero Attacks the Julian Laws. [56 B.C. you used to declare it would be, though I could never believe it, full of honour and influence ; these have been restored lo me, my dear brother, and with me to yourself, by your patience, your courage, your de- votion, and your affection." The acquittal of Sestius confirmed him in this opinion. The tide of public feeling, which had borne him in triumph home, seemed still to be setting steadily in his favour. He thought himself able to take a stronger line in poli- tics ; and now, as before his exile, his main object was to draw Pompey over to the side of the consti- tution. He had marked Pompey's distrust of Cffisar, and he seems to have believed that the confederacy between them was fast breaking up. At any rate he was satisfied that Pompey would see without dis- pleasure an assault on the Julian legislation, and Cicero resolved to deliver that assault in person. The point selected for attack was the vexed ques- tion of the public lands in Campania.* It seems that Pompey's veterans had been provided for elsewhere, on lands acquired by purchase, and that this Cam- panian land was destined for distribution among the poor citizens.f Thus Pompey's interests were not directly involved in upholding Caesar's law. At the end of the year 57, one of the tribunes, a sup- porter of Pompey, had mentioned the matter in a tentative way,l and now on the i;th of Aprils, 55 B.C. . ., r-. , ' April Cicero brought it again to the notice of the Senate " which was as uproarious," he says, § "as if it had been a public meeting." On * See above p. 2ig. \ Ad Q, F., ii., i, i. f Suetonius, Jul., 20. § Ad Q. F., ii., 5, i. 56 B.C.] Campanian Land Question. 261 Cicero's motion, it was resolved that the question should be submitted formally to the House by the consuls on the Ides of May. This was, as he after- wards said to Lentulus,* " to attack the enemy in the very heart of his position." Pompey showed no displeasure. On the 8th of April Cicero writes to his brother,-)- then acting as Pompey's legate in Sardinia : " Yesterday I dined with Crassipes, and after dinner was carried in a lit- ter to Pompey's garden. I had failed to catch him earlier in the day, as he was from home, and I wished to see him, because I was leaving Rome the next day, and he was bound for Sardinia. I found him at home, and begged him to let you come back as soon as possible. ' You shall have him immediately,' he replied. He was leaving, as he said on the nth to embark either from Labro or from Pisa." Evidently Cicero told the truth to Lentulus two years later, when he said that Pompey left Rome without giving him a hint that he was offended by his line of action.;}: But a bitter disappointment was in store. The events of the next few days completely altered the situation, and left Cicero in a painful and humiliating position. * Ad Fam., i., g, 8. \AdQ.F./-d., 5, 3. \ Ad Fatn., i., 9, 9. ^^^^^s CHAPTER IX. ROME AFTER THE CONFERENCE OF LUCA. 56-52 B.C. ^SAR had spent the winter of 57-56 B.C. in his southern provinces, Illyricum and Cis- alpine Gaul. A crisis was evidently at hand, and it was needful for him to be as near as possible to the capital " to set a form upon that in- digest." Towards the end of March he summoned Crassus to meet him at Ravenna. While they were consulting on the political situation the news arrived of Cicero's action in the matter of the Campanian land. The importance of this move was instantly manifest to Cssar. An offensive and defensive alliance between Pompey and Cicero seemed immi- nent, and the two, once united, would secure the adherence of the equestrian order and of the country- people of Italy. If Pompey should support Cicero 262 Aprils, 56 B.C. 56 B.C.] Conference of Luca. 263 in this first assault, the Nobles would probably attack the grant of a province to Ceesar by the law of Vatinius. Domitius Ahenobarbus, whose candida- ture for next year's consulship seemed certain of suc- cess, openly declared his intention to propose Cesar's recall.* If then C^sar held his hand and allowed things to drift, they were likely to drift towards civil war, and for civil war he was not yet ready. Even at this moment news had arrived of fresh trouble in Gaul. The maritime people of the Veneti on the shores of the Bay of Biscay had massacred his com- missariat ofificers and had risen in arms. He must have time to complete and consolidate his conquests, and to obtain time he was willing to pay a heavy price. Considerations, other than those of ambition and expediency doubtless co-operated in making him anxious to find terms of agreement. " It is prob- able," as Mommsen remarks, " that Caesar hesitated to break the heart of his beloved daughter, who was sincerely attached to her husband ; in his soul there was room for much besides the statesman." The conference was adjourned to Luca, the south- ernmost point in Caesar's dominion, and thither Pompey was invited to come to meet his confeder- ates. This must have been about the middle of April. The assembly of these great ^ ,., T April, 56 B.C. potentates was like a congress 01 sov- ereign princes. Caesar was attended by a great retinue of his ofificers. Roman politicians and place-hunters flocked to Luca, and provincial gov- ernors found the little town on the way to or from * Suetonius, Jul. , 24. 264 Conference of Luca. [56 B.C. their posts. It is said that 120 lictors could be counted and 200 senators.* But no state or pa- geantry could adequately express the importance of this meeting between the three chiefs. If they could come to an agreement, their power was sufficient to dispose of an Empire which was the civilised world. The terms which Csesar offered were so liberal that Pompey at once assented to them, and the bonds of the coalition were drawn closer than ever. As on the occasion of the first formation of the triumvirate, all that Pompey had been in vain endeavouring by pain- ful intrigues to extract from his natural allies the constitutionalists, was granted to him in a word by his magnificent rival. It was arranged that Pompey and Crassus should forget their differences, and be consuls together for the next year (55 B.C.). After their consulship, Crassus was to lead an expedition against Parthia, and Pompey was to have for five years the governorship of Spain, which, however, he might administer by means of lieutenants, while he remained at the head of affairs in Rome. In return, Caesar stipulated for an extension of five years in his command of the Gallic provinces, and for the defence at home of all the Acts of his consulship. To secure this last condition, it was necessary that Cicero should either be persuaded to renounce his opposition, or that he should again be driven into exile. Pompey, who had for his own purposes en- couraged Cicero to put himself in the fore-front of the battle, accepted the ungracious task of checking and humiliating him. Now, as two years before, * Plutarch, Pomp., 51,2. 66 B.C.I Cicero s Submission. 265 Cicero found that the support of Pompey was not to be relied on. Pompey was far more scrupulous than Caesar, when it was a question of committing crimi- nal acts, but he had none of Caesar's delicacy where personal honour was concerned. He wanted the par- tisan loyalty, which made Caesar aver, "that if he had been obliged to use the help of cut-throats and foot-pads in maintaining his cause, even to them he would not fail in awarding a due recompense." * Cicero had all along served Pompey faithfully, but Pompey seems to have felt no remorse in using him and then dropping him, whenever it suited his own convenience. After the conference of Luca, Caesar once more turned his back on the intrigues of the capital, and hurried to meet his foes on the shores of the Atlan- tic. The details of the arrangement between the Three were kept a profound secret for the moment ; but that they had come to an arrangement was soon manifest. Pompey sent to Cicero a request, which was equivalent to an order, that he should suspend all action on the question of the Campanian land until he himself should return to Rome.f To Quin- tus Cicero whom he met immediately afterwards in Sardinia he expressed himself for once with an al- most brutal frankness : " ' You are the very man I want,' he said, 'nothing could be luckier; unless you take pains to keep your brother Marcus straight, I shall hold you responsible for your pledges on his account.' To make a long story short, he com- * Suetonius, Jul., 72. f Ad Fam., i., g, 10. 266 After the Conference of Luca. [56 B.C. plained bitterly ; recounted the obligations under which he had laid us and his own stipulations and my brother's engagements as to Caesar's Acts, and appealed to my brother's own knowledge that all which he had done for my restoration had been done with Caesar's consent. By way of recom- mending Ceesar's cause and dignity to me, he begged that I would not assail them, if I could not or would not defend them." * These announcements came as a crushing blow to Cicero. The ground on which he was taking his stand had shifted under his feet. On the Ides of May he absented himself from the Senate, and the discussion fell through. " As for the previous arrange- ment," he writes,f " that the question of the Cam- panian land was to be dealt with on the 15th and i6th, it was not dealt with. In this matter there is a stoppage in the current of my action." So far Cicero had no choice but to submit. But he had still to decide how to shape his general policy in view of the altered circumstances. The union, which he had been encouraged to attempt, of Pompey with the Nobles in defence of the constitu- tion against Csesar was now obviously impossible. Pompey was committed to an entirely different line of action. Lucullus was dead, and the Republic had no general but Pompey, so that it would have been madness to persist in words which could not be sup- ported by deeds. Cicero then must either continue to follow his old leader in this new departure, or else * Ad Fam., i., g, g. ■|- Ad Q. F., ii., 6, 2. 56 B.C.] Cicero s Submission. 267 efface himself completely and sit down in silence and inactivity in company with the more obstinate of the Nobles. He would be obliged even to renounce his great position as leader of the Roman bar, for politics were ever intruding themselves into forensic con- tests. Such a sacrifice, had Cicero been prepared to make it, would perhaps have been the most honour- able, certainly it would have been the most dignified course. But it was doubtful whether he could count on a cordial reception from the Nobles, and still more doubtful whether they could or would afford him effective protection from Clodius and his other enemies. Cicero had been convinced all along that the Nobles had deserted him in his hour of peril, and now he was equally sure that they were jealous of him and would be glad to see him reduced to a non- entity ; as he had written to his friend soon after his return : " Those same men, my dear Atticus, who clipped my wings, are displeased to see them grow- ing again, for growing I hope they are." * Even during the last month, some of them had not been able to conceal their delight f that Cicero, who had so often supported Pompey against what they con- sidered the interests of the party, should now have incurred his displeasure and that of Csesar. Further the Nobles continued to abet Clodius, and by this conduct they forfeited, as Cicero thought, their claim to be considered the party of order:];; Pompey was * Ad Ait., iv., 2, 5. f Ad Fam., i., g, lo. X Ad Fam., i., 7, 7, and 9, 17. 268 After the Conference of Luca. t56B.C. at least the enemy of his enemy.* Cicero feared Hkewise to compromise his brother's fortunes. Quin- tus had pledged himself for Cicero's good behaviour to Pompey, and Pompey had pledged himself to Csesar.-f Should these pledges go unredeemed ? It was soon made clear to him that more was expected from him than a passive acquiescence in the su- premacy of the triumvirs, and that his active support would be welcomed, and recompensed with ample protection from his enemies and with at least out- ward deference and consideration. Cicero had now, as frequently before, grave reason to resent Pompey's conduct ; but after all it was Pompey more than any one else who had restored him from his exile, and he dreaded the reproach of ingratitude. His instincts of personal loyalty bound him to his old chief, and on the whole he resolved to abide by him, even though his adherence involved the acceptance of the mild but inexorable yoke of Caesar. It was not without many misgivings and much up- braiding from his own conscience, that he came to this conclusion. He expresses these feelings very frankly soon after in a letter to Atticus :j: : " What is more degraded than the life which we are living — I especially ; for you, though you are a statesman by nature, yet have no bondage of your own to serve and have only your share in the national servitude. But I, who, if I speak as I ought, am reckoned for a * Ad Fani.. i., g, ii, " meumque inimicum unura in civitate habuit inimicum." f Ad Fam., i. , 9. 12. % Ad Att.^iw., 6, 2. 56 B.C.I Cicero s Submission. 269 madman ; if as I must, for a slave ] if I hold my peace, am accounted as crushed and baffled, how bitter should be my grief? So indeed it is, and all the more bitter because I cannot even grieve without seeming ungrateful. Well, can I rest on my oars, and take refuge in a haven of peace ? Nay, the only haven that waits for us is a camp and a battle-field. Well, then I must submit to be a servant, I who re- fused to be one of the masters.* So it must be ; for this, I see, is your decision, and would that I had always hearkened to your advice." Cicero's first action in the Senate on these new lines related to certain votes in favour of Caesar, which, though fully justified by the 1 I.- t, r- A ■ ( June, 56 B.C. work which Caesar was now domg tor Rome, were awkwardly inconsistent with the attack which had been contemplated on his position. Cicero describes these measures in very reserved language to Lentulus Spinther f : " You ask me about the political situation ; there is much conten- tion, but no struggle on equal terms. For those who have the advantage in resources, in arms and in power, seem to me through the folly and inconsist- ency of their opponents to have been given the ad- vantage in argument as well. So with very faint opposition they have obtained through the Senate what they never expected to obtain even through the People without revolution. With little or no trouble pay has been voted for Caesar's troops, ten lieutenants have been granted him, and in assigning * See above, p. 203. f Ad Fam., i., 7> lo- 270 After the Conference of Luca. [56 B.C. provinces under Gracchus' law,* it has been resolved that he shall not be susperseded. I tell my story briefly, for I take no pleasure in the present state of things." Cicero had himself given his voice in favour of a Thanksgiving of fifteen days for Caesar's victories, and for the other measures in his interest, which he recounted to Lentulus. The controversy whether the consuls of 55 B.C. were to succeed Csesar in his Gallic provinces was, if the combatants had known it, a mere beating of the air. The consulships for 55 had been settled on Pompey and Crassus, and their future provinces determined for them at the conference of Luca, and Gaul had been entailed for years to come on Cssar. But all this was as yet a secret ; and Cicero argued the question in June, 56, as if the Senate really had the disposal of the provinces. He urged that the provinces named should be Syria and Macedonia, in order that his enemies, Gabinius and Piso, might be recalled from their posts, and he protested against any scheme which should cut short Caesar's career of conquest. Cicero's speech has been preserved to us under the title De Provinciis Consularibus. The orator cannot avoid some reference to Caesar's Acts in his consulship, but he touches the painful subject as lightly as possible, taking refuge in a somewhat weak argume?itnin ad hominem. Those who wished to set them aside were the same men who now acknowledged as valid the laws of Clodius' tribunate. * By this law the Senate was obliged before the election of next year's consuls to decide what provinces should be assigned to them. 56 B.C.] Speech on Consular Provinces. 271 Yet the adoption of Clodius was one of Caesar's Acts, and if they were cancelled then Clodius was a patrician and therefore no tribune. " You must permit me to decline an inquisition into the title of useful measures, when you refuse such an inquisition in the case of most mischievous ones." * Cicero is more successful when he tells the story of his per- sonal relations with Csesar, and justifies his full re- conciliation. Their early friendship, Caesar's flattering offers of alliance when consul, his co-operation with Pompey in Cicero's restoration, — all authorise him to forget and forgive, even if he has some grievances to complain of in the matter of his exile.f Above all, is he not bound to lay aside private resentments when recommending what is for the good of the State? Caesar is no longer the turbulent demagogue of the capital, but the champion of the Roman State ; he is now bound to the Senate by the extra- ordinary honours which it has conferred on him, and it is folly to alienate him by petty attacks. " I do not pretend to penetrate into any man's intentions in the future ; but I know what I hope. It is my duty as a senator to secure to the best of my power that no eminent or powerful man shall have just ground for complaint against this House ; and this, even if I were Caesar's bitterest enemy, I should maintain for the good of the common- wealth.":]: * De Prov. Cons., 19, 46. \ De Prov. Cons., 17 and 18. \ De Prov, Cons., 16, 39. 272 After the Conference of Luca. [55 B.C. In setting forth the recent services, on which Csesar rests his claims to the consideration of the Senate, Cicero has a theme worthy of his eloquence. Here there is no need for hesitation or apology. " He has striven on glorious battle-fields with the fierce tribes and mighty hosts of Germania and Helvetia ; the rest he has terrified, checked, and tamed, and taught them to obey the commands of the Roman People. Over regions and nations which no book, no traveller, no report had made known to us, our general, our soldiers, and the arms of the Roman People have found a way. It was but a strip of Gaul that we held before. Senators ; the rest was occupied by tribes, enemies of our rule or rebels against it, or by men unknown to us, or known only as dangerous, savage, and warlike. Every one desired that these tribes should be broken and sub- dued ; from the first days of our empire there never has been a prudent statesman who did not recognise that Gaul was the great danger to our State. But owing to the might and multitude of those races we never before ventured to try conclusions with them as a nation. It was always we that were the chal- lenged, and we fought only on the defensive. Now at length we have reached the consummation that our empire extends to the utmost limits of that land. Not without the Providence of Heaven nature piled the Alps to be a rampart to Italy. For if that approach had lain open to the fierce hordes of Gaul, never would this city have survived to be the seat and home of sovereignty. Now let them sink in the earth ! for beyond those mountain peaks 56 B.C.]' Speech on Consular Provinces. 273 as far as the extremest verge of ocean there is nothing left for Italy to fear." * Cicero forthwith published this splendid oration. As a master-piece of his art, he might well be proud of it; but as marking definitely his submission to the Triumvirate, the " recantation," as he called it, caused him shame and self-reproach. " What is this you say," he writes to Atticus,f " do you think that there is any one by whom I wish my works to be read and approved rather than by yourself? Why then did I send it to any one else first? Well, I was pressed by the person to whom I sent it, and I had not another copy ; and besides — I keep nibbling round what I have got to swallow — this recantation seemed to me to be somewhat discreditable. But a long good night to the thorough downright honest policy. It is incredible what treachery I find in these noble chiefs,:}: as they wish to be, and as they might be if they had any loyalty. I felt and knew how I had been led on by them and then deserted and tossed aside ; still my hope was that I might work together with them in politics. But no, they were the same as ever, and by the aid of your moni- tions I have at last come to my senses. Let us finish with them. Since those, who have no power, will none of my love, let me take care that those who have the power § shall love me. You will * De Prov. Cons., 13, 33 seq. f Ad. AH., iv., 5. % I. c, Hortensius, Bibulus, Domitius, and other leaders of the optimate party. §/.«., The triumvirs. 18 2 74 After the Conference of Luca. [55B.C. say, ' I only wish you had thought of this before ' ; I know that you wished it, and that I have been a downright ass." The reconstitution of the triumvirate was followed by a period of quiet at Rome, and the State moved along the lines which the Three had traced for it. Pompey and Crassus were consuls in 55 B.C., and each of the confederates received the provincial command for which he had stipulated. The union between them seemed now absolutely re-established, and Cicero did not at this time appreciate how hol- low the alliance necessarily was. In this settlement, which left Pompey for the moment the acknowledged head of the State, Cicero believed that 55 B.C. he was obliged to acquiesce. Early in the year 55 he writes to Lentulus * : " The State lies beyond question in the power of our friends, and that so absolutely that it is unlikely that this gen- eration will see any change in the situation. I sub- ordinate my action to the wishes of the man whom I am bound in honour not to oppose; and I am not playing the hypocrite in this, as some fancy ; for such is my earnestness in Pompey's cause, and such my devotion to him, that they have power to make his interests and wishes seem to me all that is right. To my mind, even his opponents would not do wrong if, feeling themselves to be no match for him, they were now to desist from contending. Peace is the best we can hope for now, and that the present rulers seem likely to secure us, if men will submit patiently to their domination. As for my * Ad. Fam., i., 8, 1-4. 55 B.C.] Rule of the Triumvirs. 275 old consular dignity of a brave and consistent sena- tor, there is no use thinking of that ; it has been lost, all through the fault of those who estranged from the Senate that order which would have been their best friend, and that man who would have been their most glorious champion." * We hear little of Clodius at this time ; probably he had received notice from Caesar that he must not disturb the peace. At any rate we find that Cicero was able to be reconciled with two of Clodius' chief backers, his brother Appius and Crassus, the third member of the triumvirate. In the latter case a renunciation of their long-standing feud was pressed upon both of them by Pompey and Cffisar, and was rendered the easier by the mediation of young Publius Crassus, t then as always a devoted friend of Cicero. With all his violence of expression Cicero was of a very placable nature, and found it almost impossible to refuse a hand which was held out to him. In the matter of Crassus, he says to Lentulus,:): " I obeyed the call not only of expediency, but of my own disposition." Immediately ^^^ ^^ before his departure for the East Cras- sus accepted an invitation to dinner from Cicero in the gardens of his son-in-law Crassipes, " so that he started for his province almost from my hearth- stone." During the year 54, no great change occurred in * I. e.. The Knights and Pompey. \Ad. Q. F., n.,7> 2. t Ad. Fam., i., g, 20. The reconciliation did not alter Cicero's opinion of Crassus' character, ' ' What a rascal it is !" he exclaims in a confidential letter {Ad. Ait., iv., 13, 2) immediately afterwards. 276 After the Conference of Luca. [54 B.C. the situation. Csesar was still fighting hard in Gaul, Pompey ruling, as best he could, at home. Through- out a long letter of explanation to 54 B.C. _. . . .. ^^. Lentulus, written in this year, Cicero refers to the supremacy of Pompey in the State as the central fact in the situation, and he seems entirely to have forgotten that this supremacy might come to be challenged by Cssar. To maintain for any length of time good order in Rome was beyond Pompey's power. The elections were not only scandalously corrupt,* but so turbulent that year after year had to begin with an " interreg- num," because no consuls could be chosen at the proper time. A painful accident occurring at one of these scenes of tumult had serious consequences in the future. Some one standing near to Pompey was struck by a stone or a bludgeon, and Pompey's gown was bespattered with blood. The gown was carried home, and unhappily met the eye of his young wife. The shock of the sight occasioned a miscarriage, from the effect of which Julia never recovered, and her death some months later severed one of the main bonds which united Caesar and Pompey. The glimpses which we get of the law-courts at this time do not give a high idea of the administration of justice. "Now for the news of Rome. 54 B.C. On the 5th of July Sufenas and Caius Cato were acquitted, and Procilius convicted ; from * In the year 54 B.C. the rate of interest rose from four to eight per cent., owing to the demand for ready money to be spent in bribery ; ;^ioo,ooo was promised for the vote of the first century ; Scaurus, who came rather late into the field, is reported " to have satisfied the electors tribe by tribe at his house," and so forth. 54 B.C.] Condition of Rome. 277 which we may gather that our potent, grave, and reverend signors do not care a straw for bribery, for the elections, for the interregnum, for treason, nor for the safety of the whole commonwealth, but that we must draw the line at killing householders in their own homes ; they do not appear to be very sure about that either, for 22 voted not-guilty against 29. Clodius, who prosecuted, roused the feelings of the jury by a peroration which was certainly fine. Hortensius was for the defence in his usual style. I did not open my lips ; for my little girl, who is now near her time, was nervous about me, and would not have me cross Clodius' path." * Whatever may have been the alarms in which Tullia was privileged to indulge, her father had not much to fear from Clodius, so long as he kept on eood terms with the triumvirs. Shortly . July, 54 B.C. before this, he had written m answer to his brother's inquiries f : "Your question comes to this ; what sort of year is before me ? Well I think that it will be one of complete peace, or at least that I have ample protection. My lev^e, the Forum, and the expressions of feeling in the theatre give daily evidence of this ; my friends are free from anxiety knowing the forces I have at command in the support of Caesar and Pompey. All this makes me confident; but if any outburst of that mad fellow should occur, everything is prepared to crush him." As an advocate Cicero reigned pre-eminent. He *AdAtt., iv., 15, 4. \AdQ,. F., ii., 14, 2. 278 After the Conference of Luca. [54 B.C. was in urgent request for every important case, and he tells his brother that he was never before so pressed with business. " In your last letter," he adds,* " as frequently before, you cheer me on to fresh exertions and fresh ambitions. I will do as you wish ; but O when shall I find time to live?" Of the cases in which Cicero was engaged at this time, one must have given him great satisfaction. His old friend Plancius, the same who had sheltered him in his exile, was elected sdile and then, almost as a matter of course, put on his trial for his pro- ceedings during the election. Cicero delivered in his behalf an admirable speech (from which I have had occasion to quote freely f) and procured an acquittal. Other briefs Cicero was obliged to undertake, not because he wished them, but because he could not refuse his powerful friends. The most notable cases were those of two objects of his former vituperations, Vatinius and Gabinius. Of the first he says:]: that it was an easy business. Pompey had patched up a reconciliation between them, and Csesar had earnestly pressed him to undertake the defence. Vatinius was an unscrupulous but amusing and good-humoured rascal, who disarmed hostility § by making fun of his own physical deformities and moral obliquities. He was acquitted, and lived to show Cicero much kind- ness II after the battle of Pharsalia, and to beg the * Ad Q. F., Hi., I, 12. f See pp. 7, 22, 94, 108. XAdQ. F.,\.i., 15, 3. § Seneca de Const. Sap., 17, 3. lAd Att., xi., 5, 4. 54 B.C.] Defence of Gabinius. 279 favour of Cicero's advocacy of his interests again later on.* It was much more painful to Cicero to have to de- fend Gabinius, the man who had sold him to Clodius, and who had shared with his colleague Piso and with Clodius himself Cicero's extremest hatred. There were several accusations against Gabinius, but the most serious was for treason in having quitted his province without leave to restore the King of Egypt (see p. 252). Cicero was one of the witnesses against him at the first trial, but he declined to prosecute out of regard for Pompey. Gabinius was very humble now to Cicero ; he refused to cross-examine him at the trial, professed gratitude for his forbearance, and said that, if he were permitted to retain his place in the State, he would one day make amends for the injuries he had done him.f Pompey, while begging Cicero to undertake the defence at a second trial for extortion, acknowledged that he could ask the favour only supposing that Gabinius made atonement for his conduct.:]: What Gabinius said or did to satisfy him, we are not informed: but Cicero after holding out for some time longer yielded at last. This second trial took place before the stern bar of Cato,§ and all the exertions of Cicero and all the influence of Pom- pey were unable to procure a verdict. The result was very damaging to Pompey, especially following * Ad Fam., v., 9. \ Ad Q_. F-, iii-, 4, 3- % Ad Att.,\v.,-i.'i:, 1. The references in the fourth book of the Letters to Atticus are to Wesenberg's Teubner edition. %AdQ. F.,\\S.., I, 15. 28o After the Conference of Luca. i54 B.C. as it did on the acquittal of Vatinius. Pompey had failed, where Caesar had succeeded, in saving from ruin a partisan, whose sole virtue was that he had been a zealous and useful servant to his chief. Gabinius judged that so ineffective a master had best be deserted, and when the Civil War came, he no less than Vatinius was to be found on the side of Caesar. Cicero never really forgave himself for his pliancy on this occasion. " Why," he writes in the bitterness of his heart five years later — "why should I take account of my enemies? there are friends of mine, men whom I have defended at the bar, whom I cannot see in the Senate-house without pain, nor associate with them without disgrace." * During the years following the conference of Luca, Caesar was untiring in his efforts to win the regard of Cicero, and to unite him to himself by every bond of personal and political friendship. There was no fear lest Cicero should forget that Caesar could deal heavy blows, if he were so minded ; and now no op- portunity was lost to impress him with the conviction, that Caesar had been driven to strike against his will, and that his earnest desire was for cordial and intimate alliance. Caesar never failed where good breeding was required, and he courted the restored exile with a delicacy and a geniality which strongly affected him. " Never does the slightest word of mine pass in Caesar's cause, to say nothing of acts, without his acknowledging it with such a distinguished courtesy that I cannot but feel myself bound to him." f Caesar * Ad Att., X., 8, 3. f Ad Fam., i., 9, 21. 64 B.C.I Ccssar and Cicero. 281 pressed him to recommend to his care any friends who wished for an opening in his province, and these he always treated with such marked favour as to make them feel that Cicero's request was all-power- ful with him. He would not hear a word of thanks : "As for Mescinius Rufus, whom you mentioned to me, I will make him King of Gaul if you please, or else you may hand him over to Lepta, and send me some one else to make much of." * When Clodius wrote to Caesar with some calumnies against Cicero, Csesar showed his contempt by not answering the letter,f and he took care that this should come to Cicero's ears. In the embarrassments which resulted from Cicero's building operations, Csesar freely ac- commodated him with loans of money. To Cicero likewise in conjunction with his own confidential agent Oppius he entrusted the spending of great sums on the erection of public buildings and the adornment of the city. We find that they put up a town-hall :{: on the Campus Martius and marble poll- ing-places on the same spot. The Forum was also enlarged at a cost of .^600,000. Cicero was much pleased at the comphment conveyed by this honour- able commission. It was entrusted, as he writes to Atticus,§ " to Caesar's friends, Oppius and myself — yes, you may fret and fume — I say, to Caesar's friends." * Ad Fam.,-n\., 5, 2. \ Ad Q. F., iii., i, ii. X This villa publica seems to have been used chiefly for the business of the census. % Ad Alt., iv., i6, 8. 282 After the Conference of Luca. [54 B.C. Above all Cassar approached Cicero on his most sensitive side by constant kindness and attention to his brother Quintus, who was now serv- ing as lieutenant-general in Gaul. The two were together in Britain during the summer of 54 B.C., and when the troops went into winter camps, the choice of quarters was allowed to Quintus, who selected the territory of the Nervii, one of the Bel- gic tribes. The younger Cicero was a brave and skilful officer. By a sudden rising the Gauls overwhelmed one division of the Roman army, and they next made a furious attack on the isolated station of Quintus. The whole country was in arms, and it was long before a messenger could get through to Csesar. Quintus Cicero defended his post with un- wearied though almost desperate valour. It was like the stand made at Lucknow after the disaster of Cawnpore in the Indian mutiny. When the relieving force, led by Csesar in person, at length appeared, the Roman eagle still crowned the camp of Cicero's le- gion, but of those who had kept it so well nine out of ten were either killed or wounded. Caesar's reception of the first proposal that Quintus should serve under him, gives a characteristic picture both of the man and of the situation.* Marcus Cicero had, it appears, written to Caesar to make the offer of his brother's services. The mail in which this offer was conveyed got soaked on the road and Cicero's letter was reduced to such a state of pulp, that it could not even be recognised for his. For- tunately a letter of Balbus in the same packet had * Ad Q. K, ii., 10, 4. =15 :i c, 54 B.C.I Caesar and Cicero. 283 not fared quite so badly. Csesar was able to read a few words of it, and wrote in reply as follows : " I see that you have written something about Cicero ; I could not make it all out, but so far as I can decipher the meaning it was something so good that I could wish for it, but hardly hope for it." On re- ceiving another copy, Caesar joyfully accepted the proposal, modestly, however, warning Cicero that he feared his brother would be disappointed if he expected he was coming to a rich province. Cicero was not the man to resist such constant and flattering attentions. He was completely dazzled alike by the splendour of CjEsar's exploits, and by the friendship which he displayed towards himself. To his brother in Csesar's camp he expresses himself very warmly. " I have taken Caesar to my bosom and will never let him slip." * " Like a belated traveller, I must make up for lost time. I have been too much behindhand in availing myself of his friendship ; now I will put my best foot for- ward." \ "I can have no reserve when I deal with Caesar. He comes next to you and to our children in my affection, and not far behind." % Perhaps it is not safe to take these letters, which were to travel in Caesar's despatch-boxes, as absolutely confiden- tial. § But even in the letters to Atticus, " in which * Ad Q. F., ii., II, I. \AdQ. F., ii., 13, 2. X Ad Q. F., iii., i, i8. § Cicero believed that his letters might be opened and read on the road {Ad Q. F., iii., i, 21, and 8, 2, and 9, 3). The Romans were not very exact in their code of honour in this matter. Cicero several times opened letters of members of his family under circumstances vfhich would not to our notions justify the action. 284 After the Conference of Luca. [54 B.C. there are so many confidences, that we do not trust even our secretaries for fear anything should get wind,"* there is not a hint that any distrust of Csesar survives. "One thing," he writes, "at any rate I have gained, that I have full evidence of Caesar's esteem and affection " f ; and again : " The delightful friendship with Caesar is the one plank saved from my shipwreck, which gives me real pleasure. Just see with what honour, consideration, and favour he treats our dear Quintus ! Good Heavens ! I could do no more, if I were commander- in-chief myself." \ Though he is thus appreciative of Cesar's personal charm, which blinds him for the moment to the dangers which the commonwealth has to fear from him, it must not be supposed that Cicero does not feel keenly the destruction of his old ideals. " We have lost, my dear Atti- cus, not only the blood and substance but the very outward hue and complexion of the State as it used to be. There is no Republic left which can give me any pleasure or on which my eye can rest with satisfaction. ' And do you take that so easily ? ' you will say. Well yes, even that. . . . The place in my heart, where resentment used to dwell, has grown callous." § In the year 53 B.C. occurred the destruction of * Ad Alt., iv., 17, I. f Ad Alt., iv., 15, 10. X Ad Ait., iv., 19, 2. § AdAtt., iv., 18, 2. 53 B.C.I Dissolution of the Triumvirate. 285 Crassus and his army in Mesopotamia. This disaster entailed on the Romans much anxiety for the safety of the eastern portion of " • ■ their empire. But the external danger passed away without serious consequences, and the death of Crassus was important chiefly as it affected the situation of Roman leaders and Roman parties. For Caesar it was a most untoward event ; it de- prived him of a reserved force on whose co-opera- tion he might rely in case of a civil war with Pompey. To such an issue the Roman factions were now slowly but surely drifting. Pompey was becoming thoroughly alarmed at the growing power and great position of Caesar, and the leaders of the optimate party now, when it was too late, began to open their eyes to the true state of the case. They recognised that they had taken fright in the wrong direction, and that the only chance for the Republic was staked on the sword of the man whom they had opposed and distrusted for the last twenty years. Pompey on his side was glad to draw towards that party to which his nature and aspirations would always have attached him, if he had not been kept aloof by the folly of its leaders. He marked his new departure by declining Caesar's offer of the hand of his niece Octavia, and by arranging a marriage with Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Metellus, one of the chief men of the optimate party. A gap of two years and a half occurs at this period in the correspondence between Cicero and Atticus. From the end of the year 54 B.C. onwards the two appear to have been constantly together in 286 Death of Clodius. [53 B.C. Rome. We cannot, therefore, trace the opinions of Cicero on the altered situation, and do not even know how far he was admitted to share the counsels of the Optimates or of Pompey. Milo was candidate for the consulship during the year 53 B.C., and Clodius for the prsetorship, and the two heartily renewed their old faction- fights. Pompey's destined father-in-law, Scipio Metellus, was in competition with Milo, and this circumstance now inclined Pompey to favour Clodius. Bribery and intimidation were carried on to a reckless extent on both sides. No election could be held, and the next year began as usual with an interregnum. Milo and Clodius roamed the streets, each with his armed gang, and leaders and followers alike carried their lives in their hands. On the evening of the 17th of January, 52 B.C., the two came into collision on the Appian Way, some ten miles from Rome. The victory in this " Battle of Bovillae " remained with Milo, and Clodius was left dead on the road. The body was found the same night and conveyed to the city. The death of Clodius caused intense excitement amongst the lowest classes in Rome. The corpse was seized upon and burned by a tumultuous mob in the Forum. By accident or design the flames spread and destroyed the Curia Hostilia, the ordinary meeting-place of the Senate. Stormy dis- cussions ensued in the House ; Milo was fiercely at- tacked by the kinsmen of Clodius, and was defended with equal vigour by Cicero, Cato, and Marcus o c liiiliiiiil! 52 B.C.I Pompey Sole Consul. 287 Marcellus. The tribunes were divided between the one party and the other. Rome now looked to Pompey as the only man capable of restoring order. The Senate issued its proclamation of martial law, and as there were no consuls to whom it could be addressed, the mandate ran "that the interrex and the tribunes of the plebs and the proconsul Cnaeus Pompeius should see to it that the State took no harm." Finally the recon- ciliation of Pompey with the Optimates was sealed by a decree, proposed by Bibulus and assented to by Cato, that Pompey should be elected sole consul. This recommendation was carried out by the interrex and the assembly of the People, and Pompey assumed a position resembling that of the dictator in the Old Republic. His first care was to enlist a strong body of troops. He next passed severe and retrospective laws against rioting and electoral corruption, and provided a machinery for trials under them, by which the bribing of a jury was made almost im- possible. Milo was speedily arraigned. The most damning charge against him was that, after Clodius had been wounded and carried into a house, Milo had caused him to be dragged forth and despatched.* This accusation is not noticed in Cicero's speech, but the verdict of the jury makes it highly probable that it was true.f The Forum was occupied during the trial by armed guards, and the consul himself took * Asconius In Milonianam. \ ' ' For more than two years Milo had been ' looking for Clodius,' as they say in Texas " (Tyrrell). See above p. 255. 288 Trial of Milo. [52 B.C. his station with a strong reserve force at the door of the treasury of Saturn which overlooked the court. These precautions seem to have been absolutely necessary to preserve order, and we cannot fairly accuse Pompey, though his own wishes were against the prisoner, of attempting to coerce the jury. Cicero, who had throughout been unremitting in his exertions, and who owed Milo a debt of gratitude for many deeds of faithful partisanship, was sole counsel for the defence. It must have been a bitter disappointment to him that this speech was a failure. His nerve broke down in the presence of the drawn swords of the soldiers, and of the intense excitement of the by-standers. Perhaps likewise his great anxiety for success on this supreme occasion defeated its own object. Asconius tells us that the speech which he actually delivered was taken down by shorthand writers, and that it differed widely from the magnificent oration which he afterwards wrote out and published. When Cicero sent a copy to Milo in his exile, Milo is reported * to have said : " It is just as well that Cicero did not succeed in delivering this speech, or I should never have known the taste of these excellent mullets of Massilia." Milo's name lives in those splendid pages ; but probably Rome was well rid of him, as well as of Clodius. Cicero, to prove that Milo had no interest in killing Clodius, urges that while he lived Milo was a necessary man. Now he is dead, Milo's importance is diminished. " The killing was unin- tentional," he says, " and we can only thank the * Dio Cassius, xl., 54. 52 B.C.] Pompey Sole Consul. 289 Providence which made Clodius lay an ambush to attack so brave a man as Milo ; but every one of you must breathe more freely now that this ruffian is removed from your path ; will you then bless the deed and yet punish the doer ? " The jurors appear to have argued differently. The two had held each other in check, but the survivor would be intolerable; Milo's occupation was gone, and they judged that he had better go too. Cicero could not save Milo, but he procured the acquittal of Saufeius, Milo's comrade in the fight, and when he brought to the bar Munatius Bursa, who had taken a leading part in the riotous proceed- ings after Clodius' death, the jury convicted in spite of the efforts of Pompey on his behalf. " They were brave citizens," writes Cicero to his friend Marius,* " who dared convict him against all the in- fluence of the man who had selected them as jurors. They would not have done it, if they had not made my indignation their own." Throughout the year 52, though still professedly acting as Caesar's associate, Pompey was passing laws which were in reality framed to r-. , . T ^^ B.C. work against Caesar s mterests. It was of vital importance to Caesar that he should be able to hold on to his province and army until he should enter on a second consulship. Pompey and the Optimates, while granting all his specific demands, proceeded so to arrange the order of suc- cession to the provincial governorships as to deprive him of his legitimate expectations. Thus the ground * Ad Fam., vii., 2, 3. 19 290 After the Conference of Luca. [52 B.C. was prepared for a dispute, which was destined to end in civil war. Meantime the new arrangements about the provinces necessitated the acceptance by- Cicero of the governorship of Cih'cia, for which he set out in the spring of the year 51 B.C. The death of the younger Crassus, who fell fight- ing bravely by his father's side against the Parthians, occasioned a vacancy in a plebeian stall of the college of augurs, and Cicero was elected to fill the place. The augurship always had an attraction for him,* and in his political writings of this time, the power and dignity of his new office are dwelt on with evident satisfaction. In his private affairs we find Cicero at one time much embarrassed, owing to the plunder and destruction of his houses by Clodius. He had to borrow freely to meet the expenses of building and furnishing. As early as the year 54 B.C. he seems to be pretty free from these difficulties. " Very httle is now want- ing," he writes to Quintus, f " for my habits of life are simple, and I shall have no difficulty in meeting what calls remain if only I keep my health." His debt to Csesar however was still owing, and his let- ters to Atticus in 5 i B.C. are full of instructions as to its discharge. In view of the political complications which were likely to arise between Caesar and the Senate, Cicero felt it necessary for his own freedom of action that he should no longer be Caesar's debtor. Cicero's son and nephew were passing through * See above p. 218. t AdQ. F., ii., 14, 3. 55 B.C.] Dialogue " De Oratore." 291 their boyhood during these years, and he was much interested in their education. TuIIia, whose first husband, Piso, had died during Cicero's banishment, was again married in the year 56 B.C. to Furius Cras- sipes, but divorced before Cicero left Rome for his province in 5 ' B.C. About the same time Atticus married a lady named Pilia. She and Tullia were warm friends, and kind messages to and fro occur frequently in the letters. We hear not a word of Terentia in these five years. " Other matters are vexing me," writes Cicero on one occasion,* " but they are too private for a letter. My brother and my daughter are full of affection for me." The ominous silence as to his wife in this sentence seems to point to the beginning of the estrangement which led at last to a divorce. Before finishing the story of Cicero's residence in Rome since his banishment, we must look back at his literary labours during this period. In the year 55 B.C. he was engaged on one of the most delight- ful of his creations, the dialogue De Oratore. The scene is laid during the last days (91 B.C.) of the life of Lucius Crassus, the foremost orator of the gene- ration before Cicero. The second person of the dialogue is Antonius, the great rival of Crassus, and the minor parts are taken by the younger statesmen of the day ; Cicero's old master, Scaevola the augur, appears in the opening scene, but like the aged Ceph- alus in Plato's Republic,^ he soon retires. The technical discussions in this book are admirably in- * Ad Att., iv., 2, 7. \ Ad Att., iv., 16, 3. 292 After the Conference of Luca. [54B.C. terwoven with anecdote and conversation, and in charm and interest the work is only inferior to a dia- logue of Plato. The distraction of literary composition gave Cicero some relief from his drudgery in the law-courts, and some consolation in his disgust at the political situa- tion. During a holiday at Puteoli, where probably the greater part of the De Oratore was planned, we find him writing to Atticus * : " Here I am feasting in Faustus Sulla's library. Don't suppose I mean on the oysters of the Lucrine — not that they are want- ing. But the truth is that in proportion as my taste for all other pleasures is spoiled by grief for the commonwealth, I find myself more and more de- pendent on literature for support and comfort." Cicero's next effort was in the direction of political philosophy. In May 54 B.C., he begs Atticus to give him the run of his library during his absence. He wishes particularly to consult some writings of Varro, " for the purpose of the work which I have in hand and which I think will give you pleasure." f This work was that which afterwards developed into the two treatises on The Commonwealth, and on The Laws. We gather \ that Cicero had at first written nine books of the dialogues of Scipio and his friends. Afterwards he cut off the last three books and made them the nucleus of the separate treatise entitled The Laws, in which he drops his histori- cal personages and makes Atticus, Quintus, and * Ad Att., iv., 10, I. f Ad Ait., iv., 14, I. XAdQ. F.,ni.,S, I. 54 B.C.] " The Commonwealth." 293 himself the speakers. In this latter dialogue he repeatedly refers to the outlines of the State laid down by Scipio in the former treatise as supplying the principles on which he is working, and the two must undoubtedly be taken together as portions of the same task. Only fragments of the later and more important books of The Commonwealth sur- vive ; but it is clear that after describing the un- mixed forms of government, which he considers to be all unsatisfactory, monarchy being the best of them, Scipio is made to decide in favour of a mixed constitution, such as he conceives that of Rome to be. In The Laws, accordingly, we find even the most perverse details of the Roman constitution preserved. Cicero has much to say of the duties of a statesman, but he seems blind to the faults in the machinery of government. His methods of reasoning are those of the Greek philosophers, his conclusions those of a Roman statesman with all a Roman's limitations. The experience of the world has silently worked out the problem which the great- est men of antiquity could not solve. Cssar and Cicero were the " least mortal minds " of Republican \} Rome, yet neither of them conceived it as possible, that not only a free city could be organised but a free nation. We can gather little from these treatises regarding Cicero's opinion on the questions before the world at the moment when he wrote. It has been sup- posed indeed that in the fragments of the fifth book of The Commonwealth, the picture of the " princeps," " the guide of the State," " the director of the Com- 294 After the Conference of Luca. [54 B.C. monwealth," is meant to indicate that a place might be found in Rome for a kind of monarchical power, to be exercised by Pompey. It is clear, however, from the account of the magistracies in the third book of The Laws, that no extraordinary authority, like that established by Augustus in the next gene- ration, was contemplated in Cicero's Republic. The character drawn, so far as we can judge from the few lines that remain, seems to be only that of the " best citizen," the ideal statesman, who guides a free com- monwealth by his advice and influence. It was a part * which might have been played by Pompey or by Caesar or by Cicero himself, or even by all three at once. * An extract from Moore's Life of Byron (ch. li.) may serve to illustrate Cicero's conception of the "princeps." "In politics, as in every other pursuit, his ambition was to be among the first ; nor would it have been from any want of a due appreciation of all that is noblest and most disinterested in patriotism, that he would ever have stooped his flight to any less worthy aim. The following passage in one of his journals will be remembered by the reader : ' To be the first man {not the Dictator), not the Sylla, but the Washington or Aristides, the leader in talent and truth, is to be next to the Divinity.' " CHAPTER X. CICERO AS PROVINCIAL GOVERNOR. TIRO. C^LIUS. ROME ON THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR. 51-50 B.C. ICERO accepted the governor- ship of a province unwillingly, and was most SI B.C. desirous that his command should not be pro- longed beyond a single year. He felt that this was not the work for which he was best fitted. " They have clapped a saddle on the ox," * he says. The political situation at home was fearfully critical, and it distressed him to be away from the centre of events at such a time. Cilicia and its concerns seemed petty, as lying outside of the main current of grave interests and anxious counsels at Rome. " I cannot tell you," he writes to Atticus,f " how I burn with desire for the city, and how hard I find it to put up with all this paltry insipid business." * Ad Ait., 1 ^ Ad Alt., 15, 3- , II, I. 295 296 Governorship of Cilicia. [51 b.c, Cicero feels, however, that his character is at stake ; " the principles which I have professed for so many years will now be put to the test of practice."* He is most anxious about the behaviour of his lieutenants, the insolence of whose manners to the provincials disgusts him.f He is able, however, to give them a good character, so far as actions are concerned. " Thus far," he writes on his journey,:]; " I have no reason to find fault with any of my suite. They seem to recognise what ground I have taken and on what terms I allow them to come with me. They really regulate their conduct, as my reputation de- mands. For the future, if it be true that ' like master, like man,' they will certainly persevere ; for I mean them to see no act of mine which can give them an excuse for misbehaving. If that proves in- sufficient, I must try stronger measures." One of the worst features of the rule of Republi- can Rome in her provinces was its want of continuity. The power of the governor was so arbitrary that all depended on the accident of his personal character. Cicero entered on a province " simply July 31, 5' B-C. . ^ ,,-^ wrecked and ruined for good and aH"§ by his predecessor. The wounds which Appius Claudius had inflicted " stared him in the face and could not be concealed."] Cicero at once set about reversing many of his iniquitous measures, but was * Ad Att., v., 13, I. f Ad Att., v., 10, 3. % Ad Att., v., II, 5. § Ad Att., v., 16, 2. I Ad Att., v., 15, 2. 51 B.C.I Governorship of Cilicia. 297 careful to screen his reputation as much as possible.* This did not save him from many bitter reproaches from his predecessor, which he answered with good- tempered but spirited vindications of his action. It was like a change of doctors, he remarks to Atticus f ; Appius had adopted a lowering treatment, and was vexed to see Cicero feeding the patient up again. A Roman province was a unity, merely as the Persian Empire was a unity, in the sense that it all had one master. If we look at its internal organisa- tion, a province is rather an aggregate of isolated commonwealths. Every acre of ground is part of the territory of some State, and each State has its own laws, its own courts of justice, its own treasury, and its own power of self-taxation. Super-imposed on these, but not substituted for them, comes the Roman administration of public order and defence, of justice, and of imperial finance. The first thing which Cicero did for his subjects was to allow them to settle all their own controver- sies in their own courts. In Sicily, as we learn from the speech against Verres, this was a right guaranteed by the constitution of the province ; but in Cilicia the extent of interference by the Roman authority ap- pears to have been at the discretion of the governor. Cicero seemed to be giving away a profitable privi- lege and the Greeks hailed his indulgence " as if he had restored them independence.":]: In cases where Roman citizens were concerned, the native courts * Ad Att., v., 17, 6. f Ad Att., vi., I, 2. \ Ad Att., vi., 2, 4. 298 Governorship of Cilicia. m B.C. had no jurisdiction, and these still came before the governor or his deputy. Cicero in his edict,* while adopting the ordinances which his old instructor Scsevola had instituted in his governorship of Asia, forty-three years before, for the regulation of inherit- ance and debt, and for suits between the tax-farmers and the subjects, announced that in other matters he should follow the rules laid down in the edict of the prstor at Rome. This observance helps us to see how Roman law and Roman methods of procedure were gradually extended among the subject peoples. We are not informed what was the nature of the imperial taxes in Cilicia. It appears, however, that the tax-farmers had to deal, not with individuals, but with the communities ; for these communities were deeply in debt to them, and had to stave off the evil day by entering into special agreements, by which exorbitant interest was often charged on the arrears. Cicero found that from the first foundation of the province such agreements had been held to be exempt from the general rule, which limited the rate of interest to 12 per cent. He hit upon a happy compromise f ; naming a tolerably easy term for payment, he ordained that for all debts discharged before that day he would allow only the legal rate of interest ; if the term were exceeded, then the letter of the bond was to be exacted. But this method would be fruitless, unless some means were found of replenishing the exhausted treasuries of the subject States. Cicero adopted a twofold means * Ad Atl., vi., I, 15. ^ Ad Ait., vi., I, 16. 51 B.C.] Administration. 299 of relief. In the first place he stopped absolutely the drain on the yearly income which had been oc- casioned by the illegal exactions of his predecessors. The burden of these may be guessed from the fact* that the island of Cyprus alone had been compelled to pay Appius two hundred Attic talents (;^ 50,000) under the threat that otherwise he would billet his troops upon them. Secondly f Cicero looked into the local budgets of the States, and found that the Greek magistrates had been in the habit of system- atically robbing the exchequers. The proconsul does not seem to have felt much scruple in com- pounding the felony. He made the defaulters dis- gorge all that they had embezzled for the last ten years, under promise that no further proceedings should be taken against them. By these means enough was realised to pay off all the arrears due to the tax-farmers, who were beginning to be seriously alarmed about their money. " For this," he says, "I have become as dear to them as the apple of their eye." With Cicero's views as to the " harmony of the orders," it was very necessary that he should be on good terms with the tax-farmers. They sub- mitted, we find, with a good grace to the cutting off of their usurious interest, and Cicero repaid them, "full measure and running over with comphmentary speeches and invitations to dinner." He sums up his relations with them in answer to Atticus' inquiries — " I pet them, and show them attentions, I make much of them in the way of praise and comphments ; * Ad Ail., v., 21, 7. f AdAti., vi., 2, 5. 300 Governorship of Cilicia. [50 B.C. I take good care that they do not oppress any one."* The revenue of the local exchequers came partly from lands which were the property of the subject republics. We find an impudent request from Cse- lius (to which of course Cicero did not listen for a moment) on behalf of a friend who farmed some such land, and who wished not to be obliged to pay his rent.f This source of revenue, however, seems barely to have sufficed for the ordinary local expenses. The sums which the communities had to pay in bribes to the Roman governor were raised by a direct tax on land and income, called "tributum." Sometimes they were obliged to anticipate their revenue, by selling the right to collect these rates for a lump sum to a tax-farmer, and then they were driven to impose on themselves a fresh contribution, which Cicero characterises to Appius \ as " that most oppressive burden, which you know full well, of the poll-tax and the door-tax." All such taxes were levied by the authority of the local senates and magistrates, though of course the Roman governor could practi- cally compel their imposition. § To avoid these extremities, Cicero was anxious that his subjects should not involve themselves in unnecessary expenses, and on this ground he ordered that they should not without his permission vote sums for complimentary embassies to Rome in laud- * Ad Att., vi., I, 16. ■j- Ad Fam.^ viii. , g, 4. X Ad Fam., iii., 8, 5. § In Verrem, iii., 42, 100. 50 B.C.] Administration. 301 ation of his predecessor. He would " praise any," he said,* " who undertook such a mission at his own cost ; he would allow the expenses if modest, but would disallow them if excessive." Appius wrote very angrily about this, and Cicero permitted the embassies in some cases where a majority of the local senate was in favour of the vote.f He appears like- wise to have withdrawn an objection which he had raised on grounds of economy to the erection of some sort of public building in honour of Appius.;}: Cicero felt himself bound to prove the sincerity of his reconciliation with the brother of Publius Clodius by doing all that he reasonably could for him ; and he was further stimulated by the knowledge that, before the trial of Appius for his misdoing was over, he would very likely hear that Dolabella, Appius' accuser at Rome, had become his own son-in-law. Cicero had left the choice of TuUia's new husband to herself and her mother, and Dolabella was in fact the man whom they chose. Cicero, notwithstanding his full knowledge of the enormities of his predeces- sor, publicly complimented and favoured him, " not so as to offend against my own good name, but still with all good-will towards him." § Apart from per- sonal reasons this conduct was necessary in the inter- ests of his subjects. Pompey was expected to take command against the Parthians, and Pompey's son was lately married to Appius Claudius' daughter. * Ad Fam., iii., 8, 3. f Ad Fam., iii., 10, 6. \ Ad Fam., iii., 7, 2. § Ad Att., vi., 2, 10. 302 Governorship of Cilicia. tso s.c. Cicero would have done the CiHcians an ill turn by embroiling them with Appius, and of this they were fully conscious. They were anxious to stand well with their late oppressor, and eager to render him thanks for having harried them. Thus the corrupt judge was tenderly treated while his decrees were reversed, a process which we find going on as late as March in the year 50 B.C. " If Appius, as Brutus' letters indicate, is grateful to me, I am glad to hear it. For all that, this very day, which is dawning as I write, will be largely spent in cancelling unjust arrangements and decisions of his." * Such were the necessities of Roman politics. It would have been well if the demands on a pro- consul had been limited to the salving over of past iniquities. It required no little firmness to resist the appeals of friends at home to perpetrate all manner of fresh injustice on their behalf. " When any one applies to you," Cicero writes f to Atticus, " unless you feel quite sure that it is something which I can grant, pray give an absolute denial." One specimen of such applications will be sufficient. A certain Scaptius, armed with strong letters of introduction from Marcus Brutus, applied to Cicero for an ap- pointment as prefect in Cyprus, where he was owed money by the State of Salamis. Cicero refused ab- solutely on two grounds : in the first place he would never give such an office to any one who was trading in his province ; secondly, Scaptius had already shown how he understood the functions of prefect. * Ad Att., vi., I, 2. f Ad Ail., v., 21, 5. 50 B.C.] Administration. 303 He had been entrusted by Appius with a troop of horse which he had employed to blockade the Sen- ate of Salamis in their council-chamber, until five of them had actually died of starvation. It had been one of Cicero's first acts peremptorily to order the horsemen out of the island. Scaptius was in reality the agent of Brutus, who held a Salaminian bond bearing interest at forty-eight per cent. This loan, having been contracted at Rome, was contrary to a Gabinian law of the year 67 B.C., and was only legal- ised by special decree of the Roman Senate. Cicero, when the case came before him, decided that this legalisation must be interpreted as subject to his own general edict, which limited interest to twelve per cent. The Salaminians tendered principal and in- terest at this rate ; they said they were paying it out •of Cicero's pocket, for the amount was less than what they were accustomed to pay in presents to the governor. Scaptius refused to accept the money ; and it is the one great blot on Cicero's administra- tion, that he put pressure on the Salaminians not to insist on their right to deposit the money in a tem- ple, in which case interest would have ceased to run. Cicero gave judgment that the Salaminians had made a legal tender * ; but he knew that as the busi- ness was not fully wound up, it would be possible for his successor to set that judgment aside. It is painful to have to record that Brutus complained bitterly when the horsemen of his agent were ordered to leave Cyprus, and that Atticus urged his friend to * Ad Att., vi., I, 7. " Igitur meo decreto soluta res Scaptio Stat." 304 Governorship of Cilicia. [50 B.C. support Scaptius. We can only hope that, when they wrote, neither of them had full knowledge of what Scaptius had done. Cicero writes pages of ex- planation and excuse, excuse not for his weak com- pliance about the deposit of the money, but for his having defended the cause of the subjects against the interests of the influential Roman. Well may he say, * " If I did anything of the sort, how should I ever dare to look again on the pages of that book of minef which you commend ? Nay, my dear At- ticus, you have shown yourself in this matter too much, far too much, a friend to Brutus, and too little, I fear, a friend to me." Whether or not Cicero satisfied the public opinion of Roman society, as to the services which it ex- pected from a proconsul, he earned at least the hearty gratitude of his subjects. He refused, how- ever, all forms of compliment which would have in- volved the smallest expenditure. " I am no burden to any of the provincials," he writes to Atticus, % " though perhaps I am to you when I tell you such long tales about my doings. Bear with me, I pray you, for it is your counsels that I have been fol- lowing." Without any unworthy proceedings, Cicero was able to save a considerable sum out of his legal al- lowances. The principal source of revenue was the corn which the governor might requisition for his * Ad Alt., vi., 2, 9. ■j- /. ^. , his picture of the icieal statesman in the De Republica \ see above, p. 294. I Ad Att., v., 21, 7. 50 B.C.J Administration. 305 table at a price fixed by the Senate, and payable by the Roman Treasury. The amount of corn allowed was far greater than that actually needed for the pro- consul's consumption, and when, as this year in Cilicia, famine prices were ruling, the burden of sup- plying the corn was willingly commuted for a sum of money. We learn from the speech against Ver- res * that gains from this source might be accepted by honourable men, and that a great difference on either side between the price fixed by the Senate and that actually ruling in the market was a piece of luck of which almost every governor took advan- tage. In Cicero's case we find that by the end of the year ;^22,ooo stood to his credit on deposit at Ephesus t ; most of the money was, however, lent by him to Pompey, and swept away into the bottom- less gulf of expenditure for the Civil War. The proconsul was not only supreme judge and administrator in his province, but likewise com- mander-in-chief of its army of occupa- , ^ 51 B.C. tion. Cicero found himself with a force miserably insufificient both in quantity and quality and with the danger of a Parthian invasion on his hands. With the aid of the native kings of Cappa- docia and Galatia he made a tolerable demonstration on the eastern frontier of his province. Meantime the Parthians, who had over-run the neighbouring province of Syria, were defeated by Cassius the lieu- tenant of Bibulus, and retired across the Euphrates. All the world expected them back again the next * In Verrem, iii.-, 93, 217. \ Ad Fam., v., 20, 9. 3o6 Military Operations. [51 B.C. spring, but dissensions at home kept them quiet in the year 50 B.C., and Cicero was able to leave his province to his qu^stor in August without anxiety on this account. After the departure of the Parthians in the autumn of 51 B.C. Cicero employed his troops in putting down some of the wild hill-tribes who infested the frontier region of Mount Amanus. In his private letters Cicero does not take his military exploits very seriously. " I am thinking,'' he writes to Paetus,* " of having a bit of a fleet on my coasts ; they say that is the very best mode of resisting Par- thian cavalry." To Atticus he notes how at Issus he has occupied the site of Alexander's camp — " a general of a different kidney from you and me "f; and his crowning success is described in words:]: which show that he estimated it at its true rate. " On the morning of the Saturnalia § the Pindenis- sitse surrendered to me, fifty-seven days after our first attack. ' Who, the mischief,' you say ' are these Pindenissits of yours? Who are they? I never heard the name before. ' Well, is that my fault ? Can I make Cilicia into an ^tolia or Macedonia ? " Cicero's campaign was in truth a mere border expedi- * Ad Fam., ix., 25, i. \ Ad Alt., v., 20, 3. XAdAtt., v., 20, I. § December 17th. Owing to the neglect of the pontiffs to give notice of intercalary months, the Roman Calendar was much out of reckoning at this time. The 17th of December in 51 B.C. would, according to the season of the year, be the lOth of November. We find that winter came on after Cicero's departure, but his brother whom he left in command in this district was snowed up. 51 B.C.] Cicero and Cato. 307 tion ; but it was well managed and successful. Quintus was acting as his brother's lieutenant, and he was, as we have seen, a skilful and experienced officer. Cicero's troops gave him the greeting with which a victorious army used to salute its general. A Romari commander-in-chief was always addressed by his own soldiers as " Imperator," * but custom forbade him to use the title himself or to accept it from civilians, unless it had been first stamped on him by such a public and universal acclamation from the troops. From the moment of this greeting, Cicero was justified in wreathing the fasces of his lictors with laurel, and in signing " Imperator " after his name in all formal letters. The next step in the recognition of his success would be for the Senate to decree a Thanksgiving on account of it, and this again would naturally lead up to a triumph. The Thanksgiving was voted in spite of the opposition of Cato, who, however, proposed an alternative motion, giving thanks not to the gods but to Cicero for the wisdom and purity of his administration as governor. He likewise wrote to Cicero an elaborate explanation and apology for the line he had taken. f Csesar wrpte with warm congratulations, and exulted over Cato's untimely scrupulosity, which he hoped would cause ill-will between him and Cicero. Cicero seems at first to have been quite satisfied with Cato. " His amendment," he writes to Atticus,;]: " was more * See Smith's Diet. Ant. (2d edition) ad voc. \ Ad Fam., xv. , 5. \ Ad Alt., vii., I, 7. 3o8 Tiro. [50 b,c. honourable to me than if he had voted me all the triumphs in the world. . . . Then he was one of the witnesses who registered the decree, and he has written me a most gratifying letter about his own amendment." Later on, when Cato had sup- ported the claims of Bibulus to a Thanksgiving because his lieutenant had driven the Parthians from his province, Cicero's tone changed. " Cato," he says,* " was disgustingly ill-natured to me ; he bore testimony to my purity, justice, kindliness, and good faith, which I did not require, and refused that which I asked for." On his journey homeward from his province Cicero was obliged to leave behind him at Patrae his freed- man Tiro, who was attacked by a dangerous illness. Cicero was always a kind and generous master to his dependents, and for Tiro in particular he had a sin- cere and tender affection. " I beseech you, my dear Tiro," he writes on this occasion, f " spare no ex- pense in all that relates to your health. I have written to Curius to let you have any sum you may mention. I think it will be well to make a present to the physician to render him the more attentive. The obligations which you have conferred on me are countless, in my home and in the Forum, at Rome and in my province ; they extend alike to my public and my private concerns, to my studies and to my writings. But I shall esteem it the great- est of all if you let me see you again, as I trust I shall, in good health. I think that your best plan, * Ad Att., vii., 2, 7. ■|- Ad Fam., xvi., 4, 2. 50 B.C.] Roman Freedmen. 309 if you are sufficiently recovered, will be to come home with Mescinius the quaestor. He is a kindly man, and seemed to have a liking for you. But then, my dear Tiro, I wish you to be careful not only about your health but about the dangers of the passage. I would not have you hurry on any account. My sole anxiety is to have you safe and sound." The society of the ancient world was founded on slavery, and in attempting to reconstruct the picture we cannot afford to neglect the background. At this epoch we already find traces of that secret power exercised by the slaves and freedmen of the leading statesmen, which grew to so scandalous a height under the Empire. We have seen in the first chap- ter the odious domination of Sulla's freedman, Chry- sogonus. The first Cssar was too strong a man to allow himself to be governed by his servants, but of the dependents of Pompey we hear only too much. Plutarch tells us * an entertaining story of Cato's experiences in Syria during the Mithridatic War. On approaching the city of Antioch Cato found that the population had turned out in festal attire with white robes and crowns and music. He naturally supposed that this greeting was intended for the Roman officer, and he scolded those of his escort who had been sent before to make preparations, be- cause they had not stopped the display. But at this moment a venerable man, bearing a wand and ap- pearing to be the marshal of the procession, advanced, and, without so much as saluting Cato, inquired * Plutarch, Cato Minor, 13. 3IO Roman Freedmen. whether he had seen Demetrius on the road, and at what hour he might be expected. The procession had indeed been organised to do honour to Pompey's freedman. Quintus Cicero had a confidential servant named Statius, and Pomponia, Quintus' wife, who was some- thing of a domestic tyrant, was very jealous of this Statius. Cicero gives an amusing picture of the family to Pomponia's brother Atticus.* "When we arrived, Quintus said in the kindest way in the world, ' Pomponia, do you invite the women, and I will see after the lads ' ; nothing could be more pleasant, to my judgment, and that not only in the words but in the tone and manner. But she, in my presence, replied : ' I am a stranger in this house ' ; and all because Statius had been sent beforehand to get ready some breakfast for us. ' See,' says Quin- tus to me, ' what I have to submit to every day.' " Quintus Cicero was a man of choleric and blustering temper in the outside world, but he was meek as a lamb at home. The poor husband rebelled at last and divorced Pomponia, but even here he could not act on his own account, but must needs make Sta- tius the confidant of his plans. A letter of his freed- man on this matter fell into the hands of his son and caused some unpleasantness. Quintus would never marry again ; he had learnt, he declared, to appreci- ate the blessing of going to sleep without a curtain lecture, f When Quintus Cicero was governor of Asia, Statius appears to have acted as his vicegerent. * Ad Att., v., I, 3. \ Ad Att., xiv., 13, 5. Statius and Tiro. 3 1 1 Official rescripts and injunctions were brought to him ready written out ; Statius looked through them, and if he said it was all right his master affixed his seal. It was about this time that Statius was manu- mitted, against the advice of Marcus Cicero, who was much vexed at his brother's neglect of his counsels. He writes to Quintus afterwards * : "I confess that it displeased me to hear that he has more influence with you than is consonant with the gravity of your time of life, or with the prudence which your high station demands. You cannot think how many persons came to beg it as a favour from me, that I would say a good word for them with Statius ; or how often in the freedom of conversation Statius himself came out with ' I did not approve of this,' ' I warned him,' ' I persuaded him,' ' I deterred him.' Now however great his faithfulness in these matters (which I quite accept on your judgment), yet for the world to see a slave or freedman in such favour is far from dignified." Quintus revenged himself very neatly for his brother's sermonising. When the time comes for Tiro to be manumitted, Quintus writes t expressing great pleasure that Tiro, " who is so much superior to the station in which he was born, will by your act be raised from being a slave to be our friend," and he adds that he knows what a treas- ure is a faithful freedman from his own experience of Statius. Tiro was beloved by the whole family. Quintus writes to him in the most cordial tone ; he scolds * Ad Q. F., i., 2, 3. f Ad Fam., xvi., i6. 3 1 2 Tiro. him, if he is remiss in correspondence, and tells him that he will have to employ his old master to plead his cause, and that it will require all Cicero's elo- quence to get him acquitted.* Young Marcus, Cicero's son, is likewise very affectionate in his ex- pressions. There is a pleasant letter f from the lad in which he banters Tiro about his purchase of a farm : " You will have to give up all your fine city ways. You have become a country Roman. I see you as large as life, and very charming you look, buying implements, consulting with the bailiff, and keeping the seeds you have saved from dessert in your great-coat pocket." To Cicero himself Tiro was, as he says, invaluable. He was his secretary who, by means of a sort of shorthand which he invented, could keep pace while his master dictated, \ or, if need were, decipher his handwriting when the ordinary copyists were at fault, § his critic who could correct slips of the pen or of memory |] ; the constant aid in all his literary work. " I am most anxious to have you with me," \ writes Cicero on the occasion of another sickness, " but I am afraid of the journey for you. . . . Remember that a relapse owing to any imprudence after so severe an attack may have serious conse- quences. . . . My studies, or I should say our studies, have been quite languishing for want of you, ^ Ad FaTH,, xvi., 26, i. \ Ad Fam., xvi., 2i, 7. I Ad Ait., xiii., 25, 3. § Ad Fam., xvi., 22, I. II Ad Fam., xvi., 17. 1[ Ad Fam., xvi., 10. Cicero s Letters. 313 but the letter which Acastus has just brought has made them look up a little. Rufus is here very brisk and cheerful. He wanted to hear something of my composition, but I told him that my books were dumb in your absence." It is pleasant to read of the master's concern when his postman arrives with only a message from Tiro who is too weak to put pen to paper, and to learn from a postscript that a second carrier has come while Cicero is writing, and that the invalid has summoned up strength to scrawl a few lines nevertheless, " with the letters all totter- ing"*; and that Cicero is sending a nurse and a cook to aid in his convalescence. » Tiro had, during his master's lifetime, formed *a plan of making a collection of his letters. Cicero jokes with him about it, and says that he believes Tiro wants to have his own included in the collec- tion. \ He seems, however, seriously to have ap- proved the notion, for in the year before his death he writes to Atticus:]:: "There is no collection of my letters, but Tiro has about seventy, besides a few still to come from you. Before they are published, I must read them through and correct them." We may be thankful indeed that this plan was never carried out. Tiro, notwithstanding his feeble health, lived to a good old age, and devoted the rest of his life to the pious task of collecting and publishing the works of his beloved master and friend. In- stead of the seventy and odd letters, carefully edited *AdFam., xvi., 15, 2. f Ad Fam., xvi., 17. \ Ad Ati., xvi., 5, 5. 314 Prelude to Civil War. l50 B.C. and altered, which Cicero would have allowed to pos- terity, Tiro has preserved over eight hundred and fifty, and these he has treated as a sacred trust, and has kept them absolutely untampered with, so that we read them to-day just as they came from his master's pen. Cicero landed at Brundisium on the twenty-third of November, 50 B.C., having been absent from Italy not quite a year and a half. The inter- 50 B.C. ~\. J val had been occupied with a long series of intrigues and proposals for compromise regarding Caesar's claim to retain his province and army, until -he should enter on his second consulship at the beginning of the year 48 B.C. Caesar's oppo- nents wished that there should be an interval be- tween his proconsulship and his consulship, and it is pretty certain that they meant to use the interval, during which he would be unshielded by office, to bring him to trial for his illegal acts, when consul ten years before.* Of this controversy it will be sufficient to say that Csesar appears to have had no legal ground for resisting supersession at any time after March i , 49 B.C., when his ten years' governorship would expire ; but that a successor could not have been sent out to take his place until the end of that year, had not the rules for the appointment of provincial governors been purposely altered by Pompey during his sole consulship in 52 B.C. (see above, p. 289). Thus Caesar was practically cheated of an expectation, which under the old rules of succession he had a full right * Suetonius, Jul., 30. 50 B.C.] Cissar and the Senate. ■ 315 to entertain. * The true cause of quarrel of course lay deeper. Caesar had acquired so strong a position that, if he were again consul, he would be practically- master of the State, and he had given such abundant evidence of his unscrupulousness that the con- stitutionalists had good grounds for supposing that he would use his power to destroy the Re- public. With the help of Pompey, they now thought themselves strong enough to prevent this ; Caesar with a juster appreciation believed that the chances of war were in his favour. Thus both sides were strongly inclined to fight, and the proposals for compromise were not so much serious attempts at a tolerable settlement, as contrivances of each party to put the other in the wrong and to toss to and fro the responsibility for breaking the peace. When Cicero left Italy for his province in June, 51, he seems to have recognised that the Republic ran some danger from Caesar, but not that there was the prospect of actual armed attack. He pictures Caesar as consul in Rome and attempting all sorts of revolutionary measures, but believes that the pres- ence of Pompey will be sufficient to hold him in check. Thus he strongly objects to a notion which Pompey was entertaining at the time, that he should retire to his Spanish province, f On his outward journey (May, 51 B.C.) Cicero visited Pompey, and at his request passed some days at his Tarentine * The whole question is admirably discussed by Mommsen in a monograph, entitled Rechis-frage zwischen Casar und den Senat. \ Ad Alt., v., II, 3. 3i6 Eve of the Civil War. [50 B.C. villa. " I consented willingly," he writes to Atticus,* " for I shall hear much excellent discourse on affairs of State, and likewise get valuable hints *^' '' ' ■ for my provincial business." A few days later he writes,t " I am just leaving that ad- mirable man, who is fully prepared for resistance to all that we have to fear." In contrast to this grave and sententious approval, it is worth while to note the observations of the irreverent Cffilius:}: : " If you have come across Pompey, as you hoped you would, pray write me what impression he made on you, what he said to you, and what sort of intentions he manifested ; for his habit is to say one thing and mean another, and yet not to have wit enough to conceal what his real purpose is." Cicero, during the whole of his year in Cilicia, seems to have remained under the same illusion as to the nature of the danger that was to be apprehended^ and his Roman correspondents did little to enlighten him. Atticus with strange self-deception writes to him § about the end of the year 51, that all his hopes of peace and quiet are placed on Pompey, and Cicero in answer expresses his full agreement. Even as late as June, 50, on the news of the desertion of the cause by Curio and the consul Paullus, who A^ere both bought by Caesar, Cicero writes to Atticus, || " not that I fear any danger, while Pompey stands firm, * Ad Alt., v., 5, I. \ Ad Alt., v., 7. \ Ad Fa7n., viii., i, 3. % Ad Ail., vi., I, II. I Ad AIL, vi., 3, 4. 50 B.C.] Eve of the Civil War. 317 or even while he sits quiet, if only his health be spared." The iirst clear statement that Civil War is impending comes in the month of September from Cicero's keen-witted correspondent Caelius. " Un- less," he writes, * one or other of them is shipped off to the Parthian war, I see that a mighty conflict is at hand, which must be decided by cold steel. Both the champions are full of determination and amply equipped. If we were not the stake which is being played for, this would be a grand and delicious spec- tacle that Fortune is preparing for us." Men were slowly ranging themselves on the one side or the other, under the influence of motives as various as their characters. " Pompey," writes Caelius, f " will have the Senate and the jurors, Caesar all who are in peril or whose outlook is bad." Sue- tonius :t ^^lls "^ that Caesar had spared no money and no pains to provide himself with partisans against the day of conflict. " All those who were in his suite, and a large portion of the Senate besides, were bound to him by loans without interest, or at very light charges. Men of other ranks who visited him, either with or without invitation, at his head- quarters, were gratified by handsome donations, which were extended even to the freedmen and slaves of each, according as they had influence with their patron or master. Further he was the sole re- sort of debtors and persons threatened with prosecu- tion and of spendthrift youths ; only to those who * Ad Fam., viii., 14, 4. \ Ad Fam., viii., 14, 3. X Suet., J«/., 27. 3i8 Marcus Ccslius Ruf us. [50 B.C. lay under accusations too serious or a weight of em- barassment and profligacy too great for him to be able to assist them, he would say outright, ' The only thing for you is a Civil War.' " Some, such as Curio and PauUus, who were able to give really valu- able assistance, sold their services for enormous sums of money. Cselius too, it is hinted, * was found to be in possession of unlikely resources at this moment of crisis. He was not the man to serve any cause for nothing, if he could see his way to be paid for following it ; but even apart from money, the creed which he professes with signal effrontery to Cicero would naturally carry Cselius into Caesar's camp. " One consideration," he says, f "will not, I think, escape you ; namely, that in civil strife, so long as the contest is waged with the weapons of peace, we ought to follow the more honourable cause, but when it comes to camps and armies, then the stronger, and one should esteem that the better side which is the safer." As he adds immediately afterwards that Caesar's army is incomparably the better of the two, there can be little doubt to which side he is inclined to give or sell his services. The name of Marcus CkHus Rufus calls up the image of strange and striking personalities, and of all the pleasures and the passions in which Roman society revelled on the brink of the Civil War. It reminds us of his stormy loves with Clodia, the "Juno of the great eyes," the glorious " Lesbia " who broke the heart of Catullus, while she inspired * Ad Ait., vii., 3, 6. f Ad Fam, viii. , 14, 3, 50 B.C.I Marcus Ceslius Rufus. 319 him with the passion which has made his verse im- mortal, and of the bitter and tearful reproaches which Catullus addresses to the friend who has sup- planted him ; then of Caelius' deadly quarrel with this terrible mistress, of the charge of poisoning which Lesbia brought against him, and of Cicero's tremendous onslaught on her, while he defended Cselius at the bar, and took revenge at the same time for her share in the wrong, which her brother, Publius Clodius, had inflicted on Cicero himself. " It would seem," writes Mr. Tyrrell, " that Caelius ultimately escaped both from her love and her hatred after a long struggle ; but we question if he ever forgot her." We might dwell on Caelius' daring but unchastened eloquence, his keenness of political insight, his able administration as aedile, his charm- ing letters to Cicero, his recklessness, his unscrupu- lous cynicism, and finally on his insane attempts at revolution and his miserable end during the Civil War ; all these make up together one of the most interesting episodes of the last age of the Roman Republic. But another biography, or better still a historical romance,* would be needed to do justice to Caelius, Clodia, and Catullus. We have here to do with the stern realities of politics and of war, which underlay the genius and the wantonness of that brilliant society. The situation of Cicero on his return to Italy in * This suggestion is borrowed from Messrs. Tyrrell & Purser who have included a charming paper on Cselius in the third volume of their edition of the Letters. There is also a very interesting account of him in Boissier, Ciceron et ses Amis. 320 Eve of the Civil War. [50 B.C. 50 B.C. was necessarily one of peculiar anxiety. He had embraced the friendship of Csesar in order to please Pompey, and he never seems to have contem- plated the possibility of having to choose between the two. He lays his difficulty with all frankness before his friend in a letter written from Athens in October.* " I adjure you, bring to bear all the affection you have for me, and all the sagacity in which I know not your equal, bring them all I say to the task of considering my whole position. For I seem to see such a conflict impending — unless the same Providence which extricated us better than we dared to hope from the Parthian war should again take pity on the State — such a conflict, I say, as the world has never witnessed before. Well, that is a peril I share with the rest, and I do not bid you think of that. It is my own personal problem which I beg you to solve. You see that by your advice I have linked myself to each of them. ... I have succeeded, and that by constant observances, in making myself a prime friend of both. For my calculation was that, while allied with Pompey, I should never be forced to act against the right, and that in supporting Csesar I should never find myself in collision with Pompey ; so firmly were the two bound together. And now, as you prove to me and as I see, a death-struggle between the two is at hand. . . . What am I to do ? I do not mean in the last extremity ; for if it comes to war, I see well enough that it is better to be conquered along * Ad Att., vii., I, 2. 50 B.C.] Eve of the Civil War. 321 with Pompey, than to conquer with Caesar ; but what of the questions which I shall find open on my arrival ? Whether Caesar is to be allowed to stand for the consulship in his absence ? And whether he must dismiss his army ? " On all the questions at issue Cicero feels that gross blunders have been made. It is too late now to think of defending the commonwealth against Caesar in his strength. " That cause," he writes, " has nothing wanting to it except a cause." Since it has come to this, he feels that " there is no ship for him, except that one which has Pompey at the helm," * but that he will privately use his influence with Pompey for peace. This resolution is recorded on the 6th of December. In a letter to Tiro f six weeks later Cicero sums up his proceedings. " For my own part, since I drew near to the city, I have been incessantly plan- ning and speaking and acting for peace ; but a strange madness has possessed not only bad men, but even those who are esteemed good, so that all desire to fight, while I cry out in vain that nothing is more wretched than a civil war." Thus by a strange irony of fate that union of Pompey and the Optimates, which had been the dream of Cicero's politics, realised itself now, when it was too late, and under circumstances which moved him to despair. After stormy discussions during the first days of the new year, the Senate on the 7th of January met *AdAtt., vii., 3, 5. \Ad Fam., xvi., 12, a. 322 Eve of the Civil War. [49 B.C. 49 B.C. the persistent veto of Cssar's tribunes by the proclamation of martial law. The tribunes fled away, as Metellus Nepos had done thirteen years before (see p. 170) to their master's camp. Caesar had now the pretext for which he had been waiting. He appealed to the legion which he had with him at Ravenna, and led his advanced guard at once across the river Rubicon, the frontier of his province. " The die was cast," and the Civil War had begun. CHAPTER XI. THE CIVIL WAR. 49-47 B-C. HE first moves in this terrible game were highly successful for Caesar. Though he had at the moment only a small force south of the Alps, it con- sisted of seasoned veterans, and he pushed it forward with- out intermission. " We still hold Cingulum," writes Cicero on the 1 8th of January,* " we have lost Ancona ; Labienus has deserted Czesar. Are we speaking of an officer of the Roman People, or of Hannibal? Insensate and unhappy man that he is ! he has never had sight of so much as the shadow of true honour." Ariminum, Pisaurum, and Arretium also opened their gates to Csesar. Pompey seems to have been taken by surprise. The city of Rome was manifestly un- tenable in any case, but it was deserted in such * Ad Att., vii., II, I. 323 B.C. 49. 324 The Civil War. [49 B.C. hurry and confusion that even the money in the Treasury was forgotten and left to fall into Cesar's hands. Pompey soon recovered himself and took the only course open to a prudent general under the circum- stances. The young men of age to serve throughout Italy had already taken the oath of military alle- giance to him, and he now ordered a general levy, and directed that the recruits should concentrate at Ca- nusium and Luceria in Apulia, so that they could fall back on the port of Brundisium. He had full command of the sea, and had collected abundance of transports. His orders however were not obeyed. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who had charge of Picenum and Umbria, in spite of the most urgent commands* to march south with every man whom he could raise, chose to believe that he could make a stand against Caesar at Corfinium. He had promised f to start from thence on the 9th of February, and if he had done so all might have been well. Later on he changed his mind, and announced that he should remain. He seems to have thought that he would force Pompey's hand, and compel him to advance to his support. Pompey, of course, knew better than to expose his raw recruits to Caesar's veterans. Caesar cut off Domitius' army at Corfinium, and it surren- dered on the 2 1st of February. Cffisar dismissed the officers, including Domitius and Lentulus Spin- ther, unharmed, and enlisted the soldiers under his own standard. *AdAtt., viii., 12, A, B and C. f Ad Att., viii., 11, A. 49 B.C.] CiBsar and Domitius. 325 In this signal act of clemency Caesar acted both nobly and wisely. He had indeed every reason to be thankful to Domitius, who had done his best to give him the opportunity of finishing the war at a stroke, and who actually succeeded in disconcerting all Pompey's plans. In any modern army Domitius would have been shot by sentence of court-martial ; but it is doubtful how far Pompey's power extended in matters of military discipline ; and even if he had the power, after Csesar had spared Domitius, Pompey could hardly help doing the same. In letting loose on him again so mutinous and incompetent a col- league, Csesar was at once embarrassing his adversary, and gaining great credit for moderation himself. He had good cause to remark five weeks later in a letter to Cicero*: " I am quite indifferent to the fact that those whom I released are said to have gone away to make war with me again. All my wish is, that I should act like myself, and they like what they are." Csesar little knew that Domitius Ahenobarbus was destined to play the part of Banquo to his Macbeth. The great-grandson in direct male line of this Do- mitius married Agrippina the great-granddaughter of Augustus, and became the father of Nero, the last Emperor of Csesar's House. It is possible that, if Domitius had obeyed orders, Pompey might have been able with the sea open be- hind him at Brundisium to make a stand within lines erected there, just as he did a year later at Dyr- rachium. As it was, there was nothing for him but to evacuate Italy. Csesar pressed close upon him * Ad Att., ix., 16, A. 326 The Civil War. [49 B.C. and tried to block the harbour of Brundisium ; but Pompey effected his escape with great skill, and crossed the Adriatic with the remainder of his force on the loth of March. Caesar was unable from want of ships to follow up the pursuit ; and he resolved to transfer the war at once to Spain, which was held with a strong army by Pompey's lieutenants, Afranius and Petreius. Pompey might have availed himself of his command of the sea to reach Spain before Caesar, and to face him again on this new battle-ground. Caesar seems to have thought that this would have been his adversary's best move ; " as it is," he said,* " I shall go to Spain to fight an army without a general, and shall return to fight a general without an army." Pompey had however no reason to expect that Afranius and Petreius, who were esteemed competent officers, would be so completely out-generaled by Caesar ; and he hoped that the war in that quarter would at least be pro- longed. He judged that he would be more usefully employed in using his great influence in the East to raise and train a fresh army, which might perhaps be able to restore his power in Italy, while Caesar was occupied in Spain, and would at the worst form a second line of defence. Caesar returned from Brundisium to Rome, where he arrived about the end of March, and then set out for Spain. The Spanish campaign, after some weeks of much danger and anxiety for Caesar, ended tri- umphantly in the month of August by the surrender of all the Pompeian forces. The failure of his lieu- * Suetonius, Jul., 34. COIN OF C/ESAR. NERO AND CLAUDIUS. {Cohen.) NERO AND AQRIPPINA. {^Coheii,) 49 B.C.I Public Opinion in Italy . 327 tenants in Illyricum and the overthrow of Curio's army in Africa were drawbacks which Caesar's per- sonal success far more than compensated. By the end of the year he was again at Brundisium, ready to cross over for the decisive struggle on the other side of the Adriatic. Cicero's letters to Atticus enable us to trace, almost day by day, the fluctuations in the hopes, the wishes, and the opinions of the people of Italy during these eventful months. The first news that Csesar was actually in armed rebellion shocked and disgusted all mod- erate men. They were moved by the spectacle of the city left without Senate or magistrates, and of Pompey in flight — -" the whole " ■' ^ Jan. 18. aspect of opinion is changed ; every one now thinks that no terms should be made with Caesar." * The Italians however showed themselves by no means ready to take arms in the quarrel, and the conscripts *°'°^' came in slowly and unwillingly.f A month later the feeling against Caesar has considerably cooled down. Cicero reports from Capua :|: — " there is no in- dignation of any class, nor even of individuals publicly expressed. There is some feeling among loyal men, but it is blunted as usual ; and (as I have clear evidence) the rabble and the lowest classes are keen on the other side, and many anxious for revolution." *AdAtt., vii., II, 4- \ Ad Ait., vii., 13, 2. X Ad Alt., viii., 3, 4- 328 The Civil War. [49 B.C. By the 1st of March the news of Cesar's great success at Corfinium and of the generosity he showed to his prisoners has caused a 49 B.C. . ^ strong revulsion in his favour.* " Just see what a man this is into whose power the com- monwealth has fallen, how keen, how watchful, how well prepared ! I de- clare that if he puts no one to death and robs no one of his goods, he will become the object of affection to those who were most in dread of him. I have much conversation with men from the borough-towns and with the country people. They care for absolutely nothing except their farms, and their bits of houses and money." The threatening language reported from the Re- publican headquarters, and the determination which the Optimates expressed, to regard all neutrals as enemies, heightened by contrast the impres- sion made by Caesar's moderation. " The one, alas that it should be so, earns applause in the worst of causes ; the other in the best of causes nothing but reproach." f By the 4th of March we find this current of opinion in full flood. "The Mar. 4. *■ country towns," writes Cicero, :{:" hold Caesar for a god ; and there is no pretence about their feelings, as there was when they made vows for Pompey in his sickness. It comes to this ; whatever mischief this Pisistratus refrains from committing, they are as grateful to him as if he had stopped * Ad Att., viii., 13. \Ad AH., viii., g, 3. \ Ad Ait., viii., 16. 49 B.C.I Public opinion in Italy. 329 some one else from committing it. They hope that he will be all that is kindly ; whereas they dread Pompey in his anger." Caesar was particularly happy in allaying the fears of the monied men, who had expected a national bankruptcy as the result of his victory. He devised an excellent plan for tiding over the difficulties of the money market, while doing substantial justice both to debtors and creditors. He ordained that it should be open to debtors to discharge their obli- gations by the tender of land, which was to be received at a valuation, calculated on what it would have fetched before the Civil War broke out.* This was a bitter disappointment to many of Caesar's bankrupt supporters, who seem to have forgotten that Caesar was now no longer the penniless praetor of thirteen years ago. Early in the next year Caelius Rufus, the most audacious of the malcontents, ventured to bring forward revolutionary proposals on his own account, and, when they failed, to attempt, along with the exile Milo, an insurrection in which both lost their lives. In a wild letter to Cicero, f * Cicero, writing after Csesar's death, blames his law of debt as impairing the sanctity of contracts (De Off., ii., 24). This has gen- erally been explained by the statement of Suetonius {Jul., 42), that all interest hitherto paid was to be deducted from the principal. If, however, Caesar's law really contained such a clause, his silence about it in his own account of the law {Bell. Civ., iii., i) and his severe comments on Cselius' schemes of repudiation {Bell. Civ., iii., 20) are difficult to interpret. I am inclined to think that Suetonius has been misinformed, and that Cicero's criticisms apply to the measure as Caesar himself describes it. ^Ad Fam., viii., 17. 330 The Civil War. [49 B.C. written immediately before his revolt, Czelius gave unconscious testimony to the sagacity with which Caesar had discarded the bad traditions of his party ; while declaring that every one at Rome is now for Pompey, he is obliged to add " except a few money- lenders." From this time onward the equestrian order may be counted as among Caesar's partisans. In the midst of a people thus drifting, how was Cicero to act? Honour and duty showed him his place in the Republican camp ; but many accidents and many doubts delayed his arrival there. He had been nominated by Pompey to take charge of the Campanian coast ; and partly owing to a mis- understanding he had not quitted his post to join his leader, when the disaster of Corfinium occurred. Csesar advanced on the very day of the surrender (21st of February) and Cicero's road to Brundisium was barred. In any case he would not have gone,* for he was at the moment in the very depths of trouble and perplexity, and wanted time to recognise his duty and to steady his resolution. Meanwhile he had been constantly deluded by the hope that a peace might still be ar- I'anged. After crossing the Rubicon, Caesar made fresh proposals through his cousin Lucius, which reached Pompey in Samnium on the 22d of January.f By these, Caesar offered to give up all the points at issue X ; he would surrender his provinces to the suc- cessors nominated by the Senate, and would come * Ad Att., viii., 12, 3. f Ad Att., vii., 14, I. X AdFam., xvi., 12, 3. 55 B.C.] Negotiations. 331 himself to Rome to sue personally for the consulship ; Pompey was to retire to his Spanish province. The only condition attached was that the RepubHcans should dismiss their levies. The terms were accepted by Pompey and the consuls with the sole proviso that Caesar should likewise withdraw from the posts he had occupied in Italy. But Caesar, like Napoleon, made it his practice to push on his military opera- tions all the more vigorously when he had begun to negotiate. He was advancing day by day ; and when Lucius arrived at his camp, he rejected the condition that he should withdraw his garrisons. His offer certainly had not been sincere. It is probable, in- deed, that at this time neither party trusted the other, and that each suspected that the adversary would take advantage of the preliminaries of peace only to strengthen his military position. Cicero, how- ever, seems to have had no suspicion of this, and so late as the 3d of February * he evidently believes that Caesar will stand to his offer ; " he is a lost man else." Cicero's intention during these days was to go with Pompey to Spain, that he might have no part in the coming iniquities of Caesar as consul. Even when this negotiation had fallen through, Caesar continued to amuse Cicero with hopes that a peace might still be arranged, and that he himself rnight act as mediator. Balbus and Oppius, Csesar's * Ad Att.,y\\., 18, I. It is to be noticed that next day he received by enclosure from Atticus a letter written by Curio to Furnius (pre- sumably a few days earlier) in which Curio, with a frankness for which Csesar would not have thanked him, openly scoffed at the mission of Lucius. (Ad Att., vii., ig.) 332 The Civil War. t49B.c. confidential agents, were constantly urging Cicero to this course,* and protesting that Caesar would be only too happy to put an end to the war ; they like- wise enclose letters of C^sar, appealing to the clem- ency he has shown as an evidence of his desire for reconciliation. Cicero wrote and published f an elaborate letter to Caesar which he hoped might pave the way for peace ; and in the meantime he preserved, so far as might be, the neutral attitude proper to a possible mediator between the parties. " I have refused," he writes, % " to be a leader in a civil war, so long as any negotiations for peace are afoot. ... If there is war, as I think there will be, I shall not be found wanting in my duty." These last words give a faithful presentation of Cicero's deliberate resolve, and his action never really swerves from the path thus marked out ; but in his constant exchange of letters with Atticus, his only consolation in this dreary time, we find his mind working over every possible topic of hesitation and anxiety. He criticises Pompey's strategy in a way which reveals his own plentiful ignorance of the art of war. Cicero seems to have thought that military movements could be conducted in obedience to sentimental considerations. He first urged Pompey not to abandon the city of Rome, " his country for which and in which it would have been a noble deed to die." § Next he blames him bitterly for not going * Ad Att., viii., 15, A and ix., 7, A. \ Ad Ait. ^ ix., II, A. Compare viii., 9. \ Ad Alt., vii., 26, 2. § Ad Att., viii., 2, 2. 49 B.C.] Cicero s yudgments. 333 to the support of Domitius at Corfinium ; and when it comes to Pompey's resolve to leave Italy, he is almost in despair. How can he join Pompey in bearing arms against his country ? What does pos- terity think of Hippias and Tarquin and Coriola- nus, who did the same ? * "Is not his cause then a good one ? Nay, it is the best in the world ; but it will be played for, mark my words, most foully." f Pompey will starve out the Roman People ; he will bring hosts of Thracians and Colchians and Armen- ians to invade Italy ; he will ravage, burn, and rob. Again it occurs to him that he is staking too much on a single life, that Pompey is after all a man, that he is subject each year to grave sitkness,:]: that a thousand chances might cut him off, " but that our city and nation ought, so far as in us lies, to be pre- served to eternity." § The threatening language of theOptimates and the prospect of a victory, cruel as that of Sulla, likewise affect him painfully ; and it is to be noticed that at this time he is inclined to in- clude Pompey in the same condemnation with his followers on the score of cruelty. Nay, he some- times writes as if he fancied that Pompey no less than Caesar was aiming at a despotism,] or that he might sacrifice the Republic and Cicero (as he had done at Luca) to Caesar as the price of a private reconciliation.^" When all was over, and Cicero had * Ad Ait., ix., 10, 3. \AdAti., ix., 7, 4. \ Ad Alt., viii., 2, 3. %AdAtt., ix., 10, 3. II Ad Att., viii., 11, 2. \ Ad Ait., X., 8,5. 334 "^^^ Civil War. [49 B.C. gathered by personal intercourse fuller knowledge of the doings and intentions of his associates, he was careful to correct these hasty judgments ; he acknowledges Pompey to have been " loyal and stainless and of faith unshaken," * and he expressly exempts him from the charges of savagery which he records against the mass of his party. f But for the moment, these doubts and suspicions added painfully to Cicero's embarrassments. The blacker the fortunes of the Republicans look, the more Cicero is determined to throw in his lot with them. When Caesar is swooping down on Brundisium, and Pompey's life seems in danger, he breaks out \ in the bitter self-reproach of Achilles : " Let me die at once, since it was not mine to help my friend in death ; far from his fatherland he fell, and found not me beside him to ward off woe." § A few days later he writes 11 : "I seem March II. ,^ , , . ^ . to myself to have lost my wits from the first ; and one thing torments me, that I did not follow Pompey, when he was falling or rather rushing headlong to ruin, like any private soldier in the ranks. . . . Now my affection for him re-awakens, now I cannot bear the loss of him, now neither books nor letters nor philosophy give me any relief. Day and night, like the caged bird, I look towards * Ad Ait, xi., 6, 5. f Ad J^am., vii., 3, 2. X Ad Alt, ix., 5,3. § Homer, Iliad, xviii., 98 (Purves' translation). II Ad An., ix., 10, 2. 49 B.C.] Cicero s Resolution. 335 the sea and long to fly away." The climax is reached on the 20th, when a false report arrives that Caesar has succeeded in blocking March 20. up the harbour of Brundisium, and that Pompey is cut off and surrounded. " Now I lament, now I am tormented, when some think me prudent and others think me lucky in not having gone along with him. It is just the other way ; I never wished to share his victory, but would that I were the partner of his disaster." * The memory of those dreadful days served to steady Cicero's purpose, and he came to see clearly that there was no place for him in Italy ; the only question now was whether he should retire to some remote spot, to Malta for instance, or whether he should join Pompey in Epirus. But to leave Italy at all was no longer easy ; he would not be allowed to cross over to the east coast ; and to escape by sea from a western port he must wait till the winter was over, f and in the meantime must con- ceal his intentions. Caesar was strong in all the material elements of success ; " all the rascals in Italy " writes Cicero, % "seem to have flocked to him ; " and these were useful, no doubt, in their way to a fighting chief. None the less, Caesar seems to have felt keenly the weak * Ad Att., ix., 12, 4. f The confusion of the Calendar must always be bome in mind. The lOth of March, when Pompey crossed the Adriatic, was really the l8th of January, that is to say, it was just twenty-eight days after the winter solstice. %AdAtt., ix., 19, 1. 336 The Civil War. [49 B.C. point in his own position. All men of character and standing were at heart loyal Republicans : taking a broad view of the matter, they could not but be enemies to Caesar's cause. Caesar did his best to remedy this weakness. In the first place he showed scrupulous moderation in all his words and even in all his deeds, so far as these did not interfere with the main military issues. His chivalrous temper always inclined him to spare a fallen enemy, and his cool head and brave heart made it clear to him that his clemency could do him no harm. " I will follow your advice," * Caesar writes to Balbus and Oppius, " and the more willingly as I had already resolved to act as leniently as possible, and to do my best to effect a reconciliation with Pompey. Let us exert ourselves to recover by such means, if it be pos- sible, the good-will of all men, and so secure a lasting victory ; our predecessors did not escape the hatred which their cruelty aroused ; none of them could permanently hold his ground, excepting only Sulla, and him I will never imitate. Let us conquer on a new plan, and fortify ourselves with mercy and kindliness." We have already seen how successful this policy was with the rank and file of the Italians. Secondly, Caesar was unremitting in his efforts to draw or to keep to his side any of the distin- guished citizens who had not yet finally committed themselves against him. His chief success was with the two consulars Volcatius Tullus and Servius * Ad Att., ix., 7, c. I. 49 B.C.] Overtures to Cicero. 337 Sulpicius Rufus. Servius was the first lawyer in Rome, but in politics he showed himself wanting in insight and decision. He allowed his son to accom- pany Caesar to Brundisium, to take part in peace negotiations, as he hoped, really to assist in attack- ing and blockading Pompey.* He was next obliged himself to appear in Caesar's Senate at Rome. His despair and disgust at the situation were overwhelm- ing, and he expressed his sorrows freely in an inter- view just before Cicero's departure. " He shed so many tears, that I wondered that the fountain of them had not been dried up with his continued affliction." f But his timidity prevented his accom- panying his friend in his flight from Italy. He had committed himself too far, and he had to count, sorely against his will, as a Caesarian. All Caesar's efforts were directed to inducing Cicero to acquiesce in the situation as Sulpicius had done. The presence of Cicero would have soothed the minds of many, and would have given weight and dignity to the remnant of the Senate which could still be assembled in Rome. Urgent letters, couched in the most flattering language from Caesar himself and from his friends pressed Cicero to return, and the hope that he might thus aid the cause of peace was always dangled before him. On this point, however, Cicero was no longer to be deceived, and he stood firm in spite of the ordeal (which he would fain have avoided) of a personal interview with the " master of * Ad Att., ix., 19, 2, andx., I, 4. \AdAtt., X., 14, I. 338 The Civil War. [49 b.c. so many legions." This interview took place at Formiae. " We were much mistaken, March 26. when we supposed that Caesar would be easy to deal with ; I never saw any one less so. He would be discredited, he said, by my refusal, and the others would be more unwilling to speak if I did not come. I said their case was different. At length, ' Come,' says he, ' and speak for peace.' ' Am I to say what I please on the subject ? ' ' Do you suppose,' says he, ' that I claim to dictate what you shall say ? ' ' Then I shall move that the Senate disapproves of any expedition to Spain, or of any transport of troops to Greece ; and I shall express many regrets about Pompey.' ' I should object,' says he, ' to a speech of that sort.' ' So I supposed, and that is my reason for not wishing to go to Rome ; I must either utter, what I have told you, and much more about which I could not hold my tongue, if I were on the spot, or else I must stay away.' The end was that, to put a stop to the discussion, he begged me to think the matter over. This of course I could not refuse, and so we parted. I imagine that he is much displeased with me ; but I am pleased with myself, a feeling that I have not had for this long time. . . . Now, if ever, I must call for your advice. This makes a fresh departure. I almost forgot to mention an ugly remark with which he clenched his argument — ' that if he were not to have the benefit of my counsel he must follow the advice of those who would give it, and stick at nothing.' " * Cicero's mind was now made up, and he only * Ad Att., ix.. 18. 49 B.C.I Cicero jfoins Pompey. 339 looked for an opportunity of flight. His daughter indeed urged him to await the issue of the Spanish campaign, which was now commencing ; but this idea he entirely discarded, holding that it would be even more his duty to shake himself loose from Caesar, if he were victorious than if he were beaten.* There were difificulties in the way of escape. Antony, who was left in command in Italy, informed Cicero that he could let no one go without Caesar's permission. He pretended acquiescence, and took precautions to elude the vigilance of Antony's spies, even dropping during the last fortnight his corre- spondence with Atticus for fear that the letters might fall into wrong hands. Meanwhile he secretly prepared a vessel at Caieta, as soon " as the first swallow appeared," and from thence he set sail on the 3d of June (really 19th of April) for Pompey's headquarters. The year 48 B.C. saw the conflict between the two great commanders in person. The strategy was ad- mirable on both sides, full of daring and genius on the part of Caesar, and of skill and prudence on the part of Pompey. The campaign in Epirus after many vicissitudes ended favourably for Pompey, who beat Caesar out of the lines in which he had attempted to enclose him at Dyrrachium. Caesar was as great in defeat as in victory ; he succeeded in extricating his army from the pursuit, and marched right across the peninsula, thereby transferring the war to fresh ground on the eastern coasts of Greece. Pompey, who had command of the great northern road passed * Ad Ati., X., 8, 2, 34° The Civil War. [48 B.C. by a parallel route into Macedonia, and the two were again face to face. Pompey knew that he ought still to play a waiting game ; but he lacked firmness to resist the urgency of his associates, who were elated with the victory which had been gained, j and thought themselves now in a position to crush Caesar at once.* Pompey had indeed performed wonders in raising and training in a single year an army which had held its own, so far, with credit. But his success came to an end, as soon as he allowed his own judgment to be overborne by the clamours of the ignorant Nobles. His troops re- quired every advantage which consummate general- ship could give them ; they were not fit for a soldier's battle on fair ground with the veteran legions of Gaul, and the day of Pharsalia ended Aug., 48 B.C. . . ■' m their utter overthrow. Pompey fled to Egypt where he was immediately murdered by order of the ministers of the boy-king who had suc- ceeded his father " the Piper." In spite of great military talents and in spite of honest but clumsy efforts to do his duty, Pompey 's life had been a failure, because he aspired to guide the politics of his country without any political principles to carry into effect and without any party to which to be loyal. The errors of the statesman entailed the ruin of the soldier, and fate denied him even a soldier's grave. It was given to one of the petty Eastern Courts, so long the creatures of Pompey's will, to extinguish a personality which ever since the death of Sulla had occupied the fore- * Plutarch, Pomf., 67. 48 B.C.] Cicero Returns to Italy. 341 most place on the great stage of the Roman world — " Sunt lacrimae rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt." Cicero had remained in Epirus along with Cato and Varro, and the news of Pharsalia reached them at Dyrrachium.* Cato resolved to fight to the last, and took refuge with the more obstinate of his ad- herents in Africa, where the Caesarian governor Curio had been overwhelmed and slain the year before by the help of Juba, King of Numidia. Cicero and Varro considered that the issue of the conflict must be held to have been decided by the defeat of Pompey. Cicero returned once more to Italy, land- ing at Brundisium about the end of October in the year 48 B.C. It was doubtful at first whether he would be al- lowed to remain. Antony, who held Italy as Master of the Horse (for Csesar had been proclaimed Dicta- tor immediately after the battle of Pharsalia), had received orders that no Pompeians were to return to | Italy without leave. Cicero, however, was able to show that Dolabella had written to him by Caesar's direction, requesting him to return at once, f This caused an exception to be made for him in the gen-l eral edict of prohibition. He remained, Nov., 48- therefore, at Brundisium for the next Sept., 47. B.C. ten months in a miserable condition of mind and body. The chmate affected his health, and his nerves seem to have completely broken down under the doubts and difficulties of the situa- * De Div.. i., 32, 68, and ii., 55, II4- ^AdAtt.,ia.., 7, 2. 342 The Civil War. [47 b.c. tion. His complaints are consistent only so far as they are always directed against what he esteems his own blindness and folly. Sometimes he blames himself for having taken arms at all ; more often he is afraid that he has disgraced himself by not following the fortunes of his party to the last in Africa. Caesar is detained in Egypt and in Asia, so that he cannot come to speech with him, and he fears that this will prevent a reconciliation. He hears that his brother and nephew have turned against him, and mean to make their own peace by accusing him to Caesar.* This does not prevent his writing to the Dictator on behalf of March, 47 B.C. ^ Quintus, protesting that the responsi- bility of the flight from Italy was all his own, and that his brother had only borne him company, f At the same time some action of his wife, as to which we have only obscure hints, caused him much displeasure. His beloved daughter was in distress on account of the neglect and infidelities of her hus- band, and Dolabella's conduct in public matters was also most painful to his father-in-law. He took ad- vantage of Caesar's absence to dabble in socialistic and revolutionary legislation, much as CkHus had done a year before. This led to riots which Antony put down by military force ; eight hundred persons are said to have been killed in these disturbances. Dolabella, however, stopped short of the extrava- gances of Caelius, and Cssar checked and forgave him. In the meantime his actions appear to Cicero * See above, p. 79. f Ad Att., xi., 12, 2. 47 B.C.] Reconciliation with Ccssar. 543 only a foretaste of the general reign of rascality which is to be expected from the victory of such a crew. This adds to Cicero's despair. " I see no chance of peace," he writes,* " and the . July, 47 B.C. party now in power will, I think, bring itself to ruin, even if there be no adversary to oppose it." , Csesar was occupied with war and pleasure in Egypt during the first half of the year 47, and trust- worthy news from him was wanting. When he did write, Cicero doubted f whether the letter was really Caesar's. Thus the comfort to be derived from the Dictator's intentions regarding him was delayed. Csesar, when he had time to attend to the matter, behaved as generously as possible. He pardoned Quintus at a word, " would not even allow himself to be entreated," X and expressed himself so kindly about Marcus Cicero that his brother wrote heartily in congratulation. § Csesar likewise sent word to Cicero to keep his laurelled fasces, || thus ignoring the part he had taken in the Civil War, and indica- ting that he looked on him merely as the pro-consul on his way home from Cilicia and claiming the hon- our of a triumph. After settling the affairs of Egypt and Asia Csesar returned in the month of September, and Cicero met him somewhere in southern Italy. When he * Ad Att., xi., 25, 3. t Ad Att., xi., 16, I. X Ad Att., xi., 22, I. % Ad Att., xi., 23, 2. \Pro Lig., 3, 7- 344 The Civil War. [47 B.C. perceived Cicero advancing to meet him, Caesar dis- mounted from his horse and came forward to salute him, and the two walked together conversing alone far along the road.* The reconciliation was com- plete, and Cicero was free to return to his home and his family. * Plutarch, Cicero^ 39, CHAPTER XII. Cesar's dictatorship. 47-44 B.C. ROM Caesar's return to Rome at the end of September 47 B.C., we may date the com- mencement of his direct re- sponsibility for the central government of the Empire. His rule lasted for thirty-two * months in all, but of these eighteen were passed in Africa and Spain, and two dangerous wars had to be waged in the course of them. In this brief period Caesar showed great activity as a legislator. Besides a number of laws called by the name of Julius, f which defined or consolidated existing arrangements with slight modifications of detail, we find many fresh projects, from the increase * It must be remembered that three extra months were given to the year 46 B.C. in order to bring the Calendar straight. f £. ^. , the Leges Julise Mtmicifalis, de vi, de majestate, de liberis legationibus (modifying Cicero's), de frovinciis (of length of tenure), de sacerdotiis, and de judiciis (abolishing Pompey's third decury), 345 346 Cissar's Legislation. [45 B.C. of the patriciate and the borrowing of an amended Egyptian * Calendar to sumptuary laws and plans for roads and drainage works. Caesar, as Dictator, undid two pieces of mischief which had been the work of his creature Clodius, by dissolving the "col- legia " or street-guilds (see p. 230) and by restricting the distribution of corn. The enlargement of the boundary of Italy by the grant of the Roman fran- chise to the inhabitants of the country between the river Po and the Alps was a necessary consequence of Cesar's victory. These " Transpadanes " had been his warm supporters, and he had always main- tained that they were already by right Roman citi- zens, f Outside the natural limits of Italy, Caesar likewise made certain amplifications both of the Roman and of the Latin franchise ; the most im- portant was the grant of Latin rights to Sicily. He ex- tended to the province of Asia a wise system, which had long ruled in Spain, by which the subject com- munities collected their own taxes, and paid out of them the tribute due to Rome ; and he revived an excellent project of Caius Gracchus by founding Roman colonies at Carthage and at Corinth. * The principle of the Julian Year (i. e., 365 days with an extra day added every fourth year) is to be found in a bilingual inscription of 238 B.C. (the decree of Canopus) now in the Museum of Cairo. The distinguished mathematicians and astronomers whom Csesar consulted (Plutarch, Cas.^ 59) perhaps did not think it necessary to inform him that the work had been done two centuries before. \ It is difficult to say on what the claim was founded, but that it must have been very strong is proved by the admission of so rigid an aristocrat as the elder Curio. Cicero informs us t^De Off., iii. , 22, 88) that Curio used to say : ' ' The claim of the Transpadanes has right on its side, but expediency forbids, and that is enough." BUST OF C/ESAR IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 46 B.C.] The Provinces. 347 The subject peoples gained incidentally by the establishment of a despotism. Cicero hits the truth when he calls the provinces of Rome " Cesar's es- tates." " Sardinia," he says,* " is the worst farm which Csesar owns, but he does not neglect it for all that." It is clear that it could not be in the interests of a master that anyone except himself should shear his sheep. No despot, unless he were a man of feeble will and character, would tolerate such vice- gerents as we have seen the Roman Republic toler- ate in Verres and Appius Claudius. It is recorded even of Domitian, that he kept the provincial governors from misdoing. We have no record of Caesar's dealings with the proconsuls, but we maybe sure that the control he exercised would be firm and intelligent. Thus in the mere abolition of the rule of persons who were members of a sovereign cor- poration and the substitution of governors, who were hardly less absolutely at the mercy of Csesar than the subjects over whom they ruled, a new guaranty was found for tolerable administration. The pro- vincials soon learned to appreciate their own interests in these matters. They had mostly stood for Pom- pey against Caesar, but they showed a very different temper when in the next Civil War Cssarism was ranged against the Republic. By their experience of Caesar's rule they had learned that their servitude was likely to be more endurable, if no freedom were left in the world to contrast with it. The changes which I have been recording were not unimportant in themselves, but they are hardly * Ad Fam., ix., 7, 2. 348 Choice of Policy. mentioned in Cicero's correspondence. Their in- terest was in truth eclipsed by the presence of the great problem which called on Caesar and the Romans for solution.* The world stood at the parting of two ways ; Rome was destined, for good or for evil, to absorb into her citizenship all civilised men ; and it rested with Caesar to decide what should be the nature of the new Cosmopolitan State. The Roman Empire might be organised on one of two systems. The first was the obvious and easy ex- pedient, familiar to the world since the days of the Pyramids, of a despotism, dependent only on the swords of a professional soldiery. This required nothing but a trained army and a skilful general for its inception. Its results were equally sure : the periodical recurrence of civil war whenever the soldiers could not agree on a chief ; occasional stretches of decent government when accident brought a skilful administrator to the head of affairs ; wild freaks of tyranny when the chances of the succession turned out unluckily ; and through- out a steady degradation of character, the loss of manhood, and the destruction of the capacity for self-government in the civilised human being. All hopes of freemen, all ideals of political aspiration, all causes worth fighting for, perished along with the Roman Republic, and the world entered on a period of its history, in which its life seems to be " weary, stale, fiat, and unprofitable." The unmixed despot- ism which Caesar established was somewhat tempered by the wisdom of Augustus ; yet the essential mis- * See above, p. 167. Fruits of Imperialism. 349 chief remained, and the result was inevitable. Three out of four of the Roman emperors perished by vio- lence, and each mutiny or assassination or civil war was the occasion for fresh degradation of the citizens. The Italian nation, which under happier auspices would have been the centre from which liberty and \ self-government might spread over the civilised world, only led the way in abasement and servility. Gibbon has summed up for us the story of its fate in words which may be repeated with little change for each of the nations which lay beneath the shadow of the Roman Empire. " The forms of the constitu- tion, which alleviated or disguised their abject slavery, were abolished by time or violence ; the Italians alternately lamented the presence or the absence of the sovereigns whom they detested or despised ; and the succession of five centuries in- flicted the various evils of military license, capricious despotism, and elaborate oppression." * It has even been argued, though the argument is to my mind far from convincing, that the fragments of liberty which Augustus retained cost more than they were worth in friction and inconvenience, and that if the ideas of freedom and self-government, the only political ideas worth having, were in truth absolutely beyond realisation in practice for the world as it was, then the more outspoken despotism of Julius or of Diocletian was the lesser of the two evils. Even so, such a plea serves but to extenuate. The work of Caesar may be excused as a miserable necessity ; it * Gibbon, ch. 36. 350 Ccesars Dictatorship. is not, like the work of Washington or of Cavour or of Bismarck, an achievement to glory in. It is not without regret that we contemplate this lame land impotent conclusion to the life-long toil of a great man. Caesar was unsurpassed as a soldier, as a scholar, as a gentleman, as a leader and manager of men ; in him the saying of Cervantes finds its fullest realisa- tion, that " the lance has not dulled the pen, nor the pen the lance." But after all the tree is known by its fruit, and Cffisarism is condemned by the charac- ter which the despotism necessarily stamped upon the generations bred under it. We must look for its perfect work in the subjects of the later Empire, ground down by an intolerable burden of taxation, with souls which had lost all nobler political interests, trusting to hired soldiers to fight for them, no longer capable of managing their own concerns nor of strik- ing a blow in defence of their own hearths. All the horrors of the barbarian invasion and all the darkness ' of the Middle Ages were not a price too heavy to pay for the infusion of fresher and stronger blood, and the revival of the sense of dignity in mankind. Such was the path in which Caesar willed that the world should walk. The other alternative before him was to undertake a complicated and difficult task, requiring the highest constructive statesman- ship. The Italian people was still sound at heart ; Italy still loved liberty and hated despotism ; her 'SoiTFcoulH still endure with -pa-ti^TTteTand dare with energy, and die with heroism around the eagles. When a people displays such qualities, a statesman need not despair of organising it into a free nation. COIN OF C/eSAR. JULIUS C/ESAR. FROM COIN IN BRITISH MUSEUM. COIN OF C/ESAR. HEAD OF VENUS. /tNEAS AND ANCHISE8. iCo/ien.) Ccssar's Lost Opportunity. 3 5 1 In this case it was no ordinary nation which called for organisation, but one whose fate must determine likewise the fate of the world. Never in the history of the race has such an opportunity been laid in the hands of a legislator ; but a man was wanting to take advantage of it. That Caesar, with all his genius, could not rise to the height of this task is a matter for sorrow, not for anger. For such a construction was in truth no simple or easy thing. It would have required a modification at least of slavery, and the extinction of the slave-trade, personal military service as the duty, and the power of choosing and control- ling his rulers as the right of every Roman, and, finally, the gradual extension of the citizenship with political as well as personal privileges to the subjects of the Empire. j^<^Tfsfftution3wSs~called for, which would have given rb^tm-fpTthe personal policy of a great statesman, while it carefully cherished every germ of independence and self-reliance in the citizens. Despotic methods of government may possibly find justification under certain circumstances, as a neces- sary transition to something better; the damning fact about Caesarism is, that it left no niche in which any fresh growth of freedom could find root. In a very half-hearted and imperfect way Caesar's great successor seems to have recognised some of the needs of the world in this matter, and to have striven to find a place in his system for other powers and activities beside his own. Thus he averted for a time the full degradation of hfe under a despotism. The elder Caesar had much better chances than his nephew. He had never been under the necessity of 352 Ccesar s Dictatorship. [45 B.c, shedding blood except on the battle-field ; his wise and noble clemency predisposed all hearts in his favour; even Republicans v/ere not anxious for his defeat in the last struggle in Spain, and preferred, as Cassius said to Cicero, " the old kindly master to an untried and angry one." * The Romans were willing to accept any tolerable compromise at his hands. But of compro- mise Caesar would not hear a word. He seems to have been utterly blind to the evils of a despotism, and utterly indifferent to the preservation of the dig- nity and manliness of the Romans. With relent> less and foolish consistency he pushed the doctrine of his own supremacy to its uttermost conclusions. The first act of this so-called democratic leader was to deprive the popular assemblies of the little power that had remained to them under the later Republic. In legislation, the assent of the people had already become merely formal, and so it remained ; but in elections some power of choice had hitherto really lain with the voters. This was now taken away by the Dictator, who granted letters of recommendation to his candidates, and so had them returned without opposition. The elections indeed might as well not have been held at all. Caesar lost no opportunity of degrading the Republican magistracies in the eyes of the people. Sometimes the State was left for * Ad Fam., xv., ig, 4. The reference is to Pompey's son Cnseus, who was killed in Spain. Cassius was much in dread of him. " You know how foolish he is, and how apt to mistake cruelty for manli- ness. He always thought we were laughing at him, and I fear repartees delivered in boorish fashion at point of sword. 46 B.C.I Degradation of the Senate. 353 months without consuls or praetors, and Caesar nomi- nated prefects to do their work ; sometimes a num- ber of consulships were crowded into a short space. and Rome now contained a consular* in whose term of office " no one had breakfasted." Caesar's treatment of the Senate was even more inexcusable than his action towards the Peopk or towards the magistrates. It can only be explained on the supposition that his head was turned by the giddy height of supreme power and that he was no longer the cool and sobei politician who had trod the upward way so skilfully The Senate was the only possible home of free speech and independent counsel, yet we find it ex posed in the person of its most distinguished mem bers to wanton insult. Cicero writes f to his frienc Paetus, who has urged him to remain at Rome anc take part in public business : " You cite the example of Catulus and his time. Where is the resemblance! In those days I too was loath to be long away fron my post in the State. For then we sat on the poof of the vessel with our hands to the tiller ; now there is scarcely a place for us in the hold. Do you sup pose that any fewer decrees of the Senate will be passed if I stay at Naples ? Why, when I am ir Rome, and in the thick of the Forum, the decrees o; the Senate are written out at our friend's house;}: aye, and if it comes into his head, I am set down a; one of those who attested the registration, and I gei * See below, p. 378. \ Ad Fam., ix., 15, 4. \ One would fain hope that the person meant is not Casar himself 23 354 CcBsars Dictatorship. we B.C. intelligence of the arrival in Armenia or Syria of decrees, said to have been passed on my proposition, before I have heard a word about the matter. Pray do not think I am jesting. I assure you I have received letters from princes in the uttermost parts of the earth, returning thanks for the salutation as ' King,' which had been given them on my proposal — people of whom I was so far from knowing that they had been saluted kings, that I had never even heard of their existence." Cicero was willing, as he said to Varro,* " to lend a hand, if not as an architect, then even as a mason, to the reconstruction of the commonwealth." There is no reason to suppose indeed that he any more than Cssar had a solution for the almost inextricable difficulties which presented themselves in the way of combining liberty with empire. But Cicero at least held fast to that which C^sar ignored. He felt that it was apostasy and cowardice to slide back from the political faith which Greece had delivered once for all to the world, that it was of the essence of the higher civilisation of the West to protest against arbitrary power, to believe in government by discus- sion and consent, and in the rule of reason and of law. "From the man," he writes, f "who has all power in his hands, I see no reason to fear anything, except that everything is uncertain when once you set law on one side : it is impossible to guarantee a future which depends on the will, not to say on the caprice, of a single man." * Ad Fam., ix. , 2, 5. f Ad Fam., ix., 16, 3. 46 6.0.] Cicero Upholds Ccesar. 355 It was long before Cicero gave up the hope that after all there was to be " some sort of Free State," and that Csesar was destined to be its founder. This delusion was fostered, and not unnaturally, by the spectacle of Caesar's constant clemency and kindness to the conquered. " The all-powerful I'uler," he writes to an exiled Pompeian * in January, 45 B.C., "seems to me to be daily inclining more and more to justice and to a reasonable view of things . . . Every day something is done with more of lenity and liberality than we were expecting." " No one," he says in another letter, f " is so much an enemy to the cause which Pompey supported with more spirit than prudence, as to venture to call us bad men or unworthy citizens ; and in this I always admire the rectitude, fairness, and good sense of Caesar. He never speaks of Pompey, but in the most honour- able terms." Cicero is eager to make excuses for Caesar. If he delays the restoration of the Republic, it is because " Csesar himself is the slave of the situation." % " Since," he says, § " I have judged it right to live on, I cannot but feel a kindness for the man by whose favour life has been granted me. If that man desires that there should be a common- wealth such as perhaps he wishes, and such as we are all bound to pray for, he has no power to realise it, so hampered is he by obligations to his followers." * Trebianus, Ad Fam., vi., lO, 5. f Ad Fam., vi., 6, 10. X Ad Fam., ix., 17, 3. § Ad Fam., ix., 17, 2. 356 CcBsar s Dictatorship. [46 B.C. Cicero became a main channel of Caesai-'s grace towards his old comrades, and in the delight of serving them committed himself more and more to acquiescence in the new government, and to hopes based on the personal character and conduct of its chief — " nothing* can be better than the ruler him- self ; for the rest, men and things are such that, if needs be, it is better to hear of them than to see them." Cicero is the main hope and stay of the exiled Pompeians. He is ever writing them letters of solace and encouragement, and working assiduously for their restoration. "You," writes Aulus Caecinaf to Cicero, "must bear the whole burden; all my hopes are staked on you. . . . Only persuade yourself that your part is not to do whatever you are asked in this business (though that were favour enough), but that the whole is your own work ; then you will succeed. I fear that my misery makes me foolish, or my friendship shameless in heaping burdens on you : your own conduct must serve as my excuse ; all your life long you have so accus- tomed us to see you labouring for your friends, that now we who may claim that title do not so much beg as requisition your services." To another exile, Ampius Balbus, Cicero writes %: "I spoke in your cause with more bluntness than my present situation justifies ; but the very ill-luck proper to my ship- wrecked fortunes was overborne by your dearness to * Ad Fam., iv., 4, 5 (to Ser. Sulpicius). ■)■ Ad Fam., vi., 7, 5. t Ad Fam., vi., 12, 1. 46 B.C.I Speech for Ligarius. 357 me, and by the long friendship between us which you have so sedulously cherislied. Everything which relates to your restoration is promised, pledged, guaranteed, determined. I speak from my own sight, and knowledge, and participation." Csesar was ready enough to pardon on his own account ; but even in cases where he felt specially displeased, he was generally willing to give up his resentment at Cicero's request. It was thus that Cicero saved Quintus Ligarius, the only one of the Pompeians, so far as we know, who was publicly and formally put on his trial. Cicero defended him at Caesar's bar in a brief but interesting speech, which he afterwards published by the advice * of Balbus and Oppius, and which still survives. The circum- stances may best be described in the words of Plutarch, f " The story goes that when Quintus Ligarius was put on his trial as an enemy to Csesar, and Cicero appeared as his advocate, Caesar said to his friends: ' We know beforehand that the prisoner is a pestilent fellow and a public enemy : what harm can it do to listen once again to a speech of Cicero ? But soon he felt himself strangely stirred by Cicero's opening words, and as the speech proceeded, in- stinct with passion and exquisite in grace, one might see rapid changes of colour pass over Caesar's face, bearing witness to the tide of emotions ebbing and flowing through his mind. At length, when the speaker touched on the struggle at Pharsalia, Csesar became so agitated that his body trembled, and * Ad Att., xiii., ig, 2. ^^ f Plutarch, Cic, 39. ^—-'^^ 358 Ccesar's Dictatorship. [45 B.C. some papers which he was holding dropped from his hand. In the end he was carried by storm, and acquitted the accused." [ Another notable instance of clemency, the pardon iof Marcus Marcellus, who, as consul in the year 51, had taken a prominent part in the opposition to ' Csesar, overpowered the resolution of Cicero not to open his lips again in the Senate. " This day," he writes* to Servius Sulpicius, "seemed to dawn so fairly on me, that I fancied I could see, as it were, some vision of the Republic springing to life again. . . . When my turn came, I departed from my original intention. For I had resolved, not, I assure you, from sloth, but from a sense of the aching void left by the loss of my old independence, to hold my peace for ever. My resolution broke down in the presence of Caesar's magnanimity and of the loyalty with which the Senate had pressed our friend's cause. And so I made a long speech of thanks to Jaesar; I only fear that by so doing I have debarred yself for the future from that decent quiescence hich was my only consolation in these bad times." This speech, too, has been preserved. From the enthusiasm with which Cicero speaks of the occasion in the confidential letter to his friend, it will readily be conceived that the public expression of thanks is conveyed in language whose fervour knows no bounds. The hyperbolical protestations of gratitude and devotion are in painful contrast to the satisfac- tion which Cicero afterwards took in Caesar's assassi- nation ; but at the moment the speaker was doubtless * Ad Fam.^ iv. , 4, 3. 46 B.C.] Speech for Marcellus. 359 sincere in his declarations, as in his hopes. The rea] interest of the speech Pro Marcello lies in the ex- pression of these hopes, which Cicero still cherished in the autumn of the year 46, though Caesar had killed them before he himself fell on the fatal Ides of March, twenty months later. Cicero told the Dic; tator in language guarded indeed, but sufificiently explicit, that Rome expected something more from him. " At this moment, though your achievements have embraced the whole State and the preservation of all its citizens, yet so far are you from setting the cop- ing-stone on your greatest work, that you have not yet laid the foundation-stone of that which you de- sign. ... If, Csesar, after all your splendid deeds, this were to be the final result, that now your adversaries are overpowered you should leave the commonwealth in the condition in which it at pres- ent lies, consider, I pray you, whether your careei will not seem famous, indeed, but scarcely glorious ; for glory, I take it, consists in the tidings, spread through the world, of great services done to friends or to country or to mankind. This portion, then, of your task, is still before you ; this act is still to be played; this work is still unwrought ; you have yet to reconstruct the Republic ; you have yet to enter on and share with us, amidst all peace and quiet, the fruition of your labours. Then, and not till then, when you have paid to your country her due, and filled up the measure allotted by nature to man, it will be time to say that you ' have lived long enough.' . . - And yet why count this as yout 360 CcBsar s Dictatorship. [45 B.C. life, which is hemmed in by the bounds of body and of breath ? Your life is there, there, I say, where it will be fresh in the memory of all ages, where pos- terity will cherish it, where eternity itself will claim it for its own. It is the approval of that time to come which you must court, to its good-will you must commend yourself. It has much already to wonder at in you, now it asks for something to praise. Future generations will listen awe-struck, doubtless, as they hear or read the tale of all your conflicts and all your triumphs. But unless you have so designed and framed the constitution as to set this city on a sure foundation, your name, though it may go forth into all lands, will find no abiding resting-place. Among those who are yet to be born there will be controversy, as there has been amongst ourselves ; some will extol your deeds, others per- chance will find something wanting, and that the one thing needful, unless you quench the coal of civil war, by giving life to our State, so that men may ascribe the first to the inexorableness of destiny, the second to the providence of your design. Labour, then, as beneath the eye of that tribunal which will give its sentence concerning you many ages hence, a sentence perhaps more disinterested than any which we can pass to-day ; for posterity will pronounce, un- disturbed by favour or hope of advantage, undis- turbed, likewise, by passion or by jealousy." * When Cicero uttered these words it is clear that the question " is there to be any sort of Free State ? " had not yet received a definite answer in the nega- * Pro Marcello^ ch. viii., 25 seq. 46 B.C.] Cicero s Employments. 361 tive. Csesar had not yet, to Cicero's mind, finally stamped himself a " tyrant." Though with many fluctuations and much doubt, the tone of Cicero's mind in the latter part of the year 46 and the first months of 45 B.C. is on the whole cheerful. He has "mourned for the commonwealth longer and more bitterly than ever a mother mourned for her only son," * and now his thoughts dwell by choice on the redeeming features of the situation, or turn to other interests and pursuits. He was on terms of intimacy with many of Cesar's personal friends, especially with Balbus, Oppius, Matius, Hirtius, Pansa, and Dolabella. These were most useful to him in the negotiations for the pardon of his Pompeian comrades. He gives special credit to Pansa for his help. " He is an example," Cicero writes to Cassius (who " held Epicurus strong "), " of the doctrine f which you have begun to doubt, that righteousness is desirable on its own account. He has relieved many from their distress, and he has shown himself humane in these bad times, and so the good-will of honest men goes with him to a notable degree." Cicero's social intercourse with the younger Caesarians was cheerful and pleasant; they gathered round the old orator to learn from him the secrets of his craft, and he amused himself and pleased them by giving lessons in declamation, "like Dionysius the tyrant," he says, "keeping school at Corinth," while they in turn instructed him in the new art and science of good living — * Ad Fam., ix., 20, 3. f Ad Fam., xv., 17, 3. 362 Life under the Dictatorship. L46 B.C. " for they are my pupils in speaking, but my tutors in dining." * Sometimes indeed he is painfully struck by the contrast between these empty rhetorical dis- plays and the glorious strife of his old days in the Senate and the law courts. " If I ever utter any- thing worthy of my ancient name, then I groan like Philoctetes in the play, to think that ' these shafts are spent inglorious on a feathered not an armed prey.'"f Nevertheless he felt the better for these exertions, " in the first place as regards my health, which had suffered from the want of exercise to my lungs, next because any faculty of speech I may have had would have dried up, unless I had refreshed it by these declamations ; there is another reason, which perhaps you will think worthy of the first place : I have been the death of more peacocks than you have of young pigeons." \ With the return of hope, Cicero's sanguine and mercurial temperament recovered its elasticity, and though the despotism bowed it did not crush him. Plutarch says § of Cicero, that " he was by nature framed for mirth and jests, and his countenance ex- pressed smiles and sunshine." At this period his wit played freely on the new situations of politics and society ; and the despotism of Csesar, like that of Lewis XIV., was " tempered by epigrams." Csesar could listen with frank and fearless enjoy- ment to strokes of satire directed against himself and his system. He even prided himself on his * Ad Fam., ix., 16, 7. •j- Ad Favi., vii., 33, i. X Ad Fam., ix., 18, 3. § Plutarch, Comp. Cic. et Dem., i., 6. B.C.] Literary Work. 363 ical acuteness in detecting the true flavour of ero's jests, and in refusing to be taken in by the ■k of any inferior craftsman. Csesar has a very shrewd hterary judgment, and : as your brother Servius, one of the best critics ;ver knew, would say off-hand, ' this verse is utus', this is not,' because he had an ear trained habits of study and of noting the style of the ious poets, so I am told, that Caesar, when com- ng a collection of jests, would at once reject any rious ones which were brought to him under my ne. He can do this the more easily at present, ause his most intimate friends are almost every ' in my company. Many things drop out in the rse of conversation which my hearers are good lugh to consider not devoid of wit and neatness, ese are regularly reported to him along with news of the day — such are his orders — and so he 's no attention to forgeries from outside." * This period of suspense from active politics was tful in literary labour, which was indeed Cicero's st plentiful source of contentment. " I must tell L," he writes to Varro, f " that so soon as I re- led home again I was restored to favour by my friends, my books. . . . They have forgiven _neglect, and summon me back to the old in- acy." The works of the next year '. a half are chiefly on the art of Dec!" VbTc. toric. In the Brutus and the xtor ad Brutum Cicero pursues the discussions 4d Fam., ix., i6, 4. 4.d Fam., ix., i, 2. 364 " Cato " and " Anti-Cato. " [46 B.C. begun in the dialogue De Oratore. The Brutus Is especially valuable and interesting, on account of [the personal experiences which Cicero there records I of his training and practice as a speaker. Several extracts from it are to be found in earlier chapters. In the same year (46 B.C.) Cicero was engaged with a panegyric of Cato. The theme seems to have been suggested to him by his republican friends soon after the suicide of his hero at Utica in April. It was, as he says,* a problem fit for Archimedes, to write on such a topic without giving deadly offence to the party in power. " Cato cannot be fairly treated, unless I make it a theme for praise that he struggled against the state of things which now is and which he saw coming, and that rather than look on its realisation he took refuge in the grave." He succeeded, however, entirely to his satisfaction. Caesar was too generous to take offence at praises of his fallen enemy, and Brutus was encouraged to follow Cicero's example and publish a work in his uncle's honour. We have a curious record of Cesar's criticism on the two in a letter to Balbus. He had read Cicero's Cato, he said, over and over again, and had enriched his mind in the process, but Brutus' book flattered him with the idea that he could write better himself, f In the midst of the occupations of his Spanish campaign the Dictator found time to pen an Anti-Cato in answer to Cicero's panegyric. While inveighing against Cato, Caesar spoke in high terms of Cicero, whom he compared for eloquence * Ad Alt., xii., 4, 2. f Ad Ati,, xiii. , 46, 2. B.C.] Divorce of Terentia. 365 d for statesmanship to Pericles and Theramenes. * tese compliments called forth a suitable letter in Dly from Cicero. " I wrote," he says to Atticus, irecisely as I should have done to an equal ; for I dly think highly of his work, as I mentioned to u in conversation, so that without flattery I was le to write what he, I think, will be pleased to id."t A.t some time during the year 46 the estrangement tween Cicero and his wife Terentia ended in a ^orce. We hear very little about this in his letters. ; would hardly write on such a subject to any one t Atticus, and probably Atticus was with him when itters came to a crisis. Soon afterwards Cicero 3k a second wife, a young and wealthy woman med Publilia, who had been his ward. In the in- est of this new connection, in literature and in the :asures of society, graver cares were for the )ment forgotten. " I would write more at length," says in a letter \ to Cassius, " if I had any non- ise to write about, for we can hardly discuss seri- s topics without danger. Well at any rate, you T, we can laugh. That is not so easy after all ; but Plutarch, Cic, 39. Csesar probably had in mind the verdict of stotle on Theramenes, which in its complete shape has just come light in the newly discovered Constitution of Athens, ch. xxviii hose who weigh their judgments are agreed that he did not, as said against him, wreck all governments, but that rather he :hered all so long as they kept within the limits of the law, being able of serving under all, as a good citizen should, but that when 1 crossed these limits he resisted and repudiated them." Ad Att., xiii., 51. Ad Fam., xv., 18, i. 366 Death of Tullia. [45 B.C. there is no other way of forgetting our anxieties. But where, you say, is philosophy gone ? Yours to the kitchen, and mine to the rhetoric school. I am ashamed to be a slave, and so I make believe to be busy, that I may shut my ears to the reproaches of Plato." To another friend * he describes a dinner with Volumnius Eutrapelus, where Cicero and Atti- cus and other grey-beards found that they had been invited to meet a lively person, hardly fit company for a consular of Rome. " You wonder that we can make our slavery so merry. Well, what am I to do ? I ask you, the student of philosophy. Shall I wring my heart and torment myself? Who will be the better for that ? and how long am I to go on with it ? ... I never was much attracted by women of that class even when I was young, to say nothing of my old age : but I do enjoy the dinner table ; there I speak whatever comes uppermost, and turn all my lamentations into hearty laughter." This easy life was rudely cut short by a great and unexpected calamity. Cicero's daughter Tullia, died suddenly at Rome about the end of March in the year j 45 B.C. Tullia was her father's darling, the only one of I his family of whose conduct he never complains, his ' consolation in all his troubles, and his tender and sympathising companion in all his pursuits. Cicero was overwhelmed with grief, and sought refuge in tears and seclusion. " In this desolate spot," he writes f to Atticus from Astura soon after his be- reavement, " I avoid speaking a word to any one. * Pastus, Ad Fam., ix., 25, 2, \AdAtt., xii., 15. 45 B.C.] Cicero s Grief. 367 Early in the morning I hide myself away in a thick wood and do not quit it till evening. Next to your- self my best friend is solitude." He attempted to beguile his grief by a project of erecting a shrine for Tullia, and so deifying her memory. His letters are full of schemes for the purchase of gardens near Rome suitable for the purpose. It does not appear that Cicero's wish was ever realised, and the disturb- ances after Caesar's death interrupted all his plans. Cicero's young wife Publilia had been jealous of her stepdaughter, and she was unable to conceal her satisfaction when Tullia died. This heartlessness deeply offended Cicero. He at once divorced Pub- lilia, and though she and her friends made several overtures for a reconciliation, he would never see her again. In this great trouble Cicero found much consola- tion in literature. " Those old friends," his books, now once again proved true to him. " There is not a treatise on consolation under bereavement, that I did not read through when I was in your house ; but my grief was too strong for the medicine. Nay, 1 did what I believe no one ever did before ; I wrote a treatise on consolation myself. I will send you this book if the copyists have written it out. I de- clare to you, this has given more relief than any- thing. Now I write from morning to night ; not that what I write is good for much, but it checks my grief to a certain extent." * These words were writ- ten soon after his loss. Some two months later Cicero can appeal unhesitatingly to his literary *AdAtt., xii., 14, 3. 368 Philosophical Writings. [45 B.c activity, which is producing the Tiisculan Disputa- tions, as a proof that he is not yielding an unmanly subjection to his grief. " Those cheerful souls," he writes, " who find fault with me, cannot read as much as I have written in the time. Whether the work is good or bad, is nothing to the point; it could not have been attempted by anyone who had abandoned himself to despair." * , Almost all Cicero's philosophical works belong to /this (45 B.C.) and the following year. His writing I was hardly interrupted by Ceesar's death and ceased \ only with his own recall to the active labours of a \ statesman at the end of the year 44. Not to mention several works which are lost, we have from this period the Academic Questions, the treatise On the Definitions of Good and Evil, the Tuscidan Dispiita- tions, the dialogues On the Nature of the Gods, On Divination, On Old Age, and On Friendship, and finally the treatise On Duty (De Officiis) addressed to his son Marcus, Cicero found the materials for most of these works in the writings of the Greek philosophers : " I have to supply little but the words," he writes, f " and for these I am never at a loss." Though Cicero has no pretensions to be considered a thinker of original and inventive genius in the region of philosophy, it was no small achievement thus to mould the Latin tongue to be a vehicle for Greek philosophic thought. Cicero wiped away the re- proach of " the poverty of our native speech," of which Lucretius complains, and in so doing he se- * Ad Att., xii., 40, 2. \AdAtt., xii., 52, 3. 45 B.C.] Despair for the State. 369 cured the tradition of ideas and modes of thouglit which inust otherwise have missed their influence on' the world. There have been ages during which Plato and Aristotle have suffered eclipse ; but per-^ haps hardly one in which Cicero's philosophic writ- ings have not been cherished by at least a few men of letters. They have thus kept alive the memory of ancient philosophy, and have humanised the thoughts and words of one generation after another. If we were required to decide what ancient writings have most directly influenced the modern world, the award must probably go in favour of Plutarch's Lives and of the philosophic works of Cicero.* Tullia's death marks a turning-point in Cicero's appreciation of Caesar and his work. He is resolved that patience shall not be wanting, but he " has lost for ever that cheerfulness with which we used to sea- son the bitterness of the time." It is characteristic of the man, that his private sorrow opens his eyes to the fact that the hopes which he has_been indulging for the commonwealth are a ll delusi ons. When once the truth is graspedT'Caesar's proceedings during the last months of his life serve to confirm Cicero's mel- ancholy conviction, and to bring him to the state of mind in which he is ready to approve the deed of the Ides of March. "All is lost, my dear Atticus," he writes f in the month of his daughter's death, " all is lost ; that is * On the absorption of Greek moral doctrine into the ethics of the Christian Church, effected mainly through the influence of Cicero on St. Ambrose, see Hibbert Lectures, 1888, by Edwin Hatch, ch. vi. \ Ad Att., xii., 23, I. 370 CcBsar's Dictatorship. [45 B.C. no new thing ; but now that my one hold on life is gone, I am fain to acknowledge it." His reply* to the consolations of his friend Lucceius, a month later, breathes the same spirit. " In one respect I think that I am even more courageous than your- self, who exhort me to courage ; for you seem to be cherishing some hope that better days may be in store. Your illustrations from the chances of com- bat and the like, and the arguments you adduce, seem intended to forbid me from despairing utterly for the commonwealth. I do not wonder then that you are braver than I, since you have some hope ; but I do wonder that you should still hope on. What remains that is not so stricken, that we must needs confess it to be doomed and blasted ? Look round on all the limbs of the State which you know so well ; where will you find one that is not crushed and crippled ... So I will bear my private grief, as you bid me, and the public grief perhaps even more patiently than you, my preceptor. For you have some hope to comfort you, I am resolved to be strong amidst absolute despair." The misery and hopelessness, which was entailed on the Romans by Caesar's government, may be well illustrated by Cicero's correspondence with his old friend Servius Sulpicius Rufus. Servius had taken no part against Csesar in the Civil War (see above, P- 337)) and at its close he was nominated by the Dictator to the governorship of Greece. This ap- pointment was a kindly and delicate action on Caesar's part. He must have known that Servius * Ad Fam., v., 13, 3. 45 B.C.] Letter of Servius Sulpicius. 371 was at heart a Pompeian, and Greece was full of re- publican exiles to whom the presence of a sympa- thetic proconsul was a great comfort and protection. Nevertheless, Servius, far from congratulating him- self that he has played his cards well, is " deeply troubled, and in the midst of the public misery is tormented by a grief peculiar to himself." * The reproaches of conscience, felt by one who had been hardly more than a neutral, may serve to explain the bitter wrath of those members of the democratic party who had actively aided Caesar in arms, and who now found that they had been unconsciously con- spiring to destroy the last remnant of popular gov- ernment, and to set up an unmitigated despotism. This disappointment, sharpened by self-reproach, armed against Caesar the daggers of some of his best officers, Decimus Brutus, Trebonius, and Galba. Servius Sulpicius is best known to modern readers as " the Roman friend of Rome's least mortal mind," part of whose beautiful letter of consolation on the death of Tullia is paraphrased by Byron : "Wandering in youth, I traced the path of him, The Roman friend of Rome's least mortal mind. The friend of TuUy : as my bark did skim The bright blue waters with a fanning wind, Came Megara before me, and behind ^gina lay, Pirsus on the right And Corinth on the left ; I lay reclined Along the prow, and saw all these unite In ruin, even as he had seen the desolate sight. The Roman saw these tombs in his own age These sepulchres of cities, which excite * Ad Fam., iv., 3, 1. 372 CcBsar s Dictatorship. [45 b.c Sad wonder, and his yet surviving page The moral lesson bears, dravi'n from such pilgrimage." The reflection on human nothingness by one who contemplates the ruins of by-gone cities and empires is a topic for every age. But Servius has special considerations to urge, which are happily not of so universal application : " Do you grieve for her lot, who is taken away from the evil to come ? who has seen the great days of the Republic, and has expired with its expiration ? Does it not often occur to you, as it does to me, that we have fallen on times in which those are to be congratulated who can pass painlessly from life to death ? Why be so deeply stirred by a private grief? Consider how fortune has buffeted us already. We have been bereft of those things which men should hold not less dear than their children — our country, our reputation, our dignity, — everything which made life honourable. What can one blow more add to our pain ? Schooled in such a fate as ours, ought not the mind to become callous, and hold whatever may befall as insignifi- cant." * In sentences such as these we seem to catch the note of dull, passive despair, which Tacitus has taught us to recognise as the tone appropriate to the Romans under the Empire. The inexorable, unapproachable despotism already throws its chill shadow over the world, and the " petty men," as Cassius says, " peep about, to find themselves dishonourable graves." * Extract from Ad Fam,, iv. , 5. 45 B.C.] Exasperation of the Romans. 373 Every incident of monarchy was galling and de- grading to those who had been nurtured in the proud atmosphere of aristocratic republicanism. There are indications that Caesar himself was not blind to the feelings which his domination inspired, though he lacked the energy of purpose to correct the faults of which such feelings were the natural outcome. Cicero was dancing attendance one day in the ante- chamber of the Dictator, waiting for his turn oi audience. " Can I doubt," exclaimed Caesar, " that I am cordially hated, when Marcus Cicero has to sit there waiting, and cannot see me at his own conven- ience ? Well if any one is good-natured it is Cicero, but no doubt he must hate me bitterly." * Cicerc had certainly no personal reason for disliking Caesar, and those who have followed his utterances so far, have before them abundant evidence that personally he revered and admired him. Wliai-Jie-hated: was not the man but the monarch ;^e-t-h-ts-iiHtTEd of the mionarch was sufficient to cause him not only tc accept Caesar's assassination as a irecessary measure, but to triumph over it as a- ri§h-teous retribution, Even when he doubts whether its practical results will not prove worthless, he sets down as clear gain "the exultation in the deed, and the exaction of the penalty desired by our hatred and indignation." -f Even " this same easy-tempered man," had felt the iron enter into his soul. To men of sterner mould the thrust of the dagger seemed the only possible answer to the ignominy under which they suffered * Ad Att., xiv., I, 2. f Ad Att., xiv., 12, I. 374 Cossars Dictatorship. [45 b.c. " It makes a world of difference, what his will is," Cffisar was wont to say of Marcus Brutus ; " whatever he wills, he wills it strongly." * Such wills Caesar had set in deadly opposition to himself and his policy. In the latter part of the year 45 we find Cicero engaged, though with little hope of any profitable result, on a letter of political advice addressed to Caesar. His model was to be a treatise dedicated to Alexander by Aristotle. " There is nothing in it," he writes,f "which may not become a good citizen, but a citizen such as the facts of the time admit of ; and all political philosophers bid us adapt our course to the circumstances." Balbus and Oppius, who always knew Caesar's mind, objected to some portions of the letter. " Some improve- ments," Cicero writes, :j: " were suggested on the present order of things ; and because they are im- provements they are found fault with." He dechned to alter what he had written, and preferred to with- draw the letter altogether. " Let us throw all these futilities to the winds," he exclaims, § "and hold to the half-freedom of submitting in silence and retire- ment." Thus ended the last effort to deter the Dictator from the line of action which was leading him to his death. Caesar paid a visit to Cicero at his villa near * Ad Att., xiv., I, 2. f Ad Att., xii., 51, 2. X Ad Att., xiii., 28, 2. § Ad Att., xiii., 31, 3. 45B.C.1 The Despotism. 375 Puteoli in the month of December, 45 ; but the conver- sation was all on literary topics, " of serious matters not a word " * ; on these " serious matters " Caesar had no intention of listening to counsel, and he was daily revealing to the eyes of the Romans that he had spoken his last word in politics, and that the yoke which they abhorred was to be fixed on their necks for ever. " There would be no complaint," writes Mommsen, " at least on the score that Csesar left the public in the dark as to his view of his position ; as distinctly and formally as possible he came for- ward not merely as monarch but as very King of Rome." After the Spanish War was over, he ac- cepted for the first time, under the title of Dictator for life, absolute and unlimited dominion ; and he never even pretended that he would voluntarily set a term to his power, as Sulla had done. Caesar was not only greedy of the substance of power, but was caught by the glitter of its trappings. Though he knew the hatred which the_R omans had cherishgd-fer c e n t ui ies-to-^-he- name jifjCing^ he suf- fered his partisans to play with the offer of the Jladem, the symbol of Drien-taLjnonarchy. This offer wTiTcK Toole ]place in January, 44, (see below p. 397) really, says Cicero,f .cost Caesar his life. Mean- whrleTie set up his statue along with those of the Seven Kings of Rome, and adopted the golden throne and the robes which tradition assigned to them. X He thus wilfully trampled on the suscepti- *AdAtt., xiii., 52, 2. f Phil., xiii., 19, 41. XDe Diu., i., 52, 119. 3 76 Ccssars Dictatorship. [45 b.c. bilities of men, who dwelt proudly on the recollec- tion of the long centuries of glory, in which freedom and self-government had made them masters of the world. He attempted to force on them the show of despotism for which the Roman world was not ripe for yet three hundred years. The setting up of Cffisar's statue beside that of Quirinus, the deified Romulus, brings to Cicero's lips the sharp retort : /" I am better pleased to see him the neighbour of Quirinus, than as sharing the temple of Safety."* The legend ran that Romulus had governed tyran- nically, and had been torn in pieces by the Senators. In indicating such an omen for the new monarch of Rome, Cicero shows that the idea was already (May 45 B.C.) floating before his mind that the effort to reconstruct the Republic might have to be made over the dead body of Caesar. While on the one hand Caesar accepted the odious memory of the office which the free State had re- nounced for ever, on the other hand we see in him a hankering after the barbaric expressions by which Eastern potentates were wont to attempt to realise to themselves the plenitude of their power. He aspired to a " Divine Right," not in that compara- tively innocent form in which the ruler is regarded as the special servant and delegate of Heaven, but in the slavish sense in which the prostrate Asiatic deifies the person of his master. C^sar must have his statue borne in procession among the images of the gods, he must have temples and a flamen to offer in- cense to his divinity and a statue inscribed, " the * Ad Att., xii., 45, 3. 45 B.C.] The Despotism. 377 invincible god."* These pretensions would have seemed impious to the believers in a dogmatic theology ; but this was hardly the case with the Romans ; their objection was not so much religious as political. Such conduct in a man was " incivism " ; it was to claim submission as to a being of higher nature ; it was to arrogate a pre-eminence, injurious and insulting to his fellows. About the same time when Caesar was parading his image among the gods, Aurelius Cotta was em- ployed to discover a Sibylline oracle which might justify the Dictator in assuming the title of King. The hurried sentences of a note scribbled to Atticusfr give us a glimpse of Cicero's feelings. " How I de- lighted in your letter ! but this procession is a bitter business. However, it is well to be kept informed about everything, even about Cotta. Well done the people! that they would not lend a hand even to clap the Victory, because of the bad company she was in. Brutus is here ; he wants me to write to Caesar. I had promised to do so, but now I tell him to look at this procession." The Ides of March were now drawing on. Cffisar had not allowed the old year to expire without a * Appian, Bell. Civ., ii., io6 ; Dio Cassius, xliii., 45, 3 ; Suetonius, Jul., 76. Mommsen's comments are characteristic of the modern Caesarian school. "Since the principle of the monarchy leads by logical sequence either from its religious side up to the king-god, 01 from its legal side up to the king-master, we must recognise in this procedure that absolute and unshrinking thoroughness of thought and action, which, here as elsewhere, vindicatesfor Caesar a unique station in \AsXoxy ."—Romische Staats-Recht, vol. ii., p. 755. \AdAtt., xiii.,44, I. 378 Ccesars Dictatorship. [45 B.C. /deadly insult to the memory of the chief magistracy of republican Rome. Caninius Rebilus was elected consul for a few hours of the last day of the year 45. It was the pubhc proclamation of the fact that the consulship was now only a mockery and a farce. The account of the spectacle which Cicero gives to his friend Curius in one of the last letters* written before Caesar's death, may serve as a fitting close to his experiences of the government of the Dictator : / "I give up pressing you or even inviting you to return home. All I wish is that I, too, could take to myself wings, and come at some land ' where I shall never hear of the name nor the deeds of the sons of Pelops.' f I cannot tell you how mean I feel for having any part in these things. Verily you seem to me to have had a foresight long ago of what was coming on us, when you took your flight from these parts. Bitter as things are to hear of, they are a thousand times worse to see. At any rate you have escaped being present in the Campus Martius at eight o'clock in the morning when the elections for quaestors were being held. The curule chair of Fabius, whom they were pleased to call consul, was duly set. There comes a messenger to say the man is dead, and away goes his chair. Thereupon, Caesar, who had taken the auspices for an assembly by tribes, held an assembly by centuries instead. At twelve o'clock he returned a consul duly elected to hold office till the 1st of January, that is to say, for the rem ainder of the day of election. So you are to * Ad Fam., vii. , 30. f From an unknown Latin tragedian. 45 B.C.] The Despotism. 379 know that in the consulship of Caninius no one breakfasted. It must be granted that his consulship was remarkably free from crime, owing to his mar- vellous vigilance, for during his term of office he never closed an eye. This seems a joke to you. Yes, for you are far away ; if you were here to see it, you could not refrain from tears. Am I to write anything more of the sort ? for plenty of the sort is happening. I could not bear it at all, were it not that I take refuge in the haven of philosophy, and that I have our dear Atticus as the companion of my studies." CHAPTER XIII. CICERO AND ANTONY. !=== p|^^ ^ ^ ^^^ j,^* ^ fl^ Hi V W im ^ tf j^^ ^^0 ¥^ o ^^ 1 ° ^ i g ^1 — 44-43 B.C. ITH the assassination of Caesar on the Ides of March in the year 44 B.C. begins the last act in the drama of Cicero's life. One year and three quarters still remained to him before he too met his death, and these months, though full of cruel anxieties, and bitter disappointments, are the most glorious in his whole career. For the first time since the coalition of Caesar and Pompey, seventeen years before, he sees the path of duty clear, he feels the power to act and to speak freely in the cause of the commonwealth, and for the sake of that cause he is willing cheerfully to lay down his life. This consciousness puts' every thought of self aside and gives vigour and dignity to all his words and actions. After the assassination the Liberators retired to 380 44- B.C.] The Act of Oblivion. 38 1 the Capitol, where they were joined later in the daj by Cicero and by Dolabella, who took March is. Up the consulship which had been de- creed to him in succession to Csesar. Antony, thi other consul, seized on Caesar's treasury at thi temple of Ops, and Cssar's State papers were alsi committed to him by Calpurnia, the widow of thi Dictator. Lepidus, the Master of the Horse, wh( had under his command a legion encamped on th^ island of the Tiber, transferred his troops to the lef bank of the river, and occupied the Campus Mai tius. Next day negotiations took place between the several parties which resulted in a meeting of the Senate in th temple of Earth on the 17th, two days after th assassination. At this meeting Cicero proposed that, as at Athen after the tyranny of the Thirty, a general Act Oblivion should be passed. The assas- ^ March 17. sins of Csesar were relieved from all pains and penalties for their deed, but on the othe hand all the Acts of Caesar were confirmed. Thi confirmation led to much awkwardness and man confusions, but * the thing was absolutely nece; sary. Lepidus' veteran legion was there in arm; and the soldiers could only be kept quiet by a guai anty that the scheme under which Csesar had pre vided lands for them should not be disturbed, i public funeral was also granted for Caesar's body. This compromise, put forward as a basis of recoi ciliation, was really only the beginning of a fres ♦ Ad. A it., xiv., 14, 2. 382 The Ccssarian Leaders. [44 B.C. complication of intrigues and disturbances. It is impossible to trace any consistent policy in the actions of the leaders of the Caesarian party. We find Antony one day agreeing to a general amnesty, and the next day making inflammatory speeches at Caesar's funeral ; then with an equally sudden change proposing that the office of Dictator should be for- ever abolished, as if the very name had been defiled by having been made the title of the despotism. Immediately after this he is found making a circuit among the veterans, urging them to swear to the maintenance of Caesar's Acts ; but this does not prevent his making overtures to Sextus Pompeius later on. These negotiations with Sextus were conducted through Lepidus, who after obtaining the office of Pontifex Maximus, as a reward of his services to Antony, had assumed the command of Northern Spain and the southern portion of Transal- pine Gaul. His legions thus occupied the passes both of the Pyrenees and of the Maritime Alps, and by this commanding position Lepidus exercised an important influence on the issue of the coming struggle. Pollio, the governor of Southern Spain, and Plancus who held Northern Gaul with five legions, waited on events along with Lepidus. They were eager in their protestations of loyalty to the Senate, but turned without scruple in favour of Antony the moment his cause appeared the stronger. Dolabella showed himself at first vigorous on the Republican side. When a riotous mob, largely com- posed of slaves, attempted to raise a column and to offer sacrifices on the spot where Caesar's body had COIN OF C/ESAR. (Cohen.) COIN OF BRUTUS. CAP OF LIBERTY, AND DAGGERS. (Cohen:) ANTONY AND G/ESAR. iyCoken.) COIN OF SEXTUS POMPEIUS. {Babelon,) 1-4 6.0.] Cicero and Antony. 383 been burned, Dolabella intervened with armed force and put many of them to death. Nevertheless we find him soon after accepting Antony's money, * and early next year he led an army against the Liberators in Asia, put to death Trebonius who had fallen into his hands, and was himself defeated and <, killed by Cassius. All these old officers of Cssar appear to have been merely time-servers and self- seekers, and to have had no policy except that which suited their own interests for the moment. There were, however, more honest C^sarians, who sincerely mourned their lost chief, and were unwilling that his death should go unavenged. Among these were Cicero's friends, Balbus, Oppius, Postumius, and Matius, and in the same category must be counted the consuls-elect Hirtius and Pansa, who, however, were brought later on in the interests of the commonwealth to renounce the prospect of ven- geance. Men of this type generally followed the lead of Octavian, as soon as he was able to assert himself. Meanwhile their language was threatening and gave much anxiety to Cicero. Cicero visited Matius early in April, f and found him maintaining, " that the entanglement is hopeless : if Caesar with all his genius could not find a solution, who is to do so now ? " " He protested," continues Cicero, " that all is ruined, in which he is very likely right : but he rejoiced at it, and declared that there will be an invasion of Gauls within twenty days. ... To conclude, he said, ' the matter could not end here.' *A. Cornelius, freedman of Sulla, 309 ; pro- cures the confiscation of Sextus Roscius' property, 15 ; ac- cuses the younger Roscius of parricide, ib. ff. Cicero, Lucius, cousin of the orator, 77 Cicero, Marcus Tullius, his birth and parentage, 3 ff. ; the speech for Plancius, 7, 278 ; his love for his native city, 8, 9, 10 ; his early life at Rome, 11 ; his teachers, 12, 21 ; his intimacy with the two Scae- volas, 13 {cp. p. 291); begins to speak in the law-courts, 14 ; his defence of Roscius, i^ff.; delicate in health, 20, 341, 362 ; spends two years in Greece and Asia, 21 ; quaestor in Western Sicily, 22, 193 ; his rise into prominence, 37 ; the rival of Hortensius, 38 ; supports Pompey's policy, 53 ff. ; prosecutes Verres, 55 ff. : defends Cornelius, 63, 64 ; his friendship with Atticus, (lyff./ igT ff. ; his relations with his brother Quintus, 79, 197 ; elect- ed curule aedile (69 B.C.) and praetor (66 B.C.), 81 ; supports the Manilian Law, 87 ; opposes Index. 435 the plans of Crassus in regard to Egypt, go, 113 ; seeks elec- tion as Consul, 91 ; his speech for Murena, 94-98 ; elected Consul, 99 ; the speeches against Rullus, ib.ff.; acts of the first part of his consulship, 108 ; obtains the ultimum Senatus Consultum against Catiline's conspiracy, 120-122 ; attacks Catiline in the Senate, 125 ; the Second Catilinarian Oration, 127; arrests the Catili- nariansin Rome, 134 ; thanked by the Senate, 136 ; the Third Catilinarian Oration, ib. ff. ; the Fourth Catilinarian Ora- tion, 143 ff. ; carries out the sentence on the conspira- tors, 149 ; was he justified in their execution ? l$\ ff. ; the lastdayof his Consulship, 161 ; his ideal party (" the good cause"), 165, 185, 204, 205, 273, 321, 406 ; reasons for its failure, ibbff., 187 ; gains the goodwill of Pompey, Ti?:ff., 188 ; speech for P. Sulla, 190 ; defence of Archias, ib. (cp. p. 10) ; his writings on the history of his Consulship, 191 ; buys a house on the Palatine, 196, 235, 246 ; refuses the overtures of Csesar (60 B.C.), 203 ff. ; defends C. Antonius, 216 ; retires into the country, 217 ; declines the offers of Ceesar, 223 j^. (cp. p. 271) ; the speech for Flaccus, 225 ; attacked by Clodius, 230 ; driven into exile, 234 ; goes to Thes- salonica, 237 ; leaves for Epirus, 239 ; recalled to Rome, 244 ; his triumphal return, 246 ; moves that Pom- pey be invested with Procon- sular power for five years, 247 ; set upon by the armed bands of Clodius, 253, 255 ; defends Sestius, 256 ; the speech against Vatinius, 257 ; attacks the Julian Laws, 260, 261 ; compelled by Pompey to abandon his proposals, 265 ; leaves the party of the Nota- bles, 266 ff. ; the speech on the Consular Provinces, 270^./ reconciled to Crassus, 275 ; de- fends Vatinius and Gabinius, 278-280 ; becomes on friendly terms with Caesar, 280^. ; his speech on behalf of Milo, 288 ; made governor of Cilicia, 290, 295 ; elected augur, 290 [cp. p. 218) ; his perplexities at the commencement of the Civil War, 319/"., SSOif. yhis in- terview with Csesar at For- miae, 338 ; joins Pompey, 339 ; returns to Italy after Pharsalia, 341 ; reconciled to Caesar, 343, 344 ; entertains hopes that Caesar will establish a free government, 354 ff. ; assists the exiled Pompeians, 356 ; defends Ligarius, 357 ; the oration Pro Marcello, 358- 360 ; the panegyric on Cato, 364 ; divorces Terentia and marries Publilia, 365 ; divorced from Publilia, 367 ; visited by Cjesar at Puteoli, 374, 375 ; approved of Cfesar's assas- sination, 373, 376, 390 ; his course of action after the death of Caesar, 380 ; proposes an act of oblivion, 381 ; the First Philippic, 392 ; meets Octavian at CumiE, 393 ; the Second Philippic, 396-400 ; heads the movement against Antony, 400/". , 424 \ the Sixth Philippic, 404-406 ; his de- spatches to the Proconsuls, 408, 409 ; \!ix& Fourteenth Philippic, 410 ; included in the Proscrip- tion, 423 ; murdered, 424; — his character, 426-429 ; Augustus' judgment of him, 428 ; his love of literature, 10, 191, 292, 36 Index. 363, 367 ; as an art critic, 57 ; his theory of the duties of an advocate, 65 ; his affection for his children, 77, igg (cp. pp. 366-369) ; his vanity, \<^2 ff. ; his mercurial temperament, 238, 362 ; his placable nature, 275 ; his fondness for a jest, 362 ; — the Letters to Atticus and other friends, 2, 428 ; — the dialogues, De Orator e, the Commonwealth, and the Zaw/, 291-294 ; the Brutus and the Orator ad Br^ltum, 363 {cp. pp. II, 12, 14, 20-22): — the philosophical writings, 368 ; their influence on the modern world, 369 icero, Marcus TuUius, son of the orator, 77, 312, 368 ; his character, 80 ; an officer in Brutus' army, 80, 390 ; an- nounces to the Senate as Consul the defeat and death of Antony, 80 icero, Q. Tullius, younger brother of the orator, 78, 241, 342 ; his character, 78-80, ig8, 310 ; author of the Commen- tariolum Petitionis, gi ; said to have wavered in the debate on the Catilinarians, 143 ; made governor of Asia, 197, 238 ; his differences with Atti- cus, 197 ; assaulted by Clodius, 243. 253 ; distinguishes him- self as Cffisar's lieutenant in Gaul, 282 ; lieutenant of his brother in Cilicia, 307 ; di- vorced from Pomponia, 310 ; pardoned by Caesar, 343 ; his death. So icero, Q. Tullius, the younger son of the preceding, 78 ; his death, 80 ilicia, 79, 84, 252, 290, 297, 306 ; Cicero's government of, 2go, 2g5/-. imbri, the, 4, ii ingulum, 323 Cinna, L. Cornelius, 27, 39, 117, 118, 132 City-State, the, of the ancient world, inadequate to manage an empire, 167, 168 Civil War, between Caesar and Pompey, the preparations for, 3i4jf. y the crossing of the Rubicon, 170, 322, 330 ; Pom- pey evacuates Italy, 325, 326 ; Cffisar's campaign in Spain, 326 ; campaign in Epinis, 339 ; battle of Pharsalia, 278, 340, 341, 357 ; murder of Pompey, 340 Claudius, Appius, brother of Clodius, 217, 275 ; his mis- government in Cilicia, 296 (cp. p. 347) ; extorts 200 talents from the Cyprians, 299 Claudius, [Tiberius Claudius NeroJ, motion of, in the Cati- linarian debate, 148 Clodia, sister of Clodius, 222 ; the " Lesbia " of Catullus, 318, 319 Clodius, [P. Claudius Pulcher,] intrudes on the mysteries of the " Good Goddess," 172 ; brought to trial, 176 ; ac- quitted, 177, 185 ; adopted into a plebeian family, 216, 217, 222, 271 ; elected tribune, 222, 270 ; procures the exile of Cicero, 148, 156, note, 230 ff. ; gets Cato sent to Cyprus, 236 ; quarrels with, and insults Pompey, 240, 253 ; his proceedings in the last months of his tribuneship, 242 ; assaults Cicero and his brother, 253, 255 ; brings Sestius to trial, 256 ; his death, 286 Clodius, Sextus, 253 Cluentius, [A. Cluentius Habi- tus], defended by Cicero, 65 Coeparius, adherent of Catiline, 136 Collegia, or street-guilds, 230, 346 Indi ex. 437 Colonies, planted by Cfesar at Carthage and Coi-inth, 346 Commonwealth, the, of Cicero, {De Republic^), 291-294 Concord, Temple of, 138, 149 Corfinium, surrender of, 324, 328, 330, 333 Corinth, Roman colony at, 346 Corn, charge of, committed to Pompey (57 B.C.), 247 ; allow- ances of, to Roman governors, 304, 305 ; distribution of, at Rome, restricted by Caesar, 346 Cornelia, (i) daughter of L. Cinna, married to Cfesar, 39 : — (2) daughter of Metellus Scipio, wife of Pompey, 285 Cornelia gens. See Cinna, Len- tulus, Scipio, Sulla Cornelius, attempts to assassinate Cicero, 124 ; driven into exile, 190 Cornelius, C, defended by Cice- ro, 63, 64 Cornelius Nepos, the biographer of Atticus, 67, note, 68, 72 Cornificius, Q., 403, 421 Coruncanius, T., 7 Cotta, C. Aurelius, the orator, 12, 14, 22, 40, 62 Cotta, L. Aurelius, 243, 377 Crassipes, Furius, son-in-law of Cicero, 261, 275, 291 Crassus, L. Licinius, the orator, II, 13, 34 ; an interlocutor in the De Oratore, 13, 291 Crassus, M. Licinius, leader of the Equestrian party, 37 ; de- feats Spartacus, 51 ; the rival of Pompey, 89 ; proposes to enroll Egypt among the prov- inces, ib., 113 {cp. p. 251); said to have been implicated in Catiline's first conspiracy, 90 ; warns Cicero against Cati- line, 120 ; bribes the jurors to acquit Clodius, 176, 177 ; joins with Caesar and Pompey to form the first Triumvirate, 202 _^. ; shows his hostility to Pompey, 255 ; summoned by Caesar to Ravenna, 262 ; elect- ed Consul with Pompey, 274 ; his death, 285 Crassus, Publius, son of the Tri- umvir, 232, 275 ; his death, 2 go Crassus, "the Rich," 218 Cumfe, 393 Curia liostilia, the, in the Fo- rum, 286 Curio, C. Scribonius, the elder, 346, note \ Curio, C. Scribonius, the younger, (son of the preceding), 220, 227, 331, note J joins CiEsar's party, 316, 318 ; defeated and killed in Africa, 327, 341 Curius, 378 Cyprus, 236, 252 ; extortions of Appius Claudius in, 299 D De Oratore, the dialogue, 291 Demetrius, freedman of Pompey, anecdote concerning, 309 Democratic party, the, at Rome, 12, 27, 28, 53, 89, 92, 99, 102, 104, 112, 113, 114, 164, 371 Dertona, 418 Despotism, evils of, 167, 348 ff., 371-373, 425-427 Diocletian, the Emperor, 349 Diodotus, the Stoic, 12 Diphilus, the actor, 221 Dolabella, Cn. Cornelius, 45 Dolabella, P. Cornelius, son-in- law of Cicero, 301, 34:, 342, 361, 385 ; assumes the Consul- ship on Caesar's death, 381 ; murders Trebonius, 383, 407, 417 ; defeated and slain in Asia, 383 Domitian, the Emperor, 347 Domitius Ahenobarbus, L., 93, note, 263 ; compelled by Ceesar to surrender at Corfinium, 324, 328, 330, 333 38 Index. Tusus Cfesar, son of the Em- peror Tiberius, 75 irusus, M. Livius, (tribune gi B.C.), II, 12, 35, 47 duelling, unknown in ancient communities, 257 lyrracliium, 341 ; defeat of Cae- sar at, 325, 339, 412 arth, the temple of, 381 gypt, 89, 102, 104, 113, 2og, 236, 251, 232, 279, 342, 343 ^ lections at Rome, 91 ff. ; bri- bery and corruption at, 276 nnius, the poet, 190 Iphesus, 305 pirus, 239, 339, 341 ;poredia, 420 Equestrian Order, the, 8, 12, 19, 25, 53, 54, 83, 86, 106, 178, 179; its constitution and pol- icy, 29-38 ; its privileges partly restored by Pompey, 53-55, 164 ; united with the Senate by Cicero's policy, 164, 165 ; estranged from the Senate, 185, 188, 204, 275 ; joins the party of Caesar, 330 abius Sanga, 133 assulse, 122, 129, 150 avonius, M., 248 ibrenus, River, 9 laccus, Lucius Valerius, de- fended by Cicero, 225 laccus. See Fulvius laminian Circus, the, 173 lavius, L., introduces an Agra- rian Law in Pompey's interest, 182 ; his contest with Metel- lus, 183 ormise, 217, 33S 'orum, the, enlarged by Caesar, 281 orum Cornelii, 395 Forum Gallorum, battle of, 410, 413 Forum Julii, 419 Forum Vocontium, 419 Freedmen, power exercised by, in the Roman world, 309 Fufius and .(Elius, the Law of, 213 Fufius, [Q. Fufius Calenus], a partisan of Clodius, 173, 175 Fulvia Gens, 7 Fulvia, wife of Antony, 68 Fulvius, [M. Fulvius Flaccus], (Consul 125 B.C.), 155 Gabinian Laws, conferring the command against the pirates on Pompey, 83 _^., 87, 89; forbidding loans at Rome to subject States, 303 Gabinius, Aulus, proposes the law for the suppression of the pirates, 83 ; elected Consul, 222, 229 ; hostile to Cicero, 232, 270 ; insulted by Clodius, 242 ; restores Ptolemy Auletes, 252; defended by Cicero, 278- 280 Gabinius, partisan of Catiline, 132-134, 136 Galatia, 305 Galba, Serv. Sulpicius, (tyranni- cide), 371, 413 Gaul, conquest of, by Caesar, 117 Gellius Canus, 74 Germans, the, driven across the Rhine by Csesar, 235 Gibbon, quoted, 349 Glabrio, Manius Acilius, sent to succeed LucuUus in Asia, 86 Gladiators, 50 ' ' Good Goddess," the. See " Bo- na Dea." Gracchi, the, 27, 28 Gracchus, Tiberius Sempronius, (tribune 133 B.C.), 182 Indi ex. 439 jracchus, C. Sempronius, (trib- une 123 B.C.), 30. 154, 155, 346 jratidius, 5 jrief and pain, manifestations of, 238 H Heius, of Messana, 58 Helvetii, migration of the, 206 Henna (in Sicily), 55 Hirtius, A., 361, 383, 384, 393, 395, 400, 408 ; killed at the battle of Mutina, 410, 417 Horace, the works of, published by the Sosii family, 74 ; quoted, 1 84 ; an officer in Brutus' army, 390 Horatius, 108 Hortensius, Q., the orator, 11 14, 22, 38, 46, 184, 190 ; de- fends Verres, 59 ; his friendly rivalry with Cicero, 63 ; active in promoting the trial of Clo- dius, 175, 176 ; advises Cicero to withdraw from the city, 234-237 Hume, quoted, 411, note " Imperator,'' use of the word, 307 {cp. p. 401) Imperialism, the results of, 167, 348 #., 371-373, 425-427 Imprisonment, probably not re- garded as a penalty in the Roman Republic, 141, 142, note Initiative, power of, in the Ro- man constitution, 26-28, 53, 210, 211 Interamna, 176 Invective, freedom of, allowed at Rome, 257 Issus, in Cilicia, 306 Italians, the, 4, 5 ; their feeling at the outbreak of the Civil War, 327, 328, 386 ; their condition under the Empire, 349 ; might have been organised as a free nation by Caesar, 3SO ff. ; re- joiced at Caesar's assassination, 385-387, 400, 412; needed long training in order to make good soldiers, 413 ; Italian municipia, the, 5, 6, 7, 8 Italy, the boundary of, extended by Caesar, 346 Janiculum, 108 Juba, King of Numidia, 341 Julia Gens. See Ceesar "jfulia Lex Refetundarum" 208 ; Julia Leges, 345, note\ Julia, (i) aunt of Csesar, married to Marius, 39 : — (2) sister of Caesar, 393 : — (3) daughter of Csesar, wife of Pompey, 172, noie\, 219, 250 ; her death, 276 Julian Year, the, 346, note* Jupiter Stator, temple of, 124, 234 Juvenal, quoted, 164, note K King, hatred of the Romans for the word, 375 {cp. p. 397) Knights, the. See Equestrian Order Labienus, T., 107, 108; joins Pompey, 323 Lasca, an accomplice of Catiline, igo Lselius, C, the friend of Scipio Africanus, the younger, i66 Laterensis, M. Juventius, 419 Law-Courts, the, corruption in, 276, 277 ^^ Laws" the, of Cicero, 9, 291- 294 Lentulus, [P. Cornelius Lentulus Sura], chief of the Catilinarian 40 Index. party in Rome, 132, 133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 148, 225 ; exe- cuted, 149, 150, 151, 231 entulus, [P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther], elected Consul, 241 ; brings the question of Cicero's recall before the Senate, 242, 243 ; governor of Cilicia and Cyprus, 252 ; surrenders to Caesar at Corfinium, 324 epidus, M. /Emilius, 38, 39, 42, III, 421 ; supports Antony on Caesar's assassination, 381 ; made Pontifex Maximus, 382 ; governor of Northern Spain and Southern Gaul, ib. 408, 409 ; declares for Antony, 419 ; joins the Second Triumvirate, 422, 423 ,esbia, the, of Catullus, 318, 319 essing, on the manifestations of pain and grief among ancient and modern peoples, 238 etters, opening of, in transit, 283, note% icinia Gens. See Crassus, I,u- cuUus, Murena igarius, Quintus, defended by Cicero, 357 ightning, in Roman Augury, 212^., 242 ilybseum, 22 iris, the river, g ivius. See Drusus ivy, quoted, 48 note*, 235 note, 424 uca, the conference of, 70, 263 ff., 270, 280, 333 ucceius, L., the historian, 194, 370 uceria, 324 ucretius, quoted, 368 ucuUus, L. Licinius, 116, 170, 266 ; his character, 46, 184 ; in command against Mithri- dates, 46, 49 ; mutiny of his troops, 86 ; wishes to oppose Clodius by force, 234, 237 upercalia, the, offer of the Crown to Caesar at, 375, 397 M Macedonia, 99, 113, 216, 239, 270, 340, 392, 420 Magistrates, weakness of, under the constitution of Sulla ; their powers, 92, 152 ; not supported by an adequate police force, 116 Manilian Law, the, 86-89 Manilius, C, proposes the law to grant Pompey the command against Mithridates, 86 Manilas, a confederate of Cati- line, 121, 122 Manilas Torquatus, L., 6 Marcellinus, Cn. Cornelius Len- tulus (Consul 56 B.C.), 259 Marcellus, M. Claudius, general in the 2d Punic War, 212 Marcellus, M. Claudius, (Consul 51 B.C.), 123 ; pardoned by Caesar, 358 Marcius, Philippus L., 102 Marcius Rex, Q., Proconsul in Cilicia, 86, 117 Marius, C, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 27, 36, 37, 39, 40, 107, 114, 117, 118 Marius, C, the younger, (Consul 82 B.C.), 67 Marius, M., a friend of Cicero, 289 Marius Gratidianus, 5 Martial Law, 152, 287, 322 Martian legion, the, 415 ; de- clares for Octavian, 394 ; de- cides the battle of Forum GstUorum, 413 Matfius Calvena, 361, 383, 384 Mescinius Rufus, 281, 309 M'essalla, M. Valerius, 174 Messius, C, (tribune 57 B.C.) 248, 251 Metellus, [Q. Cscilius Metellus Pius], commander in Spain against Sertorius, 46, 49 Metellus Celer, Q. Caecilius, strikes the flag on the Janicu- lum, 108 ; sent against Cati- line and Manlius, 122, 129; Index. 441 opposed to Pompey, i8i ; his contest with Flavius, 183, 210 ; speaks against the petition of the tax-farmers, 187 Metellus, [Q. Cascilius Metellus Creticus], Proconsul in Crete, 84 Metellus Nepos, Q. C^cilius, 181 ; elected tribune, 159, 160 ; em- ployed by Pompey to forward his ends at Rome, ibiff.; re- tires to Pompey's camp, 164, 322 ; elected Consul, 241 Metellus Scipio, [Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio], father- ^ift-law of Pompey, 285, 286 ^f/lHo, T. Annius, elected tribune, 241 ; his battles with Clodius, 2^, 253, 255 ; kills Clodius in a brawl, 286 ; brought to trial, 287 ; killed in an insur- rection against Caesar, 329 Minerva, image of, deposited by Cicero in the temple of Jupi- ter, 234 Mithridates, King of Pontus, the first war against, under Sulla, 118 ; the third war against, under LucuUus and Pompey, 46, 86 Jf. Molo, Apollonius, of Rhodes, 12, 21 Mommsen, on the execution of the Catilinarian conspirators, 151, note ; on the proceedings of Clodius, 240 ; on the char- acterof Csesar, 263, 377, note* ; on Cassar's design to make himself King, 375 Money, value of ancient, 30, note Montesquieu, quoted, 412, note Moore, Life of Byron, quoted, 294, note Mucia, the wife of Pompey, 172, note^f Mulvian Bridge, 134, 225 Munatius Bursa, 289 Municipia, the Italian, 5-8 Murena, L. Licinius, speech of Cicero on behalf of, 94-98, 131 ; elected Consul, 123, 130 Mutina, siege and battle of, 68, 387, 395, 400, 404, 408, 410, 413 417 N Nepos. See Cornelius Nepos and Metellus Nero, the Emperor, 325 Nervii, the, in Gaul, 282 Ninnius, L. , 241 Nobles, the. See Optimates Numidia, 341 O Octavia, niece of Caesar, 285 Octavian, [the Emperor Augus- tus], 383, 385 ; intervenes against Antony, 393, 400, 408 ; invested with the imperium, 401 ; takes part in the battle of Mutina, 410; his attitude toward Antony, \it ff. ; seizes Rome, 422 ; forms with An- tony and Lepidus the Second Triumvirate, 422, 423. See Augustus Octavius, Caius. See Octavian Oligarchy, dangers of, 43 Oppius, C, the friend and agent of Caasar, 281, 331, 336, 357, 361, 374. 383, 384, 395, 396 Ops, the temple of, 381 Optimates, the, or Notables, 24 ff-, 83, 87, 8g, 90, 107, 249; character of their government, 43 ; their mistake in not con- ciliating Pompey, 174, 183, 251 ; quarrel with the Knights, 185 ; offended by Cicero's pro- posal to invest Pompey with Proconsular powers, 248 ; their behaviour to Cicero, 253, 267, 273 ; become reconciled with Pompey, 285, 321 Orator ad Brutum, the, 363 ■42 Index. setus, L. Papirius, 306, 353, 366 ain and grief, manifestations of, 238 alatine, the, 149, ig6, 246 alias, temple of, at Syracuse, plundered by Verres, 56 ansa, C. Vibius, 361, 383, 387, 393,,, 395, 400, 410, 417 apirii. See Carbo, Pastus arthia, expedition of Crassus against, 264 ; the Parthians repulsed by Cassius, 305, 308 arties, at Rome, description of, 24-44 ; relations of, to elec- tions, 91-93 atree, 308 auUus, L. , ^milius, (Consul 50 B.C.), joins Caesar's party, 316, 3i8 etreius, M., defeats Catiline at Pistoria, 150 ; lieutenant of Pompey in Spain, 326 harsalia, battle of, 278, 340, 341, 357 hilippi, battle of, 76, 389 hilippus. See Marcius hilo, the philosopher, 12 hocylides, the epigrams of, 250, note \ icenum, 324 ; birthplace of Pompey, 255 ilia, wife of Atticus, 291 indenissitas, the, a people in Cilicia, 306 irates, the, in the Mediterra- nean, 50, i2ff., 236 isaurum, 323 iso, [C. Calpumius Piso Frugi], first husband of TuUia, 77, 291 iso, Cn. Calpurnius, assassinat- ed in Spain, go iso, L. Calpurnius, father-in- law of Csesar, 222 ; his witti- cism on Cicero's bad verses, 192, note\; elected Consul for 58 B.C., 222,229; refuses to assist Cicero, 232 (ep. p. 279) ; made governor of Macedonia, 239, 270 Piso, [M. Pupius Piso Calpurnia- nusj, Consul in 61 B.C., 173 Pistoria, battle of, 150 Plancius, Cn., 7, 237, 239; de- fended by Cicero, 278 Plancus, L. Munatius, governor of Northern Gaul, 382, 408, 409, 415, 421, 423 ; declares for Antony, 419, 420 Plautus, 177 Pliny, the elder, quoted, 106 Plutarch, quoted, 64, 175, 362 ; his account of the debate in the Senate on the Catilinarians, 139 #•, 147 ; hisstory of Cice- ro's defence of Ligarius, 357 ; influence of his Lives upon the modern world, 369 ; affirms that Cicero was inclined to join Octavian, 422 ; asserts that Octavian tried to save Cicero from the proscription, 423 ; relates the anecdote of Augus- tus finding his grandson with a work of Cicero, 428 Pollentia, 419 Pollio, C. Asinius, governor of Southern Spain, 382, 387, 408, 409, 416 ; joins Antony, 419 Pompfedius Silo, 47 Pompeia, divorced wife of Cassar, 172 Pompeius, [Cn. Pompeius Stra- bo], father of the Triumvir, 11, 41 Pompeius, [Cn^us Pompeius Magnus], gains distinction un- der Sulla, 41, 42 ; his charac- ter and objects, 42, 85, 87, 89, 170, 174, 215, 250, 252, 340, 397 ; subjugates Spain, 49 ; ends the Slave War, 51 ; re- fused a triumph, 52 ; his first Consulship, 53, 61 ; suppresses the pirates, 83-85 ; the Agra- rian Law proposed by Rullus directed against, 103^. / Pom- pey and the Catilinarians, 119, Index. 443 159 ; disbands his army, 171 ; his overtures rejected by the Notables, 175 ; the Senate re- fuse to confirm his settlement of Asia, 180; joins the Tri- umvirate, 202 ff. ; becomes un- popular, 220, 221 ; abandons Cicero, 232, 234 ; hostility of Clodius to, 240, 253 ; agrees to Cicero's recall, 241 ff. ; the difficulties of his situation, 248 ff. ; refuses to divorce Julia, 250 ; becomes unfriendly to Crassus, 255 ; meets Caesar and Crassus in conference at Luca, 263 ff. ; made sole con- sul, 287 ff. ; legislates against Caesar's interests, 289, 314 ; leaves Rome at the outbreak of the Civil War, 323 ; evacu- ates Italy, 325, 326 ; defeats Caesar at Dyrrachium, 325, 339, 412 ; vanquished at Phar- salia, 340 ; murdered in Egypt, ib. Pompeius, [Cn. Pompeius Mag- nus], elder son of the Trium- vir, 352, note Pompeius, [Sextus Pompeius Magnus], younger son of the Triumvir, 382, 413 Pomponia, (sister of Atticus), married to Q. Cicero, 78, 197 ; divorced, 310 Pomponius, Cnseus, a magistrate in 90 B.C., 12 Pontus, 86 Posidonius, Stoic philosopher, 194 Postumius, 383 Priam, (Homer, II. xxiv. 506), 76 Princeps, the, in Cicero's Com- monwealth, 293, 294, 304 (cp. p. 408) Prison of the Kings, 149 Procilius, 276 Provinces, the, pillaged by their Roman governors, 44, 45, 296 ; mode of their administration, 297 ; their condition under C^sar, 347 Ptolemy XII., (Alexander II.), 90, 102 Ptolemy XIII., (Auletes), 90, 102, 209, 236, 251, 252, 279, 340 Ptolemy XIV., 340 Ptolemy, King of Cyprus, 236 "Publicans," the, or Farmers- general, at Rome, 32, 33, 186, 187, 209 ; Cicero's dealings with, in Cilicia, 298 Publilia, second wife of Cicero, 365, 367 Puteoli, a fashionable watering place, 23, 292, 375 Quintilian, quoted, 64 Quirinus, the deified Romulus, 376 Rabirius, C, trial of, 107, 108 Ravenna, 262 Representative Government, un- known in the ancient world, 167 Rome, contested elections at, 91, 276 ; degraded state of the populace, 115; condition of, under Pompey's government, 276 ff. ; depression of the Romans under the Empire, 371-373 ; hatred of the Ro- mans for the name of King, 375 (''A P- 397) I divided in opinion regarding the assassi- nation of Csesar, 385 ; the Ro- man constitution, 26 ff., 152, 168 ; Cicero's admiration of, 293 : — the Roman Empire ; or- ganisation of, by Caesar, 348^. Romulus, the legend of, 376 Roscius, Q., the actor, 14 Roscius, Sextus, (i) the elder, murdered, 15 : — (2) son of 44 Index. the preceding, defended by Cicero on a charge of parri- cide, -i-i, ff. oscius Otho, L., io6 iibicon, the river, 170, 322, 330 uUus, P. Servilius, agrarian law proposed by, 99^., 113 acramenium, the, or military oath of obedience, 40, 41 acred Way, the, 149, 253, 255 alamis, in Cyprus, proceedings of Scaptius at, 302^. allust, his account of the con- spiracy of Catiline, iii ff., 136, 140, 147; quoted, 153 appho, statue of, taken from Syracuse by Verres, 56 ardinia, 347 aturnalia, 135, 137, 306 aturninus, L. Apuleius, (tribune 100 B.C.), II, 31, 107, 108 aufeius, a comrade of Milo, 289 csivola, Q. Mucins, the augur, 13; appears in the ZJ^ Orators, 2gi csevola, Q. Mucins, Pontifex Maximus, 13 ; his good gov- ernment in Asia, 298 captius, agent of Marcus Brutus in Cyprus, 302^. caurus, M. yEmiiius, (Consul 115 B.C.), 5 caurus, M. ^milius, eldest son of the preceding, 95 ; bribery practised by, 276, note cipio, [P. Corn. Scipio Africa- nus Major], 27, note, 56 cipio, [P. Corn. Scipio ^milia- nus Africanus Minor], 166 ; appears in Cicero's treatise on the Commonwealth^ 292, 293 empronii. See Gracchi empronian Laws, of C. Grac- chus, (i) against putting Roman citizens to death, 146, 154, 155 i (^) gi'ving privileges to knights, 30 ; (3) De Provinciis Consularidus, 270 Senate, the Roman, powers of, 26-28, 92 ; character of its government, 43 ; its defects as an institution, 168 ; degra- dation of, under Caesar, 353 ; the " u/timum Senatus Con- sultum" 120, 122, 153 Seneca, quoted, on Cicero's self- laudation, 192 Sertorius, Q., 49 Servilius, [P. Servilius Vatia Isau- ricus], 46 Servius. See Sulpicius Rufus, Serv. Sestius, Publius, elected tribune, 241 ; wounded in a street fray with Clodius, 243 ; defended by Cicero, 256 Shakespeare, quoted, 372, 389, 391, 402, 423 Shorthand, invention of, 139, 312 ; Cicero's speeches taken down in, 288 Sibylline Oracles, used to further private and public ends, 132, 135, 252, 377 Sicily, misgovernment of Verres in, 55 ; enjoyed the privilege of trying local cases in the local courts, 297 ; granted Latin rights by Caesar, 346 Silanus, Decimus Junius, elected Consul, 123, 130 ; proposes the execution of the Catilinari- ans, 140, 144 ; after Caesar's speech explains away his pro- posal, 142, 147 ; announces that he will support Nero's proposal for adjournment, 148 Slave-labour on the plantations of the Roman nobles, 50 Slave war, the, 50, 51 Slaves, trained by Atticus as lit- erary assistants, 72 ; influence of, in the Roman world, 309 Social War, the, 4, 6, 11, 13, 35, 41, 47 Index. 445 Sosii, the family of the, the pub- lishers of Horace's works, 74 Spain, 49, 326 ; collection of the taxes ill, 346 Spartacus, heads the insurrection of the slaves, 50 Spongia, 177 Statilius, partisan of Catiline, 132, 134, 136 Statins, the confidential servant of Q. Cicero, 310, 311 Suetonius, quoted, 317 Sutenas, 276 Sulla, Faustus, son of the Dicta- tor, 2g2 Sulla, L. Cornelius, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 22, 36, 38, 52, 67, 76, 106, III, 112, 114, ti6, 132, 375. 423 ; Sulla and Caesar, 39 ; the war with Mithridates, 118 ; the constitution of Sulla, 22, 28 ff., 35, 36, 41, 44, 53, 60, 164 Sulla, Publius, defended by Ci- cero, 190 Sulla, Servius, an accomplice of Catiline, igo Sulpicius Galba. See Galba Sulpicius Rufus, P., 11 ; put to death by Sulla, 13, 67, 76 Sulpicius Rufus, Serv., 46, 130, 358 ; joins the party of Caesar, 336, 337, 370 ; made governor of Greece, 37° I l"s letter of consolation to Cicero on the death of TuUia, 371 Syracuse, 56 Syria, 252, 270 Taxes, the, farmed by the Knights, 30, 31, 32, 298 ; m the Roman Provinces, 300 ; under the Empire, 350 Terentia, wife of Cicero, 68, 77, 235, 291, 342 ; her character, 77 ; divorced, 365 Teutones, 4 Thalna, 177 Theatres, movable, invented by Scaurus, 95 Theramenes, opinion of Aristotle upon, 365, note * Thessalonica, Cicero in exile at, 237, 239 Tiberius, tlie Emperor, 75 Tigranes, King of Armenia, 46, 240 Tiro, M. Tullius, the favourite freedman of Cicero, 308-314, inventor of shorthand, 312 ; collects and publishes Cicero's letters, 313, 314 (cp. p. 428) " Transpadanes," the, granted the Roman franchise by Caesar, 346 ; enlist under Decimus Brutus, 386 Trebonius, C, tyrannicide, 371, 383, 407, 417 Triarius, defeated by Mithri- dates, 86 Tribunate, the, restrictions im- posed on, by Sulla, 28, 39 ; powers restored by Pompey, 53 #•,61 " Tributuin," t\ie,m the Roman Provinces, 300 Triumvirate, the First, 201 ff., 262 ff. See Caesar, Crassus, Pompey Triumvirate, the Second, 42:!. See Antony, Lepidus, Octa- vian Tullia, daughter of Cicero, 77, 277, 339 ; married to Piso, 77, 291 ; meets her father at Brundisium on his return from exile, 245 ; married to Furius Crassipes, 291 ; to Dolabella, 301, 342 ; her death, 366, 369 Tullius, Aufidius (or Attius), 3 Tullus HostiUus, 108 Tusculum, 7, 423 Tyrannicide, ancient ideas con- cerning, 390 Tyrannic, arranges Cicero's li- brary, 72 Tyrrell, Professor, quoted, 62, 287, note f, 319 46 Index. u cient armies, 412, 413 ; the veterans of Csesar join Octa- mbrenus, 133 vian, 414 ff. 'tica, suicide of Cato at, 364 Veto, the, in the Roman consti- tution, 26-28, 210, 211, 233; V the religious veto, 211 ff. Vettius, L. , pretends to disclose ada Sabatia, 418 a conspiracy of the Notables, alerii. See Flaccus, Messalla 227 argunteius, attempts to assas- Vipsania Agrippina, daughter of sinate Cicero, 124 ; driven into Agrippa by Ctecilia Attica, 75 ; exile, 190 married to Tiberius, ib. arius, Q., tribune 90 B.C. 12 Virgil, quoted, 58 arro, M. Terentius, 241, 292, Volaterra, 182 341. 354 Volcatius TuUus, joins Csesar, atinius. P., 209, 256, 257, 263. 336 278, 280 Volscians, 3, 6 eneti, the, in Gaul, 263 Voltaire, anecdote of, 32 entidius Bassus, P., 418 Volturcius, T., adherent of Cati- ercellffi, 420 line, 133 ; betrays his asso- erres, C, extortions of, 45, 347 ; ciates, 134 prosecuted by Cicero, 55 ; re- Volumnius Eutrapelus, 74, 366 tires into exile, 60 ; killed by order of Antony, 57 Z estal Virgins, 138, 172 "eterans, importance of, in an- Zeno, the Stoic, 131 Ibetoes of tbe IRations. EDITED BY EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. A Series of biographical studies of the Hves and work ■ a number of representative historical characters about horn have gathered the great traditions of the Nations I which they belonged, and who have been accepted, in any instances, as types of the several National ideals, ^ith the life of each typical character will be presented picture of the National conditions surrounding him uring his career. The narratives are the work of writers who are recog- zed authorities on their several subjects, and, while loroughly trustworthy as history, will present picturesque id dramatic " stories " of the Men and of the events con- ;cted with them. To the Life of each " Hero " will be given one duo- ;cimo volume, handsomely printed in large type, pro- ded with maps and adequately illustrated according to le special requirements of the several subjects. 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